Determinator / Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

Comic Books

Comic Books

• Captain America defeats superpowered opponents with both his incredible fighting skills... and the fact that he just won't quit!
  Cap: This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth and tell the whole world — "No, you move."
  • One of the best examples is in Avengers #335. The genocidal Brethren have invaded Earth, hoping the legendary planet that held off Galactus can give them a good fight. Unfortunately, they're so powerful that even the Avengers are hopelessly outmatched. Cap is no exception, but he still takes on their leader, Thane Ector... and just keeps on coming at him. He loses the fight badly, but wins Ector's respect, which later proves essential.
  • In Jim Starlin's The Infinity Gauntlet miniseries, Cap refused to surrender to an omni-powered Thanos, even when the Mad Titan had already defeated all the other heroes who were opposing him.
• In the seventh issue of the original Daredevil series (wherein he changes from the yellow costume to his more familiar all-red ensemble), Daredevil faces off against the Sub-Mariner alone in a desperate bid to keep him from demolishing Manhattan in a fit of rage. Broken and beaten to a pulp, he still tries to stand and challenge Namor; this feat of courage and determination is so moving to him that he immediately leaves for Atlantis out of respect. Hard. Core. Namor even remarks that he has faced off against many very powerful enemies, from the Fantastic Four to the Avengers, but never had he seen such bravery, and from the most vulnerable challenger of all.
  • In the aptly named "Hardcore" arc, Daredevil gets burned alive by Typhoid Mary (luckily for him Luke Cage is in the neighborhood). BUT, later that night, he fights off Bullseye, and then goes directly to stomp the Kingpin's ass!
  • Followed up by taking on some 200-odd Yakuza thugs in "King of Hells Kitchen." As Matt Murdock, presumably with just a regular cane (as he's retired from being Daredevil at the time). He's badly injured in the process, but he gives as good as he gets until the FBI provides a distraction for him to escape.
• Doctor Strange has been in too many situations to count where, if he had given up, he would be dead. In one memorable story he faced D'Spayre, the personification of the Despair Event Horizon, and still managed to dredge up the scrap of hope needed to defeat him.
• Fantastic Four:
  • The Thing never gives up, no matter how often his opponents may have beaten him before.
    The Thing: Mister, maybe I'm too dumb to collapse — too ugly to die!! I'll let you figger out the reasons... — Fantastic Four #40 (July 1965)
  • A similar situation and dialogue occurs in The Thing: Last Line Of Defense, which takes place when Sue Richards is pregnant with her and Reed's first kid, Franklin. Bad guy Blastaar beats Ben Grimm to a pulp, and proceeds to attack Sue. She's unconscious and is about to be killed when the half-dead Grimm gets back in the fight with:
    The Thing: If that girl or her baby is hurt, you won't be leavin' this room alive.
    Blastaar: Bold talk from a man who can barely stand. And you still make threats.
    The Thing: Not a threat. A promise.
  • And again when he fought The Champion:
    The Thing: Hold it! This fight ain't over yet... not by a long shot! Ya only won on a technicality! Ya didn't really beat me! Ya'll never beat me! I'm just too stupid... and ugly... ta know when to quit!
    The Champion: No, I could never defeat you. I could crush your bones and break your body, but I could never break your spirit.
  • Also, say what you like about Doctor Doom, but his obsessive, all-consuming hatred of Reed Richards never, ever, ever dies, and he will keep living, and fighting, and plotting Richards' ultimate and final defeat until one of them is dead. And even then, he will not give up.
  • Hell, in Marvel Zombies, Doctor Doom is the one of only two characters to resist the zombie hunger! even when CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR and the THING, heroes who are renowned for their Heroic Willpower give in, Doom doesn't. The only other person to resist the change, at least for a time, is Spider-Man.
• In the Marvel G.I. Joe continuity, Snake-Eyes has just been in a helicopter crash, his crush is badly injured, and his head and throat have been burned and implanted with shrapnel-like shards of glass. Ordered to stand down, he writers two letters in the sand, with his blood: C M. Continue Mission. Then, he all but single-handedly pulls the mission off.
• The Incredible Hulk: This is the Hulk to a T, especially when his loved ones are in danger. Regular Bruce Banner as well, he tries to save the day even when he can't turn into the Hulk. With just his brain and his wits.
• Iron Man:
  • Tony Stark's whole story is about determination. After being injured and kidnapped by terrorists, Tony Stark survives his injuries with the help of Yinsen to invent a powered suit of armor that would help him escape...all while under the terrorists' noses. Since then, Stark has survived shrapnel to the heart, faced numerous enemies that threaten himself and/or the world, stopped countless attempts to steal his technology, confronted his troubles with alcoholism, and whenever beaten, will do whatever upgrades it takes to come out on top again. It's no mistake that his latest company is called "Stark Resilient."
