History Main / SuperheroTrophyShelf

This might seem odd today, with the change that both superheroes and the hobby of collecting have gone through. As superheroes started to be more relatable, they had too many problems on their hands to worry about their collections of {{MacGuffin}}s all the time. And, as children (and, let's face it, adults) became more interested in collecting manufactured items such as ''Franchise/StarWars'' action figures or even comic books, the idea of having a never-ending collection ceased to exist for those of [[{{Contributors}} us]] who aren't [[CrackIsCheaper filthy rich]].

* In WesternAnimation/NextAvengersHeroesOfTomorrow, Ultron is shown to keep a vast vault full of mementos from the hundreds of heros he slaughertered in order to rule the world.

** AC games in general tend to have downplayed examples, but the [[HomeBase Tiber Island Hideout]] from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' would have Renaissance paintings of major targets, paintings purchased from art merchants, all the weapons the player acquired (which could include a Bone Dagger of Romulus, the Sword of Altair and the Armor and Dagger of Brutus) and small models of the Da Vinci inventions from the side quests. And an ornate box to display the collectible feathers in. And outside the Animus, the gang is residing in the Monteriggioni Villa Sanctuary from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' where the historic Assassin statues are still on display, and Desmond can collect objects like a Medici Flag, the original feather box and Mario Auditore's sword... to unceremoniously place on a portable metal shelf because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Desmond and the others don't have time to play around with these things and are on the run from a nigh-omnipotent]] MegaCorp.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', ComicBook/TheJoker commented on it when he [[EnemyMine teamed up with Batman]].
-->"Look at all your toys! My own wing! [[FoeRomanceSubtext I knew you cared.]]"

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE46AlmostGotIm "Almost Got 'Im"]]

* In in the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' animated series, Kid Flash collects a souvenir from every mission, possibly working on that museum there'll someday be. The show's young too, so currently it's kinda small but getting there. [[ChekhovsGun An item from it has come in handy once or twice]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', it's revealed Robin has a small room set aside as this. (Although they call it an evidence locker.) One of the more prominent items in it is the remnants of the Puppet King.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017''--[[GenkiGirl Webby]] shows [[SiblingTeam the triplets]] the mansion's "Wing of Secrets," where Scrooge keeps his treasures from years of adventuring. Several are shown to be [[CollectorOfTheStrange supernatural and dangerous]], but Scrooge himself is nonplussed by her waxing dramatic about them--apparently, the "wing" is just his garage.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': As he is retired, Mr. Incredible has a rather smaller version in a room of his family home, mostly magazine cover articles and thank you notes from children he saved, but also a jar labelled "[[ImmuneToBullets Bullets]] that [[ShootingSuperman bounced off me]]".

* Franchise/{{Batman}} has his Batcave, with the iconic giant penny and the robot ''T. rex'', souvenirs from early [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] adventures that have been depicted in the Batcave since those days, and all the bat-sidekicks' uniforms, and [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wG2FbXoklgY/Tj2_Y-wow5I/AAAAAAAAAVI/NITc_NuMCeE/s640/batman_has_dalek.jpg a Dalek.]]
** Many depictions of the Batcave show the T-Rex as part of a security system.
** The Bad Penny is also always depicted. {{Lampshaded}} by [[ComicBook/FantasticFour The Thing]] in the ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'' crossover. "Your idea o' small change, huh?"
--->'''Poison Ivy:''' So, Harv, what became of the giant penny?\\

