Crimefighting with Cash: Difference between revisions

▲{{quote|'''Buttercup:''' You can't just ''buy'' superpowers!<br />

▲'''Princess:''' Oh yeah? Tell that to [[Batman]].|''[[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|The Powerpuff Girls]]''}}

▲Sometimes a character doesn't have to be [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|bitten by a radioactive spider]] or [[Superman (Comic Book)|shot to earth from an alien planet]] to be a superhero. Instead, the hero needs only one thing: a lot of money (from just a millionaire to [[Fiction 500]] levels).

▲Superheroes who don't live an "everyman" life often happen to be [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job|millionaire playboys]] by inheritance to explain where they get their neverending supply of gadgets, hideouts, vehicles, and [[Sidekick|Sidekicks]]. Instead of donating money to charity, they've decided to give back to society by dressing themselves in spandex and buying [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?|lasers and boomerangs]] with which to kick the ass of ne'er do wells. If they're a super-genius as well, this will be the result of patenting their brilliant inventions. [[Reed Richards Is Useless|But not anything that will effect lasting social change in the world, like a cure for cancer or an endless supply of food]], because then writers couldn't do very special issues to address political/social problems of the week.

▲* While they don't fight ''crime'' per se (please, don't give Haruhi ideas), the Espers in ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' have such limited situational powers that their real impact is how they're organized and can apparently pay for any event they want to happen.

▲* Sylia Stingray, founder and leader of ''[[Bubblegum Crisis (Anime)|Bubblegum Crisis]]''' Knight Sabers. They never have to worry about money.

▲* In an anime example, one of the filler episodes of ''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]'' featured Naruto having to bodyguard/babysit a rich and spoiled little boy with a fascination with the ninja lifestyle. But rather than be interested in the traditional means of becoming one (training, skill, etc.), he uses money to humorously duplicate other jutsus by way of a large group of greedy henchmen. He would even use made-up hand seals before throwing the cash to achieve the desired effect. For example, after seeing Naruto's shadow clone jutsu, the kid throws a handful of bills into the air for his cash clone jutsu, resulting in several men leaping into action, grabbing the money while dressed in the same clothes and wearing a mask of the kid's face. The Aesop of the episode comes when the kid eventually runs out of cash on hand while being kidnapped, causing his mercenary henchmen to betray him.

▲* Parodied in ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]'': Nagi's alter ego [[Paper-Thin Disguise|Mask the Money]] fights crime by bribing the [[Yakuza|Very]] [[Unusual Euphemism|Nice]] [[Blatant Lies|People]].

▲* This is the main plot point of ''[[Eden of the East (Anime)|Eden of the East]]''; each one of the Seleção gets a fancy cellphone with 10 billion yen and a [[Voice With an Internet Connection|"concierge"]] who can use this money to do whatever they (the Seleção) want, including assassinating people, bribing the prime minister, subtly disposing of corpses or [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|buying a hotel]]. {{spoiler|They are supposed to use this to "save the country".}}

▲* Used in an astoundingly direct manner by Near in ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]''. Kira and Misa have him trapped in a building. The only way to escape is out the front door where he will be seen by Misa. In order to avoid being seen he unleashes what appears to be a ton of cash from the top of the building. As the pedestrians go nuts trying to grab the money Near escapes unseen.

▲* Parodied in one ''[[Excel Saga (Anime)|Excel Saga]]'' episode, where a rich girl who is being targeted for assassination, solves all of her problems with cash. In the end she even attempts to bribe some monster animal, who unfortunately ignores the money and eats her instead.

▲* Much of ''[[Daitarn 3 (Anime)|Daitarn 3]]'''s operating cost and Banjo's actions in general are self-financed. In the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'', he's often the benefactor for the entire team.

▲** In games without ''Daitarn'', [[The Big O (Anime)|Roger Smith]] takes up this role.

▲* At one point [[Black Jack (Manga)|Black Jack]] ''buys a hospital'' with the spare cash he's got lying around, just so he can get to a dying patient [[I Owe You My Life|to whom he owes a great debt of gratitude]]. (He later sells it back, though.)

▲* An interesting case with [[Kyoukai no RINNE (Manga)|Rinne Rokudo]]. He is at least a quarter shinigami, meaning that he has to pay for tools that normal shinigami naturally possess to do his job of guiding spirits to the afterlife. Unfortunately, unlike most examples on this page...he's [[Perpetual Poverty|dirt poor]]. A more literal example of this trope is that attack known as "Stream of a Thousand Winds" in which yen bills are gathered around the caster before bombarding the target.

▲== Comics -- Marvel ==

▲== Comics -- Other ==

▲* The Revenant is the Batman analog with a heavy dose of [[Genre Savvy]] in the comic ''[[PS 238]]''. At one point he muses "I sometimes think access to cash is the greatest superpower of all".

▲* Manticore of ''[[City of Heroes]]''. The "charities" part was lampshaded in one of the comics, where he notes that he feels guilty every time one of his [[Trick Arrow|Trick Arrows]] misses and a couple thousand bucks that "could have fed and clothed a whole village in Ethiopia" goes down the drain.

▲* The spoof guidebook ''How to Be a Superhero'' features an example of a character who ''literally'' crimefights with cash; he offers the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Mooks]] higher wages, paid vacations, and [[Signed Up for The Dental|a health plan]], then orders them to beat up their former boss.

▲* [[Older Than They Think]] example: in ''[[Dracula (Literature)|Dracula]]'', while tracking down the Count, the private fortunes of the Harkers, Dr. Seward, Quincey Morris, and especially Arthur Holmwood (being, respectively, a partner of a law firm and sole inheritor of the estate of the other partner, a physician and sole owner of a mansion which he converted to an insane asylum, an American entrepreneur who regularly travels the world, and a British lord) are used to rapidly equip the entire party with whatever tools they need nearly instantaneously, as well as fund several necessary bribes both in England and abroad. At one point in the novel, Mina lampshades the incredible utility of cold, hard cash.

▲== Tabletop Games ==

▲* In White Wolf Game Studios' ''[[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Ascension]]'' tabletop RPG, one group of mages (called "The Syndicate") use the symbolic value of money to guide (and hide) magical power. Given the kinds of results that every entry on this page can generate, it's very difficult to argue with that philosophy... except for the fact that this group is a member of the supposed "bad guys", the Technocracy.

▲** This tradition was carried on in ''[[Unknown Armies (Tabletop Game)|Unknown Armies]]'' with the plutomancers, whose magic is fueled by having money.

▲* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds (Tabletop Game)|Mutants and Masterminds]]''. Load up on Equipment feats and Benefit (Wealth) and you can buy anything you don't come into the game possessing. The best part? Even Equipment 10, Benefit (Wealth) 5 (which puts your personal funds about on par with Bill Gates and gives you a ton of equipment) takes only 10% of your starting character points.

▲== Video Games ==

▲* All superheroes so far in ''[[The List (Webcomic)|The List]]''. Powers bought include augmented senses, augmented muscles, exoskeleton armor, nanotechnology weaponry and armor, telepathy, telekinesis, and a [[Improbable Weapon User|sound barrier breaking guitar]], just to name a few.

▲* Phase, of the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', is only fourteen, still a freshman at [[Super Hero School|Whateley Academy]], and already doing this. She's paying Whateley inventors to build weapons for her, including a utility belt that has nearly zero external volume but is chock full of [[Hammerspace]], a specialized throwing dart made out of ''depleted uranium'', and the latest thing is a collapsing tactical baton. Made out of adamantium. With osmium for weight in the tip. It cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

▲== Western Animation ==

▲== Real Life ==