The following have their own pages:
Captain America
- The 1950s incarnation of Cap ("Commie Smasher") was (through the magic of Retcon) explained away as an obsessed fan of the original who insisted on replacing him during the time when he was presumed dead; while the US government decided to humor him, the faulty version of the Super-Soldier enhancement process eventually drove him insane. While he was eventually captured and placed in suspended animation, he broke out years later and attacked who he thought was another Captain America imposter - the real Captain America, who had defrosted from his own accidental suspended animation.
- There was also Protocide, a test subject for the Super Soldier serum who went crazy with pain, got put in storage for many years, then was let out by AIM and manipulated into going after Steve Rogers. There were some 'opposite' motifs going on in his appearance: his costume was red instead of blue, and he had a far pointier shield.
- He and The Falcon briefly had an enemy named Anti-Cap, who was meant to be a modern day Deconstruction of Captain America with the World War II background swapped out for a more timely one of The War on Terror. He even wore a black variant of the Captain America costume.
- To really hammer home the counterpoint, Anti-Cap was a Navy man.
- Before Anti-Cap, there was John Walker, Cap's Anti-Hero Substitute. He wasn't evil, but was essentially an attempt to show what would happen if someone who hadn't been as open-minded and compassionate as Steve Rogers had been chosen to wield the shield. While Steve has a huge heart and is willing to criticize his country when it drops the ball, Walker was a violent, unstable Jerk Jock with a serious jingoistic streak. He eventually improved slightly and became the hero U.S. Agent.
- Winter Soldier aka Bucky Barnes Cap’s former Kid Sidekick was this at the time of his reintroduction into Marvel Universe after being dead for decades. Like Cap the Winter Solider was a hero of WWII who fell into the ocean and remained frozen before being recovered years later. Except instead of being discovered by The Avengers like Cap, Bucky was found by the Soviets who brainwashed him into becoming a super assassin, essentially showing what someone with Cap’s skill and experience would be like as an agent of evil without compassion or morality. Fortunately thanks to the Cosmic Cube Bucky was able to recover his memories and Heel–Face Turn to good, even becoming Captain America himself for a time.
- Captain Ethnic characters of enemy nations are sometimes also this. The Red Skull is effectively Captain Nazi, while the Russian Red Guardian was this when he was first created, although thanks to the end of the Cold War, this element is downplayed now. Even Flag Smasher, who is an anarchist Captain Ethnic, falls into this category.
- The Ultimate Galactus Trilogy takes this even further by making Red Guardian an explicit attempt to make a Soviet Captain America. He even has his own shield!
- Minor villain Nuke is actually a fairly good Evil Counterpart to Cap as well. They're both American Super Soldiers with drug-based enhancements, and their creation is connected, as Nuke was created by a successor project to the one that made Captain America... but, whereas Cap considers morality more important than nationality, Nuke is a case of the "my country wants it, so that makes it right" version of My Country, Right or Wrong, butchering anyone he perceives or is told is "anti-American". Also, whereas Steve Rogers volunteered to be transformed, Nuke was systematically brainwashed and tortured into compliance. There's also the contrast between the perceived morality of the wars they were created for (World War II for Cap, The Vietnam War for Nuke).
- Really played up with by Ultimate Marvel Nuke, who is literally "Captain America of the Vietnam War" but who turned against America after perceiving how corrupt and evil the country had become during that time period, in contrast to Cap, who acknowledges that America has done wrong, but thinks it can be saved from itself.
- As of Secret Empire, there is now a literal Evil Cap in the form of Hydra Supreme, the HYDRA-aligned Captain America doppelgänger who was created by Kobik.
Iron Man
- The Mandarin is more the anti-Stark than the anti-Iron Man. Stark is a thrill-seeker. Mandarin participates in gladiatorial games so he can thrill to putting his fist through someone's head. Stark sacrificed his health so he could help the world. The Mandarin sacrifices everything and everyone around him to become stronger.
- The various Crimson Dynamos and Titanium Men were originally created to be Communist (and therefore, at the time) Evil Counterparts to Iron Man. After the Cold War, they tend to get played more as the rival or even the Worthy Opponent.
- Justin Hammer is the anti-Stark-as-businessman. While Tony uses his money to fight crime, Hammer uses his to sponsor it.
