Cardboard Prison: Difference between revisions

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Perhaps a necessity in stories which feature a [[Rogues Gallery]], since you need to find a way to keep bringing them back but have the heroes seem somewhat effectual. This was particularly true in comics in the days when the [[Comics Code]] held sway -- the villain had to be clearly defeated at the end of each and every appearance, requiring an escape from either incarceration or [[No One Could Survive That|apparent death]] before he could show up to vex the heroes again.

In some cases, a Cardboard Prison can also serve as an [[Tailor Made Prison]] that's [[Sealed Evil in A Can|just waiting to be opened.]]

In some cases, a Cardboard Prison can also serve as an [[Tailor-Made Prison]] that's [[Sealed Evil in A Can|just waiting to be opened.]]

Also known as [[Console RPG Cliches 49 to 72|Houdini's Postulate]].

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See also [[Unsafe Haven]], where instead of a prison being laughably easy to break out, a sanctuary is laughably easy to break ''in.''

== Anime & Manga ==

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** Lampshaded in one [[Superman (Franchise)|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.

* Intermittently, [[The DCU]] attempts a solution to both the in-character problem of [[Cardboard Prison|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.

* Intermittently, [[The DCU]] attempts a solution to both the in-character problem of [[Cardboard Prison|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.

** There was also the time Abra Kadabra got out because he was allowed to work in the kitchen and [[Improvised Weapon|somehow formed the equipment there into a hypno-ray]]. No, really.

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== Literature ==

* Azkaban in ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' is a [[Tailor Made Prison]] in all but name, but escape seems to be a simple affair, with Sirius Black and Barty Crouch Jr. escaping relatively easily (though granted they had {{spoiler|unknown-to-most polymorph abilities and contacts and assistance from the outside}} respectively), and becomes really cardboard when the Dementors (who are supposed to be guarding the place) start helping the inmates escape.

* Azkaban in ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' is a [[Tailor-Made Prison]] in all but name, but escape seems to be a simple affair, with Sirius Black and Barty Crouch Jr. escaping relatively easily (though granted they had {{spoiler|unknown-to-most polymorph abilities and contacts and assistance from the outside}} respectively), and becomes really cardboard when the Dementors (who are supposed to be guarding the place) start helping the inmates escape.

* Justified in [[Dave Barry]]'s novel ''[[Big Trouble]]'', where the contractor for a prison security system is better at bribing public officials than at designing prison doors that don't open automatically during a severe thunderstorm. The contractor is also good at finding scapegoats for massive prison breaks.

* In the ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Last Continent|The Last Continent]]'', Rincewind finds himself imprisoned in a jail cell on the continent of XXXX, awaiting execution. The guards inform him that the cell's previous inhabitant, "Tinhead Ned", used to escape with regularity. Rincewind dismisses this as an attempt to break his spirit by getting him to run around rattling bars and searching for hidden panels. Then he finds a message from Ned, telling him to "check the hinges". He discovers that the cell's door can be entirely removed with sufficient effort, and escapes. At the end of the novel, after becoming a national hero, he requests that the cell never be redecorated, thus assuring that it will retain its cardboard nature for the next person to wind up inside it.

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== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Batman Arkham Asylum (Video Game)|Batman Arkham Asylum]]'', the intro takes pains to show off Arkham's new "improved" security system. It takes all of 10 minutes for the Joker to not only break his bonds, but take over the asylum and free all of the inmates. In fairness to the Arkham staff, a good bit of work had already been done for him. He arranged a fire at the Gotham prison to get his mooks on the island, and Harley already had control over the security system.

* In ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum (Video Game)|Batman Arkham Asylum]]'', the intro takes pains to show off Arkham's new "improved" security system. It takes all of 10 minutes for the Joker to not only break his bonds, but take over the asylum and free all of the inmates. In fairness to the Arkham staff, a good bit of work had already been done for him. He arranged a fire at the Gotham prison to get his mooks on the island, and Harley already had control over the security system.

