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Curb Stomp Battle / Comic Books

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Generally effective in comics, mostly because the characters are either a) superpowered or b) ridiculously over trained. This kind of thing can be prefaced with a "No More Holding Back" Speech. On the other hand, averting it seems to be a good idea sales-wise: What fun would be a comic without a legion of fans battling over "Who would win a fight X against Y", so there is a tendency of fair matches.

The following have their own pages:

Other

  • 100 Bullets: If you're a normal person and you face one of the Minutemen, nice knowing you.
  • Pretty much any fight in the Asterix comics that involves a) Obelix or b) any Gaul who has taken some magic potion (usually Asterix) will qualify as one of these.
  • One occurs in the Astro City story "Great Expectations," when TV actor Mitch Goodman's latest shot is interrupted by the Dark Centurion. As the Crimson Cougar, Mitch leaps into battle, but the Centurion effortlessly beats him into submission. Mitch is reduced to begging for his life, which causes the Centurion to leave in disgust and Mitch's fans to abandon him. Justified, as the attack was a Fake Danger Gambit staged by Mitch and his friends to lower his appeal.
  • The Authority's previously invincible Apollo was subjected to an unexpected curb-stomping at the hands of two members of The Americas (who were a satirical stand-in for the Avengers), Thor and Captain America parodies. The comic contains several panels which allude to man-rape and sodomy, although the authors state that these scenes were deliberately made ambiguous.
    • Apollo gets his revenge two issues later, when he rips apart an entire army of Marvel-powerups parodies, including those two that got him earlier. Manwhile Jack and the Doctor curbstomp the other villainous versions of Marvel superheroes, with the former making the city of Paris eat his opponents alive and the Doctor turning his opponents' bones into cologne.
    • Later, in issue #22, Seth (the Six Billion Dollar Bastard) curbstomps the entire team. He takes down Apollo with one blast, doesn't give Midnighter a chance to land a single blow, beats the Doctor between panels, takes Swift out before she can even enter the room, steals the Engineer's nanomachines after harmlessly deflecting her bullets, then teleports to Jack Hawksmoor and seemingly swallows him. This would have taken less than the five pages it did if he hadn't taken the time to give exposition and make taunts.
    • The Continuity Reboot The Wild Storm sees Apollo and Midnighter easily demolish the Skywatch Capture Flight unfortunate enough to stumble across them.
  • Played with and Played for Laughs in The Beano 2017 Annual; a handful of the Beano Stars are brought to the seaside by their parents while Bananaman fights an octopus monster. He finally wins, only for the monster to grab him and an ice cream van. The latter COMPLETELY ticks off the stars who were at the seaside at the time, causing all of them (Yes, including Calamity James.) to beat the monster and get the ice cream van back in FOUR MINUTES.
  • In Dallas Barr, this happens to a task force hastily assembled to take back a space station, from a lunar colony where no one has military experience. They should really have read the chapter about maintaining radio silence in their handbooks.
  • The end of Empowered vol. 4... dWARF didn't even get a hit in.
    • Willy Pete vs nine/ten of the Superhomies, Willy kills them all in a blast of fire so powerful it was like hitting them with a nuke.
  • Julia Diggers vs Zero in Gold Digger looked going in to be a rough fight, Armsmaster vs Elite Ninja. Then the fight starts by her avoiding his every move while he was invisible. Rendering him visible, he activated an array of traps. She blocked. He activated an enchantment to reduce his mass and multiply his speed. She anticipated and absorbed his attacks. Backing off to regroup, she attached a wire stolen from one of his earlier traps and yanked him into a master strike! Literally the only reason he didn't die on the spot was because he was already undead.
    • Julia Diggers gets a couple of these. Vs Serpentus, who couldn't be hurt without killing others through a magic link and in possession of powerful magical weapons, she outmaneuvered him, stopped his attacks with magic-resistant dwarven chains, and tied him up with said chains and attached them to the architecture, literally turning him into a Load-Bearing Boss.
    • Theo Diggers vs Tanya consisted roughly of him packing her into a sphere using magic.
    • Madrid vs Natasha. It turns out vampires are less scary when you can open a portal to the sun.
