Arch Enemy / The DCU

The DCU

Comic Books

Comic Books

"I'd know that punch anywhere. This is my... most hated enemy... Hal Jordan."

• Adam Strange, the defender of Rann, has Kanjar Ro, who seeks to conquer Rann, and who released radiation which prevented Strange from remaining on Rann.
• All-Star Squadron has Baron Blitzkrieg, a recurring foe of theirs who killed one of their members, Red Bee.
• Ambush Bug has Argh! Yle! the living sock. Yes, his archenemy is a sock.
• Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld has Mordru, who killed her ally Donal, and Dark Opal, who killed her parents.
• Animal Man had Lennox, the man who murdered his family. In the New 52 reboot, Animal Man had the Spider Queen.
• Aquaman:
  • Aquaman's Arch Enemy spot is shared between his brother Orm, aka Ocean Master, and Black Manta, who debuted in Aquaman (1962). Depending on continuity the reasons behind Arthur and Orm's rivalry differs. But it usually revolves around the two brothers fighting over who is more fit to lead Atlantis. With Black Manta, their relationship is just full of mutual hatred, especially since Manta has killed Aquaman's baby son and father, and Aquaman has indirectly caused the death of Manta's father.
    • Jackson Hyde also shares with Arthur in Black Manta, his father, being his arch enemy.
  • Tempest has Slizzath, his Evil Uncle.
  • Mera has Siren, her villainous sister.
• The Atom:
  • Ray Palmer has Chronos, a supervillain he has come into conflict with on multiple occasions.
  • Ryan Choi has Dwarfstar, a prominent villain in Ryan's solo series who eventually orchestrates Ryan's death by hiring Deathstroke to carry out the deed.
• Azrael: Jean-Paul Valley had two; Carleton Lehah and Nicholas Scratch. Averted for Michael Lane, who hasn't been active nearly long enough in order to get a real archenemy, though the Crusader came real close.
• Aztek had the Lizard King, who murdered his girlfriend, and Mageddon, the evil god he is destined to defeat.
• Batgirl:
  • Barbara Gordon has the Calculator, a supervillain who reinvented himself as an Evil Counterpart for Barbara's Oracle identity, becoming an information broker for supervillains. Barbara also has her murderous brother, James Gordon Jr.
  • Cassandra and Stephanie both have their Archnemesis Dads, David Cain and Cluemaster. Cassandra can also count her mother, Lady Shiva, as one, though their relationship is more complex than the typical archenemy dynamic.
• Batman has the Joker, Rā's al Ghūl, and Two-Face.
  • The Joker is Batman's Arch-Enemy. He's the One, he's the best. His insanity and chaotic nature are the complete opposite of Batman's rigidly, even obsessively ordered intelligence. Though these (intelligence and obsession) are also their similarities. Both were shaped by great tragedy and loss (at least in the Joker's most commonly accepted origin story). Many people have said that Batman is just as insane as The Joker, he just manifests it in a different and more positive way and keeps control over it. The Joker himself has pointed this out numerous times and in many adaptations.
    The Joker: You had a bad day once, am I right?... Why else would you dress up like a flying rat?
    • The LEGO Batman Movie plays this for laughs: the Joker calls himself Batman's Arch-Enemy, the Dark Knight disagrees, and Joker spends the rest of the movie trying to prove Batman wrong. Batman ultimately is forced to admit Joker's status so both can save Gotham.
    • It's also deconstructed in a guidebook written by Batman. Under Joker's images he writes, "Some pictures of Joker throughout the years; it truly bothers me how much he's become a fixture in my life."
    • Again deconstructed in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Batman stated to Terry that Joker only did his crimes to make the Dark Knight laugh. That Joker tortured and brainwashed Tim Drake into becoming Joker Jr. was another factor. The Monster Clown has a spectacular Villainous Breakdown when Terry openly insults his failed attempts to break Batman.
  • Rā's al Ghūl has a great deal of respect for Batman, may be even more dangerous, and a far larger scale threat, than the Joker, and is the father of one of Bruce's main love interests and his son's grandfather. Ra's is definitely the main Big Bad of Batman's enemies.
  • Two-Face: Batman sees him, with good cause, as his greatest failure as they were friends once before Harvey's disfigurement, a point that Two-Face enjoys rubbing in. Every single one of the Robins has also had a reason to put them high on their hit lists, as he beat Dick Grayson within an inch of his life on one of his first outings as Robin (handing him his first defeat in the process), orchestrated the murders of Jason Todd's parents, and in "A Lonely Place of Dying" nearly killed Tim Drake in one of his earliest solo missions as Robin, with Dick having to save him. While the individual Robins have their own enemies, Two-Face is easily the archenemy of the collective Robin identity.
  • As far as honorable mentions go, Bane, The Scarecrow and The Riddler also deserve mention. All three are highly effective Shadow Archetypes of Batman, who have pushed him through some severe trials. While they are overshadowed as Archenemy material by the above three (apart from Bane murdering Alfred Pennyworth, the man who raised Bruce after his parents' death), some adaptations have played up their mutual hostility with Batman and standing in his Rogues gallery.
  • Dick Grayson initially had Tony Zucco, his parents' murderer.
  • James Gordon also has the Joker, as he crippled Gordon's daughter Barbara, and murdered his wife Sarah.
  • Aaron Cash has Killer Croc, who took his hand.
  • Harvey Bullock has the Mad Hatter, who orchestrated the Gotham High School bombing that ended up being Bullock's one unsolved case that haunted him years.
  • Batman Inc. had Leviathan and their leader, Talia al Ghul, as the primary organization opposing the group, and its personal for her being the love interest of Batman and Damian's mother.
  • Damian Wayne has his mother, Talia Al Ghul, who was the one who sent him to Batman in the first place, then tried to take him back.
• Batwing has his brother Isaac, now known as the mercenary Massacre.
• Batwoman has the Religion of Crime and Tahani.
• The Birds of Prey have the Calculator, who is the Evil Counterpart of Oracle, and the Secret Six.
• Black Canary has White Canary, who threatened her daughter, teammates, and her secret identity.
