Mook Horror Show / Comic Books

• The 2000 AD series Jaegir is set in the universe of Rogue Trooper. Jaegir was once a soldier stationed on Nu Earth, and she remembers Rogue as, in her own words, a "blue demon" who tore through her comrades, ripping their throats out, while his allies' ghosts laughed and joked.
• Animal Man: After Lennox murders Buddy's family on orders from some corrupt executives, Animal Man snaps and hunts them all down for revenge. It's played like a horror movie, with him using his powers to brutally murder each of them one by one — pulling one off his boat and drowning him, burying another alive, using his super strength to punch the elevator yet another one is riding in clear out the building, and then finally killing Lennox himself by viciously electrocuting and mauling him. Nothing they do or say can stop him.
• Astro City:
  • In "A Little Knowledge", a small-time crook sees the superhero Jack-in-the-Box change into his civilian clothes. At first, he thinks that he's struck gold by discovering this potentially valuable information, but then starts to imagine all the ways in which selling the info could go wrong, including nightmares of being pursued by a vengeful Jack. He eventually gets so stressed out he leaves town without revealing the secret to anyone.
  • In the first issue of "The Dark Age", petty criminal Royal Williams is part of an armoured car robbery that is foiled by Jack-In-The-Box. The whole thing is played like a horror movie monster attack, with Royal cowering in fear under a truck while Jack takes the others apart.
  • This effect is also used by the Confessor, a Batman Expy who relies on the fear he gets from mooks — especially for the first Confessor, who was actually a vampire with all of the associated powers.
• Atomic Robo does this with vampires from another dimension. Robo seals off the lab as Jenkins re-enacts just about every classic horror scene upon the vamps.
  New Guy: We're trapped in here with them?
  Robo: Oh, no. We're not trapped in here with them. They're trapped in here with Jenkins.
• Batman:
  • Striking fear into criminals is kind of Batman's whole shtick, to the point that a yellow ring tried to conscript him into the Sinestro Corps, which is powered by fear. In other words, the ring decided that Batman was the scariest thing in the entire space sector. And the only reason it didn't take was because it detected Batman is equal parts fear and sheer force of will, a green ring alignment. Later, during Blackest Night, a Sinestro Corps ring decided to settle for Scarecrow. Granted, Batman was going on his exodus through time during that event, so the ring wasn't able to try for the Caped Crusader again.
  • In the Season 11 Smallville comics, something similar happened, with Parallax controlling Yellow Rings into taking hosts on Earth, even pre-existing Green Lanterns. Except that this time, when the Yellow Ring started its usual spiel about how he can inspire great fear, Batman interrupted it with a Death Glare and the words, "take a deeper look. Let it linger." The Yellow Lantern paused, did so, then immediately went quiet. That's right: Batman scared a weapon powered by fear, controlled by the embodiment of fear, into submission.
• The Crow: The goons Eric slaughters believe him until the very end to be simply a maniac who is Not Afraid to Die, so they just keep coming at him, figuring that he'll eventually go down if they hit him enough times.
  Final Boy: [shooting Eric point-blank in the head, splattering blood all over him] Walk away from that, mother—
  Eric: [covered with blood yet completely unharmed] Scared?
  Final Boy: No.
  Eric: You should be. [shoves the mook's head into a wall with so much force that it immediately explodes in blood]
• A group of Bantering Baddie Buddies from the alien force out to invade, strip mine, and slaughter the people of Earth in The Flash: One-Minute War go to loot a dark mansion and find themselves being picked off by a mysterious speedster, who only shows himself as Anti-Hero Godspeed once he's ready to Spare a Messenger.
• Whenever any Ghost Rider loses control on his Spirit of Vengeance, expect this trope to be played in full force. Johnny and Danny have theirs on tighter leashes, so it's rarer for them. Robbie has less control and so far all we see of him as All-New Ghost Rider feels like watching a Slasher Movie except every victim is a criminal.
• Immortal Hulk:
  • The first issue has the Hulk ripping through a biker gang. We don't see what he does to them, but we do get to hear it. Hulk himself doesn't even appear on-page until he gets to his target, the last person left in the building.
  • Much later on, Betty Ross (as Red Harpy) tears through several of Fortean's hired goons, while a terrified Jackie McGee watches.
• Scrooge in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is often quite good in scaring the shit out of his enemies. The most egregious examples come from the ending chapter and a side story: in the ending chapter the Beagle Boys, numbering eight with Granpa Beagle, are running from the Money Bin with some stolen money, only to discover that they're being chased by Scrooge, causing Granpa Beagle (then the only one to have met him before) to faint in terror before Scrooge effortlessly knocks them out while complaining of old age; in a side story set in Klondike a group of mooks who had already faced him once learns they can steal Scrooge's mining claim if they prevent him from talking with Goldie, decides to beat him up and give him to the Mounties (It Makes Sense in Context), but upon learning there's only two dozen of them they try and search for some other people.
