The Psycho Rangers

aka: Doppleganger Squad

One team is the Trope Namer. The other is the original. Guess which is which.

"You've heard of the Dream Team? Well, we're the Mean Team, wussy man!"

— Pound, Space Jam

A regular Legion of Doom has members which oppose the heroes and are often their archrivals, but their powers are scattered all over the place, and they're not necessarily Evil Counterparts even if they have the same number of members.

The Psycho Rangers are the collective Evil Twin of The Team. Each one's nature/powers mirror a specific hero and they work together as a group. The same way The Hero can get his True Companions together to fight the Monster of the Week, sometimes the Big Bad, The Rival, Evil Twin, Monster of the Week or Evil Counterpart can get himself a team made up entirely of Evil Counterparts to the main cast.

If they know all the moves of their heroic counterparts, the Psycho Rangers may be too strong for their duplicates one-on-one. The heroes can sometimes turn the tables by switching opponents and fighting each others' evil doubles. Without knowledge of the heroes' fighting techniques, the Psycho Rangers become much easier to defeat. (Unless they promptly switch back again.)

If they are less straight up evil and more along the lines of merely "opposing the heroes", it is not unlikely that if there is a gender flip Evil Counterpart, then there might be some sexual tension between the two.

The most extreme, but not the most common, type of Psycho Rangers are literally evil clones or Mirror Universe counterparts of the heroes.

Contrast Mirroring Factions. May to various extents also be a Similar Squad. Can be part of a Geodesic Cast. Usually turns out to be an Evil Knockoff team. May lead to Counterpart Combat Coordination. The heroes and the Psycho Rangers are often shown in a Mirrored Confrontation Shot. Opposing Sports Team is a sports-specific version. For a good-guy team with such manners, it's Anti-Hero Team.

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Examples:

Trope Namer: Power Rangers and Super Sentai

Super Sentai and Power Rangers are both fond of this very trope. More often than not the evil counterparts are usually one-off clones created by the villains that are quickly disposed by the end of the episode, but a few shows have actually featured their own recurring evil Ranger team to antagonize the heroes.

