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Good Old Fisticuffs: Difference between revisions
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Some films ''insist'' that their Average Joe, didn't-train-in-Tibet-or-live-in-a-French-ghetto hero can upstage and beat ''any'' fighting style because his rough and tumble streetwise fisticuffs is either more resourceful, more tenacious or less "frilly" than the competition. Never mind that their opponents weren't exactly studying ballet, and usually have years of training over the hero. For this same reason, the hero will usually beat them by outsmarting them into either being [[Hoist by His Own Petard]] or a [[Karmic Death]]. If any explanation is given for why this disparity always goes in the hero's favor, it's because the hero has [[Technician Versus Performer|"heart" while his opponent is more obsessed with good form,]] or is all flash and no substance.
While it may seem at first sight to be only about fighting with your fists (as in [[Real Life]] Boxing is considered a proper and deadly martial art), this trope go more in hand with learning to fight in the "hard way": by pure and constant brawling for your life and limb in dirty streets and harsh experience; no nonsense of training and mock battles, is either live or die (or be [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|brutally beaten]]) and do whatever it takes to keep breathing. It doesn't matter what you use for a fight as long is emphasized that the person [[Training
See [[Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty]] and [[Combat Pragmatist]]. If the hero (or the villain) is a threat not because of technique but innate [[The Gift|Gifts]] like [[Made of Iron|unnatural damage-soaking abilities]], he is probably [[Unskilled but Strong]].
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== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Gotham Central]]'' features this as a frequent necessity since, though a comic book set in the world of [[Batman]], none of the characters are superheroes in any way, shape or form. As such, they are often forced to face off against "freaks" (supervillains) with only regular guns or, sometimes, just their bare hands. When Dr. Alchemy, a [[Flash]] villain, is brought to Gotham City and tries to escape, Renee Montoya is forced to beat him down with her bare hands after he turns all guns and metals in the room into poisonous and noxious elements (His name is Dr. ''Alchemy'', he can do stuff like that). Once she manages to drop him to the floor she ''keeps going'' (Some say [[Police Brutality]], others say...well, others also say [[Police Brutality]], but he ''[[Asshole Victim|really]]'' [[Asshole Victim|deserved it]]), and did it all despite the fact that he was armed with some bizarre alchemical superweapon.
* A storyline in the ''Robin'' comic book had him fighting Cassandra Cain, formerly the second Batgirl, who had just revealed that she'd made a [[Face Heel Turn]]. Robin manages to defeat Cassandra, who had received [[Training
** He learned from the best, apparently, as in a JLA comic just a few months later, Batman does this same thing to Karate Kid, [[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|a super martial artist from the 31st century]] whose [[Charles Atlas Superpower|fighting skills are so advanced he can fight Kryptonians despite being "only human."]] To the writer's credit, Batman doesn't win (merely stalemates his opponent until a superpowered ally can take him down), but he still lasts a lot longer than he had any business lasting.
* The comic ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'' inverts this trope. While protagonist Jesse Custer does not know fancy martial arts, he knows how to fistfight, and also how to fight dirty. Over the course of the series he brawls with, and [[Curb Stomp Battle|curbstomps]], both armed opponents and people who are much larger and stronger than he is because he knows how to fight and they don't.
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[[Category:This Index Is Ready to Rumble]]
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