Follow TV Tropes

Following

Fanfic / Death Korps of Justice

Go To

Krieg: "Now, you will tell me all that I want to know. And if you do not, I will torture the information out of you."
Street Thug: "What kind of hero are you?! You're not allowed to do this shit!"
Krieg: "Wrong answer." (cuts off one of the man's fingers)

Death Korps of Justice is a Warhammer 40,000/Young Justice (2010) Crossover written by Lord-of-Change.

A Death Korps foot-soldier named Keled takes part in the brutal suppression of a rebellion within the Imperium's outer territories. On the verge of victory, the imperials storm the rebel stronghold, and everyone but Keled is killed by the rebel leader, who turns out to be a servant of the chaos god Tzeentch. Just as Keled manages to fatally wound the cultist, he is sucked into a Chaos portal. Ready to accept death, he is instead tossed into the streets of Gotham City - right in front of Batman! After a series of debacles, Keled takes the superhero name "Krieg" and is stationed in Los Angeles. Will Krieg bring the Emperor's guiding light to 21st-Century Holy Terra, or will it be swallowed by Chaos?

It currently stands at 47 chapters.


This fanfic contains examples of:

  • Achilles' Heel: Kryptonite is Superboy's, as usual. In Chapter 28, a memory-wiped Krieg uses a chunk of Kryptonite to subject Superboy to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Adaptational Expansion: Chapter 17 gives a reason for Mercy Graves getting a mechanical arm.
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • Metamorpho, due to Krieg refusing to save him from Deathstroke and being resurrected by Azkillon.
    • Livewire is more in-line with her animated universe counterpart than the brainwashed girl who gladly reforms once said brainwashing is removed in Season 3.
    • Katana is one of Batman's teammates in canon. Here, she's an agent of Chaos (see Anti-Villain).
    • Terra, while an agent of Deathstroke in canon, is also an agent of Chaos.
  • Ambiguously Human: Averted with Mercy Graves, who's unquestionably human in this story.
  • Anti-Hero: Krieg. His methods are absolutely brutal, but he has no love for criminals.
  • Anti-Villain: Katana is working for the forces of Chaos because they've offered her a way to bring her husband back from the dead. As she herself stated, she'd stoop to anything to get him back.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: In Chapter 26, Black Canary tries to end an argument between her and Krieg by declaring that, while the Justice League's way isn't perfect, it is still "the best way". Krieg's response?
    Krieg: "And who gave the Justice League the right to decide what's best for us?"
    • Krieg does it again in Chapter 32 after Batman stops him from killing the Joker, declaring that, at some point, the Joker will do something so terrible even Batman won't be able to look the other way, at which point the Dark Knight will look back on all the times he could have killed the Joker before and wonder if sparing him was the right choice.
  • Artistic License – Gun Safety: Machine guns fire in short bursts, and trying to fire repeatedly would cause the weapon to overheat and eventually become useless. Yet during the siege of Los Angeles, machine guns are treated like they would be in a movie or a shoot-'em-up video game. Somewhat justified in that the attackers keep coming in waves and most of the defenders are civilians out of their element and desperate to stay alive.
  • Asshole Victim: The criminals that Krieg mutilates tend to have it coming. Several more deserve to die, but Krieg isn't allowed to kill them, much to his consternation.
    • The goons that Rachel Roth kills.
    • Professor Pyg.
  • Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Chapter 34 focuses members of the Light fighting off Chaos cultists that have infiltrated their organization—except for Queen Bee, who is effortlessly taken down.
  • Base-Breaking Character:invoked Following public exposure to Krieg's Armor-Piercing Question via G. Gordon Godfrey, he has become this. Regular civilians applaud his actions, whereas politicians are nervous about him because they can't control him and argue that he shouldn't be taking the law into his own hands. Rachel Roth even lampshades this.
  • Berserk Button: Krieg has several:
    • If you're human, don't take a drug that strips you of your humanity.
    • For the love of God, don't try to read his mind!
    • Aliens in general.
    • Scratching the imperial symbol on his chest-guard.
  • Big Bad: The Chaos Gods.
  • Blood Knight: Ravager.
    • And Mia.
  • Blood-Splattered Warrior: Mia Dearden after succumbing to Chaos. Blood for the Blood God, after all.
  • Bodyguard Betrayal: Queen Bee's guards pledge allegiance to Slaanesh, who grants them immunity to Bee's powers. Once prompted, they ambush Bee in her office and successfully overtake her with minimal effort.
  • Break the Cutie: The poor girl that Professor Pyg disfigures. With Krieg's encouragement, she takes revenge.
  • Break the Haughty:
    • Kobra fancies himself as a god...until Adrian Forge puts him in his place.
    • Later, Forge himself is utterly humiliated by Rachel Roth.
    • Queen Bee is, in the time span of just a few minutes, overthrown by Slaaneshi cultists who were once her own guards, who then proceed to sexually assault and torture her until her ego is completely shattered.
  • Break Them by Talking: In Chapter 27, a group of thugs try to gang-rape Rachel Roth, and manage to surround her after she kills two of them with a pistol. She has four bullets left and there are five men. They arrogantly point out that she'd only be able to get off one more shot before they closed the distance and overpower her, but she calmly responds by asking if any one of them is truly willing to risk being the unlucky single person she manages to kill before that happens. They hesitate, giving Krieg the chance to enter the fray and rescue her.
  • Brutal Honesty: Krieg is very fond of this trope. When sparring with Black Canary, he bluntly declares that he stands no chance of defeating her in a one-on-one martial arts fight, but that he will last longer than his teammates. He's proven correct. Indeed, the one thing that the Justice League seems to like about Krieg is his willingness to acknowledge when he made a mistake.