• Marvelman is an early example of this being done intentionally. When the title character is invading a secret government base, we're treated to mooks describing him as some sort of monster.
• In newuniversal, John Tensen — now empowered as Justice — hunts down the gang who shot him and finds them in a darkened warehouse. First there's a voice from the dark, then he dismembers them with the Laser Blade that his new powers project.
• Paperinik New Adventures:
  • Xadhoom is one of the very few people in a Disney comic allowed to break the Thou Shalt Not Kill rule... And boy does she take advantage of it every time she meets the Evronians. The series' protagonist Paperinik is no slouch himself. Usually it's masked by the Amusing Injuries of the Mooks, but those who escaped have nightmares about him. Even the emotionally-crippled Evronians (upon seeing him on their freakin' mobile homeworld, one of them who had a previous run-in with Paperinik started trying to convince himself it was another nightmare). And then, in the reboot series, we once enjoyed Paperinik getting really pissed, and it was downright scary. Oh, did we mention that Paperinik is the Anti-Hero identity assumed in some Italian stories by Donald Duck?
  • In 'classic' Paperinik stories, this seems subverted, as Paperinik and most crooks have an amiable chat when the latter are caught in the act before the criminals go to give themselves up to the police, but whenever the Beagle Boys or someone new commit a crime the Double Subversion becomes clear: Paperinik will defeat them anyway (and in a few occasions has beaten up and caught hundreds of criminals at once) and isn't shy to repeat the performance with criminals from out of town or the Beagle Boys (who are simply too stubborn to know when to quit), so the other criminals choose a way that allows them to dodge at least the beating.
  • Paperinik is also prone to do this literally. As in going at the homes of criminals from out of town who plan to come in his city, show them a video of what he did to criminals stupid enough to commit crimes in Duckburg, and ask them if they really want to come to Duckburg. The fact a sadistic superhero just proved he knows where they live only amps up the terror factor.
  • In comic books Donald can do it even without dressing as Paperinik, as shown in "Donald and Reginella's Wedding". Just the sight early in the story of Donald starting loading plenty of salt shells for his shotgun should be enough to warn the reader shit would go down, let alone him furiously shouting threats at the Big Bad while wielding it (and after having shot him in the ass twice)... And indeed, the first encounter was so bad that the villains then come at him with an entire army. It wasn't enough, and afterward Donald can dictate rather harsh terms on pain of him finishing the job — without killing them.
• Rob Liefeld's Prophet character did this a couple times. Once to be like Batman and once to be like Rambo.
• Planet Hulk: Korg was one of the Kronan Invaders who served as the antagonists in Thor's debut issue in Journey into Mystery. Many years later, after befriending the Hulk, he developed into a somewhat more heroic character, but he was still terrified of the thunder god, and, in a flashback from his point of view, we saw the Kronans' battle with Thor depicted as one of these.
• The Punisher:
  • An annual issue of The Punisher MAX shows the story from the POV of an arsonist, being pursued by the Punisher through Manhattan. It never once gave the Punisher's perspective; he was presented as simply an unstoppable force that the criminal just couldn't get away from. Earlier in the same issue, the CIA was treated to a very literal horror show when they witnessed Frank massacre dozens of mobsters via satellite. Even Frank's old buddy Microchip is shaken up by what he sees.
  • Also from The Punisher MAX, "The Cell" has Frank get arrested and sent to Ryker's Island. From there he instigates a massive riot to cause his real targets (the mobsters indirectly responsible for his family's deaths) to panic and run for an exit... except that at every exit is a sobbing convict telling them to turn back before getting headshotted by Frank. The mobsters flee back to their original cell, wonder why Frank has it in for them personally and are about to turn on each other when Frank comes in.
  • Arguably, Punisher is on the receiving end of this when he goes up against Daken in Dark Reign. He survives the battle for several hours only because Daken finds Punisher's efforts at stopping him with mere bullets to be entertaining. Daken slowly dismantles Punisher over that time, then gets sick of it and reduces him to a pile of severed body parts tumbling down into the sewer with a few quick blows.
  • Later on, in an act of poetic justice, it is now Daken himself who is on the receiving end of this, courtesy of a newly revived, Bloodstone-powered, and very pissed off Punisher (now going by the moniker Franken-Castle).
  • The Punisher: The End has a very short implied one: Sometime after a global nuclear war is about to start, the guards at Sing-Sing are ordered to execute the prisoners, saving the Punisher for last. As they're about to enter Frank's cell, the bombs hit, and the lights go out. Then one of the guards yells at his squadmate to let go of his rifle...
