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The Power Of Rock / Comic Books

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  • Scott Pilgrim:
    • More than once, Scott has used the power of rock against his enemies, most notably at the ends of volumes one and three. Since he himself isn't that great a musician, usually other people are helping him out. And the music alone isn't enough to truly defeat the opponent, but it does weaken him sufficiently for Scott to take him out with some good old-fashioned fisticuffs.
    • Matthew Patel could summon hordes of minion girls with his Bollywood-style fighting, and Crash and the Boys, rival group to Scott's band Sex Bob-Omb, can put audiences into a literal daze with their music.
  • The infamously deplored weekly series Countdown to Final Crisis had one good thing: when the Pied Piper (a Flash ally) uses this to drive away Brother Eye/OMAC and destroy Apokolips. Not just the power of any old rock, either. Behold, the power of QUEEN!!
  • X-Men: Dazzler's powers work by converting sound to light (which she can then use as laser beams). Naturally, she picked a musical career. Fighting evil with the power of... erm... Disco. The Ultimate Marvel version is a punk rocker. Instead of many sparkly lights, it's one giant Beam Spam.
  • The Transformers (Marvel): An issue had Soundwave taking this trope literally when he harnessed the sonic power of a Bruce Springsteen Brick Springhorn concert to make energon cubes.
  • In The Power of Shazam! issue 18, Mr. Mind has just been made into the last surviving member of his species, and to exact his revenge on the Big Red Cheese, he possesses the Wizard, who, running away from Mr. Mind, had fled into a sound studio. Knowing the worm species has a weakness against loud sounds, Captain Marvel gives the Wizard a headset, picks up one of the electric guitars laying around, and starts to play like "Hendricks".
  • In Joss Whedon's one-shot comic Sugarshock!, a band mistakes an invitation to an alien tournament for a Battle of the Bands and proceeds to try to use the power of rock. Played with in that the band wins not through epic rock but with the saddest song in the world. One voice. One guitar. In-universe Tear Jerker. Only squirrels were unaffected because squirrels have no souls.
  • The "Battle Rock" issue of John Ostrander's Grimjack, well... speaks for itself.
  • Image Comics' "The Amazing Joy Buzzards" is about a rock band and their luchadore friend who battle supernatural hipsters, demonic robots, and fallen angels.
  • Asterix: The main character's village bard has made the Normans run away in fear and made it rain in an Indian draught.
  • Another X-Men example is more obscure New X-Men member DJ aka Mark Sheppard who, before being depowered after House of M, is granted different powers depending on the music he hears. Some is more utilitarian: Light manipulation when he hears dance music, flight when listening to uplifting Gospel music, while classical music allows him to generate energy shields. However the literal Power of Rock is energy blasts.
  • At the end of Final Crisis, the essence of Darkseid is dispersed by Superman singing the totality of the Multiverse at him. According to the writer, it sounded like "whatever your favorite song is".
  • The DC Comics mini-series Sonic Disruptors (published 1987-88) was created and written by Mike Baron and illustrated by Barry Crain. It was arguably the apex of this trope. The United States has been taken over by an evil militaristic government that hates fun and has banned all rock music, among other fun things. The resistance movement is rock-based, flies guitar-shaped fighter jets, and broadcasts illicit rock music into the U.S. from their secret space station. The series was cancelled seven issues in to its planned 12-issue run.
  • Going back to the same premise many years later, Mike Baron collaborated with illustrator Gabe Eltaeb on the webcomic and graphic novel The Hook subtitled "Sci-Fi Rock". It was, for all practical purposes, Sonic Disruptors transplanted to an intergalactic setting.
  • Subverted horribly in a National Lampoon parody of Yellow Submarine that chronicled the downside of The Beatles' career - as in the movie, they attempt to rout the forces of evil with a song about love - and crank out 'Helter Skelter"...Paul later comments "That didn't quite work out like we'd planned..."
  • Astro City has had a number of heroes and heroines, dating from its foundation as Romeyn Falls, with powers associated with various forms of music.
    • Silverstring was a demon-slaying troubadour from the 1870s who traveled from place to place and realm to realm, learning music and fighting evil along the way.
    • The Anthropomorphic Personification of counterculture music is a recurring superhero in the series. Its manifestations have been Mister Cakewalk (a Ragtime-inspired vigilante from the 1900s), Jazzbaby (a jazz-themed heroine from the 1920s), Zoot Suit ('40s big band), the Bouncing Beatnik (hep cat from The '50s), the Halcyon Hippie (psychedelic rock of The '60s), then finally Glamorax (a David Bowie-inspired glam rocker of The '70s). Going beyond conventional crimefighting, they are also the Arch-Enemy of the Oubor, an Eldritch Abomination from outside of reality.
    • Played with in Sticks, a talking gorilla from a militaristic gorilla society who left his home to pursue a career as a rock drummer. Due to his superior strength and agility, he was targeted for recruitment by both heroes and villains, which made it difficult to fulfill his goal. His solution was to assemble a band of superpowered beings called "Powerchord".


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