The Evil Twins trope… when you hear that you probably think some drama cliche. But while this trope has the reputation of a cop out, two characters explore the complexities around it. The first is Cassandra Nova, the parasitic psychic made manifest from Professor X. She’s mostly an enemy, but sometimes she’s an X-Men ally. Then there’s Ma’alefa’ak J’onzz, the archenemy of the Martian Manhunter. But you can call him Malefic.
Cassandra Nova: More Than An Inversion
Cassandra at her most basic is an inverted Professor X. The problem is, that’s the most people get out of her. Don’t worry, we won’t be going into the whole crazy process surrounding her origin. All that we will say is that she’s more of a Mr. Hyde type of character than a simple Evil Counterpart. At Cassandra’s core, she’s a manifestation of people throwing away their inhibitions.
When it comes to Professor X, he’s a well-intentioned perfectionist trying to accept the world as is while trying to change it to his ideals. But between stopping otherworldly threats like the Shadow King and human-mutant coexistence, barely anything else matters to him. Sometimes, Charles treats people like tools to achieve his goals, especially if they slow his progress. Thankfully, Charles is lucky enough to get humbled. Cassandra meanwhile has no such breaks, to her the only things that are real are her and Charles. Everything else is just a tool to dominate the other, whether that’s people or ideas.
The Evil Twins Trope Personafied
That’s probably where Ma’alefa’ak meets with Cassandra, a codependency on their twins in a battle for dominance. Casual fans might remember Malefic as a villainous foil of the Martian Manhunter or Miss Martian, basically making the heroes look good by emphasizing their better points. Of course that concept can be turned on its head, where Malefic helps emphasize the flawed perceptions of martians. Even good ones like his brother J’onn J’onzz.
But what’s Malefic’s endgame? To show the ugliness that comes from not fitting in. You see, Ma’alefa’ak was brought up the exact opposite of J’onn. While Martian Manhunter was lucky enough to have a bright future ahead of him on two worlds, Malefic was ostracized with his turn to villainy being predicted. Yeah… a self-fulfilling prophecy. Seeing his twin succeed when he never even got the opportunity to thrive caused Malefic to try and ruin his brother’s life. Not simply because of revenge, but to fix his reflection of the world that brought some cold comfort. Because if the rest of the world is miserable, it doesn’t seem as bad.
Flaws of Evil Twins Trope
This is why the Evil Twin trope has a messy reputation, their only driving force is their relationship with their sibling. They’re basically parasites meant at best to develop their counterparts, or at worst scapegoat their worst traits. For example, Malefic is basically what J’onn J’onzz would’ve been if he never found the goodness in people to learn tolerance. But where do you go from there? Most creatives decided to make Malefic involved with the White Martians for adaptations because they hit a roadblock with him. The Supergirl TV series at the very least streamlined all of that.
Evil Twins Tropes Beyond Subversion
As for Cassandra, she managed to avoid this trap thanks to creatives like Tom Taylor expanding her beyond Professor X. Learning empathy helps Cassandra grow as a person, allowing her to feel that there was more to life than just a sibling rivalry. Even later series shows how while Cassandra has changed, she’s still a good foil to others like Kate Pryde. Like Cassandra, Kate grew beyond her roots, but she’s still got baggage around her. Plus Cassandra killed millions including Kate’s dad, so you can’t exactly blame her for stranding Nova 2 billion years in the past. Comics amirite?
Do you know of an evil twins trope with a new direction? I certainly think Malefic could take a page out of Cassandra’s book.
Thanks for coming to the end, and as always remember to look between the panels.