Villain Team-Up: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

This is also why they lose; unlike the heroic team they fight, the villains never trust each other. One of them ''will'' [[Betrayal Tropes|betray]] the rest of the group. Usually after they've captured the heroes, thus letting the heroes escape. Some heroes can even cause a "solid" Villain Team Up to implode with [[Flaw Exploitation]]. Other times, one of the villains has planned the whole team-up as a trap [[Xanatos Gambit|from the start.]] Cue [[An Aesop]] about [[The Power of Friendship]]. This is one of few situations where [[Status Quo Is God|maintaining the Status Quo]] is well [[Justified]].

 

Compare [[Evil Is One Big Happy Family]] and [[Legion of Doom]].

{{examples}}

* [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Malik/Marik]] and Yami Bakura from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'' Battle city arc.

* In the episode of ''[[Inuyasha]]'' entitled 'Naraku and Sesshomaru Join Forces'...Take a wild guess.

* In ''[[Dragon Ball GT]]'', practically everyone the protagonists had ever killed teamed up in Hell to try to get revenge, though most of them were just used as distractions until Dr. Myuu and Dr. Gero could create Super Android 17.

** Earlier in ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', Cell, Frieza and his [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] teamed up to [[Like a Badass Out of Hell|take over Hell]]. They got along surprisingly well.

 

* The Sinestro Corps War arc of [[Green Lantern]] had something similar. While there was plenty of new baddies created as Sinestro Corps members, the main threat was the team up of the major DCU baddies Sinestro, Superboy-Prime, the Cyborg Superman, Parallex, the Manhunters and the Anti-Monitor.

* Marvel has published two bad-guy-focused mini-series under the banner of ''Supervillain Team-Up'': The first was called ''[[MODOK]]'s 11'' and revolves around the titular giant floating head hiring a bunch of D-list supervillains to help him steal a [[MacGuffin]]. The second is ''Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil'', where [[Dr. Doom]] [[The Chessmaster|manipulates every other supervillain he can find]] into helping him...well, it takes a while to find out exactly ''what'' his goal is. Both involved many, ''many'' villain-on-villain betrayals.

* [[Archie Comics]]'s [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]] had a major teamup after Dr. Eggman [[Villainous Breakdown|had a bit of a bad day]]. [[The Starscream|Snively]] and the [[Dragon Lady|Iron Queen]] managed to unite the [[Machine Worship|Dark Legion]] and four [[Ninja]] clans ([[Face Heel Turn|including Espio's]]), and for a time had the Freedom Fighters on the ropes. But this team up eventually falls apart when several of the Freedom Fighters (with help from Espio, who was a [[Fake Defector]]) convince the clans to turn on the Queen; at the same time, the Legion's leader [[The Baroness|Lien-Da]] tries to play [[The Starscream]], which fails rather [[Explosive Leash|explosively]] and results in the Legion retreating. With their power base crumbling, Snively flees with a recovered Eggman, leaving the Queen to be defeated.

* In the Archie ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures]]'' comic, a time-displaced Shredder teamed up with future supervillains Armaggon and Verminator X (an anthropomorphic shark and cat, respectively), in order to steal and power a time-machine prototype. In the sixth season of the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|4Kids cartoon]], Big Bads Sh'Okanabo and Darius Dun form a rare successful alliance when they decide to exchange resources.

** Subverted in ''[[Turtles Forever]]'', where the 1987 Shredder tries this with his 2003 counterpart, {{spoiler|only to get kicked out of the Technodrome and have his resources taken over, leading to an [[Enemy Mine]] situation with the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|1987]], [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|2003]], and [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|Prime]] Turtles}}.

* [[Daredevil]] actually suffered through this more than once. The first time saw Electro organize a group of villains defeated by Daredevil into the "Emissaries of Evil" to try and get revenge on DD, and the second time would occur a few decades later, when Typhoid Mary would gather several latter-day Daredevil villains into the "Daredevil Revenge Squad".

* A 1960s [[Incredible Hulk|Hulk]] comic had the Mandarin team up with the Sandman. It ended with Mandarin sending Sandman into a molten vat turning him to glass.

* Paste-Pot Pete broke another Human Torch foe the Wizard out of jail, however they conflicted due to the Wizard trying to act as leader while Pete wanted them to be equal. They were captured by the Torch, but didn't seem sorry at the team-up ending.