• The trope namer are the Psycho Rangers from Power Rangers in Space, a group of evil Rangers that fought against the Space Rangers during the course of the series, and returned in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy (most notably Psycho Pink, whose actions led to the Pink Galaxy Ranger being killed off and replaced). Their counterparts in Denji Sentai Megaranger were the Jaden Sentai Neziranger.
• The Ur-Example would be the Dummy JAKQ from J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai though they never actually fought their respective team. They were just a group of four Mooks who dressed up as the JAKQ for a training exercise conducted with the Monster of the Week, who was testing a team of four androids called the Scrap Army built specially to kill JAKQ. The Scrap Army androids may also be a quasi-example since there was one for each member of JAKQ and they all had colorful appearances, though they were not rangers and were mindless.
• The Zero Girls in Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan are a quasi-example, being a team of four color-coded female assassins who more or less serve as evil counterparts to the Sun Vulcan team.
• The first straight example would be the Deathdark-V from episode 45 of Dai Sentai Goggle Five, who were a group of Mooks turned into copies of the heroic Goggle V by an appearance mimicking Monster of the Week. To denote their status as an evil team, they each wield black versions of their respective Goggle V member's weapon and their "Super Sentai" Stance is them pointing their arms downward, in an inverse of the Goggle V's upward "V" pose.
• In Choudenshi Bioman, the five Beastnoids (a recurring group of human-sized monsters that fought the Bioman team in lieu of a traditional Monster of the Week) acted as an evil counterpart to the team, as they were the recurring antagonists of the series in lieu of the traditional Monster of the Week format. Bioman also had a brainwashed evil sixth ranger called Magne Senshi for only one episode who didn't keep his powers after being freed from the villain's control. The villains were planning to make more than one but the heroes destroyed the laboratory and meteors needed to make more.
• The "Ginga Sentai Gingaman" (not to be confused with the later heroic Seijuu Sentai Gingaman) from Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman were the first truly recurring Evil Sentai within the franchise. They were evil space aliens who, at first, attempted to gain the trust of Earthlings by pretending to be heroes, but eventually they turned out to be villains. In Episode 42, they actually became a full fledge Evil Counterpart of the Fiveman team when they temporarily stole their powers. Unfortunately, they didn't fight the heroic Gingaman in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
• Choujin Sentai Jetman has the Shadow Jetmen, who get stronger as the real Rangers get weaker. They disappear in the shadows. Fortunately, Gai (Black) is not present and remains fully powered, and thus the Shadow Jetmen are one member less.
• The first season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers featured two evil counterparts to the original Rangers. The first time in "A Bad Reflection on You" (which was an adaptation of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger episode 46, "Presenting The Vicious Squadron!") featured putties which took on the Rangers' appearances in order to tarnish their reputation. The second time, in "Mighty Morphin Mutants" (which used so-called "Zyu2" footage and didn't happen in sentai), were straightforward evil counterparts to each of the Rangers (including the Green Ranger) and a Monster of the Week named Commander Crayfish, who served as a stand-in to the Red Ranger. Thanks to a certain Gag Dub by My Way Entertainment, this second episode is well known for naming this group "Gangsta Crizzab and the Grayside Gang".
• The Dark Rangers from the second season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers only appeared in the two-part episode "Green No More" and were exclusive to Power Rangers. They were classmates of the Power Rangers who were brainwashed to serve Lord Zedd, but they never actually fought their heroic counterparts since the costumes worn by the stuntmen, which were recolored Putty suits, were too delicate to withstand battle. In the comic adaptation, we got a proper battle, with the real Rangers in the Ninja Ranger suits from season three and the bad guys in the old MMPR suits.
• Gosei Sentai Dairanger had the Three Gorma Stooges, a trio of incompetent Gorma with a sense of competition that would recurringly challenge the Dairangers to some (usually rigged) match, who also had their own "Super Sentai" Stance and had rivalry with Tenma Ranger in particular. Though they would end pulling a Heel–Face Turn once other Gorma tried to kill them as part of a plan, going to Wander The Earth. One Monster of the Week was a copy machine themed monster who could turn pictures of people into evil clones. They started with only a copy of Kirin Ranger who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate the team's mentor but later made multiple copies of the five core Dairangers, leaving the rangers significantly outnumbered.
• The Hana Kunoichi Gumi (the "Flower Kunoichi Gang" from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger were an all-female gang of ninjas who were actually stray cats that were transformed into women by Gasha Skull (Rito Revolto's Japanese counterpart). Unlike other evil Sentai teams, their colors were different from the good team (except for blue) and they were all female. Their effectiveness varied wildly from episode to episode. Sometimes they seem to be equals to the Kakurangers, but often they seem to be only slightly stronger than the Mooks, and in one episode they were able to beat the Kakurangers without even transforming.
• The "Boso Sentai Zokuranger" from Gekisou Sentai Carranger, who went so far as to have their own version of the opening theme. Granted, they only resemble the Carrangers in color, as they consist of five Gorotsuki, led by the Bowzock's hero researcher, SS Pamaan. All of them except for the leader originally were unnamed recurring characters seen hanging out at the Bad Guy Bar, with the green member being the bartender. After SS Pamaan is killed the other four return to being minor characters and end up surviving to the end of the series. They became "Crash and the Creeps" in Power Rangers Turbo.
• Turbo exclusive Shadow Rangers were copies made from the true Rangers' powers, and as such the real Rangers couldn't morph. They had to be tricked into falling to their Kryptonite Factor by the only powered Ranger left, who wasn't present when the other four were copied. They may have been based on Sentai's somewhat similar Shadow Jetmen.
• Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue had robotic replacements for the Rangers. They were referred to as cyborgs though there was no sign of them not being all machine. A monster turned 'em evil and they had to be dealt with. Not in sentai; closest counterpart is a new mecha that was driven evil by a different monster and had to be taken out.
• Both Mirai Sentai Timeranger and Power Rangers Time Force had a monster suck the Rangers into a pocket dimension with bad Timerangers/Time Force Rangers. For the first time since the originals (which had to be identical to smear the real Rangers) we don't have any tells that let you know which is which.^note The Mutant Rangers still had Putty hands and feet and their weapons looked like non-Rangerized versions of the Rangers' weapons, the Shadow Rangers had de-colorized helmets, the Psycho Rangers were all-new designs, and the Cyborg Rangers had visible remote control receivers. They also lived up to being every bit as strong as the originals for once. They had to break the Monster of the Week's pocket dimension to get away from them. For all we know, the evil Timerangers/Time Force Rangers still wander some forgotten zone of reality, and probably forgotten by now.
• Power Rangers Wild Force has the Shadow Rangers, no relation to the Turbo ones. Onikage made them from the Rangers' shadows; any damage done to them was felt by the real ones. They managed to defeat them by deflecting Onikage's power on himself, and then destroying his shadow. Gaoranger had these and also the Copy Rangers created by a Monster of the Week made from a copy machine.
• The Gouraigers in Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger (aka the Thunder Rangers in Power Rangers Ninja Storm) are played up as these to the male Hurricangers (Wind Rangers). In both cases, they're more Anti Heroes and soon ally with their more heroic counterparts (the Thunder Rangers fit in fairly seamlessly, but the Gouraigers remained somewhat antagonistic).
  • One episode of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger has the villain rewrite history to give the Gouraigers a female third member and make them more evil. This may have been inspired by an unused idea for Ninja Storm where the Thunder Rangers would have stayed as antagonists for longer and also would have had an additional female member.
