10 Greatest Superhero Duos Of All Time
The Best Superpowered Couples, Partnerships and Old Chums in comics.
Some of the best character exploration in superhero comics comes not from how superheroes are seen by 'regular' people, but by how they interact with their peers.
Giving a character a foil, a love interest or sidekick can highlight elements of their personality that we otherwise might not see. It allows the reader to get caught up in the soap-opera elements of comic book storytelling, and deepen stories that might otherwise be no more complicated than good vs evil.
"What if Robin turned evil?" or "what if Blue Beetle got murdered?" would mean so much less without the years establishing their relationships to other characters, so we can see how these stories impact those around them.
A truly interesting and well-written superhero duo emphasises the differences between the two characters, and explores why these differences matter in relation to their fight against crime. A best friend's loyalty assuaging doubts about the life they chose, or a husband and wife terrified that their next big supervillain fight might be the one that widows them.
These partnerships are what make the mightiest immortals human, and allow the reader to identify with deathless gods, arrogant time-travellers and genius billionaires.
10. Cloak & Dagger
First appearing in a Spider-Man comic, Cloak & Dagger were designed to be street-level vigilantes, tackling problems such as drug trafficking and homelessness, in contrast to Marvel's more cosmic-level events.
While their origins depict them as a typical pairing of opposites, their powers both come from being forced into drug experimentation, after they seek shelter and end up test subjects for a synthetic heroin.
Although both depicted as teenage runaways, their upbringings are notably disparate, with Tyrone (Cloak) being a Black kid who saw his friend shot and killed by a cop, while Tandy (Dagger) was a rich white girl who ran away from home after her mother didn't pay her enough attention.
Their partnership is illustrated by them both having undergone the same experimentation, but also the fact that Cloak's powers give him a need to feed on light, with Daggers powers allow her to sate for him. Not only are they close friends and allies, but they truly need each other.