Villainous Breakdown/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

* Allfather Starr towards the end of ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]''. The abuses and mutilations he suffers over the series in pursuit of Genesis take a heavy toll, to the point where the final story arc has him pointing a gun at the mirror and saying "Doom cock" over and over again {{spoiler|and gassing his advisors when they say they're abandoning the pursuit of Jesse Custer}}.

* Venom (Eddie Brock), in an issue of [[Spider Man]], suffers a villainous breakdown after he recieves a touch of death from another villain. Eddie Brock is unharmed as his body is protected by the symbiote but the symbiote itself seemingly dies as it melts into a lifeless, motionless, puddle. Brock, who up to this point has lost everything and now the only friend he had is dead, breaks down and cries for his fallen partner. Even Spider-Man, who has been stalked and tormented relentlessly by Venom, can't help but to feel sorry for Brock. Although, the symbiote would soon recover.

* Venom (Eddie Brock), in an issue of [[Spider-Man]], suffers a villainous breakdown after he recieves a touch of death from another villain. Eddie Brock is unharmed as his body is protected by the symbiote but the symbiote itself seemingly dies as it melts into a lifeless, motionless, puddle. Brock, who up to this point has lost everything and now the only friend he had is dead, breaks down and cries for his fallen partner. Even Spider-Man, who has been stalked and tormented relentlessly by Venom, can't help but to feel sorry for Brock. Although, the symbiote would soon recover.

* Kingpin in ''[[~~Ultimate Spider Man|~~Ultimate Spider-Man]]''; after being completely in control through the entire series, manipulating everyone and getting away with murdering someone with his bare hands and taping it, his schemes are thwarted by {{spoiler|Daredevil holding the only thing he cares about, his comatose wife, hostage}}. As he's on the way to a flight to leave the country, he has a [[Villainous Breakdown]] during which he orders his henchmen to ''bomb a high school while it's in session''.

* Kingpin in ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]''; after being completely in control through the entire series, manipulating everyone and getting away with murdering someone with his bare hands and taping it, his schemes are thwarted by {{spoiler|Daredevil holding the only thing he cares about, his comatose wife, hostage}}. As he's on the way to a flight to leave the country, he has a [[Villainous Breakdown]] during which he orders his henchmen to ''bomb a high school while it's in session''.

** 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:

{{quote| "You don't understand... I really didn't want to leave you any clues. I really planned never to go back to Arkham Asylum. But I left you a clue anyway. So I... I have to go back there. Because I might need help. I... ''I might actually be crazy''."}}

* In ''[[~~Superman (Comic Book)|~~Superman]]/[[~~Batman (Comic Book)|~~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.

* 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''.

* The second Sabbac over in DC Comics is constantly just on the edge of this. Most of the time he's calm, cocky and sarcastic. But when he doesn't get what he wants, when things don't go his way, he loses it entirely, screaming and ranting as he kills friend and foe alike. Imagine a greedy ten year old with the power to destroy a small nation and you've got Sabbac.

* In [[Sonic the Hedgehog (~~Comic Book~~)|Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic]], {{spoiler|Dr. Eggman}} began to suffer mentally as a result of the constant defeat at Sonic's hands. This finally came forward after his latest defeat, which turned him into a babbling madman. He spent the next few issues in a padded cell, wearing a straitjacket.

* In [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic]], {{spoiler|Dr. Eggman}} began to suffer mentally as a result of the constant defeat at Sonic's hands. This finally came forward after his latest defeat, which turned him into a babbling madman. He spent the next few issues in a padded cell, wearing a straitjacket.

** If you read the issue, its art suggests that Snively is [[What the Hell, Hero?|calling Sonic out]] for putting {{spoiler|Dr. Robotnik, or Eggman if you prefer,}} in that condition to begin with.

*** As well, despite snapping himself out of it, {{spoiler|Dr. Eggman}} has yet to really recover from the moment, going so far as to {{spoiler|leave the Freedom Fighters to grieve at Antoine's seeming death instead of wiping them out right then and there.}} It pisses Snively off so much he pulls a [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]] and decides to handle things ''his'' way again.

Line 19:

{{quote| '''Swordsman''': ...mother.<br />

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

** Later comics in "[[Dark Reign (~~Comic Book~~)|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.

** 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.

** And as of Siege #3, it's happened. Though after all the buildup it was given and the ''masterful'' snap he had in Thunderbolts, readers found this one ( {{spoiler|A painted up face, jeans and a t-shirt under the armor, and nonsensical babbling about how his plans to save everything from the Void had been ruined}}) more than a little underwhelming. The part ''before'' that ( {{spoiler|where he flat-out orders Sentry to bring down ''the entire floating city of Asgard''}}) was much better.

** Even before Dark Reign and Thunderbolts Norman was suffering from breakdowns much more often.

Line 39:

* Long-time ''[[Justice Society of America]]'' foe Vandal Savage had a rather pitiful breakdown during One Year Later when faced with the possibility of imminent death for the first time in his millennia long lifetime.

* [[Big Bad|Overlord]] from [[Transformers Last Stand of the Wreckers]] has the more subdued version. He's a nigh-unstoppable Decepticon [[Dangerous Deserter|deserter]], whose main motive for desertion (or anything) was to goad Megatron into a one-on-one fight. He takes everything the Wreckers throw at him, {{spoiler|even getting reduced to a burning endo-skeleton}} and keeps going...until {{spoiler|Verity tells him that Megatron is dead, and the fight he spent his entire life preparing for will ''never happen''. After that, he doesn't even put up a fight as they cart him off to prison.}}

* In ''[[Y ~~the~~ Last Man]]'', the opium smuggler Yorick befriends and falls for on the journey to Australia justifies her trade by reasoning that humanity is already doomed, and all she's doing is making people's lives easier by giving them an escape from this awful knowledge. Then, she [[Heel Realization|realizes]] that Yorick's survival means that humanity has hope after all, and all she's done is make things worse by creating further misery and despair. [[Driven to Suicide|She doesn't]] [[Redemption Equals Death|take it well]].

* In ''[[Y: The Last Man]]'', the opium smuggler Yorick befriends and falls for on the journey to Australia justifies her trade by reasoning that humanity is already doomed, and all she's doing is making people's lives easier by giving them an escape from this awful knowledge. Then, she [[Heel Realization|realizes]] that Yorick's survival means that humanity has hope after all, and all she's done is make things worse by creating further misery and despair. [[Driven to Suicide|She doesn't]] [[Redemption Equals Death|take it well]].

* During ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (Comic Book)|Legion of Three Worlds]]'', [[Superman|Superboy-Prime]] was a relatively composed [[Smug Super]] ''until'' he realized the Legion planned to bring [[The Flash|Bart Allen]] back to life. Bart is the one person in the universe who Prime actually fears, so he completely flips his lid when Bart returns.

* This happens to [[Sinestro]] in [[Green Lantern]] throughout [[Blackest Night]], more than once. Sinestro, by his [[Knight Templar|nature]], is big on Authority being competent in their actions. So every time he learns new evidence that the Guardians Of The Universe are [[Neglectful Precursors|very, very, very, very incompetent]], he gets... a little upset. It's even worse for him because reminds him how the Guardians painted [[Only Sane Man|Abin Sir]] as a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] for daring to expose said incompetence.