History Main / MirrorMatch

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': Besides his countless fights with [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]] over the years, Superman has also gotten into fights with his [[RobotMe robot doubles]] when they've gone rogue, a successful non-Bizarro {{clon|ingBlues}}e made by [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] in ''ComicBook/TheLifeStoryOfSuperman'', a SplitAtBirth EvilTwin called Supermenace, and even his [[MyFutureSelfAndMe time-displaced younger self]] who was [[GrandTheftMe possessed]] by an enraged [[FightingYourFriend Pete Ross]] at the time, as well as alternate universe selves such as Ultraman, Superboy-Prime, and Kal-L, Superman of Earth-Two.

** Issue #350. Steve Rogers (as the Captain) vs. John Walker (as Captain America) at the behest of the [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]] (who was BackFromTheDead in a [[CloningBlues cloned body of Rogers]]). The Skull even took on the winner - Rogers - thus providing a truer Mirror Match (since Walker was actually taller, stronger, and more [[UnstoppableRage prone to rage]] than Rogers)... except that the Skull-Rogers "fight" was really an excuse for the Skull to use his [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking Dust of Death]] on Rogers. Walker intervened, however, and the Skull got [[HoistByHisOwnPetard a taste of his own bad medicine]].

* ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} is often a victim of this. In Pre-Crisis days, she fought a Bizarro duplicate, a Red Kryptonite-produced evil twin in ''ComicBook/TheCondemnedLegionnaires'', and a half dozen action figure-sized clones (who later merged into a single normal-sized person and tried to usurp her identity). In her ''ComicBook/Supergirl2005'' series, Supergirl fights her counterpart ComicBook/PowerGirl and [[EnemyWithout Dark Supergirl]] in ''ComicBook/GirlPower'', and in ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'' she confronts her Bizarro clone.

* One of the earliest Creator/StanLee-scripted stories featuring ComicBook/TheMightyThor pitted our hero against an exact duplicate created by a MadScientist. CutLexLuthorACheck much?
* ComicBook/PowerGirl was once sent to the recreated version of Earth-2, only to find another Power Girl already there. The alternate Power Girl did not respond well to this "imposter". Later, Power Girl went up against "Divine", a [[PaintItBlack black-haired]] evil clone of herself created by Maxwell Lord.

* The original, very brief appearance of Franchise/SpiderMan's clone was basically a one-issue, pretty cool Mirror Match fight that ended with the clone killed in an explosion. Twenty years later, the clone got [[DeathIsCheap brought back]] for a convoluted storyline that dominated the title for a couple of ''years.''
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': All the Titans except ComicBook/{{Raven}} (who was turned into a demon and on her father's side), Jericho (who was badly injured), and Lilith (a wild card) were forced into nightmare scenes by Trigon where they had to fight their evil clones (ComicBook/{{Cyborg}}'s copy was fully human but just as strong, stole his girlfriend, and made the disabled kids Cyborg befriended turn against him). All of them, even ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} and ComicBook/BeastBoy, killed their copies and their souls were forfeit to Trigon as a result. Unfortunately for Trigon, this didn't convert them to his side as intended and simply made their methods more ruthless. They killed Raven, which turned out to be part of Lilith and the goddess Azar's plan to stop Trigon (Raven got better... eventually).

* Several times in ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} faces off in battle with her black-clad [[EnemyWithout evil duplicate]] Satan Girl.

* In ''Film/SupermanIII'', Franchise/{{Superman}} is exposed to some flawed synthetic kryptonite and turns "evil" (read: superpowered {{Jerkass}}). His inner conflict is played out onscreen when Clark Kent manifests in front of him and they fight until Clark wins, then tears open his shirt revealing the untarnished S-shield and flying off to undo the damage he did when he was "evil", ending the only enjoyable scene in an almost universally reviled movie.

* They did this again at ''Wrestling/{{Vengeance}} 2006'', except this time it was Wrestling/{{Kane}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26lJ14mJfec vs Kane]].

** Also played with in the episode "Fearful Symmetry": As ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} battles her EvilCounterpart Galetaea, the ClothingDamage of their costumes starts to make them mirror the other's...

* In the ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012'' episode "Game Over", Arcade pits Spidey, Captain America, and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} against [=LMDs=] that turn into copies of them. Spidey even lampshades the origin of the trope, pointing out the entire situation is running on "gamer logic".

