Composition wise this cover is actually more interesting than the ones we're used to seeing. We actually have something that catches the readers attention, with the menacing villain holding the symbols of the heroes by knives. —Linkara,Daredevil #306.

Box art or advertisement that featuresthe villain's head "watching" the hero.

This trope is related toFloating Head Syndrome, though the latter is not typically viewed as fondly. For when a villain is overlooking a scenein-story, seeI Have the High Ground.

Anime andManga

• A promotional poster for theMahou Sensei NegimaOVAMō Hitotsu no Sekai (Another World) shows Negi and Asuna posing in front with Fate Averruncus overlooking. What makes this example unusual is that Fate's head and line of sight is turned slightly to the side to show hiseffectively apathetic nature (rather than diabolic or megalomaniacal).
• Dragonball Z Budokai has Cell doing this with aMagnificent Bastard smirk on his face.
• Early promotional material forDigimon Tamers had Impmon, intended at the time to be theBig Bad (a direction later changed) in this fashion, except he was underneath the Tamers rather than above.
• One of the Pokémonpromotional items from Burger King was a card that showed Mewtwo looking down at our heroes, complete with anEvil Laugh. (Card is marked as number one, apologies for the quality.)

Comic Books

• Marvel Comics has been known to do this: for starters, the one-shotDaredevil villainThe Surgeon General andSpider-Man villainJackal.

Film

• Many aStar Wars poster has Darth Vader doing this; in fact, the series may well have originated the trope.
  • The Phantom Menace has it with Darth Maul.
  • AndKnights of the Old Republic has Malak glaring down at Bastila
  • The sequel does the same with Nihilus.
• The poster ofStar Trek: Insurrection features the Enterprise-E flying towards the giant face of the movie's main villain (whose actually has a rather minor role in the film, considering how prominently he's shown on the poster).
  • The poster toStar Trek VI the Undiscovered Country shows the very large, very angry eyes of General Chang glaring down at the Enterprise-A from the background.
  • And one poster for the 2009Star Trek film does this with Nero.
  • Oddly, most of the posters and DVD covers for the 2009 film do this withKirk; one could be forgiven for assuming that Christopher Pine plays the villain (although that film's Kirk is arguably anAnti-Hero).
• 28 Days Later has a poster with just theeyes of an Infected hanging in the sky over a silhouetted Jim.
• Fright Night usesa variation: villain as an evil cloud.
• This movie poster forInglourious Basterds.
• The original poster forChilds Play.
• The film adaptation ofNo Country for Old Men portrays Anton Chigurh this way. The effect is actuallyvery creepy, especially sincethis is one story where, justice and logic be darned,The Bad Guy Wins.
• The 2002 adaption ofThe Time Machine.
• The poster forThe Haunting of Molly Hartley does this withJoseph, who is revealed in the last ten minutes to be part of a Satanic cult.
• The poster forThe Untouchables has a giant Al Capone in shades, smoking a cigar and smirking over the Untouchables.
• The Poster for the film "Lion of the Desert", about the life of Libyan anti-colonial rebel Omar Mukhtar, depicts Benito Mussolini glowering over his troops and tanks as they clash with the rebels, with central villain General Rodolfo Graziani in theforeground. ^{[dead link]}
• And also with the zombie nazis flick "Horrors of War", whichdoes this with Adolf Hitler and his zombie hordes.
• The posters forHalloween:H20 andHalloween Resurrection do this with Michael Myers'Black Eyes of Evil looming over the frightened-looking protagonists.
• Battlefield Earth, as seenhere.

Literature

• War with the Evil Power Master.

Live-Action TV

• InHeroes, the Season 1 graphic novel collection has 2 different front covers, both of which feature Sylar's head looming over the main cast of Heroes.
  • On the cover for the Season 2 DVD, the main cast of Heroes stands in the foreground at Times Square while Sylar's head grins down at them from an overhead billboard.
• The Troll King is doing this on the DVD cover forThe Tenth Kingdom—which is a subversion, as he isneither the real BigBad of the miniseries nor even impinges very much on the plot, particularly since he only briefly menaces the heroes in Parts 1 and 2. (He's actually much more ofThe Rival for theBig Bad.) This might be a borderline case ofBilling Displacement, since while Dianne Wiest is greatly respected and a well-known actress, Ed O'Neill is probably more popular. Or it could be a bit of canny advertising to misdirect the audience.
• EveryAngel DVD case has Angelus looking over Angel's shoulder.
• An inversion: Upon opening it, theHouse: Season One box set features the main cast looking down at you in a circle with a surgical light over all of their heads, as if you were a patient.

