Super Dickery: Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** 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 (Comic Book)|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.

** Issue #59 is another inversion. Earlier in the series, Sonic visited an odd dimension where two men named Horizont-al and Verti-cal lived and comically harassed Sonic. The cover of the issue in question shows them wrestling over a Sega Saturn controller while Sonic and Tails watch from behind the monitor, suggesting another light-hearted romp in their wacky world. {{spoiler|The actual story is much more tragic, as Robotnik's doings back in the Endgame arc caused a mutation of their zone, twisting them into nightmarish mechanical monsters who only live to fight (so while the cover is not deceiving you, the events of the story are far more disturbing). While Sonic and Tails are in their zone, they claim them as pawns and put their own unending battle on hold to let Sonic and Tails battle each other on their behalf. At the end of the story Sonic and Tails free themselves from Horizont-al and Verti-cal's control but are unable to convince the two to stop their feuding, leaving them alone in their zone to fight forever more.}}

* Bill Willingham makes a point in ''Elementals'' about how the silver-age Superman spent all his time saving Jimmy Olsen from dropping packages and preventing Perry from tripping over his shoelaces, while on the other side of the world thousands died of famine and poverty.

** Actually, he's {{spoiler|fighting off the mind control that his mother implanted into his spine after he was injured}}

* 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.

* ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'' starts with a dream sequence in which we see [[Heroic Mime|the protagonist, Serge]], killing one of his friends. {{spoiler|Later in the game, we get to actually see the scene come true, but it turns out that one of the villains had managed to switch bodies with Serge.}}

* ''Kirby's Adventure'' (NES) has King Dedede stealing the Star Rod and breaking it into seven pieces to hide all over Dreamland. Kirby goes on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|roaring rampage of revenge]], only to learn that {{spoiler|Dedede stole the Rod to keep it from the Nightmare that corrupted the Fountain of Dreams and to protect Dreamland. But he decides not to tell Kirby about it.}}

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** An episode of the related webseries ''[[Gotham Girls]]'' ended with Batgirl kicking (an admittedly dickish) Commisioner Gordon off a roof and into the Bat-Signal. {{spoiler|Turns out it was a robot Gordon and she knew it.}}

* The ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "The Runaway" opens with Katara apparently turning Toph in to the authorities, self-righteously claiming that "You brought this on yourself". Then the episode flashes back a few days to show the two characters at odds, with Katara becoming increasingly annoyed with Toph's use of scams and con tricks to make money... {{spoiler|until ultimately Katara decides to take part in a scam herself in an attempt to prove that she isn't purely a goody-goody, and pretends to turn Toph in -- as we saw -- for the reward.}}

* The ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|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.

** 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.}}