History DidntThinkThisThrough / ComicBooks

* ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'': In the ''Rebirth'' timeline, one of his legal businesses is a PrivateProfitPrison that is run in a particularly brutal and cost-cutting manner that makes it the worst HellholePrison many supervillains have ever done time in. It never seems to occur to Blockbuster that learning he has been profiting off their misery in such a fashion will deter his fellow villains from working for him (and during a moment where he is particularly desperate for reinforcements) once Batgirl penetrates the shell companies owning the prison and exposes his management of it.

** In ''ComicBook/NightwingInfiniteFrontier'' #93, new villain Heartless demands that Blockbuster give him control over Bludhaven so he can crush the hope that Dick Grayson is bringing to the city. Blockbuster, being the ''de facto'' ruler of the city akin to ComicBook/TheKingpin, responds by launching his desk at Heartless and knocking him out of a high rise building, which he barely survives.

* During the ''ComicBook/{{Civil War|2006}}'' arc, Jennifer Walters was outed as ComicBook/SheHulk (again) by a New Warriors hate site. On the way into her office through an angry mob to help some former New Warriors keep their identities hidden from the public, one of the mob recognized her, grabbing her by the arm and ripping her shirt, proudly exclaiming "I've got She-Hulk!" Jen shifted and hoisted the guy up by his lapels.
-->'''She-Hulk:''' Alright, you've got She-Hulk! Now what?!\\
'''Angry Citizen:''' I... uh... guess I didn't think this through...

* During James Robinson's ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' run, the Quiet Man kicks off a massive plot to turn the public on the FF, aided by the Psycho Man. The Quiet Man plans to open portals to other worlds to flood Earth with demons and alternate heroes and then be seen as the big hero himself by shutting the portals down. Reed tells him to go right ahead and do it...and he can't. As the Quiet Man stands stunned, Reed points out that it may not have been the best idea to hand ultimate power over two worlds to ''THE PSYCHO MAN.''
* ''ComicBook/GhostRider'' villain Blackout is a half-demon murderer who, in addition to his CastingAShadow powers, had metal fangs implanted in his jaws to cultivate a vampiric look. In an early encounter with the Ghost Rider, he tried to bite him. Ghost Rider is a flaming skeleton, and the attempt ended with Blackout getting his face badly burnt. [[NeverMyFault He then proceeds to blame Ghost Rider for burning his face]].
* ''ComicBook/JohanAndPeewit'' had this happen in the backstory of "The War Of the Seven Fountains". They stumble across an old, abandoned castle in the middle of a wasteland, and that night are met by the ghost of its former king, who explains that the reason the kingdom disintegrated was because of his idiotic use of a wish he had been granted by a local witch as a reward for his wise rule. Unfortunately, while a great ruler in most cases, the king had a love for wine, and the wish happened to be granted during a period where the wine harvest had gone wrong, and there was none to be had for miles. In a spur of the moment, the king wished that the areas seven water springs would produce wine instead of water. You can probably guess why this was a bad idea. When he tried to force the witch to reverse the magic, she instead cursed the springs to dry up completely, leading to the kingdom falling apart and its inhabitants leaving. The king remained behind and died soon after, but was BarredFromTheAfterlife by his ancestors, and wouldn't be allowed to rest until the springs flow again, which Johan and Pewitt decide to help with (with a surprise assistance from ComicBook/TheSmurfs).

* ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}} Universe'' #12 sees the Lizard League transform several members of the Guardians of the Globe into reptilian-people and order them to attack the rest of the team. The transformed Guardians...do ''not'' do that and instead gang up on the League because as Bulletproof points out, their minds were fully intact and the League never bothered to try and develop any means to control them. Notably, this isn't due to a lack of foresight on the leader's part but because of a genuine belief they'd be loyal to him post-transformation.
* In the Italian comic book ''Lilith'', the Roman emperor Commodus tells the time-travelling protagonist that the only reason he trusts his chamberlain Eclectus, his personal trainer Narcissus and his concubine Marcia is that, being freed people invise to the Senate, they depend on him for everything. When Lilith's interference makes their plot to assassinate Commodus fail, [[EtTuBrute he's not just angry for their betrayal]] but, as he says in [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech his angry speech to Marcia]], their ''utter stupidity''. Especially Marcia's, as she was Christian and, to please her, Commodus had adopted a policy favorable to them (and indeed, the narrative at the end of that issue specifies that Commodus started a terrifying persecution of the Christians after her execution).

