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Monster of the Week (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:Owlman.jpg|link=Subnormality (Webcomic)|frame|Now you're just embarrassing yourself.]]
 
 
{{quote|'''T-Bone:''' "Crud! What ''is'' that thing?"<br />
'''Razor:''' "[[Lampshade Hanging|Giant monster of the week]]?"|from the ''[[Swat Kats (Animation)|Swat Kats]]'' episode "Unlikely Alloys".}}
 
Episodes where the characters fight a villain and the whole story is wrapped up at the end never to be dealt with again. Can be seen as the complete antithesis of a [[Story Arc]]. Can also be seen as a [[Big Bad]] arc compressed into one episode.
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* ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]''. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in one episode, where the Big Cheese introduced the robot menace he'd prepared for this episode with "Monster of the week, please enter and sign in."
* Nightmare in ''[[Kirby of the Stars]]'' would provide King Dedede with a new monster with which to try to kill Kirby every episode. Naturally, Dedede is just too cheap to buy more than one at any one time. He did go into debt buying them. Nightmare actually had to send a monster to collect the debt without him realizing (At first). Still was defeated though.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' played this for the first volume before going into the main plot (which it would keep through the entire series); interestingly it was still only one of the chapters of the first volume that didn't affect the story in any way.
** Likewise, some early episodes of [[Fullmetal Alchemist (Animeanime)|the 2003 anime adaptation]] had a version of this: if there's a plot important character in the episode we have not seen before, he is probably the [[Monster of the Week|Villain Of The Week]]. The main exception to this rule is Rose. 'Course, a fair share of these episodes turned out to be important to the plot later.
* Played with and used straight by ''[[Rah XephonRahXephon]]''. The Dolems mainly show up on a one-a-week basis, although some of them survive their initial appearance and go on to reappear later.
* ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'' arguably boils down to this... except it's "villain for the next month and a half", due to the length of the fights.
** The series didn't adopt this format until Part 3 began and Stands were introduced, as Parts 1 & 2 were arc based. Interestingly enough, this format helped the popularity of the series, as the fights were unique and the Stand users diverse.
*** It goes back to the arc based format with Part 7/Steel Ball Run
* For about the first half of ''[[Speed Grapher]]'', Suietengu's plan to recapture Kagura is to have his henchmen sic a different Euphoric on Saiga. They never live more than two episodes after being introduced.
* Early chapters of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' generally featured a "Bully Of The Week." His role was typically to scam or beat up Yugi's friends, at which point Yugi would challenge him to a [[Cooking Duel]] or the local equivalent. Most notably, [[The Rival]] Kaiba started out like this, [[Ensemble Darkhorse|but]] [[Breakout Character|then...]]
** The anime based on the manga, and its spin-offs, have a Duelist of the Week who pops up with a new deck gimmick and quirky personality to challenge the hero. With very, very few exceptions, these characters will be defeated in a single episode and will never appear again. If they're lucky, they'll get a two-part episode before they vanish.
* Every season of ''[[Digimon]]'' starts out this way as the new characters learn the ropes and the viewers learn the new characters (and in some seasons, new universe.)
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* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', while extremely arc-based, still managed to introduce a lot of new enemy mobile suits in a monster-of-the-week fashion.
** ''[[G Gundam]]'' is THE best example in Gundam, because this was the entire ''point'' behind the series, to draw on the [[Monster of the Week]] fan base, or more specifically the robot of the week fanbase, because that was how most robot shows were done prior to Gundam.
* Played straight in ''[[Gao Gai GarGaoGaiGar]]'' with the Zonders, though taking things in canon time passage it could more likely be considered the "Monster-of-the-half-a-week".
* [[Bizenghast]] did this a lot until book 6.
