5 Tropes In Comics That Need To Stop
By Jay Burdett
November 18th, 2025
When you love something that also means that you can feel so passionately about it to the point that you can actually hate certain aspects of it that don’t “spark joy” in you. These qualities or traits can end up grinding your gears and almost become separate from the object of your affection itself, seemingly manifesting as a germ or stain on your perfect idol. This is no different in comics.
I love reading comics, I really do. But I get very wound up by certain tropes that happen in the world of comics, and I would be happy if these things went the way of Ol’ Yeller.
So, what trope makes me want to throw my comic in a fire? Well, I thought you would never ask…
I love reading comics, I really do. But I get very wound up by certain tropes that happen in the world of comics, and I would be happy if these things went the way of Ol’ Yeller.
So, what trope makes me want to throw my comic in a fire? Well, I thought you would never ask…
5. Long Lost Relations
Nothing seems as lazy to a reader and an annoying addition to a character’s lore than when we find out a new antagonist/protagonist is a relation to our main character.
Not only does it seem unimaginative but it’s also really constricting:
Not only does it seem unimaginative but it’s also really constricting:
- Now you have a character that you must ensure doesn’t mess with the canon of the main character you are relating them to.
- You need to make sure there’s a good reason that the main character had no idea about this evil cousin/distant stepfather/forgotten aunty. Oh, what’s that? You’re going to say they’ve been in a coma in an underground bunker in another country for 18 years? Brilliant. I imagine the character development they got doing absolutely nothing for years will really show and pop off the page in their personality. At least it makes for a completely pointless, boring read.
4. Being Off World
This is a problem with heavy hitting, high power heroes especially. The one that most comes to mind is Captain Marvel. Writers seem unable to come up with logical, long-term stories that would result in the hero travelling of their own volition to a planet or place far away and confronting a villain, so she just quickly gets zapped or beamed there against her will.
This immediately takes some mystery out of the story seeing how quickly and easy it was for the hero to get to this destination, because now we know how easily and quickly the hero is going to get home. I don’t care how many times I hear, “but that was a one-way trip” or “the machine doesn’t have enough power to send you back”. We’re not idiots!
This is also a safe bet for the writer dealing with that comic universe’s canon as they can do whatever they want on this world, and it have zero ramifications on the hero’s world. Blow it up? Why not. It has no impact on anything before or after.
As well as this trope commonly removing the character from the other cast of characters we know and love, I think what annoys me most about this is that we lose the hero’s home from the story. The hero’s home is quite often a character in its own right. Take Gotham or New York. Those “characters” being there adds SOMEthing to the story. So, by removing our character from there you remove some of what we love about the comic. If you remove the hero’s friends, family, classic villains, and home, what have you really got left? May as well have the charming Mr Darcy have a solo story on Endor.
I know one of my gripes here was the speed at which everything changes around the hero but sometimes, even when you play the long game, that doesn’t work…
This immediately takes some mystery out of the story seeing how quickly and easy it was for the hero to get to this destination, because now we know how easily and quickly the hero is going to get home. I don’t care how many times I hear, “but that was a one-way trip” or “the machine doesn’t have enough power to send you back”. We’re not idiots!
This is also a safe bet for the writer dealing with that comic universe’s canon as they can do whatever they want on this world, and it have zero ramifications on the hero’s world. Blow it up? Why not. It has no impact on anything before or after.
As well as this trope commonly removing the character from the other cast of characters we know and love, I think what annoys me most about this is that we lose the hero’s home from the story. The hero’s home is quite often a character in its own right. Take Gotham or New York. Those “characters” being there adds SOMEthing to the story. So, by removing our character from there you remove some of what we love about the comic. If you remove the hero’s friends, family, classic villains, and home, what have you really got left? May as well have the charming Mr Darcy have a solo story on Endor.
I know one of my gripes here was the speed at which everything changes around the hero but sometimes, even when you play the long game, that doesn’t work…
3. Stories Escalating To A Ridiculous Level
I am not at all saying there should be no high stakes for a character. Of course there should be. What I get annoyed at is when I am reading a hero’s run, and it’s all very grounded and street level, and then after a few arcs and stories this grounded hero is thrown into a story involving something on a far grander scale.
I really began noticing it when I was reading Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil run. I loved this run from top to bottom, honestly…but if I had to make one change, it would be the escalation of the story going from Matt dealing with the idea that he accidentally murdered a man and how that is affecting his day to day life, to Daredevil in a battle against the avengers and demons from hell on an island he had taken over with a bunch of prisoners. Once I realised how far he had come in thirty something issues, I began realising that nearly all modern stories follow this format of a continuously expanding bubble and a problem escalating at a phenomenal speed.
Some of the best classic comic book stories stay on the level they began on; the stakes can just be someone’s life is on the line instead of it reaching dizzying heights. Take ‘The Death of Gwen Stacy’ or, sticking with Daredevil, ‘Born Again’. The thrilling conclusion is a one-on-one battle for something near and dear to the hero’s heart. We don’t always need an oncoming army or a world destroying threat.
