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alt title(s): Heroic Chin; Chin Amen 
It doesn't get more heroic, folks.
A square jawline. A protuberant chin. A manly cleft. Somewhere along the line (possibly around Superman's time), artists decided that these, more so than anything else, were the defining facial feature of really heroic (or really strong and dumb) characters. Perhaps to an even greater extent than broad shoulders, barreled chest, and absurdly large biceps, the surest sign of a character's strength and manliness lies in his chin.
Parodies of superheroes will take this trope to its illogical extreme, giving heroes jawlines large enough to logically prevent them from looking down—and possibly, a ridiculous "chin butt." Some artistic conventions also render the cleft as a "swirl" on the chin. While the gluteus chinnimus can affect non-heroic, not-so-strong characters, "chin swirl" is generally reserved for only the manliest of manly.
If a character with a jawline like this crops up in an American Western Animation production, there's a really good chance he'll be voiced by Patrick Warburton.
This has some Truth In Television, as scientists have noted that there is a definite correlation between jaw size and testosterone production.
Compare Beauty Equals Goodness, Top Heavy Guy.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Major Alex Louis Armstrong of Fullmetal Alchemist has a mighty chin that has been passed down in the Armstrong family for GENERATIONS!
- Alphonse actually has one built into his armor if you look closely.
- Gaav from The Slayers. He is a Badass Longcoat, he has the Heroic Chin... but he is a villain! Well he's a villain because he's trying to kill Lina. When Amelia accuses him of being a villain, he's quick to turn the tables and point out Lina is technically a villain, and so is Amelia by association, causing a short Heroic BSOD on Amelia's part.
- Bonaparte, Leona's tank from Dominion Tank Police.
- Bean Bandit from Gunsmith Cats features a truly massive jaw. It's not just aesthetic though. One might notice that Bandit NEVER leaves any bones left over after a meal.
- Depending on the character designs, the title character of Lupin III is at times depicted with one of these, despite being a master thief. However, his rival, Inspector Zenigata is usually drawn with one. In the manga series, Goemon has a pretty manly chin, too.
- Though an antagonist, Bartholomew Kuma of One Piece is decidedly on the side of "Justice," and appropriately has a very, very manly jawline, as Sanji finds out the hard way when he attempts to kick it and nearly breaks his leg. Of course, it is made of metal...
- Inverted in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, where the character with the huge cleft chin is the big bad, Fae Wong Reed.
- Goh of Godannar is a rare Super Robot pilot example.
- Wide Load in Transformers Robots In Disguise, though he isn't as heroic as he thinks he is.
Comic Books
- Superman, as stated above, has had one for such a long time that he may well be the Trope Maker. But, if anything, Batman's is even more dimpled and protuberant.
- It's certainly more prominent, at any rate, given that it and the lips are all we actually see of his face.
- Judge Dredd's suitably heroic chin is the only part of his face ever seen.
- Gladiator from the Marvel Universe, who is a sort of half Take That and half Affectionate Parody of Superman.
- Side-character Arcadio in the comic book Groo The Wanderer had one of these chins, and female characters would occasionally swoon over it.
- Captain Everything in normalman. As a parody of Superman and Captain Marvel, it's to be expected, but he takes it to new levels as the series progresses and his appearance becomes more exaggerated. The same goes for the even more exaggerated Megaton Man.
- And Sergeant Fluffy. Of course, the villainous Ultra-Conservative also has a very strong chin...
- British comic hero Bananaman, as a parody of the genre, naturally possesses one of these.
- Even as a gangly teenager, Steve Rogers had a bit of this going on. As Marvel's foremost Cape, he tended to have a strong chin no matter who was drawing him. Lampshaded a little when a new love interest, Bernie Rosenthal, was introduced in the 80's - she had a chin cleft, and the first thing she said to him was that he had one too.
Film
- "No one has a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston!"
- Robocop's manly chin is the only human part of him that is visible when he has his helmet on.
- Kronk from Emperor's New Groove also has a lantern jaw too.
