Unknown Rival / Comic Books

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• Acts of Vengeance: During the Crisis Crossover which focused primarily on The Avengers but involved most other heroes, members of the super-hero community were subject to attacks by villains they had never fought before or barely even knew — ie. the Mandarin, normally Iron Man's arch-foe, instead battled the X-Men. In fact, most of the villains in question didn't even know the true reason; some had simply been hired out by the masterminds behind the true plot, others had been duped into doing so. (The true scheme was a plot by Loki to destroy the Avengers once and for all by recruiting a council of powerful and influential villains, but they fell apart due to infighting.)
• Asterix: Obelix doesn't like Tragicomix and is jealous of him being Panacea's fiancee. But Tragicomix isn't aware that Obelix is in love with her, let alone that he's jealous of Tragicomix. In fact, he has lots of respect for Obelix after being saved from the Romans by him and Asterix, and seeing Obelix charging at a Roman army all alone. When Tragicomix sees Panacea again he actually praises Obelix to her for his feats.
• Batman: In The Batman Adventures, Joe Chill spent the rest of his life in fear of Bruce Wayne taking revenge on him for the deaths of Thomas and Martha. Thing is, in this continuity Bruce never discovered the identity of his parents' killer. When Batman is unmasked while he is trying to save Chill from falling off a balcony railing, the latter panics and falls to his death. Batman is utterly baffled by this since he didn't recognize Chill.
• Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars!: The Air Marshal considers Bucky his arch-nemesis. Bucky considers the Air Marshal a minor speed-bump on the road to taking down Toadborg and KOMPLEX.
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: Gadget doesn't even remember Glitch at first, so is confused just why she has a vendetta against her.
• Deadpool: Deadpool takes every opportunity he can to one-up Wolverine in some way, while Wolverine couldn't give less of a damn, and views him as a complete nuisance at best.
• Deathstroke: In the first arc of his 1990s comic, Deathstroke found himself in battle with a new version of the Ravager. In a final confrontation, Ravager unmasked and noted how Slade didn't recognize him. He's Bill Walsh, who trained with Slade back in the army but always in second place. He'd also had a crush on Adeline Kane who became Slade's wife. At first, Slade can't believe this entire rampage of murder is "over me stealing a girl 20 years ago" but Walsh reveals it's even bigger. Getting a closer look, Slade realizes Walsh was Jackal, the terrorist who had slit the throat of Slade's son, Joe, rendering him mute. To top it all off, an injured Jackal then joined the group HIVE and recruited Slade's other son, Grant to become the first Ravager, which got him killed. In their fight, Walsh gloats on how he's been ruining Slade's life for years without Slade even knowing about it. He pays for it as no one gets the better of Deathstroke with a sword.
• Dr. Blink: Superhero Shrink: Dr. Blink sees Dr. Larry, another psychiatrist/writer in much the same line of work, as his rival (at least until he's talked down by Tracy and Emma). However, Dr. Larry is unaware of this since Dr. Blink never does act on his feelings.
• Fantastic Four:
  • The unnamed villain in the giant-sized fiftieth issue of Fantastic Four (Lee & Kirby) was some sort of scientist who had spent decades plotting revenge against Reed. (As in only Reed, he clearly had nothing against the other members of the team.) Why? He didn't say, and seeing as he sacrificed himself to save Reed after Becoming the Mask, fandom likely will never know.
  • In James Robinson's run on Fantastic Four (2014), a scientist who calls himself the Quiet Man embarks on a massive plan to tear the FF apart, capturing Reed with the intent of framing him for an alien invasion of Earth. Why? Because the Quiet Man had been madly in love with Sue in college but never got the courage to ask her out before Reed did and had wanted payback ever since. Even Reed points out how incredibly stupid that is.
• The Incredible Hulk: The Incredible Hulk (1968) #393 has the story of Coyote Cash, an arch-criminal who's foiled repeatedly over the years by various versions of Hulk, beginning with the Hulk accidentally crushing his get-away car while escaping from the Army. After a 3rd release from prison, he tracks down Rick Jones and destroys his house with a bazooka. While he makes a triumphant speech about "being ready for the Hulk", Hulk — who had been house sitting for Rick while he was on vacation — emerges from the rubble in trademark anger.
  Hulk: I hope you're ready now, you stupid two-bit hood!
  Cash: I... I give up!
  (Cash is meekly dragged away by police as Hulk watches)
  Hulk: I wonder who that guy was? It's a funny world, when you can be minding your own business and along comes some stranger to complicate your life.
