History Main / CrimefightingWithCash

[[AC: Comic Books]]

* Charles Adair from ''Literature/SuperPowereds''. While he doesn't actually go into the field, he manages to bring down most of the Sons of Progress by bankrolling them and then tracking the money and offering anonymous tips to the Heroes.

* In the ChristmasEpisode of ''{{Series/Misfits}}'', the gang come across '''a lot''' of money, and the episode ends with them using that money to [[spoiler: buy completely new powers]]. It makes sense in context.

** As an example of how wealthy Finch is, he has at least three cover identities setup for Reese. Two of them are single-digit millionaires, the third is a triple-digit millionaire.

** Of course, pretty much any high-level ''D&D'' character will be absolutely loaded down with magic items. It's all they ever really buy. In-universe the party rogue might be a greedy hedonist, but you can bet his player isn't saving up for a mansion and a retinue of servants when there are more pluses to add to his gear. This is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d (like most gaming tropes) in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' when Roy explains that they ''can't'' stay in a fancy inn, because it would look suspicious; everyone knows that adventurers never splurge on luxuries, even when carrying around huge sacks of gold. You save it all for magic items.

** Lastly, there's Hachi, who has a 10% discount on units he buys with zero penalties. His CO Power, Barter, changes the discount to 50%, and his Super CO Power, Merchant Union, creates ground units on cities controlled by Hachi in addition to providing the 50% discount.

* ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' The Business Management minigame lets you take over a struggling family confectionary shop and turn it into a Fiction500 conglomerate. And in the process, you'll earn a huge salary that can be put into buying yourself all the best gear available. In addition, it unlocks the Fat Stack skills, which let you [[MoneyMauling literally fight crime with cash]] by beating bad guys senseless via smacking them around with huge wads of bank notes.

* Phase, of the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', is only fourteen, still a freshman at [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]], and already doing this. He's paying Whateley inventors to build weapons for him, including a utility belt that has nearly zero external volume but is chock full of HammerSpace, a specialized throwing dart made out of ''depleted uranium'', and the latest thing is a collapsing tactical baton. Made out of adamantium. With osmium for weight in the tip. It cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Also more literally, as he is planning such things as courses in marketing and patent law to allow inventors (as opposed to corporations) to profit from their work. Apparently, many villainous gadgeteers are [[CutLexLuthorACheck just in it for the money]], so he reasons that if he can make their work both profitable and beneficial, most would rather put in an honest day's work rather than put on a mask and rob banks; if it makes a difference in their customers' lives as well (i.e., averting the problem of [[ReedRichardsIsUseless brilliant inventions having no impact on society]]), all the better. And then there's the job creation work he's planning, including work based on MundaneUtility. Basically, he's realized that persecuted minorities are more likely to commit crimes when they're persecuted (and thus poor). Finally, he's not above using financial influence to attack the economic base of his opponents:

** And Splendor of the Cadet Crusaders, a RichBitch who used daddy's money to buy herself power gems so she could be a superheroine. Yes, she hates She-Beast just that much.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce 2'': while you might have super-powers by default of ThePowerOfFriendship, if you want to go from "badass" to "''really'' badass", you need to fork over some Zennys. Board-sweeping landmines, HP increases, and even Giga Cards are available to those who equip the Zenny Finder weapon, track down a repeatable BonusBoss like Kung Foo Kyd or Cancer Bubble who's weak to their chosen element, and then kick them around many, many times.

Superheroes who don't live an "everyman" life often happen to be [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob millionaire playboys]] by inheritance to explain where they get their neverending supply of gadgets, hideouts, vehicles, and {{Sidekick}}s. Instead of (or, quite often, in addition to) donating money to charity, they've decided to give back to society by dressing themselves in spandex and buying [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys lasers and boomerangs]] with which to kick the ass of ne'er do wells. If they're a super-genius as well, this will be the result of patenting their brilliant inventions. [[ReedRichardsIsUseless But not anything that will effect lasting social change in the world, like a cure for cancer or an endless supply of food]], because then writers couldn't do very special issues to address political/social problems of the week.

Frequently, but not always, overlaps with BadassNormal or ClothesMakeTheSuperman. See also RichIdiotWithNoDayJob. Might include simply bribing the bad guys to stop, see CutLexLuthorACheck. Contrast MoneyIsNotPower, where a person's wealth won't help them at all. A subtrope of ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney Not to be confused with MoneyMauling where money is literally used as a weapon.

-->'''Mike''': [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob Because he doesn't have to get up and go to work in the morning like the rest of us!]]

* While they don't fight ''crime'' per se (please, don't give Haruhi ideas), the Espers in ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' have such limited situational powers that their real impact is how they're organized and can apparently pay for any event they want to happen. [[spoiler: Tsuruya's family seems to be one of their backers.]]

