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I love how when I was a kid you could always tell the bad mofos on tv because they were always dressed in black and leather, had scars and had more muscles than a seabed. Now, the toughest of the badasses looks so normal on the outside. They look like they could do your taxes. But on the inside, they could kill you with their pinkie.
Gordon Freeman, theoretical physicist, holder of a Ph.D. and crowbar, and One Man Army. "Look buddy. I'm an engineer. That means I solve problems. Not problems like "What is beauty?" because that would fall under the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems. For instance, how am I going to stop some big mean motherhubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous behind? The answer: use a gun. And if that doesn't work, use more gun."
This character is a quiet smart guy who is physically unimposing, naive and softspoken but with hidden depths of formidable physical and practical skills that no one except perhaps his closest friends suspect exist.
Typically, s/he is in an All Of The Other Reindeer and/or The So Called Coward situation where most everyone around the character sneers at the bookworm's unusually innovative ideas and his quietly thoughtful nature. To them, they are proof that the character is a muddle-headed egghead who is no match for them, so killing him and his friends should be a snap to further their plans.
However, when that's tried, the villains learn to their sorrow how gravely they've underestimated the character as he wipes the floor with them. For instance especially in fantasy settings, the bookworm reveals that his "all A's education" extends into combat skills like swordsmanship and archery. Coupled with the proper motivation such as The Power Of Friendship, he becomes a living buzzsaw when forced to fight and often has additional training in strategy and tactics that would make Hannibal proud. Even worse, he could know arcane fighting techniques like nerve strikes that can reduce the biggest bruiser into a fetal position of pain with one touch. In modern settings, they usually are ridiculously accurate with handguns, sometimes noting that working on electronics takes really steady hands.
Furthermore, his unusual ideas turn out to be brilliant weapons and/or tactics that make him all but invincible.
In short, he may be an "egghead", but it's his enemies who get egg in their faces.
Note this is a different trope from the typical Secret Identity superhero like early Peter Spider Man Parker as no one suspects the nerd to be the superhero.
Closely related to, and overlaps with, the Genius Bruiser. In general, a Badass Bookworm looks like your standard geek, but then displays a surprising amount of physical prowess, whereas a Genius Bruiser looks huge and powerfully muscled, then unexpectedly shows off an intellectual side.
May overlap with Hot Librarian. If the "egghead" seems sufficiently divorced from reality, it may lead to a Crouching Moron Hidden Badass. Strangely it rarely overlaps with The Chessmaster or other similar archetypes where being a bookworm allows them to be badass. Also compare the Adventurer Archaeologist - a bookworm in polite academic company and a badass for the other 99% of the plot.
Examples:
Literature
- Prince/Shah Raschid in the Fangs Of K'aath book series. He is a quiet scholar whom everyone thinks is a brainy wimp compared to his sociopathic brother, Abbas. However, with his wily girlfriend helping with practical matters of command, he displays his formidable combat, command and diplomatic skills guided by his good nature that make him a triumphant and inspirational commander of whole armies deeply impressed enough into absolute loyalty to him.
- In the Discworld book Night Watch, young Havelock Vetinari is bullied by his schoolmates in the Assassins' Guild for reading books with some interesting ideas about camouflage. The fools.
- Susan Sto Helit, Death's granddaughter, certainly qualifies, following her initial appearance as an Agent Scully who just wanted to be normal. During her tenure as a Magical Nanny in Hogfather, she managed to turn a poker into a magical artifact, thanks to using it to pummel bogeymen: "It only kills monsters." Thus, now there's a good chance any bogeyman she meets will know her, recognize her, and fear her. In Thief of Time, she becomes something like a sarcastic, Goth version of Miss Frizzle, and shows a bit of a violent streak (mainly directed towards the Auditors of Reality).
- Kirsty from the Johnny Maxwell books. In addition to having an I.Q. of 165, she's won a regional tournament in shooting and knows karate. The people who underestimate her tend to do so for a very short time.
- Hari Seldon in the first Foundation prequel. Turns out his entire homeworld knows kung fu.
- Adele Mundy in David Drake's Republic Of Cinnabar novels is a research librarian who is an expert shot with a pistol. "The Sissies were proud of their Signals Officer: the lady who'd as soon shoot you as look at you, who knew everything, and who never missed...."
- Harold Lauder from The Stand probably qualifies, although it's somewhat subverted in that years of being bullied, ignored, and rejected leave him bitter to the point of using his considerable skills and intelligence for evil rather than good.