* [[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts Pixar Short]] ''WesternAnimation/GerisGame'' is about an old man who plays TableTopGame/{{Chess}} against himself. [[HilarityEnsues He's very competitive]].

The [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]] is ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1''; the last enemy you fought before the [[MarathonBoss Endurance matches]] was yourself.

* In one chapter of ''Oto x Maho'', Kanata faces off against an EvilDoppelganger [[EnemyWithout born from his sense of self-doubt]] and unwillingness to accept his [[SuperGenderBender magical girl duties]]. In a neat bit of asymmetry, the doppelgänger uses ranged magical attacks, but Kanata wields his usual fighting style of physical attacks with his magic staff.

* ''Manga/BootyRoyaleNeverGoDownWithoutAFight'': {{Downplayed}} with the A-Bracket quarterfinal match between main character Haebaru Misora and Maria Riviera, who act as thematic {{foil}}s to each other and have similar backgrounds. Both women were trained in martial arts by their fathers, and both have a high sex drive (though [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl Maria is much less ashamed of hers]] than [[ReluctantFanserviceGirl Misora]], who is kind of a ShrinkingViolet despite being a gravure model). That said, their fighting styles are very different: Misora is a [[MegatonPunch striker]] trained in [[UsefulNotes/{{Karate}} traditional Okinawan karate]], while Maria is a [[TheGrappler grappler]] trained in UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': Besides his countless fights with [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]] over the years, Superman has also gotten into fights with his [[RobotMe robot doubles]] when they've gone rogue, a successful non-Bizarro {{clon|ingBlues}}e made by [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]], a SplitAtBirth EvilTwin called Supermenace, and even his [[MyFutureSelfAndMe time-displaced younger self]] who was [[GrandTheftMe possessed]] by an enraged [[FightingYourFriend Pete Ross]] at the time, as well as alternate universe selves such as Ultraman, Superboy-Prime, and Kal-L, Superman of Earth-Two.

* Spoofed and {{deconstruct|ion}}ed in one of the [=OVAs=] for ''LightNovel/TheSlayers''. Lina and Naga are faced with a mirror capable of creating a clone of anyone looking through it, and it produced their clones with opposite personalities. Lina's opposite personality was a pacifist, and Naga's was a ShrinkingViolet; [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome both were useless]] in fight.

* The anime adaptation of ''LightNovel/WanderingWitchTheJourneyOfElaina'' ends with Elaina meeting 15 other versions of herself from {{Alternate Timeline}}s. One of them had turned into a violent, self-hating psychopath after the events of "Retroactive Grief", and engaged the main Elaina in a magical battle. They proved so evenly matched that eventually they both collapsed from exhaustion. They then made up.

* The ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'' has had a couple of examples of this:

* Lampshaded by Yuyuko in ''FanFic/FantasyOfUtterRidiculousness''. During the events of ''Immaterial and Missing Power'', she and Yukari apparently had duels against "mirror images" of themselves. Looking back at those, Yuyuko stated that she enjoyed herself and that if she didn't know better, she'd say that her opponent was stealing her battle style.

* In ''FanFic/CastlevaniaNocturneOfRuin'', one of the defenses used by the Book of Binding is a doppelganger of Maria. Upon her defeat, she leaves behind her staff, which Mariabella uses as a subweapon.

* ''Fanfic/BloodThatFlows'': The infamous Shadow Reflector, once destroyed by [[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Lina Inverse]], is repaired by the Mazoku conspiring in the Kingdom of Dils. This time, it does create an evil twin, and they use it on Zest.

* In the ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' episode "Savage Seduction", Steve is duplicated by an artifact and the two of him fight briefly.

** The ''TableTopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' module ''Quest for the Heartstone'' has the climactic battle a one-on-one fight between each Player Character and a duplicate created by the Heartstone. Victory meant you stay yourself, defeat meant you change to the opposite alignment. The Players have a slight advantage over their duplicate in that the duplicate had 10 hit points less than them.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''WebComic/DragonBallMultiverse'': One of the chapters has U16 and U18 Gotenks fighting each other, thus causing this trope to be in play. And boy, is it played to the hilt, as the two do the ''exact'' same things. So much that when they inevitably defuse, one of the halves has to ''ask'' which of the two other fighters is from his Universe. One of them just gives up.