• Iron Man: Kearson DeWitt put Iron Man, or rather Tony Stark, through six kinds of hell in the Iron Man (1968) storyline "Armor Wars II"; he was commissioned by the Marrs twins to take Tony out, but for him it is clearly, indeed emphatically personal. He rants and raves at Stark for some cruel injustice that was done to him — but when the story finally comes to a head, and — after a long and devastating battle — DeWitt's face is revealed to Tony, he does not recognize him. Atypically for the trope, this shocks him profoundly. The idea was that DeWitt was one of the many guys Tony crushed during his selfish rise to power and while DeWitt remembers it clearly, Tony never even knew the guy's name.
  • In the later three-annual-crossover "Assault on Armor City", it is revealed (in retcon, natch) that DeWitt is the son of an unrecognized engineering genius, whose designs — DeWitt believes — were stolen by Stark and formed the basis for Iron Man, while the true inventor died 'a broken and penniless man'. It's kind of a bum move which pulls the sting out of the original story.
• Iznogoud: Everyone knows that Iznogoud wants to be Caliph instead of the Caliph... everyone, that is, except the Caliph.
• Kick-Ass: Justified. Big Daddy doesn't actually have any personal connection to John Genovese; that's just a story he made up for Hit Girl to justify raising her as his sidekick. Big Daddy is actually just a comic nerd who wanted to be a superhero and chose Genovese as his arch-enemy more or less at random.
• The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: In the issue "The Terror of Transvaal", Scrooge gets robbed by an unnamed duck only referred to as a "Viper". After Scrooge tracks down the Viper, humiliates him and has him arrested, the Viper swears to get even with Scrooge. To Scrooge, the Viper is just another greedy thug he butted heads with, but the narration reveals that his name is Flintheart Glomgold, Scrooge's present day rival for the title of World's Richest Duck. Don Rosa's notes on the story suggests that Glomgold has never forgotten this encounter, while Scrooge possibly did.
  "Yet notice that Scrooge never learns Flintheart's name, since his African rival is unknown and unrecognized by him in their later "first" meeting in "The Second Richest Duck" in Scrooge McDuck#15. On the other hand, we have no indication that Flintheart doesn't already know Scrooge in that tale; in fact, the cool manner in which Flintheart receives Scrooge. could be inferred as a sign that Flintheart knew who he was, and knew he was on his way to Africa, having met him on the ship coming over."
• Nightwing: Dick Grayson has a "nemesis" in the form of Shrike who isn't quite unknown (they both underwent assassin training in their childhood, but Nightwing was undercover and Shrike wasn't) but Shrike is the only one who considers them archenemies. Even during their fight, while Shrike is trying to stab Nightwing to death, Nightwing just ignores him.
• Sam & Max: Freelance Police: The comic poke fun at this with Mack Salmon, a very angry fish in a bowl who has a bone to pick with the duo for "setting in motion the events which caused his current state." Neither of them knows who he is or what he's going on about (neither does the reader); they decide to just smack him around like any other ineffectual villain they come across.
• Scooby Apocalypse: In the Secret Squirrel backup strip, when Wily Wolf reveals himself to Secret Squirrel, he claims to be the agent's greatest enemy, and SS professes to have no idea who he is. Wolf thinks SS is mocking him, but he's genuinely clueless, pointing out that lots of people have tried to kill him, and he can't be expected to remember all of them.
• Spider-Man:
  • In Spider-Man (1990), Spidey faces a guy called "The Master of Vengeance" seeking revenge because Spider-Man put him in jail for dealing drugs. Peter, who does that sort of thing all the time, didn't remember him at all.
  • Slyde. In Spider-Man Unlimited Vol 3 #1, he had Spider-Man on the ropes. And in this case, Spider-Man does know who Slyde is; you don't have a guy as a decently recurring enemy for years without remembering him. He just regards him as little more than an occasional nuisance.
  • There's a similar scene in Ultimate Spider-Man, when Shocker manages to capture Spider-Man. Throughout the series, he was played up as a joke, a character who didn't even really qualify as a supervillain that Spidey would easily subdue in the opening pages of an arc to show "business as usual." While he has Spider-Man hanging upside-down he reveals that from his point of view, things weren't nearly so funny, revealing a level of anger and humiliation made only worse by the fact that Spider-Man never gave him a second thought.
