7 Marvel Villains Who Were Perfect Dark Mirrors Of Heroes

Marvel has always been a cut above when it comes to villains. It’s not so much that the House of Ideas’ villains are so unique or revolutionary, but the publisher has been able to take the tropes that we all know and love make them into something special. Just look at how many early Marvel Silver Age villains werebasically just Doctor Doom. Or how many evil capitalists that someone like Iron Man fights or the gimmick villains or the evil for the sake of evil guys. Marvel has always been a little more willing to push the envelope with villains, and this has paid off well for the publisher over the decades.

One of the most fruitful types of villains for the company are those enemies who are dark mirrors of the heroes they battle. Just look at someone like Magneto (who won’t be on this list because he’s been a hero for close to 20 years now); he was so special because he was the dark opposite of Xavier. Marvel does these kinds of villains with a special gusto, and these seven are the perfect opposites to the best heroes in comics.

7) Loki

So, Magneto isn’t the only archenemy to become more of a hero than a villain; Loki has followed the mutant master of magnetism in a lot of ways. The God of Stories has acted like a hero often in recent years, but they’re still something of a villain, so I’m counting them. We’ve seen many Loki variants over the decades, but the villain has always been Thor’s perfect opposite. They were smart where Thor was strong, they were crafty where Thor was honorable, they were into magic while the God of Thunder was always about physical power. The two characters play so well off each other, whether they’re in battle or on the same side, because of just how different they truly are.

6) The Leader

The Hulk faces some powerful villains, and most of them have one thing in common: they’re all really strong. The Jade Giant is the strongest one there is and most of his enemies try to punch him out. However, there’s one villain who is his complete opposite in every way that counts: the Leader. The Hulk is the supreme physical power, but the Leader is the supreme mental one. Gamma gave him the most powerful mind on the planet, making him smarter than nearly anyone and giving him limited mental abilities. Where the Hulk is often monosyllabic and controlled by his feelings, the Leader speaks eloquently and makes all of his decisions based on a brutal calculus. Their differences make them such amazing foes.

5) Mister Sinister

Most X-Men fans wouldn’t really think that Mister Sinister is much of an evil opposite to the X-Men, but it actually works really well when you think about it. Both of them want to allow mutants to become more powerful, but where Xavier and the X-Men want to spread freedom to everyone, Sinister wants to be the one in control of everything down to everyone’s genes. He wants mutants to be powerful, but he wants them to be powerful under him. He wants to create chains and not freedom. His playful nature also speaks to this opposition, as he seemingly takes nothing seriously anymore and is all about plans within plans, where the X-Men are serious to a fault and never have any plan. He’s become one of the greatest X-Men villains ever, serving a dark mirror for what the dream of mutant freedom can be.

4) Obadiah Stane

Tony Stark is a rich, intelligent man who wants to use his technology to help the world. He’s a man who cares deeply about people, and even his worst acts come from his desire to help the world. He’s not perfect, but he tries. Obadiah Stane is much like Stark; they’re both rich, powerful, intelligent men. The biggest different, of course, is that Stane doesn’t care about anyone and he doesn’t create anything. He buys it. He steals it. He doesn’t want to use it to help people, he wants to use it to make himself more powerful. When Tony takes power, he takes it to help. When Stane takes power, he does it to have more power and control.

3) Green Goblin

Green Goblin is the best Spider-Man character, and a big reason for that is because he allows us to see how great Peter Parker is as a person. Peter is all about responsibility and helping those he loves. Norman Osborn is about doing everything for himself, not caring about the consequences for anyone he loves, and a twisted need to possess control over those poor souls he cares about. Peter uses his power to help the world, Norman uses his to hurt the world that hurts him. Green Goblin has become something of a hero in the modern day, his evil removed, and it’s interesting how like Peter he is now. It feels like Norman could have become Peter if his life had turned out differently, which speaks to how much of a perfect opposite the villain is.

2) Red Skull

Red Skull and Captain America are perfect polar opposites. Johann Schmidt grew up without love, and killed someone for the first time before he was a teenager. Hitler saw something in the young Schmidt, and he molded him into a monster. Steve Rogers, grew up surrounded by love and helped everyone he could. He didn’t get the attention of the powerful; they ignored him until he made himself undeniable. He became the greatest hero ever, while Red Skull became the greatest monster ever. His whole life is run by hate, where Cap’s is all about hope. Cap is freedom and Skull is fascism. They are the perfect dichotomy.

1) Sabretooth

Sabretooth has become a beloved villain, and he is explicitly the opposite of Wolverine. He says it himself. Both of them faced tragedy in their early lives, although Victor Creed’s was much worse, and went in different directions. Sabretooth became a person who believed that his powers allowed him freedom to do whatever he wants. He doesn’t care about people and doesn’t try to build a new family; he just wants to do whatever he wants and hurt anyone who gets in his way. Wolverine could choose to become like him at any time, but he doesn’t. Their opposition is made all the more interesting because of that.

What are your favorite dark mirror villains? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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