History Main / Wildcard

** Tarantulas begins the series working for Megatron, but as time goes by it is revealed that he has his own agenda, and frquently betrays Megatron then will ally himself with Megatron again, all while working towards his own goals. At the end of Season 2 it is revealed that he originally joined Megatron's crew to spy on him for the Tripredacus council, who have their own agenda.
* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' has [[InsistentTerminology Character Actress]] Creator/MargoMartindale declare herself one in Season 2's "The Shot", by virtue of [[spoiler: getting into a shootout with police over their RecognitionFailure]].

* [[Characters/DCComicsLobo Lobo, The Main Man]] has fought against and along side with several of the most powerful DC heroes and villains. Most of the time he does it because he's a bounty hunter, and he gets paid for what he does, or he felt like doing it.
* Loki [[spoiler:God(dess) of Stories]] seems to be heading this way after the last few issues of "ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard" where [[spoiler:after finally gaining Odin and Asgard's approval, they pretty much tell him to stuff it and then refuse to take sides on the last Ragnarok battle, but still sit back and enjoy the show]].

** This was far more explicit in the [[ComicBook/UltimateXMen Ultimate Universe]]. Wolverine started off as a cold-blooded assassin working for Magneto. Then he did a HeelFaceTurn in order to [[HeroesWantRedheads sleep with Jean Grey]]. Then when she dumped him, he responded by trying to murder her new boyfriend, Cyclops (by dropping him off a cliff. He broke a bunch of bones and spent a month lying in a pit eating bugs). Then he was given one last chance to rejoin the team (after having the crap blasted out of him by Cyclops), and has stayed good since. [[spoiler:Except that then his time-traveling future self turned up and apparently murdered Xavier]].

* Todd the Wraith from ''Series/StargateAtlantis''. He's among the most pragmatic of the Wraith, along with [[BloodBrothers seeing Sheppard as almost like a brother]] due to their time together in a Genii prison. At the same time, he's still [[LifeDrinker a Wraith]], and being among the smartest of his kind means he's among the ''most dangerous'' of his kind. The reason he's a Wild Card rather than just a villain like other Wraith is that his loyalty is solely with his own hive rather than to the Wraith species as a whole. Whenever some other hive (or a non-Wraith villain) stands to gain dominance over Pegasus that's just as bad for him as it is for the Atlantis crew.

* The ([[{{Retronym}} First]]) [[UsefulNotes/{{TheColdWar}} Cold War]] provides several examples:

** Rava wants power, she wants Galtar, and she incidentally wants Goleeta dead. She'll be happy to work with [[BigBad her father]] right until she's got him where she wants him, while working behind his back with the heroes, and betraying either and both as soon as it suits her purposes.