- Sherlock Holmes: Brilliant detective, violinist and black belt. In one famous story, "The Speckled Band," the villain comes to the detective's home and attempts to intimidate in part by bending a solid metal poker with his bare hands, but after Sherlock casually waves him off, the detective chats with Dr. Watson while he casually straightens the poker with his bare hands.
- There's also the incident in "The Solitary Cyclist" in which the subject of Holmes' investigation takes physical exception to being investigated and gets taken home in a cart for his trouble, while Holmes himself comes out of the fight with a single superficial injury.
- And then there's Lord Peter Wimsey. Also extremely clever, he looks like an effete aristocrat (in Murder Must Advertise he's described as "Bertie Wooster in horn-rims"). He's slightly built, and only 5'9" tall... but he was also a highly decorated World War One veteran, judo-trained and capable of holding off large beefy antagonists on several occasions. And also a champion cricket player.
- Isaac Dan Der Grimnebulin, in Perdido Street Station - while he is supposedly just a rogue scientist, he holds off an attack by the corrupt government's trained militia, and faces off against monsters so scary that demons are afraid of them.
- Three of Doc Savage's five sidekicks qualify for Badass Bookworm: Elegant legal eagle 'Ham' Brooks. The sickly looking, undersized 'Long Tom' Roberts. And of course Professor 'Johnny' Littlejohn with his monocle.
- Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter novels turns into this. Muggle-born and initially pegged as a useless know-it-all even by the other two-thirds of the Golden Trio, she eventually demonstrates that all her studying makes her a powerful witch and not to be trifled with (in the third movie she even punches Draco in the face; in the book, it was still a good hard slap).
- Atticus Finch of To Kill A Mockingbird SORT OF follows this. He's one of the smartest people in the town, the most successful lawyer in the town, but - as his children discover by accident, since he never told them - he is also one of the best marksmen around. He kills a mad dog from a block away, saving the people living in the nearby houses and making him easily the most badass character in the novel.
- Sort of? Sort of? You do not speak of The Number One Hero Of American Film
 in that way, my friend. Atticus is easily the noblest character in the novel and in the picture, and proves it by his nobility, professionalism, courage, and sheer badassery. In This Troper's version, he kills Bob Ewell through sheer contempt.
- Aramis from The Three Musketeers makes this Older Than Radio. His life ambition to become a priest and his writing a thesis on the hand positions used for ritual blessings in the Catholic Church does not prevent him from being a member of an elite military unit, and having martial skills on par with his less intellectual comrades-in-arms.
- William Weaver, Ph.D., from John Ringo's Through The Looking Glass, is a theoretical physicist who does most of his work in his head... while mountain biking, rock climbing, participating in kung fu tournaments, and fighting off an alien invasion.
- Ringo really has a habit of placing badass bookworms in his stories, the Posleen War Series is rife with them, starting with Micheal O'Neal, a Sci Fi geek who gets placed in charge of an ACS battalion, and then we have Talbot in the Council Wars series, who is a historic reanactor and one of the main characters.
- The bookish and unimposing Achamian from Second Apocalypse is constantly underestimated and thought weak even by his friends. As well as being strong mentally, he is a sorcerer of vast destructive power he rarely has reason to unleash.
- Sabriel from the beginning of the Old Kingdom trilogy is explained to be at the top of her class in every subject, most notably Swordfighting and Magic (with Music close behind), and, while well-liked, certainly gives very little indication to her schoolfriends of her real powers. Lirael, in the second book, is a much more extreme example. Aside from being the Second Assistant Librarian, she hardly ever talks to anyone in the Clayr glacier, and never tells anyone of her after-hours activities, which regularly include awakening horrible Free Magic creatures locked in the deepest dungeons of the library and destroying them with the help of her freakishly powerful dog.
- 5'6", 9 stone, clumsy, "small, indefinably odd and even ill-looking" Stephen Maturin is a doctor, polyglot, natural philosopher and all-round intellectual - and Britain's greatest spy. Over the course of the books, he is seen shooting the pips out of playing cards, winning several duels, operating on himself and dispatching his enemies in very badass ways.
Western Animation
- Samantha aka Sam of Totally Spies. Heck, the first OP has her expertly using a chemistry kit as Clover and Alex watch her in amazement. While at the same time, she is able to fight off the random villains that the trio encounter just as effectively as her partners. AND she also manages to get excellent grades at school.
