Even Evil Has Standards / Comic Books

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The following have their own pages:

• The DCU
• Marvel Universe
• Transformers

Examples:

Intercompany crossovers

• Pictured on the main page: In Batman & Captain America, The Joker abruptly ends a partnership with Red Skull when his Nazi affiliation comes out. Red Skull simply wonders why he is so surprised when he thinks that the Joker would make a great Nazi. Almost immediately, Joker drops his usual wise-cracking personality, and is VISIBLY NOT happy about this, proclaiming that while he may be a criminal lunatic, he's an American criminal lunatic! Yes, folks, even an equal-opportunity murderer like the Joker despises the Nazis!^note The Joker had originally thought that Red Skull was just dressing up as a Nazi as a sort of theme, which he approved of because it sounded like great trolling.
  • One thing that could explain this is that the Joker is in some ways the opposite of the Nazis and Red Skull. He's very random in his killing, does anything he can to get a laugh, and is just generally insane. The Nazis are a dead serious organization which looks down their noses on those with mental illnesses and who have a very systematic and bureaucratic method of killing, with no sense of humor. Another school of thought follows a Paul Provenza quote: "Comedy is inherently subversive," and one of the biggest things that an authoritarian worldview cannot stand for is subversion, meaning that a Monster Clown like the Joker is inherently incompatible with a fascist sociopath like Red Skull.
  • Still, The Joker is the incarnation of Depending on the Writer, and that was one of the tamer versions, based on the 1940s incarnation who was giggling and flamboyant, but not psychotic at all. Some other versions probably wouldn't have given a damn, if they'd even partner with anyone else at all. Also, there's a short story in one of the Batman prose collections where the Joker falls in love/lust/something with a female Nazi, and, to get on her good side, eagerly helps the Reich with its war plans. Though it turns out to be all All Just a Dream, brought on during one of his shock therapy treatments at Arkham Asylum.
  • Joker again shows this with the most literal meaning of "standards" in Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds where he teamed up with Carnage. The two worked fine until it was time to actually kill their intended targets. Joker wanted to do things in his usual "artistic"/"funny" way and was annoyed and slightly disgusted at Carnage's plan to just brutally eviscerate them, leading to an argument that quickly escalated. Carnage for his part is bored by Joker's schemes and sees him ruining the fun and simplicity of murder.
  • A similar thing happened during the Judge Dredd crossover Die Laughing. Here, the Joker made himself a deal with the Dark Judges in exchange for immortality (which they achieved by killing him and making him one of them). Only for the man who laughs to quickly find himself bored out of his skull and not to mention just a bit disturbed helping the dark judges with their 'Holy Mission' and systematic slaughtering. Death even called him out that he might just not be cut out to be a dark judge.
• In Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus join forces to create a worldwide hurricane, to blackmail the planet for ten billion dollars. Eventually, however, Luthor reveals that no matter whether they get paid or not, he's going to let the storm run rampant and wipe out humanity to pay them back for laughing at him. This is too much for Doc Ock, and he smashes the machine generating the hurricane.

Others

• 2000 AD:
  • In one of the later stories of Nemesis the Warlock, Big Bad Torquemada is sent time-travelling, where he eventually encounters his namesake (and past incarnation), often considered the face of the Spanish Inquisition. The historical Torquemada takes his namesake prisoner and starts torturing him, but the future Torquemada is impervious and instead happily regales his past self with stories of the things he has done in the future, using lessons building upon those of many of his past incarnations, but especially his namesake's and Adolf Hitler's. The historical Torquemada is horrified by the things he hears, and the fact of how he will be remembered in the future as a vehemently racist bigoted psychopathic monster, rather than the humble follower of God's creed that he has always seen himself as, leads him to a prominent Heel Realisation.
  • Button Man: Harry is a brutal and efficient killer in the Killing Game, but when he was called in to take out Adele's father along with three other guys to punish the man for trying to get out of the Game, he refused on the basis that he's not some cheap thug for hire.
