In Astro City: The Dark Age, Black Velvet has snapped and is out on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge — whereupon she comes upon Jitterjack, the Divided Man. She uses her powers on him, stopping him, but then:
Black Velvet: You like this, divided man? You're mine now, like the others. My power flows through you. My darkness touches your heart. Touches it, squeezes it... clenches it until it stills. How do you like that, madman? Jitterjack: Not... not good. Heart breaks. B-but, is good thing for Jitterjack... (Jitterjack tears through Black Velvet, rising into a triumphant pose) Jitterjack:HE HAVE SPARE!!!◊
The Authority: It happens after it's implied that Captain America pastiche the Commander rapes Apollo. After incinerating the spine of the Commander, Apollo leaves him to his boyfriend, Midnighter, who shows up with a jackhammer. Oh crap◊...
This is the typical reaction the average citizen (and the more savvy crook) has upon realizing he/she's in the presence of The Joker.
Detective Comics #826: Robin (Tim Drake) gets caught in the middle of a gang shootout. His motorcycle is wrecked and he needs cover. A concerned citizen sees the fight from his van and calls Robin over.
Robin: I don't know who that is and at this point, I don't care. I need distance from those thugs. Besides, any port in a storm... (oh, crap)
Then the Joker gets a brief moment when Robin screws up his plan, uses his last trap against him, and leaves him standing in front of an oncoming Mack truck.
Wonder Woman (1987): Widow Sazia has engulfed Boston in a war for control of the local mob that has incorporated Black Magic and dimensional portals. Then, when she's just had her base blown up and needs to regroup, the Joker shows up to "help" her out and she is justifiably horrified. The next time she's seen she's chained to a desk and a bomb for the amusement of her new "ally".
Many is the Batman comic which has included a panel of a gang of street thugs about to mug, murder, rape or otherwise harm an innocent civilian in a darkened alley or villains plotting evil deeds in some deserted warehouse (or penthouse with a convenient window or sunroof) gazing up in horror as the Dark Knight swoops down on them from whatever vantage point he had been observing them from to deliver an almighty ass-kicking, For Great Justice.
Red Robin: Tim has a moment of dawning horror as he realizes the League of Assassins base Tam—a civilian under his protection—is at is under attack by a group of efficient super-powered serial killers who have no problem taking out multiple League ninjas and assassins at a time while he's miles away.
Gotham CentralRenee Montoya accidentally lets slips, to the Captain no less, that Romy Chandler had her gun taken from her by Batman, after the detective shot at him. Everyone knows what's coming, and there's a single panel of Renee standing with her face displaying this perfectly.
Sawyer: What was that? Renee: Oh, hell.
In Death of the Family, The Batfamily gets this at the end of the second main issue when Joker says he knows all their identities, and gives proof by talking about Alfred (who he tortured) and the Batcave.
In Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, this is the reaction of the demons when they see Aaron Cash charging them.
Second series #1: Black Canary's reaction when she and Huntress find themselves facing off against an Asian woman who is a very skilled martial artist. In her words, "Two terrifying names, two impossible possibilities spring to mind. Cassandra Cain. Or, god help us... Shiva Woosan. In either case, there's a good chance neither of us makes it out of this stinking, filthy alley tonight."
In the first series, Spy-Smasher has that look when, after having just been humiliated in a fight by Barbara Gordon, she threatens to ruin Babs' life and steps outside to find herself facing a small crowd of heroes and villains and is informed by Black Canary that no, she won't be doing that.
In the final battle of the third Blue Beetle against the villainous Reach, the bad guys' command ship is collapsing all around main villain the Negotiator and hero Jaime Reyes. Now, the Reach are the never-defeated Evil Commercial Empire who worry even the Guardians of the Universe... and this plucky teenager has done what nobody ever did: bring them down essentially with the power of Heart. But just as the conflagration threatens to consume them both, time-travelling hero Booster Gold appears and drags Blue Beetle out. Reyes reaches out to the Negotiator to save him, too, which leads to the pertinent moment: the villain tearfully whispers "We never stood a chance..."
Earlier in the series, Eclipso, the being on the level with the Spectre, who has fought the Justice League, faces down minor hero Traci 13. She tries to pull the standard "why would you dare to attack one like me", only for Traci, with tears in her eyes, to tell Eclipso that when her mom died two people took her in and raised her as their child: Ralph and Sue Dibny. IE the woman who Eclipso's current host killed. Eclipso instantly stops fighting and, in a panic, pleads that it didn't do the deed.
