History Main / ToughActToFollow

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk1968:'' After Peter David's decade and change run on the title, Joe Casey had the task of following up on him before the title ended after six issues. The final story even begins with a fourth-wall breaking moment where Casey even addresses how the deck was pretty stacked against him from the start.

* Creator/{{Christopher Priest|Comics}} basically redefined ComicBook/BlackPanther in every way and to this day his run is considered by many to be the greatest book Panther has ever had. He was followed by Reginald Hudlin, whose work was immediately hit by the this trope in full force. His run initially outsold Priest's by quite a bit, but as time went on, sales fell sharply. A relaunch stunt involving T'Challa's sister Shuri taking over as the lead didn't do much better, and the title was eventually cancelled under new writer Jonathan Maberry.

* The Anime/UnicronTrilogy [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zags this a bit]]. ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' isn't exactly a masterpiece and has a very slow beginning, but partway in [[GrowingTheBeard it found its footing and dramatically increased in quality]]. This created decently high hopes for its sequel ''Anime/TransformersEnergon''; hopes that ''Energon'', having a very rushed TroubledProduction, could never meet. The final installment, ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'', ended up [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel inverting this trend]]; ''Energon''[='s=] disastrous launch left a '''very''' low bar that ''Cybertron'', with its strong CharacterDevelopment and plotting, was easily able to jump over.

* ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'':
** The BigBad of the first game, Monokuma (AKA [[spoiler:[[HopeCrusher Junko Enoshima]]]] AKA the Ultimate Despair), is widely agreed by fans to be the best villain of the entire franchise, even better than their incarnations in other installments! The first two after, [[spoiler:[[HateSink Monaca]]]] and [[spoiler:[[TragicVillain Izuru]]]], did get praise, but were still overshadowed. And the ones after them? [[spoiler:[[TechnicalPacifist Kazuo]] and [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy Ryota]]]] of ''[=DR3=]'' and [[spoiler:[[LoonyFan Tsumugi]]]] of ''[[VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony New Danganronpa V3]]'' were flat-out ''hated'' by the fans, being considered weak, ineffectual, and outright stupid.

** Also in soccer: For a long time, the USA women's national team was this after the groundbreaking [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup World Cup]] champions of 1999. Despite four Olympic golds since then, it took 20 years for the team to ''completely'' exit the shadow of the 1999 team. The 2011 World Cup team came close, but lost to [[YamatoNadeshiko Japan]] in the final. The shadow finally lifted in 2015, when the USWNT dispatched longtime nemesis Germany in the semifinals and got revenge against Japan in the final. It went away decisively in 2019, when they dominated what by all accounts was the strongest women's field ever assembled to repeat as champions.[[note]]How dominant? They never trailed once in the tournament, outscored their opponents 26–3, and led for more than 70% of the total time they played. And the only times they were seriously pressed in the tournament, they were only in danger of an equalizer. Not to mention that they took down four top-10 teams in the process (of course, they entered the tournament at #1). One player went so far as to say before the tournament that she felt the US had the two best teams--their starters and their bench. Though time will tell if falling in the following Olympics to a BoringButPractical Canadian team was just a hiccup in USWNT domination.[[/note]]

** Second, the managerial succession following the stepping-down of Arsene Wenger. Wenger was the manager who led them to these titles, and even managed a few FA Cup wins in his final seasons. However, each coach that has followed him has done worse, both highlighting just how excellent of a manager Wenger was, and causing the team to slip further and further away from success again. First, Unai Emery seemed to be getting Arsenal going in the right direction, with a 22-match unbeaten steak in all competitions. But then the team started to slip, before losing a Top 4 finish and getting embarrassed 4-1 in the Europa League final by rivals Chelsea. He was sacked after a truly dismal start to the 2019/20 season. He was replaced by former captain and Manchester City assistant Mikel Arteta, who also seemed to start off on the right foot, getting Arsenal another FA Cup victory (going through Manchester City and Chelsea, no less). However, things turned sour when Arsenal yet again started off the season in horrid form, finding themselves in the lower half of the table heading into December, before the team turned it around, missing out on European football for the first time in literal decades. Next season, however, Arteta's side rebounded to put themselves firmly into the Top 4 race, with convincing wins against sides such as Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, and other competitors like West Ham and Wolverhampton Wanderers. While they are still a long way from reaching the lofty heights Wenger reached, it is clear that the side is on the right track.