  • Bullying a Dragon: A hoodlum, having sworn allegiance to Slaanesh, confronts Rachel Roth in Chapter 29 and tries to rape her, while simultaneously bragging about his new religion. Big mistake, as Rachel unleashes her own daemonic powers and reluctantly tortures him into submission.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Metamorpho goes on a long-winded rant about how he (not unjustly) blames Krieg for his first death and how's he's going to savor getting his revenge. After he's finished, he angrily demands a response from Krieg, whom, after a brief silence, simply asks who he is. Even after Metamorpho is killed by Miss Martian, Krieg simply dismisses him as "another heretic".
  • Butt-Monkey: Sportsmaster. All of his encounters with Krieg thus far have ended in utter humiliation.
  • Came Back Wrong: Azkillon resurrects the security guard that Deathstroke killed in Chapter 27 and turns him into a monster. He convinces the horrified guard to join him by playing on his hatred towards Krieg for deliberately allowing Deathstroke to kill him.
  • Character Development: Defied. Krieg adamantly refuses to soften up, and the Team's attempts to bond with him are met with contempt and derision. On the flip-side, the Justice League and the Team refuse to consider even the slightest possibility that their way of fighting crime might not be the best way.
    • However, his talks with Rachel might cause Krieg to start modifying his fighting style to be less reckless. He's also learning to disobey orders he doesn't like or regards as stupid.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture:
    • Krieg's MO. The Justice League and the Team whine about his apparent love for it, but he couldn't care less.
    • The Joker subjects Krieg to his in an attempt to mentally break him. Too bad Krieg's already broken, so he's unaffected by it.
    • Queen Bee's guards subject her to this in Chapter 34.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Krieg is utterly ruthless in combat. He will not hesitate to sever one of your limbs (in fact, he seems to prefer that method) if he thinks it will let him overpower you.
  • The Corrupter: Azkillon whispers words of Chaos into the ears of vulnerable heroes, villains, and civilians, sewing seeds of madness in the process.
  • Crapsack World:
    • 21st-century Earth is a crime-ridden hellhole in which psychosadistic super-villains are borderline unstoppable, and it's largely the Justice League's fault for refusing to kill them (or at least make sure they don't escape from prison), something they refuse to accept.
      • On the flip-side, no serious attempts have been made to beef up the security at the prisons that super-villains are sent to, nor have any legal actions been taken to ensure that people like the Joker can't repeatedly plead insanity to avoid facing execution or high-security imprisonment.
    • All this being said, the Justice League Earth is in much better shape than the 40K universe, which is part of why Krieg cannot empathize with his teammates - they come from circumstances so fundamentally different that there is no common ground to work with.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Queen Bee relies way too much on her Compelling Voice, so when it's rendered useless, she has nothing. This makes her easy prey for her former guards, who have been granted immunity to her powers by Slaanesh.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Mia subjects her psychiatrist to a Blood Raven ritualnote .
    • Krieg, after having his memory erased for a brief time by Psimon, butchers a battalion of Bialyan soldiers.
  • Deadly Upgrade:
    • Krieg discards the rubber ammunition the Justice League forced upon him and equips himself with as many lethal weapons as he can carry at the end of Chapter 33.
    • Mia Dearden gets the World Eater "initiation" treatment in Chapter 42—without anesthetics!
  • Deconstruction Fic: The fic deconstructs a lot of things we see in typical Justice League media.
    • Throwing criminals into a pathetically low-security prison while making it clear that you will never kill them - or let them die, or even seriously injure them - no matter what they do will motivate them to escape and go on an even more destructive rampage than before with the full knowledge that they are practically untouchable, rather than make them want to reform. Eventually, this cycle occurs so many times that the heroes' interference seems almost pointless - sure, it may prevent the villains from causing a lot of damage for the moment, but then they'll just escape from prison and cause even more carnage later (maybe even start by killing the people you stopped them from killing last time out of spite), so what did stopping them earlier really accomplish?
    • Expecting an anti-social, brutal soldier who was born and raised to be a fanatical bullet-sponge with no sense of self-worth (or self-preservation) to warm up to a group of people he doesn't know and some of which he detests due to their race is pretty foolhardy when you think about it, especially when you try to force him to socialize or talk about his problems with them. While forcing someone to confront a problem can be a good thing, sometimes you need to wait for a specific moment to do it, not just rush headlong into it and expect everything to work out, as such a thing could cause the person to become more of a shut-in.
      • One of the bigger problems the League has to deal with is that many of Krieg's personality traits are intolerable to them, but are essential survival traits for humans in the Imperium. Furthermore, Krieg does himself no favors by refusing to explain or open up with the team even a tiny amount, which could have helped make things more managable. There's also the fact that while the League's methods of fighting criminals are too lenient, Krieg's ideal solution for defeating them is too extreme. Just to give one example where neither side is totally right: the Team believes that if a teammate is injured, the mission should be abandoned with extreme prejudice, while Krieg believes the mission should always come first. Neither side ever considers simply having some of the group take care of the wounded while the rest complete the mission.
      • The latter point actually was addressed in Chapter 12 when the Team rescued Krieg from being tortured to death by the Joker. After recovering, he bluntly pointed out that they didn't all need to crowd around him: one or two of them could have stayed with him while the rest apprehended the Joker.
    • Locking up a few psychotic nutjobs does not magically improve the lives of their would-be victims, especially since some of them are left traumatized (with the League doing absolutely nothing to deal with that) or are pretty much ignored by society at large. Plus there's the fact that the nutjobs can escape with ease.
    • Ironically, all of Krieg's interactions with others (which lead to virtually every other example of this trope in the story) deconstruct the image of the Imperial Guard both as a Badass Normal Badass Army and as Red Shirt Army. In a setting where they are outclassed by virtually every other force in the galaxy and regularly fight armies that want to rape, eat, kill, enslave, or damn them to eternal suffering, and not necessarily in that order, they evoke sympathy both for desperately fighting on against those horrors and winning against all odds. In the Young Justice universe, where the threats Krieg faces are enemies that the Guard could more easily defeat, the more negative traits of the Imperium (using Child Soldiers, rampant Activist-Fundamentalist Antics, Burn the Witch!, Fantastic Racism, and so on) are given focus. In particular, while the League totally fail to connect with Krieg, all signs suggest that if they he revealed the true nature of the Imperium to them, they would be utterly repulsed. Miss Martian, in particular, is horrified when she sees that the Drill Sergeants who taught Krieg outright killed trainees if they made mistakes or tried to help each other — actions that would barely get a notice in the Imperium.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Mia crosses it when Green Arrow catches her trying to kill Artemis and has her arrested.
