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Post by brutalis on Dec 14, 2021 10:57:18 GMT -5
#11. Balder the brave and Karnilla the Norn Queen
Known as loving someone on the wrong side of the tracks, also in love with someone dangerous, opposites attract, not loving wisely, the heart wants what it can't have, she's a little bit naughty and he's a little bit nice, big city boy loving a little town girl and so forth and so on...
It's a trope of star crossed lovers where one is "good" and attracted to in this case the "bad" girl. Both know it is a doomed love to fail, yet both yearn strongly deep down in their hearts and souls dreaming and a wishing of what "might be" if they could only agree to disagree and turn their back upon the others shortcomings. He wants her to change her evil ways. She wants him to change his good ways. Is there no halfway meeting place for these tortured hearts?
Anytime these 2 appeared in the pages of Thor exploring the light/dark of love, it made for interesting reading. Both such headstrong, stubborn characters unable to compromise their ethics or come to a middle ground in their love, only making things all the more difficult between them. The mind, the heart, the soul, the emotions locked in eternal battle. Will they? Won't they? It was Moonlighting in comic book form before it was on television.
Awkward teen love understood this path very well and knowing adults struggled with the same issues didnt make it any easier. How do you reconcile such a love? This played out for many years with each rushing to the others side in times of need only for them to withdraw once more when the emergency is over. It was spectacular when the storm tossed lovers finally admitted to and fully embraced their feelings. What fools these Agardian Gods be in the face of love...
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Post by Mister Spaceman on Dec 14, 2021 11:14:28 GMT -5
#11 Mark and Ingrid ( Guilty)  The set-up is simple: Mark and Ingrid are twenty-something Bostonians who cross paths nearly a year after the end of their six-month relationship. They both privately wrestle with feelings of guilt, remorse, and a very vague hopefulness. They awkwardly arrange a platonic meet-up at a bar, where all of these simmering emotions infuse their attempts at banal small talk with mild tension that inevitably reinforces the distance between them. Their bid to reconnect is much less about reviving any lingering romantic feelings and more about reconciling the realities of their relationship with their respective self-images. As they depart in muted confusion at the end of the night, we're left with the understanding that they are both trying to fumble their way through the chambers of their own hearts. Karl Stevens is rightly celebrated for his highly realistic use of cross hatching and the story features several remarkable panels where much is inferred by simply focusing on a character's eyes. These moments are fully complemented by Stevens' precise ear for dialogue that captures the uneven rhythms of the human heart. Yes, it's a story about a failed romance but, more to the point, it's a story about a romance that never had a chance to succeed because neither Mark nor Ingrid expected - or perhaps even wanted - it to. It's a wonderful evocation of the ways in which we are all puzzle pieces that can never quite fit together perfectly, yet knowing that, we still keep trying.
