History Main / VillainKiller

** Batman himself is not to be underestimated, even if he is only human. In [[Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice his first appearance]], he already has a long history of violently fighting and killing criminals with ease, with several fights being shown on-screen where he kills his foes without issue. He also is shown fighting and killing Lex Luthor's [[TheDragon dragon]]. He only gets one hit on [[spoiler: Doomsday]], but said hit is what allowed [[spoiler: Doomsday]] to be killed. He gets an even more impressive moment in ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' in the final battle. Aquaman, [[spoiler:Superman]], and Wonder Woman are all combating Steppenwolf while Cyborg is trying to interface with the Mother Boxes, and the Flash is building a charge to help him. This leaves Batman alone against the Parademon army for most of the fight. [[spoiler: After the final battle, there are no surviving Parademons, meaning he killed every last one of them almost entirely on his own.]]

** Iron Man is the most prolific killer of villains. In [[Film/IronMan2 in his second solo film]], he shares a BigBad kill with Rhodey against Ivan Vanko. In [[Film/IronMan3 in his third solo film]], he kills the [[TheDragon dragons]] Eric Savin and Ellen Brandt. In ''[[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron Age of Ultron]]'', he kills minor villain Doctor List, and in ''[[Film/AvengersInfinityWar Infinity War]]'', he kills Ebony Maw, one of Thanos' most powerful lackeys. In ''[[Film/AvengersEndgame Endgame]]'', he [[spoiler: finally kills a BigBad personally by snapping alternate timeline Thanos and his entire army out of existence]].

* Nintendo has four franchise examples: [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario & Luigi]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]], and Franchise/{{Kirby}}. All four of these characters in their respective game franchises fight several different epic bosses, making each of them this trope by default. However, just having them fighting their games' various {{Final Boss}}es really make them this trope, as the finales to their games usually have them fighting enemies that are {{Eldritch Abomination}}s in power.

* In the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse, the big three heroes have quite an impressive body count.

* In the DC Extended Universe, the big three heroes have quite an impressive body count.

* The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a few of these.
** Tony Stark is the most prolific killer of villains. In [[Film/IronMan2 in his second solo film]], he shares a BigBad kill with Rhodey against Ivan Vanko. In [[Film/IronMan3 in his third solo film]], he kills the [[TheDragon dragons]] Eric Savin and Ellen Brandt. In ''[[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron Age of Ultron]]'', he kills minor villain Doctor List, and in ''[[Film/AvengersInfinityWar Infinity War]]'', he kills Ebony Maw, one of Thanos' most powerful lackeys. In ''[[Film/AvengersEndgame Endgame]]'', he [[spoiler: finally kills a BigBad personally by snapping alternate timeline Thanos and his entire army out of existence]].

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', the [[PlayerCharacter Warrior of Light]] ends up accumulating a very large villain body count throughout the stories and expansions; this includes various generals and Legati of TheEmpire, powerful [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Voidsent]] such as Diabolos, several godly avatars called Primals, the powerful, incredibly hard to kill [[GreaterScopeVillains Ascians]], a MechanicalAbomination from another planet, several massive dragons, etc. After a certain point, most of the main cast is fully confident of the Warrior of Light's ability to pull through, considering the absurd feats of power they managed to pull off. The Omega Raid storyline takes this to its logical conclusion, allowing you to fight and defeat villains from ''other games'' in the ''Final Fantasy'' Franchise, including [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Exdeath]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI Chaos]], though as digital recreations rather than the real deals.

** Mario has fought and killed Bowser and his various underlings many times, but they always find ways to come back to life. In fact, Mario has fought alongside Luigi, Bowser, Peach, and other side characters at different times against greater evils that they destroy. Among them are [[Videogame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga an evil witch that wanted to steal the power of the Beanstar]], [[Videogame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime a race of poisonous mushroooms and their princess]], [[spoiler: [[Videogame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTimeand said princess's older sister]]]], [[Videogame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory an evil bean wielding the power of an eldritch monstrous black star]], [[Videogame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor a millennia-old demonic shadow's soul]], and [[Videogame/SuperPaperMario an evil clown with dimensional powers that tried to destroy the multiverse]].

* ''Franchise/{{Spiderman}}'': Kaine, the PsychoPrototype clone of Spider-man, was introduced killing Dr. Octopus, and using his "Mark of Kaine" (which was a stronger version of Spider-man's ability to cling to any surfaces) to disfigure other criminals and minor villains. He later underwent a HeelFaceTurn and became one version of the ComicBook/ScarletSpider.