* The majority of [[Martial Arts and Crafts]] opponents in ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma 1/2]]'' ended up like this, from the [[Rule of Funny|comical and ridiculous]] (Sentaro Daimonji of the Martial Arts Tea Ceremony School, Picolet Chardin of [[Big Eater|La Belle France School]]) to the [[Mood Whiplash|serious and dramatic]] ([[Ki Attacks|Prince Herb]], [[The Drifter|Ryu Kumon]], [[A God Am I|Saffron]].) Then the anime took it above and beyond with outlandish Rivals of the Week who used toys, eggs, calligraphy, or even ''crepes''. Only rivals who had preexisting relationships with the cast, such as Ryouga, Mousse, and Ukyou, were given the chance to stick around and become regular characters.
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** From the 13th angel's attack on though, the trope gets deconstructed. Even though each monster's still gone at the end of the episode that introduced it, the mental scars its attack leaves behind on the main characters remain...and build up over time. In sheer contrast to the typical monster-of-the-week show where the protagonists are usually ready for the next challenge at the start of each new episode, Evangelion's cast is on its last legs by the time the 17th angel kicks the bucket. [[It Got Worse|CUE]] [[End of Evangelion]].
** Even the early angels are a minor subversion, as all of the more traditional kaiju-style angels except Matarael (when the standard of "weak" is "you can be hurt by bullets the size of ''"cars"''...) are ''extremely'' powerful and durable- in the first episode, Sachiel curb stomps the entire conventional military effortlessly, including what seems to bunker-buster kinetic missile, and tanks a [[Non Nuclear Nuke]] with only moderate damage. Zeruel, the most conventionally powerful angel, takes several to the face. And completely ''ignores them.'' And every single one of them is capable of {{spoiler|wiping out humanity, should it enter Central Dogma.}}
* ''[[Kaze no Stigma (Light Novel)|Kaze no Stigma]]''. See Shana above.
* ''[[Rosario to Vampire]]'' started as a pretty typical [[Unwanted Harem]] [[Monster of the Week]] manga, but it [[Growing the Beard|soon became focused]] on longer and more serious and involved story arcs.
* ''[[Hokenshitsu no Shinigami]]'' plays it completely straight with a few small arcs scattered here and there.
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* [[Kinnikuman]] first began this way, Monster Extermination arc, before it became the [[Professional Wrestling]] series it became famous for.
* ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'' alternates between this trope and a [[Big Bad Ensemble]].
* ''[[Ghost in Thethe Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'' has two types of episode: [[Theme Naming|"Stand-Alone"]] episodes that deal with a one-shot villain or case, and "Complex" episodes that advance the overall [[Story Arc]] of the season.
* With the exception of the series' recurring antagonist [[Big Bad|Vicious]], most ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episodes centered around a single villain or group of villains that was never heard from again after the end of the episode (some were two-parters).
 
== Comics ==
 
* In the old [[The Dandy (Comic Bookcomics)|The Dandy]] comic strip, [[Jack Silver]], the villianous Captain Zapp had a device known as a Duplicator, which could create a living, breathing copy of any picture that was fed into it. Every week, he would use the strange creatures the machine produced to commit crimes, before being stopped by Jack Silver and his gadget of the week.
* Many comics tend to have a story with a one-shot villain every now and then. It would be easier to list comic books and comic strips that DON'T utilize the [[Monster of the Week]] trope.
 
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* The ''[[Doc Savage]]'' novels are always this {{spoiler|except one}} because Doc is so good at [[Technical Pacifist|what]] he does {{spoiler|(lobotomies)}}.
* In the books of the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', earlier-written ones in particular, the vast majority of villains are only there for the book or trilogy, and books set later or earlier completely forget that these villains ever existed. Odd, considering that they tend to be Imperial forces. The exceptions are [[Aaron Allston]]'s run on the ''[[X Wing Series]]'', which had the campaign against [[The Courtship of Princess Leia|Warlord Zsinj]]; the Coruscant Nights trilogy, which had one-book guest appearances by [[Shadows of the Empire|Prince Xizor]] and Aurra Sing; and roughly anything [[Timothy Zahn]] writes.
