Batman Gambit/Comic Books

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • As the Trope Namer (and uncontested master of this type of plan), Batman himself has his own page
  • The Voldemort-like villain from the horror comic Locke and Key. So far, he's been manipulating pretty much everyone into his agenda.
  • In Wolverine: Origins, Wolverine has a plan with Bucky. The first part of the plan requires Bucky to hire a mercenary to attack Wolverine. Bucky hires everyone's favorite fourth-wall destroying, partially insane, merc with a mouth, because Bucky knows how he hates that everyone thinks he's a Wolverine knock-off -- so Deadpool will draw Wolverine into a very noticeable battle. Deadpool is also the only guy who could have a chance against Wolverine. Hence, the battle ensues, and eventually Deadpool has Wolverine hanging above a secret pool so that he can drown him, which may take a long time. But then, Wolverine's son, Daken, shows up, Bucky shoots Daken with a special bullet that will dull his healing factor, keeping him knocked out for a long time, so Wolverine can un-brainwash him. It turns out, that was the entire point of everything. Deadpool did not get paid.
  • If you know anything about Victor Von Doom, you can easily see why this trope could just as well be called The Doom Gambit.
  • This is the kind of planning that allows Lex Luthor, with no superpowers, to mop the floor with Superman nearly every time the two of them meet. (Until Supes eventually wins, of course.)
    • A Pre-Crisis Superman story had Luthor falling in love, turning good, curing a deadly disease, marrying, and even allowing Superman to read his mind (with a machine) to convince his former foe that he'd changed- but it was all a trick; he erased his own memories of the plan and arranged it so that he genuinely believed he had reformed in order to lure Superman into an inescapable trap. His only error was that he had to make himself forget that he was already married (to an alien woman) for the plan to work... and Superman was aware of that.
  • Supergirl's specialty regarding Batman Gambits is using them to Out Gambit villains' Batman Gambits:
    • A double subversion occurs in a story from the Silver Age. Supergirl encounters Black Flame, a woman who seems to be a super-powered Kryptonian, in the process of some rather destructive vandalism. The villainess claims she's from the distant future of the year 4000, and "invites" Supergirl to view her time using a computerized exhibition device. It shows the heroine a terrible future where Black Flame extorts wealth from thousands of worlds (as in, she can blow them to little pieces if they don't comply). Worst part: she's Supergirl’s direct descendant, "Supergirl XXV", and the citizens of this distant future despise the first one just as much for starting this hated family line. Supergirl is naturally very upset, and after pursuing numerous leads (she senses something fishy here) including visiting the bottled city of Kandor, and eventually decides to unearth a chuck of gold kryptonite, and use it to erase her own powers, eliminating the possibility she could pass them down to a descendant, in effect, making Black Flame Ret-Gone. Then Black Flame appears with a cruel laugh, revealing her true identity, that of an assistant of a criminal from the Kandor who was interred in the Phantom Zone. Black Flame had set up the plan out of revenge, leaving Kandor and using something called Red-K to increase her size, then pulled the ruse hoping Supergirl would depower herself. After listening to the powerless heroine her beg a little, she shoves Supergirl into a pit of quicksand and watches her drown. Or so it seems. Black Flame gets a big surprise as the Red-K wears off, shrinking herself to normal size, because Supergirl actually figured the plan out, and was outgambitting her with her own Batman Gambit; now that she's shrunk, Supergirl grabs her, showing her the - fake - chuck of gold kryptonite and shoving her inside a make-up compact that holds a few minute grains of real gold kryptonite. As she ships the criminal back to Kandor, the last panel of the story shows the one flaw in Black Flame's plan - a cavity in her teeth with a dental filling that Supergirl noticed while investigating records in a Kandor dental clinic, something a superpowered descendant would not have.
    • In another story, Mr. Mxyzptlk (well, a relative of his) convinces everyone in the 40th century to believe Supergirl is a criminal. Supergirl is captured with Kryptonite, tried, and sentenced to have the word "OUTLAW" branded on her forehead. Afterwards Kara is marginalized, insulted and bullied until she cracks and decides that "I've been branded an outlaw, so I'll be one!" just like Mxy had planned. Or rather, planned, but failed. Supergirl's act of rage was an act to fool him into revealing himself which he did.
