The Infinity War Doppelgangers That Had Lasting Impact Beyond Infinity War

In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just not one of the five examples that I chose.

Today, we look at a few of the doppelgangers introduced during Infinity War that actually had a lasting impact on the Marvel Universe BEYOND the Infinity War crossover.

SPIDER-MAN'S DOPPELGANGER

One of the first doppelgangers shown in Infinity War was Spider-Man's....

While the character was not exactly impactful in and of itself, it's the only one of these doppelgangers who is still a recurring Spider-Man villain. Most notably, he was recruited by Carnage and Scream at the start of Maximum Carnage...

and he was part of Carnage's "team" of villains throughout that event...

After being killed off, he was brought back in one of Carnage's miniseries and was just recently a notable part of the Absolute Carnage crossover.

INVISIBLE WOMAN'S DOPPELGANGER

Reed Richards' doppelganger was the very first doppelganger to show up, but Invisible Woman soon got her own in Fantastic Four #369 (by Tom DeFalco, Paul Ryan and Danny Bulanadi) and the doppelganger attacked the Invisible Woman in her mind somehow as Malice, an identity Sue had once adopted after the Psyco-Man had messed with her mind a few years earlier (the doppelgangers were way inconsistent. This was the only doppelganger to attack in the mind only). Sue ended up absorbing Malice into herself...

Again, this doesn't really fit with the other uses of the doppelgangers, but it is what it is. It is amazing how well DeFalco was able to adapt his story to work in a crossover he had no real say over (plot-wise) and yet he made it work together seamlessly. Fantastic Four had more crossovers with Infinity War than most series of the era (there were certain books that seemed to get that Infinity War tie-ins meant a sales bump).

This made Sue act more and more like Malice over the ensuing months, including some questionable costume choices...

Franklin Richards was artificially aged around this time and, as a teen, he went into his mother's mind to eliminate Malice...

Instead, Malice ended up possessing HIM...

Finally, Malice possessed an alternate reality version of Reed Richards and seemingly died in his body in Fantastic Four #399...

DAREDEVIL'S DOPPELGANGER

In Infinity War #5, we got to see Daredevil take out his own doppelganger while also knocking out a bunch of Madrox doppelgangers...

After Infinity War was over, one of Daredevil's doppelgangers hung around.

He showed up in Daredevil #310 (by Glenn Alan Herdling, Scott McDaniel and Bud LaRosa)...

In a clever twist, Calypso attacks Hellspawn thinking that it is the real Daredevil...

After an epic battle, she ultimately kills Hellspawn...

Nine issues later, though, regular Daredevil writer D.G. Chichester (and new inker, Hector Collazzo, on Scott McDaniel's pencils) launches the epic storyline, "Fall From Grace," and he has a voodoo priest bring Hellspawn back to life...

Hellspawn is a recurring villain throughout the storyline...

In fact, Daredevil partially gets a new armored costume specifically to help him match up with the much stronger Hellspawn...

Finally, in Daredevil #325, Hellspawn is exposed to a mysterious virus that the heroes and villains have been trying to get to throughout the series. It can cure him of looking like a demon. Sadly, his cure occurs just as he is then killed...

When Daredevil comes across the now-human form of Hellspawn, that's a corpse who is Matt Murdock's doppelganger...

So he then uses Hellspawn's corpse to fake Matt Murdock's death...

WONDER MAN'S DOPPELGANGER

Wonder Man met his doppelganger in Wonder Man #13 (by Gerard Jones, Jeff Johnson and Dan Panosian)....

And in Wonder Man #15, he kills it but then sort of gives in to being merged with it...

And starting the next issue, he was all about violence. It was super weird...

That whole deal led to him quitting the Avengers West Coast until he got his head on straight eventually.

SPEEDBALL'S DOPPELGANGER

Okay, this one is relatively minor, but hey, I wanted five and I realized that Moon Shade didn't appear post-Infinity War.

So, Speedball's doppelganger showed up with the others in Infinity War #4...

Speedball has a more direct battle with Black Ball in New Warriors #27 (by Fabian Nicieza, Darick Robertson and Larry Mahlstedt) and the confrontation led to Speedball's secret identity being revealed to his "by the book" district attorney father, who was not happy about this revelation...