Ironic Echo / Comic Books

• "Possession implies intent" is the phrase that heralds the downfall of Becca at the start of All-Ghouls School, and Elle at the end, although the circumstances (and even the meaning of the word 'possession') are radically different.
• The entire Kitty Pryde "Dust" speech that appears in Joss Whedon's run of Astonishing X-Men first comes across as a rousing carpe diem exclamation to find the joy where you can because who knows how long it will last. In the second instance, the entire speech is quoted by the narrator at the end of Whedon's run as a crippled and trapped Kitty Pryde is hurtling out of the known galaxy.
• A truly dark version appears in the narrative of a story from Tales of the Slayers. In a small village during the Dark Ages, a young, devoutly Christian girl discovers she is this generation's Slayer. Reluctant at first, she fulfills her duties as the Slayer, saying, "God is good, and God is kind." After the town's priest, jealous of her heroism, declares her a witch and rallies the town against her, leading to her being burned alive, her Watcher took his revenge by opening the city gates, allowing a horde of vampires to enter and massacre the entire town. His last words were, "For God is good and God is kind, but God's not welcome here!"
• One Cthulhu Tales comic had this with two shots of the same people in the same positions. Image 1: they're arranged around a living room holding an intervention for the protagonist's drinking. Image 2: they're wearing cult robes and waiting for the demon that was being kept sealed in the protagonist by said drinking.
• The Dark Phoenix Saga: Upon her transformation into Dark Phoenix at the end of X-Men #134, Jean Grey repeats the same words she stated when first becoming the Phoenix in #101:
  Jean Grey: HEAR ME, X-MEN! NO LONGER AM I THE WOMAN YOU KNEW! I AM FIRE! AND LIFE INCARNATE! NOW AND FOREVER— I AM PHOENIX!
• Final Crisis:
  • Kind of an extended one for Human Flame. When he asked Libra to kill the Martian Manhunter, he didn't do anything except take a picture of the deed on his mobile phone. Later, when the heroes caught up with him and trapped him in a Cardboard Prison forged from his own stupidity, Green Lantern's final act before shutting the door is to create a mobile phone using his Green Lantern ring specifically to take a picture.
  • Similarly, while the first issue of Final Crisis has said character (a horrible degenerate) saying "This is what happens to anyone who ***s with the Human Flame" while Martian Manhunter (a straight-up hero) burns, it ends with Nix Uotan (the 'Judge of All Evil' and a straight-up hero) saying "No-one ***s with the Judge of All Evil" while Mandrakk (a horrible degenerate) burns.
• Fury: My War Gone By: Nick chews out Barracuda for being a corrupt soldier running a drug operation, telling him to have more respect for the uniform he wears. 'Cuda's response is "Fuck the uniform. Feel me?" When next they meet, Fury beats him to an inch of his life, knocks a lot of his front teeth off, and then, while Barracuda is lying on the ground, he tells him: "Sometimes, the uniform fucks back".
• In the fourth chapter of Gotham City Garage, Kara Gordon and Dick Grayson are running from a killer robot. Dick tells her "And whatever you do— Don't slow down!" to which Kara replies "Wasn't planning on it?!". Dick tries to use Kara as bait to escape, but the robot chases him down. Dick is being cornered when Kara reappears to save him shouting "Don't slow down!". Dick replies "Wasn't planning on it."
• In Infinite Crisis, Alexander Luthor dismisses Lex Luthor as an idiot, proclaiming himself as the smarter Luthor. In the end of the series, Alex is begging for mercy before getting his head ventilated by The Joker. Lex, watching it all, tells him one last thing: "Now who's stupid?"
• An immediate example in Judge Dredd ("Necropolis"), when a Judge tries to protect Chief Silver from the evil Dark Judges when they beam into the Hall of Justice to usurp him.
  Judge: Like hell!
  Judge Fire: Like hell. [fires trident]
• In Kick-Ass, Johnny G refers to Hit-Girl as "just a girl in a Halloween costume." When Hit-Girl alludes to their horrible deaths in the very near future over the intercom, Johnny asks her to identify herself. Her reply: "Just a girl in a Halloween costume."
• The Long Halloween:
  • The phrase "I believe in Harvey Dent" is repeated several times over the course of this Batman graphic novel. First, to display genuine trust in the man and his ability to clean up the city. Then, to assure his innocence in the case of the Holiday murders. Then, to emphasize the point that there's still good in the villainous Two-Face. And finally, by his wife Gilda as part of a dramatic plot twist on the very last page.
  • From the same mini-series, after the murder of Johnny Viti by the Holiday Killer, Harvey Dent crassly says, "Two shots to the head. You ask me, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." After his transformation into Two-Face, he kills Viti's uncle, Carmine Falcone and repeats the statement.
• Happens a lot in Mortadelo y Filemón. Many times one of either (X) will restrain the other (Y) when he tries to do something violent in retaliation against a person (Z) with a small quip. The next moment Z will piss X and Y will have to restrain him while repeating the same quip (often with a vengeful Cheshire Cat Grin).
• In New Mutants, an opponent forces Action Girl Dani Moonstar to look at her before breaking her arm. Later on, said Action Girl ambushes her tormentor and echoes her words. "Look at me. Good girl." Cue Oh, Crap!.
• Red Sonja and Dark Annisia were once slaves forced into Gladiator Games. Todo, the trainer, constantly sexually harassed them while saying stuff like, "Tell Todo you love him!" Years later, Sonja runs into Todo again and kills him while quipping, "Tell Sonja you love her!"
