Marvel Universe
"I damn you Captain America for what you are! We are deadly opposites you and I..."Clockwise from top left
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- Adam Warlock consistently has his evil future-self, the Magus. He also has a unique relationship with Thanos - owing to them both being cosmically "outside the influence of Chaos & Order" - which flits between fated foes & best buds depending on the context. Specific incarnations of Adam can even be ascribed specific archenemies, such as Man-Beast or the In-Betweener. Starting with Annihilation Conquest and later explored in Infinity Countdown, Ultron has also become one of Adam's bigger archenemies as the two exist as parallels of one another - both being artificial beings who would surpass and rebel against the humans who created them.
- Agent 13 has Dr. Faustus, who brainwashed her into shooting Captain America.
- Alpha Flight has the Master of the World, who has come into conflct with Alpha Flight on multiple occassions. He exploiots Marrina's alien instince to use her as a pawn, and uses the Unity Party and Alpha Strike to antagonize Alpha Flight.
- Guardian has Jerome "Jerry" Jaxon, leader of the first Omega Flight.
- Marrina has the Master of the World, far more personally than the rest of the team.
- Vindicator & Madison Jeffries have Scramble, the latter's mentally ill brother.
- Angela has Hela, who imprisoned the soul of her lover, Sera.
- Ant-Man's is Ultron, the rogue robot he created. Though the villain he's most likely to face by himself is probably Whirlwind. Since Ultron's programming is based on Ant-Man's own thought patterns, this also means that Ant-Man is his own worst enemy. Used to be Egghead...but he died.
- As Ultron's origin incorporated several Avengers (and has drawn in even more since then), there is some debate over whether he should be considered "just" Ant-Man's personally. Ant-Man does take it personally for the aforementioned reasons, though, and Ultron certainly considers Pym his personal nemesis, so it's definitely an interesting play on the trope because of that & a good thought experiment on how we define such things. Storylines where the Avengers take on Ultron tend to be some of the most personal and traumatic experiences as well.
- Anya Corazón has Amun, who discovered her secret identity.
- The Avengers have Kang the Conqueror, Ultron, and the Masters of Evil, depending on which aspect of the team dynamic most appeals to the reader. Kang is opposed to the fundamental concept of the Avengers as Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Ultron is a dark reflection of the 'family' dynamic several core member have built, and The Masters are a malleable anti-team ala the Brotherhood to the X-Men.
- Jocasta has Ultron because he created her to be his mate, only for her to rebel against him and join the Avengers.
- The Avengers Academy has Jeremy Briggs. Briggs is everything they fear becoming wrapped up in a package of being everything they also want.
- Beta Ray Bill at first had Surtur, who destroyed his people, but in later comics it's Galactus. And unlike the other countless billions that have sworn to destroy the Devourer of Worlds, Bill is a genuine threat to him.
- The Black Knight has Mordred, who opposed the original medieval Black Knight in the 1950s. On a more personal level, temporal soul-swapping shenanigans embroiled Dane Whitman specifically into the origin of the '90s X-Men villain Exodus.
- The Black Panther primarily has Klaw, who murdered his father. Also in contention are Erik Killmonger, The Rival who exists to prove that there's Always Someone Better, and M'Baku the Man-Ape, his Evil Counterpart vying for political power within Wakanda.
- Black Widow has Yelena Belova and Iron Maiden, Russian spies who are jealous of being trapped in Black Widow's shadow, Yelena has since become an Aloof Ally though. Madame Hydra and Red Guardian (her ex husband) also count having put Nat through absoute hell.
- Blade
- Blade has Count Dracula (who killed his comrades Orji, Ogun, and Azu) and Deacon Frost (who turned his mother into a vampire).
- Hannibal King also has Deacon Frost, who turned him into a vampire.
- Blue Marvel had the Anti-Man, his Evil Former Friend. Their Great Offscreen War lasted decades before Anti-Man was finally killed.
- Captain America has the Red Skull (one of the oldest villains) and Baron Zemo (both the father Heinrich and son Helmut). In Ultimate Marvel, he has Herr Kleiser.
- Captain Britain had Slaymaster. Whilst many other arguments can be made (The Fury, Mad Jim Jaspers, Mastermind, Jamie Braddock etc.), Slaymaster was both the most recurrant & most competant antagonist of the Captain Britain solo comic run. A run which, coincidentally, ended after he made it personal and ensured nobody would want to be Brian's archenemy ever again.
- Meggan had Mad Jim Jaspers, because he separated her from her father permanently by placing them in concentration camps. Meggan also had Sat-Yr-9, who screwed with her relationship with Brian and tried to have her killed.
- Likewise, The Fury can be attributed to Captain UK of Earth-238, whose reaction to the Fury's murder of her husband evolves over the course of the story (culminating in her definitive Moment of Awesome).
- Captain Marvel had Yon-Rogg, the commanding officer who competed for and eventually murdered his love interest. However, as Mar-Vell's run is notoriously finite, he is most fondly remembered for the more metaphysical latter half of his career, and thus as the original nemesis of Thanos.
- Thanos essentially takes on a different cosmic hero as his personal archenemy each time he makes a gambit for universal domination. His first story arc was against Mar-Vell, his second against Adam Warlock, his third the Silver Surfer, etc.. The most consistent factor throughout has been Drax the Destroyer, but he's something of a Failure Hero in that regard. After arcs like Infinity Gauntlet and other stories on that scale a case could be made that Thanos is the Arch Enemy of the Marvel Universe.
- Captain Universe has Chaos, King of the Whirldemons.
- Cloak and Dagger have Mister Jip, who once tried to possess Cloak.
- Conan the Barbarian: Conan has Thoth-Amon, Yezdigerd, the Devourer of Souls, and Bor'Aqh Sharaq.
- Thoth-Amon is an Evil Sorcerer he crossed paths with, both directly and indirectly, several times throughout his life. Even after Conan's eldest son Conn kills Thoth-Amon, he comes Back from the Dead, usurps his throne, and makes Conan's younger son Taurus his apprentice.
- Yezdigerd is a Turanian prince, later king, who has a vendetta against Conan for scarring his face.
- The Devourer of Souls is a Humanoid Abomination who seeks to take Conan's soul, who caused the deaths of several of Conan's followers on multiple occasions, and and who is defeated by Conan on multiple occassions. The Devourer also empowers Bahkt, a man who hated Conan, turning into the Devourer's minion. As the Devourer's minion, Bahkt kidnaps and harms Red Sonja, who Conan cares about.
- Bor'Aqh Sharaq has a vendetta against Conan ever since he (Conan) took Sharaq's hand and captaincy of a pirate ship in a duel, but not before Sharaq tortured Conan. Sharaq has evaded death on multiple occassions, and has withstood torture rather than let anyone else defeat Conan.
- Cosmic Entities typically come in pairs of ideological opposites (unless they're especially high or low on the overall metaphysical hierarchy), e.g. Mistress Love & Master Hate. However, this is often portrayed as a matter of universal function & lacks the usual emotional animosity. As such, some of the examples listed below are one-off antagonists who fit the more traditional expectationnote :
- The One-Above-All has Lucifer, if you ascribe to him literally being the Judeo-Christian God.
- The Living Tribunal has been openly challenged twice, by Ereshkigal and Protégé. Ereshkigal was a Deviant Went Mad From The Revelation when she learned about the existence of the Living Tribunal, and devoted her existance to freeing the Multiverse from the Living Tribunal's governance. She eventually accumulated enough power to challenge the Living Tribunal, who agreed to a contest of champions between them once he realized that a battle between the two could destroy the Multiverse. Meanwhile, Protégé managed to copy the powers of the Living Tribunal, nearly usurping its place in Marvel's cosmology before the Living Tribunal defeats and absorbs Protégé to prevent him from endangering all realities again.
