"If we’re all gonna try and kill the same guy anyway, it just makes sense to carpool."
"How do my foes find each other?"
If a Superhero has a Rogues Gallery, it's an obvious plot for the villains to team up. A Villain Team Up is almost always for the sole purpose of ganging up on a hero or hero team and finishing them off once... and for all!!! Villains will almost never team up to rob a bank together, or commit any other crime together. Usually this is because the typical Rogues Gallery has villains with nothing in common at all, other than hating the hero.
This is also why they lose; unlike the heroic team they fight, the villains never trust each other. One of them will betray the rest of the group. Usually after they've captured the heroes, thus letting the heroes escape. Some heroes can even cause a "solid" Villain Team Up to implode with Flaw Exploitation. For example, one of the villains with a case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder will show no loyalty nor cooperation with one another. Other times, one of the villains has planned the whole team-up as a trap from the start. Cue An Aesop about The Power of Friendship. This is one of few situations where maintaining the Status Quo is well justified.
A variant is that instead of ganging up, they make the heroes Run the Gauntlet. If they get on reasonably well, they'll compliment each other on their evilness. If conditions are right, they may become a Big Bad Duumvirate. While this is usually a one-shot team up, a Legion of Doom is a recurring team of villains and are a major opposition together. Can easily lead to a Joker Jury situation. When done badly can lead to instant Villain Decay, as the hero trashes six people who each used to be a threat to them on their own. This trope is the opposite of Evil Versus Evil. When a villain teams up with the hero, that's Enemy Mine. When villains from different universes team up and appoint one of their own to lead them, that's Crossover Villain-in-Chief.
Compare Evil Is One Big, Happy Family and Legion of Doom. Contrast Super Team. Could become an Alliance of Revenge if the villains' motive is to get revenge on the hero(es).
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Anime & Manga
- Chapter 157 / Episode 42 of Assassination Classroom shows us that Shiro has joined forces with the God of Death.
- Defied in Bleach: Yhwach makes a point about visiting the last major villain, Aizen, in his prison cell to offer him freedom in exchange for joining his army. Aizen refuses, presumably because his delusions of godhood left him too proud to become anyone's henchman, even if the person making the offer is capable of one-shotting an enemy that Aizen wasn't willing to approach without major preparations. Instead, Aizen ends up helping the heroes defeat Yhwach.
- In the Devilman versus Getter Robo Crossover, the demons team up with the Dinosaur Empire.
- Dragon Ball:
- In some filler episodes of Dragon Ball Z Cell, Frieza, and his Quirky Miniboss Squad teamed up to take over Hell. They got along surprisingly well.
- In Dragon Ball GT practically everyone the protagonists had ever killed teamed up in Hell to try to get revenge, though most of them were just used as distractions until Dr. Myuu and Dr. Gero could create Super Android 17.
- In the movie Fusion Reborn the villains escaped from Hell as a result of Janemba’s reality warping. However, nearly all of them were reduced to cameos and the only one of them who got any real screentime was Frieza, who would end up being quickly killed by Gohan.
- In the episode of Inuyasha entitled 'Naraku and Sesshomaru Join Forces'...Take a wild guess.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: Towards the end of the Part, two past villains of the week team up when Hol Horse kidnaps Boingo to help him kill the heroes, which the latter goes along with. Both characters were already used to working in a pair but each had their old partner taken out of the picture (J. Geil killed and Oingo hospitalized), making teaming up a good proposition for the both of them (Hol Horse's M.O. is only working with a partner.) However, both are Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains, so they end up taking themselves out, without the heroes even knowing a team-up happened.
- In the Mazinger Z versus Devilman feature, Dr. Hell and the demons collaborate to take down Kouji Kabuto and Devilman. It may be subverted, since Hell used a mind-control device to enslave the demons, and he was mainly interested on taking down Mazinger Z (he only sent some demons and Mechanical Beasts against Devilman because the demons warned him he would interfere).
- In the Magic Knight Rayearth anime, Alcyone proposes this with Ascot (they're both minions of the Big Bad, but they work independently). He follows her lead in good faith, but she tricks him into giving one of his beloved creatures a Deadly Upgrade and then freezes him solid when he gets upset, laughing over his gullibility.
- Naruto:
- Kabuto and Tobi end up doing this.
- Kabuto takes it a step further with his mass resurrection jutsu of almost every big name character to ever die in the seriesnote , forcing them to work together against the protagonists. They are mostly villains, but they also include some heroes who are implanted with seals that force them to obey Kabuto.
- The final arc of Tiger & Bunny saw a Villain Team Up of Big Bad Maverick and villain from one of the earlier episodes, Doctor Rotwang. They got along very well, despite that one of them was NEXT-hater and the other was secretly a NEXT himself until they were at the verge of Disney Villain Death, with Rotwang begging Maverick to save him, only for him to reveal he is a NEXT and kick him in the face.
- In One Piece, "pirate alliances" are commonplace, and while they don't always involve villains (for example, Luffy's Straw Hat Pirates form an alliance with Trafalgar Law's Heart Pirates), evil pirates do in fact outnumber good ones and such alliances are usually villain team-ups.
- The earliest example was in the Loguetown arc, when Alvida and Buggy teamed up to get revenge on Luffy. This alliance has to date remained in effect even after the Time Skip, Alvida still remaining a key officer in Buggy's expanded crew.
