Oh Crap/Web Comics

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Girl Genius

• These Wulfenbach soldiers, when it turns out the locals fully support Agatha.
• Also the Wulfenbach soldiers in this strip.
• And Agatha's dingbots in this one.
• Amusingly invoked here. Sometimes the Princess isn't the one in 'danger'.
• And here:

Oggie: Jenka, vy for is Füst runnik avay? Jenka: He vot? (a "war stomper" crushes their tower.)

• The assassin #2 on the train, who unfortunately for himself didn't walk in via the door and thus could not be simply duped into leaving before he sees anything unusual. "Uh.. Uh oh..."

Life of Maid

Some of these are Running Gags as well:

• Letting Meiling drive was a terrible idea.
• Flandre is definitely in big trouble for popping Sakuya's pad.
• Every time Keine uses her portable Moon is one for every rowdy child in the vicinity.
• Yuyuko's ravenous appetite garnered a fearsome reputation, mostly among eatery owners and youkai animals. Even her closest friends fear being next on her menu if she cannot find anything else to eat.
• Looks like Rinnosuke didn't think things through when he ditched the Santa outfit to escape Marisa.
• Nitori's little scheme has failed and she's about to have a bad time.
• Meiling and Flandre taking care of medical matters (and everything else in the Scarlet Devil Mansion) is definitely not good. It Gets Worse from there.
• Meiling and Shou blew all their shopping money on arcade machines and their bosses are back to check on them. This won't end well.

The Order of the Stick

• Evan's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion!
  • Wait, what?
  • Ooh, that's gotta be uncomfortable...
• "That... is considerably more resistance than I was expecting." "Ayup."
• When Roy and Xykon battle for the first time, Xykon gives Roy an Oh Crap moment that triggers a brief Heroic BSOD. When the Heroic BSOD ends, it's Xykon's turn.
• For a heroes example, check this bottom-right panel.
• Roy has a literal one in strip #332, when he realizes that he screwed up his question to the Oracle.
• This kobold, facing the swarm of adventurers coming from the tavern.
• Another quite literal instance from Belkar, as he stands defenseless before Miko.
• Even within the limits of being a skeleton drawn with stick-figure art, Xykon's expression when he's confronted by the ghost-martyrs of the Sapphire Guard, led by Lord Soon himself in this strip conveys this reaction loud and clear. Later in the same battle, it happens again, after Soon reveals that he knows exactly how to permanently kill a lich. And then Soon has one when he realizes Miko's about to destroy the crystal.
• "OK, so I've got bad news, and I've got bad news."
• Belkar Bitterleaf, though a hero (arguably), suffers one in #568. After finally getting fed up with an annoying oracle, Belkar kills him. Unfortunately, he also has a Mark of Justice on his head, set to go off when he kills a person within the sphere of influence of a town. And guess what popped up around the oracle's home last week? The name of the town manages to make it even more hilarious.
• Elan, Therkla, and Qarr share one in the second-to-last panel of this strip.

Therkla: Did that tree... Qarr: ... just say "Oww"?

• Vaarsuvius is like this here, which begins a series of escalating Oh Crap moments on the following pages, until...
  • ... three words: "Disjunction. Quickened Disintegrate."
• Maximised Energy Drain. That is all.
• Redcloak facing the wrath of a true Determinator.
• Xykon again when his phylactery is about to fall into the Snarl's prison. He has a brief moment of relief when it doesn't, only to get the look again when it instead falls into a sewer with pipes leading to a sewage plant, a labyrinth, and the ocean.
• Admit it. You were thinking it about halfway through this page.
• Elan finally realizes his Dad is evil.
• It seems Nale's in a bit of a pickle.
• V's expression in the penultimate panel of this comic speaks volumes.

Schlock Mercenary

You could make a drinking game for all these moments in Schlock Mercenary.

• Ably demonstrated in the fourth panel of this strip.
• Not even being harm incarnate is defense against an Oh Crap moment.
• "Heh. It looks like all you did was take a hullcutter to the barrels." (The barrels being in large part, the heavily computerized weapon's circuitboard.)
• And used with the appropriate sentence here.
• One from Tagon.
• Although the tension is deflated a moment later, Kevyn suffers this in Book 6, Part IV, after Ennesby gives a damage report.

Ennesby: Low-yield kinetic strike to the fore dorsal turret ... Hull-breach above the wardroom! Kevyn: Wait, dorsal turret access is right up there. We're in the wardroom.