- Eternity has Death & vice versa, with their eternal conflict tending to manifest through mortal avatars rather than direct confrontation. Other 'aspects' of Eternity have inspired several other more proactive antitheses, such as Abraxas, Entropy & The First Firmament. Original antagonists to Death tend to be less conceptual & more mortal (naturally), such as the spurned death god Walker.
- Infinity has Oblivion and vice versa, forming the 4 "cornerstones of the universe" with their time-based siblings.
- Lord Chaos and Master Order technically have one another, but their relationship is nigh-always presented as especially cordial & cooperative. Their nominal servant the In-Betweener however, created to embody the limitless possibility where opposites converge, is constantly defying & subverting them.
- Galactus is defined by his uniqueness, being a sort of median between Eternity & Death, so lacks one hard surefire example. Short-term claimants include Abraxas (who his existence held at bay), The In-Betweener (who craved an opposite of his own) & Tyrant (who was created to stem Galactus' own cosmic loneliness).
- The Watchers have the Celestials.
- Daimon Hellstrom has his father, Marduk Kurios.
- Daredevil has three modern day contenders.
- The Kingpin (who would also be an impressive fourth place on Spidey's Arch Enemy list, as well as a contender for The Punisher's). As the ultimate gang boss, everything that Daredevil fights against can be traced back to him, and he's orchestrated several collapses of Matt's life, during "Born Again", "Devil In Cell Block D" and various other arcs, hurting him worse than anyone else ever has. As practically the deuteragonist of the series, Kingpin will always be a part of Matt Murdock's life for better or worse, a fact that his late wife Vanessa, comments on in-series.
- Bullseye. A Psycho for Hire who typically acts as The Dragon to Kingpin, Bullseye's killed two of Matt Murdock's girlfriends, tried to kill his wife, Milla, and has generally dedicated himself to making Matt's life as hellish as possible; he's also inspired the likes of Lady Bullseye. In return, Matt wants Bullseye dead, and is willing to violate Thou Shalt Not Kill for him in a way he will for nobody else.
- The Ninja clan known as the Hand collectively fill the third slot on Matt's hit parade. They're among his most persistent enemies, many of his major foes (Elektra, Lady Bullseye, Kingpin) have either worked for them or tried to gain control of them at one point or another, they're the ultimate adversaries of his mentor, Stick, and worst of all, they want Matt to be their new leader. It's hard to get more personal than that.
- Originally, as written by Stan Lee, it was the Owl. These days, he's reduced to second-string status; while still dangerous he just doesn't carry the emotional weight that Bullseye, Kingpin, and The Hand do.
- Darkhawk:
- Mob boss Phillip Bazin, later replaced by Dargin Bokk, creator of the Darkhawk armor.
- And now replaced by Talon and possibly the whole Fraternity of Rapors, real creators of his armor.
- Dazzler used to have the Enchantress. Now, it’s her sister Mortis.
- Deadpool: T-Ray, Ajax, and Madcap.
- T-Ray, whom Deadpool calls the "the-loathe-of-my-life," isn't just a fellow mercenary and jealous jerkass out to kill Deadpool as a professional rival. T-Ray targets Deadpool's supporting characters, enlists Typhoid Mary who bed tricks Deadpool, publicly kicks Deadpool's ass after he's traumatized by Typhoid, plays vicious headgames, and in the Twist Ending to Joe Kelly's run claims to be the real Wade Wilson. And he wears a stupid bandage on his nose.
- In Deadpool's backstory, Dr. Killebrew used Wade as a human test subject with the sadistic assistance of his strongarm Francis Fanny aka Ajax film. Wade was Driven to Suicide by the unending medical torture and fell in love with Death herself, but his repeated attempts to "join" her were thwarted to keep him alive for more experiments. Then Wade realized he could provoke "Francis" into killing him. It worked too well; Ajax murdered other patients to torment Wade, then ripped out Wade's heart. Wade's desire for vengeance kept him from Death's embrace; his heart regenerated, but his sanity was broken. Wade became "Deadpool" and seemingly killed Ajax. In Kelly's Deadpool run, Ajax resurfaces and kills Deadpool— but Deadpool has Purpose-Driven Immortality to kill Ajax. Wade's old murdered friends believe Deadpool's vendetta is their Unfinished Business, and they goad him into dropping his ongoing non-murdering hero attempts so he'll fulfill his destiny and kill Ajax. Years later, Francis comes back again when Thanos and Deadpool clash over Death.
- Madcap and Deadpool are both unstable pranksters with regenerative powers. However, Madcap's even crazier and has a much better healing factor than Wade. Madcap's mind accidentally gets fused into Deadpool's after Thor lightning-zaps them into ashes (It Makes Sense in Context). Unbeknownst to Deadpool, the new "white caption box" voice in his mind is actually Madcap inside him. After being literally separated from Deadpool, the experience harmed Madcap in a way he never felt before. Developing a deep, personal hatred of Wade, Madcap became obsessed with completely destroying Deadpool's life and loved ones. After framing him for murders he didn't commit, very nearly killing his daughter, and several of his closest friends, Deadpool hated Madcap to an even greater extent than his past arch enemies and people like the Weapon X program and Sabertooth (who Wade believed murdered his past family). By the time Deadpool finally gets rid of Madcap, the latter doesn't mind simply because Wade himself has already managed to completely ruin his own life, with Madcap declaring the actual death he was going to give to Wade's family wholly inferior to the spiritual one Wade himself gave them.
- The Defenders have The Nameless One, Yandroth & Gorilla-Man's Headmen (as well as member-specific villains, like Dormammu and some of the following:)
- Moondragon has the Dragon of the Moon, who seeks to corrupt her.
- Valkyrie has the Enchantress, who once trapped her essence inside a soul crystal, kept her there for centuries, and used Valkyrie's superior physical abilities for herself, or to enhance her pawns.
- Doctor Strange used to have Baron Mordo, at the very start. However, Strange soon became powerful enough to fight the eldritch beings that worked through Mordo directly, and he's been a patsy with delusions of grandeur ever since. As such, The Dread Dormammu usurped this role and has firmly cemented himself as Strange's most personal enemy. Strange also has Shuma-Gorath, who is responsible for the Ancient One's death, and Nightmare, who tormented him in his dreams on multiple occasions.
- The Ancient One had Kaluu. The two had been enemies for centuries.
- Clea has her mother, Umar.
- Oshtur has fellow Elder God Chthon, who's development of dark magicks led her to form the Vishanti in opposition. They made it their mission to never let him win. Cosmically, the Vishanti as a group have the Trinity of Ashes.
- Likewise, Gaea is more involved in the downfall of Set.
- Elektra has Kirigi, a Hand assassin who she defeated on a couple of occasions.
- The Exiles have Proteus and Hyperion.
- Hyperion was their arch enemy for the middle of their comic run as the rogue member of their "rivals" weapon X who didn't want to go dimension hopping and just conquer an earth for himself. In fact, his influence was so bad the timebroker ended up having to cut out multiple dimension hopping teams for his meddling, not to mention him killing 2 members of their team and critically injuring 2 others.
- Proteus meanwhile found out about the Exiles mission...by possessing longtime member Mimic who was the leader Blink's boyfriend. Proteus ended up messing up the time stream even more for the exiles, and Morph got it bad as well since Proteus possessed his body for an extended period of time too. Once they could defeat him, it was a great relief for all the exiles.
- The Falcon shares the Red Skull with Captain America. After all, the Red Skull gave Falcon his powers in a bid to defeat Captain America, only for Falcon to defect to Cap's side help him thwart the Red Skull multiple times. The Red Skull also created the Falcon's "Snap" persona and fake criminal backstory in order to mess with his head and discredit him.
- Fantastic Four:
- The wrathful vengeance of Doctor Doom will never be sated! Never — until the earth runs red with the blood of that accursed REED RICHARDS!!
