Slayerverse Big Bad Comparison Question

[Gojirob]

The way it looked to me, Dead Lilah casually handing off the 'Mouth-sealing amulet to be used against The First's army is an old narrative trope, mainly used, AFAIK, in comic books and anime. That is to say, a new or previously under-known threat rears its head, and proves its power by in some way shaming the prior Ultimate Threat.

When X-Men resumed in the 70's, Lilandra referred to Xavier's efforts against a 'minor freebooting race', the X'Nox. That 'minor' race was the threat that caused Xavier to fake his own death and link every mind on Earth, and this was the resolution to the 60's series! In DBZ, when F-Trunks showed up and dispatched MechaFrieza with ease, only to reveal he'd gotten his edge fighting androids far worse than Frieza, who'd seemed godlike only eps before.

Is there a nickname for this sort of 'prior Supreme Bad gets notched down by Newbie' plot?

 

[Hermiod]

^I'm not sure, but Buffy did it too.

When Spike and Drusilla first appeared, one of Spike's first actions was to kill the Annoited One. Okay, he was just a Vampire in a little kid's body so you don't know if he truly had any power but still, it was an effective way of introducing Spike.

They also showed how bad Marcus Hamilton was by having him beat the hell out of Illyria.

 

[3D Master]

The way it looked to me, Dead Lilah casually handing off the 'Mouth-sealing amulet to be used against The First's army is an old narrative trope, mainly used, AFAIK, in comic books and anime. That is to say, a new or previously under-known threat rears its head, and proves its power by in some way shaming the prior Ultimate Threat.

When X-Men resumed in the 70's, Lilandra referred to Xavier's efforts against a 'minor freebooting race', the X'Nox. That 'minor' race was the threat that caused Xavier to fake his own death and link every mind on Earth, and this was the resolution to the 60's series! In DBZ, when F-Trunks showed up and dispatched MechaFrieza with ease, only to reveal he'd gotten his edge fighting androids far worse than Frieza, who'd seemed godlike only eps before.

Is there a nickname for this sort of 'prior Supreme Bad gets notched down by Newbie' plot?

I don't know. I know it's a classic, don't know if it's got a name. Maybe you should look about in tropes sites to see if it's mentioned. There's another related one though: not a new good guy that wipes out the old bad guy, but the new BAD guy, that wiped out the old one; or even has the old guy cower in fear in front of him. Always a classic.

 

[Gojirob]

I will. The only prob is thinking of the exact pop-culture quote they've used to describe it. My fave is : World Of Cardboard, to describe verbal smackdowns used by heroes. Natch, since that scene in the JLU finale is also among my faves.