** The villain usually had a new superweapon, too: The [[Death Star]] But Better sums up all of them. [[Marvel Star Wars|The Tarkin]] was the Second Death Star [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Before]] The Writers Knew About [[Return of the Jedi|The Real Second Death Star]], [[Dark Empire|World Devastators]] are The Death Star But [[Mighty Glacier|Slow]] And [[Mook Maker|Productive]], the [[The Courtship of Princess Leia|Nightcloak]] was The Death Star But With [[The Night That Never Ends|Climate Change]], [[The Callista Trilogy|Darksaber]] was The Death Star But [[Glass Cannon|Minimalistic,]] the [[Dark Empire|Eclipse]] was The Death Star But Also The [[Cool Starship|Executor,]] the [[Dark Empire|Galaxy Gun]] was The Death Star But With [[Nuke'Em|Really Long Range Nukes]], [[The Corellian Trilogy (Literature)|Centerpoint Station]] was The Death Star But Also Long Range, and the [[Jedi Academy Trilogy|Sun Crusher]] was The Death Star But [[God Mode Sue]]. As you can guess, people who prefer the Death Star as an ultimate weapon [[The Scrappy|hate every single one of them.]] Particularly since about half of these have characters popping up to exclaim that this superweapon is worse than the Death Star, omg!
* The ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series started off with each book covering a fairly stand-alone story. A [[Story Arc]] emerged at the end of the third book and gradually overtook the plots of the individual books.
** The Potter series was always supposed to run to seven books and have an overarching plot, but the first couple of books - particularly the first one - were written so that they could be relatively standalone, just in case they didn't become a runaway multi-zillion-dollar publishing juggernaut and J K Rowling wasn't able to finish the series.
* This trope is actually [[Older Than Steam]]. ''[[Journey to Thethe West]]'' is lately made up of monster of the week encounters, or in this case monster of the chapter.
* In the ''[[Trixie Belden]]'' series, there's almost always a new villain in every book.
* In the ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' series, whenever Visser Three ([[Big Bad]] of the series who possesses the same shape-shifting abilities as the titular heroes) would personally participate in a battle, he would do so by assuming the form of a new exotic alien creature [[Curb Stomp Battle|that clearly outmatched the Earth animals that the Animorphs themselves had taken the forms of]]. Subverted by the fact that it is the same character every time, only in a different form.
 
== Live Action TV ==
 
* ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' goes this way after about the third series.
** Although, to their credit, the crew is pretty genre-savvy about it, especially in Series 6. (For example, Rimmer explains to one monster that everybody they'd met to that point has tried to kill them.)
** It also swings the other direction in Series 7 & 8, having the storylines cover multiple episodes. (Although they are still self-contained.)
* Practically every [[Super Sentai]] series (and by extension, every ''[[Power Rangers]]'' series). There's no point in listing them all, just click the link to see them. Plenty of lampshading. "Just send them all" has in fact been tried before. If it's a small number the Rangers have a hell of a time with them. If it's a large number, [[Conservation of Ninjitsu]] kicks in and they go down as easily as [[Elite Mooks]]. Except for the time they had to kill Zordon...
* ''[[The X -Files]]'' almost always had a weekly monster. ''[[The X -Files]]'' is also famous for not quite wrapping up a MOTW and closing with a [[The End - Oror Is It?]] ending.
** Unusually, while most fandoms considers MOTWs to be fillers, a large group of [[The X -Files]] fans considered the weekly monster episodes to be superior to the [[Myth Arc]] episodes, especially in later seasons... mostly because the latter were [[The Chris Carter Effect|made up as they went along.]]
* ''[[Fringe]]'' started out as primarily a monster of the week show, and it still has them, but now they're either in service of or as a distraction to the [[Myth Arc]].
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' interspersed [[Monster of the Week]] episodes with [[Story Arc]] episodes, especially toward the beginning of the season. This became less common in later seasons.
