History Main / ToCatchHeroesHireVillains

[[AC:Anime & Manga]]

[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': In a 2016 ''ComicBook/TheFlashRebirth'' storyline, the hero's RoguesGallery is recruited by Central City PD, who have decided the Flash is a menace. The twist is that [[HiredToHuntYourself CSI Barry Allen]] is assigned to the unit as well.
* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'': ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark hires legions of supervillains to capture the resisting supers, an action which blows up in Tony's face: Norman Osborn becomes the director of HAMMER.
** The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants agrees to reform itself as the Freedom Force and serve the U.S. government in exchange for full pardons for their past crimes. Their second mission is to bring in the Avengers, who have been framed by Quicksilver.
* ''ComicBook/PublicEnemies2004'': Lex Luthor, now President of the USA, frames ComicBook/{{Superman}} for endangering the Earth and forms a posse of superheroes led by Captain Atom to bring him in--plus he puts Major Force on the team, one of the most sadistic villains around.

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]

[[AC:Radio & Podcasts]]

[[AC:Video Games]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]

* ''Manga/OutlawStar'': After Hilda steals Melfina and the titular starship from the Kei Pirates, they manage to track her down with help from the [[ProfessionalKillers [=MacDougal=] brothers.]] A little more ambiguous than hero/villain since both Hilda and the [=MacDougals=] live outside the law, but they're certainly more heartless and ruthless than she is, and go on to be one of Gene's worst enemies.

* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': In a 2016 storyline, the hero's RoguesGallery is recruited by Central City PD, who have decided the Flash is a menace. The twist is that [[HiredToHuntYourself CSI Barry Allen]] is assigned to the unit as well.
* Franchise/MarvelUniverse:
** ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'': [[ComicBOok/IronMan Tony Stark]] hires legions of {{supervillain}}s to capture the resisting supers. ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'', in particular, is an interesting example because the villains are the protagonists. And, of course, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero it blows up in Tony's face]]; Norman Osborn becomes the director of HAMMER.
** ''[[http://tinyurl.com/6rkc6x Freedom Force]]'': The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants agrees to serve the U.S. government in exchange for full pardons for their past crimes. Their second mission is to bring in the Avengers, who have been framed by Quicksilver.
* ''ComicBook/PublicEnemies'': ComicBook/LexLuthor, now PresidentEvil, frames Superman for endangering the Earth and forms a posse of superheroes led by Captain Atom to bring him in--plus he puts Major Force on the team, one of the most sadistic villains around.

[[AC:Fan Works]]
* ''FanFic/OriginStory'': The ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} are sent after Alex Harris, but end up hurting her girlfriend instead. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge This turns out to be a grave error]].

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': In one StoryArc, your character becomes a fugitive (although it doesn't really affect jack, of course). You get ambushed a couple of times by Malta and once by a Nemesis group, the former suggested to have actually been hired by the city.

SubTrope of RecruitingTheCriminal, when the heroes get villains to act as specialists for them. Compare GodzillaThreshold, a situation so dire that people resort to extremely dangerous, risky, or immoral methods to resolve it. This trope comes often in SuperRegistrationAct situations, when the government singles out {{Differently Powered Individual}}s through legislation. See also PriceOnTheirHead, for when the hero has a price on their head, in which case, the villains are likely acting as [[BountyHunter bounty hunters]].

SubTrope of RecruitingTheCriminal, when the heroes get villains to act as specialists for them. Compare GodzillaThreshold, a situation so dire that people resort to extremely dangerous, risky, or immoral methods to resolve it. This trope comes often in SuperRegistrationAct situations, when the government singles out {{Differently Powered Individual}}s through legislation.

* ''WesternAnimation/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSMASH'': The team is framed by arch-foe The Leader for the destruction of their hometown. Pursuing Leader into space and then taking him back to Earth, their attempt to clear their names is met with a government-authorized robot army led by [[spoiler:The Abomination]]. Makes more sense than it would in the comics, since, like in the 2008 Movie, [[spoiler:Blonksy]] has a background as a government operative.

