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}}

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

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', {{spoiler|Kabuto and Madara Uchiha are doing this.}}

** Kabuto takes it a step further with his {{spoiler|mass resurrection jutsu of every big name character to ever die in the series, forcing them to work together against the protagonists.}} They are mostly villains, but they also include some heroes.

* 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.

* [[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".

* 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 ''[[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.

* 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]]?

** 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]]

** One of the tie-ins featured a team of supervillains, Lethal Legion, who decided they don't like Norman being in charge and want to [[Evil Versus Evil|team up against him]]. {{spoiler|It was all a plot set by Norman to make himself look better}}.

** There were also lesser team ups between Doctor Doom and Dracula or Loki, Hela and Mephisto

** [[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]].

 

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

** 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}}.

 

** ''[[Batman Begins]]'' has the Scarecrow initially working with Falconi, and unwittingly working ''for'' Ra's Al Ghul. [[The Dark Knight]] is borderline, as the Joker "gives birth" to the second villain, but they never truly work together; however, the Joker does initially work with the mob.

** Several of the TV episodes of that series featured team-ups between various villains, they did no better or worse than usual against Batman.

* ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]: Climax Deka'' features the Imagin Negataros forms an "evil syndicate", and to strengthen their numbers, he recruited [[Our Vampires Are Different|Fangire]] into his cause. In turn, this necessitates the arrival of the Fangires' main enemy, ''[[Kamen Rider Kiva]]'', to come to the aid of Den-O and his allies.

 

* 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.}}

** Daleks and Cybermen kicking the snot out of each other? It looked more like the Daleks totally wiping out the Cybermen in every possible way. The Cybermen kept shooting at the Daleks, who all had forcefields, and the Daleks kept shooting at the Cybermen, who... well... didn't. The Cybermen were such weaklings even ''humans'' got to kill a couple (with an RPG, but still). Either way though, {{spoiler|they all got killed in the end. If you couldn't figure this out without highlighting the spoiler... why not?}}

** A comic strip from the 1990s also parodies this, with an omnipotent superbeing uniting all the Doctor's enemies together as one super-army, and then siccing them on all (then) eight Doctors. The Doctors point out the obvious flaw in the logic of bad guys all of whom they'd already defeated uniting to try and defeat them again... and then go on to defeat them all again.

** This is basically the plot of "Mark of the Rani" wherein [[Magnificent Bastard|the Master]] and [[Emperor Scientist|the Rani]] team up against the Sixth Doctor, though it's not really a mutual agreement. The Master [[Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word|blackmails]] and [[Arson, Murder, and Admiration|bribes]] the Rani into cooperating with him, and when he eventually botches the entire plan due to his [[Foe Yay|obsession with the Doctor]], the Rani [[Groin Attack|registers]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|her displeasure]].

** In "The Pandorica Opens" almost all of the Doctor's enemies we've ever heard of and more descend on Earth in 102A.D. to witness the titular event. {{spoiler|Turns out that, while the Doctor knew the Pandorica was a prison of some sort he had assumed it was already occupied by someone. Really what happened was that all of his foes came together to trap the Doctor in the Pandorica in order to prevent the destruction of the universe at his hands.}}

* The Cardassians and the Dominion form an alliance in the last few seasons of ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'', which eventually expands to include the Breen.

* 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.

 

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

* 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]].

* 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.]]

** [[One-Man Army|He holds them off for a long time, too. Alone.]] [[Big Damn Heroes|At least, long enough for Shepard and co. to show up.]]

* The titular Deadly Alliance in Mortal Kombat 5 consists of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi who form an alliance to kill the two people who possess the biggest threats to them (Liu Kang and Shao Kahn) and conquer the realms using the lost army of the Dragon King.

 

* 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 [[RPG World]], [[Big Bad|Galgarion]] and {{spoiler|Jeff, Eikre's rival}} have been hired by [[Evil Corp|South Corp]] to take out the main group of heroes. While Galgarion is using South Corp for his own ends, he invites {{spoiler|Jeff}} to do the same, effectively making {{spoiler|him}} his [[The Dragon|Dragon]].

* 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]]''.

** 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.

** 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.

* Played straight, subverted, and lampshaded in ''[[Justice League]]''. The original villain group that went up against the Justice League (the Injustice Gang), organised by Lex Luthor, was held together solely by money. This made it easy for Batman to play them against one another. The follow up team dropped the Injustice Gang moniker for the name "Secret Society". While the only thing really holding them together was their hatred for the League, their leader (Gorilla Grodd) was smart enough to take them through various team building exercises that kept them from falling apart, knowing full well that it's "not the easiest thing for loners, sociopaths, and psychos". The subversion is that he also uses his mental powers to sow seeds of distrust among the League: they fall apart in the same way a villain team usually falls apart, only to reassemble in the final act.

** ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' plays it straight, but justifies it more than most villain teams. While the team does eventually break up in a brutal villain civil war, they're not joined by a hatred of the JLU. Rather, the villain team is a protection racket: since it's impossible to commit a crime against a group as efficient as the JLU, Grodd set up a co-op. All it cost was 25% of your gross criminal profits, and you could expect back-up if the League got in the way of your average bank robbery.

* Happens a couple of times on ''[[Sushi Pack]]''. In "The Yam Yakkers," Titanium Chef, Oleander, and Sir Darkly team up to create the titular creatures, and in "Fair Share For Sure," Apex partners with Sir Darkly to fund his [[Fountain of Youth]]-style laser.

* The 1960s [[Spider-Man]] cartoon shows why ganging up on the hero doesn't necessarily work any better than making him or her [[Run the Gauntlet]]. When [[Canon Foreigner|Dr. Noah Boddy]], an invisible man created by the show's writers, busts Electro, the Green Goblin and the Vulture out of prison to get revenge on Spider-Man, they actually take the time to weaken Spider-Man beforehand by knocking out his spider-senses and reducing his [[Super Strength]]. Unfortunately, the villains are also shown constantly arguing with one another. Spider-Man exploits this by using ventriloquism to make it sound as if they're insulting each other, and the villains end up taking ''each other'' out.

* Although not originally, this happens on occasion on [[Word Girl]]. Tobey and Dr. Two-Brains team up in ''Mousezilla'', but their tandem quickly falls apart due to them mocking each other about Two-Brain's fear of cats and Tobey's love of Wordgirl. The Whammer has teamed up with Chuck (both reluctantly on the latter's part) in ''Thorn in the Sidekick'' and ''Escape Wham.'' And in the recent episode ''Too Loud Crew'' the Whammer & the Butcher joined forces thanks to a supervillain manual.

** In "Night of the Dark Kat" Dark Kat teams up with super-hacker Hard Drive to steal the Turbokat and use it to hold the city hostage and ruin the SWAT Kats' reputation.

** In the season 1 finale "Katastrophe" Dark Kat teamed up with Dr. Viper and the Metallikats to destroy the SWAT Kats. This plays the trope extremely straight because Dark Kat does betray his comrades as soon as they've (apparently) captured all the heroes, stalling them long enough to salvage the situation.

** In ''A Bright and Shiny Future'' Pastmaster aligns with the Metallikats, giving them control of Megakat City in a [[Bad Future]] so long as they'll kill the SWAT Kats from the present. Betrayal plays in here, too, where the Metallikats have the Pastmaster disarmed as soon as he delivers the present SWAT Kats to the future, prompting Pastmaster to help the heroes stop them.

* ''[[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.

 

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

* 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:

 

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

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Ensembles]]

[[Category:Villains]]