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You'd think their own side would take this into account and at least ''try'' to make things easier; on the logic that one would want to be on the good side of a weapon capable of saving or destroying them, but curiously this is not the case. No, people who resort to using a Person of Mass Destruction usually [[All of the Other Reindeer|treat them like crap]] and go [[Bullying a Dragon]]. It's possible that this indicates that they are shamed for having to resort to this, and are displacing this into abuse. [[There Are No Therapists|Or maybe it just never occurs to them that they would benefit from having good relations with the person that can either save them all or kill them all instantly.]] On the other hand, the prerequisite megalomania to build or exploit such a person, as well as the ego to assume that one can control it, tends to mean that the people controlling (or trying to control) the PMD are of the sort that isn't particularly concerned with their personal well being. Nice people tend not to have uses for tools of unimaginable destructive force, after all.
 
If they're a main or recurring character, a common plotline for them will be trying to avoid [[Bad Powers, Bad People]], or coming to realize that they're better off leaving the planet; either by realizing [[A God Am I]] and turning into an [[Energy Beings|Energy Being]] or, more tragically, committing suicide. If they didn't start so overpowering, they may [[Status Quo Is God|give up their powers]] or lose them in some other fashion.
 
Likely overlaps with [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]] and [[Walking Wasteland]]. [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]] themselves often have similar powers but tend to take a more... [[Earthshattering Kaboom|pro-active approach]] in using their abilities than normal examples of this trope. Compare and contrast [[One -Man Army]], where the character is usually not treated this way but nevertheless gains an impressive kill-count. One of these can also be a [[Tyke Bomb]], but a Person Of Mass Destruction can be made entirely by accident and still become a metaphor for dangerous weapons and bad science. For those that defy this trope, see [[I Am Not a Gun]].
 
Note, just having the ability to cause damage does not make someone an example of this trope. While a Person Of Mass Destruction is rarely below class 2 on the [[Super Weight]] Scale, lack of giant superpowers doesn't disqualify one from this trope so long as they are akin to dangerous weapons in the setting.
 
{{examples|Examples:}}
 
== Anime & Manga ==
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* ''[[The Record of a Fallen Vampire]]'' has Strauss, the vampire immune to the sun who also has an almost godly amount of magic, and Adelheid, the Moonlight of Corrosion.
* Ryner Lute of ''[[The Legend of the Legendary Heroes]]''. He has the power to blow people up, cause things to implode, and completely disintegrate things in a matter of seconds, simply by thinking about it. And yet, people ''intentionally'' try to piss him off and provoke him. Real smart, huh?
* Chise of ''[[Saikano]]'' is a particularly cruel example of the horrible repercussions after she is turned into a super weapon, though it varies on the version, anime or manga. In both cases {{spoiler|everyone dies. ''[[Kill 'Em All|Everyone]]''.}}
** In the anime version, she still has her powers, but doesn't actually cause the destruction directly, but isn't powerful enough to stop the rampaging [[Eldritch Abomination]] and gives up about halfway through story. [[Mind Screw|Maybe.]]
** In the manga, {{spoiler|she consciously and single-handedly kills everyone in the human race, save for Shuji.}}
* The Otome of ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' are thinly veiled analogs for WMDs, complete with a "SOLT" conference based on the real world "SALT" (Strategic Arms Limitations Talks) and issues similar to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The main Otome also have the added danger of being volatile young women in the middle of a twisted [[Love Triangle]], so you ''know'' there's going to be trouble. One of the girls involved in that triangle ({{spoiler|Nina}}) snaps and ''literally'' tries to destroy the world in the last few episodes.
* Mewtwo of the first ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]'' movie, despite not being human, is definitely a Person of Mass Destruction. This is made all the more apparent by the fact that in some translations his birthplace is listed as [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Mile Island]]. His power is so great the he was able to create an unnaturally huge hurricane that would've eventually wiped out all life on the planet, aside from those on his island in the eye of the storm ''just by thinking about it'', then dissipated the storm just as easily after his [[Heel Face Turn]]. Note that he was in no way focusing his full power on the storm at any time, and in fact kept expanding it even while controlling hundreds of individual pokeballs, taking on his ancestor Mew in a psychic battle (in which Mewtwo had the upper hand), completely dominating the mind of at least one human, ''and'' psychically suppressing the abilities of every other Pokemon on the island. Afterwards, he then telekinetically lifted every single person and pokemon on the island- easily over a hundred individuals weighing several tons in total, and again without any noticeable strain- erased their memories of the entire thing, and teleported them - again, en masse - to a port several miles away. It's a good thing he wanted to "prove himself" before his purge- had he been more efficient, he probably could have easily wiped out humanity in an afternoon at most.
