History VoodooShark / ComicBooks

* ''ComicBook/HeroesInCrisis'': The resolution to the murderer mystery, that Wally West failed to keep his internalised Speed Force energy in check which created an electric storm that killed everyone but him, has a few problems, which is why it was impossible to figure out.

** ''Batman'' readers have long wondered why Bruce Wayne, given his [[Fiction500 mind-boggling wealth]], doesn't pour some funding into fixing Gotham's rotted infrastructure, or at the very least get some competent doctors at [[BedlamHouse Arkham Asylum]]. Some stories, including ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'', try to explain this by implying that Gotham's WretchedHive status is the result of a supernatural curse that's trapped it in perpetual misery; in ''Serious House'', for example, Amadeus Arkham ends up imprisoned in his own asylum and scratches a summoning spell into the walls of his cell, binding a bat-like "spirit of madness" to the place and dooming it to eternal insanity. That would be fine and dandy if Batman didn't personally know magic-wielding heroes who interact with demons and hellspawn ''on a regular basis.'' Yes, we know that SupermanStaysOutOfGotham, but given that Bruce is supposed to be the epitome of logic and intelligence, you'd think he would swallow his pride enough to realize that all the training in the world can't help an ordinary human fix a problem that's magical in nature.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'':
** [=EndGame=], a four issue story arc leading up to and including issue 50, has become notorious as a mystery whose plot twists and reveals only raised more questions then they answered:
*** The plot hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally during a mission in Robotropolis, after Sonic apparently cut Sally's rope while she scaled a building, making Sally fall to her death. The truth was explained when Drago revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped Hershey into wearing a fullbody Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]], meaning Hershey was [[MurderByMistake accidentally responsible for the deed]]. Ignoring questions about foreshadowing, this reveal made little sense. First of all, there's no explanation for how Drago convinced Hershey to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy. Furthermore, the suit is stated to make anyone viewed by the wearer look like Snively, which raises the questions of why Hershey didn't ''hear'' Sally, or why an eyepiece that made everyone look like someone else would ever be invented. Third, the whole thing [[GambitRoulette had several factors that could have gone wrong]], like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time or seeing the wrong person (or more than one person at the same time, for that matter). Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing King Acorn with an Auto-Automaton, a lifelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why Robotnik didn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton instead of the costume.
*** Sonic eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he's innocent despite Dulcy not being present during the mission in Robotropolis, because [[LivingLieDetector dragons can tell when a person is lying]] and are incapable of lying themselves. Beyond the fact that this ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned before]], it raises the question of why no one brought this up when Dulcy earlier met with the Freedom Fighters. Dulcy even gives an "AsYouKnow" to Geoffrey and Knuckles about her ability to sense truth, indicating that the Freedom Fighters already know that Dulcy has this power. So if Dulcy's truth-sense could prove whether Sonic was guilty or innocent without fail, how did no one consider that? The Freedom Fighters might have forgotten about Dulcy's power in the heat of the moment after Sally's apparent murder, but the idea that no one would so much as suggest using Dulcy's truth-sense to figure out if Sonic was the true culprit when Dulcy was physically present creates the Voodoo Shark.
*** Robotnik's plan centers around the Ultimate Annihilator, a DoomsdayDevice capable of [[CessationOfExistence erasing a target from existence]]. At the climax of the story, Robotnik fires the weapon on Knothole Village, enraging Sonic and leading to their final battle, after which the weapon is overloaded by earlier sabotage and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard erases the Doctor himself]], with Sonic also getting hit in the blast. However, Sonic comes across Knothole shortly thereafter, both looking none the worse for wear. Dr. Quack explains that Snively had reprogrammed the Annihilator to target only Robotnik, [[TheStarscream in order to usurp Robotnik's empire]]. This raises the question of why Snively ''wouldn't'' want to erase the Freedom Fighters, considering he views them as an enemy and would have to defeat them to secure his power.
