The List: Top 10 Greatest Couples In Comics

Well, I can say one thing for definate looking at the results we got for this poll. That thing being; nobody on this site reads Archie comics. Nobody even nominated any couples from outside the superhero genre, which I suppose helps me, means I don't actually have to go away and do any research on characters I don't read so thanks guys. So, yeah, we have our 10 and, as previously stated, they're all superhero couples. Let's dive in.

Hon Mentions: Batwoman & Maggie Sawyer, Gambit & Rogue, Colossus & Kitty Pryde

10. Luke Cage & Jessica Jones

On one hand we have a hero for hire who gained his powers after being imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit and volunteered for an experiment in exchange for reduced time. And on the other we have a forgotten hero turned PI who was mentally a physically abused by a mind controlling supervillain. With that amount of "messed up" in their backstories, it was only a matter of time after they'd met and started teaming up before something happened, right? Unlike many superhero relationships (as we'll see) these two have actually managed to remain pretty stable. They've been going strong for about 15 years, had a kid, got married. They managed to stay on the same side of both Civil Wars, neither was a Skrull when the invasion happened (although their kid did get kidnapped) and they managed to survive being creeped on by the Superior Spider-Man (no, I'm not going to rant) and the Purple Man on seperate occassions. Oh and they hired Squirrel Girl as their babysitter, because of course.

9. Cyclops & Phoenix

Sigh...

This one makes me sad. Not because I hate the pairing, but because of how they've been handled. A pair that started out in the 60's, during the original run of the X-Men, this is the couple that tippifies "comics" in all the worst ways. Both have died and come back to life (it kinda became Jean's thing, you know, what with the whole Phoenix force thingamajig), there have been a couple of messy break ups, Cyclops getting hitched with Jean's clone before leaving said clone for the original and creating a new, entirely avoidable supervillain, a wedding, some adultery, a psychic affair, just the whole nine yards. But then again, what can you expect considering that the higher ups at Marvel actively hate Cyclops and have spent almost 30 years trying to turn him into a villain so Wolverine can be the defacto X-Men lead character (we did a What Were They Thinking about it a long time ago if you wanted further information).

8. Green Arrow & Black Canary

Now this is an interesting one, because the relationship is very uneventful by comic book standards. Canary starts out thinking Arrow is a colossal ass, actually gets to know him and discovers he isn't, they start dating, things happen, they get married, Canary kills Arrow on their wedding night.... wait what? Oh wait, turns out it was Everyman masquerading as Arrow. Cool. Anyway, then it's discovered that Arrow killed a supervillain and they have what can best be described as "a fight" (Flash and Green Lantern are also involved to put this into context) and they break up and then the entire thing is retconned out of existance by the New 52. Until it's un-retconned by DC rebirth. DC's continuity is stupid. Still, this pairing is so iconic that when they messed it up in the Arrow CW show the producers sure knew how annoyed the fans were. A lot.

7. Aquaman & Mera

Considering that the immortal song suggests that life is better under the sea, surely these two have had a much easier time of it than most on this list. Yeah, nope. They meet after both being imprisoned by a character called Leron who was after Mera's kingdom, which she abdicates after Leron is defeated to go and marry Aquaman and even then he has to change Atlantian law to marry a non-Atlantian after an attempted invasion which Mera saved the city from. So yeah, normal stuff happens now, they get married, have a baby, the baby is murdered by a man looking to build an undersea colony for black people, you know, usual stuff. Obviously, couples therapy isn't big in Atlantis because Mera ends up in an Atlantian asylum whilst Aquaman goes to form Justice League Detriot (and I don't know which is worse). Then Aquaman accidentally impales Mera on a spike and they break up, I mean, you would wouldn't you? But hey, at least they've reconciled and are back together in time for Aquaman to die and be resurrected, after which it's revealled that Mera was actually sent to kill the king of Atlantis, but she didn't and had kept this secret for 40+ years even after all the break ups and impallings. Oh and they actually managed to be one of the few couples that made it through the New 52 unscathed. Not bad for a hero most commonly associated with the word "useless" and a very angry mermaid.

6. Mr. Fantastic & Invisible Woman

Ok, don't quite get how these two are not in the top 5 but ok, we'll go with it. Having debuted already as a couple in 1961 and having been married since 1965, they are the longest consistant couple certainly in the Marvel Universe. Sure there have been some roadblocks along the way, this is comics you should know this by now, but they're still together. And I mean these are some big roadblocks, like some very old-fashioned attitudes towards women in the early years, Sue being mind controlled by a villain (this is a thing with Marvel), Reed creating a killer robot Thor and alienating the rest of the F4 during Civil War. Oh and their comic being cancelled out of spite towards Fox because Disney couldn't get the rights to make movies about them back. But during that time they did manage to have 2 kids, one of whom is the most powerful being in the Marvel universe according to some estimates and considering how messed up everything is around superheroes they turned out pretty well adjusted, so good parenting points.

