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The 36 Stratagems as Portrayed in Comic Bookshttp://foxhugh.com/2013/05/07/the-36-stratagems-as-portrayed-in-comic-books/

Introduction 

I first heard of  The 36 Stratagems when I was working on a comic book story with Bruce

Lee in 1974. The story was eventually published in The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #14(see cover above). Bruce Lee envisioned a story that revolved around stratagem three ofthe 36 Statagems “Kill with a Borrowed Knife” that entails using the strength of another

to defeat your enemies. Bruce knew me from my cinema work in which I played the role

of an evil psychologist turning nice Hong Kong girls, among others, into killing machinesor worse in the The Evil Dr. Fox series produced by Shaw Brothers Studios.  We had

tried again and again to make a “Bruce Lee vs. Dr. Fox” movie in Hong Kong without

success.

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The comic book was definitely a plan B. There was a metafictional aspect to our comic book collaboration since Bruce Lee would more or less be playing himself in the comic

 book story. I had played heavies in various B films in Hong Kong before the success of

the mad psychologist Dr. Fox series. In hindsight, I realize that using my actual lastname as that of the character in that series was probably not a good idea. I actually was a

 professor working as an English teacher in a Hong Kong university language center. I didsome acting on the side to earn extra money and because acting was also a lot of fun. I

would like to take this opportunity to separate fact from fiction.

The real Dr. Fox cannot do the incredible kung fu stunts that are seen in my movies. I do

have some knowledge of martial arts but I am more a theoretician than a practicioner:

Fox Martial Arts Taxonomy 

The real Dr. Fox knows absolutely nothing about brainwashing. If you want to learnEnglish then give me a call but if you want to brainwash your ex-girlfriend to fall in love

with you again then I am the wrong person for that task. Metaschizophrenia, the Bureauof Intelligence Synthesis and corrective reality are all fictions and not real!

A stratagem is often used as a synonym for the word “strategy” and this is an incorrectuse of the term. A stratagem is more correctly defined as a ruse.  However, I think the

term ruse is simplistic when applied to the term stratagem. Based on the historical usage

of the word, I would describe a stratagem as a ruse used for military and/or political purposes. Also, a stratagem is a ruse that has been used for purposes other than mere

monetary gain unlike a confidence trick .  For example, the Spanish prisoner  con is

 basically the same as “7) Create Something Out of Nothing. – Turn something that is notsubstantial into reality” stratagem in the list of stratagems below at an operational level

 but the contextual historical background is totally different. Operational similaritiesaside, the contextual background of the ruse given to the potential user is important for

easy applicability. A con man may have trouble understanding an operation given in amilitary context. A military officer might have trouble applying a con explained within a

monetary context to a military situation. One of the recurring plot lines of modern fiction

is having cons that are generally used for criminal purposes for government goals as isthe case in the popular franchise Mission Impossible.  However, translating operations to

a different context may not be as easy as the mentioned franchise suggests.

I would also like to contrast a stratagem with a ruse of war .  For example movinglandmarks to confuse the enemy is clearly a ruse of war but I would not call it a

stratagem. Historically, a stratagem has a larger goal than the mere temporary confusionof the enemy. Perhaps a stratagem is a ruse of war with strategic rather than tactical 

intent. I would define a stratagem as a ruse of war with strategic intent. In short:

1) A con is a ruse for monetary gain.

2) A ruse of war is a ruse for tactical military gain.

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3) A stratagem is a ruse for strategic military and/or political gain.

I would like to apply this system of ruse classification to a particular historical example

that would have been difficult to classify prior to this article.

In Operation Bernhard , the Nazis counterfeited British pounds in order to destabilize theBritish economy. Was Operation Bernhard a con, ruse of war or a stratagem? Certainly

Operation Bernhard was a ruse. I would argue that Operation Bernhard was not a consince the objective was political and not monetary. If the goal was to supply Nazi agents

with local money in Britain then it would be a ruse of war. Since the goal was strategicthen I would say Operation Bernhard was a stratagem and specifically: “2) Besiege Wei

to Rescue Zhao. – Attack their Achilles heel” in the list below.

Feudal Chinese military strategists suggested the study of stratagems as part of basic

military education. The 36 Stratagems is an essay that explains stratagems in detail. Thisessay shows how the 36 stratagems have been portrayed in comic books. The author of

this essay doubts the comic book writers were aware of the Chinese text on this subject but learned about the stratagems indirectly and used them largely for plot purposes rather

than edification. An essay of how the 36 stratagems have been used in comic books provides an interesting extension of  literary criticism and how theories other than literary

theory can help us understand modern media such as comic books.

