We turn our regard this week to that indispensable member of the comic book fraternity -- The Girlfriend:
Let's examine the options, shall we?
- Black Cat (Spider-Man):
First of all, she's dangerous and sexy, which is a hard combination to beat in a love interest. However, she's also a criminal, which makes a serious hook-up problematic. Besides all that, though, her super-power is bad luck, and anyone who's ever broken up with a woman (and that includes other women) can tell giving your new ex the power to make Bad Things happen in your life would be catastrophic. Get it, "cat"astrophic? I'm on fire here, people!
- Mary Jane Watson (Spider-Man):
Mary Jane Watson needs no introduction from the likes of me. She's probably right up there with Lois Lane in terms of being both well-known and integral to the life and story of her love interest. You almost can't think of Spider-Man without thinking of Mary Jane, they're that closely linked. She doesn't have her own super-powers, but she has achieved success on her own terms, and that's cool.
- Lois Lane (Superman):
Not a lot of comic book love interests have had their own comic book series, but Lois Lane has. Nor have many shared top billing in a television series. But Lois Lane has. She's tough, smart, resourceful, and arguably the most important thing in her boyfriend's life. She's independent and strong, but still needs rescuing on a fairly routine basis, so her beau gets to feel manly. She's an intriguing blend of independence and dependence, enormously appealing without being overtly sexualized. She has no super powers of her own, but still manages to be a powerful force for good in her community in her own right.
- Lana Lang (Superman):
Betty to Lois' Veronica, poor Lana has a long history of being the also-ran in the race for Superman's affections. But there's always something special about the First Great Love, and at least Lana has that. Plus, redhead. BONUS!
- Betty (Archie):
Look, Betty is flat-out nuts. She's that bullet you dodged when you almost married that crazy girl, the one who keeps sending you creepy texts years after you dumped her. She's not the One Who Almost Got Away, she's the One You Almost Didn't Get Away From in Time. MightyGodKing does a great breakdown explaining how Betty isn't "The nice one", she's "The crazy one."
I mean, it's flattering and all to have someone think you're worth being fanatically devoted to, but I think Betty's crossed the line from "lover" to "stalker" and there's no uncrossing it.
- Veronica (Archie):
Quoting the aforementioned Mighty God King:
1.) She is rich. This counts for a lot.
2.) She is unpredictable and fun.
3.) She doesn’t care much what other people think of her.
4.) She is rich, yo.
5.) Most importantly, she is not Betty Cooper.That about sums up the "for" case. However, personally I never was that excited by her. She's just kind of boring. She doesn't seem terribly bright, and she doesn't seem all that into anyone but herself.
- Carol Ferris (Green Lantern):
Like Lois Lane, she's got dark hair. Like Veronica, she's rich. Like the Black Cat, sometimes she's a super-villain.
Unfortunately, like Betty she's nuts.
Granted, she doesn't know she's nuts (at least the last time I checked in with Green Lantern, which I grant you was a long time ago). I like a strong, powerful, assertive woman as much as the next guy, but I think mind control to the point that you make Superman kiss your boot in public is a bit much.
- Jean Grey (X-Men):
On the one hand, she's attracted the love of two super heroes, one a total dweeb and the other arguably the baddest of the bad boys.
On the other hand, when a regular girlfriend breaks up with you, the worst you usually can expect is maybe some miscellaneous car damage or embarrassing Facebook posts. When Jean Grey breaks up with you, she might just eat your whole planet. That's bad mojo. Plus, you will never ever convince me that dating a woman who can read your mind is a Good Idea. Nuh-unh.
- Black Widow (Daredevil):
That accent ... that long, flowing red hair ... that toned, athletic body ... that determination to spy on the United States for the nation that was in an undeclared war with it at the time.
Hmm ... She's pretty awesome, but I don't know that there's a level of awesome that's awesome enough to overcome the idea of betraying your country. This is not necessarily a problem for those of you who are not from the U.S. but it's something I couldn't personally handle.
- Elektra (Daredevil):
Heroes dig hot villainesses, it's just a fact. And they don't come much hotter than Elektra. You can certainly argue that this was the super-hero/super-villain love tangle that defined them all. Girlfriends of super-heroes had died before (see Stacy, Gwen), but not super-powered ones. Elektra was such a great character in her own right, so capable of going toe-to-toe on his own terms with her boyfriend, that she was enormously interesting. To have her assassinated, ironically even though she was an assassin herself, had a huge impact on the larger comics community.
Mary Jane Watson of course. Why do you think I’ve always liked Spiderman so much?
I went with Lois, even though I ‘ve never been a fan of hers. Can we add Gwen Stacy to the list?
…Yeah, I’m gonna go Mary Jane too. She’s definitely got more of the ‘love interest’ thing (not a super-hero/villian herself), and just seems to do a better job of it than Lois.
Been awhile since I thought to check, and the blog just popped into my head. I hope everyone had a great Easter and Mom’s day 😀
I’m so glad to see Mary Jane winning by miles. She’s the best 😀
If Batman had a girlfriend, she’d be leading this poll by lightyears, no matter how lame she might be.
