| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %%PUBLIC SERVICE REMINDER: This is an AudienceReaction |
| 3 | %%your "justifications", "however" or Natter don't matter on somebody's else's AudienceReaction |
| 4 | %%LEAVE THEM OFF, PLEASE |
| 5 | %%If something's blatantly wrong, just remove it. |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | Comic book storylines can get outlandish at times, but [[ItMakesSenseInContext there's usually a sensible explanation]] for characters' behavior, [[MagicAIsMagicA based on the universe they're in]]. [[DarthWiki/WhatAnIdiot Not so with these entries, though.]] |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Works with their own pages: |
| 10 | [[index]] |
| 11 | * ''WhatAnIdiot/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' |
| 12 | * ''WhatAnIdiot/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'' |
| 13 | * ''WhatAnIdiot/SonicTheHedgehog'' |
| 14 | * ''WhatAnIdiot/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'' |
| 15 | [[/index]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | ---- |
| 18 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 19 | |
| 20 | [[folder:X-Books]] |
| 21 | * ''ComicBook/XMen'' vol. 4 has the final fight with Arkea, a badass villain who has been built up as so dangerous that even John Sublime is scared of her. Arkea is able to escape into electrical grids, among other things.\ |
| 22 | '''You'd Expect:''' Arkea to build her base around or on top of a power grid.\ |
| 23 | '''Instead:''' Her home is nowhere near a power grid, and she's quickly taken out by the X-Women. |
| 24 | * In the early days of the Claremont/Byrne run on X-Men, our heroes find themselves stranded in Antarctica. They decide to cross the Drake Passage to South America and work their way home.\ |
| 25 | '''You'd Think:''' They would send [[Characters/MarvelComicsStorm Storm]], who can fly, control the weather, and is a superb thief, on ahead to negotiate for or steal transportation for them.\ |
| 26 | '''Instead:''' They try to cross the Drake Passage... ON A RAFT.\ |
| 27 | '''Also:''' They end up in Japan. Yeah. (No, the raft doesn't make it all the way across the Pacific, they get picked up by a Japanese ship on a never-elaborated-on "secret mission" that won't drop them off anywhere else or allow them to communicate with the outside world until they reach Japan.) |
| 28 | ** Also during this exact same time. Cyclops and the X-Men get separated from Beast and Jean Grey after a battle with Magneto in the Antarctic and each side presumes the other is dead. Jean returns to New York, and breaks the news to Professor X.\ |
| 29 | '''You'd expect:''' The Professor to immediately get on Cerebro, the powerful device that allows him to telepathically locate mutants from all over the planet, and double-check just to make sure.\ |
| 30 | '''Instead:''' He automatically believes Jean even though she never even saw a body, makes no on-panel attempt or even mention of using Cerebro, and then leaves the planet entirely with Lilandra.\ |
| 31 | '''The Result:''' The X-Men spend the next several issues on a months-long misadventure to get back to New York. During this, Banshee burns out his powers saving Japan from an earthquake, and Jean ends up brainwashed by Mastermind into joining the Hellfire Club, resulting in ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'', the extermination of an entire alien world, and Jean supposedly dying. Not to mention all of the mess in the first entry. All because Chuck couldn't take five minutes to use a freaking computer. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Professor.]] |
| 32 | * ''X-23'' (the limited series): Julian's friend ([[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend and not girlfriend]]) has left with no warning to go travel the world. After waiting for a bit, he goes to find Laura and [[LoveConfession confesses his feelings]] to her; the two meet up in New York and have adventures. However, Laura seems reluctant to talk to him and changes the subject whenever romance comes up.\ |
| 33 | '''You'd Expect:''' Julian to treat her respectfully and openly ask her whether or not she reciprocates his feelings. [[SugarAndIcePersonality Laura]] isn't the sort of person who'd laugh at him or try to string him along, and he knows that she [[DarkAndTroubledPast dislikes being treated as if she]] [[BornIntoSlavery has no thoughts or free will]].\ |
| 34 | '''Instead:''' Julian gets frustrated and insults Laura, calling her [[EmotionlessGirl heartless]] and scornfully implying that she's in a relationship with [[TheMentor Gambit]]. This prompts Laura [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere to turn and walk off]] once the mission is completed, so Julian grabs her and [[ForcefulKiss forcefully kisses]] her. This effectively ruins any affection Laura had for him, as well as making her even more opposed to dating Julian than she already was. |
| 35 | * In ''ComicBook/NewXMenAcademyX'' (the one written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost), the X-Men have decided to form a new team of trainees to fight alongside them. However, one of the possible recruits is [[EmotionlessGirl emotionless]] {{Tykebomb}} [[Characters/MarvelComicsLauraKinney X-23]], who can be forced to enter an uncontrollable berserker rage if exposed to a particular scent. [[Characters/MarvelComicsEmmaFrost Emma Frost]], one of the new team's teachers, is understandably worried by this and considers X-23 a danger to the other students.\ |
| 36 | '''You'd Expect:''' Emma to talk to the other teachers and try to persuade them to get X-23 away from the school. Even though the other X-Men dislike Emma, they'd almost certainly listen to her, being ReasonableAuthorityFigure[=s=] who don't want to see their students slaughtered. (And it's not like they don't have the resources to set X-23 up somewhere else, somewhere she wouldn't threaten mutantkind simply by existing.)\ |
| 37 | '''Instead:''' Emma goes [[WellIntentionedExtremist psychotic]] and decides to invade X-23's mind with her telepathy, mentally [[MindRape scream at the girl that she's a monster,]] tormenting X-23 with images of her dead [[MoralityPet mother]], and tries to intimidate her into submission, by, oh yes, ''directly attacking her mental health and violating her most basic freedoms.'' There is '''no way''' [[BullyingADragon that]] could have ended well. And it didn't - X-23 became even more closed off and violent because of this, and her self-esteem (as well as the tenuous trust she had in the X-Men) was shattered. And no, she does not leave the school. |
| 38 | ** In the same series, Prodigy is brutally tortured during a mission. For various reasons, he and the other students decide to keep this secret from Surge, his girlfriend.\ |
| 39 | '''You'd Expect:''' That they'd get together and agree on a cover story to use when Surge asks about the mission.\ |
| 40 | '''Instead:''' They don't, and Surge quickly realizes that they're lying. Then she goes to [[BrutalHonesty X-23]], [[NoSocialSkills who describes the incident to her very graphically]] (not knowing that her teammates wanted to keep it secret). |
| 41 | ** Still with ''New X-Men'', during the "Return to Limbo" arc, Belasco the sorcerer has tried bringing back [[Characters/{{Magik}} Illyana Rasputin]] after M-Day, only for her to escape. Belasco decides she's gone back to the X-Men, and promptly drags everyone in the mansion to Limbo so he can find her.\ |
| 42 | '''You'd expect:''' That as a powerful magic-wielder he'd use his powers on the X-Men, ask if they've seen or heard anything about Illyana, and send them back when he's done.\ |
| 43 | '''Instead:''' He goes for the New X-Men instead, violently torturing and killing them when they have no idea who this Illyana person is in the first place. Because of all this, the New X-Men fight back, giving the recreated Illyana the chance to show up and kick Belasco's ass and take control of Limbo for herself. |
| 44 | * ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'': Hijack, a newly awakened mutant, is recruited into Cyclops' team of rebellious X-Men. He is told that nobody is allowed to have phones, since if he uses it, ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} can use it to track the team down.\ |
| 45 | '''You'd Expect:''' Hijack to ''leave the phone behind''. Even if he was caught off guard when rescued by the X-Men, Magik is a teleporter who could easily ditch the phone for him.\ |
| 46 | '''Instead:''' Hijack brings it with him because he can't break his contract (that's literally the only reason he gives)... Later, Magik teleports the students to an unknown location ([[SecretTestOfCharacter without telling them why]]), and the rest of the students immediately figure out that the teachers are testing/training them. Hijack decides to use Google Maps to find out where they are even after the rest of the students repeat the rule to him and why it exists. His reply? S.H.I.E.L.D. can use it to track them down and get them out of there. S.H.I.E.L.D., of course, tracks the team down, and brings some Avengers with them.\ |
| 47 | '''Worse Still:''' During the stand-off with the ComicBook/SecretAvengers, Magik teleports the team back. Cyclops says Hijack completely failed the test. He tries to defend himself by saying [[InsaneTrollLogic his powers helped them against S.H.I.E.L.D]]. Of course, Cyke calls him out on the stupid logic. |
| 48 | * ''ComicBook/XFactor'': The problem is evident from the outset. [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean Grey]] comes back from the dead without her telepathy and finds that not only are her old teammates at loose ends and [[TheMentor Charles Xavier]] missing; but BigBad Characters/{{Ma|rvelComicsMagneto}}gneto [[HeelFaceTurn was running the latter's school]], the ComicBook/XMen were wanted outlaws, and Mutants [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer had a worse rep than ever]]. When she gets the old gang together they decide to gather young mutants themselves to train them in safety and away from dangerous influences, but they do not have a Cerebro unit or a telepath to use it.\ |
| 49 | '''You'd expect:''' Beast and Angel (who, incidentally, have been outed for ''years'' in '''comic book time''') would use the former's [[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]] contacts and the latter's massive fortune to start up a massive public relations blitz of [=PSAs=] along the lines of "Are you Different? Are your children? Call us, we can help." while opening up a nice day-camp/compound well away from [[CityOfAdventure New York]] if security is an issue.\ |
| 50 | '''Instead:''' They go undercover as a commercial mutant hunting crew that could be summoned to capture and 'cure' dangerous mutants with menacing powers, complete with an HQ in the BigApplesauce. Sure you might beat the real lynch mobs to them, but how many will go underground rather than come to you? Please note that Worthington was backing this with his own money, and the world knows he is a [[FantasticRacism Mutie]], so this is a P.R. disaster waiting to happen, considering how many will be digging from every angle.\ |
| 51 | '''Making this worse:''' Over in ''Uncanny X-Men'', a kid actually commits ''suicide'' because he learns he's a mutant, and is told X-Factor are gonna come "get" him. Does the team stop and think they've screwed up royal? Nah. They just keep on with the Mutant hunter idea.\ |
| 52 | '''Making it somehow even worse:''' The reason for this stupid idea? The P.R. guy Warren hired hates all mutants, and yet Warren doesn't catch on to this until it's just a little too late. |
| 53 | ** And, in the same book: Cyclops, having retired from superheroing, is having difficulties with his marriage. Then he gets a phone call telling him the girl he used to be in love with has just come back from the dead.\ |
| 54 | '''You'd expect:''' That he'd sit down with his wife and explain what's just happened, reassure her that he's determined to make the marriage work, then ask her to come with him to meet the woman he used to date who is also one of his oldest friends. Sure, it would be tense and awkward and might fuel further arguments, but it would still be better than...\ |
| 55 | '''Instead:''' He makes vague excuses about how he has to go, then runs out in the middle of an argument and doesn't call for two weeks. By which time his wife and baby son have been kidnapped by supervillains. Whoops. And by the time she reappears, [[ComicBook/Inferno1988 she's turned evil and is trying to destroy Manhattan by using their son as a human sacrifice.]] Double whoops. |
| 56 | [[/folder]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | [[folder:Marvel Comics]] |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/AmongUsHideTheInhumans'': Johnny goes to his car, and finds the door open.\ |
| 60 | '''You'd expect:''' That he would check the car, either for stolen parts, or for some device that may had been left in it. Being a public superhero with several enemies, you can never be too careful.\ |
| 61 | '''Instead:''' He simply goes on and drive it, as if nothing had happened. Turns out, there was a supervillain hiding in the back seat! |
| 62 | * ''ComicBook/TheAvengersJonathanHickman'': |
| 63 | ** In ''Avengers'' #34, the Time Gem has caused the Avengers to jump uncontrollably into various times in the future. Captain America, Black Widow, and Starbrand arrive in the 71st century. There they meet the apparently immortal Franklin Richards, who they know as a kid in their own time. Franklin asks Cap whether he would like to know what's causing the Incursions that threaten the Earth and the entire multiverse in the 21st century, and who's behind them?\ |
| 64 | '''You'd expect:''' Cap to say, "Yes, please tell me all about it!" Gaining this information would be massively important, because it might allow the Avengers to stop the Incursions and save the Earth and the multiverse. Also, Cap knows that Time Gem might transfer them into the future at any time without any warning... So the time they have available in the 71st century is limited, and hence an intelligent leader like Captain America should realize this time should be spent in learning whatever they can about the Incursions.\ |
| 65 | '''Instead:''' Cap doesn't want Franklin to answer those questions yet, instead he wants Franklin to tell him how to stop Tony Stark. Cap is angry at Tony and the Illuminati for trying to stop the Incursions through various morally questionable ways, and for erasing Cap's memory about this so he wouldn't oppose them. Franklin tells Cap he can fight the Illuminati but he can't fight fate, and that that things will only get worse if he fights them, and the Incursions will continue. Before Franklin has time to tell them anything else, the Time Gem once again transfers the Avengers away before they can learn what's causing the Incursions and who's behind them. After the Avengers return to their own time, the Incursions continue, and eventually [[spoiler:the multiverse is destroyed]]. So the information Cap got from Franklin was useless, while the information he didn't bother to get because he was so mad at Tony might've helped the Avengers to [[spoiler:save the multiverse]]. Great job, Cap! |
| 66 | ** In ''New Avengers'' #23, an Incursion is threatening to destroy the 616 universe and another universe that is coming to contact with it. This could be stopped by destroying the Earth in either of those universe, but having just seen [[spoiler:Namor do this to stop the previous incursion]], the other members of the Illuminati can't find it in themselves to do so. So they're content to just wait for their universe to be destroyed. Reed Richards gathers his family, including his two young kids, so that he's with them when everything dies.\ |
| 67 | '''You'd expect:''' Even if he can't morally justify himself to destroy another Earth in order to save his, you'd think that Reed would at least do something to save his family. He has the knowledge and means to travel to the other universes within the multiverse. He also knows how to travel in time. So he could easily send his family to another universe, preferably one where the Earth has already been destroyed, so the Incursions don't threaten them. Or he could send his family far to the past of the 616 Earth, where they could live their full lives long before the Incursions ever start. At the very least, you'd think he would ''tell his family what is about to happen''. Even if his own moral code says he should do nothing and let everyone (including his family) die, maybe Sue doesn't feel the same way, so shouldn't be allowed to make her own choices? Maybe ''she'' would want to do anything she can to save their kids?\ |
| 68 | '''Instead:''' Reed doesn't do anything and doesn't tell anyone about the end of the world, even when Sue keeps asking what's wrong with him. Thankfully [[spoiler:Namor once again has the backbone to do what the other Illuminati couldn't, so the two universes survive]]. |
| 69 | * ''ComicBook/AvengersAcademy'': The Enchantress II who is working for Jeremy Briggs has the four Avengers Academy students who agreed to join Jeremy with her on the same floor, when Striker, the only one who was depowered unwillingly comes up to her and starts chatting with her.\ |
| 70 | '''You’d expect:''' Her to cast a spell to detect deception or at least have a magical force field on at all times just in case.\ |
| 71 | '''Instead:''' She totally falls for his sob story, magically gets the antidote which will prevent him from being affected by the depowering drug ever again, and gets knocked unconscious by an application of his powers she wasn’t expecting the moment she dropped her guard. |
| 72 | * ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'': Hawkeye's quiver of exploding Arrows is set on fire and is about to explode.\ |
| 73 | '''You'd expect:''' Him to ''simply take the quiver off'' and run clear, surviving, even if it leaves him unarmed.\ |
| 74 | '''Instead:''' He commits a StupidSacrifice by doing a TakingYouWithMe and is killed. |