* One ''ComicBook/MarvelAdventures'' series had Iron Man sneaking into Dr. Doom's castle to rescue hostages. He utilized a stealth suit which rendered him invisible, but in order to maintain this, Tony could not include offensive capabilities in the design. Late in the book, Doom reveals that he knew Tony was there from the moment he snuck in and pointed out the sheer stupidity of using an invisibility suit to try to sneak into the base belonging to the arch-enemy of the Invisible Woman (which naturally, have measures to detect this exact thing).

* In one ''ComicBook/MightyMorphinPowerRangersBoomStudios'' issue, Rita learns from Finster that he had created a series of monsters hidden away on Earth disguised as humans with the idea of using them to spread fear on Earth. Rita, having been away for a while, decides that the best thing to do is unleash them all at once and make them grow. Finster tries warning her of something, but she asserts the pecking order and forces him to reveal them all. The Rangers are split thin over the groups and are on the ropes... until the monsters topple over in pain. As the Rangers clean up shop, Finster explains that, when the shed their human "shells", they're already "grown". Thus, Rita making them giant actually made them ''weaker''
* In the climax of ''ComicBook/NorthwestPassage'', Montglave reveals critical information to Simon in the hopes of permanently turning him against his father, Charles Lord. [[spoiler:The information is that Simon's parentage is a LukeIMightBeYourFather situation since Montglave raped Simon's mother at the time of conception. Unsurprisingly, Simon takes a rather dim view of this knowledge and promptly blows Montglave's brains out]].
* The plot of ''ComicBook/OnceAndFuture'' is kicked off when a group of far-right British nationalists with an obviously shaky grasp of history perform a ritual that raises Myth/KingArthur from the dead, believing he'll drive all the "undesirables" (i.e., foreigners) from Britain. They fail to consider that King Arthur, historically and mythologically, was a ''Briton'' man who fought off an invading army of Anglo-Saxons in the name of all Celtic peoples... the same Anglo-Saxons that the majority of Britain's modern population is descended from. Naturally, the first thing Arthur does upon raising from the grave is slaughter the nationalists for being of Anglo-Saxon blood, sparing only one of them because she's half-Irish and thus one of "his people". He then declares his intent to pick up where he left off in reclaiming Briton ''for'' the Britons.
* {{Subverted}} in ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' with the Evronians' master plan to defeat Xadhoom and turn her into an [[PoweredByAForsakenChild eternal power source for their empire]], as they would have to keep her trapped long enough for the Entropiothron to work and Xadhoom is a PhysicalGoddess who wants them all dead... Except [[spoiler:they know she's a mutated Xerbian who hates them for destroying her homeworld and they're using all the survivors as hostages to force her to comply]]. Then DoubleSubverted when the Evronian Emperor realizes they've grossly underestimated the fact Xadhoom is the greatest genius of [[PlanetOfHats an entire world of scientists]] with extreme control on her power means she has the mental strength, self-control and willpower to resist the Entropiothron's attempts at making her explode, and then again when [[spoiler:the Xerbian hostages, including the finest minds of a planet of scientists who had years to study how to reverse the effects of Coolflamization (an emotion-draining process that turns the victim into a mindless slave), [[SlaveLiberation do just that on every single Coolflame on Evron's]] PlanetSpaceship]], the end result being that there's now nothing to keep Xadhoom compliant. That was the last day of the Evronian Empire.
* At the end of the first arc of ''ComicBook/ThePowerpuffGirls'' by IDW Publishing, Mojo Jojo plans to hide in a space pod for several months until he's ready to return to Townsville. He then realizes that he forgot to install a bathroom, which leads to him actually saying that he didn't think this through.
* An issue of ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' has Jesse meeting Johnny Lee Wombat who dreamed his entire life of being an astronaut. He eventually got into the Air Force but as a clerk as he was denied flight training. Johnny finally forged his orders to get accepted into NASA training...and lasted less than twenty-four hours before they kicked him out. How did they find out? Because the reason Johnny was passed over had nothing to do with his intellect or piloting skills but the simple fact he [[DreamCrushingHandicap barely stood over five feet tall]]. One look at him in the lineup of average-height pilots and the instructors knew there was no way this guy had gotten through basic training, let alone was an ace pilot.