- Obadiah Stane was a rival businessman who ended up stealing Tony's company and building his own armored suit, the Iron Monger. Stane's son Ezekiel would later menace Tony, taking the Iron Man concept even further by becoming an outright Hollywood Cyborg (and thus a true fusion of man and machine). He's sometimes even referred to as "Iron Man 2.0" to hammer home the parallels.
- Doctor Doom can also be seen as an Evil Counterpart to Tony (especially when Doom temporary takes Tony's mantle as Iron Man) both are egotistical, charismatic men in Powered Armour, who as Doom discovers have near identical technology. Doom like Tony is a Well-Intentioned Extremist, and both men have deep love for their mothers to make up for their other un-heroic actions. Where they differ is Tony is still in line with the side of good wanting what's best for humanity while Doom always has his own utopia in mind for humanity where he rules with an iron fist. On Earth-11029 Tony and Doom have Swapped Roles enforcing this trope even more.
- Iron Man gets a another example in the form of his secret biological Arch Nemesis Dad Jude a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, who secretly works for HYDRA. Both Tony and Jude have physical similarities and actively lied to people but Tony for all his flaws has never been associated with HYDRA (something not even Captain America can still hold a claim to). Once Tony gets out of his coma, he brings down his father and reclaims his company.
- In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Gregory Stark (Tony's evil brother) is basically Tony Stark with no moral fiber or integrity whatsover, but with all the business skill and intellectual genius.
- Recent comics have reintroduced Arno Stark, Tony's brother by adoption (who was in a Convenient Coma for years). Unlike Tony, who can be very empathetic to his loved ones, Arno is a sociopath in Powered Armor who talks about saving the world but in actuality cares little for its inhabitants.
Others
- The Avengers:
- The Masters of Evil are the supervillain equivalent of the Avengers and have existed for almost as long. Their roster is very large and constantly rotating but has several core members, just like their heroic counterparts. Just about every professional supercrook worth their salt has been at least partly allied with the Masters at least once and being a member is considered by some villains to be a badge of honor. In fact the Masters were originally founded with this trope in mind; Baron Zemo realized that the Avengers were doing so great partly because they were working together as one big organization and decided that if the bad guys could do the same, they'd have a much better chance. Things took an interesting turn when Zemo disguised the Masters as a new superhero team called the Thunderbolts. They did a surprisingly good job at filling the void left behind by their adversaries.
- The Dark Avengers are a team established by Norman Osborn imitating the real Avengers, mostly outright dressed as them, with villains (and misguided heroes Sentry and Noh-Varr\Marvel-Boy, who was their Captain Marvel): the original Dark Reign incarnation had Ares (Thor), Hawkeye (Bullseye), Ms. Marvel (Moonstone), Spider-Man (Venom\Mac Gargan), Wolverine (his son Daken) and Osborn himself in an old Tony Stark armor as Iron Man\Captain America amalgalm Iron Patriot. (the game Marvel Puzzle Quest added a Black Widow in Natasha's Unknown Rival Yelena Belova, who in the comic was both only part of the supervillains-doing-black-ops team Thunderbolts and Natasha in disguise) The second one added a Hulk (his son Skaar) and a Scarlet Witch (Toxie Doxie), another Hawkeye (Clint's older brother Trickshot), Ms. Marvel (Superia), Spider-Man (Ai Apaec) and Wolverine (Gorgon), and a more literal Thor analogue in the clone Ragnarok.
- Ultron, the robotic archenemy of the Avengers, had his programming based on the personality of his creator, founding Avenger Hank Pym, and thus Ultron is essentially the physical personification of Pym's misanthropy and self-loathing. It is occasionally implied that being "born" with all of Pym's mental issues and bad memories is what drove Ultron insane and gave him the desire to Kill All Humans in the first place.
- Former Masters of Evil member Erik Josten was also positioned as a villainous parallel to Hank Pym in the 80s, which was cemented during an Iron Man story where Erik adopted Pym's old Goliath moniker after gaining similar growth powers. He eventually reformed after changing his codename to Atlas, and is usually allied with the Thunderbolts these days.
- Black Panther: T'Challa has several of these.
- Erik Killmonger, who was the new Black Panther for a brief time.
- White Wolf, T'Challa's adopted brother
- Namor. They are both the warrior kings of their races and will do pretty much anything to protect their country. However, considering Wakanda and Atlantis' long standing feud, this often places them at odds. The main difference is that Black Panther knows when to draw the line while Namor frequently commits atrocities without regret.
