Originally Published May 12, 2014
Of the many, MANY tropes that exist in the comic book world are the friendship/lifelong bitter enemies that always seem to exist. Whether they’re hinted at later in a series or outright stated in the origin stories, why is it, costumed avengers always seem to know their greatest rivals?
Captain America’s best friend and sidekick before the war became The Winter Soldier.
Spiderman was best friends with Harry Osborn/The Green Goblin.
Reed Richards was college roommates with Victor Von Doom.
Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr were allies for a time. And speaking of Professor X, his half-brother, Cain Marko, would become the Juggernaut.
The list could go on for hours. And personally, I think that’s a weakness on part of comic writers. How else can they create some drama between two people than to make them one-time friends before their differences of opinion make them eventually square off against one another? It’s really more of a crutch than a storytelling device, I think.
I mean, could you imagine how the real world would be like if that were the case? Every police officer would be childhood friends with all the people they arrest? Yet, pretty much every single hero ends up fighting someone from their past and we accept it.
Wolverine is half-brothers with Sabertooth? Sure, why not?
Superman knew Lex Luthor when they were kids? Ok.
At least The Joker in the Dark Knight wasn’t someone they already knew or had a history with, unlike Harvey Dent. At least neither of them had a personal love/hate relationship like the caped crusader did with Catwoman.
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