- While Justice League member The Question is more crackpot than bookworm, he does distill this trope into one glorious moment where he nails a guy in the face with a computer monitor just after he's finished using it.
- In Challenge of the Super Friends, Asian Captain Ethnic Samurai (real name: Toshio Etou) was a Japanese history professor before he was turned into a super hero by the New Gods of New Genesis.
- In Spider Man The Animated Series Doctor Otto Octavius was a brilliant scientist and teacher before becoming the villainous Dr. Octopus.
- In The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, scientist Benton Quest sometimes shows Badass tendencies (though he's usually overshadowed by his more conventionally badass bodyguard Race Bannon), particularly during his escape from the villain's headquarters in "General Winter" and his climactic fight with Big Bad Dr. Zin in "The Robot Spies."
- In Spiral Zone, Benjamin Davis Franklin of the Zone Riders is a geeky, scrawny science nerd who looks like Weird Al Yankovic. Nevertheless, he's tough enough to kick Big Bad Overlord in the face in one episode.
- Danny's brainy older sister Jazz in Danny Phantom discovers she has amazing ghost fighting skills in "Maternal Instincts". She has since displayed said skills in a couple of other episodes. We're going to ignore "Secret Weapons".
- Dexter, from Dexter's Lab, is a tiny, stub-limbed boy genius who spends all his time in his secret laboratory, trying -- in vain -- to keep his pretty-princess Cloudcuckoolander sister out. Until a monster attacks the city, or aliens invade, or a meteor threatens earth; then Dexter pulls out one of his giant, anime-inspired robots, super-powered exoskeleton suits, or space ships and kicks ass. He also seems to have learned kung-fu at some point.
- Dethklok's manager, Charles Foster Ofdensen.
Anime
- Usopp and Nico Robin of One Piece.
- Kiyomaru Takamine of Konjiki No Gash Bell, middle school student and master tactician with loads of stamina.
- Yomiko Readman of Read Or Die is a particularly good example, as her extraordinary power stems directly from her love of books.
- Kazuo Kiriyama from the Manga version of Battle Royale is an evil version, a socipathic genius who spent most of his time quietly reading books and staying out of everyone's way. Due to this their gym teacher, a former olympic Judo champion, decides to pick on him for a bit of a laugh, failing to notice that he's been reading a book on martial arts and looking remarkably confident…
- Yuki Nagato from Haruhi Suzumiya is usually quiet and unassuming, and rarely ever puts down her book, even when everyone else is playing around... or when she's playing around. However, whenever she's confronted by the weirdness brought about by Haruhi, Yuki exhibits surprising battle abilities. Such as the ability to temporarily overwrite reality, or play a bitchin' guitar solo.
- Yuuno Scrya of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is an archaeologist (but not an Indiana Jones type Adventurer Archaeologist), a librarian, and a scholar. He can also hold his own against a powerful ancient knight despite having no Device to call his own. Unfortunately, he is still a guy in a Magical Girl show.
- Uryu Ishida (master Straight Arrow and top of his school class) and Nanao Ise (Shingami lieutenant and member of a famous reading club in Soul Society as well as the Shinigami Women's Association) from Bleach. Also, Risa Yadomaru from the Vizard group who was both Nanao's lieutenant (in fact, Nanao became Lieutenant as Risa's replacement) and reading buddy before leaving Soul Society and possibly Momo Hinamori, who is known as an artist and bookworm inside of the Shinigami circles.
- Played around with the Data Tennis players (Sadaharu Inui of Seigaku, Renji Yanagi of Rikkaidai, Hajime Mizuki of Saint Rudolph, Taichi Dan of Yamabuki and Koharu Konjiki of Shitenhouji) from The Prince Of Tennis. All of them use the information they collect to further their playing strategies (hence the "Data tennis" name), but the results are different since they have very distinct personalities and methods. Inui and Yanagi also qualify in the Genius Bruiser cathegory, both being over 6 ft. tall.
- Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury from Sailor Moon. She's the smartest junior high/high school student in the whole of Japan and a Sailor Senshi with mastery over water and ice-based attacks. She even has a visor and a special calculator that allows her to analyze the situation and discover the weak spots of their enemies.
- L of Death Note, who is laconic, lazy, a brilliant detective, and quite able to hold his own in the occasional fistfight with Light. Must be all the sweets.
