But For Me It Was Tuesday / Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

Comic Books

Comic Books

• In Nick Spencer's Astonishing Ant-Man run, Ant-Man is enraged to discover that his archenemy Taskmaster apparently never saw their rivalry as anything more than random spars brought about by coincidence or money. Ant-Man had thought the two had an unbreakable Friendly Rivalry, but Taskmaster barely remembered his fights with Ant Man and is even offended by the notion that the two have any sort of bond. This is actually an Enforced Trope with Taskmaster- his powers work by giving him a photographic memory of every fighting move he's ever seen, but only at the expense of being unable to form long term memories of anything else.
• Deadpool: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has yet another hero-to-villain example in the case of "The White Man". In the seventies, the Heroes for Hire and Deadpool took down this unfortunately-named pimp slash mob boss by turning his petrification powers back on him. Needless to say, when he's finally unfrozen forty "years" later, he's a bit pissed. He's even more pissed when he finds out that none of them remember who he is or have any idea why he's so mad at them.
• Excalibur: In one issue, Doctor Doom is attacked by a monstrous man who was mutated by an experiment that Doom conducted and wants revenge. When he says that he's the man whose life Doom destroyed, Doom replies that the man cannot possibly expect Doom to remember every life he's destroyed.
• Fantastic Four: In James Robinson's run of Fantastic Four 2014, a mysterious villain known as The Quiet Man has been doing everything in his power to ruin the Richards family. When Reed finds out who he is, he's confused as the villain is some random guy he barely remembers. Turns out his whole motivation was that Reed ended up winning over Sue Storm the day the guy decided to get the balls to finally talk to her, something Reed couldn't possibly know.
• Iron Man: In the storyline Armor Wars II, we see a revenge-driven genius named DeWitt mastermind Tony's near-destruction. We had never seen the guy before, but the big surprise was that Tony hadn't either — when the dust cleared and he finally got to see his dead enemy's face, he didn't recognize it. Over the next few issues, Tony was actually quite shaken over this. He'd never wanted to be an industrial shark, crushing opponents without even knowing it. (This was the whole point as far as writer John Byrne was concerned, but fans must have complained, because DeWitt was gratuitously brought back later for just long enough to explain why he hated Tony.)
• Luke Cage: A 70s issue of Luke Cage: Hero for Hire has the Hero for Hire confront Doctor Doom over this when Doom stiffs him for work. Doom barely remembers having done so, and is baffled at the idea that Luke Cage would steal the Fantasti-Car, fly all the way to Latveria, and personally threaten its superpowered head of state to get paid, to the point that he doesn't even connect the dots to why Luke Cage is there until he tells him. Though, in this case, it had as much to do with the action itself as it did that Doom had only stiffed him out of 200 dollars.
• In a "Year One" graphic novel, The Mighty Thor finds himself facing a Frost Giant who boasts of having waited centuries for this chance to avenge his name. When Thor says he has no memory of him, the Giant is outraged, snapping how they fought constantly as children.
  Thor: I have been the inspiration for more vows of revenge than I can count, friend. You must needs be a bit more specific.
• The Punisher
  • Anti Heroic example: In the penultimate issue of Garth Ennis' Punisher MAX "Widowmaker" arc, Castle is rescued by a woman who explains that she did it because Castle killed her brutal mobster husband who beat and raped her and let his friends beat and rape her... Let's just say that she was really grateful for that slaughter in the first issue, as she knew for a fact she didn't have a chance in hell of pulling it off herself.
  • And in the final issue of Ennis' run, Castle is outmaneuvered and captured by a Special Forces unit. Turns out that its commander, Colonel Howe, owes Frank his life - he rescued a teenage Howe from a Viet Cong camp during the war. To Castle, it was just another of his countless deniable operations. To Howe, it was the most important moment in his life - the reason he joined Special Forces in the first place. This is why he volunteered to take Castle alive, and upon discovering that the generals who ordered him captured were monsters, he freed Castle and let him kill them all.
  • A classic and iconic Punisher example: Though he had good reason to know him later on and perhaps recall his origin, the first time Frank encounters Jigsaw (in the company of Spidey and Nightcrawler), Jigsaw describes his reasons and origins, and Frank, at that time a lot more social towards other justice-types, says to the others it's a pity he doesn't remember this guy at all.
  • Every mook in the demon Oliver's army in The Punisher: Purgatory is made from bad guys Punisher killed. They frequently bring this up when they fight him, and he denies any recognition. Except for Olivier's human form Frank Costa, as he is the one who got his family killed.
  • A man tries to rattle the Punisher by surgically altering people to look like his past victims and send them after him. In a few cases (like Ma Gunicci), Frank does recall them but the majority are just random mooks. Just before killing the man, Frank points out the key flaw in his plan of trying to rattle the Punisher with the "ghosts of those who haunt him."
  Punisher: What makes you think I'm haunted? I send them to Hell. I sleep just fine.
• Spider-Man's long career has given him more than his fair share of this trope.
  • He once faced a guy called "The Master of Vengeance" seeking revenge because Spider-Man put him in jail for dealing drugs. Peter, who does that sort of thing all the time, didn't remember him at all.
  • Spidey had this as well with a villain called the Slyder, who THOUGHT he was the Unknown Rival to Spidey, but didn't even register on his radar. Only after fighting for a solid 10 minutes does Peter remember his gimmick, and then easily schools him with the exact same effort as before. Being remembered by Spidey has Slyder squee though.
  • In the "Light the Night" trilogy, Spidey, Electro and a third incidental crook struggle with their own inadequacies. The small crook really has it in for Spidey because he never seems to remember him, even when he has arrested him three times. He bores a barman to death telling him this story several times.
  • A positive example in Amazing Spider-Man 801: after being told "you saved my life", Spidey apologises because he doesn't remember.
    "It's all right, man. You save a lot of people."
  • A more famous example is Eddie Brock, a.k.a. Venom. Peter knows him all too well now, but when Venom first unmasked, he recognized Brock only as a disgraced reporter whose picture had been in the papers. He'd never met the man and had no idea he blamed Spider-Man for his ruined career.
  • After Spidey's unmasking during Marvel's Civil War event, the Chameleon hired a bunch of lesser known members of Spidey's Rogues Gallery and set them on the already beleaguered hero. When Will-o'-the-Wisp makes his grand entrance, Spidey pretends like he doesn't recognize the poor guy. Or at least he claims in his thought captions to be pretending. Honest!
  • Averted post-Secret Wars with Clash. Spidey does remember him and his sonic tech gimmicks, and remembers that he's basically a good guy who's made bad decisions. Since Clash is an ex-con and it's hard for ex-cons to find legitimate work (and Clash is a legitimate genius), Spidey/Peter Parker basically offers him a job at Parker Industries.
• Similar to the Batman example above, Wolverine once encountered a group called the Red Right Hand, who hired mercenaries, joined forces with his greatest enemies and even made a Deal with the Devil trying to make his life hell. They turned out to be people who lost loved ones or had their lives ruined by him, directly or indirectly. All their backstories read like a Perspective Flip of one of Logan’s typical solo adventures, and he had probably never paid any of them any mind afterwards. Additionally, their team of mercenaries, the Mongrels, turned out to be the offsprings of his many forgotten flings.
• Parodied by the second X-Factor team; three rather random villains died without X-Factor ever actually encountering them, and were resurrected by Charon as X-Factor's "greatest, and deadliest enemies!" To which X-Factor replied "WHO?!", "Only WE could have a bunch of 'greatest enemies' that we never heard of!" and continued with several quips about them being mistaken for X-Force, or the one team without action figures.
• In The Incredible Hulk #393, a common villain named Coyote Cash tried to steal a weapon from the US Army, and the Hulk on one of his typical 1970s/80s rampages runs through the area, destroys everything in his path, and the villain ends up caught and in jail. A few years later he's out and attempting to cheat at roulette in Las Vegas. Again the Hulk, this time as Joe Fixit, rampages through and ruins his day without even looking over his shoulder. More jail time. Finally, the guy sneaks into Rick Jones' house to kill him as revenge on the Hulk. The house is all but blown up, but then the Hulk, this time as Professor Hulk, gets out of the bed and shouts "what the hell, I was only housesitting!" The guy is arrested again with Banner/Hulk being absolutely clueless what the guy's motivation was.

