History PoliceAreUseless / ComicBooks

** The [[Comicbook/GothamCentral Gotham City Police Department]] also got their own ongoing series that highlights the difficulty of being a cop in a city full of costumed whackjobs. In the first story arc, they need Batman's help to apprehend Mr. Freeze, but run down the new Firebug on their own after he murders a girl who discovers his SecretIdentity. Being Gotham, especially in the early years of Batman's career, it wasn't so much "Police are Useless" as "Police are Corrupt or Too Scared To Be Useful". Perhaps best illustrated in ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' where the Metropolis PD apprehends the Joker after he's released poison gas in the Daily Planet, ''before'' Superman.

** Another subversion occurred as far back as the 1960s in an early ''Comicbook/SpiderMan'' comic, where Spider-Man tracked down the crime boss known as the Big Man and captured most of his gang for the police but the Big Man gets away. Thinking that the Big Man is his boss, J. Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker returns to the ''Daily Bugle'' in hopes of helping the police catch him. It turns out, though, that Peter was wrong, and the police managed to track down the ''real'' Big Man, who was in fact [[spoiler: reporter Frederick Foswell]].
** Another subversion is the ''ComicBook/XMen'' graphic novel ''ComicBook/GodLovesManKills'', where the circumstances hamstring the X-Men in facing [[SinisterMinister Reverend Stryker]], but when he pulls a gun on Kitty Pride at a rally he's ''immediately'' shot and arrested by the police: they had been there the whole time complaining they had to protect his hate speech as that was not illegal, but the moment he tried to kill a teenaged girl in their presence their hands were free.
** In Spider-Man comics not only are the police largely useless but [[HeroWithBadPublicity they also attack Spider-Man on an almost constant basis, because of Spider-Man being falsely accused of a crime.]] Thus, the police would try to capture Spider-Man for several issues, sometimes even going to ridiculous lengths. Naturally, Spider-Man would be cleared of the crime, only to be falsely accused of something else a few issues afterwards.

** That applies to a lesser extent in a ''ComicBook/PeterParkerTheSpectacularSpiderMan'' issue where Spider-Man is suspected of a FelonyMurder in a burglary and Peter gets to the scene of the crime as a reporter for ''The Daily Globe'' that he was legitimately working for at that time.. The police note that Spider-Man has been framed for murder before and find evidence of the Prowler was there instead. Unfortunately, the police also find Peter's improvised backpack made of webbing that Peter neglected to hide adequately on the roof, and now has to deal with the situation that the police now have evidence that Spider-Man was in the area that night, making him a legitimate suspect and Peter is no position to explain it.
** Played with when Otto Octavius became the Superior Spider-Man as in the early going, Otto would call the cops for backup before attacking a villain's lair. Stuck in Otto's mind, Peter Parker would muse on how he never considered that. Of course, as the series goes on, Otto's arrogance makes him assume he knows better than the cops, which bites him big time in the climax.

* Averted in an early ''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica'' story when the Sentinel of Liberty is trying to stop a number of destructive Sleeper robots. He decides he can't stop them on his own and races to a military base and they take little persuasion to help the superhero fight the machines.

* The Comicbook/{{Runaways}}' first approach to discovering their parents are supervillains is to call the cops. Alex's explanation that their parents are ''all'' supervillains does not get them much aid. Part of this may be the extent of [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney influence]] their parents have. [[spoiler: [[TheMole Alex]] is also deliberately [[YouHaveToBelieveMe making their story sound insane]].]]

* ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': Lana is supposed to be free on parole, and not use her powers, but she can go as far as to join a superhero group with no problem. She said that his parole officer is either dumb as dirt or doesn't care.

** That applies to a lesser extent in a ''ComicBook/PeterParkerTheSpectacularSpiderMan'' issue where Spider-Man is suspected of a FelonyMurder in a burglary and Peter gets to the scene of the crime as a reporter for ''The Daily Globe'' that he was legitimately working for at that time.. The police note that Spider-Man has been framed for murder before and find evidence of ComicBook/TheProwler was there instead. Unfortunately, the police also find Peter's improvised backpack made of webbing that Peter neglected to hide adequately on the roof, and now has to deal with the situation that the police now have evidence that Spider-Man was in the area that night, making him a legitimate suspect and Peter is no position to explain it.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': In one ''ComicBook/SensationComics'' story the police are following a tip about the Blue Seal Gang's hideout. They show up yell and look around the front room of the building and leave, en mass, while declaring the reporter who'd passed on the tip a coward who ran out the back door. In actuality the reporter was busy being tortured in the basement, which the police made no attempt to search.

