Mugging The Monster / Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

• The Avengers:
  • two thugs once tried to mug someone walking in Central Park at night. Someone wearing a trenchcoat and hat. It was The Vision.
  • In an issue of Solo Avengers, Hawkeye's at a flower shop buying an apology bouquet for Mockingbird when a bunch of teens try robbing the place. Hawkeye drives them off, only to discover later the shop's owner is a mob boss, and he is quite upset at the punks.
• In the first issue of Black Goliath the hero returns to Los Angeles and, as Bill Foster, wanders through his old neighbourhood to see how it's changed. Three gangsters try to assault him and extort money. They joke a bit when they initially realise he's wearing some sort of 'costume' under his clothes. Several hours later the police are still trying to cut them free of the lampposts Goliath's wrapped around them.
• There is a comic where a gang of thugs try to mug a blind man wearing a suit. It was Daredevil.
• Doctor Strange: During Doctor Strange: The Oath, Doctor Strange and Wong visit a shop where Strange has tracked a mystic artifact (disguised as a Maneki Neko). While Strange is casting spells to activate the artifact, some thugs break into the shop to rob it. One thug points his knife at Wong, shouting "Give me everything you got!" Wong assumes a karate kata and answers, "I offer nothing less." By the time Strange is aware of the situation, Wong is standing over the now unconsious thugs.
• Domino: In the Gail Simone run, Domino and Amadeus Cho are jogging in Central Park. A trio of skinheads with machetes want their money and to gangbang Domino. Now one of the would-be victims is a Hulk and the other is a mutant Super-Soldier. Without using any powers, the skinheads get curbstomped and one guy gets his thumb cut off when Domino redirects another guy's machete. At the end of the fight, the thugs are so scared they run off and leave the thumb while Cho and Domino are laughing.
• Eternals: A variant. The security service of corrupt post-Soviet republic Vorozheika arrest the Deputy Prime Minister as soon as he steps off his flight home. Armed soldiers take him into a room at the airport, away from public view. Unfortunately for them, he’s the amnesiac Druig of Fire and Nightmares and his memory’s starting to return. It goes badly for them - there’s no physical harm, but they work for him now, if only so that they will “never see those things again”
• Fantastic Four:
  • In one issue of The Thing, the titular hero has just announced his plans to build a youth center in Yancy Street. Just as he's leaving the press conference, he's approached by members of a local mob that he'd better "Grease a few wheels". The next panel is of the mugs lying all over the alley, with Ben chuckling at their sheer stupidity.
  • During Jonathan Hickman's run, a bunch of white collar thugs (of all things) try mugging Ben and Johnny Storm. Not recognizing Ben was understandable, since he was in human form at the time, but Johnny's famous. Ben and Johnny, naturally, beat the crap out of them.
• Ghost Rider
  • One issue features a bunch of bikers harassing a piggish-looking good ol' boy while he is cruising down the open road. The good ol' boy turns out to be a demonic bounty hunter from Hell named Hoss, who promptly lights the bikers' heads on fire and forces their leader to crash and break his neck. When the leader agrees to serve Hoss in exchange for his life, Hoss takes the liberty of "altering" his body to suit his new position in life.
    Hoss: Oh, and by the way, your new name's Buttview.
  • Similarly, when local police put the Scarecrow and Madcap in the drunk tank with a bunch of rowdy relatives in town for a wedding with the intention of scaring them straight... there were no survivors.
  • For that matter, there has been at least one instance of someone attempting to start something with a big guy in motorcycle leathers and a full-face helmet. Then he takes off the helmet.
  • In an issue from the 1970s series, Johnny Blaze is on a picnic date and the pair get accosted by a biker gang who earlier harassed him in the aftermath of his losing his title. They demanded his leather jacket and his motorcycle and his date pleaded with him to let them have the items, not wanting trouble. Already seething, he reluctantly gave in and they left. Just as his date was soothing his ego, the gang came back intent on now taking her. Big. Mistake.
