Good Is Not Soft / The DCU

The DCU

Comic Books

Comic Books

• Superman: Being a Flying Brick and an idealist, Superman tries to stop villains peacefully, and if they fight back, exert the least amount of force needed to resolve the situation. But if a villain crosses the line, they're in for a world of hurt.
  • In one issue, Major Force mocked Superman for being "too polite". In response, Superman melted him into a pile◊ of◊ slag◊ while calling him out for this. He lived through it, but that's not much of a comfort.
  • Superman's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of the Elite in What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way? and its film adaptation, Superman vs. the Elite, is a horror to behold. And the Elite were nominally on his side before they started taking things too far...
  • Supergirl: Supergirl's kind-hearted, caring and compassionate. This causes a lot of villains to underestimate her. Then they learn the hard way that she's also a short-tempered, fierce, vicious fighter with power to crush mountains and little patience for evil guys.
    • In Last Daughter of Krypton, Simon Tycho lures Kara into a trap, captures her, tortures her and kills the person who helps her out. In response, Kara trashes his troops, blows his satellite base up, and after manhandling him, she tells him to NOT go after her again.
  • In Reign of Doomsday, the Superman Family -plus Cyborg Superman- are trapped inside a dimensional trap together with a bunch of Doomsday clones. Superman decides they cannot deal with the Doomsdays' savagery and Hank Henshaw's craziness at once, so he swiftly rams his arm into Henshaw's chest and pulls out his central node. As Cyborg Superman's feels his systems shutting down, Kal-El reassures him that he will probably reactivate him later.
    Cyborg Superman: Doomsday— The day of our destruction— It's finally here!
    Superman: Three more of them. Right. There's no time for that Cyborg's nonsense now! (ripping Henshaw's core from his chest) Your central node. I'll put it back— when we've won here. Probably.
  • The Phantom Zone: When Zod smugly says he is not afraid of Superman due to his code against killing, Kal-El retorts his code says nothing against delivering brutal beatdowns to scum like Zod himself.
    Superman: "He's dead, Zod. You're going to have to pay for that."
    Zod: "Forgive my not trembling, Kal-El... But what am I to fear, in light of your moronic code against killing?"
    Superman: "You're right, Zod! I can't take your life— much as I'm tempted! But my code does not say a damn thing— about not battering you to within an inch of it!! Murderer!!" (thinking) And there are moments... When I think I should chuck that code altogether...!'
  • Death & the Family: Supergirl gives Insect Queen an ultimatum: if she does not get out of Lana's body willingly, she will be punched, purged and blasted into oblivion. Insect Queen laughs at her threats, so Supergirl carries out all of them.
  • Let My People Grow!: When fighting Superman and Supergirl, Brainiac is hit by his own shrinkg ray. Brainiac begs Supergirl to save him, but Kara coldly retorts◊ that their enlarging ray has only two shots left, which she needs to help Superman and Kandor, and she will not waste one of them to save him from his own stupidity. Even though Superman pleads with her◊, Kara refuses to lift one finger. When Brainiac finally disappears, Superman looks upset, but Supergirl is displaying a huge, slightly disturbing, toothy grin.
  • "Superman and Spider-Man": Clark Kent notices his bullying co-worker Steve Lombard intends to pull a water-squirting flower prank on him. Clark briefly wonders whether his meek, gullible persona should fall for it before deciding he is not in mood for indulging Steve's assholery, and he sabotages the flower so that it squirts Steve instead. In a more serious note, Superman later warns Doom that the armored tyrant is gravely mistaken if he thinks international laws will protect him from Superman if he keeps pushing him.
  • In The Brave and the Bold (2007), when Ultraman mocks Superman for being weak because he won't kill, Supes delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown while pointing out not killing mean's he's the one who has to keep fighting enemies that remember what happened last time, while his Mirror Universe counterpart's immediate murder of anyone who gets in his way mean he's almost never faced anyone with experience of fighting a Kryptonian.
• Shazam!/Captain Marvel is basically one of the nicest guys in comics, possibly the biggest nice guy there is, even in a universe that includes Superman. He often takes great pains to offer his enemies a chance to surrender, try to talk them down first, and when he has to fight, usually opts for the least amount of force possible. And if after all of that, if you still insist on endangering innocent people, then he is going to fight as hard as he can to stop you, and feel no guilt about the shape you're in afterwards. He gave you every chance to avoid it, after all.
• The Sandman: Death is the best person you want to be with at a time of, well, death. A really sweet, caring person, she's also The Grim Reaper and when the need arises she can be really scary.
• Some interpretations of Batman, specifically Batman (1966) and Batman: The Animated Series, have Batman/Bruce Wayne as this. The various Robins however, and the original Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) fit closer.
  • Nightwing is this trope straight up. He acquired his attitude from Superman, but he learned how to deal with criminals from Batman.
  • Though usually extraordinarily kind-hearted, Cassandra Cain can be absolutely terrifying if angered, especially because she is arguably the world's best hand-to-hand fighter. In one instance, a hired assassin kills one of his own allies to get a clear shot at her. This angers her so much that she stops his heart for several seconds, to give him a good idea of what he had just done.
• While Red Robin might not kill you himself he'll handily leave repeat murders to their deaths after giving them a single simple warning about the danger they're in with just enough time for them to escape, and even arrange the situation to be potentially fatal for such individuals who don't listen to his warning. Tim eventually decided he'd gone too far and stepped this back.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Princess Diana has always been an icon of kindness and nobility, preferring peace and diplomacy to war and aggression. Yet, of all of the members of the Justice League of America, she alone (post Infinite Crisis) does not hesitate to use lethal force when needed, reminding everyone the Amazons are, at heart, still a proud warrior race
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Long before Infinite Crisis made Diana more violent, she was the only one of DC's big three to have had a no killing rule from her debut there was a period while Artemis was acting Wonder Woman after The Contest during which a number of criminals seemed to think they didn't need to fear reprisals from Diana for causing harm in her presence due to her loving forgiving reputation. She swiftly reminded them that just because she doesn't kill and tries to redeem criminals doesn't mean she won't put them in a world of pain for hurting others.
• Most of the protagonists in Fables have adopted this view, given the cynical nature of the setting and their desperate circumstances. While none of them are really cruel, there's very little any of them would not do for the safety and survival of their loved ones.

