[[BatmanAndRobin http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CosmopolitanCouncil.jpg]]
[[caption-width:287:Please note the [[TokenEvilTeammate Token Evil American.]]]]

TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness is in session! And what's this?! The [[FaceFramedInShadow shadowy faces]] are actually being lit!

Well what do you know? It's the employers of the EqualOpportunityEvil {{Mooks}} and the patrons behind the FiveTokenBand! These people can be any kind of congregation, whether to play poker or plot the downfall of western civilization, but are nonetheless very heterogeneous.

Options include both sexes (but usually [[TheSmurfettePrinciple just one woman]]), ethnically, religiously and geographically distinct people, always in the regional chic rather than western business attire. A comedy can even highlight this by using ridiculously cliché or period dress, such as the Mexican delegate dressing like 1910 Bandito/Revolutionaries, the Russians contingent in full Cossack regalia, or an American in a cowboy suit. If they aren't outlandish/foreign enough, expect them to layer their English with lots of [[GratuitousForeignLanguage gratuitous phrases]] or [[JustAStupidAccent accents]].

The one trait that ties everyone together is that they are all in possession of skill, authority or money, and whichever one of these they have, they have excessive amounts of it. The members will probably be heavily accessorized with gaudy jewelry or a [[GoodScarsEvilScars scar to prove their moral alignment]]. In short, the implication is that each and every member has a varied and storied past... which we very likely [[MysteriousPast won't learn.]]

Related to GangOfHats: especially when you're dealing with meetings of heads of groups. Also related to the "How different" aspect of ConservationOfNinjitsu.

Common councilmen and women include but are not limited to: an ArabOilSheikh, a woman in a suit with PowerHair, a BananaRepublic presidente, and a "[[{{Lzherusskie}} Russian]]".
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!!Examples

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[[folder: Anime ]]

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' had such a council meet with Gendo, and thanks to cheesy lighting-effects, they were even color-coded (Instrumentality Commitee), but then opted to be cooler and more mysterious/ominous by turning into a circle of mysterious "SOUND ONLY" black monoliths (SEELE). StanleyKubrick was not pleased.
** However, judging from their hooked noses and extensive use of Kabbalistic symbolism, [[UnfortunateImplications they were all Jews.]]
* ''OnePiece'' does this quite a bit, actually.
* The Akatsuki in ''{{Naruto}}'', originally just fuzzy, indistinct holograms in a dark cave, are all eventually revealed to have unique appearances (there's one guy with fish-like skin, one who's a living puppet, one with mouths on the palms of his hands, and let's not even get into the Venus flytrap guy), and with only a couple of exceptions all hail from different ninja villages.

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* DCComics has the Quintessence, formed by Zeus, Highfather, [[GreenLantern Ganthet]], {{the Phantom Stranger}} and [[IAmNotShazam Shazam]].
** Considering that Highfather and Shazam are currently dead, Zeus is depowered and Ganthet is interviewing Blue Lanterns...
*** Shazam's back.
* It also has The Endless in ''TheSandman'', though they all share the same pasty complexion. (Except Destruction.)
* The comic book ''Sojourn'' had an example of this, with a council of Troll governors of conquered territories: They were all Trolls, but each one was dressed in the ethnic garb of the area they governed. There was even a token She-Troll.
* In ''{{Runaways}}'', the Pride is the very model of this: six {{supervillain}} couples each representing a very different kind of villain (mad scientists, aliens, mutants, etc.)
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the Gibborim specifically needing these "six young pair bonds" for the rituals needed for their return to power: the magicians (the Minorus, Japanese), the thieves (the Wilders, [[UnfortunateImplications Black]]), the travelers (the Yorkes, [[SpaceJew Jews]]), the wise men (the Steins, apparemtly WASP s), the colonists (the Deans, Aliens), and the outcasts (the Hayes, [[FantasticRacism Mutants]]).
* Marvel Comics has a council made up of the heads of all Earth's Pantheons.
* In preparation for the slew of events in 2006-2008, Marvel also retconned in the existence of a CosmopolitanCouncil of superheroes called the Illuminati ([[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the name alone raises warning bells]]): Namor, Blackbolt, [[XMen Professor Xavier]], Doctor Strange, [[FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]], and IronMan.
** With Dark Reign there is now the Dark Illuminati. Norman Osborn (Green Goblin), Loki (now female), The Hood, Dr Doom, Emma Frost....and Namor.
* The Black Glove from Comicbook/{{Batman}} RIP.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* Dr Evil's Evil Panel in ''AustinPowers'' is a (very slightly) toned-down version.
** As is the SPECTRE leadership in Thunderball from which Dr. Evil's panel is derived.
** ''AustinPowers International Man of Mystery'': the ambassadors in the United Nations Secret Meetings Room. (Mike Myers even put the Israeli representative next to the Palestinian, which he admitted "didn't change much".)
* The latest ''{{James Bond}}'' film with Daniel Craig, ''CasinoRoyale'', had a very important poker game with a diverse set of players.
** Justified, in that it's implied most of them are special agents from various countries trying to break Le Chiffre, and they're all in formal gambling attire.
* In the third ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' film, the Pirates Council: all the greatest pirate captains from nine distinct geographic regions are in it-- Caribbean (Jack Sparrow), Indochina (Elizabeth Swann), Japan, northwest Europe, North Africa (Corsairs). This is [[ShownTheirWork impressive for its historical accuracy]] because each of the areas they used were actually known for their large populations of pirates, possibly excepting NW Europe.
** Even more impressive when you note that several of the pirates in the council were based on real life pirates (although they did not all live at the same time, obviously). Mistress Ching, for example, was most likely based on the Chinese pirate Ching Shih.
* The "United World" representatives in {{Batman The Movie}} (1966).
* In ''{{Zoolander}}'', there is a group of high-profile fashion industry leaders that comprise this role.
* The movie version of ''TheWildWildWest'' has a CosmopolitanCouncil comprising the [[TheDeepSouth South]], the Native Americans, the [[VictorianBritain British]], the [[SouthOfTheBorder Mexicans]] and anyone else with a grudge against 1860s America.
* SPECTRE, mainly in the JamesBond film series, tended to have multinational representation when they were shown meeting. Their successor, Quantum, in the reboot starting with ''CasinoRoyale'' and revealed in ''QuantumOfSolace'', are even more multinational and composed of men and women.
* ''NakedGun'' starts with Frank Drebin barging into a meeting of an "anti-American" council consisting of (the film was made in TheEighties): Ayatollah Khomeini, Yasser Arafat, Muammar Gaddafi, Idi Amin, Fidel Castro (IIRC) and Mikhail Gorbachev (who comments on how he fooled the Americans who think he's "a good guy").