* The general majority of prisons in Rockstar games, prominently ''[[Bully (Video Game)|Bully]]'' and the ''[[Grand Theft Auto (Video Game)|Grand Theft Auto]]'' franchise, are this. You get caught for [INSERT HEINOUS CRIME HERE] and your punishment? They take away a bit of cash and some easily replaced weapons.

** It's assumed (or rather, explicitly stated) that the Liberty City/Vice City/San Andreas/other location police are very, very corrupt (which is actually part of the plot of San Andreas). The money they take is a bribe.

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== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Super Friends|Challenge of the Superfriends]]'' [[Sinestro]], Black Manta, and Cheetah escape from a cell by Sinestro just walking into the anti-matter Universe of Qward and the others following him.

* An entire episode in ''[[Batman ~~the~~ Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]]'' is dedicated to a former brutal Arkham security officer turned vigilante out of disgust with Arkham's poor track record. He actually said that as far as villains are concerned, Arkham has rotating doors.

* An entire episode in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]]'' is dedicated to a former brutal Arkham security officer turned vigilante out of disgust with Arkham's poor track record. He actually said that as far as villains are concerned, Arkham has rotating doors.

** In another, Robin wryly mentions that the recent breakout of Mr. Freeze was the "most elaborate escape from Arkham this year".

** And yet again in "Jokers Wild", The Joker manages to escape from Arkham in all of about 45 seconds after seeing a news broadcast about the new Joker-themed casino opening in Gotham. However, {{spoiler|the tycoon who had built the casino was going bankrupt, and was depending on the Joker to blow the place up so that he could collect the insurance money, and one of the guards acknowledges to himself that the Joker is being suckered. Thus, it's not unreasonable to assume that he had paid off the guys at Arkham to ''let'' the Joker escape}}.

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** Actually, pretty good--though {{spoiler|the Green Goblin}} manages to remotely take control of the prison, he manages to eventually take control again with some help from {{spoiler|Black Cat and her father}}.

* In the old ''Birdman'' cartoon, a [[Gadgeteer Genius]] once broke out of prison by constructing a suit of [[Powered Armor]] complete with a jetpack in the prison metalshop. After Birdman kicked his ass and sent him back to prison the episode ended with the warden deciding to assign the guy to prison laundry duty instead of the metalshop, thinking the guy wouldn't be able to turn this to his advantage. The villain proved him wrong in a later episode when he escaped again ''by converting a dryer into an escape rocket''. After Birdman caught him ''again'', the warden finally wised up and sent the villain to work in the prison library, far away from any machinery.

* This happens in ''[[Avengers ~~Earths~~ Mightiest Heroes (Animation)|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' in the very "first" episode. There's a massive jail break at the four supervillain prisons (The Vault, The Cube, The Big House, and The Raft) which creates the need to form The Avengers. We don't know the history of the prisons beforehand aside from the fact that they were tailor made based on the type of supervillian they held. (The Vault had tech chriminals, the cube radiation criminals, the big house genetic villains, and The Raft had the most dangerous criminals) Seeing how someone broke into the Vault in one of the backstory micro episodes, and two inmates had apparently broken out of the Cube in the past (Hulk and absorbing man), they don't sound too great.

* This happens in ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Animation)|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' in the very "first" episode. There's a massive jail break at the four supervillain prisons (The Vault, The Cube, The Big House, and The Raft) which creates the need to form The Avengers. We don't know the history of the prisons beforehand aside from the fact that they were tailor made based on the type of supervillian they held. (The Vault had tech chriminals, the cube radiation criminals, the big house genetic villains, and The Raft had the most dangerous criminals) Seeing how someone broke into the Vault in one of the backstory micro episodes, and two inmates had apparently broken out of the Cube in the past (Hulk and absorbing man), they don't sound too great.

** Regardless, all these prisons are presumably abandoned for prison 42, the above mentioned "fantasy island" of comic fame. Unlike comics, this prison has functioned just as designed, and despite the less than friendly environment, is generally considered a good idea in universe.

* During an imagination episode of ''[[The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh]]'' that portrayed a [[The Wild West|Wild West]] train robbery, Pooh and Tigger are put in a one of these. Not only were the bars wide enough for the characters to walk through ''(and they do)'', but also there was ''no back wall''.