Super Dickery: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''[[Innocent Bystander]]''': ''Superman--''don't just ''sit'' there! Stop that ''[[Blob Monster|thing]]'' before it wrecks ''Metropolis!''
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You look at the cover to the newest issue of your favorite comic, and what do you see? The [[Superhero]], apparently ''killing'' his [[Sidekick]] and his [[Loves My Alter Ego|love interest]]! Or, [["On the Next..."]] episode of the new prime-time TV series, the main character goes bad, selling her team out to the [[Big Bad]] and shooting the [[Plucky Comic Relief]] in the face!
So, you buy it, or watch it, and as the plot unfolds... it turns out, of course, that the good guy wasn't a bad guy after all. They were a [[Reverse Mole]], a [[Secret Test of Character]], or [[Not Himself|Not Themselves]], or [[Shapeshifting|really not themselves]], or were just playacting, or had learned that if Jimmy had gotten what he wanted for Christmas, it would have resulted in the destruction of every possible universe. It is also entirely possible that it was an "imaginary story" or otherwise [[All Just a Dream]]. Sometimes, the story [[Cliffhanger Copout|flat-out ignores]] elements on the cover. You should have known that [[Covers Always Lie]] and you can [[Never Trust a Trailer]], but you were pulled in... by
Warning: [[Silver Age]] comics did have a tendency to induce [[Comedic Sociopathy]] in characters, alongside the strange plot devices and twists. This means that even if Superman wasn't as evil as the cover made him sound, the reader might still have to say "what a dick!" at the end of the story.
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** It's not just Superman who had this happen to him, either. There were plenty of covers involving Jimmy Olsen or Batman giving away the secret identity of/imprisoning/refusing to help/killing Superman.
** One peculiar but common thread through these comics is that Superman spends most of his time ensuring that [[Sidekick Glass Ceiling|nobody else has powers like his.]] If a reason is even given for this, it's because [[The World Is Not Ready]]. Superman has clearly decided he is the only arbiter of truth, justice, [[Liberality for All|and various national ways]].
** Lois Lane is being blackmailed, and what's Supes' response? [http://www.superdickery.com/superman-blackmailer/ Impersonate her blackmailer] because he simply ''must know her terrible secret''. This leads to a bit of actual ''story-within-a-story''
** All too often, though, the torment of another character by Superman (often someone he's supposed to be friends or loved ones with) really does occur, and for no apparent constructive reason at all. In one silver age comic, Superman puts Lois Lane (You know? The love of his life?) through an embarrassing and gut-wrenching physical transformation without her permission, allegedly to keep a crook from recognizing her. Of course, even supposing that reason held any water at all, that still doesn't excuse how Superman pretends not to recognize Lois immediately after the transformation, and even out-and-out insults her on her appearance.
** It should be noted that while many Silver Age stories had Superman being a dick, many had his friends being dicks to ''him''- Lois Lane (and Lana Lang, when he was Superboy) constantly tried to prove that Clark was Superman, on the assumption that he would ''have'' to marry her once she did! He also had to constantly save them from danger that they put themselves in recklessly. The latter was also a problem with Jimmy Olsen. So it was really a mutual thing. About the only regular character who wasn't a dick was Perry White, despite his gruff behavior.
*** Of course, he'd never marry either of them, for [http://www.superdickery.com/a-brutal-sort-of-honesty/ this reason]. And, of course, is totally a dick in explaining it.
*** Bizarrely, the whole prove-his-identity-to-get-him-to-marry-me bit seems to have been valid for Superman. A comic in which he went back in time to get away from Lois and Lana had him meet [[Third Option Love Interest|another girl]]
** In ''Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen'' #76, Perry forces the other members of the Daily Planet to go on a death march.
** Of course, the covers do tend to [[Covers Always Lie|exaggerate the apparent dickery]]. For example, on [http://www.superdickery.com/supergirls-farewell-to-earth/ the cover of Action Comics #258], the Man of Steel banishes [[Supergirl]] off the planet, his rationale being, "I'm sorry to end your career, but you're a failure as Supergirl! I must exile you to another world!" In the actual story, it's far more
*** Exaggerate? Some of the covers flat-out ''lied''. "The Miracle of Thirsty Thursday"'s cover shows Metropolis citizens dying of thirst whilst Superman stands before a gushing fire hydrant and explicitly denies water to everyone. Of course, a thoughtful reader may assume that the clarifying context is that the water is in some way contaminated and that Superman is protecting them. In this case, however, the "context" is that the cover is a lie: in the actual story, citizens of Metropolis are affected by a serum that creates an ''aversion'' to water, and Superman has to come up with a means to make them drink.
** Another aspect of comic books during that age was that the audience was primarily children 6-12, and many of the stories would feature incidents that would speak to them - such as being punished via spanking. To an adult's eyes, it would seem... ''bizarre'' (and kinky in some cases), but to a child, it would be a real threat, as would being made fat, losing a parental figure, and so on.
