People not thinking things through in comic books.
- Acts of Vengeance: In the Marvel Comics Crisis Crossover Villain Team-Up, Loki makes the incredibly dumb choice to recruit both an unrepentant Nazi and a Holocaust Survivor into his inner circle. The Asgardian was the only one who was surprised when Magneto attacked the Skull instead of any of the actual heroes, ultimately leaving Red Skull Buried Alive in an abandoned fallout shelter. And Loki is supposed to be one of the smart Asgardians.
- Archie Comics: Used in a multipart story starring Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, and Cheryl Blossom. One of Veronica's schemes backfires on her, and ruins her own social life. Veronica uses doctored photos to try to ruin Cheryl's reputation, driving the girl to tears. Veronica fails to figure that she looks like a villain to her peers. Veronica then rejects Betty's efforts to serve as her conscience, and unwittingly alienates her best friend. Betty and Cheryl befriend each other (bonding over shared grief), and spend most of their time together. Archie has no interest in dating Veronica, as he is also angry with her behavior. After more than a month of being friendless and dateless, Veronica tries to find a way to regain Betty's friendship.
- Batman:
- In Batman #47, "The Origin Of Batman!", Batman scares his parents' killer Joe Chill by doing a Dramatic Unmask Motive Rant and tells him You Killed My Father. Panicked, Chill runs to his mooks and explains what's happened. But the mooks were all busted by Batman at one point, and in rage at their boss having created the Terror Hero, gun him down. Only afterwards do they realize that they've shot the only man who knows Batman's Secret Identity. They try to have Chill spill with his last dying breath, but Batman comes in and stops them.
- In Batman #66, "The Joker's Comedy of Errors" (AKA the infamous "boner" story) provides the page image: it starts with The Joker plotting to rob the payroll office at the electric company and cut the power to make his escape. Unfortunately, he learned too late the elevator didn't have a back-up generator, so he had to take the stairs instead, where he ran right into Batman and Robin and had to flee without his stolen money.
- In Detective Comics #180, "Joker's Millions", the Joker gets an Unexpected Inheritance from rival mob boss King Barlowe and proceeds to binge-spend it. The real kicker comes in when the clown realizes too late that most of it was Counterfeit Cash and jewels in a posthumous up-yours done by Barlowe. Joker is now torn between admitting he was had and becoming Gotham's Butt-Monkey for the rest of his life (thereby sullying his criminal cred), getting jailed for not paying the inheritance tax, or returning to crime and saving his reputation. In other words, if law was played realistic and had Joker verified the inheritance before accepting it, the entire episode wouldn't have happened at all. This was later adapted into an episode for The New Batman Adventures.
- Arkham Asylum: Living Hell: Crooked businessman Warren White successfully pleaded insanity to escape embezzlement charges. He was sent to Arkham and wound up at the mercy of Gotham's worst psychopaths. Oops. By the time they were done with him, he'd been damaged both physically and mentally and became a villain known as "Great White Shark".
- During the famous "A Death in the Family" storyline from 1988, the Jason Todd Robin is betrayed to the Joker by his own mother, who is caught up in one of the Joker's criminal schemes. The Joker proceeds to beat Robin nearly to death with a crowbar, only to have Todd's mother ask "What is Batman going to do when he discovers what you've done to his little friend?" Joker's reply is a sullen and subdued "Haven't thought of that..."
- In the Judge Dredd crossover "Die Laughing", the Joker manages to make a deal with the Dark Judges to become an immortal like them. However, when he finally confronts Batman in his new state, Batman observes that this applies as the Joker has now turned himself into something that Batman can freely beat up as much as he wants while confident that he can never kill the Joker, forcing the Joker to return to his original body just to escape Batman's assault.
- In Nightwing (Infinite Frontier) #93, new villain Heartless demands that Blockbuster give him control over Bludhaven so he can crush the hope that Dick Grayson is bringing to the city. Blockbuster, being the de facto ruler of the city akin to The Kingpin, responds by launching his desk at Heartless and knocking him out of a high rise building, which he barely survives.
- In the first storyline of the Batman (Chip Zdarsky) era, the entire construction of the robot Failsafe is this:
- The entire deal goes back to the end of the infamous storyline JLA: Tower of Babel, where we find out that Superman confronted Batman and pointed out the glaring flaw in his "let the JLA handle him" failsafe - how are they going to stop a man who is just that paranoid? Sadly, even Superman didn't recognize the fact that maybe Bats would realize Superman was right.
- To build Failsafe, he let his Zur-En-Arrh personality make the machine. However, Zur-En-Arrh made two critical blunders to this. The first was that he erased his own memory of how he built him on the off-chance that someone would try to use him to control Failsafe. However, Zur-En-Arrh knew that there would be false alarms and set it so that only one other person could shut it down — Alfred. However, Alfred died during the City of Bane storyline and Zur-En-Arrh never took into account what would happen if that did occur.
