When you have a superhero (or villain) with colossal super-strength, it's often customary to show just how mighty they are by having them rip chunks out of the scenery and use them as weapons. One of the more ludicrous instances of this is when they grab onto a chunk of the ground, then whip it like they're yanking a rug, sending a neat little shockwave directly at their opponent, the earth literally rippling as if made of some kind of flimsy cloth.
While visually stunning, this is impractical. Even if it's secured by rebars or other metal, rock just doesn't have the flexibility needed to flex in such a manner, and it's usually solid rock or concrete these brutes latch onto; ever try to grab a handful of dirt and not have it break up in your hands? Unless it's permafrosted or solidified into some kind of clay, it's impossible, but these bruisers don't have that problem. Then again, they're mighty enough to ignore the laws of physics, anyway. Or they may possess earth powers.
Compare Ground Wave.
Examples:
- One Piece: Inazuma can do this, and more justified than most examples due to it being a product of his specific powers than being a feat of strength. Those powers involve being able to create scissors from his body and, after using them to cut up something, manipulate that cut material as though it were paper, even if it's something like a stone floor that normally couldn't be moved that way.
- Strange Tales: Issue #89, the first appearance of Marvel Comics's most famous Kaiju, the Chinese alien dragon Fin Fang Foom, Fin attacks a bunch of Chinese soldiers by grabbing up a chunk of the Great Wall of China and snapping it like a whip. This makes no sense but is totally awesome.
- Supergirl: Supergirl has done this sometimes. One of those times
◊ happened during her battle against the Anti-Monitor in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.
- This is one of the Hulk's special moves in any Capcom fighting game he's in.
- In Brain Dead 13, protagonist Lance uses this on Fritz in the penultimate confrontation. He sees Fritz at the top of a huge staircase and gives the rug at the bottom a mighty pull. The rug shockwave travels up the entirety of the stairs as Lance and Fritz watch (with smugness and curiosity, respectively) until it hits Fritz, who then falls down the entirety of the stairs. As the Obscure Game Theatre says, the only way Lance would have tried that would be if he knew he was in a cartoon, and fighting a cartoon.
- Many video games feature this effect when a character will slam his weapon or fist into the ground sending out visible shock waves in form of rippling ground that damages enemies.
- Rask from Atlas Reactor has a move called 'upheaval' that does this. It's unique amongst the game's forced movement attacks in that it tosses foes away from him instead of pulling them to him.
- Both Superman and Darkseid try this trick against one another: the former in Superman: The Animated Series, the latter in Justice League Unlimited.
- Superman hit Captain Atom with one of these in Justice League Unlimited.
- In the Space Ace cartoon, in one part of the episode "Wanted Dexter," Dexter is locked in the prison and notices Baby Face Nerks with Kimmy, and tries to get the sheriff's attention with no success. So, Dexter throws the mug at the blaster, causing it to fall to the floor. Then Dexter grabs the rug and says, "Come on blaster. Come to Dexter." And then he proceeds to pull the rug so hard that it creates a shockwave that sends the sheriff flying and Dexter gets the blaster and , after engergizing, escapes the prison.
- In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode where Robotnik obtains Flying Brick superpowers, he demonstrates them to the heroes exactly this way.
- Pulled off on a regular basis in Avatar: The Last Airbender by earthbenders, who can give earth and rocks whatever conststency they want. Toph neutralizes and entire group of metalbenders this way in The Legend of Korra.
