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Villain Team-Up (view source)

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{{quote|''"[[Lampshade Hanging|How do my foes keep finding each other?]]"''|''[[Kim Possible]]''}}
 
If a [[Superhero]] has a [[Rogues Gallery]], it's an obvious plot for the villains to team up. A [[Villain Team -Up]] is almost always for the sole purpose of ganging up on a hero or hero team and finishing them off ''once[[Dramatic Pause|...]] and for all!!!'' Villains will almost never team up to rob a bank together, or commit any other crime together. Which makes sense, because the typical [[Rogues Gallery]] has villains with nothing in common at all, other than hating the hero.
 
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]].
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Compare [[Evil Is One Big Happy Family]] and [[Legion of Doom]].
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{{examples|Examples:}}
 
== Anime & Manga ==
* [[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 the ''[[Mazinger Z (Anime)|Mazinger Z]]'' versus ''[[Devilman (Manga)|Devilman]]'' feature, Dr. Hell and the demons collaborate to take down Kouji Kabuto and Devilman. It may be subverted, since Hell used a mind-control device to enslave the demons, and he was mainly interested on taking down Mazinger-Z (he only sent some demons and Mechanical Beasts against Devilman because the demons warned him he would interfere).
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* 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.
* Final arc of ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' saw a [[Villain Team -Up]] of [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|Maverick}} and villain from one of the earlier episodes, {{spoiler|Doctor Rotwang}}. They got along very well, despite that one of them was [[Fantastic Racism|NEXT-hater]] and the other was secretely a NEXT himself {{spoiler|until they were at the verge of [[Disney Villain Death]], with Rotwang begging Maverick to save him, only for him to reveal he is a NEXT and kick him in the face}}.
 
 
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** 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]].
* Marvel Comics and DC Comics had several crossovers, where heroes from each group teamed up to fight a crossover [[Villain Team -Up]]. Every time, the villains lost by betraying each other.
* 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 (Comic Book)|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.
* Recent ''[[BPRD]]'' miniseries have focused on a [[Villain Team -Up]] between {{spoiler|the frog army led by the Black Flame and the slaves of Hyperboria led by the King of Fear}}. Unlike the average team up, this is proving very successful and has already led to the destruction of one major European city with more carnage on the way.
** The main ''[[Hellboy (Comic Book)|Hellboy]]'' series also has a [[Villain Team -Up]] between {{spoiler|the Fairies, the witches of England, and a growing army of dark creatures. It also has the tacit support of Hell.}}
* 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.
* In the 50th anniversary story that [[Don Rosa]] did for [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Scrooge McDuck]], ''A Little Something Special'', his three main foes--The Beagle Boys, Magica DeSpell, and Flintheart Glomgold--all join forces. Incredibly, the three do ''not'' betray one another, but all live up to the deal they made at the start of the team-up. {{spoiler|Of course, once the team-up is over, nothing prevents the Beagle Boys and Magica from joining forces to plunder Glomgold...}}
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== Literature ==
* In Lies, the third book of the ''[[Gone]]'' series, {{spoiler|Caine and Zil team up to burn down Perdido Beach, which acts as a distraction to let Caine escape to the island.}}
* In the [[Star Trek Novel Verse]], [[Villain Team -Up]] is essentially the idea behind the [[Star Trek Typhon Pact]] series, only with a twist. It's uncertain if the Typhon Pact will be an enemy of the United Federation of Planets or not. Politically, everything is still highly uncertain, following the formation of the Pact in [[A Singular Destiny]] (a novel detailing the aftermath of [[Star Trek Destiny]]). While the Pact members were historically antagonistic, their outlook appears to be changing. The extent to which they will remain "villains" is unclear. The Tholians, at least, look set to remain enemies, whether the rest of the Pact follows their lead or reins them in is anyone's guess.
* 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.}}
* The failure half of this occurs in the Star Wars novel Darth Bane: Path of Destruction due to nature of the Sith's [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]. Bane creates his rule of two to avoid this problem.
* In ''The Warlord of Mars'', third book of the [[John Carter of Mars]] series, Matai Shang (a previously-offscreen but often mentioned [[The Chessmaster|chessmaster]]), Thurid (a minor villain from the previous book) and Salensus Oll (a newly-introduced [[Evil Overlord]]) pull off one of these, {{spoiler|which ends up falling apart messily, since all three hate each other's guts and have only temporarily-related goals}}. Rounding out the partnership is Matai Shang's daughter [[DaddysDaddy's Little Villain|Phaidor]], though she's genuinely loyal to her dad and is mostly along for the ride rather than a co-conspirator.
 
 
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** 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.}}
* Subverted in ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]''. Crowley tries to pull one with the Boss Leviathan (he even bakes [[To Serve Man|gluten-free baby uvula muffins]] for the occasion!), but gets shot down.
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** 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 Undertaker]] and [[Wrestler/Kane|Kane]] would alternate between heels and faces during their time as a tag team: the Brothers of Destruction.
* [[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.
 
 
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* ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|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.]]
** [[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 story in ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (Video Game)|Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'' revolves around [[Doctor Doom]] and [[Resident Evil|Wesker]] leading a villain team up, which includes [[X-Men|Magneto]], [[Fantastic Four|Super-Skrull]], [[Doctor Strange|Dormammu]] and [[Street Fighter|Akuma]]. They also hired Taskmaster [[All There In The Manuel|according to the promotional comic]], but he seems to remain neutral to maximize his own personal gain.
* 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.
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== Webcomics ==
* 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.
* As it's based on the ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]'' series (specifically the game mentioned above), this happens in ''[http://as.crowdedstreet.net/Something/ Burning Stickman Presents...Something!]'', with a third villain, original to the comic, actually being the one to put Sigma and Wily together. Naturally, all three are planning to betray the hell out of each other, though to their credit, they're planning to do it ''after'' the Evil Plan plays out.
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