- In one issue of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold comic, Nightwing leads the Robins from other points in time (Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Damian Wayne and Carrie Kelly) to one of Ra's al Ghul's bases in order to use a Lazarus Pit to save Batman's life. When they encounter the League of Assassins, Damian leaps out, demanding that they stand down as is his birthright as an al Ghul. The assassins look at each other, then charge at the Robins. Damian then remembers that he's not born yet.
- Bone: This is one of the main issues with Phoney's scams, in that they always have an obvious crippling flaw that can be easily exploited and resulting in the whole charade coming down instantly.
- Phoney tries to take advantage of the Valley's annual cow race by touting an unbeatable dark horse contestant known as the "Mystery Cow". He succeeds in convincing most of the town to bet on the Mystery Cow despite the fact none of them have even seen it, and intends for the "cow" (actually Smiley in a cow suit) to lose intentionally so he can keep the whole pot. Unfortunately, his plan is instantly ruined when Lucius bets his whole tavern on Grandma Ben, meaning now they have to win the race or everyone will realize they've been tricked.
- Phoney and Lucius have a wager where they split the bar and if Phoney does more business, the Bones' debts from the Cow Race will be cleared- if not, then he and Smiley will have to work for Lucius for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, the entire town, especially Lucius' regulars, already hate the Bones for the Mystery Cow Scam and unwilling to be their customers. Phoney admits that the bet wasn't his better ideas.
- Phoney again attempts to steal the town's valuables by touting himself as a mighty dragon-slayer who will keep the people safe again the dragon scourge (dragons are real in this universe, but they are benevolent). He sets up an expedition to the Dragon's Stairs with a huge load of treasure as "bait", and intends to slip off back to Boneville with it while the townsfolk are setting up the dragon trap. However, he never expected the one outcome that would get him into the most amount of trouble: that he would actually catch a dragon and have to kill it (in this case, it was the Great Red Dragon, who intentionally walked into the trap to teach Phoney a lesson).
- In an episode of Bruchbach Serenade, Rick has just finished his summer job at city hall. In order to maximize his earnings, he had made the mayor give a speech that made fun of the audience and incorporated Nazi phrases, so he could sell the audience rotten tomatoes. Now the people in charge refuse to give Rick a certificate for the job.
- In the comic adaptation of The Destroyer, one story centered on a prototype nuclear pistol designed for the Army; basically a handheld small warhead launcher. The developers boasted a mighty five-kilometer blast radius... and less than a two-kilometer range. It wasn't until they tried to pitch it to a group of officers that someone pointed out the big problem.
- Diabolik: The undoing of many one-shot villains, as their plans tend to have a flaw that Diabolik or Ginko can exploit. Case in point, the copycat who recycled Diabolik's plans and had them executed by lesser thieves: while he had planned for Diabolik to track him down planning to kill him he completely forgot about his accomplice and lover Eva Kant (who, while he was gloating he was about to get rid of Diabolik and take his place, had snuck behind him with some poisoned needles), or that Diabolik rarely reuses old plans because next time Ginko will be ready (he had got away so far because the targets weren't worth of Diabolik, but after establishing the existence of the copycat Ginko was preparing for him).
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe:
- Magica DeSpell in at least two Don Rosa stories, involving her plan to steal Scrooge's #1 Dime, which (as the first money earned by the world's richest man [or duck, whichever]) is the final ingredient in a Midas Touch amulet.
- In "Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies", Magica travels back to the day Scrooge earned his #1 Dime because she thinks it'll be easier to steal it back then. She gets the dime before Scrooge does — before realizing that, now that she stole it, it is no longer the first money earned by the world's richest man.
- In "A Little Something Special", Magica teams up with the Beagle Boys and Flintheart Glomgold because she sees no overlap in their goals: she wants Scrooge's #1 Dime, the Beagle Boys want the rest of his money, and Flintheart Glomgold just wants to drive Scrooge into poverty and steal his title as the world's richest duck. As Scrooge later points out, his first dime will be of no use for Magica once he's broke, since he will no longer be the world's richest man.
- Subverted in the DuckTales (1987) episode "Duck to the Future" where Magica sends Scrooge 40 years into the future. She seizes his number one dime and his entire fortune.