** To further put this in perspective, a similar storm was generated in the second movie, but only after the three legendary birds had been fighting all-out for some time. Each of these three combatants, by the way, are implied to be so powerful that they are able to change the climate of wherever they are ''just by existing''- and Mewtwo equaled their combined power without even trying!
*** Said birds (Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres) and Lugia, who shut the storm in that movie down, all have weather control as explicit abilities. Mewtwo does not. He was duplicating it using telekinesis. Yes, that means he's better several [[Olympus Mons]] in their specialization while faking that ability with another ability entirely. Be very afraid.
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** The most straight-up example is Havoc, whose powers consisted of spontaneously generating vacuums for [[Explosive Decompression|explosive results]] and a [[Power At a Price|renumeration]] of [[Eats Babies|drinking the blood of children]]. There was pretty much no way she ''couldn't'' use her powers to murder tons of people.
* Victor of ''[[Busou Renkin]]'' is significantly smaller in radius than most Persons of Mass Destruction, but more deadly: thanks to his [[Power Incontinence|always-on energy absorption powers]], he would likely kill every human being within a kilometer or two if he stayed in one place for more than an hour. {{spoiler|Main character Kazuki is immune, but only because he's turning into a Victor-alike himself.}}
* Lina Inverse from ''[[Slayers]]'' routinely hurls spells that blow up cities. Her most powerful spell has the potential to unmake creation. In fact, In the first episode of the new series, ''Slayers Revolution'', {{spoiler|Lina is arrested "On suspicion of being Lina Inverse"}}. There is perhaps only one person in the world that she fears: her elder sister Luna, who is stated to have taken down a [[Our Dragons Are Different|Plasma Dragon]] with a mundane kitchen knife. And she possesses an [[Infinity Plus One+1 Sword]]. [[Word of God]] says Luna is equal in power to Xelloss, who is really freaking powerful<ref>Now that Chaos Dragon and Hellmaster are dead, he's the fifth most powerful demon in the world.</ref>.
* Ranma's final opponent in ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma 1/2]]'' is the Phoenix Emperor Saffron. If his maturation ritual is completed successfully, he becomes a living "power plant" to Mt. Phoenix and all its people, constantly shedding light and heat without the slightest effort. If something goes awry, though, he loses control of his power, becoming psychotic, and releasing his energy as raw flame and beams capable of vaporizing mountains. As one character put it, he's like "a flamethrower without a safety valve."
* [[Naruto]] and his fellow jinchuuriki all have very nasty [[Sealed Evil in A Can|demons sealed inside]] of them. [[Super -Powered Evil Side|It is a bad idea]] to piss them off. But of course, they get the [[Bullying a Dragon]] treatment.
** They really get to show off their power later on in the manga, {{spoiler|causing blasts that vapourize entire mountain ranges with ease.}}
** Pain manages to catapult himself up to ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' levels of destruction with ease. Not only does he {{spoiler|control 6 different bodies at the same time, each of whom have impressive destructive powers}}, but he also {{spoiler|''completely and utterly annihilates'' the village of Konoha with a single attack that can be best described as a [[Wave Motion Gun]] that uses ''gravity'' to crush the entire town.}}.And he can also use a sphere of '''condensed gravitational energy''' to rip off entire chunks of the earth's surface to form a mini moon.
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* Mahoro of ''[[Mahoromatic]]'' is an extraordinarily powerful [[Robot Girl]] who wields a [[BFG|huge pistol]] and can rip apart [[Humongous Mecha]] with her bare hands. She was created specifically to battle aliens. The trope of her creators [[All of the Other Reindeer|treating her like crap]] is notably averted, as everyone really likes her and are friendly to her, and the fact that {{spoiler|the more she uses her ultimate weapon, the shorter her lifespan is. Has a major part in parts of the plot, where using it could kill her. It eventually does.}}
* ''[[Kyouran Kazoku Nikki]]'' has Gouykouou, whose mere presence on Earth could make it violently explode if he doesn't actively suppress his power. Thankfully, he's the nicest guy anyone will ever meet.
* Several people in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' qualify. Just about any powerful mage could probably take out a good chunk of a city with little trouble. ''Then'' you have the ''really'' strong guys, such as Jack Rakan (accidentally blew up a mountain), Fate (pretty much obliterate an entire city sector with the flick of his wrist), Evangeline (beat the crap out of Fate when they fought), and Nagi (who beat Evangeline with no trouble at all). But the most ridiculous example is Asuna; her [[Anti -Magic]] {{spoiler|actually caused a [[Floating Continent]] to crash, and nearly destroyed the entire Magic World. Even worse is the fact that she didn't intend to do that; other people are capable of harnessing that power.}}
** In-Universe, many people believe Queen Arika to be one of these, thinking she caused a [[Floating Continent]] to crash. {{spoiler|She's actually taking the blame for Asuna}}.