Films

Films

• A rare heroic example in The Amazing Spider-Man 2; Spider-Man helps so many people on a daily basis that he initially doesn't remember Max Dillon until Max reminds him of that day, although Max isn't helped by his new Electro appearance. Subverted in that Peter does remember their encounter, if not Max's name, and recalls enough particular details of his prior conversation with Max that he nearly defuses the situation...until a trigger-happy SWAT sniper immediately re-lights the fuse by trying to snipe Max.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Iron Man 3: The origin story for Aldrich Killian features this, with a joke being played on him by Tony Stark being the catalyst for his villain origin story.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy: Drax the Destroyer lost his family to Ronan the Accuser. When the two finally meet, a Curb-Stomp Battle ensues wherein Ronan states that he has no memory of killing Drax's family... and that he will probably not remember killing Drax, either. In a later confrontation Ronan claims to have since recalled killing Drax's family (and cruelly remarks how he remembers how their "screams were pitiful"), though this could very well have been an effort to enrage Drax further. Tellingly, he mentions no other details.
  • This is discussed by Zemo in Captain America: Civil War. After the climax of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers, satisfied that their work was done and their latest adventure was over, went home to America. Meanwhile, Zemo was left in the debris and rubble with his now dead father, wife, and son.
  • Discussed and averted in the same movie with other characters. After Zemo reveals that Bucky (as the brainwashed Winter Soldier) killed Tony's parents, a furious Tony demands "Do you even remember them?". Bucky replies "I remember all of them".
  • Notably averted in Avengers: Infinity War; despite the fact that he hasn’t met most of them personally, Thanos knows full well who the Avengers and Guardians are (most likely through second-hand reports of them thwarting his underlings). Iron Man is actually a little unnerved when Thanos casually refers to him by his real name, whereas Tony didn’t even know Thanos existed until recently.
  • Played With in Avengers: Endgame: When facing off against 2014 Thanos, a pissed-off Wanda confronts him, seeking revenge for his 2018 self's murder of Vision. 2014 Thanos seems to think that it's this trope, bluntly telling her that he doesn't even know who she is; however, the audience knows that this version of Thanos has actually never met Wanda, and that she's referring to the (long-dead) Thanos she fought in Infinity War.