- A non-comedic version is used in the story King Scrooge the First (October, 1967) by Carl Barks and Tony Strobl. It combines this trope with Who Wants to Live Forever?, but it is self-inflicted. Back in the Bronze Age, King Khan Khan defeats a rival king (a distant ancestor of Scrooge), leading his army to sack and pillage a prosperous city-state. All in an effort to gain access to a potion that grants immortality, believing that he will be an invincible conqueror and thoroughly enjoy living forever. He does not seem to mind that there is only enough potion for a single user. In the 20th century, Khan Khan kidnaps Scrooge and his nephews to use in a plot to locate the ruins of the long-lost city state. He eventually tells them why, explaining that he seeks an antidote for the potion as he wants to die. His harem women, his entire army, and his nation are long gone, and he has been living alone for far too long. Immortality was no fun when he had nobody to share it with.
- Magica DeSpell in at least two Don Rosa stories, involving her plan to steal Scrooge's #1 Dime, which (as the first money earned by the world's richest man [or duck, whichever]) is the final ingredient in a Midas Touch amulet.
- Laika: Mikhail's mother forces him to take care of Kudryavka the dog, in hopes that he will learn some responsibility and behave better. Instead, he is just angry that her presence gives him more chores to do like feeding and walking her, especially since he never wanted her in the first place. He gets rid of her by throwing her over a bridge, and lies to his parents that she ran away when he took her for a walk.
- Mickey Mouse Comic Universe
- Played for laughs in an Italian story featuring Super Goof (Goofy's superhero identity). He encounters a super-villain who explains in detail that his powers work by drawing energy from electrical storms and using it for varying effects. Super Goof points out that it is a clear summer day, with not a single cloud in the sky. When he asks whether the villain's powers work in such weather conditions, the villain suddenly realizes that he should have waited for a storm in order to go into action.
- Doomsday Clock hangs the world's biggest lampshade over Watchmen's ending as Lex Luthor is approached by Ozymandias for help in hunting down Dr. Manhattan. As he does, Luthor recounts Ozymandias' plan for world peace which involved creating an "alien" and causing it to destroy New York in a psychic backlash, forcing world peace, then points out that he never stopped to think of what would happen if they found out the truth, telling him "If you're the smartest person in your world, I'd hate to meet the dumbest."
- The Extremist Vector: In their original world, the Extremists took control of all the world's atomic weapons, and threatened to blow them up if the world did not surrender and agree to serve them. They detonated the weapons, seemingly not having asked themselves And Then What? Have a nice time ruling the rats, the only thing that survived!
- Fantastic Four: During James Robinson's run on Fantastic Four 2014, the Quiet Man kicks off a massive plot to turn the public on the FF, aided by the Psycho Man. The Quiet Man plans to open portals to other worlds to flood Earth with demons and alternate heroes and then be seen as the big hero himself by shutting the portals down. Reed tells him to go right ahead and do it...and he can't. As the Quiet Man stands stunned, Reed points out that it may not have been the best idea to hand ultimate power over two worlds to THE PSYCHO MAN.
- Ghost Rider: The villain Blackout is a half-demon murderer who, in addition to his Casting a Shadow powers, had metal fangs implanted in his jaws to cultivate a vampiric look. In an early encounter with the Ghost Rider, he tried to bite him. Ghost Rider is a flaming skeleton, and the attempt ended with Blackout getting his face badly burnt. He then proceeds to blame Ghost Rider for burning his face.
- Johan and Peewit: This happens in the backstory of "The War Of the Seven Fountains". They stumble across an old, abandoned castle in the middle of a wasteland, and that night are met by the ghost of its former king, who explains that the reason the kingdom disintegrated was because of his idiotic use of a wish he had been granted by a local witch as a reward for his wise rule. Unfortunately, while a great ruler in most cases, the king had a love for wine, and the wish happened to be granted during a period where the wine harvest had gone wrong, and there was none to be had for miles. In a spur of the moment, the king wished that the areas seven water springs would produce wine instead of water. You can probably guess why this was a bad idea. When he tried to force the witch to reverse the magic, she instead cursed the springs to dry up completely, leading to the kingdom falling apart and its inhabitants leaving. The king remained behind and died soon after, but was Barred from the Afterlife by his ancestors, and wouldn't be allowed to rest until the springs flow again, which Johan and Pewitt decide to help with (with a surprise assistance from The Smurfs).
- Fixing the springs turns out to be this as well, as distant relations to the king show up and start fighting over the once again fertile land, the "War" mentioned in the title.
- Invincible: Invincible Universe #12 sees the Lizard League transform several members of the Guardians of the Globe into reptilian-people and order them to attack the rest of the team. The transformed Guardians...do not do that and instead gang up on the League because as Bulletproof points out, their minds were fully intact and the League never bothered to try and develop any means to control them. Notably, this isn't due to a lack of foresight on the leader's part but because of a genuine belief they'd be loyal to him post-transformation.
