Cardboard Prison: Difference between revisions

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** Lampshaded in one [[Superman]] novel, in which Luthor is sent to prison. [[Jimmy Olsen]] immediately starts writing his report about Luthor's escape, before he had actually done it. In the course of the story Olsen mentions that following one previous escape, Luthor had later broken back into the prison to retrieve something he had inadvertently left behind, then escaped again.

** Generally averted, or at least justified in ''[[Knightfall]]'' where Bane attacks Arkham with the arsenal of a small country to break it open.

** Even the much [[Lighter and Softer]] campy 60's version of ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' showed how poor Gotham corrections could be at times. At the beginning of one episode, King Tut was being examined by a doctor at the psychiatric ward where he was being held, who fell asleep while the villain was talking to him. When Tut noticed, he was simply able to walk away, noting that "I always knew you were never listening!"

* Intermittently, [[The DCU]] attempts a solution to both the in-character problem of Cardboard Prisons and the metafictional problem of [[Badass Decay|keeping losing villains effective]], [[Boxed Crook|by having villains perform missions as part of the US government top-secret Task Force X, a.k.a.]] [[Suicide Squad]]. This program offers early releases for imprisoned supervillains if they participate in, and survive, extremely dangerous secret missions that are subject to official denial. Thus, the villains temporarily become [[Anti-Hero]] protagonists.

* Justified in the case of [[The Flash]]'s Rogues Gallery by the fact that one of them can travel to an alternate dimension and back via mirror. Every time the Flash arrests any of his friends, Mirror Master goes and fetches them right back out again. The warden explains that they've tried to have the mirrors removed but prisoner-rights liberals won't have it.