History NoOntologicalInertia / ComicBooks

* This is why the Cosmic Cubes of the MarvelUniverse are AwesomeButImpractical. Yeah, they make you a RealityWarper, but you have to keep thinking to make any changes to reality permanent. If your attention goes elsewhere or you fall asleep, everything will go back to normal. This is not always applied consistently, however, as things like Steve's restoration of Bucky's memories at the end of the Winter Soldier arc remain in place after Steve loses the Cube - though perhaps it evaded the whole 'creation' issue by just healing damaged brain tissue.

* In ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'', the character "The Lizard" was created by a man, Dr. Curt Connors, trying to grow his right arm back. When he becomes the Lizard, his right arm does, indeed, grow back. When he's cured and reverts to normal, however, he loses his arm again. Connors's RIGHT ARM has No Ontological Inertia. Ditto for Kommodo, who uses an improved version of Dr. Connors's formula, that allows her to transform at will. In human form, she ''has no legs''. Where on earth do [[ShapeshifterBaggage they come from]]?

** Bruce Wayne is not truly Batman until he puts on the costume; and as soon as he removes his mask, he reverts to being Bruce Wayne. In part this is an in-universe EnforcedTrope: Batman ''must'' be [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob stupid, incompetent Bruce Wayne]] while out of costume to preserve his secret identity. However, it is also a psychological internalization in that Wayne believes that, on the level of reality that most matters to him, he doesn't merely dress as Batman but ''is'' Batman - and without the costume, he's stripped down to his "skeleton" and not truly alive.

** Anarky is a violent left-wing vigilante in a gold death mask (and also wears a broad-brimmed hat and a cape, making him look not unlike the title character of ''ComicBook/VForVendetta''). His ''modus operandi'' is [[KnightTemplar self-righteously punishing the rich and powerful for their unethical business practices]]. He finally bites off more than he can chew when he targets Batman for assassination, blaming him for all of the crime in Gotham. He interferes in a battle between Batman and (ironically enough) the Scarecrow, which proves disastrous for him when one of the Scarecrow's mind-controlled {{Mooks}} punches him in the face, knocking off his gold mask and destroying his confidence so that he reverts to the tongue-tied, peevish, cowardly juvenile delinquent he actually is (and his intelligence plunges as well, so that he goes from a brilliant wit quoting the great minds of literature and history to a stereotypically inarticulate teenager who says [[TotallyRadical "man"]] a lot.) For extra irony, Anarky is fairly masculine in appearance with his mask on, but without it appears [[{{Bishonen}} pretty effeminate]].

* During the ''ComicBook/{{Millennium}}'' crossover, the Justice League visited the homeworld of the Manhunters and confronted their leader. The entire planet collapsed when the head Manhunter escaped.

* This is why the Cosmic Cubes of the MarvelUniverse are AwesomeButImpractical. Yeah, they make you a RealityWarper, but you have to keep thinking to make any changes to reality permanent. If your attention goes elsewhere or you fall asleep, everything will go back to normal. This is not always applied consistently, however, as things like Steve's restoration of Bucky's memories at the end of the Winter Soldier arc remain in place after Steve loses the Cube.

* Briefly mentioned and sort of averted in the JLA special Foreign Bodies, in which the Franchise/{{Justice League|of America}} undergoes one big BodySwap. Green Lantern, stuck in ComicBook/MartianManhunter's body, points out to Aquaman (in WonderWoman's body) that at least he got his hand back--all of the characters' unique physical features stay with their bodies, not their minds, as it should be if you only switch minds. He calls it "proof of some kind of thermodynamic 'conservation of anatomy' principle."

* A major plot point in Comicbook/{{Lucifer}} where everything starts to go straight to hell (so to speak) when [[spoiler:God up and leaves the universe.]] Justified in that [[spoiler:His name was technically the only thing that was holding each individual atom of creation together in the first place.]]

