Marvel Universe
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Comic Books
Comic Books
- Deadpool: Deadpool started breaking the fourth wall in his first ongoing series; since then, this often gets flanderized into his primary trait.
- Deadpool's initial breaks were aside comments and aside glances to his readers commenting on the plot.
- Deadpool is aware that his comics are published by Marvel Comics and mocks Marvel accordingly, accurately references specific issue numbers, predicts upcoming story events, and lampshades narrative tropes in use. He describes the Let's You and Him Fight plot in Black Panther vs. Deadpool #2:Deadpool: It's like I said, B.P., there's a rhythm to these super hero team-ups. First, the small misunderstanding. Then, the big fight (which was a tie by the way). So you'd better patch me up quick. Because we both know what happens in issue #3.
- Deadpool also seems to cause other characters to be able to fourth-wall break when they guest-star with him. For instance, one time after he called Sabretooth a Wolverine rip-off, Sabretooth responded with "Wolverine rip-off? Give Slade my regards!"
- Comic books usually use caption boxes for narration, off-page dialogue, or editor's notes. Deadpool has "little yellow boxes" for his internal narrative and communication with his readers, though he sometimes speaks out loud when he thinks he's "thinking".Deadpool: [caption] Do I still think in those little yellow boxes?
Deadpool: [speaking] I'm good.
Deadpool: [caption] Oooh, I missed you, little yellow boxes! What fun we shall have together! - Deadpool responds to editorial captions that aren't his own little yellow boxes in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #611, interrupting one mid-sentence.Deadpool: For all you kids reading at home, make sure you wear a helmet whenever you steal a motorcycle, toss explosives into a coffee shop, or give someone a "special hug."*
[Editorial sidebar] *The management does not endorse theft, explosives use, or "special hugging"—
Deadpool: Enough with the sidebars! - In Cable & Deadpool, he feels the need to help the 'reader' along by every once in a while delivering complicated exposition, sometimes lampshading it as expository dialogue. The other characters perceive this as Deadpool being crazy as usual.
- In Britain-only special editions, Deadpool answers a letter on the letters page with a reference to the Marvel spotlight pages, stating that everyone else freezes during one while he takes a toilet break.
- He talks about events in other comics that he has no in-universe way to know about, such as becoming one of the only characters in the entire Marvel universe that knows about Spider-Man's deal with Mephisto... er, besides Mephisto that is.
- Breaking the fourth wall is also one of She-Hulk's super-powers, though whether she gets it from gamma radiation is anyone's guess. Since her own title isn't as much of a Gag Series as it used to be (The Sensational She-Hulk, specifically), she doesn't do it that often, but one memorable scene in an early '00s run has her address the narrator while her supporting cast watches her apparently talk to herself. In her 100th issue, she is asked whether she really can see through the fourth wall, and she responds "No, I can't" — looking straight at the reader and smiling.
- In another example, she actually crushes a narration box out of anger (she'd just been attacked) and tosses it out the window, nearly hitting Spider-Man!
- The covers during John Byrne's historical run on her book are famous for loads of fourth wall breaking. The most famous are her naked using the Comics Code logo to cover herself and Volume 2 Issue 1, in which she warns the readers that, if they don't buy her book, she'll rip up all their X-Men comics. Sixty issues later, when the run's final issue came out, an angry Shulkie tells the readers that she warned them and to hand the X-Men comics over!
- Squirrel Girl breaks the fourth wall during the recaps of pretty much every issue she appears in (which isn't that unique when you think about it). However, for Monkey Joe and Tippy Toe there is No Fourth Wall, so they talk directly to us readers.
- Despite being practically an unknown, Rick Jones has seen a lot of the Marvel Comics world. This includes everything from being the stupid teenager Bruce Banner saved, resulting in his transformation into The Incredible Hulk, to serving as replacement Bucky for Captain America. This was brought to the forefront at the end of the 2004 Captain Marvel series; while Marvel was blessed/cursed with "Cosmic Awareness", Jones, through his experiences, had acquired "Comics Awareness." It didn't usually manifest in actual fourth-wall breaking, so much as just being Genre Savvy. However, at the end of the issue, Jones calmly explained that sales weren't good enough, and the comic itself was literally rolled up in big sheets and put in storage by other out-of-print characters.
- One issue of Alpha Flight has a character start talking back to the writer, but it was a villain's plot to make him think he was a comic book character.
- Done occasionally in The Awesome Slapstick, most notably in the final page of the last issue:Slapstick: I need my own series! Write to Tom DeFalco! Write to Mark Gruenwald! Write to your Congressman!
