Superman Stays Out of Gotham

And so The Dark Knight ends an hour early.

Superman: But dude, you know what I would've done?
Batman: Oh, I don't know, probably just—
Superman and Batman: [simultaneously] Fly really fast, saving everyone from the bullets and explosions!

— How It Should Have Ended, "How The Dark Knight Should Have Ended"

It's simply a fact that some characters are more powerful than others. This trope comes into play when two or more characters who are on the same team have blatantly different levels of power and live in the same universe, but the stronger of them always stays out of anything the weaker character(s) have trouble with. This is because their powers would instantly solve the problems of the weaker hero(es), thus failing to preserve drama and cutting the plot short.

This commonly happens with Badass Normal heroes, who are defined as such because they live in a Shared Universe of wizards, literal supermen, flying tank armored guys, cyborgs or everything in between. This gives the writers plenty of opportunity to develop their heroes in contrast to their super-powered neighbors, while at the same time being able to focus on the more mundane issues taking place in the hero's own backyard. While this hero can learn to become a part of the everyday reality of his not-so-normal colleagues, and even fight alongside them (after all, being Badass Normal implies they can keep up with those who have powers), it's much more difficult to do the other way around: most of the time, the more powerful heroes could easily fix any problem the weaker heroes have in a heartbeat... and that would make for a pretty dull storyline. Often, this is avoided by simply keeping the demigods of comic continuity out of the less talented heroes' homes altogether. This is especially true if the hero is so thoroughly associated with a common everyday problem, characteristic or element that solving it would damage their franchise. In that case, it simply won't ever be solved — even if the hero's superpowered friend could fix it at once. More often than not, the problem is so integral to their own works that most readers simply accept it. Any crossover team-ups between the heroes will usually Hand Wave away the possibility of the stronger hero making any substantial impact in the badass normal's livelihood.

In the case of live-action adaptations, there's also the mundane explanation that actors are busy and trying to get one for a minor appearance in the third act is not very practical and could take up most of a film or show's budget as well as their absence often being a result of those roles just not having been cast yet or the studio not having the license for other characters.

It's not strictly limited to Badass Normals or Nonpowered Costumed Heroes either; some heroes endure heaps of abuse just for being a superhero that can metastasize into Super Registration Acts and other anti-superhero hindrances that never end up on the radar of their colleagues.

Common in works starring the Anti-Hero. The plots and characters within their own works take place in their own hometown with its own tone and rules for the genre of acceptable morality and realistic plot resolutions. This leads to Fridge Logic when Green Rocks-based innovations that would work under any other circumstances that have been used numerous times are proposed but they just won't work for that specific hero, resulting in a Broken Aesop.

A less-common Double Subversion is when the hero calls upon his pantheon of super-allies for help in solving some intractable problem that they may or may not have solved before, only to get back a unanimous "There is nothing we can do" response.

A sub trope of Reed Richards Is Useless. Compare This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman, Fantastic Aesop, Status Quo Is God, Plot Technology, The Only One, and Law of Conservation of Normality. Contrast Superhero Capital of the World. For this as a learning/interaction trope, see Die or Fly or Sink or Swim Mentor. When Badass Normals and other heroes could become superpowered or much more powerful rather easily and then clean up their respective areas instead of some other hero, but for some inexplicable reason don't, that's One Super, One Power Set. When the situation is explained by having the more powerful heroes busy dealing with some other problem, that's Hero of Another Story.

---

Example Subpages:

• Comic Books
  • The DCU
    • Arrowverse
    • Batman
    • DC Extended Universe
  • Marvel Universe
    • Marvel Cinematic Universe
    • X-Men

Other Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bleach has a retroactive example. Series creator Tite Kubo's 2018 series Burn the Witch reveals that Soul Society has a Western branch...which, along with the other possible branches, did absolutely nothing to intervene during the Arrancar and Quincy Blood War arcs, both of which could have resulted in the world of the living being completely destroyed.
• City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes: The Kisugi sisters appear in the film and they even help Kaori to get into the Big Bad's building through the roof to get revenge for the destruction of the Cat's Eye café by his men, but probably because this isn't marketed as a major Crossover / Crisis Crossover with Cat's Eye and the story would end way faster with their sheer number and She-Fu skills, once Kaori is in the building they just stay outside and watch.
• Clamp made a short parody comic in their Clamp in Wonderland Ex collection about Kamui of X/1999 visiting the shop of the Dimensional Witch, Yuuko Ichihara. Though it's more of popping into the shop's front yard after the cliffhanger of the manga where he's from. Yuuko agreed to grant Kamui's wish then Mokona jokingly states that the price is the fate of the world, much to Kamui's despair and to Watanuki's irritation for that joke. Then, Fuuma appears and states that he is the only one who can grant Kamui's wish. Cue the two fighting much to Watanuki's chagrin. Though this does raise the question of why Kamui doesn't visit Yuuko's shop to have his wish granted considering that Yuuko made an offhand comment that she knew the Sumeragi twins when they were young with Subaru being a Dragon of Heaven, it should be noted that X/1999 debuted years before xxxHolic and Kamui believed that his true wish is to bring Fuuma back to his original self and that he should be the one to do it. It's only in the cliffhanger chapter where Fuuma revealed that that is not his true wish and Kamui is in a state of shock when he found out. In fact, this short comic made it clear that if Kamui does indeed visit Yuuko, it's implied that his price for whatever his wish is probably higher and riskier and Yuuko would have known that his true wish is something greater than what he originally thought and it might be best if Fuuma would be the one to grant it. Also, Yuuko's presence would be seen as a Story-Breaker Power given that she's probably not in the position to intervene in the battle between the Dragons of Heaven and the Dragons of Earth unless she was asked to, like how she is unable to help the group from Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- during the Acid Tokyo arc until Kurogane requests for her help.
• In Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, Goku and Vegeta are off on Beerus' Planet, training, the idea being that there's nothing big happening (in the manga, this is changed to training to be able to defeat Black Frieza). However, that changes when Cell Max is awakened and unleashed. Bulma tries to call them back, but all the junk food around Whis' staff blocks off communication. Thankfully, Gohan unleashes a brand new Super Mode that takes care of the problem, but Whis is left wondering just what exactly they could have needed in the first place.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Averted in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, with Jotaro arriving at Morioh to not only tell Josuke about his heritage but also to investigate the use of a Stand Arrow and the criminal Stand users in the city. Zigzagged with Joseph, who was initially invited to help locate the Stand User Akira Otoishi, but afterwards remains out of the major conflict later in this part. Justified between his old age making him unable to fight and his focus on raising an invisible baby that he found early on during his visit.
  • Justified in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind by Giorno Giovanna. After their fight against Black Sabbath and discovering he had a Stand Arrow, Koichi at first wanted to inform Jotaro about this. Giorno convinces Koichi to leave it to him, since a search would put Passione's boss into hiding, making it harder for Giorno to find him. The only hero from a previous arc that comes to aid Bucciarati's team is Polnareff, and he was investigating Diavolo years before they were.
  • Played with in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean with Jotaro, who arrives after learning his daughter, the main protagonist Jolyne, is falsely arrested, thanks to the manipulation of the Big Bad. The attack by Whitesnake leaves him comatose for much of the arc until the final battle. It's played straight with Josuke and Giorno. Especially jarring in regards to Giorno since Pucci called over the rest of Dio's illegitimate children as part of his plan.
• In Luminous Witches, the reason why the 502nd Joint Fighter Wing and the Isle of Wight Detachment don't get involved with the the titular singing squadrion's efforts is that they have bigger Neuroi to fry.
• Amuro Rey and Char Aznable never appeared in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ despite appearing in the opening. Their rivalry was supposed to be settled in the show but Yoshiyuki Tomino was given the greenlit to produce Char's Counterattack; hence, Sayla Mass appeared in the second half of show and she and Bright Noa speculate that Char is probably watching from the sidelines waiting for the opportunity to return to Zeon while Amuro was mentioned in passing by Hayato that he's on duty somewhere. Gundam Evolve revealed that he's also fighting against Neo-Zeon though not the final battle where Haman and Judau are. However, Sayla didn't appear in the movie as her voice actress was again unavailable, and she's offhand mentioned in a flashback by Char while remembering Lalah's death. Many fans were also expecting Kamille Bidan and Judau Ashta to appear to help Amuro stop Char. But the ending of ZZ showed that Kamille retired to civilian life with Fa as a doctor while Judau signed on with the Jovian fleet.
• It is implied that Watchdog-Man of One-Punch Man is one of the more powerful S-Rank Heroes (for one, he's one of the few heroes who managed to single-handedly defeat Garou, whereas it took Blast, Bomb and Genos to try and defeat the heavily injured hero-hunter); however, he never leaves the city he's guarding, so he cannot contribute in missions where his help would be useful, the sole exception being briefly attending the S-class meeting discussing the world-ending threat prophetized by Shibawawa.

