Line #23 Main/ToCatchHeroesHireVillains


1	A dramatic convention that allows TheHero to face off against a villain, while being hunted as a criminal. Wait, what?
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3	This trope is sometimes used during an InMediasRes 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.
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5	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 {{recruit\|ingTheCriminal}}s 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.
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7	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 being a villain themself, who was just looking for an excuse to destroy the hero.
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9	SubTrope of RecruitingTheCriminal, when the heroes get villains to act as specialists for them. Compare PriceOnTheirHead, for when the hero has a price on their head, in which case, the villains are likely acting as {{Bounty Hunter}}s. This trope comes often in SuperRegistrationAct situations, when the government singles out {{Differently Powered Individual}}s through legislation. Contrast GodzillaThreshold, a situation so dire that people resort to extremely dangerous, risky, or immoral methods to resolve it.
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11	!!Examples:
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13	[[foldercontrol]]
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15	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
16	* ''Manga/OutlawStar'': After Hilda steals Melfina and the titular starship from the Kei Pirates, they manage to track her down with help from ProfessionalKillers called the [=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.
17	[[/folder]]
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19	[[folder:Comic Books]]
20	* ''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.
21	* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': In one ''ComicBook/TheFlash2016'' 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.
22	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': J. Jonah Jameson hires villains, or in the case of the Scorpion, helps create them in order to try and take down Spider-Man.
23	* ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman'': In ''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.
24	* ''ComicBook/{{Tomahawk}}'': The titular character and his Rangers are the arch-enemies of the British forces in the Revolutionary War. One of the Crown's more successful plots against them involves 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.
25	* ''ComicBook/XMen'': 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.
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28	[[folder:Literature]]
29	* ''Literature/{{Nagabumi}}'': The government resorts to this when its agents fail, even calling upon former heroes and mercenaries.
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32	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
33	* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'': In [[Recap/PeteAndPeteS3E7LastLaugh "Last Laugh"]], Schwinger hires Pit Stain to help stop their common enemy Little Pete. Unfortunately for Schwinger, Pit Stain is in on it too.
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36	[[folder:Radio & Podcasts]]
37	* ''Podcast/TheEndlessNight'': It's basically the foundation of the series. The Watchers hire dangerous murderers to do their dirty work [[spoiler:and are surprised and outraged at all their dangerous murder.]]
38	[[/folder]]
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40	[[folder:Video Games]]
41	* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': In one storyline, 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.
42	* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance2'': 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.]]
43	* ''VideoGame/TinStar'': 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.
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46	[[folder:Western Animation]]
47	* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
48	** [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBlindBandit "The Blind Bandit"]]: After Toph Beifong commits the crime (as her parents see it) of running away at the age of 12 without telling them where she's going, her dad hires a thug --whom Aang and company had just spent half the episode battling-- to track Toph down. They were fighting because the aforementioned criminal managed to successfully ''kidnap'' Toph and Aang earlier. It works until Toph manifests an ability that nobody else in written history has ever done and everyone thinks is completely impossible.
49	** [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderSozinsCometPart1ThePhoenixKing "Sozin's Comet, Part 1 -- The Phoenix King"]]: {{Discussed}}. When the turtle island suddenly vanishes, taking Aang with it, 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.
50	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In [[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE12OverTheEdge "Over the Edge"]], after Batgirl dies, Gordon releases Bane to bring in Batman because he blames him for his daughter's death.
51	* ''WesternAnimation/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSMASH'': In [[Recap/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSmashS1E24MonstersNoMore "Monsters No More"]], 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.
52	* ''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 supervillains and is funded by Lex Luthor.
53	* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': [[Recap/WanderOverYonderS1E8TheBallTheBounty "The Bounty"]] revolves around Hater hiring a bunch of assassins to capture Wander and Sylvia.
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