History Characters / Diabolik

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: She was named Eli'''s'''abet'''h''' since the start, but it took years before everyone realized she was Elisabeth and not Elizabeth, Elisabet or Elisabetta (the Italian equivalent).

** ForWantOfANail: Diabolik originally approached her because she was beautiful and [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness at the time he was a]] [[TheCasanova playboy]]. Then during the date he noticed she was wearing a ring from Clelia Garian, who he had personally DrivenToMadness after wearing the mask of her husband Stefano (who he had just murdered) before her eyes, and, taking advantage of her now being half drunk, found out she had given her a letter for her son Gustavo (that Diabolik was tailing to rob him under Stefano's identity). After destroying said letter (that, had written in a moment of lucidity, revealed the existance of [[LatexPerfection Diabolik's perfect masks]] and that her husband's murderer was using his identity that way), he decided to keep her around.

** He was sure Ginko had died in a car accident, and his replacement was the nephew of the Minister of Justice. Diabolik assumed nepotism was at work... But acted with his usual paranoia on the off-chance he actually deserved the job, allowing him to spot at the last moment an exceedingly well-prepared ambush. The following day he read on the papers that Ginko was alive and the Minister's nephew was just relaying his orders precisely to prepare that ambush.

* RefugeInAudacity: Some of his plans are this. For example, when Eva was first arrested and he had no idea on how to break her out before she was sentenced to death and executed he ''kidnapped a top model and faked dumping her'', thus pitying the tribunal into giving her a lesser sentence, and his way to break her out involved a ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_fever typhoid fever outbreak]]''. In another occasion he needed to keep Ginko away from a certain place for a month, so he decided to ''get caught blackmailing two actors'' to distract him (this one didn't work long enough, and Ginko would have caught him had his boss let him do the job).
** In another occasion, he needed to get rid of a gang of smugglers before they could leave their ship and come to kill him. His solution? ''Call Ginko and the police on them''. At least the boss of the smugglers had a good laugh at Ginko's expense when she realized why the police showed up from nowhere...

* MyGreatestFailure: Failing to save the little brother of his lover. That's the reason he had his {{Mook}}s save a little child from a boat in a storm...

* MagicPlasticSurgery: His specialization. {{Justified}} because he's the best in the world.

* CutLexLuthorACheck: A {{Justified}} example: his creations could have made him rich, had his white colleagues not stolen the credit for his creations.

** Diabolik is so notorious in-universe for his trolling that in "Challenge to the Police" the only one who suspected anything about his pranks to the police was [[WorthyOpponent Ginko]], and even for him it was just a nagging feeling until almost the last moment.

** HyperspaceArsenal: Where he keeps them when he's wearing his skintight suit (he even {{Lampshaded}} it once). The few times he's seen pulling out those knives it appears he's pulling them ''out of his arms''.

* ShroudedInMyth: This is how Gustavo Garian describes him in the first story: "Ginko says that, in the international criminal underground, people whisper about a ''being'' called ''Diabolik''". Ginko wouldn't be sure that Diabolik actually existed until he stumbles on a room filled with Diabolik's legendary masks (the ability to change face at a moment's notice was one of the traits ascribed to the mysterious being), and he'll remain nothing more than a legend until the story "[[WhamEpisode The Arrest of Diabolik]]". Even then, some still think he's an alien.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: He's the nicest of all of King's lieutenants. He also killed one of the men in a fit of rage, joined King knowing he was a criminal mastermind with grandiose plans that would lead to bloodshed, and had no trouble planning capers that could result in deaths.

King's other personal chemist, specialized in poisons and medical substances.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He's the leader of all criminals on King's Island, and can easily kill any of his subordinates.

* CutLexLuthorACheck: A {{Justified}} example: his creations could have made him rich-had his white colleagues not stolen the credit for his creations.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Differently from the other members of King's organization he was no criminal, but was forced to run from the law when he accidentally killed the man who stole the credit for one of his creations.

[[WMG: Lorenzo]]
First appearance: Diabolik #710 "Plea from the Past" (2006)\\

One of King's lower-ranked lieutenants.

* LegacyCharacter: The team has been replaced in its entirety more than once due members being promoted or dying on the line of service.

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Ginko is restrained by the law. Altea isn't. Do the math.

* PosthumousCharacter: Most of them are already dead:

* HumiliationConga: Chased out of his country, beaten up and thrown in a flooded river by a lookalike, captured by soldiers planning to start a coup, imprisoned for years as a spy, nearly killed in an ''helicopter attack'' during the revolution, finds out the lookalike confessed his murder and all his money and properties were seized by the government because he had no heirs, and then meets the lookalike to have him pay him back the damages only to end with a knife in a lung for accidentally revealing he had a good reason to kill him.
* MuggingTheMonster: When he had [[spoiler: Ronin tortured to death]] and his organization destroyed he was just making what he thought was a pre-emptive attack on a business rival about to attack him. He had ''no idea'' he was giving the future [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast King of Terror]] a good reason to kill him and do it slowly.

* AffectionateParody: An affectionate send-up to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben_Bolt Big Ben Bolt]], Astorina's first foray in comic books and one of the inspirations for Diabolik.

* BoxingBattler: [[JustifiedTrope He's a former boxer]], and whenever he finds himself in a scuffle he resorts to fists that hurt like a freight train]].

* AFatherToHisMen: He's like a second father to the athletes at his gym, picking them from the streets, teaching them boxing to keep them busy and have something to vent their instincts with, and taking care of them until he manages to find them an honest job.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: A good part of the respect his gym's athletes have for him is owed to him being pretty much undefeatable in a straight fight. [[spoiler:During the time at his gym, Diabolik threw a spar because of this]].

* WhatAnIdiot: At the end of her first appearance she ''told Ginko she had saved Diabolik from capture'' (only getting away because she somehow had the sense of telling him while on her yacht that had just crossed into international waters). In her second appearance, she returned to Clerville while knowing there was a warrant for her arrest, getting herself, the captain of her yacht, and the friend she was visiting arrested when Eva caused that accident, and forcing Diabolik to expose himself to save her and the captain (the friend had been released on bail).

* DeadpanSnarker: Has shades of this. When she meets Diabolik she's quick to point out that, in spite of the name, she's a nurse and not UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen.

* BreakTheCutie: In their first encounter, Diabolik murdered his father and his aunt, drove his mother mad ''twice'', and nearly killed him, all in order to steal a priceless treasure from him.

* KnifeNut: Ronin.

* KnifeNut: His favourite weapon (apparently custom-made), and he's very good at it, to the point the only time he had to aim a throw was when he [[ImprobableAimingSkills hit two moving targets from a car while throwing his knives at the same time]] (in his defence, he was ''really'' desperate, [[IndyPloy and that was a fundamental part of the only plan he could come up with to escape the police in that particular occasion]]) and can brag that ''nobody'' survives his thrown knife (in fact, the only time someone didn't die on the spot was when Diabolik had to throw a ''paper knife'' at him, and it still was with enough strength and precision it ''downed the victim with a lethal wound at the heart'', just not lethal enough to kill him on the spot [[spoiler: until his son didn't show up and ''pushed the knive deeper'']]).

** In another occasion he was sure Ginko had died in a car accident, and his replacement was the nephew of the Minister of Justice. Diabolik assumed nepotism was at work... But acted with his usual paranoia on the off-chance he actually deserved the job, allowing him to spot at the last moment an exceedingly well-prepared ambush. The following day he read on the papers that Ginko was alive and the Minister's nephew was just relaying his orders precisely to prepare that ambush.