In Captain Atom: Armageddon, Captain Atom goes up against Maul, from WildStorm. Maul's power is that he can reconfigure his body mass and become a figure similar to the Hulk. Captain Atom can manipulate atoms, and he turns Maul back into his skinny scientist self.
At the absolute darkest moment of Final Crisis, Darkseid has successfully spread his evil to all of humanity, all remaining heroes falling to his Morticoccus supervirus, Superman on the ropes, and in spite of Batman's Heroic Sacrifice, he just completed the final part of his plan to close the causality loop and ensure it can't be stopped. Then he hears something in the distance, and raises his eyes to see the Black Racer. Cue the start of the death of Evil.
During one of the Firestorm (DC Comics) annuals, Firestorm has decided to protect mankind by, of course, disarming all nuclear weapons, everywhere. Before it's done he ends up in New Mexico fighting against a Soviet agent named Pozhar, when the President hits them both with a tactical nuke. And Army gets to watch Firestorm shut the whole thing down — Radiation, blast, everything. The General is less than sanguine about attacking Firestorm with conventional forces immediately afterwards, but follows the orders he is given.
In The Return of Barry Allen storyline of The Flash, Professor Zoom has just such a moment when Wally West overcomes his mental block that's been inhibiting his speed (put there by his own fear of replacing the then-deceased Barry Allen) and slams the villain in the back of the head, simultaneously evening the playing field. This, after Zoom had earlier declared that HE was the fastest man alive and had been running rings around several heroes who'd come in to stop him.
In Gotham City Garage, Harley Quinn reacts this way when she realizes that she has gotten Batgirl's full, undivided attention:
Barbara Gordon: Sorry to interrupt this romantic and very disgusting moment— but you and I have business. Harley Quinn: I sure hope so. Dayum. Oh no wait hold on. Real dayum. Actual damn.
Sinestro Corps War has plenty of these moments, but the absolutely best one comes in the Grand Finale when the Green Lantern Corps use the artificial planet Warworld for a Colony Drop on the Anti-Monitor. The look of panic on a cosmic level villain is absolutely priceless.
Hal and his buddies have a moment like this when they see dozens of rings flying through the sky looking for new owners following the escape of Superboy-Prime.
Larfleeze gave one of the funniest after the Black Rings brought back all the people he's killed/eaten/enslaved as zombies: "Yuh-oh."
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy story "Double Neggative" (in Cartoon Network Block Party) has Mandy stealing Grim's cosmic egg (which would cause an apocalypse if cracked) and letting Billy take the rap for it. At the end, Mandy reveals she kept the egg in her dress pocket. She taps it to make sure it's safe—and breaks it.
Mandy: (eyes wide open in shock) Uh oh.
Hellblazer: The First of the Fallen pulls off a really nice, multi-layered one in part II of the "Dangerous Habits" arc, when he realizes that John Constantine has just tricked him into drinking beer that's a few snuffed candles away from turning to holy water. It has a nice mixture of confusion, disgust, and shock that a mere mortal managed to outwit him.
A memorable one happens in Justice League United when the team runs into a band of bounty hunters. Kara is giddy because she has to punch them. Animal Man... is not giddy. At all.
Green Arrow: Sardath said this space station was a bit rough... be ready for anything. Supergirl, I hear voices through that door, can you see through it with your X-Ray vision? Supergirl: Oh... This is going to be fun! Green Arrow: Hmmm... What is it, Supergirl? A few alien thugs? Supergirl: (smiling) No. Much better than that... Bounty hunters. Lots of them. Animal Man: ... Oh Crapballs.
The Multiversity: The wizard Shazam gets a rather darkly funny instance of this when he realizes that he's being overshadowed by Sivana's mechanical Rock of Eternity.
There are a few of these in The Sandman (1989), of course. Several major characters get the look when various Gaiman-style horrors drop into their lives, Mervyn has one or two Right Behind Me moments when he's monologuing about Dream being "a complete... uh nevermind, just complete," and Dream has a quite impressive one when the Kindly Ones show up in his palace uninvited, having slaughtered one of his door guards to get in. It's the first time in the whole series Morpheus looked frightened of anything.
