A dramatic convention that allows The Hero to face off against a villain, while being hunted as a criminal. Wait, what?
This trope is sometimes used during an In Medias Res 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.
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 recruits 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 Godzilla Threshold 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.
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.
Sub-Trope of Recruiting the Criminal, when the heroes get villains to act as specialists for them. Compare Price on Their Head, for when the hero has a price on their head, in which case, the villains are likely acting as Bounty Hunters. This trope comes often in Super Registration Act situations, when the government singles out Differently Powered Individuals through legislation. Contrast Godzilla Threshold, a situation so dire that people resort to extremely dangerous, risky, or immoral methods to resolve it.
Examples:
- Outlaw Star: After Hilda steals Melfina and the titular starship from the Kei Pirates, they manage to track her down with help from Professional Killers 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.
- Civil War (2006): Iron Man 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.
- The Flash: In one The Flash (2016) storyline, the hero's Rogues Gallery is recruited by Central City PD, who have decided the Flash is a menace. The twist is that CSI Barry Allen is assigned to the unit as well.
- Spider-Man: J. Jonah Jameson hires villains, or in the case of the Scorpion, helps create them in order to try and take down Spider-Man.
- Superman/Batman: In Public Enemies (2004), Lex Luthor, now President of the USA, frames 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.
- 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.
- X-Men: 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.
- Nagabumi: The government resorts to this when its agents fail, even calling upon former heroes and mercenaries.
- The Adventures of Pete & Pete: In "Last Laugh", Schwinger hires Pit Stain to help stop their common enemy Little Pete. Unfortunately for Schwinger, Pit Stain is in on it too.
- The Endless Night: It's basically the foundation of the series. The Watchers hire dangerous murderers to do their dirty work and are surprised and outraged at all their dangerous murder.
- City of Heroes: 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.
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: The Pro-Registration side uses supervillains to hunt the Anti-Reg side. The difference with the Civil War (2006) comics is that they use nanite technology as a sort of mind control to keep the villains from trying anything funny. It falls apart when the nanites started developing on their own and Turned Against Their Masters.
- Tin Star: 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.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- "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.
- "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 Lancer, Zuko, to find him. When he asks why, they point out that before his Heel–Face Turn, 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.
- Batman: The Animated Series: In "Over the Edge", after Batgirl dies, Gordon releases Bane to bring in Batman because he blames him for his daughter's death.
- Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.: In '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 the Abomination. Makes more sense than it would in the comics, since, like in the 2008 Movie, Blonksy has a background as a government operative.
- Justice League Unlimited: 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.
- Wander over Yonder: "The Bounty" revolves around Hater hiring a bunch of assassins to capture Wander and Sylvia.