  • Not to mention his approach to Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard. No matter how unbeatable the odds are, no matter how hopeless the situation, no matter how difficult the challenge, he will find some way to figure out how to defeat the villain/save people in danger/escape/survive/put a dent in the opposition.
• Loki, at least in their Loki: Agent of Asgard incarnation. They've gone too far, sacrificed too much, did unforgivable things for a chance to Screw Destiny. And. They. Won't. Stop. Now. Lampshaded by Odin of all people.
  Freya: He will come to his senses in time.
  Odin: No. Not that one. He'll not go quietly into any box you build for him.
• The Mighty Thor: Even when reduced to a pile of flesh from slaying a monster prophesied to kill him, Thor was able to control The Destroyer and threaten Hela into giving him his body back.
• In keeping with the stories he's adapted from, if Marvel's version of 16th century puritan Solomon Kane believes that someone must be punished, he will not stop until he's found them. Exemplified in his clash with the bandit leader La Loup, who kills a woman in France. After killing La Loup's entire band, Kane pursues him by ship to the coast of Africa, then follows him into the unmapped interior, overcomes his new allies and finally kills him in a duel. After which he walks back to the coast and his ship. He never even knew the dead woman's name.
• Spider-Man:
  • Spidey is the Marvel personification of heroic spirit and being the main face of the company you gotta make expectations meet. Some might say even his Butt-Monkey status is actually enhancing him to make his determination powers stronger.
  • One very early example was the very first Spider-Man Annual which introduced the Sinister Six. Spider-Man lost his powers and then still went to face the six most dangerous villains he had ever fought one after another because it was his responsibility. He got his powers back after the first fight.
  • Pictured on this page is an early example from the If This Be My Destiny...! storyline in The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee & Ditko) #33''. After Doctor Octopus stole medicine that had been meant for his Aunt, Spidey tore the entire city apart trying to find him before confronting the villain in his underwater lair, only to have half the complex fall on him; as an omen of his terrible luck, the canister was just out of his reach, as if some higher power was cruelly taunting him. He metaphorically told said higher power to go to hell, and somehow managed to lift several tons of concrete and steel off his back in order to recover it.
  • Spidey even surpasses Captain America in Determination and never calling it quits. There is not a single major villain in his roster that isn't at least half again as powerful as Spidey. This is what he does.
  • For one of the best examples, check out The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #229-230, Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut!, where Spidey tries to stop the Juggernaut, and succeeds by steering him into a recently poured foundation of wet cement, where his own weight pulls him under like quicksand! Oh, the Juggernaut eventually breaks free, but not until long after the battle is over..
  • Or for that matter, Amazing Spider-Man #270, where Spider-Man stops Firelord, leaving the full roster of active Avengers that were riding in as the cavalry to stand around with their mouths agape. When Captain America is impressed, you are officially impressive.
  • Once he kept A WHOLE, TALL BUILDING from falling, on his shoulders, allowing everyone to escape. Should be noted that, despite him having super-strength, that's WAY beyond what his powers should allow him, so it almost killed him. And he did it WHILE INJURED.
  • Another time, he single-handedly defeated Thermite, Blitz, Eel, Vanisher, Plant Man, Tangle, the Super-Adaptoid, Dreadnought and Dragon Man. Sure, most of them are losers, but it's impressive if you consider that with the heavy hitters Super-Adaptoid, Dreadnought or Dragon Man backing them up, such a team would usually require a whole team of Avengers to be stopped.
  • After an exhausting several-hour fight with a fellow Determinator, Morlun, Spidey eventually stops him by injecting himself with a near lethal amount of radiation, a deadly energy for the life-draining villain.
  • In the story arc "Revelations", which features the end of The Clone Saga and the return of Norman Osborn, the following exchange takes place between Osborn and Parker:
    Green Goblin: No. No! I kill your true love, you fall in love with someone else. I destroy your life and you build another! Why won't you fall down and die?!
    Spider-Man: Because then, Norman, you would win. And I will never give you the satisfaction.
