History Main / ToCatchHeroesHireVillains

* In ''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.

* In 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]] [[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.)

* In ''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.

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]
* Not an exact example, but in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Five Doctors", the Time Lords recruit The Master to save the Doctor, who is trapped in the Death Zone on Gallifrey.

* ''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.

So, things are looking pretty grim. TheHero has just been shown to be guilty of a crime (how serious doesn't really matter), and now they're on the run. What's a LawfulGood aligned police commissioner supposed to do? Clearly, there's only way to deal with this problem. Hire the biggest, baddest, most evil character you can find and make them hunt those dirty heroes down, just like they try and fail to on their own every week.

...Well, maybe not the best logic around, but what do you expect? We're talking about tropes here.

The idea here is pretty simple. You want to show the conflict the heroes have with the people they're trying to protect, but if they go up against cops, they have to ponder weighty questions like, "Should I really be attacking police officers who are only doing their job?" And that's no fun at all, since a lot of shows are looking for action as opposed to {{angst}}. So instead, hire a villain to take them down. That way, when the huge action scene comes around, we don't get disappointed.
The chances, by the way, of the whole thing being a huge frame-up designed to make the heroes look bad are reasonably high.

* Averted in ''TheDarkKnightReturn''s, where the cops face Batman themselves, and get their ribs broken.

* In ''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.

* In 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.

* Averted in TheDarkKnightReturns, where the cops face Batman themselves, and get their ribs broken.

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]
* Not an exact example, but in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode The Five Doctors, the Time Lords recruit The Master to save the Doctor, who is trapped in the Death Zone on Gallifrey.

----

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': After Toph Beifong commits the crime of [[strike:leaving the her family's BigFancyHouse to help the Avatar save the world]] 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.
** You mean Earthbending, right?

* In one episode of ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', after Batgirl dies (AllJustADream), Gordon releases Bane to bring in Batman.
* In ''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.

<<|ActionAdventureTropes|>>

* In OutlawStar, after Hilda steals Melfina and the titular starship from the Kei Pirates, they manage to track her down with help from the [[CareerKillers [=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.

* In ''SupermanBatman: Public Enemies,'' [[PresidentEvil President]] [[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 [[CompleteMonster pretty vile.)]]

* In ''{{Superman}}/{{Batman}}: Public Enemies,'' [[PresidentEvil President]] [[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 [[CompleteMonster pretty vile.)]]

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': After Toph Bei Fong commits the crime of [[strike:leaving the her family's BigFancyHouse to help the Avatar save the world]] 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.

* In ''Jutice League 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 ''Jutice League Unlimited'', Project Cadmus is a government organisation aimed at creating pre-emptive measures should the Justice League go rouge. It is largely composed of supervillans and is funded by Lex Luthor.

So, things are looking pretty grim. TheHero has just been shown to be guilty of a crime (how serious doesn't really matter), and now they're on the run. What's a LawfulGood aligned police comissioner supposed to do? Clearly, there's only way to deal with this problem. Hire the biggest, baddest, most evil character you can find and make them hunt those dirty heroes down, just like they try and fail to on their own every week.

The idea here is pretty simple. You want to show the conflict the heroes have with the people they're trying to protect, but if they go up against cops, they have to ponder weighty questions like, "Should I really be attacking police officers who are only doing their job?" And that's no fun at all, since a lot of shows are looking for action as opposed to {{angst}}. So instead, hire a villain to take them down. That way, when the huge action scene comes around, we don't get [[MissedMomentOfAwesome disappointed]].

* Not an exact example, but in the ''DoctorWho'' episode The Five Doctors, the Time Lords recruit The Master to save the Doctor, who is trapped in the Death Zone on Gallifrey.

* Not an exact example, but in the Doctor who episode The Five Doctors, the Time Lords recruit The Master to save the Doctor, who is trapped in the Death Zone on Gallifrey.

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': After Toph Bei Fong commits the crime of leaving the her family's BigFancyHouse to help the Avatar save the world, Toph's dad hires the thug which Aang and co had just spent the half the episode fighting (mainly because he had just ''kidnapped'' Toph and Aang) to track Toph down.