|
|
Post by rberman on Apr 12, 2019 15:30:27 GMT -5
Going to dive into the box of the obscure here, but one of my favorite romance comics is the David and Eileen ongoing soap opera in Just Married #93-101. He's Jewish! She's... Irish! Can they make it work?! I love how they always say "Irish" when they really mean "Catholic," which is very clear from the actual story content. Apparently that was a bridge to far, as they were already pushing it with the whole idea.  it's heavy handed and over the top, as with most romance comics, but it's also interesting. Basically, both sets of parents are very religious and traditional, and it leads to all sorts of difficulty in their marriage. Usually, each one is trying to please their partner's family, so there's a bit of a Gift of the Magi thing going on. Still, it's bold material for 1973. J.M. DeMatteis comes from such a union of Catholic and Jew and wrote himself into his Iceman limited series, giving the protagonist the same background as himself. Like many aspects of Bobby Drake's back story, this was ignored by more recent writers. DeMatteis' Iceman story was very family-oriented, as Iceman grapples with his family's expectations. This too was autobiography, since "successful comic book writer" did not seem very successful to DeMatteis' parents at first. But there are a lot more stories about characters dealing with their parents than dealing with their spouses, so it's kind of a different category.  |
|
|
|
Post by Prince Hal on Apr 12, 2019 15:56:50 GMT -5
Vision and Scarlet Witch... I guess Vision and Mrs. Vision from the Tom King series, too. Crystal and Quicksilver (not sure if they're divorced now).. Black Bolt and Medusa... maybe some other Inhumans? I think the Huntress (original Earth-Two version) and the SPortsmaster and Punch and Jewlee were both married. As were the Earth-Two Flash and Joan Williams Garrick when they reappeared in Flash 123. |
|
|
|
Post by badwolf on Apr 12, 2019 16:00:09 GMT -5
I've never read the Donna Troy marriage story (wasn't a regular DC reader at the time) but I recently got the omnibus so I'll get to it eventually.
|
|
|
|
Post by Prince Hal on Apr 12, 2019 16:03:51 GMT -5
Anything with Ralph & Sue Dibny; but, especially, the later era stuff in Starman. James Robinson got the fact that they were Nick & Nora Charles, in superhero drag. Sue was just as integral as Ralph, despite the lack of powers. She was every bit the detective he was and she adored her hubby. It's why Identity Crisis rips out your heart and ticks you (well, me) off. Sue is Laura Petrie, with a bit more adventure in her life and she gets toasted. I could maybe live with that, if she hadn't have been retroactively raped as well. Then, for it to just be a mcguffin for a bad and psychotic story, just made that thing poison, for me. In the 70s, Barry and Iris made for a great couple, with Iris doing her thing and Barry his, with home interactions and the odd time where Iris' journalism fed Barry info. Then, she got murdered. Sense a pattern here? Agreed! Love the Sue and Laura equivalence, especially since Ralph and Dick Van Dyke/Rob are more than similar, too. I can just hear Sue saying, "Oh, Ra-a-a-alph!" Want to add that the "Nick and Nora" vibe ran through the series throughout its original run in Detective, too. The Dibnys were a refreshing difference from the usual superhero fare: debonair, nonchalant, aggressively (for the Comics Code era) in love, and dedicated to nothing more than fun and adventure thanks to Sue's fortune. And no kids to tie them down, either! Ah, the freedom of a back-up series and a second-tier character... |
|
|
|
Post by Icctrombone on Apr 12, 2019 21:25:30 GMT -5
Off the top of my head, I think the Black Panther/ Storm marriage has to be the shortest in comic history.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mister Spaceman on Apr 12, 2019 22:08:04 GMT -5
Not sure if this discussion is meant to be restricted to classic comics but I've been enjoying the effect of Hopey's stable marriage on her relationship with Maggie in the current iteration of Love and Rockets.  |
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 13, 2019 1:06:19 GMT -5
Not sure if this discussion is meant to be restricted to classic comics but I've been enjoying the effect of Hopey's stable marriage on her relationship with Maggie in the current iteration of Love and Rockets. Yeah, that was an interesting approach. Hopey was the least marriage-type character in the whole cast, but it works well. |
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,959 
|
Post by Crimebuster on Apr 13, 2019 2:24:19 GMT -5
Hawkeye and Mockingbird had an interesting marriage. Those Englehart West Coast Avengers issues are very mature. NOooffense to Al Milgrom, but if someone else had drawn those books, I think they would be much more highly regarded. There are some unusually mature and provocative storylines in his run.
|
|
|
|
Post by Icctrombone on Apr 14, 2019 6:41:56 GMT -5
Hawkeye and Mockingbird had an interesting marriage. Those Englehart West Coast Avengers issues are very mature. NOooffense to Al Milgrom, but if someone else had drawn those books, I think they would be much more highly regarded. There are some unusually mature and provocative storylines in his run. Interesting that they never really gave Englehart " great artists" to work with while he was at Marvel. Milgroms art wasn't terrible, just workman like. |
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Apr 17, 2019 13:41:57 GMT -5
Tom King has been working some magic with family-centered stories in recent years. He's tackled Scott Free and Big Barda:  As well as families new and old for Vision:   |
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 18, 2019 3:00:42 GMT -5
Yeah, Tom Kind is killing it with married couples/family dynamic stories. Too bad his Batman didn't end up married.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rob Allen on Apr 18, 2019 13:01:29 GMT -5
Thom Zahler did a great job portraying love and marriage in his classic superhero rom-com, Love and Capes.  |
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Apr 18, 2019 14:05:51 GMT -5
We probably ought to throw The Incredibles 1 & 2 in here as superhero stories that look at the midlife crisis, shifting marital roles, spousal competition and cooperation, etc.
|
|
|
|
Post by profh0011 on Oct 19, 2019 21:09:57 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by MDG on Oct 20, 2019 11:41:53 GMT -5
^^^^ You'd be hard pressed to find many positive portrayals of marriage in ECs.
|
|
