History Main / ComesGreatResponsibility

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' sees [[DeusEstMachina Petey]] say this to the Rev (who identifies it as "the Gospel of Uncle Benjamin").

-->''Black Suit!Spider-Man'': I was told that with great power comes great responsibility.
-->''Symbiote!Black Cat'': And now?
-->''Black Suit!Spider-Man'': I never knew what power '''was'''!

** In the evilest ending of ''VideoGame/SpiderManWebOfShadows'', Peter has [[FallenHero fallen]] so far that he rejects his former motto, claiming that he never knew what power was and deciding that he ''likes'' it.

-->''Black Suit!Spider-Man'': I never knew what power ''was''!

* In ''Series/{{Charmed}},'' the sisters were prohibited from using their power for "personal gain" to the point where they couldn't even use it to save Piper's life when she was about to die from natural causes, even though it would preserve their special Power-of-Three-ness and presumably save many lives in the long run. Later on, the writers played with this trope a bit.

* This mantra is often used on forums to explain how its leaders should act.

[[folder: Trope Namer]]

* Soldiers, police officers, judges, and others in similar positions are often required to swear oaths to never abuse their powers. This does not prevent said powers from being abused either with or without official sanction. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement We don't need specific examples.]]

* The eldest immortal of the ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' series feels that it is his responsibility to clean up after his kid's messes but the protagonist says that if he was really being responsible then he'd have stopped his offspring along time ago, as he's the only one capable of doing so.

* Cole from ''VideoGame/InFAMOUS''. And everything [[BigBad Kessler]] puts you through? [[spoiler:Preparation for when the shit really hits the fan.]]
** Of course, with the game's [[KarmaMeter moral choice system]], it's up to the player whether or not Cole embraces this trope or if he rejects it and is only looking out for himself.

-->'''May Parker:''' But daddy, it's my responsibility...
-->'''Peter:''' Don't give me the responsibility shtick, young lady. '''I ''invented'' the responsibility shtick!'''

-->'''Victor:''' But... but I have '''powers'''! And in that book '''Webs''', your photographer friend said your motto is, "With great power, there must also come great responsibility!"
-->'''Gert:''' Really? That's '''inane'''. Most people in life don't '''have''' great power, and the few that do are almost never responsible with it. The people who have the greatest responsibility are the kids with '''no power''' because we're the ones who have to keep everybody else in check.
-->'''Spider-Man:''' [[SarcasmMode Wow. You are totally going to be an Avenger when you grow up.]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Nozomi, TheDitz of ''Anime/YesPrecure5'', wanted to use the Dream Collet's any-wish-your-heart-desires to do all her homework for her.
* In ''Anime/MaiHiME'', the applications of the [=HiMEs=]' powers were explicitly unrestricted, which DarkMagicalGirl Nao used to justify using her powers to rob unsuspecting men, posing as a child prostitute.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''
** In ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' Loran feels this way about the titular mobile suit. He's even unhappy about using the ''beam saber'' when he first finds it, long before he learns that [[spoiler:he's piloting the most powerful mobile suit ever built]].
** In ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'', [[TheAce Mu La Flaga]] throws this at Kira near the beginning, one of the prime reasons Kira continues to take up arms and fight.
* The final episodes of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' carry this theme in the revelation that reckless use of [[AwesomenessIsVolatile Spiral Energy can potentially destroy the universe.]]
* ''Manga/IWish'' has Wye talk about how Dee is in desperate need to learn this lesson. She's too carefree and willing to flaunt her magic powers on everything and everyone and it often leads to causing more problems than help. He's afraid that she'll eventually go down the same path as he once did, [[spoiler:using his magic to resurrect people, become feared by previous admirers and ultimately doing something that ''could'' lead to the end of the world]] if she were not stopped. Dee does learn the lesson [[spoiler:when her love-obsessed, stalking servants try to kill her and Wye [[HeroicSacrifice takes the hit for her]] to keep her safe]] and she is much more responsible.