** ''[[The Batman]]'' also did a variation of this in the "Team Penguin" episode, when the Penguin recruits several second-tier Bat villains into a criminal gang as a way of evening the odds against Batman and his sidekicks. The idea is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] at every opportunity, as none of the other villains like the name "Team Penguin" and keep suggesting alternatives, which Penguin shoots down. It's Penguin's vanity that causes the others to abandon the team. {{spoiler|At first.}}

* The ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' had to fight Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner at once (in one of the earliest examples), and were saved when Doom betrayed the Sub-Mariner a bit too early, causing him to switch sides. Later, the heroes faced the Frightful Four; a revolving-door group of second-string supervillains that always seemed to betray each other.

** Another Spider-Man example is the Sinister Syndicate, a group of C-List Spidey villains. The difference between this team and the Sinister Six is that the Syndicate try to focus mainly on making money and would rather avoid having to fight Spider-Man.

** A similar thing happened to [[Spider-Girl]] in the [[Marvel Comics 2]] continuity. It was a [[Run the Gauntlet]] style, and Spider-Girl was both exhausted and (unknown to herself) depowered before the last fight...so she calls in a favor from pretty much every hero she's ever met. The last villain wisely surrenders.

* ''[[Gotham City Sirens]]'' revolves around when [[Femme Fatale|Poison Ivy]], [[Villainous Harlequin|Harley Quinn]] and [[Classy Cat Burglar|Catwoman]] decide to team-up and...become roommates? [[Better Than It Sounds|It's better than it sounds]].

* The [[Flash]]'s [[Rogues Gallery]] is an exception: the villain team, known simply as "The Rogues", works together all the time with practically no problems whatsoever, and is effectively a standing army of super-villains.

* The ''[[Hellblazer]]'' story "How to Play With Fire" featured several of Constantine's enemies colluding to destroy his life.

* In [[The DCU]], the ''[[Secret Six]]'' are a team of supervillains-for-hire (comprising two Bat-villains, two second-generation versions of JSA villains, and two rotating positions). They'd happily not tangle with ''any'' heroes, but don't mind if it happens. They're also usually in the bad books of other villains as well (especially since they won't join [[Legion of Doom|the Society]]). Unusually, they get on reasonably well with each other (mostly), and have a good sense of teamwork.

* In the [[Classic Disney Shorts|Mickey Mouse]] 70th anniversary comic book story "The Past Imperfect," Mickey is captured by a team of his worst comics enemies, including Pegleg Pete, Sylvester Shyster, Eli Squinch, Dr. Vulter, and Profs Ecks, Doublex, and Triplex. Interestingly, the Phantom Blot is ''not'' included, as he was being saved for a different story also published at that anniversary.

** Wouldn't that be a case of [[The Bad Guy Wins|The Bad Guy Wins, Even Though The Hero Defeated Him]]?

** Technically, if it weren't for the fact that the main plot revolved around the villains stealing Scrooge's entire fortune for various reasons: The Beagle Boys because they want to be rich, Glomgold so that he would then be the richest man (er, duck) in the world instead of Scrooge, and Magica just wanted a single coin: The Number One Dime of the world's richest man; which she would then use in a spell to gain the [[Blessed with Suck|Midas Touch]]. Scrooge strikes a deal with Magica after he convinces her the coin will no longer work now that he is poor, and she teams up with the Beagle Boys to rob Glomgold instead.

** The European comics have a story arc setting up a new [[Big Bad]], who forced the Beagle Boys, Magica and Phantom Bolt to join him by brainwashing them. This actually led to his undoing as Minnie and Daisy convinced Magica to turn against him and Phantom Bolt was just pretenting to be brainwashed so he could [[Hijacked by Ganon|hijack the plot]] and the two atacked him in the middle of his confrontation with Donald and Mickey.

** Not only that, but they apparently worked together for years, and various instances when they fought each other were retconned to be set-up so nobody would suspect a thing.

** This is apparently how various supervillains get to know Max Damage from ''Incorruptible'' - in his villainous days they would often team up. One flashback shows Max teaming up with another villain and then them both betraying each other because they just didn't like each other.

** [[Dark Avengers]] were in fact a team up of the more villainous members of the [[Thunderbolts]] with antiheroes [[Ares (Comic Book)|Ares]] and [[The Sentry]], young and misguided Marvel Boy (who quit the moment he found out what he gotten himself into) and [[Daken]]

** Cabal was this between [[Norman Osborn]], [[Loki]], [[The Hood]], [[Doctor Doom]], [[Sub-Mariner|Namor]] and Emma Frost and later Taskmaster, with a lot of betrayals and schemes in it.

** [[Incredible Hercules|Hera]] teamed up with Typhon during that arc and tried to team up with Norman Osborn but, after finding out what her plan was about he decided to send [[Evil Versus Evil|his team against her]].