* Used in an astoundingly direct manner by Near in ''Manga/DeathNote''. Kira and Misa have him trapped in a building. The only way to escape is out the front door where he will be seen by Misa. In order to avoid being seen, he unleashes what appears to be a ton of cash from the top of the building. As the pedestrians go nuts trying to grab the money Near escapes unseen.

--->''Remember when we were teasing Ayla and we said someday someone would piss her off and she’d make a few phone calls, and suddenly the entire planet’s economy would strike back? Not so funny right now.''

* Sylia Stingray, founder and leader of ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis''' Knight Sabers. They never have to worry about money.

* This Trope gets [[ConversationalTroping Conversed]] in the ''Morning Patrol'' episode of ''Machinima/CivilProtection''.

* Used in an astoundingly direct manner by Near in ''Manga/DeathNote''. Kira and Misa have him trapped in a building. The only way to escape is out the front door where he will be seen by Misa. In order to avoid being seen he unleashes what appears to be a ton of cash from the top of the building. As the pedestrians go nuts trying to grab the money Near escapes unseen.
* Parodied in one ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' episode, where a rich girl who is being targeted for assassination, solves all of her problems with cash. In the end she even attempts to bribe some monster animal, who unfortunately ignores the money and eats her instead.

* The whole shtick behind ''Anime/TheMillionaireDetectiveBalanceUnlimited''. Daisuke Kambe uses the titular [[Fiction500 unlimited balance]] to do things like buy a building so it’s okay for him to launch gas rockets into it. Each episode ends with a tally of how much he’s blown over the course of the case.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'', Fred is the only member besides the robot Baymax who isn't a science/engineering major, so he doesn't has the skills to weaponize his tech. However, he comes from an extremely rich family, so besides from being the one who controls the firebreathing {{Kaiju}} suit, he supplies the money, materials, and a lab/workshop that's needed for the team.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': Has the protagonist Oliver Queen using his family's fortune to engineer high-tech gear in his crusade to fight crime. He can also take a less direct approach, such as using his wealth to buy a priceless jewel to serve as bait for a jewel thief.

* ''Series/{{Mantis}}'' was a short lived prime time crime fighter show on FOX centering around a wealthy robotics engineer who was left paraplegic after stopping a stray bullet when an armed robbery ended in a shootout with the police. He designed and prototyped [[SuperWheelchair a powered exoskeleton]] to restore his mobility, apparently in his free time, then realised the inherent potential for awesome that this represented and turned it into a suit of full-on PoweredArmor.

* Harold Finch of ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' is a genius-level programmer and hacker, who made [[ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount an obscene amount of money]] in his youth by inventing things like social networking; he now uses his crime-predicting Machine to [[WeHelpTheHelpless help the helpless]] and stop New York's criminal element. Notably, his attempts to fight crime purely with monetary resources didn't work, which is why he recruited [[BadassInANiceSuit Reese]] as a partner. Once the imminent threat is dealt with, he will often use his money to tie up loose ends by getting the victim a new job with one of his companies, or setting up the victim with a new life.

** Subverted in a prequel episode which shows Reese's predecessor as The Man in the Suit. Mr Dillinger is a highly-talented private security operative but because he's OnlyInItForTheMoney, no matter how much Finch is paying him, he's not being paid enough to get killed. After stumbling on a GovernmentConspiracy he decides to betray Finch, take the money and run, only to get assassinated [[DramaticIrony by a future member of Team Machine]].

* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Clark, despite all his powers always depends on a rich benefactor who pays the bills or use his contacts. First is Lex Luthor, second his father Lionel and finally Oliver Queen.

** Of course, pretty much any high level ''D&D'' character will be absolutely loaded down with magic items. It's all they ever really buy. In universe the party rogue might be a greedy hedonist, but you can bet his player isn't saving up for a mansion and a retinue of servants when there are more pluses to add to his gear. This is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d (like most gaming tropes) in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', when Roy explains that they ''can't'' stay in a fancy inn, because it would look suspicious; everyone knows that adventurers never splurge on luxuries, even when carrying around huge sacks of gold. You save it all for magic items.

** In 1st Edition, characters receive experience points based on the gold pieces they acquire during their adventures. Technically if your first level character stumbles upon a massive dragon's hoard of gold, he'll instantly become a powerful, high-level adventurer as well as richer than Croesus.