*** Sally was meant to be KilledOffForReal, but the higher-ups vetoed it. To get around this, a scene was added of Dr. Quack handing off her death certificate to Robotnik, later explaining that Robotnik, having learned of Knothole's location, had kidnapped Quack's family and forced him to pronounce her dead. In reality, Sally was in a coma, and Quack had placed her in a healing chamber disguised as a coffin. This raises the question of why Quack, despite being privy to Robotnik's scheme, never told this to anyone else.
** When talking about WhatCouldHaveBeen with his run on the comic, several of former writer Creator/KenPenders' explanations for the events in "Mobius: 25 Years Later" come off as only creating more plot holes than they fixed.
*** Locke's sickness and death was due to cancer he developed from a bad interaction with his self-experimentation to create Knuckles and the Master Emerald. If that's so, why doesn't Knuckles have cancer, even though he resulted from those same experiments?
*** Rotor's WordOfGay reveal would not have impacted his modern-day depiction; he would've only realized he was gay five years prior to the events of ''Mobius: 25 Years Later''. After he was already married to a woman. Ignoring the fact that [[HaveIMentionedIAmGay having Rotor only be gay in the future means nothing to the readers]], having Rotor find out that he's gay so late in life, and during what's implied to be a long and fulfilling marriage, really strains the credibility of this reveal.
*** Also according to Penders, this was the significance of a line in issue #157 where Eggman calls him "dear Rotor", and Sonic assumes this means Eggman knows something he doesn't. The implication is that Eggman will [[ForcedOutOfTheCloset out]] Rotor if he doesn't cooperate. But that brings up the question of why Rotor's homosexuality is worthy of being blackmail in the first place. Simply put, for this blackmail to work, the Freedom Fighters would not only have to be ragingly homophobic to the point that they'd kick out Rotor for being gay -- a big point of contention all by itself -- but they'd also have to be pretty stupid not to see that [[AppleOfDiscord Eggman would be trying to sow chaos in their team]]. What's more, Rotor has been a Freedom Fighter for decades at the time of Eggman's threat; this blackmail would thus also be predicated on the fact that, in that length of time, nobody else noticed anything that would suggest that Rotor was gay.
*** According to Penders' original idea, "Mobius: 25 Years Later" is supposed to be the "true" future, and the one where Nicole came from, which doesn't really make that much sense. First of all, the story was built around [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong time needing to be fixed to prevent]] TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and Ken's run ended with Sonic going back in time to do just that. No way you can claim it to be the one true future, in that case. Second, unless Past Nicole was destroyed before the story started -- and WordOfGod confirmed she wasn't -- [[MyFutureSelfAndMe both Nicoles should exist at the same time]]. Thus, the two Nicoles should have the info they need to figure out what happened and how to fix it, but the story claims they don't. It was later retconned that Nicole comes from the same AlternateUniverse that Eggman came from, and that the "X Years Later" Zone was a separate one from both of the others.
** In Creator/IanFlynn's follow-up, it was mandated that Shadow be the BigBad, having conquered the world in Sonic's absence. The reason Shadow was able to do this already confused many, since there was never any explanation on Sonic's disappearance or subsequent reappearance other than time travel. But the fans were mostly wondering why a ShadowArchetype ByronicHero like Shadow was suddenly a tyrant. The explanation was given in ''Mobius: 30 Years Later'' that Shadow was doing it for Maria. Unfortunately, this made just as little sense, since Maria's wish for Shadow was to give people a chance to be happy; Maria's words would really have to be contorted to justify Shadow's actions.
** It was established that Sally married Shadow in this universe too. When Shadow is defeated, it's revealed that Sally still loved Sonic, and only married Shadow to try and tame him. How Sally thought marrying Shadow would placate his tyrannical ambition in the slightest is not explained.
** The ''Sonic Adventure'' arc had normal, non-mutated humans appear. Naturally, Ken Penders wanted to make a separation between Overlanders (mutant humans) and non-mutant humans. A simple solution would have been to have an invisible difference, like Overlanders having an extra internal organ or a slightly different bone structure or something you wouldn't notice just by casually looking at the two subspecies. Instead, the "explanation" is that Overlanders have FourFingeredHands, whilst normal humans have five. The problem is that the comics had already introduced Overlanders with five fingered hands, like Arial and Athena. Not only that, but Dr. Robotnik's new robot body has five fingered hands, despite it being designed by and for an Overlander. This would eventually be made moot during Ian Flynn's era, where all the Overlanders (including Snively) would be redesigned to have five fingered hands.