| 75 | * [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]]: |
| 76 | ** In his OriginStory, he's a college student, aiming with a private project to open a portal to hell. That cursed Reed Richards, who was passing by, points out several mistakes in his formulas. Doom shows him the door.\ |
| 77 | '''You'd Expect:''' That, once Richards is gone and nobody will take undue credit for his project, Dr. Doom would check again the formulas, to confirm if they are right indeed, or if there is some mistake to fix. If Richards ''was'' right, nobody would know it, and Doom can deny him any credit. In any case, checking and double-checking his work several times should be a must when he does a project like this all alone, even if Richards never interfered.\ |
| 78 | '''Instead:''' Doom ignores Richards' warnings and proceeds with the experiment. It goes wrong, there is a huge explosion, and his face gets scarred. |
| 79 | ** In his 2019 comic, Richards and Stark built a black hole in the moon, and it malfunctioned. Doom is allowed to build a fix for it, and to do it alone and unsupervised. There couldn't be a better chance for Doom to prove that he's the better one. When he's about to start it, Reed calls to wish him luck.\ |
| 80 | '''You'd Expect:''' That Doom simply ignores the pointless pleasantries, and proceeds.\ |
| 81 | '''Instead:''' He starts speculating ''why'' did Richards call him, figures that he must have figured that the machine would not work and was secretly gloating, so Doom starts to oversee all the minutiae detail... and causes the machine to malfunction. |
| 82 | ** The Doom of the utopic universe is trying to convince his 616 self to reform, that there is no need to hold on to the hatred and anger that's motivated him for so long.\ |
| 83 | '''You'd Expect:''' Utopia Doom to use calm, reasoned arguments, appealing to his other self's intelligence and sense of logic.\ |
| 84 | '''Instead:''' He starts insulting 616 Doom's fashion sense, his methodology, and his ego, basically tap-dancing on 616 Doom's BerserkButton.\ |
| 85 | '''The Result:''' 616 Doom decapitates his Utopian self with a laser blast, and then, with a dead look in his eyes, grabs the Ultimate Nullifier and completely wipes out the Utopian universe, ignoring Blue Marvel's begging. |
| 86 | * ''[[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Doctor Strange: The Oath]]''. Strange's manservant Wong is near death and Strange has retrieved an elixir which can cure any disease. That potion is currently in the hands of a CorruptCorporateExecutive who is WithholdingTheCure to protect his profits. He has just challenged Strange to a fistfight on the roof of a skyscraper. Neither of them can use magic for the next three minutes, and Doc is suffering from a near-lethal gunshot wound inflicted earlier that night.\ |
| 87 | '''You'd expect:''' Strange, knowing every second counted, would quickly beat the man down, take the elixir, and run to help Wong.\ |
| 88 | '''Instead:''' Strange allows the other man to pummel him for at least a minute before [[IAmNotLeftHanded he starts fighting back]]. He still wins, but in the confusion and pouring rain, the other man misjudges the edge of the roof and plummets to his death. Strange is able to recover only a single drop of the elixir, forcing him to choose between saving Wong or [[ReedRichardsIsUseless reproducing it to save the world]]. |
| 89 | * ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': Bruce Banner is a normal guy on the run who tries to stay away from populated areas and stress because when he gets angry, he turns into a giant monster that destroys everything in his way while screaming "Leave Hulk alone!"\ |
| 90 | '''You'd Expect:''' ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} to provide Banner with a map of and free transport to the most deserted locations on earth, and the Army to issue warnings to anyone in Banner's vicinity not to antagonize him and keep their distance.\ |
| 91 | '''Instead:''' The government tries to capture Banner at every available opportunity. |
| 92 | ** Connected to the above, General "Thunderbolt" Ross continually exhorts the government to give him men and equipment to wage his private war against the Hulk.\ |
| 93 | '''You'd Expect:''' The government would realize that Ross's crusade is costing them a steady fortune and pull the plug.\ |
| 94 | '''Instead:''' They keep pouring money into his vendetta. |
| 95 | ** In issue ''#395'', [[Characters/MarvelComicsFrankCastle the Punisher]] comes to Vegas looking to take down a hitman named Frost, and happens to see Frost talking with "Mr. Fixit".\ |
| 96 | '''You'd Expect:''' The Punisher would realize that the 7ft plus green "Mr. Fixit" is The Hulk and would avoid getting involved.\ |
| 97 | '''Instead:''' He stalks the Hulk, and then starts blazing away at him with a machine gun when the Hulk confronts him, achieving nothing more than shredding the Hulk's clothes. The Hulk promptly knocks him out cold with a tap of the finger. |
| 98 | * More on the Goblin front is Phil Urich's discovery of a cache of Green Goblin gear.\ |
| 99 | '''You'd Think:''' That on finding a bunch of superweapons belonging to a dead insane criminal, he would have left it alone, handed it in to the appropriate body, or sold it.\ |
| 100 | '''Instead:''' He decided to become a superhero, despite having zero experience.\ |
| 101 | '''Also:''' Instead of altering it in any way, even by just painting it a different color, he dressed up ''as'' the Green Goblin, and went around ''calling himself'' the Green Goblin. Now you might think that's a good way to get mistaken for a villain, making his work massively more difficult as superheroes attacked him and civilians fled him. And you'd be right. Even after hanging up the costume and gear, the chemicals in his system have recently driven him insane. |
| 102 | * ''ComicBook/FantasticFour1961'': In his OriginStory, Doom is a college student, aiming with a private project to open a portal to hell. That cursed Reed Richards, who was passing by, points several mistakes in his formulas. Doom shows him the door.\ |
| 103 | '''You'd expect:''' That, once Richards is gone and nobody will take undue credit for his project, Dr. Doom would check again the formulas, to confirm if they are right indeed, or if there is some mistake to fix. If Richards ''was'' right, nobody would know it, and Doom can deny him any credit. In any case, checking and double-checking his work several times should be a must when he does a project like this all alone, even if Richards never interfered.\ |
| 104 | '''Instead:''' Doom ignores Richards' warnings and proceeds with the experiment. It goes wrong, there is a huge explosion, and his face gets scarred beyond heal. |
| 105 | * ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'': |
| 106 | ** In the ''Army of Darkness'' crossover, after being bitten by a zombified Colonel America and bluffing his way out of being eaten, Spider-Man notes that his powers are working overtime to stave off the infection. He knows what the zombie virus has done to the Avengers and is not alone as he has Ash on the same rooftop as he is.\ |
| 107 | '''You'd Expect:''' Spider-Man to request that Ash kill him to prevent the plague from taking over.\ |
| 108 | '''Instead:''' Spider-Man heads straight to Mary Jane and Aunt May to check if they are alright, leaving Ash behind.\ |
| 109 | '''Result:''' Spidey succumbs to the plague and consumes both Aunt May and Mary Jane, later devouring hundreds of civilians. |
| 110 | ** After Spider-Man left him behind on the rooftop, Ash encounters the Punisher, who was on his way to kill the Kingpin and his men. Kingpin points out that with the zombie outbreak in New York, they should form an alliance to survive.\ |
| 111 | '''You'd Expect:''' Frank to see the reason in Kingpin's words and begrudgingly agree on the condition that he would keep an eye on the crime boss in case he tries something funny. After all, it would be profitable to get help wherever you can find it.\ |
| 112 | '''Instead:''' He kills everyone in the room except for Ash, rationalizing that Kingpin was never human to begin with. This, however, leaves the two without backup. Even worse, Kingpin survives long enough to get infected and, decades later, attempts to invade Earth-616 with his zombie army. |
| 113 | ** The two then come across Thunderball, who is uninfected and fending off a large horde of zombies. Punisher has a bag of munitions and firearms with which he could kill at least some of the zombies.\ |
| 114 | '''You'd Then Expect:''' For Frank to tell Ash to wield a gun and provide cover fire to coordinate an attack on the horde while also rescuing Thunderball to get more backup.\ |
| 115 | '''Or:''' For the two of them to organize a tactical retreat, seeing as the horde is quite large and comprised of zombified superhumans.\ |
| 116 | '''Instead:''' Punisher arrogantly gets the idea to be the only one to wield a firearm, telling Ash to throw him more ammo when he runs out, not caring if Thunderball gets caught in the crossfire.\ |
| 117 | '''Result:''' Frank barely kills any of the super-zombies, who then manage to overwhelm both him and Thunderball. |
| 118 | ** Nova comes across the newly zombified Spider-Man tucking into his wife and aunt and is attacked. Daredevil arrives on the scene and tells Nova that he has to kill Spidey.\ |
| 119 | '''You'd Expect:''' Nova to heed his advice and obliterate Spider-Man with a full-force energy blast.\ |
| 120 | '''Instead:''' Nova chickens out and leaves Daredevil to be bitten and turned by Spider-Man. |
| 121 | ** In ''Marvel Zombies 2'', Bruce Banner is rendered unconscious during an altercation between the zombies under Giant-Man and the survivors (alongside a reformed Spider-Man and Luke Cage) and ends up in New Wakanda.\ |
| 122 | '''You'd Expect:''' Either Spider-Man or Luke to use their new cosmic powers to blast Banner's head and eliminate the risk of him eventually transforming into the Hulk.\ |
| 123 | '''Instead:''' Banner is merely restrained and drugged, leading to him escaping and eventually turning into the Hulk, obliterating half of the now-reformed zombies and eating Reynolds before reverting to Bruce Banner. Only ''then'' is he killed by the cosmic-powered zombies. |
| 124 | ** In ''Return'', Spider-Man, along with several other zombified heroes of Earth-2149, gets transported to Earth-Z, a parallel world uninfected by the zombie plague. He quickly gets his lay of the land and realizes that he was sent back in time, as this world's Peter Parker is attending college and a tablet that could reverse his zombification is on display at a museum. The Kingpin plans to steal the tablet and hire the Sinister Six to attack the campus.\ |
| 125 | '''You'd Expect:''' Zombie Spider-Man to lay low and sneak into the museum to stop Kingpin and take the tablet, leaving Earth-Z's Spider-Man to fight the Sinister Six.\ |
| 126 | '''Instead:''' He attempts to be a hero and focus on the Sinister Six first.\ |
| 127 | '''Result:''' As soon as he catches a whiff of Kraven's jungle herbs, Zombie Spider-Man relapses into his hunger and infects the Sinister Six (minus Sandman) and devours Kingpin. In turn, this world's Spider-Man is killed by Sandman in a blind fury and his friends are infected by the rest of the zombified Six, forcing him to kill them all to stop the plague from spreading. To make matters worse, some of Kingpin's goons steal the tablet amidst the carnage, effectively eliminating Zombie Spider-Man's chances of becoming human again. |
| 128 | ** The Hulk of Earth-Z begins his revenge on the Illuminati after the shuttle he was sent to Sakaar in explodes, setting in motion the events of ComicBook/WorldWarHulk. As with the main continuity, his first target is the Blue Area of the Moon. However, when he arrives, he is shocked to see that the Inhumans have been turned into zombies.\ |
| 129 | '''You'd Expect:''' Hulk to attempt get off of the Moon as fast as possible to either escape or perform a tactical retreat until he is ready for them.\ |
| 130 | '''Instead:''' He fearlessly confronts the zombified Inhumans and Giant-Man with the aid of his Warbound.\ |
| 131 | '''Result:''' The zombies devour the Warbound except for Elloe, who notices that Hulk has been bitten by Giant-Man. As if on cue, Hulk turns, eats Elloe, and travels to Earth to satiate his hunger, attracting the attention of the Illuminati, who dispatch Sentry to try to subdue him. In the middle of the fight, Hulk reverts back into Bruce Banner, who begs for help.\ |
| 132 | '''You'd Then Expect:''' Sentry to remain in his superpowered form and stay away a reasonable length away from Bruce while he reasons with him, if not just [[MercyKill do him in there and then]], as he is still a zombie.\ |
| 133 | '''Instead:''' Sentry turns into Robert Reynolds and gets within arm's reach of Bruce.\ |
| 134 | '''Result:''' Bruce bites Robert on the hand, infecting him as both transform into their superpowered alter-egos and begin eating more people. This eventually contributes to the whole Earth-Z getting devastated by the ZombieApocalypse, [[HistoryRepeats just like Earth-2149 before it]]. |
| 135 | * In ''ComicBook/NewAvengers'' #2, a breakout at the supervillain prison known as The Raft has occurred. [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Spider-Man]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] arrive on the scene. The Captain notes that a large platoon of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are on their way.\ |
| 136 | '''You'd expect:''' Spidey to wait for the backup to arrive. They're S.H.I.E.L.D. agents trained and equipped to take down superhuman criminals and it's just he and Steve on the scene at the moment.\ |
| 137 | '''Instead:''' Spidey takes this as his cue and rushes into The Raft alone, spouting some half-assed justification that [[HonorBeforeReason he'd feel guilty about]] [[ComesGreatResponsibility putting other people in harm's way]] by allowing them to do their jobs. What happens next can be described as Christmas come early for Spidey's rogues gallery as Count Nefaria knocks him for a loop and dumps him into a riled-up mob full of his worst enemies who proceed to unmask him, snap his arm like a twig, and take turns pounding on him until his face is a bloody half-purple mess. |
| 138 | * The much-maligned ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' arc of [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Spider-Man]] involved Aunt May in a coma, after being shot by a gunman following Peter Parker revealing himself to be Spider-Man back during ''ComicBook/{{Civil War|2006}}''. Spidey has asked practically every magical/technological superhero he can find to save his aunt's life, [[ReedRichardsIsUseless many claiming that they either can't or it would be wrong to do so.]] In a seance, Aunt May revealed that she accepts her death.\ |
| 139 | '''You'd expect:''' Peter to realize that ''maybe the entire elite cadre of the Marvel universe (including, by the way, a character who was quite obviously intended to be a representation of '''the Judeo-Christian {{God}}''') is right'', and let his elderly aunt pass on, surrounded by friends and loved ones. Peter would be hurt, but he has faced personal tragedy in the past and survived.\ |
| 140 | '''Instead:''' He keeps grasping at straws in attempts to save his aunt's life. Eventually, the demonic villain Mephisto shows up and offers Pete a deal; he'll save Aunt May's life, if Peter and MJ agree to let reality be warped so that they would never be married.\ |
| 141 | '''You'd expect:''' that after being told by a guy who's pretty much a Comics Code-friendly stand-in for Satan that ''destroying Peter and MJ's marriage would make him very, very happy '''and potentially lead to him being able to take Peter's soul in a future deal''''', Peter would realize the danger of making a DealWithTheDevil, and refuse.\ |
| 142 | '''Instead:''' Spidey accepts.\ |
| 143 | '''What's Worse:''' The deal involves sacrificing Peter and MJ's unborn child. Aunt May would ''never'' have sacrificed a '''baby''' to save herself. |
| 144 | * [[Characters/MarvelComicsFrankCastle The Punisher]] is a vigilante who occasionally spends time in prison. He is one of the most lethal people on Earth, feared and hated by every criminal.\ |
| 145 | '''You'd Expect:''' The other inmates to either avoid him or gang up in the dozens and kill him.\ |
| 146 | '''Instead:''' A lone prisoner will try to kill him for revenge or to make his reputation, usually with no plan or weapon and ignoring the literally hundreds of other people Castle has killed in similar circumstances. |
| 147 | * In the last arc of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' an accident apparently kills Old Lace and causes Klara to have a panic attack, which drives her to seal the other Runaways inside their house within a forest of thorny vines.\ |
| 148 | '''You'd Expect:''' The other Runaways would try and make Klara feel safe and calm, since her powers only work if she's thinking clearly.\ |
| 149 | '''Instead:''' Nico allows Chase to verbally threaten to abuse Klara until she's so frightened that Nico decides that she absolutely has to use magic to tranquilize her, lest Klara's plants attack Chase in defense. |
| 150 | * ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'': Black Widow has a sniper rifle to shoot Captain America with it, but Punisher shows up and they start fighting. She takes it for a second, and notices that Spider-Man is about to start fighting with Captain America. And, if the Civil War II vision is to be trusted, he would kill him. She jumps out and heads to them, to stop Miles before he becomes a murderer.\ |
| 151 | '''You'd expect:''' That she would take the rifle with her, or at least break it or make it unusable in some way.\ |
| 152 | '''Instead:''' She left the Punisher and a sniper rifle in the same room. She lives to regret it… just 10 or 15 seconds. |
| 153 | * [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Spider-Man]] tends to be framed for various stories. Sometimes it's an average story, others it's for a storyline, but it's occurred quite a bit in his career.\ |