* During a ''{{TabletopGame/Pathfinder}}'' panel at PaizoCon 2015 discussing the new Vigilante class, an iconic called the "Gold Baron" was (jokingly) considered. The Gold Baron is a wealthy business owner with, of course, a secret identity. "By day, he employs them. By night, he robs them." The Gold Baron leaves half a copper piece on the bodies of his victims, and has various abilities that fit his style—for instance, clerics in Pathfinder have a "heal living/harm undead" positive energy burst, so the Gold Baron has a similar burst that heals the rich and harms the poor.
* While not actually a super hero game, ''TabletopGame/SpiritOfTheCentury'' allows characters with high Resources to buy awesome gadgets (though not so easily as a high Engineering character can make them) and anything else they desire (the upper end of the scale includes zeppelins and private islands, and character can reach it reliably on a given roll with a careful selection of stunts, or expenditure of fate points). Several Resources-based stunts expand on this.
** Any Fate Core supers game that doesn't change the default skill list is going to have this, because Resources is a skill. Ones that import Absolute stunts from the ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo Role-Playing Game'' can allow a character, with one Stunt, to make it so that any Overcome attempt made with Resources ''succeeds automatically''. No matter how much money they're asking, you have more.
* TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse has resident Batman {{Expy}} the Wraith aka Maia Montgomery who uses the money she gets as CEO of Montgomery Industries to fund her crime fighting activities. Notably, there is a limit to this as in the Miststorm Timeline she has to liquefy all her assets (and reveal her identity) in order to buy out the Freedom Five and pay for the costs of Absolute Zero's suit.
* In ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'', where literally all mages are pathologically obsessed, naturally there are Plutomancers whose obsession is cold, hard cash. For them, the acquisition of cash is one and the same with the acquisition of sorcerous power. Ironically, though, they CAN'T go about this trope the normal way-- ''spending'' any significant sum of money breaks their taboo and strips them of power.

** ''TabletopGame/RogueTrader'': Your characters are typically the titular Rogue Traders and are merchant princes or planetary nobility capable of owning whole solar systems. Barring a horrific financial crash or being a fallen house, when your character character goes to the market they roll to see what is available for them to buy, not what they can afford. This is because it's assumed that naturally almost everything except for huge fleets of space battleships is easily affordable to your character. You can easily afford multiple palaces, whether that planet has any available at the moment is another story. Since the vast majority of your enemies are lawless pirates, alien scum and evil cultists - you even fit the billing of crimefighting albeit mostly for your own sake.
** Inquisitors often have massive galactic bank accounts to call up on whenever they need to purchase something, and often have entire legions of stormtroopers, who are paid mercenaries specifically trained by an Inquisitor, to serve as their bodyguards. With their own authority, they can also claim ownership of anything they deem valuable enough for a mission (which, depending on the mission and the Inquisitor, can be anything). They are the not-so-secret police of the Imperium and are tasked with keeping the peace. It seems that an Inquisitor's funds comes directly from their own pocket, as they either own vast swathes of land on a planet (if not the planet outright) or have inherited it from their predecessor.

* Misedor from ''VideoGame/Disgaea6DefianceOfDestiny'' is an [[Fiction500 unfathomably rich]] human king who firmly believes the power of money is the greatest force of them all, but he laments the fact the hero he financed to defeat the God of Destruction gave up and turned into a mooch and that his kingly duties prevented him from being one himself. After his adventure with Zed, he realizes that he can just do the heroic deeds ''himself'', and refashions himself as "Hero King Misedor", who still uses money to solve his problems, but more proactively. It also extends to his special attacks, which shows him crushing his enemies using all kinds of expensive gold objects.

* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' lets you operate a keep which needs to be financed. You can either wait for its revenues to build up or spend your own money. Additionally, you can recruit one of your lieutenants by offering him double what he's being paid to attack you.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has a storyline with someone attempting a FalseFlagOperation, and the Toughs end up needing to buy a lot of self-driving scooters[[note]]And, for Schlock, a bunch of hammers.The Parks & Recreation truck with [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]] was just a happy bonus.[[/note]] to help provide 'close air support' to try to stop it:

* Phase, of the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', is only fourteen, still a freshman at [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]], and already doing this. He's paying Whateley inventors to build weapons for him, including a utility belt that has nearly zero external volume but is chock full of HammerSpace, a specialized throwing dart made out of ''depleted uranium'', and the latest thing is a collapsing tactical baton. Made out of adamantium. With osmium for weight in the tip. It cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Also more literally, as he is planning such things as courses in marketing and patent law to allow inventors (as opposed to corporations) to profit from their work. Apparently, many villainous gageteers are [[CutLexLuthorACheck just in it for the money]], so he reasons that if he can make their work both profitable and beneficial, most would rather put in an honest day's work rather than put on a mask and rob banks; if it makes a difference in their customers' lives as well (i.e., averting the problem of [[ReedRichardsIsUseless brilliant inventions having no impact on society]]), all the better. And then there's the job creation work he's planning, including work based on MundaneUtility. Basically, he's realized that persecuted minorities are more likely to commit crimes when they're persecuted (and thus poor). Finally, he's not above using financial influence to attack the economic base of his opponents:

* Xander Crews (a.k.a. Awesome X) of ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo'' is a decided sendup of this type of hero. When someone points argues that he's not a superhero because he doesn't have any powers, Crews claims that being able to manage his team of super-mercenaries (the Xtacles) counts as a power.