- During the Marineford arc, Blackbeard breaks numerous other powerful pirates out of Level 6 of Impel Down and recruits the strongest four of them.
- In Fishman Island, Hody Jones forms an alliance with fellow fishman pirate Vander Decken for the purpose of conquering the Ryugu Kingdom. Their alliance falls apart after princess Shirahoshi rejects Decken and he decides to destroy Fishman Island by dropping the Noah on it in response, leading to Hody skewering Decken with his trident once he finds him.
- Most notably, the Wano arc introduces an alliance between its Arc Villain Kaido and the previous Arc Villain Big Mom, two of the Four Emperors and the two most powerful foes the heroes have faced to date. Notably, Kaido and Big Mom have considerable animosity for each other as well, and openly agree to fight a Duel to the Death after they've killed all their other enemies.
- Don Krieg, who otherwise hasn't been seen since the Baratie arc, shows up in Fullalead during the Egghead arc along with Gin and Pearl, implying the Krieg Pirates have thrown their lot with Blackbeard.
- This happened quite frequently in early Pretty Cure All-Stars movies- the second movie, for instance, sees villains from the first six seasons revived and teaming up, while the third saw all the previous movie villains teaming up.
- Patlabor: The TV Series: Episode 42, titled appropriately enough "The Men Who Returned", features 3 previous villains teaming up and forming a Terrible Trio.
- Requiem from the Darkness: In the final episode, Kyogokutei in the form of the death spirit Lord Danjou Kitabayashi , is in league with Shiragiku, the succubus-like ghost who was the escaped main villain of a prior episode and their shared objective is to use a powerful Evil Weapon to plunge the world in darkness.
- Ultraman: Along Came a Spider-Man has Doctor Doom teaming up with Alien Mefilas for a while to try and put an end to Ultraman and Spider-Man.
- Malik/Marik and Yami Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh! Battle City arc.
Comic Strips
- The Twilight Empire: Robinson's War: The antagonists Lord Ugo and the Witch-Queen begin the story in open war, with the latter's forces slowly grinding down the former. Once the heroes, and particularly her old husband from Earth, come to her attention, the Queen decides that her original conflict isn't that important after all and ends hostilities with Ugo in exchange for the items he had taken from the heroes and his forces' aid in tracking them down.
Films — Animation
- Aladdin: The Return of Jafar: Abis Mal accidentally becomes Jafar's master and is promised his third wish if they work together to kill Aladdin.
- Double Subverted in The Thief and the Cobbler. When the evil grand vizier Zigzag goes to join the Big Bad, the Mighty One-eye (who has an entire army of monstrous one-eyed men at his command), One-eye is unimpressed and has Zigzag thrown to his alligators. However, with his charisma Zigzag is able to convince the alligators to spare his life and help him out of the alligator pit. This impresses the Mighty One-eye enough to let him join him.
- This more or less happens in Don Bluth's Thumbelina when Stalker with a Crush Determinator Grundel blackmails slimy Jerkass Berkley Beetle to search for the title character.
- What might be the biggest villain team-up yet in film happens in The LEGO Batman Movie first with The Joker and what is esentially the entire Batman's Rogues Gallery, but then after he escapes from the Phantom Zone he brings back; King Kong, Sauron, Lord Voldemort, the Daleks, the Gremlins, Agent Smith, the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys, Medusa, the Kraken, the T. rex and Velociraptors, Count Dracula, Bruce the Shark, the Mummy, Zod, Skeletons, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
- Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, as it is based on the 60s series, has The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin and Catwoman teaming up. They do turn against Catwoman at some point.
Films — Live-Action
- The 1966 Batman: The Movie featured a team-up between Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman.
- Several of the TV episodes of that series featured team-ups between various villains, they did no better or worse than usual against Batman.
- Batman Forever has Riddler and Two-Face team up, while Batman & Robin (1997) has Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy team up (whether Bane is a villain or a henchman, you pick). In the latter's case, Ivy is manipulating Freeze, which doesn't work out for well for her when he finds out. Batman Returns deconstructs this trope, showing Catwoman and the Penguin working together for all of five minutes before breaking it off.
- Batman Begins has the Scarecrow initially working with Falcone, and unwittingly working for Ra's Al Ghul. The Dark Knight is borderline, as the Joker creates the second villain but never truly works with him; however, the Joker does initially work with the mob. In The Dark Knight Rises, Selina Kyle being blackmailed into providing some assistance to Bane is borderline given she becomes more of an Anti Heroine later and is the one who kills Bane at the end... but Talia Al Ghul being the woman behind the man is a definite case.
- Kamen Rider Den-O: Climax Deka features the Imagin Negataros forms an "evil syndicate", and to strengthen their numbers, he recruited Fangire into his cause. In turn, this necessitates the arrival of the Fangires' main enemy, Kamen Rider Kiva, to come to the aid of Den-O and his allies.
- All of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films feature this:
- Iron Man (2008) features the Ten Rings terrorist group teaming up with Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger.
- The Incredible Hulk (2008) has General Ross and Emil Blonsky, before Blonsky forces Samuel Stern to turn him into the Abomination, forcing Ross to team up with the heroes to beat him.
- Iron Man 2 has Whiplash team up with Justin Hammer, although their alliance is short-lived.
- Thor (2011) gets twisty. Loki manages to convince Laufey of Jotunheim that they're working towards the same end but winds up betraying him so that he can justify an attack against Jotunheim.