5. Vision & Scarlet Witch

Where to begin with this one. Ok, so, you take the daughter (now retconned) of Magneto and the "child" of Ultron, put them in the Avengers together and have them bond over how screwed up their families are. They fall in love and get married in a dual ceremony alongside Mantis and the possessed body of her dead lover, Swordsman. And then the really messed up stuff starts. So it turns out that their relationship was part of a plan by Immortus (aka Kang) to prevent Scarlet Witch from having kids, because they'd be so powerful they could destroy even the strongest cosmic beings. But they push through that and actually have kids, which is confusing. And then Vision gets dismantelled by the governement and put back together completely emotionless because Wonder Man is an ass and won't let his personality pattern be used again. But they push through that. And then it turns out that their kids are actually parts of Mephisto's soul and aren't actually real, so I guess Immortus wasn't such an idiot after all. The pair seperate for a while whilst Wanda gets over the loss of the kids and Vision regains some emotions, before Wanda propperly cracks and dissassembles the Avengers and kills Vision to boot. And no, it wasn't Everyman pretending to be Vision, he's a DC badguy, what would he be doing in a Marvel comic? Anyway, that's where the pairing ends really. Vision doesn't forgive Wanda next time they meet in Avs.X and he then goes on to build his own synthezoid family (which had an amazing comic btw), whilst Wanda does Avengers things and reconciles with her brother. Shame.

4. The Flash (Barry Allen) & Iris West

Oh God, not more DC continuity.

Another pairing that was built into the characters from the off, Barry Allen and Iris West were engaged to be married before Barry became the fastest man alive, although it takes them around a decade to actually tie the knot and even then they have to put up with an imposter at the wedding (no, it wasn't Everyman, though we are in the right universe this time, it was actually Reverse Flash). So far, so normal (well as normal as it gets with superheroes). Fast forward a decade though and Iris gets murdered by Reverse Flash. And this is where I start to hate DC because this bit makes my brain hurt. So, turns out that Iris was actually from the future, her parents send a new version of Iris back to the past and transplant her conciousness into a new body and Barry leaves with this new Iris to go to the 30th century so he can avoid dying in Crisis On Infinite Earths and they have twins before Barry gets dragged back in time and dies. Ok, that's mental, but at least this relationship doesn't get messed over by the resets that happen after Crisis or Zero Hour, so that's good. Then Iris returns to the present and Final Crisis brings Barry back and they have a lovely reunion. Oh wait, Flashpoint, New 52, no marriage, no relationship even. Iris fancies Barry but Barry doesn't fancy Iris. Then Rebirth and that's a whole convoluted mess because now they both know Barry was the reason for them being retconned out of existance and OH MY GOD I HATE DC CONTINUITY!

Still, could be worse

3. Superman & Lois Lane

It's worse.

How do I summerise 80 years of storylines concisely. Especially considering that at one point there were two different Supermen/ Lois Lanes in two different series, in two different continuities being published at the same time? Well, I'm not going to go into details. Best just say that Lois has been around since Action Comics #1 and has had an obssession with Superman throughout, whilst also an on-off relationship with Clark Kent for the same amount of time. Lois even got her own comic in the 60's based on the stupid things she'd do to get Superman's attention. But it would take until 1978 for the couple to make it official and get married and even then it was the Earth 2 (Golden Age) versions of the characters, not the main continuity Earth 1 (Silver Age) versions, that would take until 1996 (as a tie-in with the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman). But of course, all of this was undone by the New 52 (that's a recuring theme). I hate DC continuity.

2. Batman & Catwoman

Why do I do this to myself?

I must say, I'm surprised at how high these two are, because they are the least stable and least conventional couple out of any on this list. The only hero/ "villain" (although, more anti-hero now) couple on this list, obviously their differing moralities have kept them from going to the next level for nearly 80 years now. Sure Earth 2's Bats/ Cats got married and had a daughter (Helena, you might have heard of her, she became Huntress), but it took until the New 52 for this couple to actually get around to even getting engaged and that got called off pretty sharpish ("heroes can't have happy personal lives"). But I suppose what makes this couple so iconic is that will they/ won't they dynamic, the conflict between their basic natures and their desire for the other made the interplay and interactions so much more intriguing. Oh and it's Batman and Batman wins lol. Well...

1. Spider-Man & Mary Jane Watson

Ok. I promise I'm not going to rant, I will try to be as un-salty as I can be, I've already eviserated One More Day in a What Were They Thinking and as much as I can go on about how much I hate that storyline and how this validates that hatred, I won't, because it does a diservice to the characters, so I'll mention it once at the top and point out that it was where this relationship ended in the comics continuity and leave it at that.

So yeah, Spider-Man, for being a massive nerd, sure gets the girls. He's had flings with such classic characters as Felica Hardy (Black Cat) and Gwen Stacy (who I'm surprised wasn't even nominated for this list, it's pretty iconic), amongst others such as Betty Brant, Carol Danvers (yup, that happened) and Carlie Cooper. But the one that has stood the test of time the most, that appears in every incarnation of the character (that isn't the Amazing Spider-Man movie duo), every game, cartoon series, non-canon comic/ newspaper strip and most movies is Peter and MJ. And that says something. Very few heroes can pull off having multiple love interests that people love and enjoy reading about (can anyone actually tell me any of Batman's girlfriends names other than Vicky Vale and Selina Kyle), but the fact that one of them can stand head and shoulders above the rest shows how iconic the pairing is.

Now if only we could have it back for I dunno maybe another 24 hours or something.

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