The MCU has a few famous superhero couples like Wanda and Vision, Ant-Man and Wasp, or Gamora and Starlord. However, there is a whole world of wacky superhero pairings that never really gets to be seen in the MCU. For example, who would have guessed Daredevil and Black Widow would get together in the comics?
Superheroes have some of the most complicated love lives of fictional characters, so it makes sense that they have some unconventional pairings. Here is a list of MCU characters you might not expect to have been in a romantic relationship in the comics.
Tony Stark and Wasp
Tony Stark is not the person you usually think of in a pairing with Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp. In 2018, however, this became a reality as the two became a romantic couple. Issue #4 of the “Tony Stark: Iron Man” series shows the two of them in a passionate embrace. This was also not the first time they had been a pairing, as Janet and Tony previously dated for a brief time.
Their 2018 relationship could also be summarized with the adjective “brief”. While it would be two years until Christopher Cantwell would break up this Dan Slot written couple, their on-screen romance took a back seat to their own character drama and storylines. The breakup is similarly low-key, with the two simply agreeing that it’d be best if they saw other people.
Tony is characterized as a serious playboy in the comics, even more so than in the films where he does eventually commit to Pepper Potts. In the MCU, these two really have nothing to do with each other, and in the comics, it’s a similar sort of deal. They’re an odd couple to pair, but at the same time, Tony’s life is filled with romantic cul-de-sacs. Though Janet is usually depicted in a relationship with her husband, Hank Pym, the two have had an extremely messy relationship to say the least.
Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye
Another very brief romance happened between Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch after the House of M storyline, amounting really to not much more than a one-night stand. Despite this, it bears mentioning because of how strange it was.
The brief affair was exceptionally odd even within the context of the comics themselves. Before the two slept together, Hawkeye was tracking Wanda down specifically to kill her. Before House of M, Wanda killed Hawkeye accidentally due to a loss of control over her powers. During House of M Clint Barton would remember this and then go to confront her, at which point Wanda effectively killed him again. In addition, it’s an especially weird moment considering their relationship was, before this point, as close friends, but firmly just friends.
In the MCU the two have a similar friendship as in the comics, and the fact that Clint serves as a father figure and is happily married would make a similar event to this very strange as well. In addition, these two are probably never going to even get the chance if Wanda stays dead, especially because their storylines don’t really have anything to do with one another anymore.
Gamora and Tony Stark
Speaking of awkward one-night stands, Tony Stark and Gamora once got together. This couple didn’t even last two pages, as the ending to that particular romance was very definitively negative. This is one of the many romances Tony has that don’t really go anywhere, which will not surprise anyone who is aware of the armored superhero from either the MCU or the 616 comics universe.
Still, it’s representative of how different romances are in the comics as opposed to the MCU. Though comics Peter Quill and Gamora do end up being an item, the two also date other people before and after. Notably for Peter is his relationship with Kitty Pryde, aka the intangible mutant Shadowcat, to whom he is engaged and almost ends up marrying.
In the MCU these two haven’t interacted, but oddly enough Tony has spent a lot of time with another Guardians of the Galaxy member Nebula. While the two never get romantically involved, it is interesting that though Tony never does interact with Gamora, he does end up meeting her sister and the two have a bit of a friendship as they are both stranded in a spaceship for a while before they return to earth in Endgame.
Namor and Susan Storm
This may seem like a bit of a speculative pick, but we know that Sue is coming in 2025’s Fantastic Four and we did see Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the comics, Namor represented an escape for Sue, who often felt ignored or romantically neglected by her husband Reed Richards who would often prioritize scientific pursuits over her.
The two would end up romantically entangled over the years, though never with any permanence. Susan Storm would turn to Namor occasionally. Sometimes she would end up with the Submariner her husband was dead for a time or sometimes she left Reed for Namor.
This relationship in the comics serves to highlight tensions between Susan Storm and Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four. In the MCU, it’s unclear how they’ll handle their relationship. What’s more, Namor’s storylines have more to do with Wakanda and the Black Panther than the Fantastic Four.
Daredevil and Black Widow
While MCU fans may not understand what these two have in common, those who know the characters from the comics may remember that these two had a romantic relationship for a while. This wasn’t just some brief fling either, with the two of them having serious plans to settle down together in San Francisco.
Daredevil and Black Widow met as vigilantes in New York and the two hit off a romance after that, a romance that existed both in and out of costume. They even, as before mentioned, moved out to the west coast together. Even as the two split up, they remain very amicable with one another, rather than being bitter exes.
In the MCU, it’s hard to find any two characters who have less to do with one another. Natasha was one of the original Avengers, while Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdoch was stuck in the Netflix verse for the longest time and not allowed to have any real crossover with the wider MCU. The closest the two could have gotten in the story might have been when Black Widow was fighting in the Battle of New York, but that’s it really. It’s highly unlikely that the two will end up together now that Natasha is dead, though technically not impossible.
