Plus, you’ve got to figure any hero who makes a real run at the Henchman’s Union is going to get hella blacklisted by the Honorable Guild of Sidekicks, Proteges, Manservants & Assorted Trades Local 802. Not to mention the teamsters. And the police, for that matter! Sure, they’ll arrest henches themselves when they get the chance, but when Archduke von Agony is blowing up a local shopping center, who do you think the boys in blue are going to call for backup? The Rorschach lookalike who threw two union men off a bridge last week? Or Paragon, who, from what I hear, redirects his flight patterns to avoid crossing a picket line?

I mean mobsters aren’t in the mob. They’re involved in That Thing of Ours…

Thats why I maintain reporter boy is doomed. I mean outside of writer fiat. ‘Cause its your story and your world and thus your decision on internal logic and motivation and so forth…

What makes you think the heroes don’t know?

Especially after this article is published… but even so…

Which obliquely raises a point. Marco (and Leather, for that matter) aren’t going to be in trouble with anyone over this article, because they’re saying things generally enough that everyone who might be interested already knows.

The heroes know there’s a service, there’s a Hench’s Union, and all the rest. They know a lot of how this works.

For some heroes, almost certainly that forms an avenue for investigation. The Nightwatch may well have a disguise as a Hench who’s a member of his local Hench’s Union branch (much as the Batman in the comics has an identity — “Matches” Malone — who is in the syndicate). The Nightwatch is first tier and very good at what he does, but the existence of the support services gives the Nightwatch too much information to just shut them down.

Why nobody in the union’s blabbed. Even the Mafia has trouble with squealers, and this would be an even bigger blowup than bringing down the local Don.

Plenty in the union have blabbed. The problem is, first off the informant is marked, and second off most individuals in the union don’t know much. A contact or two. Mostly phone numbers. Much like the Service and Transport Services and most of the rest of the support organizations. All of these are as “need to know” as you can imagine.

And there’s lots of good reasons to keep your mouth shut. Even more than “squealing might get me and mine killed.” Henches in the union can expect good legal support, can expect their families to get support even if they go to jail, get various benefits in what is, after all, a dangerous business, and can even be broken out of jail in the right circumstances.

But there are those who squeal, and there are some circumstances where chunks of the union or the service or other such things are compromised. Much as the Mafia and the Drug Cartels are sometimes compromised.

But the Mafia and the Drug Cartels don’t fold when that happens. They still do frighteningly good business.

Sometimes, crime does pay.

Oh, and:

Frankly, this union would be any superhero’s first order of business.

First tier heroes, maybe. Maybe.

Lower than that? They’re out of their league. Way, way out of their league. Which doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, just like some superheroes go after the Five Families of New York as their first priority. As do some cops, and some F.B.I. agents.

Sad, what happens….

Especially after this article is published… but even so…

Isn’t it interesting that the Guild charges much higher rates for a job where killing is sanctioned? And that the Guild won’t protect the Hench that takes a kill-job as much as they will a no-kill-job? And that you may as well go on the lam the minute you kill a cop?

Makes one wonder who’s really running the Guild, it does….

1) Why the heroes never catch on that the villains and villainesses are being serviced by a union. I mean, it would have to rival the Mafia in numbers, resources, funding and organization. The question “where do these goombas get such a shiny lawyer on short notice?” has to cross their mind ONCE in a while. And even the Tick would start noticing when all the henches he skull-clonked started looking familiar.

2) Why the heroes never decide to start putting goons back and forth through the wringer like a pair of old sweatsocks till they got all the info they wanted. Even if they never sussed on to the whole ‘union of badguy roadies,’ “sweat the flunkies” is a popular game with the police and the FBI even IRL.

3)Why nobody in the union’s blabbed. Even the Mafia has trouble with squealers, and this would be an even bigger blowup than bringing down the local Don. Old saying: two people can keep a secret if one is dead.
Two thousand people?… forget it. Exploding brain implants could be one possibility…. but having goon-heads go ker-pop all over the place would be just as big a giveaway as someone ratting.

Frankly, this union would be any superhero’s first order of business. The raw information they had on supercriminals would make it target number one of every hero, super-team, midnight detective and ex-navy SEAL with a gun and a vendetta. Heck, heroes would start ignoring the villains and going straight after the goons!

They would have to be more secretive than the mafia, more decentralized than the Viet Cong or Al Quaeda, better networked than the worldwide web and made up entirely of people with less ambition than a surfboard beach bum.

This isn’t the only way Justice Wing villains can exist, but it’s a common one because it’s useful, and gives the villains the chance for both downtime and having some of the crap outsourced.