r/whowouldwin • u/Historical_Ostrich • Aug 03 '25

Battle Which superheroes/villains would lose to a real world SWAT team if they were stripped of plot armor?

The SWAT team will employ real world tactics and resort to deadly force if necessary. Whoever they're facing off against has their standard gear and will resist to the best of their ability, but they don't get any of their standard plot armor.

406 Upvotes

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220

u/KathytheQueen Aug 03 '25

Remove plot armor, GCPD SWAT eliminates Batman's entire rouges gallery in every situation. The only ones they'd have trouble with is Heath Ledger's Joker and every version of Bane, as they both have real world military training.

104

u/WickardMochi Aug 04 '25

Heath ledger joker? How? Where did it say he has military training?

82

u/tosser1579 Aug 04 '25

It is a fan theory, there are a few videos explaining it online but some of his behaviors are those that are common among people with military training. The gist is that he was a superb planner for operating requiring lots of people involving violence who well understood the inner mechanisms of government. That sort of thing isn't something you just pick up, so the quickest explanation is that he is former military.

66

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '25

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I don't think military training does him any good in this scenario. He's one guy against an entire team that also has military training.

3

u/throwaway321768 Aug 05 '25

IMO, it's less about the "point and shoot" aspects of military training and more about the higher-level, tactical/strategic decision-making. The Nolanverse Joker isn't just a guy who can shoot good, he's a guy who knows exactly who to shoot and how to do it for maximum societal disruption. So it's more like a SWAT team going up against a black ops agent with the planning skills of a 4-star general.

1

u/unafraidrabbit Aug 05 '25

There is no scenario specified. Is he trapped in the bank robbery? Did they track him to his hideout?

-8

u/tosser1579 Aug 04 '25

That's irrelevant.

No one is arguing that this makes him somehow win, it just explains how he functions. He's likely to at least understand how bad of a situation this is and plan accordingly, hopefully avoiding the conflict as that will kill him. He's not going to fight his way out of the situation.

Basically if the Joker has to deal with competent police... he's going to react to them with a very well thought out plan whereas Ivy is just going to do her usual shtick and get shot.

I think this works as a deterrent to him more than anything, he still tries for the big stuff but he's much more circumspect about it and probably still gets shot because his plans have too many moving parts but the police would have to work at it rather than just pull an easy win.

23

u/Spoon_Elemental ​ Aug 04 '25

whereas Ivy is just going to do her usual shtick and get shot.

If Ivy were competent in a real world situation she would just keep herself hidden while slowly taking over the city with her plants.

-4

u/tosser1579 Aug 04 '25

She has to expose herself in almost any of her schemes. Roundup exists, and far more potent plant removing toxins. She's not going to be successful, and she likewise tends to buy the most obscure exotic plants which the police would be able to track easily enough. Spotting a working greenhouse is something police do all the time, she'd look like a common drug grower. That shows up on a thermal cam.

7

u/Yvaelle Aug 04 '25

Dude if comic book Ivy went all out she's fucking Plant Cthulhu, she's usually way depowered and pulling her punches.

0

u/Devildog0491 Aug 04 '25

You know what the military trains you to do? Kill other dudes in the military

9

u/Kiyohara Aug 04 '25

Sure. He's also one guy. He's going against however many it takes to kill him. They don't send one guy in a SWAT raid to stop a single killer, they deploy an entire team. And the number goes up proportionately to the size of the target.

To quote a brilliant man on this subject: "I didn't know how many of them it would take to kick my ass, but I knew how many they were going to use."

5

u/BandBoots Aug 04 '25

On top of everything you've noted, the only thing Joker really had going for him (defensively) in those movies was that he was hard to track. Even most of his prep against being caught was just having dogs or goons around to intercept. If the SWAT team has his location, he's likely going down.

1

u/Devildog0491 Aug 04 '25

John Rambo is one guy

4

u/Kiyohara Aug 04 '25

Also a great example of Plot Armor as he probably shouldn't have survived half what the movie puts him through.

1

u/Devildog0491 Aug 04 '25

Let me introduce you to John Bastilone credited with 38 Japanese kills, no he isnt a sniper.

The highest non-sniper kill count is 2,746 btw

1

u/Fluffy-Map-5998 Aug 05 '25

I'd argue Roy Benavides is a better comparison

1

u/Devildog0491 Aug 05 '25

Roy is a G too

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32

u/WickardMochi Aug 04 '25

I’ve seen that, and as much as I agree, unless we have direct confirmation from the director or writer or whatever, I don’t think we can assume and use it as a feat/evidence

-19

u/TheMikeyMac13 Aug 04 '25

How about this, the SWAT team are all with the Heath Ledger Joker, on his side. They turn their guns against other cops.

Chaos ensues.

3

u/GoAgainKid Aug 04 '25

Bloody hell, that's some harsh downvoting there.

3

u/TheMikeyMac13 Aug 04 '25

It’s like they didn’t watch The Dark Knight :)

6

u/WarlockEngineer Aug 04 '25

Terrorists and organized criminals also have a way of figuring that stuff out. I don't think I'm buying this theory personally.

2

u/KathytheQueen Aug 04 '25

It's a fan theory that I 100 percent believe.