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Who or what is/are the biggest and most common used Deus ex machina in comics?

Anyone powerful during a big event. Superman in DC would probably be the biggest example and the Flashes also count to some extent. Marvel tends to spread that sort of thing out a bit.

Originally posted by Nihilist
Who or what is/are the biggest and most common used Deus ex machina in comics? Precrisis Superman first comes to mind, as to who.
As for what, I'd say, generally speaking, open powersets.

i have always considered hulk strength>>anger a dues ex machina.

^The guy in your sig&avvy........

Originally posted by TricksterPriest
^The guy in your sig&avvy........ you must mean the superman sig i had up.

Superman during big events and his revival.

Originally posted by Nihilist
i have always considered hulk strength>>anger a dues ex machina.

A deus ex machina comes out of nowhere. Writers for Hulk tend to assume that readers are aware of Hulks powerset so except in instances where he does really absurd things via superstrength it's not a deus ex machina at all.

A deus ex machina would be having something like Superman killing Darkseid with singing. Thank god that never happened.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
A deus ex machina comes out of nowhere. Writers for Hulk tend to assume that readers are aware of Hulks powerset so except in instances where he does really absurd things via superstrength it's not a deus ex machina at all.

A deus ex machina would be having something like Superman killing Darkseid with singing. Thank god that never happened. i just mean he's as strong as the story/writer needs him to be for the story to overcome any opponent

Cosmic beings

Morrison uses deus ex machina the most.

well hulk has been beaten thru strength before and I attribute it to cis/pis that other more powerful characters allow him to win. take wwh for example, there really wasn't anything that I saw hulk do that's not within his powerset. even the footsteps wrecking the seaboard seemed plausible as far as comic books go.

cosmics, mages, reality warpers (even on a small scale like those who powers deal with luck), high level psionics, superhuman intelligent characters, and those pesky omega level mutants ALL tend to be contenders for duex.

also to some degree but not as much, characters like quasar and lanterns, those who create constructs or powers are a result of their imagination tend to as well

A being of high cosmic power comes in and returns everything to the way it was.
That's what happened with the use of Mephisto to fix Spider Man's problems in One More Day. Also kept the original Infinity Gauntlet series from being suspenseful - you knew that thing would be used to put everything back as before.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Superman in DC would probably be the biggest example Agreed.

Also, I liked how the 'deus ex machina-ness' of Superman (as well as Batman and Wonder Woman) was explained...

"The moment our three targets (Supes/Bats/Wondy) appear, the others immediately defer to them.."
"No surprise there. It's in their essential nature to dominate any setting":

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