* In ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'', Vash the Stampede has a strict [[ThouShallNotKill no-kill]] rule, preferring to reform the bad guys, or failing that, incapacitate them and turn them to the authorities. His traveling companion Nicholas Wolfwood instead delivers the killing blow to villains whom he (Wolfwood) knows is [[BeyondRedemption too evil to reform]] and [[CardboardPrison too powerful to stay incarcerated for long]], albeit without Vash's knowledge as Wolfwood knows Vash would otherwise attempt to step in to SaveTheVillain at any cost.

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

** Tommy Jarvis became a series deuteragonist in parts ''[[Film/FridayThe13thTheFinalChapter IV]]'', ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning V]]'', and [[Film/FridayThe13thPartVIJasonLives VI]]''. He kills Jason (or, in ''Part V'', a Jason copycat) in each of the films he appears, making it his mission to make sure the undead killer stays dead.

* In ''Film/JasonX'', Kay-Em and Sergeant Brodski become this to Jason. [[spoiler: Kay-Em is an android who gets upgraded with combat skills, and successfully kills the original Jason Voorhees]]. [[spoiler: Sergeant Brodski is the one who kills the cybernetically modified Uber Jason by burning him up in the atmosphere, finally putting an end to the long-running mascot of ''Friday the 13th'']].

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* Nintendo has four main examples: [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]], and Franchise/{{Kirby}}. All four of these characters in their respective game franchises fight several different epic bosses, making each of them this trope by default. However, just having them fighting their games' various {{Final Boss}}es really make them this trope, as the finales to their games usually have them fighting enemies that are {{Eldritch Abomination}}s in power.

** Samus Aran is an intergalactic bounty hunter, and she lives up to her reputation by accomplishing tasks thought impossible. For instance, some of her most villain kills include [[Videogame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy a Metroid mutated with Phazon to become a massive spidery monster that could imitate her armor to save its life]], the destruction of the Metroid species in its entirety, and the destruction of the Space Pirates' entire homeworld. There is a reason that Samus is feared throughout the galaxy.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' has numerous badass fighters, but the one who takes the cake in the number of sheer kills is the young ActionGirl Arya Stark. A young girl who [[TookALevelInBadass became so badass]] that she'd give Marvel anti-heroes a run for their money, she's earned herself the title of having the highest kill count of villains in almost all of fiction. Her first major step towards this was when she [[spoiler: singlehandedly annihilated the men of the House of Frey, the infamous instigators of the Red Wedding, netting herself 51 kills in a single act]]. She eventually upped the ante in the final season [[spoiler: killing the series' BigBad the Night King with a single stab, and in doing so, killing his entire army of over 100,000 undead wights]].

* ''Literature/MackBolanTheExecutioner'' is a OneManArmy anti-crime series originally penned by Creator/DonPendleton, and running to some 600 books. Bolan received his moniker from his merciless slaughter of crime syndicates around the world, eradicating whole "families" of gangsters in a single chapter. The fact that Bolan rarely errs in his KnightTemplar spree on criminals at times approaches MarySue levels.

* ''Comicbook/ThePunisher'' is one of Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}}'s longest-running anti-heroic characters. He has suffered a little bit since his debut from [[DependingOnTheWriter various visions by various writers]], but the one consistency between all of them is that the eponymous title adopted by Frank Castle is always hunting down bad guys, taking down entire crime syndicates in his wake, all motivated because one of these crime families murdered his entire family.

* Franchise/{{Wolverine}} is typically the character on the Franchise/{{Xmen}} who is most likely to [[IDidWhatIHadToDo do whatever it takes]] to defeat the current villain, sometimes to the protest of the other X-Men or whatever other heroes he happens to be teamed up with. He was even recruited for the ComicBook/NewAvengers ''because'' of this- after what happened during ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled, Captain America decided that having someone willing to use lethal force on the team was necessary if distasteful. It was also how Wolverine ended up leading ComicBook/XForce2008, so he could carry out dirty jobs like wetwork for the X-Men instead of more innocent members being forced to do so.

** Future Trunks also qualifies. Not only does he kill King Kold and a mechanized Frieza but he also kills his timeline's versions of Android 17, 18, and Cell.

* Franchise/{{Wolverine}} is typically the character on the Franchise/{{Xmen}} who is most likely to [[IDidWhatIHadToDo do whatever it takes]] to defeat the current villain, sometimes to the protest of the other X-Men or whatever other heroes he happens to be teamed up with.

[[folder:Fanworks]]
* ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'': For the first few chapters, the Wolf goes around killing the worst villains that Westeros has to offer (the Mountain, Ramsay Bolton, Littlefinger, Euron Greyjoy...), not out of any sense of justice but because the Chaos gods ordered him to. Then he's caught trying to [[spoiler:steal the Iron Throne]] and reappears later demanding that the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms gather their armies to fight him.

* Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf: For the first few chapters, the Wolf goes around killing the worst villains that Westeros has to offer (the Mountain, Ramsay Bolton, Littlefinger, Euron Greyjoy...), not out of any sense of justice but because the Chaos gods ordered him to. Then he's caught trying to [[spoiler:steal the Iron Throne]] and reappears later demanding that the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms gather their armies to fight him.

** Wonder Woman has displayed that she's more than willing to kill people who threaten innocent lives. In her [[Film/WonderWoman2017 solo outing]], she kills [[spoiler: General Ludendorff and Ares, both of whom were monstrous characters]]. In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', she's a participant in [[spoiler: Doomsday's]] death. And in ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', [[spoiler: she's the one who ends Steppenwolf's life, decapitating him completely.]]

** Batman himself is not to be underestimated, even if he is only human. In [[Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice his first appearance]], he already has a long history of violently fighting and killing criminals with ease, with several fights being shown on-screen where he kills his foes without issue. He also is shown fighting and killing Lex Luthor's [[TheDragon dragon]]. He only gets one hit on [[spoiler: Doomsday], but said hit is what allowed [[spoiler: Doomsday]] to be killed. He gets an even more impressive moment in ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' in the final battle. Aquaman, [[spoiler:Superman]], and Wonder Woman are all combatting Steppenwolf while Cyborg is trying to interface with the Mother Boxes, and the Flash is building a charge to help him. This leaves Batman alone against the Parademon army for most of the fight. [[spoiler: After the final battle, there are no surviving Parademons, meaning he killed every last one of them almost entirely on his own.]]

# A character's backstory describes how they were directly responsible for the singlehanded annihilation of numerous villainous factions (i.e. a vigilante character who targets Mexican cartels).

1. There are multiple villains, either working together or in a competing BigBadEnsemble. No matter which one, a single character kills all or most of these villains.

2. A series of interconnected stories (book and film series) with each story having a different BigBad and TheDragon, and a single character kills all or the majority of these villains.

3. A serialized story (comic book and TV series) with different {{Story Arc}}s featuring different {{Arc Villain}}s and/or villainous factions, and a single character kills most of them.

4. A [[VillainBasedFranchise Villain-Based Horror Franchise]] has a single MascotVillain (like ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'') and said mascot is essentially the lead character for the franchise as a whole. If a character successfully kills the MascotVillain, they are a villain killer.

5. A character's backstory describes how they were directly responsible for the singlehanded annihilation of numerous villainous factions (i.e. a vigilante character who targets Mexican cartels).

4. A [[VillainBasedFranchise Villain-Based Horror Franchise]] has a single MascotVillain (like ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'') and said mascot is essentially the lead character for the franchise as whole. If a character successfully kills the MascotVillain, they are a villain killer.

In LighterAndSofter settings where characters have a ThouShallNotKill rule, preferring to imprison, disable or [[HeelFaceTurn redeem]] their adversaries, the Villain Killer is the one who defies this rule and executes the villains they come across. In these types of settings, this character is usually treated akin to the TokenEvilTeammate.

** Future Trunks also qualifies. Not only does he kill King Kold and a mechanized Frieza but he also kills his timeline's versions of Android 17, 18 and Cell.

* ''Comicbook/ThePunisher'' is one of Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}}'s longest running anti-heroic characters. He has suffered a little bit since his debut from [[DependingOnTheWriter various visions by various writers]], but the one consistency between all of them is that the eponymous title adopted by Frank Castle is always hunting down bad guys, taking down entire crime syndicates in his wake, all motivated because one of these crime families murdered his entire family.
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' had Dark Enerjak (who is Knuckles gone KnightTemplar) who [[YourSoulIsMine can can pull out the core of a person]] leaving them as lifeless, hollow shells. Among his [[https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SxzCOaPDL9o/WzcMtsjUVvI/AAAAAAAAYM0/Cqw146RJp1cqumu43EdBLewA3KzzsE32gCLcBGAs/s1600/Su25-4.jpg victims]] were Dr. Eggman, Snively, Ixis Naugus, and Dr. Finitevus.

* In ''Film/AirForceOne'', President James Marshall as played by Harrison Ford proves why he earned a Medal of Honor as he outsmarts and eventually kills most of the terrorist that overtook his plane.

* Detective John [=McClane=] from the ''Film/DieHard'' series always finds himself going mostly solo against armed and organized baddies. In the first film, a baddie taunts John that he should always exploit a chance to kill a mortal adversary; John took that advice to heart, and forthwith subtracted baddies without mercy.

* Creator/IanFleming's superspy ''Franchise/JamesBond'' routinely thwarts the EvilPlan of an amoral mastermind by subtracting the villain's mooks, then TheDragon, then the BigBad himself. It started with ''Literature/DrNo'' and ran through ''Literature/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''. The baddies usually aim to sell the Communist Chinese a nifty superweapon, or trigger a war between the Soviet Union and the United States. Bond wisely makes sure these nasty nihilists do no more evil, ever.