** In the animated series ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', the trophy room is started at the suggestion of Alfred, who proposes that if the public grows to like Batman he could have a Batman museum, like the Flash has his.
** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', the trophy room has a shrine for Batman's childhood hero the Gray Ghost.
*** This results in a neat CallBack in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', when a villain infiltrates the Batcave and the first thing that ([[MissionControl semi-retired]]) Bruce Wayne does is go get the Grey Ghost mask to protect his identity.
** The costumes of his {{sidekick}}s sometimes hold significance for Batman because, well, most of them have since either [[DeadSidekick died]] or graduated from being sidekicks. Several versions of the trophy room have a separate shrine in memory of Jason Todd. In one comic, the password to enter this shrine was "Chili Dog", chili dogs being Jason's favourite junk food. ManlyTears [[TearJerker time]].
** There's one lovely moment in an old comic where Batman and Robin are going through their souvenirs with those unsettling Golden Age smiles, and we get [[http://superdickery.tumblr.com/post/41044968735/hitch22rises-what-what-what-batman-is the immortal line]]:
--->'''Robin:''' Gosh, Batman-- remember this [[HaveAGayOldTime leather thong]]? It still has your teeth marks in it!
** A lot of the items also tend to be fully functional, as [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond Inque]] found out when she infiltrated the Batcave and got a face-full of Mr. Freeze's ice gun.
** In ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'', Dick Grayson reveals that the trophy collecting was his idea. He begged Batman to keep the iconic robot dinosaur. Initially, Batman refused, but the next morning, Robin found it waiting for him in the cave. After that, they started collecting trophies as a way for Dick to feel good about the things he did after he agreed to stop drawing attention to his accomplishments in civilian life. The comic ends with a grown-up Nightwing entering his new apartment in his own city of Bludhaven... to find the mechanical dinosaur waiting for him, with a note from Batman that it's to help him start his new trophy collection.
** Deconstructed in this {{Parody}} strip: [[http://kerrycallen.blogspot.mx/2013/07/batman-is-hoarder.html Batman Hoarder.]]
** The giant penny is the most notorious part of the Batcave collection, because it's actually outlived the character who was responsible for its location, a one-shot villain called "The Penny Plunderer". Adaptations and [[RetCon later continuities of the comic]] instead tie its origin to Two-Face, [[ReimaginingTheArtifact a much longer-lasting villain with a coin theme]].
** In the possible future displayed in the short story "Twenty-Seven", it's revealed that Batman ultimately decided that, to keep things manageable, each of his cloned Batmen must destroy the trophies they took during their 27-year lifespan as part of their fatally decommissioning themselves, so the new clone has a fresh lair to fill with their own trophies.
* ComicBook/GreenArrow as well. He was, after all, [[FollowTheLeader a Batman ripoff]], like many [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] superheroes.
* Franchise/{{Superman}} examples:
** Superman's Fortress of Solitude has a zoo with animals from across the galaxy, shrines to his home planet, statues of his friends and enemies, a [[PhantomZonePicture window to the Phantom Zone]], toys and weapons from all around, and even (in ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'') the UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic. That is because [[JustForFun/OneOfUs Superman is a gigantic nerd]], and this is why the world's richest nerd's house will look a lot like the Fortress of Solitude.
** When ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} arrives in Earth, Superman builds a new wing for her own trophies.
** Superman also gave his pal Comicbook/JimmyOlsen a souvenir of each adventure (which Jimmy, naturally, keeps scrupulously organized and labeled). This was the focus of a story in ''Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen'', where a criminal on the run corners Jimmy and orders him to provide some gizmo to help him escape the law.
** One story showed that Superman also collects various letters. Not only from those he's helped, but also angry or sorrowful letters from those he ''couldn't'' save (or their families).
** In UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, Metropolis also featured the Superman Museum, dedicated to their hero. It was probably the inspiration for the later Flash Museum. Unlike the Superman Museum, the Flash Museum was actually the focus of a number of stories and managed to stick around in ComicBook/PostCrisis incarnations.
** There's also a "future" Superman Museum in several ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' continuities -- with a holographic Jimmy Olsen as the tour guide.

