Villian Code

As heroes have rules of behavior, so too do villians. Not for any noble reasons... but because they don't want to die. When a combat villian gets roughed up to the point that they can't just soak it anymore... they surrender, get arrested, stand trial, and stage a jailbreak a few months after the press has died down (it is *REALLY* hard for mundanes to keep a super captive). If they have a hero at their mercy, they don't kill - dress 'em up in a tu-tu and let 'em loose in Times Square? Sure. Drop them in an overly-complicated 'death trap' that a six year old child could think their way out of? Sure. Kill them or cripple them? Nope.

That way lies death, and all but the greenest of villians know it.

It's simple, really. The heroes remain heroic and noble for as long as they can afford to be heroic and noble. When they can't, they stop playing fair. When a villian kills a hero, two things happen: One, heroes gang up to hunt doen that soecific villian. Two, the heroes get what amounts to a free pass to kill that specific villian... and there's always someone better.

For related reasons, villians don't really go after the loved ones of a hero. Oh, sure, Lucy Lexor might nab Ultrama'am's boyfriend to call Ultrama'am out... but it's a ritual, not a serious threat. Larry Lone will be kept in what amounts to a nice hotel suite until the appointed time, complete with room service. Again, there's no noble reason here: "Of course Ultrama'am went a little nuts; she just watched her lover die in front of her... can't really blame her for going too far with Lucy Lexor." If Lucy ever does kill Larry, she has signed her own death warrant, and she knows it, as does any but the greenest of supervillians.

So in a nutshell, the villians have a code too: "Surrender or run when you're beaten, and don't kill anyone important."