- Captain America: The First Avenger has the Red Skull and Arnim Zola.
- The Avengers (2012) has Loki and the Chitauri soldiers, later revealed to be an army on loan to him by Thanos.
- Iron Man 3 has the Mandarin and Aldrich Killian, along with Eric Savin. Subverted, as it turns out that "the Mandarin" is just a British actor who is used as a face by Killian, and the real Mandarin isn't happy with someone stealing his name.
- Thor: The Dark World features Malekith the Accursed and Algrim, who becomes Kurse.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier has the eponymous Winter Soldier, [[Brock Rumlow Crossbones]], and a computerized Arnim Zola all working for Alexander Pierce and HYDRA. Batroc the Leaper appears to be working with them as well, though he ends up being just a Red Herring.
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) has Ronan the Accuser allying with Nebula, who's acting as an emissary of Thanos. They both turn on him once getting the Infinity Stone.
- Avengers: Age of Ultron has Ultron team up with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who work with him under the impression that he can help them get revenge on Tony Stark. They defect to the heroes' side once they find out what Ultron's ultimate goal is. Ulysses Klaue also appears as an Arms Dealer who sells vibranium to Ultron.
- Ant-Man (2015) comes the closest to averting this, but near the end it's revealed that Darren Cross has been knowingly associating with undercover members of HYDRA and is preparing to sell them the Yellowjacket and Ant-Man suits. More subtly one of the HYRDA mooks is revealed by a tattoo to be associated with the Ten Rings organization.
- Captain America: Civil War inverts this: the most teaming up that the main antagonist Helmut Zemo does is through coercion with mostly unwilling partners. The main team-ups are done by the opposing groups of heroes, and which side is the more antagonistic one is left up to the viewer.
- Doctor Strange (2016) features the sorcerer Kaecilius and his zealots attempting to contact the cosmic being Dormammu in order for him to bring about the engulfment of Earth into the Dark Dimension.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has Nebula team up with a group of rogue Ravagers to overthrow Yondu, and said Ravagers also have dealings with Ayesha of the Sovereigns to help her get revenge on the Guardians. None of them however team up with the film's main villain Ego the Living Planet, and Nebula teams up with the Guardians to help take him down.
- Spider-Man: Homecoming features the Vulture employing the Tinkerer, Darter, Montana, and the Shocker, and selling weapons to the Scorpion. The Prowler attempts to buy weapons for him as well, but later expresses his discomfort with the Vulture's weapons and helps Spider-Man find him. It's also implied that the Prowler at one point had dealings with the Scorpion before the events of the film.
- Thor: Ragnarok has Hela team up with Skurge to take over Asgard, while on the planet Sakaar, Scrapper 142 (who is later revealed to be Valkyrie) collects prisoners for the Grandmaster. Both underlings end up rebelling and joining the heroes. Loki naturally switches sides a few times before ending the movie on Thor's side. The movie also features an interesting variation on this trope: to stop Hela, Loki unleashes Surtur to bring about Ragnarok on Asgard and destroy her, in a strange instance of one antagonist teaming up with another to intentionally help the heroes.
- Black Panther (2018) has Killmonger teaming up with Klaue to steal some Vibranium and sell it on the black market. However, it later turns out that Killmonger was planning all along to betray Klaue, so that he can present his corpse as a present to Wakanda, to buy his way into an audience with the elders and lay his claim to the throne.
- Avengers: Infinity War features Thanos teaming up with the Black Order (referred to in-film as the "Children of Thanos") in order to retrieve the Infinity Stones. Subverted with Loki, who attempts to re-form his alliance with Thanos from the first Avengers film; it ends up just being a ruse so that he can get close enough to Thanos and stab him. Thanos ends up seeing through Loki's deception and kills him instead.
- Ant-Man and the Wasp has the Ghost and Bill Foster, but neither of them could be considered outright villains by the end of the movie. The film's other major antagonist, Sonny Burch, has contacts within the FBI but beyond that does not team up with any of the other villains.
- Captain Marvel (2019) features Yon-Rogg teaming up with Ronan the Accuser to take down Carol near the end of the film, though Ronan does it under the impression that they're wiping out a Skrull invasion on Planet C-53 (a.k.a. Earth).
- Avengers: Endgame has Thanos once again teaming up with the Black Order. As the movie is a Time Travel film that has the heroes going back to the events of The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy, then the team-ups featured in those films are technically implied in Endgame, with Thanos from 2014 at one point discussing his team-up with Ronan and recognizing the Avengers from 2023 due to his team-up with Loki in the first Avengers film.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home features Quentin Beck recruiting a crew of disgruntled ex-Stark Industries to create the Elementals and Mysterio.
- Black Widow (2021) has Dreykov and his Black Widow assasins, as well as Taskmaster. Yelena Belova and Melina Vostokoff work with him as well before their defections.
- Spider-Man:
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has a Villain Team-Up between Harry Osborn/the Goblin and Max Dillon/Electro. The alliance is shaky (since Dillon doesn't have any sentiment for Harry due to his background with Oscorp; Harry brokers the team-up by saying both of them were shafted by Oscorp) but Dillon's desire to strike back at Oscorp and Spider-Man is enough to get them working together. At the end, Harry is working to compile a team of empowered individuals to eliminate Spider-Man, which heavily suggests that he wants to form the Sinister Six.