* ''WebComic/{{Goblins}}'' has a variation; the dungeon ''the Maze of Many'' forms a link between all the dimensions in the multiverse, and pits adventuring parties against versions of themselves from [[AlternateUniverse all possible realities]]. It's not a straight mirror match, though, since while they all share some core similarities, there are differences between each individual, depending on which reality they originated in and ranging from subtle to very glaring.

* Done in Creator/WilliamsElectronics' ''Pinball/{{Joust}}'' pinball machine, which has two identical playfields facing each other.

** In [[Manga/YuGiOh5Ds the manga]], Crow duels a dark copy of himself who uses the same deck and strategies as him. However the copy has monsters that Crow doesn't have in his deck.

* Besides his countless fights with [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]] over the years, Franchise/{{Superman}} has also gotten into fights with his [[RobotMe robot doubles]] when they've gone rogue, a successful non-Bizarro {{clon|ingBlues}}e made by [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]], a SplitAtBirth EvilTwin called Supermenace, and even his [[MyFutureSelfAndMe time-displaced younger self]] who was [[GrandTheftMe possessed]] by an enraged [[FightingYourFriend Pete Ross]] at the time, as well as alternate universe selves such as Ultraman, Superboy-Prime, and Kal-L, Superman of Earth-Two.
* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' is often a victim of this. In Pre-Crisis days, she fought a Bizarro duplicate, a Red Kryptonite-produced evil twin, and a half dozen action figure-sized clones (who later merged into a single normal-sized person and tried to usurp her identity). More recently, in ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Girl Power]]'' Supergirl fights her counterpart ComicBook/PowerGirl and later [[EnemyWithout Dark Supergirl]], and in ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'' she confronts her Bizarro clone.

* The Shadow Toa in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' were [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin shadow copies of the Toa Mata]] that they had to defeat before facing [[BigBad Makuta.]] [[spoiler:The Toa Mata pulled it off by changing partners, as it were, and attacking ones who were weak to their own ElementalPowers rather than trying to take on their direct opposite numbers.]]

* ''ComicBook/MalibuComicsMortalKombat'' referenced the games' Mirror Matches with the queen of a warrior tribe who ''just happened'' to look and dress like Sonya, called [[SdrawkcabName Queen Aynos]]. And yes, Sonya gets to fight her.

** In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', one mini-arc featured Jack Atlas dueling against a robotic copy of himself who uses the exact same cards. The only difference is the copy uses three Red Daemon's Dragons instead of one. Jack gets curb-stomped the first time, but wins the rematch.

** Played straighter with Subaru and [[spoiler: her brainwashed sister Ginga]], since Subaru had to restrain that ability of hers for obvious reasons. Not to mention the fact that [[spoiler: [[TrulySingleParent they're both clones of their mother Quint]]]].

* This is used quite a lot in ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', being a nearly once-seasonally tradition. Often they were led by a MonsterOfTheWeek. Zeo and RPM are pretty much the only seasons who haven't had it in some form -- if not identical copies, then an EvilCounterpart team will be featured, like Space's [[ThePsychoRangers Psycho Rangers]], the Spirit Rangers and Five Fingers of Poison in Jungle Fury. Oddly, only ''once'' (the ''very first use'' of the gimmick waaay back in the original series) were they used to ruin the Rangers' good name, and ''never'' have they been used to pose as a friend and backstab a good Ranger. Oddly, the SixthRanger seldom gets a copy. But sometimes Tommy's subverted it, facing his past selves.

** Played straight in the current Anime {{filler}} {{interquel}}, in which Kageroza Inaba has created Mod Souls that are enhanced clones of certain Soul Reapers.

* Subverted in ''Oto x Maho'', where Kanata faces off with an evil duplicate. Kanata prefers physical attacks, while the EvilTwin can only use magical attacks.

* WWE have tried it once again. This time, it's Wrestling/SinCara vs. [[Wrestling/{{Hunico}} Sin Cara]], and surprisingly, it doesn't suck.

** In the ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'' movie, the Precures go into a mirror world and fight evil Cures. The FanNickname-happy fandom had a field day with Cure Nightmare, Cure Deadly Nightshade, Cure [[Manga/TokyoMewMew Br]][[{{Macekre}} id]][[{{Expy}} ge]][[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment t]]...