** Basketball: Kobe Bryant (son of Joe "Jellybean"), UsefulNotes/StephenCurry (son of Dell), Klay Thompson (son of Mychal), Tamika Catchings (daughter of Harvey)

** Professional wrestling: Wrestling/RandySavage (son of Angelo Poffo), Wrestling/JakeRoberts (son of Grizzly Smith), Wrestling/TedDiBiase (son of Mike [=DiBiase=]), Wrestling/TerryFunk (son of Dory Funk Sr.), Wrestling/CurtHennig (son of Larry Hennig), [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] (son of Wrestling/RockyJohnson and grandson of Peter Maivia), Wrestling/EddieGuerrero (son of Gory Guerrero), Wrestling/BretHart (son of Stu Hart), Wrestling/RandyOrton (son of Bob Orton Jr. and grandson of Bob Orton Sr.), Wrestling/RomanReigns (son of Sika), Wrestling/AlbertoDelRio (son of Dos Caras), Wrestling/BrayWyatt (son of Wrestling/MikeRotunda), Wrestling/{{Paige}} (daughter of Saraya and Ricky Knight), Wrestling/NatalyaNeidhart (daughter of Wrestling/JimNeidhart), Wrestling/{{Carmella}} (daughter of Paul Van Dale)

** An inversion in Formula One is current Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen, son of Jos Verstappen, who drove in [=F1=] in the '90s and 2000's. Jos never won a race; as of December 2023, Max has 54 Grand Prix wins and three world championships to his name.

* With the conclusion of Rugby World Cup 2015, with the New Zealand team - the All Blacks - standing victorious once again, the retirement of rugby legends [[TheLeader Richie McCaw]], [[OldSoldier Keven Mealamu]], [[TheLancer Dan Carter]], [[ThoseTwoGuys Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu]] and [[TheBigGuy Tony Woodcock]] has rugby fans feeling this trope deeply.

* After the Vegas Golden Knights [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail subverted the usual expansion team performances by being victorious enough for a]] Usefulnotes/StanleyCup final, the next time the NHL expanded again with the Seattle Kraken, analysts were quick to point out Vegas' instant success created big expectations bound for disappointment, specially when the Kraken were the typical "new team that ends among the league's worst". (ironically, they joined in the same season where Vegas finally faultered and missed the playoffs)
* The Usefulnotes/FIFAWorldCup has had several instances of defending champions that were knocked out in the first round of the competition[[note]](not counting Uruguay in the 1934 World Cup, when they refused to join; that being said, Argentina, second-placed in the previous World Cup, was knocked out in the first round)[[/note]]

* Nick Foles had this fate ''twice''. The former Arizona Wildcats quarterback had an outstanding breakout season with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013 -- which included setting the NFL season record for the best touchdown–interception ratio, leading the Eagles to a division title and earning Pro Bowl honors, only to follow it up with a underwhelming second season. Following a similarly underwhelming run with the St. Louis Rams and a run as a backup for the Kansas City Chiefs, he returned to the Eagles in a backup role and led them to an appearance in Super Bowl LII, where, with the help of the "Philly Special", [[CurbStompBattle they beat the New England Patriots]], a feat that earned him the MVP award that year. By the time he left the Eagles for the second time, he was seen as a hot commodity, thanks to the "Cinderella story" prestige surrounding that victory. And then his subsequent runs with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts saw him alternating mediocre performances (he only saw around four wins total during his Bears run; and ''no wins'' during his Jaguars and Colts runs) with injuries, with each run ending in him being unceremoniously traded or released after only a year or two.