* In the ''Siege'' miniseries of ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'', Lady Kate Bishop from the 1600s deliberately gets arrested so she can be sent to the wall and join the Watch for adventures. She later gets hit by a magically-induced epiphany, realizing that she's a girl with pointy sticks and she's facing terrible armies that scare God-Emperor Doom himself. And said armies are coming for her through a now disappeared wall...

** In the arc "The Coming of the Thousand," Carl King witnessed the radioactive spider biting Peter, which gave him the idea to do the same and get spider-powers himself. He decided to break into the exhibition building to acquire one for himself... but it was only after he did so that he realized that he had no idea how to irradiate a spider, and the spider that bit Peter was dead, which left him with "Plan B" -- eating the spider's corpse.
** In one issue of ''ComicBook/SpiderGirl'', Mayday decides to swap out her classic red and blues for a snazzy black and white getup. What she doesn't realize is that her mom, Mary Jane, suffers from PTSD ever since Eddie Brock showed up in her apartment with the symbiote all the way back in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #300. Thus, when she returns home wearing the costume in front of Mary Jane and her little brother Benjy, her mom ''panics''. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone May is understandably upset by what she did]].
* In ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'', former NSC agent Tolliver and corrupt Senator Cray try to get Amanda Waller to get Cray re-elected or they'll expose the Squad to the public. After killing Tolliver, Rick Flagg confronts Cray at gunpoint and illustrates how stupid it is to [[BlackmailBackfire blackmail a team made up of super-villains]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': Some of her adventures provide good examples:

** In ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Supergirl Volume 5]]'' #3 Supergirl decides to fight ComicBook/LexLuthor alone. Quickly she realizes her plan is not a brilliant one.

** In Supergirl #20 -- a tie-in to the reviled Amazons Attack storyline -- she and ComicBook/WonderGirl hijack Air Force One because they think they could end the war by making the President sit down in the same room with the Amazon Queen. When things went south very, very quickly she realized that it was a big mistake.
** In Supergirl Annual #2, ''ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}'' 5 was analyzing how a mystical statue reacted to different kinds of energy, and he accidentally turned it into a kind of super-bomb. He admitted that it was not a very good plan.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':

* Cheshire, known enemy of the ComicBook/TeenTitans and mother to Roy Harper's daughter, once held the world for ransom with an arsenal of stolen nukes. To prove she wasn't kidding around, she dropped one on the country of Qurac and laughed as it burned. This act of nuclear genocide for the sake of monetary gain got her labeled as an irredeemable monster by the nations of the world, while Quraci survivors and those who lost loved ones in the devastation want her head on a spike. In her desperation to prove how dangerous she was, Cheshire never once stopped to think about the aftermath regardless if she got the money.

* In ''ComicBook/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl'', Melissa frames Squirrel Girl for attacks involving animals in New York. Even when she's beaten, Melissa gloats Doreen will never be able to prove herself and Melissa will get away with it. At which point, the cops are hit by numerous messages from just about every other hero in the Marvel Universe speaking up for Squirrel Girl and how they know she's innocent. It never seemed to occur to Melissa trying to frame someone so loved in the super-hero community was a bad idea.
* In ''ComicBook/TheWastelands'' (the Old Man Logan setting), the villains' plan to team up to kill every superhero lead to a world where ''no one'' got what they wanted, because (as Count Nefaria, who's become a washed-up barfly, laments), they forgot to account that 1) Superheroes weren't the only option to try to deal with them, just the most-effective and least-destructive, and 2) All the villains had no idea what to do with each other beyond 'murder all the heroes'. Without superheroes to check the villains, governments resorted to desperate, but conventional measures- [[NukeEm like nukes]], which didn't ''kill'' most of the villains, but sure reduced the property values on the world they wanted to rule. And without an active foe to oppose, the villains couldn't work together long enough to ''fix'' said nuked wasteland, and are instead reduced to carving out petty fiefdoms or retiring from villainy entirely.
* Played for tragedy in a one-shot science-fiction story published in "Uncanny Tales" #18 (March, 1954). A dictator by the codename "Mister X" uses ruthless methods to conquer the entire known universe, while killing allies or employees who he did not trust enough. The end result has him as the sole-surviving sentient being, ruling vast areas, and served by robots who try to pamper him. He has no goals left to strive for, nobody to talk to, and his life is monotonous. Feeling miserable, he commits suicide by poison.

* In ''ComicBook/WonderWomanTheTrueAmazon'', Diana thinks that the unleashed monsters will be simple to defeat again, ignoring that everyone around here is completely unprepared and focused on winning the Contest.