* Series/DoctorWho: The Doctor has built up a very impressive kill count (either by their own hand or by providing other characters with the means to destroy a villain) over the course of [[LongRunners almost seventy years of the franchise running]] and many serials and ExpandedUniverse stories. These include three thousand Sea Devils in ?The Sea Devils?, the Sycorax Leader in ?The Christmas Invasion?, a being [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane heavily implied to be]] Satan himself in ?The Satan Pit?, countless Cybermen and Daleks (although the latter [[JokerImmunity have a real hard time staying gone for good]]) and ([[TimeyWimeyBall although the real tale is complicated]]) they were assumed to have killed all of the other Time Lords in the Last Time War when they went full OmnicidalManiac to try to win. The result: by the current time, the Doctor has developed a reputation as TheDreaded, which hinders just as often as if helps them.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'', given that it's a show about surviving the world of zombies and the [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters even more monstrous humans]] left in their wake, pretty much every character is combat capable to some degree after Season 3. However, series mainstay Carol Peletier has racked up major kill counts against villainous factions, specifically, Terminus, the Wolves, and the Whisperers. In the first, she almost singlehandedly took down the entire cannibal clan with a few bullets, a propane tank, and fireworks. For the Wolves, she took them all down by disguising herself among them when they invaded Alexandria. With the Whisperers, she singlehandedly took out half their horde of zombies (and almost got a few people killed doing so), and [[spoiler: successfully set up their leader Alpha to be killed by Negan]].

** Mario has fought and killed Bowser and his various underlings many times, but they always find ways to come back to life. In fact, Mario has fought alongside Luigi, Bowser, Peach, and other side characters at different times against greater evils that they destroy. Among them are [[Videogame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga an evil witch that wanted to steal the power of the Beanstar]], [[Videogame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime a race of poisonous mushroooms and their princess]], [[spoiler: [[Videogame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTimeand said princess's older sister]]]], [[Videogame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory an evil bean wielding the power of an eldritch monstrous black star]], [[Videogame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor a millennia old demonic shadow's soul]], and [[Videogame/SuperPaperMario an evil clown with dimensional powers that tried to destroy the multiverse]].
** Link has reincarnated many times across the ''Zelda'' timelines, but in many of the games, he has fought Ganon/Ganondorf Dragmire alongside Zelda herself, and in some instances they have killed him. The most notable case of this was in ''[[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', where Zelda and Link work together to stop Ganondorf, and Link fully and completely kills him. However, in other games, he fights other villains that he usually kills. Some of these monsters include [[Videogame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink a dark shadowy version of himself]], [[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask a malevolent apocalyptic mask that tried to drop the moon on the world]], [[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass a life force-sucking squid-like monster with unnaturally placed eyes]], and [[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword the progenitor of every monster in the franchise before Hyrule was even created]].
** Kirby has fought numerous enemies, and has in fact killed several of them, many times by himself. Among the monstrous foes he's fought include [[Videogame/KirbySqueakSquad evil star-shaped monsters that can possess people]], [[Videogame/KirbyStarAllies a malevolent monster that can take a form that looks like Kirby himself]], [[Videogame/KirbyCanvasCurse an evil witch that turned Kirby into a sphere and cursed the land to resemble paintings]], and [[Videogame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror a fiery eyeball wearing a knight's armor that wanted to conquer the mirror dimension]].

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': Sonic and Shadow have racked up a number of villain kills either as a duo, as individuals or a little help from friends.

* ''Videogame/TalesOfVesperia'': Yuri Lowell is a former Imperial Knight who eventually [[DefectorFromDecadence came to despise]] the way that the wealthy and powerful got away with their crimes while forcing the lower classes to suffer injustices. He became a KnightErrant and {{Vigilante|Man}} willing to help others. During the game, Yuri and the group see this firsthand, with two completely unrepentant villains repeatedly getting away with their crimes because of their status, after which Yuri himself would target said villain and kill them. Flynn, Yuri's best friend and high ranking knight who hopes to [[InternalReformist change things from within]] eventually finds out and the two duel, but the two come to an agreement that Flynn needs to remain TheParagon that inspires hope in the system while Yuri works as his [[PoisonousFriend "darker" counterpart]] who works outside of the law.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'': The titular Phantasm is a vigilante who systematically murders multiple mob bosses throughout Gotham City. [[spoiler:This is because The Phantasm is Andrea Baeumont, who's father was killed by the mafia, and has come back to Gotham City to avenge him by killing them all.]]