** Then there's just the fact that it's much harder to store these suits; while a fabric suit could be worn under one's clothing or folded and carried in a bag, plated armour would be much more conspicuous and harder to hide or take anywhere. While some super-powered characters might have means to get to their suit quickly, the non-powered heroes would need to have their suit hidden close by at all times. In the Flash's case, where he carries his suit ''very'' heavily compressed in a ring (and discounting how implausible that is in and of itself), having the suit be made of plate armor would make this practice outright impossible.

* ''ComicBook/HeroesInCrisis'': The resolution to the murderer mystery, that Wally West failed to keep his internalised Speed Force energy in check which created an electric storm that killed everyone but him, has a few problems, which is why it was impossible to figure out. The Speed Force is not something that is internalised, but an external force tapped into. It doesn't need to be kept in check evident by how casual every single speedster is and in how they use it, and how ''useful'' this drawback would be for other users. Electrocution should have been easy to determine as the cause of death. Making all of this worse is that Barry Allen was one of the lead investigators and is a trained CSI, and would know all about this struggle to contain the Speed Force if it were true, and he'd know if Speed Force electrocution differed from regular electrocution. At least the need to contain the Speed Force was later retconned into the Speed Force trying to expel someone interfering with it from within.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': Some writers have tried to come up with their own explanations to justify Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}}'s disguise (he disguises himself in more subtle ways like posture or voice, he's created various alibis that "prove" Clark and Superman are different people, most people don't assume Superman ''has'' a secret identity...). In ''ComicBook/Superman1939'' #330, Martin Pasko suggested that Superman's disguise worked despite all the close calls because he also had a "super-hypnosis" power that prevented anyone from noticing Clark Kent's resemblance to Superman. This depended on his glasses, which were made out of pieces of his Kryptonian spaceship; in one comic Lois Lane saw Clark Kent in a suit and no glasses and assumed it was Superman trying futilely to disguise himself as Clark. Fine, fair enough, Superman does lots of things superhumanly well due to his speed and intellect and they're all called separate superpowers. But this just raises ''more'' questions, like why does a wig work as a disguise for Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}}? Why does this disguise work over television? Also, there are many stories where Batman and Superman dress as each other. Does Batman have Bat-hypnosis? And why doesn't Superman use his hypnosis in more obvious ways, like hypnotizing villains to stop being evil?[[note]]He did do that to a group of AlwaysChaoticEvil Qwardians once, but he doesn't usually.[[/note]] By Rebirth, the new explanation is that [[spoiler:Lex Luthor, in a moment of vicious pettiness after Clark Kent revealed his identity, forced Manchester Black to brainwash the whole world with a mind block that made them forget Clark Kent is Superman, and if they try to force it in any capacity, they will have a fatal aneurysm (the strain killed Black, too). Only a very small group of people -- such as the Justice League and Lois -- were strong-willed, trained in mental defense, or were in shielded locations at that exact time and thus were not affected.]]

** The Riddler's gimmick of leaving clues that can lead to his defeat is a [[TheArtifact remnant of the Silver Age of comic books, where villains were much more theatrical]]. Now that he is probably the second most famous Batman villain, this seems like a huge handicap, specially considering that he is challenging the World's Greatest Detective. But writers that adapt him into modern settings need to find justifications for have such a smart villian display such a self-defeating gimmick: [[ComicBook/JusticeDcComics Is it because his]] [[AbusiveParents abusive dad]] [[ComicBook/JusticeDCComics rendered him unable to tell lies so he "disguises" it]]? Is it pure [[AwesomeEgo arrogance and stubborness to accept to change his modus operandi?]] [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Is it because he wants to prove he is smarter than Batman?]] [[Series/{{Gotham}} Maybe it's because he enjoys the thrill of the chase]]? Or does he do it without realising and he actually wishes he didn't do it? Some have even suggested that he has a secret wish for defeat. The true reason as to why he keeps doing it its because it's too key of a trait of the character to drop.

*** Also, on a side note, it’s worth noting that in many ''Elseworld'' stories and alternate continuities where the Joker died (Like in [[Comicbook/KingdomCome Kingdom Come]], [[Videogame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs Injustice]] or The [[Film/Batman1989 Burtonverse]]), none of these Jokers had anything like that miraculously convenient toxin. Otherwise, anyone who was close to their dead bodies at the time of their deaths (Like Magog or High Councillor Kal-El) would have presumably been Jokerized, which proves that only the Joker from the Batman Who Laughs’s dark universe and the version from the mainline comics universe had that toxin in his heart. Also, even if they did, the toxin itself seems to have a limited range, otherwise the Batman Who Laughs wouldn’t have been the only one infected when it was released. So what’s stopping someone from just killing the Joker from really far away, out of the toxin’s area of effect (like with a sniper rifle or any other kind of long-range weapon, for example) to make sure that they don’t get turned into another Joker themselves? Or alternatively, why not just give the Joker a heart surgery to remove or disable the toxin device before executing him?

** The Riddler's gimmick of leaving clues that can lead to his defeat is a [[TheArtifact remnant of the Silver Age of comic books, where villains were much more theatrical]]. Now that he is probably the second most famous Batman villain, this seems like a huge handicap, specially considering that he is challenging the World's Greatest Detective. But writers that adapt him into modern settings need to find justifications for have such a smart villian display such a self-defeating gimmick: [[ComicBook/JusticeDcComics Is it because his]] [[AbusiveParents abusive dad]] [[ComicBook/JusticeDCComics rendered him unable to tell lies so he "disguises" it]]? Is it pure [[AwesomeEgo arrogance and stubborness to accept to change his modus operandi?]] [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Is it because he wants to prove he is smarter than Batman?]] [[Series/{{Gotham}} Maybe it's because he enjoys the thrill of the chase]]? Or does he do it without realising and he actually wishes he didn't do it? Some have even suggested that he has a secret wish for defeat. The true reason as to why he keeps doing it its bcause it's too key of a trait of the character to drop.