** In "The Origin Of Batman!", Batman scares his parents' killer Joe Chill by doing a DramaticUnmask MotiveRant and tells him YouKilledMyFather. Panicked, Chill runs to his mooks and explains what's happened. But the mooks were all busted by Batman at one point, and in rage at their boss having created the TerrorHero, gun him down. Only afterwards do they realize that they've shot the only man who knows Batman's SecretIdentity. They try to have Chill spill with his last dying breath, but Batman comes in and stops them.
** The 1951 story "The Joker's Comedy of Errors" (AKA the infamous [[HaveAGayOldTime "boner"]] story) provides the page image: it starts with The Joker plotting to rob the payroll office at the electric company and cut the power to make his escape. Unfortunately, he learned too late the elevator didn't have a back-up generator, so he had to take the stairs instead, where he ran right into Batman and Robin and had to flee without his stolen money.
** The 1952 story "Joker's Millions" has Joker getting an UnexpectedInheritance from rival mob boss King Barlowe and binge-spending on it. The real kicker comes in when the clown realizes too late that most of it was CounterfeitCash and jewels in a posthumous up-yours done by Barlowe. Joker is now torn between admitting he was had and becoming Gotham's ButtMonkey for the rest of his life (thereby sullying his criminal cred), getting jailed for not paying the inheritance tax, or returning to crime and saving his reputation. In other words, if law was played realistic and had Joker verified the inheritance before accepting it, the entire episode wouldn't have happened at all. This was later adapted into an episode for ''WesternAnimation/TheNewBatmanAdventures''.

** The 1951 story "The Joker's Comedy of Errors" (AKA the infamous [[HaveAGayOldTime "boner"]] story) starts with The Joker plotting to rob the payroll office at the electric company and cut the power to make his escape. Unfortunately, he learned too late the elevator didn't have a back-up generator, so he had to take the stairs instead, where he ran right into Batman and Robin and had to flee without his stolen money.

* In the Creator/MarvelComics CrisisCrossover VillainTeamUp ''ComicBook/ActsOfVengeance'', Loki makes the incredibly dumb choice to recruit both an [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull unrepentant Nazi]] and a [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Holocaust Survivor]] into his inner circle. The Asgardian was the only one who was surprised when Magneto attacked the Skull instead of any of the actual heroes, ultimately leaving Red Skull BuriedAlive in an [[SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere abandoned fallout shelter]]. And Loki is supposed to be one of the ''smart'' Asgardians.

*** [[spoiler: The entire deal goes back to the end of the infamous storyline ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel'', where we find out that Superman confronted Batman and pointed out the glaring flaw in his "let the JLA handle him" failsafe - how are they going to stop a man who is just that paranoid? Sadly, even Superman didn't recognize the fact that maybe Bats would realize Superman was right]].

** In ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Supergirl Volume 5]]'' #3 Supergirl decides to fight Comicbook/LexLuthor alone. Quickly she realizes her plan is not a brilliant one.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': The Pre-Crisis origin of Bizarro is a result of Lex Luthor using a duplicator ray to make a duplicate of Superman, assuming that the resulting Bizarro would want to help him. Instead, Bizarro teams up with Superman and arrest Luthor. He still ended up causing trouble for Superman shortly afterwards, not that it helped Luthor, though.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Superior}}'', demon Omron tricks young Simon into trading away his soul to become the super hero Superior. With time winding down before his deadline to avoid being thrown into the depths of Hell, Omron celebrates his first soul...until friend Madeline points out the problem: Omron has made Superior into a being who is, for all intents and purposes, immortal. And if Superior can never die...then how is Omron going to collect his soul?
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** ''ComicBook/KryptonNoMore'', super-villain Protector wants to defeat Superman... so he bursts into the Fortress of Solitude and attacks both Franchise/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}. He gets his butt royally kicked and has to run away at the first opportunity.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Strongly implied as the main problem for Fabian Cortez, a traditional X-Men villain, in his 2020s stories. In 30 years of stories, Fabian has developed a modus operandi: He convinces people that he is a useful ally for them, then works to undermine them. The end result of having used this plan far too often: nobody trusts him, nobody likes him, and he is treated with cold indifference when trying to suggest plans. While talking to Nightcrawler, Fabian reveals that many of his plans were misguided attempts to prove his own importance, or misguided attempts to get people to like him. Not only have these attempts backfired to a great degree, Nightcrawler points out that Fabian has grown to disdain himself due to his methods.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* In one issue of the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' comic, ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} leads the ComicBook/{{Robin}}s from other points in time (Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Damian Wayne and Carrie Kelly) to one of Ra's al Ghul's bases in order to use a Lazarus Pit to save Batman's life. When they encounter the League of Assassins, Damian leaps out, demanding that they stand down as is his birthright as an al Ghul. The assassins look at each other, then charge at the Robins. Damian then remembers that he's not born yet.