** {{spoiler|Chachamaru}} also counts now that's capable of summoning a [[Kill Sat]] that can take out an [[Eldritch Abomination]].
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* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', in absolute SPADES. Consider that planet-destruction was a normal occurrence by the Saiyan Saga (Piccolo with the moon, Vegeta with Planet Arlia), and that every heroic character becomes infinitely stronger after that... Even [[The Woobie|Krillin]] could probably destroy a planet with a click of his fingers by the end of the Namek Saga, and by comparison to Frieza he's so weak as to not even be a consideration. Perfect Cell claimed to be able to destroy the entire solar system in a single blast with his energy, before Gohan stopped him.
** Then we get to the Buu Saga, by which time not only has every heroic character become so much stronger, Goku almost shakes the planet in two merely by TRANSFORMING into a Super Saiyan 3, and Buu begins to tear holes in the fabric of reality merely by screaming.
* Almost any and all State Alchemists in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. [[Colonel Badass|Roy Mustang]] [[Playing With Fire|burns down whole city blocks by snapping his fingers]]. [[Sociopathic Soldier|Solf J. Kimblee]] [[Having a Blast|blows up neighborhoods by clapping his hands]]. [[Large Ham|Alex Louis Armstrong]] [[Dishing Out Dirt|rearranges the earth's crust by punching it]]. [[Badass Moustache|Basque Grand]] [[Walking Armoury|transmutes entire buildings into weapons]]. [[Shell -Shocked Veteran|Isaac McDougal]] [[An Ice Person|nearly buried Central City in a glacial layer of ice]]. It's worth noting that the Ishvalan civil war--which had been dragging on for seven years--ended within months of Order #3066 going out. What was the order? To weaponize and send in the State Alchemists.
** One of the victims of that order, [[Serial Killer|Scar]], later went on to become another Person of Mass Destruction, gaining the ability to deconstruct matter with a touch. One could argue that many of the [[Artificial Human|Homunculi]] count, due to their regeneration powers, and ability to take down almost anyone, including State Alchemists. [[One -Man Army]] Wrath and Pride definitely count, as does their creator, [[A God Am I|Father]] and his [[Good Counterpart]], [[Big Good|Van Hohenheim]].
*** [[Big Bad|Father]] takes the trope up to the next level; he is so powerful that he is able to ABSORB GOD, and create a sun in the palm of his hand.
* Taken a bit less serious in ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' (obviously) with Hunny-senpai. After Japan's Secretary of Defence watched him [[Curb Stomp Battle|beat the ever loving crap out of his father]] (who was supposedly the greatest martial artist of their great martial art family), he asked Hunny never to fight in public again, lest other countries believe Japan was making a Weapon of Mass Destruction (i.e. this trope). At the time Hunny couldn't have been but 15 or 16.
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** Also used at the end of ''[[Kingdom Come]]'', when {{spoiler|Superman is one of the few survivors of an atomic bomb that takes out a good chunk of the DCU's superhero population. He then sets off towards the UN, fully aware that they're the ones who called in the strike. The UN's collective reaction: "Oh, ''fuck''."}}
* Doctor Manhattan of ''[[Watchmen (Comic Book)|Watchmen]]'' is one of the most blatant examples, having been turned from a career of watchmaking to study nuclear physics by his father and given [[A God Am I|God-like powers]] thanks to a nuclear accident.
* The original 1940s ''All-Star Comics'' had a story where the [[Justice Society of America]] started fighting in the war, logical issues aside. This was [[Retcon|retconned]] to be [[All Just a Dream|a hallucination]] to which they were subjected when captured by psychic supervillain Brain Wave. [[Green Lantern]] was shown horrified at the destruction he had caused in order to defeat the Japanese, uttering the line "I have become death, destroyer of worlds," a quote known for its use by Robert Oppenheimer (originally quoted, [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|incorrectly]], from the Bhagavad Gita) after the first deployment of the atom bomb.
** This was taken further in the [[Elseworld]] story ''The Golden Age'', in which [[Green Lantern]] witnesses the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and, realizing that his power is on par with the atom bomb, puts his ring away and retires in the belief that no human deserves to wield such power. His reluctant return at the end of the story to combat the archvillain is his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|shining moment]], and one of the few times in or out of continuity we truly see how much Alan Scott means to [[The DCU]].
* ''[[Flare]]'' stories, online since the fourth quarter of 2007, feature Marian Press, a literal "Blonde Bombshell".
* The ''[[Wildstorm]]'' universe actually uses the trope name as one of several [[Differently -Powered Individual|generic terms for superhumans]] -- and with ''[[The Authority]]'' around, who can blame them?