** When Aang disappears near the end of the third season, the rest of the group turns to their newly acquired [[TheLancer Lancer]], Zuko, to find him. When he asks why, they point out that before his HeelFaceTurn, he had spent two seasons tracking the Avatar down over and over again, and as such is the most qualified one to do it now.

** After Toph Beifong commits the crime (as her parents see it) of running away from her family at the age of 12 without telling them where she's going, Toph's dad hires the thug whom Aang and co had just spent half the episode fighting (mainly because he managed the feat of successfully ''kidnapping'' Toph and Aang earlier) to track Toph down. It actually works, until Toph manifests an ability that nobody else in written history has ever done and everyone thinks is completely impossible.

Our hero is now on the side of criminals and ne'er-do-wells, but since he is still a hero even if a law-breaking one, there's a way to neatly avoid the issue of attacking police officers, who are only doing their job. Someone in a position of authority goes RecruitingTheCriminal from one of the defeated villains. Now their job is to catch the same person they've lost to before. Often rejoicing in being tasked to take out their enemy ''and'' cause as much collateral damage as they wish, one of the cops (or even the person who hired them) will question if crossing the GodzillaThreshold was the right thing to do. Since the hero is unlikely to even be suspected of doing something as dangerous and life-threatening as the villain who hunts him, the usual answer is no.

The chances, by the way, of the whole thing being a huge frame-up designed to make the heroes look bad are reasonably high. As are the chances of the person in a position of authority of being a villain himself, who was just looking for an excuse to destroy the hero.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': After Batgirl dies (AllJustADream), Gordon releases Bane to bring in Batman.

* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance 2'': The Pro-Registration side uses supervillains to hunt the Anti-Reg side. The difference with the ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' comics is that they use nanite technology as a sort of mind control to keep the villains from trying anything funny. [[spoiler:It falls apart when the nanites started developing on their own and TurnedAgainstTheirMasters.]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

* In ''Manga/OutlawStar'', after Hilda steals Melfina and the titular starship from the Kei Pirates, they manage to track her down with help from the [[ProfessionalKillers [=MacDougal=] brothers.]] A little more ambiguous than hero/villain since both Hilda and the [=MacDougals=] live outside the law, but they're certainly more heartless and ruthless than she is, and go on to be one of Gene's worst enemies.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' features [[ComicBOok/IronMan Tony Stark]] hiring legions of {{supervillain}}s to capture the resisting supers. ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' is an interesting example because the villains are the ''protagonists''. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero And of course it blew up in his face]]; ''Norman Osborn became the director of [[strike: SHIELD]] HAMMER''.
* The original ''[[http://tinyurl.com/6rkc6x Freedom Force]]'' in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse: The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants agreed to serve the U.S. government in exchange for full pardons for their past crimes. Their second mission was to bring in the Avengers, who had been framed by Quicksilver.
* In ''ComicBook/PublicEnemies'', [[PresidentEvil President]] [[ComicBook/LexLuthor Luthor]] frames Superman for endangering the Earth and forms a posse of superheroes led by Captain Atom to bring him in--plus he puts Major Force on the team, one of the most sadistic villains around.
* Early ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comics had J. Jonah Jameson hire villains, or in case of the Scorpion help create him in order to try and take down Spider-Man.
* ''ComicBook/{{Tomahawk}}'' and his Rangers were the arch-enemies of the British forces in the Revolutionary War. One of the Crown's more successful plots against them involved pardoning notorious criminals -- giant strongman Bull, agile thief the Fly, a Native tracker called "the Indian", vicious pirate Captain Salt, and peerless gunman the Highwayman. They easily capture all the Rangers, including Tomahawk himself, though Tomahawk manages to lead an escape as their execution looms.
* A 2016 storyline in ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' has his RoguesGallery recruited by Central City PD who have decided the Flash is a menace. The twist is [[HiredToHuntYourself CSI Barry Allen is assigned to the unit as well]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fan Works ]]