*** Also, on a side note, it’s worth noting that in many ''Elseworld'' stories and alternate continuities where the Joker died (Like in [[Comicbook/KingdomCome Kingdom Come]], [[Videogame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs Injustice]] or The [[Film/Batman1989 Burtonverse]]), none of these Jokers had anything like that miraculously convenient toxin. Otherwise, anyone who was close to their dead bodies at the time of their deaths (Like Magog or High Councillor Kal-El) would have presumably been Jokerized, which proves that only the Joker from the Batman Who Laughs’s dark universe had that toxin in his heart. Also, even if they did, the toxin itself seems to have a limited range, otherwise the Batman Who Laughs wouldn’t have been the only one infected when it was released. So what’s stopping someone from just killing the Joker from really far away, out of the toxin’s area of effect (like with a sniper rifle or any other kind of long-range weapon, for example) to make sure that they don’t get turned into another Joker themselves? Or alternatively, why not just give the Joker a heart surgery to remove or disable the toxin device before executing him?

*** Also, on a side note, it’s worth noting that in many ''Elseworld'' stories and alternate continuities where the Joker died (Like in [[Comicbook/KingdomCome Kingdom Come]], [[Videogame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs Injustice]] or The [[Film/Batman1989 Burtonverse]]), none of these Jokers had anything like that miraculously convenient toxin. Otherwise, anyone who was close to their dead bodies at the time of their deaths (Like Magog or High Councillor Kal-El) would have presumably been Jokerized, which proves that only the Joker from the Batman Who Laughs’s dark universe had that toxin in his heart. Also, even if they did, the toxin itself seems to have a limited range, otherwise the Batman Who Laughs wouldn’t have been the only one infected when it was released. So what’s stopping someone from just killing the Joker from really far away, out of the toxin’s area of effect (like with a sniper rifle or any other kind of long-range weapon, for example) to make sure that they don’t get turned into another Joker themselves? Or alternatively, why not just give the Joker a heart surgery to remove or disable the toxin device before executing him?

** In many cases, the character has superpowers that circumvent some of these issues (such as SuperSpeed that allows them to dress themselves instantly, SuperStrength to enable them to carry to extra weight and still move quickly, or some sci-fi handwave for how the plates are repaired), but in many of these cases the superpowers ''eliminate the need for the armour in the first place''. While someone on the low-tier SuperWeight like Deathstroke might still benefit from some heavy armour as he's not bullet proof (though he ''does'' have an enhanced HealingFactor) and is strong enough to not be incapacitated while wearing double his own weight in armour, a more higher-tier character just straight up doesn't need it. The Flash and Superman both move at SuperSpeed to levels that are faster than bullets, so they're able to just dodge bullets, and their powers come with means to render them bulletproof anyway, so unless they're fighting a villain strong enough to still harm them, there's no benefit. In some cases, armour would be ''detrimental'', as it would increase wind resistance when moving, add needless weight, and, while they're strong enough to move in it quickly, would still be uncomfortable.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': Some writers have tried to come up with their own explanations to justify Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}}'s disguise (he disguises himself in more subtle ways like posture or voice, he's created various alibis that "prove" Clark and Superman are different people, most people don't assume Superman ''has'' a secret identity...). In ''ComicBook/Superman1939'' #330, Martin Pasko suggested that Superman's disguise worked despite all the close calls because he also had a "super-hypnosis" power that prevented anyone from noticing Clark Kent's resemblance to Superman. This depended on his glasses, which were made out of pieces of his Kryptonian spaceship; in one comic Lois Lane saw Clark Kent in a suit and no glasses and assumed it was Superman trying futilely to disguise himself as Clark. Fine, fair enough, Superman does lots of things superhumanly well due to his speed and intellect and they're all called separate superpowers. But this just raises ''more'' questions, like why does a wig work as a disguise for Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}}? Why does this disguise work over television? Also, there are many stories where Batman and Superman dress as each other. Does Batman have Bat-hypnosis? And why doesn't Superman use his hypnosis in more obvious ways, like hypnotizing villains to stop being evil?[[note]]He did do that to a group of AlwaysChaoticEvil Qwardians once, but he doesn't usually.[[/note]]

