History Main / WalkingWasteland

** ''ComicBook/TheNewUniverse'': Dennis "Scuzz" Cuzinski developed the unwanted and uncontrollable ability to make anything he touches rot. Including his clothes.

* ''Film/{{Constantine}}'': A man possessed by the BigBad is shown slaughtering a herd of cattle simply by passing through it.

* ''Film/{{Warlock}}'' (1989). The title character has a power often attributed to witches in RealLife: when he's in the area milk turns sour.

** The Devil King "Himself" is an entitity [[ParadoxPerson whose existence is so hostile to the rest of the universe]] that everything he does -- including speaking, or simply 'being' -- is a violation of the laws of existence. [[TailorMadePrison He's kept suspended in an iron box pierced with dozens of Puresilver Needles that's sunk into the foundations of Throne so that no-one has to be near him]], and his speech bubbles [[WordsCanBreakMyBones are shown to corrode the box when he speaks]].

** The Devil King "Himself" is an entitity [[ParadoxPerson whose existence is so hostile to the rest of the universe]] that everything he does -- including speaking, or simply 'being' -- is a violation of the laws of existence. [[TailorMadePrison He's kept suspended in an iron box pierced with dozens of Puresilver Needles that's sunk into the foundations of Throne so that no-one has to be near him]], and his speech bubbles are shown to corrode the box when he speaks.

** The Devil King "Himself" is an entitity [[OxymoronicBeing whose existence is so hostile to the rest of the universe]] that everything he does -- including speaking, or simply 'being' -- is a violation to physical law. [[TailorMadePrison He's kept contained in an iron box pierced with dozens of Puresilver Needles that's sunk into the foundations of Throne so that no-one has to be near him]], and his speech bubbles are shown to corrode the box when he speaks.

** The Devil King "Himself" is an entitity whose existence is so hostile to the rest of the universe that his mere presence is a violation to the rest of the universe. [[TailorMadePrison He's kept contained in an iron box pierced with dozens of Puresilver Needles that's sunk into the foundations of Throne so that no-one has to look at him]], and his speech bubbles are shown to corrode the box when he speaks.

** The Devil King "Himself" is an entitity whose existence is so hostile to the rest of the universe that the mere act of speaking is a violation to the rest of the universe. [[TailorMadePrison He's kept contained in an iron box pierced with dozens of Puresilver Needles]], and his speech bubbles are shown to corrode the box when he speaks.

** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2207 SCP-2207 "Dimensional Razor"]] is a plastic knife that can [[DimensionalCutter cut portals into alternate universes]][[spoiler:, however, the knife [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds disconnects each universe]] from the multiverse when used, resulting in a case of RealityIsOutToLunch.]] Exploration #28 features a farm where all the nearbly plants, and eventually a farmer and the D-Class woman who was sent through the portal, wither easily and die. [[spoiler:It's because life is now impossible in that universe.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine,'' trails off ink surround Bendy in all directions. They can't do anything to hurt Henry or any of the studio's stronger ink beings, but all the minor ones like the Searchers or the Butcher Gang members instantly die when touched by it. It's implied that prolonged exposure would kill all the stronger ink beings too simply because it's ink.

* In Norwegian folklore, there is a character called Pesta, who is a personification of TheBlackDeath ("pest" is the Norwegian word for "plague"). She would walk through the land in the form of a shrivelled old woman dressed in black, carrying a broom and a rake with her. If she used the broom as she walked past a homestead, all who lived there would perish from the plague; if she used the rake, a some would survive.

** ''Comicbook/{{Aquaman}}'': The Thirst drains water from his surroundings and living beings.
** ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

** ''Comicbook/New52'': Doomsday, alongside tremendous superstrength and his adaptive powers, has a death zone around him, drawing away life, and essentially creating a desert wasteland.

** ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' villainess Typhoid Mary has a wide variety of PsychicPowers, but gets her name from a power that makes those in her presence feel feverish and weak.

* ''ComicBook/ManThing'': Jude, the Entropic Man, apparently an embodiment of entropy created from the remains of entropy cultist Yagzan by the Cosmic Cube, can theoretically cause anything he touches to attain complete entropy, which in practice means it desintegrates -- but he never does this.

* ''LightNovel/RestaurantToAnotherWorld'': Black Queen/Kuro is a dragon who uncontrollably releases death magic, killing and disintegrating weaker beings. She was forced to exile herself to her world's moon to spare the inhabitants. Eventually, she is transported to the restaurant and transformed into an elf, and no longer has this problem.