- Playwright prospect, Kaleido Stage fansite webmistress, very skilled with technical stuff as well as with literature-related knowledge, and a talented acrobat and actress on top of it all... That's Mia Guillem from Kaleido Star to you.
- Rider in Fate Stay Night, when you found out that she actually loves literature, when she is in her Meganekko mode. Of course, combined with her already powerful abilities... You Should Know This Already.
- Kuro Hazama aka Dr. Black Jack. Apparently, obtaining his Medical Doctorate has transformed him into some sort of surgery-performing ninja. This is the only way one can explain feats such as using scalpels to deflect bullets, or climbing across the surface of an airplane in mid-flight. This troper suspects that he wasn't really mentored by Dr. Honma, but by Dr. McNinja.
- Inspector Lunge. While being a ridiculously intelligent BKA investigator with a photographic memory is impressive, Lunge's real threat is that he's practically a human terminator who doesn't shoot to wound so much as he shoots to cause excruciating pain.
- Negima plays this by translating the Library girls' abilities into battle magic. Of course, Teen Genius Yue was already clever enough to begin with to qualify.
- Given that said Library is filled with death traps to the point where the ground floor is off limits to Jr. high students and below the 3rd sub-basement is off-limits to the university students, rock climbing gear is needed to get to some parts of the Library that is open to the public, one of the librarians is a top class mage, and there is a dragon in the basement, a case can be made that they were fairly badass even before starting to learn magic.
- Isuzu Ayane from Gate Keepers 21 is quiet, ranked third in the second year level of her high school, spends most of her time reading and sitting in front of her laptop, and yet when it comes to her part time job, effortlessly takes down scores of Invaders by throwing cell phones at them.
- In Ghost In The Shell, Ishikawa gets his Badass Bookworm moments near the conclusion of each season. The first time, he proves that he is definitely not a Technical Pacifist, by blowing up a building with his pursuers in it, and in the next season by bludgeoning a secret agent into unconsciousness with the cast on his broken arm so that he can safely deliver a rod of weapons-grade plutonium.
Video Games
- Gordon Freeman from Half-Life. Seriously, a theoretical physicist you do not want to cross, ever.
- Half-Life 2 even calls attention to this. There's one area where Gordon overhears Dr. Breen, chief collaborator to Earth's new alien overlords, chewing out a division of soldiers for not being able to stop him. "He's not some agent provocateur, or highly-skilled assassin. He's a theoretical physicist who had barely earned the distinction of his Ph D..." Yet, when the revolution comes, everybody's behind Gordon. Because things in front of him tend to die.
- Extremely literal video game example: Lex defeats a variety of monsters and creatures of legend in Bookworm Adventures, despite the fact that he is lacking not only weapons but limbs.
- Several of the magic users in Fire Emblem, specially if they're of the Mage/Sage, Cleric/Priest/Bishop or the Shaman/Druid classes. More specific examples are:
- Azel the Fire Mage (FE4);
- Mage General Cecilia, Niime the Hermit (FE6);
- Canas, Renault, Lord Pent of Reglay, Erk Big Bad Nergal and his "other side", the Arch-Sage Athos (FE7);
- Lute, Saleh, Ewan, Knoll, Lyon (FE8).
- And for non-magic users who are still Badass Bookworms in these games... the Cavalier Lance from FE6 fits the trope to a T.
- Mao of Disgaea 3. Bespeckled nerds can be very intimidating if they also happen to be Mad Scientist demons with BFSs.
- Mitsuru Kirijo of Persona 3 is a top-marks student, president of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council, and daughter of the man who owns the school. She's also quite handy with a rapier. At one point late in the game, she even tries shouting down a Cosmic Horror. Even her own teammates are terrified by her at times.
- This Troper seems to remember a series about some guy named Dave who had a genius-level IQ, fluency in a half-dozen languages, and enough skill with a vast array of weaponry (from sniper rifles to tranquilizer darts to aerosol spray cans and matches) to bring down telekinesis masters, armed tanks, overmarketed yellow rodents, and berserk clones of a legendary villain. I don't think it was very popular.
- Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat, before Hell broke lose in MK3, was an historian whose knowledge of both shamanism *and* Native American legends as well as his physical strength was what made him qualified to become one of the Earth Warriors. In the cartoon, he's also a computer genius on top of a fighter and a walking myth enciclopedia.
- Citan from Xenogears is one of the best examples of this. He enjoys reading, tinkering with machinery, and other bookish hobbies, yet is one of the planet's best swordsmen, as well as being a master Gear pilot who's has an Omnigear since even before the events of the game).