Fan Works

• In Amazing Fantasy, For some reason, Spidey is one of the only superheroes in New York to actually take on street crime, stopping bank robberies and investigating things while the entirety of the Avengers are off stopping an Alien Invasion or some other Apocalypse How scenario. Lampshaded, of course, when Peter wonders why his peers like Daredevil are never around.
  Peter: Aw, who am I kidding? He's probably busy with the Hand or something.
• In Avenger Goddess, when Darcy Lewis learns about Ares’ role in the Second World War, she asks why Thor and his people didn’t get involved, Diana clarifying that Ares used magic to stop any other gods being aware of his actions until he was defeated.
• Braigen's DCU (Now With Owls): Discussed in Owls in the Belfry, when Batman states that while he can't stop Luz from coming to Gotham to visit family, he demands that she restrict herself from superhero activities, as he doesn't need the help. Luz responds by shooting him down, stating that she won't stop herself from fighting crime if she's in a position to help, something Batman reluctantly relents to.
• Justified in the Naruto/Justice League crossover, Connecting the Dots. Batman insists that any superheroes in Gotham operate under his rules, and stay out of the public eye. When Wonder Woman engages in a very public battle with Sakura and Rock Lee, this later draws Cheetah, who had gained some new abilities, to Gotham. Batman explains that she was drawn there by Wonder Woman's public presence in the city, and uses Metropolis's Superman-induced villain infestation as a justification for why he insists that supers in Gotham operate under his rules.
• Dance with the Demons: Subverted. Batman's friends stand aside while he investigates the assassination attempt against Catwoman, but at the end of the story Superman and Wonder Woman arrive in the Batcave to help the Batfamily beat an army of Kobra soldiers.
• In crossover fanfiction Displaced (TheMountainJew), the Justice League is told to stay out of Gotham, despite their willingness to stop an ongoing bloody gang war, because Batman -and James Gordon- think the presence of super-powered heroes would attract super-powered villains. However Spider-Man, who has just started operating in Gotham, doesn't care for Batman's rules, and eventually the Dark Knight has to accept that Spider-Man isn't leaving or stopping.
• The End of Ends has Count Logan go around and destroying various planets, including Starfire's home world, and yet the only team to get involved other than the Teen Titans are the Doom Patrol and not, say, the Green Lantern Corps.
• Subverted in the Worm/DC crossover Fear. When Batman, despite being so exhausted that he can barely stand, forbids her from sending Nightwing to help him fight Bane, Taylor sends Wonder Woman instead.
• In the Doctor Who / DC Universe crossover "Fear Itself", Superman is brought to Gotham at one point and reflects on how Batman always hates it when he shows up, believing it's because Batman feels compelled to solve the city's problems single-handedly. Later, we see Batman's thoughts on the issue, where it's revealed that the issue for him isn't so much one of territoriality as it is effectiveness; when faced with a superpowered alien showing up and easily handing them their asses, the criminals of Gotham consequently tend to be less frightened of the prospect of encountering a guy in a bat-suit, thus making Batman's job harder when Superman eventually leaves.
• Justified in Harry Potter And The Invincible Techno Mage. Thor, Stephen Strange, Iron Man, and the other top-tier Marvel heroes can't pop over to Britain and squash Riddle and his Death Eaters because they've got their hands full dealing with the villains that can compete on their level.
• Hermione Granger and the Swiss Tournament: When Hermione is facing off against mooks and metahumans and monsters that Terawatt could take down before breakfast, she doesn't call Terawatt in, because Terawatt is busy halfway around the world, dealing with a Kaiju turtle monster. So it's up to Hermione's "tradecraft" skills — lock picking, placing and defeating electronic bugs and cameras, small arms and explosives, martial arts, and wine-tasting — to identify the masterminds, kill their underlings, and save the day. It eventually turns out that calling in Terawatt was what the bad guys wanted, with a trap prepared to kill her.
• Hero Chat: After Majestia and Knight Owl express their shock that Team Miraculous are only teenagers, they end up bringing up old frustrations in Ladybug about how no other heroes came to help them in Paris. It's only afterward that she and the others hear the explanation from Jess (Sparrow) and Aeon (Uncanny Valley): That information regarding Akumas or Team Miraculous have locked in Paris by a Masquerade organized by the mayor to avoid deterring tourism, with the outside world only finding out after Princess Fragrance targeted Prince Ali, a world-renowned philanthropist. By then, Ladybug and Chat Noir had been handling the Akumas for so long that the other heroes thought they were either young adults or had sufficient training. However, both Majestia and Knight Owl admit they should have done more to investigate and want to apologize to Team Miraculous for the oversight. However, if the author's other story Lady Luck (Miraculous Ladybug) is to be believed, the Mayor also did this to keep superheroes out of Paris in an attempt to prevent them from becoming Akumas.
• Invoked in the Batman/Miraculous Ladybug crossover Is It Stronger To Break. While there was an attempt to contact the Justice League early on, the idea of dealing with an akumatized superhero quickly shut down any further attempts at seeking outside assistance. The mayor even went as far to get a magical information barrier created to prevent any knowledge of the situation from spreading outside of Paris. This doesn’t just extend to information, as when the Bat-Family try to Zeta tube to Paris, they discover it simply won’t work. Subverted when Marinette enlists the Bat-Family’s help in tracking down Hawkmoth’s civilian identity.
• Justified in the Teen Titans fanfic Joker's Wild, where Batman and the rest of the Gotham vigilantes can't help Robin defeat the Joker due to a mass break out at Arkham and Blackgate.
• Batman insists that the rest of the Justice League stays out of Gotham in Justice because he fears bringing metahumans to fight crime there will make the existing villains escalate in retaliation to a level the Bat Family can no longer contain, making Gotham dependent on outside help which will only embolden and elevate the crime rate.
• According to Eagle and Uncanny Valley, The United Heroez can't deal with Walpurgisnacht in Kwami Magi Homura Magica in any of the timeloops because at the same time as the witch arrives in Mitakihara a similarly dangerous threat is also active they have to deal with instead. Meanwhile the reason that magical girls from France aren't involved in the Miraculous fights is that Kyubey gives Miraculous users a wide berth because traditional Guardian policy is to kill Magical Girls on sight, and they are useless to him if killed. In a completely separate timeline briefly witnessed Mami also notes that the Miraculous users can't help them against Walpurgisnacht because they have their own problems to deal with: however as this timeline also featured the defeat of Shadow Moth, the Heroes of Paris were looking for new things to do with their powers at the time so when a timeline 3 Homura ended up posting a desperate plea for help on the Ladyblog they were more than willing to come to Mitakihara to help as soon as they verified that Magical Girls were real from the Kwami, bypassing the geographical issues with the Horse Miraculous.
• Miraculous Knight:
  • When Ladybug asks why Batman and the rest of the Justice League hasn't came to Paris sooner, Batman answers that the League has been observing the incident for a while, they didn't want to get the teen heroes involved with the League since they are already too busy with school but vowed to get involved if things got out of hand. Batman also says that the presence of the League could easily draw in their rogue gallery. Which given that the Joker chased after Batman to Paris when the latter was investigating the Riddler's actions there, is very accurate.
  • The Joker invokes it while convincing Gabriel to come to Gotham with him. He says Batman wouldn't let Superman come after him.