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Post by DubipR on Dec 14, 2021 11:26:34 GMT -5
I swear , it looks like the CCF Members are picking the most bat%#% crazy choices the first few days. I have a few curves but nothing BS-Crazy like today's pick. Glad you're enjoying! |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2021 11:41:15 GMT -5
On the Second Day of Christma, True Love gave to me super-villains in love Monsieur Mallah and the Brain (...) Long time partners in crime, the pair finally expressed their love for one another in Doom Patrol #34 under the pen of Grant Morrison. In a plot to defeat the Doom Patrol, Brain transfers himself into a new body they mistakenly think if Robot Man’s body, and while he has a body Brain finally expresses his true feelings for Mallah and they share their first kiss. In some ways, this represents the workplace romance, longtime co-workers who finally hook up, but in others it is an example that true love blossoms no matter what the realities of body, gender, or race are and that Love is Love. Mallah and the Brain are among my favorite DC villains and among my favorite visual designs (who doesn't love a gorilla in a beret), and while I am usually of the mind that Grant Morrison usually doesn’t live up to the hype, his Doom Patrol is still one of my favorites and this particular twist is a highlight of that run, giving this pair an unusual depth and dynamic that provides a lot of subtext when going back and reading previous appearances. They are one of my favorite couples because they represent the wild and crazy idea that anything can (and will happen) in comics and that love knows no boundaries. -M really thought I'd be the only one. . .but these two are WAY up on my list (like top 3). i'll remember to link to what you've said here when I post them  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2021 11:54:18 GMT -5
for my #11 pick, I'm going with a couple where the "love" is not exactly love - more like lust . . and it's not exactly reciprocated.  Firestorm & Killer Frost: To swipe from online, since it's the perfect description: From transmutation to flight to energy projection, all of the powers derived from the Firestorm Matrix revolve around the generation of energy. ... Killer Frost, on the other hand, represents the force of entropy – absorbing the heat and energy from her surroundings and replacing it with cold and ice.in other words, from the very first appearance, Frost was drawn to 'stormy and wanted him, because his heat feeds her powers. he had no interest in her romantically, but that didn't stop her.  Interestingly (to me at least), it didn't really matter WHICH version of Killer Frost it was (there have been multiple ladies with the KF powers) - they always go after Firestorm, and it's always for the same reason: Opposites attract. Part of me always wished that 'stormy would reciprocate somewhat (instead he ended up with Firehawk, who has similar powers to his). . as I think KF and Firestorm would make an incredible power couple - with him powering her up to incredible levels. since she's kinda/sorta an anti-hero now? maybe DC would possibly go this way? anyways. . they're my #11 pick |
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 14, 2021 12:45:35 GMT -5
#11. Jor-El and Lara
 Theirs is a romance for the ages, marked by self-sacrifice, undaunted by death, and marked by a commitment to others – particularly to their beloved son, but also to their fellow human beings. Jor-El is part-Moses, part Isaiah crying in the wilderness, part Hamlet’s father. Lara draws her maternal bloodline from the likes of Moses’ mother Hochebed, Achilles’ mother Thetis, and Penelope the faithful wife of Odysseus. Young Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster may not have given any of those legendary characters a conscious thought when they created Jor-El and Lara, but just as Kal-El himself was a figure out of myth, so did his parents have to be cut from similar cloth. Their love for each other surpasses every obstacle, from scorn, from danger, from hopelessness, and eventually from death. Now, while Weisinger may have gone to the well too often for a gimmicky story or two, even when he did, the doomed, tragic, but ultimately glorious love story of Superman’s young parents, like those of the greatest comic book stories, springs from archetype, from the stuff of myth and legend. Yes, at times Kal's parents would appear almost regularly in flashback, and in Krypton’s past, and even speak to and act alongside Kal-El in the present, and of course in the fabled “imaginary stories,” but no matter: whether it was a dream,a hoax, a fluke or a trip to the past, Kal-El’s joy at seeing them could only be fleeting and the attendant sorrow at story’s end abiding, made all the more unbearable because no matter how real and convincing any meeting with his parents seemed, Kal always knows that the end of the story will always remain unchanged: his parents will be dead and gone yet again. But it is in those stories that we see the full flowering of the love between Lara and Jor-El, a flowering that is rooted in their indissoluble loyalty, their unshakeable faith in each other and their partnership in pursuit of the truth, as all of those attributes are subsumed by their love for their orphaned child, a love that transcends theirs for each other and which Kal-el feels even in his imagination, his dreams, and even from beyond the grave.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 14, 2021 14:11:21 GMT -5
11. Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Silver St. CloudSilver St. Cloud is one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite runs of Batman stories. Yesterday Slam already underscored one of the reasons why I like her so much: she’s ‘normal.’ And in the abnormal world inhabited by everyone’s favorite brooding dark knight, that made her quite interesting and also an ideal love interest for him. I really loved the way she handled herself in that initial Hugo Strange story arc – first realizing that something bad was up when she encountered Strange disguised as Bruce, and then alerting Dick about her concerns:  She and Bruce were just so great together – a really likeable and believable couple. It’s a credit to Steve Englehart’s writing that in that brief run of issues he created such a memorable and iconic love interest for Batman – who in my book is only outweighed by one other…
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 14, 2021 21:52:32 GMT -5
Hank Pym and 'Firebird' Bonita Juarez  My first exposure to Hank Pym was in West Coast Avengers... I knew he had been other things, and I knew about the Wasp thing, but he was just 'Hank Pym- Science Hero' and (mainly) the science/tech guy of the team. I thought it was a great redemption arc when he started talking to the very religious Firebird... the science v. religion vibe really worked. I was sad their relationship was a fleeting one, as it made so much more sense than going back to the 60s status quo. Wasp had moved on and was a much better, stronger character without him.
