Leeroy Jenkins behaviour in comic books.
- Ares, Marvel Comics' God of War, once pointed out a list of things like "white flags, taking prisoners, Geneva Convention thing and checking out if you have enough bullets before rushing into the battle" and concludes that those are things his sister Athena cares about. He's the God of War. To be fair, he is the God of War as in "conflict", and Athena is Goddess of War and of Wisdom, i.e. strategy. So it's in character for him; less in character for Athena to care about Geneva Convention and white flags, considering the original (Greek) myths. She probably doesn't; Ares, being Ares, probably just assumes that everything in war that he doesn't like must be her thing. This characterization is true to their mythological depictions...which is why Athena routinely handed Ares his ass when they were fighting on opposite sides.
- Subverted in Asterix as the Gauls don't need to plan their attacks on the well-disciplined Roman legions — they can just charge right on in and win the fight. Played straight on occasion with over-eager Roman troops who think it'll be a piece of cake to take down a handful of undisciplined Gauls. Especially Obelix in Asterix the Legionary. "We CHARGE!"
- Astro City: This is how American Chibi is introduced — her first appearance consists of directly charging into the Iron Legion to disrupt their robbery plans. Then, minutes later, she tries to open a giant floating door by slamming it at top speed."SPLAMMO! Did you see that? Did you see that?!"
- Mark Waid once wrote that The Avengers' Battle Cry is "Avengers Assemble". The Fantastic Four's is, "Johnny, wait!" due to hot-headed Johnny Storm's tendency to FLAME ON and barrel forth recklessly against whatever villain the team is facing this time.
- Batman: "We need a plan of attack!" The Creeper: "I got a plan... ATTACK!"
- Jason Todd (Robin #2) was prone to this. Most notably in the beginning of A Death in the Family when Batman is trying to plan an attack on a group of thugs below but Jason charges in before Batman realizes what's going on.
- As Deadpool once said: "F**k plans."
- He also used this trope at one point, yelling "LEEROOOY JEEENKIINS!!" while he charges against his enemy.
- Assassin and marksman Deadshot in the DCU sometimes acts like this. Somewhat explained by the fact that he has a death wish (or more accurately is apathetic about death). He can follow a plan, but if he sees his shot open, he'll take it without hesitation. Several suicide missions have been cut short by Lawton killing their target when they passed in front of an inconvenient window while the rest of the team was in the planning stage.Deadshot: Is there a plan here, or do we just shoot things at random?
- The Flash: Impulse used to have this as his primary character trait. Justified in that he was raised in a computer simulation, and basically saw the world as a big video game without long term consequences.
- Green Arrow can be portrayed like this in team books, especially when played against a more level-headed character.
- Groo the Wanderer often does what Groo does best, i.e., charge in mindlessly and lay waste to everything he sees. To be fair, Groo is so good that he usually doesn't really need to plan, and so dumb that he'd probably just mess things up if he tried, so "attack first and think about it never" quite possibly is the optimum strategy for him.
- A page from The Halo Graphic Novel has an L. Jenkins charging into the enemy while screaming, as a plasma grenade barely misses his helmet, and his squadmates are all staring at him.
- In Hunter's Hellcats, Cracker is the one most likely to jeopardize the mission by disobeying orders and doing whatever the hell he wants, such as firing at a Japanese plane and giving away their position.
- The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): Lita Little tends to jump in head-first even if it derails her group's current plans. Upon arriving in France the first thing she does is decide to take a light tank for a joy ride, causing a fire on a military base which — as a furious Lawrence points out — could have been much, much worse.
- Woodrow "Woody" Van Chelton of Quantum and Woody, whose solution to nearly every problem is to jump in with guns blazing."Plan schman. Beat the crap out of 'em while yelling a lot. It's in every movie."
- Pathfinder: In issue #1, the party stakes out Sandpoint's rubbish tip, thinking they're up against only a few goblins scavenging it. Instead, a large raiding force appears, headed for town. Rather than try to sound the alarm and lose precious time, Valeros goes leaping in without bothering to plan, forcing the others to run in after him to back him up.
- Hilariously lampshaded in Runaways. After Chase runs screaming into battle, Victor actually says to Gert, "You and Old Lace go after Leeroy Jenkins."