* In ''Manga/{{Alice19th}}'', Alice is encouraged to use her powers to help her studies. However, in a side story, a character loses her powers when she tries to charge money for the water she created using them.
* Something interesting -- fansub group Janime translates a line from ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' as "With great responsibility comes great power." The speaker is not referring to any superpower, but Judai's super-charisma and inherent ability to inspire people and get them to follow him just by being himself. [[{{Deconstruction}} That's not as good as it sounds]].
* It's kind of subverted in the anime ''Anime/EdenOfTheEast'', in which twelve people called Seleçao are enrolled in a "game" where they get 10 billion yen and [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection a concierge that allows them to do almost anything they want with it]]. It is later revealed the the goal of the "game" is for one of the Seleçao to use the money responsibly to "become a Messiah" who will "save Japan": Those who fail to do so are killed when they run out of money ([[ThereCanBeOnlyOne or killed when one of the others win]]). "Noblesse Oblige" and "The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power" are ArcWords in the story.
* Averted early in the Chuunin Exam Arc of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', wherein everyone in the room is subtly encouraged to use their ninja abilities to cheat on the written portion, which is so impossibly hard that this is the only way they will be able to finish. They were really being marked on their ability to cheat without being caught.
* [[TheKidWithTheRemoteControl Joey Jones]] from ''Manga/{{Heroman}}'' struggles with this once he get's the titular [[HumongousMecha robot]]. Comes with the territory seeing as the series is the brainchild of none other than Creator/StanLee.
* ''Manga/InuYasha'': Inuyasha isn't allowed to obtain Tessaiga without learning that he must protect humans if he wants to wield it. Thereafter, his ability to strengthen and master Tessaiga goes hand in hand with his increasing compassion.
** Sesshoumaru has to learn the same lesson. In his case, he is forced to inherit [[HealingShiv Tenseiga]] as a way of forcing him to learn the value of compassion. Only after he has learned this lesson is he able to realise his [[PersonOfMassDestruction full potential]] and obtain [[ChainReactionDestruction Bakusaiga]].
* In ''Manga/SaintSeiyaTheLostCanvas'', the Saints are absolutely forbidden from using their Clothes for personal gain, having to don them exclusively to protect [[BigGood Athena]] and humankind. If they ''do'' use their Clothes for personal gain, Sanctuary law has it that they shall be executed.
** This is also present in [[Manga/SaintSeiya the original series]]: at the start the protagonist Saints are using their Clothes to fight in the Galaxy Tournament, and the Sanctuary, upon hearing of this, sends another powerful Saint (Hyoga in the manga, Ikki in the anime) to execute the lot of them.
* ''Anime/DevilSurvivor2'' has main protagonist Hibiki Kuze feel this way about his savant-like ability to summon the powerful demon Byakko.
* Inverted in ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'': After the secret is revealed Nadia's firm belief in this trope combined with her own self-hatred [[DrivenToSuicide leads her to attempt suicide]] because she's convinced she could never handle such power responsibly.
* In ''Manga/MobPsycho100'', Mob has an incredibly mundane, mediocre life...and god-like PsychicPowers. However, he almost never uses his powers because when he was younger, his future mentor Reigen told him that he shouldn't ever view himself as superior to ordinary people, and that misusing his abilities would be like misusing a knife (but on a much grander scale). An early story arc introduces a ShadowArchetype character who actually does use his powers to basically rule his school; [[spoiler:After getting [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] by Mob, he undergoes a HeelFaceTurn and becomes much more humble.]]
* The protagonist of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', Josuke Higashikata, despite his ChronicHeroSyndrome is originally content to allow his older nephew Jotaro handle the Stand-using SerialKiller that is menacing his town. After his grandfather is murdered and he realizes his HealingHands cannot solve all his problems, he resolves to rid Morioh of evil Stand users.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]

