History Anime / SuperCrooks2021

* RepeatCut: [[spoiler:Happens when the Bastard [[YourHeadAsplode makes Kasey’s head explode]], unaware that it was an illusion she put on him.]]

* ZombieApocalypse: Invoked by the crew, who use TK's {{telekinesis}} and Forecast's WeatherManipulation to draw corpses out of their graves and move towards civilians in hordes. They pin it on a "resurrected" {{necromancer}} villain in order to draw the Union of Justice away from their headquarters. Lampshaded repeatedly, as a reporter compares it to ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'', Forecast namedrops Creator/GeorgeARomero, and Paragon likens it to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies''. The couple who are in the graveyard when the whole thing kicks off even look like Johnny and Barbara from ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead''.

* WickedCultured: Supervillain Matts keeps Creator/PietMondrian paintings in his office and waxes philosophical about the art's abstractions and meanings. Later, Kacey accuses him of putting up a facade of classiness to hide how despicable and empty he is.
* WindsOfDestinyChange: Kismet's power is to induce bad luck around him.

* FirstEpisodeTwist: The first episode is built like a standard superhero origin. An ordinary youth discovers he has powers, dreams of becoming a hero, and strives to make a hero debut. But he decides to debut his ShockAndAwe powers at a public pool, [[DisasterDominoes things get exceedingly bad from there]], and he falls into a life of crime instead.

* AdaptationalSuperpowerChange: The Heat in the comics has fire manipulation powers. In the animated version, he's got no powers at all.

%% Doesn't explain what the reaction is * BerserkButton: The Bastard ''hates'' surprises. Makes sense given some control freak tendencies he has, especially in his later years. [[spoiler:Poor Count Orlok learned this the hard way. Especially harsh since [[WeUsedToBeFriends the two of them used to be friends]] a long time ago.]]

* Kacey, Johnny's beautiful and more sensibly ambitious girlfriend, who has psychic abilities.

* DoWrongRight: Kacey doesn't strictly speaking have a problem making money through crime; it's just that Johnny's usual capers don't make that much money a piece and are likely to land him in prison. Instead, she wants to focus on one single lucrative heist the score of which she can invest into a comfortable future.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Kacey has long hair for the first two acts, but has cut it into an approximately shoulder-length bob five years later.
* ExtranormalPrison: Supermax Prison ostensibly is a prison for villains, as it suppresses many superpowers and inmates are electrocuted if they misbehave. However, they're in the pocket of the villainous Network and Christopher Matts.

* GeniusBruiser: Sammy Diesel graduated from Princeton with a degree in Astrophysics. He puts his share of the loot towards developing a time machine.
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Roddy and Sammy have [[HealingFactor regenerative healing factors]] and put them to very good use; they're frequently losing limbs and taking injuries that would kill a normal person dozens of times over, and can tank hits by Gladiator due to their HealingFactor. At one point, Roddy jumps head first into a plane's propeller and gets turned into bloody mist, but he's alive the next time we see him.

* OurLichesAreDifferent: Necromancer (if the illusion anything to go by) fits the trope.

* PragmaticAdaptation: Like most of Millar's works, the anime had to take many liberties and changes to adapt it for a wider audience. While it still maintains a dark comedic tone, a lot of the author's usual cynicism and over the top crassness is absent from the anime. In particular, most of the gay jokes at Gladiator's expense were removed and his intentionally pink heist costume was changed to red.

** The first episode serves as the criminal protagonist's origin story. Upset at causing a terrible incident that hurt many people, Johnny realizes he can use his electricity powers for crime instead when he accidentally triggers a nearby ATM to release money. SmashCut to him being an adult criminal in jail.
** Subverted by the Bastard, the world's top supervillain. During his farewell speech he relates that his villain career probably started when he killed his mother...but then says he was probably a terrible person from the start.
* {{Technopath}}: Downplayed. Though he doesn't have the ability to fully manipulate technology, Johnny's electricity powers give him some control over electronic devices by messing with their circuitry.

** Roddy surprised everyone by investing his fortune into time machine designs he was working on. Turns out he wasn't lying about having a degree in temporal physics from Princeton University.

%% Doesn't explain what the reaction is * Berserk Button: The Bastard ''hates'' surprises. Makes sense given some control freak tendencies he has, especially in his later years. [[spoiler:Poor Count Orlok learned this the hard way. Especially harsh since [[WeUsedToBeFriends the two of them used to be friends]] a long time ago.]]

* BerserkButton: The Bastard ''hates'' surprises. Makes sense given some control freak tendencies he has, especially in his later years. [[spoiler:Poor Count Orlok learned this the hard way. Especially harsh since [[WeUsedToBeFriends the two of them used to be friends]] a long time ago.]]