• In Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1977), the Big Guy has been shrunk down to human size by the use of Pym Particles. The kid who is Godzilla's friend hides him in a trenchcoat and hat to sneak him out of town. Note that even with this 'disguise' it's obvious there's something very weird about this guy. They run into some adventuresome muggers who decide to take a crack at Mr. Trenchcoat's head. Guess what happens next and win a No-Prize!
• The Incredible Hulk: Naturally, this has happened to Bruce Banner a few times, as sometimes the Asshole Victims don't recognize Bruce Banner until it's too late...
  • And as many found out to their misery, Bruce Banner isn't helpless either.
  • In one instance the Grey Hulk was nearly mugged, which is odd considering he's taller than most people and almost as wide.
  • The moment where Bruce Banner is nearly raped by two men in the shower of the YMCA takes the cake. It's an aversion, though, as when Banner threatens to turn into the Hulk, they doubt him but decide not to risk it.
• Iron Man
  • Averted in Issue 173. A gang mugged Tony who didn't have his armor. If it weren't for the fact that he was drunk, he could have taken them down since he was trained by Captain America.
  • Played straight in a few other instances where people have tried to beat him up, whether because he's just some rich playboy who needs a bodyguard^note If his identity was a secret at the time., or because he's helpless without his armor. You'd think they'd learn.
  • This is a general trope for armor-wearing superheroes. People tend to think the armor does all the work. While the current Iron Man armor is lightweight, Tony had to spend years working in heavy armor, and he still performs the equivalent of Olympic gymnastic routines every time he fights a serious villain. Which is at least once a week. Not to mention that he was a soldier in the U.S. Army before he was Iron Man in the first place. (That's what caused the injury that made the first version of the armor necessary.) A great subversion of Clothes Make the Superman.
• More than one unlucky thug has tried to mug what looks to be just a normal, if well-built, black man. It's only when the knife breaks on his shirt or his bullets bounce off that he realizes it's Luke Cage.
  • Once, Luke and Danny Rand are in civvies and in a bad mood after some friends of theirs have been attacked. A gang come up and it's only when they see the brand of the Iron Fist on Danny's chest that they realize who they're facing. Cue Luke and Danny trashing the gang to within an inch of their lives.
• Marvel's Voices: A purse snatcher quickly finds that mugging Julian's family is dangerous, since Julian is a mutant who can summon monsters.
• In Garth Ennis's The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank, the world's unluckiest thug tries to mug The Punisher. Frank kills him. This actually happens multiple times. Frank does have a habit of walking alone, in the worst parts of town. It's almost like he's looking for trouble.
  • Frank has even been known to stumble around the worst parts of New York, pretending to be drunk, purely to get mugged and practice his knife-fighting.
  • Frank actually wound up on the wrong end of this trope in The Incredible Hulk #395, when he decided to go after the mysterious mobster Mr. Joe Fixit. Who, as it happens, is actually one of the different personas of the Hulk. Arguably crosses into Bullying a Dragon when, after emptying an assault rifle into his target and seeing he'd achieved nothing beyond wrecking his victim's suit, Frank throws a grenade at him. Fortunately, Frank's "opponent" was actually "The Professor" (Hulk with Banner's personality, intelligence and morals dominant), so he caught the grenade and let it blow up inside his clenched fist. And then Frank decided to attack the Hulk with a knife. Quite annoyed at this point, the Hulk knocked Frank stupid with a simple finger-tap to the head.
• A guy once tried to rape Karolina Dean of the Runaways when she was walking around alone at night. She literally lit his sorry ass up.
• She-Hulk: A rather humorous example happened to Jennifer Walters after the Stamford disaster. An angry mob of anti-superhero protestors had formed outside of the courthouse where she — as Jennifer — was defending two surviving members of the New Warriors. One guy recognized her and grabbed her, shouting "I've got She-Hulk!" Then she hulked out and dryly asked, "Okay, you've got She-Hulk. Now what?" The response? "I. . . Uh. . . Guess I Didn't Think This Through."
• Subverted in an early Silver Surfer comic, where the titular alien was assaulted by a Mexican gang. Since he had no desire to fight them and knew that they couldn't actually hurt him, he figured the easiest thing to do was to simply play dead.