• In the original Aliens vs. Predator comic miniseries that kicked the crossover off, the clan leader kills one of the younger hunters when he sees a child's skull in the other's trophy bag. That is part of the Predators' code — only those who can defend themselves, otherwise it's not sporting.
• In American Flagg!, Titania Weis, a devoted fascist and member of an explicitly Nazi-inspired political party, objects to plans by the even worse American Survivalist Labor Committee to kill the entire population of Chicago with poison gas.
• In Athena Voltaire and the Brotherhood of Shambalha, Desmond Forsyth says that Ethan Storm studied under Aleister Crowley (who, in real life, got dubbed "the wickedest man in the world"), but that Crowley "found Storm to be too intent on exploring the dark side... which is saying a lot".
• Archie Comics: Jason Blossom is a full-blown jerkass, but even he has boundaries. When Jason's best friend Cedric sabotages Dilton (with with a planned "accident") to have Pembrooke Academy (his and Jason's school then) win a quiz show, but Big Moose manages to win on the sports questions. When Cedric complains loudly about a wasted effort it was to put Dilton out of commission to Jason backstage, Moose overhears about what really happened, and then proceeds to clobber Cedric for what he did to his "little buddy." Jason, understandably, congratulates the Riverdale team and leaves Cedric hurting.
• The Red River Private Military Contractors in The Boys is closely aligned with Vought-American, a corrupt company behind the existence of superpowered individuals, in VA's quest for control over the US government. They prove to be very competent and ruthless, most notably when they wipe out the Captain Ersatz of the X-Men with frightening ease. They're amoral enough to be willing to take on nearly any job Vought throws at them, even potentially the assassination of the President of the United States, but they draw the line at killing kids.
  • Five-Oh calls Silver Kincaid selfish for killing herself in public.
• Darth Vader in Dark Times, due to his past as a slave on Tatooine, is uncomfortable with how the Empire is selling former separatists into slavery, even confronting Emperor Palpatine about it. Palpatine gives a half-hearted apology and excuse about the greater good of the Empire, which Vader accepts, but is clearly still unsettled.
• In Darkwing Duck, Steelbeak isn't pulling a Heel–Face Turn, but unleashing Duckthulu? Even he has his limits. Only not really.
• Diabolik has many villains to whom this applies, starting from the title character:
  • Diabolik would die rather than harm a child (literally; during a chase, he once deliberately crashed his car and risked arrest and execution rather than running over a kid), and tries to limit the number of people he murders to those strictly necessary. Also, he always keeps his word and oaths, to the point that when he testified at a trial under a fake identity and identified the defendant as responsible for the murder of a mob boss the police and the mobster's son took him at face value, even after he was exposed, precisely because he had sworn to tell the truth.
  • The above also goes for Eva Kant, Diabolik's lover, though she also has higher standards: she has a strong dislike for trophy hunting (though she has no issue about hunting to eat), and has at times gone out of her way to correct unjust acts. On one notable occasion, she showed up at a trial in disguise to testify against a particularly heinous murder, the defendant and his lawyer realized her real identity, and not only she made no attempt to escape as she wanted to make sure the defendant was convicted, the judge and jury took her testimony even more seriously because she was Eva Kant and had sworn to tell the truth about that case.
  • Related to Eva there's her uncle, lord Anthony Kant. Guilty of many crimes including talking Eva's father into dumping his lover and sending Eva to the hellish orphanage of Morben, murdering his brother and many others, theft, spying, and rape, he nonetheless draws the line to incest, to the point that when the woman he had married earlier that day revealed herself as his niece Eva aiming to regain her family name he recoiled in horror even before she pointed out what kind of blackmail material she now had on him.
• In Die!namite Lives a character crossover series involving a Zombie Apocalypse, Evil Ernie's symbiotic badge Smiley is horrified when he discovers just how many people in the past, his latest host Jennifer Blood had murdered, criminal and innocent.
• Dilbert example: Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light and former ruler of Heck, looks for a job.
  Phil: I would probably be good at any job involving sin.
  Dogbert: Marketing?
  Phil: I have a soul... it's just a small one.
• John D. Rockerduck from the Disney Ducks Comic Universe. His standards are Depending on the Writer, but unlike Flintheart Glomgold, he is usually Affably Evil and is never portrayed as willing to stoop to murder.
• Djinn: Sultan Murati is a manipulative and ruthless monarch who has no problem ordering the death of any woman in his seraglio once he grows bored with them. Having said that, he is disturbed when he discovers that his previous favorite's little daughter was murdered alongside her mother. When a British lady becomes one of his harem girls, he assures the outraged diplomats that he is not a brute that forced her into it, that she went along of her own free will and she is free to leave whenever she wants to. When he steps down from power (partly because he doesn't have much to live), he frees the women in his harem.
• While not quite evil, Sistah Spooky pushed aside her severe dislike of Empowered to warn her of an upcoming Humiliation Conga. Even she didn't like seeing what had happened before happen again, even to Empowered.
  • In what may or may not be an example of this or What You Are in the Dark, Mindfuck claims that she is only a good person because she used her powers to completely rewrite her personality and that she used to be a terrible person. She did this after being mutilated by her brother and deciding she wanted to be nothing like him. It's uncertain whether she actually was as bad as she thought, or if it's just her self-doubt in the face of her fellow heroes for whom being good just comes naturally.
  • This behavior is justified for the "average" villains. There are what are called the "unwritten rules" about how a villain should treat captured superheroes (most notably, no killing or raping.) These rules are followed because any villain who breaks them is going to get the normally divided and unreliable superhero community to band together and crush anyone who does. It's not standards on the part of the villains (Well, except for Wet Blanket), but rather simple pragmatism. Villains who do break these rules have the power to successfully fight off massive teams of superheroes singlehandedly. This leads to the bizarre dichotomy of villains either being Silver Age style or something that is The Joker at his worst. Only made of fire.
  • Exploited by Emp later on, to get out of the clutches of a villain posse by revealing one of them is a Republican.
    Black Mechamamba: We're technically supposed to be evil, sure — but now you've turned EEEEVIL evil, Zee!
• In the Zombie Apocalypse comic Feast, a group of escaped convicts (all particularly dangerous and violent ones) are trapped on the upper floor of a shop surrounded by the hungry dead. When they realize that there's one guy there who they don't know what he's in for, they press him for it until another inmate pipes up that he recognizes him, and he's in for raping and murdering children. Upon this revelation, the lead convict immediately grabs the guy and throws him out the window to the zombies. One of the cons is also a serial rapist, and when they need some bait to distract the zombies and a con asks who, the one good con says "Who do you think?" Cut to the rapist in handcuffs running from the zombies while screaming "FUCK YOU GUYS!"
• One story in the horror comic Flinch had a necrophiliac dig up a new wife from the graveyard, a victim of a local serial killer. Dragging her across the road, he's struck by a car, which turns out to be driven by said serial killer, who recognizes his victim...and reacts to the dead necrophiliac with disgust; "Torture and murder is one thing...But messing with a corpse? You got to be sick for that kind of thing."
• In Garfield: His 9 Lives the Incredibly Huge Galactic War Fleet claims to have no hearts. However, they do "appreciate a tidy ship," and so give Garfield two extra minutes to get his spaceship cleaned up before they atomize him.
• G.I. Joe:
  • The G.I.Joe villain Destro. He runs a weapon production empire that makes profit off war. He *starts* wars just to sell bombs to both sides. The Joes know they can work well with Destro, as the man keeps his word. In one instance, Destro rescued General Hawk because other generals were going to have Hawk killed to cover up a public relations debacle. Later, Destro lets a Joe unit go free because they had eliminated a kill squad shooting at his beloved Baroness.
  • A Villain Episode “Special Missions” one-shot depicted a Cobra strike team attacking a hospital. Two operatives, armor division captain Rip-It and aerial infiltrator Sky Creeper, are aghast to discover that their objective is to kidnap a newborn baby — the son of Destro and the Baroness. They’re executed for questioning Cobra Commander’s vision on the flight back to base.