- Lilith: In the Italian comic book, the Roman emperor Commodus tells the time-travelling protagonist that the only reason he trusts his chamberlain Eclectus, his personal trainer Narcissus and his concubine Marcia is that, being freed people invise to the Senate, they depend on him for everything. When Lilith's interference makes their plot to assassinate Commodus fail, he's not just angry for their betrayal but, as he says in his angry speech to Marcia, their utter stupidity. Especially Marcia's, as she was Christian and, to please her, Commodus had adopted a policy favorable to them (and indeed, the narrative at the end of that issue specifies that Commodus started a terrifying persecution of the Christians after her execution).
- Loop: The blue twin summons future versions of herself to gang up on her sister, only for the next couple panels to show the red twin by herself, since the blue twins that would have been there departed for the past.Blue twin: [popping back] Well that didn't work out quite like I'd planned.
- Marvel Adventures: One series had Iron Man sneaking into Dr. Doom's castle to rescue hostages. He utilized a stealth suit which rendered him invisible, but in order to maintain this, Tony could not include offensive capabilities in the design. Late in the book, Doom reveals that he knew Tony was there from the moment he snuck in and pointed out the sheer stupidity of using an invisibility suit to try to sneak into the base belonging to the arch-enemy of the Invisible Woman (which naturally, have measures to detect this exact thing).
- MediEvil: Fate's Arrow: To preserve the flow of history, Sir Dan helps make a potion to swap bodies with his past self during the events of the Battle of Gallowmere. It's only once they have all the ingredients and are in the midst of brewing it that they realize Dan, as a skeleton, can't actually drink the potion; they quickly adapt by making it into an ointment.
- The Mighty Thor: In The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill, Mjolnir's worthiness enchantment ended up becoming this — for the longest time, Mjolnir had the worthiness enchantment attached as a way to temper and humble Thor as punishment for his arrogant actions. Never once had Odin the Allfather ever consider that there would be someone else just as worthy, as the alien Beta Ray Bill would soon prove to be when he randomly hit the carrying stick that disguised the hammer against the wall in frustration and transformed into Thor. When Odin brings Bill to Asgard, he's shocked by what he sees.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Boom! Studios): In one issue, Rita learns from Finster that he had created a series of monsters hidden away on Earth disguised as humans with the idea of using them to spread fear on Earth. Rita, having been away for a while, decides that the best thing to do is unleash them all at once and make them grow. Finster tries warning her of something, but she asserts the pecking order and forces him to reveal them all. The Rangers are split thin over the groups and are on the ropes... until the monsters topple over in pain. As the Rangers clean up shop, Finster explains that, when the shed their human "shells", they're already "grown". Thus, Rita making them giant actually made them weaker
- Northwest Passage: In the climax, Montglave reveals critical information to Simon in the hopes of permanently turning him against his father, Charles Lord. The information is that Simon's parentage is a Luke, I Might Be Your Father situation since Montglave raped Simon's mother at the time of conception. Unsurprisingly, Simon takes a rather dim view of this knowledge and promptly blows Montglave's brains out.
- Once & Future: The plot is kicked off when a group of far-right British nationalists with an obviously shaky grasp of history perform a ritual that raises King Arthur from the dead, believing he'll drive all the "undesirables" (i.e., foreigners) from Britain. They fail to consider that King Arthur, historically and mythologically, was a Briton man who fought off an invading army of Anglo-Saxons in the name of all Celtic peoples… the same Anglo-Saxons that the majority of Britain's modern population is descended from. Naturally, the first thing Arthur does upon raising from the grave is slaughter the nationalists for being of Anglo-Saxon blood, sparing only one of them because she's half-Irish and thus one of "his people". He then declares his intent to pick up where he left off in reclaiming Briton for the Britons.
- Paperinik New Adventures: Subverted with the Evronians' master plan to defeat Xadhoom and turn her into an eternal power source for their empire, as they would have to keep her trapped long enough for the Entropiothron to work and Xadhoom is a Physical Goddess who wants them all dead... Except they know she's a mutated Xerbian who hates them for destroying her homeworld and they're using all the survivors as hostages to force her to comply. Then Double Subverted when the Evronian Emperor realizes they've grossly underestimated the fact Xadhoom is the greatest genius of an entire world of scientists with extreme control on her power means she has the mental strength, self-control and willpower to resist the Entropiothron's attempts at making her explode, and then again when the Xerbian hostages, including the finest minds of a planet of scientists who had years to study how to reverse the effects of Coolflamization (an emotion-draining process that turns the victim into a mindless slave), do just that on every single Coolflame on Evron's Planet Spaceship, the end result being that there's now nothing to keep Xadhoom compliant. That was the last day of the Evronian Empire.