  • Spider Jerusalem pulls one in the climax of Transmetropolitan. The first time he meets Gary Callahan he was able to record him with the use of "Source Gas". In their future meetings Callahan is smart enough to nullify such tricks, preventing Spider from getting any dirt on him. But as the story goes on Spider becomes less like a crusading journalist and more like an outright revolutionary, carrying real guns and using lethal force on assailants. After successfully ruining the president's career, he drives the final nail when Callahan meets him one last time to kill him. He has Spider repeatedly scanned for weapons and prepares to have him shot, claiming he nonetheless got a gun past security and it was self defense. Unfortunately for the President, he was relying too much on his belief that Spider had lost it and forgot the first trick he ever played on him. Spider is soaked in Source Gas, and Callahan is exposed.
  • In Marvel's Infinity Gauntlet crossover, the coldly calculating Adam Warlock sets into motion several futile engagements against the omnipotent Thanos and his upstart successor Nebula, designed to exploit the villains' Achilles' Heel and ineptitude (respectively), and ultimately transition the Infinity Gauntlet to Warlock himself.
    • It's part of the same gambit, but it's worth pointing out that a substantial part of Warlock's gambit was to script an entire battle involving more than a dozen of the galaxy's strongest warriors sacrificing their lives, to get Thanos to raise his hand at the right moment.
    • Warlock's evil half the Magus is not to be outdone in the sequel crossover The Infinity War, implementing an elaborate scheme geared towards the acquisition of the Infinity Gauntlet. Unfortunately, two Chessmasters (three, if you count Thanos' duplicitous doppelganger) are better than one, and after Warlock and Thanos discern the Magus' end game, they execute a counter-scheme that sabotages the villain's newfound godhood, and ultimately leads to his defeat.
  • In Marvel's Excalibur, it is revealed that Merlyn arranged the formation of Excalibur and manipulated many subsequent events (including faking his own death), in order to ultimately prevent the collapse of Merlyn's Energy Matrix and destroy Merlyn's former teacher Necrom.

Was all this deception really necessary? - Merlyn's daughter Roma

  • In Earth X, Captain America (comics) uses Alicia Master's Marvels (animated clay fashioned in the guise of Earth's heroes) to have an army immune to the Skull's mind-control, and to preoccupy the supervillain's superhuman slave army. Cap then disguises himself as a Marvel made in his image to fool the Skull into believing he's also immune to the boy's powers, allowing Cap to get in close and snap the Skull's neck
  • Nick Fury in the Ultimate Marvel universe performs one of these. In order to eliminate a dangerous assassin and recover the high tech rifle he possesses, Fury anonymously contacts the assassin and orders a hit on himself. He manages to successfully lure the assassin into the open and kill him.
    • The best part. The assassin is armed with a gun with X Ray Vision and a Magic Bullet that will phase through any barriers between him and his target. As he's setting up his aim, the last thing he sees is Nick Fury aiming the only other copy of this same rifle at him. He didn't just call a hit on himself, he slipped the assassin just enough information about his own schedule so that he'd know exactly when and where the assassin would attack.
  • A character in the Blacksad album "Artic Nation" is in the middle of one several decades in the making. A key factor in this plot is marrying her own father, while keeping him from discovering this particular bit of information. She succeeds at most of her goals, but her sister is killed in the process and her niece rendered an orphan.
  • Done at least twice in Sin City:
    • In "A Dame to Kill For", Ava leaves Dwight McCarthy for millionaire Damien Lord; then, four years later, comes to Dwight pretending to be afraid of Damien and his servant Manute, playing on Dwight's Lancelot complex to get Dwight to investigate and ultimately kill Damien, leaving her Damien's money.
    • In "That Yellow Bastard", Senator Roark keeps Detective Hartigan from receiving a few letters from the only friend he has left, "Cordelia" (Nancy Callahan, though Roark doesn't know it), then sends Hartigan a severed finger. Predictably, Hartigan, thinking Nancy's in danger, does what he has to in order to make parole so he can rescue Nancy, then goes looking for her, only to find she was safe and unharmed until that moment, when he accidentally revealed to Roark's son, who had been following him since he left prison, that "Cordelia" was Nancy.
