Punch Clock Villain / Webcomics

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• Kroenen, and, to a lesser extend, most of the bad guys in Abe Kroenen. However, with the death of Rasputin, most of his minions seem to be rather depressed not to have someone boss them around.
• Sentry of Ask-a-Sentry, a Tumblr-based Tron webcomic. He's a sweet, awkward guy who just happens to be a member of Clu's army, and who wants nothing more than to fulfill his directives to the best of his ability (when he's not getting distracted, that is...)
• A Beginner's Guide to the End of the Universe has Ryan the office worker, who is basically a normal, confused guy, rather upset to be Mind Controlled into wanting to kill the protagonist, and thus is talked out of it easily.
• The 200th comic of Brawl in the Family uses this. "These minions clock in from 9 till 5 to provide for their wives..."
• The major thematic element of Chopping Block. While Butch certainly enjoys what he does, he views it very much as a job, trying to make quotas, keeping a professional standard, and occasionally talking shop with other killers (though he detests that).
• Most of the Combine in Concerned, as well as their few human employees (including Gordon Frohman himself).
• Gen. William Howe in The Dreamer. He really doesn't want to fight against the very people he fought with in the French And Indian War, but he has no choice but to follow orders.
• El Goonish Shive:
  • Abraham starts out as this, before becoming an Anti-Villain and ultimately no villain at all. He swore an oath with the intent to protect people, and the wording of it means he has to kill someone who isn't any kind of threat, but he hates this. He is absolutely relieved when Nananse persuades him that what matters is the intent, not the wording, and killing an innocent would be breaking his oath.
  • Taken to eleven in the non-canon Pokémon parody, in which Team Bad Guys are sanctioned roleplayers whose job is just to make the world more interesting for Grace-a-Monster trainers by pretending evil trainers are a thing.
• Buffalo's lieutenants in Every Button Hurts the Other Guy are working under contract, and given his status as a Bad Boss they're not terribly loyal to him.
• A dominant theme of the webcomic Evil, Inc.. Several of the protagonists have "mixed marriages" (that is, hero/villain), some of which are kept secret in the interest of comedy.
• Evil Plan is a universe with a super hero based economy, so it's no surprise that the villains are also business based. The main character starts the story following a wanted ad for a job and is hired in to a super villain organization. Said villain's best friends (if he considers anyone "friend") are heads of CitrusCo black arms. Other villains have also been shown to head enterprises full of hired off the street minions. It's just the way that world works.
• Abner the vampire hunter in Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name is something of this. He feels no personal conflict with his victims, he just shoots them for the paycheck.
  • It has been stated that Abner wants to kill vampires, however, because he believes he needs to "curb the growing population" of them.
• Lampshaded in this strip of Hellbound, though, strictly speaking, they're heroic antagonists to the villainous protagonists.
• Homestuck:
  • According to his Villain Song, Skipper Plumbthroat, of the Show Within a Show Squiddles!, apparently hunts the eponymous Squiddles in order to pay off his debts.
  • In-Story, Jack Noir/Spades Slick would be this for any SBURB session, being a Dersite government official, and later attempting regicide and being exiled. In the Kids' game, him actually succeeding is what sets the campaign Off the Rails.
• This Arc of Jack deals with the ethical dilemmas of a person finding themself an unwilling punch clock villain by discovering half way through their employment that their boss is a monster (specifically, a twisted paedophile), and being unable to quit or tell anyone because he's also weeks from finding a cancer cure for his wife's terminal cancer.
• In Kaspall, besides Katherine, Beatrice, and Beron, the Ulfor are basically just following orders. Eventually Beatrice convinces them to surrender to the police.
• Debatable in Kevin & Kell. Kell's job is to hunt and eat herbivores, but she's also married to one. Makes you wonder why she doesn't change jobs.
  • This strip is arguably Lampshade Hanging.
• Minions At Work: "Evil is not their nature, evil is just their day job."
• Narbonic centers around Dave Davenport and his employer, the Mad Scientist Dr. Helen Narbon. Dave's fully aware of what Helen does for a living and will occasionally note how odd it is that none of it fazes him. Maybe if she succeeded more often...
