Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: Difference between revisions
Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.8
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m (Looney Toons moved page Luckily My Powers Will Protect Me to Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: Adding proper punctuation to page name) |
(Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.8) |
||
(12 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
{{quote|''"I love how in old comics, the superheroes will bust out with some sort of sonic device that has the bad guys doing their best Edvard Munch impressions. They always make some comment like 'Luckily, my earplugs will protect me from the effect!' ...It's like eating a bunch of Chinese food then remarking out loud, 'Luckily, my small intestine will extract the nutrients from that meal!'"''|'''[[Lore Sjoberg]]''', ''[http://www.bookofratings.com/arrows2.html The Book of Ratings]''}}
{{quote|'''Deadpool:''' You can't ''kill'' me, [[Good Thing You Can Heal|I heal real quick!]]
'''Madcap:''' You can't ''hurt'' me because I feel no pain!
'''Both:''' [[Take a Third Option|LET'S PARTAAAY]]!|''Heroes For Hire #11''}}
Line 10:
Comic books are, in general, a serial medium, and you can't rely on someone reading one issue to have read all the previous issues. Thus, there needs to be a way to inform the reader about the characters and the plot up to this point.
One common way to do this is to simply drop the relevant information into the character's speech bubbles. If done well, it'll feel natural and unforced; unfortunately, it's usually done as something along the lines of "
This tends to be even more offputting than regular [[Expospeak]], since the characters are speaking to no one in particular. A less-jarring variation is putting the exposition in thought bubbles, but that's surprisingly uncommon.
Line 18:
The original audiences may have found this less jarring, because at the time it was very common for radio drama characters to narrate everything they saw (given the lack of a visual medium).
In modern times, this has largely been abandoned. Readers are expected to be familiar with the characters or use the internet to fill in their knowledge gaps. [[Modern Age|More recently]], [[Dramatis Personae|introductory text pages at the beginning of the issue]] have come into fashion. Also, fans can just look up whatever the character can do online these days, anyways. Even if it's someone really obscure like Stiltman. (But then, perhaps surprisingly, [[Exactly What It Says
If a character explains his or her powers directly to an opponent, it’s [[Explaining Your Power to
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Any old issue of ''The Fantastic Four'' will include early scenes where the characters call each other "Brother-in-law" or the like. Nobody really talks like this, especially when they're in the middle of combat. However, the authors felt the need to explain each character's family relationships to new readers, which resulted in unrealistic and redundant dialogue.
* Something as pervasive and self-explanatory as this probably doesn't need an example, but it's hard to resist pointing out that, for several ''years'', Cyclops managed to say "Only my ruby-quartz visor can contain my optic blasts," in literally every single issue of ''Uncanny [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]''... quite possibly the worst [[Catch Phrase]] of all time.
** Which is surely rivaled by the vast number of times Psylocke referred to her psychic knife as "the focused totality of my psionic powers".<ref>Fortunately, she no longer HAS her psychic knife, so this trope has since seen its day.</ref>
** Another classic example, from ''X-Men'' vol. 1 #1:
{{quote|
** Another character who seemed compelled to remind the reader of her powers every other issue is Rogue, who would constantly have an internal dialogue about how "Ah cain't touch another human bein', or mah powers'll absorb their thoughts and abilities."
** ''[[New Mutants]]'' used to do this all the time, constantly reminding readers what the kids' powers were. Sunspot: "Careful Bobby, you're strong, not invulnerable!"; Cannonball: "Good thing ah'm invulnerable when ah'm blasting."; Magik griping about Limbo; etc.
** One would think these would be redundant nowadays, ever since Marvel started listing the team lineup on the first page with a rundown of their powers.
*** You'd ''think'' that; unfortunately [[Viewers
* [[Lampshade Hanging]] in ''[[Young Justice (
** ''Everyone'' on YJ made fun of that.
*** At least once every issue, Superboy will explicitly state that he's doing something with his tactile telekinesis, and at least once every issue, [[The Flash|Impulse]] will Lampshade the fact that at least once every issue, Superboy will explicitly state that he's doing something with his tactile telekinesis.
** It started in the very first issue:
{{quote|
'''Superboy''': Pull it out? Not a problem. All I have to do is touch it and my tactile telekinesis can-
'''Impulse''': Man, will you stop blabbering about your stupid power?! You act like you're filling in someone who's just met you! }}
* ''[[Star Wars]] Legacy 28'', introducing new readers to the ''Legacy'' series and the ''Vector'' [[Cross Through]] at once, was probably the most egregious example of this in ''[[Star Wars]]'' comics, when almost all characters engaged in this kind of exposition.
Line 45:
* In #17 he talks about how he can slip through the air holes in cement, and how he must quickly slip through.
* From an ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' comic circa the OZT saga:
{{quote|
said by Random while being blasted into a puddle. Who the hell talks like this when they're being ''blasted into a puddle''? }}
* Used during a Paul Jenkins remake of the original ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' story. Unlike other examples it was not ridiculous, as it was a mix of
* Venom seems to be friends with this trope, as whenever someone pulls out a gun and shoots him, he'll say something along the lines of "Ha! My other protects me from the bullets!"