- In Fear Itself: The Worthy, on the last page of the Hulk story (#5 of the digital release), Hulk is talking to Banner, saying "You'll hate yourself tomorrow. But you don't have to. You can just hate the Hulk." Then he turns to the reader, finishing with "That's why you made me, isn't it?"
- In Journey into Mystery (Gillen), Loki basically outright asked the readers to write him happy AU fanfic: "It's beyond any of our power to end the story that way." He the next he anyway also gave the reader a help wanted ad in the introductory one-shot of the Young Avengers. And there was the time when classic him broke Deadpool's brain by basically stating that none of this is real and there is a man with a typewriter. In Loki: Agent of Asgard King Loki is really not fussed by the pesky panel borders and whatnot either.
- In Spider-Verse, animated Ultimate Peter keeps up with his fourth-wall-breaking schtick, confusing not only Miles Morales, but also the '67 Spider-Man.
- It's also a consistent running gag that Spider-Man is able to hear when characters don't use the hyphen in his name, calling them out on it.
Films
Films
- Deadpool (2016) doesn't so much break the fourth wall as take a bulldozer to the wall, burn it, and then explode the ashes.Deadpool: [breaking the fourth wall in a flashback that he's already narrating to the audience] Fourth wall-break inside a fourth wall-break. That's like... sixteen walls!
- In Deadpool: No Good Deed, when Stan Lee makes his standard cameo and says "Wow, nice suit!" during Deadpool's charge, Deadpool stops and shouts "Zip it, Stan Lee!" before continuing to run towards the scene of the crime he was trying to stop.
- At the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine Deadpool fishes his severed head out of the rubble, looks straight at the audience, puts a finger to his lips and says "Shhh".
Video Games
Video Games
- The X-Men game for the Sega Genesis asked the player to "Reset the Computer" to finish the Danger Room level. With no in-game switches or controls to operate, usually the player would be stumped... as it turned out, it meant resetting the game console itself.
- Deadpool carries over his habit of breaking the fourth wall into Marvel vs. Capcom 3:
- When he's knocked out, he yells out "YOU PRESSED THE WRONG BUTTON!", referring to the player controlling Deadpool.
- Upon winning, he'll scold the player for sitting on the couch and being lazy while he has to do all the fighting. He asks if the player was recording the fight and chastises him for not doing so.
- His Level 3 Hyper Combo has him assume a girlish pose and walk toward his opponent with a pink aura and hearts surrounding him for a few seconds. If he is attacked in this state, he'll jump up, grab his health bar, and whack his opponent in the head. He then grabs his Super Meter, winds up, and knocks his opponent sky high.
- He shouts "Hey I freaking love Street Fighter! Autograph your spleen for me?" if he is on point against a Street Fighter character (Ryu, Akuma, Chun-Li and C.Viper). If landing the killing blow against one of these, he will say : "I get the cover of the next Street Fighter for this, right Capcom? Right!?"
- In his ending, he says, "I'd invite you to party with me, but you'll just have to make do with the points you got for beating the game." He then accidentally destroys a city, causing the cops to put out an APB for him and his accomplice, "The Player."
- And now, Deadpool has a game of his own. A moment of silence for our dear friend, the Fourth Wall...
- In Spiderman Shattered Dimensions, Deadpool appears as an enemy for Ultimate Spider-Man. He passes comment on the player collecting spider emblems (a gameplay element that none of the other characters acknowledge) and mocks any use of the pause button.
- In X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, every character has a couple of lines when they're idle for too long, and several are directed at the player, like Bishop's "Hey you! Yeah, you! What are you doing that's so much more important than this?"
Web Comics
Web Comics
- T.E.S.T. Kitchen: The recipe sections at the end of each issue have protagonist Anna, Tony Stark's personal chef, directly talking to the readers.
Western Animation
Western Animation
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023):
- Lunella does this herself in the first episode, lampshading that if she lost her fight against Aftershock, they'd get cancelled after 1 episode.
- The narrator of the show is revealed to be The Beyonder, a godlike, reality warping alien that will directly address the audience to explain villain backstories after his big reveal.
- In a first-season episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man, Dr. Octopus, enraged by one of Spider-Man's signature glib quips, asks Spider-Man if he ever shuts up. Spider-Man responds by saying that the fans require a certain amount of quippage. Since hardly anyone ever sees him fight or hears these quips besides his adversaries, it's clear he means the audience watching the show.
- In Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), Spider-Man has total control over the fourth wall to which he pauses the show and expresses his thoughts, and imagines whats on his mind.
- One of season 2's episodes is titled Ultimate Deadpool, with said character even hijacking the series title screen for himself, just to let anyone not familiar with the character know exactly what kind of episode it's going to be.
