Hero Insurance: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

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Heroes never get in trouble for [[Roofless Renovation|plowing through buildings]], demolishing half the city, [[Protagonist-Centered Morality|killing seventeen people and injuring three]], [[Hero Stole My Bike|taking things that do not belong to them]], or [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|jaywalking]], as long as they're being ''heroic''. The necessary explanation seems to be that they've got very, very good insurance, that will take care of ''everything'', including the bribes for the people who want to sue the hero's spandex-clad bottom off.

 

A subtrope of [[Saved by the Awesome]]. See also [[Never Say "Die"]], [[A-Team Firing]], [[No Endor Holocaust]]. Compare [[Designated Hero]], [[Wrongful Accusation Insurance]], [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]. Contrast [[Sued for Superheroics]]. A real concern for the [[Walking Disaster Area]].

{{examples}}

* Kool-Aid Man qualifies as a hero. [[There Was a Door|OH YEAH!]]

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** Heavily averted; in fact it's a running gag. She's basically what you get if you turn [[Trigun|Vash the Stampede]] into a sorceress and take away the insurance girls. While the audience/readers and her close friend know she is a hero, her path of destruction has made her a feared villainess in her world. Even when she does something truly heroic and redeemable, she blows it by losing her cool and nuking the town she just saved. She rarely gets to claim her reward because it will likely be the down payment on rebuild the town from the ground up around the huge crater she just made.

* ''[[Ranma ½]]'': Soun Tendo is on the city council, but one has to wonder if that really helps given the amount of destruction his "son-in-law" and friends dish out on a regular basis. Even though there are those "Do Not Smash Wall" and "Do Not Crush Pole" signs everywhere.

* In ''[[S-Cry-ed]]'', Alter powers can't ''not'' cause damage, as they rely on the surrounding matter for both energy and mass to make the Alter forms, and the Alter Users don't have much control over what matter gets used.

* Averted in ''[[Zambot 3]]'' about as far as it can go. Many battles happen in cities that had been destroyed in ''previous'' battles and the people of the Japan don't take too kindly to the heroes.

* Heck, how is ''[[D.Gray-man]]'' not in here yet? Averted when Allen gapes at a massive hole Lavi puts in a building using his Size-Shifting Hammer and Lavi carelessly mentions not to worry about it and that Komui will 'foot the bill.' Apparently the Vatican have very deep pockets, considering the damage the Exorcists tend to create during their fights.

* One of the reasons Train and Sven from "[[Black Cat]]" are so poor is because most of their bounty money is used to pay for damage they cause when catching criminals.

 

== Comic Books ==

** Even worse, it wasn't a car. It was a school bus full of children.

* The "superhero kids" comic ''[[PS238]]'' tries to handle the social consequences of superpowers realistically, and has brought up the concept of the "Super Samaritan Laws," which were lobbied for and passed to give superheroes some legal protections from the occasionally destructive consequences of super fights, considering the fact that if they ''didn't'' intervene, worse damage would likely happen. It helps that, in the [[PS238]] 'verse, many supers have gone into private and public work that ''doesn't'' involve crimefighting, and the [[Mega Corp]] Clay Industries (founded by a metahuman super-intellect) is explicitly mentioned at one point to create 'instant-buildings' used to rapidly re-build urban areas damaged by superhero battles.

* The first incarnation of Marvel's ''[[Thunderbolts]]'' finished winning the hearts of [[Big Applesauce|New York City]] in their first issue by staying behind to repair the damage to [[Monumental Battle|the Statue of Liberty]] caused in one of their battles.

* The [[Fantastic Four]] had a storyline that began as something of a [[Humiliation Conga]]. First, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|their financial wizard disapparated with all their money]], then New York "thoughtfully" let them off the bill for all the damage that's been inflicted to New York during their battles ''on the condition they handed over their HQ''.

* Shortly before ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' death, the Shield pointed out how dangerous an uncontrolled Spider-Man was when a battle between him and boomerang did almost one million dollars in damages, when Boomerang was just robbing a jewelry for a few dozens of thousand dollars.

 

* In ''[[More Than Human]]'', the city of Townsville has higher tax rates to pay for the large amount of damages done by monster attacks and by [[The Powerpuff Girls]] fighting back.

* The story [[Eiga Sentai Scanranger]] lampshades this, saying the rangers' backers also supply the people and resources to fix everything that gets broken during their fights.

* Somewhere out there exists a fanfiction that explains that selling [[Power Rangers]] merchandise pays for all the damage done in monster attacks. This includes therapy sessions.