  • Hellblazer: Averted in a badass manner. During the most-beloved Dangerous Habits storyline, John Constantine was dying of cancer and when things couldn't get any worse, got the wrath of Satan aka The First of the Fallen (who was by the way omnipotent). When the First was already going to collect his soul on the eve of his death, and to be tortured so brutally like none before, John surprised him by revealing he'd sold his soul to two other devils. He then gave the First the bird.
  • Les Lumières de l'Amalou: In book 5, Andréa vs. Théo. While the latter didn't even break a sweat, Andréa was left with a bloody muzzle, dazed and unable to move for several minutes.
  • In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Shattered Grid, battles against Lord Drakkon's army and the various Ranger teams goes in Drakkon's forces' favor because they have Dragon Cannons, which end up severing their connection to the Morphin' Grid. Only team that's safe against them is the RPM team due to Dr. K studying a Dragon Cannon and making her Ranger's immune to the effects.
    • The odds are evened when Dr. K is able to apply the immunization to the rest of the remaining Ranger teams in time for an all out assault on Drakkon's base to rescue captive Rangers, only for Drakkon to break out a new sword that can steal powers instantaneously.
  • Miracleman:
    • In issue #3, the eponymous Flying Brick is attacked by a super-strong opponent, calling himself "Big Ben". Miracleman impassively waits to see what his new opponent can do, never attempting to defend himself. All of Ben's flying kicks and punches fail to have an impact. Ben next resorts to throwing boulders at Miracleman, and then uproots a tree and uses it as a club... to no effect. Noticing that Miracleman has yet to move, Ben calls for him to fight like a man. In response, a single slap by Miracleman has the effect of Punching Ben Across the Room and to a nearby forest, where his landing leaves an impact crater on the ground, ending the "fight", and knocking Ben out for an hour (the exact time between the knockout slap and the point he wakes up is recorded for the reader's convenience). When he does wake up, the Super Tough Ben discovers he lost several teeth and now sports a swollen eye.
    • Not that Miracleman is exempt from being stomped. His 'fights' with Kid Miracleman involve his former sidekick using him as a punching bag, and having almost no trouble with him. Justified as KM has had MANY more years of experience with his superpowered body.
  • In Paperinik New Adventures, any fight involving Xadhoom.
  • In Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt (2019), Curb-stomping is the order of the day, happening at least twice:
    • Once Cannon has brought his enhanced perceptions to bear to define a tactical plan, the fight between the superheroes and the aliens is quite straightforward for the former. (They just have to identify and take down the enemy leaders.)
    • The superheroes simply have no chance against Thunderbolt, who is functionally a god on his home territory.
    • The only fight that has the appearance of being equal (though it happens off-screen) is the final confrontation between Cannon and Thunderbolt — and even that may be mostly a matter of Cannon letting things play out as they must. By then, he has identified that Thunderbolt has too limited an understanding of the situation.
  • The Final Battle with The Four in Planetary goes like this. Primarily because of Jim Wilder and his Shiftship.
  • In an early volume of Preacher, Cassidy, who we had just learned was a super-strong vampire, fought against the Saint of Killers, an invulnerable immortal capable of murdering dozens of police officers. We had no idea how the two of them compared, but it became pretty clear when Cassidy punched the Saint and his hand broke.
    • Heck, any battle involving The Saint of Killers. The man is a walking curb-stomp machine. Later in the series, he destroys an entire unit of tanks. Even later, he personally kills damn near every Grail soldier, to the point that said soldiers had to climb over the mountain of bodies just to see him. The Saint eventually curb-stomps God himself at the series' conclusion.
    • The fight at the end between Cassidy and Jesse seems like it's going to be one of these, Cassidy is a super-strong vampire who's taken being machine gunned and shot through the head without losing consciousness and Jesse's just a guy with a good right hook. It is. Jesse totally demolishes Cassidy and goes into a "The Reason You Suck" Speech meanwhile, explaining that he had to deal with this since his youth and knows how to use technique to defeat Unskilled, but Strong.
  • Primal Warrior Draco Azul: Ekchuah's simulated battle against the Feathered Serpent in "Reminiscence"—to punish Eric for his recklessness—goes very poorly for Draco Azul. The draconic storm-god lays waste to the surrounding region with a massive hurricane—with Eric being powerless to save any of the innocents caught up in the storm—before easily overpowering the alien mech and destroying it. Ekchuah realizes he went too far, apologizing for making him relive Draco Azul's greatest failure.
