History Main / HistorysCrimeWave

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History's Crime Wave is when historical villains - criminals or tyrants - are used in a work of fiction. This may involve HistoricalVillainUpgrade. The villains don't have to be on Earth; they just have to be historical, though this can also extend to mythological villains.

See also JuryOfTheDamned, ArchivedArmy and ArmyOfTheAges. HistoricalRapSheet is similar, but it need not involve real figures, and may instead attribute real ''events'' to ''fictional'' figures.

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* One version of the Lethal Legion, fought by the ''[[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers West Coast]]'', was made by the Demon Satannish ressurecting four dead criminals and giving them powers. They were

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* The "encores" in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' season 5 are historic villains revived by Astra. Mostly they reappear shortly after their death, and the Legends [[TimeTravel go to them]], but in "Mortal Khanbat" Genghis Khan spent centuries making his way out of his tomb, and emerged in the 1990s, and in "The Great British Fake-Off", UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, Bonnie and Clyde, [[UsefulNotes/MarcusJuniusBrutus Brutus]], UsefulNotes/HenryVIII and the pirate Black Caesar are all brought to 1910 by Lachesis.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** An earlier Halloween episode had Satan [[PlayingAgainstType (Flanders)]] put Homer on trial before his "JuryOfTheDamned": Benedict Arnold, Lizzie Borden, Richard Nixon [[note]] who, ironically, at the time [[FunnyAneurysmMoment would not die until several months later]] [[/note]], John Wilkes Booth, Blackbeard, John Dillinger...and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the starting lineup of the 1976 Philadelphia Fliers]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1967'' series, a villain from an earlier episode, the Waxmaster Parafino, makes Wax Robots (?) of 'History's Greatest Villains. UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}, UsefulNotes/JesseJames and 'the Executioner of Paris' (?) are used, though waxworks of a masked man with a dagger, and a rich-looking man are seen.

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown''; In "The Sands of Time", Jack Spicer uses a time-travel Shen Gong Wu to assemble a team of history's villains to help him conquer the world; UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}, Billy the Kid, [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and Mrs. Cornhaven, his old school teacher.]]

* The "encores" in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' season 5 are historic villains revived by Astra. Mostly they reappear shortly after their death, and the Legends [[TimeTravel go to them]], but in "Mortal Khanbat" Genghis Khan spent centuries making his way out of his tomb, and emerged in the 1990s, and in "The Great British Fake-Off", Jack the Ripper, Bonnie and Clyde, Brutus, Henry VIII and the pirate Black Caesar are all brought to 1910 by Lachesis.

See also JuryOfTheDamned and ArmyOfTheAges. HistoricalRapSheet is similar, but it need not involve real figures, and may instead attribute real ''events'' to ''fictional'' figures.

* The "encores" in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' season 5 are historic villains revived by Astra. Mostly they reappear shortly after their death, and the Legends [[TimeTravel go to them]], but in "Mortal Khanbat" Genghis Khan spent centuries making his way out of his tomb, and emerged in the 1990s, and in "The Great British Fake-Off", Jack the Ripper, Bonnie and Clyde, Brutus, Henry VIII and the pirate Black Caesar are all brought forward to 1910 by Lachesis.

* Inverted in ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}''; as a boy, Supreme was a member of the League of Infinity, which is comprised of heroes from history (some folkloric, some real, some made up by the comic). Uh, and they're all teenagers. Its eclectic membership includes Kid Achilles, a young Wild Bill Hickok, famed strategist Chu-Ko Liang, Mata Hari, mad scientist Wilhelm Reich, Aladdin, mutant caveman Giganthro, Witch Wench, the Germanic swordsman Siegfried, and team leader Zayla "Future Girl" Zarn. Their opposite number the League of Infamy presumably play this straight

* Inverted in ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}''; as a boy, Supreme was a member of the League of Infinity, which is comprised of heroes from history (some folkloric, some real, some made up by the comic). Uh, and they're all teenagers. Its eclectic membership includes Kid Achilles, a young Wild Bill Hickok, famed strategist Chu-Ko Liang, Mata Hari, mad scientist Wilhelm Reich, Aladdin, mutant caveman Giganthro, Witch Wench, the Germanic swordsman Siegfried, and team leader Zayla "Future Girl" Zarn.
* In a way ComicBook/VandalSavage as he has been many historical characters, like Caesar, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper.

* The "encores" in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' season 5 are historic villains revived by Astra. Mostly they reappear shortly after their death, and the Legends [[TimeTravel go to them]], but in "Mortal Khanbat" Genghis Khan spent centuries making his way out of his tomb, and emerged in the 1990s, and in "The Great British Fake-Off", Jack the Ripper, Bonnie and Clyde, Brutus, Henry VIII and the pirate Black Caesar are all brought forward to 1910 by Lachesis.