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Dec 14, 2021 22:56:36 GMT -5
11. Jon Sable and Myke BlackmonJon Sable is a Vietnam vet, Olympian, and former big game hunter turned mercenary. He takes on all sorts of crazy cases and gets caught up in all kinds of spy schemes, battling Soviet agents, neo-Nazis, and the like. But the series Jon Sable isn't about any of that. It's about his relationship with Myke Blackmon. Myke is 15 years his junior. When they meet, she is drawn to him, but he's beyond damaged - he has a death wish following the murder of his wife and children a few years earlier. He takes extremely dangerous missions with no regard for his own safety because he doesn't care if he lives or dies. The heart of the series is Jon working through grief as his romance with Myke slowly blossoms. It takes years - some 40 issues or so - from their first meeting until they finally officially get together as a couple. And it's not easy. Jon is racked by guilt about betraying his wife's memory by moving on with someone else. Eventually, though, he starts to open up to the idea that maybe life can go on - with Myke. Frankly, the series should have ended at that point, because the natural ending had been reached. Everything that followed was fundamentally pointless. 
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 15, 2021 0:03:49 GMT -5
#11 Calvin & Susie DerkinsCan there be no greater love than that expressed by sending someone a bouquet of dead flowers? Is there a better path to the heart than blowing bubbles with your nose? Is there no better reverse psychology than to create a club to Get Rid Of Slimy girlS, to draw them nearer? Not in Calvin's book! The beauty of Calvin & Hobbes, aside from how side-splittingly funny it was, was how true it was to actual childhood. That really took hold in the strip's first year, when a new girl came to Calvin's class. He mentions it to Hobbes and soon Hobbes is singing "Calvin & Susie sitting in a tree, Kay-Eye-Ess-Ess-Eye-En-Gee....." and we are deep in kiddom. Who doesn't recall their first school crush? What young boy didn't try to let a girl know that he liked her by pestering her and pulling tricks on her? What girl didn't call her favorite beau a booger-brain?  Kids love to imitate adults, with things like playground weddings, playing house and similar; but, they don't quite understand how it all works and sometimes they borrow their rituals from nature. How does the male bird attract a mate? By puffing himself up and acting like a maniac to get her to notice his plumage. Is that any different than pulling pigtails or telling a girl to drop dead, then follow her around to repeat it? Heck, if all else fails, there is the old standby of running up to a girl and punching her in the arm, then running away. And before anyone thinks that is sexist, I knew girls who did the reverse (by kicking boys in the shin). Calvin & Susie are the perfect example of young love. They taunt and tease each other, insult the other, steal their toys, stick their tongues out at one another; but, they would be crushed if the other didn't respond. All of that antagonism is just a different manner of flirtation.... 