  • Determinator: Krieg's tenacity is downright unreal.
  • Did Not Think This Through:
    • G. Gordon Godfrey insists on getting up close and personal during a fight between the Justice League and some terrorists. This almost gets him killed, as the terrorists notice him and attempt to shoot him, though Krieg saves him at the last second.
    • The Team releases a clone of Superman - created by a known enemy - because it's "the right thing to do" and believe they can avoid violence if they negotiate with him. Surprise-surprise, the clone goes berserk and knocks them unconscious, leading to their capture and nearly getting them killed.
    • The Justice League decides to force Krieg to attend therapy sessions in the hopes that it will make him open up. Instead of hiring an actual therapist, they give the task to Black Canary, someone with no formal training in the subject and whom Krieg personally detests. Unsurprisingly, he treats their sessions with open contempt and stonewalls her efforts to establish a rapport with him.
  • Didn't See That Coming:
    • Luthor is taken aback when Krieg announces his lack of ill will towards him.
    • One of Krieg's greatest weapons is his willingness to get blood on his hands. This is showcased during his second encounter with Sportsmaster: Krieg draws a knife and attempts to eviscerate him, and Sportsmaster, caught off guard by the fact that a hero would do such a thing, fails to dodge in time (his armor saves him, though).
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Krieg brutalizes a man simply for getting drunk in a bar and causing a ruckus. Ordinarily, what he does counts as Kick The Son Of A Bitch, but this was a bit much.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: Miss Martian sees one of Krieg's memories of his time in boot camp, where the drill sergeants not only carried out every colorful threat they made, but would outright kill trainees when they made mistakes (or tried to help one another). Just to put things in perspective, when the Team had a movie night (Krieg only attended because they bribed him with M&Ms) and they watched Full Metal Jacket, here's what Krieg had to say about Gunnery Sergeant Hartman:
    Krieg: "Amateur."
  • Driven to Suicide: Katana kills herself after being forced to Mercy Kill her newly resurrected (and utterly berserk) husband.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: The Brain slaughters a lot of Chaos cultists before being overwhelmed.
  • Dystopia Justifies the Means: The Chaos Gods intend to turn Earth into a blazing hellhole filled with bloodshed, disease, and debauchery.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • Raven and Etrigan team up to fight off the Chaos invasion in Chapter 34, despite the latter wanting to kill the former in order to prevent her demonic father from returning.
    • Krieg reluctantly agrees to let Deathstroke and Ravager aid him in defense of Los Angeles from the same invasion in Chapter 40.
  • Entitled Bastard: Criminals seem to think they're entitled to the mercy that the Justice League habitually gives them. It's why they're so shocked by Krieg's willingness to give them what they deserve.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Sportsmaster's estranged wife, Paula Crock, seems to be the only other person he cares about. He even tries to get her to a hospital when he discovers that she's been attacked by Chaos cultists, but she dies in his arms.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Klarion is horrified by the behavior of the Chaos Gods, so much so that he kept Earth a secret from them because he didn't want it destroyed.
    • When Chaos comes to Earth, not all of its villains, super or otherwise, join in: many opt to fight off the invasion, instead.
  • Evil Feels Good: Or, in Mia's case, hatred and rage feel good.
  • Eviler than Thou:
  • Exact Words: After (reluctantly) saving Kid Flash, Krieg declares that he "only did [his] duty" when the heroes congratulate him. They think he's being humble, but what he really meant is that he only saved Kid Flash because he was ordered to do so, and would have gleefully left the boy to die had that not been the case.
  • Face–Heel Turn:
    • Mia goes from a superhero wannabe to a follower of Khorne.
    • Captain Atom falls under the sway of Chaos, and cements his fall by killing Captain Marvel and Hawkwoman, then hijacking the Watchtower to allow Azkillon to enter it.
  • Fantastic Racism: Krieg hates magic, aliens, mutants, and A.I.s. He's not petty enough to commit a hate crime, though.
  • Fish out of Water: Krieg is from one of the darkest futures imaginable, and has been thrown into A World Half Full. Understandably, he's very put off by seeing things that are taboo for him being normal for this universe. Chapter 33 finally let's him go back to what he is familiar with, to the absolute detriment of almost everyone else.
  • Foil:
    • Deathstroke to Sportsmaster. Both are stone-cold assassins with family issues and an obsession with Krieg, but whereas Deathstroke has been able to handle Krieg rather easily during each of their encounters and hopes to groom the boy as an apprentice, Sportsmaster has been repeatedly humiliated by Krieg and bears a grudge against him; Sportsmaster was an Abusive Parent whose behavior drove his eldest daughter to run away, whereas Deathstroke tried to be a good parent and has attempted to patch things up with his children.
    • Rachel Roth to the Justice League and the Team, in regards to how they handle Krieg. Rachel approaches Krieg like a therapist (or perhaps a priest inside a church confessional), refusing to judge him and encouraging him to discuss his problems with her while also treating him like the hardened soldier he is, and at the end of their chats she deliberately gives him vague answers that she expects him to interpret for himself; the Justice League and the Team throw hissy-fits about Krieg's methods, judge him repeatedly, try to make him talk about his problems and/or socialize with others (often at the worst possible time) while simultaneously treating him like a kid, and try to drill their ideals into his brain with no success. Is it any wonder he prefers her company?
      • In particular, when she finally decides to talk about his methods, she presents a pragmatic reason for why the Justice League need to restrain themselves: if they didn't, Earth's various governments would see them as a threat and go to war against them. Instead of just brushing off any criticism of his methods like he usually does, Krieg actually ponders Rachel's words.