• Black Lightning had Tobias Whale, the gangster who ruined his neighborhood, targeted his students, and convinced him to get into crime fighting in the first place. Whale for his part hated both Black Lightning and his civilian identity of Jefferson Pierce, and went out of his way to dispose of them both.
• Blackhawk and his squadron had Killer Shark, a recurring enemy of theirs who once brainwashed Lady Blackhawk.
• Blue Beetle has Carapax. Carapax is absolutely determined to destroy Beetle and everything he stands for, regardless of who is holding the identity; he started out fighting Ted, but battled Jaime as well simply because he was using the title Blue Beetle. Even death couldn't keep him from coming back to torment Beetle.
  • Jaime Reyes later developed another contender for archenemy title in the form of Black Beetle, an Evil Counterpart who also uses Reach tech and is motivated by his sister's death, which he blames on the Blue Beetle, thus making their conflict personal.
• After becoming evil, being killed, and then brought back to life, Maxwell Lord has become the archenemy to Booster Gold as a result of Max being the one who murdered Booster's best friend, Ted Kord. Black Beetle, being similar to Ted, is also this in Booster Gold's own series.
• Blue Devil had the demon Nebiros, who was responsible for the Blue Devil costune being permanently stuck to his body, until he was killed in Day of Judgment.
• Captain Atom had General Wade Eiling, who orchestrated his transformation. Although Cap didn't know that Eiling was his arch-enemy. Captain Atom also had Major Force, his Evil Counterpart. Captain Atom denounced Major Force on television, and the two of them came into conflict with on numerous occasions.
• Catwoman had Black Mask (the original version) as her arch-enemy in her early-2000s series. In a Darker and Edgier twist, she ended up murdering him after he tried to fridge her friends and relatives once too often.
• Cosmic Entities:
  • The Presence has a few. Decreator the Anti-God is one, being the first shadow cast by The Presence's light. Another would be Lucifer obviously though played with as the relationship is less enemy and more a complicated one between a distant father and a rebellious prideful son.
  • The Monitor has the Anti-Monitor, his antimatter counterpart. The conflict between the two of them lasted eons.
  • Nix Uotan, a.k.a. the Judge of All Evil, had his father, Dax Nova, a.k.a. Mandrakk the Dark Monitor.
  • Rao and Cythonna, a goddess who tries to make him her mate only for him to reject her. A scorned Cythonna went to war with Rao, only for him, with the aid of the other Kryptonian gods, to defeat her and exile her.
• The Creeper had Proteus, his Evil Former Friend.
• Cyclone has T.O. Morrow, who kidnapped and experimented on Cyclone at a young age. Morrow infected Cyclone with nanobytes that left her with superpowers.
• Darkseid is the biggest bad of the DC Universe and is the archfoe of the Justice League, New Genesis, and the DCU itself. On the personal level, he's also the archenemy of his son, Orion, and of New Genesis' leader Highfather, and has pursued lengthy vendettas against Mister Miracle (who became his adopted son as part of the same deal that saw Orion raised on New Genesis, but was left under the cruel treatment of Darkseid's lackey Granny Goodness), Superman (due to Darkseid having tried to corrupt Supergirl) and Wonder Woman (through being the father of Grail, one of Wonder Woman's enemies), to name only a few. Essentially, the moment Darkseid shows up, all other considerations, and all other archenmities go out the window.
  • Orion also has Kalibak and Desaad. Kalibak is Darkseid's loyal son, and is resentful that Darkseid favors Orion over him. Desaad has concocted multiple schemes to kill Orion, and Orion eventually vows to kill Desaad after Desaad makes several attempts on Orion's life and masterminds an attack on New Genesis.
• Deadman's most consistent enemy is Sensei, a master assassin responsible for Brand being killed in the first place. He denied Deadman his chance at revenge by killing the man who directly killed him, brainwashed him into attacking Batman, and has repeatedly attacked the home of Rama Kushna and attempted to disrupt the balance Deadman fights to protect.
• Doctor Fate has Wotan, an Evil Sorcerer who Fate encountered on multiple occasions.
• The Doom Patrol has the Brotherhood of Evil. Their respective leaders, the Chief and the Brain, also have one another.
• Etrigan has Morgaine le Fey (whom Etrigan was summoned to Earth to oppose) and Klarion the Witch Boy (who once tried to kill Jason Blood's three closest friends).
• Firestorm has Killer Frost, Multiplex, and Deathstorm. Various incarnations of Killer Frost fit this due to having ice powers to counter his fire, but the first and third incarnations also embody a Dating Catwoman dynamic with him (the former for Martin Stein, the latter for Ronnie Raymond). Multiplex is instead a vengeful ex-assistant of Martin who was fired for stealing equipment, blaming him for stealing ideas, while Deathstorm is a cruel Mirror Universe Evil Twin of Martin hailing from Earth 3 (the universe of the Justice League counterpart the Crime Syndicate).
• The Flash. This varies from era to era since there are multiple Flashes.
  • In the Golden Age comics, Jay Garrick (Flash I) had the Thinker, who appeared more often than any other villain. The two would eventually become friends in old age, but by that point, Edward Clariss AKA The Rival, Jay's own Reverse-Flash, had been introduced. The Infinite Frontier-era storyline Jay Garrick: The Flash would introduce a new archenemy for him in Doctor Elemental, a Mad Scientist who is revealed to be Professor Hughes, Jay's academic advisor responsible for giving him his powers.
  • Barry Allen (Flash II) has had a few. In the Silver Age, it was Gorilla Grodd, who was the one exception in his roster of Harmless Villain antagonists. In the Bronze Age, it was Eobard Thawne AKA the Reverse-Flash and his repeated attempts to outright steal his foe's life, and who eventually killed his wife. In the Modern Age, after Barry's return, Geoff Johns had promoted Captain Cold to leader of the rogues — in the Silver Age it was usually the original Mirror Master or an outside villain in this role — and brought the Rogues back into prominence. Cold specifically considers Barry to be his Flash nemesis (he's fought all four of them, and in the Modern Age mostly Wally). Later on, it was cemented that Thawne was Barry's archnemesis because he killed Barry's mother and is the most dangerous of Barry's foes.
