All The Tropes

For Want of a Nail: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

For Want of a Nail (view source)

Revision as of 13:31, 21 June 2024

462 bytes added ,  6 days ago
→‎Comic Books
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
Line 54:
 
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* A common trend in [[Elseworld]]s comics:
** The [[Elseworld]]s comic, "''[[Justice League]]: [[The Nail]]"'', where Jonathan and Martha Kent's truck is incapacitated by, you guessed it, a nail (stuck in the tire). This prevents them from going into town, which prevents them from seeing Superman's rocketship crash land, which means they never adopt baby Kal El (he is instead {{spoiler|adopted by the Amish}}), which means Superman doesn't become the DC universe's iconic hero. Without the Big Blue Boyscout around to inspire confidence and good feelings about metahumans among the general populace, the American people (particularly those in Metropolis) become highly suspicious of all superbeings, even to the point of hunting them down and locking them up simply for existing. The story even begins with the above poem.
** It turns out that {{spoiler|much of the reason for the anti-metahuman paranoia is fueled by the Kryptonian Eradicator Jimmy Olsen, which in the absence of Superman is able to operate much more slowly and subtly as far as its attempted conquest of Earth.}}
** And also [[The Joker]] {{spoiler|kills Batgirl and Robin. Horrifically. In front of Batman. Who goes [[Unstoppable Rage]] mode and kills him too.}} It's not even shown on-panel but it's still [[Nightmare Fuel]].
*** And in the end, the cycle closes with {{spoiler|the Amish community where Not!Supes lives being involved in the conflict. Jimmy kills Not!Supes's [[Muggle Foster Parents]] in front of him, thus he ends up adopted again... by the Kents.}}
** Another well-known Elseworlds comic, ''[[Superman: Red Son]]'' has a slight difference in the rotation of the Earth as the "nail", so Superman lands in the Soviet Union, eventually rising to become leader of the union. Similarly, ''Superman: True Brit''... you get the idea.
** Other examples, ''[[Superman: Speeding Bullets]]'' is a timeline where Kal-El is found by Thomas and Matha Wayne, resulting in Superman with Batman's more tragic origin; then there's ''[[Batman: In Blackest Knight]]''; in this reality, when GLC member Abin Sur iss mortally wounded and needed to find a new holder for his ring, he chooses Bruce Wayne rather than Hal Jordan, and the result is [[Green Lantern]] with [[Batman]]'s origin.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' did its own spin on this with the limited [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|comic series]] ''Star Wars: Infinities'', each story exploring how such a change would affect each of the Original Trilogy films. In specific...
** In ''[[A New Hope]]'', Luke fails to destroy the Death Star because one of his torpedoes malfunctions. As a result, the Empire catches several Rebels trying to escape Yavin, including Leia, who Vader trains as his apprentice. In the meantime Luke trains with Yoda, and after five years he confronts Vader and Leia, ultimately ending when Yoda [[Colony Drop]]s the Death Star on top of the Emperor's palace.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/2062110"