History Main / TouchOfDeath

* Duncan in ''ComicBook/{{MINDMGMT}}'' can tap his pointer finger to a person's forehead and cause them to suffer a fatal heart attack, thanks to his psychic powers. Except actually, psychic powers require [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve people to ''believe'' that they work]], so the victim has to believe that Duncan can really do it. Thus, every time he uses it, he has to hype it up beforehand and make a performance out of it.

* In ''Webcomic/HowIKilledYourMaster'', Master Fei tells young Liu Wong that his father's style, aptly named "The Divine Fist of the Unconquerable Sky," used what we can presume are Touches of Death and [[TheParalyzer Paralazyer]] attacks.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Accelerator can use his vector control to [[CruelAndUnusualDeath reverse a person's bloodflow or bioelectricity]] just by touching them if he wants to (with the obvious exception of touching Touma's [[AntiMagic right hand]].

** There have, however, been documented freak cases of children dropping dead from cardiac arrest after being struck in the chest, particularly with a baseball or other sports instrument. Children are particularly susceptible to ''commotio cordis'' due to the lack of development in the rib cage. This can also be triggered by lightning strikes.

* The title character of ''Manga/{{Arago}}'' picked up this ability from a supernatural SerialKiller, but has failed to find a way to turn it off. So far, he's not angsting much about it, since it helps him fight other monsters, but it's a bit inconvenient, to say the least. (It's [[MakeThemRot decay-based]] and works on anything organic, though it's slow-acting enough that he's been on the wrong end of an ArmorPiercingSlap with only minimal damage to the slapper's hand.)

* SCP-049 from both [[Wiki/SCPFoundation the SCP Foundation]] and [[VideoGame/SCPContainmentBreach SCP: Containment Breach]] is a medieval-style PlagueDoctor that seemingly believes most human beings are infected with ThePlague, with the unfortunate ability to [[DeadlyDoctor kill anyone he goes near by touching them with his hands.]] He then, utilizing strange surgery, turns his victims into [[PlagueZombie zombies.]] This is made much, '''much''' creepier when [[HumanoidAbomination you read that his clothing is a part of his body.]] In contrast, [[AffablyEvil he's extremely polite and generally compliant]] whenever he's being put back into containment, or whenever someone speaks with him.

* In ''Literature/TheFullerMemorandum'', the Nyarlathotep cultists' bungled summoning leaves Bob with the necromantic abilities of an [[EldritchAbomination Eater of Souls]] including the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin clearly labelled one]]. It takes some time for him to [[PowerIncontinence learn enough control to be able to touch someone without killing them.]]

* Death from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' can kill with a touch; excused by his being, well, ''[[TheGrimReaper Death]]''. When DeathTakesAHoliday and Peter needs to fill in for him, simply wearing Death's shroud causes anything Peter touches to instantly die, even without intending it. He learns this the hard way.

** Played straight in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E1TreehouseOfHorrorXIV Treehouse Of Horror XIV]] when Homer accidentally killed Death to save Bart. Homer tried on Death's cloak for fun and was conscripted by {{God}} to take Death's place. At one point Homer abused his Touch of Death to get better seats at a baseball game ''by killing everybody in the way''. He justified it to Bart by saying they would have died eventually.

* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', when the Grim Reaper appears in person it's briefly established, "You'll die if he touches you!" (In a mixed-up retelling of the scene, this does not prevent [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny]] from grabbing Death by the finger and slamming him back and forth against the ground and it's recognized that "Kenny... killed... death.")

* Dan [=McCormick=] in ''Man Made Monster'' is turned against his will by a MadScientist into an electric monster whose touch instantly electrocutes anyone to death. Said scientist devises a way around this by making him a protective rubber suit.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': Two people have this as an explicit power, in addition to the many lethal abilities most of the student body possesses. Tennyo has a "Death Blow" that gradually [[DeaderThanDead obliterates you from existence]] and Gotterdammerung can [[DisintegratorRay unmake matter]] at a [[UpToEleven sub-subatomic]] level.

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': The Daughters of Acheron are a pair of League of Assassins members who can kill with a touch. Only one of them has the control needed to use their corrosive ability without killing the target, and that still leaves Tim badly injured and unconscious despite her using it through his armored uniform.

