Cardboard Prison: Difference between revisions
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** The cube is a federal penetentiary operated by S.H.I.E.L.D. which originally had been created to hold a specific type of superhuman inmate - aliens. In this case though, it's cardboard quality was entirely the staff's fault. The warden was something of a sadist and bigot, who did illegal experiments trying to brainwash the inmates and use them as weapons. Eventually, after the [[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]], [[Lovable Rogue| Noh-Varr]] (aka the Kree hero Marvel Boy) took over the place and used it as a capital of a new Kree empire. Eventually, he abandoned the place, S.H.I.E.L.D reclaimed it, and it is currently being used as a generic facility for superhuman criminals, with [[Iron Man| Tony Stark]] petitioning for converting it into a more humane facility.
** Pleasant Valley was an attempt by S.H.I.E.L.D. to build a [[Stepford Suburbia]] type of town for noble purposes, a prison that focused on rehabilitation. With the help of [[Cosmic Entity| Kobic (a flawed evolved form of a Cosmic Cube)]] inmates were transformed both physically and psychologically, and then incorporated into this pleasant and serene town, in hopes that they could eventually be reformed. For example, the Absorbing Man was working as a ice cream vendor, the Wrecking Crew became actual construction workers, and Scorcher (ironically) worked as a firefighter. While all this seemed to work at first, the flaw was how much it depended on Kobic. Despite having potentially limitless cosmic power at her disposal, [[Enfant Terrible| she had the personality and naivete of a little girl]]. Thus, when Baron Zemo (potentially the most dangerous inmate, being a high-up leader of [[A Nazi by Any Other Name| HYDRA)]]), and his henchman the Fixer managed to regain their true forms, he started a plan to not only cause a mass break out, but getting revenge on S.H.I.E.L.D. When their coordinated rebellion started, Kobic panicked and fled the town, but this only made the situation worse. Several of the villains formed a posse (led by Kraven the Hunter) who managed to trap Kobic, and Zemo implemented a plan to turn her into a proper cosmic cube and use it to overwrite reality. (Kobic had already inadvertently caused this nightmarish scenario in the ''[[Secret Empire]]'' storyline, Zemo intending to do it ''right'' this time.) Eventually, the villains discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D. was smart enough to use a high-tech surveillance system and a place a force dome around the town, so the bad guys were apprehended, and in this case, Pleasant Valley subverts the Trope by technicality. However, the experience caused Kobic to become disgusted by humans in general (again, this wasn't the first time her experiences with them almost caused a disaster), and left to do some serious soul searching. Thus, it is unlikely the Pleasant Valley community could be continued.
** The Big House (again built by S.H.I.E.L.D.) seems to solve the problem in a unique way. Dr Hank Pym used his expertise of size alteration technology to shrink the otherwise normal prison - with the inmates in it - into the size of a model about 20’ square. Even if the ant size inmates try to escape, where would they go? To make it doubly difficult to escape, they put the model-size prison itself in the brig on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, meaning it is by extension about 6 miles above the ground. Still, a breakout still occured when [[She-Hulk]] visited on behalf of the Avengers and was given a tour. A group of inmates led by the Mad Thinker managed to escape by leaping on to her and hiding in her hair the way lice would. While the villains were quickly apprehended, the embarrassing public nature of the escape caused the Big House to closed down.
*** Later, Pym expanded on the idea by designing a similar prison, with interactions by human guards kept as a minimum, security filled mostly by [[Ant-Man]]'s insect friends, the small number of human guards wearing duplicates of his helmet. The prison is still in use (only one inmate, Titania, has been stated), and was named the Lang Memorial Penitentiary (in honor of Scott lane, the second Ant-Man), sometimes jokingly nicknamed the Ant Farm. For now, this place has averted this Trope, but… [[Tempting Fate| give them time...]]
* "Prison 42", nicknamed "Fantasy Island" by its inmates, debuted in ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]''. It's located in another dimension, accessible only by certain teleporter systems, secure and heavily coded. Many superheroes unwilling to register with the government were locked up there, and were indeed its first inmates. It was supposed to be the final answer to the Cardboard Prison. Naturally, the anti-registration heroes on the outside engineered a mass jailbreak...
** To be fair, many remained there after that and were only freed when Blaastar invaded.
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