- Possibly the main reason why Aaron Eckhart was cast as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight. A subtle nod to the standard heroic archetype? Or maybe he's just a damn good actor. Possibly both. Nolan did comment on Eckhart's facial features making him look like a movie hero from the 50s, after all.
- Mr. Incredible, as yet another purposefully archetypal superhero.
- In the heart-warming (?) ending of Me, Myself and Irene, it is revealed that Jim Carrey's alternate personality had one of these surgically implanted on him. Everyone is amused.
- Even the more obscure films out there subscribe to this notion. Superhero-in-training Rod Rescueman from Twice Upon A Time had his career pretty much determined by genetics — he has a barrel chest and a Lantern Jaw Of Justice.
- Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story (and the defictionalized Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command) has one of these, replete with "chin swirl." Which is actually there, considering that he's an intentionally stylized toy.
- Don't forget Bruce Campbell, especially in Evil Dead. His autobiography (which is hilarious, BTW) is even called If Chins Could Kill.
- Parodied in Bullshot (1983) where the hero is always walking around with his jaw stuck out.
- Prince Naveen from The Princess And The Frog has one to match his cocky personality, though it's less exaggerated than the other examples. Facilier has one too, though that's probably because he was partly modelled on Captain Hook.
- Parodied in Heavy Metal, most prominently with Captain Sternn, on trial for twelve murders, fourteen armed robberies, twenty-two counts of piracy, eighteen counts of fraud, thirty-seven rapes, and to top it off... one moving violation.
Literature
- In Me, by Jimmy (Big Boy) Valente, a parody of the life of Jesse Ventura, Garrison Keillor makes reference to a part of Navy SEAL training where "a Naval Surgeon gave us cleft chins."
Live Action TV
- Christopher Meloni, who plays Elliot Stabler on Law And Order: SVU, nicknamed "The Chin of Justice." (He also has the habit of thrusting said chin towards a suspect while questioning them.) Unfortunately, the same goes for Olivia Benson.
- Dr. Clayton Forrester, villainous Mad Scientist of Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a chin cleft and was quite proud of it. He even invented "chin underwear" in one episode. Interestingly, after Clay's departure, Mike and the bots would mock the male leads of films like Devil Doll and Time Chasers for their chin clefts: "Ugh, his chin-butt is engulfing her!"
- Parody - Captain Kremmen of the Space Corps (animated shorts) from The Kenny Everett Video Show.
- Robbie Rotten from Lazytown.
- Flabber from Beetleborgs who some people think was based on Jay Leno.
- Helo, who provides both the strongest jaw and strongest morals on Battlestar Galactica.
- Chuck - under pentathol, Chuck tells John Casey, "Your jaw was sculpted by Michaelangelo himself."
- Captain Jack Harkness, from Doctor Who and Torchwood.
- The Flash, who had a lantern jaw that was the only thing that showed when he was in his supersuit.
- Mc Garrett (Jack Lord) from Hawaii Five-O.
Newspaper Comics
Real Life
- Jay Leno, who does the voice for The Crimson Chin. He may not necessarily be heroic, but his chin is.
- His autobiography is even titled Leading With My Chin.
- And his Battle Bot (occasionally trtted out for an exhibition match) was called Chinkilla.
- Another real life example: David Hayter, who did act, very briefly, in live-action film once upon a time.
- Patrick Warburton—when combined with his manly voice, he's become the go-to guy for characters like this (as noted in the description).
- Ditto Craig T. Nelson (voice of Mr. Incredible). Though the years seem to be slowly eating away at his chin cleft.
- John Barrowman.
- Robert Z'Dar has a lantern face.
- First on this list should have been Bruce "If Chins Could Kill" Campbell.
- Michael Schumacher.
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Captain Falcon of F-Zero and FALCON PUUUUUNCH fame.
- Fake Ultimate Hero, one time Dragon and one time Big Bad Captain Quark has one of these. Ratchet even mentioned it when eulogizing him.
- Freddie Hardest from the obscure self-titled MSX games had as his only distinguishing feature a chin the size of a pair of melons.
