Line #18 SealedEvilInACan/ComicBooks


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14	* ''ComicBook/{{Annihilators}}'': Star-Thief has been imprisoned in the deepest level of the Halfworld mental asylum. To prevent him from using his psychic powers to take over the staff and release himself, they put the whole facility into lockdown and adjusted the security protocols so that a lockdown can only be lifted if every single member of the staff is present and agrees to it. Rocket Raccoon, Halfworld's chief of security, then left the planet and wiped his own memories so that he would never try to come back, thus ensuring that Star-Thief could never get out. Unfortunately, Star-Thief found a way to lure Rocket back home...
15	* In ''ComicBook/TheAstoundingWolfMan'' [[spoiler: Gorgg]] is an ancient and evil golem that was imprisoned under Stonehenge. As soon as he is released by [[spoiler: The Face]] he goes to kill the blood relatives of those who imprisoned him.
16	* Lampshaded in the short-lived comic ''BMG'', where the BigBad releases TheDragon from a can labeled "Instant evil. Just add water."
17	* ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'': The Lord of the Locusts is trapped in the body of Queen Mim, far below the Valley's eastern mountains.
18	* ''[[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]'':
19	** Black Adam was banished to the farthest star by Shazam the wizard when the one-time hero became a corrupt villain, only to be brought back by Dr. Sivana through his science.
20	** In the ''ComicBook/ShazamTheNewBeginning'' series, Black Adam was sent back to his imprisonment when Billy Batson tricked him into activating the device that brought the villain back to Earth in the first place.
21	** ''ComicBook/BillyBatsonAndTheMagicOfShazam'': Captain Marvel tricks Mr. Mind into trapping himself in a mirror. And at the end of the series, Black Adam gets trapped inside his magical amulet.
22	* In a ''WesternAnimation/TheDisneyAfternoon'' comic crossover event in ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'', the [[ComicBook/TheLegendOfTheChaosGod Chaos God himself]], Solego, was trapped in two pieces: a crystal held his mind and a gold medallion held his powers. Uniting the pieces released him and ''that'' isn't a good thing.
23	* Zom, from ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange'' - a surprisingly obscure hyperdemon who was sealed in a special amphora in another dimension. ''Horrifically'' powerful. He was initially imprisoned by a coalition of cosmic beings, including Eternity and frickin' Dormammu, and when he was let out, he frightened Umar (Dormammu's even scarier sister) so much she ran home and said she'd never come out again. Considering how bad-ass he is, the "can", or amphora, must truly be the can of the gods.
24	** Then came ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'', when a [[GodzillaThreshold desperate Strange]] let Zom back ''out'' of the bottle -- and quickly discovered that EvilIsNotAToy.
25	* ''ComicBook/Earth2'':
26	** Green Lantern defeats Grundy by putting him in a place where there is no life for him to corrupt. Namely, [[spoiler: the Moon]].
27	** The Red Lantern. If she escapes from the Earth's core, the world is doomed.
28	* ''ComicBook/Eternals2021'' introduces the Exclusion. Eternals can be killed, but they immediately resurrect, so imprisonment for eternity is sometimes the only option. Uranos, first leader of Earth's Eternals, became an omnicidal madman and has been in there for at least half a million years.
29	* Caged Demonwolf (Molestor of Worlds!) from ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'' is an EldritchAbomination that Emp trapped into an alien-made power-draining bondage gear. ItMakesSenseInContext.
30	* The sixth issue of the ''ComicBook/{{Ewoks}}'' comic book had an ice demon named Stagorr, who was imprisoned in a mountain by the Ewok wizard Logray long ago and schemed to trick the young Ewoks into releasing him.
31	* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'':
32	** The second BigBad came out of his can due to the effects of the heroes saving the world.
33	** Also, the djinn that Frau Totenkinder dealt with earlier, although that was more of a case of amoral and incredibly dangerous and destructive, especially in the hands of an evil man, but not evil in and of itself.
34	* In Marvel Comics, ComicBook/{{Galactus}} acts as a can on a greater, multiverse-destroying evil, Abraxas. Most of the energy he gets from his food goes to maintaining the seal, explaining his unusual diet.
