History Main / IdenticalStranger

* ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamTheOrigin'', an alternate retelling-slash-prequel to ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', introduces a '''real''' Char Aznable, who looks exactly like Casval Deikun (the Char fans know and love) except for eye color (Casval has blue, Char has brown). When Casval learns that the Zabis are out to get him, he pulls a rather... [[ShootTheDog cold-blooded]] TwinSwitch, getting poor Char killed and assuming his identity. This actually briefly lead to an [[EpilepticTrees Epileptic Tree]] that Full Frontal from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' was Real!Char who had [[HesJustHiding somehow survived]]. [[spoiler:But instead, it turned out that Full Frontal was a more literal "CharClone" than usual, being an actual clone of Casval Deikun.]]

* ''ComicBook/TheWarlordDC'':

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'': Travis Morgan, the lead character of ''ComicBook/TheWarlordDC'', looks like a white-haired version of [[Characters/GreenArrowOliverQueen Oliver Queen]]. In fact, during ''Warlord'' creator Mike Grell's tenure as writer of ''Green Arrow'', he wrote an issue where Travis ends up in Seattle during one of his trips out of Skartaris and ends up having to team up with Ollie and Dinah after being accosted by several criminals mistaking him for Ollie after a crime boss put a bounty on Ollie's head.

* ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamTheOrigin'', an alternate retelling-slash-prequel to ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', introduces a '''real''' Char Aznable, who looks exactly like Casval Deikun (the Char fans know and love) except for eye color (Casval has blue, Char has brown). When Casval learns that the Zabis are out to get him, he pulls a rather... [[ShootTheDog cold-blooded]] TwinSwitch, getting poor Char killed and assuming his identity. This actually briefly lead to an [[EpilepticTrees Epileptic Tree]] that Full Frontal from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' was Real!Char who had [[HesJustHiding somehow survived]].

* In ''Literature/{{Tarzan}} and the Lion-Man'', cowardly actor Stanley Obroski is a dead ringer for Tarzan.

** This trope is played with using [[BizarroUniverse Edolas]]. 'Mystogan' (Edolas) and Jellal (Earthland) is the most PlayedStraight example, even sharing the same real first name, even though this gets [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] as Wendy confuses the two of them in the Oracion Seis arc. Both Lucy Ashley (Edolas) and Erza Knightwalker (Edolas) end up [[DefiedTrope cutting their hair]] to avoid confusion with their Earthland counterparts; in the latter case, Erza Scarlet had used her similar appearance to impersonate Erza Knightwalker. All of the above is Justified as Edolas is an AlternateUniverse that all Earthland inhabitants have a [[AlternateSelf counterpart]] in Edolas of.

** Kuina, Zoro's childhood friend from flashbacks [[spoiler:who died in a home accident]], and Tashigi, a young woman in the Marines, both look and act ''very'' similar, to the point that Zoro completely freaks out upon meeting Tashigi. Given that WordOfGod has confirmed these two share the same year of birth and the fact that Oda is the undisputed master of ChekhovsGun, this has led many people to assume they're one and the same, or at least related, but it's been conclusively proven they're not the same person by WordOfGod and Chapter/Episode 0.

** This trope is played with using [[BizarroUniverse Edolas]]. 'Mystogan' (Edolas) and Jellal (Earthland) is the most PlayedStraight example, even sharing the same real first name, even though this gets [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] as Wendy confuses the two of them in the Oracion Seis arc. Both Lucy Ashley (Edolas) and Erza Knightwalker (Edolas) end up [[DefiedTrope cutting their hair]] to avoid confusion with their Earthland counterparts; in the latter case, Erza Scarlet had used her similar appearance to impersonate Erza Knightwalker. All of the above is Justified as Edolas is an AlternateUniverse that all Earthland inhabitants have a [[AlternateSelf counterpart]] in Edolas of.

** Kuina, Zoro's childhood friend from flashbacks [[spoiler:who died in a home accident]], and Tashigi, a young woman in the Marines, both look and act ''very'' similar, to the point that Zoro completely freaks out upon meeting Tashigi. Given that WordOfGod has confirmed these two share the same year of birth and the fact that Oda is the undisputed master of ChekhovsGun, this has led many people to assume they're one and the same, or at least related, but it's been conclusively proven they're not the same person by WordOfGod and Chapter/Episode 0.

[[quoteright:350:Bart Simpson (left) meet Simon Woosterfield (right)]]

** In a ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' story, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} is hurled through a time warp to Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian's time period, and quickly comes face-to-face with Comicbook/RedSonja, who he at first mistakes for Jean Grey. When she challenges him, he realizes it isn't Jean, but she "sure has Jeanie's spunk though." To make this even weirder, at the conclusion of the story, Conan is thrown through the same warp to the modern time, is confronted by the other X-Men, and mistakes Jean for Sonja.

** After Jean Grey kills herself in ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'', Cyclops eventually meets Madelyne Pryor, a non-mutant airplane pilot who's a dead ringer for the departed Jean. At first, Scott thinks Maddie may somehow be Jean/Phoenix reincarnated, but she proves not to be. They eventually fall in love, get married, have a son, and Scott retires from the X-Men. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This was the writer's original plan]], for Maddie to just be an unrelated woman who happened to look exactly like Jean. This trope then got [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by ExecutiveMeddling, when it turns out Maddie is actually a clone of Jean created by Mister Sinister as part of his plan to get Scott and Jean (or someone with her genetic profile) to reproduce and create a genetically perfect being, and Maddie GoesMadFromTheRevelation - and influence from the demons of Limbo - awakens her latent mutant powers plus black magic and becomes the villainous Goblin Queen. Then she dies. Then it turns out that, not only was Jean not dead (just in a cocoon at the bottom of the Hudson river), she was never actually Phoenix in the first place but just impersonated by the cosmic entity (maybe; that last part gets {{retcon}}ned constantly).[[note]]All of this was because it was decided that the new series ''ComicBook/XFactor'' would star the original five X-Men. Which wouldn't be possible if Jean stayed dead and Scott stayed retired.[[/note]]

** After Jean Grey kills herself in ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'', Cyclops eventually meets Madelyne Pryor, who's a dead ringer for the departed Jean. They eventually fall in love, get married, have a son, and Scott retires from the X-Men. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This was the writer's original plan]]. This trope then got [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by ExecutiveMeddling, when it turns out Maddie is actually a clone of Jean created by Mister Sinister to get Scott and Jean to reproduce and create a genetically perfect being, and Maddie GoesMadFromTheRevelation (and demonic influence) and becomes the villainous Goblin Queen. Then she dies. Then it turns out that, not only was Jean not dead (just in a cocoon at the bottom of the Hudson river), she was never actually Phoenix in the first place (maybe; that last part gets {{retcon}}ned constantly).[[note]]All of this was because it was decided that the new series ''ComicBook/XFactor'' would star the original five X-Men. Which wouldn't be possible if Jean stayed dead and Scott stayed retired.[[/note]]