History Main / EvilHero

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fu_crew.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Apparently, superheroes are popular in this country. So we're going to jump on that."'']]

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Sometimes, the bad guy comes in the form of a familiar friendly face, one that people are meant to see without any worry and think that they are safe, [[BeneaththeMask until they get a]] [[NightmareFuel closer]] [[AdultFear look]].

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** The very first Marine we see is Ax-Hand Morgan, a brutish bully who demanded to have a statue, paid by the taxes of the coerced citizens of Shells Town, erected to show who great he was.

** The very first Marine we see is Ax-Hand Morgan, a brutish bully who tries to torture Zoro and accepts bribes from Arlong.

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* Like [[ComicBook/TheBoys the comic it's based on]], ''Series/TheBoys'' stars super "heroes" who tend to be at best corrupt self-serving assholes and at worst sociopathic serial killers and [[ThoseWackyNazis actual, literal Nazis]]. Even the two nicest and genuinely well-intentioned heroes are Queen Maeve, a [[BrokenBird broken, condescending asshole whose given up on ever being a real hero]], and Starlight, who despite doing ''nothing'' but trying to do the right thing still manages to have innocent blood on her hands. At the other end of the spectrum are The Boys, the titular group who is actively resisting the "heroes", but still consist of complete assholes, criminals, murderers, and [[TokenGoodTeammate Hughie]], and pretty much the only nice thing you can say about them is they're trying to stop the crimes of the "heroes".

[[quoteright:309:[[TabletopGame/YuGiOh https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evilheromaliciousfiend_lcgx_en_sr_ue.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:309:His name says it all. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin He's evil, malicious, a fiend and a hero, too.]]]]

* ''Manga/{{One Piece}}'': The Marines are generally considered a 'good' organization, given that their job involves stopping dangerous pirates from wreaking havoc (and for every generally harmless crew like the Straw Hats, there's a dozen villainous ones), but in practice, there's a lot of them that don't live up to it, though there are also genuinely heroic marines. This is also the organization that runs [[TheAlcatraz Impel Down]] (a prison where torturing inmates is routine) and lets [[AristocratsAreEvil the World Nobles]] do whatever they want, after all.

* Most of the superheroes in ''Comicbook/TheBoys'' are anything but heroes. The most notable are The Seven (who are twisted parodies of the ''Franchise/{{Justice League|of America}}''), who are all a bunch of self-centered hedonistic assholes. The Boys themselves are not actually saints, either.

* ''FanFic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse:'' It's theorized in the setting guide that this is why Corona's fall into madness left such a deep and lasting scar on pony psychology. When the very one whom you trust to protect you from the monsters herself becomes the greatest monster of them all, what hope remains?

* A more comedic example would be Ron Fox, from Film/HaroldAndKumarEscapeFromGuantanamoBay. As a Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, his job is to protect the United States from any perceived threat from a foreign country. Unfortunately, he's so neurotic and bigoted, he pretty much views anyone who isn't [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain white or Catholic]] as a potential threat, and is convinced beyond reasoning that Harold and Kumar are in-league with Al Qaeda and North Korea, simply because of their ethnicity.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': Part of the setting's theme is that there are no real heroes; just evil factions that are ''capable'' of goodness, as opposed to the AlwaysChaoticEvil ones (Chaos is a ReligionOfEvil, the Necrons are TheSoulless, and Orks are hard-wired to fight everything in sight and most things that aren't). The Imperium of Man is the most common protagonist faction because they're human, but they're also a horribly brutal and xenophobic blend of the worst cultures in human history. The Craftworld Eldar fight Chaos and for the most part just want their DyingRace to survive, but they're even more racist than the Imperium and have a superiority complex the size of the Eye of Terror- they're more likely to ally with the Dark Eldar (Probably ''the'' worst faction in the game, and considering the competition ''that's saying something!'') than they are with the other 'reasonable' factions. The Tau are generally the most diplomatic and least violent race, but they also make widespread use of forced sterilizations and BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood.

* Several games in the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' feature antagonists like this, fitting with the protagonists being literal [[NobleDemon Noble Demons]].

* Black Mage from Webcomic/EightBitTheater, to almost absurd degrees. He's a member of the Light Warriors and (technically) helps to bring an end to the world ending threat, but those are the limits to his status as a hero. He has comitted murder, genocide, traumatized children, sacrificed to dark gods, and betrayed his allies numerous times. And he doesn't even try to hide it, though some people still see him as a Warrior of Light. And his allies, the amoral power-seeker, the greed-fuelled scoundrel, and the genuinely noble moron who can't pick up on any of this, are ultimately not much better.
* Most of the bosses from the various ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series who appear in ''WebComic/TheLastDaysOfFoxHound'' are this, being groups of bloodthirsty batshit-crazy maniacs with weird powers who the government basically throws at a threat and hopes it goes away. Pretty much the only who aren't are Octopus, only by virtue of never actually having killed anyone and even he remarks how he's still indirectly responsible for hundreds of deaths merely by association, and Wolf who manages to be [[FriendlySniper fairly nice in spite of her profession]].

* Heroism is an industry in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', and not all heroes are worthy of the title. Most don't go farther than [[{{Greed}} money-grubbing]] and [[AttentionWhore scene stealing]], but the #2 hero Endeavor is a JerkAss AbusiveParent. Bakugou was on the road to becoming one of these, but fortunately he snapped out of it in time.

Compare DesignatedHero, VillainWithGoodPublicity, FakeUltimateHero and HeroAntagonist.

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Light Yagami. [[VillainWithGoodPublicity He has good publicity]] and has influenced hundreds of people [[DarkMessiah who sincerely believe in his justice]]. Unfortunately, he is also a {{narcissist}}ic {{sociopath}} with a HairTriggerTemper who would be more than willing to kill innocents, FBI agents, lovers and even ''relatives''.

