Unknown Rival: Difference between revisions

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:: All of this led up to an X-Factor annual issue where a mutant-hating former classmate of Strong Guy's showed up, having devoted his life to the dark arts and become a servant of [[Satan|Mephisto]]. In order to defeat X-Factor, he brought back their three greatest enemies from the dead -- the three brothers who had died over the past three issues, none of whom had so much as been seen by X-Factor. So in the massive, climactic battle, an Unknown Rival resurrected ''three more'' unknown rivals. When the villains introduced themselves, Polaris asked if they were sure they had the right X-team.

{{quote|'''Strong Guy''': That figures! Only we could have a bunch of "greatest enemies" that we never heard of.}}

* The unnamed villain in the giant-sized fiftieth issue of ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' was some sort of scientist who had spent decades plotting revenge against Reed. (As in ''only'' Reed, he clearly had nothing against the other members of the team.) Why? He didn't say, and {{spoiler| seeing as [[Heroic Sacrifice| he sacrificed himself]] to ''save'' Reed after [[Becoming the Mask]], fandom likely will ''never'' know.}}

* Slyde. For a moment he had [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] on the ropes! Read the issue (Spider Man Unlimited v3 #1, for the record), it's [[Crowning Moment of Funny|very entertaining]]. And in this case, Spider-Man ''does'' know who Slyde ''is''; you don't have a guy as an decently recurring enemy for years without remembering him. He just regards him as little more than an occasional nuisance.

** There's a similar scene in Ultimate Spider-Man, when [[Butt Monkey|Shocker]] manages to capture Spider-Man. Throughout the series, he was played up as a joke, a character who didn't even really qualify as a supervillain that Spidey would easily subdue in the opening pages of an arc to show "business as usual." While he has Spider-Man hanging upside-down he reveals that from his point of view, things weren't nearly so funny, revealing a level of anger and humiliation made only worse by the fact that Spider-Man never gave him a second thought.

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* Deconstructed in the graphic novel version (but not the film version) of [[Kick-Ass]]: {{spoiler|Big Daddy doesn't actually have any personal connection to John Genovese; that's just a story he made up for Hit Girl to justify raising her as his sidekick. Big Daddy is actually just a comic nerd who wanted to be a superhero and chose Genovese as his arch-enemy more or less at random.}}

* [[Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam & Max]] poke fun at this with Mack Salmon, a very angry fish in a bowl who has a bone to pick with the duo for "setting in motion the events which caused his current state." Neither of them knows who he is or what he's going on about (neither does the reader); they decide to just smack him around like any other ineffectual villain they come across.

== Fan Fiction ==