* In ''FanFic/OriginStory'', the ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} are sent after Alex Harris, but end up hurting her girlfriend instead. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge This turns out to be a grave error]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* In ''VideoGame/TinStar'' for the Super NES, the townspeople elect Black Bart, the game's villain in every previous "day" of gameplay, as sheriff after Tin Star is framed for the murder of a small child. He isn't actually dead.
* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', one StoryArc has your character become a fugitive (although it doesn't really affect jack, of course). You get ambushed a couple times by Malta and once by a Nemesis group, the former suggested to have actually been hired by the city.
* Like the above ''Civil War'' example, ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance 2'' has the Pro-Registration side use supervillains to hunt the Anti-Reg side. The difference is that they use nanite technology as a sort of mind control to keep the villains from trying anything funny. [[spoiler:It falls apart when the nanites started developing on their own and TurnedAgainstTheirMasters.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** After Toph Beifong commits the crime (as her parents see it) of running away from her family at the age of 12 without telling them where she's going, Toph's dad hires the thug which Aang and co had just spent the half the episode fighting (mainly because he managed the feat of successfully ''kidnapping'' Toph and Aang earlier) to track Toph down. It actually works, until Toph manifests an ability that nobody else in written history has ever done and everyone thinks is completely impossible.
** When Aang disappears near the end of the third season, the rest of the group turn to their newly acquired [[TheLancer Lancer]], Zuko, to find him. When he asks why, they point out that before his HeelFaceTurn, he had spent two seasons tracking the Avatar down over and over again, and as such is the most qualified one to do it now.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', after Batgirl dies (AllJustADream), Gordon releases Bane to bring in Batman.
* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'', Project Cadmus is a government organisation aimed at creating pre-emptive measures should the Justice League go rogue. It is largely composed of supervillans and is funded by Lex Luthor.
* In ''WesternAnimation/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSMASH'', the team is framed by arch-foe The Leader for the destruction of their hometown. Pursuing Leader into space and then taking him back to Earth, their attempt to clear their names is met with a government-authorized robot army led by [[spoiler:The Abomination]]. Makes more sense than it would in the comics, since, like in the 2008 Movie, [[spoiler:Blonksy]] has a background as a government operative.

[[/folder]]

* ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' features [[ComicBOok/IronMan Tony Stark]] hiring legions of {{supervillain}}s to capture the resisting supers. ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' is an interesting example because the villains are the ''protagonists''. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero And of course it blew up in his face]]; ''Norman Osborn became the director of [[strike: SHIELD]] HAMMER''.

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman: Public Enemies,'' [[PresidentEvil President]] [[ComicBook/LexLuthor Luthor]] frames Superman for endangering the Earth and forms a posse of superheroes led by Captain Atom to bring him in--plus he puts Major Force on the team, one of the most sadistic villains around.
* Early ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' comics had J. Jonah Jameson hire villains, or in case of the Scorpion help create him in order to try and take down Spider-Man.

[[folder: Anime ]]

[[folder: Comics ]]

* ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' features [[ComicBOok/IronMan Tony Stark]] hiring legions of {{supervillain}}s to capture the resisting supers. ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' is an interesting example because the villains are the ''protagonists''.
** [[NiceJobBreakingItHero And of course it blew up in his face]]; ''Norman Osborn is the director of [[strike: SHIELD]] HAMMER''.
* The original ''[[http://tinyurl.com/6rkc6x Freedom Force]]'' in the MarvelUniverse: The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants agreed to serve the U.S. government in exchange for full pardons for their past crimes. Their second mission was to bring in the Avengers, who had been framed by Quicksilver.
* In ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman: Public Enemies,'' [[PresidentEvil President]] [[ComicBook/LexLuthor Luthor]] frames Superman for endangering the Earth and forms a posse of superheroes led by Captain Atom to bring him in--plus he puts Major Force on the team, one of the most sadistic villains around (the phrase "Website/WomenInRefrigerators" refers to a murder he committed. He's pretty vile.)

* A 2016 storyline in ''Comicbook/TheFlash'' has his RoguesGallery recruited by Central City PD who have decided the Flash is a menace. The twist is [[HiredToHuntYourself CSI Barry Allen is assigned to the unit as well]].

A dramatic convention that allows TheHero to face off against a {{Villain}}, while being hunted as a criminal. Wait, what?