- The rest of the Fantastic Four as well, to a lesser extent. After he crushed Doom's hands, the Thing also jumped pretty high on his list. Doom also has a villainous crush on the Invisible Woman, but also fears her as the team's most powerful member.
- Galactus is a close second. Not only were Fantastic Four were the first mortals to defeat and intimidate Galactus, but they also freed Galactus's Herald, the Silver Surfer, from his control.
- The Fantastic Four also have Mole Man, who made his debut in the same issue as the Fantastic Four themselves, and who remained a recurring foe for them ever since.
- Invisible Woman has specific deep-rooted issues with the Psycho-Man, who's emotional torture led to the abandonment of her "Invisible Girl" moniker.
- The Thing has been put through more pain by the actions of the Puppet Master than his team-mates, due to his long-term affections for his adopted daughter Alicia Masters.
- The Human Torch used to have the Wizard in his solo adventures, but he has since gone on to become an enemy for the team in general.
- Uatu the Watcher has Aron the Rogue Watcher, his Evil Nephew
- Doom himself has, other than Reed, Mephisto. Mephisto has possession of his mother's soul, and after he rescued her, Doom is one of the few people to have outright bested Mephisto.
- The Fabulous Frog-Man is a super zero wearing the Power Armor of his father (Daredevil villain Leap Frog) which he cannot control so he just bounces around aimlessly and sometimes gets lucky. The White Rabbit is a ditzy Harmless Villainess that read too much Alice in Wonderland when she was a little girl and now dresses like a Playboy Bunny and pretends to be a Super Villainess despite having no powers or skills. They became each other’s arch-enemies because they are so pathetic nobody else would take them seriously.
- Franklin Richards has Onslaught, a powerful entity who kidnapped him in the original Onslaught, and tried to kill him in Onslaught Reborn. During the latter storyline, Onalught attempted to use Franklin's mind-controlled father and uncle to carry out his goal of killing Franklin.
- Nick Fury has Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Makes sense seeing as he's the leader of HYDRA.
- In the miniseries Fury (MAX), there is Col. Rudi Gagarin.
- The Johnny Blaze/Zarathos incarnation of Ghost Rider's Arch Enemy is nominatively Mephisto, although the ever-changing nature of their relationship has made him increasingly irrelevant (and irreverent!) over time. Centurious is a strong contender on paper, but lacks the Staying Alive factor. Frankly, the bane of Johnny Blaze's existence that keeps destroying whatever happiness he can find is Zarathos itself. Blackheart, Mephisto's son however has been at least a consistent nemesis to Johnny and the other riders.
- The Danny Ketch/Noble Kale incarnation of Ghost Rider's Arch Enemy is Deathwatch's hitman Blackout, a prime example of It's Personal with the Dragon.
- The Michael Badilino/Vengeance incarnation of Ghost Rider's Arch Enemy is Anton Hellgate.
- The Guardians of the Galaxy probably have the most personal hatred of Thanos among any of Marvel's super teams. It's worth noting that over half of it's founding members were already classified as Thanos' arch enemies, while other members later gained very personal reasons to hate the titan. The Universal Church of Truth also ranks high on the list for both Guardians teams. As far as individual members go:
- Star-Lord has J'son, his Archnemesis Dad.
- Rocket Raccoon has Lord D'vyne and Blackjack O'Hare. Ironically the later would end up joining the team.
- Gamora has Thanos (her adoptive Archnemesis Dad), the Magus, and Nebula.
- Drax the Destroyer has Thanos and to a lesser extent Gladiator.
- Hawkeye
- Clint Barton has Crossfire (who is responsible for his permanent hearing damage) and Trickshot (his brother).
- Matt Fraction's Hawkeye set up Madame Masque as Kate Bishop's arch-enemy, which continued in every other title Kate has appeared in. While it's for stupidly petty reasons (Kate once tied her up and impersonated her), Masque has devoted an absurd amount of time to wrecking Kate's life ever since.
- Hercules, similar to Thor, has his half-brother Ares. Who still finds excuses to antagonize him even after his Heel-Face Turn.
- Zeus, similar to Odin, has the big mythological monster Typhon.
- The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk has the Leader, the Abomination, Thunderbolt Ross, the Maestro, Brian Banner, and the One Below All. One could even make a case about Hulk being Banner's.
- The Leader is an ambitious Diabolical Mastermind who has come into conflict with the Hulk on multiple occasions. The Leader's Super-Intelligence makes him a thematic Foil to the Hulk, who has Super-Strength. The Leader once ruined Banner's wedding to Betty Ross and was involved in Ross' transformation into the Red Hulk, and Betty's resurrection and transformation into the Red She-Hulk. Immortal Hulk reveals that the Leader has Joker Immunity because the One Below All keeps resurrecting him, and that Banner and Sterns are distant relatives.
- The Abomination was a Soviet spy who irradiated himself with gamma, making himself physically strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the Hulk. He has fought the Hulk on multiple occasions, and even killed Banner's wife Betty.
- Thunderbolt Ross, who made his debut in the same comic as the Hulk himself, was a General Ripper who relentlessly pursued the Hulk. Ross is also the father of Banner's Love Interest, Betty Ross. Ross eventually becomes the Red Hulk, enabling him to challenge the Hulk physically.
- The Maestro is an alternate future self of the Hulk who became an Evil Overlord, who the Hulk fears he will become.
- Brian Banner is the Hulk's Archnemesis Dad and his mother's killer. Although Bruce killed him before he ever became the Hulk, his actions left a huge psychologial impact on Bruce. Brian himself was briefly resurrected during the Chaos War, and fought the Hulk during this time. Brian returns as a major antagonist in Immortal Hulk as an ally for the One Below All.
- The One Below All is the reason why gamma radiation has mutagenic properties, making it responsible for the existence of both the Hulk himself and many of his enemies.
- The original Human Torch, Jim Hammond, has the Mad Thinker. Namor, was once his nemesis as well before entering Worthy Opponent - old friends territory. In fact OG Torch is one of the very few surface dwellers Namor genuinely likes and respects besides Sue Storm.
- The Inhumans and their king, Black Bolt, have his insane brother, Maximus Boltagon the Mad, as their Arch-Enemy. Currently (July 2012), the two have buried the hatchet, with Maximus loyally, if eccentrically, serving Black Bolt. Afterwards, Vulcan and Lineage became the new arch-foes of the Inhumans.
- Iron Fist has Steel Serpent, who coveted the Iron Fist power, and Master Khan, a sorcerer who has battled Iron Fist multiple times.
- Iron Man's traditional Arch Enemy was The Mandarin, but he's faded a bit over time as the Yellow Peril aspect of the character is no longer kosher. Matt Fraction brought him back in big way during his run on Invincible Iron Man however, nicely cementing The Mandarin's status as the worst that Iron Man's rogues gallery has to offer.
- Seeing as thirteen different people have taken up the mantle, the Crimson Dynamo certainly is one of his most recurring and dangerous enemies, and has the best shot, after The Mandarin, of claiming this title. As a Communist holdout, the Dynamo also makes a useful counterpoint to Stark's capitalist ideology.
- During the '80s and '90s, and up until his apparent death in the early 2000s, evil industrialist Justin Hammer served as the archenemy of Tony Stark. He was the mover and shaker behind "Demon in a Bottle", "Armour Wars I", and several other major arcs, and made repeated attempts to take down Stark Industries and their founder, all in order to increase his own profits. Hammer was one of the few villains Stark always took seriously, their hatred was definitely mutual, and in the end, his legacy lives on to this day in the form of his equally mad daughter and granddaughter.
- Obadiah Stane, who makes Tony's life miserable to get him to relapse into alcoholism so Stane to take over Stark's company. After Obadiah commits suicide, his son Ezekiel Stane, seeking revenge against Tony, becomes responsible for several terrorist attacks against Stark Industries.