| 154 | '''You'd expect:''' The citizens of the city would recall "Hey, Spider-Man's been framed before. For all we know, those crimes could have been committed by Mysterio or The Chameleon."\ |
| 155 | '''Instead''': Civilians alike go straight to the accusation. Yep, they're that thick-skulled. |
| 156 | ** Similarly, J. Jonah Jameson has made it his personal mission to make the world see Spider-Man as the menace just like he does (out of petty jealousy mostly) so he prints unflattering stories in the Daily Bugle time and time again, accusing Spider-Man of countless things at the drop of a hat, even when a villain isn't trying to frame him.\ |
| 157 | '''You'd expect:''' The people of New York to recognize what a total ass Jameson is, that's he's totally full of it, and ignore his paper's claims, especially where Spider-Man is concerned.\ |
| 158 | '''Instead:''' Nearly EVERYBODY shown reading his paper is shown completely believing what it says about Spider-Man, primarily being the source of his HeroWithBadPublicity status. To top it off, often in earlier stories there will be somebody saying [[GenreBlindness "they couldn't print it if it wasn't true!"]] |
| 159 | ** Of course, this also goes for Jameson. He pretty much admits in ''The Ultimate Universe'' that he's attacking Spider-Man both to sell papers and to deal with the death of his son. As he tells Peter, whom he temporarily fired, he doesn't understand how his son was a hero and died while Spider-Man is alive.\ |
| 160 | '''You'd Expect''': Jameson would establish to his staff that this is a publicity stunt and maybe try to look further inward as to why he has this vendetta. Smearing Spider-Man sells more papers but it also messes with the communication of important information, which is the whole point of a newspaper.\ |
| 161 | '''Instead''': Jameson continues doing his thing in the ''Ultimate Universe''. He never looks inward, apart from apologizing to Peter and re-hiring him.\ |
| 162 | '''The Result''': Jameson gets the motherload of a JerkassRealization when he finds out that [[spoiler:Peter is Spider-Man, and realizes that one of his loyal employees has been putting his life on the line on a regular basis, even saving his life from a gunshot. By the time he tries to turn the tide, it becomes too little too late; Peter dies defending Captain America just as Jameson covered his college tuition. Jameson is heartbroken, grieving and guilty. When his employees suggest investigating a new Spider-Man, Jameson vetoes it because he doesn't want to ruin someone else's life]]. |
| 163 | * The ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}''/HAMMER kerfuffle in the Marvel Universe.\ |
| 164 | '''You'd Think:''' That when it comes to the head of an organization like S.H.I.E.L.D, you'd ''not'' appoint someone who is openly psychotic even when ''on'' his medication, and that if for any reason this became necessary, you would at least ensure that there were reliable, sane people under him to keep things under control.\ |
| 165 | '''Instead:''' S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded, and the staff for its replacement, HAMMER, have been chosen by [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Norman Osborn]], [[AxCrazy the Green Fucking Goblin]]. Who ''bombed his own arraignment hearing on live TV'', for Thor's sake. It's not even as if [[VillainWithGoodPublicity they don't know he's a psychopath!]] |
| 166 | * ''ComicBook/TotallyAwesomeHulk'': Amadeus Cho (the new Hulk) has just met Lady Hellbender and her goons, and Lady H has demonstrated that she's pretty powerful (able to knock Hulk on his ass at least, and was pretty confident she could take Fin Fang Foom as well). She has stated that her hobby is finding the toughest, strongest monsters there are and adding them to her collection. However, she's unimpressed with Cho, who doesn't unleash his Hulk rage like Banner did. She even ''abandons'' him when he goes to face Foom.\ |
| 167 | '''You'd expect:''' Hormonal teenager and hot warrior babe aside, this woman CLEARLY has a screw loose and should be kept at arms' length, if not treated as a threat outright.\ |
| 168 | '''Instead:''' Cho becomes determined to prove to this woman that he's still the WorldsStrongestMan and curbstomps Foom while she watches. She ''immediately'' shoots him with some sort of capture device and proceeds to add him to her collection. |
| 169 | * ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour'': It's the dramatic conclusion of [[StoryArc the arc]], and Reed Richards is squaring off against Nihil on the Vegas Strip! The tyrant opens his mouth to devour the hero, who stops him by picking up a nearby plasma rifle and wedging it in between his jaws!\ |
| 170 | '''You'd expect:''' Nihil to do literally ''anything'' except what he actually does.\ |
| 171 | '''Which is:''' Trying to pull the gun out....''[[TooDumbToLive by the trigger]]''.\ |
| 172 | '''The result''' [[YourHeadASplode is anything but pretty]]. |
| 173 | * ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'': Harry Osborn saw his father experiment on himself and blew up Oscorp. His house was blown up by a flying monster, that he knows it's his father, who kills his mother with a fireblast and tries to kill him as well. And when he notices that he's still alive, he will go after him again.\ |
| 174 | '''You'd expect:''' That he goes straight to the police, explains what happened, and asks for protection. Perhaps there's little they can do, but they are the best-suited force for that (at least, that he can reach, SHIELD may be difficult to be reached by a mere teenager on his own).\ |
| 175 | '''Instead:''' Harry... goes to the school? |
| 176 | * ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': In the first arc the US government finds the Savage Land (Magneto's mutant hideout) and decided to destroy it. The government has also just admitted that not all mutants are bad and the X-Men in particular are the good guys.\ |
| 177 | '''You'd expect:'''--which means they've got a well-trained group of mutants to send in to battle Magneto.\ |
| 178 | '''Instead:''' They sent Sentinels, {{Humongous Mecha}}s, ''made of metal'' To combat freakin' Magneto. Not the Sentinels of Earth-616, which were Magneto-proofed ages ago, but regular Sentinels. Magneto even {{lampshade|Hanging}}s their stupidity, noting that any species dumb enough to send chromium machines against the "Master of Magnetism" deserves to be replaced. He reprograms the Sentinel fleet to fly back to D.C. and kill every non-mutant human they can find. This leads to a battle that nearly destroys D.C. If not for the X-Men and Quicksilver's betrayal they would have been toast. |
| 179 | * ''ComicBook/UnderSiege'': The Masters of Evil have secured the mansion, have Jarvis and the Black Knight as helpless hostages, and banished Captain Marvel to a darkforce dimension. Now, thanks to Hercules' reckless Leeroy Jenkins act, they have beaten him to a pulp and almost killed him, and also defeated Captain America and the Wasp.\ |
| 180 | '''You'd expect:''' They would keep all the defeated Avengers as their hostages (those listed were the whole regular team at the time), keep a low profile, and torture and kill them at their leisure. Nobody would know anything until it's too late.\ |
| 181 | '''Instead:''' They let the Wasp leave, get rid of Hercules' body (who is then saved at a hospital, as he was actually Not Quite Dead), and surround the mansion with darkforce. A giant banner saying "overrun by villains" would have served just as fine. The Wasp manages to get enough reinforcements, and starts the counter-attack. |
| 182 | * ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'': ComicBook/DoctorStrange brags at length about how easily he could beat Hulk.\ |
| 183 | '''You'd expect:''' He'd smash Hulk into the ground. It's obvious that Hulk is never going to stop, and Strange has every right to defend himself with lethal force. Strange has routinely taken out enemies that make Hulk look like a ten year old girl.\ |
| 184 | '''Instead:''' He makes himself vulnerable to Hulk and gets his hands crushed for his trouble. Then he invokes a demon weapon too powerful for him to handle, loses the battle, and eventually steps down from the title of Sorcerer Supreme. |
| 185 | [[/folder]] |
| 186 | |
| 187 | [[folder:[=DC=]]] |
| 188 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In ''Batman'' #47, Batman finds Joe Chill, the man who murdered his parents, who is now a small-time crime boss. Batman reveals his identity to Chill, who flees to the safety of his henchmen. But when the henchmen learn their boss [[CreateYourOwnHero inadvertently created Batman]] ...\ |
| 189 | '''You'd Expect:''' The henchmen would extract Batman's SecretIdentity from their boss.\ |
| 190 | '''Instead''': Chill's henchmen quickly gun him down. It's only then that they realize [[NiceJobFixingItVillain they nearly deprived themselves of Batman's]] secret identity, but the Dark Knight trounces them before they can get their boss to talk. |
| 191 | * ''ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal'': There are several such moments of idiocy, especially in the Dark Knights' origin stories. Apparently a higher proclivity for murder goes hand in hand with the inability to think things through. |
| 192 | ** The Batman Who Laughs tries to recruit the other fallen Batmen to his cause at the moment their worlds are being destroyed, promising them that their worlds will be saved and that they will be heroes again. For context, the Batman Who Laughs himself is a Batman who was transformed physically and psychologically to resemble the Joker and plans to destroy the Multiverse, as he has done to his own world.\ |
| 193 | '''You'd Expect:''' That given that the Joker is any Batman's worst enemy, they would refuse to join him on the grounds that he is too insane and unpredictable to place their trust in.\ |
| 194 | '''Or:''' Since most of them still have some semblance of a moral code, however tainted it may be, they would realize that the Batman Who Laughs's endgame goes against what they believe in and refuse.\ |
| 195 | '''Instead:''' They agree to take part in their Jokerized counterpart's plan and buy into his empty promises. Granted, in some of their cases, it could be argued that they aren’t thinking rationally due to their powers screwing with their minds and warping their personalities (especially Devastator, Merciless and Murder Machine), but still.\ |
| 196 | '''Result:''' Not only does this fail to solve the problem of their worlds crumbling, but all of the Dark Knights (barring the Batman Who Laughs) get themselves killed during their invasion of Earth-Prime.\ |
| 197 | '''Even Worse:''' A couple of the Batmen have their doubts about the plan, particularly the Drowned, who briefly realizes that invading the prime Multiverse for the sake of being a hero isn't a very heroic thing to do, and the Merciless, who dismisses the Batman Who Laughs's statements as lies at first. The Devastator even briefly mistakes the Batman Who Laughs for his world's Joker (for obvious reasons) before agreeing to his deal. And they ''still'' follow him throughout the invasion attempt, ignoring their concerns by trying to justify that their actions are for the greater good. |
| 198 | ** Earth -52 is coming to an end, as all worlds in the Dark Multiverse usually do. The Flash is being pursued by a grieving Batman, who wants to steal his connection to the Speed Force not only to save the world and his fallen sidekicks, but also to overcome the limitation of age. Flash is trying to reason with him so that they can work together to save their world from crumbling.\ |
| 199 | '''You'd Expect:''' Batman to listen to common sense and stop battling with the Flash so they can figure something out.\ |
| 200 | '''Instead:''' Batman keeps attacking the Flash, eventually succeeding in claiming the Speed Force and killing his rogues gallery with his newfound power. However, Earth -52 is ''still'' doomed to die. |
| 201 | ** When Earth -44's Alfred is killed by Batman's worst enemies, Batman enlists Cyborg to help him create the Alfred Protocol to replace him. However, the AI becomes unstable and murderous, killing every single villain before turning to Wayne Manor, requesting that Bruce "let him in", which Cyborg strongly advises against in favor of shutting it down.\ |
| 202 | '''You'd Expect:''' Bruce to listen to Cyborg and deactivate the AI.\ |
| 203 | '''Instead:''' Bruce lets the Protocol into the Batcave with hopes of reprogramming it.\ |
| 204 | '''Result:''' The Alfred Protocol assimilates Batman, who then embarks on a spree of mass murder before killing the Justice League when they try to stop him. |
| 205 | ** On Earth -32, moments after a young Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered, he gives chase to the mugger, devoid of any emotion. A Green Lantern ring picks up on his lack of fear and attaches itself to his finger. However, Bruce wants to kill the mugger, which the ring cannot allow. However, Bruce is insistent to the extent that his willpower starts to override the ring.\ |
| 206 | '''You'd Expect:''' The Guardians of the Universe to realize that something is wrong with Bruce and strip him of the ring as soon as possible so they can find someone else who is worthy of it.\ |
| 207 | '''Instead:''' The ring stays on his finger, allowing Bruce to corrupt it with his lack of emotion.\ |
| 208 | '''Result:''' Bruce uses the corrupted ring to kill the mugger, then Gotham's criminals, and the entire Green Lantern Corps when they attempt to intervene. |
| 209 | ** The Batwoman of Earth -11 loses her lover Sylvester Kyle to rogue metahumans, causing Bryce to seek to avenge his death by killing the ones responsible.\ |
| 210 | '''You'd Expect:''' Bryce to simply kill the ones who took Sylvester's life and be done with it, as there are likely many heroic metahumans in her world.\ |
| 211 | '''Instead:''' She extends her hatred towards ''every'' superpowered individual, eventually killing Aquawoman when she returned from her self-imposed exile.\ |
| 212 | '''Result:''' The Atlanteans view this as an act of war, and thus submerge Gotham in retaliation; Bryce is forced to experiment on herself to adapt to these conditions, but she ''still'' can't remove all of the water from her city. |
| 213 | ** On Earth -12, a world in which Batman and Wonder Woman were romantically involved and fought against Ares to prevent him from using a helmet that would amplify his powers by a hundredfold, they succeed in removing the helmet, although Diana has apparently been slain by Ares. Bruce notices the helmet, which Diana warned would corrupt whoever put it on.\ |
| 214 | '''You'd Expect:''' Bruce to check for signs of life to verify if she really is dead and make a retreat with the helmet, while also heeding Diana's warnings not to wear it.\ |
| 215 | '''Instead:''' Batman assumes she is dead and, driven by grief, puts the helmet on his head to battle Ares.\ |
| 216 | '''Result:''' Although he is successful in killing Ares, Bruce is corrupted by the helmet and discovers that Diana was only incapacitated by Ares's attack, but he is so addicted to the helmet's power that he kills her when she tries to take it off. |
| 217 | ** When his world's Superman went mad for an unknown reason, the Batman of Earth -1 tried to get through to him until Clark killed Lois, his own wife. Luckily, Batman had cultured a modified strain of the Doomsday Virus should he be forced to battle and kill Superman, and the virus can spread from person to person.\ |
| 218 | '''You'd Expect:''' Bruce to use the virus as quickly as possible to not only give himself an edge against Superman, but to "inoculate" civilians with it to protect them from the Man of Steel while they are still alive.\ |
| 219 | '''Instead:''' Batman only uses the virus in the middle of his climactic battle with Superman.\ |
| 220 | '''Result:''' Although Batman succeeds in killing Superman with relative ease, he discovers that there is no one left to save and/or infect with the virus, only a barren expanse of rubble and bony spikes, much to his dismay. |
| 221 | ** After killing his world's Joker, the Batman of Earth -22 inhaled a dose of his latest toxin, which causes him to adopt Joker-esque mannerisms, as demonstrated when he laughs when Superman tells him that one of the children affected in the Joker incident tore out a psychologist's throat. Both are alarmed.\ |
| 222 | '''You'd Expect:''' For either Bruce or Clark to realize that something is very wrong and seek help immediately.\ |
| 223 | '''Instead:''' They don't.\ |
| 224 | '''Result:''' Batman's condition continues to worsen, culminating in his meeting with the rest of the Bat-Family at the apogee of his infection. He tells them about the toxin's effects on him and admits that he didn't call them over to help him, but to ensure that no one finds out about his condition.\ |
| 225 | '''You'd Then Expect:''' The Bat-Family to realize that Bruce is a threat and attempt to restrain Batman as quickly as possible, ensuring that he is in a position where they can help him regardless of if he wants it or not.\ |
| 226 | '''Instead:''' They do nothing besides staying where they are.\ |
| 227 | '''Result:''' A completely-Jokerized Batman catches them off-guard with a pair of machine guns, killing them before doing the same to the Justice League and the entire world, completing his transformation into The Batman Who Laughs and turn to evil. |
| 228 | ** As an honorable mention, Superman, initially the sole survivor of a now-insane Batman's Watchtower massacre, confronts Bruce and is poisoned, although there is still an opportunity to stop him.\ |
| 229 | '''You'd Expect:''' Superman to try and blast his former friend with heat vision, disarm him with his super-speed, freeze him with his breath, or really do ''anything'' to stop Bruce.\ |
| 230 | '''Instead:''' He does nothing but try to reason with Batman even though it's already clear he's beyond redemption and just lets him monologue the entire time.\ |
