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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 16, 2021 6:28:22 GMT -5
It seems to have become a tradition in its own right. Every year, codystarbuck beats me to the draw on one of my selections, not only saying everything I was going to but, to add insult to injury, saying it better. So I don't have much to say about: 9. Calvin and Susie Derkins, Calvin & Hobbes
other than the chaotic chemistry between these two is one of my favorite aspects of one of my all-time favorite newspaper strips. Cei-U! I summon the stolen thunder! |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 16, 2021 6:32:08 GMT -5
#9. Gar Logan and Kitty Prydeas written by Chris Claremont If you were ever 15 and awkward, then this made sense to you. Gar and Kitty never date; they never confirm feelings for one another. In fact, they met exactly once. But in that one meeting, they instantly clicked, clung together, and played off of each other beautifully. If your pimply-faced younger self ever spent weeks on cloud nine, over-thinking that one night where you totally vibed with that one cute girl at that get-together, then you get it. Gar and Kitty felt real and idyllic for that age. I wanted nothing more from that relationship than the brief but consequential joyride it offered, tinged with sweet nostalgia. And, truly, they were the most fun part of that epic meetup between X-Men and Titans, too. 
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2021 6:49:02 GMT -5
#9 - Wildfire and Dawnstar
 The Tolstoyan cast of the Legion of Super-Heroes produced many couples (and I've enjoyed the wonderful write-ups of the other ones mentioned so far), but perhaps the most tragic was always Wildfire and Dawnstar. Their relationship was doomed in many ways from the start as Wildfire had no true physical body due to the accident that transformed him into a disembodied being of energy forced to live in a humanoid, but literally faceless, “containment suit”. Wildfire was an imminently likable character when introduced to the Legion in the 70's, and quickly became a fan favorite. His name Wildfire equally described his personality along with his actual energy-based super powers, but along with all the spunk and attitude came a heart of gold and a hero of the first caliber. Dawnstar was a very interesting and cool addition to the Legion as well, of Native American descent (from a group dislocated from Earth long ago to an alien planet but still retaining much heritage), and with formidable tracking and flight powers that could traverse long regions of space. Wildfire was actually the proponent of Dawnstar joining the team, and after that occurred he expressed romantic feelings towards Dawnstar that met an initial cool response. Over time though, Dawnstar grew in her attraction to Wildfire, though the issue of a lack of corporeal form always complicated things. It raised a considerable question, for while romantic relationships inherently are considered to have a significant biological component to them, the strongest depths of true love also tend to transcend the purely physical. Can a couple truly exist if one member does not have a true body, despite still having all of the emotions and persona of someone who does? In the traditional “pre-Crisis” era, it is never fully resolved per se, but does culminate in some level of new understanding per the scene below after Dawnstar goes on the “grand tour” which is a tradition of her culture to find her soul mate. While it feels like something more than friendship but still not full long-term romantic commitment, nonetheless it does seem in some way like a positive step in their relationship. 
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 16, 2021 7:11:52 GMT -5
I have to say that it's great to see Kurt posting early every day. It means that he's 180 degrees from his health issues from his last few years. And it also means I can post before going to work.  9. Atom / Jean LoringYeah, maybe arguably this year's most dysfunctional family. What I find interesting about this relationship is that she Jean didn't want to stay married to a superhero. It seems that Ray Palmers adventures as the Atom wore on the marriage and she was caught dry humping a lover in a car in front of her house.  I have read about and personally know a few Pastors wives that decided they didn’t want to play second fiddle to a pastor's calling. I see it in a similar way. Just the same way Hank Pym has been scarred by his worst moment, Jean is also viewed as a terrible person for cheating on “our '' hero. I’ll admit I never cared for the Atom or Jean, but the Sword of the Atom Mini series caught my interest. In the 2004 Infamous Identity Crisis series, she returns to Ray’s life as an insane person who murders Sue Dibney. I enjoyed that series as well . How many times does a relationship end up like this? The Blow up-  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2021 7:21:50 GMT -5
#9 - Blake Edmonds and Suzi Walsh]  Blake Edmonds debuted in the pages of UK Comic SPEED, before migrating to TIGER and then EAGLE. A race car driver, Edmonds was badly scarred after a fiery plane crash. Deciding he had little to live for, he started doing crazy stunts, believing that eventually the odds would lead to his death. Eventually, he became an adventurer, while retaining his death wish, and dated Suzi Walsh. Suzi loved him despite his scarred appearance. And isn’t that what love is, appreciating what is inside? One strip saw a woman scared away from him after he removes his mask, but this woman dates a good-looking guy who happens to be shallow, abandoning her at sea during a storm (Blake rescued the woman and she realised that looks aren’t everything).
