This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Added quote to Quotes page.
Semiapies: There's a 1980s Green Arrow comic by Alan Moore where, to Green Arrow's and Black Canary's mild shock, some crooks surrender to them on sight, figuring they have no chance to beat them or escape. Not sure if it's close enough to include as a subversion. Opinions?
Seth: Smart crooks. Might be worth a mention as an exception.
Ununnilium: I say yeah, definitely.
Mister Six: Oddly, I was reading that story earlier today. I've added it to the examples thing.
This has a real-life precedent: particularly during World War I, if a tank showed up on the battlefield, opposing infantry would open up on it with their rifles, even though they had approximately a snowball's chance in hell of damaging the tank.
Azaram Wouldn't hurt the tank, but the earliest tanks had open windows to look out of instead of the prisms modern ones do, so a lucky shot could get inside and hurt someone. Not real likely, but when your choices are shoot or let it run you over without shooting, you at least get to feel like you're doing something...
Prfnoff: Removed the picture. I thought it was too big and ugly.
Masami Phoenix: Okay, I removed the following example from the list. This is an example of Crazy-Prepared, but not Shooting Superman. In theory, shooting Batman would work. Granted, in some cases he has bullet proof armor, but there's still places that can be injured, and such. Hence he has to dodge, or fight from the shadows. Hell, Batman has often received injuries from people attacking (such as being bitten by dogs in the movies) which has given them more opportunity to succeed.
- Arguably, trying to do anything against Batman after giving him enough prep time has the same effect as trying to shoot superman.
Removed:
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day opens with a guy putting a cigarette out on Arnold's naked, hulking chest and getting thrown across the room for his troubles without Arnold so much as blinking. This doesn't stop the guy's friends from charging him with pocket knives.
- Possibly justified, in that the hulking naked guy could have very well been just high on drugs and not noticed, and decided to slash his throat instead. The same for when the last guy and bartender finally pull guns on him.
As the comment notes, this isn't a good example. The bar rats aren't given evidence that their attacks have no hope of doing real damage.
