Super Dickery: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|'''[[Innocent Bystander]]''': ''Superman--''don't just ''sit'' there! Stop that ''[[Blob Monster|thing]]'' before it wrecks ''Metropolis!''

 

''For the [[Trope Namer]] website Superdickery.Com, go [[Superdickery.com|here.]]''

 

 

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!

 

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]. Superdickery.com was updated in 2014 to resolve longstanding security issues, but if you're still suspicious, [http://superdickery.tumblr.com the superdickery section has been mirrored on tumblr and expanded], although the links below in the example still lead to the original website.

 

{{examples}}

== [[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!'''

** 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]].

** 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.

*** 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]] who—surprise—came to the same conclusion and tried to get his secret identity. She never ''tells'' Superman that this is her plan, but when he gets back to the present and finds out that she's become fat, he expresses relief that he didn't end up having to marry her. Perhaps Superman is subject to the [[True Name]] effect?

** In ''Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen'' #76, Perry forces the other members of the Daily Planet to go on a death march.

*** 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.

*** 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.}}

* 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}}.

* 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.}}

 

== Film ==

** 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 again—only this time ''an extra shot'' is inserted that wasn't there before: that of a person in the crowd below holding a gun. It all becomes clear: the Doctor was ''trying'' to shoot at the assassin below, but his gun had been tampered with so that he would be unable to hit the assassin. The fact that he figures that out and convinces the investigating officer goes a long way towards clearing his name.

* ''[[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.}}

** 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 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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Coming Attractions]]

[[Category:Paratext]]

[[Category:Cover Tropes]]

[[Category:Corruption Tropes]]