35	* In the ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'' tie-in comic ''Godzilla Awakening'', originally, Shinomura and Godzilla (and for that matter every radiovore) fled deep beneath the earth as the radiation levels receded. It was only after the bombing of Hiroshima that lured Shinomura from its hiding place.
36	* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'':
37	** ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'' revealed that the long-established "[[KryptoniteFactor yellow impurity]]" in the Central Power Battery was actually ''Parallax'', the "yellow fear entity," an AnthropomorphicPersonification of that emotion, released when Hal Jordan entered the Central Battery years before. Before it was in a box that was stolen from Maltus by Larfleeze and his crew. Later it was imprisoned in a Sciencell, and finally got ripped apart and stashed in four separate batteries.
38	** In ''ComicBook/SinestroCorpsWar'', the Anti-Monitor becomes trapped in the Black Lantern Battery.
39	* One of the main foes of ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'' is the [=Ogdru Jahad=], an EldritchAbomination on par with Cthulhu and the boys.
40	* The Warlock Graveyard in ''ComicBook/IHuntMonsters'' is this, housing many powerful monsters in it and kept in check by an obelisk that needs to be recharged every century of so. It the protagonist's disbelief and reluctance that ends up freeing the monsters and he forced to track them down and re-seal them.
41	* In ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'', Johnny's constant murders are (partially) motivated by the need for fresh blood to paint on one of the walls in his house, which keeps the monster trapped behind it from physically getting out. [[spoiler:After Johnny's accidental suicide, the creature breaks free and is revealed to be a [[CosmicHorror horrible, bloodthirsty mass of tentacles and faces]]; Johnny's conversation with [[{{Satan}} SeÃ±or Diablo]] implies that it was made up of all the evil emanated by humanity, and its escape was serious enough [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt to require the universe to be rebooted]].]]
42	* ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' comics occasionally feature early JLA enemies the Demons Three (Abnegazar, Ghast, and Rath), evil beings who ruled the Earth a billion years ago until being imprisoned in crypts by mysterious powerful entities called the Timeless Ones. The three Demons were eventually summoned/released in the present by Felix Faust, with occasional other escapes from imprisonment since then.
43	** ''ComicBook/JLAALeagueOfOne'': Drakul was first defeated and buried in the mountains of Switzerland in 1348 A.D. A little under 700 years before the story takes place.
44	* Ragamuffin, from ''ComicBook/LenoreTheCuteLittleDeadGirl'', the eternal vampire scourge who eats people alive, is [[SealedEvilInATeddyBear trapped in a rag doll]] for the most part of the comics.
45	* Shiklah of ''{{Comicbook/Deadpool}}''. An ancient demon Succubus who was locked away in a coffin for centuries. When her marriage to Wade starts to suffer due to his absence, Shiklah begins cheating on him with numerous monsters from her kingdom. She eventually declares war on the surface world in attempts to take over and liberate her monsters, which ends with her marrying Dracula and leaving Deadpool a note to get on with his life. The future in 2099 shows he and Shiklah got back together, but had more wars with one another, leading to Deadpool having to seal her away again in a coffin that he had shrunken, and keeps on his heart.
46	* The French comic book ''ComicBook/LesLegendaires'' introduces the [[GodOfEvil Evil God]] Anathos, whose essence was trapped a long time ago by the other gods in a living prison called the Bearer. While his origin is a typical use of the trope, the way he comes back is partially subverted, as he frees himself by taking control of the Bearer and using DemonicPossession, as well as manipulating one of the protagonists rather than another villain; the original Big Bad, Darkhell, actually attempted to prevent his return rather than helping him.
47	* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'':
48	** [[Characters/MarvelComicsLoki Loki]]'s first appearance shows him imprisoned inside a tree. He would become free only if his captivity causes someone to shed a tear. No one missed Loki strongly enough to want to cry, so he forces Heimdall to shed a tear by poking him in the eye with a leaf. Let's just say Loki was sealed and/or [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment punished]] in one way or another so many times in the years that some incarnations (like the ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'' one) outright claimed to be the [[EscapeArtist bona fide expert on escaping from them]]. ''Why'' people still try to imprison Loki is a great mystery.
49	** Mangog is the sum total of the hatred of a race that was slain by Odin. It was imprisoned with a warning on the door until released by the [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Rock Troll]] Ulik who thought it would be an ally against Asgard.
