The action hero is often a relatively solitary breed. They often have a cadre of assistants and allies, but, out in the field, they tend to be on their own. When a whole group of heroes bands together, they can accomplish anything. But, when two action heroes are forced together by circumstances, they tend to butt heads.
Introducing conflict into a story is easy, especially when literal physical conflict is the draw of the genre. A good action story needs more than just the good team and the bad team, and a bit of conflict within the group can spice up the experience.
Headbutting Heroes are good-aligned characters who just happen to despise each other. They're not rivals who are constantly trying to outdo each other. They're not friends who spend half their time roasting each other. Their relationship might become that, but right now, they hate each other. Every moment they spend working together is like being handcuffed to your least favorite coworker with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. There are a ton of reasons why two heroes might hate each other. Their methods may differ, often leading to the old "serial killer versus half-measure" debate. One of the two might have started their partnership on the wrong foot, possibly doing something that their forced partner can never forgive. In the worst cases, their species might despise each other, leaving both parties deeply prejudiced against each other. Of course, they could also just hate each other for normal reasons. Whatever the reason, they'll have to learn to grudgingly tolerate each other to survive.
Comic books and comic book adaptations are rife with Headbutting Heroes. The format necessitates countless colorful characters and bringing them together is often a lot of fun. Roughly 20% of comic book superheroes despise each other for one reason or another. Batman rubs people the wrong way a lot of the time, leading characters to view him as either untrustworthy or unlikeable. Heroes who are fueled by rage tend not to get along with others, meaning that Wolverine, The Hulk, and the Punisher typically fight each other more than anyone else when they're together. In weird cases, characters like Green Arrow wind up in oppositional relationships alongside fellow heroes due to his politics. Oliver Queen is frequently characterized as one of the more liberal heroes, leading to a weird level of pushback from right-wing heroes like cop Barry Allen and space cop Hal Jordan. It's not the most important reason to feud with a fellow do-gooder, but political disputes are common among co-workers.
Studio action movies love to make their heroes despise each other as a vector for comedy. In the realm of an action film, the mild violence of shouting and hand-to-hand combat can be a joke. When two superhuman heroes turn to face each other, it's a tense moment, even if a savvy audience knows that neither will die. Hobbs & Shaw, the first spin-off of the Fast & Furious franchise, features Jason Statham and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as allies and enemies. Shaw (Statham) nearly murdered all of Hobbs' (The Rock) friends in their first few engagements, but they join forces to battle a greater threat. In the 2019 Hellboy reboot, the titular hero gets an ally to hate in the form of Daimio, a werejaguar who spends an early scene commissioning a holy weapon to murder his new co-worker. Even Star Wars got in on the action in The Rise of Skywalker, by letting Rey and Poe bicker to their heart's content.
It's tough to find a shōnen anime that isn't playing with this trope. The average action anime centers around the same well-worn trio; the upbeat one, the mean one, and the girl. Anime Headbutting Heroes almost always become best friends by the end of their opposition. Goku and Vegeta, Naruto and Sasuke, Ichigo and Uryuu, Inuyasha and Kagome, and many more. Often this relationship is somewhat one-sided. The upbeat one tries to be a friend in earnest while the mean one is an unshakable jerk all the time. Anime seems to think that friendships between men only last if they start with both participants treating the other like trash.
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Headbutting Heroes are a fun character archetype that can also be a crucial element of a story. Sometimes the fact that two allies hate each other is their only major trait, and their immaturity is an active threat to everyone else's life. Other heroes get over their opposition and eventually become hard-fought friends. Some, however, just do their job regardless of who happens to be helping. Hero work is tough, and a lot of hazards come with the territory, but the unique problems don't cancel out the mundane ones. Turns out, even the most extraordinary jobs have co-workers that just don't get along.