Marvel Universe
Hypocrite in this franchise. open/close all folders
Comic Books
Comic Books
The following have their own pages:
- Fantastic Four: Doctor Doom makes even Otto (see below) look humble with the massive amount of hypocrisy he’s displayed over the years. Most notably when concerning Arch-Enemy Mr. Fantastic, Doom drones on and on about Reed’s unmitigated vanity and arrogance completely blind to the fact he’s really just projecting his bottomless ego onto Reed. Lampshaded hilariously in Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet, where Thanos asks Marvel heroes if they really believe they can trick him into relinquishing his power by appealing to his vanity and Spidey replies “It worked on Doom”, at which Victor immediately blusters that it was only “once”, acting like it’s not his Fatal Flaw and the reason why Reed beats him so often. In a more recent comic Doom mocks and criticizes Professor X for how he runs the mutant country of Krakoa and how they deem themselves superior based on the Mutant gene. While some of his points against Xavier are valid, Doom is still the last person in the multiverse to call anyone out on acting superior or how they should treat their citizens when he’s been the dictator of Latveria for decades.
- The Incredible Hulk:
- General Ross' ultimate goal - and some would say obsession - is to bring the Hulk to justice, believing him a dangerous threat. While this view isn't uncommon, his eventual solution after years of failure is hypocrisy at its worst: He becomes the Red Hulk, a monster who, in many ways, is just as destructive as his foe is, possibly more so.
- General Fortean, Ross’s protégé from Immortal Hulk is just as bad when it comes to hypocrisy, if not even more so. He and his cronies at Shadow Base hunt Bruce/Hulk relentlessly as he blames him for every Hulk-related tragedy as well as the death of Ross, but while pursuing vengeance commits a ton of atrocities and causes heaps of destruction which he and his people write off as collateral damage. Not only does Fortean get his mentor’s daughter Betty Ross shot in the head (she gets better) while attempting to assassinate Bruce but he also weaponises gamma mutation himself and before the end lets himself get turned into the monstrous Abomination. Also when Fortean accidentally kills some of his men with his new powers, he manically rambles that it was their fault for not clearing the area at which his Number Two relieves him of command and then Hulk puts him down.
- The supreme irony is that Fortean even to the very end was blissfully unaware that Ross was Red Hulk meaning he was serving a Broken Pedestal the whole time. Then it is revealed Fortean did know Red Hulk's true identity and simply choose to ignore the truth but continued to blame Banner anyway which makes his actions in Immortal Hulk even more hypocritical.
- In the same run, the Avengers themselves thanks to being the Conflict Ball against Hulk, are staggering hypocrites in issues 6#, 7#, and 47#. Carol despite having painstakingly learned in Civil War II that attacking people based on mere potential threat is wrong, still tries to forcibly arrest Bruce with the obvious result of Hulking Out, later Carol actually advises Iron Man against using a Kill Sat when things go out of control even though she instigated the conflict in the first place. Tony himself despite fighting so hard against Carol using Ulysses in Civil War II and the immorality of targeting people before they’ve committed crimes — still attacks Hulk for just resisting arrest and fries him with a laser. Cap himself has a moment of this in 47# when arguing with McGee as to why Hulk needs to be captured, reasoning that he causes too much damage and “it’s a tough call but he has to be contained” is the exact same Super Registration Act spiel Steve strove against back in Civil War.
- The Mighty Thor: Gorr the God-butcher was a mortal who grew to hate gods since all of his world's gods were Jerkass Gods. He eventually swore to kill every god ever. But the only reason he was able to kill gods in the first place was a godly weapon, and he eventually became the most monstrously evil god of all in the process. Despite this, he still insists he's not a god. This hypocrisy seals his fate. The dark energy construct he created with his sword's power in the image of his dead son eventually denounces his "father" as a murderous hypocrite who has become everything he hated and assists Thor in killing him.
- The Punisher: The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe has Frank Castle murder several members of the X-Men and the Avengers after their battle with the Skrulls and the Brood unintentionally kills his family. He ends up having his bail paid by a man named Kesselring, who is part of an organization of people indirectly harmed in superhero brawls and obsessed with getting even with the heroes who indirectly harmed them. The organization gives Frank the proposition to murder all superhumans on the planet, which Frank is all too willing to go along with because of his grief at his family's demise. He eventually murders Kesselring after tiring of his mission and calls out the rest of the organization for letting their pain run way past its course, which is definitely hypocritical for him to say since he let the loss of his family drive him to indiscriminately massacre all the superhumans on Earth.