** The Authority is, after all, a team where one single member freezes a whole country (on a different world, mind you) in time for a second, effectively teleporting the entire landmass and everyone and everything on it into space. Then they go {{spoiler|kill the thing that accidentally put life on Earth in the first place, and is almost as big as the planet itself.}}
** Jack Hawksmoor even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this at one point, telling the President of the United States something to the point of: "We don't have weapons of mass destruction. We ARE weapons of mass destruction. Don't fuck with us."
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* In the ''[[House of M]]'' storyline in the [[Marvel Universe]], Scarlet Witch ends up becoming one of these, and is somewhat obedient, at first.
* The term is used in reference to [[The Ultimates]] in the first issue of ''Ultimates 2'', after [[Captain America]] single-handedly frees hostages in the Middle East; the world is worried that the US government might start using the Ultimates in politically-motivated conflicts. Gee, ya think?
* [[X-Men|Jean Grey]], in any incarnation when she takes on the codename Phoenix. In the original [[Dark Phoenix Saga]], Jean destroyed a star, snuffing out the billions of lives on an orbiting planet. In the end of that story, she realized [[What Have I Become?|what she would become]] and chose the more tragic option of committing suicide.
** Don't forget "Here Comes Tomorrow", which ends with Jean being able to alter the Universe according to her desire, noting that this is "Phoenix Work" meaning it's something she'll be doing more than once.
* [[The Spectre]]. The Wrath of God, Old Testament-style. Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Annihilated an entire country. And sank modern-day Atlantis.
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* [[Black Adam]], when pissed off, is quite literally a one-man war. He managed to get a good portion of the DCU united against him just to stop him. In the process of his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]], he annihilated ''an entire fucking country''. He also managed to hold off the JLA, the JSA, the Teen Titans, and the Great Ten all at once, not to mention single-handedly killing off the [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] that were sent to kill him in the first place.
* ''[[Kingdom Come]]'' has [[Captain Atom]]'s protective armor torn off, releasing enough radioactive fallout to sterilize several Midwestern states.
** Monarch is effectively Captain Atom's [[Super -Powered Evil Side]], amped up by a factor of 50. When Superman-Prime ripped open his armor, it annihilated a ''universe''.
* In ''[[Supreme Power]]'', Marvel's [[Alternate Company Equivalent]] and [[Deconstruction]] of the [[Justice League of America]], when Mark Milton aka Hyperion (Superman- [[Expy]]) learns that his whole life has been controlled by the United States government, the head of the project discusses what an angry high-powered [[Flying Brick]] could do. To adequately describe the casualty rate that Mark can inflict from THE ATTACK ALONE (not factoring in all the deaths from various infrastructure failures that result from the attack and cut-off supply lines making aid impossible) one researcher uses the term "Mega-deaths". At one point, he is traced by the Richter Scale vibrations he causes with his attacks! They are very graphic in the images as well.
* Depending on the author, Jack of Hearts from the Marvel Universe has been considered this. His powers came from every cell of his body being infused with an experimental power substance called "Zero fluid." Without his suit, designed to channel and control the energy he generates, he would effectively turn into a small sun (he has been [[Retcon|retconned]] enough that this is probably no longer canon).
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* Marvel's ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' was kicked off when Nitro, previously a C-List villain whose power was to "explode", detonated with the force of a low yield nuke. This leveled a small town and brought the attention and ire of the general public down on the heads of superheroes everywhere. (Amazingly enough, at no point in the ''Civil War'' storyline did anyone ever utter the line "It's all Nitro's fault".)
** Unless you count the Wolverine Civil War tie in dedicated to him trying to hunt down Nitro. But the actual main comic itself, yup.
* The [[Marvel Universe]] also has Robert Reynolds, aka [[The Sentry]], who has the power of "[[Up to Eleven|a million exploding suns]]". Easily the strongest individual on Earth (matched only by [[The Hulk]]), capable of [[Flying Brick|flight, super speed, super strength]]; and those are just the powers he uses most often. The [[Superpower Lottery]] made him [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentry_(Robert_Reynolds)#Powers_and_abilities quite rich]... but also ''seriously'' unhinged, with a (very chatty) [[Super -Powered Evil Side]]. Not to mention that at one point he was taking directions from [[Manipulative Bastard|Norman Osborn]].
* [[Solar Man of the Atom]] in both the [[Valiant Comics]] and [[Dark Horse Comics]] versions.
* [[A Distant Soil]] has Seren, Liana, and Jason.
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** The supposed potential to challenge God (or The Other Guy) is one woman's opinion. The potential to "crack the world like an egg," on the other hand, is a physical feat and thus more likely to be an accurate appraisal.