  • The Ninja Storm episode "Wild Wipeout" deals with Tori being transported to a mirror universe a la Dorothy only via rogue wave instead of tornado. Said universe has the other five Rangers and Sensei being evil troublemakers and she's unable to take them all on alone. Fortunately, she's able to convince Lothor and his minions (who are good in this universe) to stand up to them before retuning to her own dimension.
• Power Rangers: Dino Thunder had the brainwashed Power Rangers Ninja Storm team during the Reunion Show. This makes Cam (Green) the only Ninja Storm Ranger to never play Psycho Ranger to any good Rangers.
  • Also in Dino Thunder, there was Trent's White Ranger clone that was created by one of the MOTW's just in time to take the real White Ranger's place when he turned good. He lasted for pretty much the rest of the season until Trent finally destroyed him. He existed because the original character in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger Mikoto Nakadai / Abare Killer didn't Heel–Face Turn until far later in the series and Disney needed to use up the rest of the evil White Ranger footage.
  • Speaking of Abaranger, the trope was invoked and parodied with the Renaissance Trinoid Jamei Sentai Evoranger, three Trinoids given red, blue, and yellow scarves. As soon as they started singing their own theme song, Abare Killer showed up and quickly defeated them before they could possibly challenge the Abarangers.
• The A-Squad from Power Rangers S.P.D. was the first truly recurring evil Ranger team exclusive to Power Rangers. In contrast to previous evil rangers, they were actually the predecessors of the main heroes before they turned evil. Ironically enough their helmets were recycled from Power Rangers in Space, with the Black Ranger's helmet being repainted into a green one.
• Both Mahou Sentai Magiranger and Power Rangers Mystic Force had another pocket-dimension-with-bad-Rangers thing. They could be told from the real deal by the neck of the suits being black instead of white.
• GoGo Sentai Boukenger parodied the concept of evil Sentai teams in one of their Super Sentai history lessons. The main villain Gaja decides to form the "Gaja Dengekitai", recolored Mooks with himself as "Big One". There was also a more standard group created by a particularly elite villain-of-the-week; like the Mystic Force / Magiranger version, the necks were black. As a silver-colored villain an enemy of the Sixth Ranger with a similar weapon, the creator of the bogus Rangers also doubled as Silver's counterpart.
• Power Rangers Jungle Fury had the Spirit Rangers - the Rangers' masters brainwashed to fight the good guys. Turns out they were doing it by remote, with the Ranger forms being astral projections.
• Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has Basco ta Jolokia, able to create clones of any past Ranger via Ranger Keys; he has all the Sixth Ranger keys before Gokai Silver shows up, and later begins relying on the Extra Hero Keys. The final round with Basco has him steal the Gokai Galleon and use the Gokaigers' own keys. The Movie (one of 'em) also has all the Ranger Keys stolen by Himitsu Sentai Gorenger Big Bad the Black Cross Fuhrer (now the Black Cross King.) The Gokaigers and Goseigers have to fight dupes of every other Ranger ever.
• Power Rangers Dino Charge had a Monster of the Week who was capable of disguising Sledge's Vivix as the Rangers. The disguised Vivix were capable of appearing as the Rangers while morphed but not as them in civilian mode, and they also still couldn't speak. Like the first batch of grunts disguised as Rangers back in MMPR, they were there for an impersonation-related trap and didn't actually have Ranger-level power.
  • The original Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger had Deathryuger, a sadistic Deboss Knight who long ago had corrupted a Zyudenchi to become an evil Kyoryuger and is the main antagonist of the Gaburincho of Music film and the epilogue movie.
• Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger had Jark Sentai Goindaver - unlike other examples, however, they are joke characters, who the heroes almost were able to beat without transforming^note it's not because the Goindavers ended up getting a second wind, but rather, the fact that they can't perform finishing moves untransformed - and mind you, they aren't taken down by all 12 Kyurangers working together; only 5 (kind of 6^note Shou was disabled due to back injuries) fought them. They were so weak because they were just four different colored common Mooks and one uniquely colored Mook, none of whom where stronger than normal. In a later episode, the Monster of the Week captures four of the rangers and transforms four invaders into duplicates of them who pretend they are the real rangers being controlled, but Shou sees through the deception and sets the real rangers free by pretending to surrender.
• Power Rangers Ninja Steel goes for quantity over quality. The team-up features a large army of robo-ranger copies to be faced by the assembled team of past and present Rangers.
• In Power Rangers Beast Morphers, Evox's Avatar generals, Blaze and Roxy, are this. They are actually corrupted Morphin Grid-created copies of the real Blaze and Roxy, the intended Red and Yellow Beast Rangers.
  • In the original Tokumei Sentai Go Busters, after absorbing enough of Hiromu's data near the finale, Enter became Dark Buster, a corrupt version of Hiromu's Dark Buster form, and proceeds to beat the protagonists with it.
  • Four Week Continuous Super Sentai Strongest Battle and Kishiryu Sentai Ryu Soulger has Gaisoulg, who a ranger suit that developed a mind of its own and takes control of its wearer. The Gaisoulg suit later loses its personality after the evil in it is removed and its host joins the Ryusoulgers. Gaisoulg's counterpart in Power Rangers Dino Fury is called Void Knight, who acts as the main villain for the first part of the show.
• Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger has Stacy of the Tozitend Dynasty, the series' answer to Basco. He wields the Geartozinger, a purple copy of the Geartlinger the heroes use to morph, which can summon past Sentai teams as well as their mechs, and allows himself to morph into Stacaesar, a purple Evil Counterpart to The Leader Zenkaiser with his form also homaging to Battle Japan.
  • A Monster of the Week, Recycle Wald, in his Great/Giant form later on summons "recycled" past Great Walds to from his own team, Recycle Sentai Daiwalger. While they easily curbstomped the Zenkaigers with their Evil Knockoff Power Copying, they were soon wiped out by the Sixth Ranger Twokaizer's new mecha, before Great Recycle Wald was lastly finished off by Stacaesar's mecha.
  • The villains later create a second Evil Knockoff of Zenkaizer called Hakaizer whose design is an homage to Ninja Captor (a series related to but not quite part of the Sentai franchise) and who wields a gun that also allows him to summon copies of past rangers, although instead of summoning teams of rangers it summons groups of rangers with a similar theme. Of course, said gun ends up in the heroes' side soon enough.
  • Kaito and Zox also get hilariously evil copies of themselves made in one episode with a Monster of the Week that has the ability to make evil copies of things. Initially the two copies are identical to the originals in both their ranger and civilian forms but they grow more evil looking as they go on a crime spree and the second time they use their ranger forms they gain evil red eyes on their visors.
• The main antagonists of Avataro Sentai Donbrothers are a group of six ranger-like villains whose transformed states are based on heroes from some of Toei's less well-known Toku shows. They also fight the Monster of the Week but with the intent to kill them, unlike the rangers who want to save the monsters by returning them to human form in this season. Episode 18 introduced a new purple evil ranger called Don Murasame, who can Avatar Change into previous warriors mostly under this category as well as lone antiheroes that stood against their main teams as The Rival. Three of the villains end up turning good and joining the Donbrothers, while Don Murasame, who doesn't have a human form and is actually a sentient sword that manifests a humanoid body, ends up in the possession of Inu Brother and joins the Donbrothers in the final episode. Also during the final episode, the three villains who didn't join the Donbrothers are executed by two new villains who steal the powers from two of them.
• Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger has the evil ranger Rcules, who transforms into Oh-Kuwagata Ohger, a silver version of Kuwagata Ohger. After the Time Skip, the show mostly drops the usual Monster of the Week formula and instead has the King Ohgers fighting against a new group of recurring villains consisting of Big Bad Dagded and his five Jesters, plus a mysterious sixth minion known as Shugo Mask, who turns out to be the Rcules somehow returned. While the King-Ohgers are temporarily banished from the planet, each of the five surface kingdoms are taken over by one of the Jesters, except for Shugoddam, which is taken by Shugo Mask, and they all work to ruin the kingdoms in their unique ways.