- Spider-Man 3 has a team up with Sandman and Venom, with New Goblin just sort of hanging around.
- Superman II has Lex Luthor initiate a team up with the 3 Kryptonians, but ends up with the short end of the stick very quickly.
- Super Sentai crossover movies typically have the current villain group team up with the remnants of the previous villain group.
- X-Men: The Last Stand had Magneto convince Jean Grey in Phoenix form to work together; sadly, this was because Jean didn't trust Charles Xavier and killed him while Magneto watched.
- Glass (2019), the third in M. Night Shyamalan's superhero trilogy, has Mister Glass (the villain of Unbreakable) and the Horde (the villain of Split) incarcerated in the same psychiatric institution, along with David Dunn. Glass convinces the Horde to team up, break out of the institution and cause havoc, forcing Dunn to break out too.
Mister Glass: That sounds like the bad guys teaming up.
Live-Action TV
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
- In the episode "A Hen in the Wolf House", Cal teams up with HYDRA head Daniel Whitehall, noting that the two of them have a mutual enemy in Coulson. Their alliance lasts a few episodes, but ultimately Cal may have his issues with Coulson, but he utterly hates Daniel Whitehall—the man who tortured Cal's wife to death and is ultimately responsible for Cal losing his daughter, Daisy—and is simply using Whitehall and HYDRA to get to his daughter, then plans to murder Whitehall the first chance he gets..
- Partway through Season 4, Doctor Radcliffe and his robot assistant AIDA go rogue from SHIELD and team up with the Watchdogs, led by Anton Ivanov/The Superior — the Watchdogs get inside information to use against SHIELD and the Inhumans, while Radcliffe and AIDA get the resources needed to perfect the Framework. During the final arc of the season, AIDA betrays Radcliffe and turns Ivanov into a Brain in a Jar controlling a series of robot bodies in order to aid her own plans for the Framework.
- Angel: Wolfram and Hart were prone to this. In the first season, they enlisted Faith. In the second, they brought back Darla and then had Drusilla vamp her (it went badly for them). They also attempted to ally with or control Holtz and the Beast, unsuccessfully.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- In "The Yoko Factor", Adam recruits Spike to help tear the Scooby Gang apart.
- Spike promises Xander and Giles a team-up with Faith after she awakes from her coma, but it doesn't pan out.
- There's one between Faith and Mayor Wilkins that lasts for about half of S3.
- On a larger scale, one of Adam's goals in S4 is to unite vampires and demons.
- Burn Notice: In the episode "Dead" Larry Sizemore and Tyler Brennen, two of Michael Westen's worst enemies, team up. Their partnership lasted just half the episode, since Larry never intended to work with Brennen long-term and simply stabs him in the chest, killing him.
- El Chapulín Colorado: Tripaseca, Cuajináis, Chory and La Minina all team-up in episode ¡No seas torpe, Chapulín! trying to trick the heroe into using his chiquitolina pills and crush him. Thankfully The Good Guys Always Win.
- Defiance: Near the end of the first season, Datak allies with the corrupt Earth Republic (represented by Colonel Marsh) in order to discredit Nolan and Amanda and help Datak win the mayoral election. In exchange, the plan is that Datak will help the E-Rep gain control of Rafe's mines (with Datak getting a sizable chunk of the profits). Then, in the season finale, it turns out Marsh was just using Datak to take over the town and get to the ancient Votan ship buried underneath it. When Datak realizes this, he kills Marsh in a rage.
- Doctor Who:
- The last few scenes of "Frontier in Space" reveal that the Master has, for the whole story, been acting as a Psycho for Hire for the Daleks.
- Part of the plot of "The Mark of the Rani", wherein the Master and the Rani team up against the Sixth Doctor, though it's not really a mutual agreement. The Master blackmails and bribes the Rani into cooperating with him, and when he eventually botches the entire plan due to his obsession with the Doctor, the Rani registers her displeasure.
- A comic strip from the 1990s parodies this, with an omnipotent superbeing uniting all the Doctor's enemies together as one super-army, and then siccing them on all (then) eight Doctors. The Doctors point out the obvious flaw in the logic of bad guys all of whom they'd already defeated uniting to try and defeat them again... and then go on to defeat them all again.
- "Doomsday" subverts this; the Cybermen offer the Daleks an alliance. The Daleks instinctively refuse. The rest of the episode involves the Daleks and the Cybermen kicking the snot out of each other, with the Doctor and the humans trapped in the middle.
- "The Pandorica Opens": Almost all of the Doctor's enemies we've ever heard of, and more, descend on Earth in 102 A.D. to witness the title event. Turns out that, while the Doctor knew the Pandorica was a prison of some sort he had assumed it was already occupied by someone. Really, what happened was that all of his foes came together to trap the Doctor in the Pandorica in order to prevent the destruction of the universe at (what they think is) his hands.
- The end of "Dark Water" reveals that Missy has been working with the Cybermen all along, and that she herself is the Master... erm, Mistress.
- The most recent version of the Master teamed up with Ashad, the Lone Cyberman in "Ascension of the Cybermen". Until it's more convenient for the Master to kill Ashad, take the Cyberiad, and put it to use himself.
