Comic Cliche of the Day: The Evil Twin

February 7th, 2005

Filed under: Comics

Is there a more reviled cliche anywhere? This represents the worst in unbelievable and lazy storytelling in comics (and soap operas.)

I couldn’t believe my eyes when Mark Waid pulled out this hoary chestnut to explain the villain Cobalt Blue in his otherwise excellent run on The Flash. It dragged the whole storyline down from there. (Poor Barry, he’s had more questionable things done to him since dying than before.)

That’s not to say it can’t be reworked succesfully. Peter David did a good job with what has elements of an “evil twin” tale in Madrox. Personally, I would love to see Luorno Durgo with one of herselves evil — that would be a good evil twin (or triplicate, really) story.

3 Responses to “ Comic Cliche of the Day: The Evil Twin ”

  1. Anonymous
    February 8th, 2005 at 7:31 am

    Didn’t Grant Morrisons New X-Men have one of the cuckoos being EEEVIIIL as well?

  2. Steven Berg
    February 8th, 2005 at 10:50 am

    I don’t think Stepford Cuckoo Esme was really evil—but at any rate, I don’t think that’s the same kind of evil twin. Cassandra Nova, on the other hand, was a truly ridiculous evil twin.

  3. Chris Galdieri
    February 8th, 2005 at 12:02 pm

    Cassandra Nova gets points for sheer ludicrousness. I mean, if you’re going to do an evil twin, go all the way, I always say. I also liked how FUTURAMA did this, and made Bender’s evil twin Flexo the good one…

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