  • In The Other, thanks to some mystical Spider-virus, Spider-Man is at his deathbed. Weakened, he still does his best to take on Morlun, who promptly proceeds to beat the ever-living daylight out of the guy. He leaves, and Spider-Man is rushed to the hospital, with his face so badly bruised that his own wife couldn't recognize him. Morlun shows up, and when his wife defends him, he promptly breaks her arm and comments on how he might eat her as a snack before he moves onto the main course: Spider-Man. Spidey, bruised, beaten and barely conscious, overhears this, and promptly gets out of his deathbed, beats Morlun into the ground, and stabs him through the heart. You do not mess with Spider-Man's family.
  • In Ultimate Spider-Man, the Clone Saga. He convinces Nick Fury, the guy whose job it is to prepare for the least likely scenarios imaginable, that he will not go insane, and that he will in fact grow up to be the greatest hero of all time.
  • Ever so nicely summed up in this quote: "...he does it and he keeps his ideals doing it and he keeps fighting when any sane man would just lay down and die."
  • In "The Death of Spider-Man" storyline, Spidey not only saves Captain America by taking a sniper bullet for Cap, he also manages to find the strength to fight off the Ultimate Six, defeating them all. Yes, Peter ultimately succumbs to his wounds, but that's the mother of all Spider-Man Determinator moments.
  • In a What If Story where Scarlet Witch, instead of saying No More mutants, said No More Powers, Peter is depowered along with everyone else, and relishes his loss of responsibility. Later, when The Red Skull kills all of the X-Men, all the Fantastic Four except Sue, who was not there, and all the Avengers except Iron Man, all of who had suits or alien weapons, Peter stops the Red Skull using just his web shooters, his will, and a speech that inspired all the regular people of New York.
  • In Spider-Man's spin-off of Fear Itself, Spider-Man has to deal with an entire city going crazy with fear, and has to not only save them, but save himself from Vermin, and stop a possessed Ben Grimm. He wants to give in to his fears, but he doesn't, staying up for days on end to comfort people.
  • In one of his biggest feats, In Avengers vs. X-Men #9, Spider-Man takes on both Colossus and his sister Magik, while both have the powers of the Phoenix. He's so outclassed, but he beats them, by tricking them into taking each other out. The Phoenix force is a universal force, stronger than almost every other being in the universe. Sure, the power was split between four people at the time, but the two would have had more power than any villain (excluding the Tri-sentinel) he has ever faced. He not only survived but beat two of the most powerful beings ever.
• Thor (2014): Jane Foster wielded the Hammer knowing that becoming Thor will kill her because of her cancer and she knows that if others found out, they would try to stop her. But she won't back down. There must always be a Thor, even if she has to die to do so.
• Wolverine: Healing factor + Power Creep, Power Seep + REALLY BAD TEMPER = Pants-wettingly tenacious.
  "Ok, suckers, you've taken yer best shot. Now It's My Turn!"
  • Or this time, where, in fact, all he could do was provide moral support:
    Elsie Dee: The detonation pwogwam is too compwex to overwide! There's nothing you can do!
    Wolverine: You're wrong, lil' darlin'. There's something I can do real good. The real thing I do best ... I don't give up. Ever. I'm expectin' you not to give up, either.
  • Colossus is the good-guy equivalent to The Juggernaut once he gets going. He once scaled a demonically-possessed Empire State Building, which had grown to several times its normal height with his bare (steel) hands. Just to free his friends from the demonic influences coming from it (which he happened to be immune to).
• In the Marvel G1 Transformers comics, Grimlock's early hot-headed temper and stoneheaded stubbornness were revealed to be evidence of a greater quality: that of being unwilling or unable to consider giving up. He engaged in forbidden science to bring back his troops, attacked Unicron willingly, and even after the Decepticons had cut them down to five, as he explained to Prowl, post-eviscerating a Decepticon ambush: "That what we do, Prowl. We fight."
• Ultimate Vision: Vision has been warning worlds about Gah Lak Tus for half a billion years. Nobody ever survived, but she continues all the same.
• In Thunderbolts: Songbird comes back from retirement to help her friends for one last adventure. Unfortunately for her, it happens as Secret Empire is kicking off. The Masters of Evil attack her team en masse. She stands up to the Wrecking Crew, who fight Thor on a regular basis. She's knocked out after taking a wrecking ball to the side and shattering her ribs. When she wakes up, she's in the ruins of their base at the North Pole. Her ex-boyfriend is dead. Half the Thunderbolts have run away. The other half have joined the Masters. She has broken ribs. Her sound harness, which allows her to make her energy constructs and fly, is destroyed. So she starts walking. We later see her, without any fanfare, alive, back in costume, and with a functioning sound harness. She managed to walk from the North Pole to some form of civilization, with untreated injuries, wearing spandex, and no map or compass.