- The Magic: The Gathering preconstructed deck from the Universes Beyond crossover, "Masters of Evil," features a chaotic mishmash of antagonists for the player to field, with just the viable leader options featuring the Valeyard, Missy, Davros, the Cult of Skaro, the Rani and the Lone Cyberman. Other cards bring in a wild selection of bad guys from across the show, from various iterations of the Master to Zygons to Sontarans to Weeping Angels to one-episode wonders like the Emojibots, all kept pointing the same way through Gameplay and Story Segregation.
- As expected, this happens in The Flash (2014). First, there are the Rogues (Leonard "Captain Cold" Snart, Mick "Heat Wave" Rory, and Lisa "Golden Glider" Snart). Then there are the two Tricksters. And later we have Mark "Weather Wizard" Mardon breaking the older Trickster and Cold out of jail in an attempt to team up against the Flash. Cold ends up walking away and even warning Barry, as Barry has saved his sister a few episodes earlier (plus, it's Christmas). The Trickster and Mardon, however, do nearly succeed in killing Barry (the Trickster gives out a hundred remote-controlled bombs as gifts to little kids, and Mardon forces Barry to stand there and let himself be killed in exchange for not blowing up the bombs). There are also the Reverse-Flash and Gorilla Grodd, although, in a weird way, it's more of a father-son relationship.
- Gotham does this frequently. Examples include Penguin and the Riddler; the Riddler, Tabitha Galavan, and Barbara Kean; Penguin and Ivy; and Jerome, Scarecrow, and Mad Hatter. These alliances usually eventually fall apart, although a few of the villains seem to have allies that they respect and/or are less willing to betray. Jerome, a captain ersatz for the Joker, at one point actually calls his alliance with the Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter and a few other villains a "Legion of Horribles", and then makes them all sit through a mandatory brunch meeting together while discussing their evil plans.
- Heroes (2006): Season Three is about every villain still alive being united to serve Arthur Petrelli.
- The Highlander two-parter, "Unholy Alliance", in which James Horton and Xavier St. Cloud team up.
- Odd Squad:
- "Disorder in the Court" has Odd Todd and the Shapeshifter team up in order to frame Olive for the crime of stealing the town museum that they committed. However, the Shapeshifter doesn't reveal herself until after the verdict is given and Olive is proclaimed innocent, and doesn't do much to help other than keep the museum in the villains' hands.
- In "Flawed Squad", the Shapeshifter, Fladam, Jamie Jam, the Noisemaker, Evil Mime, and Father Time all team up to stop Odd Squad by going after Precinct 13579's agents. While they are successful for a time, their lack of expertise in teamwork and working together leads to things going south.
- In "Who Let the Doug Out?", Delivery Doug gives a speech to Lady Bread and Fladam about the egg salad sandwiches he makes and sells, which they interpret to mean that they should team up to cause oddness instead of arguing with each other. Doug tries to clarify that he was talking about his sandwiches, but to no avail, as they don't listen to him and stride out of Ms. O's office to go out into the world and wreak havoc. Olympia, Otis, and Ms. O are quick to give him "what the hell were you thinking" reactions.
- The Ecoloco from Odisea Burbujas teams up with Peter Punk and Socapa, respectively, in different episodes.
- Power Rangers:
- Power Rangers in Space: There was the United Alliance of Evil, a group formed by Dark Spectre and comprised of the villains from the first five seasons, namely Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, the Machine Empire and Divatox.
- Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: Trakeena teams up with the Psycho Rangers to defeat the Galaxy Rangers. This necessitates the Galaxy Rangers team up with the Space Rangers.
- In Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, when Lothor returned, he briefly teamed up with Mesogog. After the Rangers foiled their plan, Mesogog ended the alliance and the two villains fought each other. Mesogog won.
- In Power Rangers S.P.D., when Emperor Grumm went back in time, he teamed up with Zeltrax.
- With four villain factions in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, it was unavoidable there'd be some occasional team ups but the most memorable was when Thrax, the son of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, temporarily united all of them against the Power Rangers. The villains made it quite clear they'd only be united against the Rangers and, after the heroes were permanently dealt with, the factions would war among themselves again. Well, it was said at the top of the page the villains usually only team up to destroy the heroes. That alliance ended when Thrax was destroyed.
- This happens pretty much anytime there is a Power Rangers team-up.
- Revolution: Monroe and Randall Flynn ally in the second half of the season, starting at the end of episode 11.
- Smallville: There have been a few villain team-ups. Firstly, in season 3, three of the meteor freaks Clark Kent had taken down teamed up to steal his powers and escape. There have also been team-ups between Brainiac and Bizarro, Lex and Toyman, and recently several Superman villains from the comics were teamed up by LuthorCorp to become Smallville's version of the Injustice Gang.
- Star Trek
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: recurring villain and Data's Evil Twin Lore team-up with a group of Borg in the two-part episode "Descent".
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
- In the two-part story "Improbable Cause"/"The Die Is Cast", the Romulans' and Cardassians' State Sec/Secret Police organizations, the Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order, team up to destroy the Dominion in one fell swoop, by consolidating their fleets and staging a surprise attack on the Founders' homeworld. Unfortunately for them, they arrive but find the planet deserted, and are ambushed and annihilated by a hidden Dominion fleet. It turned out the Dominion knew about the plot and helped push it forward so they could bring the Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order into the Gamma Quadrant and obliterate them in one fell swoop.
- The Cardassians and the Dominion form an alliance in the last few seasons, which eventually expands to include the Breen.
- Star Trek: Voyager has Cardassian infiltrator Seska joining the Kazons.