* ComicBook/TomStrong's volcano base.
** An adventure has his enemies create a trophy room as well, all part of a Xanatos Gambit. His archenemy Paul Saveen claims it was intended as a tribute to Tom's success -- and actually compares it to the trophy room of a hunter.
* The Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes has a Hall of the Fallen, to honor all Legionnaires who have died in battle, especially Ferro Lad. That stays true often from [[ContinuityReboot reboot to reboot]].
* Superman's been ''in'' at least one Galactic Petting Zoo, and at least one version of ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} had the MO of "Collect all the knowledge, then destroy the originals so my copy's worth more".
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': For a very brief time in the '90s, Franchise/WonderWoman had the [=WonderDome=], a weird [[GeniusLoci living alien construct]] that hovered over Gateway City and of which her famed invisible jet was an extension; it served the same function as the Fortress of Solitude or the Batcave. It was unceremoniously dropped from her mythos and forgotten in the early '00s. Since then, the Themysciran Embassy in Manhattan has become her new home base/shrine to the gods/museum.
* Subverted with ''ComicBook/AstroCity'''s Samaritan, who has "the Closet" (not ''[[TransparentCloset that]]'' kind), a PhantomZone that he uses only as storage space for the many awards and souvenirs that he receives, and which merely gather the extradimensional equivalent of dust.
** Played straight with the Trophy Room in Honor Guard's flying base.
** And the Furst Family seem to have a lot of supervillain knick-knacks lying around, but the number of trophies (compared to [[SealedEvilInACan cans of evil]] or "gizmos-Augustus-wants-to-tinker-with-at-some-point") is anyone's guess.
* Both the Four and members of ComicBook/{{Planetary}} maintain large collections of the world's secrets, including mementos from dead superheroes and alien artifacts. As Mr. Snow observes when visiting a parallel earth "They killed an entire world so that they had somewhere to store their weapons."
* The {{Comicbook/Fantastic Four}} store the advanced technological wonders that they have collected over the years, along with assorted memorabilia, at the Baxter Building. The list has included Doctor Doom's time machine, a Skrull spaceship, Vibranium brass knuckles, pieces of Doctor Doom's armor and, for a short time, even Dr. Doom's comatose body.
** The Baxter Building is such a noted repository of super-science goodies that it acts as an attractive nuisance to villains whenever the Family is absent. And the perennial presence of Dr. Doom's time machine is so famous that raiding the Baxter is possibly the Marvel universe's ''most convenient'' way to start a time-travel adventure.
* The Minutemen's headquarters in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' contains at least a few trophies, including Moloch's solar mirror weapon and King Mob's ape mask. This is, of course, a ShoutOut.

