Line #53 BrownNote/ComicBooks


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8	* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'':
9	** Judge Fear (one of a group of undead {{Evil Counterpart}}s) in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' has the ability to kill anyone who looks at his face through sheer terror, typically by lifting his helmet while delivering his catchphrase. [[spoiler:The title character is sufficiently badass to shrug it off and cave his face in with his bare hands.]]
10	--->'''Judge Fear:''' [[CharacterCatchphrase Gaaaaaze into the face of Fear!]]\
11	[[spoiler:'''Dredd:''' Gaze into the fist of Dredd!]]
12	** One of ''ComicBook/ThargsFutureShocks'' from written by Creator/AlanMoore gives a spin on the alien parasite, ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers''-type tale by suggesting that [[StarfishAlien an alien life form could even be as abstract as an idea]]. One such "idea" takes over the mind of a person once he/she is told the "idea" by someone already possessed by it.
13	* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' has Cacofonix the Bard, a DreadfulMusician whose singing is so feared, a running gag is for him to be bound and gagged while the rest are having a party. His singing is so bad that it can send legionnaires and even HornyVikings into mental breakdown, send wild beasts and even a ''dragon'' running away in fear. It might even anger the ''gods'' themselves, given that he has his treehouse zapped by a bolt of lightning and causes rain to fall just from his singing... even when he sings ''[[BeyondTheImpossible indoors]]''.
14	* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', the roar of the Living Nightmare inflicts pain on whoever hears it.
15	* In one issue of ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'', there's an idea so disturbing that anyone who hears it has to tell someone else, ''and then kill themselves''. It's stopped by having the last victim tell it to a film producer, then be restrained. The producer declares it "too downbeat" and promptly [[ComicallyMissingThePoint rewrites it to be more cheerful]].
16	* In ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'', swearing forcefully (usually but not always when done by Sergeant Snorkel) can have effects such as stunning people or killing flowers. Not to be confused with the times when Sarge shouts so loudly the sheer volume or wind of it has a physical effect.
17	* In ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'', Fone Bone's reading voice causes mild drowsiness for human listeners, and debilitating pain for rat creatures. This is probably mostly because he always reads ''Literature/MobyDick''.
18	* In ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire: The Gallimaufry'', there is a game called "Martian Charades", in which a human performs a series of ritualized gestures at an audience of aliens. The gestures have all been clinically proven to be hysterically funny to almost every race in the cosmos except humans themselves. The alien who can keep a straight face the longest is the winner. Moreover, the sight of an audience of multivariate aliens falling all over itself in laughter tends to make the performing human sick. Making the human sick is considered an important secondary goal of the game. (All of this was suggested in a fan letter after Creator/PhilFoglio mentioned "Martian Charades" in an issue of ''Buck Godot'', and Foglio embraced it as canon.)
19	* ''WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost'':
20	** An old comic had a story about a scarecrow so un-scary that the Ghostly Trio gave it the scariest face in existence: a photo of the Ogre of the Black Pool. It was so scary it even scared ghosts! In fact, the only thing it couldn't scare was a sweet little old lady who painted over the scarecrow's face with a friendly one when it came to life and went berserk. (Those old Harvey comics could get ''weird''.)
21	** Speaking of Harvey, ghost boos. They frighten practically ''everything'', even [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu gods and demons!]] (To be fair, though, demons in the Harvey-verse aren't [[OurDemonsAreDifferent exactly terrifying.]]) Even a ghost ''[[YourMindMakesItReal thinking]]'' [[YourMindMakesItReal the word "boo" could scare people]], provided that ghost could communicate telepathically. Subverted when Fatso claimed to be scary enough to cause the sun to go out. He took his skeptical brothers out on a sunny day and ''[[TheLastStraw very quietly]]'' [[TheLastStraw whispered "Boo"]] -- and the sun turned black! The two other brothers panicked ("He's scared the sun dark!") until Fatso assured them that the sun would be bright again when it no longer felt frightened. He then went back into the house and [[BreakingTheFourthWall admitted to the reader]] that he had known the exact moment when a solar eclipse would occur.
22	* Amelia Mintz from ''ComicBook/{{Chew}}'' is a saboscrivner, meaning that she can write or talk about food so vividly that it can cause people to actually taste it. She usually uses it to do her job (she's a food critic). However, when terrorists try to take over the building, she proceeds to describe a particularly nasty meal, sending them to the hospital. Later, it was revealed that her power isn't completely developed, and at its full potential, it could [[spoiler:induce fatal food poisoning]]. She eventually [[spoiler:uses it to write a manuscript which would kill anyone, who recently ate chicken]].