** [[The Chosen One|Rand]] certainly qualifies, having taken out armies all by his lonesome throughout the series.
* In Neal Stephenson's novel ''[[Snow Crash]]'', one antisocial character, Raven, connected himself through a [[Dead -Man Switch]] to a literal nuclear bomb and claimed individual sovereignty. The Aesop appears to be about the elasticity of sovereignty rather than the perils of nukes.
** Mind you, Raven is a very obvious parody of the type of [[Badass]] characters often found in [[Cyberpunk]] fiction. The main character, [[Stephen Ulysses Perhero|Hiro Protagonist]], hangs a big lampshade on him.
* Kurt Vonnegut's 1950 short story ''Report on the Barnhouse Effect'' is about Professor Arthur Barnhouse who develops the ability to [[Mind Over Matter|affect physical objects and events through the force of his mind]]. He becomes the first [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]] with a conscience.
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* Jaenelle as Witch in The [[Black Jewels]] Trilogy by Anne Bishop. Even as a child she had immense power; upon reaching her mature strength, she is estimated to be six to six thousand times more powerful than the most powerful male in the history of the Blood (who once erased an entire culture from existence when his Berserk Button was pushed) and she states that she is so powerful that if she unleashed herself, she would destroy ALL of the Blood; human, nonhuman, and dead.
* In ''[[Night Watch]]'' an exceptionally strong curse can turn the victim into one of these. Usually cursed ones die from a fallen brick or mugger's knife, but when the curse runs out of control, it can result in things like a random gas explosion, sudden outbreak of mutated flu or an unprovoked nuclear attack. On a related note, Others beyond categories are these by default, wielding incredibly destructive powers, including the aforementioned curses.
** The novel ''Day Watch'' appears to be about Zabulon attempting to resurrect a powerful ancient Other named [[Norse Mythology|Fafnir]], whose favorite form is a dragon. However, even someone as powerful as Fafnir, while doing a lot of damage and killing a lot of people, would eventually be stopped by modern human technology. As one character puts it, in a fight between helicopter gunships and a dragon, he'd bet on the gunships. They may not kill Fafnir, but they'd stop him. Worst case, [[Nuke 'Em]] works just as well on the Others as it does on everything else.
*** Also, enchanted weapons (such as submachineguns) work very well against the Others, mostly because it takes more time to cast a spell then to pull the trigger. Which is not to say anything about enchanted remote-controlled guns, which completely surprise the Others because they can't detect them (i.e. machines have no malice, and the operator is too far away).
* [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians|Percy Freakin' Jackson]]. Not only is he capable of destroying entire armies by himself, he also once caused a volcanic eruption that resulted in one million people being evacuated and the literal father of all monsters being released from his prison beneath the volcano. He's so powerful that the [[Big Bad]] singles him out in the sequel series, [[The Heroes of Olympus]], as the key for a blood sacrifice to bring on the gods' downfall.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* All psykers (psychic humans) in ''[[Warhammer 40000 (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer 40000]]'' have the potential to be this, not so much because of their abilities themselves but because they are incredibly vulnerable to [[Demonic Possession]] (which is bad), and are correspondingly treated with paranoid caution (at best) by the unbelievably repressive Imperium.
** The most powerful psykers (class Alpha Plus) can (depending on the type of power they have), mind-control entire cities, incinerate armies or snap a battle titan (the series' [[Humongous Mecha]]) in half with a mere thought. To make matters worse, the minds of current humans aren't built to handle Beta-and-above levels of psionic power, causing most psykers of such power levels to usually be batshit insane, not to mention very short lived, as their presence attracts daemons like flies to honey, usually resulting in them exploding apart in a gory fashion while [[Legions of Hell|reality tears asunder and daemonic legions march forth to slaughter all life on the world]]. One of the very few and most notable exceptions is the [[God -Emperor]] of Mankind, who is beyond superhuman in both body and mind.
** Ork Weirdboyz use a form of magic tied to "Orkiness", that [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|latent gestalt energy]] generated by every Ork, and used by them every day on an instinctual basis to tell the laws of physics to sit down and shut up. Weirdboyz tap into it more directly than other Orks though, channeling it into power blasts or giant feet falling from the sky. The more Orks around the psyker, the more powerful his magic is. There is a catch, however: if there are too many boyz around, or they get too excited, the poor Weirdboy can't handle the sheer amount of power, which can cause his magic to fizzle... or himself to go nuclear. [[Hilarity Ensues|Yuks ensue]].
* Considering ''[[Rifts (Tabletop Game)|Rifts]]'' has rules for playing as a minor god, this should not come as a surprise. However the bar for Person of Mass Destruction is low; anyone in MDC body armor and packing an energy weapon is as durable as many modern armored fighting vehicles. Annihilating a rural village is well within the means of low-level player characters, unless said village pulls [[Superweapon Surprise]] with a supernatural protector or someone hiding a suit of power armor in their shed.
