Marvel focused on the shared universe aspect of superhero comics, creating a model that has been copied throughout the pop culture landscape. Over the years, the relationships between characters have grown and changed, with friendships forming as easily as rivalries. Marvel fans have witnessed all manner of alliances between characters.
Some of these boggle the mind. The strangest Marvel alliances see characters with opposing ideologies and goals teaming up. Often times, two characters with completely disparate personalities will form a bond. Recent X-Men books feature Apocalypse teaming up with the mutants while Peter Parker joins Norman Osborn in Amazing Spider-Man, creating some truly strange partnerships.
10 Spider-Man And Green Goblin
Green Goblin's hatred of Spider-Man has spurred him to do terrible things to the wall-crawler, like throwing Gwen Stacy off a bridge or masterminding the Clone Saga. They seemed like two people who would fight forever, but recent issues of The Amazing Spider-Man have seen them team up.
Osborn has become the Gold Goblin, and employs Spider-Man. He's even helped design a new suit for the hero. The two of them have been fighting side by side for a bit now, and it's the strangest thing. Usually, they would be trying to kill each other, but they are basically co-workers at this point, and Green Goblin has basically become Spider-Man's friend.
9 Sabretooth And Mystique
Sabretooth has spent decades traveling the world, using his mutant powers to do what he likes the most: kill people. He's worked as a spy and an assassin, which brought him into contact with Mystique. The two of them seem like people that would tear each other apart rather than work together. However, Sabretooth and Mystique get along very well, and even had a child together.
Now, that doesn't mean that their relationship is without violence; they've tried to kill each other several times. However, each one has skills that the other needs and they've been able to put aside any enmity to work as a team.
8 Emma Frost And Kate Pryde
Emma Frost and Kate Pryde first met when Frost was the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and Pryde was a young member of the X-Men. Their relationship was completely adversarial, which would be picked up again when Pryde rejoined the X-Men after Jean Grey's death. Emma Frost was not only a member of the team but sleeping with Cyclops, and Kate wasn't having any of it.
The two bickered constantly, but eventually found their respect for each other. However, they still weren't friends. That would change during the Krakoa Era. Emma and Kate worked closely together with the Hellfire Trading Corporation, and became best friends.
7 Apocalypse And The X-Men
Apocalypse is an ancient monster, obsessed with eugenics and creating a world where only the strong survive. The X-Men have been battling Apocalypse for years, and stopped all of his plans of world domination. No one ever expected that he would find common ground with the X-Men, which is exactly what happened when the mutant nation of Krakoa was established. Apocalypse chose to join the mutant country wholeheartedly, something no one expected.
Apocalypse didn't have ulterior motives. He actually was doing everything he could to make Krakoa strong. He was completely without a hidden agenda. When the forces of Arakko and Amenth attacked, he threw himself into the conflict despite his familial relationship with some of the enemy.
6 Adam Warlock And Thanos
Adam Warlock has saved the universe and was the key mover against Thanos while he had the Infinity Gauntlet. The two have fought multiple times and in all of those battles found a grudging respect for each other. In fact, they understand each other more than any other beings in the universe understand them.
They've fought brutal battles, but have also teamed up to save the universe. These two longtime rivals have made a pretty potent team over the years, defeating cosmic enemies that endangered all creation. They'll still find themselves on different sides, but when they work together, there's no one that can stop them.
5 Doctor Doom And Namor
Doctor Doom believes himself superior to everyone on Earth, but he has an especial hatred for the Fantastic Four. He'll go out of his way to prove that he's better than them, especially Reed Richards. If there's one person on Earth whose hatred of Richards matches that of Doom, it's Namor the Sub-Mariner. This shared hatred has caused the two of them to form an alliance that none have broken.
The irony is that between the two of them, they've betrayed everyone they've worked with except one another. They've always shot straight with each other. Their alliance is one that never really ends. Latveria and Atlantis have treaties that neither country has with the other, and Doom and Namor have immense respect and mutual admiration for each other.
4 Thor And Loki
Thor is Marvel's most popular powerhouse, acting as the muscle for the Avengers and the defender of the Ten Realms from all foes. For years, he battled his adopted brother Loki for the throne of Asgard. The two of them have had some knockdown, drag-out battles. They would develop a hatred that would spur them on to greater and greater battles, with the fate of entire worlds at stake.
Loki's morality has proven especially fluid in recent years, and has started to find himself more and more on the side of good. Waiting for him there was Thor. Even though they had warred for years, Thor still loved his wayward brother, and the two of them have made great allies. They've worked together often, especially since Thor has become king of Asgard and Loki has become the God of Stories.
3 Omega Red And X-Force
Krakoa has become a place where heroic and villainous mutants have formed alliances that no one would have expected. Some of the evil mutants had malicious intentions, like Omega Red. At first, he was working with Dracula to get a hold of Wolverine, so the vampires could drink his healing factor rich blood. After this, he made an alliance with Mikhail Rasputin and went on a mission to the past to destroy Xavier in multiple time periods.
However, after this he found clemency on Krakoa. He was made a member of X-Force, where he could both sate his bloodlust and be watched by Wolverine and Krakoa's most dangerous mutants. He's become an integral part of the team, and has struck up a kind of sweet relationship with Sage, looking out for her when she goes on her drinking binges.
2 Spider-Man And Wolverine
Spider-Man and Wolverine didn't like each other from the first time they met. They soon came to blows and would relentlessly needle each other when ever they met. Their relationship became uneasy at best, but that changed when they both became Avengers. Soon, they would gain a respect and admiration for each other, one that eventually blossomed into a close friendship.
The Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine outlined them lost in time, and they finally came to really understand each other. They forged a bond that no one would have expected, to the extent that they are the best of friends. Since then, they've worked together many times, and Spider-Man even joined the X-Men when Wolverine died to honor him.
1 Professor Xavier And Magneto
Magneto broke the mold, a mutant revolutionary who had experienced the worst of humanity during the Holocaust. He gained massive popularity as the years went on and readers understood him more, developing a noble side. He flirted with being a hero on several occasions but finally pulled the trigger after the decimation of mutantkind, joining the team.
For years, he and Xavier fought incessantly, but their original friendship came shining through like never before once Xavier returned to life and the X-Men. The two became closer than ever, keeping each other's secrets and forgetting the years and years of attempts to kill each other. Magneto and Xavier became even better friends, their bond reforged and stronger than ever.