- The Powerpuff Girls: At the end of the first arc by IDW Publishing, Mojo Jojo plans to hide in a space pod for several months until he's ready to return to Townsville. He then realizes that he forgot to install a bathroom, which leads to him actually saying that he didn't think this through.
- Preacher: One issue has Jesse meeting Johnny Lee Wombat who dreamed his entire life of being an astronaut. He eventually got into the Air Force but as a clerk as he was denied flight training. Johnny finally forged his orders to get accepted into NASA training...and lasted less than twenty-four hours before they kicked him out. How did they find out? Because the reason Johnny was passed over had nothing to do with his intellect or piloting skills but the simple fact he barely stood over five feet tall. One look at him in the lineup of average-height pilots and the instructors knew there was no way this guy had gotten through basic training, let alone was an ace pilot.
- Rick and Morty (Oni): Knowing that the dinosaurs in his island were specifically bred to be subservient to him, Summer dresses up as Rick to rescue him from the angry workers he'd abandoned there. She and Morty don't realize that a bunch of huge carnivores would eat them until after it had happens.
- Runaways: during their first battle against Excelsior, Chase Stein decides to create a distraction by attacking with the Leapfrog's lasers...which quickly drains the Leapfrog's batteries, forcing the Runaways to flee with their highly distinctive vehicle fully exposed (because without battery power, they can't activate the vehicle's stealth mode) making it easy for Excelsior to track them down. Later in the same arc, Chase makes a similar mistake by ripping out one of the lasers to use it against a villain. Since the laser is no longer hooked up a power source...
- Scooby-Doo! Team-Up:
- Multi-Man can destroy himself to return even more powerful and uses it to threaten the heroes. Shaggy brings up the possibility that such power might wear off and he dies for real and Multi-Man admits he never thought about that.
- The Mad Scientist in the Magilla Gorilla crossover didn't think about what he'd do with his experiments before changing his "volunteers"' bodies.
- Secret Wars (2015): In the Siege 2015 miniseries, Lady Kate Bishop from the 1600s deliberately gets arrested so she can be sent to the wall and join the Watch for adventures. She later gets hit by a magically-induced epiphany, realizing that she's a girl with pointy sticks and she's facing terrible armies that scare God-Emperor Doom himself. And said armies are coming for her through a now disappeared wall...
- She-Hulk: During the Civil War arc, Jennifer Walters was outed as She-Hulk (again) by a New Warriors hate site. On the way into her office through an angry mob to help some former New Warriors keep their identities hidden from the public, one of the mob recognized her, grabbing her by the arm and ripping her shirt, proudly exclaiming "I've got She-Hulk!" Jen shifted and hoisted the guy up by his lapels.She-Hulk: Alright, you've got She-Hulk! Now what?!
Angry Citizen: I... uh... guess I didn't think this through... - The Smurfs: In "The Fake Smurf", Gargamel transforms himself to look like a smurf. But not only does he lack a tail, he failed to consider that Azrael might see a random smurf and think "Ooh, lunch~!" He also didn't take into account the fact that he had no idea where the village was, and couldn't find it on his own.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- This is a recurring problem for Sonic. Pre-reboot, this nearly cost him his friendship with Tails when he, hurting over a recent breakup with Sally, pursued a relationship with Fiona despite full knowledge of Tails' own crush on her. When Tails confronts him about being so insensitive over it in issue 179, Sonic explains that he knew that Tails liked Fiona and that she had no interest in him, so he went out with her to prevent Tails' own feelings from getting hurt and hoped it would help him get over it, while acknowledging that it was a spur of the moment idea and he didn't think before he took action.
- Lien-Da has this as a Fatal Flaw. She's never much for planning and more acting when an opportunity sees itself, but never seems to think what to do past a certain point in action or what her opponents are really capable of. This nearly gets her killed when she has the bright idea to attack the Iron Queen, a Technopath, when she herself is a Cyborg; she goes down like a chump thanks to the Queen activating the Explosive Leash Eggman had installed in Lien-Da's cybernetics, and the only reason she survives at all is because Eggman decides to rebuild her. This is also what cost her a leadership role in the Dark Legion: her and her brother Kragog were planning on murdering their father so they could both be leaders. Just so happens she didn't even think that her brother would double-cross her as well and while she survives the weapon that killed their father blowing up on her, Kragog steals the leadership role under her nose.
- At the end of Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, Eggman is so outraged that Sonic has ruined his plans for the Super Genesis Wave that he deliberately interferes with Sonic's Reset Button attempt, declaring that he would rather let reality be destroyed than let Sonic restore it to the way it was. Not only does his interference directly result in a Cosmic Retcon, but the residual energy left behind by the Super Genesis Wave ends up ripping Sonic's World apart and awakening Dark Gaia, leading into a Sonic Unleashed adaptation. With all of this, Eggman admits that his actions were "a bit hasty."