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* ''[[Splosion Man]]'' is practically a [[Trope Namer]].
* Utsuho Reiuji of ''[[Touhou]]'' gained the power to manipulate nuclear fusion, making her a living, breathing <s>atomic bomb</s> ''star'' and, if she were to ever fully harness her power, she would be almost completely unstoppable. Initially she [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|somehow]] got the idea to [[Take Over the World|take over Gensoukyou]]/[[Kill It With Fire|burn it to the ground]], but now she [[Mundane Utility|brings free electricity]] to its denizens.
** [[Cheerful Child]] Flandre Scarlet possesses the ability to [[One -Hit Kill]] ''absolutely anything'' simply by bringing its "eye" into her hand, as well as a [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|lack of comprehension as to the extent of her power]]. She has been basically confined to the basement of Koumakan for almost ''five hundred years'' due to fears of the damage she could cause, and aside from her sister Remilia no-one wants to be anywhere near her.
* Justice from the ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' series is certainly this. Converted into a magic-infused superbeing known as a Gear and intended as a weapon by "a certain major country," she grows to [[Humans Are Bastards|resent and hate humankind]] (despite having been one herself before becoming a Gear), turning on them in a fit of spite and malice. As she also possessed the ability to mentally control every other Gear in the world, it was a very impressive fit. She begins in grand fashion by ''disintegrating the islands of Japan.'' The boss of the next game, {{spoiler|her daughter}} Dizzy, takes up the mantle in ''Guilty Gear X'', though is notably much more benevolent, and in fact fearful of her own powers.
** [[Author Avatar|Sol Badguy]], who Gears were based off of. Gets fed up with his side and kills their Gears.
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* Your (nameless) character in ''[[Crackdown]]''.
* In the backstory of the ''[[War Craft]]'' series, the Guardians of Tirisfal were an order of these. Each Guardian was a powerful mage who, upon growing old, transferred all their magic to their successor. Things go downhill when Medivh, the last one, gets possessed by the demon they were supposed to fight.
** Technically speaking, the Player Character in the offshoot [[World of Warcraft]] is one of these. In terms of storyline, the average level 85 (at the point of levelling to 85, in an obvious case of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]) has, at that point, {{spoiler|foiled several large invasion attempts from Ragnaros and the Qiraji Empire, handed the Black Dragonflight a major defeat, and Toppled Naxxramas (though after the second [[Expansion Pack]] the character does this section in Wrath Of The Lich king)in Vanilla alone.}} In The Burning Crusade, the PC then proceeds to hold back a Demonic Invasion, kill off [[Well -Intentioned Extremist]] Illidan Stormrage, {{spoiler|newly [[Ax Crazy]] Kael'thas Sunstrider, and prevents [[The Dragon|Kil'Jaedan]] from being summoned to Azeroth.}} In Wrath Of The Lich King you proceed to systematically destroy Scourge Strongholds until the titular [[Fallen Hero|Lich King]] {{spoiler|has NO defences against the NPC led army storming his fortress}}, handing ANOTHER defeat to {{spoiler|the Black Dragonflight}}, and killing {{spoiler|[[Ax Crazy|Malygos]]}}, before finally entering Cataclysm content, in which you hand the first defeats to [[Omnicidal Maniac|Deathwing]], preventing a new Troll Empire from rising, and in the latest patch (4.2) foiling another invasion by Ragnaros and his armies from the Elemental Plains. May also tie in with the PC being an in-universe [[Memetic Badass]].
* Yuriko Omega in ''[[Command and Conquer]]: Red Alert 3'' is basically the Japanese schoolgirl version of [[Akira (Manga)|Tetsuo]].
** She can be considered a weaponized version of [[Haruhi Suzumiya|Haruhi]].
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* ''[[Arc the Lad (Video Game)|Arc the Lad]]'' gives us Choko, and {{spoiler|The [[Big Bad]]: he was a normal human who ''willingly'' turned himself into an [[Eldritch Abomination]] and nearly destroyed the biosphere more than once}}.
* Kyrie of ''[[World Destruction]]'' is ''really'' called the {{spoiler|Destruction Code}}. Appropriate, because he can literally {{spoiler|turn everything in the world into sand}}. And he almost does before [[The Power of Love]] says otherwise.
* Jack in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' is basically the setting's equivalent of Starkiller as the product of Biotics [[Playing With Syringes|experimentation]] from [[Well -Intentioned Extremist|Cerberus]]. In her recruitment mission, after releasing her from her cryo-chamber she proceeds to rampage unarmed through the prison station that held her.