- Tony's most consistent female arch enemy is Madame Masque who took over from Black Widow as has his Femme Fatale antagonist. Her relationship with Tony much like the Symbiote with Spider-Man bounces between "I'll kill him, no matter what I'll kill him to avenge my father" to "I love him, I know he loves me, he kissed me even with my Facial Horror". Suffice to say there's very few non-heated/passionate encounters between them.
- Jessica Jones has Purple Man, a mind controller that kidnapped her years ago.
- Ka-Zar has his brother, the Plunderer.
- Kid Colt has Iron Mask, a villain clad in bulletproof armor, who fought Colt more times than any other foe.
- Kull the Conqueror (1971): Kull has Thulsa Doom, an Evil Sorcerer who usurped his throne.
- Luke Cage has Chemistro, who wants revenge on Cage for imprisoning his older brother, the original Chemistro.
- Man-Thing has Thog and F.A. Schist, two recurring foes of his.
- Mockingbird has the Phantom Rider, who brainwashed her into falling in love with him. Even after he died, his ghost came back to haunt her.
- Moon Knight has Raoul Bushman, Marc Spector's commander in his mercenary days. They've both killed one another, come back from the dead for revenge, broken each other mentally etc.. Moon Knight also developed a more symbolic archnemesis in the form of Black Spectre, his Evil Counterpart who's motivated entirely by a desire to be like Moon Knight. Even when the first Black Spectre died, a new one sprung up with a similar motivation to torment Moon Knight barely a year or two later in-universe. Moon Knight also has Morpheus, who is responsible for the death of his Love Interest Marlene's brother.
- Miles Morales inherited the Green Goblin from his predecessor, Peter Parker in the Ultimate Marvel continuity, but his biggest arch-enemy thus far is his uncle Aaron Davis, aka the Prowler of the Ultimate universe. And unluckily for Miles, Aaron followed him to the main Marvel universe. Aaron would undergo a Heel–Face Turn however (most likely brought on by the reception of his Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse incarnation), and now the closest Miles has to an Arch-Enemy is the original 616 version of Miles Morales that new goes by Ultimatum or the Assessor (an artificial intelligence that created clones of Miles). Roxxon Energy has also been a pain in Miles's ass as they were towards the end of Miles's Ultimate comics series, the videogame Spider-Man: Miles Morales and the 2020 run of Champions.
- Morbius has Simon Stroud (a monster hunter obsessed with hunting Morbius) and Vic Slaughter (who became an Evil Counterpart of Morbius after being bitten by him).
- Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel hasn't had a consistent Rogues Gallery since her rebrand, but Mystique once stood as her arch nemesis as it was very personal between them. Ms. Marvel Vol. 2 #48-50 even refers to Mystique as Ms. Marvel's archenemy. Although Mystique's daughter Rogue did more famously become Carol's nemesis/rival after throwing her off bridge, leading to a decade spanning grudge match between the two women. In recent years, writer Kelly Thompson has been trying to establish a consistent Rogues Gallery for Carol in her Captain Marvel run, and came up with two newer candidates for the Arch-Enemy title: Vox Supreme (a member of the Vox, a highly evolved Inhuman borrowed from Death of the Inhumans) and Star (an Evil Counterpart of Carol with reality warping powers).
- The newest Ms. Marvel has thus-far avoided uneven focus on any one definitive villain, seemingly by design (in her own words; "I don't need an arch-nemesis. I've got real-life problems."). Nonetheless there are several promising contenders, such as Kamran and Becky St. Jude aka Lockdown. With Kamran, It's Personal as he kidnapped her brother and Kamala knew him when they were children. Lockdown is more of an Evil Counterpart as they share the same heroic aspirations but they're total opposites and mainly because Becky is a sociopath.
- The New Avengers had The Hood and the Dark Avengers.
- The New Warriors:
- Speedball has Nitro. Speedball considers his inability to stop Nitro from killing his teammates and six hundred civilians to be His Greatest Failure.
- Rick Jones and Thanatos, his alternate universe Evil Counterpart.
- The Sphinx and Nova.
- Though it was short lived due to him dying before anything more could come from it, Nova had a very personal hatred of Annihilus after the Annihilation Wave wiped out every single member of the Nova Corp besides him on the first day of the Annihilation event. Shortly after, Annihilus killed his friend and ally Quasar in front of him. Nova made it abundantly clear from the event to his death that his hatred of Annihilus was very personal. At one point he even went into an violent uncontrolled rage when he found a small surviving segment of the Annihilation Wave attacking a planet weeks after the war ended. He ended up killing all of them in blind rage.
- Nova also had Ego the Living Planet, who once turned to Nova Corps against Rider and had him stripped of his powers. When Rider regained his powers, he had Ego lobotomized.
- Sam Alexander and Warbringer. Warbringer is a Chitauri warlord who tried to destroy the Earth because Sam helped his gladiator slaves escaped him. After being severely injured in a battle with him, Warbringer said he had only survived to kill Sam.
- Power Pack have The Bogeyman. You could argue it's the Snarks, but they're more of a recurrant annoyance in-practice.
- The Prowler has Nightcreeper.
- The Punisher has Jigsaw. In The Punisher's case, "Arch Enemy" just means "enemy who's still alive". In the MAX imprint one could make a case for Barracuda for similar reasons.
- Quasar has Maelstrom, who killed his father Gilbert.
- Rom: Spaceknight and the Dire Wraiths.
- Ben Reilly's, aka the Scarlet Spider, was Kaine...now the current Scarlet Spider.
- The Sentry's Arch Enemy is The Void, which is his own alternate personality. Complicated. Sort of an archetypal deconstruction of the entire Arch Enemy concept.
- Shang-Chi had his father, Fu Manchu, although his name was changed to Zheng Zu after Marvel lost the rights to the character.
- Shanna the She-Devil has Mandrill, who murdered her father.
- She-Hulk has Titania. And since She-Hulk predominantly employs a self-aware comedy tone, she's possibly the most Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain on this page.
- Silver Surfer has Mephisto. He was introduced as the recurring Big Bad of the Surfer's first comic series, presented as the diametric opposite to everything noble & inspirational the Surfer embodied, and characterized wholly by his obsession with the Surfer's downfall. Even after becoming Marvel's go-to devil stand-in later on & vastly expanding his villainous responsibilities, Mephisto will still indulge any opportunity to torment the Silver Surfer on principle.
- Galactus, depending on the day of the week.
- Thanos screwed with the Silver Surfer pretty seriously, too.
- Seriously though, Mephisto. He hates Norrin for just being so danged good.
- Silk has Black Cat. Silk has foiled Black Cat's schemes to unmask Spider-Man and infiltrated her organization as a mole for S.H.I.E.L.D., and Black Cat has defeated Silk on multiple occasions and hindered Silk's efforts to find her parents.
- Sleepwalker and Cobweb, a demon who trapped him in the mind of Rick Sheridan.
- Spider-Man has had no less than three Arch Enemies: Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Venom. The reason for this is that the Green Goblin, otherwise the uncontested contender, died in the '70s and spent a good 20-odd years dead before he came back to torment his foe, which is probably the record for dead A-list villains to beat. In the meantime, Doctor Octopus and Venom filled the roles in the '70s and '80s/'90s, respectively. This also means the latter two are arguably more famous, even though the Goblin is the greatest overall threat of the three. Another reason is that the Goblin, as Norman Osborn, suffered frequent bouts of amnesia in the run up to his death so he didn't even remember that he was Spidey's arch-enemy, which helped Doc Ock who was the next most formidable villain. Venom appeared in the '80s and made his chops by being in some ways a more personal (and visually stunning) enemy than either of the other two, while Ock was Demoted to Extra. So essentially, Spidey has three arch-enemies because they kept replacing each other. After his return from the dead in the late '90s, the Goblin was for a long time seen to be Spidey's one true Arch-foe, and even became a major player in the Marvel Universe at large. Under Dan Slott's pen, however, Doc Ock has been catching up, with schemes to bring about The End of the World as We Know It, a "Freaky Friday" Flip that screwed Peter's life over big time, and eventually forcing Spidey to give up his company, which Peter considered his life's work.