  • Wally West (Flash III) in the Modern Age had Vandal Savage at first, and later the acclaimed Mark Waid run boosted Abra Kadabra to this role by making that villain much Darker and Edgier and a much more recurring threat in Wally's life. Later on, Geoff Johns also contributed Zoom/Reverse-Flash II as a contender for the role, an Evil Former Friend of Wally's who caused Wally's wife to miscarry and is also a villain he feels responsible for creating. In the aftermath of DC Rebirth Kadabra tries to rekindle his rivalry with Wally by taking credit for Wally's disappearance, although he's thrown into the timestream at the end of the arc, and later down the line, Zolomon was reintroduced and revealed to know the location of Wally's missing children and cemented himself as this too.
  • Bart Allen (Flash IV) had Thaddeus Thawne AKA Inertia, his evil clone who sought to have a family like Bart, and through evil machinations, actually killed his adversary. Another contender would be Superboy Prime, who hates and downright fears Bart after he got trapped in the Speed Force.
  • Jesse Quick/Liberty Belle II had Baroness Blitzkrieg.
  • Max Mercury had Savitar. Both are old speedsters who interpret the Speed Force differently: Max trains those who can tap into it while Savitar runs an evilc cult around its worship.
• The Freedom Fighters has Silver Ghost, a Nazi who has opposed them on multiple occasions. The Silver Ghost has special animosity towards Firebrand, who pretended to be a Nazi collaborator.
• Merlyn is considered Green Arrow's arch-enemy. Due to both being skilled archers on opposite sides of the law, Merlyn is very determined to one-up Green Arrow solely to prove he is the better archer, to the point where he was willing to work with Amanda Waller to teleport Green Arrow's family apart. Count Vertigo can also be seen as this, as his vertigo effect easily disrupts Green Arrow during their encounters.
  • The role of Roy Harper's arch-enemy can be given to Cheshire, which also falls into Dating Catwoman due to their former relationship and that she's the mother of his daughter. She's consistently proven that, whatever lingering feelings she might have for Roy or their child, she'll do anything to get them out of the picture if they prove a detriment to her freedom.
• Green Lantern:
  • Golden Age Lantern Alan Scott has Solomon Grundy, who menaced his hometown more than any other villain, and whose wood-infused body was highly resistant to Scott's ring. The New 52's Earth 2 comic has brought this rivalry back in a big way.
  • Sinestro is Hal Jordan's archenemy (and Evil Mentor depending on the continuity); similarly, the Green Lantern Corps treat the Sinestro Corps as their most dangerous opposing organization. Cyborg Superman and Hector Hammond could also count.
    • While Sinestro is his most frequent and prominent enemy, no one hit Hal harder than Cyborg Superman who destroyed Coast city. This resulted in Hal falling victim to Parallax's possession.
    • Hector Hammond is a telepath who covets Hal's memories. Hammond gained his powers from a meteorite fragment in the ship of Abin Sur, the Green Lantern who gave Hal his ring. Hammond also tortured Hal and Carol Ferris.
  • When Major Force isn't ruining Captain Atom's life, he's probably ruining Guy Gardener's or Kyle Rayner's. Specifically, Force began the Stuffed into the Fridge term by killing Kyle's girlfriend and... y'know.
  • John Stewart has Fatality, who blamed John for the destruction of her homeworld and killed his girlfriend in retaliation.
  • The Guardians of the Universe have Krona, who the Guardians turned into an Energy Being for observing the Big Bang, which led to the creation of The Multiverse and the Antimatter Universe, and unleashed evil into the cosmos.
  • The Entity, the embodiment of life, has Nekron, the embodiment of death who seeks to destroy life itself.
  • Ion has Parallax, as the personifications of Willpower and Fear respectively.
  • Kilowog has Arkillo, who dueled him twice during the Sinestro Corps War.
  • Mogo has Ranx, a moon-sized living city who is prophesied to destroy Mogo one day. In the Sinestro Corps War, he tried and failed.
• Harley Quinn has the vigilante Thorn in her original solo series.
  • She's also one of the very few characters besides Batman himself (and Jason Todd) who can claim the Joker as her arch-enemy. Once the two break up for good, a significant amount of her inner turmoil stems from her moving on from him and his cycle of abuse, and he in turn seemingly delights in tormenting and/or trying to kill her (which was the case even when they were together).
• Hawk and Dove had Kestrel in the Modern Age, and Condor and Swan in the New 52.
• Hawkman and Hawkgirl have Hath-Set, who killed the first incarnations of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and his reincarnations fought their reincarnations for thousands of years. They also have Gentleman Ghost, who was lynched by a previous incarnation of Hawkman.
• The Huntress originally had Omerta the Silencer, Stephen Mandragora, and Santo Cassamento, who are all responsible for the murder of the Bertinellis, driving Helena Bertinelli to become the Huntress. However, Helena killed all three of them in vengeance. More recently, Huntress has grudges against the Penguin, who betrayed the Birds of Prey and severely injured two of her allies, and the Scarecrow, who used fear gas to make her fight Catwoman.
• Katana had Takeo Yamashiro, who murdered her husband and two children because she rejected his advances.
• Jimmy Olsen gets his own arch-enemy in the Action Comics backup strip: a young Lexcorp executive called Sebastian Mallory. He acknowledges that "Superman's Pal vs Lex Luthor's protege" might seem a bit obvious, but they really do hate each other.
• Jonah Hex has Quentin Turnbull, who blames Jonah for the death of his son.
• The Justice League's arch-nemesis is the Legion of Doom/Injustice League/Injustice Gang whereas The Justice Society's arch-enemy is the Injustice Society of the World.
• Johnny Sorrow is this for the entire Justice Society of America. Originally, he only had a beef with Sandman, but after Sandy joined up with the Society, Johnny came to hate all of them with equal, massive fury. Now he's not only one of their most personal foes, but he's one of the few villains who's always gunning for the entire team at once.
