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Batman Gambit / Comic Books

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Batman Gambits in Comic Books.

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  • During the climax of IDW's Angel comic series After the Fall, Angel pulls one off on the Senior Partners. Having realized that the Senior Partners' need him alive for their long-term Evil Plan, Angel provokes the now-vampiric Gunn into killing him, forcing the Partners to rewind time so the Fall of Los Angeles never happened.
  • In Archie Comics, Reggie and Veronica played a prank on Archie by making up a story about how Mr. Weatherbee was looking for him. Then Weatherbee turns up and he really was looking for someone, to represent the school on a trip to the capital. After Archie recommends Reggie and Veronica, Weatherbee sends various messengers to summon the two to his office (the first of which is Archie himself), but Reggie, thinking that Archie is playing the same gag on him, rebuffs them each and every time. Weatherbee eventually gets fed up, and trails the next messenger, so when Reg and Veronica ignore the summons one last time, he was there, and he sent them off to detention.
  • A character in the Blacksad album "Artic Nation" is in the middle of one several decades in the making. A key factor in this plot is marrying her own father, while keeping him from discovering this particular bit of information. She succeeds at most of her goals, but her sister is killed in the process and her niece rendered an orphan.
  • Disney Ducks Comic Universe:
    • In The Black Knight GLORPS Again! by Don Rosa, Arpin Lusene is out to regain his melts-anything-it-touches suit of armor from Scrooge McDuck. At the armor's supposed resting place, he finds that the armor has been replaced with a note stating that it is not there... which Arpin anticipated, and therefore brought a tiny saw along. With it, he saws silhouettes of a knight's armor in the walls, so Scrooge later believes that Arpin has regained his armor and walked through the walls. Worried, Scrooge goes to check out the armor at its true resting place, Arpin tailing him and stealing it.
    • Scrooge McDuck has himself conducted Batman Gambits, of which his archrival, John D. Rockerduck, is frequently the victim.
      • In one story, Scrooge launches an epic scheme involving deliberately cooling down the Earth, risking 100 billion Euros of his own money in the process, and using his understanding of Rockerduck's greediness (of which Scrooge himself is in no short supply) that Rockerduck will buy the whole project off of him in the hopes of reaping massive profits. The project is a money-loser, and Scrooge reveals this only after Rockerduck has paid Scrooge. The sole purpose of this risky scheme? Scrooge was worried that Rockerduck would soon pass him as Richest Duck in the World, and this was a way to get Rockerduck to burn some money on a lousy investment and remain in second place.
      • In another story, Scrooge takes out a massive insurance policy on his ship from Rockerduck's insurance company, and he makes it look like he deliberately sank his own ship for the insurance proceeds. Scrooge counts on Rockerduck to take him to court for insurance fraud, where Scrooge reveals that his ship never sank and that he stands falsely accused by Rockerduck. He points out to the court that Rockerduck smeared Scrooge's good name with the fraud accusations, and demands compensation. The sole purpose of this convoluted scheme? To force Rockerduck to hand over ownership of a small, worthlessalmost  island. An island that Scrooge wanted only because Rockerduck had it, and he didn't.
  • Hellblazer: Constantine sold his soul to the devil on three separate occasions (or rather, to each of the three most powerful demons in hell). Thus when he dies and each comes to collect, they realize that they'll have to fight for his soul (to give it up to the others is unthinkable), which would either destroy them or weaken them to the point where Heaven could finally attack and destroy Hell). The only way out is to save Constantine's life (including curing his cancer)... just as he'd planned.
  • The Herder Witch: Morie the witch is suspicious of star seers (stars that resemble people), but decides to trust them after they tell her about a kidnapped father she could rescue. It's only after she's completed that job that she discovers that they told her about it so they could lure her out into an open field for capture.
  • In Les Compagnons du crépuscule, Neyrelle and Carmine´s husband sets up one to get rid of her sisters, and to gain power over the three wells connected to the sister`s inheritance. Full control will give Neyrelle access to power over the three forces. The knight is crucial, and is lured into a trap.