*** The plot hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally during a mission in Robotropolis, after Sonic apparently cut Sally's rope while she scaled a building, making Sally fall to her death. The truth was explained when Drago revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped Hershey into wearing full body Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]], meaning Hershey was [[MurderByMistake responsible for the deed]]. Ignoring questions about foreshadowing, this reveal made little sense. First of all, there's no explanation for how Drago convinced Hershey to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy. Furthermore, the suit is stated to make anyone viewed by the wearer look like Snively, which raises the questions of why Hershey didn't ''hear'' Sally, or why an eyepiece that made everyone look like someone else would ever be invented. Third, the whole thing [[GambitRoulette had several factors that could have gone wrong]], like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time or seeing the wrong person (or more than one person at the same time, for that matter). Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing King Acorn with an Auto-Automaton, a lifelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why Robotnik didn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton instead of the costume.
*** Sonic eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he's innocent despite Dulcy not being present during the mission in Robotropolis, because [[LivingLieDetector dragons can tell when a person is lying]] and are incapable of lying themselves. Beyond the fact that this ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned before]], it raises the question of why no one brought this up when Dulcy earlier met with the Freedom Fighters. Dulcy even gives an "AsYouKnow" to Geoffrey and Knuckles about her ability to sense truth, indicating that the Freedom Fighters already know that Dulcy has this power. So if Dulcy's truth-sense could prove whether Sonic was guilty or innocent without fail, how did no one consider that? The Freedom Fighters might have forgotten about Dulcy's power in the heat of the moment, but the idea that no one would so much as suggest it when Dulcy was physically present creates the Voodoo Shark.

* The biggest Voodoo Sharks in Franchise/TheDCU might be some of the explanations of Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}}'s ClarkKenting. Modern stories tend to use fairly sensible reasons (he disguises himself in more subtle ways like posture or voice, he's created various alibis that "prove" Clark and Superman are different people, most people don't assume Superman ''has'' a secret identity). But for a brief while in UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}}, it was {{canon}} that Superman's nearly PaperThinDisguise worked despite all the close calls because he also had a "super-hypnosis" power that prevented anyone from noticing Clark Kent's resemblance to Superman. This depended on his glasses, which were made out of pieces of his Kryptonian spaceship; in one comic Lois Lane saw Clark Kent in a suit and no glasses and assumed it was Superman trying futilely to disguise himself as Clark. Fine, fair enough, Superman does lots of things superhumanly well due to his speed and intellect and they're all called separate superpowers. But this just raises ''more'' questions, like why does a wig work as a disguise for Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}}? Why does this disguise work over television? Also, there are many stories where Batman and Superman dress as each other. Does Batman have Bat-hypnosis? And why doesn't Superman use his hypnosis in more obvious ways, like hypnotizing villains to stop being evil?[[note]]He did do that to a group of AlwaysChaoticEvil Qwardians once, but he doesn't usually.[[/note]]

** [=EndGame=], a four issue story arc [[MilestoneCelebration leading up to and including issue 50]], has become notorious as a mystery whose plot twists and reveals only raised more questions then they answered.