Audio Drama

• The Bloomsbury Bunch in Big Finish Doctor Who's Paternoster Gang series likewise comprises a male Sontaran, a female Silurian and a gay human in a relationship with their leader. One difference: the Sontaran, Stonn, is the leader and the human, Tom, is male, with Vella the Silurian telling Madame Vastra "Unlike you, I don't kiss apes."

Fan Works

• All Things Probable Series: Team Probable is a group similar to Team Possible, except that they assist villains for pay rather than stopping them for free. Its members (except the Team Pet) are the opposite gender from their respective counterparts.
• The Bridge gives a loose but present example. The main four heroic kaiju (Godzilla Jr., Mothra Lea, Anguirus, and Rodan) agree to work with the Equestrians to find a way home. Knowing this, the Big Bad recruits a group of villainous kaiju. The most prominent are Monster X, Hyper Gyaos/Irys, Megalon, and Gigan. The quartet also serves as the Villain Protagonist leads of the Specials. The two teams mirror one another with poorly socialized leader who has trouble controlling his powers (Godzilla to Monster X), a chronologically youngest member with mystic based powers (Mothra to Irys), and two sibling artificial creations from the same "production line" (Anguirus and Rodan to Gigan and Megalon).
• Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron: The Knights of the Round become this when given Galra enhanced Knightmare Frames to better combat the Lions. Each of the knights serve as a counter to each of the Paladins: Bismark to Lelouch/Zero, as the leader of their respective teams, Dorothea to Kallen, who are the most hotheaded members with Fantastic Racism^note Though Kallen has begun to temper hers down, Gino to Rivals, both of whom are nice guys who try to woo the ladies, Luciano to Milly, whose quirks annoy their teammates, Anya to Rai, who are the most logical members^note Though Rai is more emotional than Anya, Monica to Shirley, who are the most ‘normal’ members of their teams^note though Monica is canonically a Blood Knight, and due to Nonette’s defection, Shin Hyūga Shaing, is brought in to replace her as the Knights’ seventh member to act as a counter to Suzaku, as both of them are Japanese pilots who both have limited views on their own lives.
• The Coven of Reformed Supernaturals series opens by featuring the titular team coming together; Angel, Spike, Illyria, Leo Wyatt, Cole Turner, Blade, Hellboy, John Constantine and the vampire Batman. The second fic in the series sees Spawn replace Batman as the team face the Gathering of Supernatural Psychopaths, who were explicitly created to be a gathering of supernatural killers for no greater purpose than to kill a lot of people (really to keep the Coven occupied while the Devil prepares the Apocalypse). The Gathering was led by Spawn's foe the Clown and included Chucky, Drusilla, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, the Headless Horseman, the Creeper, and It.
• Fate: Hero and Sword has this going on between The Holy City Camelot and The Great Tomb of Nazarick. Their membership includes:
  • A Token Human leader in the form of Shirou and Ainz, though unlike Ainz Shirou has a lot of experience with life outside of YGGDRASIL and is consequently better at treading the members of Camelot than Ainz is at reading the NPCs of Nazaric.
  • Albedo and Arturia, who are female love interests of the leaders of their factions and the nominal seconds-in-command, though while Arturia embodies Beauty Equals Goodness and is one of the most heroic characters in the story, Albedo embodies Beauty Is Bad and is one of the most outright villainous members of Nazaric.
  • Agravain and Demiurge are The Chessmaster of their forces, but Agravain realizes that Shirou and his companions aren't always aware of what his plans entail due to Shirou and Arturia being too selfless to consider some of his more immoral strategies, while Demourge believes Ainz already knows and anticipates his plans.
  • Nero and Shalltear are female characters who jostle with Albedo/Arturia over various topics, but while Albedo and Shalltear have a legitimate rivalry over who will be Ainz's Top Wife, Nero doesn't have romantic interest in Shirou and mostly annoys Arturia due to her personality and being far curvier than Arturia and not being afraid to flaunt it.
  • Merlin and Narberal Gamma are casters who look human even though they aren't and have dismal views of mankind. Unlike Narberal, Merlin does not see this as a reason to treat humans like dirt.
• Inner Glory has the reflections of the Lost World. They are Lustrous Revolt, (Twilight Sparkle's reflection) Spectral Slash, (Rainbow Dash's reflection) Shuddercry, (Fluttershy's reflection) Pinkamina Diane, (Pinkie Pie's reflection) and Temperament (Rarity's reflection)Jackie, (Applejack's reflection) and Thorn. (Spike's reflection) But none of them are really evil, and they all make Heel Face Turns in the end.
• Miraculous City: The Disaster Team, a group of criminal Miraculous users that counteract Team Miraculous. The group has at least one Evil Counterpart to the heroes.
  • Lila/Cerise/Lady Harlequin is this to Marinette/Ladybug. Both are charismatic leaders, but Marinette fights to protect her loved ones while Harlequin fights for her own interest.
  • Tulip/Swinearchy to Rose/Pigella. Both are cheerful and optimistic Genki Girls with powers of the Pig Miraculous, but while Rose is a kind and gentle person who uses her powers to help others, Tulip is an insane Cloudcuckoolander who doesn’t care who she hurts in her pursuit of having fun.
  • XY/ViperX to Luka/Viperion. Both are musicians with Snake Miraculous power, but while Luka is a genuinely talented musician and a compassionate heart, XY has no real talent and steals the work of others. Word of God even lampshades that XY is already an evil Luka in canon.
  • Socqueline Wang/Lady Beetle is revealed to have one through Camille/Chrysalis. Both of them were Big Sister Mentors to Marinette and Cerise respectively, guiding the younger girl to be who they are in the present. Socqueline would become a full-out Good Counterpart when she gets the Butterfly Miraculous and becomes Painted Lady.
• My Little Avengers: Loki eventually assembles a team of Dark Avengers to combat Thor's Avenger team, selecting ponies whose powers make them Evil Counterparts to the heroes, with Loki himself serving as Thor's counterpart. The only standout is Loki's apprentice Trixie, who has no counterpart among the main characters — though this admittedly becomes a moot point by the Final Battle, as by then, Trixie's failed an attempt to double-cross Loki and has fled for her life, and in any case, all the Avengers (except for Thor, who still takes on Loki) swap opponents in order to get an advantage.
• Pony POV Series: This posp up near the end of Dark World: Nightmare Paradox has fused with five other Nightmares from previous cycles, the six of them forming one of these to the heroes. However, only two of them are the actual Superpowered Evil Side of their counterpart, due to the Elements having changed hooves: (Nightmare Mirror to Rarity, Nightmare Granfalloon to Apple Pie, Nightmare Whisper to Applejack, Nightmare Banneret to Spike, Nightmare Manacle to Derpy, and of course, Nightmare Paradox herself to Twilight).
• A Song of Silk and Saplings: Hornet's captors are a trio of recurring antagonists who are direct counterparts to Team Snakemouth:
  • Brier is a boxelder bug with powerful lightning magic and a former scholar of Hallownest's Soul Sanctum, diametrically opposite to Leif in several key aspects. While Leif was viewed as a "failed experiment" by the roaches of Upper Snakemouth, Brier was seen as the greatest success of Hallownest's Soul Sanctum, as they were the only Sanctum scholar to infuse themselves with Soul Magic with no side effects. Whereas Leif cares very little for his possible biological immortality and seems to have become an Anti-Nihilist in his personal journey, Brier is an obsessive Immortality Seeker who rejects any notion that a mortal life can be meaningful. And while Leif was an unwilling test subject of the roaches of Upper Snakemouth, Brier eagerly dedicates their entire life to the exact same kinds of hideously unethical experiments. Finally, while Leif is a cordyceps fungus who accidentally absorbed the memories and identity of its deceased host, Brier willingly sets up a cordyceps to take host in their body in the event of their demise, so that they can come Back from the Dead.
  • Carnus, an American carrion beetle of exceptional physical strength, is a foil to Kabbu. He suffers a great deal of angst over his species' diet of rotting corpses forcing him to scavenge grave sites, and, while he's seemingly quite gentle in personality, his immense guilt complex leads him to side with Light Within out of the belief that their promised "Second Reckoning" will absolve him of his "sins". More gruesomely, he's also scavenged the graves of Kabbu's master and friend and eaten their decaying bodies.
  • Rosha is an Africanized honey bee (better known by the common name "killer bee") with a fiercely independent spirit and a strong desire to prove herself, making her directly parallel Vi. Unlike Vi, she's actually a queen bee who purposefully refused to start a new hive and birth a new generation. Also unlike Vi, she is a nasty Social Darwinist who regularly murders other bugs for sport, out of the belief that strength is the only thing that truly matters.
• Super Sentai vs. Super Sentai features one in the "Another" story, the Kyokingers, consisting of Tube Red, Alien Blue, Dora Pink, Yokai Black, NeziYellow, Rin Green and Evol White. Long later tries to give them another member in Jakan Blue.
• Vengeance of Dawn has Breaking Dawn (a disgruntled, jealous former student of Celestia who isn't so different from Twilight) and her friends. They are Laurel, (generous like Rarity, but unlike her is homely and poor) Razor Wind, (fast and loyal like Rainbow Dash) Cherry Blossom, (kind and shy like Fluttershy) Hard Candy, (zany and silly like Pinkie Pie, also a Minty Expy) and Hardy Bloom (honest and straightforward like Applejack).

