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  • In Exiles, when the Exiles are being curbstomped by King Hyperion in the Crystal Palace, Beak's appearance prompts Hyperion to mock him for not running because he wouldn't have tried to follow, and Beak responded by openly admitting how weak he was, saying his only power was being good at making friends. At which point two heroic Hyperions made their appearance.
  • As for the Fantastic Four themselves, this trope is the reason why, despite the fact that individually none of them are anywhere near the most powerful end of the spectrum of superheroes, they are the ones who everyone calls when faced with huge, world-destroying cosmic threats.
  • In JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative, Cyborg/Victor Stone (who has become confused and crazy and turned into a giant machine who tries to eat the moon) gets talked down by Garfield Logan, his best friend, who tells him repeatedly that they're still friends and he isn't buying the idea that Vic doesn't care about that. Incidentally, it's a shock of familiar friendship behavior that actually grabs Vic's attention: after several other Titans try reasoned pleas, Gar erupts with an irritated "Hey Rustbucket! Let go of the frickin' moon already!!" before launching into his long list of explanations of why Vic's actions mean he is a colossal dumbass.
  • Invoked a few times in New Avengers, overriding a number of It's Not You, It's My Enemies objections.
  • Nightwing's greatest weapon. Sure, natural acrobatics and Batman-trained skills in combat and sleuthing are nothing to sneeze at, but no other hero in the DC Universe boasts the sheer number of allies Nightwing has. Hell, the guy has had his villains team up with him against bigger or badder foes. Why? Basically because he asked nicely.
  • Red Robin: While Tim is never as easy going and widely liked as his older brother mentioned above his friendships and willingness to give other crimefighters Batman doesn't care for a chance give him a lot of friendly allies to call on when he needs a hand and is specifically pointed out by Jason in his narration as he wonders if he'd have turned out differently if he'd had a group of loyal friends like Tim his life would have turned out differently.
  • While Spider-Man started out as a loner, he's become friends with a great deal of Marvel's other heroes (and even some of the less pleasant types like Loki and Deadpool are on good terms with the wallcrawler), especially the Fantastic Four, who treat him like family, and he's been part of several incarnations of The Avengers, and as Peter Parker he has a big group of Muggle friends who he can count on. When Spidey's in trouble, a large portion of the Marvel Universe has his back. Thus, whenever Spidey disappears for long periods of time or acts incredibly off, people start questioning.
  • The Titans and Young Justice are all over this trope. They aren't the equals to the JLA or JSA in sheer power. It's their ability to work as a team and the fact that you mess with one, and expect any and all past and present members to show up looking to kick your butt that makes them frightening.
  • Tintin in Tibet is a great example of this, both with regards to the Tintin going on an apparently insane quest to rescue his friend Chang as well as with Captain Haddock sticking with Tintin through ever more hazardous situations despite his misgivings about mountaineering and believing that there is no chance that Chang survived the airplane crash.
  • In Watchmen, the Power of Friendship is apparently the only thing that can counter Rorschach's Knight Templar attitude about everything. The only time we see him display a more-or-less human reaction (outside of flashbacks) is when Daniel bursts out and spells it out for him just how difficult exactly "being his friend" is.
  • W.I.T.C.H. also relies on this: its tagline is "The Magic of Friendship". The heroines occasionally split up to tackle a problem, and don't always suffer for it, but are explicitly weakened when one of them actually quits.
  • World War Hulk has a subversion. Several of Banner/Hulk's friends try to appeal to their history, their friendship, or his better nature. It never works because Hulk's own True Companions contain the traitor who caused the problem for which he blames the Earth heroes.


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