• Kevyn here, on account of an incoming tank.
• One from "San Asimov's Finest"
• And in this one.
• Maxim 3: An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
• A twofer in the last row of this comic. Even if it's just a still picture, the target's last view of an oncoming missile is never happy.
• Malott here.
• After Schlock delivered a message to Breya, she thinks about what this may mean... and then makes a face. Which she didn't after finding out that an explosion reduced a police officer to spray paint and scattered Schlock's pieces around, though repeated upon being informed that she was among the intended targets.

Schlock: (worrying) I remember that face. That's your "minimum safe distance" face.

• Sorlie here, courtesy of a more experienced field commander. Of course, when they find the answer they get more opportunities to make faces.
• Invoked by Petey at a request of Admiral Devereaux.
• Petey brings Admiral Devereaux really bad news.

Sluggy Freelance

• The Anthropomorphic Personification of the year 2003, when facing Bun-bun with the combined powers of the embodiments of nearly all holidays.

Father Time: Overlord Bun-bun has arrived on the wings of the Groundhog's Shadow, and now faces the one who stole the Deus Egg. The Year 2003 himself! 2003: "I have done everything I can to thwart you peacefully, Bun-bun, but I've trained half my life for this fight. You came for the egg, I'll leave with your head!" Bun-bun's multi-part switchblade scythe of doom: KA-CLIKITY CLICK KLAK Father Time: 2003 is even now soiling himself... 2003: "Would you quit narrating this?"

• Earlier in the same story we have a scene where a Thanksgiving turkey medic finds out that what appeared to be another turkey is in fact a monster that steals other people's face and hands (in this case wings), being ridden by Bun-bun. She's so shocked she lays an egg while still staring at them.
• Isp and Osp, when they think the third party of the composite entity they belong to has killed their Demon Lord - and even more so when they find out she failed. "Holy demon-crap!"
• Jane, an intelligent zombie who's giving Gwynn a "The Reason You Suck" Speech while preparing to eat her brain and mocking her claims of a Tome of Eldritch Lore that gives her magical powers - when she pushes her Berserk Button and finds out that that's what activates said powers, and they're way out of her league. Her face is not shown at the Oh Crap moment; it's instead indicated effectively by her surgical saw winding down.
• On one occasion, an ordinary, non-talking frog (usual line: "CROAK.") is caught in a building after a somewhat literal-minded One-Man Army has been ordered to kill everyone in it.

"CRapK."

• oooo-This is gonna hurt.

Other works

• MAG-ISA -- The demon gets an OH CRAP moment after realizing that he'll soon get his ass kicked after being driven out from the boy.
• In Gone With the Blastwave, the Sniper Guy and the Flamethrower Guy have finally made it back to a camp of the Red Army and are taken to the commander for debriefing, together with the squad that found them.

Sniper: So why didn't you become a group leader? West: Don't know. They basically just asked my kill count. Sniper: Your kill count? *Beat* Oh. My. God!

• In Heritage, the mysterious Jack is understandably surprised when the otherwise ordinary hero Frate suddenly gains super angel powers in the middle of a fight.

Jack: I was going to report back if you turned out to be more than meets the eye, but n-- UURGH! HOLY S#* @, YOU GOT FAST ALL OF A SUDDEN!

• Diva'ratrika's face in the last panel of this strip of Drowtales. And then a couple pages later when she realizes just how deep the treachery extends into her own family.
  • Rikashar also has a Freak-Out after Ariel beats the crap out of him when he tries to abduct her and make her his wife]] with his reaction following here, and the last panel of the same page is more of an "Aw, shit" after he sees who's caught up with him.
    • Yet another from the same comic happens in the seventh panel of this chibi-page, which parodies events from that same chapter.
• Last Res0rt's Slick invokes it upon finding out that apparently his team is so far behind the others, Cypress has already written them off.
• Goblins: CLOSE THE WEST GATE!
  • Later, Thaco gets one when Goblinslayer illuminates the darkened sewer, negating Thaco's single advantage, (his ability to see in the dark) resulting in a straight up fight between the two adversaries that Thaco cannot possibly win.
    • In the same fight, Goblinslayer also gets this, when Thaco remembers he is a Monk and can snatch arrows, making Goblinslayer's ranged attacks useless.
  • Saves a Fox's entire self-image was that people are not bound by their destiny. When the fated day came when a fox got stuck in her home village's food supply, she snapped its neck in order to spite her fate, and saved the tail as a memento. That's not the Prophecy Twist resulting in her Oh Crap moment... Dies Horribly informs her that the symptoms she described the fox having was that of Sunset fever, something that causes animals to become delirious before dying a horrible, painful, and silent death. Saves A Fox gave it a Mercy Kill before it could suffer the worst effects of it. The look on her face that not only is her entire self-image a lie, but her friend whose name reflecting his destiny is "Dies Horribly" is not able to escape his fate either tells us she's heading right into Heroic BSOD territory.
• In Narbonic, this becomes Dave's normal state of being becomes one big Oh Crap moment.
• Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures has its share of Oh Crap moments, particularly in the latest arc. One of the better ones has to be Regina's, starting on page 973. Of course, this being DMFA, it's the page's punchline.