- Star Trek: Picard has a Renegade Splinter Faction of Changelings team up with the Borg.
- Supernatural:
- Crowley manages to temporarily team up with Raphael in the sixth season finale after his previous deal with Castiel fell apart, but that lasted all of ten minutes before Cas Out-Gambitted them both, killed Raph, and sent Crowley on the run.
- Both Crowley and the Alpha Vampire attempt to pull one with Dick Roman in the following season (Crowley even bakes gluten-free baby uvula muffins for the occasion!), but both get shot down.
- Seasons before any of them, "Fresh Blood" had a team-up between the show's at-the-time-only-two recurring human villains, Bela Talbot and Gordon Walker.
- Super Sentai: Vs. Movies often have villains of both shows coming together to fight both teams. The older ones are usually leftovers of the now-defunct organizations trying to have one last go at their foes.
- Gekisou Sentai Carranger vs. Ohranger: Bara Mobile who is a survivor of the Baranoia Empire, the villains of Chouriki Sentai Ohranger, teams up with the Bowzock, the baddies of Gekisou Sentai Carranger in order to defeat both Ohrangers and Carrangers.
- Seijuu Sentai Gingaman vs. Megaranger features Hizumina, successor to the deceased Shibolena and daughter/creation of Dr. Hinelar who was the main antagonist of Denji Sentai Megaranger, teaming up with Captain Gregory, best friend of Captain Zahab the main antagonist of Seijuu Sentai Gingaman, in order to avenge Dr. Hinelar and resurrect the Balban to conquer the Universe. Notably, both main antagonists are newly made for the movie and appear after both villainous factions have been defeated.
- Mirai Sentai Timeranger vs. GoGoFive features Pierre, butler of the Psyma Clan from Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV and the only survivor, teaming up with the Londerz Family to help them destroy both Timeranger and GoGoV; he also fuses with the Monster of the Week Killer Boxer Boribaru into Boripierre.
- Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger vs. Gaoranger: Tsuetsue and Yabaiba, the last remaining evil Orgs from Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, team up with the Space Ninja Jakanja member Chubozu (brother of Chuuzubo), the antagonists of Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger, to take revenge on the Gaorangers and help the Jakanja exterminate the Hurricanegers by helping them steal the Gaorangers' powers.
- Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger vs. Hurricaneger features the Dino Guts-empowered Jakanja ninja Iga as well as Wendinu and Furabijo teaming up with the Evolian in order to defeat both Abaranger and Hurricaneger and join the Evolian's conquests.
- Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger vs. Abaranger has an Alienizer, Gijinfuan Kazakh, team up with the last remaining evil Trinoid, Sauneel Gingko, in a plot to resurrect the Big Bad of Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, Wicked Life God Dezumozorya, so Kazakh can ally with it to conquer Earth and the Universe.
- Mahou Sentai Magiranger vs. Dekaranger features Agent X, a member of Infershia looking to follow in the footsteps of Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger's central antagonist Abrella by conquering the Universe to make it a crime-laden paradise teaming up with remnants of the Oil Drinkers from Dekaranger's summer movie to do so.
- Engine Sentai Go-onger vs. Gekiranger: Meka, the last surviving member of Rinjuken Akugata, teams up with the Gaiark. Followed by Long hijacking the plot after Meka and the Gaiark unseal him.
- Samurai Sentai Shinkenger vs. Go-Onger: GinmakuBANG!! has the Gaiark teaming up with the Gedoshu to enact their goals.
- Tensou Sentai Goseiger vs. Shinkenger: Epic on Ginmaku features Buredoran taking on the deceased Doukoku Chimatsuri's title and power so he can manipulate the Gedoushu into giving him the Sanzu River's water to destroy the Gosei World with help from a brainwashed Takeru Shiba then destroy both Goseigers and Shinkengers, though Shitari turns on him after his real motives are exposed, Madakodama, a newly-made monster from the Gedoushu, joins his plan anyway.
- Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: The Movie has Bacchus Gill, nephew of Emperor Ackdos Gill of Zangyack, teaming up with Vaglass.
- In Ressha Sentai ToQger vs. Kyoryuger: The Movie Creator Devius, The Man Behind the Man for Deboth in Kyoryuger, allies with the Shadow Line through his Dragon-in-Chief, Salamaz. They end up betraying them after all of the Shadow Monsters they sent are killed.
- Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger VS Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger has Manhole Grumer, the last surviving Monster of the Week of Hashiriyan, teaming up with an unsealed Minongan Mouz of the Galactinsects. They also create OhgerCalibur ZERO, who represents both shows as a Kurumaju created from OhgerCalibur ZERO.
- TV Colosso: There was a sketch named "As Aventuras do Super Cão" (The Adventures of Super Dog. Not that superdog). In one episode, the villains teamed up and the eponymous hero wasn't worried. The villains argued about who had the idea one of them was presenting.
Music
- The Paul McCartney song "Magneto & Titanium Man
" is about the titular Marvel comics supervillains teaming up to rob a bank, and dragging fellow supervillain Crimson Dynamo along for the ride.
