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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''[[Innocent Bystander]]''': ''Superman--''don't just ''sit'' there! Stop that ''[[Blob Monster|thing]]'' before it wrecks ''Metropolis!''
'''[[Superman]] ([[Psychotic Smirk|smiling]])''': That's just what I'm ''waiting'' for it to do!
|Cover of ''The Amazing Adventures of Superman'' #246}}
''For the [[Trope Namer]] website Superdickery.Com, go [[Superdickery.com|here.]]''
[[Super Dickery]] is a widespread tactic in serial fiction. Show a teaser portraying the normally upright hero [[Kick the Dog|acting in an evil and despicable manner]], causing the audience to wonder "Shock! How could this be‽" and then, hopefully, to read/watch/listen to the thing you're advertising.
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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The reason for this trope, however, isn't the writer's intent. During the Silver Age, the covers were designed first, and the writers had to work around that cover that had been drawn without a story.
See also the [[Trope Namer]] website [[Superdickery.com]], featuring whole galleries of delightful examples of questionable behaviour by Superman and [http://www.cracked.com/article_16512_6-worst-comic-book-super-husbands.html other superheroes].
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-06yRkXgDTA This commercial] for ''[[Bomberman 64]]'' (with its ''hilarious'' [[Song Parody]] of the ''[[Spider-Man (1967 TV series)|Spider-Man]]'' cartoon) has the eponymous bomber attacking civilians, even an old lady.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Way, way, ''way'' overdone in the [[Silver Age]] ''[[Superman]]'' comics, to the point where Supes seemed more like some kind of sadist for putting his friends through these situations, even if they were fake. If you look at enough of them, you start to realize that, for many of them, there is ''no possible situation'' that could explain what you're seeing. [[Voodoo Shark|Other than utter lunacy]], of course, because this is the '''SILVER AGE!'''
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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? [https://web.archive.org/web/20150812092936/http://www.superdickery.com/
** 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 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150812085821/http://www.superdickery.com/
*** 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 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150812075329/http://www.superdickery.com/
*** 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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** What's more? In her initial inquiries into his identity, word started spreading and Adam Peterson's house was blown up by the local mafia. Afterwards, she ''kept trying to prove he was Atomicus''.
** There was also a brief mention in another story of a situation that would seem rather familiar; Supersonic, after an adventure that temporarily gave him 16 exact doubles, took his Lois-type girlfriend Caroleen to a dance as Supersonic and had one of his doubles come as his secret identity of Dale Enright. He did this ''just to mess with Caroleen for no reason''.
* A cliffhanger ending in one issue of the ''[[City of Heroes]]'' comic book ([[Recursive Adaptation|yes, a comic book based on an MMORPG based on comic books]]), the [[Badass Normal]] of the super-team depicted in the book was shown killing the team's leader in the last panel. The catch? {{spoiler|He planned to have the man [[Back
* Can be done on-panel: In the "Torn" [[Story Arc]] of [[Joss Whedon]]'s ''Astonishing X-Men'', a depowered Cyclops was casually gunning down villains and talking about it as if completely unconcerned. (This after the previous issue's [[Wham! Episode]] ending of him shooting Emma Frost.) {{spoiler|Turns out he's not crazy: he's the only one who's figured out that they're psychic projections created by a villain to move her [[Evil Plan]] along.}}
* Another on-panel version - the original introduction of the Skrulls had the Fantastic Four doing criminal acts, from the minor to the not very minor (like knocking over an oil rig). Soon after, it's - surprise - really the Skrulls causing trouble.
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*** Complete with him saying to himself "Wait a minute, I thought I was Spider-Man."
*** And later {{spoiler|it's revealed that Mysterio worked for Octopus, who [[Batman Gambit|planned the whole thing]] in order to frame Spidey to accomplish his [[Evil Plan]] without being disturbed.}}
* In issue #11 of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' comic book, Ned Flanders gets lost during a camping trip, and when he comes back, he acts like a criminal, doing such things as robbing a bank and [http://image2.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/74825684594.11.GIF using a slingshot to knock Bart off his skateboard on the cover]{{Dead link}}. {{spoiler|It's not really him - it's a clone manufactured by Kang, Kodos, and Sideshow Bob.}}
* The cover to issue #28 of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' depicts Sonic having just beaten up the other Freedom Fighters and being commanded by Robotnik to finish them off. However, the apparent dickery here is kind of made not that suspenseful by the fact that this was printing the second half of a two-part, and therefore if you read the previous issue, then you know that {{spoiler|Sonic is just [[Criminal Amnesiac|suffering amnesia and thinks he's on Robotnik's side]].}}
** The more recent #203, has [[Hollywood Cyborg|Bunnie]] pinning Sonic under her foot and preparing to blast him with her arm cannon, complete with the caption "Bunnie Gone Bad?!". Actually reading it reveals {{spoiler|the Iron Queen, being a techno-mage, has taken control of her cybernetic limbs and is forcing her to fight the others}}. They did the same thing next issue with Monkey Khan, though, like the above example, it's not at all suspenseful if you've read the previous issue. {{spoiler|It has almost the same explanation as Bunnie's}}.
