Hoist by His Own Petard/Comic Books: Difference between revisions
Adding example
(clean up) |
(Adding example) |
||
| (17 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{
* In both the [[Spider-Man]] [[Spider-Man (
** Parodied in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoNgMVFQNBI Spider-Man 3 How It Should Have Ended].
{{quote|
* In the limited series ''The [[Thanos]] Quest'', the titular supervillain seeks (and ultimately attains) the [[Cosmic Keystone|Infinity Gems]] in order to [[A God Am I|become God]] and thus a worthy mate for [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Mistress Death]]. However, he miscalculates spectacularly when he discovers that omnipotence made him not her equal but ''superior'', preventing anything other than a servile relationship; for the extra kick in the teeth, he is now subjected to the (no pun intended) cold shoulder of the cosmic being, who considered his pursuit and attainment of godhood a heinous betrayal, and his subsequent attempts at wooing her back childish and insulting.
** It doesn't get much better in the follow-up storyline ''The Infinity Gauntlet'', as when Thanos decides to give up on Mistress Death and fully embrace his status as God, eventually defeating Eternity and becoming the very embodiment of the universe, he makes another grievous error ([[Achilles' Heel|or perhaps not]]) when by forsaking his body in replacing Eternity, he leaves it (and the Infinity Gems) vulnerable to theft by his upstart "granddaughter" Nebula.
** Later in the same story, Thanos' friend and eternal nemesis Adam Warlock outright states that Thanos subconsciously sabotages his own schemes for ultimate power, as, in the darkest depths of his soul, he believes he's unworthy of it.
* Subverted with [[Lex Luthor]]: the kryptonite ring that he used to bedevil Superman ends up giving him fatal radiation poisoning due to prolonged exposure. However, he cheats death because of his <s>brilliance</s> [[Joker Immunity]].
* Used in the tongue-in-cheek ''Punisher [[Kill
** [[Power Creep, Power Seep|It is worth noting]] [[Canon Sue|this wouldn't work these days]].
*** It wouldn't have worked back then, either. A similar electrical trap is used in the ''Havok: Meltdown'' graphic novel simply to render Logan ''unconscious''.
* Mentioned for being [[Crowning Moment of Funny|hilarious]], the otherwise quite forgettable ''[[
** A similar incident happened in ''[[Runaways]]'' - the teens discover that one of their newest companion is a vampire and, to save the others, Karolina offers herself to the vampire. When he goes to drain him, he realizes too late that Karolina is solar powered and he promptly explodes.
* After a rooftop battle in the first issue of ''[[
* Unus the Untouchable was a mutant criminal with a force field that protected him from all harm. Eventually, it got so powerful that not even air could get through.
* In ''[[Watchmen (
* The ''[[Marvel 2099|Punisher 2099]]'' villain Fearmaster has a hand (later a claw) that can turn anything biological it touches into anything else. When the Punisher finally corners him, he tries to turn Frank's entire body to mud. Too bad he forgot that he chopped off one of the Punisher's hands two issues prior; all Frank has to do is reach out with his prosthetic hand, grab Fearmaster's arm, and shove the claw right back in his face.
* In ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' Terra died by accidental suicide when she imploded the HIVE complex out of sheer rage, trying to kill Deathstroke when she thinks he betrayed her.
* The U-Foes, enemies of the [[
* In ''[[Final Crisis]]'', [[Batman]] shoots [[Darkseid]] with the same bullet that Darkseid used to kill his son, Orion. Then, [[The Flash|Wally West and Barry Allen]] turn intangible and run through him, causing the Omega Beams that were chasing them to hit the villain and blow him up.
* In one of the later comics, [[Conan the Barbarian]] comes across a particularly vile Zingaran noble/religious fanatic who assassinates his rivals by giving them the Ring of Molub, a [[Clingy MacGuffin]] that can only be stolen or passed on to others without their knowledge. The ring is connected to an ancient, [[Nigh Invulnerable]] demon of the same name who graphically slaughters the bearer of the ring and anyone who tries to stop it. Conan later acquires the ring himself and then passes it to the noble by slipping it on his finger. Then he breaks his finger just to make sure he can't get rid of it.
Line 26 ⟶ 27:
* [[Batman|"You committed a BONER, Joker! You were so busy forcing ME into a boner, you forgot you were committing one yourself!"]]
* In ''[[Tintin|The Broken Ear]]'', after several failed attempts at assassinating General Alcazar, Corporal Diaz is given a time bomb set to go off at eleven o'clock. Diaz sets his watch by the street clocks, but at ten o'clock, when he thinks he still has time to spare, he is puzzled to see a municipal worker adjusting a street clock to make up for time lost due to an earlier power cut. The corrected time: eleven o'clock. '''BOOM.'''