Podcasts
- Villain Team-Ups are a common occurrence in Red Panda Adventures. The most prominent in the series is the Red Panda Revenge Squad, consisting of the Crimson Death, the Electric Eel, the Genie, Mordriel the Malevolent, and Professor Zombie. An Alternate Timeline version of this team up successfully killed the Flying Squirrel and information on how is used to sway the main timeline's Red Panda into helping a traveler from that world. When the group eventually forms in the main timeline, they very nearly succeed in defeating the Red Panda despite the mystery man having had years to work out how to beat them. The episode also brings up some of the issues that plague such team-ups, such as Insufferable Geniuses and Large Hams causing clashing egos, past team ups ending on a sour note restricting who to have join.
Tabletop Games
- Disney Lorcana players can do this if they put enough villains in their decks. The story itself also features Ursula teaming up with Prince Hans, and considers other team-ups to help further her plots against the heroes.
- In the Magic: The Gathering expansion Outlaws of Thunder Junction, the trickster planeswalker Oko plans a heist on the titular plain and, now that anyone can travel between planes, recruits an interplanar crew of villains from previous sets to assist him: demon lord Rakdos, warlock Kaervek, ninja gangster Satoru Umezawa, miniature skeleton thief Tinybones, necromancers Gisa and Geralf Cecani, the witch Eriette, and gorgon assassin Vraska (who recruits her own former pirate crew members Malcolm and Breeches).
- The plot of the Mutants & Masterminds Halloween Episode adventure Monster Mash is that Randall Fox, a has-been ghosthunter, has arranged a Halloween event in Freedom City riffing on old horror movies, with the deliberate intent of riling up Silver Scream (the ghost of a 50s scream queen, who appears to seek vengence on those who disparage her life or career) so he can publically trap her. What he didn't count on was that one of the other films starred Emerald City's Madame Macabre (Elvira as magically-empowered villainess), who disrupts his binding ritual to get her own revenge on the event. While Macabre is initially annoyed that there's something else going on that spoils her big entrance, the default assumption is that the two former actresses will decide that their goals coincide and work together. However, it's possible for the heroes to convince one or both that the other is "upstaging" her, and needs to be taken care of before Randall is punished for his disrespect.
- This was the point of the Vengeance expansion for Sentinels of the Multiverse, with Baron Blade uniting a team of minor villains to take out the Freedom Five. More minor villains turned up to join the team with Villains of the Multiverse.
Theme Parks
- Tends to happen quite a bit in the Disney Theme Parks' stage shows.
- The Disney Afternoon Live! stage show that ran at Disneyland in 1991 had Don Karnage and Fat Cat teaming up to steal a top secret plane.
- Fantasmic! contains one between Queen Grimhilde, Ursula, Chernabog, and Maleficent in its original California version. For the Florida version, Jafar, Frollo, Hades, Cruella DeVil, and Scar join in as well.
- From 2002 to 2005, Walt Disney World ran a daily stage show in which Cinderella hosts a party at her castle and it gets crashed and taken over by Queen Grimhilde, Captain Hook, Jafar, and Shan-Yu.
Visual Novels
- Anonymous;Code: Asuma joins Felino's side in Chapter 9. Or rather, he decides to protect Earth Simulator Necro Pilgrimage just to spite Pollon. He couldn't care less about the world ending and threatens Felino to stay quiet, he just wants to end the world himself personally.
- Subverted in Daughter for Dessert when Cecilia enlists Saul’s legal assistance. Although Saul appears to be working for Cecilia, he eventually starts giving assistance to the protagonist instead, telling him where to find Cecilia and Amanda after Amanda suddenly leaves, giving him free legal representation at his trial, and conspiring with Mortelli to neutralize all the evidence against him.
- In Melody (2019), while Bethany is in a bar plotting her next move to get the protagonist back, she meets Steve. In talking to him, they discover that their exes (the protagonist and Melody) are in a relationship together (professional and possibly romantic). Together, they plot to bring their exes down.
Web Animation
- A Massive Multiplayer Crossover web series example, the Los no Frollos organization in The Frollo Show consists of Stocking, Scanty, Kneesocks, Corset, Hades, Batiatus, Marco Antonio Regil, Hans Frollo (not willingly), Achmed Frollo, Jafar, Gwonam, Yusuf, Umlaut, Hitler, Günsche, Dmitri Frollo, Stalin, Yzma, Lemongrab, Wilford Brimley, The Irate Gamer, and Best Hercules. It eventually unravels when Stocking is revealed to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist to minimize consequences, half of the members are killed off or KO'd, and Wilford backstabs the organization and becomes the biggest threat to the world after absorbing Madotsuki's sorrows, forcing the remaining members to team up with Frollo and his allies.
- RWBY: Neo uses Little Miss Malachite's services to track down Cinder, seeking revenge for Roman's death while in Cinder's employment. During their fight, Cinder convinces Neo that her blame is misplaced, and that the person she needs to target for revenge is Ruby. Neo stops fighting Cinder when she is given a demonstration of the Fall Maiden's full power, but becomes a little irritated with Cinder's suggestion that they talk it out because she doesn't speak, something Cinder momentarily forgets.
Webcomics
- One story in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! has Fructose Riboflavin, the Pirates of Ipecac, and Galatea all teaming up, although the pirates are there against their will, and it's arguable that Galatea doesn't really understand what's going on.
- The Hat and Robo-Cube in Stickman and Cube, although this is more of a hostile takeover on The Hat's part.
- At the climax of Everyone Is Home's Sephiroth arc, Sephiroth brings an army of video game villains to wipe out the other Smash fighters. The team-up lasts until the Phantom Thieves (and Kirby) use their respective Heel–Face Brainwashing techniques on Sephiroth, at which point the villains lose their respect for him and go home.