** The role of the prosecutorial rival has proven difficult to get just right over the course of the franchise and, unfortunately, the first game really nailed it with Edgeworth. Edgeworth had both [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist sympathetic]] and [[InspectorJavert unsympathetic]] qualities, had a dense and complicated personal past with Phoenix, and his character arc was the main plot of the game. He also had great animations and lines, whether he was being very smug or NotSoAboveItAll. It worked so well that pretty much every subsequent prosecutor struggled to get out of his shadow, whether leaning too far in one direction or the other when it came to balancing sympathetic and unsympathetic qualities, having to squeeze their character arc in around a more-interesting main plot in which they are just a side player, going a bit ''too'' over-the-top with their animations and CourtroomAntics, or just feeling like they're retreading the same ground Edgeworth once did. None of them are helped by Edgeworth's incredible popularity seeing him join the story for at least part of most final cases (or even notably filling in for a sick Phoenix during the third game), further making them seem less interesting than he. That's not to say that other main prosecutors don't have their fan followings (Franziska and Godot being the most notable cases, themselves from the original trilogy rather than any of the sequels or spin-offs), but FirstInstallmentWins is definitely in play where Edgeworth is concerned.

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': On a character level, many feel that Near and Mello wouldn't be so divisive if it weren't for the fact that [[spoiler:they're [[ReplacementScrappy the successors to]] the nigh-universally beloved L. It's hard to imagine ''any'' character meant to take over his role in the narrative would've gotten a warm reception from fans, at least at first. While Near is still hated by a large segment of the fandom, Mello is generally agreed to be an interesting character on his own merits. (Which doesn't mean the fanbase has forgiven the creators for killing L off in the first place...)]]

* Two parts originally created by Creator/EthelMerman were examples of this Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun and Theatre/{{Gypsy}} were classed as untouchable, while Annie would get 2 Broadway revivals once in 59 it sank without a trace and the 66 revival had Merman recreating the role, however in 1999 a major revised revival was better received. However Gypsy was better off after Creator/AngelaLansbury starred in the 1974 revival the show has been revived multiple times.

* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' is this for Creator/AndrewLloydWebber -- while several of his subsequent shows did decent/fine business in his native England (''Theatre/SunsetBoulevard'' also did well in the U.S.), he's never had another international sensation along the lines of ''Theatre/{{Evita}}'', ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'', ''Theatre/StarlightExpress'', or ''Phantom''. In 2010 he brought out a sequel to ''Phantom'', ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies'', but its reception has been extremely mixed.

* Even though Creator/StephenSchwartz was well known at the time, this could almost be said to apply to ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}''. Nothing he did before it even comes close to ''Wicked'' 's level of popularity and revivals of some of his older work (notably ''Theatre/{{Godspell}}'' which is returning to Broadway) now carry the advertisement: "From the creator of ''Wicked''" (with occasionally ''Theatre/{{Pippin}}'' being mentioned as an afterthought).

* Nick Foles had this fate ''twice''. The former Arizona Wildcat quarterback had an outstanding breakout season with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013 -- which included setting the NFL season record for the best touchdown–interception ratio, leading the Eagles to a division title and earning Pro Bowl honors, only to follow it up with a underwhelming second season. Following a similarly underwhelming run with the St. Louis Rams and a run as a backup for the Kansas City Chiefs, he returned to the Eagles in a backup role and led them to an appearance in Super Bowl LII, where, with the help of the "Philly Special", [[CurbStompBattle they beat the New England Patriots]], a feat that earned him the MVP award that year. By the time he left the Eagles for the second time, he was seen as a hot commodity, thanks to the "Cinderella story" prestige surrounding that victory. And then his subsequent runs with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts saw him alternating mediocre performances (he only saw around four wins total during his Bears run; and ''no wins'' during his Jaguars and Colts runs) with injuries, with each run ending in him being unceremoniously traded or released after only a year or two.