Frequently, but not always, overlaps with BadassNormal or ClothesMakeTheSuperman. See also RichIdiotWithNoDayJob. Might include simply bribing the bad guys to stop, see CutLexLuthorACheck. Contrast MoneyIsNotPower, where a person's wealth won't help them at all. A subtrope of ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney

** ''TabletopGame/RogueTrader'' takes this UpToEleven. Your characters are typically the titular Rogue Traders and are merchant princes or planetary nobility capable of owning whole solar systems. Barring a horrific financial crash or being a fallen house, when your character character goes to the market they roll to see what is available for them to buy, not what they can afford. This is because it's assumed that naturally almost everything except for huge fleets of space battleships is easily affordable to your character. You can easily afford multiple palaces, whether that planet has any available at the moment is another story. Since the vast majority of your enemies are lawless pirates, alien scum and evil cultists - you even fit the billing of crimefighting albeit mostly for your own sake.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''

** Another time he pays thousands of dollars for a stolen laptop because it is faster and easier than forcing a man to tell them where it is. It also means that the seller will leave town immediately and thus Finch and Reese do not have to protect him from the vicious gangsters who also after the laptop.

[[folder:Comic Books -- DC]]
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' is the UrExample.
** In a humorous variation, Batman has also used his fortune to simply bribe the villains to stop whatever it is they're doing. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Arguably the best moment]] came in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', when the Ultra-Humanite agreed to betray the rest of the villains after Batman offered to pay double what Lex Luthor was paying him, which he uses to make [[ViewersLikeYou a huge donation to American public broadcasting.]] Unlike the rest of the villains, who were all shown to be in a bad mood in jail at the end of the episode (especially Luthor, who is ''really'' pissed in the cell next to him), the Ultra-Humanite was happy and content as [[LuxuryPrisonSuite classical music was piped into his cell.]]
*** In an issue of ''Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}'' he managed to get mercenary villain-team-member Mirror Master over to his side simply by offering him a raise over what ComicBook/LexLuthor was paying (along with a sizeable donation to the orphanage where Mirror Master grew up).
*** Bruce is also a subversion as it is shown numerous times that he also uses his cash to give to charity a lot, and when he's not crimefighting, training, or bonding with other crimefighters, he's doing charity work through his Wayne Foundation, which has Lucius Fox handling the details about a charity that addresses social problems encouraging crime as well as helping the victims. It is amazing to note that he built up a reputation for being somewhat of a reclusive lazy playboy despite the fact that he is arguably the worst workaholic on the planet. Then again, [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob this is wholly intentional on Bruce's part]].
*** This trope has also been deconstructed with Batman in stories where he has lost his wealth or access to it. The loss does impact him and limit his effectiveness though he is resourceful enough to make do with just his wits and skills. Though without his wealth, he would never have been able to acquire said knowledge and skills in the first place.
*** The 2017 film ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'', has him quite bluntly noting this to a curious Barry Allen:
---->'''Barry''': ...what are your superpowers, again?\\
'''Bruce''': I'm rich.
*** In ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', Bruce brings $25,000 in cash with him to a remote village in Iceland ''just for information'' about Aquaman's whereabouts in order to recruit him into the Justice League.
** Bruce isn't alone with this. His kids have taken after him. At one point in ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'', Dick convinced Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} to drop an assassination contract by paying his fee plus a dollar. Deathstroke dropped it just because of Nightwing's balls.
*** Dick Grayson has enough money to finance his crimefighting career, buy out the circus he used to perform in, save it from financial ruin, and tweak the formula enough to turn it into a success. He also takes on various real-world jobs from time-to time (Such as being a cop), not because he has to, but because he has enough money that it ''doesn't matter'' what he does during the day and so he does whatever the hell he feels like.
*** Of course, this comes to a head during the New 52, where thanks to the devastation of ''ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily'' and ComicBook/TheJoker, Nightwing spends a good part of his stay in Chicago (relatively) dirt poor--and thanks to the demolition of the Bat Family's trust of each other and personal pride, he pointedly refused to ask Bruce for financial help.
** As of [[ComicBook/NightwingInfiniteFrontier Infinite Frontier]], Nightwing discovered that he was the sole heir to the estate of the recently deceased Alfred Pennyworth who, thanks to some shrewd investments, left him with billions. He is now devoting the bulk of his newfound fortune to rebuilding Bludhaven by establishing the Alfred Pennyworth Foundation.
** In ''ComicBook/RobinSonOfBatman'', Damian pays Deathstroke off so that he'll leave his new teammate, Maya, alone.
** If Robin is to be believed, just the "Batarang budget" is large enough that he can hide the costs of secretly shipping a Batmobile across the country within it. And probably pay for the car itself as well.
* ComicBook/GreenArrow often fits into this too. His fortune is mostly limited to developing new {{Trick Arrow}}s. And even then, he's regularly just using the normal pointy kind.
** His origin story revolves around being rich enough to have fallen off a yacht (though apparently, not rich enough to have anyone come looking for him for months).
*** [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob Another advantage to wealth:]] In one story from the forties, a bankrupt Green Arrow had to find a job and restrict his crime-fighting to lunch breaks.
** To make the character fit the mold of a social crusader he wanted in the 1970s, Denny O'Neil wrote a story where the person charged with running Oliver Queen's corporation embezzled the money from it, leaving Arrow penniless. He spent most of the rest of his tenure middle class or worse until he was killed in the mid 90s. There's no evidence he left anything to his son Connor, though he had enough to have The Shade cover his tracks after his death.
** After being resurrected, Green Arrow was left a house and a tidy sum of money at the end of the "Quiver" storyline by Kevin Smith.
** Prior to ''Flashpoint'', it appears that Arrow's civilian identity (Oliver Queen) is a well-respected philanthropist. He had enough money to run for mayor of his city, and financial resources to rebuild his home/headquarters after it was blown up around the time of ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''. Before ''[[Comicbook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice Cry for Justice]]'' at least Oliver Queen was established to have taken the "millions" of dollars he got from Stanley Dover's will and through investment, especially his market manipulations, to have become significantly wealthier, hundreds of millions to low billions range is probably what we should assume Ollie has access to.
** The Comicbook/{{New 52}} version of Green Arrow was running an Apple-like subsidiary of Queen Industries (Q-Core) and had a number of trick arrows and a high-tech base. ''Comicbook/GreenArrowRebirth'' runs a version of the embezzlement storyline to get him hiding in the woods without a penny to his name [[spoiler: and a murder charge hanging over him]].
* Most Excellent Superbat, leader of the ComicBook/SuperYoungTeam (who first appeared in Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''), takes this trope quite literally, as seen in the picture above. To quote Superbat himself, "Let me show you what money ''unleashed'' can do!". In the conclusion of his team's mini (''ComicBook/FinalCrisisAftermath: Dance''), he repaired the damage Final Crisis did to Japan [[spoiler:by BUYING the country!]] And of course the Super Young Team as a whole gets by mainly on his extremely ridiculous wealth.
* The second ''ComicBook/BlueBeetle'', Ted Kord, was occasionally rich enough to fall into this trope.
* Princess Projectra was this in the "threeboot" of the ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' until her planet blew up and she got her parents' illusion powers.
* Steve Dayton, aka Mento, of the ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol''. He bought his superpowers.
* Nite Owl II from ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' is a deconstruction of this trope, at one point [[LampshadeHanging openly admitting]] how spending millions on dollars on crimebusting equipment to fight purse-snatchers and prostitutes isn't exactly the most economically sound thing to do. Which is why Ozymandias decides to take it to the next level by [[spoiler: actually deciding to save the world with all the money he has]]. Sort of.
* The short-lived Comicbook/{{New 52}} series ''ComicBook/TheGreenTeam'' was all about this trope. It starred teenage trillionaires who purchase gadgets and superpowers, although most of the crimefighting was reluctant on their part.
* Deconstructed in ''Comicbook/MarshalLaw'': the Private Eye (a Batman expy) battles crime with his genetic enhancements and family fortune funded equipment. [[spoiler: But the real reason he's fighting crime is to lash out at his parents using him as a guinea pig and make sure that no one can take away his wealth after he had his parents murdered. And his crime-fighting methods are so brutal, that violent crime has actually gone up significantly]]