* The undoing of many ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'' one-shot villains, as their plans tend to have a flaw that [[MagnificentBastard Diabolik]] or [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Ginko]] can exploit. Case in point, the copycat who recycled Diabolik's plans and had them executed by lesser thieves: while he had planned for Diabolik to track him down planning to kill him he completely forgot about his accomplice and lover Eva Kant (who, while he was gloating he was about to get rid of Diabolik and take his place, had snuck behind him with some poisoned needles), or that Diabolik [[NeverRecycleYourSchemes rarely reuses old plans]] because next time Ginko will be ready (he had got away so far because the targets weren't worth of Diabolik, but after establishing the existence of the copycat Ginko was preparing for him).

* In ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheBalladOfBetaRayBill'', Mjolnir's worthiness enchantment ended up becoming this -- for the longest time, Mjolnir had the worthiness enchantment attached as a way to temper and humble Thor as punishment for his arrogant actions. Never once had Odin the Allfather ever consider that there would be someone else just as worthy, as the alien Beta Ray Bill would soon prove to be when he randomly hit the carrying stick that disguised the hammer against the wall in frustration and transformed into Thor. When Odin brings Bill to Asgard, he's shocked by what he sees.

* At the end of the first arc of ''ComicBook/ThePowerpuffGIRLS'' by IDW Publishing, Mojo Jojo plans to hide in a space pod for several months until he's ready to return to Townsville. He then realizes that he forgot to install a bathroom, which leads to him actually saying that he didn't think this through.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', during their first battle against Excelsior, Chase Stein decides to create a distraction by attacking with the Leapfrog's lasers...which quickly drains the Leapfrog's batteries, forcing the Runaways to flee with their highly distinctive vehicle fully exposed (because without battery power, they can't activate the vehicle's stealth mode) making it easy for Excelsior to track them down. Later in the same arc, Chase makes a similar mistake by ripping out one of the lasers to use it against a villain. Since the laser is no longer hooked up a power source...

** Doctor Octopus' plan in the storyline ''ComicBook/{{Ends of the Earth}}''. With the evil doc dying, Doc Ock plans to [[spoiler:flash-fry the Earth, leaving approximately .08 percent of humanity to live on and remember him as the greatest monster that ever lived]]. However, Spidey points out a glaring flaw in this plan: [[spoiler:they'll live. Brain dead, their brains flash-fried, too]]. Doc Ock [[VillainousBreakdown flips]].

* Used in a multipart story by Franchise/ArchieComics, starring Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, and Cheryl Blossom. One of Veronica's schemes backfires on her, and ruins her own social life. Veronica uses doctored photos to try to ruin Cheryl's reputation, driving the girl to tears. Veronica fails to figure that she looks like a villain to her peers. Veronica then rejects Betty's efforts to serve as her conscience, and unwittingly alienates her best friend. Betty and Cheryl befriend each other (bonding over shared grief), and spend most of their time together. Archie has no interest in dating Veronica, as he is also angry with her behavior. After more than a month of being friendless and dateless, Veronica tries to find a way to regain Betty's friendship.
* Strongly implied as the main problem for Fabian Cortez, a traditional X-Men villain, in his 2020s stories. In 30 years of stories, Fabian has developed a modus operandi: He convinces people that he is a useful ally for them, then works to undermine them. The end result of having used this plan far too often: nobody trusts him, nobody likes him, and he is treated with cold indifference when trying to suggest plans. While talking to Nightcrawler, Fabian reveals that many of his plans were misguided attempts to prove his own importance, or misguided attempts to get people to like him. Not only have these attempts backfired to a great degree, Nightcrawler points out that Fabian has grown to disdain himself due to his methods.

* In the comic adaptation of ''Literature/TheDestroyer'', one story centered on a prototype nuclear pistol designed for the Army; basically a handheld small warhead launcher. The developers boasted a mighty five-kilometer blast radius... and less than a ''two-kilometer'' range. It wasn't until they tried to pitch it to a group of officers that someone pointed out the big problem.