Fire Forged Friends / Comic Books

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• Played with in Anti-Venom between Eddie Brock and Frank Castle: after taking down a drug lord together, Eddie Brock thinks they've got this when Frank Castle appears to let him live. Frank Castle, on the other hand, knows he just ran out of bullets.
• Dunstan and Enna in The Autumnlands: Tooth & Claw are fast friends and they bond over the tragic fall of Keneil. To the point of Dunstan actually clutching Enna in mid-air.
• Green Lantern: The Lost Army: Two-Six and Xrill-Vrex become close companions after being in the same small group that got stranded in the previous universe, getting thrown in the same cell after their rings were taken from which they were forced to watch as other Lanterns were painfully executed, and fighting their way to freedom together.
• Angela and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. When Angela was pulled from Heven due to the events in Age of Ultron, she charges toward the Earth from outer space, only to be intercepted by Gamora who attacked her. She was captured when the rest of Guardians arrived and managed to defeat her. After an interrogation, Angela claimed she was only heading to Earth because she wanted to see it by herself. The Guardians realized they actually incited the fight, freed Angela and accompanied her to explore Earth. While Angela's with the team, she eventually became close to Gamora and as teammates, they are qualified enough to be Smash Sisters.
• In H'el on Earth, when Superboy meets Superman for the first time, he's untrusting of him; only teaming up with Superman because he saved his life. Over time, Superboy warms up to him, impressed by how well he handles situations. He even offers to call in his friends, the Teen Titans to help battle H'el.
• The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk and his Warbound became friends after experiencing great challenges together as gladiators, and their first moments of cohesion are in the volcanic gladiator training camp, thus being almost literally fire forged. Newer members of the Warbound (such as Caiera and Kate) join the Warbound after similar trying circumstances. In-universe, the term "Warbound" explicitly invokes this trope, having fought side-by-side they have bonded and become bound together.
• Zayne Carrick, Marn Hierogryph, and Jarael in the Knights of the Old Republic comic. Attempting to clear Zayne's name all while being on the run from five muderous Jedi Masters may have something to do with that.
• Victor Von Piro and the Frank's gang in Mini Monsters. At first, Victor doesn't get along with them and the Frank's gang dislike him completely (Except Piruja who is obsessively in love with him). However, Frank only admitted him because he was so socially awkward that he would not make friends of his own. However, despite his strong dislike for them, he prefers being with them than his biological family (A very embarrasing one).
  • Piruja can also count, but she's liked a lot more than Victor, as she's accepted when she's not in her Abhorrent Admirer mode.
• Power Girl and Harley Quinn are more or less friends due to some rather unusual circumstances: namely, Power Girl crashes near Harley's place and gets amnesia, which Harley takes advantage of to make Power Girl think she's her sidekick. While Power Girl is, unsurprisingly, rather mad once she gets her memory back, she leaves Harley unharmed after she starts crying and apologizing a lot. Later on, Power Girl has to help Harley a few more times (usually when there is some Eldritch Abomination or other threat that's way out of Harley's league), and eventually comes to like, or at least tolerate Harley.
• Punisher: War Journal: Frank and the Rhino make peace as they face Alyosha Kravinoff, the new Kraven, in his sadistic game of hunting supervillains with animal motifs. Over the course of the incident, it's revealed that the murder that set Frank on the Rhino's tail was an accident (and that Rhino sends money to the man's widow), and when Frank saves Rhino's life they decide to call it even. They then develop a Sam the Sheepdog/Ralph the Wolf sort of relationship, except they've cut out the "antagonize one another" part entirely.
• Red Sonja's The Art of Blood and Fire sees her collect six artisans for her patron. As they adventure alongside her they withstand Lizard Folk attack, a Beastly Bloodsports arena, an army of pimps... When Sonja is captured near the end of the arc they all contribute to her escape (except for the one who was recruited last, who is distracted by his own artistry).