* The [[Superman]] [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Revenge Squad]]. Originally made up of aliens from planets that Superman had prevented from conquering earth, it later became a team of Metropolis supervillains.

 

* ''[[A Dark Knight Over Sin City]]'' has various [[Batman]] villains teaming up with [[Sin City]] villains.

* ''[[Fallout Equestria]]'': Red Eye and the Goddess, though both are plotting behind each other's back.

** Subverted example: {{spoiler|the Enclave tries to form one with the Goddess. Since she has just a few minutes before being killed by a megaspell when they make the offer, the Enclave has incredibly bad timing}}.

 

* In superhero movies this seems to be required for sequels. A single villain can occupy for the first movie, but once a sequel comes out you've got to throw more and more villains together. ''[[Batman Returns]]'': Penguin + Catwoman, ''[[Batman Forever]]'': Riddler + Two Face, ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'': Mr. Freeze + Poison Ivy (whether Bane is a villain or a henchman, you pick). ''[[Superman (film)|Superman]]'': Lex Luthor, ''[[Superman II]]'': Lex + 3 Kryptonians. ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]]'' avoided this for the first sequel, but made up for it by throwing in three villains (Sandman, Venom, New Goblin) for ''Spider-Man 3'', two of which team up (Sandman + Venom).

** The whole point of ''[[Batman Returns]]'' was to demonstrate that this trope doesn't work, and the fact that Catwoman and Penguin work with each other for all of five minutes seems to support it.

* [[Double Subverted]] in ''[[The Thief and the Cobbler]]''. When the evil grand vizier Zigzag goes to join the [[Big Bad]], the Mighty One-eye (who has an entire army of monstrous one-eyed men at his command), One-eye is unimpressed and has Zigzag thrown to his alligators. However, with his charisma Zigzag is able to convince the alligators to spare his life and help him out of the alligator pit. This impresses the Mighty One-eye enough to let him join him.

 

* The ''Omen Of The Stars'' [[Myth Arc|arc]] of ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' features {{spoiler|all the villains who were killed off except Scourge and Bone teaming up to destroy the clans.}}

 

* In ''[[Smallville]]'', there have been a few villain team-ups. Firstly, in season 3, three of the meteor freaks Clark Kent had taken down teamed up to steal his powers and escape. There have also been team-ups between Brainiac and Bizarro, Lex and Toyman, and recently several Superman villains from the comics were teamed up by LuthorCorp to become Smallville's version of the Injustice Gang.

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' had an episode with "Dead" Larry Sizemore and Tyler Brennen, two of Michael Westen's worst enemies, team up. Their partnership lasted just [[Incredibly Lame Pun|half the episode]], since Larry {{spoiler|never intended to work with Brennen long-term and simply stabs him in the chest, killing him.}}

* In ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'', there was the United Alliance of Evil, a group formed by Dark Spectre and comprised of the villains from the first five seasons of Power Rangers, namely Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, the Machine Empire and Divatox.

 

* The Four Horsemen can be considered the [[Trope Codifier]] for professional wrestling. The heel group, known in wrestling as a "stable" or "faction," first formed with [[Ric Flair]], Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. Various incarnations lasted for 13 years; however, they have direct descendants running up to today's current wrestlers.

** The chain goes: [[New World Order]] (nWo), [[D Generation X]] (DX), Evolution (which had Flair as a member), Main Event Mafia, Fortune and Immortal (both of which had Flair as a member). Notable groups that are "nephews" of the Four Horsemen concept are the Dudley Boyz (formed in ECW as a stable of storyline brothers but later reduced to a tag team) and the Nexus (a group of rookies that took over WWE Raw for a time).

** [[Vince McMahon]] was the [[Big Bad|Higher Power]] controlling both groups the entire time as part of his [[Evil Plan]] to get the title off of [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] though, so at the very least Vince, [[Shane McMahon|Shane]], and [[The Undertaker]] were in cahoots the entire time. The members of the Corporate Ministry still didn't get along very well though, especially Undertaker and [[Triple H]], and the group disbanded right after the Austin vs Vince feud ended.

** The Four Horsemen and the Dungeon of Doom created the Alliance to End Hulkamania to finally get rid of [[Boring Invincible Hero]] [[Hulk Hogan]]. It failed miserably.

