 Quotes •  Headscratchers •  Playing With • Useful Notes •  Analysis •  Image Links •  Haiku • Laconic
|
|---|
Apparently, even static images are able to overact. While hammy villains are no stranger to the other categories, they seem to have an even higher concentration in the world of comics.
- The graphic novel Twice Blessed has Cade Masters, ADVENTURER EXTRAORDINAIRE!
- "Doom is displeased that people think he underacts. Doom NEVER underacts. Doom is also displeased that some one-shot video-game tie-in lout is calling himself DOOM in the third person! There is only one DOOM - Doctor DOOM! These are clearly plots by that perfidious dolt REED RICHARDS!!"
- Lampshaded during the Onslaught saga; Joseph was telling Captain America about being rescued by someone and Cap interrupted to say he knew it was Dr. Doom. When Joseph asked how Cap knew that, Cap's answer was "Frankly, the entrance line alone told me that much."
- Also lampshaded during a cameo appearance in The Amazing Spider Man, in which Doom expresses displeasure at being escorted through the public terminal of an airport due to mechanical difficulties (amusingly, the guard turns out to be Captain America undercover.):
 |
Doom: Typical shoddy American workmanship. Such incompetence would not be permitted in the Latveria of — DOCTOR DOOM. |
 |
- In an essay about his run on Fantastic Four, Mark Waid once noted that "you know you've Doom's voice down when every single sentence contains at least one pompous adjective."
- Master Menace, Marvel's alternate-universe equivalent of Lex Luthor heavily mixed with Doctor Doom, shamelessly chews the scenery whenever he appears.
- Norman Osborn has shown surprising talent for this trope when he staged an attack by the Green Goblin on Air Force One. It's filled with such delightfully hammy lines as "GET BEHIND ME MR. PRESIDENT!" and "No Goblin! What YOU need is YOUR GLIDER!" However, when it's Osborn in the Goblin suit, the ham quotient goes up to 11. As does the insanity quotient.
- Super-strong characters tend to get this way, especially those who are gods. Marvel has Hercules and Thor, DC has Orion of the New Gods, and now the Dark Avengers have Ares. Who possibly tops Thor for sheer hamminess.
- Destruction of the Endless, who was modeled after Brian Blessed!
- "I am GALACTUS... And I HUNGER!"
- When Stan Lee was still writing comics, he wrote every character this way. Lee himself has shared his love of ham on many occasions. "EXCELSIOR!"
- Pick a Jack Kirby character. Any Jack Kirby character. And when Lee and Kirby collaborated, it was something to behold.
- This is probably a big reason why the Fantastic Four cemented so many Marvel-specific tropes in the late Silver Age and Bronze Age.
- Of all the characters that qualify for this trope, Darkseid deserves a special mention.
- Falstaff (again) in the Seven Soldiers of Victory story from Leading Comics #14, "The Bandits from the Books." In a story where everyone talks in all capitals and ends their sentences with exclamation points, his dialogue is in bigger, bolder type with more exclamation points. He even does a What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome? about eating a banana.
- A rare instance where the narrator is a Large Ham occurs in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein.
|
"All in a day's work...for FRANKENSTEIN!" |
|
- The X-Men villain Mojo. Even in the Ultimate Universe where he's human. If the Joker were a fat, alien media tycoon, this is who you'd get.
- Mojo runs a world where people are engineered to be reality tv stars. Needless to say some of these people are quite the large hams when they come over to 616, Shatterstar for example
- Rasputin in Hellboy has a tendency to ham it up even when he's losing. In his final appearance, as a ghost, he was shouting a hysterical tirade at a god. She didn't take it too well.
- Empowered's Caged Demonwolf. He spends all of his time as a voice emanating from the alien power-draining bondage gear he's stuck in, but even as a talking inanimate object, he has the biggest speech balloons and an endless supply of Expospeak Gags. The sinister, sealed sovereign's hammery rivals that of blessed Brian himself!
|
"Heh, heh, heh. The merely mortal fools have failed to perceive the ravening shadowlord's burgeoning powers of suggestion! And by the time they do — too late will it be — for the sinister snuffer of civilisations will have seized ABSOLUTE CONTROL of the much-vaunted TV REMOTE!!!" |
|
- Spidey gets to ham it up and have fun doing so in his Marvel Adventures team up with Doctor Strange. In fact, the level of ham becomes essential in bluffing a Cosmic Horror, who is blind and can't see how small the "Great Hidden One Known As The Spider Man" is.