Films — Animation

• In The Guardians of the Lost Code, the Big Bad gets three street kids to give them powers and act as his own team against the chosen ones. Subverted at the end when it turns out his team WERE the real chosen ones, but he was trying to corrupt them.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
  • The Dazzlings are this to The Rainbooms in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks. Adagio Dazzle is the clever leader and main singer for her band like Twilight Sparkle, and she shares the same singing voice actress as Rarity, Aria Blaze is aggressive and sarcastic like Rainbow Dash and Applejack, and Sonata Dusk is ditzy and innocent like Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.
  • In the third movie, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, Canterlot High's rival team, the Shadowbolts, have a full set of counterparts to the Hu-mane Six, one of which is the Human!Twilight Sparkle previously seen in The Stinger of Rainbow Rocks. The others have similar personality traits to their counterparts, but taken to negative degrees:
    • Sugarcoat is honest like Applejack, but completely blunt about it.
    • Sour Sweet has Fluttershy's sweetness, but with a heavy dose of sourness on the side.
    • Sunny Flare has Rarity's elegance, but is severely lacking in tact.
    • Indigo Zap is competitive like Rainbow Dash, but lacks team spirit.
    • Lemon Zest loves to have fun like Pinkie Pie, but is far more obnoxious about it.

Films — Live-Action

• Marvel Cinematic Universe: Thanos and the Black Order from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are this to the titular Avengers.
  • The Big Bad: Thanos, definitely. Creator of the Black Order, leader of the plan to gain the Infinity Stones who mostly lets his servants do the work, and literally the adoptive father of the others.
  • The Dragon: Corvus Glaive, due to his arrogant personality and abundance of physical combat compared to the real Big Bad, Thanos.
  • The Evil Genius: Ebony Maw, for his telekinetic abilities, eloquent speech, and role as a strategist.
  • The Brute: Cull Obsidian. Big dumb guy with a giant hammer — enough said.
  • The Dark Chick: Proxima Midnight, being the only girl. She's also quite sadistic towards the heroes.
• The Syndicate in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation are an organization-wide Evil Counterpart to the Impossible Mission Force, being a terrorist organization comprised of rogue government agents who've all undergone similar training to the IMF. They're even outright referred to as the "anti-IMF".
• The Muppets (2011) evidently has one called the "Moopets", who dress like gangbangers. They also seem to be an in-universe example of Suspiciously Similar Substitute/Poor Man's Substitute.
• The Wilson Heights Gang in Police Academy 6: Ox (a huge man with Super-Strength, like Hightower), Ace (a gun nut with Improbable Aiming Skills, like Tackleberry), and Flash (a skilled martial artist, who serves as Jones' evil counterpart). Eventually, all three end up fighting, and losing to, their heroic counterparts from the Police.
• The Hobo King's crew in Scurvy Dogs.