- As he was originally a Fantastic Four supporting character, Black Panther started as the Good Counterpart of Doctor Doom. Both men are costumed, superpowered rulers of advanced high-tech nations with ties to the FF, but while T'Challa is a valuable ally, Doom is their Arch-Enemy.
- Black Widow has at least three of these.
- Madame Hydra aka Viper is the most prominent example, like Nat she’s an orphan girl taken into a shadowy organisation and grew up to be a slick and sexy Dark Action Girl and they were both married to men they didn’t truly love. Except the organisation Viper became The Baroness of was Hydra, who are obviously far more evil than the Soviet Union ever was and unlike Nat who pulled a Heel–Face Turn and became a true hero, Viper has never had such moral qualms. A lot of modern comics have shifted Viper into one of Nat’s regular foes due to their similarities, even though she was more a Captain American and Spider-Woman villain prior.
- Madame Masque though she’s faced Widow rarely is even more a foil to Natasha than Viper since they both started off as Iron Man villains (as well as his love interests) on top of having extremely similar pasts. Like Natasha Whitney Frost was once a innocent girl who was twisted and emotional abused into a jaded and snarky Tyke Bomb assassin by her father Count Nefaria much like Nat was with Ivan Petrovich (her creepy adoptive father who enlisted her into the Red Room), but whereas Nat was able to find people who genuinely love and care about her turning her into a better person, Whitney was unable to turn over a new leaf even with Tony’s love and is sociopathic as a result. Their similarities are highlighted in Black Widow (2019) where Nat takes Masque’s outfit as disguise to infiltrate a criminal party, noting it is a “good fit for her”.
- Yelena Belova Black Widow II was this for Natasha originally. She was meant to represent all the cruelty, viciousness and general lack of regard for human life that Nat had largely outgrown after becoming an Avenger and often fulfils Nat’s role for villainous groups like A.I.M. but in later comics Yelena becomes more of an Aloof Ally to Natasha and co being less much villainous than she was initially.
- Black Knight has two:
- The first is Dreadknight, initially an Iron Man villain. He has a similar costume and flying horse, with the latter having originally belonged to Nathan Garrett, Dane's villainous uncle. This even goes for their respective steeds, as Dreadknight rides Hellhorse, a black horse with demonic bat wings, in contrast to Black Knight's Aragorn, which is white with angelic, birdlike wings.
- The second is Bloodwraith, a young man who was corrupted and driven mad while wielding Black Knight's Ebony Blade.
- The Champions team, as a whole, has The Freelancers.
- Daredevil:
- Ikari to Daredevil, a ninja-themed warrior who has the same powers as Matt but with the added bonus of not being blind. Also whereas Daredevil is more of a Fragile Speedster, Ikari is an Implacable Man. He also wears a variation of Daredevil's yellow Silver Age costume.
- Bullseye is a conspicuous counterpart to Daredevil being a crazed killer with nearly perfect aim, contrasting the blind hero with superhuman senses. They even have similar pasts though Matt had a loving relationship with father while Bullseye's father was an abusive scumbag. Skill-wise Daredevil and Bullseye are fighting geniuses with a particular talent for throwing things, however Improbable Aiming Skills is the reason why Daredevil became Bullseye's Arch-Enemy as the former made the latter miss which hurts Bullseye's pride and fuels his insanity. At one point Bullseye even dresses up as Daredevil and goes around killing people. At one point Bullseye even becomes blind like his Arch-Enemy, though he gets better.
- Darkhawk has quite a few due to wearing armor that was originally meant for an army of Space Pirates.
- Doctor Strange:
- Doctor Strange has an Evil Counterpart in Baron Mordo, another expert sorcerer who was studying with (and planning to off) the Ancient One before Stephen Strange showed up. Other than their common teacher, however, the two men actually do not have very much in common, their life histories and backgrounds are very different. Doctor Strange did not even realize the supernatural was real until his middle years, and only began to pursue it because an accident crippled his surgical abilities; his background is actually scientific. Mordo was raised supernatural, from a supernatural family, and steeped in evil from early youth; his background is more traditionally magical/occultist, and he always sought power.
