History Main / PostModernMagik

* The premise of ''ComicBook/ThirtyDaysOfNight'' rides on this. Sunlight is one of the main Achilles' heels for vampires, so the polar regions would be intensely vulnerable in the dead of winter, where there is either very little sunlight or none at all due to the seasons and Earth's axial tilt. This allows the vampires to go on an uninterrupted rampage through Barrow, UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}}, the northernmost town in the US, for thirty straight days.

** In issue #5 of the 2020-21 anthology series ''Marvel'', Wong goes to another dimension to rescue an entrepreneur and his MagicalNativeAmerican assistant. They're using a tablet to record a weak spell she uses to loan strength and play it back at increased volume and speed to vastly increase its power. Wong discovers that the entrepreneur is planning on using this method to steal the TimeMaster powers of an EldritchAbomination native to the dimension they're in.
* In the Creator/MarvelComics event ''Doomwar'', where ComicBook/BlackPanther fights a war with Characters/DoctorDoom, T'Challa invents "Shadow Physics", a discipline that combines alchemy and science to exploit quantum entanglement for unlimited teleportation and mass transmutation. In the same story, Doom uses [[GreenRocks vibranium]] as a source of unlimited mystical power and applies it to his Doombots and PoweredArmor. In the end he's defeated when T'Challa uses shadow physics to render all vibranium inert.

* In the first issue of the ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange'' miniseries, ''The Oath'', Doc is seriously injured by a silver bullet fired from UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's personal weapon. The shooter wasn't a sorcerer, but he figured that a pistol with that kind of history would have enough Bad Mojo around it to blow right through Doc's protective spells.

* At a time when he was free of the ComicBook/GhostRider, Johnny Blaze carried a shotgun loaded with hellfire. Similar weapons were also owned by the Caretaker and Vengeance. This showed up again in TheMovie.

* In a ''ComicBook/Hitman1993'' story, Tommy Monaghan and the demon ComicBook/{{Etrigan}} need to get a hold of the "Ace of Winchesters", a demonic weapon (read: lever-action shotgun) forged by a mystic who was also a member of the original Texas Rangers, to take down the Mawzir, a powerful servant of the patron demon of gunpowder. This particular demon is immensely powerful in Hell since the gun became the dominant form of violent death in the world. The Mawzir himself is a ten-armed demon wielding a [[GunsAkimbo firearm in each hand]], and he is made from the damned souls of five Waffen SS officers.
* This was a running theme in Creator/KieronGillen's run on ''ComicBook/IronMan''. At one point, Tony fights an ApocalypseCult using genetic engineering technology to modify women into being able to withstand being impregnated by the EldritchAbomination they worship.
* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' enemy Doctor Destiny used technology to manipulate and manifest dreams into reality. ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' revealed that the power source of his device was a PowerCrystal created by the anthropomorphic personification of dreams himself, and that his modifications actually [[HijackingCthulhu usurped his connection to it]].
* In ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'', Loki explicitly likes to combine magic and technology, because magic is "telling a story the universe believes" and technology is "very gullible". The guy has spells for enhancing cellphone reception and hacking the internet. Also, as the All-Mothers showed, TV screens are just as good for arcane remote communication as mirrors or water surfaces.

* ''ComicBook/{{Phonogram}}'', in which magic is intricately bound up with pop music.
* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'''s Saint of Killers uses a pair of revolvers that were made from melting down the Angel of Death's sword.
* In the "Rock Zombies" arc of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', a spell is recorded and hidden in a song, then broadcast on a popular radio station, turning a decent portion of L.A. into [[BodyHorror monstrosities]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Trese}}'' features the eponymous character using variations of existing beliefs and supernatural traditions. Examples include trying to bribe a local goblin with imported chocolate instead of the local cheap kind and using a watch in freezing a suspect in time. One memorable incident involved binding a God of War into eternal combat by making him a high level raid boss in an MMORPG.

* The ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' villain Circe is no stranger to adapting magic to work with modern technology. When Wondy fought Medusa, Circe broadcast the fight on live TV and enchanted the camera so that if the gorgon ever looked into it, everybody watching would be turned to stone.
* In an ''ComicBook/XMen'' comic book, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine are fighting {{Dracula}}. When Wolverine [[ImprovisedCross holds two of his claws in the shape of a cross]], Dracula just laughs, saying that [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve one has to have faith for a cross to work]]. Kitty tries with a real cross, but Drac just brushes it aside as well. He is finally [[HolyBurnsEvil burned by her Star of David]], hanging around her neck.