The 36 stratagems are traditionally broken into six categories with six stratagems percategory. I find the categories are largely useless and create logical confusion. The

rationale for the six categories probably has more to do with Taoist aesthetics than any

operational logic. For example, #31, the honey trap is under the category six of“Desperate Stratagems” but this stratagem could just as easily be classified under

category two, “Enemy dealing stratagems”. For the purposes of utility, the categorieshave been deleted and a simple 1-36 list has been used instead. 

The Original 36 Stratagems – Contemporary Maxims 

1) Cross the Sea by Deceiving the Sky. – Act in the open, but hide your true

intentions. 

This is the use of a series of false alarms so that when you actually attack then you willhave the element of surprise. Supervillains don’t use this stratagem very much since

every time they move then they get caught because of the dictates of a media were thegood guys always win. However in World’s Finest #88, the Joker and Lex Luthor

commit a series of crimes that are actually Mechano-Men stunts and not crimes. In his

first appearance in  Action Comics V1, #51, the Prankster  gives money to banks inapparent bank robberies until he decides to start robbing banks instead when the guard of

the banks is let down. The con version of this stratagem is a Kansas City Shuffle. 

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2) Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao. – Attack their  Achilles heel  . 

Lex Luthor  has used  Green Kryptonite to attack Superman at least a hundred times. Atthis point the idiom Kryptonite to signify an Achilles heel is probably better known than

the original antecedent idiom. This only works if the bad guys know the fatal weakness

of the super hero. There can be an irony to the Achilles heel of a superhero as a plotdevice. For example, Daredevil is more vulnerable to sonic attack due to his enhanced

hearing but this has been kept secret by Daredevil.

The Achilles heel of most superheroes is their loved ones. The Injustice: Gods Among Us explores a universe in which the Joker has killed Lois Lane, Superman’s unborn son and

most of Metropolis. In the comic book, not the video game, that is ongoing, Supermanseems to be on the path of creating a dictatorship. In the comic book, the US government

attempts but fails to keep Superman’s adopted family, Jonathan and Martha Kent in aMirror Master  dimension but this attempt fails. Superman emerges angrier than ever due

to this attempt by the US government. The problem of the loved ones Achilles heel is

that once you used up loved ones then your enemy is enraged and stronger than

ever. This seems to apply to real life to some extent.

Iron Man had his armor hijacked by a Hypersonic Scan Transmitter. Justin Hammer  used

the hijacked armor to kill an Ambassador while Iron Man was in the armor andeffectively framing Iron Man for murder. Overall, super villains are constantly looking

for the weakness of their favorite super hero and will attack such a weakness withoutmercy.

Green Lantern has a green Power ring that is one of the most powerful weapons in the

DC universe but the Power ring has an Achilles heel and that is that the Power ring isunable to affect objects colored yellow. Sinestro had a yellow Power ring which in turn

was ineffective with objects colored green! This is cute use of the Achilles heel plotdevice but does seem a little too much in a modern context. The Earth 2 Green Lantern, 

Alan Scott, has a Power ring unable to affect wooden objects. Green Lanterns have a

weapon of incredible power so the only way a fight with bank robbers could not be

totally one sided and interesting was to introduce a ridiculous Achilles heel.

Mon-El is a Daxamite. Daxamites are about as powerful as a race as Superman who is aKryptonian. However, the Achilles heel of Daxamites is a vulnerability to even small

traces of lead. Presumably this plot device prevents the Daxamites from taking over the

DC universe. In a similar manner, the Martian Manhunter  is more or less as powerful asSuperman but is vulnerable to fire!  DC first used Kryptonite to allow interesting plots

with a being as powerful as Superman and then continued this practice with Green

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Lantern, Mon-El, and the Martian Manhunter. This use of a very fine tuned Achilles heel

is a hallmark of the DC Silver age and seems forced nowadays.

3) Kill with a Borrowed Knife. – Attack using the strength of another person. 

