Question of the Week – Favourite Comic Book Couple

We’re back! Thank you everyone for sticking around, and we hope to make it worth your while. Right now, we’re moving to a weekly question for the GRCT crew and we’re kicking it off with our favourite comic book couples!

Siryn and Multiple Man

Theresa Cassidy and Jamie Madrox are currently in X-Factor, but their story began much, much earlier. While still both young adults, they were both taken in by Moira MacTaggert, and after befriending each other, they grew closer together. After Siryn joined the original X-Force (Liefeld art and all), she ran into Madrox again — but it turned out that the Jamie she’d fallen for in the past? Just a duplicate.

That heartbreak pretty much set the tone for any attempt at a relationship Jamie or Theresa would make. While my heart always lies with Theresa and she does have other relationships I love (this was almost Siryn/Warpath, honestly), it’s her dynamic with Jamie that I love most. They’ve always had intense chemistry, but the sort that sets off sparks that’ll burn them if they try to make it work.

Case in point: their baby. Which Jamie reabsorbed into himself, because it was a duplicate of his that impregnated Theresa (see the parallels here?). That, of course, ended in death threats and the two of them parting for a pretty long run of issues in X-Factor, but it wasn’t until the two of them rejoined X-Factor and started working together again that the team truly started working again.

Because, duplicates and death threats and lost children aside, they’re the sort of couple that will always have chemistry, that will always know each other better than most, that can fight and make up and fight again, and despite everything, they will always know how to work together and be a team. As friends or lovers, Jamie and Theresa will always be my #1 comic relationship.

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Huntress and Catman

As much as I have a soft spot in my heart for a few comic book couples, the one that won my heart this time round is Helena Bertinelli and Thomas Blake.

Huntress and Catman, two people who never actually got together. But two people who almost did more than once.  With so many things in common, it’s easy to see the attraction. Honestly, looking at both Helena and Blake it’s very easy to see the attraction. But for some trim both were driven by revenge, and both have been the ones more willing to cross the line. Huntress, however, ended up on the good guys side, and Catman could never stop beating himself up long enough to make it there.

To me they are a couple of what-ifs. Blake is someone that Helena could have fun with, relax with and who would understand what it was like to toe the moral line that the Bats lay down in Gotham. And Helena would understand the need for redemption, and the need to prove himself, as well as Blake’s chequered past. If things had worked out it could have been amazing. As it was we had a few brief glimpses of the couple that almost was, and those were totally worth it.

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Catwoman and Batman 

I think it’s probably pretty obvious by how much I mention it, but I really doubt that Loeb’s “Hush” is going to be topped for me in terms of Batman stories. And a big part of why I loved it so much (besides the entire thing being completely badass) was Batman’s interaction with Catwoman. Bruce spends the entirety of the book contemplating one kiss between the two of them, trying to figure out if he really has to be as alone as he’s been feeling.

I guess one of my favorite things about them is just the tug of war between their personalities. I think the best fictional relationships are the ones that aren’t perfect at all, and even on their best day, Batman’s tendency to be more than a little chivalrous when it comes to Catwoman just doesn’t mesh with the way she’s become accustomed to operating. In fact, it’s Bruce’s paranoia that drives another wedge between them at the conclusion of the arc, demonstrating just how much they really can’t work out. There’s always going to be that tug of war between them, and there are always going to be too many secrets for them to ever really meet in the middle, I think.

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Hawkeye and Mockingbird

I love these crazy kids. I don’t think that’s exactly a secret given that separately they are each some of my favourite comic book characters. Put them together and I’m kind of in heaven. From the moment we first see them together, he knows really nothing about her and she knows the details relevant to the mission about him. She’s a spy, he’s an Avenger. It’s not exactly like they’re coworkers. With heaps of witty banter and wisecracking, they end up kidnapped and then fighting their way out of trouble to complete their mission. (All of this happened in a short-run Hawkeye comic circa 1983.) When all is said and done, they do what seems like the perfectly natural thing: they get married.

That’s right. They get married before they’ve even gone out on a date, the sort of thing that sets the tone for the rest of their relationship. They’re impulsive and sure of themselves, prone to arguing and getting distracted. There is really no reason that they should be together, except they are. They love each other, full stop. Throughout the years they’ve lost their baby, filed for divorce, she’s died, he’s died, she was a Skrull and then she came back. It hasn’t been an easy road for them. In fact it has sort of been a road straight out of some sort of post-apocalyptic future.

As far as couples go, they work together.  They always have each other’s back. Heck, Mockingbird barely even questioned it when Black Widow swung in and kissed her because it’s just another day in their relationship. Hawkeye has a tendency to reference Grey’s Anatomy when referring to their relationship. It isn’t exactly a stretch given their soapier tendencies. At the end of the day, I’ll definitely take the soap because it comes with a side of badass. And who doesn’t love badass?

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For more relationshippy goodness, check out Fuck Yeah Comic Relationships!