Although most commonly known for incredible fights and exciting action sequences, comic books also have their fair share of romances. Heroes need to find love too, and they often find it in the unlikeliest of places.
Many of Marvel’s greatest heroes have found themselves falling in love with their greatest villains. In turn, many of Marvel’s villains have found themselves feeling the same way about their heroic counterparts. Here are the top five times the hero fell for the villain, and five times the villain fell for the hero.
Hero Falls For Villain: Daredevil & Typhoid Mary
Matt Murdock has quite a reputation when it comes to women. Although 0ften times depicted as a devout catholic, Daredevil sleeps around quite a bit. Unfortunately for the horned headed hero, many of his love interests are killed after becoming a part of his dangerous life.
One of the more notable Daredevil lovers is Typhoid Mary. An assassin suffering from dissociative identity disorder, Typhoid Mary has worked for Kingpin and found herself in opposition to Daredevil on a myriad of occasions. Unbeknownst to Murdock, the woman he was falling in on one particular occasion was actually one of Mary’s four personalities.
Villain Falls For Hero: Enchantress & Thor
One of Asgard’s most skilled magic users, the Enchantress has often worked with Loki and other villains to take over the kingdom of gods. Often coming into conflict with Thor, Enchantress slowly found herself falling for the thunder god.
Enchantress has the power to seduce any many she wishes. She has often used this power to temporarily enchant Thor into loving her. The effects never last. What Enchantress wishes more than anything else is for Thor to love her without the need of enchantment.
Hero Falls For Villain: Hulk & Umar
Most often ruled over by Dormammu, the Dark Dimension has loomed over the Marvel universe as an imposing force for evil. From time to time, Dormammu’s sister Umar takes over from her brother and uses the forces of the Dark Dimension to further her own sinister self-interests.
When the superteam known as the Defenders came into conflict with Umar, Hulk found himself face to face with the deadly villainess. The two beings ended up smashing, but not in the way Hulk is used to. Hilariously enough, Hulk was unable to satisfy Umar, making him another in a long line of disappointments for Umar.
Villain Falls For Hero: Madame Masque & Iron Man
Tony Stark is well known for being quite promiscuous. From supermodels to famous actresses, Iron Man has had his pick when it comes to beautiful women. No one ever would have ever expected the billionaire superhero to have a romance with a dangerous supervillain.
Despite expectations, that’s exactly what he did. Stark fell in love with the leader of the Maggia, and the two began a relationship. Madame Masque was more in love with Stark then anyone before because he proved to her that Stark could love Madame Masque despite her deformities. Unfortunately for both of them, their dual lives wouldn’t allow a relationship to exist between the two.
Hero Falls For Villain: Wolverine & Mystique
Wolverine and Mystique had met each other many times before they joined Xavier and Magneto’s superteams. Sometime during 1921, the two assassins crossed paths with one another when Wolverine joined a gang Mystique was a part of.
During that time, the two characters had an intimate relationship. Their relationship actually ended with Mystique betraying Marvel’s most famous mutant. This lead to the characters becoming enemies for decades to come.
Villain Falls For Hero: Doctor Doom & Invisible Woman
Just prior to the massive Marvel crossover event Secret Wars, Doctor Doom stole the power of the Beyonder and remade the universe in his own image. As the God of this new universe, Doctor Doom made everything as he saw fit.
Among the various changes, were his adjustments to his sworn enemies, the Fantastic Four. Given his longtime jealousy of Reed Richards, Doom chose to make Sue Richards his wife in this new reality. Although the changes didn’t last, Secret Wars gave us a glimpse into Doom’s mind and what he truly wanted: the Invisible Woman as his wife.
Hero Falls For Villain: Cyclops & Madelyn Prior
The romance of Cyclops and Jean Grey is by far the most iconic in the X-Men lore. Tragically, Jean continues to die time and time again, leaving Cyclops sad and alone. On one occasion after losing Jean, Cyclops fell in love with a woman named Madelyn Prior. She had a striking resemblance to Jean Grey.
It turns out that Madelyn Prior was a clone of Jean created by the villain Mr. Sinister. Cyclops and Madelyn’s relationship began to deteriorate, with Madelyn showing her true, sinister nature. She went on to become the Goblin Queen, while Scott rejoined the X-Men.
Villain Falls For Hero: Namor & Invisible Woman
When the Fantastic Four first fought Namor, he took quite a liking to Sue Storm. While Namor isn’t always a supervillain per se, he often finds himself opposed to heroes and has even joined supervillain teams such as the Cabal from time to time.
Namor often tries to show Sue how much stronger he is than Reed in hopes of seducing her away from him. Although in this universe he has yet to be successful, there are many alternate realities where the two ended up becoming lovers.
Hero Falls For Villain: Daredevil & Elektra
A relationship that was doomed to fail, Daredevil and Elektra were madly in love with one another. While Daredevil fights with the goal of preserving life, Elektra is an assassin often working for the hand. These conflicting values make their co-existence impossible.
The two vigilantes have had many flings, but it only ever ends one way. Because of conflict at the center of who they are, the two are always forced to split ways.
Villain Falls For Hero: Black Cat & Spider-Man
Black Cat is essentially the Catwoman of the Marvel universe. While Catwoman has a longstanding romantic history with Batman, Black Cat has been off and of with Marvel’s greatest hero, Spider-Man.
In the beginning, the two were madly in love. However, over time Peter’s feelings for Felicia began to fade. Instead, he had his heart set on Mary Jane Watson. Their relationship further began to fall apart when it was revealed that Black Cat was in love with the persona of Spider-Man, and was disgusted by the idea of just being with Peter Parker.