- Next to Mordo, Dr Nicodemus West from Doctor Strange: The Oath is Strange's biggest evil counterpart. West was actually the doctor who botched the operation on Strange's injured surgeon's hands, West even trained under the Ancient One like Strange and Mordo did. West also used magic to help people, but after accidentally killing a girl with magic, West becomes disillusioned with sorcery and even formed a evil organization that would abolish all attempts to heal the sick with magic. West even steals Otkid's Elixir (the cure of all illness) seeing it concluding in overpopulation and chaos for humanity but also selfishly as a doctor wants to keep disease existing in the human race. Ironically Strange also doesn't use the elixir to cure everyone either, he just uses it to save Wong from dying of cancer, Strange like West could see danger with playing god with mankind's cure-all. Strange just went about in a more morally positive manner.
- Fantastic Four:
- Reed Richards and Doctor Doom: archenemies, both intellectually-inclined supergeniuses, both master inventors, both with major strengths in technology, both hammy and prone to Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, both pretty similar in personality once you factor out Doom's This Is Your Brain on Evil. A lot of their battles consist of them passive-aggressively complimenting each other's moves in ways that often sound a lot like two computer geeks playing together. The key difference between them usually centres on how they handle responsibility; Doom's entire motivation stems from the fact that he can't accept that it was his own error, not Reed's interference, that caused the accident which scarred him, and maintains his vendetta to avoid having to acknowledge that he was at fault all along and Reed is just a little bit smarter than him, while Reed is a lot more willing to accept fault when he's in the wrong and will attempt to make amends or correct his mistakes.
- Ultimate Marvel Reed Richards, a.k.a. the Maker, becomes the Evil Doppelgänger of Earth-616's Reed. Indeed, the Maker does absolutely everything that Reed abhors in regard to science, ethics, and complete disregard of loved ones, something a Family Man like Reed despises. The Maker also serves as a grim reminder how dangerous and evil Reed could've been if his path in life had gone down a dark turn. Also, while Reed's Rubber Man powers are goofy, Maker's stretchiness is pure Nightmare Fuel.Maker: You know when I look at your face... which is my face I see the age on it. I wonder how it became so sentimental. So soft. So weak.
Mr. Fantastic: It's easy, Reed, when you learn to care about things other than yourself.
Maker: You mean things like this? [opens up a projection of Sue, Franklin and Valeria]
- Ghost Rider has Michael Badilino a.k.a. Vengeance, who made a deal with Mephisto and became a demon (similar to Johnny Blaze) in order get revenge on Ghost Rider. Ironically Vengeance’s beef with Ghost Rider only happened due to Mephisto‘s manipulation in the first place, Vengeance soon gets Drunk with Power before Ghost Rider stops him and Vengeance has a Heel Realization blowing himself up.
- Vengeance 2 (Deputy Kowalski) is even worse since he didn’t have a Freudian Excuse like his predecessor, using Hellfire for shits and giggles.
- Hawkeye has Trick Shot. The original was his mentor, while the second one was Clint's brother Barney. They're both like Hawkeye, but without the morals or sense of decency.
- Immortal Hulk reveals that The One Above All has The One Below All as an evil counterpart. Subverted in the finale, however, which reveals that The One Below All is the same being as The One Above All, with The One Below All being the "Hulk" of The One Above All.
- The Incredible Hulk:
- The Hulk himself has many Evil Counterparts:
- Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination, who was bombarded with gamma radiation and survived like the good doctor thanks to a genetic factor in his body that saved him from being killed, at the cost of turning into a giant monster. However, unlike Bruce, who was horrified by his transformation, Blonsky was delighted and consciously abuses his strength for evil purposes. Interestingly, Abomination still retains his normal intelligence, and therefore is that much more dangerous.
- Samuel Sterns aka The Leader is Hulk’s Evil Counterpart if the gamma radiation had the opposite reaction in Dr Banner. In laymen's terms, Bruce was smart and gamma radiation turned him into a child-like monster with infinite strength while Sterns was dumb and gamma radiation turned him into a monster with infinite intelligence. It’s essentially Brains Evil, Brawn Good.
- Brian Banner is the evil counterpart to Bruce both are nuclear scientists with hidden rage inside them, difference is Bruce as a man or The Hulk always at least has some conscience and innate goodness (thanks to his mom) while Brian is immoral, horrifically abusive and serves an Eldritch Abomination. In Bruce's mind Brian is represented as a giant demonic snake-like hulk.
- The Maestro, an evil future version of the Hulk who acts as the ruler of a Bad Future caused by nuclear wars.