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman: Public Enemies,'' [[PresidentEvil President]] [[ComicBook/LexLuthor Luthor]] frames Superman for endangering the Earth and forms a posse of superheroes led by Captain Atom to bring him in--plus he puts Major Force on the team, one of the most sadistic villains around (the phrase "WomenInRefrigerators" refers to a murder he committed. He's pretty vile.)

The chances, by the way, of the whole thing being a huge frame-up designed to make the heroes look bad are reasonably high.

Our hero is now on the side of criminals and ne'er-do-wells, but there's a way to neatly avoid the issue of attacking police officers, who are only doing their job. Someone in a position of authority goes RecruitingTheCriminal from one of the defeated villains. Now their job is to catch the same person they've lost to before. Often rejoicing in being tasked to take out their enemy ''and'' cause as much collateral damage as they wish, one of the cops (or even the person who hired them) will question if crossing the GodzillaThreshold was the right thing to do.

* ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' features [[IronMan Tony Stark]] hiring legions of {{supervillain}}s to capture the resisting supers. ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' is an interesting example because the villains are the ''protagonists''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', Project Cadmus is a government organisation aimed at creating pre-emptive measures should the Justice League go rogue. It is largely composed of supervillans and is funded by Lex Luthor.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Hulk and the Agents of SMASH}}'', the team is framed by arch-foe The Leader for the destruction of their hometown. Pursuing Leader into space and then taking him back to Earth, their attempt to clear their names is met with a government-authorized robot army led by [[spoiler:The Abomination]]. Makes more sense than it would in the comics, since, like in the 2008 Movie, [[spoiler:Blonksy]] has a background as a government operative.

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]
* ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' features [[IronMan Tony Stark]] hiring legions of {{supervillain}}s to capture the resisting supers. ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' is an interesting example because the villains are the ''protagonists''.

[[AC:Fan Works]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* In ''VideoGame/TinStar'' for the Super NES, the townspeople elect Black Bart, the game's villain in every previous "day" of gameplay, as sheriff after Tin Star is framed for the murder of a small child. He isn't actually dead.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* In ''TinStar'' for the Super NES, the townspeople elect Black Bart, the game's villain in every previous "day" of gameplay, as sheriff after Tin Star is framed for the murder of a small child. He isn't actually dead.

** When Aang disappears near the end of the third season, the rest of the group turn to their newly acquired [[TheLancer Lancer]] to find him. When he asks why, they point out that before his HeelFaceTurn, he had spent two seasons tracking the Avatar down over and over again, and as such is the most qualified one to do it now.

* ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' features [[IronMan Tony Stark]] hiring legions of {{supervillain}}s to capture the resisting supers. ''{{Thunderbolts}}'' is an interesting example because the villains are the ''protagonists''.

This trope is sometimes used during an InMediaRes opening, giving us the twist of surprise that the hero is suspected, or even completely guilty, of breaking the law, or their moral code. It allows the story to continue with the conflict the heroes have with the people they're trying to defeat, even while the cops are now chasing our hero as well.

* A 2016 storyline in ''Comicbook/TheFlash'' has his RoguesGallery recruited by Central City PD who have decided the Flash is a menace. The twist is CSI Barry Allen is assigned to the unit as well.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HulkandtheAgentsofSMASH'', the team is framed by arch-foe The Leader for the destruction of their hometown. Pursuing Leader into space and then taking him back to Earth, their attempt to clear their names is met with a government-authorized robot army led by [[spoiler:The Abomination]]. Makes more sense than it would in the comics, since, like in the 2008 Movie, [[spoiler:Blonksy]] has a background as a government operative.

* In ''SupermanBatman: Public Enemies,'' [[PresidentEvil President]] [[ComicBook/LexLuthor Luthor]] frames Superman for endangering the Earth and forms a posse of superheroes led by Captain Atom to bring him in--plus he puts Major Force on the team, one of the most sadistic villains around (the phrase "WomenInRefrigerators" refers to a murder he committed. He's pretty vile.)
* Early {{Spider-Man}} comics had J. Jonah Jameson hire villains, or in case of the Scorpion help create him in order to try and take down Spider-Man.