  • Atom Smasher had Kobra and Extant. Kobra who orchestrated a plane crash that killed his mother. Extant murdered Atom Smasher's godfather, Al Pratt, and Atom Smasher later returned the favor by killing Extant in the aforementioned plane crash, which erased his mother's death in the process.
  • Damage has Baron Blitzkrieg, a recurring antagonist in his solo series.
  • Stargirl's arch foe from is Shiv from Blue Valley. Shiv was a Foil to Courtney in that, while Courtney was the stepdaughter of an established superhero (Pat Dugan, a.k.a. S.T.R.I.P.E.) and initially became a hero to piss him off, Shiv is the biological daughter of an established supervillain (the Dragon King) and became a villain to make her father proud. However, Shiv fell into limbo for a few years after her last fight with Courtney. The next time they fought Courtney joked about how long it'd been since she saw Shiv.
• Lady Shiva was originally this for Richard Dragon, and later her daughter Cassandra Cain.
• The Legion of Super-Heroes has three: Mordru, the Fatal Five, and the Legion of Super-Villains. The Fatal Five probably win the title for showing up the most often, but the L.S.V. has Lightning Lad's personal arch enemy (and older brother) Lightning Lord, and Mordru is certainly the most powerful of the three. Pre-Crisis the title would have gone to the Time-Trapper.
  • Brainiac 5 has Computo, a rogue creation of his.
  • Element Lad has Roxxas, who killed the rest of Trom's race.
  • Karate Kid has Nemesis Kid, who once framed him for betraying Earth.
  • R.J Brande has Leland McCauley, a villainous business rival of his.
  • Rond Vidar has Universo, his Archnemesis Dad.
  • Sun Boy has Doctor Regulus, who is responsible for Dirk's transformation into Sun Boy.
  • The White Witch has Mordru, who was her abusive husband.
• Lobo has Vril Dox II (his subordinates kill one of Lobo's space dolphins. Vril himself takes away Lobo's ability to multiply himself. Later, when Vril Dox hires him to deliver a prisoner to him alive, Lobo kills the prisoner immediately after delivering her to Vril), the Omegas, and Goldstar.
• Lucifer has his brother, Michael Demiurgos.
• Madame Xanadu has Morgana le Fey and the Enchantress.
• The Martian Manhunter has had several contenders over the years including Commander Blanx and his expy (and J'onn's Evil Twin) Malefic. During the Silver Age, Mr. V was one of the few recurring adversaries J'onn had. The best example, however, may well be Galactic Conqueror and walking engine of destruction, Despero. While Despero is usually a Justice League calibre threat, J'onn is always the one he attacks first, and he takes a perverse delight in forcing the Martian to telepathically relive the destruction of Mars. At one point, Despero went so far as to Mind Rape J'onn into believing he was on a Mars that hadn't been destroyed by Blanx and/or Malefic...only to then invade the dream and personally slaughter the psychic constructs of J'onn's family that he had created. J'onn hates Despero about as much as he hates anyone, and is usually the JLA member who ends up having to put the crazed being down at the end of his rampages.
• The Metal Men have Chemo.
• Metamorpho has Simon Stagg and Java, who were responsible for Rex Mason's transformation into Metamorpho.
• Nightwing had Blockbuster in his solo series, Two-Face as the first Robin and into his time as Nightwing, and Deathstroke after Infinite Crisis.
  • And for a brief period, he had Jason Todd during Grayson's time as Batman.
• The Phantom Stranger has Tala and Tannarak.
• Plastic Man has Doctor Dome.
• The Question had Reverend Jeremiah Hatch, a corrupt preacher and the power behind the throne in Hub City.
• While Green Lantern Rebirth and Blackest Night initially pegged Parallax as the Arch Enemy of The Spectre, it seems that the Spectre's true nemesis is actually Butcher the Rage Entity. The Spectre exists to punish murderers, and Butcher is apparently the homicidal spawn of the first murder — the embodiment of murderous rage. Spectre also has Eclipso, his predecessor as the personification of God's Wrath who turned evil, Azmodus, a demon who seduced the Spectre's first human host, and Zor, another spirit wandering the Earth, who chose to spread evil instead of fight it.
• The Ray has Dr. Polaris.
• Red Hood and the Outlaws have Crux, Suzie Su, and the Untitled.
• The Red Tornado had Amazo, T.O. Morrow, and Tornado Tyrant.
• Rip Hunter has Per Degaton.
• In the Robin comics of the 90's, King Snake (the father of Bane) and then Ulysses "The General" Armstrong filled this role for Tim Drake. As Red Robin, Drake had The General again for a while (this time masquerading as Anarky).
• The Iron Major to Sgt. Rock's.
• The Sandman (1989): Dream of the Endless has his sibling, Desire of the Endless.
• Shadowpact had Doctor Gotham and the Sun King.
• The Shade had Simon Culp for more than a century, until he was finally killed.
• Shazam!: Things get interesting here, and a little complicated. Billy/Captain Marvel has usually considered Black Adam or Dr. Sivana to be his worst enemy. Freddy/Captain Marvel Jr. considers Captain Nazi, who killed his grandfather, to be his worst enemy. Mary Marvel has Georgia Sivana. However, the archenemy of the Marvel family as a whole, and certainly the most dangerous of their foes, is telepathic Venusian worm, Mister Mind, who destroyed their hometown, brainwashed their friends, and murdered their cousin. Whenever Mind shows up, you can bet that the storyline will get darker, and Billy, Mary, and Freddy alike will take it very personally.
  • Shazam the Wizard has Blaze and Satanus, his Antagonistic Offspring who are responsible for corrupting Black Adam in the first place.
  • Osiris, the brother-in-law of Black Adam, has Sobek.
• Starman had the Mist. Their respective children, who shared the same codenames, became archenemies too.
• Steel has Skorpio, a former doctor who became a Psycho for Hire.
• The Suicide Squad have Kobra, Major Zastrow, Rustam, and William Hell.
  • Rick Flag has Rustam, with their feud ending in a Mutual Kill.
• Superman has Lex Luthor, Brainiac, General Zof, and Doomsday. The Ultra-Humanite was Superman's first Arch Enemy, though he has since been surpassed by the aforementioned foes.