* In issue #398 of ''Adventure Comics'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} is made to believe she gained a power that means she kills everything she touches. In reality, an alien was trying to trick her into leaving Earth; but she quickly figured out his ruse.

* ComicBook/LadyShiva has learned a number of martial arts techniques designed to kill in a single blow but she considers most of them to have fairly easy counters, her favorite and signature move is called the Leopard Blow which DependingOnTheWriter either so thoroughly disrupts the victim's heartbeat that it kills them instantly or is her putting her hand through the victim's skull via their face. ComicBook/{{Batman}}, [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim Drake]] and ComicBook/RichardDragon (who is the only other known user of the technique) can tell she's around instantly when coming across victims of this technique.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'' the Boggans' weapons can deteriorate anything they touch. Mandrake's staff is much more potent, able to fell a tree with one swing.

** Any damage done by a creature with the keyword ''Deathtouch'' instantly kills its victim, no matter how tough it is...provided of course, they do not the ''[[The Juggernaut Indestructible]]'' keyword.

** Any damage done by a creature with the keyword "Deathtouch" instantly kills its victim, no matter how tough it is.

* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Vulcan's Glory'' a Human/Vulcan hybrid named Daniel Reed used a Vulcan martial arts technique called Lan-dovna to murder two members of the USS ''Enterprise'' crew. A method of strangling someone with a single hand, ''Lan-dovna'' was developed in Vulcan's violent past before the time of Surak. In the 23rd century Lan-dovna was still taught to many Vulcan schoolchildren.[[note]]In the ''Voyager'' episode ''Meld'' Tuvok may have used a Lan-dovna hold to strangle a holographic recreation of Neelix that Tuvok created in an attempt to bring his emotions under control after a mind meld with a serial killer.

* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Vulcan's Glory'' a Human/Vulcan hybrid named Daniel Reed used a Vulcan martial arts technique called ''Lan-dovna'' to murder two members of the USS ''Enterprise'' crew. A method of strangling someone with a single hand, ''Lan-dovna'' was developed in Vulcan's violent past before the time of Surak. In the 23rd century''Lan-dovna'' was still taught to Vulcan schoolchildren.

* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Vulcan's Glory'' a Human/Vulcan hybrid named Daniel Reed used a Vulcan martial arts technique called ''Lan-dovna'' to murder two members of the USS ''Enterprise'' crew. A method of strangling someone with a single hand, ''Lan-dovna'' was developed in Vulcan's violent past before the time of Surak, ''Lan-dovna'' was still taught to Vulcan schoolchildren.

* ''Film/NoTimeToDie'': Quite literally what happens with Herakles, a mix of ThePlague and {{Nanomachines}}. When an infected person who's not the genetic target of the nanobots simply touches someone who ''is'' targeted by them, a lightning fast infection and a horrible death will occur in the span of a few seconds.

* In ''Film/TheMenWhoStareAtGoats'', a move fitting this description supposedly killed China's greatest martial artist - thirty some-odd years after the fact. Lyn believes himself to be affected by this. Presumably the story is based on the "quivering palm" theory of the death of Creator/BruceLee. (Short version: a martial arts master, angry over Lee revealing martial arts sequences in his films, killed him with a slow-acting deathblow.)

* ''Film/NoTimeToDie'': Quite literally what happens with Herakles, a mix of ThePlague and {{Nanomachines}}. When an infected person who's not the genetic target of the nanobots simply touches someone who ''is'' targeted by them, a horrible death will occur in the span of a few seconds.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', being the game it is, has a myriad of ways to do this. One of the more painful is the sorcery spell Blood of Boiling Oil; Essence swirls around your hands and coats them red, and the first person you touch has their blood turn to... well, you know.\\
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You can also punch off souls, hurl opponents into a temporary orbit, summon a demon to hurl them into a permanent orbit, dismember them, and kick people's heads off with a sufficiently impressive stunt.

The victim often survives for a few moments, allowing for the drama quotient to be raised either by quiet resignation or desperate denial, sometimes while the killer [[ToThePain describes in exacting detail]] what the technique is doing to the victim.