- The Green Goblin. Unlike most superhero arch-villains, he actually is the most dangerous foe of his enemy, possessing far greater resources and deep personal information (he was the first to discover Spider-Man's secret identity) that the other two mostly all lack (though one could argue that, apart from Osborn killing Gwen Stacy, Venom was originally more personal with his invasions of Peter Parker's life). Since his return to Spider-Man’s world, Osborn did everything he could to make Peter's life miserable, usually through really nasty Revenge by Proxy schemes, including burying Aunt May alive and stealing Peter’s child. Osborn is also firmly convinced he is the single Arch-Enemy to Spidey, and was pissed Doc Ock, Spidey's "number two" in his opinion, got to kill Spider-Man.
- The Green Goblin of the Ultimate universe is the undisputed archenemy of Spider-Man. He not only created both Spider-Men, he was also the one who killed Peter Parker. This version of Norman is much more insane, having a Messiah complex. He believes God wants him to kill Peter and everyone he loves, and blames him for the death of his son and his own shortcomings. Norman embodies the exact opposite of everything Peter stands for. The worse thing is the OZ formula made him immortal and it's implied that the OZ-affected spider did the same for Peter, so they're stuck fighting each other for eternity.
- Doctor Octopus: What Peter could end up becoming if he abused his intelligence and powers (Peter was even a former student of his in the animated series). Also the first villain to really defeat Spider-Man, completely shattering his confidence for a while, and is certainly the longest lasting and most recurring. He also created and led several incarnations of the Sinister Six. The original incarnation of the Sinister Six, consisting of Doc Ock himself, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, the Sandman and the Vulture, kidnapped Aunt May and Betty Brant. Although the Goblin initially overshadowed Ock after his return, Ock in recent years has performed several maneuvers, including outright stealing Peter’s life, putting him back in the race for the Arch-Enemy status.
- One important thing to consider in this “contest” is that there are several crucial differences between how both Osborn/Goblin and Ock approach their relationships to Spider-Man. This distinction was thoroughly explored in the Superior Spider-Man Team Up, where the two villains temporarily join forces to defeat their mutual foe.
- Although initially Green Goblin wanted to kill Spider-Man to earn reputation in the criminal underworld, later their feud turned much more personal as Osborn’s goal shifted to “punish Peter Parker (not Spider-Man) in the cruelest way possible.” It is telling that “destroying Peter” became pretty much his singular focus in life and his favorite form of entertainment. While for Norman this hatred is mixed with at least some form of secret admiration of Peter, the latter understandably feels nothing but hatred for the former, and repeatedly crossed some of his usual lines to get revenge on Osborn. Notably, Peter’s jokes when fighting Green Goblin or Osborn, if they are present at all, are far colder and drier than with anyone else.
- With Otto, on the other hand, it is a different story. Unlike Osborn, Octavius has his own code of honor and tries to avoid harming innocents in his feud, even going as far as acting like a gentleman to Peter’s loved ones. Unlike Osborn, Otto prefers to keep his enmity with Peter strictly to "Doc Ock vs Spider-Man", a classic supervillain vs superhero rivalry, and generally just wants to defeat Spider-Man instead of ruining the person behind the mask. He and Peter actually have a lot of mutual respect for each other, despite all the bad blood between the two and voluntarily joined forces more than once. Peter likes to joke around Otto, probably more than with anyone else.
- As Stan Lee put it himself: "The Green Goblin is Peter Parker's greatest enemy, while Doctor Octopus is Spider-Man's greatest enemy."
- Venom: An Evil Counterpart who mainly filled the role in the late '80s and '90s. Not only is he effectively an even stronger version of Spidey himself note, but Peter's Spider-Sense doesn't work on him, which means Eddie/Venom could be right behind him without Peter knowing, and Eddie played up this Paranoia Fuel for all it's worth while menacing Peter. Being bonded with the symbiote also gave Venom knowledge of Peter's secret identity, which he immediately used to scare Peter by harassing Mary Jane and Aunt May, making Venom far more invasive than the other two were at the time. As Venom became more of an Anti-Hero and later on a Legacy Character, however, he doesn't really fill the spot in the main comics nowadays. He very much does in many adaptations, though. These adaptations make Eddie's grudge against Peter more personal and/or believable, as Venom's initial grudge against Spidey was admittedly a bit weak in hindsight. His overall goal, at least in adaptations, is a combination of both Goblin and Doc Ock's - destroy Spider-Man and ruin Peter Parker simultaneously, and in both Spider-Man: The Animated Series and The Spectacular Spider-Man, he even tried to unmask him in public. Peter finds Venom's almost encyclopedic knowledge of him genuinely terrifying, and during the climax of Venom's original story, Spidey's fight with him became less of just a hero fighting a villain into more of a man pulling off and coming up with every tactic he can in a desperate act to fight for survival - against a much darker, smarter and stronger mirror of himself. While Goblin and Ock are Peter and Spidey's greatest enemies respectively, Venom, at least pre-Anti-Hero, could be seen as the greatest foe - and fear - of both identities.
- In addition to Spidey, Venom has Carnage, his symbiotic son bonded to a Serial Killer Cletus Kasady, as an arch-enemy, regularly setting aside his grudge with Spider-Man to take Carnage out due to him posing an extreme danger to civilian life.
- According to Venom (Donny Cates), most if not all symbiotes in existence hate their very creator, Knull, due to his Omnicidal Maniac motives. Due to having attacked Earth and performed Cold-Blooded Torture on his symbiote, he is also a nemesis to Venom.
- The Flash Thompson incarnation of Venom has the fifth Jack O'Lantern, who knew his secret identity.
- In addition to Norman Osborn, Doc Ock, and Venom, Spidey has several other noteworthy villains amongst his Rogues Gallery who sometimes contend with the three for archenemy status in adaptations or specific periods of time in the webslinger's career. Honorable mentions include:
- The Kingpin, despite primarily being Daredevil's arch-foe, had been a recurring Spider-Man villain for several years of publication before becoming a Daredevil villain. Even afterwards, Kingpin remained a prominent Spider-Man villain. After Peter Parker outs himself as Spider-Man, the Kingpin puts of a hit on his loved ones, leading to Aunt May being shot. Kingpin notably tends to be one of Spiderman's main enemies in adaptations if one of the three main arch enemies isn't active, easily sliding in to fill a void in a way most of Peter's other foes can't manage.
- Roderick Kingsley, the Hobgoblin, was another prominent enemy of Spider-Man who moved into the arche-enemy space after the death of Norman Osborn before Venom fully established himself, though he was ultimately unable to firmly fully establish himself in the position. After suffering multiple defeats at Spider-Man's hands, Kingsley chose to operate through proxies. One of those proxies was Peter's associate Ned Leeds, who Kingsley brainwashed and later arranged to have killed, although Ned was later revealed to have survived through the Goblin Formula. Betty Brant, Ned Leeds's wife, also has Kingsley for his brainwashing and supposed assassination of Ned.
- Kraven the Hunter, an Egomaniac Hunter obsessed with hunting Spider-Man and founding member of the Sinister Six. Kraven once buried Spider-Man alive, impersonated him to prove his superiority by defeating Vernim (who Spider-Man needed Captain America's help to defeat), and committed suicide. Kraven is later brought Back from the Dead by his family, but Came Back Wrong is is cursed with immortality unless he or Spider-Man kill the other. After failing to pressure Spider-Man to kill him, Kraven uses Loophole Abuse to end his life again by having his (Kraven's) own clone kill him, which works because Kraven brief donned the mantle of Spider-Man.
- Robbie Robertson has Tombstone, his Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up.