  • Lex Luthor is Superman's ultimate Arch Enemy and typically uses his brain against the Man of Steel's brawn, carefully avoiding any actions that could make Superman be justified in attacking him. To the point where only the muckraking Clark Kent, not Superman, can even put a scratch on Luthor. In Infinite Crisis, Alexander Luthor Jr. (son of a heroic alternate universe Luthor) eventually becomes convinced that one of the few things every universe has in common is that the resident Luthor and Superman (or Superman analogue) will always be archenemies.
    • Kal-L, the Golden Age Superman, has Alexei Luthor, Lex's Eastern European Earth-2 counterpart.
  • After Luthor, Brainiac comes in a close second, being one of the oldest villains in the rogues gallery, and certainly one of the most evil. He can match Superman blow-for-blow, shows up constantly, is feared by all Kryptonians, regularly endangers the world or even the multiverse, holds a Kryptonian city hostage, and once killed Superman's adoptive father Jonathan Kent. As one writer pointed out, he's the alien Superman isn't, an evil otherworldy invader instead of a messianic refugee.
  • General Zod is the Arch Enemy of Superman's father Jor-El, the one responsible for stopping his coup of Krypton and imprisoning him in the Phantom Zone, with Superman inheriting the grudge. Following Superman's defeat of Zod in Last Son and the events of New Krypton, the rivalry turns very personal for the both of them, and along with Luthor and Brainiac, he's one of the few beings that Superman genuinely hates.
  • Doomsday is an Ultimate Life Form who killed Superman, but was killed himself in the process. Both individuals came Back from the Dead and became recurring adversaries ever since, with Doomsday being able to inspire fear in Superman.
  • The Ultra-Humanite was the Golden Age Superman's original Arch Enemy prior to the introduction of Lex Luthor. He was a Diabolical Mastermind with Super-Intelligence, making him a a foil of Superman, who has Super-Strength. Superman foiled the Ultra-Humanite's plans multiple times, while the Ultra-Humanite kept escaping. On several occassions, the Ultra-Humanite even manages to capture Superman.
    • In the Else Worlds series Superman & Batman: Generations, the Ultra-Humanite surpasses Lex as Superman's greatest enemy, being almost single-handedly responsible for the deaths of Superman's new family, which included his two children and his wife, Lois Lane. He also killed Jimmy Olsen, his family, and Perry White Jr., just to spite Superman.
  • Conner Kent aka Superboy has King Shark, Knockout, and Match from his solo series. King Shark was one of Conner's tougher enemies from his time spent in Hawaii, Knockout had a Dating Catwoman dynamic with him in spite of being formerly one of Darkseid's Female Furies, and Match is his Evil Counterpart and clone created by a rival science corporation to Cadmus known as the Agenda.
  • Post-Crisis Supergirl has Reactron. A lecherous, bullying thug, Benjamin Krullen craved to get even at Kara because she had the gall to kick his butt when he attacked her without provocation. Over the course of both her solo series and the New Krypton crossover, the two clashed repeatedly, leading to Reactron's murder of Supergirl's father, her mother Alura's Cold-Blooded Torture of Reactron upon his capture, and the eventual destruction of New Krypton when Reactron blew up himself, the planet, and Kara's mother. For both of them the conflict was always personal. Needless to say, Supergirl hates him, and a hallucination looking like Reactron is enough to send her into a murderous rage.
  • Post-Flashpoint Supergirl has the Worldkillers whom she despises because she's a survivor of a dead world and they're Kryptonian biological weapons designed to conquer worlds and slay alien species. It doesn't help that she suspects her father Zor-El was involved in their creation. In Red Daughter of Krypton she explains why stopping them is personal to her.
    Supergirl: How could anyone make it their mission in life to murder whole worlds? Can you imagine what an abomination that is to an orphan from a dead planet? [...] This world-killing stuff... it hits a nerve. It makes me furious, and the ring just fans the flame!
  • Lois Lane had her Archnemesis Dad General Sam Lane, who sought the genocide of her husband's people, recruited her sister Lucy to assist him, and threatened to make Lois disappear.
  • Mr. Mxyzptlkhas Vyndktvx, a fellow fifth-dimensional being who resents Mxy for upstaging him and winning the favor of King-Thing Brpzx of Zrrrf and the love of the King-Thing's daughter Gsptlnz. Vyndktvx kills the King-Thing in an attempt to kill Mxy himself, and because of the way time in the Fifth Dimension works, the King-Thing was Mxy, so Vyndktvx killed Mxy after all.
  • Chris Kent and Thara Ak-Var have Jax-Ur.
  • Alexander Luthor Sr., hailing from Earth 3, has Ultraman, the tyrannical leader of the Justice League's evil counterparts the Crime Syndicate.
• Superboy-Prime possibly sees the fourth Flash (Bart Allen), the second Ion (Sodam Yat) and Kon-El, the cloned Superboy (the one of the three he killed) as his archenemies. Prime's new enemies, the Legion of Super-Heroes might think so, too, bringing back all three heroes (two Back from the Dead, in fact) to combat Prime.
• Swamp Thing has Anton Arcane, his most persistent enemy, who at least deserves credit for simply not staying dead.
• Teen Titans:
  • Deathstroke the Terminator is Robin/Nightwing's Arch Enemy. Of all the Titans, Slade hated Dick Grayson the most, something that has its roots in Dick being the team leader during The Judas Contract. Whenever Slade and Grayson were in the same fight, regardless of how many others were involved, they nearly always went after each other. This animosity was ramped up immensely when Slade, as part of the Secret Society of Super Villains, orchestrated the destruction of Blüdhaven, Nightwing's "Gotham" so to speak, with the nuclear waste monster Chemo, when he cybernetically hijacked Damian Wayne's body in an attempt to kill Grayson, and when he stole Dick's money for Joker during the events of Joker War. Deathstroke also harbors a grudge against Grayson for "stealing his kids" from him. Deathstroke is also to the Teen Titans as a whole. Now the Titans have gone through tons of Big Bads, and let's face it, Slade isn't the biggest or baddest. But he is the most persistent and most personal enemy the team has ever faced.
    • However, for most of the 90s, Deathstroke's main target was actually Arsenal since he had become the new leader of the Titans as well as being the first-ever father figure to his daughter Rose.
  Slade: You're a stupid jerk, Harper.

