Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,442
edits
Superhero Packing Heat: Difference between revisions
m
image markup
m (revise quote template spacing) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m (image markup) |
||
| (7 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:the-
{{quote|'''90s Kid:''' "And one of them has the greatest superpower of all, [[Big Word Shout|GUUUUUUNS]]!"
|''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]''}}
For various reasons, [[Doesn't Like Guns]] is a common thing with comic book style superheroes and supervillains (whether it's ethics, style, or something else). Even before the comics code was written, it was rare to see heroes with guns. Then some heroes who broke this rule caught on, and soon more and more heroes and villains began using guns. This soon became closely associated with the [[Nineties Anti-Hero]], and therefore also [[Discredited Trope|fell out of favor]] when that trope did.
This doesn't have to be just projectile firearms. Lasers will do as long as they are used more like firearms than [[Ray Gun
'''Note:''' To count, a character has to meet two requirements:
Line 13 ⟶ 14:
Compare [[The Gunslinger]], [[Girls with Guns]], [[Heroes Prefer Swords]].
{{examples}}
* The earliest comics featuring [[Batman]] had him using guns. This got retconned moderately quickly once writers realized that having Batman kill all of his adversaries in one issue meant that he'd have no one to fight later and they'd have to rack their brains thinking up new ones too often. Once he started hanging around with Robin and it was revealed his parents had been killed by a gunman, it went away entirely.
Line 25 ⟶ 27:
** Actually the singing cowboy version did pack a pair of six shooters, but was very much a fan of [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands]].
* Also from [[DC Comics]] is [[Wild Dog]], who looks like he ''should'' be a parody of the trope, but sadly isn't.
** Max Allan Collins noted in ''Amazing Heroes'' #119 that he created Wild Dog as a sort of modern update of [[Zorro]], [[The Green Hornet]], and [[The Shadow]], who all predated Superman and Zatara, and Collins carefully distinguished between a costumed hero and a metahuman hero. Collins did not intend Wild Dog as "super".
* Ballistic, one of the "New Bloods" from DC's ''Bloodlines'' event.
* Several of the characters in ''[[Watchmen]]'', notably The Comedian.
* Big Shot from ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' is a parody of this. He would lug around [[BFG
{{quote|'''The Tick:''' Guns and superheroes don't mix. Seek professional help.}}
* [[Hitman (Comic Book)|Hitman]]. His powers are telepathy, X-ray vision, and lots of guns — not necessarily in that order.
Line 43 ⟶ 45:
** And now they have just introduced the Beam Rifle powerset.
* Why [[Badass Normal]] [[Strawberry Death Cake|Jessica]] is so [[Badass]].
* [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]]'s original incarnation had him using guns in addition to his famous shield, since he was a [[Super Soldier]] fighting the Nazis during [[World War II]]. [[Captain America: The First Avenger|His movie]] also aims in this direction (
** [[Bucky]] also used a gun when he took up the identity of Cap.
** Steve has started packing heat again as Commander Steve Rogers, Head of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Line 53 ⟶ 55:
* ''[[Champions Online]]'' contains the Munitions powerset. This includes everything from dual pistols as the lowest level attack (and several higher level ones), through submachineguns, shotguns, assault rifles, a minigun, a rocket launcher, and more.
* The Scarlet Spectre of ''[[Freedom City]]'''s Time of Vengeance campaign, is a B-Level vigilante who, lacking superpowers or [[Crimefighting with Cash|much money]], fought crime with her father's .45 pistol.
* This is of the most obvious ways ''[[The Twelve]]'', a random group of [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] from the last days of World War II, illustrate the [[Values Dissonance]] between their time and ours. A full half of them carry guns, from the [[Badass Normal
* The Crimson Avenger in [[The DCU]]. Both the original in his [[Coat, Hat, Mask]] phase and the [[Nineties Anti-Hero]] successor. The legacy character takes this further, claiming that the original CA's chest emblem during his superhero days wasn't a sun - it was a bullet hole.
* The [[DC Comics]] [[Elseworlds]] story ''[[Superman: At
* Akemi Homura from ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' is a [[Magical Girl]] Packing Heat. No, that [[More Dakka|arsenal]] she carries doesn't come from her Magical Girl powers: she ''stole it from the [[Yakuza]] and the military''.
** Mami also who uses Flintlock rifles, but these are magical.
* Death The Kid from ''[[Soul Eater]] ''has Liz and Patty, who transform into guns.
* Captain Smiley in ''[[Comic Jumper]]'' uses his [[Guns Akimbo]] as his primary method of attack.
* Tombstone from ''[[Freedom Force]]'' has a pair of magical guns as his primary weapons. They fire bolts of electricity to symbolize his death by electrocution in the electric chair.
* Grifter of the [[Wild CATS]] and [[Wildstorm]] Universe, although sometimes possessing psychic powers, usually favoured [[Guns Akimbo]], switching between his [[Ray Gun|VADs]] and a variety of mundane pistols.
* In season one of [[Who Wants to Be a Superhero?]], the Iron Enforcer's gimmick was a [[BFG|incredibly huge cannon]] mounted on his arm. Subverted in that [[Stan Lee|Stan the man]] was never really all that excited over superheroes with guns, let alone huge ones like that, and between his gruff attitude and less than stellar challenge performances he ended up getting the boot. Then on the way out (portrayed as him literally walking out a back alley, when a nearby TV suddenly comes to life) Stan said that he finally figured it out: Iron Enforcer made a lousy hero, but [[Meaningful Rename|DARK Enforcer]] made a ''great'' [[Face Heel Turn|villain]]!
* ''[[Moon Knight]]'' has on ocasion used weapons. But then again, he is a former mercenary and soldier (And in the Ultimate Universe, a former Navy Seal), and is known to be a dark subversion of [[Thou Shall Not Kill]], so its not exactly out of place. Its also one of the characteristics that seperate him from [[Alternate Company Equivalent|that other]] [[Batman|Knight.]]
* [[Savage Dragon]] has superhuman aim that allows him to [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands|shoot without killing]], although he has done so when pressed.
Line 69 ⟶ 71:
* [[The Shadow]] is either a superhero or a proto-superhero depending on who you ask, but he wields a pair of automatics.
* Orson Randall, the former [[Immortal Iron Fist]], uses a pair of handguns, for which Danny Rand, the incumbent, gives him grief. "So you learned your kung-fu from Lei Kung and ''Smith & Wesson''?"
* One of [[Iron Man]] armors, the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit (A.K.A. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|War Machine]]), used a minigun and a chain gun as main weapons. Jim Rhodes will be the main user of this armor, with successive iterations including [[More Dakka|increasingly heavy gun-based firepower]].
** This carries over into [[Iron Man (film)|the movies]]: during the final fight when they're being attacked by drones in [[Power Armour]], Iron Man punches them or uses his repulsors while War Machine just unloads with the cannons.
* Shadehawk, the protagonist of ''[[Antihero for Hire]]''.
* ''Son Of A Gun'' ("Superhero #1") by [[KMFDM]]. Iit's hard to tell what he uses, but it involves massive explosions.
* [[Spawn]] seems able to pull ''any'' sort of weapon, ancient or modern, from the [[Hammerspace]] of his cloak, and has pulled guns from it from time to time.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]
[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Examples Need Sorting]]
| |||