* The "encores" in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' season 5 are historic villains revived by Astra. Mostly they reappear shortly after their death, and the Legends [[TimeTravel go to them]], but in "Mortal Khambat" Genghis Khan spent centuries making his way out of his tomb, and emerged in the 1990s, and in "The Great British Fake-Off", Jack the Ripper, Bonnie and Clyde, Brutus, Henry VIII and the pirate Black Caesar are all brought forward to 1910 by Lachesis.

* The TropeNamer is in ''ComicBook/AllStarComics'' #38 where the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica investigate Gotham City murders claimed to be performed by historical villains. Though they turn out to be the disguises of an insane wax museum guard, he succeeds in killing every member in the issue except ComicBook/WonderWoman, who has to use the purple ray to bring them back to life. The villains are UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, Goliath, Captain Kidd, Cesare Borgia, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun.

* The [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] villain Ibac could be considered a type of this trope. Lucifer gave a crook the ability to turn into Ibac, with the powers of Ivan the Terrible, Borgia, UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun and UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}. (Note that Ibac's name, like Shazam's, is an acronym of those four's first initials.) This doesn't explain how he gains enormous strength and durability, considering that logically he should only be about as strong as several men.

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown''; In "The Sands of Time", Jack Spicer uses a time-travel Shen Gong Wu to assemble a team of history's villains to help him conquer the world; UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}, Billy the Kid, [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and Mrs. Cornhaven, his old school teacher.]]

* In the ''Series/LoisAndClark'' episode "That Old Gang of Mine", MadScientist Emil Hamilton creates [[CloningBlues clones]] of Al Capone, John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde to demonstrate that evil is not InTheBlood. It doesn't work out that way. (There was a comic book storyline at around the same time that may have been the inspiration, but it used fictional gangsters.)

* In ''Knight and Squire'' #3, UsefulNotes/RichardIII is resurrected and he proceeds to resurrect England's other 'bad' kings: [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy William II]], [[UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland John]], [[UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst Edward I]], and UsefulNotes/CharlesI. The monarchs are granted genetically enhanced superpowers and each leads a criminal army to take over a different part of the UK.

See also JuryOfTheDamned and ArmyOfTheAges.

* The [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] villain Ibac could be considered a type of this trope. Lucifer gave a crook the ability to turn into Ibac, with the powers of UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible, Borgia, UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun and UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}. This doesn't explain how he gains enormous strength and durability, considering that logically he should only be about as strong as several men.

** "Meltdown" has the crew encounter a "wax-droid" museum planet, where the wax-droids have become self-aware, and the "Good" and "Bad" characters have gone to war. The "Bad" characters include Hitler, Caligula, UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk, Richard the III, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking jazz musician]] [[TakeThat James Last]].

* The [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] villain Ibac could be considered a type of this trope. Lucifer gave a crook the ability to turn into Ibac, with the powers of UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible, Borgia, UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun and UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}. This doesn't explain how he gains enormous strength and durability.

* The TropeNamer is in ''All-Star Comics'' #38 where the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica investigate Gotham City murders claimed to be performed by historical villains. Though they turn out to be the disguises of an insane wax museum guard, he succeeds in killing every member in the issue except ComicBook/WonderWoman, who has to use the purple ray to bring them back to life. The villains are UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, Goliath, Captain Kidd, Cesare Borgia, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun.

** One ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' had UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid leading a gang of historical villains, including the most evil German in history -- Kaiser Wilhelm II!

** One ''Treehouse of Horror'' had UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid leading a gang of historical villains, including the most evil German in history -- Kaiser Wilhelm II!

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* ''Leading Comics'' #3 has the Seven Soldiers of Victory working against Dr Doome (not Victor) who has used a time machine to summon up the Time Tyrants, UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun.
* The TropeNamer is in ''All-Star Comics'' #38 where the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica investigate Gotham City murders claimed to be performed by historical villains. Though they turn out to be the disguises of an insane wax museum guard, he succeeds in killing every member in the issue except ComicBook/WonderWoman, who has to use the purple ray to bring them back to life. The villains are UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, Goliath, Captain Kidd, Cesare Borgia, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun.
* The [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] villain Ibac could be considered a type of this trope. Lucifer gave a crook the ability to turn into Ibac, with the powers of UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible, Borgia, UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun and UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}. This doesn't explain how he gains enormous strength and durability.
* In one ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' comic he goes to the demon Mephisto's realm and encounters a group of villains.