• One villain in Revival encourages his prey to run on grounds that "it's more fun that way." Prey flips the script and echoes when she starts hunting him.
• When Molly Hayes of Runaways says to "put the thing in the thing" to find out what it does, it's just her childness. Not much later, the Runaways really need overdrive, and Victor tells Chase to "Put the thing in the thing." And yes, this was after the master of Buffy Speak started writing.
• In The Sandman Dream has a flashback of his last meeting with Destruction, during which he gave somebody Disproportionate Retribution. Destruction asked if that was absolutely necessary to which Dream responded by asking if he tells Destruction how to do his job. Later, Dream asks Delirium if the Disproportionate Retribution she gave a policeman was necessary and gets the same answer.
• Sin City:
  • In That Yellow Bastard, there are two instances of this:
    • When Hartigan punches out his partner Bob, he thinks "Hell of a way to end a partnership... Hell of a way to start my retirement." When Bob double-crosses him, he thinks "Hell of a way to start my retirement... Hell of a way to end a partnership."
    • After being shot in his efforts to protect Nancy, Hartigan thinks "An old man dies, a young girl lives. Fair trade." Before blowing his brains out, he thinks "An old man dies, a young woman lives. Fair trade."
  • In Family Values, after the mafia picks Dwight up, Dwight starts talking about how he's going to love their car once he's finished with them. It's capped with Vito telling him, "Man, you are killing me!... I'm dying here, man!... You're slaying me, man!" with Dwight responding to each statement, "Not yet, I'm/you're not." Later, after Dwight and Miho have taken control of the situation – including making Vito kill his brother – and Dwight asks Vito to take him to the Don, there's one last "You're killing me"/"Not yet, we're not" exchange, only now Vito's devastated rather than amused and it's clear Dwight's not joking.
• In Supergirl Rebirth, Cat Grant and Selena's sarcasm war starts off with Cat saying "Already bored" and ends up with Selena saying mockingly "Already bored" before mind-reading her.
• In Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #3, an Elseworld where Jor-El led a fleet of Kryptonians to Earth, this is used to contrast Kal-El's parental figures. When he greets Jor-El in a video call with "Hi, Dad" he gets the cold reply "I would prefer a less familiar 'Greetings, father'. I am, after all, your elder" After the call is over, he addresses his caretaker as "Mrs Kent", and Martha replies, in deliberate mockery of Jor-El, "I would prefer a more familiar 'Ma', Kal. After all, Jonathan and I practically raised you."
• Rung of The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye fame is well known in-universe for having an alt-mode with no discernible purpose, to the point where he ended up getting a classification all for himself: "Ornament". In the Functionist Universe, this gets him imprisoned by the Council and branded as "The Useless One". Just before he escapes Vector Sigma with the crew, Rung takes the time to stick it to the Council (whose collective alt-mode is the key to Vector Sigma) oh so satisfyingly.
  "Vector Sigma is unlocked, and your worst suspicions are confirmed...The key is unnecessary. It's a piece of religious paraphernalia. A decoration. You turn—you all turn—into an ornament. Or to put it another way...All hail the useless ones."
• In "A Little Pain Never Hurt Anybody" in Uncanny Tales from the Grave #5^note Which originally appeared in Marvel Tales #117. Simon Tulliver does all of his dental work without anesthesia as a money-saving measure because "A little pain never hurt anybody!" When he finds his nurse/wife talking to a romantic rival he confronts them before having a dizzy spell and fainting. When he wakes up he's strapped to an operating table and the rival, a promising brain surgeon, tells him that his fainting spells are due to a brain clot which it'll only take a few minutes to remove. Simon asks for ether, only to be told it's too expensive.
  John Bainbridge: And beside, don't you know... A little pain never hurt anybody!
• Alan Moore uses this one a lot, but never more than in Watchmen. A good example: advertisements for Ozymandias' training system promise "bodies beyond your wildest imaginings". When Ozymandias commits his attack on New York, the advertisements are liberally scattered around amidst the piles of corpses.
• What If? had an issue where Professor Xavier gained the powers of The Juggernaut, which warp his mind and turn him into a mutant-supremacist villain. He's eventually defeated by being hurled into space; as the image of Xavier vanishes into the distance, the narration repeats Juggernaut's Catchphrase: "Nothing can stop the Juggernaut. And nothing ever will."
• Used by Doctor Strange in World War Hulk. Doc confronts Hulk and makes a little speech, then goes Super Mode and says "Strange Smash", a nod to Hulk's famous line "Hulk Smash".
• X-23 gives Zander Rice an epic one in X-23: Innocence Lost. Throughout the miniseries, Rice constantly berates and abuses Laura as Revenge by Proxy against Wolverine for killing his father while escaping the Weapon X project. His go-to insult is treating Laura as if she isn't even human, calling her an animal right to her face. When her mother finally has enough and sets her loose against the Facility, rather than killing Rice cleanly she puts up her claws and beats the shit out of him. As she walks out of the room where Rice lies dying, she looks over her shoulder and tells him off with one word: "Animal." Laura wasn't just carrying out her final mission, she came for payback.
• A cross title one: In New Mutants #24, when he sees Cannonball wearing jeans and a ripped black Lila Cheney t-shirt, Professor X tells him "While I appreciate the need for self-expression, we are a respectable school, not a collection of ragamuffins. This requires that certain standards be maintained. In the future, please dress accordingly." In X-Men #193, when Calisto returns Xavier to the school dressed in a typical Morlock outfit (ie something between rags and bondage gear) Cannonball (with the encouragement of a highly amused Nightcrawler) repeats this to him verbatim.

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