10 Comics Villains Who Secretly Mirrored The Hero

One of the oldest tropes in any superhero medium, or any storytelling medium in general, is making the hero face and defeat a dark reflection of themselves. Every Superman needs a Bizarro, every Flash needs a Reverse Flash, and every Scott Pilgrim needs a Nega Scott.

As fun as this twist can be, the whole 'evil twin' angle can become trite and clichéd fast. At this point, it's become over-saturated and all too obvious. A villain who looks like the hero but acts in the opposite way has been done an inordinate amount of times. Frankly, there are more interesting ways to do a good bad guy.

However, this cliché is so ingrained in storytelling that sometimes it happens completely organically, without anyone noticing. An arch-nemesis doesn't have to look like our main character in order to reflect their personality, after all.

The following is a look at ten heroes and villains who mirror each other in ways that are more subtle than you might expect. Whether they are a thematic antithesis of a superhero's morals, or a meta examination of a character based on backlash from readers, each of them has something to say about the hero they go up against.

Although Norman Osborn's Green Goblin has long been considered Spider-Man's true arch-nemesis, the two characters don't have a lot in common. Sure, like Peter Parker, Norman is something of a scientist himself. When it comes to character traits and running themes, however, the Spider and the Goblin don't really reflect one another.

Meanwhile, we already have a villain who honestly looks more like a spider than ol' webhead himself, and whose personality is secretly so similar to Peter's that they swapped bodies for two years and almost nobody noticed. We're talking about Otto Octavius, the eight-limbed science whizz also known as Doctor Octopus.

Doc Ock's similarities to Spidey are no accident: the character was created to show the kind of person Peter Parker could have become if he had never gained his great power, and learned the value of great responsibility.

As long-time Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott puts it:

"Otto Octavius is what Peter would have been like if he hadn't been bitten by a radioactive spider. When you see that first story in Amazing Fantasy #15, Peter is the nerdy kid... who none of the other kids treat well. He's on his way to the lab... going 'one day I'll show them, one day they'll regret making fun of me!' That's the same character as Otto, who uses his mind to get ahead... So much of Doc Ock is about proving himself to be superior to others, and there's so much insecurity in that.'"

All that, and eight limbs too!