History Main / AlwaysSomeoneBetter

The character who is the best-of-the-best comes across someone even better than them; [[TheAce someone more powerful]] than the SuperHero, or more skilled than the {{ninja}}, or smarter than TheProfessor, or richer and more important than the rich important guy, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a better banjo player than the master banjo player]], etc.

It's not uncommon for the characters to be siblings, not unlike the AloofBigBrother -- e.g. [[Series/{{Cheers}} Sam Malone's]] brother was more popular than him, [[Series/{{Monk}} Adrian Monk's]] brother was better at deduction. Sometimes one will be [[RichSiblingPoorSibling wealthier]] than the other. The [[OlderThanTelevision classic]] better sibling is, of course, [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Mycroft Holmes]], better known as "Sherlock Holmes' smarter older brother".

* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Bane is a {{downplayed|Trope}} form of this to Batman. He utterly destroys him in their first fight, [[spoiler: and in their rematch, Batman is only able to beat him by disabling his [[AttackItsWeakPoint mask]]]]. However, Batman was also in [[WorfHadTheFlu bad shape, deteriorating condition, and way out of his prime]]. Additionally, [[spoiler: Bane's mask was initially a strength; it actually prevented him from feeling pain, which gave him an advantage until Batman turned it into a weakness]].

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** This happens with poor Happy Hogan across the board, albeit always PlayedForLaughs. He's a capable boxer in his own right and can handle himself in a ''normal'' fight, but he lives in a world where [[EveryoneIsASuper Every Other Person Is Super]] effectively making him the [[Manga/DragonballZ Yamcha]] of the MCU. When he fights he always either finds himself going up against people like the BadassNormal Black Widow who dumps him on his ass effortlessly or the Extremis-charged Eric Savin who {{No Sell}}s his attacks, and when he does take down a normal opponent like one of Hammer's security guards Black Widow takes down ''about 12 of them'' in that same time frame. By god ''he's trying'' though!
** ''Film/IronMan2'': Tony for Justin Hammer, who just barely hides his resentment about always being second-best compared to Stark behind his faux grin. In fact, he's not even second-best, he's shown to be a bumbling incompetent fool who's no where close to Tony's league but his massive ego has him convinced that he's only just coming up second-best.
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' certainly has a few cases of this. Firstly Bucky is portrayed as an unstoppable killing machine, yet T'Challa defeats him ''three'' times. Then he himself is defeated by Captain America, providing another example.
** Tony Stark is an absolutely brilliant engineer and well ahead of his time, but as Rocket sourly reminds him "You're only a genius on Earth, pal".

Sometimes overlaps with TheAce. In a MonsterProtectionRacket, a character can seem this way before they're revealed. See also AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter, AlwaysSecondBest, OvershadowedByAwesome, SecondPlaceIsForLosers, TheBGrade, ThatOnePlayer, and AlwaysABiggerFish.

* FanWorks/SCPFoundation has an SCP whose power is to always be annoyingly better at you than anything.

* In ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', fights between characters with a certain ability that defines them can come down to who can do so better, although sometimes it's a case of one person having secondary powers the other lacked, or being well-rounded while the other was overspecialized.