  • Mickey Mouse Comic Universe:
    • The Italian story "Topolino e l'occhio di Macchia" ("Mickey Mouse and the eye of the Phantom Blot") shows the Phantom Blot pulling off a magnificent gambit. It gets complicated, so listen carefully:
      • The police know that the Phantom Blot will be leaving town from either the harbour, the airport or the train station, but aren't sure which of the places he'll choose.
      • The Blot kidnaps Mickey, and forces him to tell the police that the Blot will be travelling by train. If Mickey reveals to the police that this is a lie, the Blot will murder him with a bomb.
      • Mickey manages to avoid the bomb, and tells the police that the train-thing was a lie and that the Blot will actually be travelling by plane or by boat. The police immediately send all available troops to the harbour and the airport, completely abandoning the train station.
      • Turns out, the Phantom Blot expected Mickey to avoid the bomb and tell the police that the train station thing was a lie. Therefore, the Blot is in fact travelling by train, as the police are busy scouring the harbour and airport.
    • "Ticket to Bong" has an entire African tribe pull this on Pete. Pete is expecting to receive a priceless inheritance from his uncle, and is pretending that he's abandoned the life of crime in order to live up to the conditions of the will. Unbeknownst to Pete, his inheritance is an African diamond mine that the tribe was once cheated out of, and they concoct a scheme to get it back. They organize a quiz contest with the questions are specifically rigged so that only two people — Pete and Mickey Mouse — could possibly answer them all. The prize for both is an overseas trip to the tribe's village. In the end, the pressure of trying to act honest, having to endure Mickey's presence, and the temptation of the nearby diamond mine ripe for the robbing, all eventually drive Pete to drop his act and commit outright burglary — thus losing all rights to the mine, exactly according to the tribesmen's plan.
    • Wizards of Mickey: Before his defeat, the Phantom Blot left a bunch of minor but still potent plans. All were unlikely to conquer the world on their own, but would cause enough fear and unrest that the wizard council would feel compelled to take him out of his prison to find a better solution, giving him the chance to enact his real plan.
  • Mr. Natural uses this on just about everyone, which makes them even madder when they realize how easily he's able to manipulate them.
  • In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) Queen Chrysalis tricks the Mane Six into getting into a huge argument, knowing full well that they will inevitably reconcile and strengthen their bond, thereby giving the Changelings more energy to feed on, and making Twilight's magic more powerful for when she needs to drain it.
  • In the 13-issue story "The Kindly Ones" from The Sandman (1989) series, Death calls Dream out on having orchestrated a Batman Gambit. This gambit is a suicide. It's also implied that only two others in existence realize what's happened: Puck who says that he could discuss the subject "endlessly", and Loki, who doesn't realize he's been played until it's too late for him.
  • Done at least twice in Sin City:
    • In "A Dame to Kill For", Ava leaves Dwight McCarthy for millionaire Damien Lord; then, four years later, comes to Dwight pretending to be afraid of Damien and his servant Manute, playing on Dwight's Lancelot complex to get Dwight to investigate and ultimately kill Damien, leaving her Damien's money.
    • In "That Yellow Bastard", Senator Roark keeps Detective Hartigan from receiving a few letters from the only friend he has left, "Cordelia" (Nancy Callahan, though Roark doesn't know it), then sends Hartigan a severed finger. Predictably, Hartigan, thinking Nancy's in danger, does what he has to in order to make parole so he can rescue Nancy, then goes looking for her, only to find she was safe and unharmed until that moment, when he accidentally revealed to Roark's son, who had been following him since he left prison, that "Cordelia" was Nancy.
  • Snively pulls something like this a few times in trying to get rid of his dear uncle Robotnik/Eggman in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), befitting his role as The Starscream. The first Robotnik, his "dear" Uncle Julian, was killed when his superweapon, the Ultimate Annihilator, is destroyed - Snively had sabotaged it and knew it was a matter of time before the Freedom Fighters would find a way to aim it at him, as he was now the only one who could be killed. The second Robotnik, Dr. Eggman, was slowly being driven insane by his constant losses. All he had to do was call his new love, the Iron Queen, and let her know when the Egg finally broke.
    • Way back in the original mini-series, Sonic, Tails and Antoine accidentally upend one of these concocted by Sally and Rotor. The plan was for Sally to demand to speak to Robotnik in order to get her father released, knowing he'd double-cross her and throw her into the Roboticizer. However, Sally's boots were outfitted with devices meant to disable and analyze the device, giving them a chance to save everyone. However, Sally was being completely vague about what she was doing and Sonic just didn't trust it at all, even with a royal edict telling him not to intervene. She blames them for the plan's failure.