* Positron in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' used to be this way for much of the game's history. He suffered an accident during the Rikti Wars that left his massive radioactive powers unstable and forced him to live inside his sealed suit - because not doing so could level an entire city. During the first plot arc of the Top Cow run of the ''City of Heroes'' comic, Lord Recluse drained the powers of all the superheroes and Positron was forced to seal himself within the Phalanx's base because he'd already begun to leak anti-matter. A makeshift attempt to repair his suit in this arc let him function somewhat normally, but he was still a danger to his team until the heroes powers were restored at the end of the arc. He still remained stuck in the suit until the comic's final arc, when an attack by a mutated Hero 1 ruptured his suit and killed him and several of his team mates. The Dark Watcher was able to restore him to life, and resurrection ''finally'' cured him of his instability. This was reflected in the game as well, where Positron now appears without his helmet. Of course, if he were ever to get injured like that again...
* [[FEAR|Alma Wade]], an immensely powerful psychic child who [[Reality Warper|twists and bends reality to her will]] and is outright said to be "the mother of the apocalypse." A nuclear explosion didn't do much to slow her down, either....
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*** In Starcraft 2, {{spoiler|it's revealed that he [[Unexplained Recovery|somehow]] [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|survived]]. We may be seeing more of this from him in the later campaigns...}}
* Omega in ''[[Mega Man Zero (Video Game)|Mega Man Zero]] 3'', used by [[Big Bad|Dr. Weil]] as the instrument for enacting [[The End of the World As We Know It|Elf Wars]]. [[Meaningful Name]] indeed...
** Actually, {{spoiler|Zero himself was designed to be one, by [[Mega Man (Video Game)|Dr. Wily]], who started all of those [[Robot War]] in the series, to eradicate civilization. Fortunately, there's [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|Sigma]]. But come to think of it, as [[One -Man Army|he chopped all the opposition along the way]], what he does now isn't much different...}}
* The Bhaalspawn in ''[[Baldurs Gate]] II'' (both the original and even more so the expansion) are sometimes treated like this, but in this case the characters who do so are somewhat lacking justification for it. A Bhaalspawn can certainly be a [[One -Man Army]] like any high-level character, and getting to high enough levels they can approach this kind of power. But many are just ordinary, unpowered (and un-murderous) people.
* The playable characters in ''[[Alter AILA]]'' are treated like this. While their abilities (in most cases) are really more like [[One -Man Army|One Man Armies]], they're WMD analogues that both the Empire and Rebellion want to control or destroy, and victory in the war will go to whoever gets control of the most [[Super Soldier|Super Soldiers]]. {{spoiler|Black}}, meanwhile, is the real deal, capable of [[Cutscene Power to The Max|one-shotting]] [[Humongous Mecha]]. {{spoiler|Jackals are the result of Imperial research into creating these, and the project led to the destruction of the city they were created in. And that's just the Alpha version; the [[Evil Genius]] has created a more powerful Jackal as his secret weapon.}} And finally, {{spoiler|Aila is an [[Artificial Human]] created from [[Lost Technology]], and is powerful beyond human comprehension. [[Not Hyperbole|This is not a metaphor]].}}
* Ryu in ''[[Breath of Fire]] III'' left a trail of charred corpses in his wake even as a young whelp, the reason the dragon clan never fought back against Myria was that they feared they would become this. In ''[[Breath of Fire]] IV'', when Kaiser is first unleashed it easily devestates an entire village.
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Akaneia]]'', Tiki, the daughter of [[Physical God|Naga]], is stated as having the potential to lay waste to the entire continent if she ever lost her mind; a fate many of her fellow dragons avoided by taking on human forms and becoming the Manakete race. She also became human, though her sheer power still posed a risk to her sanity despite this, and was thus put into a deep sleep by her mother before she passed away. She's eventually awakened some 1000 years later, but frequently forced to sleep until Shield of Seals is repaired, afterwhich she's finally able to live a normal life thanks to it properly containing her power.
* ''[[God of War|Kratos.]]'' [[Unstoppable Rage]] given form. He gave [[One -Man Army]] a new meaning by becoming a one-man ''armageddon''. If anything from Greek myth was left alive by the end of God of War III, it's because ''he hadn't killed it yet''.
* Id from ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]''. Destroying a village by a momentary outbreak, wiping out an entire army, fighting [[Humongous Mecha|Gears]] bare handed...
* [[The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim]] has the Greybeards, who, much like Black Bolt above, have taken a vow of silence because their voices are too powerful. Only one of them can talk to you without making the ground shake. Luckily for others, they [[All Powerful Bystander|stay on their monastery at the world's tallest mountain, not getting involved with Skyrim's problems]]
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** For ''[[Tsukihime]]'' you have Arcueid, who has to use 70% of her power to stop herself from going into an [[Unstoppable Rage]] and even with the remaining 30% can apparently use her Marble Phantasm to pull the moon from 1000 years into the future into the sky for one night. See also: Zelretch, Aozaki Aoko, some of the Dead Apostles and even Shiki if he had the time to actually prep himself before his brain burned out. Example, killing the ''world'' around the entire school area in order to partially depower Arcueid and make her somewhat more vulnerable in Ciel's True End. Imagine if the 'point of death' of the entire world happened to be nearby him.