• In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, powerful DC Heroes like The Flash are active in the same world as My Hero Academia. But when S.T.A.R. Lab tech is stolen and shipped off to Japan, the Japanese Hero community is simply tipped off to lock down the ports and airports and monitor the cargo closely rather than receiving any American aid. At the very least, Barry Allen makes it clear that he wants to go and intervene, but can't due to having his hands full with the Rogues and Black Hole.
• In Origin Story, as in the original Civil War storyline, the X-Men sit the entire thing out after quietly determining that Alex Harris is not a mutant after all, despite the fact that originally everyone simply assumed she was. Since she isn't a mutant, and isn't attacking mutants (and has, in the past, actually defended them) they don't see Alex as their problem, and thus refuse to interfere.
• In Perfect Sense, it is stated that the Paris authorities are doing their best to keep the knowledge of the Miraculouses from the wider world, because regular citizens are tough enough as it is, but if Superman or Wonder Woman came in and were akumatized...
• In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, when Mewtwo begins using his powers to alter the weather in Kanto, Rayquaza senses his actions and becomes agitated, and begins flying more erratically across Hoenn in response. Steven Stone takes notice of this and wants to investigate the cause of it, but like Rayquaza he can't leave his region unprotected in case something else comes up (having had some incidents recently that means his concerns are fairly justified).
• Discussed in Pokemon vs. Digimon: When Worlds Collide when Devimon (Digimon) travels into the Pokémon world; the author acknowledges that Devimon could probably be defeated by a Legendary Pokémon, but points out how rarely such Pokémon got involved in threats to the Pokémon world on a daily basis to make it clear that just waiting for a Legendary to show up to fight Devimon isn't a practical option as Devimon would do too much damage before any help can arrive, requiring the Digidestined, Ash, Misty, and Brock to do what they can themselves.
• To Hell and Back (Arrowverse): Played with. Kara is based out of the same city as Oliver and makes frequent trips to Central City, but she pointedly stays out of the boys' ways, sticking to her own threats and major disasters like crashing planes. This is mainly because she would be complete overkill; Oliver and Barry can handle themselves and their respective prey perfectly fine on their own and hardly need her help anyway. However, she will intervene if they are unable to or the threat risks serious harm to their persons, as seen with China White and Grodd.
• Spiderman: A Way Back Home sees Peter Parker (post-Spider-Man: No Way Home) contact Bruce Banner for help devising a means of sending the displaced Gwen Stacy (The Amazing Spider-Man Series) and Mary Jane Watson (Spider-Man Trilogy) back to their universes. Bruce agrees to help after it's revealed that the Harry Osborn of Gwen's Earth has also been displaced, but since he is focusing on creating the multiverse machine Peter and the girls (including Michelle Jones) thus have to work on curing Harry's disease and de-powering him themselves, although they get aid from the Harry Osborn of Mary Jane's world later.
• Invoked in A Supe of a Man; not only has Clark Kent/Superman been assigned to the west coast to keep him away from the Seven, but Homelander has instructed the rest of the Seven to avoid Superman as he dislikes being compared to the other hero.
• Ultimate DCU Headverse: Averted in the first story when Barbara Gordon asks Linda Danvers come to Gotham and help Kate Kane look for Mad Hatter.
• Also justified to a considerable extent in the Earth-2706 verse, the setting of Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams and its companion series Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change with the Light. Unlike Earth-616, the main setting of the Marvel Universe, superheroes like the X-Men, The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor and Doctor Strange are not based in New York City and are not usually available to help the street-level heroes out. Even the Fantastic Four aren't even in New York half the time. As a result, Sleepwalker, Spider-Woman and every other hero in New York has their hands full with their own individual Rogues Galleries. Except for the rare occasion when they can team up due to responding to the same emergency, the heroes simply can't help each other out even if they might like to.
• In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supergirl crossover The Vampire of Steel this is brought up several times:
  • When Kara figures out what is going on in Sunnydale she wants to call the Justice League and stomp the place flat. Buffy pleads with her to not do it because people are better off not knowing vampires are real.
  • In the aftermath of the battle, Buffy asks Supergirl to leave and trust the Gang to handle Sunnydale.
    Kara: Then, what am I supposed to do? Just go, and pretend that none of this exists?
    Buffy: No. You’re supposed to go, and leave it to us. We’re the trained professionals in this thing. We know what to do, Kara. Just like... and, well, you know I hate to bring this up... just like when I was in your body. I don’t know that much about super-heroing, but I’ll bet that Batman doesn’t call you up every time the Joker and he have a throwdown. You all have your spheres of influence. So do we. That’s why we’re here, Kara... and that’s why you’re there.
• In What if...Wanda Cast the No Way Home Spell, Doctor Strange observes that, at least in his case, he never got around to helping Peter Parker deal with the various accusations raised against him by the likes of J. Jonah Jameson as he's normally busy with much larger things, even as Strange regrets how he didn't help Spider-Man earlier even after they basically saved the universe together.
• The Daredevil (2015) fanfic What They Wouldn't Do uses this trope twice in one conversation:
  • Sarah asks Matt where he was during "The Incident", and if he had started his Daredevil career at that point.
    Matt Murdock: No. Not until… a little over a year later, I guess. Aliens are a little out of my wheelhouse, anyway. I was at this law firm that Foggy and I used to intern for and they put the whole place on lockdown. No one in, no one out. But especially no one in. Landman and Zack at its best.
  • Learning that Matt's not left New York City once in his life, Sarah suggests to Matt that he ought to take a vacation and let the Avengers watch over Hell's Kitchen. Matt's response?
    Matt Murdock: [laughs] I think stopping muggers and crashing arms deals might be a little small time for them.
    Sarah Corrigan: Small time is important, too. I mean, saving the world is great and all—I'm way glad someone does it. But if the world ends…well, that's it, right? We'd all be dead, so we won't be around to care. The day-to-day stuff in between massive alien invasions… that's what people need more help dealing with. No offense to the Avengers, though. Lauren adores them. So does my dad.
• What the Cat Dragged In: When Tony Stark eventually asks (after encountering both Ladybug and Chat Noir and an Akuma) why the hell isn't SHIELD providing assistance regarding the Hawk Moth situation (pointing out that the agency's resources should make dealing with him an easy thing, or so he thinks), he is told back that Mayor Bourgeois pretty much kicked Nick Fury out of his office when he arrived to provide the offer and flat-out refused, saying that the Parisian authorities and the Miraculous holders could deal with it pretty fine by themselves. Fury ends up agreeing (and thus denies Tony's request to send the Avengers) when he points out that the agency has very little clue of how the Akumas operate and the true extent of their powers, and he won't risk the potential escalation. Stark gets pissed about it and gets Akumatized for his trouble and nearly takes over Paris. After he's brought back to normal, he agrees with Fury.
• You Had Your Chance To Help Years Ago And You Blew It: Pretty much the only reason this trope is in play is because, when Paris' citizens tried to call the Justice League to help them with the Hawk Moth situation, the person answering them (Guy Gardner) dismissed them as prank calls due to a lack of evidence (since Ladybug's World-Healing Wave meant there was no collateral damage left behind after the battles). By the time the League does get wind of what's going on, both Paris' citizens and its heroes are wary of accepting help from them.