• Dick Grayson (the first Robin) had this with Jason Todd (the second Robin). Dick resented Jason for taking his place, and Jason didn't like Dick for assuming he knew better than Jason did (which, after all, he did). After an evening together saving Alfred's life, they got close enough that Dick offered to be there when Bruce inevitably turned dickish again.
• While the deadpan and calculating Tim Drake, Hot-Blooded egotistical totally radical Kon-El, impulsive ditzy genius Bart Allen, and socially awkward but morally outspoken ascended fangirl Cassie Sandsmark have some trouble meshing at first with their opposing personalities and interests often leading them to fight and mistrust each other it does't take long for them to become True Companions while fighting alongside each other as Young Justice.
• When Xavin first showed up, he/she was not particularly well-liked by the Runaways, who suspected that he/she was just taking advantage of Karolina's low self-esteem, and who found his/her arrogance annoying. However, Xavin earned his/her place on the team after risking his/her life to distract the Gibborim while the rest of the team tried to talk Chase out making a deal with them to restore Gert to life.
  Molly Hayes: I don't care what shape you are... you're totally my sister now.
• One of the most famous examples was the friendship between Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman in the post-crisis timeline (1987 - 2011) where they would almost exclusively refer to each other with their true names rather than their superhero identities.
• In Thunderbolts, when they were sent after Spider-Man, MACH-1 was delighted with the prospect of bringing down his old enemy, even suggesting at one point they could kill him and claim it was an accident. After they fight as Back-to-Back Badasses against the rest of the Thunderbolts under mindcontrol, and Spider-Man saves his life, MACH-1 gives him the evidence he needs to clear his name, because he couldn't betray him after fighting next to him like that. (Also, realizing that he was Becoming the Mask.)
• Whirl and Cyclonus in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye. At the start of the series the two despise each other to unbelievable degrees, to the point that they keep attempting to murder each other whenever they get the chance. However after they're forced to work together and actually talk during the season finale, they realize that they're actually similar and develop a sort of respect/kinship for one another. This leads them to agree to drop their rivalry. By season 2, they've become so amicable that Whirl defends Cyclonus whenever someone insults him.
  • This happens quite a few times in the original Transformers comics but one of the most unusual examples is Springer and Carnivac. The leaders of the respective Autobot and Decepticon elite groups, when forced into an Enemy Mine situation against Galvatron and Megatron during "Time Wars" they save each other's lives (despite Carnivac being under orders to kill any Autobots left standing) and are firm friends from then on, repeatedly coming to each other's rescue until Carnivac effectively ends up defecting to the Autobots.
• In an issue of X-Factor, Scott smashed up the house where he had lived with Madelyne, and found the baby's rattle. A cop finds him in the ruins and is belligerent, addressing him as "mister", threatening arrest. A Sentinel attacks, and they must join forces against it. After its defeat, Scott speaks of the arrest, and the cop says "son", he didn't remember it like that at all; the Sentinel had smashed up the house.
• In an issue of X-Men, Wolverine was enraged by Rogue joining the team. After the rest of the team was taken out by poison, they go after the enemies responsible together. It culminates in Rogue taking an attack meant for Wolverine and Mariko — and Wolverine forcing her to absorb his healing factor to save her life despite his own injuries.
  • Although most other adaptations like to play up their conflicts, Cyclops and Wolverine actually develop a begrudging respect for one another in the comics. This was most pronounced after Jean died in the 2000s, when the two actually got a long extremely well until Schism, though their relationship was still a bit rocky.
  Cyclops: I've dated two psychics. My father is an emotionally distant space pirate. My time-traveling son from the future is older than me. My younger self hates me... and yet still... somehow... you were the most complicated relationship in my life.
  • Wolverine and Angel have also become this after stubbornly hating each others guts for several decades.
• Ka-Zar: Ka-Zar's befriended a good chunk of the Marvel U's hero community this way, teaming up with everyone from Spider-Man to Daredevil to the Avengers and the X-Men.

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