- Double H from Beyond Good And Evil has one of these. Funnily enough, his original, Dummied Out (still visible in one MDisk) model had an even more dramatic, neck-engulfingly huge chin, but it was replaced with a more "normal" one. Not by
 ◊ much◊, though.
- And now we present you with your regular mention of Captain Gordon,
Defender of Earth Possessor of Lantern Jaw!
- The Titular character of the game Power Pete/Mighty Mike, possess a chin nearly the size of the rest of his head
- All three main characters on the TV show-within-a-game Republican Space Rangers from Grand Theft Auto IV.
- The Knight unit in Warcraft 3 has a very large chin. There's no cleft, but there is manly stubble.
- An easy half of the classes in Team Fortress 2 have one of these. The Soldier class epitomizes this, essentially just a great, big, yelling chin that kills people.
- King Varian Wrynn is famous (or infamous) for having one.
- Neltharion/Deathwing from the upcoming Cataclysm expansion is an inversion - His lower jaw would not be out of place at a construction site, yet he is going to break the world when he shows up. Also, he's a dragon.
- B.J. Blazkowicz has a truly◊ colossal◊ lantern jaw◊.
- Super Macho Man sports an impressive jawline, but Glass Joe doesn't.
- Turned Up To Eleven by Pyramid Head, to the extent that his entire head is a piece of Sinister Geometry. He also has quite the Heroic Build. And an apron made of human flesh.
Webcomics
- In Schlock Mercenary, one character takes a missile in his chin, and when it's rebuilt he has one of these. Legs remarks that it looks heroic, like it belongs in a comic book...and then the narrator insists that, for the sake of the Fourth Wall, the chin has to go.
- Surgical reconstruction and Fourth Wall damage aside, there's a ton of lantern-jawed heroes in Schlock Mercenary: Kaff, Nick, Shep, Andy, Hob, Brad (after bulking up), Pranger, Doyt Gyo/Doythaban, hell, even Kerchak has the gorilla version...
- Prince Ossomer of Erfworld has one by necessity since his appearance is a Shout Out to Superman. His brothers Ansom and Tramennis have less pronounced (but still pretty manly) chins.
Western Animation
- The Crimson Chin, from The Fairly Odd Parents, takes this trope to ridiculous new heights. Just look at the picture. Seriously—the man has chin-based superpowers. And on top of that, he's voiced by
DAN GREEN Jay Leno!
- Drawn Together's Captain Hero, another superhero parody, also sports one.
- Buck Tuddrussel from Time Squad, who is both super-heroic and super-dumb.
- The Tick, people!
- Pretty much all the guys in the DCAU have these. They're not pronounced, but they're there.
- Every (male) Cybertronian in Transformers Animated has a giant chin, even Shockwave, who doesn't have a face. Sentinel Prime is probably the most prominent example. He was an Expy of The Tick, modeled after Townsend Coleman was cast as his voice actor. Lead character designer Derrick J. Wyatt lampshaded this on one of his blog-posts (titled "Chin On!") where he assured us the characters in season three will have no lack of chins:
- Samurai Jack started out with a prominent chin...that grew bigger and bigger as the show progressed. Eventually it took up exactly half the length of his entire face.
- Hacker from Cyberchase had a huge chin for no good reason.
- The North Wind from A Miser Brothers Christmas has the chin but is the villain of the piece.
- Commander Feral of Swat Kats has the lantern jaw as well, though he is not the primary heroic figure on the show.
- Major Glory of The Justice Friends clearly invokes this in his DCAU-style design.
- "Simon Belmont" from Captain N The Game Master.
- Jay Ward gave archetype hero-characters Dudley Do Right and George Of The Jungle prominent chins - and also made them dumb as fenceposts.
- Averted with Glen Quagmire. His head is mostly chin, but the rest of him is rather lanky. He does have a lot of testosterone, though.
- Stan Smith from American Dad.
- Aquaman has an OUTRAGEOUS one in Batman: the Brave and the Bold
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