  • During the Onslaught Crisis Crossover of the X-Men series, it was revealed that Professor X (like Batman) kept secret files on how to kill each X-Man in case they went rogue, including himself (which was good, since Onslaught was created from a combination of Xavier's and Magneto's minds).
    • Onslaught actually predates "Tower of Babel", the JLA story where Batman's files are revealed, by a few years (and even JLA: Year One, where J'onn did much the same thing, by a period of time).
    • The "Xavier Protocols", as these plans are known, eventually end up becoming important plot elements in various other arcs.
  • In the 13-issue story "The Kindly Ones" from The Sandman series, Death calls Dream out on having orchestrated a Batman Gambit.
    • What makes it even more amazing is that it's quite possible that he did it unconsciously.
      • As he is the embodiment of Story, it is only natural that tropes would bend to his unconscious will.
        • It's also worth noting that this gambit is a suicide. It's also implied that only two others in existence realize what's happened: Puck who says that he could discuss the subject "endlessly", and Loki, who doesn't realize he's been played until it's too late for him.
  • Interestingly enough, The Joker, in his more serious interpretations, is immune to the Batman Gambit based simply on the fact that he is completely unpredictable.
  • In The Black Knight GLORPS Again! by Don Rosa, Arpin Lusene is out to regain his melts-anything-it-touches suit of armor from Scrooge McDuck. At the armor's supposed resting place, he finds that the armor has been replaced with a note stating that it is not there... which Arpin anticipated, and therefore brought a tiny saw along. With it, he saws silhouettes of a knight's armor in the walls, so Scrooge later believes that Arpin has regained his armor and walked through the walls. Worried, Scrooge goes to check out the armor at its true resting place, Arpin tailing him and stealing it.
  • Superman once pulled one of these on Darkseid, and himself. After rescuing Supergirl from being a Female Fury, Supes inducts her as an official hero and sort of parades her around Earth. Angered about losing his prize, Darkseid comes to Earth and seemingly vaporizes her with his Omega Beams. Superman goes apeshit over losing her and beats Darkseid to a pulp and seals him inside the Source Wall. Superman then meets with Supergirl, who used a device to teleport away at the last second, and reports that the plan was successful. They were able to goad Darkseid into coming to fight them personally, and the mere sight of Supergirl's seeming death was able to trigger Superman's Unstoppable Rage so he could curb stomp Darkseid's ass. Batman muses that the plan had no input from him, it was all Clark, and it was brilliant.
  • Marvel's Odin of The Mighty Thor fame has one of his own, when it's revealed during the "Disassembled/Ragnarok" story arc that all of the trials and tribulations that Odin had put Thor through over the years (centuries, millennia) were preparing him to finally be the god to put an end to the Ragnarok Cycle once and for all.
  • Udon Comics has a fun one, in the Street Fighter Legends. Karin challenges Sakura to a contest, ANY contest... and Sakura comes up with a Hot-Dog Eating Contest. Karin quickly comes up with the plan. She asks to, at least, be able to pick the time and place of the next contest. She cheats like mad, relying on Sakura to go all out. Sakura does so, and it looks like Karin might win, until it's revealed she was cheating. She goes to her back-up plan. Admit defeat in the stupid, stupid contest, and challenge Sakura IMMEDIATELY to a martial arts match, which Karin wanted. Handicapped. Right there, right now. Sakura, meanwhile, was busy trying not to throw up. It would be a good Xanatos Gambit, if it wasn't for the simple failure condition of Sakura calling foul. Sakura could have NOT exhausted herself in the hot-dog contest, or simply refused the fight. But Sakura is not the person to do that.