23	* In Creator/WarrenEllis' ''City of Silence'', a hacker overrides every TV channel so demons can "relate all the secrets of hell on live TV". Hearing these secrets drives viewers insane... except for the protagonists, who "knew it all already" on account of [[spoiler:being natives of Hell]].
24	* In ''ComicBook/{{Cossacks\|2022}}'', the [[OldSoldier old Ukrainian Cossack warrior]] Sachko uses a whistle that humans can't hear, but horse can, and it's so painful to their ears that they can run out of control and dismount the rider.
25	* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
26	** In the ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' one-shot ''Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum'', the Hamburger Lady believes that her face is so deformed that anyone not already insane can't look upon it. Dr Arkham tries to prove her wrong by looking at her face and is later implied to have gone insane because of it... [[spoiler:until it's ''later'' revealed that she's a figment of his imagination]].
27	** ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'': The Pied Piper, usually a mostly harmless reformed villain, turns out to be able to cause a Brown Note effect with his flute. Not only does he [[YourHeadAsplode kill Desaad]] with it, but he also ''takes out Apokolips'' using the music of Music/{{Queen}}. The Pied Piper can do this because he's one of the rare humans who possess the entire Anti-Life Equation inside his mind.
28	** In ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', ComicBook/{{Superman}} destroys Darkseid by creating a sound which disrupts his energy form.
29	** A ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' story seems to be about this when people celebrating a [[AttackOfTheTownFestival revived pagan festival]] become many interesting shades of crazy while some scientists conduct mysterious tests at a nearby facility. [[spoiler:It turns out that [[AFeteWorseThanDeath the festival itself is the cause]], since the scientists' equipment is not only unplugged but ''never worked to begin with.'']]
30	** ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'': Johnny Sorrow's face instantly kills anyone who sees it.
31	** ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'': A primordial Jin En Mok creature in human guise punishes a janitor, who disturbed his train of thought, by giving him a gold coin bearing "the sigil Calx". As the janitor stares transfixed at the sigil, the Jin En Mok tells him that he will look at it more often each day, with a corresponding increase in pain and pleasure, until he dies within a year.
32	** ''ComicBook/NewGods'': The Anti-Life Equation as introduced by Creator/JackKirby was initially a mysterious "thing" which would somehow allow Darkseid to dominate all of life. Creator/GrantMorrison, in their ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiersOfVictory2005'' and ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', explicitly revealed that it is a fundamental mathematical proof that life is not worth living, thus allowing the wielder to destroy the wills of any being by simply exposing them to it.[[note]]There also exists the Life Equation, which is the fundamental proof that life ''is'' worth living. [[spoiler:The heroes use the Life Equation to counter the Anti-Life near the end of ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.]][[/note]]
33	** ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Looking the Curator in the eye turns the viewer to stone, which the Curator then treats as part of an exhibit along with his other victims.
34	** ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': In issue #45, Ishtar is a [[GodInHumanForm goddess in human form]] working as an exotic dancer, and apparently, she's been holding back the full extent of her dancing talents. After a visit from Dream and Delirium, she stops holding back. Her last dance kills the audience and burns the strip club to the ground.
35	** ''ComicBook/SecretSix'': Jeannette is a centuries old banshee who can make people relive her botched execution with her song. ComicBook/WonderWoman, of all people, experienced it firsthand, and the fact that it didn't cause any permanent damage is itself a miracle.
36	** ''ComicBook/{{Shadowpact}}'': The Mind Virus is a [[MysticalPlague magical infection]] which was created by an evil wizard who wanted to instill unquestioning obedience to himself and only himself in his slaves. It is a living idea that spreads simply by being communicated to its victims and takes root by allowing its victim to feel only pleasure and no pain. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Even the wizard himself ended up succumbing to it]]. The only people who were immune to it were children and an old wizard who had to [[EarAche damage his own ears]] in order to protect himself from it.
37	** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': To look straight at Medusa is to die via being TakenForGranite.
38	* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In "Zio Paperone e lo slogan invincibile", John D. Rockerduck hears of an ancient "slogan", a Scottish phrase which supposedly leaves a lasting impression upon anyone who hears it. He proceeds to acquire it and proceeds to incorporate it in a grand advertising campaign for all his products. Too late, he finds out that it's a "slogan" in the old sense... namely, a Scottish clan's BattleCry. It leaves an "impression" upon its listeners all right -- anyone who hears it instantly goes into blind panic. Not only Rockerduck is forced to pay a [[ShockinglyExpensiveBill ridiculously large fine]], but all his potential customers also get conditioned into instinctively fearing his products.
39	* ''ComicBook/{{Enigma}}'' features "The Interior League", a supervillain team who sneaks into peoples homes and... rearranges their furniture. In such a way that when viewing it, the owner goes stark raving mad and murders their whole family.