Films — Animation

• The LEGO Batman Movie: The entire Justice League is shown partying midway through the film, but none of them show up when all the villains in the Phantom Zone are let out and Gotham risks falling into an abyss. Parodied in How It Should Have Ended, where all the superheroes do show up and so instantly override the Bat-Family's attempt to save their city.

Films — Live-Action

• Justified in the MonsterVerse. Godzilla defends the majority of the Earth's surface and considers the entire globe his territory, but he always stays away from Skull Island, which is Kong's territory, even when Kong and the island are in danger. This is because Godzilla and Kong are both intelligent but ultimately territorial animals who steer clear of each-other so long as one doesn't breach the other's territory, and their respective species have an ancient history of coming to blows with each other when forced together.

Literature

• Downplayed and generally justified in A Certain Magical Index. Touma has a number of allies who also live in Academy City and who could easily curb-stomp most of his opponents (e.g. Mikoto and Accelerator). They do work together on many occasions, but there are still plenty of instances where this doesn't happen. It's justified by the fact that Touma's allies all have lives and adventures of their own (as shown in the spinoffs A Certain Scientific Railgun and A Certain Scientific Accelerator).
• Discworld:
  • One of the reasons Terry Pratchett introduced Moist von Lipwig to was so that he could keep writing novels set in Ankh-Morpork without the Watch's formidable cast of characters horning in and taking over the story. As Moist was (and arguably still is, albeit on the city's behalf) a professional con artist by trade, he has plenty of reasons not to like, trust, or seek out the assistance of the Watch. He also dislikes his fellow new protagonist William de Worde, who runs the Disc's first newspaper. Vimes, Moist, and de Worde all dislike each other.
  • The Witches and Wizards don't get heavily involved in the Ankh-Morpork books, and there are good reasons for both so we're not wondering why some witch or wizard isn't standing by to turn conspirators into frogs. The Wizards prefer to not have to do any magic at all except when there are unexpected extradimensional threats, and are not on loan to help the Watch deal with mundane plots. The Witches just don't live in Ankh-Morpork to begin with, and when they've traveled there it hasn't overlapped any other Ankh-Morpork book.
• Goblin Slayer: This is why the title character is so important. Generally, adventurers don't go for quests that are below their skill level as the risk is too high and the reward too low. Goblin slaying quests are mostly handed out by peasants being harrassed by them with little to pay, as opposed to quests given out by merchants, royalty and the like with enough money to make it worth their while. Goblin Slayer's defiance of this trope comes from the danger goblins present and his losses at their hands making him wish for and strive to achieve the extermination of all goblins, and as such makes him both a man doing a service nobody else will and an outcast among his peers—or so it's initially believed: he actually has a much better reputation in the Adventure Guild than is initially let on, and with their help is able to marshal a significant force to defeat a major goblin attack on Cow Girl's farm.
• Harry Potter: Albus Dumbledore, who is the single greatest wizard in the series, nearly always stays out of the affairs of Harry when he was a kid and rarely has a chance to show exactly what he is capable of in conflicts, eventually being killed off due to his status as a Story-Breaker Power. As revealed in the final book, this is actually justifiable and intentional, as while Dumbledore is the most powerful character in the entire franchise, he is not the person destined to defeat Voldemort. It has to be Harry, so having the greatest might in this case may seem highly favorable in the short run, but it would be ineffective when the time comes for Harry to battle Voldemort. While he regularly has duties around, part of his lack of participation in Harry's life-and-death struggles is because having him around in those conditions would have nulled any necessity for Harry to endanger himself, preventing him from building up the skill needed to defeat Voldemort.
• Many of Stephen King's stories share a universe, or at least a multiverse, yet most of their heroes are actually more Action Survivors, so a Nightmare Warriors style team-up is unlikely, and most of the events are very localized. The Gunslingers could certainly have helped the people in the grocery story or The Losers gang, but they were divided by dimensional barriers.
• Legacy: The Tale of the American Eagle implies that this has something to do with the Department of Justice Registration (so police can work out standard crimefighting plays?), and is explored as a theme in the novel when the Hero of St. Theodore uproots and goes on a crusade across the world, irregardless of international boundaries. On a larger scale, there appears to be laws against sending superheroes who operate in one country into another, explored with Nightwolf, a former supersoldier who was court-martialed for violating the Non-Combatant Treaty (superpeople can be medics or chefs, but not fight in wars.)
• In The Lord of the Rings, a commonly asked question in fandom is "Why couldn't the Eagles just fly the Fellowship to Mount Doom?". It makes sense, since Gandalf had good relations with the Eagles as seen in The Hobbit. And the Eagles did show up to save Frodo and Sam from certain death after the One Ring was destroyed. So why couldn't they just fly the Fellowship to Mount Doom in helping to destroy their shared enemy? Tolkien has never given a definitive answer but most agree that he probably would also have attempted to give an in-universe explanation, but only after stating the obvious, most important reason: "Because then there would be no story". But in The Hobbit the Eagles do save Bilbo (who has just acquired the ring) and the dwarves from a fiery fate. Fans have come up with several hypothetical explanations such as the Eagles too conspicuous as they approached Mordor. Sauron would have sent his winged Nazgul immediately. Another theory is that the Eagles couldn't carry them all the way from Rivendell, and by the time heroes approached Mordor, there was no Gandalf to call them. Finally, some speculate that this may have been Gandalf's unspoken plan all along, but the sidetrack to Moria put a stop to it. Or, of course, there is the implication that the eagles could not bear to touch or have anything to do with the one ring - which is why they stepped in and saved Frodo and Sam the very instant the ring was destroyed. Another explanation is that the Eagles simply choose not to intervene more than they do, because the Eagles aren't dumb animals that Gandalf has at his beck and call, they're an intelligent race of Middle-earth all their own.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Downplayed in volume 3 (episode 12 of the anime). Oliver Horn is the leader of a Students' Secret Society along with his cousins Gwyn and Shannon Sherwood, and goes to them for help when his friend Pete Reston is kidnapped by Ophelia Salvadori. They tell him they're joining the Absurdly Powerful Student Council's posse hunting Ophelia, but flatly refuse to mobilize their comrades for him since it would risk their exposure: the group is reserved for Oliver's secret Series Goal alone. However, Teresa Carste ignores the Sherwoods' orders and goes to help Oliver on her own.
• Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, writes stories where the Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse gods run around in the modern world, with all their classical bad guys also around and doing horrific things such as turning random people to stone to sell as lawn decorations, blowing up Elvis's home, and creating more chain restaurants, let alone the various attempts of creating Apocalypse How as soon as possible. Yet you never see the Egyptians deal with Titan uprisings, or the Demigods reacting to the very real threat of the sun being eaten. True, the pantheons do try to stay apart due to the many comments that the meeting of god pantheons creates wars. And true the Greek and Roman demigods did, indirectly, work together against the titans, but that was more a coincidence, as oppose to a Superman and Batman vs General Zod thing. Though the "Heroes of Olympus" series has the Greek and Roman elements working together directly, and the Trials of Apollo series continues a lack of barrier between the two beyond simple space. There is a short story titled The Son of Sobek which features Percy and Carter. After nearly killing each other, they team up to take on a monster crocodile. It's implied that there are forces at work to keep the Greek and Egyptian pantheons separate, and that someone had engineered their meeting in hopes of it ending violently between the two. Later confirmed, except on the last point. Apparently, it was for research, and it led to two more team ups.
  • A slight justification, similar to the Superhero examples, is the aspect of space. While why the Divine aspects don't interact more is still up in the air, a lot of the heroes in play are often working in very different areas from each other and don't have the free time to randomly go looking for trouble. Percy Jackson and Magnus Chase don't have cars or the spare change to randomly travel to Boston and New York City respectively, and the Romans exist out around San Francisco. While the main Egyptian characters exist in New York City, they are often out in different parts of the world that don't tend to be the same parts Percy and company will go to (The Demigods travels brought them to Quebec, Chicago, San Francisco, British Columbia, the Rockies, Seattle, Alaska, Kansas, the middle of the Atlantic, Gilbraltar, Rome, Croatia, and Greece, while the Magicians went to London, Brooklyn, Egypt, France, Memphis Tn, New Mexico, Phoenix, St. Petersburg, and Texas). The Norse characters have this even more so by often interacting with the other 9 realms like Alfheim that the Greeks and Egyptians likely do not even know how to get to. While contact between the groups does increase over time, with Annabeth meeting with Magnus, the actions and decisions of the characters means they often aren't able to get involved if they wanted to (with Percy Jackson for example spending not insignificant periods of time around the time of the Egyptian series either hidden by Hera, without his memories, or in Tartarus, while during the Norse series Percy isn't as active due to trying to live his normal life for a spell.)
• In Rumor's Block Confluence has such a corrupt government that most super heroes are afraid of working there, and the few who do are forced to be loners because the government considers them illegal vigilantes rather than proper heroes.
• With the introduction of both the Secret Histories Droods and the Who You Gonna Call? Ghost Finders to his personal Verse, Simon R. Green had to justify these supernatural-menace-suppressing organizations' non-participation in each others' affairs, as well as their absence from his previous Nightside series. The Droods' absence from the Nightside is explained away as the result of age-old jurisdictional limits, while the Ghost Finders are tasked to oppose supernatural threats that arise outside the Nightside's boundaries. The Ghost Finders' work, at least until recently, usually falls short of the Droods' The World Is Always Doomed caliber of mission, and as a British government institution, the former aren't on good terms with the latter due to the Droods' history of bullying the world's nominal leaders.