| 231 | '''Result:''' Batman whips out a chunk of Black Kryptonite and tosses it at Clark, causing him to murder Jon and Lois (who were also on the Watchtower at the time) before the Kryptonite kills him afterwards.\ |
| 232 | '''Admittedly:''' Superman was already very weak from the Kryptonite gas Bruce released into the Watchtower before he arrived, as revealed in a flashback in the first issue of ''Batman/Superman''. |
| 233 | ** The standard Batman gets in on the Dark Metal idiocy himself. After finding out that the demon Barbatos is here and a threat to the universe, Bruce decides something must be done.\ |
| 234 | '''You'd Expect:''' He'd contact the Justice Leage, Justice League Dark (the demon killing specialists) and anyone else to stop Barbatos.\ |
| 235 | '''Instead:''' Bruce, who has no powers and is only so-so at occult matters, decides that only he can survive an encounter with Barbatos and will fight him with a magic mace but no special armour. He'll have the other members of the Batfamily to run interference with the other superheroes.\ |
| 236 | '''Result:''' Bruce didn't even go to the right place and ended up getting captured. The superheroes were badly scattered and delayed by the Batfamily actions, this gave Barbatos plenty of time to send in his Dark Knights unopposed. |
| 237 | * ''ComicBook/DCeased'': |
| 238 | ** In the first issue, Cyborg is captured by Darkseid, who attempts to merge the two halves of the Anti-Life Equation together, using Black Racer in an attempt to keep Cyborg long enough for the process to work. The Equation becomes corrupted and infects Darkseid, causing Desaad to realize that he has to get rid of the now-virulent Equation.\ |
| 239 | '''You'd Expect:''' Desaad to use a Boom Tube to teleport Cyborg, who now carries the Equation, to a lifeless planet so that it can't infect any more beings.\ |
| 240 | '''Or:''' Desaad to kill Cyborg to eliminate the risk of the Equation spreading.\ |
| 241 | '''Instead:''' Desaad decides to teleport Cyborg back to Earth.\ |
| 242 | '''The Result:''' Cyborg accidentally spreads the equation through the internet, which kickstarts the plot of the entire event. |
| 243 | ** In the last issue, [[spoiler: Cyborg manages to somewhat subdue the undead Wonder Woman, albeit just barely. After interrogating her (or more accurately, the Anti-Life itself), he has no further use for her and he’s well-aware of how dangerous she is]].\ |
| 244 | '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: Cyborg to always keep an eye on the undead Diana or to ''immediately'' destroy her before she can try any funny business. After all, Wonder Woman is (or rather, was) one of the most powerful heroes on Earth and Victor has worked alongside her for a long time, so he should be well-aware of how dangerous a zombie Wonder Woman can be. Especially considering that at that point, Zombie Diana is only ''partially'' subdued and can still fight her way out]].\ |
| 245 | '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: Despite being smart enough to know that turning your back on an enemy as dangerous as an undead Wonder Woman is a very bad idea, [[IdiotBall Victor does it anyway]]. He decides to turn his back on her for a second and for some reason, automatically assumes that she’s not a threat anymore just because she’s sloppily tied up]].\ |
| 246 | '''The Result:''' [[spoiler: The zombie Diana takes advantage of Cyborg being distracted to decapitate him after quickly freeing herself]]. |
| 247 | * ''ComicBook/DCYearOfTheVillain'': |
| 248 | ** Batman, while trying to stop the Infected from infecting Superman and knowing they need to infect a Kryptonian, gets saved by [[spoiler:Supergirl]] who has no idea what is going on but wants to help.\ |
| 249 | '''You'd Expect:''' Batman to quickly warn [[spoiler:her]] from touching any weird batarangs as they will drive anyone who does mad.\ |
| 250 | '''Instead:''' Batman decides there is no time to explain, leading to [[spoiler:Supergirl]] grabbing a batarang and getting infected, thus giving the Infected exactly what they wanted. |
| 251 | ** In the 4th issue of ''Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen'', Lex manages to gain the upper hand against the Batman Who Laughs by injecting him with a cure to the Dark Multiverse serum he injected into the Secret Six.\ |
| 252 | '''You'd Expect:''' Luthor to kill him right then and there to prevent him from complicating his plans for the Multiverse.\ |
| 253 | '''Instead:''' He brings the twisted Batman to Perpetua ''alive''.\ |
| 254 | '''Result:''' The Batman Who Laughs speaks up and offers to replace Lex as her right-hand man, pointing out to Perpetua that, as a being of the Dark Multiverse, he knows more about the Multiverse than Luthor does, and that Lex is too egotistical and myopic to continue serving her.\ |
| 255 | '''You'd Then Expect:''' Lex to continue to address Perpetua with respect and try to convince her that the Batman Who Laughs is lying to her. After all, he knows better than to provoke an all-powerful goddess.\ |
| 256 | '''Instead:''' He demands that Perpetua kill him and says that "[he'll] speak to [her] any damn way [he pleases]," thus proving Laughs's point.\ |
| 257 | '''Result:''' Perpetua depowers Lex and sends him back to Earth in favor of a begrudging alliance with the Batman Who Laughs. |
| 258 | * ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint|DCComics}}'': All reality has changed, somehow. Now he does not have powers, nobody remembers him being the Flash, and Superman and the JLA do not seem to ever have existed (among other things). At least there is still Batman.\ |
| 259 | '''You'd expect:''' That, understanding that Batman would likely ignore Flash, like everybody else, Barry would try to reach Batman in a tactful way to explain things. Intercept him somewhere, seize a Bat-signal, seek him while in his civilian identity (and find out [[spoiler:that Bruce is dead but Thomas isn't]] in the process), even knocking the door of the Wayne mansion in the open and public side and wait there...\ |
| 260 | '''Instead:''' Barry simply walks into the Batcave, expecting Batman to recognize him. Predictably, he does not: Barry is for him a complete stranger inside the Batcave. He takes him down, hard. |
| 261 | * ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis2004'': |
| 262 | ** Jean Loring, the ex-love interest of Ray Palmer, ComicBook/TheAtom, decides she wants to get back together with him.\ |
| 263 | '''You'd expect:''' Just ask him. He's clearly still carrying a torch for her, and she was the one who broke up their relationship to begin with. He's a decent guy; he's not going to hold a grudge over it.\ |
| 264 | '''Instead:''' She decides to orchestrate a half-successful assassination attempt against Sue Dibny, the ComicBook/ElongatedMan's wife, using Ray's technology, because this will make people think friends and family of heroes are being targeted and maybe make Ray worried about her enough for him to rekindle their relationship. The attempt accidentally turns into a successful attempt, and Sue is killed.\ |
| 265 | '''So then:''' Apparently, Jean realized beforehand that this might kill Sue, so she decided to bring along something to destroy the evidence.\ |
| 266 | '''You'd expect:''' The evidence apparently consists of extremely small indents on the brain (there should be more, but [[ArtisticLicenseMedicine none of the coroners noticed it]]). Bring along a shotgun, or a sledgehammer, or anything else capable of smashing the brain, and not only would that destroy the evidence, but it would be tricky to trace.\ |
| 267 | '''Instead:''' Jean brings along a ''flamethrower''. Not only does this not actually destroy the evidence, but a flamethrower is a hell of a lot more traceable than a sledgehammer. |
| 268 | ** The Justice League are on the scene and looking over the body. They notice it's been burned, first and foremost.\ |
| 269 | '''You'd expect:''' Them to look up fire-based villains. Even assuming they're somehow too dumb to notice the smell of propellant, a burned corpse doesn't leave many alternate options.\ |
| 270 | '''Instead:''' They go looking for Doctor Light, because of a RetCon that he apparently raped Sue and he might want revenge for that or something. Not only is this completely gratuitous for a RedHerring, and not only does this not make sense, since it's a plot point that Light was mindwiped of the knowledge of him doing so, but Doctor Light's lasers shouldn't look anything like the kind of burns Sue had. |
| 271 | ** Doctor Light has realized that the League is hunting him for reasons he shouldn't remember, and so he hires Characters/{{Deathstroke}} to protect himself. The League engages Deathstroke.\ |
| 272 | '''You'd expect:''' Green Lantern to just shove him in a force bubble in the first five seconds, taking him out of the fight. Or Zatanna to say a few words backwards and instantly tie him up or turn him into a squirrel. Or... well, anything other than what they do.\ |
| 273 | '''Instead:''' They all lose their brains, [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forget how their powers work,]] and charge into melee range with a heavily armed master of martial arts with the strength of ten men. Deathstroke manages to knock out about half of them before being subdued by ComicBook/GreenArrow, who remembers he has a bow and can shoot Deathstroke. |
| 274 | ** Loring has gotten back together with Ray Palmer, in the aftermath of all of the above and her own faked murder attempt.\ |
| 275 | '''You'd expect:''' Just call it there. It's already led to multiple deaths, a manhunt, and some horrible stuff happening; quit while you're ahead. Or, if you do want to try another death, hire someone subtle, since neither of the other attempts had an obvious killer, so why would this one?\ |
| 276 | '''Instead:''' She hires Captain Boomerang, who is about as subtle as a flash grenade, to kill Jack Drake - and instead of just telling Boomerang to rough up Drake and let him go, she sends Drake an anonymous tip and a gun to protect himself. This ends in [[MutualKill them both killing each other]], and eventually to Loring accidentally revealing evidence that she couldn't have known about. |
| 277 | * During ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', a superhero named Risk was one of the many fighting Superboy-Prime. In the process, he got his right arm torn off.\ |
| 278 | '''You'd expect:''' Risk to stay far, far away from the guy.\ |
| 279 | '''Instead:''' The next time Prime is on Earth, he jumps out at him again with the apparent intent of punching. He promptly has his ''other'' arm torn off. It was admittedly pretty ballsy, but stupid nonetheless. |
| 280 | * In ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', the U.S. government has noted that Superman is growing somewhat unstable, developing KnightTemplar tendencies, and most importantly interfering in political matters after the trauma of being manipulated into killing his wife and getting Metropolis blown up. He has also revealed his secret ID.\ |
| 281 | '''You'd expect:''' ''IF'' they involve Jonathan and Martha Kent in any way at all, the Feds would visit them and politely ask (not insist, let alone threaten, '''ask''') if they could help talk their boy into toning it down a bit.\ |
| 282 | '''Instead:''' They send commandos and supervillains (in particular the Mirror Master) to the Kent farm to kidnap them, and leave a message [[IHaveYourWife threatening to send pieces of them to Superman if he does not behave]]. Knowing full well that Superman and ThouShaltNotKill are no longer one and the same. |
| 283 | ** Later, Batman merges with ComicBook/{{Etrigan}}, defeats Superman, and puts him to sleep by using some kind of dust (likely magical).\ |
| 284 | '''You'd expect:''' Batman to capture Superman and create a proper prison for him, also possibly taking away his powers.\ |
| 285 | '''Instead:''' ''Batman just goes away.'' And judging that it was a backstory, Superman gets out of the sleep, continuing his reign. |
| 286 | * ''ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh'': The Joker has finally been sent to a real prison, Slabside Penitentiary, nicknamed "The Slab".\ |
| 287 | '''You'd Expect:''' Even though he's serving time in a real prison and not [[BedlamHouse Arkham Asylum]], the staff should still realize the Joker is still volatile and dangerous, and try to avoid doing or saying anything that could provoke him into going into another rampage.\ |
| 288 | '''Instead:''' A doctor tries to put the fear of God into the Joker by [[BullyingADragon bullshitting him into]] [[InducedHypochondria thinking he has cancer]]. To say this was ill-advised (not to mention counterproductive) would be a ''doozy'' of an understatement, as this kicks off the story, and the story is itself ''a freakin' CrisisCrossover'' that resulted in the Joker endangering the entire world and literally moving the Slab to Antarctica. |
| 289 | * ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'': |
| 290 | ** During his time in the JSA, [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] dates ComicBook/{{Stargirl|DCComics}}. Captain Marvel looks like he's in his late twenties, but he's [[YoungerThanTheyLook actually a sixteen-year-old]] named Billy Batson -- "Captain Marvel" is just a magically induced OlderAlterEgo. Stargirl, who is also sixteen, obviously knows about Cap's secret identity, but the rest of the team don't. [[ComicBook/TheFlash Jay Garrick]] eventually confronts Cap about it.\ |
| 291 | '''You'd expect:''' Captain Marvel to say his magic word and reveal his true identity to Jay. Because they're teammates, you know? No harm, no foul. Plus, this is the Justice Society, they're some of the most trustworthy people in the DCU, and serve as [[MoralityPet Morality Pets]] to two generations of heroes.\ |
| 292 | '''Instead:''' Captain Marvel says something vague about appearances being deceiving, then flies away when Jay begs for Cap's confidence. Cap then quits the JSA and breaks up with Stargirl (much to the consternation of the shippers).\ |
| 293 | '''What's worse:''' You just ''know'' that the JSA probably now thinks that Captain Marvel is a perv. So much for the Wisdom of Solomon, eh? |
| 294 | ** ''JSA: Axis of Evil'': Kid Karnevil keeps bragging about how he's going to break out in mere minutes. The only thing keeping him locked up is a jail cell powered by Alan Scott's green flame, which only works as long as Alan is alive. Alan finds a strange wooden crate in a hallway of the temporary JSA headquarters.\ |
| 295 | '''You'd expect:''' Alan to heed Karnevil's warnings, since the kid has already proven to be a resourceful and methodical sociopath with friends on the outside. Alan should find Mr. Terrific or someone else who could analyze the crate (just to be safe), since Alan's green flame doesn't work on wood. Alan could later be of enormous help when/if Karnevil's associates attack the JSA.\ |
| 296 | '''Instead:''' Alan assumes Karnevil is delusional and ignores his warnings. A bomb inside the crate senses Alan's power ring. Alan gets blown up when he steps too close. He succumbs to his injuries, and surprise! Karnevil escapes. |
| 297 | *** Later, Shadow of War starts up the Darkness Engine, powered by Obsidian (who is trapped in egg form). The machine de-powers all meta-humans within its broadcasting radius, but doesn't affect technology. Shadow of War threatens to amp up the power to lethal levels if Mr. Terrific doesn't call off his T-spheres.\ |
| 298 | '''You'd expect:''' Mr. Terrific to break his lethal force rule (due to extraordinary circumstances) and accelerate one of his T-spheres into Shadow--or at the very least, the engine's computer--at 14 miles per second, before she can react. He had bragged about doing so in the previous story, when he battled one of Mordru's illusions. Either way, it would solve the problem, and they might even have a chance to hatch Obsidian from the egg.\ |
| 299 | '''Instead:''' Mr. Terrific does nothing. The JSA surrenders. The Darkness Engine de-powers ALL the supers on Earth. The Fourth Reich [[BadFuture takes over the planet]]. Nearly everyone dies. |
| 300 | *** The Green Lantern Corps sees what happens to Earth. They notice that Hal Jordan died after his ring was de-powered and he fell out of flight. Naturally, the Corps quickly puts a Quul-level quarantine on the planet. Secretly, they plan an invasion to stop ThoseWackyNazis and the Darkness Engine on a day when the subtraction field is dialed back and doesn't cover the whole planet.\ |
| 301 | '''You'd expect:''' The Corps to quietly sneak some GL's (and other resistance) onto unaffected portions of the planet, and start working to destabilize the regime from within. At the very least, they could easily sneak some tech or something onto the planet to help stop the Engine. And further, they should NOT use their rings to fly, just in case the Nazis detect them, because of what happened to Hal Jordan.\ |
| 302 | '''Instead:''' The ''entire Green Lantern Corps'' {{Zerg Rush}}es the planet from space. The Fourth Reich naturally detects this and amps up the Darkness Engine. All the GL's are depowered and drop out of the sky like rocks, and all die upon impact. |
| 303 | * ''[[ComicBook/{{JLA/JSA}} JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice]]''. Captain Marvel is turned back into Billy Batson, freeing him from possession. This happens in front of a lot of people, who are all very experienced superheroes.\ |
| 304 | '''You'd expect:''' Everyone to put two and two together.\ |
| 305 | '''Instead:''' Green Arrow says "Who are you? And where's Captain Marvel?" Really, Ollie? Just... really?\ |
| 306 | '''What's Worse:''' In ''Superman/Batman: Public Enemies'', when Marvel is changed back in mid-fight, Batman's thought box says "He's just a kid. No older than Robin." The goddamn Batman couldn't even figure it out. |
| 307 | * In ''ComicBook/LegionOfThreeWorlds'', Superboy-Prime is fighting the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes in the distant future, only to find that the Legion's greatest enemy, the Time Trapper, is himself, aged centuries and now sporting a cool beard. Upon meeting, the Time Trapper insists that they need to team up to win the fight against the heroes.\ |