  • In Venom's original backstory, he was just a reporter whose shoddy journalism was exposed by Spider-Man. Eddie Brock claimed to have interviewed the Sin-eater, but it turns out the guy was just a compulsive confessor, and Spidey caught the real criminal. Eddie snapped and held a grudge against Spider-Man that only got worse after bonding with the Venom symbiote. At this time Spidey had never even met Eddie face to face.
  • In the "Light the Night" story arc from Spider-Man (1990), a subplot of the story dealt with a mugger who Spidey had caught on numerous occasions, but could never remember from one time to the next. The guy hated Spider-Man, not so much because he kept getting punched out and webbed to the wall; he even said he wouldn't mind so much if, for once, Spidey remembered who he was! Eventually, the guy tries to pull a grandiose stunt and rob a high-class party, pretending to be a super-villain (doing a rather lame job of it), and when Spidey shows up, again, he seems enraged by his "arch-enemy's" presence, but Spidey has no-idea who he is. It becomes a moot point a minute later, as Electro tries to pull an even bigger stunt that threatens to wipe out the entire city block. Still, the story ends somewhat happy for the guy; he runs into a beautiful socialite from the party who doesn't recognize him as the criminal, and they hit it off quickly. But when Spidey walks by them on the last page — in his civilian identity as Peter — he still doesn't recognize him.
  • In The Sensational Spider Man, after Spidey's unmasking during Marvel's Civil War event, he is attacked by C-list villain Will O'the Wisp. Spider-Man's response is "And you are...?" Wisp gives a rundown of every encounter they've had, to which Spider-Man repeatedly responds that he doesn't remember any of this. Subverted by Spidey's narration, where he reveals that he knows perfectly well who Will O'the Wisp is, and is just messing with him.
• Superman:
  • In the Many Happy Returns arc, Super-villain Rebel craves for killing both Supergirls (Silver Age Kara Zor-El and Post-Crisis Linda Danvers). As long as either of them is concerned, though, he is a pathetic nuisance with delusions of grandeur. When Rebel tries to harass Kara for the last time, she shows him how insignificant he is and what the real difference of power between them is. He runs away.
    Rebel: So whattaya say we just finish this off with one final dance?
    Supergirl: Don't you get it, Rebel? You're not important! You never were! You were just — something to do! Something for Supergirl and me to bounce off of for a while until people and events of real consequence came along!
  • It's implied the Supergirl Xenon hates so much was Linda Danvers, but a Linda far older and more powerful. That Xenon is deliberately unclear as to which Supergirl he's talking about frustrates Linda and Kara.
  • Supergirl (Rebirth): Cat Grant has a panic room in her office because "She's the sworn enemy of Lois Lane and needs a place to hide." She seriously thinks this, even though Lois couldn't care less for Cat.
  • Superman is aware of how much Lex Luthor hates him but not the level Luthor takes it to. It's been shown that Luthor honestly believes Superman is just as obsessed with Luthor as Luthor is with him, thinking Superman reforming the Justice League was a direct shot on him, and being convinced during 52 that Superman was pretending to be Supernova to strike at him. The truth, of course, is that while Luthor is a threat, Superman doesn't spend every minute of the day worrying about him but trying to help others and even have a normal life.
  • Amok, a supervillain whose only appearance is in Superman: The 10 cent Adventure, was stopped by Superman four years earlier. Understandably, this became the defining moment of his life. Just as understandably, Supes saw it as another five minute battle against a bank robber, and never gave it another thought. Amok is quite shocked to realize this.
  • Big Ron Gomz insists that he is number one on the JLA Most Wanted list, that he knocked Superman through a building, put the Martian Manhunter in a coma, and that he's the guy who broke Batman's back, but none of the Doom Patrol members he tussles with has ever heard of him.
  • Krypton No More: One-time super-villain Protector declares he will bring Superman down. He is quite annoyed because Superman doesn't take him — a one-time villain and superpowered thug — seriously.
    Protector: Is it possible you've already forgotten me, Superman? What a shame — For as you can see, I haven't forgotten you!
  • In Last Daughter of Krypton, Simon Tycho tries to capture Supergirl and gets his butt kicked. Kara quickly forgets about him afterwards, but Simon becomes obsessed with being defeated by "a little girl". Determined to not let her "win", Simon finds and breaks into her submarine Sanctuary to fight her, and Supergirl gets him locked up provisionally while she decides what to do with him. Nonetheless, she does not dedicate another thought to Simon, not even when her base gets blown up and he dies.