  • The Sandman (1989): In Season of Mists, Azazel attempts to devour Dream. Unfortunately for him, Dream is one of the most powerful beings in creation and they're in his realm, where everything bends to his will. Azazel ends up trapped in a jar in no time at all.
  • Scott Pilgrim's fights with evil Ex 2 and 3 turned into this, with Scott being entirely outmatched for both fights. Lucas Lee (2) was destroyed doing a highly impossible skateboard stunt, and Todd Ingram (3) couldn't be defeated till he lost the rights to his Vegan powers.
  • In Serenity: Leaves on the Wind the crew hits the lab where River was modified into a Tyke Bomb, and encounters a "completed" version of her. Iris easily overpowers Mal (thrown scalpel to the neck), Jayne (dodges spread from Vera, kicks him in the groin, and breaks his elbow), and Bea (bludgeoned in the head with Vera), with only River managing to hold her off (and she still gets the crap beat out of her). River finally disables Iris when Mal throws her a hypo full of sedative.
  • The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: During the climax of the second miniseries, the giant Homer easily defeats Dracula by stomping on him.
  • Marv vs. Manute in Sin City. One would think that the fight would be epic since they're both very similar, physically. You'd be wrong. There's a reason why Manute has a fake eye in later stories.
  • Skull Island: The Birth of Kong: Helen Karstan's Heroic Sacrifice ends up being a borderline exaggeration. When the expedition runs afoul of Death Jackals, she tells the rest of the group to take cover, clearly intending to at least buy them time with her machete and handgun, but she's seized around the waist and promptly ripped apart before she can even get a single strike in.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), the fight between Sonic and Eggman's Egg Beater was devastating - all Sonic could do was dent the shield the robot was using while Eggman crushed the speedster.
    • Later on, Sonic, in an all out battle between Shadow, Metal Sonic, Silver, Rob O' the Hedge, Amy, Rosey and Scourge, tried to invoke this by calling for the former six to team up with him against the latter. What nobody knew was that Scourge had stored Anarchy Beryl, his world's equivalent to Chaos Emeralds, in his throne, allowing him to transform into Super Scourge. The following issue, by the time the rest of the Freedom Fighters and Suppression Squad had managed to open a portal to Moebius, Scourge had just effortlessly beaten all seven of them and quickly turned his sights on Sonic's teammates and his own treacherous lackeys. Sonic had to trick Scourge into exiting his Super form in order to win!
  • Star Trek (IDW): The USS Concord, a small exploration vessel, versus an unknown ship. The exact details aren't shown, but the end result is Concord gets sliced to pieces, and most of the crew taken. As is pretty typical with the Borg.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW), this tends to happen whenever a Super Mode or naturally powerful character is in play.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Unite, the Maverick Magma Centipede invades Miracle World and uses his multiple arms to cheat in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with Alex Kidd and Stella. The two are so incensed by that they absolutely wreck him in one hit, even before Sonic and Break Man arrive on the scene.
  • In Star Trek Khan, the Augments' take-over of Earth takes several decades to plan, while they place themselves in key positions and build up their advanced armed forces. The actual take-over in The '90s happens over a two-week period and is a resounding victory for the Augments. Later on, Khan's victory over a former ally in Australia is one of these as well. The other Augment sneaks his forces into Khan's territory at night, figuring he'll deliver one of these. Then Khan confronts him in his own tent and easily dispatches him, after explaining that, at this moment, his own forces are slaughtering his sleeping invaders, while Khan's invasion fleet is on the way to take the largely undefended Australia. In the end, the Augment infighting and humans releasing an Augment-targeted virus results in a Curb Stomp Battle for humans, forcing Khan and his remaining Augments to flee in the ship he built to explore the Solar System.
  • Star Wars: Clone Wars, a back story example: Commander Rootrock on New Plympto describes a fight between a Jedi and half a dozen raiders.
    The fight lasted four seconds.
    • The Battle of Derra IV is another example that gets mentioned fairly often in the Expanded Universe.
    • When Mara Jade had a run in with one of the Emperor's elite guards, who she promptly smacked down with one punch (because she's just that awesome).