* In the future of the Maestro (an [[FutureMeScaresMe evil future version]] of [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk the Incredible Hulk]]) from ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulkFutureImperfect'', Rick Jones had a trophy room/reliquary full of mementos, including ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's shield, ComicBook/SpiderMan's web shooters, ComicBook/{{Nova}}'s helmet, several ComicBook/IronMan armors, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s indestructible skeleton, and the ComicBook/SilverSurfer's board.
* Likewise, the time-travelling villain Kang the Conqueror has a vast trophy room consisting of items (and in some cases, corpses) of various Marvel heroes and villains that he's defeated across the multiverse.
* Most iterations of the ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' have a trophy room. This sometimes serves as a Chekhov's Gun, despite Batman making sure the trophies are harmless. During the time the first Green Arrow was dead, the second one used a collection of his father's original cheesy arrows to defeat the Key, a super-powerful villain. Being able to open portals to higher levels of reality doesn't quite help when you're still vulnerable to a boxing glove arrow to the face.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' Dr. Destiny's Materioptikon, stored in the League's trophy room after his defeat, turned out to be Dream's stolen Dreamstone, with some modifications. Fortunately Martian Manhunter let him take it.
* Central City opened ComicBook/TheFlash Museum in honor of their resident superhero.
* ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man]]'' #248 features the famous story ''The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man'', about a young boy named Tim Hammond, who idolized Spider-Man and had an extensive collection of newspaper articles and other artifacts of Spider-Man's career. Spider-Man visited the boy, told his origins and even [[spoiler:unmasked himself in front of the kid. At the end of the story, it was revealed that Tim was suffering from leukemia and only had a few days left to live.]]
* Subverted and lampshaded in ComicBook/{{Wanted}}. During a guided tour of his lair, the Professor mentions that the supervillains were not supposed to keep trophies from the fallen heroes (to avoid any reminders that they ever existed). Played straight in that he still kept a certain tattered red cape on display.
* ComicBook/TomStrange's Strangelands in ''Terra Obscura''. In ''America's Best Comics A-Z'', we see a layout of the Strangelands drawn to resemble the one of the Batcave featured in ''Who's Who'', which notes the special trophy room - including a robot T-Rex!
* Comicbook/DoctorStrange has a number of magical items which contain or seal away various mystical menaces. Unlike most other examples, he has a good reason for maintaining this collection - those things are too powerful to be allowed out in the world and too powerful to risk destroying. So the collection comes with the job of Sorcerer Supreme.
** This became plot-critical when he was forced to destroy all his artifacts to prevent another sorcerer from getting them and then had to spend a year re-sealing all the evils that had just been loosed.
** This can also kick off minor plots where one or more visitors to the Sanctum meddle with an item with predictably disastrous consequences.
* In Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/TomorrowStories'', Cobweb has the Vault of Voluptuousness, which contains souvenirs of all her cases, very few of which are SFW. Her version of Kandor, for instance is the Nano-Bordello.
* Ultiman in ''ComicBook/BigBangComics'' is headquartered out of the Secret Citadel, which is hidden in an active volcano. Being that it's based on the Fortress of Solitude, it's naturally packed to the gills with souvenirs, trophies, and just plain ''exhibits''. As if the writer was going down the 'stock superhero hideout amenities' checklist, he's got (among other things) the shrunken lost city of Atlantis in a huge fishbowl, a giant dollar bill, and a rubber Apatosaurus.
* Much like Doctor Strange, ComicBook/MadameXanadu keeps minor demons sealed in mason jars in her shop, and assorted magical items and memorabilia she's collected across [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld her long life]]. She's very miffed with John Constantine for stealing stuff from her, most notably a relic named the Wind's Egg.
* ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}''
** In "The Best There Is", Mister X's trophy room includes Han Solo frozen in carbonite.
** In Mark Millar's ''ComicBook/OldManLogan'' story arc the future [[spoiler: president of the United States, ComicBook/RedSkull, has his own trophy room full of items belonging to superheroes he and other supervillains killed.]]
** In "Wolverine Goes to Hell", Logan's trophy room in Madripoor includes the eyepatch from his Patch persona. Then the room gets destroyed.
* {{Discussed}} in ''Comicbook/{{PS238}}:''
-->'''Ms. Kyle:''' Oh, yeah. We had a trophy room in our space station. It was the silliest thing I'd ever seen. [[TheSmartGuy Herschel]] tried to make it look like a ''museum,'' but I always thought it looked like someone had put the Twilight Technomancer's ''garage sale'' on the walls.
-->'''Ms. Oberon:''' Well, [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower my class]] hung a bunch of ''[[CallBack Civil War swords]]'' on the walls. They brought them back from that...I don't know what to call it. [[ItMakesSenseInContext A kidnapping arranged by a fellow student?]]
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': No, not Dredd himself, since he doesn't really take any of his past enmities personal enough to even consider collecting supervillain trophies. However, the Justice Department as a whole maintains the Black Museum, which houses mementos to some of the most infamous criminals they've faced. This includes Mean Machine Angel's robotic arm, Sov-Judge armor, the heart of serial killer PJ Maybe, the dimension globes of the Dark Judges, and the brain of mad Chief Judge Cal.

[[folder:Film — Animated]]
* As he is retired [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Mr. Incredible]] has a rather smaller version in a room of his family home, mostly magazine cover articles and thank you notes from children he saved, but also a jar labelled "[[ImmuneToBullets Bullets that]] [[ShootingSuperman bounced off me]]".

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' (the 20th Bond movie), Q has a collection of items from previous installments.

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** In the ''Film/IronMan'' film franchise, Tony Stark's basement lab was already a trophy room in the first film, with his expensive cars and prior tech projects on display (and in use, in the case of "Dummy" the robot); it just got an upgrade when the lab became the primary workshop and display room for the Iron Man suits.

* This tendency became a major plot point of ''Film/SkyHigh2005''. Here's a hint for all the superheroes out there: Don't let your kid have access to your collection of confiscated supervillain weapons!
* ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''. Bruce Wayne stops to look at a glass case containing Robin's costume with HAHAHA JOKE'S ON YOU BATMAN spray-painted on it, hinting at the reasons why he TookALevelInJerkass.

