For all its massive, "world-changing" events, the DC Universe is a remarkably stable place.
Superman has always fought
Lex Luthor,
Batman has always fought
the Joker, and
Wonder Woman has always fought
Cheetah. Sure, they mix it up sometimes, but they always end up back where they started. Over at Marvel, however, things are more fluid. Often a hero's "signature" villain started out fighting someone else. Let's take a look at some examples:
- The Fantastic Four got Sandman and Hydro-Man from Spider-Man
- Spider-Man got Venom from Iron Fist (it's a stretch, but sort of)
- Iron Fist gave Sabretooth to Wolverine
- Wolverine got Lady Deathstrike from Daredevil
- Daredevil got the Kingpin from Spider-Man
- Spider-Man got Jack O'Lantern from Machine Man
- When that Jack O'Lantern became Hobgoblin, a new Jack O'Lantern started fighting Captain America.
- Hulk got the Absorbing Man from Thor
- She-Hulk got Titania from... well, no one, really. She was invented for Secret Wars and got adopted
- X-Factor (almost) got the Owl from Daredevil - the character was changed at the last minute to Apocalypse
- The X-Men got Mystique from Ms. Marvel
- Ghost Rider got Blackheart from Daredevil
- Captain Marvel (and the rest of the universe) got Thanos from Iron Man
Wow, that's a lot of shuffling around. When a new character is introduced, you never know where he'll eventually end up. Can you think of any more examples?