Basic Trope: A villain kidnaps and uses The Hero (in his Secret Identity) as a hostage.
- Straight: Monster Clown holds Klark Cent as a hostage to lure Captain Patriotic into a trap, all the while unaware that Klark Cent is Captain Patriotic's Secret Identity.
- Exaggerated: Monster Clown kidnaps Klark Cent multiple times, is beat up by Captain Patriotic whenever his line of sight leaves Klark Cent, and still doesn't figure out that they're the same person.
- Downplayed: Monster Clown rounds up a massive party's worth of people and Klark Cent just happened to be there at the time.
- Justified: Monster Clown notices Klark Cent and Captain Patriotic showing up in the same places, and wrongfully assumes the "two" must be friends, colleagues, or somehow associated with each other.
- Inverted:
- Captain Patriotic saves the life of Coswald Obblepot from a remote-controlled Attack Drone sent by Monster Clown, unaware that Coswald is actually Monster Clown in disguise.
- Captain Patriotic ends up becoming the bodyguard of beloved politician Darvey Hent (secret identity of mass-murderer The Sadist) after being publicly threatened by the Politically Incorrect Villain Ghostapo.
- Subverted: Monster Clown kidnaps Klark Cent, holding him hostage, only to reveal that he accidentally kidnapped an alien shapeshifter that took Klark's form to that he could eat him.
- Double Subverted: Monster Clown kidnaps someone he thinks is Klark Cent at first glance, but is disappointed when he realizes that he just grabbed someone with a similar hair-style. Turns out though that Captain Patriotic secretly knocked out and disguised himself as one of his kidnapper henchmen.
- Parodied:
- Monster Clown kidnaps Klark Cent so much that Klark ends up developing a crush on and tries hitting on him as Captain Patriotic as he literally hits him.
- Captain Patriotic disguises himself with only a pair of Groucho glasses and Monster Clown kidnaps him, musing out-loud that he would make the perfect hostage to use against Captain Patriotic.
- Monster Clown holds Klark Cent hostage to lure Captain Patriotic into a trap, only for every other hero to swoop in to save him before he could act.
- Zig-Zagged: Monster Clown holds Klark Cent over a tank full of sharks with lasers strapped to their heads with the intent of luring Captain Patriotic into a trap... but it is revealed that it is all just really kinky role-play between the two, and Monster Clown is aware of the hero’s secret identity... but Monster Clown's more evil split personality The Magnificent was the one who kidnapped Klark first and has no idea that he is Captain Patriotic.
- Averted:
- Monster Clown is a Noble Demon who refuses to kidnap civilians for his schemes.
- Monster Clown tries to kidnap Klark, but ends up getting beat up by him.
- Enforced: Klark Cent is a Non-Idle Rich tech-genius with various economic and political associations. It would be a wonder if he didn't get kidnapped all the time.
- Lampshaded: "Captain Patriotic should be here any second now. He always seems to know where you are, and his interviews say that you two are best friends. I've been waiting forever to pull this stunt."
- Invoked: Captain Patriotic needs to find out where Monster Clown's secret lair is, so he cross-checks all of Monster Clown's criminal activities, pin-points where he will strike next and goes there under his Secret Identity so that he would let himself be captured.
- Exploited: Monster Clown realises that one of his hostages is Captain Patriotic, and decides to put them all in a death trap to force Captain Patriotic to use his powers and reveal which one is his secret identity. Or to not use his powers and die, whatevs.
- Defied: Monster Clown does everything he can to distance himself from Klark because he would rather avoid Captain Patriotic, noticing that Captain Patriotic always shows up where Klark is.
- Discussed: "You think I'm dumb enough not to notice if I captured my own arch-enemy?"
- Conversed: "I'll disguise myself as a rich snob and he’ll be tempted to hold me for ransom. It worked in the comics."
- Implied: A Noodle Incident is brought up that Klark Cent knows the ins and outs of Monster Clown's lair, saying that he did not need to suit up to inspect the place.
- Deconstructed: When Captain Patriotic doesn't show up, Monster Clown considers the possibility that he might already be here.
- Reconstructed:
- Captain Patriotic manages to make it look like Monster Clown was Right for the Wrong Reasons, and that Klark Cent is the kind of hostage who could warn him about the trap.
- One of the other heroes comes to the rescue disguised as Captain Patriotic, who as far as Monster Clown knows, has helped clear up whether or not Klark Cent was the real one. He just doesn't realize that he now has the wrong answer.
- Played for Laughs:
- Monster Clown discovers that his hostage is Captain Patriotic in disguise, which means he accidentally kidnapped him instead of the real Klark Cent.
- Monster Clown learns the truth, but all he cares about is how badly he screwed up his own plan by making Captain Patriotic rescue himself.
- Played for Drama: When Captain Patriotic doesn't show up, Monster Clown apparently kills Klark Cent, who uses the opportunity to escape, but now has to stay as Captain Patriotic until he can figure out some reasonable explanation for why he didn't seem to make it and how Klark survived.
