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Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Difference between revisions
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== Comic Books ==
* Most comic books about [[Superhero]] Teams follow that trope; as an example, [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'s original incarnation included a [[Iron Man
* British war-oriented comic ''Battle Action'' included a British Empire ''Dirty Dozen'' clone called ''The Rat Pack'' complete with cockney thug/knifeman/marksman, sneaky little pickpocket and gigantic musclebound Turk. For some reason these "Convict Commandos" wore blue battledress rather than Khaki or green.
** Mercilessly parodied in ''The Rifle Brigade'' where fearless Captain "Khyber" D'Arcy leads [[Ambiguously Gay]] Lieutenant "Doubtful" Milk, monstrous Yorkshireman Sergeant Crumb ("'ey oop"), Cockney thug Corporal Geezer ("Yer aht of ordah!"), Private Hank the Yank ("Gawd Dammit!") and The Piper (who isn't an actual soldier but is still probably the most brutal of the lot) on missions against.... well you really just have to read these for yourself! But to give you an idea on the type of operations entrusted to the Rifle Brigade, one of their most important assignments involved recovering a powerful arcane artifact before the Axis could get their hands on it. The artifact was Hitler's missing testicle.
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* The original ''[[ABC Warriors]]''; Hammerstein is a warhorse famous for his strength and leadership skills but rumored to have murdered a human superior, Joe Pineapples is an ace marksman who once killed a target from orbit but is perhaps the most unsavory being in the universe, Happy Shrapnel is simply dumped onto them because as an older model he's not very user friendly, Mongrol is a monster of metal who is constantly full of only rage and confusion, Mek-Quake is stupid, violent, and crude, Deadlock is an extreme [[Knight Templar]], Blackblood is a [[Complete Monster]] known for murder at the slightest provocation, Steelhorn is the original veteran of the Volgan War turned into a horrific mess of molten slag, and so on and so forth. They're the most capable combat unit fighting the Volgs, but goddamn. Just goddamn.
** Later additions only enhance this image; Mad Ronn the bomb disposal expert (whose skill at his profession is uncertain because he kind of dies the first and only time he actually tries to defuse a bomb), Hitaki the warrior with samurai programming, Morrigun the waitress whose combat skills come from secondary bouncer software, and Ro-Jaws, who is honestly more of a mascot than anything else. Morrigun was the result of a [[Terrible Interviewees Montage]]; you should see the guys they turned down.
* [[The Defenders]], comprised of heroes who don't work well with others, and who often get into fights in the middle of their missions, still manage to be successful because they are comprised of some of the most powerful heroes in the [[Marvel Universe]]. They're even famously known as a "non-team", because the concept of teamwork is completely alien to them. This is all in spite of the fact that the founding Defenders ([[Doctor Strange]], the [[Silver Surfer]], [[Incredible Hulk
* The Champions were a team consisting of Iceman, Angel, [[Black Widow (comics)|Black Widow]], [[Incredible Hercules]], [[Ghost Rider]], and Venus. They originally worked together because they all happened to be on the Berkley campus at the same time.
* The second team of [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]], especially in comparison to the original team. The first group were five white, American teenagers, recruited by Professor X as students for his school, given matching uniforms, and trained to work as a group before their first mission. The second team<ref> even going just by what was known at the time, and ignoring things that wouldn't be revealed - or even [[Retcon|thought up]] until later, like [[Wolverine]] being [[Older Than They Look|over 100 years old]] or [[Storm]] having been born in America</ref> each came from a different country, including no members who were both white and American (and one that was ''blue''); varied from their teens to middle age; came from backgrounds ranging from law-enforcement to former supervillain (including one that was both); ranged in education level from college graduate to "raised on the streets"; were all given unique uniforms (or just wore what they showed up in); and barely had time to learn each others names before being sent off to risk their lives.
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* You'll be hard pressed to find a bunch more rag-tag or misfit than the one being asked to save the Earth in ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'': a bug-headed [[Mad Scientist]]; an over-the-hill [[Fish Person]]; a brainless, sentient glob of [[Future Food Is Artificial|Soylent Soy]]; a fuzzy baby [[Kaiju]]; and leading them all, a [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]] (albeit a [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever|very tall one]].)
* The Diggers who join up with Dr. Noah after one of them is killed by Ecoban soldiers in ''[[Sky Blue]]''.
* ''[[Red Dawn]]'' has this with a group of teens fighting the [[Dirty Communists|evil]] [[
* ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' has a lovely [[Reconstruction]] of the classic military sort. The Basterds are a bunch of Jewish-American [[Sociopathic Soldier|Sociopathic Soldiers]] (joined by one angry Austrian Jew and one psychotic German traitor) willing to do [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|all kinda of horrible things]] to the Nazis. Their quirkiness works for them, as legends sprout around them.
* The kids relegated to being just "Hero Support"(sidekicks) in the titular high school for superheroes, ''[[Sky High (film)|Skyhigh]]''. They end up saving the day when a supervillain attacks the prom.
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* For a non-Discworld [[Terry Pratchett]] example, the titular group in ''[[Nation]]'', made up of the remnants of many different Polynesian tribes who have managed to survive a tsunami and attacks by the Raiders, led by a [[Flat Earth Atheist]] teenager whose tribe was eliminated before his initiation ritual into adulthood could be completed, meaning that to the others (except Daphne) view him as basically having no soul and being possessed by a demon.