  • Forceful Kiss: Ravager gives Krieg a passionate one in Chapter 25.
  • Foreshadowing: Krieg addresses Luthor as "Mr. Luthor" while rescuing him and Mercy from a gang of drug dealers, a not-so-subtle hint at his lack of antipathy for the businessman.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Inverted. The Team regard Krieg as a comrade and friend, but he hates their guts. It's not until Chapter 31 that they finally begin to understand that he doesn't care about them and never will, and by the next chapter they actively avoid him.
  • Good Cannot Comprehend Evil:
    • Downplayed since Krieg is technically a hero, but the Justice League seems to be physically incapable of realizing that Krieg has been completely indoctrinated to the Imperial Creed, such that their actions aren't just driving him away, but actively painting a target on their backs of Krieg ever returned to the Imperium.
    • This goes both ways, as Krieg can't really understand why the League shows mercy and kindness to their enemies.
  • Good Is Impotent: The story frequently shows—admittedly, from a not-entirely unbiased point of view—how ineffective the Justice League and (especially) the Team are.
  • Grand Theft Me: Following his failure to possess Krieg, Adrian Forge goes through a string of hosts until he finally settles on Kobra.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Mia Dearden is horribly jealous that Green Arrow took Artemis as an apprentice instead of her. This plays a large role in her succumbing to madness and becoming a servant of Khorne.

  • Hard Truth Aesop: You can't change someone if that person doesn't want to change. Giving, in that person's eyes, stupid reasons for why he/she should do so is just going to make things worse.

  • Hannibal Lecture: Sportsmaster gives Batman one in Chapter 43, bluntly telling him that Earth is now a war zone in which the Dark Knight's no-kill policy does not belong. Batman doesn't listen, but it's depicted as more of a Stubborn Mule than a Shut Up, Hannibal! moment.
  • Healing Factor: Katana gains one after joining Chaos. It gives her a decisive advantage over Ra's al Ghul.
  • Hero Antagonist: The Justice League and the Team are this to Krieg, despite technically being allies. This stems from the Justice league's universe being fundamentally better off compared to Krieg's universe, which forced humanity to resort to extreme measures to survive. Unfortunately, these fundamental differences give the two viewpoints that cannot be reconciled, which makes it all the easier for Chaos to take root and start working to turning the Justice League's Earth into what they wanted Terra to be in 40K.
  • Heroic BSoD: Miss Martian becomes totally inconsolable after being forced to kill Metamorpho, even though no one is condemning her for it.
  • Holding Out for a Hero: In Chapter 38, Krieg comes across a group of civilians who are hoping the Justice League will save them. Krieg then proceeds to ruthlessly deconstruct this trope.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: The Justice League and the Team think that Krieg is just a troubled, lonely boy who secretly longs for "proper" guidance and companionship. And deep down, the rest of the Team try to regard him as a friend, and they stupidly think he feels the same, despite how much he tries to hammer it in that he hates their guts. In particular, Krieg is astonished when Aqualad asks if he ever only regarded his time with them as an unwanted duty, because he has spent considerable time and effort expressing—if not outright declaring—that he hates them and yet they haven't caught on.
  • Hypocrite: Green Arrow refuses to train Mia, yet he takes Artemis under his wing. Granted, he had his reasons, but he didn't convey them very well, and the consequences are severe.
    • Batman states at the end of Chapter 11 that the Justice League can't have Krieg locked up when he hasn't committed a crime, yet he had no problem imprisoning Krieg in the Watchtower in Chapter 2 despite the fact that Krieg's so-called crime was nearly killing Robin in self-defense during a fight that Robin had started without sufficient cause.
      • In Chapter 19, Batman tells Krieg that the latter's way won't always be the best way. As if he has any right to say that.
    • In Chapter 28, Krieg tries to bully Miss Martian into keeping the incident with Psimon under wraps. When she initially refuses, claiming that she shouldn't keep secrets from the Justice League, he accuses her of this trope by revealing that he knows about her true appearance, prompting her, in desperation, to erase his memory and make up a different story entirely.
    • The Justice League severely penalizes Krieg in Chapter 30 for his acts of insubordination that occurred during the previous chapter, but as Krieg viciously notes, the Team didn't receive any sort of punishment for infiltrating Cadmus, or for any of their other many acts of insubordination.
  • I Just Want to Be Special:
    • Mia does not have very long to live due to being HIV-positive, so she feels becoming a hero would be the best way to spend what little time she has left. Green Arrow disagrees, with terrible consequences.
    • Tara Markov feels the same way, and ultimately follows the same path.
  • I Let You Win: In Chapter 29, Ravager deliberately holds back against Krieg on Deathstroke's instructions.
  • If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: This is one of the Justice League's favorite defenses of their crime-fighting methods. Krieg does not agree.
  • Ignored Expert: The Justice League ignores all of Krieg's warnings about the Chaos amulet, forcing him to destroy it himself.
  • In Love with Your Carnage: Deathstroke and Ravager really seem to enjoy watching Krieg's acts of brutality towards criminals and his teammates.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: How Krieg treats Superboy.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Krieg, and how! To wit:
    • He insists that the Team should not release Superboy, as he was created by a criminal organization and there is no guarantee that Superboy won't try to kill them. They do it anyway because "it's the right thing to do", and suffer near-fatal consequences as a result. Later, he suggests that the Justice League should keep Superboy in solitary confinement for the rest of his life (since he knows they don't have the guts to kill him) because there is no guarantee that Cadmus did not install a fail-safe in Superboy that would cause him to turn on the Team at any moment. When Batman shows interest in Krieg's suggestion, The Flash, after failing to pull the Just a Kid card, expects Superman to support him simply because Superboy was cloned from his DNA, only to receive silence because Superman also wants the clone to be destroyed but can't bring himself to admit it.