Music

• Likewise,Iron Maiden'sBrave New World andRock in Rio (specially the DVD) turn the band's mascot Eddie into an overlooking cloud.

Video Games

• The firstFire Emblem features theBig Bad watching Marth and his army. The 3rd game, a remake and direct sequel to the first, has theBig Bad in both forms.Fuuin no Tsurugi/Sword of Seals has both Zephiel and Idenn/Idoun's head in the background (although only Idenn/Idoun is really looking). Gaiden has... someone's head on its cover.
  • The 3rd game's box art is pretty much reused for Shadow Dragon's.point of sale
• One of the unlockable backgrounds inMetal Slug Anthology has Morden looming over Marco, Tarma, Eri, and Fio.
• The cover ofPhoenix Wright: Ace Attorney features both the Judge and Edgeworth as possible examples (even if Edgeworth stops being that much of a villain in case 3).
  • Thegames themselves feature this with the artwork unlocked after beating each case. This can in fact spoil who the guilty party is for people who haven't played the games before.^[1]
  • A piece of promotional artwork forPhoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations shows Godot in this role.
• The complete works rereleases forMega Man 5 andMega Man 6 feature this.
  • Mega Man 9 does this on its "cover" (it's download-only), in order to emulate the cheesy box art the games had in the NES era.
  • The European box art forMega Man 1 as well.
• Thebox art forLittle Big Adventure 2 contains a cloud, shaped like Dark Monk looking menacingly over Twinsun.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Mega Drive version does this on the cover, with Robotnik slamming a "2" into the ground.
• SHODAN does this on the box forSystem Shock 2. Now,The Reveal isno longer surprising.
• Mass Effect has Saren's eyes looming over Shepard.
• The box art forKing's Quest 3 features the villain Mananan doing a crystal ball version of this.
  • The box art forKing's Quest 7 1.0 (for DOS 5/Windows 3.1) features Malicia looking down over a tornado sucking in Rosella and Valanice. Version 2.0 (for Windows 95) has different box art.
• Done on the cover of theTransformers Animated video game, with Megatron looking on from the background.
• Shining ForceII.
• Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny arguablydoes this... the "arguably" coming from whehter you seeGod of War's Kratos as anAnti-Hero or aComplete MonsterVillain Protagonist, as we noted on the page for thatguest-starring series.
• The box art forSacrifice features Charnel ominously looking down on thePlayer Character,Here Eldred, holding a Manalith in his long clawlike fingers. Easily the evilest of the game's five gods, he's notably not theBig Bad of the game.
• Cackletta forMario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, then the Shroobs in the sequel.
  • A promotional poster forSuper Mario Galaxy shows Mario and one of the Lumas flying through space while being watched byBowser,Bowser Jr., as well as every single boss encountered in the game (specificallyDino Piranha (but not hisfiery form),King Kaliente,Bugaboom,Megaleg,Kamella,Tarantox,Topmaniac,Major Burrows,Kingfin,Bouldergeist, andBaron Brr).
  • This is also true with one promotional artwork forSuper Mario Bros 3.
• The boxart for theOverlord games often feature theEvil Overlord posing menacingly in the background while the Minions take the forefront.
• Some of theKirby games have this, likeKirby's Epic Yarn.
• Banjo-Kazooie's box art features Gruntilda overlooking Banjo and attempting to grab him.
  • Specifically,Nightmare in Dreamlanddoes this with Meta Knight.
• Wii version ofA Boy and His Blob has the main villain boss watching.
• The covers for all of thePokémon Mystery Dungeon series games show the main characters being watched by evil-looking Pokemon with glowing red eyes and are completely covered in shadow.
• The box art forAdvance Wars 2 shows the Orange Star Commanders (main heroes) in the foreground, the Black Hole Commanders (bad guys) behind them looming over them, and a giantBig Bad behind and abovethem.
• TheX-Men Legends games have Magneto and Apocalypse, respectively.
• While the original box art avoided this,Resident Evil Code Veronica X's box art features Wesker in the background.
• Fahrenheit/Fahrenheit (2005 video game)'s title screen has the Oracleoverlooking the main cast.
• Professor Layton examples:
  • Occurs in the box art forthe Diabolical Box.
  • And again withthe Last Specter.