  • Ironically enough, this seems to have been something that got increased due to Teen Titans. Initially, he seemed to have a grudge with Beast Boy in particular, once tormenting him by recreating the incident that killed the Doom Patrol, their adversarial conflict worsened by his love interest Terra turning out to be allied with Deathstroke.
  • Trigon to his daughter, Raven. He'd also finish in second place for the team as a whole, since besides Slade, there's nobody the Titans hate or fear more than Trigon, and nobody period who outdoes him in threat level.
  • Cyborg has Grid, an Enemy Without formed from rogue data inside Cyborg who eventually joins the Crime Syndicate, in the New 52.
  • Beast Boy has Terra, his Psycho Ex-Girlfriend turned traitor who was Deathstroke's mole.
  • Starfire has her sister Blackfire, though they're on better terms now.
  • The Hybrids of Teen Titans (1996) have their entire alien race, the H'san Natall, as one.
  • Miss Martian has Sun Girl. Sun Girl claims Miss Martian will bring doom to the future that she hails from, so she must kill her to prevent it from happening. But she also claims that she and Inertia have also made Miss Martian their slave to torment. It's implied that because of whatever Miss Martian did, White Martians in the future were now treated as slaves, and Deborah was more or less Miss Martian's owner.
  • Rose Wilson despises her father, Deathstroke, for orchestrating her adopted family's murder and for implanting kryptonite in her body, which would have eventually killed her if Nightwing hadn't warned her in time.
• Valor has Glorith, who trapped him in the Bgztl Buffer Zone for a millenium.
• Vandal Savage is primarily this to the Immortal Man and later to the Resurrection Man. He'd also finish very highly on the JLA and JSA's hit lists, and has, over the course of his immortal life, pursued vendettas against Green Lantern, Flash, Damage, the Ray, and Rip Hunter, to name only a few.
• Vixen had Aku Kwesi, the murderer of her mother.
• Vibe has Rupture, his brother.
• The Warlord: Morgan has the evil sorcerer Deimos.
• The first Waverider has Monarch in Armageddon 2001, and the second Waverider has Extant in Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!.
• Wildcat has the second Tigress, Paula Brooks.
• Wonder Woman's is generally Cheetah or Circe, depending on who's writing. Ares gets in on the act too. He was, after all, her original Golden Age arch enemy, and is the biggest bad in her rogues gallery. As of Flashpoint Hera may be stepping into the role, though this ultimately did not stick and Diana's arch foe remains a competition between Cheetah, Circe, and Ares.
  • Diana's sister, Donna Troy, gained one in Dark Angel by accident. Dark Angel wanted to get revenge for her defeat by Hippolyta by abducting her daughter and making her live through a thousand lifetimes ending in tragedy. But Donna, who was identical to Diana, was grabbed by mistake. Even after the mix-up was cleared, Dark Angel forgot her beef with Hippolyta and is now focused on making Donna's life as miserable as she can, which is not helped by knowing Dark Angel is the Donna of a dead alternate Earth.
  • Hippolyta also has Circe, who brainwashed her on multiple occasions. Dark Angel also qualifies, since Hippolyta battled her on many occasions.
  • Artemis had the White Magician, who battled her several times during her time as Wonder Woman, and was eventually responsible for her death.
• Young Justice has Harm, the twisted brother of Secret.
• Zatanna has Brother Night. Her father, Zatara, had the first Tigress.
• Static and Icon have Holocaust.
• The Watchmen has for the whole collective of superheroes Ozymandias, a former member that wants to save the entire world by destroying some of it. Originally, the Minutemen's archenemy was Moloch the Mystic.