    • Largely due to the Justice League's Thou Shalt Not Kill method, Earth has become a Crapsack World in which criminals are tossed into a Cardboard Prison from which they can easily escape and cause more damage before being caught and tossed back into the same prison in a seemingly never-ending cycle. As a result, the criminals commit more serious crimes because they know they'll never be properly punished for them. Krieg's more brutal methods are designed to break this cycle, as the Justice League naively thinks that it will simply stop on its own. When he points this out, they hide behind If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him! and attempt to end the discussion before he can deconstruct that trope.
    • His contempt for Miss Martian is motivated not just by his racism, but also by the fact that she is utterly incompetent, to the point of nearly getting them both killed during her first mission. Batman agrees.
    • Red Arrow is a traitor who decided to work alone simply because he felt the Justice League was stepping on his massive ego by trying to place him on the Team. Both groups blatantly ignore these facts and throw a temper tantrum over Krieg's treatment of the rogue "hero".
    • When the Team rescues Krieg from the Joker, he later berates them for letting the Joker escape in favor of saving him. While Krieg's injuries were serious, any single member of the group (or more) could have gone after the Joker and apprehended him while the others tended to Krieg. There was no need for them to all crowd around their comrade. They just bitch about Krieg's lack of concern for his own life.
    • After Krieg rescues Kid Flash from a collapsing laboratory, Batman reprimands him for not attempting to rescue the scientist who'd been torturing Kid Flash as well, but Krieg bluntly states that he could only save one of them, and he's not wrong: he could only carry one of them without being slowed down too much, and at one point had to place his mask over Kid Flash's face to keep him from inhaling toxic fumes - something he could, again, only do for one person, not two. In the end, if he had tried to save them both, nobody would have made it out. Of course, this sails right over Batman's head and he just tries to intimidate Krieg into embracing the "save everybody" mindset, but Krieg is unaffected and calmly points out that the scientist can't hurt anyone else.
  • Just a Kid: Despite everything that's happened, the Justice League refuses to see Krieg as anything other than a lost, lonely boy who just needs "proper" guidance. It's one of the many, many reasons why he holds nothing but contempt for them.
    • On the other hand, they do have a tendency to send the Team on missions they are not qualified to handle, and continue to do so despite several abysmal failures that can be attributed to the ineptitude and arrogance of most of its members. In Chapter 27, for example, they are sent on an infiltration mission that Krieg feels Batman should have handled himself. Sure enough, the Team fucks it up royally.
  • Karma Houdini: Any supervillain or criminal caught by the Team or the Justice League is bound to be this since neither group will kill them or take appropriate measures to ensure they don't escape from prison. Krieg is outraged by this, and takes necessary steps to counter it.
  • Kick the Dog: Krieg does this every now and then.
    • His brutal treatment of Miss Martian. While Jerkass Has a Point is on full display, his viciousness towards her is overly brutal and mean-spirited.
    • He murders children while trapped in an illusory world.
    • He treats his teammates like trash, though once again, Jerkass Has a Point.
    • He deliberately goads Deathstroke into killing a hostage by declaring that said hostage's life means nothing to him.
  • Killed Off for Real: Professor Pyg is killed by one of his would-be victims after Krieg convinces her to stop being a victim.
    • Captain Atom kills Captain Marvel and Hawkwoman to cement his Face–Heel Turn to Chaos.
    • The Brain and Ra's al Ghul are killed during the Chaos attack on Earth.
  • Knight Templar Parent: When Deathstroke learns that his daughter, Ravager, has a crush on Krieg, he briefly considers castrating the boy.
  • Life-or-Limb Decision: Krieg amputates Mercy's arm to help her escape from a crumbling building.
  • The Lost Lenore: Scandal Savage's reason for betraying her dad and becoming a Chaos cultist? He killed her lover, Knockout, to secure his alliance with Darkseid.
  • Manipulative Bastard:
    • Luthor truly shines in Chapter 29, convincing Krieg to be his bodyguard at a huge diplomatic gathering without bothering to notify the Justice League.
    • Ocean Master in Chapter 35. He gets his brother, Aquaman, to lead the defense of Atlantis when the Chaos cultists attack it, with the latter actually trusting him to rule in his stead during the fighting. This gives him ample time to arrange Aquaman's death during the fighting and arrange for his infant nephew, who'd be his heir, to suffer a fatal "accident". What's ironic is that he wasn't even lying about the attack, nor did he have a hand in orchestrating it
  • Martial Pacifist: Rachel Roth doesn't like violence, but she will use lethal force if she has to.
  • Meaningful Name: LAPD Commissioner Steele is a no-nonsense cop with an unshakable nerve.
  • The Mole: Vandal Savage's daughter, Scandal, is an agent of Chaos.
  • Morality Pet: Subverted. Rachel Roth (AKA Raven) is the only person Krieg is willing to have a polite conversation with, but he seems to treat her like a church confessional and she doesn't have a problem with his methods... or, at least, she explains why his methods could lead to trouble for him in the near future for pragmatic reasons rather than moral ones.
  • Never My Fault: Krieg is briefly imprisoned in the Watchtower for nearly killing Robin, but neither Batman nor any of his colleagues seem to care about the fact that Robin attacked him first without sufficient cause and Krieg simply acted in self-defense.
  • '90s Anti-Hero: Krieg is effectively forced into this role once he joins the Team, and very quickly becomes a Deconstruction of it. Krieg may have a the name, attire, and methods of this kind of hero, but his behavior and methods are not remotely healthy for the kind of teammates he has. He's horrifically offensive toward the rest of his team (to the point of seriously considering letting them die in several scenarios, only saving them because it is expected of him), advocates extreme methods for dealing with threats that are easily overkill in most situations, and has little to no interest in saving hostages. Notably, while he does have a Dark and Troubled Past to explain some of this, it doesn't excuse the fact that he is just as much of a danger to his teammates and innocent civilians as the villains that he fights.
  • Noble Demon: The Flash's Rogues Gallery aid in the defense of Central City, with their primary goal being the evacuation of the populace. When the Flash shows up, looking utterly exhausted, one of them gives him a canteen of water.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Krieg uses this trope when he's not trying to cut something off/gouge something out.