** Many of the demons in later seasons are revealed to have an upper hand in the legal system of the human world, such as the demonic judge and lawyers ''[[Recap/CharmedS3E1TheHoneymoonsOver The Honeymoon's Over]]''. Cole Turner in particular the most egregious of this trope.

** Piper created a potion that creates a bright flash, essentially a magical flash bang grenade in Season 4. Later there being an actual hand-grenade potion in ''[[Recap/CharmedS5E16BabysFirstDemon Baby's First Demon]]''.

* ''Series/Charmed2018'' runs even more with this trope, with Macy often finding a scientific basis for various spells or demonic actions. Meanwhile, demon Alistair Cain is the head of a multinational biotech company and his son is undergoing gene therapy for the conflict between his human and demon halves, while Elder Charity works for a firm that helps women in developing countries start businesses.

** Many of the demons in later seasons are revealed to have an upper hand in the legal system of the human world, such as the demonic judge and lawyers ''[[Recap/CharmedS3E1TheHoneymoon'sOver TheHoneyMoon'sOver]]''. Cole Turner in particular the most egregious of this trope.

** Piper created a potion that creates a bright flash, essentially a magical flash bang grenade in Season 4. Later there being an actual hand-grenade potion in ''[[Recap/CharmedS5E16Baby'sFirstDemon Baby'sFirstDemon]]''.

** Many of the demons in later seasons are revealed to have an upper hand in the legal system of the human world, such as the demonic judge and lawyers ''[[Recap/CharmedS3E1TheHoneymoonsOver]]''. Cole Turner in particular the most egregious of this trope.

** Piper created a potion that creates a bright flash, essentially a magical flash bang grenade in Season 4. Later there being an actual hand-grenade potion the ''[[Recap/CharmedS5E16Baby'sFirstDemon next season]]''.

* In a last season episode of ''Series/Charmed1998'', Billie combines her scrying stone with a GPS device, a serious upgrade compared to the sisters using their scrying stone on a map or globe.

** The ''Analects Arcane'' column in Steve Jackson Games' online ''d20 Magazine'', which usually showcased spellbooks from a vague MedievalEuropeanFantasy setting, had three very different Post-Modern Magik spellbooks: ''The Arcane-ist's Cookbook'' (a wodge of computer printout using magic to "hack" technology, which has the same questionable accuracy as [[Literature/AnarchistCookbook its inspiration]]); ''The Technonomicon'' (laid out like an engineering textbook, describes techno-magic in matter-of-fact terms); and ''The Tooninomicon'' (based on a young mage's theory that ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve applies to pop culture, contains spells that duplicate the abilities of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' characters).

** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' has the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado empowering their Samurai to protect the kingdom by giving them magical bracers...which have an easily-recognizable computer built in with a personal assistant AI called Burrows. It gets more complicated once you reach Tokyo.

* In ''Series/SleepyHollow'' the good guys [[spoiler: trap and contain the Horseman using a combination of a magic circle and, because sunlight weakens him, UV lights]].

* Numerous examples in ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 The Twilight Zone]]''.

** In the satirical episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E120TheBard The Bard]]", Julius Moomer inadvertently summons William Shakespeare back from the dead using ''Ye Book of Ye Black Arte''. Shakespeare then proceeds to write a television script.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E111PrintersDevil Printer's Devil]]": The wiley Mr. Smith causes various disasters with a cursed linotype machine, and attempts to get the protagonist Douglas Winters to sell his soul to him in exchange. He then uses the linotype in an attempt to kill off his assistant Jackie. Douglas' final solution to the problem? Use the linotype machine to write his deal out of existence and save Jackie's life.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E108DeathShip Death Ship]]", not only is spaceship E-89's fate akin to the fate of the ''Flying Dutchman'', it takes place in the near future rather than the present.
** It's implied the tv repairman in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E144WhatsInTheBox What's In The Box]]" may have magic powers, or at the very least is not entirely human. Assuming it was intentional, his revenge is to enchant a television set to show future events, somewhat akin to a crystal ball.
** Invoked in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E152MrGarrityAndTheGraves Mr. Garrity And The Graves]]". Mr. Garrity claims he can resurrect the dead through the application of various scientific principles that he picked up in the Himalayan Mountains. While this claim is entirely false, he did somehow manage to bring back the dead.
* Creator/Channel4 series ''Series/Ultraviolet1998'':
** It sciences up vampire weaknesses, such as ultraviolet susceptibility ([[TitleDrop thus the title]]), carbon-based bullets (instead of stakes), and videoscreen-based vampire detectors.