Live-Action TV

• Buffyverse:
  • Buffy is not allowed in Los Angeles. Not because she's too powerful, but because Angel kicked her out after she tried to deal with rogue Slayer Faith herself rather than allow him to try and redeem her in "Sanctuary" (they reconciled in Sunnydale). In "Orpheus", Willow visits L.A. when the Fang Gang need a witch to re-restore Angel's soul, then brings Faith with her when she returns to Sunnydale, since the First Evil has it in for Slayers.
  • There's also the fact that Buffy can't stay away from Sunnydale for too long (she doesn't go to L.A. after they reconcile), mostly because of all of those demons trying to open the Hellmouth or get one of those Artifacts of Doom hidden around the town. If the beginning of Season 6 is any indication, Buffy's presence is the only thing keeping the demons under control.
  • Justified when the sun is blotted out by the Beast for several episodes of Angel Season 4 by the fact that it only affects Los Angeles to start with. It's supposed to eventually spread, but the Beast is killed and the sun restored before that can happen. Not to mention Buffy was busy reacting to the minions of the First Evil in Sunnydale at the same time.
  • In Angel season 5, the lack of help from Willow or any of the others who could've possibly assisted with Fred's demon possession is explained by their refusal to cooperate with Angel due to his decision to work for the resident Big Bad, Wolfram & Hart, even if his intentions are to subvert their assets into something good.
  • The opposite is in effect, too. Angel turns up again in "Chosen" ready to help fight the First Evil, but Buffy immediately sends him away so he can prepare "a second front" in Los Angeles in case she dies.
  • So since Spike has managed to come Back from the Dead in Season 5 of Angel after burning up in the Buffy finale, one would think he would be rushing off to find Buffy. Actually, he thought about it and guessed that doing so would cheapen his Heroic Sacrifice and chooses instead to play the hero in LA. He returns to Buffy in the comics seasons.
• In the CSI-verse, there were a few episodes where the three CSI shows (Las Vegas, Miami and New York) crossover. However, Jack Malone and his FBI team from Without a Trace never crossed paths with Mac Taylor and the New York Crime Lab despite being in the same city. Justified that Jack's team only handled missing persons cases and the only crossover episode that they had with CSI is Las Vegas. In a meta-sense, several actors such as A.J. Buckley and Anna Belknap appeared in Without A Trace before they were cast in CSI: NY as the main characters and Enrico Murciano appeared in Las Vegas as a different character instead of his character from Without A Trace. Cold Case also had one crossover episode with New York since the show's city, Philadelphia, is closer to New York.
  • Oddly enough in CSI: Cyber, the team went to New York and later, Miami, and not one of the spinoff characters was seen. This could be justified in a meta-sense: the two spinoffs were already cancelled and Gary Sinise was busy with another show.
• Deadline was a Law & Order spin-off about an in-universe newspaper called the New York Ledger. While the Ledger and its employees have made many prominent appearances in the various L&O shows, no Deadline characters ever appeared in any of those shows, and no L&O characters ever appeared on Deadline, where even a prominent rape case used generic officers instead of the SVU, though this may have only been because Deadline only lasted for thirteen episodes before being axed by NBC.
• Doctor Who runs into this rather frequently as well. There are other advanced species besides the Doctor who could be of help to Earth, but this seems to have happened once in the franchise's over-60-year-long history.
  • Several mercenary forces would probably gladly sign up with Earth for the right consideration, but there's never any mention of an offer being solicited. The Sontarans in particular would love to mix it up with the Daleks after being left out of the Time War. However, only one Sontaran (that was demoted to a nurse as punishment) joins the Doctor's army in "A Good Man Goes to War". In that same episode though, an army of Silurians that owe a debt to the Doctor takes command of Demon's Run. However, having alien mercenaries fighting for the Earth would probably cause as many problems as it would solve, if not more.
  • After two series of deconstructing the way the Doctor operates and showing just how hated he's become amongst certain people, the Series 6 finale reveals that millions upon millions of individuals wished to answer River's distress beacon and prevent the Doctor's death in 2011 Lake Silencio. None of those individuals actually end up helping to prevent the Doctor's death (except for the Teselecta), though in fairness that's because the Doctor already had a plan to get out of it by slipping under the radar.
  • In Torchwood: Children of Earth, this is played harrowingly straight, except that it's the Doctor from Doctor Who who stays away. After learning that the government is willing to give up children to the aliens, Gwen posits that the reason the Doctor doesn't do more to help Earth is that sometimes the Doctor is too disgusted by humans. However, this is just Gwen speculating. The Doctor has been known to just not know every time that Earth is in danger, since he's definitely not omniscient. And there are fixed points in history that he can't prevent from happening however much he'd want to. Word of God said that the Doctor would never appear in Torchwood, as Torchwood is very much not aimed at children and his presence might encourage them to watch it.
  • The Sarah Jane Adventures has the time-traveling Doctor pop in occasionally, but for the most part the fate of the Earth (or at least London) appears to be in the hands of a middle-aged woman and some school-aged children. Likewise, while it's established that Sarah Jane Doesn't Like Guns and Torchwood's tone is the exact opposite of this show's, it's still bit glaring that Sarah Jane and Captain Jack Harkness never seem to share notes in crisis situations, even after working together well in "Journey's End". However, most of the situations both face develop rapidly, and with Jack's teleporter broken, by the time a team got from Cardiff to London or vice versa (especially given how bad British public transportation is), the world would probably have gone to smithereens already.
