History ComicBook / SinCity

* PoorCommunicationKills: There's a man who's trying to convince Shellie to let him into her apartment. Dwight tells her to let him at the jerk, but Shellie says the guy could get Dwight into all kinds of trouble (paraphrasing) if he knew Dwight was there. [[spoiler:Telling Dwight the guy was a cop right there and then instead of being evasive]] would probably have averted the entire story of ''The Big Fat Kill''.

* HateSink: Ethan Roark, Jr., is a sadistic paedophile who only gets away with his atrocities because his father is a senator. He is completely impotent unless he hears a preteen girl screaming, and has had hundreds of victims. Eight years after he's beaten to near-death and castrated by hero cop John Hartigan, he comes back to finish the job on the girl he saved, planning to torture her to death.

* TheManBehindTheMan: Patrick Henry Roarke, war hero in the Medical Corp, philanthropist and educator, who could have been President, but settled for becoming a cardinal. Also, the most powerful man in the state, bringing down and raising up mayors and governors, and even getting his brother elected senator. Plus, a murderer, cannibal and possible necrophiliac, rapist, or necrophiliac rapist. Busy guy.

* GhostTown: After the mines went dry Basin City was one its way to becoming one of these, 'til [[IOwnThisOwn Old Man Roarke]] decided to change the town from a gold town to a red one. Red-''[[TheOldestProfession light]]'', that is. After that it became the most popular stop in the Old West. That hasn't changed, with many of Old Town's ladies of the night being descended from the high-class soiled doves he imported.

* TheManBehindTheMan: Patrick Henry Roarke, war hero in the Medical Corp, philanthropist and educator, who could have been President, but settled for becoming a cardinal. Also, the most powerful man in the state, bringing down and raising up mayors and governors, and even getting his brother elected senator. Plus, a murderer, cannibal and possible rapist. Busy guy.

* TheManBehindTheMan: Patrick Henry Roarke, war hero in the Medical Corp, philanthropist and educator, who could have been President, but settled for becoming the

* DieLaughing: A DirtyCop who Marv [[ColdBlooded interrogated]] to find out who was behind Kevin and the farm does this when he sees the look on Marv's face after he tells him it was [[IOwnThisTown Roark]]. He dies knowing Marv wished he'd never said that.

* InstantKnots: Miho does this when she uses her sash to wrap around the bumper of a moving car and hold on.

%%* ForcedToWatch: Poor Lucille...

* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese theme is [[http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Namie-Amuro---Violet-Sauce-from-DVD%25E3%2580%258Cnamie-amuro-BEST-tour-%2526quot%253BLive-Style-2006%2526quot%253B%25E3%2580%258D/7fe21a3d14a62624f67449f86ca84327 "Violet Sauce"]] by Namie Amuro.

'''5: Family Values''' - While picking up some intel for his ''new'' new girlfriend, Dwight learns of a mafia war that's about to go down in Sin City. Captured by one side of the impending war, Dwight has to rely on a certain enemy-turned ally for help: the deadly ninja Miho.

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: In ''Family Values'', a mafia hitman recounts how he "lit up" a diner with twin uzis, killing everybody inside, then stopped just to shoot a stray dog before making his getaway. [[spoiler:This proved to be his fatal mistake, as the collateral damage from this event (shooting a prostitute in a phone booth next to the dog) brought the wrath of Old Town onto his entire organization.]]

** A notable example takes place in ''Family Values'' where the mafia breaks a truce with a rival organization to take revenge for the death of a relative of TheDon. Everyone involved is worried about a gang war. It turns out [[spoiler:a hooker was killed by a stray bullet. No one thought much about it, except her friends and colleagues, who quickly gather to plot revenge.]]

* DemandingTheirHead: In ''The Big Fat Kill'', after someone informs the mafia of Jackie Boy's death in Old Town, news of which can break Old Town's shaky truce with the police, they send Irish mercenaries who attack Dwight (while he's disposing the evidence) and take Jackie's severed head as proof of his murder. Dwight and Miho later recover Jackie's head from the mercenaries before the mob can get it and use the head to broker a trade for Gail's life. [[spoiler: After Dwight hands the head over to the gangsters and takes Gail, he triggers a grenade taped inside Jack's mouth, killing them and destroying the remaining incriminating evidence.]]

* MetallicarSyndrome: Characters are often supposed to be hiding out from the cops or mafia, but when they choose rides, they usually get the CoolCar. This trope is actually justified in that '''most''' cars in the city are vintage muscle cars.