John (5): Thank you for saying it so i didn’t have to. Finally a poll without batman screwing it up and revealing the true winner.
HEY! What about Catwoman??? How can you ignore the original cat lady? Or are you just worried that Bats will take it hands down as usual?
Worf (7): NO! And yes.
Just had a thought about Mary-Jane, it’s kinda hard to argue with a woman who has made a career as both an actress and a supermodel as being the best superhero girlfriend. Put that in you Bat-pipe and smoke it.
Wow, this is one poll I wish that you could add an option. No Sue Storm-Richards? No Sharon Carter? Black Canary? The aforementioned Gwen Stacy?
Thanks for the MightyGodKing links, Jeff. I never would have pieced that together about Betty by myself. She is stalker crazy.
Also, on the note of Jean Grey, I think Floating Hands Studios managed to sum up why Jean isn’t a good love interest.
Cyclops: My wife always all-powerful, evil, or dead!
I guess I’ll go with Mary Jane. Has Marvel finally gotten around to retconning “One More Day” out of existence yet?
Worf (7): Survey says … NUMBER ONE ANSWER!
@Jeff: I understand. How could anyone else on this list compete with this?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1T4ZbkqoUMA/TBvM0A7mCtI/AAAAAAAACYs/–R1jB0RyTQ/s1600/MKvDC+Catwoman_Render.jpg
Worf (11): Let’s go over this again. Mary-Jane is a su-per-mo-del. Supermodel. ‘Nuff said.
Then again McKight57 (12), what comic heroine couldn’t be a supermodel (OK, there may be a few exceptions). Except for the massive breasts they all fit the steriotypical supermodel build. Its not like they usually lack confidence either.
MMI (13): Referring to her actual job, but I get your point. Just really don’t want a runaway Batman poll AGAIN. I honestly think that at least every other poll should forget about . . . . what’s-his-name? You know, the guy with the pointy ears? No, not Namor, the other guy, all goth and attitude?
So it’s universally agreed upon that MJ is AWESOME. So why was One More Day allowed to happen? Why!? And when will the nightmare end?
You also have to remember the build-up to revealing what she looked like as a character. The first few issues she was in they kept her face hidden like Wilson on Home Improvement. Once they finally showed her, she had one of (if not the) best premier line in all of comics, which they sort of incorporated into Spider-Man 2, albeit in a very crappy way.
Anyone care to remember what that line was?
“you just hit the jack pot, tiger” am I right forgive me if im wrong
just googled it , i was close
I believe the actual line is (without the aid of Google): “Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot.”
yes,that’s right, My 16 year old mind just couldn’t remember, id seen once or twice before.
ajw (17): very close. Pretty good shot from the hip there man.
Myro (19): You are correct.
ajw (20): Don’t feel too bad. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve either seen that panel, or seen parodies of it, but it’s been quite a lot.
MJ for the win. Her and peter’s relationship just seemed real. It made spider man seemed more Joe Normal.
These polls always depend on interpretation. That’s fine, it makes for livelier discussion. But what does ‘greatest’ mean?
If we’re taking about greatness as a girlfriend, it’s MJ, since I think she’s got everything anybody could want.
If we’re talking about great fictional characters, I’d go with Elektra–what a backstory.
If we’re talking about great qualities for the girlfriend of a superhero… uh, I guess it’s Elektra again: strength, passion, and the ability to take care of herself so you’re less worried about her getting attacked because of you (true of several others, but I think she’s less likely to turn on you on some whim). [Of course her major drawback is her being, you know, dead and all. As are some of the others, maybe; I don’t have time to keep track of who’s currently deceased in the various multiverses.]
If we’re talking about who we’d personally like as our girlfriend–and I know we’re not–Lana Lang, a hot redhead who’s unlikely to kill me. Assuming she could get over her previous old flame.
This is a hard question. I’m going to go with Mary Jane, because…DAMN… well, LOOK at her…
Spidercow2010 (24): You have valid points. I was originally gonna go with Lana for the whole non-lethal redhead thing, but yeah. It’s still MJ, helps that most of my reading of Spiderman involved their relationship.
I know she is not on the list, and that most of you Marvel worshipers will not know who she is, but I am voting for Stephanie Brown AKA the current Batgirl. She was Robin’s girlfriend for about one hundred issues of his 183 issue series and she acted as his sidekick for almost all of the rest of them. Sure, she did ACCIDENTALLY plunge Gotham into the biggest gang war the city has ever seen, and she did send a high-tech assasin after Robin because Batman told her to challenge him, but she has really reformed lately. Also, she was always there for him when they were together, and, being a teenaged girl myself, I look up to her bravery and incredible wit. No, Stephanie Brown is not perfect, but she still managed to snag my vote 🙂
I still gotta say Mary Jane.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_ll2pelC83E1qffe1lo1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1305310646&Signature=es1wphvc4JInV7LsBXTGYfBvgzc%3D
Defently elektra ,i dident know she was in daredevil???