- The Red Hulk, who is even more violent and trigger-happy then the Hulk to an almost sociopathic degree.
- Hulk's Rogues Gallery also includes the Fantastic Four's most direct Evil Counterparts. The U-Foes are a group of four villains created by billionaire Simon Utrecht attempting to copy the process that created the Fantastic Four, accompanied by pilot Mike Steele and brother/sister Jimmy and Ann Darnell, copying Reed's original ship and flying through a new cosmic ray storm. The process gave them potentially greater power than the FF — Utretcht is the telekinetic Vector, Steele became the metallic physical powerhouse Ironclad, Jimmy generates various forms of radiation as X-Ray and Ann can turn into any form of chemical gas — but their flight was interrupted by Bruce Banner when he brought their ship back to Earth, believing them to be in danger from an accident. Ironically, they have never faced the Fantastic Four despite the heroes being their direct inspiration, instead facing the Hulk as their most consistent adversary, although they have also battled various iterations of the Avengers.
- The Hulk himself has many Evil Counterparts:
- The Illuminati, consisting of Charles Xavier, Stephen Strange, Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Blackagar Bolton, and Namor, is opposed by the villainous Cabal, consisting of Norman Osborn, Victor von Doom, Emma Frost, Loki, Parker Robbins, and Namor. Yes, that's the same Namor on both teams. No, he doesn't see a problem with this.
- Moon Knight had Evil Counterpart villains for his Marc Spector identity (Bushman), his Steven Grant identity (Midnight Man), and his Moon Knight persona (Black Spectre). At the end of Warren Ellis and Decan Shavley's run a new Black Spectre was introduced, being this for their reimagining of Moon Knight. His introductory issue is all about how he pretty much redefines himself to be this for Moon Knight.
- Ms. Marvel-Captain Marvel, alias Carol Danvers, has Doctor Minerva, a Kree scientist who gave herself the same powers as Carol and even wears a variation of her old costume.
- Also Moonstone, who even posed as Ms. Marvel for a time during Dark Reign.
- In Master of Kung Fu #118, Shang-Chi battled an evil clone of himself that had been created by Fu Manchu. In addition to having all of the same skills and training, the clone even wore a black version of Shang's trademark red gi.
- The Punisher:
- From The Punisher MAX:
- Tiberiu Bulat from "The Slavers" arc. At one point Frank even refers to him as a "twisted old fuck who still thought he was a soldier". Amusingly Frank doesn't appear to realize the irony in this statement.
- Barracuda. Ennis wrote him specifically to be the Punisher's. Like Frank, Barracuda was trained as an elite commando, honed his skills on the battlefield, and lost a great deal of his humanity there. Once they returned home, they found that they couldn't re-adjust to civilian life. But where Castle lost his family and found his war on crime, Barracuda signed on for another tour of duty, this time in Nicaragua, where the corruption gave him the chance to go completely wild; Frank hides his basic human decency and warmth behind a cold and humorless exterior, while Barracuda hides his psychopathy behind a humorous grin.
- In Circle of Blood, the first miniseries for the Punisher, Castle fights against a brainwashed army of criminals, all patterned after him.
- From The Punisher MAX:
- She-Hulk:
- Titania to She-Hulk. Like Jennifer, she was also a shy wallflower in high school that gained superpowers later in life. There are a few key differences though. She-Hulk never asked for her powers (she adjusted well enough though) while Titania was so desperate to be powerful and special that she let Doctor Doom experiment on her. She-Hulk's transformation helped her gain real confidence both as She-Hulk and as Jennifer Walters. Titania's powers act as a crutch and deep down she is still the insecure Mary MacPherran. Titania resents She-Hulk specifically because She-Hulk is stronger than her in every way.
- Jennifer also briefly had Red She-Hulk, who has since become more of an Anti-Hero Counterpart.
- The Marvel Comics series Sleepwalker has an Evil Counterpart in Psyko, who possesses warping abilities similar to Sleepwalker's. Sleepwalker, an alien devoted to protecting the minds of innocent people from insanity, became fused with the human Rick Sheridan when he found himself trapped in Rick's mind, whereas Psyko was created when a human Serial Killer became fused with a demonic creature from the Mindscape, giving him the ability to spread his madness like a disease, Mind Raping everyone around him.
- Squirrel Girl: Doreen has her evil knockoff duplicate Allene Green.