* The Silver Age ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' story "The ''Real'' Origin of the Flash" revealed that [[Characters/TheFlashBarryAllen Barry Allen]] had not been given his powers by a lightning bolt hitting a shelf of chemicals, but by a magical extradimensional being (every hero needs one, apparently) named Mopee. Just one of the ''many'' problems with this ''is pointed out by Barry in the actual story'', when after Mopee leaves, he suddenly realises this doesn't explain how Kid Flash got ''his'' powers.
* Speaking of the Flash, ''ComicBook/FlashpointDCComics'' revealed that the timeline changes that happened because Barry traveled back in time to save his mother were the result of the Speed Force causing timeline ripples. However, some readers noted that Nora's death at the hands of Thawne was ''already'' a timeline change, and no timeline ripples occurred then. Often, this is blamed on the Negative Speed Force, the source of Eobard Thawne's speed, being incapable of making as drastic a timeline change compared to its positive counterpart, which turns the Speed Force into the living embodiment of NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished in the process.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' once tried to attribute Batman's disdain for Hal Jordan to the fact that Hal as Green Lantern is "the man without fear", and Batman knows he's nothing without his fear. However, this makes zero sense -- Clark Kent is Bruce's best friend and isn't scared of him either, and Bruce has nothing even approaching disdain for Superman. Or Wonder Woman. Or any of the Flashes. Or Aquaman. Or even some other Green Lanterns, who are also "without fear". It comes off more as trying to paint Batman as irrational for the sake of shilling Hal. Later on, the same writer, Geoff Johns, would instead shift the blame over to Hal, instead portraying Hal as an arrogant jerkass on the Justice League, while Batman was the more rational one, which fits their characters a lot more.
* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': There was the attempt to absolve the [[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner Hulk]] of any major charges for [[InferredHolocaust his rampages]] by arguing that, improbably, [[NoEndorHolocaust he's]] ''[[NoEndorHolocaust never]]'' [[NoEndorHolocaust killed anyone during them]]. Apparently Bruce is so concerned he might and also ''that'' intelligent, he subconsciously restrains the Hulk and calculates his actions so he never kills anyone. This idea is mainly the pet of writer Creator/GregPak, and other Marvel writers have ignored it before, after, and even ''during'' Pak's tenure on the character. Creator/BrianMichaelBendis, for example, used a tie-in to establish that the Hulk rampage leading to Pak's epic ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' arc killed more than two dozen bystanders.
* The leadup to DC's ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' revealed that the [[DiedHappilyEverAfter pocket paradise]] which Alexander Luthor had created for himself, Franchise/{{Superman}}-2 and [[Characters/SupermanSuperboyPrime Superboy-Prime]] at the end of ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' [[CerebusRetcon was actually more of a]] PhantomZone, sealed off from the rest of reality by [[MagicalSecurityCam a crystal wall which showed all the DCU's events in real time]]. The crisis proper started when Superboy-Prime, disgusted by [[ComicBook/IdentityCrisis2004 recent events]], punched the wall in frustration, shattering it and freeing himself and the others to try creating a MergedReality, [[WellIntentionedExtremist whether it wanted remaking or not]]. This would have worked eminently well as an allegorical image, but WordOfGod stated that ''the wall was an actual physical representation of the DCU's timeline'', and used the damage caused by Superboy's punch as a catch-all {{handwave}} to explain away some of the event's less explainable facts, most notably [[BackFromTheDead "dead Robin" Jason Todd suddenly waking up]] [[BuriedAlive in his grave]] and Maxwell Lord's completely-out-of-nowhere FaceHeelTurn. The fans were neither convinced nor amused, and [[MemeticMutation "SUPERBOY PUNCHED TIME!"]] became something of a rallying cry. Since then, the editorial staff seems to have realized its mistake, and has been at pains to re-retcon some of it. For example, lines from the ''Batman & Robin'' title strongly suggest that Todd's body was actually rejuvenated in a Lazarus Pit, which makes for a far more palatable explanation. The single comic book issue devoted to explaining this stated that Jason Todd's mind was rejuvenated by a Lazarus Pit... ''after'' Superboy-Prime punched him back to life. Later stories seem to have quietly dropped the Superboy part, and this was helped by ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'' setting a strong precedent for the Lazarus Pit explanation that [[RetCanon it was made canon]] later.

-->'''[[WebVideo/{{Phelous}} Phelous!Turtles]]:''' "We are all Hamato Yoshi!"\\
'''Phelous!Splinter:''' "Ah shit, I'm gonna go chew on the wall."

** [=EndGame=], a four issue story arc [[MilestoneCelebration leading up to issue 50]], has become notorious as a mystery whose plot twists and reveals only raised more questions then they answered.
*** The plot hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally during a mission in Robotropolis, after Sonic apparently cut Sally's rope while she scaled a building, making Sally fall to her death. The truth was explained when Drago revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped Hershey into wearing full body Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]], meaning Hershey was [[MurderByMistake responsible for the deed]]. This reveal made little sense. First of all, there's no explanation for how Drago convinced Hershey to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy. Furthermore, the suit is stated to make anyone viewed by the wearer look like Snively, which raises the questions of why Hershey didn't ''hear'' Sally, or why an eyepiece that made everyone look like someone else would ever be invented. Third, the whole thing [[GambitRoulette had several factors that could have gone wrong]], like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time or seeing the wrong person (or more than one person at the same time, for that matter). Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing King Acorn with an Auto-Automaton, a lifelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why Robotnik didn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton instead of the costume.
*** Sonic eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he's innocent despite Dulcy not being present during the mission in Robotropolis, because [[LivingLieDetector dragons can tell when a person is lying]] and are incapable of lying themselves. Beyond the fact that this ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned before]], it raises the question of why no one brought this up when Dulcy earlier met with the Freedom Fighters. Dulcy even gives an "AsYouKnow" to Geoffrey and Knuckles about her ability to sense truth, revealing that the Freedom Fighters already know that Dulcy has this power. So if Dulcy's truth-sense could prove whether Sonic was guilty or innocent without fail, how did no one consider that? The Freedom Fighters might have forgotten about Dulcy's power in the heat of the moment, but the idea that no one would so much as suggest it when Dulcy was physically present creates the Voodoo Shark.