** The phrase people most often think of, "With great power comes great responsibility" (heard in, among other things, [[Film/SpiderMan1 the 2002 film]]), is actually a BeamMeUpScotty: The ''original'' quote came from a narration box in the final panel of "Spider-Man!" in ''Amazing Fantasy #15'', with the narrator telling the viewer how Peter has learned that "with great power there must also come -- great responsibility!"
*** That phrasing comes back during ''ComicBook/SpiderVerse''. During one story, a very angry ComicBook/SpiderGirl confronts an Uncle Ben who gave up being a Spider because his world's Green Goblin killed his May and Peter. May, already angry that her brother was in the hands of the Inheritors, snaps at Ben for abandoning his role as a hero. She starts to use the motto before Ben corrects her with the real phrasing and uses it as the reason why he quit.
*** Also in ''ComicBook/SpiderVerse'', Ben reminds everyone that the actual quote is 'With great power there '''must also''' come great responsibility', implying that responsibility is at once a ''choice'', and an inherent part of the package with great power.

* Franchise/{{Superman}}:
** In ''Comicbook/WarWorld'', after helping him find Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}, Comicbook/TheSpectre remembers Clark that power must be used responsibly.
--->'''Superman:''' Thank you, Spectre. You have taught me a great lesson here — and I won't forget it! Fate has granted us great power — But power for power's sake is utterly worthless! Power is meaningless... until it is tempered with conscience!
** Used in ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'', although not spelled out. [[spoiler:Comicbook/LexLuthor gains Superman's powers at the end and goes on a rampage, stopping every so often as his SuperSenses give him new insights on the universe. Just as his powers run out, he declares that life is beautiful and everyone needs to stick together - implying that anybody with Superman's godlike perspective would naturally choose to become an altruist. The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue implies that Luthor mellowed out considerably after the experience.]] Although [[spoiler: Luthor is smart and would be capable of recognizing the beauty of the universe with his new SuperSenses... and it didn't completely stop him from trying to defeat Superman anyway. If anything it's a combination of Superman's godlike perspective and being raised well that makes Clark Kent who he is.]]
** Superman isn't above using his powers to get a good news story if doing so doesn't interfere with fighting evil. In one of the earliest comics he scooped Lois on a story about a dam bursting by outrunning her train, stopping the flood, and phoning the story in. Sort of justified in that his heroing makes his job more difficult far more often than it makes it easier — like Peter Parker, the guy deserves a break.
* Occasionally averted in ComicBook/XMen when a mutant is shown using their powers to aid in doing their day job. For example, Colossus used his superhuman strength and endurance to work as a farmer (in the comics) and a construction worker (on the TV series) before joining the team. While he is using his powers to do productive work for society, it is clear that he ''is'' getting paid for it.
** This was (and still is) a common trait of Communist superheroes (and supervillains!) in comics. Most if not all of them are on the government payroll. It's superhumans from non-autocratic countries who have the ''freedom'' to use their powers as they choose.
** This was also demonstrated in the 1990s ''ComicBook/{{Sleepwalker}}'' comics with AntiVillain Spectra. Her initial criminal schemes give her amazing superhuman powers and transform her into a supervillain, and she seems ready to become a criminal, but by the next time Sleepwalker runs into her she's using her light-projecting abilities to [[CutLexLuthorACheck make a living working for a glassware manufacturer]].
* Various versions of Comicbook/IronMan usually wrestle with this - Tony Stark's fortune is built on his engineering genius, but in the film, Tony decides to get his company out of the munitions business after seeing that his weapons were being sold in dirty deals to terrorists and criminals. In the comics, Stark quit selling weapons years ago, but he still frets about villains stealing and abusing his armor designs, sometimes to the level of paranoia that he manipulates, deceives and attacks his own friends.
* A bit of a subversion and Aesop in Franchise/TheDCU. [[Comicbook/DoomPatrol Rita Farr's]] inability to control her size-changing abilities ended her film career. The only movie she made after it was a knockoff of "The Incredible Shrinking Woman." Likewise, her adopted son (Gar "Beast Boy" Logan) also went into acting, and had a good run on a Franchise/StarTrek knockoff, using his shapechanging ability to play an alien...however, neither of them were able to find more acting work, since their reputations as "freaks" made them un-castable in anything else. Other DCU examples were Victor "Cyborg" Stone and Cliff "Robot Man" Steele. Their {{Emergency Transformation}}s enhanced them, but also rendered them ineligible to participate in the athletic abilities they loved because their cybernetics were considered cheating. For all of the above, it's arguable that they're in the hero business because they ''can't'' do anything else.
* A recent issue of Comicbook/NewAvengers has superhuman mobster ComicBook/TheHood (who is a villainous deconstruction of the Marvel teenage superhero, and whose name happens to be Parker) explaining to his gang that they owe their enhanced abilities to him:
-->'''Hood''': With power like this comes responsibility.
* In the print- and webcomic ''ComicBook/PS238'', the private school [[http://ps238.nodwick.com/?p=735 Praetorian Academy]] is founded on the ideals of teaching this to its (grade-school level) students. Their somewhat draconian methods of [[ExplosiveLeash enforcing these ideals]] contrast it sharply to [=PS238=] itself, which is more of a normal grade school (with a curriculum modified thereafter) for kids that happen to have superpowers.

* The TropeNamer, of course, is ComicBook/SpiderMan, who used his powers to earn some money at wrestling, but couldn't be bothered to stop a criminal from escaping -- the same criminal who would later kill his uncle. Humbled, he takes up crime fighting, learning that power has a price. The only concession he makes is to take pictures of himself in action to pay the bills.

* Wizard Harry Dresden from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' embraces this trope, saying that he "follows the Tao of Peter Parker." He means it, too. Thomas Raith comments on this in the Dresdenverse story ''Backup'', saying that Harry has a "half-divine, half-insane philosophy" about responsibility that "he's cobbled together from the words of saints and comic books."

* [[Webcomic/{{XKCD}} German physicist Georg Ohm]] [[http://xkcd.com/643/ never forgot the words of his dying uncle who told him, "With great Power comes Great Current squared times Resistance" and crafted that wisdom into the foundation of modern electrical engineering.]] Translated that means that with high levels of Power one has the Responsibility to deal with the [[{{Overheating}} waste heat]] if one doesn't want their device to burn up.

* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' has a KarmaMeter that dings the Awakened for engaging in MundaneUtility, but you practically have to be a saint to be affected. On a more general level, flagrantly throwing about extremely obvious magic will quickly lead to [[MagicMisfire Paradox]].
** Additionally, becoming a Mage causes the normal human karma meter to be more harshly enforced-- if you go around murdering people, not only do you have a random stat with no real consequences telling you you're a bad person, but the entire supernatural world starts disliking you on sight.
** This belief is what separates the Silver Ladder from the Seers of the Throne. The Silver Ladder believe they're supposed to rule over [[{{Muggles}} Sleepers]], but that this rulership is for the Sleepers' own good - they're supposed to guide Sleepers towards enlightenment and generally rule well. Seers don't believe that control over Sleepers has any real responsibilities apart from not spooking the herd, and abuse both mystical and manipulative power for personal gain on a grimly regular basis.

Contrasted by MugglePower and WithGreatPowerComesGreatPerks. If the powers result in the character losing any sense of responsibility, see WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity.

** Even the [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Theme Song]] says so. ''They know the fate of the world is lying in their hands. They know to only use their weapons for defense.''