- For that matter, Strange himself, on many occasions.
- The Blue Blade from The Twelve or, as he would announce, "The Bluuuue Blaaaaaade!!!", was an Errol Flynn wannabe, with the camp elements of his original design turned up to eleven for laughs.
- Sergei Korolev is like this in public in the graphic novel Laika ("All because of that lying b*stard, GLUSHKO!"), but in private, it turns out he's actually much quieter and very sad.
- The Joker, especially in the Comics Code Authority days, pretty much thrives on this trope.
- Black Mask, especially during Judd Winick's run on Batman.
|
I swear to God! I spent serious quality time thinking about ways to TORTURE your irritating, BOMB-THROWING BUTT TO DEATH! |
|
|
Brother... I am ready to TORCH this hell hole into ASH... to KILL every sad mouth breather who was dumb enough to live here... and I'm ready to GO DOWN WITH THE SHIP. And between the two of us, little man... we both know I'M the one who's not afraid to die. |
|
- Haazen from Knights of the Old Republic is one; during that sequence when he reveals his evil plan and blows up the courtyard with the fleet, he screams, "Let the Fire of Truth Rain Down." Of course, the man's spent almost his entire life forced into the role of the fawning servant, unable to act otherwise in public without blowing his cover. Under those conditions, the culmination of the Evil Plan he's been working on for decades deserves a bit of ham.
- Deadpool.
- Justice League International villain Manga Khan is not only the founder and former president emeritus of the Manga Khan School of Melodrama, he suffers from a disorder that causes him to behave in a ridiculously grandiose manner. He neglects to take his medication because he's in denial.
- Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan.
|
"Who did you vote for vermin woman? Did you vote? Can you Read? Have you got Thumbs? Show me your fucking Thumbs! THUMBS!" |
|
- Vitamin Flintheart from Dick Tracy. He was originally designed as a parody of John Barrymore.
- Orange Lantern Larfleeze: The greediest creature in the universe!
|
"The spotlight is MINE! This wiki is MINE! If you're reading this page, you're MINE! The blinky cursor letters are mine, too!" |
|
- Superboy Prime frequently demonstrates that his power levels are Silver Age and hamminess is no exception. "I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU TO DEATH!!
- R. Crumb's Fritz the Cat is very hammy in a number of early strips.
- Most of the Azraels had a penchant for this.
|
"Know that men call you liar! Know that men call you betrayer! Know that men call you defiler! Therefore, it is the duty of the angel Azrael to bring you punishment — the punishment of death by fiery sword!"
—Azrael (Ludovic Valley), shortly before being shot multiple times.
|
|
- Every single major character in The Metabarons by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
- Snowflame, who is powered by cocaine, and deems himself a "TRUE GOD" after beating up some nobody.
- Logicomix depicted Ludwig Wittgenstein as being like this.
- This is your old pal Carnage saying you can't spell slaughter without laughter, AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
- Les Légendaires have several of these. One of the most notable examples includes Captain Shamira, Shimy's mother, who often delivers Badass Boasts in an overly aggressive tone.
- Of course, considering Evil Is Hammy and what the villains are, Darkhell, Skroa, Anathos and Abyss all displayed large ham tendencies. Notably, most of them are usually quite calm (though still having a taste for Evil Gloating), but will easily go full large ham when excited or angry.
- Elysio had a very hammy moment at his introduction (which was most likely a foreshadowing of the fact he was actually an amnesiac Darkhell). After Darkhell and him split up, however, he seems to have lost this tendencie and become calmer.
- The titular character in The Tomb of Dracula was incredibly hammy even by most vampire standards. Every issue had him speaking in terms like these:
|
Dracula: Feel HONORED clod--Be PROUD that your pitiful life can be used to further MINE. You did not DIE for any peasant...but for Dracula--LORD OF THE DAMNED! |
|