In  Avengers, Vol1, #1, Loki tries to trick the Hulk into fighting Thor but instead ends up

creating the Avengers. Loki bailed out the Cobra and  Mr. Hyde and doubled their

 powers and aimed them at Thor’s Achilles heel, the current love of his life JaneFoster .  Loki has created super villains to fight Thor including the Absorbing Man.  Loki

tricked the Silver Surfer into fighting Thor (Silver Surfer, V1, #4). Loki in Acts of

Vengeance attacked the Avengers by creating a team of super villains who in turn usedeven other super villains to attack the Avengers. Loki’s true goal was to hurt his half-

 brother Thor.

Daredevil used  HYDRA to destroy the Kingpin’s organization in the Last Rites story arc

( Daredevil #297-300). The Kingpin nearly destroyed Daredevil in the Born Again storyline earlier via a series of stratagems so there is a plot symmetry in Daredevil striking

 back against the Kingpin using a stratagem.

Darkseid  has supplied advanced weaponry to Intergang in order fight Earth’s superheroesand to track down the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid also created an incarnation of the

Secret Society of Supervillains and kept his involvement secret from the supervillains for

an extended period of time. Darkseid knew many supervillains are interested in loot

rather than the larger strategic goals he had.

Justin Hammer  supplied advanced technology to Iron Man’s adversaries in exchange forfifty percent of the loot the supervillains stole. Justin Hammer also used stratagem #2 to

attack Iron Man.

The Silver age Lex Luthor   joins with Brainiac in the Crisis of Infinite Earths to form anarmy of supervillains. The Modern age Luthor  creates the Parasite, Bizzaro and the

cyborg Metallo. The Infinite Crisis Luthor  creates the Society of Supervillains.

4) Relax and Wait for the Adversary to Tire Himself Out. Await leisurely the

exhausted enemy. – Exercise patience and wear them down 

Doctor Octopus unsuccessfully tried to wear Spider-Man down using the newly formedSinister Six who attacked Spider-Man one by one in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 

#1.  Doctor Octopus hoped that the exhausted Spider-Man would be defeated when he

attacked Spider-Man last.

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In The Dark Knight Returns, Batman uses this stratagem to fight Superman. Batmanattacks Superman with an otherworldly Batmobile, followed by cruise missiles and

finally has Green Arrow shoot Kryptonite tipped arrows to weaken Superman sufficiently

so that Batman with his exoskeleton can give Superman a beating before Batman appears

to die of self induced heart attack.

5) Loot a Burning House. – Hit them when they are down.

Attack the enemy when they have internal difficulties. The Kingpin literally blew up

Daredevil’s house after framing him for bribery, destroying him financially and overall

attacking him as Matt in the Born Again story arc. The Kingpin muses that a destroyedDaredevil might serve him! The Born Again story line also illustrates stratagem #2 and

the use of interlocking stratagems, stratagem #35.

 Norman Osborn looted Tony Stark’s armory and created the Iron Patriot armor from the

loot. Divide and rule!  Comic books need fights and fights between super heroes likeThor and the Hulk are always popular. You see a lot of “temporary misunderstandings”

 between super heroes but after the mandatory six to ten panel fight, the misunderstanding

is patched up and the heroes unite to fight the supervillain that created the conflict in the

first place.

6) Make a Feint to the East While Attacking in the West. – Fake to the right; attack

 to the left.

Ozymandias was defeated by the Comedian during their first fight due to a feint. The

Prankster in the Modern Age acts as distraction-for-hire for Superman for a fee whilecriminals commit crimes. Batman has been known to “miss” with his Batarang because

he is actually going for a ricochet shot. Daredevil does the same thing as Batman but

with his Billy Club not a Batarang.

7) Create Something Out of Nothing. – Turn something that is not substantial into

 reality. 

Vaporware is the modern equivalent of this stratagem. The Prankster  copyrights the

English language and then charges fees for use of the alphabet! Ozymandias tricks the

world with a fake alien in order to unite the world in a war against the aliens and stop

WW III from happening.

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8) Secretly Utilize the Chen Cang Passage (CNC). Pretend to Advance Down One

Path While Taking Another Hidden Path (LB). – Pretend to care about an issue and

later give it up to get what you really want. 

This stratagem is a more specific version of “6) Make a Feint to the East While Attacking

in the West. – Fake to the right; attack to the left ”. The difference is that beyond

misinformation there is the use of physical baits such as a decoy. Iron Man, Loki and Dr.Strange all have the ability to make mirror images of their own image in order to confuse

the enemy. If you try to touch the mirror copy then your hand will go through the copyand the copy cannot interact with the enemy so the illusion only creates temporary

confusion. This is a type of illusion whether the origin is holographic science in the case

of Iron Man or magic in the case of Dr. Strange and Loki. This power is used in an

irregular manner with the characters mentioned.