- Princess Undina thought she could use pirates to her advantage to travel the world, since she was too valuable a ransom, as well as the fact she can use the Mystic Melody to locate ruins which could potentially contain treasure as payment for the travels. However, considering she was dealing with pirates, she didn't take into account the fact that they would be too greedy to listen to reason about certain warnings on the ruins they raided, or the fact that they may discard her if they get something more valuable. She especially gets worried when Shellbreaker admits to wanting to invade her home once he get his hands on a supposed weapon she found.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
- In Issue 18: Sonic comes across two villagers who opt to burn down the forest around Cream's village to prevent the Metal Virus from spreading. Sonic furiously calls them out on this, pointing out that though it'll stop them from getting infected and prevent the virus from spreading, they'll just get consumed by the forest fire instead; the villagers in question can only stammer in response, having failed to consider that.Sonic: Cream gets to hang out with me because she's got some sense!
- Orbot reveals to Dr. Starline that this is one of the main reasons Eggman always loses: he has big ideas and big executions but often rushes things without thinking long-term and devolves into his hatred of Sonic, which costs him every time. No better is this displayed than in the Metal Virus arc. While Starline opted to conduct more tests to realize the extent of its capabilities, Eggman decides to use it the moment it appears to work, reasoning that he can fix any bugs later as they crop up. This leads to the Zombots slowly getting out of control, to the point they begin to disregard Eggman's vocal commands.
- Ironically, Dr. Starline himself falls into this when he gets sick of Eggman's shortsightedness regarding the Metal Virus and elects to take matters into his own hands. Starline's solution is to bring in the Deadly Six to control the Zombots, using the Cacophonous Conch to keep them under his control. However, Starline finds out too late that the conch only works as long as his lungs last, effectively making it useless once he needs to catch his breath, and he didn't have a backup plan in the event he lost it; the minute he lets his guard down, the Deadly Six snatch the conch right out of his hands and hijack the Zombots for their own purposes, which of course just makes the situation even worse. Zavok even lampshades this.
Zavok: What was that about a "lack of foresight"?- In Issue 26: Apparently no one thought that sending Gemerl (a robot) up against a Zeti (who can control machines) was a bad idea. Likewise Cream's insistence on coming and jumping into the portal against his wishes ended up putting her in danger as she didn't have much of a plan other than trying to shame Zeena into giving up.
- In Issue 18: Sonic comes across two villagers who opt to burn down the forest around Cream's village to prevent the Metal Virus from spreading. Sonic furiously calls them out on this, pointing out that though it'll stop them from getting infected and prevent the virus from spreading, they'll just get consumed by the forest fire instead; the villagers in question can only stammer in response, having failed to consider that.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Spider-Man:
- Doctor Octopus' plan in the storyline Ends of the Earth. With the evil doc dying, Doc Ock plans to flash-fry the Earth, leaving approximately .08 percent of humanity to live on and remember him as the greatest monster that ever lived. However, Spidey points out a glaring flaw in this plan: they'll live. Brain dead, their brains flash-fried, too. Doc Ock flips.
- In the Spider-Man's Tangled Web story arc "The Coming of the Thousand", Carl King witnessed the radioactive spider biting Peter, which gave him the idea to do the same and get spider-powers himself. He decided to break into the exhibition building to acquire one for himself... but it was only after he did so that he realized that he had no idea how to irradiate a spider, and the spider that bit Peter was dead, which left him with "Plan B" — eating the spider's corpse.
- of Spider-Girl: In one issue, Mayday decides to swap out her classic red and blues for a snazzy black and white getup. What she doesn't realize is that her mom, Mary Jane, suffers from PTSD ever since Eddie Brock showed up in her apartment with the symbiote all the way back in Amazing Spider-Man #300. Thus, when she returns home wearing the costume in front of Mary Jane and her little brother Benjy, her mom panics. May is understandably upset by what she did.
- Suicide Squad: In Suicide Squad 1987, former NSC agent Tolliver and corrupt Senator Cray try to get Amanda Waller to get Cray re-elected or they'll expose the Squad to the public. After killing Tolliver, Rick Flagg confronts Cray at gunpoint and illustrates how stupid it is to blackmail a team made up of super-villains.Flagg: When you set out to blackmail the Squad, Senator, didn't you realize you were trying to coerce thugs and killers? Ruthless people. Didn't it ever occur to you that the easiest way of dealing with you was to kill you?
- Supergirl:
- In Red Daughter of Krypton, Supergirl used her heat vision on a blood maelstrom conjured by Atrocitus, and accidentally burned half city down instead of destroying the maelstrom.