50	** Then there were older foes of Asgard imprisoned by Odin. Ymir the Frost Giant, Surtur the Fire Demon, and Skagg the Storm Giant -- the last two were released by Loki to attack Odin.
51	** And more recently, there's [[ComicBook/FearItself The Serpent]], God of Fear [[spoiler: and Odin's brother]], who Odin sealed in a prison at the bottom of the ocean ages ago, until freed by Sin (who had been transformed into one of his Worthy).
52	* Parodied in a 1983 nine-page story in ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets'' by Jamie Hernandez called ''Maggie vs Maniakk''. Maggie plays with a "Mayamese mini transporter" and accidentally frees Maniakk, a costumed super evil trapped in limbo/the ninth dimension by Ultimax, a superhero now down on his luck.
53	* In ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'', the seraph Meleos long ago created the Basanos, an extremely powerful living tarot deck as both a complement to Destiny's book (which contains nearly everything that will ever happen) and a means of recording and preserving humanity's thoughts. The latter function, however, corrupted the Basanos and turned them into beings of pure evil, so Meleos has since locked them in a box. However, [[spoiler:when Lucifer demands the use of the Basanos for divination, Meleos resolves to destroy them and opens the box, whereupon the cards overpower him and escape.]]
54	* A two-part ''Marvel Team-Up'' storyline from Creator/ChrisClaremont saw ComicBook/SpiderMan accidentally free the Super-Skrull from a mystical Native American totem that the villain's soul had been trapped in.
55	* [[Creator/MarvelComics Tiamut the Dreaming Celestial]] was imprisoned on Earth by his Celestial brethren after it was discovered that he had committed a crime against "life itself". However, the Deviants of Earth consider it to be a case of SealedGoodInACan because they believe that Tiamut was punished for objecting when the other Celestials tried to cull their species. The Deviants understandably worship Tiamut as their savior.
56	** According to what the Dreaming Celestial later told Makkari, he was not actually imprisoned because he objected to killing anyone, it was because he objected to the fact that the other members of the Second Host were ONLY culling the Deviants. Tiamut wanted them to follow their standard operating procedure and summon the alien Horde race to harvest ALL life on Earth.
57	* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'':
58	** The ''The Return of Queen Chrysalis'' arc ends in a somewhat ambiguous example, where [[spoiler:Chrysalis and her Changelings are imprisoned in their own castle at the end of the first StoryArc with the animated Pinkie Pie suit to entertain them (well, entertain the soldiers, annoy Chrysalis). Twilight indicates it would take them "a while" to break out. However, recently, on page 11 of Friends Forever Issue #8, a sign under the Mount Monument observation deck reads "Sign the petition to add Queen Chrysalis to the monument" and bears Chrysalis' fresh signature, which in turn strongly suggests they have since recovered and are back to plotting and causing trouble for Equestria.]]
59	** The ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' mini-series revealed that Chrysalis and her hive were previously imprisoned in a volcano by Celestia for their attack on the city of Trot, until they tricked a dragon into letting them out.
60	** In the ''Reflections'' arc, Twilight's plan to deal with the evil princesses from the mirror dimension is to seal them in crystal, stopping them from causing trouble while getting around the {{Synchronization}} problem. Would've worked (which Mirror Luna even admits) if Mirror Luna hadn't overheard them and tipped off Mirror Celestia who forces Prime Celestia to come to their dimension where the Synchronization is much stronger.
61	** The ''The Siege of the Crystal Empire'' arc features the Umbrum, who were introduced in King Sombra's ''Fiendship is Magic'' story and are still sealed away under the ice in the Shadow Prison. Radiant Hope and Sombra seek to release them. We also see what they were imprisoned ''for'': ravaging the Crystal Empire and being a HopeCrusher for the Crystal Ponies.
62	** The ''Cosmos'' arc introduces the titular villain, the Spirit of Malice who was trapped within the stars of the Andalusian constellation until a shooting star sent the constellation crashing down to Equestria. Once her power sources are devoured by Spike, thus costing her all her power, Discord pulls a Ghostbusters move with trapping her and then leaving her stranded on the moon to suffer.