- Spider-Man 2099: Miguel O'Hara has Tyler Stone, who tricked him into thinking he took the drug Rapture to prevent him from quitting. Miguel gained his powers during the process of curing himself. Miguel also has Tyler's son Kron Stone, Miguel's Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up who kills Miguel's fiancée Dana.
- Spider-Woman and Madame Hydra/Viper, due to Jessica being raised by Hydra and possibly becoming the next Madame Hydra. She also had Morgan le Fey during her first series, and Gypsy Moth.
- Julia Carpenter and Manipulator; he murdered Julia's ex-husband, Larry, and was the Big Bad of her four-issue miniseries from the early 1990s.
- Mattie Franklin had Flesh and Bones, though mostly through virtue of being the only recurring baddies in Mattie's predominantly Monster of the Week-based run.
- Spider-Gwen aka Ghost-Spider has Matthew Murdock as Kingpin II.
- The Squadron Supreme has Emil Burbank, the Scarlet Centurion, the Overmind, and the Institute of Evil.
- Hyperion of Earth-712 has Emil Burbank (a frequent adversary of his) and Earth-616 Hyperion (his evil Alternate Self).
- Squirrel Girl has come into conflict on Doctor Doom on multiple occassions, including her debut issue, with Doreen consistently coming out victorious.
- Star-Lord has Thanos, who betrayed him and forced him to sacrifice himself to stop Thanos from destroying the universe. Although Star-Lord survived, his comrade, Nova, did not. There's also J'Son, his Archnemesis Dad who is also the leader of the Spartax empire.
- Namor has Llyra. Unequivocally, undebatably, unabashedly. She has murdered his father, his cousin, his fiancée (on their wedding day [whilst posing as her at the altar]), usurped him, raped him, convinced the world she'd killed him, massacred his subjects, tortured his body & soul, dedicated her life to ruining his, ALL because he brushed off her advances when they first met. Hell. Hath. No. Fury.
- Ironically, the distinction of Namor's archenemy is frequently attributed to Attuma, on account of his constantly trying to usurp the throne of Atlantis. The irony being that Attuma is, and always has been, an absolute joke. A generic, inept, perennial loser, often portrayed as a punchline. Namor himself has allowed Attuma to rule Atlantis in the past, to convenience himself. The worst things he's ever done to Namor is act as a pawn in other villains' plots.
- Taskmaster is this to Ant-Man (specifically Scott Lang)... sort of. They've fought on many occasions and developed an incredibly strong hatred of each other, so Ant-Man has come to consider him his archenemy. However, Taskmaster doesn't share this view and is actually rather annoyed at Ant-Man's insistence that they have any sort of dramatic rivalry; to him, their fights were just annoyances brought about by coincidence or money, and being associated with Ant-Man could negatively impact his reputation.
- Eric O'Grady has Mitch Carson.
- Thor has Loki, who has long served as Cain and Abel in his conflicts with Thor, though with the debut of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Loki's move to a more morally ambiguous status as a result the position as Thor's most hated foe is possibly open. Of the possible replacements for Loki, Malekith has made one of the best showings in the post Cinematic Universe age (chopping off Thor's arm and setting off War of the Realms is a solid resume), though if he'll manage to take the position from Loki, or share it with Loki, is to be determined.
- Thor, regardless if Loki's feeling like a good or bad guy today, also has Loki's son, Jormungand. Thor and Jormungand tried to kill each other several times before Ragnarok in part to defy fate. Thor ended up killing the serpent several times, but it always returned for Ragnarok.
- Loki's arch enemy on the other hand is Loki. And not always metaphorically either.
- One of the other villains to have truly rivalled Loki's position as Thor's nemesis in the post Cinematic Universe age is Gorr the God Butcher from Thor: God of Thunder (2012). A god-slaying atheist turned misotheist and shakespearean tragedy, he hates Thor more than ever other villain has done in Marvel's history while Thor in turn admits Gorr is one of the most despicable and chilling foes he's ever faced, to the extent where he's one of the few things the Prince of Asgard genuinely fears.
- Odin has Surtur, who killed Odin's brothers and is one of the greatest threats to Asgard in general. Odin is constantly trying to prevent Surtur from causing Ragnarok.
- Lady Sif has the Enchantress, who is jealous of Thor's affections for Sif.
- Jane Foster had Malekith, Cul, and the Minotaur as some of the most prominent adversaries during her tenure as Thor.
- Balder has Karnilla... although it's really more of a long, drawn out Slap-Slap-Kiss.
- Thunderstrike had Bloodaxe, a vigilante empowered by a cursed Asgardian weapon. His/Her identity is a major plot point in the series.
- U.S. Agent had Left-Winger and Right-Winger, who exposed his secret identity, leading to the deaths of his parents.
- U.S. Archer and Highwayman, his brother who has sided with demons.
- The Vision has his creator, Ultron.
- Wonder Man has his brother Grim Reaper.
- War Machine has the Advisor.
- The Wasp has Whirlwind, her Stalker with a Crush.
- Werewolf by Night had Doctor Glitternight, who once turned his sister Lissa into a Were-Demon.
- The X-Men have Magneto who constantly undermines their attempts of peace with humans. With Professor X, It's Personal though they are often friendly enemies. Starting through The '90s, Magneto went through serious Villain Decay to the point where he can be seen as an Anti-Hero most of the time. He still remains the most well known villain.
- After Magneto and on the "evil human" side of things, there's Reverend William Stryker and the Purifiers, religious zealots who have no qualms about killing mutants.
- Professor X also has his stepbrother The Juggernaut, and his Evil Twin and Enemy Without Cassandra Nova. While his relationship with his sister hasn't gotten better, him and Juggernaut have reconciled with Juggernaut helping out Krakoa.
- Angel has Apocalypse and Cameron Hodge. Hodge, on the other hand, was his former friend before he became an anti-mutant supremacist out of jealousy of Angel's powers. At one point, Hodge even had Angel's wings removed.
- Banshee and his cousin, Black Tom Cassidy.
- Beast and Dark Beast, his alternate universe counterpart who kidnapped Beast and killed his loved ones to cover it up.
- Bishop has Trevor Fitzroy, a criminal he is pursuing across time.
- Cable has Apocalypse, Stryfe, and Genesis.
- Colossus has his older brother, Mikhail Rasputin.
- Cyclops and his family have Mister Sinister, who is obsessed with gaining control of the Summers bloodline, and has repeatedly used cloning and various other gambits to get said control. Scott takes this very personally.
- Cypher had Magus. Due to his connection with Warlock, Cypher has had multiple encounter with Magus, and Cypher once even turning Magus into an infant.
- Elixir has Wither. Both were in a love triangle with Wallflower before she died, and have the opposite powers to one another. Elixer heals, Whither... whithers things.
- Emma Frost has her psychotic sister, Adrienne Frost. She also has longstanding enmities with her former Hellfire Club colleagues, including Sebastien Shaw and Selene.
- Fantomex has Sublime, Ultimaton, and Huntsman.
- Forge had the Adversary, for whom he was trained by shamans to defeat.
- For Gambit it’s usually Mr Sinister or the External Candra.
- Hepzibah has Vulcan and D'Ken.
- Havok used to have the Living Monolith, who fed off Havok's power. More importantly, Havok has his younger brother Vulcan.
- Hope Summers and Bastion. Bastion resurrected the X-Men's most dangerous human villains and sent them on a campaign to kill Hope, the Mutant Messiah. Bastion was eventually destroyed by Hope herself.
- Iceman has Oblivion (the Big Bad of his first solo series), Graydon Creed (who he acted as The Mole to and who was responsible for an attack on his father), and, to a lesser extent, Pyro, given their opposing powers.