• Kamen Rider:
  • This trope gets thrown into sharper relief by the crossovers that happen. Every Showa-era series has a point where some (or all) of the past Riders show up and help the current hero fight his enemies. The Heisei era handled this by seemingly putting every series into its own continuity, but the "Phase 2" era (2010 onwards) brings back the old issues with the annual Movie Wars crossovers. Only rarely does this get addressed, with one example being Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Ghost & Drive: Super Movie War Genesis, where Shinnosuke (who already has his responsibilities as a police officer) tells Takeru "I'll leave the Ganma to you." — and on top of that the Drive gear got sealed away at the end of the series, meaning he couldn't help even if he wanted. Sometimes it's also addressed that the previous Riders are busy with fighting villains elsewhere in the world other than Japan, in some cases including The Remnant of their series' monster group, or Foundation X in the "Phase 2" era. There's also some special cases, such as Kamen Rider Den-O patrolling the time stream or Kouta being busy literally being God on a planet on the other side of the universe and only stopping by to help on occasion.
  • As well as crossovers between the various Kamen Rider series, the franchise occasionally crosses over with Super Sentai. In Kamen Rider Gaim, Kouta urges the ToQger kids not to get involved in the conflict with the Inves, as he claims its not their fight. Likewise, Ticket advises the kids not to aid the Kamen Riders, as Zawame doesn't actually contain any Shadows for them to fight. This doesn't stop them, however. Their involvement is kept to one teamup due to the premise of ToQger: the train travels all over, and they're off to their next stop after lending a hand in Zawame.
• This is a problem that's frequently glossed over in Power Rangers. By the time the Zordon era was over, there were multiple Ranger teams on Earth and the number has only increased as the show has gone on. More to the point, pretty much every Ranger team defeats their enemies by the end of their season. As such, one would think some of these older Rangers might move to whatever city is being attacked in the current season and try and help out. In some cases there are valid excuses. Lost Galaxy isn't set on Earth, SPD is set in the future, RPM is in an alternate universe, not to mention numerous Rangers lost their powers at the end of their season (although by the time of the huge final battle in Megaforce every past Ranger seems to have been repowered somehow, and post-Zordon teams usually didn't lose theirs). However, there are plenty of still-active Rangers who have no obligation to stay in their original city, yet outside of the occasional team-up the newest team is typically left to deal with the new bad guys on its own.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation had Deep Space Nine overlap the last two seasons and featured a handful of crossovers before it ended. One episode just before the Grand Finale "Preemptive Strike" in fact demands knowledge of plot points introduced on DS9, but assumed to be established information on TNG. These crossovers occurred before the DS9 Myth Arc gained momentum with the Dominion, which spawned the Dominion War which threatened all Trek mainstay superpowers.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • The Enterprise, the flagship of the fleet and a powerful warship crewed with Starfleet's best and brightest, is not mentioned during the Dominion War except mainly in reference to Worf's former crew. The reason was the TNG films were ongoing and didn't want to be handcuffed to that story, only needing a new excuse to get Worf back aboard the Enterprise for the movie. The Watsonian answer is that they did help fight off the Dominion, but were kept from the biggest battles and dispatched to put out fires and resolve crises better suited to a single, very versatile ship. The Doylist explanation, of course, is that more crossovers would have meant spending a lot of the budget paying some very expensive guest stars and could have lead to the Enterprise crew overshadowing the cast of DS9. Expanded Universe books that cover the TNG crew during the Dominion War timeframe simply have them fighting elsewhere. This is after all the interstellar equivalent to World War II, and was fought on multiple fronts.
    • Star Trek: Voyager, given they were on the other side of the galaxy, avoided any real issue with this because of their isolation. Some plot points of DS9 do filter into VOY once they establish contact with Starfleet, but one bit story set back in familiar territory dealt with a Romulan trap rather than the Dominion, since that was not the story that was for Voyager to tell.
  • Star Trek: Discovery had the second season discuss why the original Enterprise hadn't shown up during the first season's Federation/Klingon War. After learning of Section 31 and how its base is set up, Captain Pike accuses Admiral Cornwell of keeping the Enterprise away so someone like him wouldn't point out their morally dubious decisions going against the ideals of Starfleet. Cornwell counters that they wanted Starfleet's finest — and their ideals — to survive should the Federation lose.
• Super Sentai: The franchise has had a history of having a team-up movie for almost every series, but during the series finale battles, no two teams are present together. Of course, Super Sentai is more ambiguous about whether each series is set in the same universe, outside of the crossovers, compared to Power Rangers where they definitely are.
• On The X-Files, all those demons and vampires and mutants running around would have been really useful for the Earth Home Team when the Alien Colonization finally hit.
• Xena: Warrior Princess / Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Despite being in the same universe and having Character Overlap with villains like Ares and Dahak, the two protagonists only met three times in the period the two shows aired. Justified in that it would be difficult to find anyone quickly in ancient times. In reality, the producers wanted to keep the two shows distinct and limit the number of cameos from the two series. It occasionally creates problems for those not watching both shows, such as Dahak debuting in Xena but being resolved in Hercules without any input from the warrior princess.