- In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, villain Belinda Zee uses her "Superior Vision" on Streaky (Supergirl's pet cat), and accidentally turns him into a sabertooth tiger.Superior Girl: That was not my best plan.
- In Supergirl (2005) #3, Supergirl decides to fight Lex Luthor alone. Quickly she realizes her plan is not a brilliant one.Supergirl: Two seconds and I know. I'm in way over my head.
- In Supergirl (2005) #20 — a tie-in to the reviled Amazons Attack storyline — she and Wonder Girl hijack Air Force One because they think they could end the war by making the President sit down in the same room with the Amazon Queen. When things went south very, very quickly she realized that it was a big mistake.
- In Supergirl (2005) Annual #2, Brainiac 5 was analyzing how a mystical statue reacted to different kinds of energy, and he accidentally turned it into a kind of super-bomb. He admitted that it was not a very good plan.Brainiac 5: It’s a ten-thousand-year-old Brocian hunting statue! Rumored by natives to have "magical" properties when struck by lightning, so I was analyzing its reception to other kinds of energy!
Supergirl: Okay! So what did you hit it with?
Brainiac-5: Uh, I opened the timestream and bombarded it with chronon energy.
Supergirl: WHAT?
Brainiac-5: Obviously that wasn't the best of my ideas!
Supergirl: So what's it doing now?
Brainiac-5: Based on my readings, I'm pretty sure I just created a magical time bomb. And if my calculations are correct, we've got less than four seconds to live.
- The comic tie-in for The Super Hero Squad Show features the story "Two-Ton Squaddies" where the Blob accidentally touches a Fractal which transfers his powers to the Squaddies. Doctor Doom convinces Blob to keep holding the Fractal so the heroes will be too fat to stop him. He learns too late the Fractal didn't just make them fat, it gave the heroes Blob's strength and invulnerability on top of their usual abilities which lets them stop his other underlings with ease.
- Superior: The demon Omron tricks young Simon into trading away his soul to become the super hero Superior. With time winding down before his deadline to avoid being thrown into the depths of Hell, Omron celebrates his first soul...until friend Madeline points out the problem: Omron has made Superior into a being who is, for all intents and purposes, immortal. And if Superior can never die...then how is Omron going to collect his soul?
- Superman:
- The Pre-Crisis origin of Bizarro is a result of Lex Luthor using a duplicator ray to make a duplicate of Superman, assuming that the resulting Bizarro would want to help him. Instead, Bizarro teams up with Superman and arrest Luthor. He still ended up causing trouble for Superman shortly afterwards, not that it helped Luthor, though.
- Krypton No More, super-villain Protector wants to defeat Superman... so he bursts into the Fortress of Solitude and attacks both Superman and Supergirl. He gets his butt royally kicked and has to run away at the first opportunity.
- In War World:
- Alien overlord Mongul blackmails Superman into retrieving a special key. Superman intended to play along, retrieve the Key and then try to thwart Mongul. Unfortunately, Superman had no plan ready to handle him.
- When Supergirl and Superman face up to the super-weapon Warworld, Superman decides to play decoy to test Warworld's missiles' power. Right before being hit by one of them, Superman realizes that massive thing can kill him.
- Doomsday was created through this — his creator, the scientist Bertron, sought to make the Ultimate Life Form and spent three decades constantly murdering a baby and having it cloned over and over again. He honestly had no idea what to do when he actually survived to reach that level. Or the fact that its deaths were genetically imprinted into him and he sought revenge.
- The Superman Adventures: In one of the one-page stories featured in Issue #41, Mxyzptlk tries to get around the saying his name backwards issue by pulling Superman into his dimension instead of going into Superman's. Superman simply says "Namrepus" twice and goes back home. Mxy's girlfriend even comments that he's "really got to start thinking these plans out better".
- A secret cabal of criminals in Metropolis has a member who's setting fires as part of an insurance scam. He bribes a kid to say Superman did it, claiming it'll be a good distraction. His boss chews him out for honestly thinking anyone in Metropolis is going to believe Superman is going around setting fires for no reason. By trying to make it look that way, the guy has simply ensured that Superman and the fire department realize something is up and start looking for the real arsonist. Indeed, the kid makes the accusation and after a bit of worrying, realizes he's lying about it. Even the kid is told he messed up by actively lying to law enforcement.
- That same guy is killed by an enforcer who drops him from the sky in the middle of Metropolis. The cabal's reporter ally immediately tries to put together a "SUPERMAN MURDERS MAN" front page for The Daily Planet. Perry White's response to her attempt can be summed up as "so Superman, for no reason, kills a low-level thug in broad daylight in the middle of the city? And the only "proof" is eyewitnesses seeing a red blur which could easily be Bizarro, a shapeshifter or a dozen different flying people in costume? And somehow, Superman did all this when he was on film helping the Justice League fight Starro across the country at the same time?" Needless to say, the story does not see print.