| 308 | '''You'd Expect:''' Superboy-Prime to listen and obey, knowing that he had to work alongside his future self and he'd be a good source of advice and knowledge with his enhanced powers and time-altering abilities.\ |
| 309 | '''Instead:''' Superboy-Prime angrily insists that the Time Trapper isn't him and that he "looks stupid." Filled with rage, Prime [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet punches his future self which tears a hole in time-space and sends him flying back to Earth-Prime, powerless and trapped.]] Brainiac 5 even [[LampshadeHanging quips "What an idiot" after seeing it happen.]]\ |
| 310 | '''Also:''' Superboy-Prime's older self should probably have remembered that his younger self was unstable, easily antagonized, and prone to destructive rages. So, barging in there and barking orders makes the older Prime just as much of an idiot.\ |
| 311 | '''At Least:''' Superboy-Prime's consistent. |
| 312 | * Mongul has just defeated Arkillo in a fistfight and now has a good portion of the [[Characters/GLSinestroCorps Sinestro Corps]] under his command.\ |
| 313 | '''You'd expect:''' He would assume that ''maybe'' Sinestro is ProperlyParanoid enough to have a contingency plan for this sort of thing, and take his ring off and order the other Corpsmen loyal to him to do the same, get the Manhunters under his control involved, and stage a coup via sheer numbers.\ |
| 314 | '''Instead:''' He goes at Sinestro solo and tries to kill him. Sinestro states that he has always been prepared for potential coups and has devised failsafes, namely emergency ring control overrides, and takes control of Mongul's ring. After turning him into a pincushion, Sinestro imprisons him within the central power battery. |
| 315 | ** Stupidity runs in the family. In ''ComicBook/UnderworldUnleashed'', the demon Neron has gathered villains from all over and is offering them their heart's desire in exchange for their souls. One of them is Mongul Sr., who had his ass handed to him by pre-FaceHeelTurn ComicBook/GreenLantern Hal Jordan and [[RookieRedRanger Rookie Green Lantern]] Kyle Rayner.\ |
| 316 | '''You'd expect:''' Mongul to take the offer and use it to get back at Kyle and attempt at his dream of rebuilding Warworld. Or, if he doesn't want to sell his soul, just reject the offer and leave it at that. Neron allowed several super villains who refused to deal with him to go without harming them.\ |
| 317 | '''Instead:''' He proudly boasts that he'd do no such thing and ''attacks Neron''. Neron promptly kills him for his stupidity. |
| 318 | * ''ComicBook/TheOzEffect'': Aaz, a member of the family that cared for [[spoiler:Jor-El]] when he arrived on Earth, suffers from this when [[spoiler:Jor-El]] steals food from General Kassim to feed them as thanks for their hospitality.\ |
| 319 | '''You'd Expect''': Him to avoid telling Kassim. After all, his family is starving and Kassim won't notice a small amount of food is missing, right?\ |
| 320 | '''Instead''': [[ViolationOfCommonSense He tells Kassim about what happened]] and Kassim forces the boy to kill his own family. |
| 321 | * ''[[ComicBook/RobinYearOne Robin: Year One]]'': Dick Grayson is trying to prove himself and seems to win Bruce's respect when he busts a pedophilia ring. Then he gets badly beaten while trying to save a man from Two-Face, and Batman fires him for defying orders, even though if Robin had done nothing, Batman wouldn't have had the time to free himself and save Robin. Alfred tells off Bruce for telling an injured boy that and to wait for Dick to recover. Dick becomes depressed and angry about the situation. He and Bruce don't speak for months. As soon as he recovers, Dick runs away from Wayne Manor, leaving a note and burning his utility belt.\ |
| 322 | '''You'd Expect''': Bruce would pull all stops to find his foster son. Dick could be killed or mistreated, which he nearly was as a member of the League of Assassins.\ |
| 323 | '''Instead''': Bruce just assumes that eventually Dick will return or that he'll get a lead at Haley's circus. In Gotham City, with every villain running around.\ |
| 324 | '''The Result''': The League of Assassins recruits Dick, mistaking him for being a homeless orphan. Alfred chides him for his apathy, and for both of them missing Dick returning to leave another note for them. Dick survives because Bruce follows up on the lead. And when Bruce fires Dick again for getting shot, Dick as a young adult severs ties with him for a while. |
| 325 | * ''ComicBook/{{The Sandman|1989}}'': |
| 326 | ** "Preludes and Nocturnes": It is revealed early on that the power source for Dr. Destiny's Materioptikon was Morpheus's dreamstone. Naturally after he escapes from the late Roderick Burgess's son, Alex, Morpheus wants his stuff back, the dreamstone included. Through the Kindly Ones, he learns about Dee's battles against the Justice League and that they had possession of it.\ |
| 327 | '''You'd expect''': Even after the JLA satellite was destroyed, that they'd keep anything they seized in another secure place, maybe even the Batcave.\ |
| 328 | '''Instead''': The Martian Manhunter revealed that after the satellite was destroyed, he stashed a bunch of the League's trophies, the Materioptikon included, in a normal storage unit.\ |
| 329 | '''The Result''': Dee was able to get it back after he escaped from Arkham and uses it, now with more of Morpheus's powers thank to Dee's modifications to the dreamstone, to torture the entire planet, drive people crazy, and bring out their baser selves -- all because J'onn thought a normal storage unit would be a good place to keep the JLA's stuff. |
| 330 | ** "Calliope": Richard Madoc is a young author with a bestseller debut. He's signed a contract to deliver another book on deadline. There's just one problem: he has terrible writer's block. The success has crippled his creativity. This isn’t a unique situation; lots of writers have one-hit wonders that cause pressure for them when they write a sequel.\ |
| 331 | '''You'd Expect''': He would seek out friends, support groups, or even recreational drugs to write his second book or get away from the pressure.\ |
| 332 | '''Instead''': He makes a DealWithTheDevil with an old author to buy a muse that said author captured, Calliope. To get inspiration from Calliope, he rapes her and then sits down in front of a computer when he’s ready to write. Calliope begs for her freedom after he finishes the book on contract, but Richard refuses because he doesn’t want to lose the ideas.\ |
| 333 | '''The Result''': Messing with forces beyond human comprehension eventually means that karma hits Richard years later. Calliope at the beginning of her captivity sent out distress calls, including to her ex Oneiros, aka Morpheus aka Dream. While she and Oneiros didn't part on good terms due to [[spoiler:Oneiros forcing their son Orpheus to stay alive after he's torn apart so that his living head is kept on an island sanctuary, begging for death]], she is desperate. As soon as Morpheus is free from his own predicament and regains his power, he goes to answer her distress call. He then confronts Richard and first politely demands that Richard let her go. Richard refuses, after trying for ImplausibleDeniability, because he says he needs her for the ideas, and the Lord of Dreams gets ''angry''. Morpheus invades his mind with an ideas overload until Richard is forced to agree. Then when Calliope thanks Morpheus and tells him to free Richard; he does and leaves him with the worst writers block possible. Richard suffers this for years while being institutionalized. |
| 334 | ** "Facade": Urania Blackwell is the former superheroine Elemental Girl. She feels she has been BlessedWithSuck in that she is horribly disfigured, her human disguises fall off rather quickly, and her only company is the man who sends her pension checks. Also she can't kill herself because she's {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le. One of these disguises falls off when she's reconnecting with a friend, Della, who turns out to be pregnant and needs advice. Della is kind, if InnocentlyInsensitive. Urania apologizes for her face falling off and runs away, tear-stricken.\ |
| 335 | '''You'd Expect''': The friend to run after her, bring her back, pay the bill, and ask if they can talk in private.\ |
| 336 | '''Instead''': Della stays at the restaurant, watching Urania go.\ |
| 337 | '''The Result''': No one reaches Urania in time as she begs Death, who was attending to a woman in the apartment next to hers, to help her shed her unwanted immortality. |
| 338 | ** "A Game of You": Thessaly is a [[spoiler:demi-mortal woman who has changed her name and identity multiple times over millennia. She is also one of Dream's many exes]]. One night, her neighbor George attacks her and the other residents of the apartment; Thessaly kills George, and then painfully resurrects him to interrogate him. She, Hazel, Foxglove and Wanda learn that the main target was their neighbor Barbie, a recent divorcee. Barbie is in an enchanted sleep, due to some unfinished business with her dream world The Land. George tells them his boss is the Cuckoo, a mysterious malevolent force who only exists in the Dream realm. That is, a realm ruled by one of the most arbitrary Endless. Thessaly wants to kill the Cuckoo not because she particularly cares about Barbie, but rather because the Cuckoo tried to kill her and thus ItsPersonal.\ |
| 339 | '''You'd expect''': Thessaly would swallow her pride, summon Dream or signal to him, and explain the situation. It's a very unusual situation that Barbie was forced out of her dream land, and she may need help. She and Dream can argue if she has the right to pursue and kill the Cuckoo but at least he won't have the means to harm her. Also, she has no idea what this creature is.\ |
| 340 | '''Instead''': Thessaly summons the Moon Path, which is forbidden, to go into Dreaming without telling Morpheus. The women she summon expressly warn her about this, since Dream is a stickler for the rules. Then she has the gall to demand Dream of the right to kill the Cuckoo when Dream appears to end the Land. And as part of the process, she reveals that Hazel is pregnant, which angers Hazel's girlfriend Foxglove since obviously the baby isn't hers and it's a new expense and life experience.\ |
| 341 | '''The Result''': [[spoiler:The Cuckoo manages to incapacitate Thessaly by tricking her into thinking someone else is the Cuckoo and then putting her and her friends into a trance. When Thessaly tries to make demands of Dream, he points out that she and the others entered his realm without permission and prepares to leave them on a barren patch of sand, as a CruelMercy. Barbie, who is granted a boon by Dream, uses it to save her and her friends so that they can return to real life.]] Meanwhile, Thessaly’s meddling causes a hurricane in New York, which kills [[spoiler:Wanda and Maizie, a homeless woman who protects Barbie’s body when the hurricane levels their apartment building.]] Thessaly goes NeverMyFault while Barbie grieves [[spoiler:for Wanda and for her secret land that has been destroyed]]. |
| 342 | ** In the past, Dream and Calliope's son Orpheus is overcome with grief when his wife Eurydice dies shortly after they're married. He tries to beg Dream for help, but Oneiros as he is known brusquely tells his son that rather than try to revive the dead, to seize the day and live his life. Dream isn't wrong because there are consequences to undoing the laws of the universe, but it's the exact sort of unwanted advice that drives Orpheus to beg his aunts and uncles for help. He knows they are gods, and attempts ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections.\ |
| 343 | '''You'd Expect''': Death and Destruction would counsel Orpheus more gently than his father did; death is something that happens, and it's best to leave things be after grieving for a healthy amount of time. If he wants to spend time with them, or perhaps talk to the shade of his wife, maybe that would be healthier. What happened was awful, but fighting fate when you're a Greek demi-god is a bad idea. Trying to undo the unnatural order of things can have consequences down the road. Destruction knows that, given that he quits the position much later.\ |
| 344 | '''Instead''': Death decides to be a CoolAunt and not only give Orpheus immortality, but also grant him access to the Underworld to reason with Hades and bargain to bring his wife back.\ |
| 345 | '''Predictably''': When Orpheus fails to live up to the condition of walking to the outer world and never looking back, he despairs. Orpheus throws his life away, or at least his body, by singing sad songs and letting the Maenads tear him apart. He spends centuries as a living severed head first barely surviving the French Revolution and living on a remote Greek island with priests who attend him. None of the Endless can kill him without invoking the wrath of the Kindly Ones. By the end of it, Orpheus no longer mourns Eurydice but wishes to die so he can move on the way a normal human should. |
| 346 | ** Speaking of the French Revolution, Dream commissions Johanna Constantine to rescue his son's head. She's reluctant, but he promises her a high price. Johanna survives because Orpheus sings a song that drives all of their pursuers to despair.\ |
| 347 | '''You'd Expect''': At some point Dream would try to find a way to restore his son's body before removing his immortality, so that Orpheus will die of natural causes. That avoids [[spoiler:the wrath of the KindlyOnes]] and gives Orpheus what he wants: a natural death.\ |
| 348 | '''Alternatively''': Dream would put Orpheus in a dream where he would be with Eurydice's ghost, and bend the rules the way Brute and Glob placed Hector and Lyta Hall together. It wouldn't be real, but it would be close enough to give his son paradise. Orpheus grew up in the Dreaming, as a matter of fact.\ |
| 349 | '''Instead''': Dream never tries either of these options and expects Orpheus to enjoy immortality as a severed head.\ |
| 350 | '''The Result''': When Orpheus [[spoiler:begs for death in exchange for revealing Destruction's location, Dream has no choice but to comply. That means the Kindly Ones murder him eventually and wreak havoc on the Dreaming.]] |
| 351 | * ''ComicBook/ScoobyApocalypse'': So SA Scrappy is dying thanks to some implants malfunctioning. The ''only'' person who knows how to help that's unmutated is Velma Dinkley, whom he is searching for.\ |
| 352 | '''You'd Expect:''' Since, you know, his life depends on this, when he finds her, he'll swallow his pride and be courteous towards her and her friends. She ''does'' hold his life in her hands, after all.\ |
| 353 | '''You'd Also Expect:''' When he finds them, he'd get to the goshdarn point what he needs from them right off the bat. As well as putting his grudge with Scooby aside for the moment; there's no way that a grudge has higher priority than survival.\ |
| 354 | '''Instead:''' He attacks the group she's in, screams at her, insults her friends, all because he can't get over Scooby being more mentally stable than he is, and ''still'' has the nerve to demand she saves his life...well after the previous mentioned actions.\ |
| 355 | '''As A Result:''' He makes an arse of himself, causing Velma and Daphne to flee (into a group of monsters, which, had Daphne not been so proficient with her gun, would have killed them both and destroyed any chance of accomplishing Scrappy's main goal of extending his lifespan) and causing a fight to erupt, resulting in SA Scrappy retreating, and then, ''only then'', mentioning he needs Velma to fix his malfunctioning implants. By then the amalgamind begins attacking and he dies before even getting the chance for Velma to repair him.\ |
| 356 | '''Even Worse:''' Cliffy ''told'' him that this course of action would end badly. Scrappy heard him clearly, but brushed it off for no good reason.\ |
| 357 | '''In Addition:''' All of Scrappy's pack members die as a result of his pointless warmongering. [[NeverMyFault (And SA Scrappy blames it all on a giant monster that had nothing to do with it and didn't even show up after their deaths.)]] |
| 358 | * ''ComicBook/SecretSix''. Yasemin, the woman who filled [[Characters/SuicideSquadOperatives Deadshot]]'s marksman position on the ComicBook/SuicideSquad, is pissed about being told that Deadshot did her job better than her and decides to engage him in a gunfight to prove that she's the better marksman.\ |
| 359 | '''You'd expect:''' Yasemin to be familiar enough with Deadshot's "don't fuck around" approach to combat and lack of patience for trivial matters and plug him the minute she gets the chance.\ |
| 360 | '''Instead:''' Yasemin decides to challenge him to a duel; before she can even finish laying out the terms for the duel, Deadshot shoots her dead and coldly reminds her that she should have taken the first shot she had. |
| 361 | ** Not long after, Dwarfstar has Deathstroke ice Ryan Choi. Of course, he didn't realize that Giganta was his girlfriend; when she finds out, he's savagely beaten and tortured by her and ends up just barely clinging to life in a Louisiana hospital. Then Ray Palmer shows up.\ |
| 362 | '''You'd expect''' that Dwarfstar would have been humbled enough by the experience to keep his mouth shut and not say anything. Not just because his teammate almost killed him, but also because Deathstroke doesn't like having his client list be a matter of public knowledge and reacts poorly whenever someone outs themselves as one of his employers.\ |
| 363 | '''Instead:''' Dwarfstar not only admits to ordering the hit on Choi, but he's also stupid enough to tell Palmer that he hired Deathstroke to carry it out. Palmer even lampshades this by telling him that when Deathstroke finds out, he's going to be ''pissed''. |
| 364 | * One Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}}[=/=]Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}} team-up featured Doctor Light trying to take down Superman with a magic wand, explaining that apparently Characters/{{Zatanna}}'s magic has... something to do with light, nobody's really sure what.\ |