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* The Senior Council from ''TheDresdenFiles'' has The Merlin (who looks like The Merlin and is British), a Scottish wizard who lives in Missouri (Ebenezar [=McCoy=]), an small Asian witch (Ancient Mai), an older black witch (Martha Liberty), a hooded Arab wizard (Rashid, the Gatekeeper), an American Indian shaman (Joseph "Injun Joe" Listens-to-Wind) and a French wizard (Aleron LaFortier). They also used to have a Russian wizard (Simon Petrovich).
* The Council of Elrond in ''TheLordOfTheRings'' is made up of representatives of all the "free peoples" in that side of the world, including Elves, Dwarves and Humans.
** Just to clarify, the Council of Elrond is in no way a political or even regular commitee of any kind. The people sitting there and debating in [=LotR=] have all come to Rivendell on their own or by chance, resulting in a collective infodump/debate.
* In {{Illuminatus}}, the Erisian Liberation Front is represented by a council of people in really bizarre costumes, including a cavewoman. (Being Discordians, they might just be playing dress-up for the fun of it.)
** And in subversion, while the Illuminati Primi are for a while implied to follow this trope, in fact apart from one exception they are all [[spoiler:siblings]].
* The Seven in the ''Babylon Rising'' series is made up of two British men (one apparently a Roman Catholic priest), a Spanish man, a communist Chinese general, a German woman, a Romanian woman, and an Indian man.

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''{{The 4400}}'' had the Marked. First seen in a returnee's a low budget black and white home film (he was prescient/postcognitive, but only expressed it in his films). It included a geisha, a Catholic bishop, a software tycoon, and assorted others.
* A recent (by British standards, I don't know when it aired in America) episode of ''DirtySexyMoney'' has a poker game similar to the one in ''Casino Royale''.
* The System Lords in ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'', each choosing to inhabit an ethnically distinct host as well as pattern itself after a god worshipped by an ancient human culture (or to influence a human culture with their style.) Previous councils have included Egyptian, Mesopotamian and even Japanese and Chinese gods.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The evil Cabal from Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising fits this trope to perfection: there's a sinister American radicalist who thinks that "Without control, we may as well end all life on this planet and see if the cockroaches can get it right", a Russian who remembers "de old days", a German chick that wants to "take major urban areas back to the Stone Age", plus an assortment of guys who look like gangsters, ganglords and corrupt politicians.
* The villains in the first ''KingdomHearts.'' You can't really call yourself diverse unless your council includes a giant talking sack filled with bugs.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''[=~Atlantis: The Lost Empire~=]'' was pretty blatant about this.
* ''TheSimpsons'' parodies this with the group that gets together to discuss Sideshow Bob's demands to abolish all of television, which included [[DoctorWho Tom Baker]] and Steve Urkel
** The Republican Party in Springfield is depicted similarly, consisting of Dr. Hibbert, [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Rainier Wolfcastle]], Count Chocula, Mr. Burns, Krusty, Rich Texan, Birch Barlow (a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed RushLimbaugh), and Lindsay Neagle. Mr. Burns greets them by performing an elaborate hand gesture while chanting in Enochian, and Bob Dole reads to them from the Necronomicon.
** In another scene, Mr. Burns calls for advice from his "League of Evil" - a mad scientist, a samurai, a Nazi colonel, a WildWest outlaw, and an Arab warlord with turban and scimitar. Unfortunately, however, they've all been sealed in the space behind his bookcase for decades and all that's left of them is their costumed skeletons.
*** Smithers: Even monsters need to breathe sir.

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[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* The Inter-Fiend Cooperation Commission in ''OrderOfTheStick'' is one of these for the three evil outsider races. (It currently only has three members, and they all dress identically, though.)

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[[folder: Real Life ]]

* TruthInTelevision: The UN Security Council. There are five permanent members: One American, two Europeans (UK, France), one Eurasian (Russia), one Chinese, and a smattering of ten elected {{Red Shirt}}s.
** Currently Austria, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Japan, [[HeelFaceTurn Libya]], Mexico, Turkey, Uganda, and Vietnam.
** The ten elected ones also have to be from different regions: They split into 3 from Africa, 2 from Asia, 2 Latin America and Caribbean, 2 Western Europe and Other and 1 Eastern Europe. This has to be maintained.

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