  • Star Wars
    • One story had masterful plot pulled off. During the time following the events of A New Hope, Darth Vader was on a Star Destroyer in search of the Rebel Fleet, intending on capturing prisoners to rat out their location. However, the commanding officer, Commander Demmings, was a man who preferred dead Rebels over prisoners. After two incidents involving Rebels dying instead of being captured, Vader was prepared to Force Choke Demmings for his failures before Demmings choked out that he was only following his example following the destruction of Alderaan. This gives Vader an "Eureka!" Moment and pulls Demmings into his office. At a supposed Rebel base, the gunner was ordered to just lightly strike the base, but once more, the base blows up. Vader looks like he's prepared to finally do away with Demmings before revealing that the gunner's game was up — he'd been trolling Vader and Demmings to protect the Rebels as he was from Alderaan and was angry at the destruction of his homeworld. The base he picked for bombing was actually an Alderaan colony meant to continue their fallen world's legacy and, because he wanted to troll Vader, he just blew up a place he could have called home.
    • Part-time Lovable Rogue, part-time plain Jerkass Chelli Aphra pulls of one on Darth Vader in the comic Star Wars: Darth Vader. Throughout the series, she makes it very clear that she expects him to get rid of her once she outlived her usefulness, but requests that he does so with a lightsaber, instead of venting her into space, since she's always had nightmares about that. Vader being Vader, he throws her into an airlock as soon as possible. Which she was setting him up to do, since she had put her mercenary and droids in a position to pick her up as soon as the Executor was out of sight.
  • Udon Comics has a fun one, in Street Fighter Legends. Karin challenges Sakura to a contest, ANY contest... and Sakura comes up with a Hot-Dog Eating Contest. Karin quickly comes up with the plan. She asks to, at least, be able to pick the time and place of the next contest. She cheats like mad, relying on Sakura to go all out. Sakura does so, and it looks like Karin might win, until it's revealed she was cheating. She goes to her back-up plan. Admit defeat in the stupid, stupid contest, and challenge Sakura IMMEDIATELY to a martial arts match, which Karin wanted. Handicapped. Right there, right now. Sakura, meanwhile, was busy trying not to throw up. It would be a good Xanatos Gambit, if it wasn't for the simple failure condition of Sakura calling foul. Sakura could have NOT exhausted herself in the hot-dog contest, or simply refused the fight. But Sakura is not the person to do that.
  • Spider Jerusalem pulls one in the climax of Transmetropolitan. The first time he meets Gary Callahan he was able to record him with the use of "Source Gas". In their future meetings Callahan is smart enough to nullify such tricks, preventing Spider from getting any dirt on him. But as the story goes on Spider becomes less like a crusading journalist and more like an outright revolutionary, carrying real guns and using lethal force on assailants. After successfully ruining the president's career, he drives the final nail when Callahan meets him one last time to kill him. He has Spider repeatedly scanned for weapons and prepares to have him shot, claiming Spider nonetheless got a gun past security and it was self-defense. Unfortunately for the President, he was relying too much on his belief that Spider had lost it, and forgot the first trick he ever played on him. Spider is soaked in Source Gas, and Callahan is exposed.
  • W.I.T.C.H. had one that spectacularly failed. In the "New Power" arc, the Oracle learns that there's a new threat to Kandrakar, one so powerful that the girls wouldn't be able to handle it on their own. The big plan was to have the Oracle revive hidden memories inside Matt that made him realize he was once part of Kandrakar, have him take the girl's magic while they were asleep so the Oracle could give them brand new powers, have Matt train them in those new powers, then have them go and beat up the threat. And while they do that, he seals up Kandrakar and basically goes "It's on them, now. Let's wait and see." The Gambit fails due to the fact that the threat already had a foothold on Kandrakar way before he set things into motion and when the girls come to save the day, it takes Yan Lin to smack some sense into the suddenly-overly cocky team and get them to win. It's no wonder the Oracle stepped down and gave the position to Yan Lin after that.


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