* Mentioned (for laughs) in [[DC Nation]] where Roy Harper is bitching about having to take out additional insurance for a rented Winnebago ''because'' he is a publicly-out "cape." [http://community.livejournal.com/jla_watchtower/tag/strangers Turned out he NEEDED the coverage] when six rogues, a corresponding number of Titans, Wonder Woman, and a Green Lantern show up at his location (middle of nowhere Arizona) for a throwdown.

* ''[[Ultimate Sleepwalker|Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' has the title character using his [[Reality Warper|warp]] [[Eye Beams|vision]] to repair some of the property damage caused by his murderous fight with [[Evil Counterpart|Psyko]].

 

== Film ==

* In the second ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' [[Fantastic Four (film)|film]], Sue is seen disputing a report from the cops about how many cars were destroyed on a recent mission.

** The ''first'' movie featured the Thing tossing a car at Dr. Doom. We don't hear from the car's owner and he doesn't get called on it.

* The setup for the film ''[[The Incredibles]]'' is, roughly, that superheroes in general were forced to go into hiding specifically to avoid litigation for collateral damage. That was basically the cost of the government providing them Hero Insurance.

** And they end in a Battle Royale against Syndrome that causes massive collateral damage to the city. Amazingly, it ''restores the public's faith in superheroes''.

* Played with in the ''[[Transformers Film Series|Transformers]]'' films. The US government is implied to cover any Cybertronian-related damage. Unfortunately, the Autobots cause a ''lot'' of collateral damage in their fights. To the point that [[Barack Obama|the President]] sends a government official to express his concern to Prime and his team. The third film also implies that civilians are not exactly happy with all the damage inflicted on their homes and businesses (poll results show that half the world would feel safer without the Autobots; they aren't exactly in the wrong here).

** Additionally, Sam's dad says the government will pay for the damages to their house (caused by Bumblebee shooting at some Allspark mutations). Sam's mom decides to exploit this by demanding a hot tub to be built in the backyard.

 

== Literature ==

* Averted in Simon R. Green's ''Nightside'', where the protagonist, John Taylor, is now classified under Acts of Gods by the insurance companies.

* When the [[X Wing Series|Wraiths]] start a [[Bar Brawl]] as phase one of their latest [[Zany Scheme]], they actually pay for the damages to the bar. Or more accurately, they rob the soldiers they had beaten up and use that money to pay for the damages.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Watch Dogs]] 2'''s "hero" is wrongfully blamed for a crime as a child by the new [[Master Computer]], so to oppose this system and keep people's lives from being ruined by it he... murders a bunch of people in the very first piece of gameplay shown.

 

* ''[[Shortpacked]]'' skewered the fact that heroes seem to get away with massive property damage [http://www.shortpacked.com/2007/comic/book-5/03-ethans-strawman/ironman/ here].

* Parodied in ''[[Evil Inc.]]'' One of the services the titular company provides is "[http://evil-inc.com/comic/battlefield-location-dept-4/ Battlefield Location and Booking]" which seeks out abandoned locations for villains and heroes to battle to avoid lawsuits from any property damage and casualties. This could also be considered an inversion since, as the name of the company indicates, it's the ''supervillains'' who are in charge of this service.

* In ''[[Megatokyo]]'' the TPCD takes the part of clean-up and repair after the many scheduled and unscheduled disastrous events in Tokyo. [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=1069 They even take requests from affected house-owners for changes on rebuild.]

* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' has an unorthodox approach to hero insurance. Because the populace acknowledges that McNinja's vigilantism is actually beneficial to the community despite the crimes he commits in the process, he and the police have worked out an agreement: After committing a crime, Dr. McNinja needs only to return to his office and call "base" in order to have his crimes absolved.

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' part of the [[Running Gag]] about Bob's roof repeatedly getting destroyed is that each story arc ends with the roof either getting repaired, or Bob receiving just enough money to repair it.

* ''[[City of Reality]]'' has Hero Insurance, literally, as part of the deal that makes the inhabitants happy to have super heroes around. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140530022716/http://cityofreality.com/2009/08/01/01-03-crash/ More than happy, in fact].

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' the [[Humongous Mecha|GOFOTRON]] crew doesn't seem to get in any trouble when they slice a [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|giant broccoli monster]] into pieces, and one of said pieces crushes all the [[Innocent Bystanders]].

