10 Heroes Who Have Battled Evil Versions of Themselves

Heroes usually need villains to fight. Writers regularly rack their brains trying to concoct worthy adversaries. Who can offer an intriguing contrast with the hero’s qualities? Moreover, how can these foes provide a physical, mental, or emotional challenge? The answer can be found by simply looking in a mirror. After all, many people’s most formidable foes are themselves.

Several stories see protagonists combat their evil counterparts. These showdowns can sometimes come from cloning—shadowy organizations engineer their own supposed “heroes” to trump the originals. On the other hand, these versions may hail from an alternate dimension or divergent timelines, showcasing how heroes and villains can be determined by different upbringings. Either way, this premise is always entertaining. More importantly, it forces the characters to confront their own weaknesses in ways seldom seen with other enemies.

Related: Top 10 Movie Villains Who Should Have Won

10 Wolverine

Marvel’s clawed Canucklehead is a beast in battle. That’s partly due to the Weapon X program, which gave him his metal skeleton and made him virtually indestructible. As a result, most of Wolverine’s greatest adversaries are fellow clawed crooks or crazed experiments. These fights shine a horrifying light on what he could have been, but the movies take a literal approach.

Logan, the character’s cinematic swan song, sees an older Wolverine confronted with his past. Namely, the Essex Corporation engineers a clone who knows only rage. His sole purpose is to rip apart his masters’ enemies, and that’s an easy task thanks to his rapid healing and sheer energy. The sickly Logan is completely outmatched by this similar savage. Suffice it to say, he’s not as young as he used to be.^[1]

9 Superman

Comic books sure love this trope. Being the mightiest hero in the DC Universe, Superman has naturally inspired countless imitations. Two different versions of Cyborg Superman appear in the original continuity and the New 52 run. In the animated adaptation of Red Son, a tale about Superman growing up in the Soviet Union, the U.S. creates Superior Man to challenge him. Then, there’s Bizarro: a malformed Man of Steel who says and does everything by opposites. These are just a few would-be contenders for Superman’s title, but another trend has since popped up.

Recent stories repeatedly explore the concept of Superman becoming a dictator. No, not Homelander from The Boys. These tales involve an alternate dimension or timeline where a tragic event sends the hero over the edge. Usually, it’s the death of Lois Lane or one of his costumed comrades. He then seizes absolute power and installs a totalitarian regime to prevent such atrocities from happening again. That scenario has played out in Superman: The Animated Series, the Justice League show, and the Injustice games. More often than not, the mainline Man of Steel must step in to depose this godlike oppressor. Thankfully, he fights for truth and justice in any world.^[2]

8 Godzilla

Who wouldn’t want to copy the King of the Monsters? Godzilla has toppled countless kaiju over his 70-year history, but one opponent who consistently gives him trouble is Mechagodzilla. This robotic recreation has battled the star to a standstill and even defeated him on a few occasions. Prominent appearances include Godzilla vs. Kong, multiple eras of Toho’s mainline movies, and even the animated series based on the 1998 film. However, the mech’s first outing remains its most impactful.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla opens with the atomic lizard acting more aggressively than usual. Onlookers are perplexed until they see the real Godzilla enter the fray. He quickly fights the imposter and breaks off some of his scales. His opponent then sheds his fleshy exterior and reveals a robotic frame. This Mechagodzilla comes from a villainous race of space apes (yes, really). Their metallic menace mercilessly attacks its rival, and Godzilla actually needs another monster’s help to win. He may be invincible to humans, but not to himself.^[3]

7 Ash Williams

This moronic hardware worker vanquishes whatever demons come his way, so the hellish legions pit him against himself. The Evil Dead franchise has a few instances where Ash Williams combats a Deadite version of himself. The first comes in Army of Darkness. After breaking a mirror, Ash’s reflection spawns a swarm of mini-versions. One of them dives into his mouth, resulting in a grotesque growth. A second, full-size Ash slowly emerges from that growth. This twisted iteration then leads the Deadite army during the climax. The mainline hero destroys him, but it’s not the end.

Ash vs. Evil Dead has the malicious doppelganger return two more times. In season one, the heroes revisit the original film’s creepy cabin. Recorded passages from the demonic book bring forth Evil Ash, who swiftly slaughters one of his would-be allies. Later, the third season involves the book’s author birthing an alternate Ash to destroy the hero’s name, particularly in the eyes of his teenage daughter. As such, the imposter shoots up the local high school before being put down by the real deal. There’s only room for one Ash in this town.^[4]

6 Goku

Countless fighters vie for the top spot in the long-running Dragon Ball franchise, but none are mightier than this merry martial artist. Goku is so powerful that he frequently gets the attention of gods and other omnipotent beings. One such being is Zamasu in Dragon Ball Super. This stuck-up Kai hates mortals, so losing a friendly sparring match with Goku becomes intensely personal for him.