40	* ''ComicBook/GastonLagaffe'' once tuned a violin so badly that playing it paralyzed the audience. His [[BizarreInstrument Gaffophone]] can also have a number of strange effects when certain notes are played, including unscrewing light bulbs, making wallpaper come loose and causing plumbing to fail.
41	* ''ComicBook/GlobalFrequency'':
42	** Used with more grounding in reality in the fifth issue. Disturbing subaudible frequencies are a major element of the mystery explored in the issue, and one character mentions the original Brown Note myth.
43	** Also used in issue #3 with an alien invasion in the form of a signal containing an alien society in its entirety. Exposure is dangerous even in the form of programming code on a computer screen. Merely reading the code [[TearsOfBlood makes an agent's eyes bleed]] as she struggles to keep the information from reprogramming her mind.
44	* In ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'', [[BewareTheSuperman Viltrumites]], including Mark (a human[=/=]Viltrumite hybrid), are NighInvulnerable. They do have one weakness, however: sound waves at certain pitches. Viltrumites have sensitive inner ears, and with them, a delicate equilibrium that is key to their ability to fly. High-pitched sound waves can disrupt this equilibrium, grounding Viltrumites while inflicting severe pain and causing their ears to bleed. Prolonged exposure to these sound waves is said to even be capable of killing Viltrumites.
45	* ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'' must be the chief proponent of the trope, filled with "superdimensional" sounds and words with both positive and negative effects. There are sounds that cause rapid cancer, sounds that opens your consciousness similarly to an explosive, permanent LSD trip, sounds that make you throw up but only if you're a secret agent with multiple cover stories and at one point a hyperdimensional villain is ''defeated by the word "POP"''. (It makes him go pop.) It's even suggested that ''the alphabet itself'' is a Brown Note, the true name of a powerful demon that the Conspiracy uses to restrict human minds by inculcating the name as a sort of mantra in children.
46	* ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'':
47	** A sonic virus melts off its child victims' skin right down to their bones and animated their skeletons, spreading through the screams of the adult witnesses. On a more mundane level, [[ShellShockedVeteran the sheer trauma of dealing with the mess the virus made]] was a major contributing factor to the Plutonian [[SanitySlippage going over the edge]].
48	** Orian, a demonic hunter, is summoned by merely reading (not aloud) a mystic sigil. He arrives in our world by ripping his way out through the victim's mouth.
49	* ''ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}}'': Iznogoud once enlists the help of a woman so ugly that seeing her face without a veil causes people to be frozen in horror -- literally (as in, they instantly become encased in a block of ice -- the woman uses her power [[MundaneUtility to keep her sherbet fresh]]). The reader never gets to see her face; [[BreakingTheFourthWall she offers to do so in the last panel]], which is followed by a note saying that the pencil writer did not complete this panel and gave a "frigid reception" to the people sent to retrieve it.
50	* ''ComicStrip/LilAbner'':
51	** "Lena the Hyena" is supposed to be so ugly that the sight of her face causes insanity in Dogpatch residents ''and the reader'', so her face isn't shown at first. Eventually, there was a contest to decide what she looked like. [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/lena.jpg Basil Wolverton won.]] Lena later made a cameo in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' (as a [[AbhorrentAdmirer sex offender]] in Toontown).
52	** Stupefyin' Jones is the opposite -- she's so stunningly beautiful that any male who looks at her freezes, rooted to the spot. (She's a deadly hazard for any confirmed bachelor on Sadie Hawkins Day, and she often uses her powers then on purpose, [[ForTheEvulz simply for fun]].) Her cousin Available Jones (who is always available -- for a price) isn't above providing her power for a fee if anyone needs someone else subdued.
53	* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
54	** ''ComicBook/AgentsOfAtlas'': Venus can affect minds with her song. She usually puts them in a state of pleasure, but when [[spoiler:she finds out that she isn't a goddess, but rather a Siren]], her wail creates a massive depression field.
55	** ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'': Angar the Screamer has the power to cause nightmarish hallucinations by screaming. He then robs his victims while they're paralyzed with horror. Amnesia sets in after the effect fades, leaving the victims wondering where they've left their wallets.
56	** ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'' has a face horrifying enough to make [[ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers Big Bertha]] throw up at the mere sight of it when he unmasks.
57	** ''ComicBook/TheInhumans'': The face of Dinu is so ugly that all who see it die.
58	** In ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'', and shown in greater detail in the ''Siege'' mini-series, the Shield finally raises up and roars something so powerful it stuns everyone and causes their ears to pop. A translator able to piece together what he said revealed a three-word, five-syllable phrase: [[spoiler:[[ComicBook/FantasticFour "It's Clobberin' Time!"]]]]