[[folder:Comic Books -- Marvel]]
* ComicBook/IronMan is the poster child for this in the Marvel Universe. He also provides ComicBook/TheAvengers and many other superheroes with financial assistance or expensive resources whenever they need it. Which is often (it sometimes seemed that the Avengers couldn't go more than a couple issues without someone throwing out the line "Tony Stark will pay for that!" to an irate citizen whose property had been damaged). To the point where it was kind of a big deal when Stark's finances were once impacted enough that he couldn't afford to simply finance the ComicBook/NewAvengers. He couldn't, for example, pay the salaries he had previously paid to team members. He also has lost and regained his fortune several times.
* ComicBook/KateBishop, back when the ComicBook/YoungAvengers were just starting out. At the end of the first arc, she sets the team up in a run-down building owned by her family's business and uses a few connections in the fashion industry to replace their ruined costumes (or, in her case, just make one). She's moved away from this since then, however, and as of 2017 her father is being built up as one of her ''enemies''.
* To a lesser extent, the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' are a rare superpowered example, living in a penthouse apartment and funded by the proceeds from Reed Richards's patents. It's debatable whether they count or not as they primarily use their super powers to fight crime, and their money to support charities and advance science. They do use some expensive gear like the Fantasticar, and dimensional teleporters. Oh and they have a robot. On at least one occasion (following an abortive counter-invasion of Latveria) the Fantastic Four lost everything. It barely took Reed any time at all to file enough patents to make their entire fortune back.
* [[Comicbook/ProfessorX Professor Xavier]], founder and mentor of the Comicbook/XMen, can't always directly fight crime (paraplegia is a bitch that way), but he still uses his mountains of cash to [[DangerRoomColdOpen help his students do so]]. Well, that and his absolutely immense amount of PsychicPowers, anyway.
** One such student, Angel/Archangel, has enough money that he wouldn't need the Professor's, though he's seldom seen to use his resources to create gadgets, etc. However, when he was a solo hero, he ''did'' have that stun pellet gun. He once solved the problem of Vanisher developing and selling a dangerous drug by simply buying out his company. During his time away from the X-Men, he's also funded the other teams he's been a part of, most notably the New Defenders, Uncanny X-Force and the original Champions.
** As Xavier's "strongest telepath in the world" title often tends to fall into the murky realms of InformedAbility, one could argue that his deep pockets are in fact his ''primary'' superpower, with his actual telepathy being a "secondary mutation" as they are called in the X-books. Indeed, Xavier's ridiculous and improbable (it's never quite explained ''where'' all his money comes from, except with the occasional HandWave that the Xavier family is OldMoney) wealth is even lampshaded in-universe, with the loner character Dr. Nemesis initially turning down an offer to join the X-Men because "I won't be bought out by you dilettantes with your bottomless bank accounts."
* Sunspot of the Comicbook/NewMutants recently did this after Comicbook/SecretWars2015. He is fantastically rich, owning a Brazilian TV network and a large chunk of the land. So he easily had enough money to buy out the science crime organization AIM (these are the guys whose past projects include making the Cosmic Cube, Super-Adaptoid and Comicbook/{{MODOK}}) after he realized that they'd be more than happy to turn their science to benevolent aims so long as they have the money and not get assaulted by mutants, super-soldiers and/or sociopathic vigilantes. He ran as one of his own enterprises as well as a personal HQ and scientific think-tank (he has no brains for mad science so he used theirs) for the Comicbook/NewAvengers2015 and the Comicbook/USAvengers.
* ComicBook/XFactor saw a similar episode to the one above about The Juggernaut. A mercenary who was already shown to be as tough as the team walked into a hospital to take out a target. Havoc walks up looking to join the fight only to pull out his checkbook (government account) and end the confrontation rather than level the hospital.
* ComicBook/ThePunisher fits into this in a way. While he doesn't really have any huge reserves of cash, he doesn't mind [[KarmicThief appropriating]] any loose change from the criminals he kills and using it to finance his continuing war on them. Since some of the criminals in question are wealthy mob bosses and the like, this sometimes comes to a significant haul. In addition to their money, he also appropriates their weapons, vehicles, and any other portable goods that might be of any value to him, which cuts down significantly on his overhead costs.
* Danny Rand, Marvel's Comicbook/IronFist, is a glorious aversion. He's a billionaire superhero whose crimefighting has almost ''nothing'' to do with his being a billionaire: he's the heir to the Iron Fist, a set of martial arts based abilities. Not only do these require no financial resources whatsoever, he's best known as being, along with ComicBook/LukeCage, one of the core [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Heroes for Hire]]. Similar to Batman, Danny gives huge amounts of money to charity. A recent development in his book is that he's converted Rand International solely into a charitable organization, which he intends to run until he's "Able to die poor."
* The civilian identity (well, one of them, at any rate) of the B-list Marvel hero Comicbook/MoonKnight is that of a wealthy businessman who owns and operates his own corporation, the money from which he uses to [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys pay for all the fancy weapons and other devices he uses in his war on crime.]] Unfortunately, he is what you call "cash poor"; he has wealth but getting a significant portion in cash on short notice is harder than he anticipated when he was facing a ransom demand.
* The only reason that the ''ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers'' were able to survive (up until their official status) as a superteam was via Big Bertha's superpower: her ability to control her body shape. Crimefighting, she grows huge and strong enough to bounce bullets and semis. Day job? Supermodel.
* Kyle Richmond, also known as the superhero Nighthawk, uses his vast fortune to sponsor ComicBook/TheDefenders, a second-tier team of heroes. As just one example, when Luke Cage complains that his helping the Defenders is taking away time from his paying work, Richmond offers to put him on retainer and pay him a salary to stay with the team, an offer which Cage cheerfully accepts.
* Night Thrasher from the ComicBook/NewWarriors, who is in many ways a [[YoungerAndHipper teenage]] AlternateCompanyEquivalent of Batman.
* ComicBook/BlackPanther may have inherited his powers, but his incredible wealth and political power are some of his greatest advantages in crime fighting.
* Inverted with the ''ComicBook/XMen'' character Arcade, an obscenely wealthy NightmareFetishist who uses his vast resources to become a super-''villain'' ForTheEvulz. Ostensibly, he's a ProfessionalKiller, but his [[AmusementParkOfDoom Murderworlds]] cost so much to build and maintain that -- even at a standard fee of $1 million a hit -- he never turns a profit. He took it UpToEleven in the ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' series, in which he bankrolled the creation of a Murderworld the size of a small country in Antarctica, in which [[ClarkesThirdLaw ultra-high-tech devices]] granted him RealityWarper powers on the premises.
* Another inversion is the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' villain Angelo Fortunato, a wannabe DaddysLittleVillain whose mobster father bought him the ComicBook/{{Venom}} symbiote outright during a period when it was separated from its usual host, Eddie Brock. Don Fortunato intended for his son to make a name for himself, but unlike Arcade above, Angelo couldn't even rise to supervillainy and was ultimately abandoned in midair when the symbiote judged him as too weak to be its host, leading him to fall to his death.
* In one issue of ''Comicbook/{{Excalibur}}'', ComicBook/CaptainBritain proved that the only thing that could stop the Juggernaut...was a check bigger than the one he was expecting from his "client".