* [[The Miz]] and [[Ron Killings|R-Truth]], two heels in separate stories at the time, somehow found common ground and teamed up in September 2011. They were disqualified from a tag team title match at WWE Night of Champions when Miz attacked a referee. The next night on Raw, then-WWE COO [[Triple H]], sick of their antics, "fired" them. In a reverse [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice Job BreakingItVillain]], this set off a chain of events where most of the WWE roster turned against [[Triple H]], leading to Triple H's ouster as the on-screen authority figure. Miz and Truth returned to WWE TV in mid-October 2011.

 

* Being a [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]] title, ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' features one of these involving every main villain from the first ten games of the main series, and [[Final Fantasy XII|Gabranth]], in direct opposition to the heroes from their respective games, and [[Final Fantasy XI|Shantotto]].

* ''Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics'' has [[Super Mario Bros.|Bowser]] and [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik]] scheme to melt all the snow in the world by capturing the Snow Spirits.

** They're at it again in the London 2012 sequel. This time creating an artificial [[Ominous Fog|thick fog]] to ruin the London games.

** It also potentially has some lesser versions in event matches and what not. The showdown of Melee has [[Super Mario Bros.|GIGA Bowser]], [[The Legend of Zelda|Ganondorf]] and [[Pokémon|Mewtwo]] as a team vs whatever character you chose. Brawl has the Final Battle (Bowser, Ganondorf and Dedede team up), Two Trouble Kings (Bowser and King Dedede against Mario or Mario and Kirby), and the Final Battle for Two (two chararacters of player choice against Bowser, Ganondorf, King Dedede, Meta Knight, Wolf and Wario).

* Because [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover|of the nature of the game]], this also happens in the [[Super Robot Wars]] series frequently and in nearly every game. [[Super Robot Wars J|For example]], [[Gundam Seed|ZAFT]] can be found helping the [[Martian Successor Nadesico|Jovian army]].

* ''[[Mega Man X]] 5'' does this by way of implication. He never shows up on screen, but given all the callbacks, and the overall plan Sigma has, it's obvious that [[Mega Man (video game)|Dr. Wily]] is somehow teaming up with him. [[Word of God]] later confirmed he was brought back to live by the Maverick Virus somehow.

* In ''[[Mass Effect]] 2'', the vigilante Archangel was such a royal pain in the ass that Omega's major mercenary groups put their differences aside [[Badass|to hunt just ONE guy.]]

* [[Sonic Generations]] has {{spoiler|Dr. Eggman team up with his past self, Dr. Robotnik. ("Nobody calls me that anymore.")}}

 

* The current story in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has [[Card-Carrying Villain|Fructose Riboflavin,]] the [[Space Pirates|Pirates of Ipecac,]] and [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Galatea]] all teaming up although the pirates are there against their will, and it's arguable that Galatea [[Unwitting Pawn|doesn't really understand what's going on.]]

* The Hat and Robo-Cube in ''[[Stickman and Cube]]'', although this is more of a [[Puppeteer Parasite|hostile takeover]] on The Hat's part.

* We see that the team of [[Big Bad|Xykon]] and [[The Dragon|Redcloak]] from ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' started off as this. The prequel shows that the two first met when Redcloak saw Xykon obliterate a garrison of paladins and, as Redcloak's brother says, "Let's suggest a team-up with him, [[Marvel Comics|Marvel style]]!"

** And now {{spoiler|General Tarquin}} joined forces with Nale and Linear Guild. Time will show how long will it last.

* In ''[[Sonichu]]'' a number of villains from the earlier issues (including Dr. Eggman and [[Pokémon|Giovanni]]) team up to take over CWCVille when Chris was away.

 

* In the Web Novel, ''[[The Impossible Man]]'', the villains team up to form The Amalgamated Union of Malicious Malcontents.

* In "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl" of the [[Whateley Universe]], Hekate's unseen master makes her team up with The Necromancer so she has a safe haven from a true Sidhe curse. The same unseen figured gets Don Sebastiano to give them intel, and The Necromancer gets his Children of the Night, the Felonious Four, and Obsession to help him.

 

* "The League of Villains" from ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron]]''.

* This trope was spoofed MERCILESSLY in the ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' episode "The Last One Ever" when the "Rogue's Gallery" formed a group called Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday.

* In the "Back With a Vengeance," the second season finale of ''[[Ben 10]]'', Ben's two worst enemies, Kevin 11 and Vilgax, team up. They play this trope as described, getting into two knock-down brawls with each other before ganging up on Ben. In the end, Kevin tries to steal the [[Clingy MacGuffin]] that Vilgax wanted off of Ben and leave Ben and Vilgax [[Trapped in Another World]], [[Bond Villain Stupidity|instead of just killing Ben like he'd wanted to earlier.]] Then he goes right back to trying to kill Ben and, predictably, this is his downfall.