Podcasts

• Red Panda Adventures:
  • The Red Panda actively kicks other superheroes out of Toronto, and keeps saying "I Work Alone". People keep pointing to his partner, the Flying Squirrel. He says she doesn't count. Part of his character development is learning to share, and he eventually starts training other heroes to take over when he retires.
  • In one episode, a wannabe hero works with Panda and Squirrel. In the end they save the day, and Panda gives him the "stay out of my town" speech. Squirrel says it's a sign of respect; it means the new guy is officially a hero.
  • Ironically, Panda has no problem showing up in New York and interfering, whether the heroes there like it or not. If anything, he goes out of his way to annoy them.^note "Gotham", IRL, is another name for "New York".
• The Thrilling Adventure Hour: Played straight and averted. One of the segments, a superhero show called "The Adventures of Captain Laserbeam", features two heroes, Captain Laserbeam and Phillip Fathom. While Fathom frequently teams up with Captain Laserbeam in his city, Apex City, Captain Laserbeam never joins Fathom in his own adventures in his city, Aquapolis.

Radio

• Averted for comedy effect in "That Mitchell and Webb Sound" on BBC Radio 4. There's a running gag sketch involving the heroic team of Angel Summoner (Webb) and BMX Bandit (Mitchell). They typically arrive at the scene of some crime/natural disaster/whatever, and BMX Bandit suggests some complex solution usually involving some combination of highly dangerous stunts on his bike. Angel Summoner then just summons a host of angels who fix the entire situation in a matter of a couple of seconds, leaving BMX Bandit nothing much to do.
• In the second Superman radio series, this was sort of averted; Superman DID stay out of Gotham, but Batman was in that continuity living in Metropolis too. Team-ups with Batman, Robin and Superman were common, mind you.

Tabletop Games

• Fifth edition Champions Universe (the official setting) imposed this trope on Gotham-Expy Hudson City. Despite existing in the same world as Millennium City and other cities with superheroes, Hudson City only had vigilantes fighting crime, and none of the villain organizations of the "main" Champions Universe ever tried to expand into Hudson City. It worked in reverse as well; the Harbinger of Justice could probably take out some supervillains with only a little planning, but since he never left Hudson City ....
• A tie-in to the Marvel Super Heroes game was a pair of books called "The King Takes a Dare" where one player controls Daredevil and the other controls the Kingpin as they try to undermine each other. One thing the Daredevil player can do is try to enjoin other super heroes in his crusade, but absolutely nobody's willing to give him any direct help, because of how that'd unbalance a game about a fairly low-powered hero and villain duking it out. Demonstrating why this trope exists, however, the Kingpin player can do something similar, but whereas Daredevil can't convince any other heroes Kingpin's a villain who has to be taken down at all costs, Kingpin can convince super heroes like the X-Men or Fantastic Four that Daredevil's a villain who has to be taken down at all costs. If he succeeds, Daredevil's only real hope is to run away.

Theme Parks

• In The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal Studios, Spider-Man is the only hero shown making any attempt at stopping the Sinister Syndicate, despite the very serious threat they pose to all of New York City.

Video Games

• Baldur's Gate would have ended right after the beginning if Elminster, instead of wandering around randomly greeting the main character, decided to end the Big Bad conspiracy — but he is a Chosen of the deity Mystra, and the gods were forbidden to interfere with the Bhaalspawn (and besides, players wouldn't have had much to do besides raiding xvart villages and fetching golden pantaloons). Thus... "ho there wanderer".^note the source material had a more general explanation: there is a sort of Mutually Assured Destruction-like logic in play, where powerful individuals tend refrain from directly handling affairs like that in favour of keeping an eye on opposing powerful individuals so they don't directly intervene on the other side (and also to be ready to step into situations where they have to handle it personally). However, Drizzt had no divine obligations and he could have easily disposed of the Big Bad, seeing what he accomplishes in his novels. He is a well renowned hero in the Forgotten Realms and he was just roaming south of Baldur's Gate by the time the main character ventured forth for the first time, even meeting him: is it possible that he didn't notice and/or care about the iron ore shortage, the reports of monsters at Nahskel's mines, the unusual bandit activity, the shift of power in the Iron Throne? To the point that a rookie protagonist adventurer solved all of this before him?
• In The Elder Scrolls, the Fighters Guild, an organization of "warriors-for-hire" that operates throughout most of Tamriel, does not have a presence in Skyrim. Instead, Skyrim is served in a similar capacity by the Companions, a group who traces their origins back to the original 500 Companions of Ysgramor.
• An interesting variation. In a NES video game starring The Flintstones, Fred and the others travel to the future in search of their pets and run into George Jetson. Despite being his time frame, he tells Fred he can't help out because Spacely Sprockets is in the middle of their own crisis that he has to fix himself.
• Genshin Impact:
  • There are many times where relevant characters don't appear in others' Story Quests even when it would make sense for them to do so. For instance, in Kazuha's Story Quest, he and the Traveler run into a cursed sword that has possessed and killed several people. Yae Miko, who is ostensibly in charge of dealing with evil spirits across Inazuma, doesn't make so much as a cameo in this quest.
  • Lampshaded in the Teapot quest, which introduces Yanfei, a renowned lawyer across Liyue. Yanfei mentions that the Traveler would have easily been able to get out of being accused of Rex Lapis' murder if she'd gotten involved and to call her next time they ended up in a legal bind.
• In Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, it is shown that Mickey Mouse, undoubtedly Riku and Diz's strongest ally, really was spending the entire game simply spying on the Organization and does not contribute to Sora's revival in II in any significant way. This is the only game where Mickey plays no real role in fighting the bad guys, as he has other irrelevant missions to do, and it's implied he chose this role due to Riku and DIZ specifically telling him they got it, as he isn't even aware of the problems that haunted much of the game. Story wise, it's justified as Riku was said to have made Mickey promise to look after Sora and not worry about him, and in a literal sense, it's also to prevent him from defeating Roxas by himself, which would have prevented Riku's transformation.
• The LEGO Batman Trilogy breaks this trend with Batman: while the first game plays this trope straight by featuring only Gotham characters, the sequel, the aptly titled LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes, makes it quite clear that it averts the trope by having, well, the rest of the DCU joining in. The game actually lampshades the entire concept by having Superman just casually drop by and save the day, pissing off Batman greatly and telling Robin to not expect Superman to swoop in and save the day every time. When the Joker and Lex Luthor invade the Batcave, Batman begrudgingly lets Robin call out to Superman, but when he doesn't immediately show up, Batman goes to tell him I Told You So, but ends up being saved at the last minute. At the end of the game, the entire Justice League shows up to save the day, making Batman realize that sometimes, outside help is needed.
• Rainbow of the Rainbow Six games will occasionally perform stealth missions, even though Splinter Cell's Third Echelon would be much better suited. Rainbow is a secret international counter-terrorist unit that answers to multiple governments.^note In the books, it was primarily NATO and some allies that ran it, though their first deployment was to Switzerland. Also, they usually acted more like a SWAT team, doing recon, planning, then taking the bad guys down in a swift assault that usually lasted a few seconds. They never really acted like they do in the newer games, with a few exceptions. Third Echelon is an NSA black-ops program. The idea is that various governments can call Rainbow in to respond to terror attacks, while Third Echelon only answers to and works for the US government, and usually takes a more proactive approach.
• World of Warcraft's Legion introduced the Vindicaar, and with it the ability to fire extremely powerful beams of Light at targets on the ground, and they joined the Alliance. Which really begs into question as to why the Alliance didn't use it in the next expansion, Battle for Azeroth. The only explanation ever given is an Out-of-Universe one by the devs that they felt it clashed with the themes and aesthetics of sieges and castles and towers they wanted to have for the expansion.