- As it's based on the Mega Man X series (specifically the game mentioned above), this happens in Burning Stickman Presents...Something!, with a third villain, original to the comic actually being the one to put Sigma and Wily together. Naturally, all three are planning to betray the hell out of each other, though to their credit, they're planning to do it after the Evil Plan plays out.
- The Order of the Stick:
- The team of Lord Xykon and Redcloak started off as this. The prequel shows that the two first met when Redcloak saw Xykon obliterate a garrison of paladins and, as Redcloak's brother says, "Let's suggest a team-up with him, Marvel style!"
- General Tarquin joins forces with Nale and the Linear Guild.
- Tales from the Pit: The Rules Manager and the copier team up to defeat MaRo! Their evil plan: make duplicate copies of the relevant rules to prevent Mark's new mechanic from seeing print!
- In RPG World, Galgarion and Jeff, Eikre's rival are hired by South Corp to take out the main group of heroes. While Galgarion is using South Corp for his own ends, he invites Jeff to do the same, effectively making him his Dragon.
- In Sonichu a number of villains from the earlier issues (including Dr. Eggman and Giovanni) team up to take over CWCVille when Chris was away.
- Ian and Anita in the grand finale of Errant Story.
- The final storyline of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja has the Doc become cursed with bad luck, leading most of his notable past adversaries to decide to kill him at the same time and team up to do so: King Radical, Donald McBonald, Frans Rayner, Dracula, and even the Doc's morally ambiguous clone Old McNinja. Oh, and the birdosaurus.
- When some of Wonderella's lamer enemies with edible themes team up against her, she just sees an opportunity to not buy Thanksgiving food. With one of them even being a turkey, they were kind of asking for it.
- In another strip Wonderella discusses and deconstructs the Villain Team Up when fighting two minor supervillains, pointing out that it makes villains seem weak because they can't succeed on their own, and the hero only looks better when they win. Conversely, Hero Team Ups are a lot more impressive since they're usually combating a gigantic, world-ending threat.
- In another strip
- Dominic Deegan:
- Celesto Morgan, Jacob Deegan and the Chosen all teamed up for the "Storm of Souls" arc, each for different reasons: Celesto wanted revenge on Dominic for his hand in killing Amelia Travoria (later shifting to "cleansing" the world with the titular Storm), Jacob wanted revenge of Rillian for stripping some of his necromantic powers after the former started this mess with his experiments and the Chosen wanted to unleash the Storm on the world.
- The "March Across Maltak" arc saw Jacob join forces with the Shintula orc tribe. Jacob wanted to study the mass death on Maltak while the Shintula sought to extend their dominance over the land. This one didn't work out as Jacob ticked off the Shintula chief enough to get himself beaten to death.
- During the final arcs, the Infernomancer teamed up with King David and the Beast. The Infernomancer was just in it for the power boost, not indicating he supported their goal of wiping out all non-human life and chomping up the now-barren bits of the planet.
Web Original
- Hero House gives us numerous examples, from multiple franchises, though Skeletor and Hordak are the most prominent.
- In the web novel, The Impossible Man, the villains team up to form The Amalgamated Union of Malicious Malcontents.
- In "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl" of the Whateley Universe, Hekate's unseen master makes her team up with The Necromancer so she has a safe haven from a true Sidhe curse. The same unseen figured gets Don Sebastiano to give them intel, and The Necromancer gets his Children of the Night, the Felonious Four, and Obsession to help him.
- In Worm, the city's villains are smart enough to temporarily set aside their differences against common Omnicidal Maniac threats.
Web Videos
- Hitler Rants:
- The Hitler Council in hitlerrantsparodies' videos consists of the aforementioned Downfall Hitler, the real life Hitler, The Bunker Hitler, Inglourious Basterds Hitler, The Last Ten Days Hitler, Valkyrie Hitler, and War and Remembrance Hitler. Cooperation rarely goes well in the organization, and a war breaks apart among them when the Downfall Hitler assassinates Valkyrie Hitler. In said war, the real Hitler teams up with the Na'kuhl to help him defeat the other Hitlers.
- There are times when Fegelein may team up with other pranksters to pull an antic on Hitler. Usually this is Himmler, whom tends to act as a mentor to Fegelein.
- The Hitler Council in hitlerrantsparodies' videos consists of the aforementioned Downfall Hitler, the real life Hitler, The Bunker Hitler, Inglourious Basterds Hitler, The Last Ten Days Hitler, Valkyrie Hitler, and War and Remembrance Hitler. Cooperation rarely goes well in the organization, and a war
- In the renowned Dwarf Fortress Let's Play 'Boatmurdered', a rather hilarious one occurs, when a group of goblins decide to team up with the elephants who were already holding the fortress under siege:
"I think they're starting their own little town in there, elephants and goblins living together in peace and harmony, joined only by burning hatred for dwarves."
- Jreg: In Centricide, from the centrist perspective, this happens whenever the 4 Extremists hang out to oppose centrism. The ideologies that get along better end up with Villainous Friendship.
- Thorgi's Arcade: Thorgi's idea for a Final Boss for a hypothetical PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale 2 consists of Dr. Neo Cortex and Dr. Nefarious teaming up to take control of a Colossus, which the player would have to climb while dodging blasts from the two mad scientists.