** The next to last episode of the series had a group called the Negative 10 composed of most of the lesser villains Ben, Gwen and Max faced through the series headed by new villain, the Forever King. They actually manage to work together rather well but end up outsmarted in the end.

** Also, in the Alien Force season 3 finale, Vilgax teams up with Albedo in order to steal Ben's Omnitrix, so Albedo can go back to his original form, while Vilgax claims that he isn't interested in the Omnitrix anymore, and just wants to see Ben dead. Predicably, when Vilgax got the Omnitrix, he immediatly betrayed Albedo.

** Actually various villains would team up all the time; Dr. Blight in particular often worked with one or two others on a project. The only time all seven of the main Eco-villains got together was in the two-part "Summit to Save Earth," with Zarm as the de facto boss.

* In an episode of ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' Eustace decides to take out Courage by gathering a group of villains from previous episodes in an alliance against that stupid dog (ignoring the fact that these villains have also endangered his own life in the past).

* ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' had a tribute to/parody of the Sinister Six: the Fearsome Five, consisting of [[Psycho Electro|Megavolt]], [[Villainous Harlequin|Quackerjack]], [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|The Liquidator]] and [[Green Thumb|Bushroot]], as led by [[Evil Counterpart|Negaduck]]. In one Fearsome Five episode, Negaduck betrayed the other four and stole their powers for himself. The depowered fearsome four teamed with Darkwing to stop him.

* The ''[[Gargoyles]]'' episode "The Reckoning" featured a collaboration by just about every major villain this side of David Xanatos, with a few [[The Psycho Rangers|clones]] tossed in for good measure.

** An earlier example in the series is "High Noon", with a team-up between Demona, Macbeth and Iago/Coldsteel, with the Weird Sisters manipulating them behind the scenes.

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' faced [[Harmless Villain|Drakken, Killigan, Monkey Fist]] <s>and Shego</s> during "[[The Movie|A Sitch in Time]]". In the end, Shego betrayed them, but she did end up [[Take Over the World|taking over the world]] after all.

** The page quote comes from the episode "Steal Wheels", where Dr Drakken and Motor Ed team-up. In this partciular case the answer turns out to be 'because they're [[Talking to Himself|cousins]]'.

* Subverted in ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', as the Sinister Six is well-planned, has [[It Only Works Once|removed all their old weaknesses]], and their members go out of their way to avoid intentionally hurting each other. It nearly works, until Spidey's [[Evil Costume Switch]] kicks in.

* The second-string ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' villains Professor Princess, Angry Archer, Nanosec, and first-timer Slo-Mo team up to form the Society of Ultimate Villainy (SUV) in the episode of same name.

* ''[[Johnny Test]]'' has the "Johnny Stopping Evil Force 5," a team-up of Wacko, the Beekeeper, Brain Freezer, Mr. Mittens (and his butler Albert), and Zizrar the king of mole-people.

* ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' has had a couple of team ups involving [[Terrorists Without a Cause|MECH]]. First, in "Crisscross", they allied with [[Dark Action Girl|Airachnid]] in order to capture Arcee and Jack (Airachnid wanted revenge, MECH wanted the technology in Arcee's body). This ended when [[Big Damn Heroes|Agent Fowler showed up with reinforcements]], and the villains fled separately. Then, in the "Operation Bumblebee" two-parter, they formed an alliance with {{spoiler|[[Dangerous Deserter|a renegade]]}} Starscream, who offered his knowledge in exchange for a share of the energon they'd need for their own plans. This lasted until {{spoiler|Silas got sick of Starscream, stole his T-Cog, and then ditched him}}.

 

* Tends to happen quite a bit in the [[Disney Theme Parks]]' stage shows.

** ''[[The Disney Afternoon]] Live!'' stage show that ran at [[Disney Theme Parks|Disneyland]] in 1991 had [[Tale Spin|Don Karnage]] and [[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Fat Cat]] teaming up to steal a top secret plane.

* In the reknowned ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' [[Let's Play]] '[[Boatmurdered]]', a rather hilarious one occurs, when a group of goblins decide to team up with the elephants who were already holding the fortress under seige:

{{quote|''"I think they're starting their own little town in there, elephants and goblins living together in peace and harmony, joined only by burning hatred for dwarves."''}}

 

* [[Your Mileage May Vary|Depending on your viewpoint]], the Axis Powers - Italy, Germany and Japan - would fall under this.

 

{{reflist}}