Webcomics

• Fans!: A huge mish-mash of tropes includes a sci-fi organization with teleporters and rayguns chasing down Osama Bin Laden. Or so they thought. Their hearts were in the right place. 'Osama' didn't even have one.
• Double-subverted in Learning with Manga! FGO. Mash and Nitocris have a mystery on their hands, and the first thing Nitocris brings up is to get Holmes to help them solve it... but because neither of the two girls have the story Servants (one of which is Holmes) on hand and he's never been summoned otherwise, they have to do it themselves.
• The Order of the Stick: the narrative continually has to contrive reasons to remove Vaarsuvius from the plot (petrified, soul trapped by demons) because otherwise their game-breaking power would interfere with story arcs where the team is playing underdog to mundane villainous threats, particularly iterations of the linear guild.
• Tower of God: Rankers, people who have already climbed the Tower, made their wish and received great power on the way up, are not allowed to interfere with the Regulars who are still climbing. That's why overpowered characters like Yuri and Lero-Ro rarely make an appearance on the front lines and often act with severe restrictions. Most Rankers aren't even allowed to get close to the testing areas of the Inner Tower. This rule does get broken occasionally, though. At one point Yuri threatens to blow up an entire testing area and murder the test director, and is only stopped when the director threatens to fail everyone involved if she doesn't back down.

Web Original

• In Atop the Fourth Wall, Linkara and homeowner Viga is stuck with a ghoul named Moarte, who spends Halloween showcasing the wonders of horror comics, but doesn't show up at all for other events. The 2022 Ashock the Fourth Wall event reveals that Moarte is the strongest of Linkara's acquaintances, but in a Deal with the Devil, he absolutely refuses to get involved in Linkara's "petty squabbles" and "serialized nonsense" and if Linkara breaks this, then he's dead.
• DEATH BATTLE! usually sidesteps why none of the characters' allies interfere with the fight, with most happening out of the blue so there won't be any preparation. The ones that do acknowledge their friends try to justify why they don't help.
  • Goku vs. Superman begins with Goku and friends watching Superman saving an airliner. Most don't notice his hidden strength so they don't care when Goku runs off to fight him.
  • Batman vs. Iron Man has Batman try to call Superman, but Iron Man cuts off his communication.
  • Omni-Man vs. Homelander justifies it through Homelander's massive ego. While somewhat aware of who Omni-Man is Homelander fully expects that his reputation and killing of Nolan's wife Debbie would be enough to get Omni-Man to leave, so he wouldn't get the rest of the Seven to strongarm Nolan. It does not.
• Even assuming the wider Red vs. Blue universe at least resembles the Halo universe, Master Chief's absence in most of the storylines is justified, since he would have been busy fighting the Covenant during the Blood Gulch Chronicles, and afterwards he was MIA for several years. Project Freelancer, being a rogue military-corporate operation would likely have been out of his and his allies jurisdiction anyways. The given reason the Reds and Blues were used as Sim Troopers in Project Freelancer was also that they were so stupid that they were more use as training dummies for super-soldiers and would have been more a danger to their allies than the Covenant. However, this is played straight during the Schisno Paradox; Sarge (who according to non-canon material, is aware of and admires Chief) tries to assemble a team of history's greatest warriors with a time machine, but does not get anyone born after the 20th century, resulting in the effort failing miserably.
• Seanbaby lampshades this on his Super Friends page, in which Superman could do everything if he wanted to. Not that he hasn't tried. There have been a few stories where Superman tried to save everyone and do everything, usually with An Aesop that he can't do everything alone, or that it's just not worth sacrificing his social life to save a few cats stuck in a tree.
• The Warp Zone: Discussed in "BATMAN V SUPERMAN: Super People's Court". Batman says that Gotham has a harder time than Metropolis because it doesn't have a hero like Superman, and Batman's morally gray methods are necessary because of that.
• Whateley Universe:
  • In 'Silent Nacht', it is mentioned that in cities like Los Angeles where there are multiple superteams, they usually wait until the police call on them (for both legal and PR reasons), and make sure that they don't interfere with another team's takedowns unless invited to. This leads to a scene where one team is watching another getting their butts handed to them on TV, eating popcorn and making snarky comments about their rival fellow heroes.
  • It is also mentioned in 'Razzle Dazzle' that the Dark Avenger (a Captain Ersatz combination of the Shadow, Batman, and the Punisher) had a habit of pissing off other costumed heroes by jumping into the middle of another hero's bust, guns blazing. He did this in Chicago one time in the mid-1930s, to the Champion (the world's Superman Substitute), who got so angry at the Dark Avenger's gun-happy recklessness that he tried to arrest him.

Western Animation

• Ghost Force hits this in a two-fold way. While it shares a universe with Miraculous Ladybug, it is set in New York while Ladybug, Cat Noir and friends are in Paris. However, it is also established in the United Heroez species that New York is crawling with superheroes ranging from the local Superman and Batman expies to a guy with power-granting hot dogs, making it quite odd to not have them showing up to deal with the Ghost Force's ghost problems.
• Phineas and Ferb Save Summer features the entire world being put in peril of a new ice age. Earlier, the Avengers appeared in the show showing they are part of a Shared Universe (though that episode's canonicity is debatable). This was an incident that involved the entire world that everyone knew about so they couldn't be accused of staying out of Danville.
• Rick and Morty: On one hand, Rick seems to have a solution to almost everything, including a shapeshifter problem that the local superheroes blew up a planet to desperately solve themselves. On the other, tentacled, Davey-Crockett wielding hand, Rick has caused entire universes of death and chaos. It doesn't help that his intelligence seems to be powered by sheer sadism.
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) is explicitly a sequel-series to Transformers: Prime, but when Bumblebee's trapped on Earth with only a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits to capture dozens of Decepticon fugitives while staying out of the public eye, he never considers calling up Agent Fowler to get government assistance, or any of the other human members of Team Prime, who'd proven themselves loyal and valuable more than once.
• The American Voltron franchise has King Zarkon of Planet Doom as a vassal of the Drule empire from the Vehicle Voltron series. Given how many times Zarkon and Lotor have had their butts kicked by the Lion Force Voltron, as well as their overall untrustworthiness, it raises the question as to why the Drules haven't sent a fleet or two to planet Doom to effect a change in management. Also, the Drule robeasts that regularly fail to destroy the Vehichle Voltron and the Explorer fleet are nowhere in the same league as Haggar's magical robeasts. Why didn't they enlist Haggar's expertise in fighting the Explorer and Vehicle Voltron? Especially given that VV, being an Earth knockoff imitation, was obviously technologically inferior to the definitely Magitek Lion Voltron. Additionally, the Drules were looking for a new planet as their home planet was doomed. Why couldn't they just go to planet Doom whether Zarkon liked it or not? The real-life reason for this, of course, is due to the fact that Lion Force Voltron and Vehicle Voltron are based on two separate original anime.

---