Mirror Master  uses the power in a more consistent manner in order to flee from the Flashwho has super speed. The Mirror Master will often make multiple holograms of himself

that flee in different directions. Flash is fast enough to chase all the holograms so this

rarely works but this doesn’t stop the Mirror Master from using this trick again and again.

A slightly different version of this stratagem is the use of robotic copies. When dealing

with Doctor Doom, you never know if you are dealing with Doctor Doom or a robotic

copy of Doctor Doom. While you are dealing with the Doctor Doom robot, the realDoctor Doom can be watching from afar and coming up with some other counter

 plan. Robots that are created by Doctor Doom that are exact replicas of Doctor Doom are

called  Doombots. 

S.H.I.E.L.D makes extensive use of  Life Model Decoys (LMDs). Nick Fury LMDs servea similar function for Nick Fury as Doombots for Doctor Doom. In the case of Doombots

and LMDs the problem of controlling the robots has been a plot device. Your robotic

copy can try to supplant the original! Max Fury is an LMD that has played a prominent

role in the Marvel Universe.

Tony Stark (Iron Man’s secret identity) is probably the second greatest user of LMDs

after Nick Fury. Tony Stark was paralyzed and used the  Neuromimetic Telepresence

Unit 150 (NTU-150) to act as a remote controlled version of Iron Man.

In the film X-Men: The Last Stand, Magneto has Multiple Man make multiple copies

of himself and the copies act as a decoy while the real Brotherhood escapes.

9) Watch the Fire Burning from Across the River. – Allow them to fight your other

enemy while you rest and observe. Later, defeat the exhausted survivor. 

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Ultra Boy, of the Legion of Super-Heroes, used covert means to trick Mordru intoattacking Glorith in order to stop Glorith from taking over the universe ( Legion of Super-

 Heroes Annual (vol. 4) #1).

10) Conceal a Dagger in a Smile. – Befriend them to get their guard down, then attack

 their weakest point. 

The Batman has some very charming enemies. The Joker often smiles and even laughsas he kills his victims. The Joker also likes to make his victims smile while they die as

well with his patented Joker venom. The Riddler is another smooth talking rogue that is

an enemy of Batman. Ra’s al Ghul treats Batman as a worthy opponent and calls Batmandetective out of respect.

Ra’s al Ghul has a daugher, Talia al Ghul, does more than smile for Batman and has

given Batman a son! Talia seemingly becomes an ally of Luthor and runs LexCorp while

Luthor is President but secretly sells LexCorp to Wayne Enterprises in order to ruin Lex

Luthor. However, Talia is a ruthless criminal that will fight Batman.

Ozymandias is very genial even as he battles Rorschach, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre.

11) Sacrifice a Plum Tree to Save a Peach Tree (RM). Let the Plum Tree Wither in

Place of the Peach Tree (TF). – Trade up! Take a small loss for a large gain. 

Super villains are more than willing to sacrifice henchmen for any sort of advantage or

 just kill them for fun. Probably the worst super villain boss is the Joker who gets a kick

out of shooting, electrocuting and poisoning henchmen left and right.

12) Take Away a Goat in Passing. – Take advantage of every small opportunity. 

The Taskmaster  is an interesting super villain who decided a lot of small opportunitieswith small risk is a better idea than the big score. The Taskmaster runs a school for

henchmen. In general, super villains do not think small and do pass up small

opportunities. The biggest opportunity that super villains pass up is licensing their

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technology. If the technology is stolen then this makes sense but in the case of criminalmasterminds like The Mad Thinker  and  Egghead , you have to wonder why they don’t

focus on being a the next Bill Gates rather than wasting their time on crime.

13) Beat the Grass to Startle the Snake. – Stir things up before beginning to negotiate

 for your true interests. 

Ok, this is the application of stratagems to a type of genre that generally relies on fistfights for plot development. No one said this task would be easy. I am going to revise

this as distraction as a tactic or even super power in a comic book. Deadpool has

officially been classified as a character with the super power of distraction by a majorsuper villain, Taskmaster .  Spider-Man consistently keeps up a line of personal to funny

chatter while fighting that unnerves opponents.