Literature

• In Animorphs, David's ultimate plan for the blue box was to use it to create a gang of morphing criminals to counter the Animorphs. The Animorphs were able to defeat him before he could put this plan into action.
• The Beginning After the End: Not only are the Scythes the Evil Counterparts of the Lances, but each Scythe parallels one of the Lances in one respect or another.
  • Cadell -> Bairon. Both are physically imposing individuals renowned for being The Ace. Fittingly, at the climax of Volume 7, Bairon (with help from Arthur) goes up against Cadell when he attempts to assassinate Virion, only for Cadell to effortlessly defeat both of them.
    • Both also have an enmity with Arthur. Bairon loathes Arthur for killing his younger brother Lucas even though the latter participated in the attack on Xyrus Academy, whereas Cadell killed Arthur's Parental Substitute Sylvia. Arthur ends up resolving these enmities in contrasting fashions. He slays Cadell at the Victoriad, followed by him reconciling with Bairon upon returning to Dicathen.
    • Both also are known for taking on an asura in spite of the power disparity. As already stated, Cadell is the one who killed Sylvia, albeit she was an old asura who was severely weakened at the time. Bairon on the other hand attempts to hold off Taci, who in spite of being a young asura manages to defeat not just him but the rest of the remaining Lances, with only the arrival of Arthur being what puts an end to his rampage.
  • Seris -> Olfred. Both end up betraying their respective groups, but while Olfred does so out of his loyalty to the traitorous Rahdeas, Seris turns out to be Good All Along as she never loyal to Agrona and the Vritra in the first place for she recognized for them for the tyrants that they are and throws in her lot with Arthur due to his potential to end the Divine Conflict.
  • Melzri -> Varay. Both are very talented mages who have white hair, but radically contrast each other in terms of personality, fighting style, and elemental powers. Melzri is a Sadistic Blood Knight who is a master of fire magic and fights by Dual Wielding swords, while Varay is an impassive Ice Queen who is a master of ice magic and wields a Royal Rapier. However, Varay also parallels Cadell in that both are The Ace and The Leader for their respective groups.
  • Viessa -> Aya. While Viessa's personality is more similar to Varay's, the main similarity she has with Aya is that both are masters of illusory magic.
  • Dragoth -> Mica. The Big Guys for their respective teams, Mica is a Cute Bruiser and Pint-Sized Powerhouse, whereas Dragoth is a brutish individual who resembles a fantasy barbarian. Both are also Blood Knights who live for a good fight and Carry a Big Stick for their weapon of choice.
  • Nico -> Arthur. The Sixth Ranger to their respective groups, both are reincarnates who in spite of being physically young are among the most talented mages in the setting, and in both their past lives and their current ones they used to be best friends before turning into bitter enemies. In addition, Nico is the weakest among the Scythes due to not having Vritra blood, whereas Arthur ends up being the strongest among the Lances both before and after his Re-Power.
• The City of Heroes Expanded Universe novel The Freedom Phalanx has the Tyranny Legion, Psycho Rangers for the not-yet-formed Phalanx. The armored hero Positron has his old boss, Doctor Null, who's stuck inside his armor; Synapse, who got his powers from one of Null's experiments, has Revenant, his ex-friend who was turned into a zombie through a similar experiment; Sister Psyche, the mutant psychic, has the Shadow Queen, whose psychic powers come from a possessed mask; Manticore, a Batman-esque vigilante, has Protean, the shapeshifter who killed his parents; and, of course, Statesman has Lord Recluse, whose rivalry the entire game revolves around.
• In the Haruhi Suzumiya novels, the whole SOS Brigade is diametrically opposed by the Anti-SOS brigade, a team consisting of a time traveler, an alien humanoid-interface, an esper, and a depowered version of whatever Haruhi is. Ironically, Mikuru's opposite more closely resembles an Evil Counterpart to Itsuki (something Kyon even comments on), while Itsuki's opposite would be more suited as an Evil Counterpart to Mikuru. Pointedly, the only thing missing is a Kyon-counterpart. The Anti-SOS make several attempts to recruit Kyon, instead, believing him critical to their plans and fueling a great deal of Wild Mass Guessing. However, this trope is ultimately subverted, in that the Anti-SOS Brigade are not in any sense a coherent group, and its members do not actually care about each other at all, as shown by the fact that there are four of them but are split into at least three factions. In fact, Sasaki disagrees completely with what the other three want, so much so that she tries to help Kyon oppose the others.
• Lensman: By Children of the Lens the Eddorians have attempted to create their own "Black Lensmen", but the results are... disappointing.
• The ghostwritten "Tom Clancy" Op-Center series has the titular crisis command headquarters and its Russian counterpart, Mirror Image. Sometimes they cooperate, sometimes not.
• In A Practical Guide to Evil, Five Man Bands are explicitly a thing in-character, and villainous examples are rare but very real. Special mention goes to the Calamities, the Praesi villains who masterminded the Conquest of Callow.
  • The Big Bad: Amadeus, the Black Knight^*Himself technically The Dragon to Dread Empress Malicia, but she mostly just runs Praes itself. Has the vision, lays the plans, guides the stories. Also a master swordfighter who cheats with both hands and several extra ones made of shadow.
  • The Dragon: Hye Su, the Ranger. One of the most feared physical fighters alive, famous for her Pre-Asskicking One-Liner of "I hunt those worth hunting. Rejoice, you qualify."
  • The Evil Genius: Wekesa, the Warlock. A brilliant mage and analyst, planning to gain the knowledge of the Gods by dissecting the universe they built. In battle, he tends to be secreted out of sight while the others call in his magic like a sort of swiss-army artillery support.
  • The Brute: Sabah, the Captain. A giant of a woman who moves like lightning and whose hammer hits like a trebuchet stone, and that's when she chooses not to outright turn into a monster.
  • The Dark Chick: The Assassin. The knife in the dark, who roams behind the scenes murdering nascent heroes, rebel leaders and other obstacles in hilariously ironic ways.
  • The Sixth Ranger: Eudokia, the Scribe. A one-woman bureaucracy and spymaster, who keeps Black up-to-date on the latest intel and administers his conquests.