* ''[[Super Temps]]'' has literal Hero Insurance—the Supers Union actually pays a large chunk of their various merchandising and media profits to the government to pay for collateral damage. Since super-antics actually drive the economy in a cycle of media sales, merchandising, and job creation to handle the damage... this makes perfect sense in a [[Fridge Logic]] kind of way.

* ''[[Fafnir the Dragon]]'' has it [[Turned Up to Eleven]] with Atomica, a [[Superhero]] in [[Stripperific]] costume who, apart from the [[Most Common Superpower]], is [[Immune to Bullets]] (which causes bullets the robbers [[Shooting Superman|shoot at her]] to ricochet into every nearby hostage), [[Super Strength]] (which allows her to use a bank vault door as a shield to protect hostages from gunfire... only to drop it on top of them when she goes of to pursue one of the robber), the ability to melt guns (which sets the robbers on fire) and the ability to gently knock out a robber with a thrown object (at the edge of the curb, where his head gets crushed by the police car). Her being [[The Ditz]], she never actually notices and thinks she's a [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age Superhero]] and the [[Strawman News Media]] praises her all the way.

* Subverted in a early arc of ''[[How to Succeed In Evil]]''. It is openly stated that Superhero Insurance dosen't exist because it would be too damn expensive. Dosen't stop Edwin from selling {{spoiler|(and by selling we mean threatening into submission)}} it anyways.

* Subverted in ''[[Trinton Chronicles]]'', the city isn't really too fond of the vigilantes (heroes) fighting each other in the city with out rules..after all, it's a whole world full of super-powered people...even they have rules against over-use!

 

== Western Animation ==

* Megas in ''[[Megas XLR]]'' regularly destroys significant chunks of the vicinity while he smashes the [[Monster of the Week]]. It's mostly [[Played for Laughs]] since Coop's a loveable buffoon, and the stuff he destroys often has signs that say things like "Conveniently Empty Building" and "We Were Going to Tear This Down Anyway". Plus it takes place in New Jersey, where such destruction might actually serve as an improvement...

** There was an episode where a [[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman|Gatchaman]]/[[Power Rangers|Power Ranger]] [[Expy]] group fought Coop, after watching some videos of his blunders at piloting the robot, under the idea he was a villain. Even the team's own villain thought Coop was evil. They eventually realized Coop is a good guy, just really clumsy, and became allies.

{{quote|'''Citiesville Mayor''': ''At what time'' did it seem like a good idea to blow up the Citiesville Bridge? Do you realize that the bank robbers you captured stole approximately $400? Do you realize you did ''several million dollars'' IN PROPERTY DAMAGE TO THAT BRIDGE?!!"}}

* In the universe of ''[[The Venture Bros]]'', fully-certified membership with the OSI includes a literal license to kill.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'': Danny apparently has no Hero Insurance since he actually feels bad about any collateral damage he causes while capturing ghosts, especially when people he knows bear the brunt of it. When he accidentally destroys a section of the mall, Tucker comments, "I sure hope they're insured." This could be either because, or partly why, Amity Park is an [[Untrusting Community]].

{{quote|'''Mayor:''' ''Thank you, mysterious heroes! The value of the Gemerald you saved is slightly greater than the cost of the damage you caused to this museum: A net gain for our great city!''}}

** When The Tick went to Europe for a hero exchange program, he was prevented from [[Roof Hopping]] due to damaging historically important buildings.

** At one point, he's vetoed from starting a fight with a supervillain in the supervillain's evil... Apartment?... On the basis that the supervillain will lose his cleaning deposit if it gets messed up. They decide to go fight on the roof instead.

* Averted on ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'' with Catman. This is the main reason he's a [[Hero with Bad Publicity]], aside from being completely insane.

* In the premiere of ''[[Sym-Bionic Titan]]'', the giant robot/giant monster battle creates a huge crater in the middle of the city. The heroes are dismayed by the destruction and resolve to fight future battles in remote, unpopulated areas (with limited success at keeping to that resolution). In the very next episode, we see that the city has already completed a long viaduct right through the middle of the crater and is starting to erect new buildings. A few episodes later, a drag race takes place in the construction zone, and we see that considerable progress has been made in the rebuilding. Now, just imagine if New York City had instantly begun building new roads and towers on Ground Zero after 9/11. And consider that the destruction zone here was much, much larger—and given that people actually do die in this cartoon, it's unlikely that entire sector of the city had been conveniently evacuated. One must conclude that the people of this city are remarkably unsentimental.

 

{{reflist}}