- The first six members of Organization XIII have this as part of their backstory (or so we assume); Six brilliant apprentices of a wise and loved king... who manage to release the heartless on the worlds and become the most powerful Nobodies around.
- The Engineer from Team Fortress 2, as demonstrated in the page quote (although the "bookworm" part tends to take a backseat to the stereotypically Texan elements of his character in the actual game). He also has Mad Scientist tendencies.
- Jaina Proudmoore in War Craft is actually like this, seeing that she really LIKES studying and declares to be 'in love' with her studies or profession as a mage, since it lets her study a lot. Despite all those, that's one of the most powerful human spell casters in Azeroth you're talking about.
Live Action TV
- Jeff Goldblum's character in the short lived Tenspeed And Brownshoe was a prize example of this trope, a bumbling Walter Mitty who was a karate black belt.
- Giles on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Normally, he exemplifies the stereotypes you'd expect from a British librarian...but when the situation calls for it, he's willing to kick a little ass and show why he used to go by the nickname "Ripper."
- A very dark variation of this can be found in the title character of Dexter.
- Gil Grissom from CSI repeatedly emphasizes that he's a scientist, not a cop. It just so happens he's also an excellent shot with a handgun, on the few occasions it's come up.
- Truth In Television: Jaime Hyneman of Mythbusters is also a brainy geek who's repeatedly demonstrated his excellent badassery with firearms.
- Not to mention calmly reporting the situation with a steady voice while being buried alive.
- Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1. This, however, was the end result of long, patient Character Development -- just compare the innocent cutie from Stargate and "Children of the Gods" to the action man in seasons 9-10, and every relative degree of badassery in between in the other seasons.
- The Doctor started off as the feeble old scientist who had to have his younger and more physically-able companions do the legwork. When the plot required it, however, he became a master swordsman, or a blackbelt in Venusian Aikido, or even an expert in Good Old Fisticuffs.
- The recent Family of Blood episode spotlit just this with the final voiceover.
- Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap. A holder of multiple doctorates, speaks multiple languages, and happens to be a black belt in several disciplines.
- In Numb3rs, Charles Epps gets talked into learning the combat skills of a FBI agent. As expected for a bookish sort like Charlie, he is terrible in most of the trials, especially in his pursuit driving lessons where he scares his instructor by his bad driving. This seems to include when Charlie tested for firearm proficiency when he seems to be shooting too slowly compared to the others. However, when Charlie's shooting target is brought back for examination, it has a big hole where most of the bullets hit dead center. Charlie explains how he got the highest shooting score by saying he followed the advice of the famous gunfighter, Wyatt Earp, "Speed is fine, but accuracy is final."
- Noah Bennett in Heroes. At the start of season two, his boss at Copy Kingdom berates him and sneers at him for failing to respect the art of Xeroxing papers. A short session with Mr. Horn-Rimmed Glasses in the backroom, though, ends with two broken fingers and a never-to-be-repressed terror of his new employee.
- Firefly's River Tam is an unmatched genius of all sorts, but is unfortunately a complete mental wreck, on top of being a tiny, unimposing little teenage girl. When confronted with danger, her typical response is of the crying, fetal-curling variety....until she unlocks the ingrained Super Soldier training that came with her insanity. Legendary asskicking ensues.
- Hit man Brother Mouzone from The Wire. Inspires fear and respect in the entire Baltimore drug organization, with good reason, despite his small stature, bow tie and glasses, devotion to Harper's magazine, and frequent use of big words and carefully crafted sentences.
- By the end of the series, one of the only people even half as scary as Aeryn Sun is her lover, former Smart Guy and now Badass Bookworm John Crichton. He started out pretty helpless, but trained by her and with his levels of insanity consistently building, he became the kind of guy who would suicide bomb with a nuke.
Comic Books
- The version of Reed Richards in Ultimate Fantastic Four. His stretch powers were regarded as the suckiest of the four - right up to the point where he decided to pitch in anyway. Cue Doctor Doom getting thrown into scenery, Annihilus getting shot in the mouth (with his own gun!), and Diablo getting his Supervillain Lair blown up.
- The original Reed Richards at times possesses this to some extent as well.
- Gina Diggers, in Gold Digger, recently discovered this after being the 'fish' in jail. She totally forgot that she's been, you know, hanging around superheroes without dying. It tends to work out muscles. She also has one heck of a right hook, and can do the math to know EXACTLY how much it will hurt. Ancient Gina, her "future me from the past" is even more powerful, being capable of creating an entire planet.