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 15, 2021 2:52:42 GMT -5
#11 - Peter Parker and Betty Brant Well now I need to pick different image... |
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 15, 2021 2:53:56 GMT -5
#11 Calvin & Susie Derkins An inspired choice I didn't even consider. |
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 15, 2021 2:59:16 GMT -5
11. Clementine & Emma
Le bleu est une couleur chaude (Blue is the Warmest Color) By Julie Maroh Glenat, 2010  The only comic to be adapted into a Palme d'Or winning film, this follows the story of high school girl Clementine and she grows up. Part of growing up is meeting Emma, and finally being willing to admit to and explore a passion. And part of growing up is moving on, because sometimes passion isn't enough to sustain a relationship. Well-realized and vivid. Clem's uncertainty about everything as expressed through her diary feels very real. 
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2021 8:58:34 GMT -5
#11 Calvin & Susie Derkins An inspired choice I didn't even consider. ditto.
that's a really good choice!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 15, 2021 16:54:45 GMT -5
Random thoughts on Day Two, because those thoughts aren't going to think themselves.
May Parker and Nathan Lubensky - I'd forgotten about old Nathan Lubensky. This came about toward the end of my Spider-Man reading, but it's a solid choice. I did vaguely consider May and Otto Octavius.
Pfil and Pamila - I got nothin'. Except maybe some deep concern over Foxley's comic collection.
Midnighter and Apollo - I've only read Ellis' initial run on The Authority. And that's been eons ago. I don't even remember if Midnighter and Apollo were a couple then. But good for them.
Krazy Kat & Ignatz - I seriously considered Krazy and Ignatz, but decided to steer clear of unrequited love (unless a brick to the head = love). And I think you have to include Offisa Pup in the equation.
Nancy Ritz and Sluggo Smith - I kind of considered Nancy & Sluggo, but I also leaned away from kid friendships/romances. I came quite late to this strip and haven't read it in any depth. So I honestly couldn't say if Nancy and Sluggo are an item or just friends.
Peter Parker and Betty Brant - Cool choice. I liked Betty and it was an interesting dynamic (though not explored as much as I'd have liked) that she was clearly the older woman to Peter Parker's high school kid.
Batman and Catwoman - This is a semi-repeat, but I'm going to comment because the difference between the E-1 and E-2 (not to mention various other iterations) couples can be significant. While I love E-2 Bats and Cats, I'm lukewarm on other iterations.
Captain Archibald Haddock and Bianca Castafiore - I've only read the first two (or maybe three) TinTin books. So I know nothing about these characters.
Scott and Ramona - My youngest son loves(loved) Scott Pilgrim. I was unimpressed. It's likely an age thing.
Kazar and Shanna the She Devil - This is a pretty inspired choice that I wish I'd thought of. I don't think I'd have picked them because I don't think I've read those books since they were new. But I really liked the book and particularly the way they were portrayed as a couple.
Monsieur Mallah and the Brain - I guess we saw today how I felt about this choice.
Jay & Joan Garrick. Barry & Iris Allen. Wally & Linda West. - Shenanigans! Jay & Joan Garrick were actually the last to fall off my list. Barry & Iris, I'm utterly indifferent to. Wally & Linda were largely after I'd left superhero funnybooks.
Balder the Brave and Karnilla the Norn Queen - I didn't even think of them. That Balder mini by Simonson and Our Pal Sal I remember as being pretty fun. Nice choice.
Mark and Ingrid (Guilty) - I have never heard of this, but it sounds like the kind of slice-of-life thing that I really hate. But I wish them well.
Firestorm & Killer Frost - Hmmmmm.
Jor-El and Lara - Friends don't let friends read Superman.
Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Silver St. Cloud - They're back!
Hank Pym and 'Firebird' Bonita Juarez - Look...It's Hank Pym and some character. Well good for him. Huh! I read the first half dozen issues or so of West Coast Avengers and have ZERO memory of her at all. So that's something.
Jon Sable and Myke Blackmon - They were the second to last to fall off my list. And probably shouldn't have. So I'm glad they're here.
Calvin & Susie Derkins - I seriously considered Calvin and Susie, but again passed on the kid friends/crush thing. They're awfully funny though.
Clementine & Emma - I got nothin'.
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