Invincible Hero: Difference between revisions

* Yugi of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' has "lost" only five times, and only once 'fairly.'

** [[Lampshaded]] of course in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'':

'''Yugi''': As I explained earlier, I'm the main character. You, however, can just go right ahead and die. }}

** To take it a bit further, Yami!Yugi ({{spoiler|AKA Atem}}) only lost one legit game in the manga, and that was to {{spoiler|Normal!Yugi}}.

* [[Superman]], with a few exceptions, such as never being able to beat archvillains such as [[Darkseid]] or [[Lex Luthor]], though that's mostly due to [[Joker Immunity]].

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in a comic where he competes against another super-hero character who {{spoiler|is dying because of a method he used to rejuvenate himself. Superman's friends point out this strange energy and Superman reveals what he has learned. Because his opponent cheated, his opponent}} technically loses, making Superman remark "When you're Superman, what's one more victory?"

** [[Grant Morrison]] has saved him from this multiple times by making him the [[Showy Invincible Hero]] and [[Rule of Cool|making him fun to watch.]] The [[All Star DC Comics]] run being the most prominent example.

*** Also prominent early in JLA's run where Superman briefly muses that he isn't sure if he lives up to his legend. Pages later he restores the Moon's orbit by giving it magnetic poles. Later still, while he's battling the archangel Azmodel:

*** And all this while the League is dealing with the actual [[Big Bad]]. He got Superman out of the way as the writers often have to do in league stories, but gave him cool stuff to do.

**** How To Write Superman Well is summed-up in ''one word'' in the aforementioned angel-wrestling scene:

'''Superman:''' "'''NEVER!'''" }}

** Speaking of supporting characters, one of the reasons (non-[[Silver Age]]) Superman usually ''isn't'' described as a [[Canon Sue]] is from the focus of the tension being more on danger to other people rather than danger to Superman. While Superman himself is near-invulnerable, saving loads of people at once is usually made extremely difficult, making the readers concerned about the people Superman can't save and its emotional effect on him.

* The title character of ''[[Ip Man]]'' [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomps]] all his enemies, but the choreography is tight enough to <s> minimise</s> eliminate boredom. More likely a [[Showy Invincible Hero]]. Brutally subverted in the sequel, where {{spoiler|the Twister actually knocks him down several times and the final victory is very much hard-won.}}

** While Ip mows through everyone else in the first film the [[Big Bad]], while outclassed by Ip, does manage to hold his own for at least half of the final fight, get in a few licks of his own and comes close to winning by [[Ring Out]] a couple of times.

* 'Bone' in ''Blood and Bone'', even more than most of the heroes on this page. The only reason an opponent ever gets in a hit that actually leaves a mark is so he can get patched up by his [[Sassy Black Woman]] landlady and give her a Tai Chi lesson. It doesn't matter how many opponents he has, or what weapons they have, he pwns them. At least the other examples lose a fight or at least look like they might at times. Not Bone.

* ''[[Rocky Balboa]]'' has an in-world example. The fight between the nearly 60-year-old Rocky and current champ Mason Dixon is set up because Dixon's undefeated streak is making the sport boring.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** Although he only ever actually got into two actual direct fights (and did win both) Physically he's not really that tough. Mentally however, you give him an army, you WILL win every battle.

* ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' plays with this trope. In earlier novels the ultimate victories are Honor's. She wins at great costs to her crew and ship, but always does the major turning in the end. However, as Haven becomes better characterized, she often just survives [[Pyrrhic Victory|Pyrrhic Victories]]. Until she ultimately spends a year in a POW camp.

** Ultimately the original storyline was to [[Heroic Sacrifice|kill]] Honor in 'At All Costs' to fulfill her role as Horatio Nelson [[Recycled in Space|In SPACE!]], which would have resulted in the second trope.

* Matthew Sobol's [[Daemon]] from Daniel Suarez' books skirts this trope closely in the first book because of the incredibly complicated [[Gambit Roulette]] Sobol puts into place that apparently comes off without a hitch. It's justified by the fact that Sobol put lots and lots of redundancy and backup plans into the system, but that shifts the [[Invincible Hero]] status to Sobol. Although he is an [[Invincible Villain]] in this case. {{spoiler|[[Necessarily Evil|Or is he?]]}} However, there is still enough risk and danger to the plan from all sides to prevent it from ever being ''boring.'' The sequel ''Freedom(tm)'' ramps up the action to put serious question into the ''Invincible'' part as well.

* Not a person, but a whole organization: The Service in James Blish's ''The Quincunx of Time''. As the prologue points out:

(b) [[Curb Stomp Battle|the Service had been ready]].<ref>With three times as many ships as the enemy armada, perfectly positioned to enfilade it as soon as it broke from cover.</ref><br />

By now, it was commonplace that the Service was always ready. It had not had a defect or a failure in well over two centuries. }}

* Michael Westen in the early seasons of ''[[Burn Notice]]'', at least in regards to his non-spy [[Villain of the Week|Villains Of The Week]]. His skills and resourcefulness so vastly outclass his opponents that there simply is no dramatic tension. It's a measure of Mike's usual invincibility that the most effective scene in the series showed him nearly whimpering in the face of one more, notably galling injustice. Of course, Michael's more serious opponents put up a better fight, and "beat" him several times. In later seasons, Michael is less invincible, as his plans often hit a major bump halfway through (often because the client does something stupid) that leaves him racing to regain control of the situation.

** Michael's invincibility was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|hilariously]] by a member of a Russian assassination squad in Season 4's "Past and Future Tense"

** Also subverted in the very first episode, where Westen's beaten badly enough that he has bruises for days after, which he shows to a client to point out that no amount of training renders you immune to an ass-kicking.

** The trope isn't played perfectly straight in the first season. In one episode, Michael has to take on a bounty hunter who is noticeably larger than he. In the commentary, the show's creator and Michael's actor say they wanted to put him in a fight he simply couldn't win. [[Captain Obvious|He doesn't]].

* ''[[Oban Star-Racers]]'' averts this so much it can be considered an inversion: the Earth team seems to get by winning as few races as possible. At least one time their continuation verged on a match ''they weren't even in''.

* Lampshaded and mocked in ''[[Futurama]]'' when Fry [[Stylistic Suck|writes a superhero comic]];

'''Fry:''' That's because he was [[Spider-Man|bitten by a radioactive]] [[Superman]]! }}

* [[Captain Ersatz|The Silver Skeeter]] in ''[[Doug]]'''s comic book episodes: He's made of liquid metal (thus [[Nigh Invulnerable]]) and can fly through space on his skateboard, which is extremely overpowered compared with Quail Man's intellectual "powers of the Quail." Doug, frustrated that Skeeter's [[God Mode Sue]] is taking over his story, calls Skeeter out with this trope.