• In Runaways, you wouldn't think that a sweet little girl who talks to plants could be all that terrifying, but Klara once accidentally tore apart a squad of paramilitary goons and managed to catch the son of Wolverine unawares. A mock psych-profile released in advance of the team's guest appearance in Avengers Academy suggested that the Marvel Universe at large sees her as a Creepy Child and prefers to give her a wide berth.
• Sin City loves this trope. Wallace, Miho, and Marv have all inspired a great deal of dread in their enemies.
  • When Marv killed the police death-squad goons at the Farm after they had just blown away his parole officer Lucille, he faced the last one and said "That there is one damn fine coat you're wearing." The next page showed him chasing the guy down with a hatchet while cackling like a lunatic.
  • Miho has an entire mob family quaking in fear throughout Family Values. She even intimidates one mook into killing his own brother.
  • Wallace had a guild of assassins running scared to the point where the mob boss running the organization decided just to leave him alone and not try to get revenge.
• The Spectre does this as his shtick in most incarnations. Unlike many comic book supers, he is perfectly willing to kill and often does, and usually has the reality warping powers to make the event horrific and terrifying for the evildoers.
• Spider-Man: It's easy to forget because of his family-friendly portrayals, but Spider-Man sometimes comes across this way, especially when he intervenes in muggings. Just imagine how you'd react to a gruesomely contorting silhouette with wide, staring eyes scuttling down the wall at you...
  • In one particular Spider-Man instance, he was fighting a costumed mercenary in a secure medical facility. The mercenary didn't realize that he was out-matched, until Spidey tore a reinforced steel fire door from the wall and threw it at him. Effortlessly. After that, the mercenary was fleeing in terror. Ordinary opponents generally don't realize what the "friendly neighborhood" Spider-Man is capable of.
  • There's another bit where one of his enemies has hired a professional merc team to take Spider-Man out. They "chase" him into Central Park and, while the leader is giving a rousing speech about how Spider-Man's rep had to be overblown and that he was just an amateur, Spider-Man is taking out each of the other mercs behind the leader one at a time, while they're traveling in a tight formation and looking just about every direction except the one that matters (up). The leader ends his speech to turn around and gauge its impact on his men only to find them all gone... and then he goes berserk. Spider-Man ends up leaving the unconscious mercs webbed up around the house of the enemy who'd hired them.
  • Titania was on the receiving end of one of these during the Secret Wars (1984). Coming fresh off of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of She-Hulk, Titania was feeling pretty smug and superior... and then Spider-Man showed her just what smug and superior really meant by using his agility to dodge all of her attacks, slugging her hard enough for her to feel it with absolute impunity, and tearing into all the psychological fault lines papered over with her newfound power mere weeks ago. It culminated in Spidey tossing her through a wall and over a cliff casually, and Titania having a phobia about facing the web-slinger that lasted for years.
  • In his Anti-Hero days, Venom has this trope even more strongly. He even threatens to eat your brains! Backfired once, though. Rescuing an innocent girl from perceived danger? Okay, cool. Being a giant slime monster with foot long teeth gave the girl horrible nightmares.
  • Scarlet Spider: Kaine is a living demonstration of what a Spider-Man who doesn't play nice looks like. During The Clone Saga, he terrifies pretty much everyone he comes across, leaving a trail of bodies killed by his signature move, 'The Mark of Kaine', which essentially uses his enhanced wall-crawling powers to burn handprints in people's faces. On his return in Spider-Island, he's arguably even scarier, since he looks and dresses enough like Spidey that everyone mistakes him for the web-slinger (much to his irritation), has stingers that emerge from beneath his wrists and controls spiders. Add all that to the terror that Spidey sometimes inspires, the fact he can transform into The Other following his second resurrection, that he's prone to Unstoppable Rage, has no problem with killing or torture and he's noticeably faster and stronger than Spider-Man and you get a Terror Hero that has drug cartels wetting themselves, the 'Superior' Spider-Man engaging in a massive freak-out and is capable of tearing through the X-Men and (briefly) killing Wolverine.
  • Once Played for Laughs when Spidey threatens a mook by pretending to summon an army of spiders to swarm him (because he's SPIDER-MAN). Unaware that this is not something Spider-Man can do, the mook promptly releases his hostage, drops his gun and surrenders before the non-existent swarm shows up.
• The Strange Talent of Luther Strode: Luther Strode is the purposeful embodiment of this trope, being the result of the thought "What if Peter Parker never had Uncle Ben in his life but still got superpowers?" Luther shows very little restraint when his or others lives are in danger after attempting to be a nonlethal vigilante , and with notable super strength he's able to gib/blow to pieces the average human torso with a glancing blow. This isn't helped by the fact his powers have made him a near 7 foot wall of muscle, meaning when he appears, he's towering above most enemies he faces. The trope is especially played up in the first two volumes where several average criminals and police are left with him or another super powered character.
• Superman:
  • Once done when an enemy had made him very sick. He reminds the villains that he now cannot control the force of his blows.