* On ''Series/{{Wednesday}}'', Bianca's mother used her powers as a [[OurSirensAreDifferent siren]] to start [=MorningSong=], a "[[InsistentTerminology personal development movement]] that [[{{Cult}} helps people take control of their lives]]", whose followers' bank accounts she proceeds to drain to fund her lavish lifestyle. In other words, luring unsuspecting people in with the temptation of self-actualization before she dashes them against the rocks of bankruptcy.

* ''Series/SleepyHollow'', the Headless Horseman, one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, finds himself in the modern day. While he uses his old axes to chop people's heads off, he also loaded up with modern firearms.

** In an anthology series, Wong goes to another dimension to rescue an entrepreneur and his MagicalNativeAmerican assistant. They're using a tablet to record a weak spell she uses to loan strength and play it back at increased volume and speed to vastly increase its power. Wong discovers that the entrepreneur is planning on using this method to steal the TimeMaster powers of an EldritchAbomination native to the dimension they're in.

** The point of ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles''. All magic is based around very complicated mathematics. This made it very hard to do... until Turing invented the computer.
*** "The {{Medusa}} Effect" (also found in basilisks and cockatrices) is caused by a tumor in humans, and "makes about 1 percent of the carbon nuclei in the target body automagically turn into silicon with no apparent net energy input", and is both a particle and a wave. [[ParanoiaFuel And can be deployed from any Internet-connected CCTV camera in Great Britain]]. And a good deal of modern cell phone cameras and video cameras, since any DRM chip can emulate the neural net caused by the tumor. One simple firmware update, and you're good to go.
*** Theoretical computational demonologists can develop a disease of the brain known as Krantzberg Syndrome, which [[http://www.tor.com/stories/2008/07/down-on-the-farm some believe]] is caused by their own mathematical thoughts causing minor summonings ''[[NightmareFuel in their own head.]]''

*** In ''The Fuller Memorandum'', Bob exorcises a haunted plane with a thaumic “degaussing resonator” that chimes periodically (pulled from a military-issue field exorcism kit), while reading the necessary script from an ebook reader with a backlit screen: bell, book, and candle for the modern age. This is noted to be the cheapest and most efficient, yet riskiest, options for exorcism, compared to dropping it into the ocean (where the electrolytes in salt water will degauss it eventually) or hauling it out to Wales to shoot it with a gigantic degaussing gun made for explicitly this purpose. And if that weren't enough, said haunted plane is a *Concorde* specifically enchanted to [[spoiler: fly missions through a dimensional portal so that the EldritchAbomination bound on another planet is kept imprisoned via observer effect]].

* Creator/ChinaMieville ''loves'' this trope. His novel ''Kraken'' has several examples, such as a prop phaser from Star Trek that's been enchanted so that it actually works.

** Similarly, [=The SERRAted Edge=] series is about a company of racecar-driving elves who own a car company and their attempts to create a marketable product. Their foes are evil elves who make their money by making porn of some seriously illegal stuff and enjoying the pain of the people involved. It's mentioned that they have some serious copy protection; any attempt to duplicate the tapes just wipes the original and copies nothing. [[SchmuckBait Which people keep trying even though they're warned not to]].

* ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'' takes place in the future, but it's a [[ModernStasis future that looks a lot like the modern age]], with magic. Most of the main characters apply modern science and societal notions to the fantastic, leading to a lot of SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic.
* The web [=RPs=] [[Roleplay/InsaneCafeSeries Insane Cafe 2: Rise of the Shurlups]] and [[Roleplay/InsaneCafeSeries Insane Cafe 3: The Curse of the Haunted Hotel]] have this in spades.

* The matter of crosses affecting non-Christian vampires is [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] in ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania''. Sypha asks why a Hindu vampire would recoil from a cross, which Trevor explains as being a completely secular matter. Vampire senses are highly specialized to track and hunt fleeing prey - a "large, geometric shape" being brandished in their face without fear causes them to recoil in panic as their sight is temporarily disoriented.