Deathtrap (plot Device) - Narrative Use

Narrative Use

It is a common criticism that it is unbelievable in story plots to have villains try to kill the heroes in such elaborate ways when they could use simple methods like shooting them. Through the decades, comic book writers have responded to these complaints by devising ways in which the deathtraps have served other purposes.

For instance, one Legion of Super-Heroes story by Jim Shooter had a team of Legionnaires put into a variety of deathtraps and the villains wanted the heroes to successfully escape. This was because the real purpose of the deathtraps was to have the Legionnaires use a great deal of energy doing so, which the villains then harnessed for their own benefit. Other stories have had villains use deathtraps as a means of testing the heroes or to distract them while the villain attends to other matters. On some occasions, the deathtrap is a machine that "absorbs" the energy from the hero/heroes.

Another rationalization for a deathtrap is when a particular villain simply enjoys leaving his victims some small chance of survival, just for the sake of sport. Such "sporting" villains include the Riddler, who has an uncontrollable compulsion to create intellectual challenges for his enemies. The Joker, Jigsaw Killer, and Arcade are other villains who simply enjoy the challenge.

On occasion, the villain may employ a slow deathtrap because they enjoy their victim's suffering prior to death, either due to sadistic tendencies or a desire for painful vengeance.

In a similar vein, the villain, often a megalomaniac, may feel that, as a reflection of his own imagined greatness, it would be "beneath him" to murder his enemy like any common criminal, and that his enemy's death should be the worthy spectacle that a successful deathtrap would provide. In contrast, he may feel that his enemy, having provided him with a worthy challenge in their earlier encounters, himself "deserves" such a grandiose death, or that the enmity between the two is so "epic" that it merits no less than such a conclusion.

The villain may simply be too insane to recognize the impracticality of the situation, although this characterization is rarely seen outside of deliberately parodic characters such as Dr. Evil.

A more recent reason is villains do it simply because its considered 'tradition' or 'rule' of being a supervillain to place a hero in a deathtrap and then leave them to their fate. This even goes as far as heroes, or other villains, insulting a villain for attempting to avoid using a deathtrap or staying to watch. El Sombrero is one villain who exemplifies this reason.