- Jean Grey has Mastermind and Madelyne Pryor. Mastermind once brainwashed Jean Grey (actually a duplicate, although the real Jean later absorbed memories of the incident) into becoming his pawn, and she left him catatonic after she found out the truth. Madelyne learned that she was a clone of Jean Grey and was abandoned by her husband, Scott Summers (who fell in love with her because of her obvious similarity to Jean, though neither knew she was a clone at the time, assuming it to just be mere coincidence that they looked exactly alike), when he reunited with Jean, after Jean returned from the dead. As a result, a vengeful Madelyne went insane and became consumed by hatred for Jean for ruining her marriage.
- Jubilee and Hunter Brawn, the man who killed her parents.
- Karma had the Shadow King and now her older sister.
- Kitty Pryde and Ogun, who tried to brainwash her into killing Wolverine, and continues to haunt her a a ghost even after his death.
- Lilandra had her sibling, Deathbird and D'Ken, both of whom are out to usurp her throne.
- Rogue's arch-nemesis is her adopted mother Mystique, due to Rogue feeling like she's being used. Rogue also used to be Carol Danvers's nemesis but they have since become more rivals/foils. Bella Donna, Gambit's Old Flame during the 90s was also written to be Rogue's nemesis, even killing her childhood sweetheart Cody but like with Carol they have since resolved their feud.
- Longshot has Mojo and Spiral.
- Magik and Belasco. Belasco turned Magik into what she is, and she has never stopped blaming him for this, and usurped him as ruler of Limbo. Eventually, Belasco's daughter took over this role for Magik.
- Magma and Selene. Selene usurped control of Nova Roma from Magma's father, forced Magma into hiding for years, psychically tortured her on multiple occasions, and was revealed to be Magma's ancestor. Magma fears and hates Selene more than any other person.
- Moira MacTaggert and her Antagonistic Offspring, Proteus. In X-Men (2019) as Proteus Took a Level in Kindness while Moira Jumped Off The Slippery Slope it's become a case of Swapped Roles.
- Moonstar had the Demon Bear.
- Nightcrawler and his parents, Mystique and Azazel. Graydon, his evil brother also counts.
- Northstar has Gorgon. Gorgon is responsible for Northstar's death and the hands of a brainwashed Wolverine, and his own subsequent resurrection as an agent of HYDRA. From his Alpha Flight days, cases can be made for Pestilence and Deadly Ernest. note
- The Phoenix Force has the Goblin Force and Le Bete Noir.
- Pixie has her sisters, Lady Mastermind and Martinique Jason.
- Polaris has Malice, who possessed her body.
- Psylocke has Spiral, the Shadow King and Matsu'o Tsurayaba. The Shadow King temporarily destroyed her psychic form, nearly killing her, temporarily forced Psylocke to sacrifice her telepathic powers to keep him imprisoned, and once tried to make her his queen.
- Rachel Summers has the Beyonder, Ahab and Selene. Rachel made multiple attempts to kill the Beyonder because he was a threat to the multiverse, but the Beyonder made things personal when he gave Rachel a portion of his power, and proceeded to threaten the lives or her friends just to test her. Eventually, Rachel delved into He Who Fights Monsters territory and nearly destroyed the universe to free it from the Beyonder's influence. Ahab, on the other hand, was the man who turned her into a Hound, and after she escaped he fixated on getting her back. She's also gone up against Selene a few times and is a thematic Foil (Rachel's a young woman from the future and Selene's an ancient evil). Then there are the Shi’ar Death Commandoes. ‘Nuff said.
- Sage has Elias Bogan, who tortured her in retribution for causing him to lose his fortune.
- Shatterstar has Mojo and Spiral.
- Storm has the Shadow King. He employed her as a thief when she was a child, but was never able to completely bend her to his will. Her strength of character makes her his favorite target. Other than Shadow King, Callisto was this for Storm but eventually became her Friendly Rival instead.
- Strong Guy had Damian Tryp. Tryp once brainwashed Strong Guy into becoming a mole in X-Factor and murdering a man he was assigned to protect.
- Warlock and Magus, his Archnemesis Dad.
- Wolfsbane had Reverend Craig, her Archnemesis Dad.
- X-23 (Laura Kinney) and Kimura: Both were victims of physical and emotional abuse and lost the person who could have helped them recover, but while X chose to heal, Kimura uses it as an excuse to hurt others. Kimura is also physically invulnerable, so Laura is unable to defeat her in a direct fight.
- Nate Grey a.k.a. X-Man and Apocalypse by design, though it goes deeper, in that they both want to protect and steward mutantkind... but Apocalypse wants to either rule as a God-King or force a conflict to make mutants stronger, while Nate is a Control Freak who wants to protect them from themselves (though he eventually comes to realise this). Thereafter, a case could be made for Sugar Man, Dark Beast, or Holocaust - though Sugar Man and Dark Beast are sensibly terrified of X-Man if he isn't rendered completely helpless, and Nate dismisses Holocaust repeatedly as "small fry".
- Generation X (specifically M, although he targeted the rest of the team as well) had Emplate.
- The New X-Men had William Stryker and Sean Garrison.
- X-Factor had Apocalpyse and Cameron Hodge in its first incarnation, Mr. Sinister and the Nasty Boys for the X-Factor Government Team, and Damian Tryp For X-Factor Investigations.
- X-Force had Stryfe and the Mutant Liberation Front.
- Wolverine
- Sabretooth is Logan's primary one, as he represents Wolverine without any inhibitions, giving into his feral nature. Beyond that, Creed makes it a tradition to find Wolverine on his birthday and kill a woman he is fond of. It was also later retconned that Logan inadvertently got Victor's girlfriend killed by encouraging her to fight an anti-mutant organisation, and Victor blames Logan. There's also a helping of Evil Former Friend in there, as the two were friends when they had their memories wiped, something Logan recalls with a degree of fondness. All this has created a blood feud that has lasted decades because of the two being borderline immortal.
- An attempt was made to kill off Sabretooth and make new villain Romulus Wolverine's new arch-enemy, but it failed spectacularly. Romus was revealed to have been responsible for almost everything bad to ever happen in Wolverine's past, including the Weapon X program. He also corrupted Daken by having his mother killed and raising the boy. Basically he was forced into the position of archenemy by killing off Sabretooth and making him responsible for pretty much everything bad in Logan's life. Unsurprisingly, it didn't take, and the character has been ignored since.
- Lady Deathstrike has also had a long career as Wolverine's secondary nemesis. Lady Deathstrike despises Wolverine both for "stealing" her father's adamantium, and for defeating her on multiple occasions. Lady Deathstrike even went so far as to upgrade her body with adamantium so she would become a match for Wolverine. The vendetta is personal on Wolverine's side too, because she crippled Wolverine's friend, Yukio.
- Wolverine also has the Silver Samurai. Wolverine killed the Silver Samurai's father and became engaged with his helf-sister Mariko Yashida, who had become the new head of Clan Yashida. The Silver Samurai sought to depose Mariko as the head of Clan Yashida, and poisoned Wolverine and his fellow X-Men. In a later story, Wolverine cuts off the Silver Samurai's hand.
- Wolverine has also faced Omega Red on multiple occasions. Omega Red is a mutant with tentacles made from carbonadium, a material which is similar to Wolverine's adamantium. Omega Red has been pursuing Wolverine ever since Wolverine stole the Carbonadium Synthesizer, which Omega Red needs to stabalize his powers. Omega Red once captured Wolverine and brought him to the Hand, and defeated Wolverine in a fight that lasted more than seventeen hours. Omega Red also tortured Maverick, who had helped Wolverine steal the Carbonadium Synthesizer. Omega Red later threatened Wolverine's son Daken, shortly before Wolverine killed Omega Red with the Muramasa Blade. Wolverine and Omega Red later fought again in Hell. After coming Back from the Dead, Omega Red helped Dracula steal Wolverine's blood, and later put Wolverine beneath a frozen river. Wolverine later kills Omega Red again.