Regina: (thinking) Should be easy. I nearly pulped him last time we fought. I mean, it's been what, six years? What could he have learned in that time? * K-shnk! K-shnk!* Dan: I learned to hear thoughts. Among other things. Regina: (thinking) OK. New plan. Piddle self. Run.

• • And like many such moments, it doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja:
  • King Radical, when he hears about Dr. McNinja's new motorcycle.
  • It's very subtle, but the last panel of this page is an excellent example.
  • Gordito gets a big one in the second-to-last panel when he realizes his Badass Mustache is useless against the principal... and he's going to have to shave it.
• In Earthsong, Willow has one when she's walking through the woods at night ... something tugs on her cloak ... and she looks up, right into the teeth of a hungry vampire.
• Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name has its share of these moments, as Conrad demonstrates.
• In Starslip, Vanderbeam, understandably, has this on his face for four panels in a row after the Anthelerix relocate every known celestial body and planet to another part of the Milky Way.
• Dominic Deegan: Jacob Deegan gets this little moment. Also an occurance of Precision F-Strike.
  • Also, Dominic himself, when facing down the Beast.
• Captain SNES has a nice one from Gades when the protagonist, Alex, launches his side of a very, very short Beam-O-War match, which didn't last very long (and neither did Gades). Alex's beam was much bigger.
• If Ed had had a face in this strip of Megatokyo, it would have had this expression.
• Erfworld: Charlie has the distinction of getting one offscreen during this exchange with Parson over the Eyebooks, after just getting Parson to use one of the calculations he owed Charlie to assess whether it was worth giving up the rest of the calculations in exchange for information from Parson.

Charlie: That was clever though, right? Parson: Sure. Determining the decision not to spend all the calculations. Cost: one calculation. Charlie: :) Parson: Teaching me that my bracer can make sophisticated predictions about the future? Priceless. Charlie: ... :(

• • Later on, pretty much all of Gobwin Knob (especially Stanley and Wanda, who had been unshakable beforehand) get this when Faq's Turnamancer linked with Charlie manage to force them to end their turn.
• In 8-Bit Theater... well they happen a lot. But the best may come here, when the ultimate Jerkass discovers he's finally bitten off more than he can chew.
  • This classic, when Black Mage sees Muffin:

Black Mage: Teeth... like daggers... eyes... also like daggers... Fighter: How does that work? Thief: Piercing gaze? Fighter: You're on fire today! Black Mage: Scales noticeably dagger-like...

• • Each character gets at least one, but Black Mage, as the resident Chew Toy gets the most of them. It doesn't help him that his face is EASILY the best suited for these expressions.
• A minor one in El Goonish Shive: Nanase uses her fairy doll to contact Ellen, and tries to wake her up by tickling her nose with her tail. Her reaction when she realises she's about to get messily sneezed on is hilarious.
  • There's a slightly more major one here. More of an awkward "oh crap" than a dangerous one, but just as expressive...
  • Another awkward example is Elliot's reaction to Noah bringing up his parents' death.
  • Justin here, when George reveals that he knows that Elliot is Cheerleadra, if he's wrong on a few minor details.
  • And the two-panel realization which used this trope to the letter.
• In Slightly Damned, the latest villain to cross the heroes' path gets a short one when Kieri slices his bow in half.
• In VG Cats, Aeris finds out the hard way that Coach is controlled by a completely different type of bot...
• Ctrl+Alt+Del. The look on 1's face here just says it all.
• The girls in Questionable Content have this moment when the Vesp Avenger's scooter turns into an attack robot.

Faye: All right! We're well and truly fucked. Martin: And not the fun, slightly sticky kind of fucked! Faye: That was TERRIBLE. Martin: YOU try being funny when your life is flashing before your eyes!