** Whenever the Phantom Blot shows up or Pete gets enough time to build himself up, the police ''has'' to rely on Mickey, as they're simply too formidable. That said, Mouseton has a pretty low crime rate, and the police has explicitly become better at its job with the addition of Rock Sassi (who, while quite the ditz, is just plain ''unstoppable'' once the criminals are identified), with the occasional success even against Pete after he has build himself up a decent base.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Year One'', Barbara Gordon goes to a ''Police Ball'', and they are attacked by Killer Moth. Hundreds of cops against a guy with a glue gun and less than half a dozen thugs; and the only ones who do anything are the TeenGenius bibliotecary with five-inch heels and Bruce Wayne dressed as a harlequin. Police can't be more useless!
* Averted in an early ''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica'' story when the Sentinel of Liberty is trying to stop a number of destructive Sleeper robots. He decides he can't stop them on his own and races to a military base and they take little persuasion to help the superhero fight the machines.
* The Comicbook/{{Runaways}}' first approach to discovering their parents are supervillains is to call the cops. Alex's explanation that their parents are ''all'' supervillains does not get them much aid. Part of this may be the extent of [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney influence]] their parents have. [[spoiler: [[TheMole Alex]] is also deliberately [[YouHaveToBelieveMe making their story sound insane]].]]

* Averted in ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}''. The O'Dares, a family of policemen (and woman), regularly help Jack because his father saved their father. They start by capturing the Mist while Jack fights the Mist's son and keep up that track record throughout the series. Jack & his father consider them friends and celebrate Christmas with them.
* Zigzagged in ''ComicBook/SupermanSmashesTheKlan''. William Henderson is a black police detective who calmly and professionally does his job and rushes to help the Lees after the Klan tries to set their house on fire. But when Tommy is kidnapped, Roberta bangs on a police car window to get help from the old white officer inside, only for the officer to brush her off and complain about how Asian-Americans get things without having to work for them.
* ''ComicBook/ElksRun'' looks like a case of this at first, and the initial two policemen sent to investigate don't survive very long. However, it's a major plot point that ConservationOfNinjutsu does not apply to the cops--if reinforcements come, everything's over.
* ''ComicBook/{{Powers}}'' is about averting, subverting, playing straight, and generally deconstructing and reconstructing this trope in a world of supers. Powered people aren't allowed to be cops, and the main characters work in a super-homicide department trying to catch and police people who can ''kill other supers''. They're fairly effective most of the time, but other times they get completely stonewalled by politics, lawyers, most supers' celebrity and wealth, and the general difficulty of figuring out means, motive, and opportunity when powers and larger-than-life personalities come into play. If an actual fight breaks out they're often in trouble without a friendly super anywhere nearby.

* ''ComicBook/TomPoes'': Officer Bulle Bas, who constantly suspects Bommel to be guilty of any crime that takes place in Rommeldam.
* The ''ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics'' comics surprisingly subvert this, as the police are shown to be fairly competent under normal circumstances; it's just that bleeding-edge killer robots are a threat that they're not exactly equipped to handle.
* Fully justified in the case of one of the Law Machines in ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'' - New Hong Kong has no laws. If there are no laws, it's impossible to enforce them.
** That said, it's subverted at the end of the Teleporter arc - [[spoiler:the Teleporter's solution to the problem of an entire planet in peril is not to teleport each person off it individually. It's to teleport the entire planet to a different orbit. One which happens to be in a system which has laws against the exact activities that X-Tel was doing in order to get Godot to play nicely with them. And the Teleporter then teleports the space station that the X-Tel executive in question is on at the time to the same system]].
* Subverted in the ''ComicBook/MyBoyfriendIsAMonster'' volume "Wrapped Up In You", when two police officers investigate a break-in at the museum. They are correct in interrogating the protagonist and her friend, as both ''were'' involved. Later, when it becomes clear that magic is real and being used to harm others, the same officers help the lead, including one having to unexpectedly take the wheel when the heroine is magically blinded. The reason they don't help out for the climax is because the car is magically crashed, incapacitating them.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' generally goes for the overworked/understaffed approach. What crimes a Judge responds to do get handled, it's just that there are so many crimes and so few Judges that a large number of crimes are not responded to, and that's not counting all the ones that don't even get reported.
* ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': Lana is supposed to be free on parole, and not use her powers, but she can go as far as to join a superhero group with no problem. She said that his parole officer is either dumb as dirt or doesn't care.
* Police don't seem to exist in ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}''. Several times, Ninjette has to fight off serious attempts to kidnap and/or murder her, in a public park, and even though the fights go on for some time, no police appear.