I repeat; I am not saying never do this, but please can we have more stories where the peak of the final act of the entire arc is still just a one-on-one confrontation? Can we all stop trying to copy THE WATCHMEN (how that escalates in 12 issues is pure magic)?
I really began noticing it when I was reading Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil run. I loved this run from top to bottom, honestly…but if I had to make one change, it would be the escalation of the story going from Matt dealing with the idea that he accidentally murdered a man and how that is affecting his day to day life, to Daredevil in a battle against the avengers and demons from hell on an island he had taken over with a bunch of prisoners. Once I realised how far he had come in thirty something issues, I began realising that nearly all modern stories follow this format of a continuously expanding bubble and a problem escalating at a phenomenal speed.
Some of the best classic comic book stories stay on the level they began on; the stakes can just be someone’s life is on the line instead of it reaching dizzying heights. Take ‘The Death of Gwen Stacy’ or, sticking with Daredevil, ‘Born Again’. The thrilling conclusion is a one-on-one battle for something near and dear to the hero’s heart. We don’t always need an oncoming army or a world destroying threat.
I repeat; I am not saying never do this, but please can we have more stories where the peak of the final act of the entire arc is still just a one-on-one confrontation? Can we all stop trying to copy THE WATCHMEN (how that escalates in 12 issues is pure magic)?
2. Clones
I cannot stress enough how much I detest clones in comics. It really breaks my heart that Spider-Man’s lore is full of them. The audible sigh I made in the cinema watching LOGAN when the big bad is a smegging clone. It’s such a big part of the X-MEN lore that it’s one of the 2 main reasons I struggle to read their comics (their frankly liberal use of time travel is absolutely sickening to me).
It is lazy. Lazy, lazy, lazy writing. Your imagination is so blinkered that the best villain you can conjure up is a mirror image of the main character you’re writing about.
Clones often have no backstory, just made in a lab or hidden away for years doing nothing interesting. This lack of past experience also means their personality is like Carol Danvers in the first Captain Marvel movie. Just drawn looking confused and not really contributing to the conversation.
The only franchise to get clones correct is Star Wars and that’s because they gave them a culture, a deep history and their own experiences. Whilst I cannot think of any DC clone stories off the top of my head, Marvel is who I most associate with this terrible trope. Please, Marvel, stop. I unironically repeat, STOP!
It is lazy. Lazy, lazy, lazy writing. Your imagination is so blinkered that the best villain you can conjure up is a mirror image of the main character you’re writing about.
Clones often have no backstory, just made in a lab or hidden away for years doing nothing interesting. This lack of past experience also means their personality is like Carol Danvers in the first Captain Marvel movie. Just drawn looking confused and not really contributing to the conversation.
The only franchise to get clones correct is Star Wars and that’s because they gave them a culture, a deep history and their own experiences. Whilst I cannot think of any DC clone stories off the top of my head, Marvel is who I most associate with this terrible trope. Please, Marvel, stop. I unironically repeat, STOP!
1. Constant Team Ups
You know…if I buy a X-23 comic or a Captain Marvel comic…I am doing it to read about X-23 or Captain Marvel. I am taking an interest in that character solely. So, making every story a team up story filled with other characters I have no interest in or every issue the hero meets another hero and has a buddy-cop adventure…then I am being robbed of that solo character experience that I thought I was getting.
This is made more annoying when these publishers have already established team up comics out e.g. Young Avengers, Titans, Birds of Prey, X-Force etc. So if I WANTED to read about these guys in a team up, I already easily can. I am not totally against this one if it is done organically and correctly. The current run of MOON KNIGHT: FIST OF KONSHU has the great Marc Spector in a rag tag team of some proper D list characters and…it works! They elevate each other and make each issue really exciting and fun to read.
But when the issue opens with, “Me, and my buddies were out fighting crime one day, and then we all got kidnapped together and had to spend the next 5 issues trying to escape” I just hear “I didn’t actually have an idea for a solo run of this character, and I am not good enough to get on the team up book”.
What are some tropes you hate in comics? Let us know below!
This is made more annoying when these publishers have already established team up comics out e.g. Young Avengers, Titans, Birds of Prey, X-Force etc. So if I WANTED to read about these guys in a team up, I already easily can. I am not totally against this one if it is done organically and correctly. The current run of MOON KNIGHT: FIST OF KONSHU has the great Marc Spector in a rag tag team of some proper D list characters and…it works! They elevate each other and make each issue really exciting and fun to read.
But when the issue opens with, “Me, and my buddies were out fighting crime one day, and then we all got kidnapped together and had to spend the next 5 issues trying to escape” I just hear “I didn’t actually have an idea for a solo run of this character, and I am not good enough to get on the team up book”.
What are some tropes you hate in comics? Let us know below!
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