| 365 | '''You'd expect:''' He'd place the wand in his hand, point it at Superman, and kill him with it, since Superman isn't strong against magic. Having done this, he'd then nuke Batman, thereby removing two of the most dangerous ComicBook/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} members.\ |
| 366 | '''Instead:''' He somehow gives Superman a secondary personality who believes that Superman is trying to kill him. This second personality duly hires a group of backstreet assassins to take out Superman with the Satanstaff, which [[PlotHole has somehow found itself at the North Pole]]. When it looks like it's going to work, Light comments that he used this kind of tactic because he personally is incredibly inept and if he tried the "sensible" way of doing it, he'd lose. For additional idiocy, he expected the crooks' Split-Personality hired to hand over the Satanstaff to him, despite having used it to take down both Superman and Batman. |
| 367 | * In the "Absolute Power" arc of ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman'', time-travelling villains [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight manage to replace the origins of Batman and Superman with new ones that turn them into tyrants]]. Eventually their memories are restored and they set out to correct the timeline. However, this involves traveling to the point where Batman's parents were murdered, and letting it happen.\ |
| 368 | '''You'd expect:''' Superman to do this in secret, as quick as possible without Batman's knowledge.\ |
| 369 | '''Instead:''' He goes with Batman, and fully expects him to just stand there and watch as the worst trauma of his life replays in front of him. Naturally, Batman snaps, kills Joe Chill, and saves his parents. This erases Batman from existence entirely and screws up the timeline even worse. [[SarcasmMode Good judgment call there, Clark.]] |
| 370 | * In ''ComicBook/PublicEnemies'', the first storyline of ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman'', [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] announces there is a massive planetoid made of Kryptonite headed towards Earth, and in typical Luthor fashion, he blames Superman.\ |
| 371 | '''You'd Expect:''' The heroes of Earth double-check this, maybe ask Superman, who by this point has spent several years as a selfless hero and member of the Justice League, if any of this is even remotely true, maybe get Wonder Woman to use her Lasso of Truth on him to make sure.\ |
| 372 | '''Instead:''' They instantly believe Luthor, and try to hunt Superman down. |
| 373 | * Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}} has sometimes had encounters with [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorphs]].\ |
| 374 | '''You'd Expect:''' Superman would realize that xenomorphs sit somewhere between a highly destructive invasive species and an intergalactic plague of incurably lethal proportions and would use his NighInvulnerability, SuperStrength and EyeBeams to destroy them wherever he finds them \ |
| 375 | '''Instead:''' He averts WhatMeasureIsANonHuman and tries to let them live, fighting non-lethally if he can and even attempting to prevent others from killing them. Admittedly, the first time he meets a xenomorph is canonically soon after his traumatic execution of three criminal Kryptonians from the Phantom Zone, but he never stops trying to find a way to "live and let live" with xenomorphs.] |
| 376 | * ''Comicbook/WonderWoman Volume 3 #40'' sees her attacking Quetzlotl for the crime of eating people. During the fight, as Wonder Woman is wont to do, she snares Quetzlotl in her lasso and he tells her that people are disgusting, that something made him eat them, and he then runs away afraid that whatever it is might come back. As Wonder Woman investigates more strange activities in the city she is suddenly sucker punched by Comicbook/PowerGirl.\ |
| 377 | '''You'd Expect:''' Wonder Woman to realize blindsiding people is highly out of character for Power Girl, that Power Girl has never expressed ''any'' kind of dislike for Wonder Woman before, that she ''just'' dealt with an out of character Quetzlotl and solved the problem with her lasso of truth, and immediately try to lasso Power Girl too.\ |
| 378 | '''Instead:''' Wonder Woman tells Power Girl that she's become "slightly peeved", punches Power Girl back, and asks what her problem is.\ |
| 379 | '''As A Result''': A pissed off Power Girl spews nonsense while beating Wonder Woman [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom right across the border into Canada]]. By the time Wonder Woman remembers "lasso of truth", [[HowMuchMoreCanHeTake in the next issue]], [[WeaponGripFailure it's too late]] and she's {{f|ightingyourfriend}}orced to beat an irrational Power Girl [[IAmNotLeftHanded down]], allowing the mayhem in the city to continue unabaited in the interrim and depriving herself of a capable ally once she can return to focusing on the city's strife.\ |
| 380 | '''Even Worse''': Diana was still feeling guilty about and traumatized by the monster known as Genocide. Among other things, Genocide had the power to turn people into irrational murderers against their will. Even though Genodice was beaten, and thus an unlikely suspect, Diana should have nonetheless been used to it, with the monster's actions so fresh in her memory, with Quetzlotl just confessing innocence within the lasso of truth, and responded appropriately! |
| 381 | [[/folder]] |
| 382 | |
| 383 | [[folder:Other Comics]] |
| 384 | * In ''[[ComicBook/{{Alix}} Alix Senator]]'', Titus' mother, Lidia, has caught [[IncurableCoughOfDeath an unknown disease and is dying]]. Eventually, Titus and his father Alix discover that the disease is related to exposition of {{Orichalcum}} which is [[GreenRocks highly harmful]] in this universe. Worse, some insane cultists want to spread it to the city of Rome through its waterworks. Titus and Alix fought the cultists and succeed in stopping them. Unfortunatly the water has already been contaminated and both Alix and Titus have bathed in the foul water during the battle. Knowing that the water is toxic, Alix orders everyone in Rome to stop bathing and drinking the water for the next few days.\ |
| 385 | '''You'd Expect''': Titus to listen to his father and refrain from touching '''anyone''', as he's been in water himself and will pose a danger to anyone he touches.\ |
| 386 | '''Instead:''' Titus checks on his mother and the first thing he does is hugging her, causing her condition to worsen and then, she dies. |
| 387 | * Halfway through ''Franchise/{{Asterix}} and the Falling Sky'', an alien spacecraft (yes, really) lands in the Gaulish village, incinerating Cacofonix's hut as it does so. Near the end of the story, said aliens have left, and another, friendlier alien wipes the memory of the villagers, who then see Cacofonix's destroyed hut and immediately assume that Fulliautomatix and Unhygenix are the culprits.\ |
| 388 | '''You'd Expect:''' Fulliautomatix and/or Unhygenix to point out that since Cacofonix's singing is so bad that it can literally cause thunderstorms, chances are he unwittingly summoned one, a stray lightning bolt set his hut on fire, and he just doesn't want to admit what happened. Heck, this would also explain the sudden fog that popped up (actually a result of the amnesia ray) moments beforehand.\ |
| 389 | '''Instead:''' They deny responsibility, but in an obviously half-hearted way that fails to convince anyone they're not the culprits. As a result, they both end up gagged and tied to a tree at the end-of-story banquet, a fate usually reserved for Cacofonix himself. |
| 390 | * ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'': |
| 391 | ** The Bone cousins have been separated due to entering a strange valley. Fone Bone and Phoney Bone reunite in the dead of winter, and have sought shelter with the locals. Phoney Bone doesn't like how their hosts, Grandma Ben and her granddaughter Thorn, are all about rules and doing things their way. Fone Bone disagrees, not just because of his crush on Thorn, but also that they can't be picky about where they're staying in the winter, with rat creatures waiting for a chance to eat them.\ |
| 392 | '''You'd Expect''': Phoney Bone to realize his cousin has a point, pragmatically speaking. They need to stay together, since they don't even know where their brother Smiley is.\ |
| 393 | '''Instead''': Phoney Bone walks away after the latest argument. He doesn't even leave a note.\ |
| 394 | '''The Result''': Fone Bone doesn't find his cousin until spring, and strangles him out of AngerBornOfWorry. |
| 395 | ** Phoney Bone reunites with Smiley Bone, who is a bartender at a tavern where Phoney's paper currency is worthless, and you have to trade tangible goods. The owner, Lucius, rips up the money when Phoney uses it to pay for his drink.\ |
| 396 | '''You'd Expect''': Smiley would have warned his brother, or covered his tab.\ |
| 397 | '''Instead''': Smiley doesn't.\ |
| 398 | '''The Result''': Phoney has to wash dishes to WorkOffTheDebt, and he's angry that Smiley didn't tell him that dollars were useless. |
| 399 | ** In the Dragon Slayer volume, Phoney Bone, sets up a scam to exploit the townspeople's paranoia of dragons by claiming to be a Dragon Slayer as the title implies.\ |
| 400 | '''You'd Expect:''' That after the cow race incident, where Phoney nearly tricked everyone into giving up their fortunes if not for Lucius intervening, the townsfolk would actually start thinking and realize that Phoney is full of crap.\ |
| 401 | '''Instead:''' They take him up on his "offer" and pay him riches. Not one of them, save for [[OnlySaneMan Lucius]], bothers to question him even though he doesn't bother even looking for a dragon. Not to mention that just the way he introduced his dragon slaying business should have been enough to alert at least one person.\ |
| 402 | '''The Result:''' Phoney leads the town people off to hunt the completely non-malevolent dragon, (not actually even planning to slay the dragon, only to slip away and return to Boneville.) and the quite malevolent Rat Creatures attack the unguarded village. To be fair, Phoney DID unintentionally save half of the village because he led said half away from the village to hunt the dragon, so it's not as bad as it could've been. |
| 403 | ** After this, the town is angry with Phoney Bone for his deception. They want to lynch him. Thorn steps in and saves Phoney Bone, pointing out that it was the villagers' fault partly since they believed him. As she points out, regardless of how they feel, now is not the time to blame Phoney because they need to regroup and make plans to survive with their home destroyed.\ |
| 404 | '''You'd Expect''': The villagers to realize Thorn has a point, especially when they find out [[spoiler:she's a lost princess and technically has the authority to overrule their angry mob]].\ |
| 405 | '''Instead''': They don't listen. Phoney then learns he's the target for the Rat Creatures because of his star shirt.\ |
| 406 | '''The Result''': Phoney runs away, both because he's scared for his life and because he truly regrets endangering his cousins, and he gets captured, while Thorn is nearly killed trying to protect him. |
| 407 | * ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}}'': |
| 408 | ** At the end of the first arc of ''Badlands'', [[spoiler: after Harry ends up dead, the rest of the survivor group decide to go for his rifle. After Ian manages to find Harry's rifle, he starts taking the Crossed out with single shots.]]\ |
| 409 | '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler:That he would stay the hell away from Harry's dead body, given that he saw him being infected and killed not long ago.]]\ |
| 410 | '''Instead:''' [[spoiler:After replacing the clip, he just continues firing his rifle without moving away from the corpse, and as result when a Crossed shoots Harry's top body half with a shotgun by accident, Ian ends up splashed with his infected blood and decides to blow himself up with a grenade]]. |
| 411 | ** ''Yellow Belly'' has a lot of such examples. |
| 412 | *** When Edmund's hometown ends up invaded in the second issue of ''Yellow Belly'', he is forced to join his bully classmates in defending the gun shop they settled up in.\ |
| 413 | '''You'd Expect:''' That they would at least try and come up with an escape plan in case things go south.\ |
| 414 | '''Instead:''' Hank and his crew all think it will be a good idea to seal inside the store. While they did manage to amass quite a lot of people, none of them have professional combat experience and infection can spread out of control very rapidly. Indeed, the second the Crossed break in, everything that could go wrong ''does'' go wrong.\ |
| 415 | '''You'd Also Expect:''' That at least someone would be watching the windows so that when the threat comes, they will be ready to fight back.\ |
| 416 | '''Instead:''' Everyone is occupied with comforting themselves and each other, and as result completely fail to see a circus truck heading towards the head entrance. Predictably, the vehicle plows through the wall, killing several people on its own and allowing the Crossed to pour in next. As result, Edmund is forced to flee while everyone else ends up dead or infected. |
| 417 | *** During the firefight between the bikers and the Crossed, [[spoiler:Edmund kills Nicole by accident after mistaking her for a Crossed. Just as he is preparing to take his own life, Harold Lorre from ''Psychopath'' appears and talks him out of the suicide. After a small discussion, he tells that Edmund should have sex with Nicole's dead body.]]\ |
| 418 | '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler:That Edmund would at least ask him what would be the point and what could it have with hiding her body. And if not, try to run away.]]\ |
| 419 | '''Instead:''' [[spoiler:He complies and only ''afterwards'' does he question Harold about what does it have with hiding her body. He receives a cryptic response from Harold and is left where he was. Consequently, when he comes back to the biker gang that managed to beat the first wave of Crossed, he breaks down blurts out that he killed and ravished Nicole first to Donna, ''her own sister'', and then to the rest of the '''entire biker army'''. By doing this, Edmund unwillingly causes even more deaths, eventually including his own when the vengeful Donna bashes his head with a rock.]] |
| 420 | *** Related to the above, [[spoiler:Ricky and his gang are about to quarter Edmund with motorcycles when a police patrol shows up.]]\ |
| 421 | '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler:That since one of the Ricky's henchmen told him earlier that almost the entire police force of Lakeside had been slaughtered and/or infected, Ricky himself would take it seriously and rally up the defenses, with or without Edmund back at their side.]]\ |
| 422 | '''Instead:''' [[spoiler:He merely shrugs it off and does not notice the cops being infected until it's too late. Both he and presumably the rest of his gang, sans Donna, are taken by surprise and massively slaughtered (with Ricky himself getting shot in the back of his head), with only Edmund and Donna herself managing to get away.]] |
| 423 | * A two-part ''ComicBook/DarkwingDuck'' comic story in ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'': Gizmoduck is about to go pay a visit to fellow Super Power Union member Mr. Wonderful, but just as he's opening the door, he discovers that Mr. Wonderful is in fact working for F.O.W.L. when he sees him speaking with [[BigBad Steelbeak]] via videophone.\ |
| 424 | '''You'd expect:''' Gizmoduck to get out of there without being noticed and go alert Darkwing to tell him he was right.\ |
| 425 | '''Instead:''' Gizmoduck rushes into the room, preparing to pulverize Mr. Wonderful, who responds to his threat by calling the other members of the Union to come take care of Gizmoduck. |
| 426 | * The ''ComicBook/DoubleDuck'' story "Reboot" has quite a few: |
| 427 | ** The story follows up from "Timecrime", where the leaders of the various criminal organizations the Agency was fighting were captured.\ |
| 428 | '''What You'd Expect:''' Given the defeat of the Agency's main enemies, the backers of the Agency would obviously reduce funds but still make sure to keep the Agency efficient enough to prevent new villains from moving in the power vacuum, and keep the best agents operative in case a new enemy becomes as strong as the old ones.\ |
| 429 | '''Instead:''' The Agency is disbanded, and everyone's fired.\ |
| 430 | '''What's Worse:''' The Organization, the Agency's strongest enemy, is still around, if weakened. |
| 431 | ** The Direction is formed to replace the Agency.\ |
| 432 | '''You'd Expect:''' That the new leader is someone experienced, who'd try and rehire the members of the Agency-especially Kay-K, [[BoxedCrook whose checkered past would give him leverage over her]]. Or, at the very least, for the Direction to act as secret agents.\ |
| 433 | '''Instead:''' Wile-Y, the Direction's chief, is "an arrogant paper-pusher with no field experience", he and his new agents have no idea of what secrecy means and think they can counter spies and international crime with e-mails and online petitions, they're trying to expose the real identities of the Agency's operators because they don't think the secrecy is needed, and have pushed Kay back to crime.\ |
| 434 | '''What's Worse:''' The ''one'' Agency member they did rehire is the former director Head-H, who betrayed the Agency to remain a spy-and could betray them too, as he despises their methods and wants to stay in charge. |
| 435 | ** As said above, the Direction is trying to expose the identities of the Agency's operators.\ |
| 436 | '''You'd Expect:''' They would leak them to the news or expose them on a website.\ |