63	* ''ComicBook/NewGods'': The Source Wall is a huge cosmic barrier between the Source (the source of power behind existence itself) and the rest of creation. The Wall is decorated with the bodies and visages of all of the would be conquerors who have sought to claim the power of the Source for themselves, imprisoning them for all eternity. The Wall is one of the more effective Cans in fiction and only three people have ever escaped it. One of them, Yuga Khan (the father of {{ComicBook/Darkseid}}), managed to summon just enough power to free himself from the Wall... only to get himself imprisoned in it again in another bid to obtain the Source, this time for good.
64	* ''ComicBook/PandorasLegacy'' is about this. The descendants of Pandora of Greek legend discover the new form of Pandora's Box - now a pot - and break it, letting evil creatures loose on the Earth. They have to stop the creatures with the help of a rune-infused phone that can trap the creatures inside it when they're photographed.
65	* One episode of ''Comicbook/TheSandman1989'' has an [[ArabianNightsDays Arabian Nights-flavored]] tale with a medieval caliph (kind of like a Muslim king/pope) who wants to talk to Dream. The caliph goes into a dark secret room and takes out an ancient globe full of demons, threatening to break it and release them all. Morpheus appears, takes the globe and pockets it, and ''then'' inquires what the caliph wants.
66	* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
67	** The PhantomZone is essentially an other-dimensional prison that holds numerous Kryptonian criminals. As such, there many stories where the prisoners escape and the heroes have to fight to throw them back into the Zone. In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlSaga'', though, the Phantom Zone criminals of the Pocket Universe, when released, destroyed the projector that could send them back there, and so without it, the mainstream DC Universe Superman had to resort to using that world's Gold and Green Kryptonite (to which Superman was immune) to deal with them once and for all.
68	** In the story "Three Supermen From Krypton!" (''Superman'' #65) from 1950, a rocket crashes on Earth and releases a trio of brothers from Krypton. These brothers attempted to conquer Krypton with a DoomsdayDevice, but were thwarted by Jor-El. Because of ThouShaltNotKill, Jor-El chose to seal the brothers in a rocket in suspended animation, which ironically saved them from Krypton's destruction. After drifting in space for a time, a piece of space debris hitting the rocket freed them. At the end of the story, Superman rebuilds the rocket, reseals and sends the brothers away.
69	** At the climax of ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'', Superman nails Darkseid to the Source Wall. Unfortunately, Superman is blackmailed into releasing him during a later story. Superman is then trapped by Darkseid, and he requires the help of five ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}s to break free.
70	** Doomsday was living Sealed Evil, but ultimately broke out of his own can. He keeps getting re-sealed in stronger cans.
71	** In ''ComicBook/SupermanDoomsdayHunterPrey'', Cyborg Superman was the Sealed Evil who was contained within the mechanism he planted on the asteroid that he bound Doomsday's body to, so that when Doomsday came back to life and began his rampage on Apokolips, Cyborg Superman took over the body of an Apokoliptian robot and restructured it for his personal use. After Cyborg Superman was defeated by Darkseid, he was sealed inside a capsule which Darkseid kept on hand should he ever need to use it.
72	** ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': Mordru had been trapped into a rock by the Legion and buried under a mountain of rubble in Avalon, but in ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'', the [[ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} Master of Darkness]] blows his prison up and proceeds to suck Mordru's power off.
73	** ArcVillain Nezha of ''ComicBook/BatmanSupermanWorldsFinest'' was a powerful demon who was sealed away for centuries, only to be released in the modern day and recruit supervillains from around the world to serve him and overwhelm the Justice League.
74	* In the conclusion of ''ComicBook/TheThanosImperative'' event, [[spoiler:the now immortal Thanos is trapped in the Cancer Verse. Star-Lord and Nova trapped him there along with themselves to keep him from destroying their own universe in his rage at being forever denied the embrace of his beloved Death.]] Subverted when it turns out he escaped later on.
75	* Jurid from ComicBook/ThievesAndKings, also known as "the Dawn Swallower", is a powerful monster, but spent a thousand years or so stuck in a glass bottle, trapped by a young girl.
76	* ''ComicBook/BlackMoonChronicles'': After Methraton defeats Lucifer during his invasion of the New Earth he seals him away inside a prison elsewhere, since he's too powerful to destroy completely.