* ''Manga/{{One Piece}}'': The Marines are generally considered a 'good' organization, given that their job involves stopping dangerous pirates from wreaking havoc (and for every generally harmless crew like the Straw Hats, there's a dozen villainous ones), but in practice, there's a lot of them that don't live up to it, though there are also genuinely heroic marines. This is also the organization that runs [[TheAlcatraz Impel Down]] (a prison where torturing inmates is routine) and lets [[EvilAristocrat the World Nobles]] do whatever they want, after all.

* Heroism is an industry in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', and not all heroes are worthy of the title. Most don't go farther than money-grubbing and scene stealing, but the #2 hero Endeavor is a JerkAss AbusiveParent. Bakugou was on the road to becoming one of these, but fortunately he snapped out of it in time.

** The most prominent 'bad Marine' is Admiral Akainu, whose brutal philosophy of [[BlackAndWhiteMorality Absolute Justice]] means that he's willing to kill people for being pirates, being associated with pirates, fleeing from pirates (despite said pirates being massively stronger than them, and being normal people who might possibly know about the Void Century. [[spoiler: And after a brutal fight with Admiral Aoikiji, he's the ''Fleet Admiral''.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': The Imperium of Man: Sure they fight aliens and demonic entities, but many of them tend to be as ruthless and evil to the humans they are meant to protect and help as the threats they fight against. Everyday millions of people die from the Imperium's own actions just as much as they get killed by all the other threats out there.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] VillainProtagonist.

* ''Manga/{{One Piece}}'': Many of the Marines [[note]]like Onigumo or "Axe-Hand" Morgan[[/note]] in the Navy, would, in real life, not be considered good role models for sea lovers and young naval cadets, to say the least, even if their job is to arrest pirates; they sometimes act [[NotSoDifferent no better]] than [[NotSoAboveItAll pirates]]. The same goes for those who run the superprison Impel Down. But to really put it into perspective, take a look at Admiral Akainu, who's a BloodKnight in a sailor's cap with no regard for anybody's life, including [[WouldHurtAChild Coby's]]; then there's the fact that, after a vicious duel with another marine, he is now Fleet Admiral, the head honcho for the entire navy. Though his evilness is still second to the Five Elder Stars, the guys in charge of the entire World Government, who can, will and have, destroyed entire nations for the "crime" of a small number of their citizens figuring out how to read a dead language, in order to keep some secret about the government's past from getting out.

* A kind of recurring opponents in Italian superhero ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics are villains that try and neutralize Duckburg or Mouseton's defenders by acting as superheroes themselves and outperforming the real deal until they retire:

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'': Circe steals Diana, [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna and Cassie]]'s powers using a magic spell and then takes a spin as the new Wonder Woman. While she ''does'' actually save many lives her focus is on helping women and she brutally murders any men who try to stop her. Diana is annoyed that the press reaction to this is mixed given what a pariah she became for killing a single murderer as a last resort, while there are people approving of Circe's methods.

* In ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', Colonel Miles Quaritch and the miners are, admittedly, doing their job: whatever the CEO of RDA on Pandora orders them to do, which is protecting prospectors from the hostile wildlife and the ''occasionally'' hostile Navi; but, said [[CorruptCorporateExecutive CEO]] couldn't care less about a bunch of 'blue monkeys', only using diplomacy to avoid a political controversy, and is clearly more interested in [[GoldFever his precious Unobtainium]], and the soldiers show a little too much [[FantasticRacism pleasure]] in [[HumansAreBastards gunning down]] alien wildlife and indigenous people trying to protect their homes (with Quaritch hinting [[DefectorFromDecadence personal reasons]] for attacking the [[{{Revenge}} Navi]]).
* While Alex from ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' is no angel himself, the fact that TheGovernment would be willing to use [[MindRape nausea-enducing]] [[ColdBloodedTorture Pavlov related torture]], basically [[MoreThanMindControl stripping]] [[TheEvilsOFFreeWill free will]] from the brain, on '''any''' human being makes you wonder if there are any real heroes left in the future world.
** How about the revelation that, in his absence, Alex's own [[{{Mook}} "droogs"]] have somehow become cops, cops that hold no second thought on nearly drowning a comrade that they abandoned to the authorities in the first place, and [[KarmaHoudini getting away with it]].

* Another KarmaHoudini example is [[BattleAxeNurse Nurse Ratched]] from ''Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', who psychologically tortures patients at a mental hospital, who are in no way dangerous, to the point of preventing any opportunity to watch a baseball game, and becoming annoyed when they find a slight way around that, and driving one of her patients to [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]; all while looking like a normal nurse doing her job in [[DevilInPlainSight public eyes]].

Compare DesignatedHero, VillainWithGoodPublicity, FakeUltimateHero

* Black Mage from Webcomic/EightBitTheater, to almost absurd degrees. He's a member of the Light Warriors and (technically) helps to bring an end to the world ending threat, but those are the limits to his status as a hero. He has comitted murder, genocide, traumatized children, sacrificed to dark gods, and betrayed his allies numerous times. And he doesn't even try to hide it, though some people still see him as a Warrior of Light.

* Your character is still officially a Hero ''VideoGame/FableI'' even if they end up on the evil end of the Karma Meter, with the Heroes' Guild not only still allowing them entry, but allowing them access to quests that allow them to continue more evil deeds!

** This trope ends up getting [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] in ''VideoGame/FableII'' with the populace of Albion becoming fed up with the Heroes' Guild allowing evil acts from Heroes. This lead to the Guild's demise soon after firearms were invented, with such weapons allowing normal people to destroy their headquarters along with their superior numbers and the element of surprise.