14) Raise a Corpse from the Dead (LB). Borrow a Corpse to Return the Soul

(TF). – Revive a dead proposal by presenting it again or in a new way. 

This stratagem means take something from the past and giving it new relevance. I guess

the Chinese knew endless reboots of everything from Spider-Man to Iron Man weregoing to be part of the future! This may be number #14 in the list of stratagems but in

comic terms this stratagems is number #1!

Comic books love updating old weapons! The Atomic Knights use medieval armor afterWW III! Hawkman likes to use archaic weaponry. Green Arrow and  Hawkeye use trick

arrows. Batman uses Batarangs,  boomerangs and  shurikens, in his utility belt.  Captain

Boomerang and  Boomerang use trick boomerangs. Whiplash uses a technologicallyenhanced whip. Wonder Woman has her  Lasso of Truth. Comic book heroes and villains

delight in taking and old weapon and adding new technology to the weapon so a trick

version of the weapon is created.

15) Lure the Tiger out of the Mountain. – Seek a neutral location. Negotiate after

leading them away from a position of strength.

Super heroes don’t really rely on forts and mazes to take care of their enemies. Batmanhas the Batcave and Superman has his Fortress of Solitude. However, the last thing super

heroes want is supervillains visiting their lairs. Incredibly the opposite happens and super

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heroes wander into the stronghold of villains all the time. At least once every three years,the Fantastic Four visits Latveria the stronghold of Doctor Doom. This is not just a lair

 but a whole country that Doctor Doom controls so probably visiting Doctor Doom in

Latveria is not a good idea but that doesn’t seem to deter the Fantastic Four in the least.

Doctor Doom may have a nation on his side but Luthor tops that big time by having awhole planet on his side! In the Silver age, In Superman Vol 1, #164, Luthor challenged

Superman to a fight on Lexor .  Lexor is a planet that has a red sun so Superman has no powers on Lexor! Also, on Lexor, Luthor is a hero and Superman is considered a

villain! In Superman, Vol 1, #168 , Luthor even manages to find some ancient technology

that allows him to temporarily gain super powers on Lexor! Lexor is an extreme example

 but supervillains are often luring the super heroes into their lairs in order to have them

fall into some death trap or another. This is especially the case with Batman.

Arcade is an assassin for hire that uses custom built amusement parks filled with deadly

traps named Murderworlds in order to kill superheroes. Arcade has a sporting side and

does deliberately leave a small chance for escape from his  deathtraps.  Arcade at one timeor another has tried to kill Adam X , Angel, Apex, Avengers Academy, Chase Stein, 

Colossus, Courtney Ross , Darkhawk , Dazzler , Deadpool , Doctor Doom, , Excalibur  ,Gambit , Green Goblin, Hazmat, Hercules, Human Torch , Iceman, Impossible Man.,

Iron Man, Johnny Blaze, Juston Seyfert and his Sentinel, Kid Briton, Meggan, Mettle, 

Micronauts, Nara,  Nico Minoru,  Nightcrawler   Northstar ,, Red Raven III, Reptil, 

Shadowcat, Shatterstar , Spider-Man, The Thing, Wolverine, X-23 , X-Factor , X-Force ,

X-Men  and the Young Allies. 

Deathtraps are a comic book cliché and part of the cliché is the supervillain’s monologue

that allows the super hero time to escape. Why doesn’t the supervillain just shot the

capture super hero? The answer is that the super hero needs to escape for plot purposes.

16) Let the Adversary off in order to Snare Him. To Capture the Enemy, First Let It

Go (RM). – Do not arouse their spirit to fight back. 

In Silver Surfer Vol 1, #5, there is a Tales of the Watcher back story, titled “Run Roco

Run”. Roco ends up serving a life sentence in Jupiter but is hypnotized into believing hehas escaped and therefore no longer tries to escape! This story is a retelling of “Run,

Rocky, Run!” drawn by Bob Forgione in Tales to Astonish (Marvel, 1959 series) #26(December 1961).

17) Toss out a Brick to Attract a piece of Jade. Toss out a Brick to Attract Jade

(RM). -Trade something of minor value for something of major value. 

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In Irredeemable, the Hornet gives the Vespan aliens a list of other habitable planets thatthey can conquer in exchange for leaving Earth alone and imprisoning Plutonian, a super

hero gone bad. Hornet is ironically a Batman type super hero without super powers but

via this stratagem turns an alien invasion around and defeats the Superman type heroPlutonian. With the right stratagem, the weakest member of the team physically can be

the most important team member in terms of results.