** Whenever the Phantom Blot shows up or Pete gets enough time to build himself up, the police ''has'' to rely on Mickey, as they're simply too formidable. That said, Mouseton has a pretty low crime rate, and the police has explicitely become better at its job with the addition of Rock Sassi (who, while quite the ditz, is just plain ''unstoppable'' once the criminals are identified), with the occasional success even against Pete after he has build himself up a decent base.

* The police shown in ''ComicBook/RedXmas'' are shown turning away calls for help from parents who's children were kidnapped... because they keep saying their kids were kidnapped either by malevolent toys, or SantaClaus.

* The Archie ''ComicBook/MegaMan'' comics surprisingly subvert this, as the police are shown to be fairly competent under normal circumstances; it's just that bleeding-edge killer robots are a threat that they're not exactly equipped to handle.

* The police shown in ''Comic/RedXmas'' are shown turning away calls for help from parents who's children were kidnapped... because they keep saying their kids were kidnapped either by malevolent toys, or SantaClaus.

*** Again in ''Paperinik New Era'', the US Army is powerless when Moldrock takes over Duckburg. Then again, Moldrock is a PhysicalGod that would later mop the floor with the entire military of the planet Corona, and the US Army wasn't willing to [[NukeEm resort to nukes]] up until Paperinik too had failed

** In Duckburg the police explicitely relies a lot on help from Paperinik (Donald's superhero[=/=]antihero alter ego). It had not always been the case, but rather an unintended consequence of Paperinik being so efficient at stopping criminals that the city has slashed their funding and they don't have enough manpower anymore, to the point that one story where Paperinik had apparently lost his touch had the chief openly declare that they'll stop the expected crime wave simply by hiring more officers and get back to their old efficiency.

* Zigzagged in ''ComicBook/SupermanSmashesTheKlan''. William Henderson is a black police detective who calmly and professional does his job and rushes to help the Lees after the Klan tries to set their house on fire. But when Tommy is kidnapped, Roberta bangs on a police car window to get help from the old white officer inside, only for the officer to brush her off and complain about how Asian-Americans get things without having to work for them.

*** Again in ''Paperinik New Era'', the US Army is powerless when Moldrock takes over Duckburg. Then again, Moldrock is a PhysicalGod that would later mop the floor with the entire military of the planet Corona, and the US Army wasn't willing to [[NukeEm resort to nukes]] up until Paperinik too had failed.

*** In ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' Paperinik's reputation takes many hits, resulting in the police getting back their funds-and being able to match two large gangs armed with ''energy weapons''.

* Police don't seem to exist in ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}''. Several times, Ninjette has to fight off serious attempts to kidnap and/or murder her, in a public park, and even though the fights go on for some time, no police appear.

* Police don't seem to exist in ''ComicBook/Empowered''. Several times, Ninjette has to fight off serious attempts to kidnap and/or murder her, in a public park, and even though the fights go on for some time, no police appear.

* ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': Lana is supposed to be free on parole, and not use her powers, but she can go as far as to join a superhero group with no problem. She said that his parole officer is either dumb as dirt or doesn't care.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' generally goes for the overworked/understaffed approach. What crimes a Judge responds to do get handled, it's just that there are so many crimes and so few Judges that a large number of crimes are not responded to, and that's not counting all the ones that don't even get reported.

*** Ironically, in the earlier Creator/SteveDitko-plotted issues, the police were more often than not on Spidey's side, with civilians and [[SarcasmMode upstanding newspapermen like Jameson]] filling the role of resident Spider-hater(s).

* ''ComicBook/TheBlackKnight'': At the start of the Black Knight's rampage through Duckburg, a police officer shows up to take the Black Knight in. The indestructible suit just dissolves the cuffs, and he mocks the officer by dissolving his police cruiser.