• In Nintendo Acres, villains like Bowser, Ganon, and Dr. Eggman, like almost everyone else, are simply actors who work in video games, and are actually quite nice people.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • After they (temporarily) destroy Xykon, one of his remaining minions announces that, since nobody is paying them to fight anymore, they're surrendering. Unfortunately, he announces this to Belkar, who, undaunted, proceeds to wholesale slaughter the "pretty little chunks of XP". They are speaking the truth, too. As shown in the Start Of Darkness prequel, Xykons goblin-minions were given the choice to "join or die".
  • Again, in The Order of the Stick, comics 30-32 take place in the secret Break Room of Xykon's Lair, where they encounter a "squid-thingy" before the comic is interrupted by two Lawyers sent to prosecute the comic for violation of the Open Gaming License.
  • While Therkla has an Undying Loyalty to her master Kubota, she doesn't really care about the politics involved. She attempts to assassinate Hinjo only because that's Kubota's order (which is stopped by her falling in love with Elan, eventually leading to a Heel–Face Door-Slam).
  • Much later on the series, the Order meets General Tarquin, Elan's father. While he has his reasons for wanting parts of the Order dead, his followers, Laurin Shattersmith and Miron Shewdanker have nothing against the Order, and don't even want to get involved, Tarquin calls in a 12-year-old favor to get Miron on board, and Laurin uses the situation to get a favor of her own.
• In Prezleek Comics, when Prez gets sick from eating stale sharks mid-battle, Helwyr pulls out a planner and offers to reschedule. On another occasion, Nex outright yields the battle to hand out rare drops, leading to a Mean Girls reference.
• Subverted in Scary Go Round, where "evil intern" Gibbous Moon returns to romance Ryan, and turns out to be the field general for a crew of pirates, disguised as Blackbeard's ghost.
• Major Murtaugh and the rest of Sanctum Adroit from Book 12 of Schlock Mercenary. They may be fighting against the Toughs, but they are fundamentally good people who are just trying to maintain peace and order.
• In Sidekick Girl, Coldfire is a henchman who only henches because his visa is tied to the Henchman Agency, and he has a bounty on his head back in his home country. He often willingly helps the heroes in secret, and is actually dating the titular Sidekick Girl.
• Fuchsia, Exactly What It Says on the Tin-colored devil girl of Sinfest, evolved into this, until she finally became one in this strip (pictured above).
  • The idea is also summarized neatly here.
  • Since then, Fuschia has left Big D's employ entirely, and is trying to re-invent herself as an artist.
• Most Hereti-Corp Mooks in Sluggy Freelance. This does not stop them from getting slaughtered wholesale.
• Davan in Something*Positive originally worked in a Medicaid billing department, which required him to send crushingly expensive ambulance bills to people below the poverty line. The artist was taking out his rage at having previously worked at a similar job.
  "Wow. How do you sleep at night with that job?"
  "Pretty well. I mean, fuck it, why should I care? It's not like they're my kids."
• Sunbird: The two main characters are henchmen for the Serenthine government.
• In Terinu, the Big Bad's chosen leader for his genetically created group of minions is a happy family man who's concerned for his pregnant wife, who just happens to leads invasions of innocent worlds for his master.
• Trevor (2020): Minus a few odd comments here and there, most of the medical team were doing their unethical experiments on Trevor for the military because the pay was good. Some of them are Locked Out of the Loop and don't even realize what the true goal of the project is, and that their roles in it have been this.
• Mephistopheles and Adramelech from Underling. The former is Hell's bookkeeper (and dresses the part), the other is an old, washed-out god who resents having been forced to join The Legions of Hell by the rise of monotheism (he still does his job, though. Except no.
• Unsounded: Quigley knows that he'll be dead by 30, so he's focused on leaving as much money as possible to his son, whether by working as State Sec in his home country or by selling his magical abilities to a sociopathic child-trafficker. After the latter decides he's outlived his usefulness, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
• In Voodoo Walrus, Shmeerm seems to exhibit qualities of this. If he doesn't have express orders to pummel, eviscerate, and destroy people, places, and things, he seems content to simply traumatize catgirls and talk about his relationship problems with a science badger over tea.

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