Films

Films

• Batman Film Series:
  • In the 1989 film, Batman has the Joker, an Ax-Crazy gangster who Batman dropped into a vat of chemicals, and who is the murderer of Thomas and Martha Wayne. In Batman Returns, Batman has the Penguin, who frames him for murder and hijacks the Batmobile. In Batman Forever, Batman has the Riddler, his disgruntled ex-employee who discovers his Secret Identity.
  • Catwoman has Max Shreck, her former employer who tried to murder her.
  • Robin has Two-Face, who killed his family.
• Superman Film Series: Superman has Lex Luthor, who tricks him into exposing himself to kryptonite, orchestrates a missile strike on the San Andreas Fault, leading to a series of disasters resulting in Lois Lane's death (although Superman undoes this), betrays him to General Zod, and creates an Evil Knockoff of Superman called Nuclear Man.

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

The following have their own pages:

• Arrowverse

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• Gotham:
  • Oswald Cobblepot has a knack for making these:
    • Fish Mooney was Oswald's first enemy. Oswald tried to get her ousted from the mob, when Fish found out she tried to have him killed. Over the course of Season 1 Oswald and Fish attempt to out maneuver each other. After Oswald kills her, he achieves his goal of ruling the Gotham underworld.
    • Salvatore Maroni was another road block on Penguin's path to controlling crime in Gotham. Oswald served as a mole in Maroni's organization for Falcone and murdered Maroni's friend Frankie Carbone. When Maroni found out, he tried to have Oswald crushed to death. Ironically, Maroni was taken care of for Oswald by Fish.
    • Theo Galavan became Oswald's greatest enemy after he kidnapped and murdered Penguin's mother and led a manhunt for his capture. After Galavan was revived by Hugo Strange, Penguin had him killed again, this time having Butch shoot him with a rocket launcher. This also extends to his sister Tabitha Galavan, who was the one who threw the knife that killed his mom. He only lets her live as a favor to Butch. That is until he finally decides he's had enough and kills both Butch and Tabitha.
    • Edward Nygma and Oswald were friends once, that all changed after Oswald murdered Ed's girlfriend out of jealousy. Not only did Ed reject Oswald's affection, Ed also cost him the mayor's office and his criminal empire and came as close as any ever had to killing Penguin. Penguin bounced back and had Ed frozen in a block of ice. Ed is later freed and they are ready to kill each other again.Eventually subverted after Penguin reawakens his Riddler personality and later saves his life from Sofia's men — when Riddler later betrays him he tells him he has no ill will towards him, he's just doing it to protect Lee.
    • Finally he has Sofia Falcone who pretended to be his friend while she was really plotting to take his throne as head mod boss and using him in an overly elaborate revenge plot against Gordon. Just like with Maroni, she is taken down, but not by Oswald.
  • James Gordon also has a number of these, several he shares with Oswald:
    • His Ex-fiancée Barbara Kean after she went insane. Barbara attempted to murder both Jim and his then-girlfriend Lee multiple times and joined Theo Galavan's rampage. Even after moving on from her vendetta against Jim, she always seems to be in his way. Eventually subverted, after they sleep together during a low moment for both of them, Barbara becomes pregnant with his child, so they finally bury the hatchet.
    • Gordon makes it clear that he's not buying Theo Galavan's act, so they land on each others hit list, culminating in Jim being the one to kill him after Oswald tells him he can escape prison.
    • Just like Penguin, Edward Nygma was once more or less friends with Jim. After Ed began murdering people however, Jim started to investigate the disappearance of one of his victims, so Ed framed Jim for the murder of a fellow officer. Jim's arrest led to Lee's miscarriage and her falling for another man.
    • After his sister's death, which he blames Gordon for, Jervis Tetch swore to destroy everything Jim loved. Jervis kidnapped both of Gordon's love interests and forced him to choose between their lives. Jervis also infected Lee's fiancée Mario with his virus, it didn't end well.
    • Whereas her father eventually made peace with Gordon after Mario's death, Sofia Falcone's hatred of Gordon never subsided. She arranges for Lazlo Valentin to pretend to be a serial killer named Professor Pyg so she can trick Gordon into performing some illegal act so he'll be under her thumb. Thankfully, Lee shoots her in the head putting her into a permanent coma.
  • By the later seasons, Bruce Wayne has three of these. Fittingly, two are based on different versions of Batman's worst enemy from the comics:
    • First, there's Jerome Valeska, who has kidnapped and tried to kill Bruce multiple times, and is significant to Bruce's development as a hero, because at one point Bruce believes that he's responsible for Alfred's death, and he decides against killing him in revenge despite that. That means that he's ultimately responsible for Bruce's decision to follow at least one significant rule while working as a vigilante.
    • Season 4 introduces Jerome's twin brother, Jeremiah Valeska, a young genius engineer who appears to be Jerome's good counterpart, at least until he gets sprayed with Jerome's insanity gas, which drives him insane and transforms him into an even more unhinged version of Jerome who also has the education to create more sophisticated bombs than his brother. He is close friends with Bruce for awhile before he reveals himself as a villain, and is extremely obsessed with being connected to Bruce through either friendship or hatred, to the point where he tries to deliberately set himself up as Bruce's arch enemy by doing terrible things to him and the people he loves. Seeing as Jeremiah is the brother who eventually becomes the Joker, he eventually succeeds.
    • Finally, there is Ra's Al-Ghul, who, like Jeremiah, thinks he's acting in Bruce's best interests while putting him through multiple horrible ordeals because he thinks that his actions will help form Bruce into a hero.
• Smallville:
  • Clark Kent has Lex Luthor and Zod. Lex is his one-time best friend turned bitter professional and romantic rival, delving into supervillainy at the same time that Clark is hitting his stride as a superhero; the entire series is essentially spent building up to a confrontation between the two. Zod is a former friend and ally of Clark's father, Jor-El, with Clark inheriting the grudge. Given that Zod corrupted Brainiac, created Doomsday, and blew up Krypton he's responsible for almost every horrible thing that's happened in Clark's life, and his multi-seasonal attempts to Take Over the World only turn it more personal.
  • Lex's father, Lionel Luthor, is the archenemy of Clark's adoptive father, Jonathan Kent. The two spend their entire time on the show at war for the souls of their sons, while doing everything they can to tear one another down. Lionel (and his alternate universe doppelganger) would also place an impressive third on Clark's enemy.
• Wonder Woman: The Baroness Von Gunther was the only enemy Wonder Woman faced in the comics that showed up in the series, and no one of Wonder Woman’s original villains in the TV series ever recurred, but it’s implied that Marion Mariposa did appear in a previous, unbroadcast adventure, as he is talked about last seen presumably drowned in the North Sea. The interesting part is that he is not Wonder Woman’s enemy, but IADC agent Diana Prince’s enemy. For Diana Prince and Marion Mariposa, It's Personal.
  Marion Mariposa: Oh, why are you so unpleased to see a familiar face? Did you enjoy the candy I sent you?
  Diana Prince, waking from her induced sleep: Not in the least, and I enjoyed the flowers even less.
  Marion Mariposa: What’s the matter? Lost your sense of humor?
  Diana Prince: I was hoping we were rid of yours. Weren’t you supposed to be drowned at the north sea after our last encounter?
  Marion Mariposa: By now you should know that I have my entrances and exits carefully choreographed, Diana. I had one of my submarines pick me.