Web Animation

• A widely circulated fan poster ofRed vs. Blue Season 3 features the head ofBig Bad O'Malley doing some Evil Overlooking of the main cast. A similar fan poster of Season 4 featured the Alien in a similar position, although it was revealed rather early in the season that the Alien was actuallynot the new villain (it was still O'Malley).

Web Comics

• The thirdPenny Arcade book,The Warsun Prophecies, has Tycho's eyes looming over Gabe.

Western Animation

• Many posters and video boxes forWestern Animation have these, especially if they are fromThe Nineties. Sometimes, the villain looks like they are trying to grab the main characters or theMacGuffin. A few of these include:
  • The video box art forFern Gully. Hexxus is seen in the background trying to grab the main characters.
  • The poster forAll Dogs Go to Heaven 2 has Red attempting to grab Gabriel's Horn.
• The interior art forThe Venture Bros season two DVD features the Monarch looming over portraits of the main characters.
• Plenty of Disney movies, includingSnow White,The Little Mermaid, andThe Return of Jafar.
  • By the same vein, so doesAffectionate ParodyEnchanted.
  • Used to great effect onThe Hunchback of Notre Dame'sposter.A video cover practically shoehorns it in, to the point of Frollo being almost shunted off the top of the cover.
  • One ofBeauty and the Beast'soriginal posters used the Beast as the overlooker, making it a case ofCovers Always Lie since he's not the villain.
  • One of the posters forThe Great Mouse Detective.had one of these. ^{[dead link]}
  • And since it was a clear case ofFollow the Leader, the non-Disney effortThe Swan Princessdid this with Rothbart.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: the poster for Season One depicts the Gaang down the front, with Zuko looming over them evilly. This is also shown prominently in one of the last episodes "The Ember Island Players", when the in-universe poster showing theShow Within a Show is pretty much exactly the same as the poster for Season one.
  • Also the poster for Season 3, which has Ozai looming behind Aang in the Avatar State.
  • The SDCC poster forThe Legend of Korra featuredAmon looming over Korra, Mako, and Bolin.
• The film posters for 1986'sTransformers: The Movie had Unicron (both his planet form, and his robotic head) prominently in the background behind the main cast. Funnily enough, since Unicron is the size of a planet, for once this skewed perspective is actually proportionally correct.
• The box art forBatman Beyond: Return of the Joker has Joker's (green-tinted) head doing this.
• The American cover ofSpirit: Stallion of the Cimarron's DVD case features the Colonel's ethereal head looking over his shoulder at the heroes. Thing is, his expression and the semi-transparency makes him look downright benevolent...
• The film poster/VHS cover ofTom and Jerry:The Movie features Tom chasing Jerry (which only happens for a few minutes in-film) while the face of thevillainousfat lady watches them with utter rage in cloud-form (much as the Beast did in the aforementionedBeauty and the Beast poster).
• A variation on the cover ofFilmation's animated movieHapppily Ever After. Snow White and the Dwarfelles are front in center, with The Shadow Man glaring malevolently at them from behind a tree. This is a case ofCovers Always Lie, as the character in question is actually Snow White's very-harmless, muteStalker with a Crush (actually the prince under an enchantment), and the film'sactual villain is nowhere to be seen on the cover.
• One of the posters for theHanna-Barbera feature filmHeidi's Song features two of them.
• The film poster/video/DVD cover ofHey Arnold!: The Movie

• Trope
• Pages with Broken Links
• Coming Attractions
• Paratext
• Cover Tropes
• Evil Overlooker