59	** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Calypso can play the drums in such a way that it interferes with Peter's SpiderSense.
60	* ''ComicBook/{{Memetic}}'' involves the viral spread of a picture of a sloth giving a thumbs up, which causes anyone who sees it to experience a wave of euphoria [[spoiler:and turn into a screaming zombie not twelve hours later, among other things]].
61	* ''ComicBook/{{MINDMGMT}}'' has multiple examples, ranging from [[SubliminalAdvertising messages inserted into advertisements that only psychic agents can see]] to Assassination Letters and Versus Verses, which kill anyone who reads or hears them, respectively.
62	* ''Magazine/NationalLampoon'' once ran a comic about Ugly Deirdre, a little girl who was so hideous that the sight of her face caused people to lose bowel control. A kind plastic surgeon tried to fix Deirdre's face... and the results were so horrible that anyone who looked at her would violently blind or kill themselves. The cartoonist spared us the sight of the after-surgery face by covering it with a black box labeled "TOO HIDEOUS FOR PUBLICATION".
63	* The Mike Allred comic, ''Red Rocket 7'', featured a secret note of existence that if played, signaled the destruction of evil and the dawn of paradise. He used it to destroy an evil alien empire that was invading Earth (after it had taken over most of the universe) and signal the second coming of God.
64	* In ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrim'', the rival band "Crash and the Boys" has [[ThePowerOfRock a song that is so epic]], it knocks the audience unconscious for twenty to thirty minutes. (Its title is "Last Song Kills Audience".)
65	* When Creator/MarvelComics had the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' license, they did a ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' Dominion War crossover involving ''Deep Space Nine'', the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' crew and (barely, for obvious reasons) Kes from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', set during the Dominion War, in which the Dominion tries to incapacitate all telepaths from the Alpha Quadrant with what amounts to an earworm. It flips the brains of those affected so that friends are enemies and enemies friends. When Bashir and Beverly Crusher figure it out, they fight it back with another earworm. (''TNG'' telepaths ''like'' sharing thoughts on the aether.)
66	* In ''ComicBook/TankVixens'', reading Gedda's diary is enough to make Firen and Sonya forget how FTL travel works.
67	* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' seems to like this trope:
68	** Issue 4 to 5 feature a "sound bomb" created by a MadScientist named Pharma. Essentially it creates an incredibly loud booming sound; this sound creates a signal that's somehow laced with a virus. The virus causes the coolants, anti-rusting agents, and other fluids in Transformer-bodies to mix and congeal with each other when the victim transforms. This causes the infected person to literally [[BodyHorror rust away, slowly dissolving bit by bit]].
69	** The annual has an ancient being called a Metrotitian. The screams of this being can only be heard or interpreted by comatose people or Transformers with [[TheChosenOne a Matrix connection]]. That's not what qualifies it for this trope. What qualifies it for this trope is the discovery that [[spoiler: its screams raise the dead]].
70	** A recurring plot point involves a musical score called The Empyrean Suite. The music itself is fairly harmless when played on its own. However it has connections to something absolutely ''horrifying''; [[NothingIsScarier so horrifying that upon learning the music's significance, Chromedome refuses to ever speak of it again and expresses his hope that Skids never learns the truth behind for the sake of his sanity]]. Turns out [[spoiler: Skids had been tricked into building a smelting furnace for Autobot [=POWs=] in Grindcore prison. The Empyrean Suite was the music played to drown out the screams.]]
71	** Tarn, the leader of [[TortureTechnician Decepticon Justice Division]], possesses an ability referred to as "Weaponized Conversation". His voice has unique modulation, which, when moved in time with the pulse of listener's [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Spark]], can make it weaker by lowering his voice. Then he talks lower, and lower, and lower, until the Spark just gives up and explodes, destroying a Transformer.
72	* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'':
73	** A literal brown note comes in the form of the bowel disruptor gun, which has settings including "loose", "watery" and "prolapse". And more creative later settings like "Intestinal Maelstrom", "Unspeakable Gut Horror", "Rectal Volcano", and everyone's favorite, "Shat into Unconsciousness".
74	** The buybombs are [[{{Blipvert}} a momentary flash of concentrated subliminal advertising]] coming from the TV screen, which then causes those exposed to see the commercials in their dreams as they sleep.
75	* ''ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': In the story arc "The Apocalypse Suite", the antagonist has constructed an orchestra of the sadistic and suicidal to play a symphony that will end the world. Similarly, The White Violin is capable of making heads explode and bodies tear themselves apart by just barely scraping her strings.
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Context BrownNote / ComicBooks