- Wolverine also Cyber, a fellow adamantium-bonded mutant and Logan's former Drill Sergeant Nasty who killed his lover Janet, gave Logan a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, and gouged out one of Logan's eyes, leaving Logan traumatized. Wolverine later returned the favor by removing one of Cyber's eyes.
Films
Films
The following have their own pages:
- The Punisher (2004): Frank Castle has Howard Saint, the mob boss who killed his entire family.
- Spider-Man Trilogy: Spider-Man has several over the course of the trilogy.
- The Green Goblin, the first supervillain who Spider-Man fought, tried to recruit Spider-Man to his side, and than tried to kill him when he refused. After discovering Spider-Man's Secret Identity as Peter Parker, the Green Goblin tried to hurt Peter by attacking his aunt May, and later by kidnapping Mary Jane and dropping her off a brige. Even after the Green Goblin's death, his influence lives on in his son Harry, who seeks revenge on Spider-Man for his father's death. Goblin returns in Spider-Man: No Way Home just to affirm the fact (after killing MCU Aunt May and forcing her nephew Peter Parker to make everyone forget he exists), no matter what universe the Green Goblin is every Spider-Man's Arch-Enemy.
- Doctor Octopus, a scientist who Peter admires before his turn to crime. Spider-Man confronts Doctor Octopus when the latter is in the process of robbing a bank, and Doc Ock takes May as a hostage and drops her. Later in the film, he kidnaps Mary Jane and threatens to kill her to draw Spider-Man out of hiding, and after Doc Ock captures to Spider-Man, he turns Spider-Man over to Harry Osborn (who wants to kill Spider-Man himself), while keeping Mary Jane as a hostage to prevent her from going to the authorities.
- Venom, an alien symbiote who bonds with Peter, becoming a corrupting influence on him throughout much of the third film. After Peter seperates himself from the symbiote, it bonds with Eddie Brock, a disgraced photagrapher with a vendetta against Peter for costing him his job at the Daily Bugle and for dating Gwen Stacy, who Eddie has a crush on. After bonding with Brock, Venom allies himself with the Sandman, kidnaps Mary Jane, and mortally wounds a redeemed Harry.
- The New Goblin, a.k.a. Harry Osborn, Peter's Evil Former Friend who seeks revenge against Peter, believing that he killed Harry's father. In order to hurt Peter emotionally, Harry intimidates Mary Jane into breaking up with him. After Peter (under the influence of the Venom symbiote) retaliates by telling him about Norman Osborn being responsible for his own death, Harry eventually comes to realize the truth and redeems himself by helping Peter defeat Venom at the cost of his own life.
- The Sandman, who killed Peter's uncle Ben.
- X-Men Film Series:
- Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr) to Charles Xavier (Professor X). The two men were once best friends and still have massive respect for each other, often lamenting that their friendship isn't enough to overcome to diametrically opposed worldviews, as Magneto believes that a war between mutants and humans is inevitable and seeks to commit his own genocide against humankind before they have the chance to wipe out the mutants, while Charles believes humanity and mutants can live together in harmony, with the X-Men's primary goal usually being to stop Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants from killing innocent people.
- Colonel William Stryker to Wolverine. Stryker was the man who recruited Wolverine into Team X and later tricked him into the procedure that gave him his adamantium skeleton in order to turn him into a living weapon before causing Wolverine's amnesia, turning him into the bitter, jaded cynic he is in the present. In X2: X-Men United, Stryker shows disdain for Wolverine's attempts to redeem himself, telling him that he is and always has been an animal, while in X-Men: Days of Future Past, the mere sight of a younger version of Stryker is enough to send Logan into a Heroic BSoD as he remembers all the pain Stryker will cause him in the future.
- John Allerdyce/Pyro to Bobby Drake/Iceman. Though the pair were friends during Pyro's time at Xavier's school, Pyro's bloodthirsty pyschopathic nature causes him to ditch the X-Men and join Magneto, setting the two at odds and leading to a one-on-one fight in X-Men: The Last Stand.
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Victor Creed to Wolverine, as Wolverine's brother who becomes a sadistic monster, fakes the death of Logan's girlfriend Kayla and actually kills his friend Wraith. Although the two team up to fight Weapon XI in the climax, it's only because Victor doesn't want anyone but himself to have the pleasure of killing Logan.
- Deadpool: Francis Freeman/Ajax to Wade Wilson/Deadpool. Ajax is responsible for subjecting Wade to horrific experiments and disfiguring him in order to unlock his mutant powers, before having him tortured purely For the Evulz and attempting to sell him into slavery. The entire film revolves around Deadpool's quest for revenge on Ajax, and in the climax, Ajax kidnaps Wade's girlfriend Vanessa and attempts to subject her to the same torture he used on Wade. When Colossus tries to convince Deadpool that sparing Ajax's life would be the heroic thing to do, Deadpool coldly shoots Ajax in the head and declares that he couldn't care less about being a hero if it means letting monsters like Ajax live.
Video Games
Video Games
- Spider-Man (Insomniac):
- Prior to the beginning of the series, Wilson Fisk aka the Kingpin is stated to have been Peter's arch-enemy, as New York's biggest crime boss and the greatest threat Peter has faced in his eight years as Spider-Man. However, in the series proper, Fisk is merely the Starter Villain of the first game, although he does continue to cause problems from the heroes from behind bars in Miles Morales.
- Miles Morales has Martin Li/Mr. Negative, for killing his father in the City Hall bombing in the first game. Most of Miles's arc in Spider-Man 2 revolves around confronting Li and overcoming his need for revenge on him.
- Miles also has a recurring nemesis in Rhino, dating back to before Miles became Spider-Man, as Rhino terrorizes Miles in a stealth mission in the first game, before becoming The Dragon to Simon Krieger and fighting Miles twice in Miles Morales.
- Spider-Man (PS4): Doctor Otto Octavius/Doc Ock becomes Peter's new arch-enemy as his former mentor and friend who turns to villainy, becomes the leader of the Sinister Six, and ends up killing Aunt May by attacking New York with the Devil's Breath bioweapon. Peter is furious when he discovers that Otto knew he was Spider-Man all along and opposed him anyway, proving Otto cares more about his revenge on Norman Osborn for shutting down his company than the wellbeing of Peter and innocent people.
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Simon Krieger is the arch-enemy of Phin Mason/The Tinkerer, for killing her brother Rick when he tried to expose Krieger's revolutionary new fuel as being toxic and unsafe. Phin's own turn to villainy is motivated entirely by her desire for revenge on Krieger.
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2:
- Venom/Harry Osborn becomes the most personal foe Peter Parker has ever faced. The Venom Symbiote corrupts Peter and nearly causes him to kill MJ and Miles while it is bonded to him, and does not take Peter deciding to remove and destroy it well, while its new host, Harry, is Peter's Best Friend. Venom's plan to Take Over the World by infecting its population as part of a Symbiote Hive Mind is explicitly noted to be a warped attempt to fulfill Harry and Peter's shared goal to "heal the world".
- The Flame, aka Cletus Kasady, to Yuri Watanabe/Wraith. Yuri considered the Flame That One Case when she was a cop, and the Flame delights in tormenting her for her failure to catch him while also seeming to have a twisted Villainous Crush on her. Although Yuri is apathetic to whether or not the Flame's minions survive her crusade against them, the Flame is the only one she fully intends to murder outright, and she's even willing to fight Spider-Man for the right to kill him.
Western Animation
Western Animation
- For some reason or another, in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends from the 80s, his arch enemy was Doctor Doom. While the two have had s few historic encounters with one another in the comics, Doom is otherwise always depicted as an enemy of the Fantastic Four above all else.
- In Spider-Man: The Animated Series all of the three traditional Spider-Man arch-enemies mentioned in the comic books section above are present, but the Green Goblin and Venom are both far less prominent, and Dr Octopus is downgraded to a B-list villain. Instead, the Kingpin serves as Spidey's main enemy.