18) To Catch Bandits, Nab Their Ringleader First. To Catch the Bandits, First

Catch Their Ringleader (RM). – Convince the leader and the rest will follow.

Supervillains do love to kidnap the President of the US. Occasionally, supervillains takeover the UN in order to blackmail the whole world and not just the US. Overall, the

comic book world of super heroes and supervillains is very egalitarian and chaotic. For

example, Superman isn’t really the leader of the super heroes but kind of a moralguide. Reed Richards is supposed to be the leader of the Fantastic Four but he definitelyhas to run things by the other members especially his wife the Invisible Woman.  The

Avengers has a rotating leadership but Captain America generally acts as an informal

leader on the battlefield at the tactical level. The X-Men do have a real leader, Professor

X and occasionally Professor X is targeted as a leader.

There is no real leadership structure for the supervillain side either. Norman Osborn did

create the Cabal which led to the Dark Reign storyline. The Cabal did effectively controlmost of the supervillains in the Marvel Universe and  Hawkeye did try to assassinate

Osborn ( Dark Reign: The List – Avengers) and hoped that this would bring the Cabal

down but failed. Lex Luthor   became the President of the US and during that period couldcall on an army of supervillains in order to take out Superman and Batman but that didn’tlast long. Leadership for both the bad guys and good guys in comic books is a network

lacking central nodes that can be removed to take down the whole system.

19) Remove the Fire from under the Cauldron. – Eliminate the source of their

 strength.

The source of power for some super heroes is certain environmental conditions. If youcan’t find any Kryptonite then you can always remove the yellow sun which is the source

of Superman’s powers. Lex Luthor does this to Superman twice in Superman Vol 1,

#164 and #168. In World’s Finest , Vol 1, #163, the villain Jemphis turns the yellow sun

of his planet into a red sun via atomic explosions activated by a button on his person.

DC has Aquaman who will lose his strength and die if he is out of water for extended

 periods of time. So of course super villains are always trying to dry dock

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Aquaman! Marvel has  Namor the Submariner  and has a similar weakness to Aquaman

 but while Namor’s strength will diminish out of water, Namor will not die out of water.

Green Lantern has a Power ring that is one of the most powerful weapons in the DC

universe. However, the power ring needs to be recharged every 24 hours from a battery

that looks like an old style lantern. Hide the lantern and you can take out the GreenLantern. Problems with the lantern are a central plot device in Green Lantern V1, #9,

#20, #32, #74, and and #116. If you want to take down the whole Green Lantern Corps then take out the Central Power Battery which charges all the other lanterns. When Hal

Jordan went mad temporarily, he destroyed the Central Power Battery and effectively

destroyed the Green Lantern Corps.

The best article on the internet about comic book weapons at:

DC vs. Marvel: Weapons 

20) Muddle the water to catch the fish (TF). Gathering Fish from Troubled Waters(LB). – Do something surprising or unexpected to unnerve them, and then take

 advantage of that situation.

The Joker does crazy stunts that keep Batman and other supervillains off

 balance. Deadpool is a Marvel supervillain that does similar stunts. Crazy gives

supervillains an advantage in the comic book world.

21) The Cicada Sheds Its Shells. The Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell. The CicadaSloughs Its Shell (RM). – When you are in trouble, secretly escape. 

The idea is to escape but leave the lights on so the enemy still thinks you are home. In

the Young Justice TV series, most of the Justice League and all of the heavy hitters have

to appear before an off planet court. In episode #33 titled “Depths”, Young Justiceimpersonates the Justice League at a Mars satellite launch in order to fool any super

villains that might be watching into thinking the Justice League is still on Earth.

22) Fasten the Door to Catch a Thief. – Lock the Door and Catch the Thief (RM). –Completely destroy them by leaving no way for escape. 

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Prisons are largely ineffective in comic books since jailed supervillains do not make goodreading. Arkham Asylum seems to be a place where the Joker rests between bouts with

Batman rather than a place of incarceration. An extreme solution to problem of bad guys

 breaking out of jail in the DC universe was explored in the Salvation Run miniseries. The DC supervillains are imprisoned on a distant planet. The same off planet

imprisonment solution was applied to the Hulk but failed spectacularly in the World WarHulk  story arc. Over in the Marvel universe, Iron Man decides enough is enough and

with Reed Richards creates a prison in the in the  Negative Zone labeled  Project 42. 