* In the ''[[Batman]]'' mini-series, ''The Cult'', Bats is able to turn [[Complete Monster|Deacon Blackfire's]] own doctrine against him when he beats him within an inch of his life, then [[Do
* In ''[[Flashpoint (
* In the ''[[Mickey Mouse]]'' comic, "Race To Death Valley", Mickey swipes a map out of Shyster's hand from a window, boating [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"It's an old Shyster custom I learned from you!"]].
* General Spears in ''[[Alien|Aliens: Nightmare Asylum]]'' is a General Ripper on a remote colony who does not believe the heroes when they tell him that {{spoiler|Earth has been overrun by the Aliens.}} He has been training Aliens to be his own personal soldiers by training their Queen with Pavlovian responses to fire. The moment they touch down on Earth and he plans to defeat the entrenched natives, the Queen turns her drones on him. She hadn't learned to fear him--she had ''[[Nightmare Fuel|learned to be clever]]''.
* In ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (
* In an [[Archie Comics]] story, Veronica designs and creates a beautiful ballroom gown, planning to wear it to the biggest dance of the year; Cheryl Blossom steals it in order to show her up and be the center of attention. Unfortunately for Cheryl, while Veronica is a decent designer, she's a poor seamstress; the dress falls apart while she's wearing it. [[Defeat by Modesty|At the dance.]] Still, this is a [[Pyrrhic Victory]] for Veronica; while the result humiliates Cheryl, it also exposes her shoddy work.
* The hero team parody ''The Inferior Five'' are pretty incompetent as heroes, and they often save the day because the bad guys do themselves in. One good example is their first appearance, where the villainous [[Mad Scientist| Dr. Gregory Gruesome]] tries to ambush Dumb Bunny with his [[Ray Gun]]; the heroine is touching up her makeup using a compact, doesn't even know he's there, and the ray hits the compact mirror, and is deflected back at Gruesome, knocking him out.
* Titania is a villain obsessed with defeating her arch-nemesis, She-Hulk, their hatred of each other dating back to the first ''[[Secret Wars]]'', and the time she came closest, she was foiled by this Trope. She had been given the Power Gem by the Elder of the Universe known as the Champion, who was burning for revenge against She-Hulk <ref>short version, Shulkie was working on behalf of a group of [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] called Magistrati (practical embodiments of Law) who didn’t like how he was frivolously using one of [[Artifact of Doom| the Infinity Gems]] (for [[No Man Should Have This Power| obvious reasons]]) and challenged him to a match without using the Gem, with the terms that if he lost, he could never use it again. He lost, and with the Magistrati enforcing the terms, he really had no choice but to abide by them.</ref> Now having near unlimited physical strength, Titania soundly pulped her enemy, the shock of her blows causing the heroine to revert back to human form and at Titania’s mercy. But when Titania was about to finish her, she realized she had finally completed a goal she had been pursuing for years… So… [[Now What?]] A few minutes and she might have gotten over this, but the Power Gem is an item that only accepts users who have the strongest dedication to their desires and needs; this brief moment where she questioned her purpose caused the Gem to reject Titania and go to Jennifer. Without even hulking out, Jenn delivered an uppercut that knocked Titania into the sky.
* Way back in [[The Golden Age of Comic Books| Golden Age]], [[Shazam| Captain Marvel]] had an ally named Spy Smasher, a hero who fought [[Those Wacky Nazis]] during World War II, primarily hunting for spies in the States. Spy Smasher’s most persistent foe (appearing in 14 issues) was a villain called the Mask (no relation to [[The Mask|this one]]), described as “An international spy who used several aliases, the most dangerous adversary of the entire secret service." The Mask managed to use a device to brainwash Spy Smasher, using him as an [[Unwitting Pawn]] for three whole issues, forcing the hero to fight Captain Marvel during that time. But the Mask got sloppy, as his last command to Spy Smasher (and not coincidentally, his final words) shows:
{{quote|'''The Mask:''' Kill! Kill! Kill! No… [[Karmic Death| Don’t kill me! Not ''me!'']]}}
* From ''[[New Mutants]]'', Wolfsbane had an abusive bigot of a father by the name of [[Sinister Minister| Reverend Craig]], whose sadistic career came to an end when the brainwashing that he inflicted upon her kicked in, and she mistook him for the Angel, whom he had ordered her to kill. She lunges at him in her wolf-form, in a bestial state, tearing him limb from limb. She doesn't remember a thing when she recovers, and her teammates wisely decide to keep it a secret.
* In a ''[[Goofy| Super Goof]]'' story, the Beagle Boys trick the hero into taking a hunger amplifying formula; by the time Super Goof stops eating and gets his act together enough to look for the four crooks, he is so obese, he can barely keep airborne while flying. Nonetheless, he does so until he find them, and the Beagles make the mistake of laughing and telling a few fat jokes; then the hero finally ''cannot'' stay airborne and crashes... right on top of the villains, apprehending them.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:
| |||