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Post by foxley on Dec 16, 2021 7:24:31 GMT -5
#9. Bunny and Dean (Charm School) Charm School is one of those series that it is almost impossible to explain to someone who hasn't read it. It's a queer supernatural romantic comedy incorporating aspects of horror, fairy tales, teen humour comics, and 1950s teenage movies. That didn't help, did it? Let me try again... New Salem is a town where everything magical and supernatural lives. Bunny is a teenage witch girl (who looks like Melissa Joan Hart and dresses like the animated Elizabeth Montgomery in the opening credits of Bewitched) who is dating butch lesbian vampire Dean (who looks like Jean Seberg and dresses like John Travolta in Grease). However, the situation is upset when Fairer Than, a dark fae from 'the wrong side of the forest' (who looks like Christina Hendricks and dresses like a cross between Poison Ivy and a tavern wench), arrives in New Salem and sets her sights on Bunny. What plays out is essentially a fairy tale of two knights competing for the hand of a maiden, in which all the principals are female. And the 'joust' is a drag race with magical hot rods. This isn't helping, is it? Well, anyway, this is a story that takes many of the established romance tropes and puts a new spin on them. I probably missed a lot of the themes that are more obvious to the LBGQI+ readership (the creator Elizabeth Watasin acknowledges that the core of the story is Bunny having to chose between the 'butch' Dean and the 'femme' Fairer Than), but I still found it a fun, sweet and engaging read. 
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 16, 2021 8:37:56 GMT -5
#9 : John Constantine and Kit Ryan I wasn't so sure at first... Kit had been introduced (in a cameo, and a flashback at that) as John's best friend's old girlfriend. John and Kit's later relationship almost felt like a betrayal, especially since John's old friends (most of whom are dead) tend to stick around as ghosts! But the lady quickly won me over with her no-nonsense attitude. She was the perfect match for Constantine, in that she didn't buy his bull$#*@ but liked the guy behind the facade. She was a rare case of a comic-book character actually behaving like an adult. Their story ended eventually, alas, and it shattered Constantine -sent him on a months-long drunken binge that turned him into a homeless self-destructive wreck. Perhaps that shows how dependent on her he was, emotionally, and that might have played a role in their break-up (for all that it was staged as if she just got fed up of being pulled into his crazy world of monsters, demons and political extremists). In any case, they eventually met again and parted ways on better terms. Later writers mentioned Kit, but I think none ever managed to evoke the intensity of John's feelings for her; perhaps out of respect for Garth Ennis's work, or perhaps because they didn't know how to handle Kit in a way that wouldn't feel like a retread. Anyway, I'm so glad that for once nobody decided to bring her back just to kill her in some gruesome way, to show how badass Terrible New Menace #543 really is. Kit even got her own one-issue special, which was an excellent comic (devoid of demons and witches, but no less engrossing for all that). Nobody ever came close to Kit when it comes to Constantine's significant others.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2021 8:39:23 GMT -5
On the fourth day of Christmas, True Love gave to me Riverwind and Goldmoon of the Que Shu tribe...   If Thorgal and Aaricia are one of my favorite couples in the fantasy genre, the couple keeping them from the top is Riverwind and Goldmoon from the Dragonlance Saga. Originally appearing in prose beginning with Dragons of Autumn Twilight in the mid-80s, the Dragonlance Saga has been adapted into comics twice, the first in a series of albums sized OGNs co-produced by DC and TSR in the mid-80s and again in a monthly comic published by DDP beginning in 2005. There was also an ongoing Dragonlance series from DC set in the world of Krynn, but it rarely touched on the Heroes of the Lance. Riverwind was a member in low standing of the barbarian tribes settled in Que Shu. Goldmoon is the daughter of the chieftain. They are deeply in love with one another, but their love is forbidden because of the difference in station. The two sacrifice almost everything for each other and must face many trials and tribulations to be together. It is Goldmoon who first notices two missing constellations indicating the gods have returned to their world-a god of evil and a god of good, and is the chosen of the goods of good. It is