Spider-Man and Captain Marvel
Peter Parker is much older in the comics than he is in the MCU, and as such has had plenty of time to get in many romantic relationships through the years. This includes a brief date with Carol Danvers, who would go on to become Captain Marvel after abandoning the ‘Miss Marvel’ moniker.
Despite the fact that this one date went rather awkwardly at first, the two find themselves having a nice time hanging out in New York together after their initial date is ruined by superhero business. The two have pretty good chemistry and this spark of romance is brought up again later when the two are fighting Venom and he mentions that Danvers has feelings for Spider-Man. Unfortunately, this romance mostly ended after Danvers took on the full Captain Marvel mantle and name.
In the MCU the two are not at all romantically viable. Peter Parker was in high school until very recently and the two have shared only one scene together. The two of them were never really on the same team in the movies, unless you count Tony ‘knighting’ Peter as an Avenger. It shows how different the comics and the movies are because comics Peter is a much older and wiser superhero than he is in the MCU, able to use his wealth of superhero experience as well as his smarts to defeat villains.
Black Widow and Bucky Barnes
This one represents perhaps more of a missed connection in the MCU rather than a really strange pairing. Natasha Romanov and Bucky Barnes have a relationship status in the comics that can be best summarized as “it’s complicated.” The two technically met before either of them became a superhero, back when Natasha was a Russian Spy the duo apparently trained together. The two of them formed a romance in this time together before being brainwashed to forget those memories.
Since then the two have had time to reminisce with one another about that romance, having regained their memories of it, but neither one has really committed to the other. The two share a fondness for one another but they aren’t exactly a couple.
It’s odd then in the MCU that these two characters don’t really have anything to do with one another. Bucky and Natasha have been in the same movies and storylines, but they’ve never actually interacted with one another meaningfully. It’s a shame that this interesting connection doesn’t show up in the MCU as the two have a lot in common. They were both treated as weapons or tools by their overlords, Hydra in Bucky’s case and the Red Room in Natasha’s. They have a lot they could bond over.
Black Widow and Tony Stark
A pairing of both the Avengers with perhaps the most romantic history, Black Widow and Tony Stark paired up in the Ultimate Universe, the same universe that Miles Morales hails from in the comics before being rewritten into 616 continuity.
The Ultimate Universe has a bad reputation for being the edgy, in-your-face cousin to the 616 Marvel universe and the relationship between Natasha and Tony is similarly unfortunate. The duo had a romance and were going to get married before Black Widow betrayed the team, putting an end to that. In fittingly edgy Ultimate’s fashion, a sex tape of the two is published and distributed.
In the MCU, Tony was briefly somewhat enamored with Natasha when she first showed up to work for him in Iron Man 2, but eventually, he learned that Natasha was a SHIELD spy. The two had something of a vapor, though not quite on the level of Natasha’s friendship with Steve Rodger’s Captain America or Hawkeye.
Captain Marvel & War Machine
Carol and Rhodey may seem like two characters without a lot in common, but the truth is they actually have a lot to bond over. Both were members of the Air Force and the two have both taken on their mantles as superheroes initially as a result of their connections to other superheroes. As a result, their romance is actually pretty straightforward and realistic for comics media.
The one oddball element is how they broke up. Recently, in a storyline featuring Captain Marvel, she traveled forward in time and met Rhodey’s future daughter, who helped her out in fighting the time-traveling villain Ove, son of Namor and the Enchantress. Carol also found out that she was not the mother of this future daughter of Rhodey as well. As a result, Carol decided to break up with Rhodey not because she was upset with him, but because she wanted to ensure the best chance for this daughter to exist in the future.
Though an on-screen relationship is not necessarily impossible for these two, it’s probably not in the cards anytime soon. Neither of their storylines has much overlap and, in addition, the two never really interacted much in the MCU.
Thanos and Hela
And now for perhaps one of the wildest, most unexpected relationships on this list. With that said, it makes a sort of sense given how much Thanos is obsessed with death, and how Hela is the Goddess of Death. Despite that, Thanos in the comics famously only has his eyes on the literal personification of mortality named Death in the Marvel Universe.
The pairing doesn’t really seem to have any other deeper basis other than the fact that Thanos loves death both as a concept and as an entity, and Hela is similarly inclined to the former and promised Thanos she could secure for him the love of the latter. As a result, this romance is mostly a baffling footnote in comic history. Hela also did end up working to help resurrect Thanos after he died.
In the MCU this could have worked from a character perspective, as Thanos doesn’t have a love for the literal entity known as death, but it would have undermined the tone of Infinity War and Endgame. Now with Thanos fairly decisively dead and Hela presumed deceased, it’s unlikely these two will end up together.
Published: Feb 16, 2023 12:56 pm