77	* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'' comics put an interesting twist on this trope with Carcer, the Cybertronion colony designed to imprison [[spoiler:[[TheTrickster Liege Maximo]]]]; it’s eventually revealed that [[spoiler:the Sealed Can was ''intentionally rigged to fail''. Onyx Prime (actually Shockwave in disguise) insisted that Vigilem, a Titan loyal to Liege Maximo, be rechristened “Carcer” and used to contain Liege. The other Thirteen were under the impression that it was a way of punishing both Liege and Vigilem; in reality, Shockwave was arranging for his [[TheDragon Dragon]] to be put in a prison he could easily be rescued from when the time was right.]]
78	* ''ComicBook/{{Monstress}}'': Two thousand years before the series' present, the Ancient known as the Blood Fox tried to wipe out all Arcanics, as he believed that doing so would reverse the Ancients' loss of power. To stop him, the Shaman-Empress imprisoned him on the Isle of Bones, which he can't leave unless his bindings are removed, which can only be done by a descendant of the Empress.
79	** There's also the matter of the [[EldritchAbomination Monstra/Old Gods]], who were long ago banished to the VoidBetweenTheWorlds. The fact that they're starting to break through is a major plot point.
80	* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel
81	** ''ComicBook/UltimateVision'': The Gah Lak Tus unit, a straw component of the swarm that attacked earth. AIM managed to capture one, and kept it turned off. Tarleton needed to activate it for his world dominance plan to work. He did, and the unit resumed the swarm's one and only goal: destroy the planet.
82	** ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': This is what Loki was until just before the events of The Ultimates Vol. 1, escaping shortly after The Hulk's first rampage through New York. He had been trapped for more than 50 years within The-Room-Without-Doors until managing to scrape enough power together to slip away. After Odin strips Loki of his godhood, Thor is able to send him back to his prison. The City's attack and ultimate destruction of Asgard allows Loki to escape once more, though he is but a shadow of his former power without his godly strength. This doesn't stop him from being a gigantic pain in the ass, though, as he is still a world-class sorcerer.
83	* ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'': Nerissa is sealed away in a coffin after being corrupted by the Heart and killing a fellow Guardian. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, the seal doesn't last]].
84	* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
85	** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The Ancient Egyptians couldn't kill Osira, but they managed to seal the megalomaniac in a sort of stasis and for several millennia until the pyramid that formed the outer barrier was breached.
86	** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Doom's Doorway is the seal to a region of the underworld containing several very dangerous and powerful foes, most notably Cottus, one of the [[EldritchAbomination Hekatonkheires]], who has turned against the Olympians and regularly kills scores Amazons in his attempts to escape.
87	** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2011'': The First Born is an evil nihlistic would be world conqueror who was imprisoned deep beneath the earth for several thousand years held there by the power of his father Zeus. After Zeus dies he's able to dig his way out and start killing gods and humans alike once more.
88	** ''ComicBook/WonderWomanTheTrueAmazon'', an alternate universe tale, has monsters Diana defeats imprisoned in the Silver Serpent Horn.
89	** ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'' sees the return of Doom's Doorway, though it now acts as a doorway to a much wider array of locations and Darkseid is able to use it.
90	* ''ComicBook/LockeAndKey'':
91	** This is how [[BigBad Dodge]] is introduced, his spirit (currently in [[GenderBender female form]]) being trapped at the bottom of the wellhouse, unable to pass through the door without fading from existence. He spends most of the first arc there, until he manipulates Bode into giving him the Anywhere Key in order to bypass the door.
92	** There's also the Black Door in the caves beneath the Keyhouse, which when unlocked by the Omega Key opens to a dimension inhabited by parasitic {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that [[TheHeartless possess and corrupt people]]. [[spoiler: Having been possessed by one himself, Dodge's entire goal throughout the series is to open the door and free the rest.]]
93	* In ''ComicBook/WarlordOfMars'', an ancient, vengeful, NighInvulnerable White Martian spirit is freed from Helium's Red Spire and unleashes catastrophic devastation [[spoiler: in the form of Tardos Mors]].

Context SealedEvilInACan / ComicBooks