23) Befriend a Distant State While Attacking a Neighboring State. Befriend DistantStates While Attacking Nearby Ones (RM). – Build strategic alliances with others

 that will give you the upper hand. 

In the TV series, Young Justice, The Light is a group of supervillains that ally themselveswith the Reach, aliens, that they plan to betray after they destroy the Justice League and

Young Justice i.e. superheroes on Earth.

In Irredeemable, the Hornet makes a deal with Vespan aliens to take out, a super hero

gone bad, named Plutonian. Hornet also gives the Vespan a list of other habitable planets

that they can conquer in exchange for leaving Earth alone and imprisoning Plutonian.

24) Borrow a Safe Passage to Conquer the Kingdom of Guo (LB). Attack Hu by a

Borrowed Path (RM). – Temporarily join forces with a friend against a common

enemy. 

Spider-Man has had any number of temporary team ups with any number of superheroesin Marvel Team-Up for plot purposes but generally the rationale if any is offered is

stratagem 24. Batman basically does the same thing over at DC albeit not as consistently

as Spider-Man in The Brave and the Bold  comic book series starting in issue #50, volume

1, and more notably in the TV series  Batman: The Brave and the Bold .  In general, Super

heroes are better team players and friends than super villains.

Supervillains are always trying to betray their partner. Marvel had a title named  Super-Villain Team-Up and actually generally ended up being the super  villain betrayal of theirteam member. The Secret Society of Supervillains has always been much more unstable

than their counterpart the Justice League. Norman Osborn was very briefly able to unite

the Marvel supervillains via the Cabal but that system soon broke down in part due to psychic sabotage of Osborn’s sanity by Loki, a fellow Cabal member. Any favor done

 by one supervillain to another super villain must be treated with suspicion. For example,

in Superman, Vol 1, #167, Luthor increases Brainiac’s intelligence from a 10th

 level to a

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12th

 level but puts in some hardware in Brainiac’s computer brain that allowed Luthor to

control Brainiac!

25) Steal the Dragon and Replace with the Phoenix (CNC). Steal the Beams and

Pillars and Replace Them with Rotten Timber (LB). Steal the Beams and Change

the Pillars. – Sabotage, incapacitate, or destroy them by removing their key support. 

If you take the saying literally which is not necessarily correct then Catwoman has beenknown to leave a fake jewel in the place of a real jewel she has stolen so the owner

doesn’t know they have been robbed. Supervillains love to blow things up. That is kind

of what comic book supervillains do and there are too many examples to list here.

26) Point at the Mulberry Tree but Curse the Locust Tree. – Convey your intentions

 and opinions indirectly. 

The Riddler  literally talks in riddles. The Etrigan the Demon talks in rhyme and his true

message is difficult to understand. These are not so much examples of ruses but aspects

of the characters of the villains presumably created to make them more interesting.

27) Feign madness, but keep your balance. Pretend to be a Pig in Order to eat the

Tiger (CNC). Play Dumb (LB). Feign Ignorance and Hide One’s Intentions

(RM). – Play Dumb, then surprise them. Let them underestimate you. 

Superheroes often have secret identities. Clark Kent is the secret identity of Superman

and in order to fool Lois Lane, among others, Clark will play the part of the bumbling

idiot. Bruce Wayne is the secret identity of Batman. The role of Bruce Wayne is playedin such a way as to convince others that Bruce Wayne cannot possibly be Batman. Bruce

Wayne often feigns drunkenness in particular. Bruce Wayne has been know to use

models who don’t speak English as alibis. Tony Stark is the secret identity of Iron Man but is not feigning drunkenness but actually has a drinking problem and is probably a sex

addict problem as well.

My last name is fox and I am going to translate this stratagem as the idioms “clever as afox” or “crazy like a fox”. Batman’s enemy, the Joker is probably actually crazy rather

than pretending to be crazy but do not underestimate the Joker! Batman has a lot of

enemies that appear crazy but are actually pretty effective as super villains. Two-Face

has some sort of personality disorder that causes him to flip a coin during crucial

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The 36 Stratagems as Portrayed in Comic Books

DC vs. Marvel: Sidekicks 

31) Use a Beauty to Ensnare a Man. – The honey trap. Beauty Trap (RM). Provide

 alluring distractions. 