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • Heroic example: Anton Ivanov's vendetta against Coulson and SHIELD is rooted in the fact that his comrades were executed for failing to stop Coulson in a previous operation many years ago. While Coulson does remember the mission itself, he does not remember the details of why nor does he care, because for him it was just another day at SHIELD.
    Coulson: All of these things that you've done. All of the energy spent, the hatred... and you know what the funny thing about it is? I have no idea who the hell you are. I've been on hundreds of missions in my time. This one you're so upset about? I was sent to retrieve an object. If I'm being honest, I don't even remember what it was. As far as I'm concerned, you're just another redshirt, like so many others, who tried unsuccessfully to stop me from saving the world. 'Cause that's what I do. So. Cool origin story, bro. But this means nothing to me.
  • Bonus points for the fact that Coulson was on the mission in question with Melinda May, who is portrayed by Ming-Na Wen, the recipient of the original But for Me, It Was Tuesday — and she was the one who beat up all the Mooks and allowed Coulson to get away with the object in question. And when May herself meets the man in question in the present, she has no idea who he is either. It was Tuesday for her too.
    May: Who the hell is this guy?
    Coulson: Well, you missed a fair amount, May, but the quick version is: you can go ahead and shoot him.
    May: (fires)
• Blade: The Series: Marcus Van Sciver has spent decades plotting revenge against the pureblood Damek, who brutally murdered his wife in front of him and then had Van Sciver sent to a bunch of feral vampires, who ended up turning him. Eventually, Marcus confronts Damek and starts a fight. Right before Van Sciver kills him, Damek simply laughs, saying he doesn't even remember her; after all, he's a couple thousand years old and likely can't remember a hundredth of the people he's killed.

  Damek: Do you know how many men I've killed over the years? How many women I've taken? All these years, burning with hatred for me. And I don't even remember you! Or whoever this whore was you say I killed!"''

• In Daredevil (2015), when Matt Murdock is put face to face to his father's killer thanks to Elektra, he is surprised when Roscoe Sweeney doesn't even remember who he is, and only does so after he hits Sweeney in the face repeatedly, and outright tells him his father was a boxer.
  Matt Murdock: You don't remember me? You killed my father.
• Loki (2021):
  • Sylvie is a Variant who was captured for her "crime" of deviating from the Sacred Timeline as a child, but managed to escape. Thousands of years later, she tracks down Renslayer, the Hunter who captured her (now a Judge) and demands to know what exactly she did that caused the Nexus Event, the branching timeline that had to be pruned. Renslayer says she can't remember.
  • Played with in the case of Mobius and Alligator Loki. He doesn't remember him at all, and says he's pruned so many Lokis that they all blur together... but he's pretty sure he'd remember an alligator. Mobius wonders if he's not a Loki at all, just pretending to be one as part of some long con, then admits that would actually make it more likely that he's a Loki.

Western Animation

Western Animation

• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes gives us another heroic example:
  Chemistro: How can you not know who I am!? You punched me in the face!
  Hawkeye: Sorry, that doesn't narrow it down much.
• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Mysterio is disappointed that Spider-man doesn't remember him.
  Mysterio: Don't pretend you've forgotten. I was the Chameleon's right-hand man!
  Spider-Man: Oh, right. On the boat! You were...You were dressed as the crewman!
  Mysterio: As the waiter!
• Speaking of whom: The version of Quentin Beck from Spider-Man: The Animated Series became Mysterio to get revenge on Spidey for exposing an unethical stunt he pulled while shooting a movie. He doesn't mention it at first, but when he does, Spidey has no idea what he's talking about until Lieutenant Terri Lee looks it up.
  Beck: (in flashback) They'll arrest me for this, and it's all your fault! I will get you, I swear!
  Lee: (in present) This is something you have trouble remembering?
  Spidey: Hey, I hear that kinda thing...two, three times a week!
• Played with in X-Men: The Animated Series before Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch find out the real truth:
  Scarlet Witch: We're here to get revenge for one who has fallen in your path.
  Magneto: You will need to be more specific. There have been many.
  Quicksilver: It was our mother! (Let's You and Him Fight ensues)
  • In fairness to Magneto while he may not remember all that "have fallen in his path", he does remember Magda. He was paying a visit to her grave right before being ambushed, so this really is just on them for not being more specific.

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