Snark Free Theme Day for 6/10/05
Today's theme is "When some trick occurs to make it look like the villain won, but in reality, the villain did not win"!!!
1. The first one is Alan Moore's classic Superman Annual - "For The Man Who Has Everything," which showed the villain Mongul attempting to mess with Superman (on Superman's birthday, no less! The indecency of some people!) by attaching a plant to Superman which gives the person their fondest wish, but also transfixes them into a vegetative state for the rest of their lives.
The day is saved, and Mongul finds himself trapped by the plant, as the end of the issue details Mongul thinking that he has won the day and killed lots and lots of people.
2. Next, we have the Giffen/DeMatteis era of the Justice League, and a pitched battle between the League and Despero. The League is hopelessly outmatched by Despero, so the Martian Manhunter has to use his "can only use one time" Martian gift of "mayavana," which is basically like a Martian acid trip, where it tells your brain that the nicest thing ever has occured. This is usually designed as a present between loved ones, but J'onn is willing to use it FOR his loved ones (the League, natch) to trap Despero.
We see Despero reveling in destroying the world, basically.
3. When Manchester Black first showed up on the scene with the rest of his Authority-analogues, the Elite, Superman defeated them in such a manner that it APPEARED as though he had sunk to their level to stop them. But he had not. He tricked them into THINKING that he did.
Well, awhile later, Manchester Black returned the favor (in a variation of the theme), he tricks Superman into THINKING that Manchester Black killed Lois Lane. Superman freaks out, and is going to kill Manchester, when he pulls back - not willing to kil for any reason.
Manchester reveals his plot - he was going to force Superman into killing him - and then reveal that Lois was still alive, just to mess with Superman's mind...but, upon failing, Manchester just killed himself.
4. During the silly Twelve storyline, Professor Xavier needed to know that all the X-Men were themselves, and not Skrulls (as it had turned out that Wolverine was a Skrull at the time). So he devised a plan that forced all the X-Men to fight against each other and ultimately kill each other off, just to make sure no one was a Skrull.
Yeah...that really was the plot.
5. Finally, in the last storyline before Grant Morrison took over - Eve of Destruction, Jean Grey and a ragtag team of X-Men tried to stop Magneto's plans to take over the world (with an army of newly healed Genoshan mutants). At one point, it appeared as though Magneto killed Dazzler, but it all turned out that they had freed Professor Xavier, so that it was all in Magneto's head.
And then Wolverine stabs him in the chest.
Nice.
Anyone have any OTHER comics to add to this theme?
Please do so!
1. The first one is Alan Moore's classic Superman Annual - "For The Man Who Has Everything," which showed the villain Mongul attempting to mess with Superman (on Superman's birthday, no less! The indecency of some people!) by attaching a plant to Superman which gives the person their fondest wish, but also transfixes them into a vegetative state for the rest of their lives.
The day is saved, and Mongul finds himself trapped by the plant, as the end of the issue details Mongul thinking that he has won the day and killed lots and lots of people.
2. Next, we have the Giffen/DeMatteis era of the Justice League, and a pitched battle between the League and Despero. The League is hopelessly outmatched by Despero, so the Martian Manhunter has to use his "can only use one time" Martian gift of "mayavana," which is basically like a Martian acid trip, where it tells your brain that the nicest thing ever has occured. This is usually designed as a present between loved ones, but J'onn is willing to use it FOR his loved ones (the League, natch) to trap Despero.
We see Despero reveling in destroying the world, basically.
3. When Manchester Black first showed up on the scene with the rest of his Authority-analogues, the Elite, Superman defeated them in such a manner that it APPEARED as though he had sunk to their level to stop them. But he had not. He tricked them into THINKING that he did.
Well, awhile later, Manchester Black returned the favor (in a variation of the theme), he tricks Superman into THINKING that Manchester Black killed Lois Lane. Superman freaks out, and is going to kill Manchester, when he pulls back - not willing to kil for any reason.
Manchester reveals his plot - he was going to force Superman into killing him - and then reveal that Lois was still alive, just to mess with Superman's mind...but, upon failing, Manchester just killed himself.
4. During the silly Twelve storyline, Professor Xavier needed to know that all the X-Men were themselves, and not Skrulls (as it had turned out that Wolverine was a Skrull at the time). So he devised a plan that forced all the X-Men to fight against each other and ultimately kill each other off, just to make sure no one was a Skrull.
Yeah...that really was the plot.
5. Finally, in the last storyline before Grant Morrison took over - Eve of Destruction, Jean Grey and a ragtag team of X-Men tried to stop Magneto's plans to take over the world (with an army of newly healed Genoshan mutants). At one point, it appeared as though Magneto killed Dazzler, but it all turned out that they had freed Professor Xavier, so that it was all in Magneto's head.
And then Wolverine stabs him in the chest.
Nice.
Anyone have any OTHER comics to add to this theme?
Please do so!
posted by Brian Cronin at 10:36 PM
3 Comments:
In Superman(first series) #317 there was an attempt by Mentallo to exchange his Kryptonite heart with Superman' Kryptonian heart. It appeared that he succeeded and obtained Superman's powers, but Superman had merely substituted the heart of a recently deceased Kandorian.
Wasn't there a time when Spiderman fought Venom and put his costume on a skeleton to make Venom think he had been killed?
There is a storyline in the old Fantastic Four (collected in "Essential F F 2", which I don't have with me or I could point out the exact issue) where Reed does psionic battle with Dr. Doom, and hypnotizes Doom into believing that he defeated the Four... of course it wears off a couple issues later.
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