• • More recently, in strip 1689, Faye's expression in the last panel. She realized that Marigold knew about her and Angus being interested in each other.
  • Mieville the cat's reaction to Hannalore's attempt at a smile. Odds are that most people would react the same way the cat did.
• In Fake News Rumble, Jon gets one in his fight with a possessed Colbert. Seen here.
• From Casey and Andy: "This has 'bad day' written all over it."
• Returns various times in Ménage à 3:
  • Gary realizes how Matt and Dillon have tested his new drawing table's strength.
  • Gary realises that his mouth ran away with him.
  • Sandra is the victim of a Bilingual Backfire here.
  • Zii has a great one in this strip.
• When Paulus, a wealthy Roman citizen, decides that he's tired of being a bachelor, he has one of his servants put up a personal ad in the Forum. It gets rather more of a response than he expected.
• Digger: "Meep."
• In Exterminatus Now, a random paranoid tries to temporarily ingratiate himself in the protagonists so he can hide from "government spooks". The main characters proceed to inform him that those people are likely just foreign businessmen, while revealing enough information to make the guy realize they are government spooks.
  • And here's the reaction of the original team members when Rogue horribly insults Lothar.
• In Two Evil Scientists, a robotic clone of Dr. Wily uses Evil Energy to revive Bass at the insistence of his daughter Cream. It works, and he has a few moments to enjoy his success until he realizes he brought Bass back to life, and he Came Back Wrong.
• In Homestuck, Eridan's reaction to his victim Kanaya coming back as a glowing super powerful Rainbow Drinker (the Troll version of a vampire) that just snapped his wand leaving him unarmed while she revs up her chainsaw is priceless.
  • Even better and even more cathartic? Bec Noir's reaction to seeing PM arrive in the troll's session, wearing the White Queen's ring and looking pissed. Off.
  • Two from two different characters, one after another. The first is when Rose realizes that it's not a memory when Diamonds Droog is in Dave's room with her. The next is when Dave remembers that he's not in his room. He's still asleep on Derse.
• In Gunnerkrigg Court, Kat and Annie get a pretty good one when faced with a giant crab at the start of third year.
• This exchange from Drive;

Fernando: Captain, no! An asteroid field is certain death! Open space is bad enough...we can't intentionally fly into debris! Skitter: Wait—why not? Just turn on your doo-dads or shields or whatever. Nosh: What shields? Skitter: Don't you have some kinda...energy bubble that can...I dunno...push aside material or somethin'?...Like a snow-plow? [beat] Skitter: Or some kinda...reinforced hull thingy...that can survive impacts at speeds of...? [beat] Skitter: I'ma skip a step and launch my escape pod now

• Let's Destroy The Shagohod!

Big Boss: OK, whatever! Time for... Volgin: VOLGIN TIME! Big Boss: Oh Crap Oh Crap Oh Crap Oh Crap

• • Only partial, but still same effect, previously on the same comic:

Big Boss: Time to head to Grozny Grad? The End: Yeah, how about 'no'. Big Boss: Crap!

• Sees a unique use in this Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. (Check the red button; this wouldn't quite count without it.)
• Housepets: Although somewhat more subtle than many Oh Crap faces, Sgt Ralph and Kevin get them when they see a stupendously large water balloon falling towards them in a water balloon war with the neighborhood cats.
• In Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger, the Rangers are Oops Boys -- because that's the final words on many a black box.
• In Dubious Company, Sakura gets a nice one when she realizes she's in a Type 3 love triangle and interrupted Tiren's Anguished Declaration of Love by giving Walter Valentine's Day chocolate.
• Freefall: "I hate you, Sam. I hate you more than any woman's ever hated a cephalopod."
  • The cooks from Golden Trough.
  • unlike "Eureka!", an "Oh poop!" flash of insight doesn't sound good for the home team.
• In Romantically Apocalyptic, even an alien-controlled skeleton manages a decent "oh crap" face when he realizes that Mr. Snippy wasn't aiming for him. Then, in the very next strip, Mr. Snippy gets one of his own when, minutes later, the alien bursts out of the building.
• Andy from So...You're a Cartoonist? has one here when he realizes Curmudgeonly Carl will be reviewing his portfolio.
• Brooke "Aphrodite" Lennox in Rival Angels decides that it would be a good idea to issue an open challenge to anybody brave enough to take her on. As you can see, she so wishes she could take it back a few panels later.
• In Survivor Fan Characters Prescilla's face (last panel - spoilers ahoy!) when she realizes that she should have kept her big fat mouth shut on Season 9.