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Archenemy

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This article is about a main supervillain in a rogues gallery. For Archenemy (disambiguation), see Archenemy (disambiguation).

An archenemy, archfoe, archvillain or archnemesis (sometimes spelled arch-enemy, arch-foe, arch-villain or arch-nemesis) is the principal enemy of a character in a work of fiction, often described as the hero's worst enemy (compare nemesis). The reason as to why the particular villain stands out more than the other rogues gallery villains varies, although they may be the hardest enemy to fight, the hero's opposite, the most often recurring villain, always bearing the most dangerous plots or poses the biggest threat, such as global domination in comparison to burglary, was once a friend of the hero, or is the source of constant tragedy, pain and horror to the hero.

It should be noted that just because a villain is a hero's arch-enemy does not necessarily mean that they are their greatest enemy, as there are often other enemies who may be considered more powerful, resourceful, intelligent and/or evil than the archvillain, or perhaps has larger-scale goals. For example in the Superman comics, Darkseid, who threatens the entire universe, is a much greater threat than Lex Luthor who usually just threatens Metropolis and sometimes the world. For these reasons, heroes sometimes team up with their archenemy to take down the greater threat (see below). It should also be noted that it is sometimes possible for a hero to have more than one archenemy(see entries below).

Comic book archenemies

Literary archenemies

Film and television archenemies

Cartoon and videogame archenemies

Listed in Alphabetical Order

Examples of heroes joining forces with their arch enemies to fight a more powerful threat

Heroes who do not have archenemies

The following are examples of heroes have no archenemies:

Religious archenemies

[citation needed]

An archenemy is used, in religion, often as the evil incarnate that plagues or tortures the god or gods. In Judaism, the archenemy is Satan and Anti-Semitism, most notably Hitler, the holocaust and the Diaspora. In sects of Christianity, the archenemy may be considered Satan, the Antichrist, the people who crucified Jesus or, in a few sects, the disciple Judas Iscariot. In Hinduism, the gods' archenemy is evil in general, although each individual person's archenemy is their karma. In Buddhism, the archenemy is generally desire and suffering. Scientology considers psychology and psychiatry to be a major enemy. The Purple Oyster is the archenemy of the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

Debatable Archenemies

Although most people would consider the Joker to be Batman's archenemy, Joe Chill was the first and most influential enemy of Bruce Wayne. Also, the villain Hush has scared Batman noticeably more than any other foe[citation needed], even Bane, who has even broken Batman's back.

Godzilla's archenemy could be considered King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla or Destroyah Gigan or Biollante. (Both Destroyah and Mechagodzilla have killed Godzilla, though due to radiation from the air or from Rodan sidekick of Godzilla, he has always been revived.) Also Gigan, Mechagodzilla, Biollante, and Destroyah have caused Godzilla to bleed even though he can acclerate the healing of his wounds.

Spider-Man's archenemy has, for a long time, been considered the Green Goblin, who killed Gwen Stacy and discovered Spider-Man's secret identity. However, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, and Venom have all left Spider-Man running and hiding out of fear[citation needed], although due to being excluded from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, the supervillain Sandman has fallen out of the spotlight[citation needed] (although he is shown on the trailer of Spider-Man 3, a strong indication of his next appearance). The Green Goblin 2- Harry Osborn has brought moral confusion and psychological abuse upon the web-slinger.

It could also be noted, however, that many debatable archenemies could in fact be regarded as an example of the "more powerful threat" listed above.

Shared origin

An often used plot device is that the archenemy is revealed to share a common origin or history with the protagonist, prior to them becoming enemies.

Likewise, in Christianity, Satan is normally considered to be a renegade Archangel.

Pronunciation

The correct way to pronounce 'archenemy' is (artch-en-im-ee). However, there is a second pronunciation, which, although it is incorrect, is somewhat fluent[citation needed]. This incorrect pronunciation is (ark-in-e-mee). The Japanese use this pronunciation of "arch" (アーク Āku) in borrowed English words (アークエネミー Ākuenemī). アーチ (Āchi) would refer to an arch bridge or an archdam. The proper pronunciation would be アーチエネミー (Āchienemī) in katakana.

See also

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