Films

Films

• In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, The Joker is actually furious to learn that, unlike "the real Batman," Terry is willing to fight dirty.
• Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam shows us what happens when you push a nice guy too far. When Black Adam tries to murder a hostage, the newly empowered Captain Marvel has no problem delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to the villain. Beware the Nice Ones in the extreme.
• The DC Extended Universe version of Superman is every bit the altruistic and compassionate individual one expects him to be, as demonstrated in his rescue of the soldier firing at him during the battle of Smallville. He also does not hold back his phenomenal strength in his battles with similarly superpowered opponents like the Kryptonians and Doomsday, frequently throwing devastating shockwave-creating punches; and when left with absolutely no choice, snaps Zod's neck.

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

• Laurel Lance in Arrow is generally kind to those around her and has made a career of helping those who need it most, but that doesn't mean she's going to let the bad guys get away with abusing people.
  • Oliver Queen starts out as Judge, Jury, and Executioner but eventually takes up Thou Shalt Not Kill. After a while in this mode, we find out his attitude on it stops short of the Batman level; killing isn't a non-option, it's just a last resort. Mooks in his way get the fight taken out of them with tranq or taser arrows. Mooks chasing him once his work is done get left in the dust with smoke or flashbang arrows. The Villain of the Week gets captured. ...And villains who convince him they're too dangerous to live get pointy arrows. Also, 'captured' can still mean "impaled to the wall through a non-fatal part of your body."

Western Animation

Western Animation

• Terry McGinnis from Batman Beyond is far kinder than his mentor, but while he is Batman and like Bruce will not actively kill, unlike Bruce, he won't save villains from their own fate.
  Mook: I like to watch the crocodiles eat 'em. It's fascinating.
  *Terry fights them off, the same mook going into the water with them*
  Terry: You're right. It is fascinating. (Scream Discretion Shot)
• In Young Justice (2010), Psimon assumes that because M'gann is a cheerful, friendly Naïve Newcomer, she'll fall apart with a Breaking Speech and a selection of her worst fears. It works for about a minute. Then she gets PISSED. (Something which becomes a bit too common after the Time Skip, to the point that the much gruffer Good is Not Nice hero Superboy calls What the Hell, Hero?.)
  Psimon: Now now, my pretty. I know you don't want to do anything you'll regret.
  Miss Martian: You don't know me AT ALL!

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