  • Nominal Hero: Krieg explicitly refers to himself as a "soldier" instead of a "hero", and it shows — he's a torture happy, Absolute Xenophobe fundamentist Child Soldier who's solution to supervillains is to kill them. In any other universe, and even in his home onenote , he'd be a villain of the highest order.
  • No-Sell:
    • Krieg is thoroughly unimpressed with Batman's attempts to intimidate him.
    • Queen Bee's Compelling Voice doesn't work on Slaaneshi cultists, something she finds out the hard way.
  • No Social Skills: Krieg, due to being created for the specific purpose of being cannon fodder. The Justice League try to force him to learn, but it only makes him angrier.
  • No Sympathy: Being taken hostage by a villain who is being faced down by Krieg will not leave you with a good chance at being rescued, as security guard Rex Mason can no longer testify. Oh, wait...
    • Thanks to Azkillon, he can.
  • No True Hero: In the eyes of the Justice League and the Team, criminals should be handled with as little force as possible and be thrown into a prison with a security system so pathetic that it might as well not be there. They berate Krieg for his adamant refusal to adhere to this dogma, but he couldn't care less because (a) he's a soldier, not a hero; and (b) such methods don't make things better.
    • They also believe that if a comrade is in danger, the mission at hand is to be abandoned with extreme prejudice in favor of rescuing said comrade, regardless of the mission's importance. By contrast, Krieg believes that the mission always comes first.
  • Obfuscating Disability: Deathstroke likes to pretend that he's a helpless old man to get his enemies to let their guard down. Krieg isn't fooled.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: The politicians who speak out against Krieg for supposedly "corrupting innocent youth" and "being overly violent." The real reason they condemn him is because they have absolutely no control or influence over him, since he doesn't limit himself like the Justice League does.
  • Oddly Small Organization: As Krieg points out to a civilian in Chapter 38, no matter how good they are, the Justice League barely consists of 20 people & even they can't save everyone, especially under a world wide attack. Do keep in mind that this conflicts a bit with canon, where the League is shown to be significantly larger than 20 people (but still small).
  • Off with His Head!: Captain Atom blows Captain Marvel's head off after tricking him into de-powering.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Scandal Savage couldn't care less if the whole universe went up in flames as a sacrifice to the Chaos gods, if it means getting back at her dad for killing Knockout.
  • Outside-Context Problem: Krieg and, later on, the Forces of Chaos to everyone in the Justice League universe — both hail from a much more cynical universe that outright ignores the traditional tropes of the Cape Punk setting that the DC Universe occupies and tend to solve problems in the most violent manner possible. Additioanlly, Chaos is fundamentally a galactic level threat, roughly equal to Darkseidnote .
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Krieg rescues Robin from Sportsmaster despite having no real reason to.
    • Subverted when he rescues Miss Martian during the Santa Prisca mission. She assumes this trope is in play, but in reality, he deeply regrets it and only did so because of Batman's orders.
  • Plot Hole: At no point during Krieg's incarceration in the Watchtower do the Justice League consider using Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth to get answers from him.
    • Then again, given Krieg's fearlessness when it comes to the prospect of dying, he would have responded to such a threat by biting his tongue off to ensure they got nothing from him.
  • Police Are Useless:
    • Averted with LAPD, especially the chief. He approves of Krieg's methods, helps him track down Professor Pyg, and even covers for him when Black Canary hears about Pyg's death and asks if Krieg was responsible. Later, during the Chaos invasion, Krieg is pleased to find that the police have formed a proper barricade rather than just wait for the Justice League to save them, with it being patrolled by the most bloodthirsty, battle-hardened cops on the force.
    • Averted again with the Gotham police department, who manage to kill numerous cultists before Batman is forced to intervene before they can be Zerg Rushed. Gordan even tells Batman that an all-out warzone is no place for hesitance.
  • Poor Communication Kills: The League and Krieg might have been able to save themselves some conflict if Krieg was willing to open up about his past. However, Krieg is so completely disgusted by everything that the League stands for (though he has his reasons) that he cannot and will not explain himself. Additionally, the League's hamfisted attempts to get him to speak (while conveniently forgetting they have the Lasso of Truth to aid them) alienates Krieg and makes him more unwilling to explain himself. This leads him to go rogue in Chapter 33 and sets him on a path that will probably see the League disbanded at the very least.
  • Revenge by Proxy: Averted. Martian Manhunter surmises that Krieg's bullying of Miss Martian is an attempt to strike at him for reading Krieg's mind. Turns out it's because Miss Martian is a Naïve Newcomer whose blundering nearly got them both killed and Krieg called her out on it. Krieg even mocks J'onn for thinking he'd be so petty.
  • Rousing Speech:
    • Krieg gives one in Chapter 39, rallying a large group of civilians to join him and the LAPD in driving the forces of Chaos out of Los Angeles.
      • He gives another one in Chapter 41, paraphrasing Winston Churchill's "We Shall Never Surrender" speech, which is broadcast around the world to rally the defenders and provoke the invaders—and to show the Justice League that they have failed to "corrupt" him.
    • The Joker gives one in Chapter 43, in which he labels Azkillon and his buddies as a bunch of power-hungry schemers who don't understand what chaos truly means. It works on the cultists he's speaking to (and the Chaos Gods themselves approve), and he convinces them to attack Gotham City rather than Los Angeles.
  • Running Gag: Krieg uses overly brutal methods to deal with criminals, Justice League and/or the Team bitch about it, Krieg delivers a Hannibal Lecture that raises a lot of good points, heroes refuse to listen. Lather, rinse, repeat.
  • Sarcasm-Blind: Krieg, Krieg, Krieg.
  • Save the Villain: Averted with Krieg. All attempts to get him to do so are adamantly rejected.
    • He does save Luthor and Mercy from being killed by a gang of Chinese drug dealers, but it should be noted that Krieg doesn't regard Luthor as a villain.