| 437 | '''Instead:''' They send gophers to contact the Agency's operators and have them acknowledge they're secret agents before releasing their dossiers to the public. The title character (alias WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck) has of course no trouble convincing the gopher at his home they got the wrong guy.\ |
| 438 | '''What's Worse:''' As the Direction has no idea of what secrecy means, the gopher sent to expose Double Duck knows sensitive information that our protagonist gets out of him with ease.\ |
| 439 | '''At Least:''' That information allow Double Duck to intercept a train filled with illegal advanced munitions. |
| 440 | * In ''ComicBook/DramaRainaTelgemeier'', West and Bonnie are dating while playing the leads in the school play. They get into a fight when West finds out that Bonnie asked her tutor Jesse to cheat for her on a physics test. He gets mad, and thanks Jesse for telling him after night three and Bonnie already caused trouble by showing NoSympathy for West injuring his ankle onstage.\ |
| 441 | '''You'd Expect''': West would wait until after the last performance to break up with Bonnie. He knows that she is a DramaQueen, and it's also a basic courtesy to your partner to prevent HostilityOnTheSet in-universe.\ |
| 442 | '''Instead''': He goes to confront her about fifteen minutes before curtain while the stage crew is cleaning up a spill onstage. Then he breaks up with her, right as they need to go on and perform as a couple in the wartorn South.\ |
| 443 | '''Predictably''': Bonnie despite being an AlphaBitch and going NeverMyFault about everything is appropriately saddened and heartbroken. She makes it through Act One and then locks herself up in the closet during intermission, refusing to come out for Act Two. Her alternate also is a no-show despite the choir director calling repeatedly. Jesse steps in to fill in and save the show, but it's a close call. Everyone also (rightly) yells at Bonnie for her selfishness and drama at the wrap party, including the teachers but West is let off the hook for causing the trouble in the first place. |
| 444 | * ''[[Creator/ECComics The Haunt of Fear]]''# 9 has these two cases of terminal stupidity: |
| 445 | ** The story ''The Gorilla's Paw'' has a hoodlum tricked into buying a primate hand like the [[Literature/TheMonkeysPaw original story]], but with a twist. The paw physically carries out it's master's wishes,[[LiteralGenie in the most literal way possible]], usually at the cost of someone's life. When he wishes he had his money back, the paw murders the guy who sold it to him and brings back his fare. When he gets mugged for his watch, it kills the mugger to get his watch back. When he sarcastically wishes his BigEater friend "didn't have a stomach"....well, you get the idea.\ |
| 446 | '''You'd Expect''': That the guy would keep his mouth shut, stop saying "wish" or better yet, lock the paw away or just destroy it.\ |
| 447 | '''Instead''': He calls up his friend and the friend advises him just to wish for money(as if ''that'' worked out before) and the guy says back i quote, "I wish I had your brains!". [[CruelAndUnusualDeath It doesn't end well for either of them.]] |
| 448 | ** ''Forbidden Fruit'' follows a businessman and his secretary washed ashore a tropical island from a plane crash. After getting to know the place(which doesn't seem to have any edible plants or animals) the couple spot a strange figure in the jungle. They follow him to a fenced off stockade surrounding a tree full of strange exotic fruit. The voice of the stranger calls out to them from behind the fence to not eat the fruit as he too ate it upon washing up here, and soon discovered [[BodyHorror his body was being consumed]] [[FesteringFungus by a mysterious mold-like substance carried by the fruit.]] Months later, he is barely recognizable as human, and implores them to take their raft and search for another island.\ |
| 449 | '''You'd Expect''': The couple would ask the stranger to reveal himself and prove he's not lying to take food. Even if he's a gruesome sight, it'd still be better than eating potentially biohazardous fruit.\ |
| 450 | '''Instead''': The man assumes the stranger is lying without getting a good look at the guy, and they plan to break into the stockade that night. When they start chowing down on the fruit, the stranger runs at them in a panic and the businessman shoots his decayed,festering form dead, and only ''then'' [[OhCrap do they start to realize he may have had a point about the fruit they just ate.]] Even worse, it apparently didn't occur to the infected man that he should reveal himself the moment they found him, which would've saved a lot of trouble. |
| 451 | * In issues #29-30 of ''ComicBook/InvaderZimOni'', Dib is roped into [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext a secret society of soda-powered wizards]]. He's tasked with retrieving a bottle of Darkpoop Cola to prepare for the final battle with Poopthulu. Zim has bought all the Darkpoop bottles in town to clean his spaceship, so his base is the only place Dib can find said Darkpoop.\ |
| 452 | '''You'd Expect''': For Dib to just bust into Zim's base and take as much Darkpoop as he can carry. After all, he did infiltrate Zim's base several times before, what's stopping him from doing it again?\ |
| 453 | '''Instead''': Dib tries to ''bargain'' with Zim. '''''ZIM''''', Dib's [[ArchEnemy mortal enemy]] [[TakeOverTheWorld who tried to take over the Earth dozens of times over]].\ |
| 454 | '''The Result''': [[HilarityEnsues Things go exactly how you'd expect]]. Zim forces Dib to do several tedious and humiliating tasks while the wizards are stuck fighting Poopthulu without the Darkpoop. By the time Zim gives up a bottle, the battle was already won and [[WhatTheHellHero Dib is chewed out for taking so long]]. |
| 455 | * ''Comicbook/KickAss'': |
| 456 | ** Dave Lizewski wants to become a real-life superhero. After a few weeks spent walking on walls and wearing his costume under his clothes, he decides he wants to start fighting crime for real. His first attempt to do so ends [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome as well as you might expect]] with him getting beaten up by a trio of vandals, stabbed, and finally getting hit by a car. Ultimately he manages to survive and recover from all of this, and although he tries to give up the superhero lifestyle, he soon gets drawn back into it.\ |
| 457 | '''You'd Expect:''' That if Dave was insistent about being a superhero, he'd try and take some martial arts/self-defense classes, or do something to give himself more chance in a fight, as soon as reasonably possible.\ |
| 458 | '''Instead:''' He does absolutely nothing of the sort until the next series. |
| 459 | ** The Motherfucker wants revenge on Dave because of the latter's role in [[spoiler: the death of his father]]. He decides to go after the people Dave cares about.\ |
| 460 | '''You'd Expect:''' The Motherfucker to try and limit his victims to those connected to Dave, and not cause unnecessary bloodshed.\ |
| 461 | '''Instead:''' While going to attack Dave's crush, he and his supervillain friends massacre an entire suburb, respectively killing and injuring about 30 and 100 innocent people, including children. This results in the Motherfucker's friend [[CorruptCop Vic Gigante]] withdrawing police protection from The Motherfucker. And then, he decides to start another massacre in Times Square, seemingly for no other reason than it [[RuleOfCool sounding cool]]. Ultimately, this course of action leads to his downfall, and his actions turn him, and his secret identity, into figures of public hate. |
| 462 | ** Pointed out by Kick-Ass in Volume 2, [[spoiler:after he & Hit-Girl find out that the Mother Fucker's plan is to burn New York to the ground - Chris is asthmatic, so ''what's he going to do when he blows up all of the pharmacies & hospitals, and he needs his medication?'']] |
| 463 | * In one ''ComicBook/KidGravity'' story, the titular character creates a machine that prints out his homework in record time, like one essay.\ |
| 464 | '''You'd Expect:''' He'd check over the paper for anything wrong.\ |
| 465 | '''Instead:''' He doesn't.\ |
| 466 | '''Consequently:''' He gets an F because his machine credited the work to itself. |
| 467 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Lefranc}}'', Guy Lefranc is tasked to infiltrate the Nazi remnant and steal their flying saucer. There's another spy helping him, a Russian agent since its [[EnemyMine a joint Western-Soviet operation]]. Along the way Lefranc runs into his eternal nemesis, Axel Borg, who's after the Nazi's treasure. Unfortunately for Borg, his covers is blown and he is captured.\ |
| 468 | '''You'd expect:''' Lefranc to let him rot and continue the mission. Borg is a dangerous war criminal (think of him as [[ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer Olrik]], but ''FAR'' more competent and successful) and has taken the lives of many.\ |
| 469 | '''Instead:''' After succesfully destroying the Nazi base and capturing a flying saucer, [[HonorBeforeReason Lefranc insists on saving Borg before leaving.]] Naturally Borg betrays Lefranc and left him to die in the collapsing base. Lefranc makes it out alive on his own, since he's the main character of the series. As for Borg and the spy, their flying saucer crashed somewhere in a jungle. [[JokerImmunity Only Borg is seen walking out of the wreckage]], the spy's fate is unknown.\ |
| 470 | '''What's Worse:''' The Russian spy confied to Lefranc that she wanted to defect to the West. |
| 471 | * ''Comicbook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'', Chapter 5 "The Laird of Castle [=McDuck=]:" Scrooge is called home to help his family protect their ancestral castle from their rivals, the Whiskervilles. He arrives just as his FieryRedhead sister Hortense is singlehandedly sending the would-be intruders running for their lives.\ |
| 472 | '''You'd Expect:''' ...well, ''anything'' except what unfolds here.\ |
| 473 | '''Which is:''' Scrooge's father instructing his uncle to take "the women" -- including Hortense! -- home while he and Scrooge handle things. The Whiskervilles even make sure upon their return (when they nearly kill Scrooge) that the coast is clear because she's gone! [[StayInTheKitchen Stupid stupid chivalry]]! |
| 474 | * The origin story of [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] hero 711 is a doozy: |
| 475 | ** It all begins with InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals Daniel Dyce, an attorney, and Jacob Horn, a career criminal about to serve a life sentence. Jacob is upset that he'll miss his first kid's birth, so he asks Daniel to [[TwinSwitch temporarily switch places with him]] so he can be with his wife. He'll relieve Daniel after the birth. Daniel agrees to the plan, flawed as it maybe, but Jacob is later killed in an accident on the way to the hospital. The newspaper article reporting the accident identifies ''Jacob Horn'' as the dead man.\ |
| 476 | '''You'd Expect:''' Prison officials would realize the "Jacob Horn" they have isn't him and release him. Or, Daniel would realize he no longer needs to keep up the ruse and comes clean.\ |
| 477 | '''Instead:''' Nobody comes to either conclusion and Daniel concludes he's stuck in prison for life. Even though the man he's meant to be impersonating is dead. Eventually, Daniel digs a tunnel out of prison.\ |
| 478 | '''You'd Expect:''' Daniel: "Free at last! Now, to live my life!"\ |
| 479 | '''Instead:''' Daniel: "But I'm forgotten by now! [...] My place is back behind these walls." Daniel, however, takes on the superhero persona of 711, escaping prison by night to fight crime and returning dutifully to his cell in the morning. |
| 480 | ** 711's most famous foe, Brickbat, isn't the brightest bulb either. In his issue, Brickbat gets a scientist to make him poison gas bricks, then [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he decides to kill him]].\ |
| 481 | '''You'd Expect:''' Before he does so, Brickbat would extort the scientist's formula for the bricks. Because, sooner or later, Brickbat will run out.\ |
| 482 | '''Instead:''' He doesn't and when he kills the scientist, the formula dies with him. This bites him when 711 confronts him in a warehouse. Brickbat starts tossing bricks, but 711 dodges them all.\ |
| 483 | '''You'd Expect:''' Before Brickbat runs out of bricks, he'd stop and ponder why he keeps missing. He'd find 711 ''standing in front of a window''.\ |
| 484 | '''Instead''': He fruitlessly empties his arsenal on 711, who calls him out on his stupidity: "Yes, Dope! Why do you think I made it my business to get in front of a window!"\ |
| 485 | '''You'd Expect:''' Brickbat would have an alternate plan of attack should his bricks fail.\ |
| 486 | '''Instead:''' Apparently, he doesn't, and 711 knocks him out with a single punch. |
| 487 | * ''ComicBook/MightyMorphinPowerRangersShatteredGrid'': Issue #30. Rita [[ChekhovsGun uses the Green Candle]] on Drakkon and has him on the ropes. With her gloating, she prepares to strike him down and end his threat once and for all.\ |
| 488 | '''You'd Expect:''' Rita to do so. He has murdered Rangers, ravaged time and space and is a threat to all of existence as a whole. He needs to be put down.\ |
| 489 | '''Instead:''' [[spoiler:Zordon and Cruger, despite knowing his threat level, pulls the ThouShaltNotKill card on Rita, allowing Finster-5 to sneak in and take everyone out.]] |
| 490 | * ''Magazine/{{Refractions}}'': While not being canonical after all, the entire premise of ''Exo-Genesis'', and by default, had the whole story had being considered as an officially sanctionated story by Gallacci, of the whole comic, would had fallen in this territory if Komatsu, a very intelligent man who had considered every single detail of the whole project in advance, hadn't forgotten a very simple detail on his plans:\ |
| 491 | '''You'd Expect:''' Komatsu, had taken into account that [[spoiler:violence is a natural attribute of living beings, and that it cannot be altered by artificial means, he would have looked for ways that this attribute would not alter his plans, and that his creations , especially the Lepines, became too violent, which would have caused none of the comic events to happen, or to happen differently]].\ |
| 492 | '''Instead''': He forgot to even considerating that point, and when he already found out the biggest flaw in the project, it was too late to reverse course.\ |
| 493 | '''What Ends Up Happening:''': All the events from the novella ''and'' the comic, by default. |
| 494 | * ''ComicBook/TheSnowCatPrince'': |
| 495 | ** Syv has just been told that everything he thought about his culture and history was a lie, and he's on the brink of a HeroicBSOD. The fox who's telling him this knows that the survival of all foxkind hinges on Syv accepting this information.\ |
| 496 | '''You'd Expect:''' That the fox would not do anything to make himself look untrustworthy. He has literally said nothing but the unvarnished truth, which he can easily prove if need be, and Syv has come closer to accepting it than any snow cat ever has. He just needs to give the kid some time to process everything.\ |
| 497 | '''Instead:''' He then shows Syv that his OnlyFriend, whose welfare Syv is clearly concerned about, has actually been lying to him since the minute they met. Horrified, Syv breaks and runs out of the room...right into the BigBad's lair. |
| 498 | ** All the foxes' magic stems from a mystical TreeOfLife that the villain has taken over and corrupted for his own purposes. Everyone who has gone to the tree since has been transformed into a murderous demon- usually against their will.\ |
| 499 | '''You'd Expect:''' That the foxes would place some guards near the tree, to warn away anyone getting near it. Yeah, the corruption might twist the guards then, but the foxes still live in a city built '''all around''' the corruption's source. They're clearly not that worried about proximity to it.\ |
| 500 | '''Instead:''' They just leave it alone, so any [[LeeroyJenkins would-be hero]] or traitor greedy for power can walk in as they please. And now the villain has a constant supply of minions he can puppet. |
| 501 | * In ''ComicBook/TalesOfTheJedi'', Master Vodo-Siosk Baas has a highly talented student named Exar Kun who is also flagrantly [[FantasticRacism bigoted against non-humans]], humiliates his fellow students in sparring sessions, and keeps looking for knowledge about the Sith.\ |
| 502 | '''You'd Expect:''' Vodo to check these tendencies as soon as he saw them and perhaps get some help from other Masters.\ |
| 503 | '''Instead:''' Vodo worries, but waits until Exar ''really'' crosses the line before trying to teach him a lesson (which doesn't work, because Exar has surpassed him in dueling skill). Exar Kun soon takes a short hop over to the dark side and starts an interstellar conquest. Characters elsewhere in the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' canon have used Vodo as a prime example of Jedi misjudgment. |
| 504 | * In the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' story ''[[Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus The Blue Lotus]]'', the son of the Chinese resistance movement's leader is discovered to have been poisoned with Rajaijah Juice, a potent hallucinogenic which induces a permanent state of madness.\ |
| 505 | '''You'd Expect:''' That he'd be confined to his bedroom, possibly tied to his bed and sedated, and ''definitely'' not allowed access to anything he might use to hurt himself or others.\ |
| 506 | '''Instead:''' He's allowed to wander around the house, unsupervised, and ''carrying a huge scimitar''. This results in him nearly killing Tintin when he wakes up at the house, and then almost doing the same to Snowy when his father fails to take the hint the first time around. |
| 507 | * ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': |
| 508 | ** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMegaseries'': During a spotlight tie-in Ramjet attempts a coup on Megatron, and spends his time building resources and making plans to overthrow him. Being both a threat to his authority and ultra-secret infiltration plans (which make the Decepticons almost invisible to the humans), Megatron kills him and ends the rebellion easily.\ |
