Marvel Universe
- Ant-Man and the supervillain Grizzly have formed an odd friendship; Grizzly attacked Scott because he mistook Scott for someone else, took him out to lunch to apologize, and from there the two hit it off. It helps that Grizzly is a professional and general Nice Guy rather than a lunatic/idiot/jerk like many supervillains.
- While Bullseye has nothing but hatred for his usual punching partner Daredevil, he's formed a strange friendship with Deadpool. Deadpool is fully aware that Bullseye is a scumbag, but the two find each other to be oddly relateable thanks to their shared difficulties interacting with others. Even when they're trying to murder each other it comes off more like friendly ribbing than a serious situation. Bullseye has said that Deadpool is the only person he actually likes in any way and when Wade was believed to be dying, Bullseye cried.
- Captain America has Batroc the Leaper. They both enjoy squaring off and are generally on good terms. He has even teamed up with Cap to defeat another villain on a number of occasions.
- Played with in Damage Control. In the first issue, John Porter helps the villain Thunderball cut through Damage Control's Lost & Found department. Later, when several employees are trapped with the Wrecking Crew, Thunderball recognizes John among them; he instructs the Wrecking Crew to leave them alone and claims that John has superpowers.
- Fantastic Four: Doctor Doom and Reed Richards vary between this and blind, relentless hatred, depending on the day of the week. Another example is Reed Richards and Namor the Sub-Mariner, mostly because Reed's wife is the love of both of their lives. In the 2008 What If? one-shot "What if this was the Fantastic Four?", the Fantastic Four had been killed (or possibly disappeared) and the unlikely foursome of Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider took over the title to uphold the legacy (as they had briefly done in the nineties). They fight a massively powerful enemy who nearly kills them all, when... Doctor Doom steps in to take out the enemy, proclaiming that, "None may kill the Fantastic Four... save Doom." That's right, he'll save their bacon simply because they're upholding his enemies' name; because he won't let that name be tarnished by being defeated by an unworthy opponent (that is, anyone but Doom). On a less serious note, Doom has no problem with Squirrel Girl entering his sanctum and doing whatever she pleases. Either he respects her, or he's just afraid she'll beat him up again if he protests.
- Bodega Bandit, a joke villain Ghost Spider arrests on a regular basis, is shown to have developed this type of relationship with her in Ghost-Spider (2019). When he gets shot while legally purchasing sunflower seeds for his hamster, Gwen is deeply concerned for him and even refers to him as her "friend" while visiting him in the hospital.Gwen: [to cashier] Call the police! Call the police right now!
Bodega Bandit: [lying shot on ground] I thought we weren't friends.
Gwen: We're not.
Bandit: So I'm your nemesis?
Gwen: Sure. If that's what you want. You can be my nemesis.
Bandit: [smiles] ...Cool. - Blizzard is good friends with She-Hulk, after the two bonded over a glass of beer during a period where Jen was disbarred.
- When Eric Masterson served as replacement Thor for a while, he developed a friendship/rivalry with the villain, the Absorbing Man. When Masterson died, Absorbing Man visited his grave and openly admitted to Thor that they were friends.
- The Sandman has a less venomous relationship with Spider-Man than the wallcrawler's other adversaries, even when he's not playing the good guy. Spidey has also formed an uneasy alliance with the first Venom occasionally and he really does pity Brock, but said alliances almost always end in betrayal due to Venom's ever-deteriorating mental health.
- Sandman also has a rather cordial relationship with Ben Grimm despite his past as a member of the Frightful Four. The two have been drinking buddies in the past and have even worked together on rare occasions.
- The 2019 Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series shows Spidey apprehending a thief he apparently webs up often, to the point that he knows him by name and promises not shoot webs at his spine next time. The thug also requests for his shoes to be webbed up as well, since the last time Spider-Man left him hanging some kids stole them. Spider-Man obliges.
- Taskmaster is a True Neutral at heart, so while he'll happily gun for anyone he's hired to kill, it's never personal. Like Bullseye, he actually became really good friends with Deadpool despite frequently being hired to kill him (in fact, when Deadpool hits a low, Tasky gracefully accepts losing to him and gives him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech), and after being forced to join the Secret Avengers, he actually took a liking to Mockingbird, despite being just as willing to kill her when his memory problems lead him into thinking he's loyal to AIM. His kindness to her is rewarded, as while brainwashed and ordered to kill him, Bobbi deliberately aims for a part of the brain she knows will survive a gunshot wound without causing permanent brain damage.
- Despite both being heroes, Namor and Black Panther have frequently been this. Both are kings of sovereign land (Atlantis and Wakanda, respectively), and due to diplomatic connections have on many occasions come close to war with one-another. However, they both share many allies and serve many of the same teams, so they're also just as likely to be on the same side. It was particularly prominent during the Incursions storyline, but even as far back as the 90s they were shown engaging in diplomatic squabbles and dealings.
- Similarly, and in a straighter example, both maintained this dynamic with Doctor Doom and Magneto, when the latter pair were heads of state themselves (Latveria and Genosha, respectively). They openly noted the latter as enemies of their allied heroes, but had no problem inviting one-another for dinner and diplomatic discussions.
- Professor X and Magneto from X-Men. It's rare when either actively seeks to harm the other, and when they do it's a really big deal. They've been compared to Malcolm X (Magneto) and Dr. King (Xavier) because they both want what's best for mutants as a whole, but disagree on what this is and the methods for getting there. Another Real Life analogy for these two would be Eric Raymond (Xavier) and Richard Stallman (Magneto), the two ideological leaders of the Free/Open Source Software movement; in terms of Raymond seeking reconciliation with the corporate world, and Stallman insisting that compromise is impossible. X-Men shows them playing chess. However there are exceptions to this.
- Their Ultimate incarnations, where, for the first few issues, Magneto is willing to kill Xavier if he could get the chance. Xavier is opposed to killing in general - not to killing Magneto per se. Their relationship ended in Ultimatum... where Magneto broke the Professor's neck with his bare hand.
- Professor X drops the trope by name in Astonishing X-Men, when Danger, the robotic form of the sentient Danger Room, comes to attack him on Genosha. Since Danger can control machines, Professor X specifically says that he had "a friend" send out an electromagnetic pulse to deactivate all of the technology on the island to make the fight fair. The only "friend" who could possibly do that is Magneto. In a much later storyline that directly resulted from the Astonishing series (namely, Kitty Pryde pulling a Heroic Sacrifice by permanently fusing with a giant bullet that was aimed directly at the Earth, allowing it to phase through the planet harmlessly, Magneto rescues her with his powers as a genuine favor not just to Professor X, but the rest of the X-Men as well.
