Punch Catch

While some might use dodges or blocks to avoid the fist flying toward them, others prefer to simply reach out and catch it like a softball. Since this is almost always a demonstration of strength and superiority, the person catching the punch is rarely hurt by being punched directly in the palm. Instead, it often becomes an opportunity for the catcher to close his fingers around the offending fist and squeeze - being somehow capable of injuring someone's ball fist by curling their fingers around it and glaring.

Note that this trope isn't just blocking or deflecting a punch. This trope is when the punch just STOPS, firmly placed in the palm of someone's hand. If they really want to demonstrate superior strength, they will proceed to either crush the hand or twist the arm painfully.

Compare Barehanded Blade Block for when catching a sword instead of a fist and Punch Parry for when the fist is blocked with another fist.

Examples of Punch Catch include:

Anime and Manga

• Seen in the first chapter of Kiss X Sis, when Keita catches his teacher's punch.
• Bleach anime episode 166. Ichigo has been beaten up pretty badly during his fight with Grimmjow. Orihime calls out to him, and he's inspired by her words. When Grimmjow strikes at him Ichigo casually catches Grimmjow's fist with his hand. Seen here

Orihime: Please don't die. Don't die, Ichigo! You don't have to win, and you don't have to fight for me. Just don't get hurt. I couldn't bear it.

• In Mahou Sensei Negima, Negi may often be a target of Anya's Megaton Punches, but the one time he gets serious, he easily blocks her Flame Knuckle and proceeds to explain why she was wrong.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S shows just how physically strong Nanoha is when she does this to Subaru's Power Fist, and later, to the Sankt Kaiser-form of Vivio immediately before she ends those fights. Impressive, since the punches of those two are capable of shattering Deflector Shields.
• In the Dragonball Z Lord Slug movie, (and consequently, in the parody by Team Four Star) when Piccolo fights with The Brute, he catches a punch, then brutally crushes the fist and break the brute's arm to boot.
• In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Batou intentionally lets his idol, a former silver-medalist boxer to knock him out during an investigation. When he later finds out that his idol had betrayed him by spying on the country, he confronts him and challenges him to another boxing match to settle things. He tries to knock Batou out using the same move as before, confident that it worked, but Batou caught the punch with his hand and countered with a right hook, knocking him out.

Comics

• One of Batman's favorite techniques, since it emphasizes just how immovable and unstoppable he is to the superstitious and cowardly criminals.
• Identity Crisis: During the big fight between Deathstroke and the JLA, Deathstroke catches Green Lantern's punch and then overrides GL's willpower, using the ring himself without even wearing it.
  • Deathstroke also used this on Batman, the patron saint of this trope, in a memorable scene from an issue of Detective Comics:

Deathstroke: That was it, Batman. Your last free shot.

• In Frank Miller's Daredevil run, the Kingpin of Crime sometimes used this to demonstrate his immense strength and skill.
• In Final Crisis, Alpha Lantern Kraken does this while fighting Green Lantern John Stewart. The mark of his ring left on her palm clues Batman in that she attacked John, and that she's possessed by Darkseid's ally Granny Goodness.
• Spider-Man once caught the punch of an unruly biker who was trying to bully his way around pedestrians.
  • Likewise, Venom caught Spider-Man's punch in the first issue of his initial miniseries.
• In The Incredible Hulk #300 Hulk catches The Immortal Iron Fist's punch in his hand and redirects the power of the punch back into Fist.
• In Preacher (Comic Book) by Garth Ennis Jesse Custer does just this to a punch thrown by Cassidy, the Irish vampire. Stops it dead. Course, Jesse breaks every bone in his hand doing this, but Cassidy doesn't know that.

Film

• At the climax of Atlantis the Lost Empire, Milo tries to punch Rourke, only for Roarke to catch it and slam Milo's own hand back into his face. This is one example that is done quite believably, as Rourke is a very powerfully built trained soldier fighting a scrawny and untrained scholar.
• In Back to The Future Part II, Biff's grandson catches Marty's hand when he tries to do the trick that worked in the first movie - saying "Hey, what's that?" and then punching Biff when he turned to look.
• In The Avengers, Loki catches Captain America's fist during their fight. Later, his brother Thor catches the fist of the Hulk but is quickly slugged by his free hand.
  • Also, during their initial fight, Thor catches Iron Man's fist, but then promptly gets repulsor blasted in the face.

Live Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Spike does this during the Demon Trials, and discovers it's not a good idea when your opponent has flaming fists.

Literature

• Gruesome Krav from Skulduggery Pleasant, himself extremely strong, once made the mistake of punching Mr. Bliss. Bliss caught his fist and then crushed it.
• In Of Mice and Men, Curley is beating up Lennie. As Curley swings at him, Lennie grabs his fist and holds onto it, then crushes it with his great strength.

Western Animation

• In Teen Titans episode "Apprentice", Robin tries to punch Slade who just catches it with his hand.

Real Life

• Awesome but Impractical - Not only would it hurt and possibly beaten your hand, but you would need a huge strength difference to be able to pull it off in the first place. It's far easier and safer to simply dodge or deflect the punch.
  • Of course, the whole point of this trope is to demonstrate immense physical superiority, and look totally badass in the process.