* NecroNonSequitur: In ''Family Values'', a mob hitman machine-guns a passing dog ForTheEvulz while he on a job, causing a DisasterDominoes effect when [[spoiler: a stray bullet accidentally kills an Old Town girl. The girl's lover, also an Old Town girl, has Dwight and Miho systematically bring down the entire crime family, even going so far as to force the hitman to kill his own brother and betray TheDon. The girl's lover comes in during the last act and guns down the mafia heads, including the hitman who killed her girl. To cover their tracks, the heroes frame the Wallenquist crime family, inciting a MobWar which would surely result in even more deaths.]]

* UnwantedSpouse: Ava Lord in ''A Dame To Kill For'' starts off hating her mafia-tied husband and begs Dwight to do something about it. [[spoiler: He does but it turns out to be a setup for Ava to inherit her husband's estate.]]

** When one cop advises another to kill Hartigan without hesitation, they're quickly dispatched and Hartigan quips "Good advice". In ''Film/DieHard'', a terrorist who tells John [=McClane=] to kill without hesitation is offed, with [=McClane=] snarking "Thanks for the advice". Both played by Creator/BruceWillis, lying on his back and shooting upwards both times. Frank Miller even said that he thought of that very scene from ''Die Hard'' when he drew that scenario in "That Yellow Bastard". Little did he know…

His target Kevin survives after having his arms and legs cut off and most of his organs eaten by a wolf yet still calmly breathes till Marv saws his head off.

** "I take away his weapons... both of them."

* OlderHeroVsYoungerVillain: Hartigan vs Roark Jr.

* KubrickStare: KevinBgives an indescribably creepy one right before he ambushes Marv. Marv does one right back upon overhearing the cannibal's name from his prison. "See you later, Kevin."

** In the films, it was Marv, who's portrayal by Mickey Rourke was acclaimed as one of the highlights of the first movie despite him only appearing in one segment. As a result, the sequel film adapts his two other major appearances and features him heavily in one of the new stories.

* AdaptationalCurves: Inverted with Nancy Callahan. She's drawn in the comics as an [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ea/53/89/ea53898d7533d3d1483ec83161085a9f.jpg extremely curvaceous woman]] with a ''very'' large bust, which particularly explains Hartigan's gob-smacked [[ShesAllGrownUp "She grew up and filled out"]] comments. In the film, she's played by the much skinnier Jessica Alba. In modern modeling parlance, comic Nancy would be described as "thick", movie Nancy as "toned".

* AdaptationalCurves: Inverted with Nancy Callahan. She's drawn in the comics as an [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ea/53/89/ea53898d7533d3d1483ec83161085a9f.jpg extremely curvaceous woman]] with a ''very'' large bust, which particularly explains Hartigan's gob-smacked [[ShesAllGrownUp "She grew up and filled out"]] comments. In the film, she's played by the much skinnier Jessica Alba.

** Also in ''Hell and Back'', Wallace is drugged and we see the only full color sequence in the series. The hero has hallucinations of the following: ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, Franchise/{{Rambo}}, Film/DirtyHarry, ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}, Comicbook/TheBigGuyAndRustyTheBoyRobot, Manga/LoneWolfAndCub, Franchise/RoboCop, Comicbook/SgtRock, [[WesternAnimation/RaggedyAnnAndAndyAMusicalAdventure Raggedy-Ann and Andy]], a Creator/DrSeuss landscape, ComicBook/{{Ronin}}, ComicBook/{{Electra}}, [[ComicBook.ThreeHundred a Spartan]], a Hajime Sorayama {{Fembot}}, and more.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Almost all major characters, and several minor ones, display some manner of undiagnosed psychosis or personality disorder: Marv has "a condition" and "gets confused" unless he takes massive amounts of pills; Dwight and Hartigan have bizarre hallucinations under various circumstances; Wallace very likely has some form of post-traumatic stress disorder; Delia displays nymphomaniacal behavior; Nancy has an obsessive romantic attachment to Hartigan; Junior Rourke has depraved pedophiliac impulses; Kevin indulges in cannibalism which "fills him with white light"; Jackie-Boy exhibits extreme narcissism and pathological lying; and on and on it goes...

Infamous for its absurdly macho writing, ''Sin City'' reads like an AffectionateParody of FilmNoir turned UpToEleven: every hero is a mentally and/or physically scarred bruiser and every woman is a beautiful dame with a heaving bosom. BlackAndGrayMorality is predominant.

* GoingByTheMatchbook: Hartigan finds Nancy with the help of a book of matches in her apartment. He does, however, point out in the narration that it's his only lead. The time period in which the story is set isn't entirely clear; some characters dress like '90s antiheroes, while the cars (equipped with early '90s car-phones) look early '60s at the latest and weapons run the gamut from swords to bleeding-edge sniper rifles. But they had to use the matchbook gag, as the whole premise of the series is "take film noir and turn all the dials UpToEleven".