[[folder:Comic Books -- Other]]
* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes''
** Manticore. The "charities" part was lampshaded in one of the comics, where he notes that he feels guilty every time one of his {{Trick Arrow}}s misses and a couple thousand bucks that "could have fed and clothed a whole village in Ethiopia" goes down the drain. Though to be fair, in that same comic arc, he mentions that he donates a very large portion (assumed to be about fifty percent or so based on the evidence) to charity...he just feels guilty that he's not donating ''more''.
** This goes into overdrive with Wyvern and Longbow, ''large armies'' funded by Manticore and other major heroes and hero groups. There are a few magical or mutated superpowers spread throughout them, but the majority are just normal people.
** Black Scorpion and most Arachnos Crab Spiders are the villainous version of this; they have no normal powers, but what money and equipment they get access to. They're less about crimefighting, though.
* ''ComicBook/TheMetabarons'': While the titular characters seldom fight something as petty as crime (though Aghora and No-Name got some of their training by executing in melee, thousands of the scummiest criminals in prison per day) and most of them have godlike powers, they make heavy use of the money received from royalties for selling their homeworld and the mercenary work they do - including having enhancing bionics, a huge arsenal, a giant space fortress and dimension-travelling starfighter they designed themselves.
* The Revenant is the Batman [[{{Expy}} analog]] in the comic ''ComicBook/PS238''. At one point he muses "I sometimes think access to cash is the greatest superpower of all".
* ComicBook/RichieRich (although usually, in his titles, trouble comes to him, rather than him looking for trouble).