This might seem odd today, with the change that both superheroes and the hobby of collecting have gone through. As superheroes started to be more relatable, they had too many problems on their hands to worry about their collections of {{MacGuffin}}s all the time. And, as children (and, let's face it, [[{{Nerd}} adults]]) became more interested in collecting manufactured items such as ''Franchise/StarWars'' action figures or even comic books, the idea of having a never-ending collection ceased to exist for those of [[{{Contributors}} us]] who aren't [[CrackIsCheaper filthy rich]].

That's why we have so many superheroes who are into collecting. But, instead of collecting rocks or [[BoldlyComing strains of alien herpes]], they'll collect alien rocks and their enemies' evil weapons. These collections might be all over their base, have their own room in the base, or be only a [[TrophyRoom modest trophy rack]] with all the keys to different cities they saved from destruction.

* In the future of the Maestro (an [[FutureMeScaresMe evil future version]] of [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk the Incredible Hulk]]), Rick Jones had a trophy room/reliquary full of mementos, including ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's shield, Franchise/SpiderMan's web shooters, Nova's helmet, several Iron Man armors, {{Wolverine}}'s indestructible skeleton, and the Silver Surfer's board.

* Franchise/DocSavage's Fortress of Solitude, being the basis for Superman's, had many of the same characteristics. Including being the basis for a "supervillain steals superweapon from it" plot.

* Comicbook/DoctorStrange has a number of magical items which contain or seal away various mystical menaces. This became plot-critical when he was forced to destroy all his artifacts to prevent another sorcerer from getting them and then had to spend a year re-sealing all the evils that had just been loosed.

* The episodic ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' adventure games from Creator/TelltaleGames had the closet in the main characters' office fill with souvenirs from the previous installments -- including a CardSharp from the first season who was left bound and gagged for months after being interrogated, eventually, the whole office becames loaded with big items that don't fit in the closet.

** AC games in general tend to have downplayed examples, but the [[HomeBase Tiber Island Hideout]] from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' would have Renaissance paintings of major targets, paintings purchased from art merchants, all the weapons the player acquired (which could include a Bone Dagger of Romulus, [[''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' the Sword of Altair]] and the Armor and Dagger of Brutus) and small models of the Da Vinci inventions from the side quests. And an ornate box to display the collectible feathers in. And outside the Animus, the gang is residing in the Monteriggioni Villa Sanctuary from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' where the historic Assassin statues are still on display, and Desmond can collect objects like a Medici Flag, the original feather box and Mario Auditore's sword... to unceremoniously place on a portable metal shelf because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Desmond and the others don't have time to play around with these things and are on the run from a nigh-omnipotent]] MegaCorp.

** AC games in general tend to have downplayed examples, but the [[HomeBase Tiber Island Hideout]] from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' would have Renaissance paintings of major targets, paintings purchased from art merchants, all the weapons the player acquired (which could include a Bone Dagger of Romulus, [[''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' the Sword of Altair]] and the Armor and Dagger of Brutus) and small models of the Da Vinci inventions from the side quests. And an ornate box to display the collectible feathers in. And outside the Animus, the gang is residing in the Monteriggioni Villa Sanctuary from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' where the historic Assassin statues are still on display, and Desmond can collect objects like a Medici Flag, the original feather box and Mario Auditore's sword... to unceremoniously place on a portable metal shelf because [[RealityEnsues Desmond and the others don't have time to play around with these things and are on the run from a nigh-omnipotent]] MegaCorp.

** AC games in general tend to have downplayed examples, but the [HomeBase Tiber Island Hideout] from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' would have Renaissance paintings of major targets, paintings purchased from art merchants, all the weapons the player acquired (which could include a Bone Dagger of Romulus, [''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' the Sword of Altair] and the Armor and Dagger of Brutus) and small models of the Da Vinci inventions from the side quests. And an ornate box to display the collectible feathers in. And outside the Animus, the gang is residing in the Monteriggioni Villa Sanctuary from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' where the historic Assassin statues are still on display, and Desmond can collect objects like a Medici Flag, the original feather box and Mario Auditore's sword... to unceremoniously place on a portable metal shelf because [RealityEnsues Desmond and the others don't have time to play around with these things and are on the run from an omnipotent] MegaCorp.