- This trope is discussed in Spider-Geddon. In the Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man tie-in, Peter defeats Morlun for the fourth time and gives him "The Reason You Suck" Speech stating that he shouldn't have lost four times in a row but instead murdered Peter in their first encounter. Peter points out that the reason Morlun keeps losing is because of this trope, because he believes his superior abilities and his so-called "birthright" means he doesn't need to plan for anything. Instead, when Morlun's ass is handed to him, he's confused and infuriated that he's lost and then ends up repeating his mistakes because he doesn't learn.
- Superman:
- War World:
- Discussed when Supergirl wants to find the eponymous Kill Sat and smash it and Superman warns her against being overconfident, insisting that "It's better to be safe than slaughtered".
- The Spectre's test concludes when Superman realizes his acting without thinking has made things worse for many people.Superman: See what? A mindless, rampaging monster? A creature who acts without thinking or... or... Oh. Of course. I... See. I've been thinking with my heart instead of my head! Forgive me, Spectre — I've been acting like a fool!
- In the storyline Panic in the Sky!, New Gods Orion and Lightray have come to Earth upon learning that Metron's Mobius Chair had arrived there without Metron. Superman had already guessed that Metron was captured by Brainiac and wants the New Gods to hold back and come up with a plan. Orion brushes him off, telling him they don't have time for plans, and the two race off to Warworld. Sure enough, the two New Gods get their asses handed to them by Maxima and the brainwashed Matrix Supergirl and join Metron in captivity.
- In one Superman/Batman issue, the World's Finest are faced against "Doomstroke", a Fusion Dance of Doomsday and Deathstroke The Terminator. While Batman is wracking his brain trying to figure out what they should do, Superman roars, "We don't have time for strategy!" and punches him, knocking out one of his teeth. Fortunately, this causes Doomstroke to retreat.
- Subverted in an issue of Trinity (2008). The heroes are sent to the Mirror Universe, and decide to liberate it. While Batman and Wonder Woman are trying to come up with a plan, Superman storms the Crime Syndicate's base. At first, the others think he did an idiotic move, but Supes beats them all and delivers their unconscious bodies. Superman explains that he deduced that the evil counterparts had grown complacent, as they had been ruling their world without any challenge for years. Also, as they killed their enemies right away, they never developed any real combat experience, while Superman did, since he always fights enemies who have an intent to kill him over and over again. It also helped that he, Batman, and Wonder Woman had had a mind-link put on them that allowed Supes to draw upon their skills and abilities.
- War World:
- Ultimate FF
- Namor does not care and does not wait for anyone.
- Stark checked if Rick's portal worked. Yes, it did, but... Doom does not want to listen, and goes, while Stark cries "I said, 'But...'!". So they all had to follow him him ASAP, before he gets blown up to pieces.
- Wonder Woman (1942): Etta Candy's hot blooded nature gets her and her allies in trouble on occasion. Wondy specifically instructs Etta not to try and save her when baiting the Valkyries to kidnap her, but to call her mother Hippolyte when the Valkyries arrive and let the Amazons handle it. Candy instead leads the Holiday Girls against the Valkyries when they throw a net over Wonder Woman, and despite the element of surprise the Valkyries easily subdue and capture the Holiday Girls as well, giving them more leverage over Wonder Woman.
- X-23:
- After Avengers Arena makes a point of reminding the audience that X-23 is a very strategic fighter, to the point that her brain is constantly taking in her surroundings and formulating the best plans by which to kill someone, in issue #10 she blindly charges right into a fight with Apex, and ends up beaten within an inch of her life for her trouble.
- The trigger scent invokes this on her: Under its influence she falls into a berserker rage during which she has no control over her actions, and will blindly pursue anything contaminated with it, even if they're a friend or loved one. Laura has no more time for plans in this state, the only thought she has until the rage passes (usually after the target has been reduced to a pile of meat confetti, or until the trigger scent wears or can be washed off) is "Kill!"
- However Laura can fall into this even when she's not grabbing the Idiot Ball or under the effects of the trigger scent. Situations in which she lets her emotions get out of control can lead her to acting rashly and without thinking. For example, she nearly got herself and Hellion killed by the Facility when she blindly rushed off on a rescue mission when Mercury was kidnapped while they were hanging out at the Grind Stone. A chance encounter with one of Zebra Daddy's former goons while on a night out with Jubilee drove her into a rage in which she not only assaulted the man in the middle of a crowded club, but sent her on a reckless mission to tear apart their sex trafficking organization and rescue the girls they were moving. Black Widow herself, while cleaning up the aftermath, pointed out that she was acting on emotion, not with her typical deliberateness.
