If the villain is well known, and their calling card shows up before they're introduced in the current continuity, (or if said Villain has been missing or dead for some time), then it's a nice Sequel Hook, or simply a hint of what's to come. Occasionally, a smart character may even use another villain's calling card to frame them. This may be for practical reasons, such as turning the increased security against the target or distracting them by focusing the police's attention elsewhere, or simply as a Badass Boast: if the criminal can pull off their crime even when the target is on highest alert, surely they must be incredibly skilled. Phantom thieves and particularly cocky crooks may even send their calling card before committing the crime, warning their target about what's going to happen. When the telephone was invented and came to more and more homes, it simply wasn't necessary to go running around to others' homes just to chat, and thus both "calling" and literal "calling cards" died out.Īctual calling cards are rare in Real Life, because it would make it very easy for the cops to track you down but in fiction, it seems like every villain has to have one for stamping their achievements with. She would either leave it in a dish left for this purpose, or if Betty was wealthy enough to have one, leave it with the maid or the butler, and it was expected that Betty would "call on" Alice when she got the chance. (Kind of like a modern-day business card, except for personal use.) Like the trope, it was unique to her, and she may have left several of them throughout the neighborhood or town, depending on just how many of her friends she unsuccessfully attempted to call on. If Alice wanted to visit with ("call on") Betty, but Betty wasn't home, then Alice would leave a "calling card" with her name on it. Needless to say, there was no guarantee of actually getting to do so at that moment, because she might not have been home. Women had a system where they would stop at each other's homes unannounced, to meet with (usually, though not always) the lady of the house just to chat. Back then, if you wanted to talk to your friends in real-time, you had to actually talk to them face-to-face. The term comes from a largely Forgotten Trope from a time before the invention and proliferation of the home telephone. Sometimes it's a literal playing card or gamepiece left near the scene of the crime, or perhaps the victims are arranged in strange poses.
A Calling Card is a piece of evidence or item deliberately left at the scene of a crime to serve as perpetrator's "signature".
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