Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: Difference between revisions

* Subverted in ''The Sword of Azrael'', in which Bruce spends the miniseries captured, and is rescued by Azrael.

** Though the kidnappers had nothing against Batman or Robin specifically, a variation of this trope showed up in a recent ''Robin'' comic wherein Tim Drake got himself kidnapped on purpose in order to save the other kids who'd been grabbed.

* This was forever happening to Peter Parker in the ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' series.

** There was a very interesting variation to that in the [[Spider-Man: The Animated Series|'90s animated series]]. The Sinister Six (more or less) kidnap Aunt May, and order Peter to deliver Spidey into an obvious trap, because [[Clark Kenting|"obviously you know how to contact him"]]. Problem is, he's [[Brought Down to Normal|temporarily depowered]] by some mutations in his spider powers. He puts on the suit anyway, goes to the location and actually gives a somewhat good fight. Eventually the villains beat him and unmask him, but [[Your Costume Needs Work|they assume it's just Peter Parker pretending to be Spider-Man]], hence his not putting up as much of a fight as expected. They then release both on the basis that Peter wouldn't have tried such a foolish stunt had he the means to contact Spider-Man. This was based on an early Dr. Octopus storyline from the comics where [[Worf Had the Flu|Peter was weakened by the flu]].

* Minor example - in ''[[Black Canary]]'', a villain uses the Black Canary's name while committing a crime, intending to frame the hero. To set up suspicion on "the Canary", she orders a black orchid to be delivered to the home of her intended victim. The shop she ordered it from was run by one Diana Drake.

* A variation occurred in a [[Silver Age]] [[Superman]] story. During an attempted heist at a museum, some goons take a bystander hostage and force Superman to help them. Only the "Superman" they have is a lookalike in a Superman costume on his way to his son's school, and the "hostage" is Clark Kent, who they grabbed before he could change clothes. The ''real'' Superman ends up having to use his powers to covertly make his kidnappers believe the fake one is the real deal until he can get him safely away.

 

== Films ==