  • Secret Identity: Averted. Krieg doesn't have a public identity, so taking off his mask isn't that big of a deal - aside from times when someone else does it without his permission, which can piss him off something fierce.
  • Secret Test of Character: Deathstroke is putting Krieg through these to see if he might make a worthy apprentice. As of Chapter 27, he's subjected Krieg to three tests, and the boy has passed all of them with flying colors:
    • Test #1 was to see how much physical punishment Krieg could take before backing down. To that end, Deathstroke enters a cage match against the boy and beats him to a bloody pulp. Despite the intense pain, Krieg refuses to back down, passing the test.
    • Test #2 was to see how tenacious Krieg was when it came to pursuing criminals. To that end, Deathstroke helps a notorious LA gangster flee to Star City. Krieg tracks the gangster down, not caring that he's entering Green Arrow's territory, ruthlessly uses a wannabe hero - Mia Dearden - as bait to draw the gangster's guards away from him, then ambushes and beats the living daylights out of him while Deathstroke watches from a distance with great delight.
    • Test #3 was to test Krieg's Lack of Empathy towards innocent people. Deathstroke takes a Stagg security guard hostage and attempts to use him as leverage against Krieg. Krieg is unmoved and declares that Deathstroke could kill every person in the building, guilty or innocent, and it wouldn't mean a thing to him, nor would it stop him from hindering the mercenary. Deathstroke, undaunted, kills the security guard as Krieg charges him, declaring that Krieg has passed the test.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Crosses over with Failure Is the Only Option. Given Krieg's extremist beliefs, his refusal to even consider bonding with his teammates, their antics annoying him, and his unfathomably brutal upbringing, there was literally no chance that he was going to change his ways and embrace the Justice League's principles. Sure enough, when the forces of Chaos invade Earth and the League still won't abandon their ways, Krieg decides he's had enough and goes right back to killing, even executing a few cultists on live TV just to show the Justice League that he is through with them holding him back.
  • Shoot the Dog: Krieg slaughters Professor Pyg's Dollotrons, having deduced from the deranged man's Evil Gloating that they are functionally dead already. Considering what Pyg did to them, it's very much a Mercy Kill.
  • Shoot the Hostage: A variation. In Chapter 27, Deathstroke takes a security guard hostage and tries to use him as leverage against Krieg. He's unmoved and advances anyway - as far as he's concerned, the guard is a Dirty Coward who deserves to die for letting himself get captured rather than fighting to the death - so Deathstroke slits the guard's throat and tosses him aside.
  • The Siege: "Chaos Rising" revolves around the entire Earth being besieged by the forces of Chaos.
    • Los Angeles becomes a central focus of the siege after Krieg directly provokes the Chaos forces on live television, with the heavy implication that it'll turn into a Stalingrad-esque bloodbath.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Red Arrow fancies himself as a Class-A badass who can handle tough missions on his own. His confrontation with Krieg shows otherwise.
    • Rachel Roth accuses Adrian Forge of being this as she curb-stomps him.
  • Smart People Play Chess: Rachel Roth keeps a chessboard in her apartment, and plays a few games with Krieg in Chapter 27.
  • Smug Super: Superboy thinks that being a clone of Superman makes him invincible, and is utterly shocked and enraged whenever he's proven wrong. Kid Flash has similar thoughts due to his speed, often wasting his time cracking bad jokes rather than focusing on his mission.
  • Stupid Good: The Justice League and the Team pathetically cling to their ideals and crime-fighting methods despite several logical arguments against them. Krieg calls them out on this a lot, but all of his valid points sail over their heads because they think they know what's best.
    • However, as noted by Rachel Roth, there is a level of pragmatism to it, albeit one that some of the more idealistic members (like Captain Marvel) don't take into account: if they did start killing, the United Nations might view them as a threat and move to eliminate them. It still doesn't explain why the UN hasn't taken necessary measures to keep people like the Joker from repeatedly escaping confinement, though.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Values Dissonance aside, Krieg's other major reason for hating his teammates is because of how stupid they tend to act.
  • Sweet Tooth: Krieg, a health freak by nature, develops a taste for M&Ms.
  • Take a Third Option:
    • Sportsmaster kidnaps Robin and demands the Chaos amulet in exchange for Robin's life. The Justice League, ignoring Krieg's insistence that the amulet should be destroyed, decides to acquiesce, so Krieg breaks out of his holding cell, steals the amulet, destroys it, and forces Sportsmaster to release his hostage by threatening to detonate a bomb that would kill all three of them.
    • The Justice League in general believes that there's "always a better way" when handling criminals - and by "better", they mean showing mercy to criminals and letting them off with a slap on the wrist no matter what they do.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Heroes practically worship this trope. Krieg is the exception, but it's enforced upon him, much to his disgust.
    • Averted with Rachel Roth. While she doesn't like killing, she will not hesitate to shoot a man in self-defense. She later attempts to kill Adrian Forge, her argument being that he is no longer functionally alive since he's a disembodied soul whose continued existence is thanks only to Grand Theft Me.
    • Averted again in Chapter 33, the end of which features Krieg finally deciding he's had enough of the Justice League's mercy and goes on a killing spree to stamp out Chaos.
    • Played straight to the point of stupidity in Chapter 36. When Metropolis is besieged by Chaos cultists, Superman becomes obsessed with stopping the invasion while also trying to keep anyone from dying, to the point of trying to disarm the city's defenders. An army NCO tears into him for his stupidity, and Superman's beliefs come back to bite him in the ass when a cultist he allowed to escape comes back with reinforcements and acts as a suicide bomber.
    • Averted with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern (John Stewart) during the Chaos invasion. Both have spilled blood in wars, thus when it becomes clear to them just how destructive the forces of Chaos are, they kill without hesitation.
    • Downplayed with Zatara: during the invasion, he refuses to kill anyone directly, but unlike Batman or Superman, he doesn't try to stop the defenders from killing cultists, though he's not happy about it.