* Marvel again: The retcon that adamantium caused lead-like blood poisoning. Given adamantium's stated properties, its allergenic properties should be more like titanium than lead (i.e. should not cause a universal reaction). It was stated that Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} and [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]]'s {{healing factor}}s could deal with the blood poisoning.[[note]]Which was a mild retcon from earlier revelations that the imperfect bonding process Wolverine went through rendered the subject's bones unable to produce red blood cells, necessitating a healing factor[[/note]] It was assumed that adamantium-bearing bad guys Lady Deathstrike and Cyber, being cyborgs, had some sort of artificial mojo to deal with it. Which left the [[EmpoweredBadassNormal otherwise normal]] [[Characters/DaredevilCentralRoguesGallery Bullseye]], who had adamantium-laced bones, and had neither a healing factor nor cyborg parts to explain why he hadn't keeled over with blood poisoning. Rather than answer the question, they eventually stripped the adamantium from Bullseye.

* There was the attempt to absolve the Characters/{{Incredible Hulk|BruceBanner}} of any major charges for [[InferredHolocaust his rampages]] by arguing that, improbably, [[NoEndorHolocaust he's]] ''[[NoEndorHolocaust never]]'' [[NoEndorHolocaust killed anyone during them]]. Apparently Bruce is so concerned he might and also ''that'' intelligent, he subconsciously restrains the Hulk and calculates his actions so he never kills anyone. This idea is mainly the pet of writer Creator/GregPak, and other Marvel writers have ignored it before, after, and even ''during'' Pak's tenure on the character. Creator/BrianMichaelBendis, for example, used a tie-in to establish that the Hulk rampage leading to Pak's epic ''Planet Hulk'' arc killed more than two dozen bystanders.

** Wolverine and related characters have another one that sprung up in the late 2000s, which tried to maintain some tension when Wolverine can heal from anything -- Wolverine, and by extension Sabretooth, [[Characters/WolverineSupportingCharacters Daken]], [[Characters/X23LauraKinney X-23]] and everyone else in that "family" of characters, will die from drowning. The explanation is that, if their brains are cut off from oxygen long enough, they die like anyone else, which also explains why beheading would kill them. Okay, so... how about just shooting their lungs into oblivion so by the time they regenerate, the brain is dead? How about an explosion that destroys the lungs and airways? How about brain damage that stops the body from breathing? How about all those times the characters ''are'' functionally dead and walk it off? Basically this means you could kill one of these guys the same as any other person as long as your method involves depriving the person of air or screwing up their lungs bad enough. The comics have largely ignored these possibilities and maintained the whole "beheading or drowning is the only way" idea.

*** The plot hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally during a mission in Robotropolis, after Sonic apparently cut Sally's rope while she scaled a building, making Sally fall to her death. The truth was explained when Drago revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped Hershey into wearing full body Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]], meaning Hershey was [[AccidentalMurder responsible for the deed]]. This reveal made little sense. First of all, there's no explanation for how Drago convinced Hershey to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy. Furthermore, the suit is stated to make anyone viewed by the wearer look like Snively, which raises the questions of why Hershey didn't ''hear'' Sally, or why an eyepiece that made everyone look like someone else would ever be invented. Third, the whole thing [[GambitRoulette had several factors that could have gone wrong]], like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or seeing the wrong person. Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing King Acorn with an Auto-Automaton, a lifelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why Robotnik didn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton instead of the costume.

*** Also according to Penders, this was the significance of a line in issue #157 where Eggman calls him "dear Rotor", and Sonic assumes this means Eggman knows something he doesn't. The implication is that Eggman will get Rotor ForcedOutOfTheCloset if he doesn't cooperate. But that brings up the question of why Rotor's homosexuality is worthy of being blackmail in the first place. Simply put, for this blackmail to work, the Freedom Fighters would not only have to be ragingly homophobic to the point that they'd kick out Rotor for being gay -- a big point of contention all by itself -- but they'd also have to be pretty stupid not to see that [[AppleOfDiscord Eggman would be trying to sow chaos in their team]] . What's more, Rotor has been a Freedom Fighter for decades at the time of Eggman's threat; this blackmail would thus also be predicated on the fact that, in that length of time, nobody else noticed anything that would suggest that Rotor was gay.

** The ''Sonic Adventure'' arc had normal, non-mutated humans appear. Naturally, Ken Penders wanted to make a separation between Overlanders (mutant humans) and non-mutant humans. A simple solution would have been to have an invisible difference, like Overlanders having an extra internal organ or a slightly different bone structure or something you wouldn't notice just by casually looking at the two subspecies. Instead, the "explanation" is that Overlanders have FourFingeredHands, whilst normal humans have five. The problem is that the comics had already introduced Overlanders with five fingered hands, like Arial and Athena. Not only that, but Dr. Robotniks new robot body has five fingered hands, despite it being designed by and for an Overlander. This would eventually be made moot during Ian Flynn's era, where all the Overlanders (including Snively) would be redesigned to have five fingered hands.

