Deadpan Snarker/Comic Books
- Spider-Man embodies this trope to the point of deserving to have it named after him. Though really, he spends a lot of time in incredibly-energetic-snarker mode too. At one point, this embodied him so much, a lot of people used to call them "Spider-zingers".
Played with by Spider-Man 2099, who's terse and straightforward in costume, but a killer snarker in his civvies.
Spider Girl inherited this trait. So did the resident Snark Knight, her "cousin" Darkdevil.- His snarkiness is well known even in-universe. In an issue of Excalibur, the members of the Wrecking Crew briefly mentioned Spider-Man's name, elliciting a "I hate Spider-Man" from one of the members. The response: "Everyone hates Spider-Man."
- In the Secret War miniseries, Spidey met Black Widow out of costume and made a quick joke. Widow suddenly realized who she was speaking with.
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"Oh God, I recognize that voice." |
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- Alfred Pennyworth, in various incarnations of Batman, constantly makes ironic (but highly polite and proper) comments on Master Bruce's lifestyle.
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Batman: Jim will pull through! |
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- Whenever Batman (in any incarnation) isn't either moping around in Wangst or being The Comically Serious, he's generally the one with a deadpan line. Or, as Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle III) put it, "Batman's actually kind of funny, in a dry, scary way." Typically, Batman needs Superman as a foil if he's going to be funny.
The Robins (most of them) tend to pick up the slack as far as snark goes. - John Byrne's character, Rog-2000, does this often.
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Crook: Cheese it! The Coppers! |
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- In contrast to Spidey, Clark Kent tends to be quite snarky at the Planet, but drops it as Superman. This is Depending on the Writer — in the Movie, Superman was at least as snarky as Spider-Man ever was.
- It often depends who he's talking to, as well. When he's "Superman", say in public, or against a villain, no snarking. When he's around somebody that knows the real him (Clark), like Batman, he tends to be more snarky.
- Hellboy often uses deadpan. His Catch Phrase "Ah, Crap," can be said to be an example, as is his habit of yelling "Boom!" when he punches someone with the Right Hand of Doom.
- Jennifer Walters. Escepially when written by John Byrne and Dan Slott.
- Elaine Belloc from Lucifer has occasional moments of deadpan snarking, most notably when she sat at the table with Archangel Michael, Lucifer and Destiny of the Endless debating heatedly. Her comment was: "Another glass of testosterone, anyone?"
- Atticus Pix from Ministry.
- Ragamuffin from Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl. Well, that's because he seems to be the Only Sane Man in that freaky comic.
- Everyone in Runaways is this at one point or another, but the most straightforward example is Gert. Nico takes on this role as well.
- Every character who isn't Ax Crazy (or The Voiceless) in Sin City. And some who are, ie. Marv.
- Most of the characters in the comic book prequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic have their moments, but the absolute king of snark is unquestionably Gryph. The title of Prince would probably go to Zayne.
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Gryph: (upon being levitated by Zayne) I seem to have lost weight. |
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- The bulk of the characters in Star Wars: Rebellion volume 2: The Ahakista Gambit have one or two smart remarks, but Baco Par, the Snarky Non-Human Sidekick is notable int that he barely has ten lines which aren't snarky. See the quotes page.
- Every single member of the Young Avengers displays this to some extent. They beat up about one enemy for every ten lines of snarky dialogue and Witty Banter.
- Black Bolt from the Marvel Comics The Inhumans is The Voiceless; if he were but to whisper, it would unleash a shockwave strong enough to destroy a city. Despite this, he's constantly thinking such lines. During his time with the Illuminati, fellow member Charles Xavier doubles as a translator. Also, when he wants to declare war, well, he doesn't beat around the bush: he declares "War."
The Illuminati miniseries has a very funny part where Black Bolt comments that his wife (who speaks for him) never lets him get in a word edgewise. - Everyone says lines like that in any book involving Deadpool.
- Sonic the Hedgehog is incredibly snarky in his comic series. During one battle with the near omnipotent Enerjak, Sonic makes several puns on the name. When Enerjak immobilizes him with chaos energy and asks if he's quite finished with the witty remarks, Sonic makes seven or eight more cracks in rapid succession, before Enerjak hurls him through a wall.
- X-Men: Gambit (to name just one) is the absolute King of this trope. Every other sentence that comes out of his mouth is a snark. And you can never tell when he means it...
- Suprisingly, Cyclops is quite snarky when he wants to be as well. In the First Class comic for example:
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Bobby, is my memory going, or do you have super powers? (When about to be devoured by a mutated animal of Monster Island) |
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- In any comic book written by Peter David, the majority of the cast will be snarkers.
- In |Sally Forth (Wood): two specialists are Wild Bill Yonder and Q. P. Dahl.
- Matt Fraction's 26 issue run on Punisher War Journal gave frank a sort of dark, subtle sense of humor.
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Punisher: Nobody gets me. Maybe it's the skull. |
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- Denny O'Neil and Greg Rucka's versions of The Question, although as Vic Sage he tends to combine this with Jerkass.
- According to the Author's Notes, this was deliberate in regards to Renee Montoya in 52. When she's out of the mask she's serious, angtsty and often quite brusque, when she's The Question, she starts to snark and make jokes. Not well, but it shows how she can become someone else.
- Flash Forward/Negative Man II of the Doom Patrol. His nickname is an in-joke referencing the fact that there was a "Negative Man" in the original Doom Patrol -- that, and the fact that he's extremely hard to get along with due to his icy personality and seeming inability to say anything nice about anyone.
- This is such a defining characteristic of Lenny from Shade the Changing Man that when her ability to snark was stolen (along with her sex drive,) she attempted suicide.
- Deaths Head, Freelance Peacekeeping Agent.
- Kim Pine in Scott Pilgrim. So much. Stephen Stills and Wallace Wells as well, to a slightly lesser extent.
- Rudi from the German comic of the same name. His sister also has this somewhat. When Rudi reprimands her for wearing a sexy Little Black Dress, so all the guys on the street are staring at her:
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Vicky: "Don't like it? Sorry, but my burqa is being dry-cleaned..." |
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- Terra, from Teen Titans, is iconically sarcastic, which hints at her infamous twist. Her second version, and cartoon version, lack this sarcasm.
- Judge Dredd in that he's shown to be lacking emotion, yet has a ridiculous number of one liners for any given situation.
- Last Man Standing has Gabriel show shades of this.
- Psycho-Doughboy and Mr. Fuck tend to slip into this when Nny's planning on killing himself, and Nailbunny does likewise when Nny starts angsting. Tess falls into this as well, mostly in reaction to Kirk, and Devi becomes one of these in her own series.
- Doctor Strange on occasion. His manservant Wong is pretty good at it too.
- The Savage Dragon does this both on and off the job. Sometimes, he takes it far enough that people consider him a Jerkass at times.
- A newspaper comic example: When Garfield began, Jon Arbuckle was the original snarker (being most notorious during the fall of 1978), with Dr. Liz Wilson took that role when she was introduced the following year, however (Jon by the turn of the eighties was yet the Straw Loser for he is known today). Finally, by the mid-1990's the cast had been reduced to Garfield, Jon and Odie (apart from the unseen Ellen and Jon's various blind dates), and the fat cat took the deadpan persona he is today.
- Jonah Hex has a fine line in acerbic putdowns.