- In Adventure Comics #298, the Kent Family returns to Smallville after being on vacation and are shocked to see most of the townspeople have become morbidly obese, including Clark's friends Lana Lang and Pete Ross. It's at school the following day the science teacher discovers the cause of the obesity epidemic was due to irradiated milk, which Clark is in the process of drinking. Being Superboy, Clark's immune to radiation so the milk won't affect him which is sure to expose his secret identity. To keep up appearances, he exposes himself to a certain type of red kryptonite (which is known to cause random changes to Kryptonians) and quickly grows fat. It's only after the change occurs he realizes if everyone sees Superboy has gained weight too, he'll be just as likely exposed the same as if he'd remained thin. He then spends the rest of the story hiding his altered physique while performing feats as Superboy until a cure for the obesity epidemic is found.
- Teen Titans: Cheshire, known enemy of the Teen Titans and mother to Roy Harper's daughter, once held the world for ransom with an arsenal of stolen nukes. To prove she wasn't kidding around, she dropped one on the country of Qurac and laughed as it burned. This act of nuclear genocide for the sake of monetary gain got her labeled as an irredeemable monster by the nations of the world, while Quraci survivors and those who lost loved ones in the devastation want her head on a spike. In her desperation to prove how dangerous she was, Cheshire never once stopped to think about the aftermath regardless if she got the money.
- The Transformers (Marvel): In one UK issue, Wheeljack brings the Autobots outside of their base to show off his brand new security system for it. Prowl askes if there's a way to shut it down, only for Wheeljack to boast that it can only be shut down from inside the base. Prowl proceeds to point to every Autobot standing outside.Grimlock: Me not believe this! You mean we can't get into our own base?! AAAAH!
- The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Melissa frames Squirrel Girl for attacks involving animals in New York. Even when she's beaten, Melissa gloats Doreen will never be able to prove herself and Melissa will get away with it. At which point, the cops are hit by numerous messages from just about every other hero in the Marvel Universe speaking up for Squirrel Girl and how they know she's innocent. It never seemed to occur to Melissa trying to frame someone so loved in the super-hero community was a bad idea.
- The Wastelands: In the setting of Old Man Logan, the villains' plan to team up to kill every superhero lead to a world where no one got what they wanted, because (as Count Nefaria, who's become a washed-up barfly, laments), they forgot to account that 1) Superheroes weren't the only option to try to deal with them, just the most-effective and least-destructive, and 2) All the villains had no idea what to do with each other beyond 'murder all the heroes'. Without superheroes to check the villains, governments resorted to desperate, but conventional measures- like nukes, which didn't kill most of the villains, but sure reduced the property values on the world they wanted to rule. And without an active foe to oppose, the villains couldn't work together long enough to fix said nuked wasteland, and are instead reduced to carving out petty fiefdoms or retiring from villainy entirely.
- Played for tragedy in a one-shot science-fiction story published in "Uncanny Tales" #18 (March, 1954). A dictator by the codename "Mister X" uses ruthless methods to conquer the entire known universe, while killing allies or employees who he did not trust enough. The end result has him as the sole-surviving sentient being, ruling vast areas, and served by robots who try to pamper him. He has no goals left to strive for, nobody to talk to, and his life is monotonous. Feeling miserable, he commits suicide by poison.
- X-Men:
- Strongly implied as the main problem for Fabian Cortez, a traditional X-Men villain, in his 2020s stories. In 30 years of stories, Fabian has developed a modus operandi: He convinces people that he is a useful ally for them, then works to undermine them. The end result of having used this plan far too often: nobody trusts him, nobody likes him, and he is treated with cold indifference when trying to suggest plans. While talking to Nightcrawler, Fabian reveals that many of his plans were misguided attempts to prove his own importance, or misguided attempts to get people to like him. Not only have these attempts backfired to a great degree, Nightcrawler points out that Fabian has grown to disdain himself due to his methods.
- The entire X-Men: The Krakoan Age saga can be chalked up to this. Krakoa was an island nation by mutants for mutants. However, Xavier's attempts to avoid the genocides Moira saw in her other timelines only gave fuel to their downfall. The nation had the heroic mutants work with more unscrupulous mutants. This lead to moments where their they actively worked to undermine the nation. As well, the laws were either incredibly vague or too narrow, leading to a load of problems including an abundance of abandoned children and the uncertainty of reviving certain mutants.
- Wonder Woman: In Wonder Woman: The True Amazon, Diana thinks that the unleashed monsters will be simple to defeat again, ignoring that everyone around here is completely unprepared and focused on winning the Contest.