- Spider-Man:
- J Jonah Jameson has developed this in recent years. He bemoans the state of modern journalism and holds up his time as editor of the Daily Bugle as an exemplar of “real” reporting. He conveniently forgets that he spent years using his editorial control to conduct a one-man smear campaign against Spider-Man, blatantly twisting the facts to fit his preconceived biases, and even essentially trying to create news by hiring figures like Alistair Smythe and the Scorpion to unmask Spidey.
- Hypocrisy, thy name is Otto Octavius, and it is proven in Superior Spider Man:
- At the start of Issue #1, Otto swears to become a hero and leave his past behind. A couple of pages later, he gets quite angry at the "unmitigated gall" of a bunch of C-List villains using the name of "his" old group, the Sinister Six.
- Otto constantly brags about how he's a Superior Spider-Man to Peter. He's also the guy who called the X-Men arrogant for using superior in homo superior.
- Throughout the Ends Of The Earth, Otto bemoans the fact that he's been effectively crippled by Spider-Man, even though this was because he'd been breaking the law and running into Spidey so many times instead of receiving a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown as he claimed. What does he do when he becomes Spider-Man? Deliver excessive beatings to all criminals.
- One of his major arguments against Peter is that he's too selfish to be Spider-Man. This from an egomaniac whose ultimate goal during Ends of the Earth was to get attention.
- In Avenging Spider-Man he scoffs at Scott Lang's past in thievery as if he hasn't done anything as petty. In another issue, his monologue concerning the Hobgoblin is about how the villain's smugness and thoughts of being better than everyone else grate on him.
- In the "Sibling Rivalry" crossover between Superior Spider-Man Team-Up & Scarlet Spider, Otto complains about Kaine "stealing [his] life". Right, like he should talk.
- And in the Infinity tie-in to Mighty Avengers, he freaks the hell out when he sees Ronin (known at the time as "Spider Hero") wearing a knock-off Spider-Man costume. Twice, he gets mad at someone for stealing another hero's identity, something he himself has done.
- During his Battle in the Center of the Mind with Peter, Otto beats him with a Breaking Speech that Peter is so afraid of being discovered in Otto's head that it causes him to risk a little girl's life, with Otto gloating that he would never do that. Much later, when Aunt May is taken hostage by a villain and Otto doesn't have any recollection of Spider-Man's involvement with him due to the aforementioned battle with Peter purging him of several of Peter's memories, he considers visiting someone like Doctor Strange to probe his mind to find a way to defeat the villain but decides against it at the last second, feeling the risk that Strange could discover he's not Peter is too great. He did the same thing he accused Peter of that made him "inferior": prioritizing his own identity over someone's life.
- In Sub-Mariner: The Depths, for all that Stein blathers on about wanting to find the truth no matter what, once he gets a truth that doesn't agree with his opinions, he immediately tries to destroy any proof of it.
Films
Films
The following have their own pages:
- Spider-Man Trilogy: In Spider-Man 3, MJ gets mad at Peter for doing "their kiss" with Gwen Stacy (even though it was only a stage performance), completely ignoring the fact that she did the same thing with John Jameson in the previous film.
Western Animation
Western Animation
- Iron Man: The Animated Series: In the last few episodes of the Nineties series, the Mandarin uses the Heart of Darkness to shut down all advanced technology in the world. After the Heart and five of his rings of power are destroyed, the Mandarin retreats into his fortress. When Tony catches up with him, he finds the Mandarin decked out in a suit of Powered Armor. Tony even notes the hypocrisy. The Mandarin retorts that while he may like the idea of a world without technology, he's no fanatic.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: Eddie Brock/Venom. While it wasn't wrong for him to be angry with Peter, his actions as Venom don't paint him any better. He accused Peter of being a user and causing people's suffering, not caring who he hurts, yet proceeded to do the same as Venom, such as kidnapping Gwen, leaving her in a position where she could fall and die, traumatizing her in the process, and kept Peter from saving her. While Peter did cause people problems, they weren't intentional and he felt bad for it. Venom did it deliberately, even stating he'd sit and enjoy while Peter would be unable to save his loved ones from his enemies should he make Peter lose his powers and reveal his identity to the world.