* Just under half of the episodes of ''[[The 4400]]'' were like this. Several episodes would focus on a specific person out of the forty-four hundred people who had disappeared and been returned (and, later on, {{spoiler|people who had taken the Promicin shots handed out by Jordan Collier)}}, what sort of supernatural power they had developed, and a problem they had created (either willingly or otherwise) that would be resolved by the end of the episode. As stated above, it could in this case perhaps be more accurately called something like 'Freak of the Week', as the people in focus weren't always deliberately antagonistic.
* In SF author David Gerrold's book about writing the ''[[Star Trek]]'' episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", he recounts seeing the first episode broadcast, which featured a creature that sucked all of the salt out of people's bodies, thereby killing them. He hoped ''Star Trek'' wasn't going to turn out to be a [[Monster of the Week]] show, which ironically for him, it did.
** While later series rarely had weekly ''monsters'', ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' and especially ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' had [[Negative Space Wedgie|stellar anomalies]] of the week that were always solved by a healthy amount of [[Techno Babble]].
** The first season of ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' started to become a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|''god-like alien'']] of the week show, but fortunately found sturdier footing in subsequent seasons.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' was originally supposed to be an edutainment program... until the Daleks showed up, whereupon it careened irreversibly into [[Monster of the Week]] territory.
** Notably, the old series was made up of serials, usually three or four parts...making it more like monster of the ''month''. Though, the new series follows this trope straight, while also including more [[Story Arc|Story Arcs]].
*** Supposedly the new series production team will not accept scripts that ''don't'' feature a monster of the week.
** They even lampshade this trope in "The Eleventh Hour", during Matt Smith's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|epic speech]]: "Cause you're not the first to have come here, oh here have been ''so'' many!"
* ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]''...at least, the first two series. After the successful switch to "mini-series focused on a single threat" of ''Children of Earth'', RTD decided to drop the MOTW format altogether.
* ''[[Kolchak the Night Stalker]]'' could be considered the ultimate archetype. It was, in fact, even mockingly dismissed by some as "Kolchak's Monster of the Week" when its transfer from a pair of movies to a TV series ended up not quite panning out.
* The [[Second Season Downfall|second season]] of ''[[Dark Angel]]'' is a good example of this trope.
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** Two ''[[Metal Heroes]]'' shows, ''[[Choujinki Metalder]]'' and ''[[Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya]],'' avoided this by having several recurring villains instead of a one-off villain per episode.
*** So does [[Seiun Kamen Machineman]].
*** And the [[Power Rangers]] rip-offs ''[[Superhuman Samurai Syber -Squad]]'' and ''[[Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills]]''.
** ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (TV)|Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'' has a twist on this near the end of the series. On the same episode where the [[Bigger Bad]] shows up, he sees the Gokaiger destroy one of his [[Co-Dragons]] and says to hell with the whole Monster of the Week thing and spends the next few episodes preparing for a full-scale invasion of Earth, with a frighteningly gigantic fleet of warships. While MotWs still show up in the following episodes, they're completely independent of the Emperor and his plans.
* The escaped souls from ''[[Reaper]]''
* Those in ''[[Brimstone]]''.
* ''[[Supernatural]]'' usually has actual monsters, more so in the first two seasons.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is normally entirely serialized, but volume three would often put the arc in the background for a one-off evolved human. Examples include the man who could create wormholes and the Haitian's brother.
* ''[[Big Wolf Onon Campus]]''. Since it's technically a [[Monster Mash]], that's [[Justified Trope|reasonable enough]].
* ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' utilized this, although it became less prevalent in later seasons.
* ''[[Primeval]]'', just what will come through the [[Negative Space Wedgie|Anomaly]] this week?
* ''[[Smallville]]'' has [[Green Rocks|Meteor Freak of the Week]], mutants created by kryptonite. Season 6 also gave us the Phantom Zone escapees-of-the-week. As the series has progressed, it has much more of a [[Story Arc]], but of keeps the Monster of the Week format.
* ''[[Criminal Minds (TV)|Criminal Minds]]'' has a new case almost every week (through at least season 3)- usually dealing with the type of people you could call [[Complete Monster|'monsters'.]]
* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' started by following this trope, but the format was discarded in favor of an [[Story Arc|arc-based]] one. [[Executive Meddling]] in the fifth season brought it back full circle.
* ''[[The Prisoner]]'' had the No. 2 Of The Week, who tried the Scheme Of The Week to attempt to break No. 6.
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' is this trope.
* ''[[To Catch a Predator]]''.
* ''[[Space: 1999]]''. One of the most common fan complaints about the second season was that it dropped the metaphysical and psychodrama aspects in favour of more [[Monster of the Week]] action-oriented stories.
* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' had monsters of the week interspersed with the [[Story Arc]] episodes throughout the series.
* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' revolves around the Artifact of the Week, which can range from purely a [[MacGuffin]] all the way up to an actual Monster.
* ''[[Haven]]'' revolves around Supernatural Mystery Disaster of the Week. The town seems to attract people who are "troubled" and have supernatural abilities.
* [[Lost Tapes]] on [[Animal Planet]] features a different monster tormenting the [[Point of View]] character(s) each week.
* ''[[The West Wing]]'' does this metaphorically, with Political Crisis Of The Week, caused by Idiot Politician Of The Week (in fact, many episodes are around one week long).
* ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'' often had season-long arcs like this with one supernatural villain.
* This was a big part of the first series of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'', and the [[Big Bad]] only appeared in 4 of the 13 episodes. From series 2 onwards the writers concentrated more on a singular villain ({{spoiler|Morgause, Morgana and Agravaine}}, though occasionally a one-off monster will appear for a [[Filler]] episode.
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' had these from time to time, most often in the first two seasons, with [[Story Arc]] episodes mixed in and becoming more common as the show continued. By the third season, such episodes became very rare as the plot began to reach critical mass.
* Nickelodeon's ''[[The Troop]]'' is built around this trope.
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== Video Games ==
 
* The monthly Full Moon Shadows that the party fights in ''[[Persona 3]]'' at first seem to fall into this category; however, later on, it is revealed that {{spoiler|they are all actually fragments of a single Shadow, [[The Grim Reaper|Death]], who is the [[Enigmatic Minion|herald]] of [[Cosmic Horror|Nyx]], the one destined to bring about [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]}}.
** The true Monster of the Week was typically whichever [[Beef Gate|Tartarus Boss]] your party was ready to fight on that night's run.
* A ''literal'' example in ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]'' for the DS: each week of the Reaper's Game is presided over by a "game master". These are especially powerful reapers who, what do you know, transform into monstrous versions of themselves when you get to fight them.
* The sets of [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit|8 Robot masters]] in the Classic ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]]'' series easily fall into this. The Game Boy spin-offs do this with the Mega Man Hunters ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|and Quint]]) and the Stardroids as well, while the sole Genesis game in the series (''Wily Wars'') had the Genesis Unit. Then, there's the {{spoiler|[[Disc One Final Boss|fake]]}} major villains replacing Dr. Wily...
* The recent [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] games, starting from [[Sonic Adventure (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure]] generally have one as the final boss.
* A large amount of ''[[Kirby]]'' games' plot follow this, each game being based on one big bad at a time. Of these include ''Kirby's Adventure'' with {{spoiler|Nightmare}}, ''[[Kirby Super Star]]'' with Dedede, Dyna Blade, {{spoiler|Wham Bam Rock}}, Metaknight, and {{spoiler|Marx}} in their respective games, ''Kirby & the Amazing Mirror'' with {{spoiler|Dark Mind}}, ''Kirby: Canvas Curse'' with Drawcia, ''Kirby: Squeak Squad'' with Daroach (later being {{spoiler|Dark Nebula}}), ''[[KirbysKirby's Epic Yarn (Video Game)|Kirbys Epic Yarn]]'' with Yin Yarn, ''Kirby: Mass Attack'' with Necrodius, and ''[[Kirbys Return to Dream Land (Video Game)|Kirbys Return to Dream Land]]'' with {{spoiler|Magolor}}.
