Top Eleven Best Arch-Nemeses

The arch-nemesis is a very important figure for any great protagonist. A good protagonist needs his opposite, his perfect antagonist that in their own special way is the only person able to truly understand the hero. Many superheroes and characters deny it but they need their Arch-Nemesis to complete them.

 

These are the Top Ten Eleven Best Arch-Nemeses that, without them, we wouldn’t truly like the hero nearly as much. The better the villain, the harder the obstacle overcome, the greater we love the story. Not to mention that a lot of these nemeses are just really damn cool.

 

Let’s all remember that these Top Tens are for fun, but I can’t stress enough how much I love reading all the hate-mail I get when I ‘leave your favorite character out’ or ‘ripped on Aquaman unjustly’ or ‘slept with your sister,’ blah, blah. And let me take a page from Maddox by saying that I’m always right because this is my Top Ten and you can’t argue that I don’t think these are the best, so there.

 

11. Sideshow Bob (Bart) –

 

Ok, this one is a bit of stretch only because Bart is definitely Sideshow Bob’s arch-nemesis, but the same is harder to prove the other way around. I’ll try though. For one, the two have fought many times with an eye towards total destruction of the other. Second, I don’t know about you but some of the funniest Simpson’s episodes have come from the struggles between the two. Third, Kelsey Grammer is second on the Simpson’s only to the late, great Phil Hartman. And finally, they are opposites in Bob’s sophistication, Bart’s pointed lack thereof—equals in their wily cunning and timely comedy that makes me laugh so hard Dr. Pepper comes out my nose in front of everybody at a dinner party, I was at someone else’s house and stained their carpet.

 

10. Red Skull (Captain America) –

 

This is a rivalry/battle that helped define an entire period in American history, us vs. the Nazis, and everyone loves to hate Nazis. He’s one of the oldest characters on this list and it is pretty hard to not find something intriguing about a diehard Nazi who wears a Red Skull mask all the time. The idea of a whole empire of easy-to-identify and evil people has been the impetus for various villains throughout literature, especially comics, but Red Skull was invented while such things were still going on in the real life and served as a propaganda symbol that helped people out with their anxiety.

 

Like most of the villains on this list, Red Skull is Cap’s opposite and equal at the same time. He is supposed to be (at least one of his incarnations is) a cloned Steve Rogers, which makes him the equal to Captain America in fighting prowess. Gotta love seeing a Nazi getting punched in the face!

 

9. Sabertooth (Wolverine) –

 

Wolverine has a lot of villains in his ‘cool’ list, but none come as close to being an arch-nemesis as Sabertooth. He too has a healing factor with an adamentium skeleton that allows the two to hack and slash each other to bloody pulps for our amusement, and then do it again next issue when they both heal. Sabertooth also understands Logan in ways other never will, because of their shared experiences as agents for Weapon X and their shady pasts that intertwine time and again. Sabertooth is also Logan’s opposite in that Logan is attempting to control his killing instincts and atone for his past while Sabertooth embraces it.

 

8. Shredder (TMNT) –

 

This one is the only one to include a pairing that had one side be a group of people, a group that could and should include Splinter. Shredder is the Turtles’ equals in martial arts, he trained from the same sensei as Splinter (and killed him), and yet Shredder is their opposite who is willing to use his deadly skills to take over the world. All the Turtles want is some pizza and a little April action. Shredder did die after only two battles in the comic, but the cartoon had him coming back again and again.

 

7. White Spy (Black Spy) –

 

The White Spy and Black Spy have been battling since time immemorial, or at least since it was first published in Mad Magazine in 1961. The Spy vs. Spy series was the political satire that Cuban National Antonio Prohías made about the Cold War and the futility of armed escalation. The greatness of the comic strip was both its inventive nature and amusing outcomes which usually tried to keep the reader guessing. Obviously, they are perfectly equal and opposite and are always coming back for more.

 

Little known fact: There was, for a couple of years, a third spy (Lady in Grey) who both Black and White were in love with. She would always win in the end so wasn’t used more than 21 times.

 

6. Bruce Banner (Hulk) –

 

It was the need to include this pair on the list that had me extend it to eleven. They are obviously opposites, that being the definition of who the Hulk is. The Hulk is all muscle and usually not very bright, while Banner is extremely smart but not particularly athletic or physically strong in any way. Their battle is a constant one that has raged since the characters’ existence. Most importantly, one truly wouldn’t exist without the other (well, no one would read “The Boring Bruce Banner”).

 

5. Green Goblin (Spider-Man) –

 

The Green Goblin and Spider-Man hold a special relationship in their struggles because of their dual identities that often pit them in the most peculiar situations when they are dressed for battle. Peter Parker and Norman Osborn know and interact with so many of the same people that Norman is in such a wonderful position to cause Peter more pain and anguish than anyone else.

 

They are equal in their abilities to the extent that both are augmented individuals who put on a mask, and they are opposites in much a similar abstract manner—one is insane and wishes to cause pain and anguish upon the world while Peter just has a tremendous amount of guilt that propels him to help others. So in this regard, they are not as obviously arch-nemeses, but I doubt few comic readers would question their placement on this list.

 

4. Lex Luthor (Superman) –

 

This is a similar pairing as the Banner/Hulk, where one is brain and the other is brawn (though not as extreme opposites as Banner/Hulk). Lex Luthor is perfect for Superman because he uses Supes utter gullibility and trusting nature against him. He often presents Supes with great moral dilemmas that force Kal-El to make a choice between the lesser of two evils.

 

 

 

3. Megatron (Optimus Prime)

 

The ongoing battle between these two has been going on longer than any other pair on this list (that’s in ‘comic book time’ now). They’ve battled on different planets, in space, and through out the ages as the heads of their respective groups. Why they battle often seems rather goofy, as one of my friends put it “all the Decepticons do is neatly stack Energon when the Autobots come and start some sh!t.”

 

One turns into a gun and the other into a truck, so it’s hard to say they are equal per se, but they are both the best fighters among their respective warrior clans. Optimus was always the only one who could ever go toe-to-toe with Megatron and win repeatedly.

 

2. Magneto (Professor X) –

 

Ah, we are really coming to the couple of pairings that you had to know were going to be on this list. Magneto and Professor X’s constant fighting is some of the best because of their close intimacy (no, not THAT kind of intimacy you pervert). Their friendship is so deep that they can almost kill/maim/mental damage without ruining it. If my friend made me a vegetable or rip the skeleton out of someone close to me then I doubt I’d still pay them ‘house visits’. But they do because they have a shared vision of mutant equality. Magneto simply thinks the best way to reach that equality is by removing all the humans, Prof. X doesn’t.

 

1. The Joker (Batman) –

 

The best pairing there ever was between a villain and hero has to be the Joker and Batman. They really aren’t opposites or equals, but it doesn’t matter because they have enough in common to make them the quintessential Arch-Nemeses, that and they make the best stories. They are both insane in their own special ways, and both have deeper psychological needs that are met by their dressing up as costumed characters.

But what it comes down to is that the Joker is one of the best villains because he doesn’t want simple things like gold, power, or authority. He just likes to have ‘fun.’ Such a simple reasoning that he gets away with because he’s…well, he’s the Joker and that really explains it all.