• Hunter Rose, protagonist of the early Grendel stories by Matt Wagner, was a sadistic, sociopathic crime-lord/hired assassin, who made a point of suppressing all underage prostitution within New York. In his first-ever appearance, he cheerfully guts the head of the largest child prostitution ring in the city, commenting "I no like dat."
  • Also, he will not kill in front of a child, even if it leaves witnesses to one of his crimes. Not intentionally, anyway.
• Baron Konig in Hellboy miniseries B.P.R.D.: 1947 is a cruel Vampire Monarch that regards humans as cattle, yet he completely loathes Those Wacky Nazis for betraying another vampire lord that tried to form an alliance with Hitler, who was so creeped out by him that he ordered his execution. Granted, Konig didn't like his kinsman very much and agreed he got what was coming for even considering making a deal with his "inferiors", but what truly appalled him was the Nazis performing experiments on said vampire's brides to create a weapon for themselves.
• Iznogoud: Iznogoud might be a cruel, petty, greedy, and ambitious Evil Chancellor, but he is disgusted when he catches his executioner trying to get himself paid for mercy, and delivers a speech saying mercy should never be bought.
• The Misfits in Jem and the Holograms (IDW) are Jerk Asses but murderers they are not. They refuse to talk about or even acknowledge Clash's attempted murder of their rival Jem.
• Subverted by Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. Johnny is a mass murderer who repeatedly kills scores of people for 'offenses' such as chewing in an annoying manner or using the word "wacky" and has a several floors-deep Torture Cellar. Upon learning that his own antics have inspired an Ascended Fanboy serial killer who also turns out to be a rapist he becomes extremely disgusted, as it is the one line Johnny himself will not cross. However, Johnny states outright that this limitation gives him no absolution: He regularly does things to his victims just as bad as rape, and his aversion to rape isn't so much a standard as it is a natural result of his hatred of physical contact and giving in to bodily desires.
  • Johnny does have a standard that isn't used in that scene, however: He never harms children (intentionally). He also seems to be protective of his neighbor Squee, in his own warped way, especially when he rips apart the pedophile who's taken Squee out behind the mall.
    "Your flaw. At least I'm under the delusion of doing something productive."
• Kick-Ass:
  • Averted in Volume 2, Issue 4, when Red Mist guns down a group of children. Then proceeds to kill the main character's love interest's mother and father and gang rape her with two of his henchmen. Though one could argue that the way the first volume ended she wasn't an entirely sympathetic character at that point. On the other hand, the book doesn't make any effort to justify her rape. Well, one of his Mooks asked whether it was really necessary. The others were outright disgusted with Motherfucker and with themselves, but they did as told. They outright declare that the rape was going too far, but again they don't do anything about it.
  • In the following issue, Vic Gigante tells Red Mist that his gang isn't getting any special treatment anymore, and that the police force & the various mafia families are gunning for them now.
• Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated: Knuckles captured a member of the cult that tortured Thorina. Knowing that Knuckles intended to kill him, and knowing also the Untouchable Trio's notorious reputation for greed and selfishness, the cultist tried to persuade Knuckles to join his cult instead, offering lavish rewards. Knuckles mentally pictured himself torturing Thorina, and then promptly killed the cultist, saying, "Sorry, bud, but even I've got standards."
• The Hutts in Legacy undergo this after Vul Isen callously slaughters refugees fleeing the genocide of Dac (which incidentally, he carried out). The Hutts might be corrupt, but killing innocent refugees/potential customers is apparently the line they cannot tolerate. Given that the nephew of a high-ranking Hutt died for sheltering them, revenge is partially responsible.
• The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: Soapy Slick and his men take great enjoyment in mocking Scrooge by reading his letters and calling him a Momma's Boy... but said men all stop laughing immediately when Soapy informs Scrooge his mother has died and laughs in his face over it.