Live-Action TV

• During the Angel Season 4 finale, each member of Angel Investigations is given a tour of the rebuilt Wolfram & Hart by an employee who is somewhat a dark mirror of that member:
  • Lorne's guide is Preston, a slick, fast-talking talent agent.
  • Gunn gets Lacey Shepherd, a mysterious Afro-American woman who just-as-mysteriously vanishes.
  • Fred's tour guide is Knox, a morally ambiguous geeky scientist and the only one to become a recurring character in Season 5. He worships an Eldritch Abomination and will eventually cause her death.
  • Wesley's guide is Rutherford Sirk (who appears in one Season 5 episode), a former Watcher.
  • Angel gets undead Lilah.
• An episode of The A-Team had a group of bad guys put together their own squad to beat the heroes.
• B-Fighter Kabuto features the B-Crushers, a team of four Evil Counterparts to the B-Fighters created from four of the eight insect medals (with the other four being claimed and used by the B-Fighters' allies, the auxiliary "New" B-Fighters).
• Beetleborgs, adapted from B-Fighter, features the Mantrons, which are not Psycho Rangers to the Beetleborgs but rather to the Beetleborgs' allies, the Astralborgs.
• The season six finale of Charmed featured an alternate universe where the role of good and evil were switched with the humans/witches as evil and the demons good. The sisters met their evil counterparts as well as counterparts for Chris and Leo. They tried fighting them but of course came to a draw. A subversion then happened where they decided to work together for their respective greater good/evil.
  • They had to fight two more sets of Psycho Rangers before that. First in a season one episode it was a trio of warlock brothers, though one was saved by becoming a priest. Then also in the sixth season, it was a trio of three evil witch sisters - the Stillmans. They stole the sisters' powers and rewrote reality to steal their identities too. Oh and they were blonde.
  • Ironically, one of the Stillmans was played by Melody Perkins, who also played Astronema, the villain responsible for creating the Trope Namers.
• In Arrowverse crossover Crisis on Earth-X, the villain group's leaders are the Evil Counterparts of the Trinity of the Arrowverse: Overgirl is a Nazi Supergirl, Dark Arrow is the Nazi version of Green Arrow, and the Dark Flash is The Flash's arch-enemy speedster. They also have their superweapon Der Wellenreiter, counterpart to the Legends of Tomorrow's Cool Ship the Waverider.
• CSI does the evil-counterpart thing rather frequently.
  • The murderer and the murdered in the "Butterflied" episode are Grissom and Sara's evil counterparts. The Miniature Killer and Ernie Dell are also clearly intended to be evil mirror-images of Grissom and Sara.
  • There was an episode where Grissom was interviewing a suspect, and the actor had been carefully styled and lit so that from certain angles he looked like a mirror-image of Grissom. The suspect was a shrink who turned out to have been administering some BDSM therapy to one of his patients, who then turned up as the corpse-of-the-week.
• Kamen Rider has the Shocker Riders of the original series, a group of evil copies of Kamen Rider 1. Subsequent Showa era series use evil copies of main Riders fairly often - if the Scarf of Asskicking is yellow instead of its usual color, that's not your beloved hero and you should probably start running. Heisei-era shows instead make use of "Dark Riders", often black repaints of the main character.
  • Kamen Rider 555 has the Riotroopers, a Mook force of Kamen Rider-like soldiers.
  • Kamen Rider Spirits redesigned the Combatroids from Kamen Rider ZX into ZX-styled Shocker Riders; additionally, the Big Bad Judo could also qualify, since he has the ability to transform into any of the Kamen Riders preceding ZX and use their powers.
  • Kamen Rider Decade once visited the Negative World, which was populated entirely by Dark Riders. While each on their own was just an Evil Counterpart or Evil Twin of their respective main Rider, collectively they formed this sort of team, with Dark Kiva, the evil twin of the most recent Rider before Decade, as the group's leader. Unusually, there was no evil doppelganger of Decade himself, except in the video game Climax Heroes, which swapped the rest of the Dark Riders for the non-canon Dark Decade. Decade himself is a one-man Psycho team to all other Kamen Riders whenever he's on the heel side of his revolving door, since his primary power is to shapeshift into any other Rider.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim plays this trope the straightest: so straight, in fact, that the three core Riders fight a group of Psycho counterparts of themselves twice. The parallels are most directly drawn between Gaim, Zangetsu, and Roshuo, each of whom has a samurai motif, are the only unequivocally good members of their respective teams, and struggle with making moral choices in the face of an apocalypse, or in Roshuo's case having already made those choices and now struggling over the fact that in hindsight, it wasn't worth it. Micchy is unusual in that he has three Psycho counterparts with two of them being in the same group as each other: Ryouma is the brilliant Manipulative Bastard that Micchy thinks he also is, while Sid is the backstabbing slimeball whose ambitions make him an easy mark for other cons that Micchy really is.
  • Kamen Rider Ghost has the 15 Gammaizers as the Psycho versions of the 15 Heroic Spirits, down to providing their host with the exact same arsenal of weapons that the Spirits allow Ghost's singular Morph Weapon to become. In this case it's the reverse, though: the Spirits were called back from the beyond specifically in an attempt to counter the power of the Gammaizers.
  • The Monsters of the Week of Kamen Rider Zi-O are collectively Psycho versions of the entire Heisei era of the franchise, as they're Evil Knockoffs of previous Riders called "Another Riders". Up to and including Another Zi-O.
• The Big Bad in The Legend of Dick and Dom creates Evil Twin versions of all the heroes, to do evil deeds that the heroes will be arrested for. They are fairly easy to spot, however, as they all have a highly unconvincing black goatee, including the woman in the group.
• In the Leverage episode, "The Two Live Crew Job", the team squares off against a group of thieves who are just as skilled as they are in their specialties. Bonus points for the crew being played by people who have the same skills as their characters.
• Quantum Leap introduced us to the Evil Leaper project in the fifth season. The few members that we saw seem to be evil parallels to the main characters.
  • Alia, the leaper, is Sam Beckett's evil counterpart, who travels back in time to Make Wrong What Once Went Right. However, she's an unwilling test subject (unlike Sam) and makes a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Zoey, the holographic observer, is Al's evil counterpart: a snarky horndog who wears loud clothing. Unlike Al, however, Zoey is without morals or a sense of honor. She later becomes a leaper after Alia defects.
  • Lothos, the evil computer, is Ziggy's evil counterpart.
  • Thames is roughly analogous to Gushie, in that they're both project members working behind the scenes, and can serve as a backup observer.
• In The Real Husbands of Hollywood, Kevin Hart recruits a team of rival basketball players to oppose his friends after he leaves the group. The new team consists of counterparts for Boris ("Morris), Nick ("Dick"), Nelly ("Kelley"), and Duane ("Juwayne").
• In Robin of Sherwood, the Sheriff of Nottingham once hired a group of lookalikes to pose as the Robin Hood gang and commit violence against the peasantry. In addition to evil Robin, there was an evil Tuck, an evil Will, an evil Little John, and an evil Nasir.
• The Metalferds, the second Monster of the Week set in Seven Star Fighting God Guyferd, are created via a similar process to the way Guyferd himself was created involing cybernetics and Fallah injections.
• Stella featured an episode where Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black leave the group, leaving David Wain to find his own new comedy-triad. He changes his name and ditches the Stella-trademark business suit and moves in with two completely normal roommates, who are so mundane as to be eerie in comparison to the creepy and latently-homoerotic Stella group. At the end of the show, the new roommates flee to Italy in a sequence similar to the Sicily sequences in The Godfather.
• By the end of the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Weaver, John Henry, Ellison and Savannah were the morally ambiguous, if not dark, mirrors of Sarah, John, Derek and Cameron.