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' fic ''Fanfic/CrimsonRising'', Aaron Collins and Anton Mercer- the fathers of Red [[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Time Force]] Ranger Wes Collins and White [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder Dino Thunder]] Ranger Trent Fernandez respectively- provide important aid in setting up an emergency base for the Rangers after they find themselves hunted by Sector Nine, a government organisation created to monitor the Rangers that now seeks to control them under the authority of the ruthless General Gorbin. The two men also provide suitable financial resources for those Rangers facing work difficulties after their identities went public once the crisis is over, such as buying a recording studio so that Tanya and Kira can continue their music careers, funding Adam’s legal campaign to regain control of his dojo, or altering the birth certificate of Kat’s son to list Billy as his father rather than Kat's abusive ex-husband Malcolm Renaldi.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'', Fred is the only member besides the robot Baymax who isn't a science/engineering major, so he doesn't has the skills to weaponize his tech. However, he comes from an extremely rich family, so besides from being the one who controls the firebreathing {{Kaiju}} suit, he supplies the money, materials, and a lab/workshop that's needed for the team.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/KickAss'', Red Mist is essentially this - his CoolCar and so forth are paid for by his father. Hit Girl and Big Daddy aren't independently rich, but they supplement their income with stolen mob money, which is extensive enough to have a WallOfWeapons in their safehouse (including a bazooka) and offshore accounts with millions of dollars in reserve.
* In ''Film/MysteryMen'' (1999), a deliberate parody of superhero tropes, [[CorporateSponsoredSuperhero Lance Hunt]] pretends to be the millionaire benefactor of Captain Amazing when he is actually himself Captain Amazing. This character also fits the CorruptCorporateExecutive trope, as it's implied that he made a lot of his money with advertising. Basically, imagine a UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} racer fighting crime.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* OlderThanTheyThink example: in ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', while tracking down the Count, the private fortunes of the Harkers, Dr. Seward, Quincey Morris, and especially Arthur Holmwood (being, respectively, a partner of a law firm and sole inheritor of the estate of the other partner, a physician and sole owner of a mansion which he converted to an insane asylum, an American entrepreneur who regularly travels the world, and a British lord) are used to rapidly equip the entire party with whatever tools they need nearly instantaneously, as well as fund several necessary bribes both in England and abroad. At one point in the novel, Mina lampshades the incredible utility of cold, hard cash.
* The spoof guidebook ''Literature/HowToBeASuperhero'' features an example of a character who ''literally'' crimefights with cash; he offers the BigBad's {{mooks}} higher wages, paid vacations, and [[SignedUpForTheDental a health plan]], then orders them to beat up their former boss.
* Charles Adair from ''Literature/SuperPowereds''. While he doesn't actually go into the field, he manages to bring down most of the Sons of Progress by bankrolling them and then tracking the money and offering anonymous tips to the Heroes.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' places you in charge of [[AnEntrepreneurIsYou organizing a shopping district]] called Join Avenue. Some of the shops you can sponsor there sell rare and useful items, others sell high-price VendorTrash for a significant markdown, and still others provide services that improve your Pokemon's stats and/or levels. Read that last one again: Some of the Join Avenue shops ''straight-up sell EV and level training for your Pokemon!''

