Deal with the Devil: Difference between revisions

** In a mild subversion, Mephisto ''doesn't'' bargain for Peter or Mary Jane's souls, and in fact tells them that he stopped making that deal ages ago. That's because the souls of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to save another suffer nobly for all eternity..."and really, where's the fun in that?"

** In ''[[Spider Girl]]'', Spidey's clone Kaine also makes a deal with [[Ghost Rider|the demon Zarathos]] to try and save Daredevil's life after a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. His [[Ill Girl|Ill Boy]] [[Cloning Blues|"nephew"]] ends up a victim of [[Demonic Possession]] instead. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice Job Breaking It, Anti-Hero]].

* Subverted in an early story arc of James Robinson's ''[[Starman (Comic Book)|Starman]]'' for DC where a demonic poster stole the souls of whoever looked at it. The demon offered to return the souls of all he had taken if Starman, the Shade and Matt O'Dare gave up theirs. They agreed and the people were freed but they kept their souls because the demon stated that part of the rules in such bargains was that he couldn't keep a soul offered in a purely selfless act.

* The ''[[XXXenophile]]'' story "Demonstration of Affection".

* A variant occurs in the ''[[Sleepwalker]]'' comics, where the demonic genie Mr. Jyn manifests on Earth by pretending to serve a human "master" and get back at those who wronged him, only to manipulate him into letting Mr. Jyn cause more and more mayhem until the demon is released in the process.

* Subverted (twice) in the novel ''[[Superman]]: Miracle Monday'':

* Brilliantly subverted by the [[Black Panther]], the [[Marvel Comics]] hero. The Black Panther pledged his soul to Mephisto (yes, [[Spider-Man|that Mephisto]]) in exchange for Mephisto agreeing to depower an enemy of the Panther's that he had given great demonic power to. Mephisto lived up to his end of the bargain, and so did the Panther...but when Mephisto tried to claim the Panther's soul, Mephisto found that it was linked to the souls of the Panther God and every single previous Black Panther warrior in existence, whose sheer goodness threatened to destroy him. Mephisto requested that the Black Panther agree to release him from the pact, and the Panther agreed. This is probably one of the only cases where the ''Devil'' is the one who asks that the contract be voided.

* Subverted by Mephisto again in [[Marvel Comics|Universe X]], when he offers Captain America a device that can spirit him away to an extratemporal limbo any time he's in danger of dying. In fact, Mephisto is counting on Cap rejecting it; the real temptation is for the Captain to ''reject offers of help'' and depend on his own abilities to a fault. He dies shortly thereafter, nearly derailing Mar-Vell's plan to defeat Mephisto and Death (and when Cap bats the device away, it activates and sets another temporal [[Xanatos Gambit]] in motion). That Mephisto guy is getting [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] about this sort of thing....

** Morpheus made a deal with [[William Shakespeare]]: in return for bringing out Shakespeare's own latent creativity, Will would write two plays centering around dreams. The first of these is performed for [[The Fair Folk]] (''A Midsummer Night's Dream'') as something of a gift from Morpheus to Titania. At first glance it seems like a real bargain. However, the last panel of the story implies that {{spoiler|the Fae queen Titania's interest in Shakespeare's son Hamnet lead to the boy's death soon after the play was performed for the Fae}}. The second play is ''The Tempest'', written just before Shakespeare died, and is implied in the comic to be about Morpheus himself. After Shakespeare delivers the second play, Morpheus even tells Will what his life would have been like if he had never made the deal.

{{quote| '''Morpheus''': You would have written a handful of other plays, in quality no better than, say, ''The Merrye Devil of Edmonton,'' and then you would have come home to Stratford. You would have taught school, saved a little money. You would have bought a house, let it out, and bought another. You would have made your money in bricks and mortar--enough for your family's coat of arms, enough to make them forget your father's setbacks. You would not have been satisfied with your life; and, from time to time, you would have bored your children with the tales of your years in London, your days on the stage.<br />

* During a late 90s ''[[Superman]]'' arc, Lex Luthor bought out the Daily Planet for the express purpose of shutting it down. Later, Perry White found backers to help him buy the Planet back, rehiring Clark, Lois, Jimmy and the rest of his staff to put out the paper... Only for Lex to sell it to Perry for the price of one dollar. It was later revealed that Lois had secretly brokered a deal with Lex for the sale of the Planet; in exchange, Lois agreed to kill a story of Lex's choice at an unspecified date in the future. It turned out to be a story that would've sunk Lex's presidential campaign.

** Lois gets out of it by telling Clark, who writes the story himself (after all, ''he'' didn't make a deal with Lex).

* ''[[Gen 13]]'': Heroine Caitlin Fairchild resolves a [[Brought Down to Normal]] storyline by making a deal with [[Big Bad|series villainess]] [[The Baroness|Ivana Baiul]]: restore her [[Hot Amazon]] powers now, in exchange for performing one mission for Ivana sometime in the future. The plot hook is left alone until Adam Warren's run, where he has Ivana call in the favor for one issue -- only to reveal that she'd been repeatedly using Fairchild on missions, only to [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|erase her memory of the job, and of repaying her debt, every time]].

* Kicks off the entire plot in ''[[Tanpopo]]'.

* The main character of the novel ''Crawling Chaos Blues'' is a failing blues musician who resorts to trying to make the same deal as the above mentioned Robert Johnson, only instead of the devil, he makes a deal with someone that's arguably worse (the title gives it away).

* In Teresa Frohock's ''[[Miserere: An Autumn Tale|Miserere an Autumn Tale]]'', Catarina made one for her own soul's, and her brother's. She was less able to deliver than she had thought.

* In ''[[Dark Future (novel)|Dark Future]]'' novel ''Comeback Tour'', the version of Elvis that appears as a protagonist is revealed to have previously come close to this, due to his manager being funded / controlled by the series [[Big Bad]], Elder Seth.

* In [[Robert Westall]]'s ''[[Futuretrack Five]]'' the Glaswegian gangster, Blocky, is very heavily implied to have done just this; having come to the point of suicide and then being mysteriously inspired to paint a weird and loathsome painting after seeing a demonic face appear in the mirror. Everything's gone just fine for him thereafter.

{{spoiler|'''Wiegraf'''}}: Help me... I beg you...<br />

'''Velius''': I am Velius... the devil. Your wish is granted." }}

* In the [[Spyro the Dragon|The Legend of Spyro Trilogy]], the Apes made a pact with Malefor to free him from the Well of Souls in exchange for power. Well they work their butts off to free him and he 'rewards' them {{spoiler|by turning them into undead skeletons forever condeemed to live in the dark.}}

* [[Starcraft II]] has this going on between Tychus and Arcturus. No points for guessing who the devil is.