* Taken [[Up to Eleven|up a notch]] in the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' franchise. Not only do the heroes have to deal with most (if not all) of the villains and monsters from their respective series (including those mentioned above), but there's ''also'' a new latest threat to stop on top of everything else.
 
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* The various varieties of ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' usually had a Guy In A Monster Suit Of The Week.
** Some incarnations even occasionally fought actual monsters!
* ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'' lives on this. Considering the strange and [[Department of Redundancy Department|varied varieties]] of trouble that tend to occur wherever Ben goes, one feels sorry for this kid's hometown if summer vacation ends.
** [[Doomed Hometown|Yeah, it gets toasted.]]
** Sometimes inverted in a few seasons, where the Monster Of The Week wasn't just what Ben faced, but what he ''became''.
* ''[[Lilo and Stitch: The Series]]'': the titular pair try to find a peaceful place for each monster to live.
** Then there's Rufus from the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' crossover.
* ''[[The Spectacular Spider -Man]]'' has Spider-Man fight a [[Super Villain]] of the week.
** Though a lot of these were the result of the machinations of one or more of the show's three [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] - Tombstone, Doc Ock, or {{spoiler|Norman Osborn}}, rather than isolated encounters.
*** What's really interesting is the show's justification for why there are so many supervillains running around: The Big Bads had them created to keep Spider-Man busy and thus unable to interfere with their standard criminal operations.
* ''[[Megas XLR]]'' practically lives off this, along with a fair bit of lampshade hanging. "Cool. Lets go see what kinda monster I get to beat up this week!"
* The various ghosts of both ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' & ''[[Extreme Ghostbusters (Animation)|Extreme Ghostbusters]]'' fit neatly into this trope.
** So do the ghosts of ''[[FilmationsFilmation's Ghostbusters (Animation)|Filmations Ghostbusters]]''.
* On ''[[Swat Kats (Animation)|Swat Kats]]'', this phenomenon also cropped up as the "Missile of the Week" used to deal with the current problem at hand.
* ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Animation)|Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' usually follows this rule, with the monster somehow spawning out of Shake or Carl's short-sighted actions or [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|out of nowhere]].
* When not facing their [[Rogues Gallery]], the [[Powerpuff Girls]] mostly just take on different monsters.
* Spoofed in ''Sev Trek: Puss in Boots'' (an Australian parody of ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'').
{{quote| '''Lt. Barf:''' Captain, we are being hailed. I recommend we go to [[Red Alert]]!<br />
'''Captain Pinchhard:''' We haven't even met them! Isn't that a little premature?<br />
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* ''[[Martin Morning]]'' demonstrates this, with the odd twist of the protagonist being the new monster each episode.
* The whole point of ''[[Martin Mystery]]''.
* An episode of ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'', "The Underdwellers", spotlighted a villain called the Sewer King who never appeared again. He was sufficiently creepy for a Batman villain, but it's just as well he never returned, since he was really only good for one story (that is, showcasing the evils of child slavery).
* ''[[Regular Show (Animation)|Regular Show]]'' seems to be establishing itself as one of these; but you'd probably prefer to call it "Weird Crap of the Week."
* Courage faces this all of the time in ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]''.
* The Mutraddi Beasts of ''[[Sym -Bionic Titan]]''.
* [[Underdog (Animationanimation)|Underdog]] often fights one of these (usually an alien) when he isn't fighting Simon Bar Sinister or Riff Raff.
* [[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]] have a couple of villains who are [[Monster of the Week]] (Besides of the ones where {{spoiler|the Brotherhood of Evil reunites them}}). Some villains were lucky to have two appearances.
* The Divinos of ''[[Combo Ninos]]''.
* Dr Claw of ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' had a new special MAD agent almost every week, who would never be seen again after the episode they appeared in. ''[[Gadget and Thethe Gadgetinis]]'' did the same, but also had some one-time villains with no connection to M.A.D. or Dr. Claw whatsoever.
 
{{reflist}}
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