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* This trope in Silver Age Superman covers is given an amusing nod in ''Masterpiece Comics'', a parody book that has famous literary works in the style of comic strips and comic books. The retelling of ''[[The Stranger]]'' has Superman standing in for Mersault, and the novel is told through a series of what look like Silver Age Covers. Thus, the dickish things Mersault does in the book are a close (if exagerated) parallel to the kind of things Superman would be shown doing on the cover.
* ''[[Sleepwalker]]'' did this in-story at the end of one issue. A mob of bizarre alien "mindspawn" who all strongly resemble Sleepwalker are invading New York City and killing the innocent bystanders. The issue ends with Sleepwalker seemingly destroying and absorbing Rick Sheridan's mind, with the final caption asking if Sleepwalker is a [[Super Villain]]. It's later revealed that {{spoiler|Sleepwalker actually absorbed Rick's mind in a special weapon to protect him from being killed by the mindspawn, who really ''were'' going to kill him. Sleepwalker knew that if he tried to fight the mindspawn, Rick could have gotten hurt in the crossfire. This way, he could both keep Rick's mind safe and ingratiate himself with the mindspawn, which allows him to free their human prisoners.}}
* The cover of ''Tales of Suspense'' #58 (October 1964)--which shows Iron Man fighting Captain America--[[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this trope:
{{quote|"Why are these two gallant allies '''battling''' each other to the bitter end?...Mainly to get you to buy this mag and see the answers inside! (If we can't always be clever, we can at least be honest!)"}}
== Film ==
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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: The Original Series/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: The Original Series/Recap/S2/E01 Amok Time|Amok Time]]" ends with Spock apparently killing Kirk. The trailer for "[[Star Trek: The Original Series/Recap/S2/E04 Mirror, Mirror|Mirror, Mirror]]" doesn't mention the [[Mirror Universe]] concept, etc.
* In an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'', Tuvok enters the mess hall and, driven just an inch too far by [[Alien Scrappy|Neelix's relentless good cheer]], [[Beware the Nice Ones|strangles him to death]]. It turns out to be [[All Just a Dream|a holodeck simulation]]; Tuvok was having difficulty controlling his emotions after [[Mind Meld
** In the ''Voyager'' episode "Worst Case Scenario", the Maquis stage a mutiny and Torres joins them, but it turns out to be a holodeck simulation; Tuvok set up the simulation to counter a possible rebellion from the Maquis crew that had joined Voyager's crew, but the two crews integrated so well that he decided not to finish the simulation.
** In "Living Witness", the episode starts with Janeway declaring that "violence is the Starfleet way", and Voyager participating in an alien civil war, oppressively putting down a rebel faction. This turns out to be a simulation created by a museum curator many years in the future, painting Voyager's crew in a negative light. When a back-up of the holographic Doctor is discovered, the Doctor helps the curator sort out what really happened.
* This is sort of a version of this trope: The ''[[House MD]]'' season 6 finale begins with House sitting in a bathroom, opening a bottle of vicodin, and we're all, "WHAT, WHY DAT VICODIN?!". The narration then goes back to the beginning of the day. In the very end of the episode, the situation is pretty much what it looked like in the opening of the episode, {{spoiler|but Cuddy shows up, having broken up with Lucas, and wants to try a relationship with House, just preventing him from taking the pill.}}
* ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]'': In "The Night of the Turncoat," a mysterious villain sets Jim up in various situations that are meant to make him look bad (like hiring a man to play a priest claiming Jim attacked him). Jim’s dickish response to his confused boss and partner make things worse until he’s finally fired by Richmond and punches out Artemus. However, after the first commercial break, we learn that all the good guys had the villain’s plan (to alienate Jim from the Secret Service so the agent would work for him) figured out from the beginning and staged Jim’s break-up from the government and Artemus so he can be a [[Fake Defector]] and see what he's up to
** Similarly "The Night of the Skulls" which opens with Jim shooting Artemus dead. After the credits, we find out it was all staged to find the person who's recently been kidnapping murderers.
* The episode "Bad Blood" of ''[[The X-Files]]'' opened in a forest at night with a terrified chubby guy being pursued and ultimately killed by a tall man in a dark suit... who is then revealed to be Mulder, with Scully running behind trying to stop him. Cue one of the [[Breather Episode|funniest]] [[How We Got Here]], [[Rashomon Style]] plots ever filmed.
* One [["On the Next..."]] segment for ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' made it look like Walter was about to be shot by another member of the team. IIRC, the shooter was actually firing at a booby trap set by the perp, to destroy it before it could kill Walter.
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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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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Coming Attractions]]
[[Category:Paratext]]
[[Category:Cover Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Super Dickery]]
[[Category:Corruption Tropes]]
[[Category:Super Title Index]]
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