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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
I think it’s more just there’s a distinction between villains that have some sort of a personal rivalry or enmity with a hero and the other folk who are just rabble.
Like how Bullseye tends to fight a lot of heroes and get himself involved in a lot of stuff like that one time he was Deadpool’s frenemy or his tenure on the Dark Avengers but he still has a special place in his heart for how much he utterly loathes Daredevil.
Or say Scorpion who has been emphasized as also a Venom villain because of Gargan’s tenure as Venom and so he feels a particular rivalry with whoever’s wearing the symbiote, Eddie Brock in particular.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
I think that's because Spectacular wasn't allowed to use Kingpin, being a Sony production and not an in-house Marvel one.
But the Marvel universe isn't like that. Half of Marvel's heroes live in New York City and everyone travels around a lot. There aren't clear jurisdictional divisions like there are at DC. There's no reason that, like, Doctor Octopus should be exclusively Spider-Man's villain, a character who only ever menaces Spider-Man and for whom only Spider-Man ever shows up to thwart.
And as the years have gone by, Marvel's gotten a bit more lax about that. We have plenty of stories where Iron Man fights Malekith or Thor fights Galactus or Spider-Man fights the Juggernaut. The lines of which villain belongs to what hero blur from time to time.
Hopefully, some day, they can shatter entirely.
For certain villains, it could be a case of simply not wanting to cross paths with someone way out of their league. As mentioned, the Shocker largely sticks to fighting Spider-Man because he doesn't want to be in the crosshairs of someone much more powerful and ruthless like Thor or the Hulk.
Marvel doesn't do the same kinds of rogues galleries as DC does - they mostly just do it partway. Each hero has some villains that are more personal to them, and a host of others that aren't. None of those villains are specifically tied to them (indeed, Doc Ock has fought other heroes with relative frequency), but there are a handful for each hero that have more of a stake in fighting that hero specifically, and thus are largely attached to those heroes.
Beyond that, rogues are separated by tone. Yes, anyone could and indeed does fight Sandman. But he was designed to match the tone of Spider-Man's series, which hasn't changed, so he's a Spidey villain predominantly (the tonal differences are less dramatic than, say, with DC's characters (ie, the reason most of Batman's villains don't fight other characters being that they're mostly noir villains that often don't work outside of Gotham City) but they're still noticeable).
This is a setup that has always worked fine, so I don't know why there's a pressing need for it to be "shattered" now.
The only Marvel hero that really has a defined bona-fide Rogues GalleryTM is Spider-Man tbh. Then the X-Men to a lesser extent but only because basically every villain who turns out to be a mutant winds up getting swallowed into that corner sooner or later. Beyond that most heroes will only usually have one or two defined main villains, with some of the more popular ones having a good handful or so. But nothing to the extent of DC, where most of the main Justice Leaguers individually have a Rogues Gallery on par with Spidey, including Flash's literally-named Rogues. I can't actually recall off the top of my head a DC bad guy who's straight-up shared between two heroes the way that, say, Kingpin is with Spidey and Daredevil or Juggernaut is with Spidey and the X-Men.
x2 I'd argue Luthor and Brainiac, while still associated with Superman, have become persistent fixtures in Justice League stories. Beyond them, there are some assassin types (like Deathstroke and Lady Shiva) who tend to show up in multiple different series.
Edited by Aleistar on Jun 29th 2021 at 9:14:45 AM
Honestly at this point Darkseid's more of a Superman villain than a New Gods one, lol. And even then it's telling that with Luthor, Brainiac, and Darkseid we're talking about Superman sharing them with...the team that he's the main face of. It's kinda like saying that Loki's shared between Thor and the Avengers.
I'd say Deathstroke and Shiva are closer to what I was thinking, at least in terms of the spirit of the idea.
Mongul started doing double duty as a Superman foe and a Green lantern (specifically Hal Jordan) enemy after he nuked Star City back during Reign of the Supermen.
I think Cyborg Superman also became both a Superman and Lantern foe.
One Strip! One Strip!That is a favored bit of intersectionality of mine.
During the Sinestro Corps War when forming his corps Sinestro managed to involve the Cyborg-Superman, Superboy-Prime, and the Anti-Moniter as top made men in his corps.
Thats 3 non-GL heavy hitters, pretty powerful team there.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Indeed.
Rogues' Gallery Transplant is a thing, but I kinda prefer when some villains fight more than one hero, or some heroes go up against villains outside their wheelhouse.
I honestly think Spiderman is the best for this. He's not only worked with everyone, but probably fought everyone (villain and hero) as well.
Thinking about it, the tendency for some villains to go from fighting one hero to another might stem from how territorial some writers are, especially back in the day.
I'm hoping it's less of an issue with the movies, though they have the issue of whether they can get the actor or not.
One Strip! One Strip!Doctor Doom also appeared in Iron Man: Armored Adventures while the FF never did.
Trope Editor (he/him)
x3:
Actually, Thing appeared a few of times in Assemble's early seasons.
The Fantastic Four, as a whole team, did appear as an extended cameo in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.. (Seen below)
Also, I'm pretty sure Annihius was the Starter Villain of that series.
Edited by XMenMutant22 on Jun 30th 2021 at 2:44:51 PM

Marvels been lax about it for years really
Count Nefaria started as an Avengers villain, went to go bother the X Men and killed Thunderbird, and then became evil Superman and went back to being an Avengers villain
Dr Doom dropping by to harass non RICHARRRRDS heroes was such a thing that the She Hulk series played with it by using Doctor Bong instead
Sandman dabbled in being a Fantastic Four foe
Edited by Bocaj on Jun 29th 2021 at 4:18:34 AM
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