*** The claim that killing the Joker won't reduce crime in Gotham is based on the idea that there will be an EvilPowerVacuum, and someone just as bad if not worse will appear when Joker is gone. But certain arcs make clear that even an AncientConspiracy like the Court of Owls [[EvilerThanThou has nothing on the Joker in terms of viciousness]] and sheer cruelty.
*** Commissioner Gordon is occasionally said to be forcing Batman's hand, declaring that if Bats ever kills the Joker, Gordon will consider Batman just as crazy as all of the other super-criminals and bring him down. The Joker is a notorious CopKiller, and it's not like cops themselves never kill anyone. It's considered a risk of the job, both in-universe and in real life, that police officers might have to kill people in the line of duty. So the idea that Batman wouldn't get a pass on killing the Joker after all the good Batman's done for Gotham City and the Gotham PD seems awfully harsh, especially when Gordon is on good terms with Batman in all other aspects. It also opens the can of worms of why no cop has ever shot the Joker dead -- Gordon and certain people under his command may be knights in shining armor looking to have him arrested come hell or high water, but Gotham is [[ComicBook/GothamCentral canonically]] the second most corrupt police force in America -- no dirty cops ''ever'' had the desire to shoot the Joker as a contract kill, [[SelfDefenseRuse ironic use of self defense]], or just because they were having a bad day and wanted to vent their frustrations on [[AssholeVictim somebody that no one would miss]]?

*** Post-''Rebirth'', Batman reveals that the Joker, if killed, will exude a variation of the Joker Toxin contained in his heart that will immediately turn anyone nearby into a Joker clone. This is the origin of [[ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal The Batman Who Laughs]]. But that explanation has a few problems. How does the Joker have the knowledge to implement a neuro-toxin that powerful into his heart? If the Joker has the ability to create a variant of the Joker Toxin that powerful, why not mass-produce the stuff? Sure, Joker clones would be unpredictable, but Joker isn't about long-term planning. In fact, Joker once waltzed into the Batcave and killed himself, knowing he could corrupt Batman into becoming another Batman Who Laughs, which was only averted by Alfred resuscitating Joker and Batman managing to get a cure in time. Does every other Bat-villain have similar countermeasures like this? And if they don't, what's Batman's excuse with them? Couldn't Batman kill Joker in a manner that doesn't involve going anywhere near him, like poison gas or launching him into space? Plus, the Joker died at the end of ''ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh'', but no toxin activated before he was resuscitated. So what's stopping Batman killing Joker now that it's been revealed that what Bats was so worried about won't happen? Finally, and perhaps most glaringly: ''how does Batman know the Joker did that?''

** The Riddler's gimmick of leaving clues that can lead to his defeat is a [[TheArtifact remnant of the Silver Age of comic books, where villains were much more theatrical.]] Now that he is probably the second most famous Batman villain, this seems like a huge handicap, specially considering that he is challenging the World's Greatest Detective. But writers that adapt him into modern settings need to find justifications for have such a smart villian display such a self-defeating gimmick: [[ComicBook/JusticeDcComics Is it because his]] [[AbusiveParents abusive dad]] [[ComicBook/JusticeDCComics rendered him unable to tell lies so he "disguises" it]]? Is it pure [[AwesomeEgo arrogance and stubborness to accept to change his modus operandi?]] [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Is it because he wants to prove he is smarter than Batman?]] [[Series/{{Gotham}} Maybe it's because he enjoys the thrill of the chase]]? Or does he do it without realising and he actually wishes he didn't do it? Some have even suggested that he has a secret wish for defeat. The true reason as to why he keeps doing it its bcause it's too key of a trait of the character to drop.

** The 60s comics were fairly notorious for MonochromeCasting and HumansAreWhite, with the common joke being that the team had more [[RubberForeheadAliens blue people]] on it than black, and even crowd shots often [[ExecutiveMeddling being edited]] to remove black people. In the 70s, it was revealed that this was because... all the black people on Earth had become racial separatists, and now lived on an island off the African coast that occasionally vanishes entirely. On top of being ''staggeringly'' racist (Mike Grell even had a WriterRevolt over it), it raised countless questions. How did the entire black population of Earth become racial separatists, a viewpoint that was controversial even back then? Did Earth become so racist at some point that even native Africans wanted to leave their homelands? Why are black people still the biggest prejudice target when aliens are walking around? How can this one island support a billion-plus black population? Why didn't they just colonize another planet? Every writer since has completely ignored the idea, and for good reason.