Professional Wrestling

• CHIKARA had a stable called GEKIDO consisting of 17, The Shard, and The Swarm (combatANT, assailANT and deviANT). They were evil counterparts of Chikara's mainstay faces Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw, and The Colony (Fire Ant, Soldier Ant and Green Ant).
• The Japanese promotion Fighting Opera HUSTLE had a stable named Monster Kamen Rangers, which were evil clones of the face team HUSTLE Kamen Rangers. They were able to defeat them repeatedly, as they knew their fighting style, and even kidnapped Yellow Ranger, The Big Guy of HUSTLE Kamen Rangers, in order to turn him evil and destroy them. Finally the HUSTLE Rangers won when Yellow turned good again thanks to The Power of Friendship.

Theatre

• Sera Myu: Petite Étrangère features a group of Senshi clones known as Droids.

Toys

• BIONICLE:
  • The Shadow Toa, illusory copies of the Toa that could only be defeated when the heroes acknowledged that the darkness was a part of themselves. Their colors and voices were often described in corrupted elemental ways; Shadow Gali for instance, is stated to the color of an oil slick, Shadow Lewa mottled black with a layer of green the same color as a diseased leaf, and Shadow Kopaka with a voice describe as "sharp as an icicle".
  • Similarly, the Bohrok-Kal and Piraka Gang are separate groups with elemental powers. The Piraka Gang almost managed to pass themselves off as the real deal (It helps that the townsfolk being fooled had never seen a Toa before).
  • The Rahkshi were an interesting example, as rather than their powers being in opposition to those of the Toa Nuva, they instead opposed Matoran principles of the same color. Turahk's Fear, Kurahk's Anger, Vorahk's Hunger, Guurahk's Disintegration, Lerahk's Poison, and Panrahk's Fragmentation respectively are in direct opposition of Ta-Matoran Courage, Ko-Matoran Peace, Onu-Matoran Prosperity, Ga-Matoran Creation, Le-Matoran Purity, and Po-Matoran Faith.
  • The Makuta of the Karda Nui saga were the closest in toy form. They even came with their own "evil" matoran, who could latch on and connect to them in the same way as the Toa from the set and were the first villains to feature Kanohi Masks. Originally there was to be a genuine Shadow Toa set, but it was cancelled in the prototype stage.
• The Grossery Gang has The Clean Team, a team of cleaning products. Contrasting against the griminess and moldiness of the Grosseries, the Clean Team are polished and shiny, with the goal of cleaning up Cheap Town at the expense of the Grosseries.

Webcomics

• Inverted in in 8-Bit Theater with the Real Light Warriors who are the strong, brave, wise and merciful warriors destined to save the world, contrasting with the team of jerks we follow. Except they don't. A team of four white mages saves the world.
  • There are two other examples that follow the trope a bit more closely, as well. First there's the Dark Warriors, with the technically-a-villain-but-actually-really-nice Garland (as opposed to the technically-a-hero-but-actually-evil Black Mage), the haughty dark elf Drizz'l (as opposed to haughty regular elf Thief), incalculably stupid pirate Bikke (as opposed to incalculably stupid Fighter), and LARP fan Vilbert (as opposed to pen and paper roleplaying enthusiast Red Mage).
  • Finally, there are the Other Warriors, made up of the shady and unethical Rogue (Thief), the rule-bending Ranger (Red Mage), the normally friendly but incredibly vicious Berserker (Fighter), and Cleric (Black Mage). Cleric doesn't fit quite as well as the others until you notice that he deliberately plays the Gods themselves against each other to increase his own power.
• Sven's Gang in Cwen's Quest appear to be this having a counter part to each of Cwen's friends and allies. Overlaps with Evil Counterpart a bit, although Cwen's isn't exactly a hero.
• The T-Girls of Jet Dream face off against another all-girl flying team, Raven Red and her Dynamic Dare-Dolls. Each of the Dare-Dolls fits a national stereotype that isn't "covered" by one of the T-Girls.
• The Linear Guild in The Order of the Stick, were deliberately chosen by their leader to be this. This gets to the point that he's unwilling to face the Order of the Stick without a full team of evil counterparts, because he's invested so much time and effort into cultivating that identity of them as a team. At one point, he even gets a Token Good Teammate to counter Belkar.
• In Shortpacked!, a minor character who was fired instead of a major character forms a team of other minor characters into a league of minor evil.
• The Yeongdeungpo Union from Weak Hero end up coming to blows with the Cheongang gang from across the river, whose members' personalities all mirror those of the Union; Donald and Changui as the imposing leaders, Jake and Juwon as their calm second-in-command, Wolf and Giju as the resident psychos, and Jimmy and Doyun as the hot-tempered brutes.

Web Original

• While outnumbered and outclassed, Trey and Troy, the "bad" Dimensional Guardians from the web fiction serial Dimension Heroes, go out of their way to pick fights with the protagonists.
• The Knights of Good of The Guild has the Axis of Anarchy, led of course, by Wil Wheaton.
• The Insane Quest of Unfathomable Randomness played with this trope by introducing Doosh, a band of Bizarro World-type counterparts to the members of Smoosh: Ice Person Frost fights an enemy that can manipulate fire, cunning but physically weak vampire Eddie goes up against a powerful but dim-witted werewolf, and so on.
• The League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions went up against their other-dimensional counterparts the King's Interstellar Lethal Legionnaires.
• Two Best Friends Play: The Ustabiaz are a group of unrelated internet celebrities joined together to fight their counterparts in the Zaibatsu. They are: Better Woolie, Creepier Pat, More Muscular Matt and Weebier Liam.

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