Is Marvel against marriage of super heros?

[Myetche]

Medusa and Black Bolt are not divorced she just thinks he is dead, like in a thousand other stories.

And Black Bolt willingly transformed the entire world with Terrigen Mist without Medusa's knowledge or consent, while she's been left to clean up his mess. How do you think she's going to react when they reunite? Not happily, most likely.

[MyriVerse]

I am glad Marvel is progressive about the outdated institution of marriage. Remember, these comics are aimed at children, not old people.

The institution isn't outdated. The concept is and needs to adapt.
These comics are aimed at young adults; never think otherwise.

[Lady Warp Spasm]

I suppose being grim and gritty means failed or broken marriages = conflict. Shrugs.

[cadet]

It's because happy couples=no drama.

It's kind of sad. I would think a few team books should be "allowed" to have at least one happy long-term couple.

[MyriVerse]

Yeah, sure, happy couples = no drama, but that doesn't mean couples need to separate. There's lots of ways to insert drama without splitting them up. See Reed/Sue (even if I want them to). And honestly, separating them usually gives us less drama in the long run.

[Michael P]

Because as everyone knows, married couples are deliriously happy all the time and never experience conflict of any kind.

[Janobi]

People have marital problems all the time. I think marvel made relationship believable. :P

[pageturner]

And Black Bolt willingly transformed the entire world with Terrigen Mist without Medusa's knowledge or consent, while she's been left to clean up his mess. How do you think she's going to react when they reunite? Not happily, most likely.

I suppose not being able to interrupt your wife while she yells at you might help resolve issues quickly.

[pageturner]

Because as everyone knows, married couples are deliriously happy all the time and never experience conflict of any kind.

Of course but do you want to see superheroes arguing about the family budget, or who is going to feed the kid, wash the dishes, go to the teacher meetings etc.?

[Crimz]

Reed and Sue have been married for ages and show that Marvel isn't completely against superhero marriages. I want them to divorce at times though.

[Habis]

1.-Many heroes are or have been married: Black Bolt (still married), Reed Richards and Sue Richards (still married), Johnny Storm (kind of divorced, since his wife was a skrull spy), Peter Parker (marriage sold to Mephisto), Bruce Banner (twice), Cyclops (twice), Meggan and Brian Braddock (still married), Namor (twice), Hercules (technically still married), Luke Cage (still married), Banshee (widower), Hank Pym (twice), Jan Van Dyne (divorced), Blue Marvel (widower), Sentry (widower), Helstorm and Hellcat (divorced), Dr. Strange and Clea (divorced)...etc. The problem is, a new writer often takes charge who wants to do something different, and they kill the spouse or have them divorce without hesitation.

2.-Super-heroes no longer have private lives. Very few keep day jobs anymore, and most are in their shiny pants 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you don't have a private life, you can't have a married life.

3.-Marvel desperately clinges to the youthful image heroes had at the beginning. The older they become, the more desperate Marvel becomes to keep any symbol of middle age away from them. They want them unattached and free.

4.-To properly portray a hero's married life would require real character development. But Marvel is all about big events, shocking incidents and brainless fights now, so there is isn't time for that...so the writers have the heroes hook-up and break very quickly.

[gurkle]

I think it's inevitable that when you have characters who will be published forever, and never age, they will eventually revert to what they were originally. The reason Reed and Sue have lasted is that they were married off so early that their marriage is almost a part of the original status quo. But with a married Spider-Man or Superman, there's always a tension between the version of those characters being portrayed in the comics and the "classic" version that everyone knows. Eventually someone, somehow, is going to break up the marriage and make the character closer to the familiar single version.

That's why the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane was always on borrowed time, and the only surprises were a) It lasted 20 years, and b) It was undone so clumsily. So many writers wanted to write the old single Peter Parker, so many readers and moviegoers preferred the old single Peter Parker, that someday he was going to go back to being the old single Peter Parker. It's the same reason Superman keeps getting new jobs but always winds up back as a newspaper journalist, or dead characters keep coming back. In a series with an ending, you can have "permanent" change, but superhero comics never end, so all they can do is change and then change back.

So I wouldn't say comic companies are against character development, though I'm sure they sometimes are. You can have character development, you just can't have permanent character development for characters if it takes them too far from their roots. Writers can develop them and change them and make them grow up, but the next writer is going to snap them back and start the character development process all over again.

[Wren]

In-universe I think it makes a certain amount of sense that superhero marriages break up (btw I think you forgot Vision and Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Mockingbird, Namor and Dorma...).

Superheroes often have quirky personalities, life callings, a bad past, or all of the above, things that make it more difficult to get close to them and put up with them. Plus they're often busy. And they marry other superheroes with the same problems (or civilians, who will get killed). That's already making them more likely to divorce.

That's not counting cases where they have one or more nemesis/family/team-mates/friends who actively ruin their marriage for revenge/good intentions/being crazy/being stupid...

[Clea]

1.-Many heroes are or have been married: Black Bolt (still married), Reed Richards and Sue Richards (still married), Johnny Storm (kind of divorced, since his wife was a skrull spy), Peter Parker (marriage sold to Mephisto), Bruce Banner (twice), Cyclops (twice), Meggan and Brian Braddock (still married), Namor (twice), Hercules (technically still married), Luke Cage (still married), Banshee (widower), Hank Pym (twice), Jan Van Dyne (divorced), Blue Marvel (widower), Sentry (widower), Helstorm and Hellcat (divorced), Dr. Strange and Clea (divorced)...etc. The problem is, a new writer often takes charge who wants to do something different, and they kill the spouse or have them divorce without hesitation.

2.-Super-heroes no longer have private lives. Very few keep day jobs anymore, and most are in their shiny pants 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you don't have a private life, you can't have a married life.

3.-Marvel desperately clinges to the youthful image heroes had at the beginning. The older they become, the more desperate Marvel becomes to keep any symbol of middle age away from them. They want them unattached and free.

4.-To properly portray a hero's married life would require real character development. But Marvel is all about big events, shocking incidents and brainless fights now, so there is isn't time for that...so the writers have the heroes hook-up and break very quickly.

Unless I missed something, Strange and Clea aren't divorced yet. Last thing I am aware of, Clea told Strange she wanted a divorce in Fearless Defenders. She didn't even tell him why, though we readers know that it is because she discovered that Strange was cheating on her while she was away fighting Dormammu in the Dark Dimension. Since FD was cancelled right after this, it's hard to know if this situation would have been resolved or if they would actually have divorced.

I think that fans who only knew of Dr. Strange from his appearances in New Avengers may not have known that Strange and Clea were even married int he first place because no writer has mentioned her in a story for years, even when the story has involved the Dark Dimension or her relatives (Umar and Dormammu). I truly don't know if this divorce declaration was part of an official Marvel strategy to reboot Strange as a single man, or simply done to add some instant, interesting drama for Clea that would have been explored in Fearless Defenders. I assume that Marvel prefers to have Strange be single because it's (seemingly) easier to write him that way.

[Wellman]

Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler- They are still together right?

Nope, she actually ran off with Moondragon and then came back for the finale of the Captain Marvel series but really hasn't been seen much since. Given he has been turn into "A-Bomb" I some how doubt it.

But yes, Marvel is against marriage, although as others have state, it comes from a place of both fearing the characters being too old and for the standard and somewhat dated belief that marriages can't have drama and survive realistically.