* ''Series/{{Brimstone}}'': The VillainOfTheWeek "Carrier" causes infection in alone she exchanges bodily fluids with (before she "dies" she kills a bunch of people by throwing up in a reservoir). Mind you, her post-Hell infection made even ''The Devil'' nervous!
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "Amends", Buffy learns that the Bringers, priests to [[GodOfEvil the First Evil]], will cause "''nothing to grow, above or below''" them. She is able to find their hideout by remembering [[spoiler:an inexplicably dead patch at a Christmas tree lot]].

* ''Series/Titans2018'': [[Characters/Titans2018Villains Trigon]] immediately begins causing all plant and animal life to die once he transforms into his true form and gains its power.

** [[HairTriggerTemper Pannacotta Fugo]]'s Purple Haze harbors a virus in glass globes on its knuckles, and if the virus escapes it liquefies all organic matter within a 30-meter radius, with only sunlight as a neutralizing factor. It's said to be a representation of Fugo's violent side, and he avoids using it because of its high potential for unwanted collateral damage.

* ''Manga/GetBackers'': Natsuki Amon. It was his tribal ability, and it led him to shun human touch for fear of draining the life of anyone he hung around with. [[TheIdiotFromOsaka Couldn't happen to a nicer guy]].

* Two [[FightingSpirit Stands]] in ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo]]'' have this ability:
** Pannacotta Fugo's Purple Haze harbors a virus in glass globes on its knuckles, and if the virus escapes it liquefies all organic matter within a 30-meter radius, with only sunlight as a neutralizing factor.
** Cioccolatta's Green Day spreads a mold that rots everything that is at a lower altitude than the Stand itself, which its User takes advantage of by ''flying over Rome in a helicopter''.

** ''ComicBook/{{Longshot}}'' (and others) villain Mojo. In his insane AGodAmI tirades he obliviously calls himself "Lifebringer" when his presence on Earth kills plants and animals, nauseates humans and shuts down machinery.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': The Smoky Progg from the first game leaves a trail of deadly fog that will kill your Pikmin.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'': Two Stands function like this:
** Purple Haze harbors a virus in glass globes on its knuckles, and if the virus escapes it wipes out everything organic in a 30-meter radius around it with only sunlight as a neutralizing factor.
** Green Day spreads a mold that rots everything that is at a lower altitude than the Stand itself, which its User takes advantage of by ''flying over Rome in a helicopter''.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': The Lich causes everything he touches to die. How are Finn and Jake told to follow him? By following the '''path of death he leaves in his wake''', a several foot trench in the ground caused just by him moving over it.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Played for laughs in an episode where Mom's negative affinity for plants is so pronounced that they instantly wither should she so much as brush against one, making it difficult for her to grow her dream garden:
-->'''Mom:''' ''(sobbing)'' "Everything I touch dies!" ''(people around her step back slowly)''\\
'''Dad:''' "Oh, Dinkleburg! Don't you want to come over and give my wife a congratulatory hand-touch?"

* The ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' episode "The Greatest Story Never Told" features a man who was accidentally turned into a walking black hole, sucking in everything in sight.

* ''Literature/FlightFromTomorrow'', by Creator/HBeamPiper. A future dictator escapes a revolution with a time machine, intending to be a ConquerorFromTheFuture. However because future mankind has become acclimatized to high levels of radiation after a series of atomic wars, he ends up killing everyone he comes into contact with. The twentieth century authorities track down this radioactive TyphoidMary and carpetbomb the valley he's in, then fill it with concrete from one mountainside to the next.

* The mystery of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Ramirez Gloria Ramirez]] is still not conclusively solved, but the story of this California woman served as an inspiration for episodes of ''Series/TheXFiles'', ''Series/LawAndOrder'', and ''Series/GreysAnatomy''. After being rushed to the Riverside General Hospital while dying of cancer, Ms. Ramirez began to exude an oily, garlicky-smelling substance from her pores that caused nausea, fainting, muscle spasms and other documented symptoms in those attempting to treat her. Eventually the entire emergency room had to be evacuated, leaving behind only a skeleton crew who tended to her as she died. The most likely explanation is that Ramirez had been taking dimethyl sulphoxide, or DMSO, which is sometimes used as an analgesic and is known to have this effect when taken orally. The levels in her bloodstream might have been abnormally high due to kidney failure, and when exposed pure oxygen and several shocks from a defibrilator the DMSO turned into [=DMSO4=] (dimethyl sulphate), a highly toxic gas.

->''"And behold, I shall be a Blight upon the land, and everything I touch...shall wither, and die."''