"I can take the looks and laughs and people who make remarks behind my back... even if my hearing is better than most. But I can't stand when people feel sorry for me."
Don't You Dare Pity Me! in Comic Books.— Beast Boy, New Teen Titans
- In Marvel's Age of Apocalypse alternate history, Quicksilver learned that his father had been kidnapped by his worst enemy, his half-brother had vanished, and a virtual stranger had also been captured. He had to decide to rescue the stranger. When his girlfriend Storm tried to sympathize, he refused to talk with her because if he thought of what he was doing, he would not be able to do it.
- This is one of the biggest berserk buttons for the titular heroine of Albedo: Erma Felna EDF, as pitying her can enrage Erma to no end, a trait shared with the author of the comic.
- Captain America: When the Super Soldier Serum starts to break down in the early 90s, Cap refuses to tell the Avengers because he doesn't want them pitying him, overlooking the fact he's not the team leader at that time, and withholding a vital health concern out of pride, which can (and does) endanger him and the team.
- After DC Comics's Damage is seriously scarred in battle, he is resentful, bitter, belligerent, and unwilling to join any other heroes. The Justice Society of America manages to slowly integrate him into their team. Then his character takes a sudden turn for the sunnier when his scars are healed. Until his step-brother Atom-Smasher derides Damage for essentially being "Vanity Smurf with superpowers". Damage's face was healed by Gog, so Damage spread Gog's message, all the while showing off his "perfect face". This leads to a Kick the Dog moment when Damage destroys Atom-Smasher's (originally Damage' and A.S.'s father's) house full of priceless memories because he didn't want to be "linked to a dwarf". When Gog dies, Damage's face gets re-scarred and is this all over again.
- In Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment, Doom takes advantage of a contest to put Strange in his debt and get his assistance in rescuing his mother's soul from Hell. While they are successful, Cynthia von Doom witnesses her son being a Manipulative Bastard, dresses him down, and escapes to Heaven without any chance of reconciliation. Strange, moved by pity, reaches out to Doom, but Doom coldly rebuffs him.
- Monet St. Croix has a case of this toward Sabretooth during Uncanny X-Men (2016). Creed is very protective of her, constantly coming to her aid and/or asking if she's all right. Monet isn't happily receptive. the exchange after Creed has just saved her from a possessed Morlock.Sabretooth: You all right?
Monet: I'm fine. Of course, I'm fine. Don't forget who you're dealing with, Creed. What makes you think I needed you to come swooping in like a knight in tarnished armor?
Sabretooth: Pheromones. I've known you long enough, frail. I know when you're afraid. There's no shame in it. Everyone—
Callisto: I hate to interrupt whatever's going on between you two, but if you could get your heads in the game. They're escaping and taking more Morlocks with them. - Guardians of the Galaxy: In the team's earliest days, Major Victory tended to be like this a lot, on account of being stuck in his spacesuit (otherwise he'd age to death in seconds). Not a good combination with four other guys also suffering from the severe trauma of seeing your species nearly wiped out, and it nearly leads to a brawl between Vance and Charlie-27 when he gets fed up with it.
- In one MAD "Lighter Side of" feature, a man politely rejects help carrying groceries to his car, saying he has to learn how to do some things on his own. It then turns out that he parked in a handicapped spot illegally, which he regrets because of the attention, and said this because he is not handicapped.
- Ms. Marvel (1977): In their second fight, Death-Bird reveals her berserker nature made her kill one of her sisters, something she actually feels pretty bad about (although whether it's the murdering her sister or the fact she was exiled for it is... unclear). When Ms. Marvel tries expressing sympathy for it, Death-Bird goes absolutely berserk on her, since while she does regret the deed, she's fully aware of what she is and what she does. And what she does is kill.
- The Outsiders: In Batman and the Outsiders #13, Katana is tracking a poisoned and delusional Batman. She stops to save a civilian's life and thus, loses Bats. So she expresses her regret to substitute commander Black Lightning, prompting the following conversation:Black Lightning: Don't go committin' Hara-Kiri or anything over it, Katana! You've been through a lot lately!
Katana: Don't pity me because of the death of my husband, Lightning! I won't have that!
Black Lightning: Sorry! But any of us would have done the same thing! - The Ray: The Ray foolishly caused his father to go into respiratory arrest and saved him with mouth-to-mouth. The father immediately berated him for his stupidity, but the Ray ignored him in his relief that he was alive, which was so great that he started to cry. His father realized it, stopped the scolding, and tried to put his arm about him. Ray angrily shrugged it off. (A second attempt was more successful.)
- Red Robin: Most of the reason Ives hides his cancer diagnosis from his friends and classmates for so long is that he doesn't want any pity or special treatment for it from them and would prefer to just be treated like another teenager.
- The Sandman (1989): Orpheus says this to the Griffin gate guard of his father's kingdom after his wife dies.
- In Sonic Universe, could be Scourge the Hedgehog in issue 29. The pitiers sing "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life" and state that they're only doing this because they feel bad that they're happy he's getting hurt, not them.
- Star Wars Expanded Universe: Obsession: Asajj Ventress tells this to Obi-Wan as she battles him, and notes that he no longer has pity in his eyes as she dies. (Or does she?)
- In Star Wars: Legacy, the Jedi healer Hosk Trey'lis' last words are forgiving his murderer, and saying that he pities him for crossing over to the dark side to survive, and for the man he must once have been.
Darth Krayt: I do not pity.- Vader's Quest: When Nevana offers Bobek advice on how to remove leeches that got stuck on his arm during Jal’s prank, he angrily replies, "Who asked you?"
- Supergirl: In the Many Happy Returns storyline, Rebel attacks Supergirl but she is feeling depressed and doesn't want to defend herself. When Rebel complains about it, Kara apologizes and says she can try to fight back if it'd make him feel better. Rebel grumbles he doesn't want her pity.Supergirl: I'm... I'm sorry, Rebel. I could... try to fight back. If it'd make you feel better.
Rebel: Oh, please. I don't want your pity. - Teen Titans: The one thing Beast Boy can't stand is when people pity him.
- In the short-lived Warrior comic, when the title character returns from the hospital, his butler gives him his wheelchair in order to help him relax. Warrior flips out at this and tosses the wheelchair into the stratosphere.
- The Avengers and the X-Men fight against an alien invasion of Skrulls and Badoons in Central Park, and a woman and her children were caught in the crossfire. The father then arrived at the scene, and Cyclops said that he was sorry. The man took his gun and killed him, as well as many other heroes who were there. And that was just the beginning. The name of the story? The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe.
- In Young Justice, when Slo-Bo begins to go blind.Slo-Bo: First person who pities me, I kill. Not frag. Kill.
