Opposites Attract!
Evil Doppelgängers, Dark Reflections, and Twisted Twins!
So…is the old saying “opposites attract” really true? If we’re talking romance? Probably not.
But if we’re talking about me and “Opposite Number” supervillains? Absolutely!
Rest assured, I love all the obvious A-List bad guys like The Joker, Green Goblin, the Doctors Doom and Octopus, and all the rest. However, there’s just something about those Evil Duplicates, Dark Reflections, and Twisted Doppelgangers I’ve never been able to get enough of.
What could be the Deep Psychological Underpinnings for that fixation? Could Opposite Number villains mirror the struggle between good and evil that rages in every human heart? Are they symbolic reminders of just how easy power can corrupt? Is it the sense of cosmic symmetry these equally powerful yet morally twisted characters represent and maybe even demand?
Frankly, I have no idea. But here’s what I do know:
One of the first dozen superhero comic books I’d ever read was Marvel’s Greatest Comics #57 (reprinting Fantastic Four #75), which dropped me right in the middle of nothing less than The Second Coming of Galactus! As you can imagine, 9 year-old me had absolutely no idea what was going on…but thanks to the charismatic scripting of Stan Lee and the eye-popping Kirby-Sinnott art, it didn’t seem to matter.
Then, about midway through the story, the off-world Galactus creates a distraction to occupy Reed, Johnny and Ben (Sue was pregnant and on bed rest at the time). Rising from the ocean shore like zombies, an eerie trio of dark duplicates ruthlessly attacked the boys using powers identical to their own.
Of course, the evil counterparts were eventually defeated, but not before sparking a fascination with Opposite Number villains that continues to this day.
So, what exactly is an Opposite Number Supervillain? As I see it, we’ve got four broad categories:
