Thursday 16 April 2009

Thursday 13: Comic Book Romance

Header from samulli

This week we've actually been given a theme of weddings, so, since I've not been to that many weddings, here's a list of thirteen comic book weddings I've read about (all characters copyright Marvel and DC Comics):


1. Reed Richards And Sue Storm

Back in Fantastic Four Annual #3, Mister Fantastic tied the knot with the Invisible Woman (what did he see in her?). Clearly the idea of a wedding wasn't thought enough to lure in the fans, so they gave us this cover:



The marriage also featured in the acclaimed '90s series Marvels, in which artist Alex Ross gave us this scene. Talk about a guest list (click on the picture and play spot the celebrity).



2. Crystal and Quicksilver

Another Fantastic Four issue, and another wedding. This time we have Crystal of the Inhumans marrying the mutant Quicksilver. All they wanted was a quiet wedding.



3. Superman and Lois Lane

Back in the '60s, Superman was always marrying Lois Lane (or Lana Lang or Lori Lemaris), but in imaginary stories (below is a famous one where he's married both Lois and Lana).



Then in the '70s, he married Lois for real, albeit on a parallel world, Earth-2:



Then, finally, in the '90s, after shuffling his feet for over half a century, Lois and Clark finally got married:



4. Batman and Catwoman

Back on that parallel world, Earth-2, where Superman married Lois Lane, Batman was depicted as marrying Catwoman, and they eventually had a daughter, The Huntress, who continued his heroic legacy.



5. Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson

Spider-Man married Mary Jane back in the '80s in Spider-Man Annual #21 (but they've both recently forgotten about it and gone back to being single - hey, that's comic books for you):



And, just to show that zombies can be in love too, here's a zombie version:



6. Jor-El and Lara

Superman's parents are shown being married below. A few years later their planet will explode. You win some, you lose some.



7. Adam Strange and Alanna

Adam Strange, a nobody on Earth who's beamed to the planet Rann and gets to be a hero (a cool metaphor for reading superhero comics if ever there was one), here marrying his longtime alien girlfriend, Alanna. Alan Moore subsequently took some of the romance out of it all by revealing that Adam was merely being used for breeding purposes, the male populace of Rann being sterile.



8. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl

Two members of the Legion of Super-Heroes who recently turned up on the TV show Smallville (as did Zatanna, but not in the same episode of course, that would just be like bad fanfiction). Anyway, the two Legionnaires got married in this over-sized Treasury Edition with a cover that screams everything but wedding at you.



9. Bruce Banner and Betty Ross

The Incredible Hulk got married, although his wife later died due to his gamma radiation. Poor Hulk.



10. Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler

Now we get down to some of the more obscure characters to non-comic-readers. Rick Jones is one of the Hulk's friends and he got married a while back in undoubtedly the funniest wedding comic I've ever read (courtesy of writer Peter David), which also featured a cameo from Neil Gaiman's Death.



11. Donna Troy and Terry Long

Donna Troy, aka The Teen Titans' Wonder Girl, got married to dull non-superhero Terry Long back in the '80s.



12. Yellowjacket and The Wasp

Yellowjacket (aka Hank Pym aka Ant-Man aka Giant-Man aka Goliath) married his girlfriend The Wasp, in one of those weddings you hear about where a python tries to crush the bride. Don't worry, the animal wasn't hurt.



13. The Flash and Iris West

I've not actually read this one, but I wouldn't reach that magic 13 without it, and it's got a cool cover, so let's include it.



8 comments:

Improbable Joe said...

I'll never forget that Alex Ross artwork of the Richards/Storm wedding, and I thought of it as soon as I read the beginning of your post.

Janet said...

The Huntress, eh? LOL!

A Blog In The Rough said...

shhh you're not supposed to tell us ppl who only watch the recent Spiderman movies that they get married!
Coolness on da post, I kinda thought superheros would be above the silly trappings of getting married, but I guess not.

Sathyai said...

I actually don't like Spiderman so I don't read the comic ever, did they really just forget they were married? Wow, comic book continuity. Gotta love it.

Rikki said...

Good take on the (boring) prompt. I didn't even see that prompt, but even if I had I wouldn't have followed it.
I'm not a comic reader, but as a romance lover I appreciate this - even though I don't see that romance and wedding necessarily go hand in hand. In that respect I liked your aside about the invisible woman. Only that comment applies to spouses in general, invisible or not, ;-).
Those covers are something. I especially like #2 where Ultron grabs the bouquet AND THE BRIDE! If this doesn't make you want to buy the comic, I don't know what would. Happy belated TT!

An Eerie Tapestry said...

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Improbable Joe - Have to admit that when I thought of this Thursday 13 meme, the Alex Ross artwork was the first thing that popped into my head too.

Janet - Yeah, The Huntress. Although her parentage was later revamped to make her parents mafiosi. What a comedown that must have been for her.

Blog In The Rough - D'oh! You're right. I should have remembered how faithful the movies are to their source material :P Yeah, superheroes tend to be fine with getting married, maybe because they don't have to put up with many in-laws (most of the big heroes tending to be orphans with no siblings).

Tilli - Don't be silly, their just forgetting would be ridiculous. No, they made a deal with the demon Mephisto that they'd forget their marriage in order to save the life of Peter's Aunt May. See, that's far more realistic now, isn't it?

Rikki - Bizarrely, having caught the bouquet , Ultron went on, just three years later, to build himself a robot bride, Jocasta. It makes you think, maybe there's some truth to that bouquet tradition after all.

The Bumbles said...

I had no idea there were weddings in comic books - too funny! That Marlo looks like a tart.

An Eerie Tapestry said...

Well, funny you should mention that, but at the previous issue's bachelor party, they watched a piece of adult entertainment and, to Rick's surprise, Marlo turned out to be the star; so I guess sometimes you can judge a book by the cover.