* The Magic Armor from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', especially when combined with the infinite rupees reward from [[ThatOneSidequest Jovani]] and the wallet upgrades, turns Link into one of these. Granting invincibility at the cost of 2 rupees per second and 12 rupees every time you're hit, you're basically able to [[NoSell unleash]] the [[Franchise/TheTerminator Terminator]] on any threat without getting a scratch on you. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker HD]]'' offers a similar setup, albeit without as easy a source of unlimited cash to keep it running.

---->'''Barry''': ...what are your superpowers, again?
---->'''Bruce''': I'm rich.

** If [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]] is to be believed, just the "Batarang budget" is large enough that he can hide the costs of secretly shipping a Batmobile across the country within it. And probably pay for the car itself as well.

* While the Metabarons from ''Comicbook/TheMetabarons'' seldom fight something as petty as crime (though Aghora and No-Name got some of their training by executing in melee, thousands of the scummiest criminals in prison per day) and most of them have godlike powers, they make heavy use of the money received from royalties for selling their homeworld and the mercenary work they do - including having enhancing bionics, a huge arsenal, a giant space fortress and dimension-travelling starfighter they designed themselves.
* The Revenant is the Batman [[{{Expy}} analog]] in the comic ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}''. At one point he muses "I sometimes think access to cash is the greatest superpower of all".

[[folder:Fanfic]]

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': One of the perks of being a best-selling novelist like Richard Castle is that he can sometimes use his money and/or fame to get to witnesses and evidence faster than a court order.

* In the animated version of ''Comicbook/WildCATs'', when the team itself was temporarily unavailable and with no evidence strong enough to bring the government in to stop the Daemonites, their corporate sponsor, Jacob Marlowe crippled the villain's plan by figuring out what highway the enemies were going to have to travel down, buying it, and turning it into a toll road (somehow managing to do this in one night). When the Daemonite transport [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking runs the tollbooth without paying]], this provides him with the evidence he needs to bring the government down on them. In the series finale, he discovers that the Daemonites had acquired a nuclear missile and were transporting it cross country to kill the heroes. He starts by having shrapnel and debris scattered across the road and then had his company buy all the truck tires in the area. The truck blows its tires and then has to wait for replacements. Then he proceeds to buy the inventory of all the gas stations in the area, leaving the truck desperate for fuel. When the Daemonites ''finally'' overcome these obstacles and launch the missile, Marlowe '''then''' buys out a competitor's entire company (using some highly illegal market manipulations) for the sole purpose of being able to order the pilot of said competitor's private jet to intercept the missile.

* Princess Projectra was this in the "threeboot" of the ''Comicbook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' until her planet blew up and she got her parents' illusion powers.

Superheroes who don't live an "everyman" life often happen to be [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob millionaire playboys]] by inheritance to explain where they get their neverending supply of gadgets, hideouts, vehicles, and {{Sidekick}}s. Instead of donating money to charity, they've decided to give back to society by dressing themselves in spandex and buying [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys lasers and boomerangs]] with which to kick the ass of ne'er do wells. If they're a super-genius as well, this will be the result of patenting their brilliant inventions. [[ReedRichardsIsUseless But not anything that will effect lasting social change in the world, like a cure for cancer or an endless supply of food]], because then writers couldn't do very special issues to address political/social problems of the week.

* Danny Rand, Marvel's [[ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist]], is a glorious aversion. He's a billionaire superhero whose crimefighting has almost ''nothing'' to do with his being a billionaire: he's the heir to the Iron Fist, a set of martial arts based abilities. Not only do these require no financial resources whatsoever, he's best known as being, along with ComicBook/LukeCage, one of the core [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Heroes for Hire]]. Similar to Batman, Danny gives huge amounts of money to charity. A recent development in his book is that he's converted Rand International solely into a charitable organization, which he intends to run until he's "Able to die poor."

* Danny Rand, Marvel's [[ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist]], is a glorious aversion. He's a billionaire superhero whose crimefighting has almost ''nothing'' to do with his being a billionaire: he's the heir to the Iron Fist, a set of martial arts based abilities. Not only do these require no financial resources whatsoever, he's best known as being, along with Comicbook/{{Luke Cage|HeroForHire}}, one of the core [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Heroes for Hire]]. Similar to Batman, Danny gives huge amounts of money to charity. A recent development in his book is that he's converted Rand International solely into a charitable organization, which he intends to run until he's "Able to die poor."