The vengeful villain quickly travels to an alternate timeline and steals the hero’s body. With this vessel’s immense strength, he wreaks havoc on multiple timestreams. His eventual rematch with Goku shakes the very foundations of the multiverse. Not only does his increased power put the hero at a disadvantage, but Zamasu repeatedly taunts him about the evil acts he’s committed in his rival’s image. The irony is that his despicable deeds as “Goku Black” are more barbaric than any lowly mortal.^[5]

5 Yoda

Visions are a common occurrence in Star Wars. The phenomenon comes courtesy of the Force: a mystical energy field binding the galaxy together. Thanks to this cosmic essence, the characters’ conflicts sometimes manifest as premonitions or warped perversions of familiar figures. At that point, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.

The most violent of these visions occurs in The Clone Wars. Guided by the voice of the late Qui-Gon Jinn, the bewildered Yoda journeys to an ethereal planet strong in the Force. This creepy place spawns a shadowy copy, who viciously attacks the Jedi Master and taunts him for his hypocrisy. Yoda purports himself to be wise and balanced, yet he fears and hates his darker tendencies. Oddly enough, he vanquishes this creature by accepting it as part of him. The episode offers a cerebral twist on this tried-and-true trope.^[6]

4 Kevin Flynn

Not even machines can achieve perfection. The Tron series presents a computer system as a neon realm populated by humanoid programs. These programs often resemble the people (or Users) who created them. Kevin Flynn crafts one such program: CLU. When overhauling the system in Tron: Legacy, Flynn assigns an updated CLU to manage and improve it to achieve perfection. That task predictably gets out of hand.

In his single-minded aim, CLU goes rogue. He begins purging anything he deems less than perfect. This includes other programs and even Flynn himself. He lashes out at his creator and traps him in the system for decades, installing an authoritarian regime to root out any “mistakes.” During that time, Flynn ages while his corrupted creation remains pristine and driven as ever. The villain is no longer satisfied with this single system. He now wants to take his crusade to the real world, subjugating the human race in pursuit of perfection. CLU represents a young Flynn’s lack of foresight, as he fails to realize that perfection is unattainable.^[7]

3 Jimmy Neutron

Jimmy Neutron has an inflated sense of his own genius, so what better way to humble him than an evil clone? In an episode of his TV series, the kid creates a batch of lookalikes. The goal is to make them do his chores, but that isn’t easy due to each rendition coming with its own personality. They instantly become a nuisance around town, forcing Jimmy to freeze them with his new subzero ray. Unfortunately, he misses one.

The evil Jimmy escapes and steals the duplicator device. Outfitting it with a dark matter chip, he creates another Earth populated by equally evil inhabitants. This causes the previous planet to slowly fade away. Jimmy tries to stop this process, but that noble goal is difficult when his counterpart is just as smart as him. Worse, he has none of the caution to balance that genius. For all of Jimmy’s recklessness, at least he has morals to balance his intelligence.^[8]

2 Danny Phantom

Once again, tragedy can easily turn a hero into a villain. Danny Phantom constantly strives to balance his half-ghost heroics with his wacky teen antics. However, losing the latter throws his life out of whack. When he unexpectedly travels to the future, he finds a dystopian nightmare terrorized by his adult version. The cause of this downturn is dark.

At some point, Danny loses his family and friends in a massive boiler explosion. The brokenhearted boy then turns to his former enemy, Vlad Masters, who also has ghostly powers. To stop his pain, Danny requests that his ghost half be separated from his human half. Unfortunately, the hero’s ghost half merges with Vlad’s and morphs into a malevolent mixture of the two. In addition, he plans to recreate the aforementioned explosion in the present, thus ensuring his existence in the future. It’s a vicious cycle, yet the lives of both Dannys depend on it.^[9]

1 Star Trek

Instead of a single character, Star Trek presents an entire universe of evil counterparts. Thanks to a teleporter incident, several crewmembers of the USS Enterprise find themselves on an alternate version of the ship. It turns out this vessel is a weapon of war. Instead of the United Federation of Planets bringing people together, the Terran Empire holds its galaxy in fear. The characters here reflect that philosophy, with heroic figures like James T. Kirk and Hikaru Sulu being imperialistic twists on their normal personas. That pattern doesn’t stop at The Original Series.

The Mirror Universe continues to plague other Star Trek shows. In many cases, its residents clash with their versions from the mainstay universe. For instance, Kira Nerys of Deep Space Nine has a wormhole mishap with her shuttle, bringing her face-to-face with her despotic doppelganger. Gabriel Lorca suffers a worse fate in Discovery. He’s trapped and killed in the Mirror Universe, enabling his twisted twin to assume his identity and captaincy back home. These dictatorial denizens are always seeking to conquer new territory. Why stop at their own universe?^[10]