** Similarly, every time another character takes advantage of one of his main weaknesses, he'll say, "No! My symbiotic other cannot stand fire/loud noises!"
*** Although arguably, that creates a bit of fridge logic because the only time you don't hear the bang of a gun is when you're hit with it, but seeing as the symbiote protects him, it really shouldn't.
* Brittney from ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]]'' tended to have a hard time with this, especially in earlier comics when it was just getting off the ground. Her super-speed, her inability to avoid telegraphing her blows, the fact that only "Magic, another were-creature, or silver" can hurt her. Oh, she does it a LOT. Gets better once continuity and the reader-ship is better established.
* When ''[[Sonic the Comic]]'' included stories about other [[Sega]] games, the magician Xavier in the ''[[Eternal Champions]]'' adaptation was prone to declaring, "Your barbaric weapons are no match for the power... of magick!" or something similar. Unfortunately, [[Narm|his magic never actually seemed to work very well.]]
** However his staff ''was'' sufficient enough to turn brains to jelly.
Line 60:
* The cheesy-yet-strangely-fascinating English dub of the Japanese sci-fi film ''[[Prince of Space]]'' has many examples of the eponymous Prince conspicuously ''not'' being harmed by evil alien laserbeams, and smugly declaring "Your weapons are useless against me!". Though it does seem kind of necessary considering ''they keep shooting at him every single time''. Prince of Space was ''not'' immune to weapons in the original Japanese script, which also explains why he keeps dodging them.
** To quote the riffers, "But they scare the crap out of me anyway".
{{quote|
** “It is my considered advice that you discontinue use of said weapon, ha ha!”
Line 68:
** This was parodied relentlessly and to great effect in the episode "Survivor Man" from [[The Office]].
** Of course, it helps that Bear is [[Badass|ex-SAS]] and is well-trained for all kinds of crazy shit like that.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' averts this quite well most of the time, where it's frequently left ambiguous what a character's exact abilities are. We still don't know the full extent of what Sylar is ( {{spoiler|or was, since [[Word of God]] states he lost all powers but his telekinesis and his "intuitive aptitude" after the infection in season 2}}) capable of; it wasn't revealed until more than halfway through season 1 that Peter could mimic others' powers when he wasn't in proximity to them, etc. On the other hand, Knox is the living embodiment of this trope. What powers him up again? Oh yeah, ''fear''. Wait, what was it? He seems to be over it by episode 9, but good grief.
** [[Fan Wank|He could simply be trying to intimidate his enemies in order to become stronger]], but the Peter example was just a result of him learning [[How Do I Shot Web?|how to shot web]].
** Let's not forget Meredith in Season 3. It's a good thing that ''almost every single one of her appearances'' is heralded by her holding out a tongue of flame in her hand, because [[Viewers
* In [[Stargate SG-1]], it's Teal'c saying "Luckily, my symbiote will protect me," usually from radiation or just general physical harm. Being an incubator for a [[Puppeteer Parasite]] has its advantages.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* On the other hand, the [[Spider-Man (
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[X
{{quote|
* ''[[
* Satori Komeji of ''[[Touhou]]'' fame will ''not'' shut up about her mind-reading powers. Deconstructed, as this is implied to be part of the reason she's [[Not Good
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Parodied in [https://web.archive.org/web/20121030170520/http://www.itswalky.com/d/20040901.html this strip] of [[Its Walky]], though that was in response to [https://web.archive.org/web/20120721151632/http://www.websnark.com/archives/2004/09/you_had_me_and_1.html Websnark].
* Parodied in [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2007/10/13/episode-906-fair-warning/ this] ''[[
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The 1990s ''[[X-Men (
** Storm's verbal commands were lampshaded during the ''90s [[Spider-Man:
** Heck, they were lampshaded in the first episode. Rogue's first lines in the series are telling Storm to ease up on it.
** Storm also has the odd habit of trying to attack Magneto with lightning in every fight, at which point Magneto will shout something like "Fool! Have you forgotten that electricity and magnetism are related?"
Line 101:
*** They lampshaded it in ''Hugo's Hoke'', when Hugo Agogo's [[Hate Plague]] prompts The Capable Karate to sarcastically ask "Why don't you get some new dialogue?"
** Almost always subverted, in that his wings are exactly like a shield of steel, and most of the thing aimed at Batfink are entirely capable of bypassing steel shields one way or another (say, by being capable of cutting through steel). The villain typically points this out just after Batfink has delivered the line.
* ''[[
{{quote|
** A bit ironic use of this trope, because isn't Batman ''not supposed to have powers?''
*** "[[Crimefighting
** Batman is referring to a mental exercise. Same way he has prevented Martian Manhunter from reading his mind in several media. It's a very effective technique, it goes something like this: {{spoiler|Na-na-na-na-na-na-na, BATMAN!}} Or {{spoiler|"[[Justice League (animation)|Frere Jacques]]"}}.
{{quote|
* The ''[[
Line 120:
[[Category:Exposition]]
[[Category:Rule of Perception]]
[[Category:
|