* In a way ComicBook/VandalSavage as he has been many historical characters, like Caesar, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper.
* Inverted in ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}''; as a boy, Supreme was a member of the League of Infinity, which is comprised of heroes from history (some folkloric, some real, some made up by the comic). Uh, and they're all teenagers. Its eclectic membership includes Kid Achilles, a young Wild Bill Hickok, famed strategist Chu-Ko Liang, Mata Hari, mad scientist Wilhelm Reich, Aladdin, mutant caveman Giganthro, Witch Wench, the Germanic swordsman Siegfried, and team leader Zayla "Future Girl" Zarn.
* ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes: In ''Adventure Comics'' #314, a villain called Alaktor recruits history's three greatest villains (UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, and ... John Dillinger) to take on the Legion. Apparently Alaktor considers bank robbery to be equal to mass genocide.

* In ''Knight and Squire'' #3, UsefulNotes/RichardIII is resurrected and he proceeds to resurrect England's other 'bad' kings: [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy William II]], [[UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland John]], [[UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst Edward I]], and UsefulNotes/CharlesI. The monarchs are granted genetically enhanced superpowers and each leads a criminal army to take over a different part of the UK.

* ''Film/NightAtTheMuseumBattleOfTheSmithsonian'' - The fictional Kahmenrah forms an "Axis of Evil" with Ivan the Terrible, Napoléon Bonaparte, and Al Capone, while also rejecting [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] and [[Series/SesameStreet Oscar the Grouch]].

* Possibly the oldest example is in ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' as Odysseus goes to the Underworld and sees mythological villains being punished for their crimes, like the trickster Sisyphus, the husband-murdering daughters of Danaë, and the cannibalistic Tantalus.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
** There's an odd InUniverse example when the Excalbians create duplicates of various criminals who are "historical monsters" from the perspective of the ''Enterprise'' crew, with Genghis Khan the only real-world historical "villain," and set them against a group of Historical Heroes, of whom the only real-world counterpart is Abe Lincoln.
** Another episode offers an [[InvertedTrope Inversion]] in which another bunch of aliens create psychic images of the Earps and Doc Holliday, popularly remembered as the ''heroes'' of the OK Corral gunfight, and put Kirk and his landing party in the roles of the "villainous" Clantons and [=McLowrys=].

* ''Series/KamenRiderX'' has a variation, where the NebulousEvilOrganisation G.O.D. has the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Villan Monsters]], made by combining animal DNA with the DNA of historical figures. However, their list is all over the place: while it includes a few recognized villains like Al Capone, Genghis Khan, and Adolf Hitler (who resulted in the [[MemeticMutation memetic]] Starfish Hitler), it also includes figures who were more ambiguous (UsefulNotes/IshikawaGoemon, Geronimo), completely unremarkable ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Ogle Benjamin Ogle]]), and some who were just straight-up fictional (Dracula, Arsene Lupin).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1967'' series, a villain from an earlier episode, the Waxmaster Parafino, makes Wax Robots (?) of 'History's Greatest Villains. UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}, UsefulNotes/JesseJames and 'the Executioner of Paris' (?) are used, though waxworks of a masked man with a dagger, and a rich-looking man are seen.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'' featured a team of historical bad guys, including Black Bart and UsefulNotes/LizzieBorden.

* The "House of Villains" episode of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' could be considered this in-universe, since many of the Disney villains are either dead or presumed dead in their own continuities - unless, of course, you buy the AnimatedActors hypothesis.

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* A TomeOfEldritchLore brings Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Albert Fish, the Zodiac Killer, and UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper (or, more aptly, ''Jill'' the Ripper) back to life in ''The Butchers''.

* In ''All-Select Comics'' #7, the sorcerer Terdu summons a group of villains from the past, whom he dubs the 'Men of Evil', to battle ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and Bucky. The Men of Evil were Captain Kidd, UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, Frank and UsefulNotes/JesseJames, Literature/{{Bluebeard}}, Gyp-the-Blood, and three gangsters (names unrevealed) who had died in the electric chair decades earlier.

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown''; In "The Sands of Time", Jack Spicer uses a time-travel Shen Gong Wu to assemble a team of history's villains to help him conquer the world; UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}, Billy the Kid, [[OneOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and Mrs. Cornhaven, his old school teacher.]]

* In Warhammer40000, the Daemon Prince Doombreed is said to have once been a "warlord of ancient Terra" whose acts of brutality had impressed the god of war Khorne so much that he granted him immortality. While his identity is ambiguous (UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler are two popular suggestions), the time period given makes it clear that he's a historical figure.