  • Believe it or not, Deadpool. You see, everyone thinks that Deadpool's a moron. He's not. This was proved without a doubt when he executed a plan involving the manipulation of the X-Men, HAMMER, Norman Osborn, some random called Kincaid, the SFPD, the public, the local news, and a chicken, over the course of five issues. Deadpool first declared to the X-Men that he was going to kill Kincaid, causing a public fiasco, making the X-Men look like criminals, then, he proceeded to interrupt a live broadcast, wearing a home made X-Men outfit, then, he let himself be captured by Domino, knowing that her morals would mean that when Cyclops ordered Wolverine to "take Deadpool out of the picture", she would protect him, then, Deadpool got Domino to tell him her greatest fear, then stuck the chicken, (which was Domino's worst fear) into an air vent in a train station, knowing full well that Osborn would put Kincaid in an open spot to GET him killed to make the X-Men look bad, fully expecting the X-Men to try to save Kincaid by way of a vent, pulling out the lights FIRST to add to the confusion. Then he flushed Kincaid into the open. While Kincaid was in the open, Deadpool kept an eye out for snipers, PROTECTING Kincaid, while making it look like he was going to kill him. Then, when Wolverine saved Kincaid, Deadpool made a run for it, and fought the X-men (except for Wolverine who would, by now, be in on the plot, Deadpool made sure of that) on the roof, allowing a camera guy taken by Wolverine to film them, making the X-Men look like heroes, and Osborn to look like an incompetent buffoon, just as planned!
    • Deadpool's got moves.
    • This aspect of Deadpool's personality was lampshaded by Nick Fury in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 where Nick Fury states that with his intelligence and skill, Deadpool would easily be the most dangerous being on the entire planet if it weren't for his insanity preventing him from doing too much.
  • Pretty much all of Spider-Man's victories against supervillains depend on Batman Gambits, especially ones much more powerful than he is. Spider-Man will either set up in advance or improvise on the spot various traps and goad his enemies into falling into them, and even if he can beat a supervillain in straight combat, he'll joke around and mock them into fury and carelessness to make the fight easier.
  • Mr. Natural uses this on just about everyone, which makes them even madder when they realize how easily he's able to manipulate them.
  • The Mole on the team in Runaways attributes this to the success of their plan near the end of the first volume - specifically, they let Nico suggest part of it after arranging things so there wouldn't be many other options.
  • If you followed Thor since Avengers: Disassembled, and through Dark Reign and Siege, and up until now, you probably already know this. If you didn't, read this [dead link] and realize who the real orchestrator behind everything that happened was. Loki. In short? Loki was shows to ensure his own adoption by Odin, caused the last Ragnarok, made sure Thor would revive all the gods, manipulated humans, gods, demons and Doom to ensure he won't have an afterlife and that he would be reincarnated, caused Osborn's downfall, made it possible for Asgard to exist without harming Yggdrasil, all while everyone around him being clueless. And the best part? No one have yet to realize the magnitude of the plan that was executed or the reason behind it.
  • Back in The Golden Age of Comic Books, Captain Marvel’s mentor Shazam pulled an excellent one. In one story, the evil Dr. Silvanus had a plan to Take Over the World that involved three diabolical inventions: One, an incredibly strong metallic alloy; two, android duplicates of himself that were made of said alloy; and three, a device that made him intangible, able to phase through walls like a ghost and become untouchable. He easily subdued Shazam using these devices, and when the hero showed up, he was unable to even touch Silvanus, much less punch him. He was able to wreck the duplicates with ease, but Silvanus got a good idea: he would use Shazam as a bargaining chip to extort the hero, and order him to build the androids, keeping him occupied so he could work his machinations unmolested, all while the androids were being built. At first, Marvel refused, but Shazam - still able to communicate with him via limited telepathy, insisted his protege concede and submit to the villain. Reluctantly the hero did so, and eventually, through building the androids, got an idea of his own: he used the technology to build an android duplicate of himself, who could continue the villain’s task (and throw off suspicion when Silvanus checked on him) while Marvel himself did his own research. Doing so, he discovered a superior, stronger version of the alloy, one which Silvanus would be unable to phase through even while intangible. So, he constructed a jail out of this superior metal, lured Silvanus to it, and trapped him, saving the day. But why did Shazam tell him to obey the villain in the first place? Because had he not done so, he’d have never discovered the new alloy and would have wasted time trying to fight Silvanus directly; by conceding, Marvel had discovered a way to apprehend him, just as he planned!
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