• Spider-Man
  • In an issue, Spidey saw several gang-bangers with knives surrounding a short man in a trenchcoat and swung down to the rescue, his thought balloon going "I have to save that guy from being killed by those muggers!" When the man in question popped his adamantium claws, Spidey (in mid-swing) immediately shifted his internal monologue to "I have to save those muggers from being killed by Wolverine!"
  • Similarly, Wolverine and Spider-Man were both in a bar, in costume, having an intense argument. Just as they were about to start trading punches instead of words, a group of thugs burst through the door with weapons drawn, noticing the angry superheroes only after they're inside. Cue the thug in the back "Next time, I choose the place we rob."
  • In another memorable issue, Spidey was in the midst of a fight with Morbius the Living Vampire, on the ESU grounds, when a gang of Friends of Humanity mistook Morbius for a mutant and attacked him. The insults from them stopped when they realized the blows from their bats weren't hurting him at all, and Morbius likely would have killed them if Spidey hadn't stopped him. (Of course, this tends to happen to those guys a lot...)
  • You'd think a well-dressed businessman with a custom-made Italian suit and a Rolex would be a complete idiot to be alone in Central Park in the middle of the night, and that's exactly what a bunch of punks thought when they saw Thomas Fireheart there in another Spider-Man story. Little did they know, Fireheart was not only the CEO of Fireheart industries, he was the Puma, the mystical protector of his tribe. Still, he didn't even need to turn into the Puma to give them a good thrashing (and he did give them a fair warning first). Even worse, the reason he was there was to meet with Spidey to discuss a crisis, who showed up two minutes after the fight started; the punks had the sense to run for it then.
  • One example that didn't actually involve Spidey: His friend (more or less) Flash Thompson was on a date with Felicia Hardy in the park in one issue when three goons accosted them. At first, Flash didn't want any trouble, and gave them Felicia's purse (leading her - who was actually the Black Cat and dating him in order to get back at Peter for marrying Mary Jane - to think he was a coward for a brief moment). Then, however, one of the thugs tried to get fresh with Felicia, and that crossed the line for Flash; being an amateur boxer at the time, he beat them within an inch of their lives.
  Flash: I'm semi-pro! Usually do this in a ring! Kinda hurts without gloves, don't it?
  • One unique example was a story where The Punisher was a guest star. After he parked his Battle Van in a rather bad neighborhood, a punk (who said to himself that you'd "have to be nuts" to park a custom van there) tried to rip the wheels off. Of course, its owner and Spidey were inside it, but they didn't even notice him; the van's security system gave him the shock of his life and sent him running, convinced that the van's owner was nuts.
  • In part one of "The Death of Jean DeWolff", Matt Murdock is confronted in a judge's chambers by the serial killer known as the Sin Eater. Being a mutate with enhanced senses and martial arts training, Matt is able to defend himself from the killer but fails to save the judge's life.
  • In his civilian identity as Peter Parker, Spidey is not a large man. Bigger guys have assumed they can beat him up, only to learn the hard way that Peter still has his spider-strength even when he's not wearing his webs.
• The Mighty Thor:
  • One story involved Hela, Goddess of Death, seeking to kill Thor in revenge for Odin thwarting one of her plans. When she came to Earth in pursuit of Thor in his Donald Blake form, she took the form of a human woman. A six-foot-plus-tall, quite richly dressed human woman. Two rather foolish muggers chose her as a target, and when she didn't react as expected, one of them shot her. Not a good idea, as Hela believes that "if you value life so little that you would take it from another, you don't deserve to keep it yourself.".
  • A group of muggers saw a depowered Thor and Enchantress and attacked them. The two Asgardians quickly defeat the attackers while talking about how helpless they are. It should be noted that although Thor technically was depowered, he still was a six-foot-six five-hundred-pound mountain of muscle who had never been sick a day in his life. And he could still use his hammer. Not the kind of guy any sane mugger should mess with in the first place.