    • Averted again when Miss Martian reluctantly kills Metamorpho in Chapter 44.
    • Chapter 47 has the bulk of the Team avert this trope after the carnage of the invasion pushes them to breaking point.
  • Too Dumb to Live: The Team releases Superboy from his creation tank "because it's the right thing to do", despite Krieg's vehement protests that they have no guarantee the clone won't act hostile towards them. Sure enough, Superboy attacks the Team (who waste their time trying to negotiate with him) and they are captured and nearly killed as a result of their stupidity. Sadly, they never learn.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Sportsmaster spends considerable time being something of a Butt-Monkey. And then the Chaos invasion occurs, giving him a chance to cut loose.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Krieg develops a taste for M&Ms.
  • Trauma Conga Line:
    • The Justice League believe themselves capable of undoing 16 years of brutal physical and mental conditioning in an incredibly short amount of time via surrounding the subject of said conditioning with everything he has been taught to hate while giving (what he perceives as) utterly pathetic excuses for why he should practice what they preach. Predictably, it doesn't work—after having his buttons pushed one too many times, Krieg decides he's had enough and defies everything they stand for at the end of Chapter 33.
      • One specific method they like to use is forcing him to have "therapy" sessions with Black Canary. This backfires for two reasons: first, Black Canary is not a licensed therapist, so she really has no business trying to act like one; and second, the two are acquainted, and since Krief has a personal animosity towards her, he is just as likely to fuck up their sessions out of spite as he is out of genuine belief that she's wrong.
  • Ungrateful Bastard:
    • In Chapter 22, Aqualad stops Krieg from torturing a gangster, only for the gangster to try to shoot Aqualad while his back is turned. Krieg saves him, and attempts to use the gangster's actions as an example of why criminals deserve no mercy, but Aqualad grabs this trope and just whines about Krieg's methods.
    • In Chapter 28, Miss Martian restores Krieg's memories after Psimon removed them, but Krieg is so angry that she invaded his mind again that he doesn't care.
      • He pulls this trope again at the end of Chapter 44, after Miss Martian, Kid Flash, and Artemis save him from being killed by Metamorpho, with Kid Flash getting seriously injured and Miss Martian having to outright kill the mutant in order to put him down. Rather than thank them, he lightly slaps Miss Martian upside the head and tells her to not be so hesitant next time, and expresses internal dissatisfaction that Kid Flash didn't die.
  • Villain Takes an Interest: Deathstroke becomes intrigued by Krieg due to the latter's more brutal methods and soldier mentality. Later, his daughter, Ravager, does too, on a much more intimate level.
    • The Light takes notice of Krieg in Chapter 28, and Luthor suggests that it might be possible to recruit him.
  • Villains Want Mercy: Professor Pyg begs for his life when Krieg encourages one of his intended victims to take revenge.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After his third attempt to kill Krieg wildly backfires, Sportsmaster loses it and goes on a rant about how crazy the boy is. Ravager's interference is the only thing that keeps him from getting killed.
  • Villainous Crush: Ravager has a HUGE one on Krieg.
  • Villainous Rescue: During his fight with Deathstroke in Chapter 27, Krieg is knocked over a rail and almost falls into a vat of deadly chemicals, but Deathstroke saves him because he wants to groom the boy into an apprentice eventually.
  • Virtue Is Weakness: Krieg's main reason for being unable to understand why the League shows mercy toward their enemies and tolerance/outright acceptance toward non-humans is because the Imperium actively views these as detrimental to survival... and they usually are right there.
  • Wham Line: Mia has one when she has Artemis at her mercy.
    Mia:"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Security guard Rex Mason - who's being held hostage by Deathstroke - says this trope word for word after Krieg makes it clear that holding a hostage means nothing to him.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • Krieg most certainly would.
      • In the "Perchance to Dream" arc, in which Krieg is supposedly sent back to his world, he comes across a group of young children during a purge. Due to his experience in saving children during his tenure in Los Angeles, he initially hesitates, but ultimately steels himself and kills them all.
      • He nearly strangles Robin in Chapter 2 (though, in his defense, Robin did attack him without provocation), then beats him to a bloody pulp during the "Perchance to Dream" arc.
      • He later mercilessly butchers a group of Child Soldiers.
    • Captain Atom tricks Captain Marvel into de-powering, then blows his head off.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy:
    • When Krieg arrives at the Gotham docks with the Chaos amulet in hand, Sportsmaster - who's holding Robin hostage - smugly monologues about how predictable heroes are. Krieg shuts him up by destroying the amulet, then forces him to relinquish his hostage by threatening to detonate an explosive that would kill them all if Sportsmaster disobeys.
    • The League assumes that Krieg is a Child Soldier on whom they will have to perform Defusing the Tyke-Bomb. Krieg is a Laser Guided Tyke Bomb, but he's lived long enough to actually be closer to Darkseid in mindset and is someone they can't even hope to reason with.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Anarky disposes of KGBeast and Electrocutioner after their mission is completed.
  • You Keep Using That Word: The Justice League and the Team whine that a "hero" shouldn't treat criminals the way Krieg does. They seem to forget (or ignore) Krieg's repeated insistence that he is NOT a hero, but a soldier.
  • Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Never explicitly stated, but there are practically innumerable things that the Imperium (and by extension, Krieg) do that the Justice League and their associates would, at best, consider immoral and, at worst, view as crossing the Moral Event Horizon. Case in point, Krieg thinks the things done by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket to be too lenient. This is probably the only case in the story (so far) where Jerkass Has a Point applies to the Justice League, since many of these actions are only justifiable in the World Gone Mad that the Imperium lives in.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: Katana's sword, Soultaker, consumes the souls of anyone she kills with it. This makes it an ideal weapon against Ra's al Ghul.
  • Zerg Rush: When the forces of Chaos launch their attack on Earth, massive armies of cultists around the world attack major cities simultaneously, utilizing sheer numbers to try and overwhelm the opposition.

Top