Despite being a nice guy, Superman is more than capable of inspiring this reaction when he has to. It helps that while he's an All-Loving Hero, he also has powers that could be a complete nightmare if anyone were to find themselves on the wrong end.
In Demon Spawn, Linda Danvers — Supergirl — hits a wall of her office out of frustration and almost demolishes it. Then she heard people coming and got this reaction.
Voice 1: What was THAT? Voice 2: Sounded like a plane crashing into the building! Linda: Uh-oh.
Jimmy Olsen has this reaction when he finds out the thing leveling Metropolis is a Bizarro.
Jimmy: Holy—
Bizarro #1 has this expression when Bizarro Lois and Bizarro Jimmy catch him red-handed before he can leave the planet together with his cousin.
Supergirl swears when she sees Bizarro World crumbling apart.
Supergirl: Oh, Rao. Bizarrogirl: (smiling) Swearing am un-ladylike, Bizarro Me. Me hate it! Supergirl: We're too late.
Some examples from Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? include Superman frightening away some 30th century villains after hearing that they killed Lana Lang, and later did the same to Mr Mxyzptlk by pointing the Phantom Zone projector at him, causing him to panic and try to get away, which results in a fatal Portal Cut.
Towards the end of Superman: Red Son, an entire platoon of Green Lantern Corpsmen attempt to subdue Superman by simultaneously using their Green Lantern rings to construct a massive safe around him and make it impossible to break out of. They assume their plan is perfect... until Superman basically punches his way out, shattering their creation, as one of the Corpsmen screams "Oh my God!". After freeing himself, Superman then points out the stupidity of attempting to use a thought-based weapon against someone who can move at ten times the speed of thought.
In War World Superman has two moments when he and Supergirl face up to the eponymous weapon satellite: first he stands still to test the power of a missile, and realizes it can kill him; and second...
Superman: We could never survive a collision with two of those — Of... My... God...
In the same story, Supergirl has this reaction when she notices Warworld is still working and shooting at them even though they knocked its pilot out.
Kryptonite Nevermore: Professor Bolden displays a horrified expression when he realizes his experiment has gone awry and the Kryptonite engine is about to blow up.
Prof. Bolden: Sound the emergency alarm—! The engine's out of control!
In The Great Phantom Peril, Faora Hu-Ul freaks out when she discovers her plan has somehow failed, and Superman has escaped from the Phantom Zone.
When a domestic abuser tries to stab Superman with a knife, he's so horrified when the blade shatters upon contact with Superman's skin that he faints on the spot.
When Butch and his crooks see that Superman is able to keep up with their car on-foot even when it's going full throttle, they're clearly terrified. Butch himself screams: "IT'S THE DEVIL HIMSELF!"
The Unknown Supergirl: As rebuilding a display made by the Midvale Orphanage's kids at Super-Speed, Linda Lee freaks out when she realizes she has been seen using her powers.
In The Killers of Krypton, Harry Hokum's starship is hovering over the planet where the Omega Men are fighting his Supergirl's clones. Hookum is watching the battle when Supergirl, who has just defeated her clones, glares upwards. realizing she is glaring straight at him, Hokum pales.
Supergirl: (glaring upwards) Someone will pay for this atrocity, and that someone is... Hokum. Harry Hookum: (sweating) S-she's looking at me! H-how is that possible?
In the beginning of Superman vs. Shazam!, a super-villain pales when he realizes he has not gotten away from Superman after all.
Unnamed Villain: I never should've come to this crummy burg! But the Batman protects Gotham City, the Flash speeds around Central City, Hawkman wings it in Midway City! It's getting so crooks are running out of cities to rob! I thought Superman at least would be too busy with guys like Luthor and Terra-Man— I figured, maybe he'd leave me alone! But no— My first job, and what happens? I almost get nabbed by that overgrown hunk of— Huh? OH, NO! Superman: Oh, yes!!
In Starfire's Revenge, Supergirl's expression turns scared and worried when her suddenly powers vanish as she is coming under a gang of robbers' fire.
In Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the mercenary who helps Krem ambush Supergirl and Ruthye gets a horrified stare when Supergirl simply and angrily stride towards them as getting hit by several arrows.
In The Hunt for Reactron, Perseus Hazard grudgingly agrees to allow Reactron to join his K-Squad to capture Supergirl, Nightwing and Flamebird on General Lane's orders. However, when he manages to round the three heroes up, they reveal they have been framed up by Lane, and Reactron hasn't been foisted off on him to reinforce his squad but to eliminate witnesses. Hazard gets a horrified stare right before being burned to ashes by Reactron.