  • What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way? has Superman doing this to the Elite to show them why a superhero shouldn't kill people. The result is downright terrifying.
    Superman: He went into orbit at Mach 7. If you had Super-Hearing, any second you will hear the... [Beat] Pop!^note Thankfully, he's lying.
  • Happened off-panel, but one issue of Batman had a thug explaining why he moved back to Gotham from Metropolis: one second, he was in the middle of a job, the next he was two miles up in the air, with a calm, gentle voice in his ear telling him to reexamine his life choices. Even facing the goddamned Batman would be better than to risk testing the patience of a guy who could do that, he decided.
  • In Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Krem ambushes Ruthye and Supergirl and shoots one arrow at the latter. Then he watches how she calmly gets up and walks towards him, ignoring several more arrows becoming embedded in her bust. Krem's crony swings his sword at her, but the woman nonchalantly catches the blade. Then her eyes glow red, and she states she could not care less for their weapons before delivering a beatdown.
  • The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor: Supergirl tracking down the members of the criminal gang who tried to gaslight her friend Lena into madness is depicted, from their viewpoint, as being hunted by a relentless invulnerable monster who will find them anywhere and cannot be outraced, fooled, stopped or hurt. Kara is even depicted in one panel as one would expect from a vampire or movie monster: she is swooping down from high, at night, with her arms outstretched and her hands curled into a claw-like position as she lunges towards her runaway frightened prey.
  • In Way of the World, Dolok time-travels once and again to escape from Supergirl; however, every time he believes he is finally safe, she shows up out of nowhere and starts hitting him with gusto.
  • The Supergirl from Krypton (2004): When the Earth's heroes invade Apokolips, a legion of parademons turn themselves into suicide bombers in a futile effort to stop Superman. Their comrades can do nothing but watch how dozens of parademons detonate upon impact against Superman's body while the Kryptonian hero relentlessly strides forward, unharmed and unhindered.
  • Day of the Dollmaker: The titular villain is visibly terrified when Supergirl crashes into his lair, trashes his army of murderous toys and approaches him slowly and calmly, her glowing eyes blasting every weapon he tries to fetch.
  • The Death of Luthor: The titular villain's mooks are not overly concerned about the police car chasing after them, but they become frightened out of their witts when they notice Supergirl flying towards them.
  • Played with in Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, a Perspective Flip of the DC Universe from the perspective of Superman's arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. As seen in the page image, there are several scenes where Superman is depicted as a terrifying, alien and unstoppable menace to the world and the humans around him... but then, those words 'Perspective Flip' are relevant here. We're seeing him from the skewed and twisted perspective of Lex Luthor, who is of course going to be distorting him.
• A comedic variant occurs in one issue of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl in which a base full of A.I.M. agents go into a panic when they hear that Squirrel Girl has just shown up.
• In Watchmen, the scene in Rorschach's backstory in which the kidnapper comes home plays out something like this.
  • Dr. Manhattan does this in the Vietnam War where he effortlessly vaporizes Vietcong as he rolls.
  • Rorschach actually outdoes Dr. Manhattan in this during the riots. Where as the rioters argued with Dr. Manhattan, the people left immediately when Rorschach just made his presences known to them.
• X-Men:
  • Wolverine has a few of these under his own belt. One of the most notorious events happened during the Hellfire Club's abduction of Jean Grey/Phoenix in The Dark Phoenix Saga. All the other X-Men were either captured or incapacitated; Wolvie's sent down a storm drain in a flood. He washes up in the basement, and proceeds to stealthily go up level by level, since even HE can't fight the whole club at once. "Stealthy", in this case, meaning "gut everyone in the room before they can make noise." He grabs one poor schlub to interrogate him, starts off by giving him an utterly terrifying description of what he and his claws can do, and mentally notes to himself that he's toned down since joining the X-Men, since he actually let this one live long enough to even answer his questions. AFTER, it must be reminded, he just eviscerated a few dozen other guards on the way up. This scene also shows up in the animated series — the series obviously cut out the slaughter but still had Wolverine telling the mook that his adamantium claws could cut through the mook's armor like a hot knife through butter and implying that they could do worse to flesh.
  • Super-Soldier Tyke-Bomb X-23 inflicts more than a few of these. Wiry teenage girl (or worse, skinny pre-teen) she may be, but a trained assassin with a fearsome Healing Factor and implanted Absurdly Sharp Blades is what nightmares are made of... assuming that you live. And that is when she is not hopped up on the Trigger Scent. Probably the most epic example comes from X-Force: After having been recaptured by Kimura and tortured, Laura makes her escape by flooding the entire base with the trigger scent via the sprinkler system. Even Kimura, who Laura can't even harm to begin with, responded with an Oh, Crap!. We should probably also mention that Laura only has one arm at the time thanks to Kimura doing some work on her with a chainsaw before she got loose.