• Modesty Blaise, during her criminal career (the series starts when her retirement becomes too boring) was always very strict about rejecting drug dealing and prostitution, and no violence against innocents was allowed. In fact, she often did pro-bono attacks on procurers. And when she was set up to traffic drugs in return for the life of a friend, she chose NOT to traffic drugs. She was also against killing, unless it was absolutely necessary, preferring to knock out people who got in her way. Also, she gave her henchmen pension funds, when she retired her operations. It's hard to consider her a villain at all.
• In a Dragon Nodwick strip parodying Dungeons & Dragons's "Slave Pits of the Undercity" module, evil slave lords Blackthorn and Markessa are shocked, appalled, and disgusted when Artax pretends to be a merchant seeking slaves to staff his chain of convenience stores.
  Piffany: I told you: even they have standards!
• In the Italian Disney stories about Paperinik the Devilish Avenger (Donald Duck's vigilante secret identity), Paperinik has committed his fair share of crimes (his first story sees him stealing Scrooge's mattress while he's sleeping on it, and he's beaten up and humiliated other characters and the police many times, even throwing Gladstone down the wall of a castle before the whole population of Duckburg), but he always drew the line at gratuitous crimes and actually profiting from them (at worst he forces people who stole from him as Donald to pay him back more money than they stole from him), resulting in him capturing and handing to the police about half of Duckburg's criminal population.
• The Powerpuff Girls #57 (Feb. 2005): In "Presents Of Mine," Him persuades Buttercup to use her share of the girls' allowance (with which they planned on buying something for the Professor) into buying something for herself. But when the Gangreen Gang starts stealing toys from a charity bin, it cheeses Him off ("Even I wouldn't stoop to something that rotten!") and he helps the girls lay an unholy smackdown on the Gang. (And this is a villain that is supposed to be either the Devil himself or something very close. Go figure.)
• This is what drives the plot of The Red Ten. Oxymoron is a twisted and murderous sociopath who would kill an innocent person just for the hell of it...yet even he's appalled when he realized just about every member of the super-team the Alliance is guilty of heinous crimes that make him look like a minor crook. As he says, at least he acknowledges what kind of monster he is rather than hiding it under the veneer of a hero.
• Saga: The Will, an unrepentant Professional Killer, reacts to being offered the services of a child sex slave by rescuing her and killing her owner. One of the late sex trafficker's associates Lampshades it by wondering why a man whose business might involve killing children is showing such moral outrage.
• In one issue of Simpsons Comics, Mr. Burns tricks Homer into starring in a deadly game show. While Homer struggles to get through a maze full of traps, Burns sits in a control room pondering what to throw at him. We're shown some very dangerous and downright cruel things... but he draws the line at making Homer listen to James Cameron's infamous Oscar acceptance speech on a continuous loop, as he's "still a human being".
• In the retelling of Sleeping Beauty featured in Castle Waiting, Satan himself proves to have standards. Disgusted with the evil witch being willing to curse an innocent baby then subvert the attempts to get around her curse, he disguises himself as the Opinicus (a griffin-like creature) and carries her off to Hell personally. The demon Leeds complains that he loses more friends that way.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • If you're a Grandmaster of the Dark Legion, expect to face off against this trope eventually; former Omnicidal Maniac Dimitri has a lot of these, ever since his depowerment, most notably his balking at reviving his previous Superpowered Evil Side Enerjak, even though it would've restored him to health (even going so far as to warn his enemy Knuckles of Enerjak's return); and his usurper and current Grandmaster Lien-Da, who has no problems with performing Klingon Promotions and Mind Controlling the Legion as a way of gaining status, or torturing a former ally to death with a smile on her face, turns on her ally Shadow in the Mobius: X Years Later storyline, after it's revealed he's going to destroy the world with an Eldritch Abomination.
    • Upon his Face–Heel Turn, Geoffrey St. John admits in Issue 235 that while he isn't always trustworthy, he does respect his adversaries. He even admits that what happened to Sally and Antoine isn't what he wanted and sympathizes with Sonic over what happened with Sally. He's horrified to learn in Universe 43 that Naugus plans Mass Hypnosis over the Acorn Council, an equivalent of roboticization. He believes that some lines need to be crossed to make things change, but Naugus' plan just goes too far.