- Barbara Gordon in the DC Universe is one. Even when she was Batgirl she was a bookworm who was physically unimposing and underestimated. Now as Oracle, she's in a wheelchair and still capable of kicking the ass of various muggers, five Men In Black and the elite secret agent Spysmasher on different occasions. In addition to being a master strategist with a photographic memory, unmatched computer skills and genius-level intellect, of course.
- Coincidentally, about half the Bat-family can seem to be this at times. Yeah, Batman's a Bad Ass and all, but what makes him dangerous when there are guys like Superman around is that he has figured out ways to incapacitate or kill pretty much everyone on Earth who's more than human, disable the tech of those who are normal except for super-smarts, and can beat the hell out of 99/100 of every non-powered, non-gadget-reliant costumed freak left.
- As with Batman, so too is Black Panther, with the advantage of Wakanda being more technologically advanced than either the US or Japan. To rather ridiculous levels, actually, but that doesn't stop Black Panther from being the kind of bookworm who will get back up when you shoot him.
- Beast as well, with little professorial glasses, nearly as many Ph Ds as he has IQ points, and enough strength to throw cars.
- Ozymandias, the smartest man alive in the Watchmen universe, can catch bullets. Yeah.
- Peter Parker. Science nerd. Photographer. Spider-Man. Once punched Wolverine through an unbreakable plate glass window to fall to the street fifteen stories below when he was mad. Bad Ass.
- The JSA's Mr. Terrific is the third smartest man on the planet. He has a knack for having knacks. He also has an Olympic gold medal and six black belts.
- Amadeus Cho in the Marvel Universe is the epitome of this trope. When he isn't making SHIELD look like a bunch of fools with his mad hacking skills, he manages to take down foes with pebblew because of his understanding of physics and angles. HE isn't called the seventh smartest person on the planet for nothing.
Manga
- In a recent chapter of Mahou Sensei Negima, Yue Ayase defeats a dragon/griffin hybrid after saving two classmates by leaping in front of them to block an attack,using her artifact to look it up, determine it's weaknesses, and coming up with a plan that involved her stabbing a spot a few centimeters square with a small knife while dodging friendly fire.
- Yoshito Kikuchi and Kannzaki Urumi in Great Teacher Onizuka. Also, Azusa Shiratori's little sister.
- Aizawa Kouichi from Nabari no Ou is, for all intents and purposes, that one kid with the glasses--smart, somewhat nerdy, nice, and almost boring in the shadow of his weirder friends. Yet he's revealed to be the most professional and capable ninja in his village, and is more than willing to kill/brainwash the influential (including the CEO of a vast, international medicine/defense technology corporation) if the mission calls for it. To be fair, he's actually not exactly human, or a middle schooler, having been created as a living experiment centuries ago.
Film
- The 2001 French movie Brotherhood Of The Wolf starts with a pairing of Grégoire de Fronsac, a 18th century french royal taxydermist/scientist, and his companion Mani, an American Indian warrior/medicine man. After the torture and murder of his brother the mellow, charming scientist transforms into a double-sword wielding, war-painted killing machine on a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge.
- Can you even have a more Badass Bookworm than Tony Stark?
- Indiana Jones can be considered a Badass Bookworm as well. When he's not fighting Nazis and retrieving lost artifacts from booby trapped temples, Indy spends his free time teaching a history class as a part-time university professor.
- Lord Asriel from His Dark Materials has a bit of this, on top of being a morally ambiguous Magnificent Bastard. He ends up taking on Metatron, the Regent of the Authority, and hurling him into the abyss between the worlds, even after Metatron whacks him so well that Asriel's skull fractures and starts sliding around inside his head.
Web Comics
- Nearly every educated Spark (mad scientist) in Girl Genius qualifies for this trope, including the protagonist, Agatha. Not only can they build death rays and turn even the most innocuous of mechanical items into death traps (such as a merry-go-round that can level a small town), but they are generally shown kicking butt with their bare hands (and feet) as well as with less sophisticated weapons, such as giant wrenches and rapiers.
- Both Narbonic and Skin Horse have more than enough Badass Bookworms to satisfy even the most jaded troper. If Dave from the former isn't the very CHARACTERIZATION of this trope near the end, well.
- Dr Mc Ninja. Totally badass. Has an MD.
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