Villainous Breakdown/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

** The further bitter irony here is that the ordered bomb is intended to kill Spider-Man... {{spoiler|when it was Spider-Man who talked Daredevil down from killing Kingpin's wife out of sheer desperation, thus saving her life.}}

* Riddler has a rather nice one in an issue of ''[[The Batman Adventures|Gotham Adventures]]''. After escaping Arkham he decides that the best way to beat his urge to commit crimes and leave riddles (thus guaranteeing that Batman will eventually catch up to him) is to solve crimes himself and leave Batman riddles pertaining to ''them''. After catching several wanted criminals thanks to the Riddler's hints (which you'd think would be convenient enough that he wouldn't be in such a hurry to end it), Batman figures out that all the clues contain part of a hidden riddle which leads him right to Riddler. Upon learning that his psychosis is so deep that he left Batman a clue without even realizing it, Riddler freaks out, screaming about how impossible it is. Then he comes to his senses:

* In ''[[Superman]]/[[Batman]]'', when [[President Evil|President]] Lex Luthor's scheme to smash a Kryptonite asteroid into the Earth fails, Luthor (who was the U.S. President at the time) uses a variant combination of the "super-steroid" Venom (a chemical associated with the Batman villain Bane), liquid synthetic Kryptonite, and an Apokoliptian battlesuit to go on a violent rampage. This, unsurprisingly, gets him impeached.

** He gets a worse one in a recent story in ''[[Action Comics]]''. After traveling across the planet and in space in an attempt to regain something like the Orange Lantern Power Ring, Luthor gains the powers of a creature from the Phantom Zone and proceeds to use it to torture Superman. Once he finds out that Superman is Clark Kent, though, he ''loses it''.

** "Norman will do what it takes, he won't mind. Norman will make [[The Gwen Stacy|the girl]] [[Retcon|pregnant]] then [[Not the Fall That Kills You|snap her neck in public]]."

** It gets [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|even better]] when he finally gives in and becomes the Goblin again.

'''The Green Goblin''': YOU DIDN'T HAVE A MOTHER! A pig coughed, and you fell out! }}

** Later comics in "[[Dark Reign (comics)|Dark Reign]]" made it pretty clear that for all Norman's [[Villain with Good Publicity]] act, he was most of the time a hop, sklp and jump away from a full psychotic breakdown. And having to maintain a good public reputation as the head of the Initiative only helped slowly push him closer to one. As was particularly cruelly lampshaded in a [[Hannibal Lecture]] delivered to Norman by the Molecule Man, it was a default position amongst the main players of the Marvel Universe that it wasn't not so much a question of "Will Norman crack under the strain?" as "''When'' will Norman crack under the strain?" Several of them were waiting for his breakdown since he first took power.

* Joe Dalton tends to go through one of these whenever someone mentions the name [[Lucky Luke]] in his presence. Usually inverted, as it tends to happen at the beginning of an episode, and as soon as he regains his calm, he devices a plan to break out of the [[Cardboard Prison]], starting the plot.

* In the recent Garth Ennis ''[[Dan Dare]]'' mini-series, the Mekon uses his grand finale battle with Dare to vent some long pent-up grievances:

* [[The Joker]] suffered a truly epic one in ''Emperor Joker''. Let's recap: He steals [[Reality Warper|Mr.]] [[Great Gazoo|Mxyzptlk's]] powers, turns the ''entire universe'' into his playground, his abuse of the power begins the [[Endofthe World As We Know It|end of Time, Space, and Existence]], and he tears Superman's heart out and eats it. {{spoiler|As he lies dying, Superman dares Joker to kill Batman. Joker does so, but right after he does, Batman reappears, good as new. Confused, Joker tries it again and again, growing increasingly frantic as Batman repeatedly comes back, going as far as to [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|beg the writers and artists to let him finish Batman off]]. Superman [[Hannibal Lecture|taunts him, revealing that despite having all that power, Joker is still nothing but a clown, unable to do anything useful with his life and needing Batman to have any purpose at all]]. As Joker breaks down, Mxyzptlk uses the opening to take his powers back and fix everything.}}

** Before that, Joker loses his temper when he uses his [[Reality Warper]] powers to torture Superman, but Supes won't go crazy or slip past the [[Despair Event Horizon]] no matter what he does.

(''brings Superman back to life, more torture'') Phooey! Phooey! '''Phooey!''' To hell with this stupid broadcast! No one is following the script! I want everyone back the way they were before! '''Phooey!''' Superman wasn't '''breaking!''' }}

** A truly heart-wrenching [[Legends Of The Dark Knight]] story titled "Going Sane" recounted how an epic fight between the Joker and Batman ended in the Dark Knight's (apparent) death. ''Victory'' freaked out the Joker so badly that his then-current personality...dissolved. Melted away, leaving a sweet, gentle man who loved old-time radio comedy and who pondered "finally getting something done about this skin condition..." By the end of the story, one actually felt ''sorry'' for the Joker!