Films

Films

• Marvel Cinematic Universe
  • Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in Captain America: The First Avenger. Much like his comics counterpart, the man does not know the meaning of the word "quit", whether he's being beat down by regular bullies or superhuman Nazi despots.
    "I can do this all day."
    • Even when Steve's undergoing the Super-Soldier transformation procedure, we have the staff telling Dr. Erskine to stop the experimentation, in fear of Steve potentially dying. However, Steve won't have any of that, actually yelling for the Doctor to keep going with it.
    "NOOOOOO! Don't! I CAN DO THIS!"
    • It gets one step further when dealing with Thanos, one of universe's strongest beings - in Avengers: Infinity War, he grabs Thanos by the hand to shortly hold him back; and in Avengers: Endgame, where he actually manages to give Thanos a fight, once the struggle leaves him wounded, disarmed, with his previously indestructible shield in pieces, and facing down not only Thanos but an army of hundreds, Steve just straps the remains of his shield tighter to his arm and get ready to take them all on.
    I keep telling people to move on. Some do. But not us. Not us...
    • If none of his post-procedure feats do anything for you, having this veritable laundry list of ailments during The Great Depression, a time when employment was hardly guaranteed and most of these conditions had no effective or affordable cure yet, certainly will. Steve, the shrimpy dork from Brooklyn, had to be a supreme Determinator just to live long enough to be Captain America.
  • Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers /Captain Marvel never gives up, no matter how the odds are stacked against her. At one point we see flashbacks of her being repeatedly knocked to the ground, but each time she falls over, she gets back up again. It's this determination that allows her to activate God Mode at the climax of the film.
  Kelly Sue DeConnick: Carol falls down all the time, but she always gets back up — we say that about Captain America as well, but Captain America gets back up because "it's the right thing to do." Carol gets back up because "Fuck you."
  • Scientist Jane Foster in Thor. It's clear from her very first scene that she's ready to do anything for her research, namely driving directly into a tornado to get the data necessary to prove her theories.
• X-Men Film Series
  • Magneto'll do what it takes to finish his mission and... some old businesses.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past:
    • Kitty, who must keep the link open, is at one point stabbed by Logan when his present body reacts violently to mental trauma in the past. And due to how time runs concurrently in the past and present, it's implied that it takes a few days before Logan and co. can properly stop Mystique, which means that she is slowly bleeding out and can't sleep for that period.
    • Same goes for Mystique, who throughout the film finds more and more damning evidence that Trask really needs to be killed. It's not until the very end that Charles manages to talk her out of it.
    • The Prototype Sentinel that goes after Magneto definitely is this. Even as it's being torn to pieces, it still tries to grab him.

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

• Frank Castle in The Punisher (2017) and Daredevil (2015). You can beat the crap out of him, stab him, put a power drill through his foot, shoot him in the HEAD, but he still keeps coming.

Video Games

Video Games

• Just like in the comics, Spider-Man doesn't give up. In Spider-Man (PS4), Spider-Man gets fourteen broken bones from a beatdown by the Sinister Six, smoke inhalation from saving Aunt May and Miles Morales from a burning building and another beatdown by Doctor Octopus. This on top of the private military contractor gunning for him and an entire prison of inmates rioting all over New York. Despite this, Spider-Man takes down the Sinister Six solo and helps cure the deadly disease currently ravaging the city.

Western Animation

Western Animation

• Many characters in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but especially Captain America and Ms Marvel. As far as they're both concerned, this is humanity's hat, and the Kree and the Skrulls definitely understood this after they were through with them.
  (To Vision) Captain America: You think I'm fighting for me, to save my own life? That's why you'll never win. I'm not fighting for me. I'm fighting for them! And that's something you'll never understand, machine! It's the very thing that makes us human.
  (To Skrulls) Captain America: There's more to human beings than our bodies and minds— something you'll never understand. Our spirit! We never surrender! We never give up!
  • In the 19th episode of Season 2, "Emperor Stark", the Purple Man manages to use his mind control powers on Tony to build him a satellite to amplify said powers, and we learn that Iron Man was still fighting him months later while Purple Man was right next to him. Cap may have written the first book on Heroic Willpower, but Tony wrote the sequel to it.
• In the Spider-Man (1967) episode, "The Sinister Prime Minister," Spidey is the only one who knows that a foreign Prime Minister has been abducted by a impostor and must strike again and again in order to rescue him.

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