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* An episode of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' which featured Teyla impersonating a Wraith queen came with commercials trying very hard to imply she'd gone off the reservation and wanted to wipe out the Atlantis crew. {{spoiler|The episode itself contains not even the ''hint'' that this is a possibility, and her "Destroy that ship!" lines from the commercials were directed at another Wraith hive.}}
* Can any ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' fan forget Merlin's brutal assassination attempts on Arthur? And his [[Foe Yay|somewhat aroused expression]] just before, after, and heck ''during'' these attempts?
** The [[Ho Yay|(more than usual, at least)]] UST is easily
* An episode of ''[[Sanctuary]]'' opened with Will killing Magnus by cutting off the air to her compartment of the sub. {{spoiler|He actually does kill her, then the episode goes back in time to explain why, including his debating with her about it. He then works very hard to bring her back after the bug infecting her has left.}}
** Happens again in the teaser of "Veritas" with Will finding out that Helen apparently killed the Big Guy {{spoiler|turns out it was all a [[Batman Gambit]] to flush out a bad guy.}}
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'''Castellan:''' Indeed, sir.
'''The Doctor:''' Except power. }}
** This trope was also used in another Fourth Doctor serial, ''The Deadly Assassin''. In Part 1, the Doctor experiences a vision of the Time Lord president being assassinated. Arriving on Gallifrey, he determines to prevent this from happening. He heads to the balcony overlooking the room where the murder is to take place so that he will be able to see what's going on, and finds a gun lying there. The Doctor picks up the gun, sights along it, and fires. The president falls over, dead! Cut to credits! In Part 2, as is standard in ''[[Doctor Who]]'', we see the last minute or so of the previous episode over
* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' did this with the episode called "The Enterprise Incident". Kirk, seemingly against Starfleet orders, invades Romulan space and gets the Enterprise captured. Spock then betrays the ship by siding with the Romulans, and testifies that Kirk has gone insane from the pressures of command, before killing Kirk in self defense. {{spoiler|This all turns out to be a plan set up by Starfleet to allow Kirk and Spock to steal a Romulan cloaking device, while providing Starfleet with plausible deniability should the deal go south.}}
** The old ''Star Trek: Next Voyage'' previews sometimes used this trope. For example, the trailer for "[[Star Trek/Recap/S3/E24 Turnabout Intruder|Turnabout Intruder]]" doesn't really explain that a [[Freaky Friday Flip]] happened and goes from there. Similarly, the trailer for "[[Star Trek/Recap/S2/E01 Amok Time|Amok Time]]" ends with Spock apparently killing Kirk. The trailer for "[[Star Trek/Recap/S2/E04 Mirror Mirror|Mirror, Mirror]]" doesn't mention the [[Mirror Universe]] concept, etc.
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** There's also the [[Grand Finale]], where {{spoiler|Zuko suddenly attacks Aang because he thought the rest of the group was wasting time hanging around on the beach when the comet was coming in a couple days}}.
* Not to break with tradition, for the [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'', the opening shows the conquest of an alien planet by Superman, in the name of [[Darkseid]].
* [[Supergirl]] herself demonstrates supreme
** There's also the opening where Superman kills Lex Luthor, who is the president of the United States, and proclaims he doesn't want to be a hero anymore. It was the [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]] moment of an ''[[Alternate Universe]] Superman'' who became a tyrant as a consequence.
* ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' episode "Opening Night" has a particularly bizarre "usually [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]-to-hero" example: The opening shows Norman Osborn, Captain Stacy, and J. Jonah Jameson locking Spidey in a high-security jail-cell. The very first scene of the actual episode shows... he's there willingly, and this is just to test the security as a favor. (Of course, Jonah's still a dick about it.)
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* The ''[[Gargoyles]]'' episode "Revelations'' begins with what looks like [[Agent Mulder|Matt Bluestone]] having betrayed [[The Hero|Goliath]]. However, {{spoiler|it was all just a plan to expose the Illuminati}}.
** Elisa gets it when she suddenly starts acting more irritable and violent, until she quits the force to join the mob. Of course, she's really undercover the whole time.
* In the pilot for ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'', Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash find Superboy imprisoned in a stasis pod and they opt to free him. Once they do, he beats them all unconsious immediately. Kid Flash [[What the Hell, Hero?|calls him out]] for this
** Probably doesn't fit this trope, though; this was literally the ''first'' thing Superboy ever does, after all. He was a clone of Superman created by villains, so if you just focus on this series without all the comic continuity there isn't necessarily any reason to believe he ''wouldn't'' just be an [[Evil Twin]] who willingly works for [[Light Is Not Good|the Light]].
** The episode ''Image'' opens with Batman, Green Arrow and Black Canary watching a recording of Black Canary and Superboy sparring and starting [[Hot for Teacher|to kiss passionately]]. {{spoiler|After the title credits it turns out it's actually Miss Martian taking on Black Canary's image.}}
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