Chekhovs Skill / Comic Books

• In the final chapter of Watchmen, Nite Owl, still trying to make sense of the huge Batman Gambit that Ozymandias pulled off (thirty-five minutes ago), tries to explain to him that one part of his plan—where he staged his own assassination attempt—couldn't have worked because the assassin might have shot him first instead of his secretary. Ozymandias just innocently smiles and says "Well, I supposed I would have had to catch the bullet, wouldn't I?" Nite Owl finds the very idea of this ludicrous. Later, after Ozymandias vaporizes Dr. Manhattan, Silk Spectre shoots him. As she approaches his body, his hand opens and she discovers that he caught the bullet!
  • Something of a subversion - after doing it, Ozymandias admits that he didn't actually know if he could do so. On the other hand, one bit much earlier on mentions that he used to boast he probably could do it.
• Hyde's heat-sensitive vision in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which he very wisely does not tell Griffin (the invisible man) about.
• Empowered's embarrassing and apparently useless parlor trick of turning her suit invisible is demonstrated in a one-off story from the first volume (she is not affected, cannot wear anything over or under it, and was trying to affect only her mask instead of everything but). Turns out it had a use after all, some volumes later.
• In Preacher, the main character learns to fight with Jody, the bastard. That skill is used often in the series, in fact, once he doesn't even think about using his special abilities.
• Mega Man's Sonic Shot in Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide is instrumental in restoring Sonic's roboticized friends to normal, as well as destroying Eggman and Wily's super-powered mecha when using Super Sonic as a projectile.
• In White Sand, Kenton is introduced as a man with an excellent memory of the law and obsession with all legal loopholes, as this is the only way he can advance in a highly-competitive Asskicking Leads to Leadership society. Later, he manages to use the same knowledge to get the upper hand in his argument with the Taishin.
• When Nomi Sunrider is training her battle meditation in Tales of the Jedi, Odan-Urr tells her that it is possible to use the art to sever someone from the Force entirely, but that it should not be done except in the most extreme of cases because of how devastating such a thing would be. At the end of the Great Sith Wars, she does this to her former love Ulic Qel-Droma when he cuts down his brother Cay in a lightsaber duel.
• Robin: Tim Drake was seen skateboarding early on, such as when he first met Stephanie Brown, but had never been seen doing so in his own series until he had to fight opponents on roller blades and realized he couldn't keep up on foot after getting thoroughly trounced and only taking down one of them. He dusts off his skateboard so that he has his own wheels the next time he faces them and defeats them handily.
• In Superman storyline The Immortal Superman, the Man of Steel travels to the future, runs afoul of the law, and is sent to a retirement home for old-superheroes, in where he makes acquaintance with a retired Green Lantern, a hero with telekinetic powers, and another who can shoot lightning bolts. Later, when the Metropolis government begs the retired heroes save them from a silo storing explosive material which is about to blow up, the three old heroes use their powers to gather the hardest substances in the galaxy so Superman can forge an alloy to coat the building with.
• Maus Vladek's ability to speak English (a rarity among Polish Jews in the 1930s, but an ability that makes perfect sense for someone intending to emigrate to the US) saves his bacon on a number of occasions. It allows him to translate for a French camp inmate, who rewards him with life-saving food. It gets him special treatment from a Polish Kapò, who wants to learn English to improve his prospects after the war. It allows him to speak to the American soldiers who eventually liberate him, and gain countless favors from them. Finally, it allows him to build a new life in the US after the war.
• Sunny Side Up: Sunny's older brother Dale teaches her some driving skills while they're out buying milk for their mom and in part does this so she'll help cover up him buying drugs. When Myra, one of the residents of her grandpa's retirement community, wanders off due to her "confusion", Sunny grabs one of the community golf carts to help search for her faster than she and Buzz can walk around.

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