| 509 | '''You'd Expect:''' Megatron to just recycle or destroy the body, and take it back to base like what he did when he crushed Starscream's insurrection.\ |
| 510 | '''Instead:''' He dismembers Ramjet and dumps his remains in the different areas of earth that Ramjet was manipulating. Giant robot parts are now in very public places exposing the Decepticon activity to the public. Years later the government reverse engineered Ramjet and mass produced drones based on his design. |
| 511 | ** ''ComicBook/TheBeastWithin'': |
| 512 | *** The Decepticon Combiners get this hard after Predaking is horribly murdered.\ |
| 513 | '''You'd Expect''': The other Combiner teams hightail it out of there with everyone else after witnessing The Beast effortlessly murder Predaking.\ |
| 514 | '''Instead''': They attack The Beast and are promptly killed. |
| 515 | *** Their battle strategy also counts.\ |
| 516 | '''You'd Expect:''' Devastator, Menasor and Bruticus team up, using their respective strengths to cover their weaknesses and fight The Beast with strategy to take advantage of its only real weakness; the fact that it's utterly mindless.\ |
| 517 | '''Instead''': They charge it without a plan and it ends horribly. |
| 518 | *** Even the other Decepticons get in on this.\ |
| 519 | '''You'd Expect''': After witnessing Predaking be utterly annihilated, Megatron orders an immediate full retreat to let the Autobots deal with the The Beast.\ |
| 520 | '''Instead''': The Seekers and Laserbeak attack the monster and are promptly killed, and Megatron doesn't order a retreat until after all four Combiners are killed, effectively eradicating what can be described as his trump cards. |
| 521 | * ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'': |
| 522 | ** At one point, Rorschach gets framed for murder, and ends up trapped in a building surrounded by the NYPD. Before storming in, the cops demand that he send out any hostages he's taken.\ |
| 523 | '''You'd Expect:''' Rorschach to discard his mask, trenchcoat and hat, either hide them or burn them, and leave the building while posing as a released hostage. You wouldn't think he'd have a problem with dropping his disguise, given that he's been [[spoiler:masquerading as a doomsday sign carrier]] throughout the story.\ |
| 524 | '''Instead:''' He tries and fails to fight his way out, gets himself arrested, and is shut up with several criminals he's put in jail, all of whom want to kill him. |
| 525 | ** The [[ShowWithinAShow in-universe comic book]] ''Tales of the Black Freighter'' features the captain of a destroyed ship making a raft out of tree trunks and the corpses of his crew so that he can travel back to his hometown of Davidstown and warn them of an imminent attack by the titular pirate vessel.\ |
| 526 | '''You'd Expect:''' That on his return to Davidstown, the captain would check whether or not the place actually had been sacked or taken over by the Black Freighter before doing anything drastic. After all, the pirates might have been delayed by weather issues, battles with other ships, or even changed their minds about attacking Davidstown during the captain's journey.\ |
| 527 | '''Instead:''' The captain automatically assumes that the town has been taken by the pirates, despite seeing no evidence of this. This leads to him murdering a moneylender and his girlfriend after mistaking them for collaborators, mistaking a scarecrow for a pirate guard, and almost beating his wife to death in front of his kids after sneaking into his old home to kill the pirates he thought were sleeping there. Granted, he's become unhinged from his recent travels, but still.\ |
| 528 | '''Result:''' The captain gets chased out of Davidstown by a lynch mob, and has little choice other than joining the Black Freighter's crew. |
| 529 | * ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'' is another tale that starts out with a screwup. Two months after [[{{Gendercide}} everything on the planet with a Y chromosome drops dead out of the blue]], the son of one of the surviving congress critters shows up at the White House.\ |
| 530 | '''You'd expect:''' The U.S. government would promptly haul Mr. Brown to the most secure place they can reach and gather whatever security/military/police people to track down the following in this order of priority: A) a competent and functioning shrink; B) whatever salvageable sperm-bank equipment that can be found, along with a reliable power source; C) any medical/biotech experts that are remotely qualified to figure out why this boy is still alive and how to duplicate it/him; and D) the guy's girlfriend, last seen in the Australian Outback.\ |
| 531 | '''Instead:''' They send the guy, escorted by '''''one''''' [[ActionGirl secret agent sort]], to a cloning expert that was last seen in Boston before everything went to heck. Supposedly they were convinced by his arguments concerning being too easy to locate if he were in one spot, even the mother who was probably aware he was pretty hung up on this Beth person. |
| 532 | * In ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'': |
| 533 | ** When Blake and Mortimer got wind of a terrorist group operating in Antartica, they go on a mission to stop them.\ |
| 534 | '''You'd Expect:''' Blake is the leader of the MI-5. He will gather a team of agents, all veterans who knows about the terrain and know how to deal with terrorists.\ |
| 535 | '''Instead:''' Blake only leave with Mortimer, Nasir and himself. Mortimer is a scientist and has little combat experience. |
| 536 | ** Professor Scaramian has an alien dubbed "Moloch" trapped inside a sphere of glass strong enough to withstand an artillery shell. The prisoner turns out to be much stronger and makes a crack on the sphere with his fists.\ |
| 537 | '''You'd Expect:''' Professor Scaramian is a scientist and he'll order his men to put Moloch in a much stronger prison.\ |
| 538 | '''Instead:''' No, he let Moloch stay inside the same prison. It's no surprise when he completely destroy the sphere and make his escape. |
| 539 | * In ''ComicBook/TheScrameustache'': |
| 540 | ** Professor Najboul has created the Scramesutache through genetic engineering, despite the Academy of Science's skepticism.\ |
| 541 | '''You'd Expect:''' Professor Najboul will swallow his pride about his discovery and not reveal it to anyone. Najboul has a rival named [[SmugSnake Trichtol]] who is in a better position of authority than himself.\ |
| 542 | '''Instead:''' Professor Najboul calls Trichtol to brag about it so he can rub it to his nose.\ |
| 543 | '''Result:''' Trichtol is jealous and uses his position at the Academy to call the authorities and have Najboul arrested for illegal experiments. He also falsely says that the Scrameustache is dangerous and must be gunned down.\ |
| 544 | '''Worse:''' Styxes, unscrupulous aliens, eavesdropped on the conversation and seek to kidnap the Scrameustache for themselves. |
| 545 | ** Yamouth, goes on a rescue mission to find his missing nephew stranded on Earth.\ |
| 546 | '''You'd Expect:''' Yamouth is an experienced astronaut. He will gather a huge flight of ships with full compliment of search parties. Since Aktarka has advanced technologies including cloaking devices, there's worry of being detected by local Earthlings.\ |
| 547 | '''Instead:''' He takes ''only one ship'' and the Scrameustache is the only crewmate, who hasn't even graduated from Space Academy.\ |
| 548 | '''Result:''' Once on the scene, an earthquake cause a wall to collapse on Yamouth's head. Scrameustache has no other choice but to abort the mission and bring an injured Yamouth back to Aktarka. By the time, other rescue ships arrive on the scene, his nephew was already gone. |
| 549 | ** The people of Sharbakan have endured waves of invasion by their neighbors, [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent the Togons]]. One day, a scientist created [[DoomsdayDevice the Emitter]] to repel the Togons for good (its waves destroy the Togons' cellular structure). The King of Sharbakan declares a new era of peace for his people.\ |
| 550 | '''You'd Expect:''' The Sharbakan will still keep an army or reduce its size. They will also keep a constant vigil over the Togons' movements. The Togons might stay on their territory, but that doesn't mean they have givin up their plans of invasion.\ |
| 551 | '''Instead:''' The King orders the Sharbakan's army disbanded along with all their military hardwares.\ |
| 552 | '''Result:''' It only took a traitorous nephew of the King to inform the enemy of this valuable intel. [[CurbStompBattle The Togons invaded with a surprise attack and prevented the Sharbakan from activating the Emitter.]] |
| 553 | ** One scientist of Atlantis wanted to prove its superiority and increase their prestige over their rival, Heva.\ |
| 554 | '''You'd Expect:''' Do something spectacular, but ''something safe''.\ |
| 555 | '''Instead:''' He used [[MineralMacGuffin the Crystal of Atlantis]] to alter Lunica's orbit, Earth's second moon, into a perfect ellipse.\ |
| 556 | '''Result:''' Years later, this proved to be extremely bad mistake: [[DetonationMoon an asteroid was on a collision course with Lunica.]] With no time to alter Lunica to a new orbit, all Atlantis could do was evacuate the planet or build sanctuaries as not everyone could be saved. [[ApocalypseHow Lunica was destroyed and millions of debris fell into Earth, creating massive tsunamis that wiped out all life on the planet]].\ |
| 557 | '''Worse''' The Crystal remained intact underwater and [[WhenThePlanetsAlign would cause more catastrophes in Earth's modern era]]. |
| 558 | * In ''ComicBook/TheRedTen'': |
| 559 | ** Master Mage finds his staff and notices it is heavier than usual. He knows perfectly well that [[spoiler: [[BlackMagic his magic]] comes from {{human sacrifice}}]].\ |
| 560 | '''You'd Expect''': He would be immediately suspicious and avoid using the staff.\ |
| 561 | '''Instead''': Master Mage brushes it off and uses the staff later on.\ |
| 562 | '''The Result''': [[spoiler: Because his staff has been tampered with, his spell doesn't work. Instead, he is DraggedOffToHell to presumably suffer FateWorseThanDeath]]. |
| 563 | * ''ComicBook/TheSculptor'': David Smith is a poor artist who needs money to pay his rent ASAP. He gains the supernatural power to transform any material into whatever sculpture he imagines.\ |
| 564 | '''You’d Expect''': David to pay off his expenses quickly, particularly with small commissions he can make quickly with his new magic.\ |
| 565 | '''Instead''': David insists on building massive elaborate sculptures well outside of the affordability of the average person, which are pitched to a handful of elite art critics who dismiss the whole exhibit as unfocused. As such he’s left completely broke. The one time his girlfriend Meg suggests he make small cheap commissions to cover costs, David decries it as a waste of his talent. |
| 566 | * In ''ComicBook/TheThingFromAnotherWorld'': |
| 567 | ** The first comic: |
| 568 | *** The story opens with R.J. [=McReady=] torching the Thing remains [[Film/TheThing1982 after the events of the film]] before getting surrounded and apprehended by a Navy Seal squad. He is led to the helicopter just as one soldier, Pybus, touches the remnants of the thing and gets assimilated ([[AssPull somehow]]). So what's it gonna do now?\ |
| 569 | '''You'd Expect''': The thing would keep its cover, snuck aboard the helicopter and allow itself to be extracted into the warmer climate, giving it much more freedom to assimilate more people or escape, especially with the soldiers not trusting [=McReady=]'s claims. Really, that's ''all'' it had to do.\ |
| 570 | '''Instead''': [[StupidEvil For no clear reason]], it transforms right as the helicopter is about to land, opens fire upon its own squadmates and shoots the aircraft down.\ |
| 571 | '''The Result''': [=McReady=] blows it up with a grenade, and while it does manage to [[spoiler:infect two people]], it ends back at square one. Which leads to... |
| 572 | *** So now [=McReady=], a soldier named Erskine and the grievously wounded pilots are stuck in the middle of nowhere. As it is revealed much later, [[spoiler:Erskine and one of the pilots got infected and have become the Things themselves]].\ |
| 573 | '''You'd Expect''': [[spoiler:The two would drop any pretense of humanity, gang up on [=McReady=], assimilate him and use his memories to find the Argentinian base]].\ |
| 574 | '''Instead''': [[spoiler:Nope. This doesn't occur to either of them, and they only transform one by one as the story progresses]]. |
| 575 | *** After hunting down and destroying [[spoiler:the pilot-Thing]], the group returns back to the Argentinian camp. Unbeknownst, [[spoiler:Erskine is revealed to be the Thing]]. It goes to the radio room in an attempt to ask for an extraction.\ |
| 576 | '''You'd Expect''': [[spoiler:That he would try and assimilate the radio operators to give himself more advantage, then perhaps unleash them on the camp as whole while it makes a getaway]].\ |
| 577 | '''Instead''': It just messily massacres everyone inside the shack, leaving clues of its presence. Then it gets response from the command pointing at where exactly the pickup would proceed.\ |
| 578 | '''You'd Then Expect''': The Thing would do something about the note. Take it along, tear it apart - anything.\ |
| 579 | '''Instead''': It stupidly leaves the message lying nearby, allowing [=McReady=] and Childs to get a clue and intercept the Thing on its way up there, taking it down in the process. |
| 580 | ** ''Climate of Fear'': |
| 581 | *** At one point, Dr. Deseado gets shot for his troubles after provoking his commanding officer Agapito too many times, and seemingly dies from that.\ |
| 582 | '''You'd Expect''': That the rest of the compound would still give it [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill an infernal treatment]] nonetheless since they do have at least some knowledge of how the Things work.\ |
| 583 | '''Instead''': They have Cruz, the guy who shot Deseado, bury him manually.\ |
| 584 | '''The Result''': Deseado, who was PlayingPossum, infects Cruz (or vice versa, depending on who was assimilated first), then gets back up, absorbs two more soldiers and sets off the chain of events which lead to almost everyone at the military base getting assimilated. |
| 585 | *** It turns out [[spoiler:the Childs-Thing managed to frame [=McReady=] by infecting his blood during the test, and now he finds him alongside Dr. Viale. It is armed with a flamethrower and has the surprise factor, plus the rest of American commandos on its side]].\ |
| 586 | '''You'd Expect''': That it would just [[spoiler:smite [=McReady=] with the flame burst and then do the same to Viale, then play things as if the two had been infected, which could be very plausible]].\ |
| 587 | '''Instead''': It transforms right off the bat, chases the two around with two flamethrowers while roaring like a maniac and as result [[HoistByHisOwnPetard gets blown to smithereens by his own fireteam]]. Nice work, moron. |
| 588 | *** Meanwhile, at the barracks, Agapito tries to rally his own subordinates to fight against the Americans. Unfortunately for him, the man he is shaking the hand of, Ramon, turns up to be infected.\ |
| 589 | '''You'd Expect''': That the Thing would assimilate Agapito right off the bat.\ |
| 590 | '''Instead''': It wastes time drawing out the process and staging the PreMortemOneLiner. Agapito manages to slash his own arm off with a machete just in time before the infection spreads fully.\ |
| 591 | '''Then''': It turns out the rest of the stationed soldiers are the Things, and Agapito is the last human left on his own base (barring Dr. Viale, [=McReady=], Colonel Simm and his squad).\ |
| 592 | '''You'd Expect''': That the Things would bum rush Agapito and infect him on the spot.\ |
| 593 | '''Instead''': They just stand around, expressing their disbelief at their commander managing to do such a boneheaded move, giving him enough time to jump out of the window and escape.\ |
| 594 | '''You'd Then Expect''': That the Things would send someone to infect him and add one more crewman to their final scheme.\ |
| 595 | '''Instead''': They decide Agapito is NotWorthKilling and leave him be, assuming he won't be of any threat to them.\ |
| 596 | '''The Result''': Agapito gets away and becomes the SpannerInTheWorks, aiding [=McReady=] and Dr. Viale in [[spoiler: destroying the Thing's escape aircraft]]. |
| 597 | * The first arc of ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'', ''The Rebel Opposition'', has a Wookiee character named Groznik. Much like Chewie with Han, he had a life debt to the freedom fighter Throm Loro. When Throm died, Groznik decided to pledge himself to Throm's wife Elscol and help her in her struggles against the Empire.\ |
| 598 | '''You'd Expect:''' For Groznik to be a character! Wookiees can't speak Basic but are textually ''people''. Chewbacca makes his thoughts and intentions known constantly. The audience can't understand him but the characters can and he's quite expressive and active, a true partner to Han and to other characters. \ |
| 599 | '''Instead:''' Groznik is basically a dog that can use weapons. Elscol hasn't learned to understand any of his language and it's unclear if he understands ''her'' either, he just follows her around, [[EvilDetectingDog growls at threats]] (prompting a "Groznik senses something!"), and attacks enemies. In the next arc, ''The Phantom Affair'', someone creates a hologram of a ghostly Jedi with Throm's face. Throm wasn't a Jedi but that doesn't matter. Completely unquestioning, Groznik does everything the hologram tells him to do, including turn on Elscol and the Rebels she's working with, unmoved when the hologram user ''talked about this deception in front of him''. \ |
| 600 | '''The Result:''' When the hologram user dies and the Jedi hologram stops doing things, the Wookiee just goes into a berserker rage until he's killed. Why make him a Wookiee at all? |
| 601 | |
| 602 | [[/folder]] |
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