Obadiah Stane used  Indries Momji as a honey trap to destroy Iron Man. Indries Momji

causes Stark to fall in love with her and breaks his heart in order to cause him to resume

his alcoholic ways leaving Stark Industries and its Iron Man technology easy prey forStane. Loki used  Lorelei in “For the Love of Thor” story line to manipulate Thor. In the

1978 graphic novel by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby titled the Silver Surfer: The Ultimate

Cosmic Experience, Galactus created a golden clone, Ardina, of his true love Shalla-Bal, with Silver Surfer powers in order to successfully force the Silver Surfer to become his

herald again.

32) Open the Gate of an Undefended City. The Empty City Stratagem (RM). – Deliberately displaying your weakness can conceal your vulnerability.

In The Dark Knight Returns  by Frank Miller, Batman muses how he has a bright yellow

target on his chest so the bad guys will aim at his chest where he has a bullet proof vest

rather than his difficult to armor head.

33) Use Adversary’s Spies to Sow Discord in Your Adversary’s Camp. Turn theEnemy’s Agents against Him (RM). – Provide inaccurate information to mislead

 them, especially through informal channels. 

In Fantastic Four  #2, Reed Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four pretend to beSkrull spies and trick the Skrull captain with pictures from Journey into Mystery and

Strange Tales into believing Earth is defended by monsters.

34) Inflict Pain on Oneself in order to Infiltrate Adversary’s Camp and Win the

Confidence of the Enemy. Self-Torture (RM). – Appear to take some hits. Feign

weakness while arming yourself. 

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In The Dark Knight Returns, Batman pretends to die of a self induced heart attack inorder to fake his death and get off the radar. This is the third instance of the use of a

stratagem in The Dark Knight Returns and perhaps this is one of the reasons among many

this work is a masterpiece in the world of comic books.

In researching this stratagem I found out there is a lot more self inflicted pain in comic books than I would have imagined! Captain Carnage  pretended to be a super villain in

order to get beaten up presumably for masochistic reasons in the Watchmenuniverse. Etrigan the Demon also presumably has masochistic tendencies. Penance has a

superpower that requires pain on his part to work! When the flesh of Penance is raked

with one of the 612 internal bolts in his suit, he can project explosive blasts from his

 body! OMG! Who comes up with these characters? Odin sacrificed his right eye to gainwisdom from Mimir as how to stop Ragnarök  (Twilight of the Gods) in Thor  #274

(August 1978).

35) Lead Your Adversary to Chain Together Their Warships. Stratagem on

Stratagems (RM). – Devise a set of interlocking stratagems to defeat them. 

The Kingpin discovered Daredevil’s secret identity (Matt Murdock) in the born BornAgain story arc. The Kingpin then launched several lines of attack at the same time. The

Kingpin uses his influence to have the IRS freeze Murdock’s accounts. The Kingpin also

has the bank foreclose on his apartment. Finally the Kingpin coerces police lieutenant Nicholas Manolis to testify that he saw Murdock pay a witness to perjure himself. The

Kingpin overreaches himself when he blows up Daredevil’s house. At that moment

Daredevil realizes the Kingpin is behind the attacks on Matt Murdock and must know hissecret identity.

36) Retreat is the Best Option. If All Else Fails, Run Away (RM). – Purse your

 BATNA . 

Old Man Logan decides that when faced with a world that the super villains have taken

over then it’s time to retreat to a little patch of land rather than get killed. Old Man Logan

does eventually get around to fighting another day and killing all thevillains! Supervillains run away from super heroes all the time but the reverse is rarely

true. Even allowing supervillains the option of retreat is considered an unacceptable

stratagem for super heroes. In Thunderstrike Vol 1, #2, the hero Thunderstrike allows theJuggernaut to just go away rather than having the city get destroyed in a fight and is later

admonished by Captain America.

Conclusion

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What is surprising upon the analysis of stratagems in comic books is how rarelystratagems are used by supervillains. If I was a super  villain fighting the likes of

Superman and Thor then I would use every trick in the book. Even the criminal

masterminds like Luthor, the Kingpin and Loki do not use stratagems all that much. Mytheory is that comic books are still largely a visual medium and it’s hard to “draw” a

stratagem. A fist fight is more interesting visually than a stratagem. Also, the comic book writers may have a limited knowledge of stratagems. A systematic comparison ofcons, ruses of war and stratagems might yield interesting and synergic results

conceptually which in turn would have practical value in competitive situations.