  • In The Unknown Supergirl, Lesla-Lar hates Kara Zor-El to death because the Girl of Steel will be more loved and praised than Lesla has ever been when she goes public. Driven by irrational jealousy, envy and ambition, Lesla concocts a scheme to depower Supergirl, abduct her, mindwipe her, replace her, get rid of Superman and Luthor and take over the world. Meanwhile, Kara remains unaware of Lesla's sinister machinations because she has never heard of Lesla.
  • In Escape from the Phantom Zone, Supergirl is attacked by the villain Magog, who claims she did -or, better said, will- destroy his family. Supergirl, who does not even know who Magog is -let alone his family-, but is used to strangers attacking her for things she has not done, tries to reason with him. When Magog refuses to elaborate, or calm down, she simply knocks him out.
    Supergirl: Who are you? We do not have to fight—
    Magog: I know what you did— What you will do![...]
    Supergirl: You are not the first to attack me for things I have not done—
  • Day of the Dollmaker: Catherine Grant, who still blames Toyman for her son's murder (committed by a Toyman's out-of-control duplicate robot), believes he has been sending her dolls to taunt her. However, when she confronts him, Toyman reiterates he doesn't have or want business with her at all.
  • Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom: The titular villain goes on a rampage in Metropolis to draw Superman's attention, whose head she demands loudly. When Superman finally appears and wonders why she wants to kill him -since he had never seen her before-, Maelstrom declares she expects to win Darkseid's over by beheading him. Superman calmly states she must be a very sad and disturbed person before using her own teleporting device to toss her back into Apokolips.
  • In The Super-Steed of Steel, Supergirl runs into Vostar, an Atlantean mad scientist who considers himself the world's greatest criminal scientist, and Luthor's rival...even though Luthor does not even know who Vostar is.
• The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: Rodimus is consumed with seething resentment for Thunderclash, the Greatest Autobot Ever, because Thunderclash is an Ideal Hero almost to the point of comedy, while Rodimus falls well short of the heroic ideal but is (usually) self-aware enough to know it. While Thunderclash definitely knows who Rodimus is, he never gives any impression of knowing that Rodimus hates him so much, even though Rodders commemorated Thunderclash's imminent death with a broad grin, two thumbs up and a terrible pun.
• Transmetropolitan plays this trope for laughs with the character of police dog Stomponato, who suffered an incredible degree of humiliation at the hands of Spider Jerusalem (to the point that he can't hear Jerusalem's name without having a seizure). The entire arc has Stomponato following Jerusalem with the intention of getting his revenge... with Stomp being blinded, beaten and burned in the process. Finally, after tracking him down at the docks, Stomponato leaps for him... and sails right over Jerusalem's head, who didn't even know he was there, and indeed probably has no memory of Stomponato at all
• The X-Factor comics circa mid-1990s had a great deal of fun with this one:
  1. Dick Chalker was a mutant who could turn himself into a manlike dinosaur creature. He used his powers to commit murder, robbery and postal fraud, and inspired hatred of mutantkind in the rest of the Chalker family.
  2. Dick's cousin Rick Chalker decided to act on this hatred of mutants. In true Mad Scientist fashion, he successfully replaced his hands with enormous, razor-sharp propeller blades. Calling himself the Number One Fan, he was ready to kill every mutant in the world...only to discover that he couldn't open the door out of his lab with them. When he tried to slap himself on the forehead in frustration, he cut the top of his head off.
  3. The third cousin, Professor Vic Chalker, created a massive robot battlesuit to avenge Rick. In making the first version of the suit, he forgot to take his measurements so he couldn't fit in it. In making the second version, he didn't give it enough of a power supply and it ran out of juice five seconds after he started it, becoming trapped inside in the process. In making the third version, he gave it enough power but forgot to waterproof the suit. He fatally electrocuted himself after he took the suit out in a rainstorm.
  4. Dick, now calling himself "Carnivore", decided that Rick and Vic's deaths were on his conscience and decided to avenge them by killing every mutant on Earth so none of them could abuse their powers the way he did. Unfortunately, as he stepped out of his house to commence his killing spree, he was immediately killed by a truck.

  All of this led up to an X-Factor annual issue where a mutant-hating former classmate of Strong Guy's showed up, having devoted his life to the dark arts and become a servant of Mephisto. In order to defeat X-Factor, he brought back their three greatest enemies from the dead — the three brothers who had died over the past three issues, none of whom had so much as been seen by X-Factor. So in the massive, climactic battle, an unknown rival resurrected three more unknown rivals. When the villains introduced themselves, Polaris asked if they were sure they had the right X-team.

  Strong Guy: That figures! Only we could have a bunch of "greatest enemies" that we never heard of.

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