  • In A Town Called Dragon, the police try to their best to fight the dragon (such as shooting at its eyes and mouth) until they get instantly incinerated by dragonbreath.
  • The Transformers Megaseries has Roller (the little vehicle that lives in Optimus Prime's trailer) versus Blitzwing, a heavily armored Triple-Changer. Roller manages to snipe Blitzwing in one shot.
    • Earlier than that, Shockwave's fight against the Dynobots, once ol' One-Eye gets angry. He takes all five of them out in a few seconds, and wins the fight. He just didn't expect Grimlock to anticipate this, resulting in all five 'bots getting buried for the next several thousand years.
    • In the Stormbringer arc, the Decepticons stationed on Nebulos take on Thunderwing. He shrugs off their attacks and kills three of the ‘Cons in short order, with the two survivors getting the hell out of there after one last futile attack.
  • The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye:
    • Fortress Maximus, physically but not mentally recovered from the events of The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers, vs. the two nobody Decepticons, Sonic and Boom. It lasts mere seconds and all that's left afterwards is one still-angry Max and two piles of scrap metal.
      Fortress Maximus: Do you two realize where you're standing? No? Then let me explain. My name is Fortress Maximus. Five years ago I was attacked by a Decepticon so powerful he redefined the word. He took me down. Hard. I was paralyzed, lobotomized, and left for dead. All of which means that right now, you two—you two Decepticons—being the very first Decepticons I've encountered since I was all but beaten to death—are standing in the very worst place in the universe.
    • The Decepticon Justice Division vs nearly anybody. The Scavengers survive an early encounter with them out of sheer luck. In the "Slaughterhouse" arc, we learn that them vs the entire crew of the Lost Light - a crew of 200, mostly veterans of a four million year war, including Whirl, Cyclonus, and Ultra Magnus - would end with nearly everyone on the Lost Light messily butchered, and two of the DJD wounded - not by our actual main characters, mind, but by other people having a fight nearby while the DJD were tired. On multiple occasions they're shown dealing with Phase Sixers - Decepticon Super Soldiers upgraded to be the death knell of entire worlds - and slaughtering them like hogs. Then Megatron, having unlocked the power of antimatter, lures them into a forcefield and takes them apart on both a physical and mental level, leaving only bad memories and scorch marks.
    • Whirl vs. the Heavies, in a fight that combines Whirl's already impressive combat skill with his tremendous amount of personal resentment directed at them specifically. The only reason they even survive is that the crew are trying to set up a Stable Time Loop, and if Whirl murders them, they won't be around a year or so afterwards to do the stuff the timeline already needs them to do.
    • For a comedy example, Nautica vs. the "personality ticks". She's in the middle of lamenting that all she has to throw at them is scathing literary quotations when she gets knocked over pathetically.
  • Über averts the traditional bloodless superhero fights by depicting literal curb stomp battles between normal human soldiers and the titular Nazi superhumans. The "tank"-class Ubers bloodily rip ordinary soldiers and even tanks apart with their bare hands; the "battleship"-class Ubers annihilate entire armies in seconds. When the Allied forces get their own superhumans, several Nazi Ubers are literally stomped to death in gory fistfights, but the first Allied "battleship", Colossus, is eviscerated in seconds by the much more powerful German Uber Sieglinde.
  • A villainous variant appears in Watchmen when Ozymandias effortlessly beats down Rorschach and Nite Owl at the same time.
    • See also: the complete thrashing he hands the Comedian at the beginning. Both fights are even more brutal and one-sided in the movie.
    • Also, Dr. Manhattan's involvement in The Vietnam War. There aren't many stranger ways to die than having your atoms estranged from each other by a blue giant in a speedo. Several of the Vietcong ended up wanting to surrender to him personally.
  • In the first issue of We Stand on Guard, the American invasion of Canada starts with the swift destruction of the capital city of Ottawa, highlighted by a double-page Macross Missile Massacre. The rest of the Canadian Forces follow within the first week.
  • In Youngblood (2017) #2, Shaft has to fight a mind-controlled Doc Rocket. He's a Badass Normal, but she blindsides him and has Super-Speed. He's only saved by Vogue distracting her long enough for a gas that clears Doc's head to work.

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