* Knowingly enacted by a [[Genre Savvy]] warrior in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms]]'' series. An ambient magical force in the land (The Tradition) likes to have events work out like they do in stories. The warrior assembles a group of untrained teenage girls, equips them to look suitably ragged, and leads them into battle. The Tradition then ensures that they fight like expert soldiers, because they are a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] and [[Underdogs Never Lose]].
* The ''[[X-wing
** After Wraith Squadron's initial success, though, several new members explained that they signed up because of the squadron's success rate, unaware of their initial reputation. That being said, they are either as charmingly wacky or as deeply scarred as the original squad, and, soon fit right in. The Wraiths are eventually considered competent...if unpredictable, unorthodox, and hardly military disciplined. Appropriately, they're recommissioned as an Intelligence unit.
** Rogue Squadron isn't exactly what you'd call orthodox either, although they're not as wide out as the Wraiths, they sit somewhere between the Wraiths and the regular military.
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* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', the fate of the entire galaxy rests in the hands of a war hero/ruthless commander/ShellShockedVeteran, who is backed up by a telekinetic tech with control issues, an angry Marine with trust issues, an [[Cowboy Cop|angry cop]] with authority issues, a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] [[Hired Guns|mercenary]] with <s>parental</s> [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|species]] issues, an alien [[Wrench Wench|mechanic]] with ''more'' parental issues, and a blue-skinned [[Hot Scientist]] with ''even more'' parental issues. [[Dysfunction Junction|Big, happy family, right?]]
** ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' brings this trope to even [[Darker and Edgier]] territory. Shepard's suicide mission team appears to consist of nothing but thugs, sociopaths, and ne'er-do-wells.
*** Specifically, the party includes : a quaint scientist with ethical issues, a psychotic test subject with psychic powers and childhood issues, {{spoiler|the [[Cowboy Cop|angry cop]] from the first game who has become}} [[The Punisher
** And Shepard is not immune: depending on which past you choose, s/he either grew up without a family and was raised by gangs and violence (Earthborn) or is the sole survivor of a pirate raid on his/her home planet (Colonist) and either watched his/her whole platoon except for him/her being annihilated by an alien monster (Sole Survivor) or send the 3/4 of hi/hers platoon to death to capture a bunker (Ruthless).
** Both games take some effort to justify such choices in crew. In ''[[Mass Effect (video game)|Mass Effect 1]]'', Shepard is a Spectre, a self-sufficient field agent flying a ship that is technically on loan from the Alliance. The situation with Saren isn't seen as that much of a threat, and Shepard simply picks anyone who offers to tag along; these six are the best Shepard could gather on such a short notice. In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', the authorities outright ignore the problem and don't provide any help, and Shepard is forced to seek out criminals and social outcasts who are nevertheless stated to be the best at their fields.
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*** Not that she's without her own very special issues, however, as season 8 reveals. {{spoiler|She's essentially cursed to ultimately fail at everything she tries to do.}} The most normal person they meet (Wash) ''still'' has issues, what with {{spoiler|Epsilon's memories being beamed directly into his mind}} and all.
* Say, does [[Homestar Runner]] count?
* Team Kimba of the ''[[Whateley Universe]]''. A former rich kid who is now the [[Fallen Princess]]. An Army brat chased out of his own home by anti-mutant fireteams. A nerd turned into a [[Person of Mass Destruction]]. A loner who turned into [[The Chosen One]]. A motherless victim of child abuse who has spent time as a foster child. A [[
* The characters in ''[[A Game of Gods (Roleplay)|A Game of Gods]]'' come off as this. Justified in that they were taking from their home worlds by [[The Powers That Be|the Nomads]].
* The Fellowship of ''[[The Questport Chronicles]]'' starts out as this: one amnesiac [[Winged Humanoid]], two elves (one of whom is an assassin), a [[Vegetarian Vampire]], a fairy, a human trapped in a dragon's body, a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]] demon, and an easily-confused pixie.
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* [[Reddit]] and [[Image Boards|4chan's /v/ board]] had a competition in ''[[Starsiege: Tribes|Tribes: Ascend]]''. Team Reddit was a well-coordinated, heavily practiced team with high-end computers; Team 4chan was a hastily-gathered team of /v/irgins run by a [[Furry Fandom|furry]] with a tripcode and a Brazilian sniper with 140 ping playing on toasters. 4chan won 3-2.
{{quote| "WE WINNERS NOW"}}
* The army of [[
* The British Army lives and dies by this trope. One of the first modern armies, the New Model Army was a complete subversion (English, but the framework for the British army was laid here), made up primarily of professional soldiers who had been fighting against the Royalists...until they were only able to fill about two thirds of places. After which, the Army lowered it's standards. From then on, to about 1914, the Army was been considered the second service to the far more prestigious and skilled Navy, taking on colossal numbers of thieves, rapists, murderers and arsonists, then moving on to those who have failed their [[GCS Es]]. This trope was so prevalent during the Napoleonic Era that the Duke of Wellington noted how wonderful it was to make so much of them. This applies less to other armies as they tended to still take Peasant Levies, meaning the men were required to serve whatever their profession, or have a very elite air and esprit de corps (the French, up until 1812).
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