** ''[[Fate Stay Night]]'' has, surprisingly, {{spoiler|Dark Sakura}} because she has more magical energy than she could ever possibly use no matter what and can summon up apparently infinite giant freaky monster things if she has time. Is also the avatar of the devil. Some of the Servants like Gilgamesh could also probably blow up entire cities in a single blow if they felt like it. Servants tend to be much more about focused destruction than the characters in ''Tsukihime'' though, who cause wide area damage. Aozoki can blow up cities on a whim, for example!
*** Any Servant with an anti-fortress/city phantasm counts, as their phantasm is specifically designed to annihilate a fully-defended castle in one shot. Heck, even an anti-army phantasm probably would count (though on the low end of the scale, being designed to kill hundreds of [[Muggles]] rather than wiping castles and [[Eldritch Abomination|supernatural]] [[Fate Zero|horrors]] completely off the face of the earth.) Also, Gilgamesh can canonically [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blow up the planet]] if he a) [[Pride|ever took anyone seriously]] b) took the time to fully [[EverythingsEverything's Better With Spinning|spin]]-[[Charged Attack|charge]] [[Infinity Plus One+1 Sword|Ea]].
 
 
== Web Comics ==
* Noor and all the outsiders really in ''[[Project 0 (Webcomic)|Project 0]]''. Probably the reason for the [[Fantastic Racism]].
* Black Mage in ''[[Eight 8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|8-Bit Theater]]''. The [[Kamehame Hadoken|Hadoken's]] effects were explicitly referred to as similar to a nuclear explosion when it was first used.
{{quote| '''Thief''': The Thief's Almanac didn't say anything about atomic detonations either...}}
** It is explained early on that Black Mage is actually a nexus of magical energy in human form, which may explain his vast power.
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** And after his fourth and final prototyping, {{spoiler|he enters the Trolls' session and obliterates fourteen more planets. But first he kills the amassed army of robo-Aradias.}}
** {{spoiler|Jade Harley}} in the newer updates. She has all the powers of {{spoiler|a First Guardian}} ''and'' {{spoiler|a God Tier Witch of Space}}. She can shrink entire planets down to the size of tennis balls, and {{spoiler|punches a hole through the Fourth Wall with a ship that she's levitating herself. A ship that she's moving to 'almost the speed of light'}}.
** John drilled a hole into the centre of a ''planet'' using his wind powers, so he could be pretty damn destructive if he wanted to. He also has [[Infinity Plus One+1 Sword|one awesome hammer]].
** While we're on the subject of God Tiers, {{spoiler|Vriska Serket}}, to the point where according to [[The Omniscient|Doc Scratch]], she actually had a decent chance against Jack.
** Not actually demonstrated as yet, but mentioned: {{spoiler|God-Tier Dave}} apparently won the [[Superpower Lottery]] in terms of class, as he's a heavy-combat role with an eminently abusable element. {{spoiler|Aradia could freeze Jack in place with her powers over time. Combine that with Dave's [[Badass|badassery]], habit of [[MesMe's a Crowd|having more than one of himself in the same place at the same time]], and an [[Infinity Plus One+1 Sword]], and you have a recipe for ''absolute destruction''}}.
* Radd, in ''[[Kid Radd]]'', can charge his attack to whatever is the maximum value on the system he's in. In the 8-bit game he's from it's 255. In 12-bit games he becomes a [[Game Breaker]]. {{spoiler|On modern 32-bit systems, his attack could potentially crash the whole Internet.}}
 
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* [[Typhoid Mary]] was a Person of Mass Destruction. She was told, but she never believed she was responsible for those typhoid outbreaks, since she'd never shown symptoms of typhoid herself. After the wave of typhoid fever was traced back to her, she was specifically forbidden from having anything to do with food preparation. So she escaped, changed identity, and went back to making food... and triggered another wave of typhoid.
* Likewise, the spread of HIV in the first decade or so of the AIDS epidemic has been traced back to a specific handful of infectees. Many of the first wave of North American AIDS cases originated with an individual male flight attendant who'd contracted HIV overseas, then scored in dozens of U.S. and Canadian cities where his flights had stopped overnight.
** It's rare, but a few HIV-positive individuals have been brought up on criminal charges for ''deliberately'' passing their condition on to others without their knowledge (which, [[Ripped Fromfrom the Headlines|naturally]], is featured in an episode of ''[[Law and Order]]''). Those who did so with numerous partners may qualify as PMD.
 
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