* Particularly aggravating when mutants (in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse) lose their powers and (in general) turn human. That is, you might have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Newxmen125.jpg looked like this]] as a mutant, but once you're cured, you get an instant human body. Almost as if you had never been a mutant in the first place. Although, it's only a general rule. Chamber, a mutant whose explosion/fire/whatever powers blew off his lower face and chest, had to be put on a life support when his powers disappeared. It seems it doesn't count if it was an indirect effect of their powers, or [[RuleOfDrama if it will cause something even shittier to happen to the character.]]
* ''ComicBook/XFactor'', in fact, did an arc based partially around that premise. SOME mutants became completely human looking when they became non-mutants, but other mutants retained vestiges of their mutations even after Decimation -- horns, colourful feathers instead of hair, etc. -- and some of them resent ex-mutants who can pass as completely humans who retain their attachment to their previous mutant state, because they can go back and forth, whenever they want.
* In ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'', the character "The Lizard" was created by a man, Dr. Curt Connors, trying to grow his right arm back. When he becomes the Lizard, his right arm does, indeed, grow back. When he's cured and reverts to normal, however, he loses his arm again. Connors's RIGHT ARM has No Ontological Inertia. Ditto for Kommodo, who uses an improved version of Dr. Connors's formula, that allows her to transform at will. In human form, she ''has no legs''. Where on earth do [[ShapeshifterBaggage they come from]]?
* ComicBook/ScarletWitch and her twin sons. To wit: back during the ''Vision & The Scarlet Witch'' mini-series, Wanda used a big mass of chaos energy to do the otherwise impossible -- make herself pregnant with the [[ArtificialHuman android Vision's]] children. (Why an android would have reproductive organs... [[MST3KMantra let's move on]]). We find out later on that the twins aren't kids with impossible origins, but magic-powered figments of Wanda's imagination. When she wasn't thinking of them on some level, they literally faded from reality. They were "killed off" when minor baddie Master Pandemonium absorbed them into his demonic gestalt body. Recently, the twins were resurrected and aged-up as Wiccan and Speed of The Young Avengers (though their parentage has never been officially confirmed by canon or WordOfGod).
* Used to [[NightmareFuel horrifying]] effect in ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' volume II. During a dinner scene, Mr. Hyde's conversation slowly reveals that he has just [[spoiler:brutally raped and partially eaten Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man, whose blood gradually becomes visible on the walls and table and ''all over Hyde'' as Griffin dies in the next room.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** The titular hero's Kryptonian physiology has [[DependingOnTheWriter often been described as a solar battery]], absorbing the radiation from Earth's yellow sun and storing it, which powers his [[FlyingBrick flight, invulnerability,]] and [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands super-cake-baking]] powers. However, whenever someone wants to shut off Superman's powers, they just bung him in a room with a Red bulb and he becomes as weak as a kitten. The equivalent with a human would be going into a dark room and suddenly deforming with rickets because of massive Vitamin D deficiency.
** As with anything Supes-related it [[DependingOnTheWriter varies continually]], but one explanation bandied around is that red sunlight blocks up the cell mechanisms which use solar energy in a manner analogous to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_inhibition competitive inhibition]] of enzymes in cell biology. The stored energy is still there, but he can't use it until he's purged the red sunlight clogging up his cells. Still, it doesn't make sense -- a light bulb irradiates way, way, way less light than a sun.
** Even his reaction to red sunlight varies by writer. Sometimes his powers flip off like a switch when exposed, sometimes the light simply weakens him rapidly, and likewise he can recover slowly or quickly. Recently, the Kandorians made a Red Sun gun that fires a burst of red sunlight at a Kryptonian which shuts off their powers completely for an hour even though the exposure is brief.
* During the ''ComicBook/{{Millennium}}'' crossover, the Justice League visited the homeworld of the Manhunters and confronted their leader. The entire planet collapsed when the head Manhunter escaped.
* A major plot point in Comicbook/{{Lucifer}} where everything starts to go straight to hell (so to speak) when [[spoiler:God up and leaves the universe.]] Justified in that [[spoiler:His name was technically the only thing that was holding each individual atom of creation together in the first place.]]

* This is how the powers of a ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' work. The constructs and effects he creates only exist as long as he is thinking about them. However, any impact his constructs have on normal physical matter remains (if he digs a pit with a glowy shovel, the pit remains after the glowy shovel disappears.)
* In recent decades, this has been a common theme in the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' mythos:
** Bruce Wayne is not truly Batman until he puts on the costume; and as soon as he removes his mask, he reverts to being Bruce Wayne. In part this is an in-universe EnforcedTrope: Batman ''must'' be [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob stupid, incompetent Bruce Wayne]] while out of costume to preserve his secret identity. However, it is also a psychological internalization in that Wayne believes that, on the level of reality that most matters to him, he doesn't merely dress as Batman but ''is'' Batman - and without the costume, he's stripped down to his "skeleton" and not truly alive.
** The same goes for quite a few of the villains. For example, the Scarecrow's primary gimmick is, of course, scaring people - something that he obviously cannot do as the very unthreatening-looking Dr. Jonathan Crane. But his scarecrow mask and the effect wreaked on the human mind by his fear toxin together make him walking, talking terror made form. Batman fully understands this, and in certain cases that knowledge makes the Scarecrow a pretty easy adversary to defeat. He'll be stalking the streets of Gotham City, terrorizing everyone in his path and [[NothingCanStopUsNow boasting about how everyone is too frightened to ever stop him]] - and Batman will just pull his mask off, revealing a pathetic little man underneath...who now realizes [[OhCrap he's surrounded by a huge crowd of his formerly terrified, now angry and vindictive victims]].
** Anarky is a violent left-wing vigilante in a gold death mask (and also wears a broad-brimmed hat and a cape, making him look not unlike the title character of ''ComicBook/VForVendetta''). His ''modus operandi'' is [[KnightTemplar self-righteously punishing the rich and powerful for their unethical business practices]]. He finally bites off more than he can chew when he targets Batman for assassination, blaming him for all of the crime in Gotham. He interferes in a battle between Batman and (ironically enough) the Scarecrow, which proves disastrous for him when one of the Scarecrow's mind-controlled {{Mooks}} punches him in the face, knocking off his gold mask and destroying his confidence so that he reverts to the tongue-tied, peevish, cowardly juvenile delinquent he actually is (and his intelligence plunges as well, so that he goes from a brilliant wit quoting the great minds of literature and history to a stereotypically inarticulate teenager who says [[TotallyRadical "man"]] a lot.) For extra irony, Anarky is fairly masculine in appearance with his mask on, but without it appears [[{{Bishonen}} pretty effeminate]].
* This is why the Cosmic Cubes of the MarvelUniverse are AwesomeButImpractical. Yeah, they make you a RealityWarper, but you have to keep thinking to make any changes to reality permanent. If your attention goes elsewhere or you fall asleep, everything will go back to normal. This is not always applied consistently, however, as things like Steve's restoration of Bucky's memories at the end of the Winter Soldier arc remain in place after Steve loses the Cube.

* The first two Medusas that show up in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' are fragmented things created from parts of the original and their petrified victims (most notably ComicBook/{{Artemis}} during ComicBook/TheContest) are returned to flesh when they are destroyed. Persons who were shattered or partially broken while stone generally die when this happens. When the original is brought back in all her glory her victims die immediately when petrified and are not affected when her head is chopped off.

* ''ComicBook/{{Mazeworld}}'': The defeat of the Satan-esque BigBad when the hero performs a HeroicSacrifice to take them both out causes all the demonic {{Mooks}} that he created to vanish.