Western Animation

Western Animation

• In Beware the Batman, Anarky of all people takes up the role, thanks to the Joker not being present in this version.
• In the DC Animated Universe, Lex Luthor is still Superman's primary enemy, but Darkseid and Brainiac surpass him whenever they show up.
  • And yet Luthor has survived direct dealings with both of them while even as both suffered grievous defeat. He was fused with Brainiac and personally put away Darkseid with the Anti-Life Equation who, it should be added, was even fused with Brainiac at the time.
  • Of all three though, Darkseid is easily Superman's most hated enemy. To put it in perspective, he is the only villain in the DC Animated Universe that Superman has no problem with killing, and actually WANTS to kill.
  • Brainiac seems to consider Superman's father Jor-El to be his archfoe even though Jor-El is long dead. Brainiac never forgot that Jor-El opposed him to the very end and nearly destroyed him. For someone who supposedly lacks emotions, Brainiac took great pleasure in making "the son of Jor-El" kneel before him when he went back in time to kill teenage Clark. When Brainiac and Superman encounter each other on Apokolips, Brainiac claims that Superman has no hope of stopping him since his father couldn't.
  • The Joker and Batman in Batman: The Animated Series, its sequels, and Justice League. Unlike the contemporary comics, where their battle is more or less destined to go on forever (or at least until the next Continuity Reboot), the DC Animated Universe actually gets to show their rivalry from its early beginnings all the way to the inevitable, brutal final battle. The notion of an archenemy is also deconstructed; whereas Joker early on seems to hold Batman in high regard as a genuine Worthy Opponent, by the time of their final battle he openly admits to have grown utterly tired of their "game". Bruce himself also has no delusions about what kind of person Joker really was, and tells his successor as much decades after Joker's death.
  Terry: It's funny. I know about all your other major enemies, but, you never mention him. He was the biggest, wasn't he?
  Bruce: It wasn't a popularity contest. He was a psychopath. A monster.
  • Blight to Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond. Blight is the supervillain alter ego of Derek Powers, a Corrupt Corporate Executive who took over Wayne Enterprises and had Terry's father murdered, therefore motivating him to take up Bruce Wayne's mantle and become Powers' greatest enemy.
• Imperiex and Superman clone Kell-El in the Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon.
• Ebon to Static in Static Shock. Not only are his Casting a Shadow powers directly opposite to Statics bright Shock and Awe abilities, their worldviews are directly opposed too: Virgil's father run's the youth center, and his family active tries to help the community, especially kids; Ebon was a gangbanger who tries to "collect" metahumans into his super powered street gang.
• Superfriends: Apache Chief has Giganta, a fellow Sizeshifter who got her powers from the same magic powder which gave Apache Chief his powers.
• Each of the Teen Titans (2003) had one:
  • Slade to Robin.
  • Brother Blood to Cyborg.
  • Blackfire to Starfire.
  • Trigon to Raven.
  • Terra to Beast Boy (because she was his Psycho Ex-Girlfriend).
  • And the Brotherhood of Evil to EVERYONE.
    • On a personal level the Brotherhood (and specifically, the Brain) is Beast Boy's Arch Enemy. He was a member of the team that opposed them before he joined the Titans, and his past with them is what draws the other Titans into the conflict. Interestingly, this is a rare case of the hero taking it more seriously than the villain — the Brain considers Mento, the Doom Patrol's leader, to be his Arch Enemy, and regards Beast Boy as little more than an irritant. Yet, thanks to Beast Boy (and by extension, the Titans), the Brain considers all kid heroes his archenemies.

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