Examples of Yo Yo Plot Point in Comic Books:
The following have their own pages:
Marvel Comics
- The Marvel Universe in general has always been pretty prone to use Let's You and Him Fight, but as far back as at least Civil War (2006) things have escalated to full-blown "With Us or Against Us" wars that keep swearing up and down that will change the Marvel Universe "forever" and have extended periods of people hating each other in the aftermath, then cooling down... and then along comes Avengers vs. X-Men, Hickman's Avengers run, Civil War II, Inhumans vs. X-Men, and now we have Secret Empire (that makes it an important plot point that Ultron is so sick and tired of seeing the superheroes' in-fighting that he has decided that they are doing a better job at trying to kill each other than he has ever done although that is definitely Hank Pym's uploaded personality talking (and being ignored when he tries to deliver a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to make everybody see reason)... It has come to the point when people don't really know what to think of the situation, and some people have actually quit reading Marvel Comics in disgust.
- With Civil War (2006), Civil War II (2016), and Outlawed (2020), people are now complaining that Marvel Comics, when they can't think of a better idea for a Crisis Crossover, are now going to bring back the plot of "make superpowered people unlawful, have law enforcement go full Gestapo, and have heroes stand on both sides of the line willing to do incredibly vile and stupid things for the sake of supporting their point, and presto", no matter how much the audience makes clear that they're sick of it.
- The Scarlet Witch has had a mental breakdown, wreaked havoc with her ill-defined, nigh-omnipotent powers, and then returned to her senses at least three times.
- Likewise, The Vision has lost and regained his capacity to experience emotions several times.
- Fantastic Four has a few stock plot points that tend to repeatedly cycle. A) Johnny learns to act mature, B) Ben learns to accept his appearance, and C) Reed learns to appreciate his family and not shut them out. They can usually be relied upon to forget these lessons whenever the book changes writers.
- A very early plot point that kept getting recycled was Ben spontaneously turning human again (this happened in the second issue) or Reed finding a cure for Ben being the Thing. No matter how permanent the change seemed, he was always back to normal by the end of the arc.
- "_____________ is a Deus ex Machina or Diabolus ex Machina": "Franklin's emerging power" has been replaced by "Valeria has discovered something".
DC Comics
- Batman fans have long noted the "Batdickery" cycle. A) Batman acts like a dick to his closest friends and allies (such as manipulating them, lying to them about things they really need to know, creating elaborate secret plans and technology to defeat his own allies, or building an orbiting AI supercomputer to secretly spy on the entire planet). B) It all goes horribly wrong, generally resulting in Batman's closest friends and allies suffering and occasionally dying over the course of a multi-month, multi-title event. Everyone loses their trust in Batman, leading to more suffering because the heroes can no longer work together. C) Batman learns to be less of a dick. D) Batman acts like a dick to his closest friends and allies. Rinse and repeat. By 2018/2019 he is at odds with so many heroes that the writers' status quo seems to be that he's a highly-functional example of The Friend Nobody Likes, and that is on a good day.
- Robin: Damian Wayne is stuck in a similar loop of being a dick-being a dick costs him-learns to be less of a dick-Took a Level in Jerkass when a new writing team arrives-being a dick costs him-learns to be less of a dick. Like father, like son.
- The Martian Manhunter is ridiculously powerful, his only vulnerability is fire, and unlike most superheroes with weaknesses, his origin doesn't contain a particularly good reason why he's vulnerable to fire. Those facts combine to ensure that every time a new writer gets a hold of him, they come up with the "real" reason he's vulnerable to fire and, since they usually decide it was all in his head the whole time, usually have him overcome it for good. Again. Until next time.
- Raven of Teen Titans cycles through very specific plotlines, whenever she is on a Titan team:
- She seemed to have found peace after she defeated her father in "The Terror of Trigon" arc, but she wound up infected by his influence again in the early '90s. After her corrupted body was destroyed, she seemed to be free of evil (even if she was stuck in a golden spirit form). Flash forward to Teen Titans volume 3 and on, where the resurrected Raven had to fear being corrupted yet again by her father, who was also inexplicably resurrected in Judd Winick's run of "Titans".
- The plot point of Raven going missing and having to be found or rescued was also recycled twice within volume 3. In the New 52 reboot, Raven's back to trying to fight her father's influence.
- Writers also seemed to constantly recycle the "will they or won't they?" question about her relationship with Beast Boy, seeming to settle on the two getting together before everything was rendered moot by Flashpoint.
- Hey everybody! Harvey Dent's been cured and he's Two-Face no more! Oh, wait, no, he got afoul of an exploding safe (Two-Face Strikes Again!)/ driven even more insane (The Dark Knight Returns) / framed for a series of vigilante murderers (Batman: Face the Face)/ his fiancee killed by her psycho twin sister (Two of a Kind, featured in Batman: Black and White)...and he's back to Cartoonish Supervillainy. False alarm. Sorry guys.
- Essentially every arc that Cyborg has ever had can be summed up as "Something-something-something, and now Cyborg must face the question: is he man...or machine?" (Answer: Man. Can we move on now?)
- Every decade or so, when there is a multiversal Crisis Crossover, DC tries to reintroduce the (Crime) Syndicate of America into the Justice League titles, as a team of evil alternate counterparts from an evil dimension. This is lampshaded in the one-shot Dark Nights Death Metal: Metaverse's End, where a fourth incarnation of the Syndicate's Owlman discovers the deaths of his previous incarnations, and comes to the conclusion that, if the Multiverse survives a Crisis, a version of the Syndicate will also exist somewhere.
- Vertigo Comics
- Due to his Mainstream Obscurity, Swamp Thing is often percieved as an aloof tool for the Parliament of Trees borderline ecoterrorist who wishes to destroy humanity so that plants can rule over it. As such, most arcs about him begins with either something happening that makes him want to destroy humanity or the Parliament of Trees deciding humanity must die. Swamp Thing will ponder if this is truly the right solution, yada yada yada, something about balance and, presto, it's Swamp Thing!
- Animal Man has begun every run since Morrison's with the same plot: Animal Man's powers are acting weird (More often than not they're malfunctioning) making him risk losing his humanity, which punts a dent on his marriage and Ellen leaves him for a while. He begins to behave like an animal until some sort of figure with great knowledge about the morphogenetic field/the Red will show him "the truth", he'll come out stronger than before and save his marriage.
- Good luck finding a Doom Patrol storyline that doesn't include Robotman angsting about his limited robot body and longing for having a human one again, only to determine that no, he is actually pretty chill about being a robot. Then a new writer arrives and...
- Main plot of Strangers in Paradise is lengthy will-they-won't-they relationship, and so are several main subplots. That reasons for this yoyoing are more realistic than in other examples doesn't help, because they go back and forth just too many times. One plot that isn't romantic features organization "The Big Six" repeatedly pursuing the main character. Each time the story resolves with the leader of "Big Six" dead and the organization seemingly dismantled, or at least promising to leave main characters alone. However, each time it soon turns out that "The Big Six" still exists and one of the ex-minions, now promoted into the big boss, decided to continue pursuing the main character for various reasons.