In Way of the World: Dolok reacts in fear when he learns Supergirl is backed by a Green Lantern, to the point he decides to hightail it out of the battlefield.
Supergirl: You'd better jump back real far this time, Dolok. Give yourself some time to contemplate your defeat. Dolok: Defeat? From a powerless Kryptonian girl? Supergirl: No. From that Krallian Green Lantern over there.
In Escape from the Phantom Zone, Supergirl and Batgirl have sneaked into a Project Cadmus secret base when Kara suddenly hears D.E.O. director Cameron Chase walking down the hallways. Kara freaks out right away because Chase explicitly forbade her from breaking into the facility.
In Death & the Family, Supergirl whispers "Oh... Rao!" when she barges into the hospital's morgue and finds Lana's body encased in a cocoon and covered by a swarm of little black bugs...and something is bursting out of the cocoon.
In The Plague of the Antibiotic Man: After blinding and chain Supergirl to a chair, Amalak believes he can kill her whenever he pleases thanks to his star-cannon ray-gun. When Supergirl easily breaks her chains after his star-cannon fails to function properly, Amalak freaks out so badly he cannot articulate even one word, or notice he has dropped his weapon.
In The Death of Superman, Superman and the Justice League International has unloaded a lot of energy on Doomsday with the hopes its enough to bring him down. They can only stare in total shock as they realized all they did was destroy his costume and free his arm moments before he comes charging through.
Common in Swamp Thing, particularly because the villains tend to be so apocalyptically full of themselves before the shit hits the fan. Anton Arcane's stymied bafflement, when he finds out it's not Alec Holland he's facing, but a pissed-off wood elemental is priceless, and it resurfaces in Hell when he learns just how long he's been there (one day... so far). Likewise, Woodrue's expression as the Green breaks off their psychic link, leaving him powerless and bereft, is both haunting and an Oh, Crap! moment.
The head of the secret police is in the middle of cleaning his gun when he gets information on who will be V's next victim. He immediately rushes out, and seems to have V caught. Then he pulls the trigger and realizes he forgot to reload the gun before leaving. The next panel is a close up of his horrified expression.
The climax, as the new chief of police Dominic Stone oversees a massed but not yet violent mob, where the situation could go either way depending on whether or not V turns up at midnight. The chimes of Big Ben ring twelve times and he feels a bit better... but then he realises that Big Ben was blown up at the beginning of the story. As realization sinks in, he looks up and sees V on a rooftop, provoking the second consecutive Oh, Crap!.
Ozymandias reveals every small detail of his evil plot to Nite Owl and Rorschach until Nite Owl finally asks when he was planning to "do it." He tells them. The look on the two heroes' faces is priceless, at which point Hilarity Ensues. Not.
Soon after, Laurie shoots Ozymandias, who appears to be killed or incapacitated by the bullet. Then he opens his hand to reveal that he has in fact caught it and is unharmed. Laurie is suitably stunned at the revelation.
Earlier:
Away down alley, heard woman scream, first bubbling note of city's evening chorus. Approached disturbance. Attempted rape/mugging/both. Cleared throat. The man turned and there was something rewarding in his eyes. Sometimes, the night is generous to me.
Later, revenge-seeking crimelord the Big Figure gets a priceless look on his face after Rorschach has dispatched both of his goons and left him totally defenceless.
This is the standard reaction of anyone who meets Rorschach.
After disintegrating Dr. Manhattan, Ozy has a few moments to gloat that he didn't think it would work, only to see a reconstituted, skyscraper-tall Dr. M reaching down through the skylight.
When old Bernard gets the news and see the headings: "USSR invades Afghanistan".
Wonder Woman Vol 1: In the Huntress feature while she's looking into some artwork that was apparently destroyed at the Gotham Museum and realizes the destroyed art was forgeries she returns to the museum to gather more evidence and try to figure out the motive. When she gets there she runs into Solomon Grundy and has a moment of horror as she realizes she's way out of her weight class and given that Grundy is putting guards' heads through walls doesn't have time to call for more powerful backup.
Wonder Woman: Odyssey: The goddesses mooks are quite justifiably horrified when they realize Diana has survived the fight with their boss and is now headed their way.
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