Vitriolic Best Buds/Comic Books

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Vitriolic Best Buds in Comic Books include:

  • Groo is oblivious to how much his sister Grooella hates him and thinks every insult and raging verbal assault shows how much difficulty she has showing her affection. But, then, Groo is oblivious to practically everything.
  • Depending on the Writer, The Joker either imagines that he and Batman have an extreme variation on the trope, or just pretends he does because it bugs Batman.

Joker: Kill you? (laughs) I don't want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off Mob dealers? No, no... You complete me!

Terry: The real Batman never talked to you much, did he? That's probably why you were so fixated on him. [...] The real reason you kept coming back was you never got a laugh out of the old man. [...] Get a clue, clowny! He's got no sense of humor! He wouldn't know a good joke if it bit him in the cape! ... Not that you ever had a good joke.

  • Raphael and Casey Jones are type 2 in various incarnations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
    • Donatello seems to stand in for Raphael in this role in the live-action film.
  • Emma Frost from X-Men seems to be this with all of the X-Women, particularly Kitty.
    • Same with Wolverine when he's with Cyclops and Gambit.
  • Batman and Superman had somewhat evolved in this direction following the reinterpretation of The Dark Knight Returns, whose creator opined that the characters were too fundamentally different to ever be friends. Following the launch of Superman/Batman, canon has them as good friends, but they are far from the World's Finest they used to be.
    • Of course, Depending on the Writer, the relationship can be either "close as brothers" to a lukewarm friendship, and all the various points in between.
  • Santo (Rockslide) treats everyone like this, at least all the staff and students at the Xavier Institute. Anole, Pixie, and Mercury return it with the most obvious friendship.
  • Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four spend most of their time either sniping and snarking at each other, planning increasingly elaborate practical jokes on each other, or lambasting each other with creatively brutal threats about what they'll do to the other (which are hardly ever followed through) after said practical jokes. They are, of course, practically inseparable.
    • The Torch also has a similar relationship with Spider-Man. Spidey and the Torch's team-ups usually consist of them trying to one-up each other, with the expected volley of insults and snark. But at the end of the day, Spider-Man is probably Johnny's closest superhero friend outside of the FF.
    • Also, Johnny Storm and Bobby Drake. Like fire and ice, those two.
  • Cable and Deadpool become this more and more throughout their series.
    • Before that, Deadpool had this relationship with Bullseye. They took it to the extreme though, where they would try to kill each other and then laugh about it together. When it's all said and done, Bullseye has admitted that Deadpool is the only person he likes.
    • Deadpool and Taskmaster have also had this type of "friendship"- perhaps said best by Taskmaster: "The things I do for the friends I can't stand..."
  • Catman and Deadshot from Secret Six.
  • Archie Comics' Betty and Veronica.
    • Reggie to the entire gang, most notable Archie and Jughead.
  • A certain village of Vitriolic Best Buds in Asterix. No Romans handy? No problem, they'll just find an excuse to brawl with each other....
    • Asterix himself usually has a bad argument with Oblelix at least Once Per Episode. It never takes long for them to make up, though.
  • In one Thimble Theater Poopdeck Pappy, the father of Popeye, says that the reason he made his one friend, the diminutive "Pookie" Jones, is because they used to be fierce enemies until one day Pappy suddenly considered Pookie and realized that he simply wasn't worth hating, so he made friends instead. Upon hearing this Pookie flies into a rage. Pappy holds him away at arms length as he punches at him furiously, chuckling, "Ain't he cute?"
  • In Transmetropolitan, Channon Yarrow and Yelena Rossinni, Spider Jerusalem's "filthy assistants," come to mind. In one issue they escape from Spider's apartment and go on a shopping spree without his knowledge, (or so they think) but when the conversation turns to Spider himself, both women find that, however much they despise their boss's personal character, they both respect and admire his integrity as a journalist and his staunch dedication to the truth.
    • And afterwards he, who was listening all along, remarks to the audience that they love him. Then he proceeds to eat a live pigeon.
  • As children, Sam and Max (of Sam and Max Freelance Police fame) seemed to be this way. Max used to mercilessly make fun of Sam, who was too shy to ever stand up for himself, but wouldn't stand for anyone else doing the same.
  • The Defenders, in most incarnations. They are in every way a "non-team" of "non-friends," and the standard Defenders' parting words are "Let's never do this again," but if one of them comes to the group for help, s/he'll get it.
  • Shimy and Jadina from Les Légendaires. Due to both the girls having opposite personalities and backstories, they constantly argue with each other, Shimy being easily irritated by Jadina's apparent silliness and shallowness while Jadina can't stand Shimy's Deadpan Snarker tendencies. Yet, they both display extreme shock when seeing each other seemingly dead, and occasionally attempt to comfort each other. When Jadina learned Danael was attempting to have Shimy killed so Anathos couldn't get her body, she was enraged and yelled that she wouldn't let that happen. In the same vein, Shimy had a violent Heroic BSOD when finding what appeared to be Jadina's decayed body at the end of book 13.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Vitriolic_Best_Buds/Comic_Books?oldid=2032775"