History Main / DiabolusExNihilo

* The BigBad in DC's ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' wasn't ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}. It was a multiversal vampire, the Dark Monitor Mandrakk. This means exactly what you think it does: he eats stories. Mind you this is explained and there is a lead up to it, but if you didn't read the ''Final Crisis: Superman Beyond'' tie-in, he seemed to come out of nowhere. Writer Creator/GrantMorrison did, however, intend for ''Superman Beyond'' to be an integral part of the story, and it is included in (most of) the trade editions.
* A ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' comic had Big G be sent back to the time of the dinosaurs, where he was attacked by a giant dragon... ''thing'' that was there for some reason; he manages to just barely beat it before being returned to the present.
* In ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'', Hal Jordan's 90s FaceHeelTurn is explained as a result of his possession by Parallax, a heretofore unknown Fear Entity. Parallax has since become the BigBad of a crossover event, one of the cornerstones of modern ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' continuity, and was depicted as the giant floating CGI head of Clancy Brown in TheMovie (for better or for worse). So while he is a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere, he's a beloved one.
* The vampire that turns Lord Andrew Bennett, title character in ''ComicBook/IVampire''. He turns up while Bennett is out riding, mesmerizes him, gives a [[MotiveRant little rant]] about hating Bennett's positive outlook on life, and wanting to show him the dark side and generally screw his life up, bites him, and then promptly gets staked by him. Then Andrew makes it home, filled with angst over his new condition, his wife agrees to be turned by him so that they can spend eternity together, she promptly turns evil, decides to take over the world, declares Andrew to be her enemy when he tries to talk her out of it and flies off to begin her campaign. And there's your central plot and background set, now on with the episodic story.
* ComicBook/TheJoker's backstory was introduced [[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke much, much later]] than the character and even in there, he outright stated that's probably false. Despite that, he's still managed to rack up a body count any villain worth their salt would be jealous of, and is the person regular (and super) criminals tell stories of to scare one another.
* ''ComicBook/MsMarvel1977:'' Death-Bird is introduced just randomly attacking Ms. Marvel as she's doing something else, with only some hints as to the fact she's not even human. She later explains she had also been doing her own thing while working for A.I.M., saw Ms. Marvel and having heard of the superhero's own tussle with them figured "why not?"
* The feral vampire hag that turned Cassidy in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''. She appears biting his neck, gets shot by his brother, and falls back into the bog, never to be seen again.
* ''ComicBook/{{Severed}}'' has the unnamed AmbiguouslyHuman salesman who goes by the name of Mr. Fisher (along with several others, all of them false). "Fisher" is a mysterious man who eats children to consume their dreams. No reason is ever given for this. "Fisher" claims to be [[{{ReallySevenHundredYearsOld}} hundreds of years old]], and indeed, he never ages at any point in the comic. No backstory is ever given for him.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* In ''Film/KamenRiderDecadeAllRidersVsDaiShocker'', there's King Dark, the Big Bad of ''Series/KamenRiderX'', who only rises after all the other villains are killed. It was never hinted anywhere in the movie that he would even appear at all. Since there is already a personification of the Great Leader, recurring Bigger Bad of the Showa era in [[spoiler:the eponymous Decade]], it means that there are two Great Leaders running amuck. He was probably just included to give an excuse to use the giant ''Film/KamenRiderJ'' (the movie did say ''All Riders'').
** And then [[spoiler: [[Film/KamenRiderZO Doras]] shows up in Decade's GrandFinale after dealing with both [[VillainProtagonist Tsukasa]] ''and'' [[TheRemnant Super Shocker]] almost out of nowhere.]]

* The [[AntagonistTitle titular villain]] from ''VideoGame/JimmyAndThePulsatingMass'' is one of these: for some reason, it just showed up one day, dead set on killing Jimmy. Everything that comes out of its mouth[[EldritchAbomination (s)]] is [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech a long tirade about how much it hates jimmy and how gruesome his death will be.]] Every other antagonistic force in-game has deeper motives, including the ones that it corrupted. [[spoiler: Which makes perfect sense when its true nature becomes apparent.]]

* The version of ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} in ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries''. He is a [[TheJuggernaut invincbile]] [[TimeAbyss immortal]] villain who [[OmnicidalManiac seeks to bring about the end of the world]] [[InTheirOwnImage so he can rebuild in his own image]]. But since the character's origin wasn't revealed in the comics, the show never explained his backstory either. The most that is revealed about him is that he's implied to be the personificaiton of evil itself.

** The SequelHook in [[Film/BatmanBegins the previous film]] does strongly imply that he escaped from Arkham, but that only explains where he came from ''immediately'' prior to showing up.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', Vanilla Ice is introduced near the close of the Part right before fighting the heroes. His Stand, Cream, is one of only three (his, Holly's, and Kenny G's) that is neither a Tarot card or Egyptian God and it can destroy anything it comes in contact with. In addition, [[spoiler:he's also a vampire]]. The end result is that he [[spoiler:kills Avdol in seconds and kills TeamPet Iggy over the course of the fight, and wounds Polnareff so badly before dying that he's unable to assist much during the final battle with [=DIO=].]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' takes this to its logical conclusion with Galeem, the main antagonist for the World of Light adventure mode. It arrived out of nowhere one day, was pushed into a corner by the many heroes and villains, proceeded to unleash an ultimate attack that [[OmnicidalManiac wrecked everything in the universe]] (except for Kirby, who barely escaped by having his warp star go into hyperspeed), then remolded it. [[spoiler:Dharkon also arrives suddenly later on, with its only motivation being that it can't stand Galeem at all, and has also remolded a part of the universe.]]

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', [[spoiler: Kaguya]] shows up out of nowhere (only being mentioned about forty chapters prior to her debut as being [[spoiler:the mother of the Sage of the Six Paths]] and dead for centuries), is revealed to be responsible for ''all'' of [[SpotlightStealingSquad the Uchiha]] turning evil, and gets sealed away after a relatively short fight. [[OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow Her entire purpose is essentially to take out Madara]] because the author accidentally made him too strong. Despite being several magnitudes stronger than him (she's the single most powerful being in the entire world) she has no true combat experience, so she's easier to defeat.

* Many [[WerewolfWorks Werewolf Movies]], such as ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon'', ''Film/GingerSnaps'', and ''Film/{{Wolf}}'', in which the protagonists are bitten and become werewolves, do not go into very much detail, if any at all, in explaining where the original werewolf came from--or the werewolf who made them, or who made that werewolf, and so on.

* Grerimo from the Doma arc of ''Anime/YuGiOh''. Unlike other villains in the arc (and most in the series) he's a FlatCharacter with no backstory at all, with no explanation of why he works for Dartz. His entire purpose seems to be to introduce the viewers to the Orichalcos and present it as a threat.
* The climax of ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'' has [[spoiler:the Millennium Ring corrupting others, and bonding with Diva to create a reality-warping monster]], but how it does so [[spoiler:with Zorc and Yami Bakura gone]] is never explained.