  • In Issue #3 of The Mighty Thor Volume 3, Iron Man tracks down Thor to try and order him to register with the US government as an official superhero, as Thor (alongside the rest of Asgard) had been dead through the events of Civil War. This is a bad idea, since Thor is not only dealing with the trauma of dying and returning to life, but is currently standing in the midst of a devastated New Orleans^note Hurricane Katrina happened in Marvel Earth as it did in our world because the superheroes were too distracted by Civil War to intervene, and he's heard about how Iron Man created a cyborg clone of Thor to try and add legitimacy to his position. Thor calls Iron Man out on these abuses of his trust and friendship, and then proceeds to show Iron Man the difference between a human genius in Powered Armor and a Physical God, pounding Iron Man into the dirt before threatening to scour Washington D.C from the map with a super-storm. Iron Man is left struggling to come up with a "compromise" that will let the US government at least pretend they didn't just get completely dominated. This is a variant of the normal use of this trope, in that Iron Man does know that Thor is a superhuman... he just failed to realize how super Thor really was.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • The Ultimates: Early on in vol 2, a bunch of thugs try to mug Captain America and the Wasp (not in costume, of course) on their way back from a date. The next panel simply pans away as the thugs scream. It is to be noted that Ultimate!Cap is nowhere near as nice as the 616 version is.
  • Done on the cosmic scale in the series "The Hunger". When 616 Galactus enters the Ultimate verse through a dimensional tear, Gah Lak Tus tries to consume him. The moment the swarm touches him, they immediately realize he is just as ravenous as they are and far more powerful. The swarm merges with Galactus and serves him as his new Heralds.
• A Wolverine solo adventure has a variation of this. A young woman was on a subway train with no-one else around besides a sleeping homeless man with a newspaper over his face. Two muggers approach her and attempt a routine mugging, then the homeless man wakes up, and you'll never guess who he turned out to be!
  • Another Wolverine comic had a street gang try to mug Sabretooth, who told them that they were hyenas. Then when one of them asked what that made him, Sabretooth ripped his arm off and stated that he was a lion, who ate hyenas.
• The above mentioned Sabretooth himself falls victim to a variation of this in an X-Men Unlimited issue. Spotting Jean Grey in the town he was in, he attacks. When she telekinetically hurls a van onto Sabretooth, he flies through a wall, knocking unconscious a teen hiding behind it. Sabretooth tries to take the kid hostage to get Jean to surrender, but Jean calmly informs him that the very kid Sabes was holding is a powerful mutant and the reason she came to the town. The kid then wakes up and proceeds to fry Victor's entire brain and nervous system beyond what his Healing Factor can immediately recover from.
• X-23 is a teenage girl smaller than Wolverine. She turns up under the thumb of an abusive and controlling pimp named Zebra Daddy, who puts a hit out on her when one of her johns commits suicide in the hotel room during a session and she flees the scene with Kiden Nixon. Laura is Logan's Opposite-Sex Clone/Daughter with all the same powers, and was raised from birth to be a Professional Killer. Guess what happens when she finally has enough and stands up to Zebra Daddy and his thugs.
  • Played for a degree of comedy in All-New Wolverine, when some armed burglars break into a Bronx apartment when a petite young woman, an even smaller girl barely in her teens, and a grey-haired old man are all in residence. The nominal victims find the whole thing hilarious... until one of the intruders shoots Gabby's pet wolverine.
• X-Factor (2006): In the Madrox miniseries that serves as a prequel, it begins with Rahne Sinclair walking on her own through Mutant Town, when some guys start hassling her. Rahne shifts halfway into her wolf form and growls at them. They wisely run away, very fast.
• You'll need a calculator to add up the number of times a group of idiots thought that the tall blonde man who is built like Schwarzenegger in his prime would be an easy target. Eddie Brock just makes the whole situation infinitely worse for them by transforming into Venom, whose idea of delivering justice makes Disproportionate Retribution look like a being sent to bed without supper... At one point during a Christmas Special he actually invoked this trope. Upon learning that there was a gang of muggers targeting street-corner Santas, he morphed his suit into a Santa costume and hung out on a street corner ringing a bell until he was targeted.

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