    • In Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, Dr. Wily is shown to be bothered when he finds out that the Roboticized Masters, which Dr. Eggman helped to create using an altered roboticization process on Sonic's friends, have no real personality (which Eggman, having a history with betrayal by his more intelligent creations, considers a feature rather than a bug). Wily's willing to let this slide for the sake of their partnership, though the final straw for him is Eggman's attempt to kill Dr. Light; Wily had only ever wanted to best and humiliate Light, not kill him. The revelation that the Super Genesis Wave could potentially destroy both their worlds doesn't sit well with Wily either, while Eggman assures him that they could rebuild their worlds however they wanted, making any damage irrelevant.
  • In Sonic the Comic, Robotnik's right-hand man Grimer thinks Robotnik is going too far by trying to destroy Mobius. The second time Robotnik tries to destroy Mobius Grimer quits working for him.
• Street Fighter:
  • Despite being a merciless killer throughout much of his life, Gen refuses to murder a young Chun-Li after she sees him kill Geki, even though the assassin's code he follows forbids him from leaving witnesses. The moment serves as Gen's turning point, and leads to him vowing to never kill again.
  • Crimson Viper breaks her cover to rescue Sakura after she realizes S.I.N. will torture and likely kill the teen.
• The Big Bad of Trolls de Troy, when he learns what Waha's biological mother has in mind for her daughter (she's a prostitute turned madam and wants Waha to follow in her footsteps), decides to throw her off his dragon's back to her death far, far below.
• Über: Sieglinde and Siegmund are disgusted by the level of sadistic glee that their fellow Über, Siegfried, takes in his atrocities. After Siegfried single-handedly massacres hundreds of thousands of Soviet POWS on Hitler's orders, Sieglinde notes that if it had been her, she'd have refused.
• Despite being an Ax-Crazy Psychopathic Manchild operating on Blue-and-Orange Morality, Negan from The Walking Dead has a surprising number of standards. First, he wholeheartedly believes in Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil, to the point that he has been willing to execute his own men out of disgust at seeing them commit rape, and been willing to fight to save strangers who were about to be raped. Second, he despises cowards and betrayers, and on several occasions, he killed or otherwise refused to work with people who wanted to sell out their own side to him. (By contrast, he shows much more respect to opponents who stand up to him.) Lastly, he loathes the Social Darwinist outlook, particularly their attitude towards weaker people, and at one point he gives another character a "The Reason You Suck" Speech over it that would be a Kirk Summation if it was coming from someone more heroic.
  Negan: Maybe you fucking nutcases need me. Because if that's how you do things, you're so fucked in the head you might as well be dead bodies pretending you're still fucking alive. That shit is vile, Alpha. You should be ashamed of yourself. (...) Protecting the weak is the whole fucking basis for civilization. If you're not protecting the weak, you're not civilized. You're fucking animals.
• The Comedian in Watchmen was a Token Evil Teammate to the other heroes, being a Practically Joker Straw Nihilist who concluded that life is a joke, and the only sane response to cruelty and suffering (which he enjoyed inflicting on others) is to laugh. But he stumbles across a diabolical plot so monstrous that he can't laugh it off, resulting in a Villainous BSoD that gets him killed when he blurts out what he knows to the wrong person.
• In W.I.T.C.H. Nerissa, an insane villain whose endgame included an act that could have destroyed the entire universe, identifies the Tower of Mists as Kandrakar's prison and admits that even she is terrified of the inmates. Considering that her crime against Kandrakar back when she was one of the Guardians was murdering her best friend and fellow Guardian and threatening Kandrakar with absolute destruction and was not imprisoned in the Tower, that speaks a lot of the inmates besides Phobos.
• In Witch Girls Tales, Card-Carrying Villain Princess Lucinda tends to make statements along the lines of this trope when justifying her Noble Demon tendencies. Well, either that or turn the person who dares to doubt her evil into a frog.

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