Riverwind who takes on a quest to retrieve an ancient staff that is a symbol of good in a ruined city, and is condemned by the tribe for heresy and sentenced to be stoned to death, and Goldmoon who saves them, but they are forced to flee their tribe. The return of the gods ushers in a time of war, and both Riverwind and Goldmoon become members of a band of heroes (known as the Heroes of the Lance) each sacrificing much for the other, including Riverwind nearly dying at the hands of a dragon to protect Goldmoon and her bringing him back from death’s door using the power of the staff he had retrieved for her. At the culmination of the first book/arc, after sacrificing much for a small victory with a war yet to fight, the two are finally married in a ceremony that provides hope for the people of a war-torn land. As a couple, they are greater than the sum of their parts. Their love is one that overcomes prejudice, is built on mutual sacrifice, and forged in the fires of tragedy to create a relationship that is as strong as steel and tempered to withstand the fiercest trials, but it is also a love that inspires others and brings hope in that strength. If they had been a couple native to comics, they might have scored higher on my list, but since they were prose characters exported into comics, they sit on the lower third of my list. -M |
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Post by DubipR on Dec 16, 2021 9:12:16 GMT -5
Today's Song- "Miss You Like Crazy"- Natalie Cole #9- Scrooge McDuck & Goldie O'Gilt You never forget that first true love in your life. Aside his love of money, Scrooge McDuck can show his soft side. Fortunes can amass but that first time seeing that someone is worth more than Yukon gold. Carl Barks infamous story "Back to the Klondike" shows a young Scrooge first making his fortune in gold in the town of Dawson where he spies a saloon maid of Glittering Goldie. While she may be out for everyone's gold, she found a treasure in Scrooge. Throughout his life, he's taken aback to those days in the 1890s, that love is eternal. Their paths intersect throughout Barks and Rosa's term of writing and drawing Scrooge, that one fateful night in that saloon is all it took. Their complicated affair in the 1890's Gold Rush days is something Scrooge, afraid of his own feelings, tends to try and bury, but neither has lost all hope of someday getting back together.  |
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Post by Mister Spaceman on Dec 16, 2021 10:10:43 GMT -5
#9. Silver St. Cloud and Bruce Wayne ( Detective Comics #470–476, 478 and 479)  In creating Silver St. Cloud, a Bronze Age beauty with brains to spare, Steve Englehart provided Bruce Wayne with his ideal match. It’s not just that she out-detects “the world’s greatest detective” and deduces that Batman and Bruce are one and the same. It’s that she then decides herself to end the relationship, reversing the genre’s tradition of reducing female romantic interests to props in the male superhero’s ego trip. Stylishly rendered by Marshall Rogers, Silver became instantly iconic and while she initially appeared in only nine issues of Detective Comics, her love affair with Bruce became one for the ages.
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Post by majestic on Dec 16, 2021 10:25:22 GMT -5
#9. Jonathan and Martha Kent. A true "salt of the Earth" couple. We all know what makes Superman a hero isn't his powers, it is his strong moral upbringing. This couple exemplifies those values. They are the perfect parents. They took in an alien baby and treated him like their own and raised him to be the greatest hero ever. One thing I loved post Crisis is that the Kents were still alive and Clark went home to seek out their advice. They were his refuge. As a parent of adult children I can relate to this couple and strive to be more like them. Ben and May Parker are their Marvel counterparts. I picked the Kent's just because they have usually been my favorites in most TV shows and other media...
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Dec 16, 2021 10:28:44 GMT -5
#9- Scrooge McDuck & Goldie O'Gilt I really wanted to use this one, but it's so...abusive. Scrooge's feelings towards Goldie are so sweet, but his actions are a whole different matter. Not knocking your choice; just lamenting that I couldn't add it to my own list. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 16, 2021 10:45:25 GMT -5
Can a couple truly exist if one member does not have a true body, despite still having all of the emotions and persona of someone who does? In the traditional “pre-Crisis” era, it is never fully resolved per se, but does culminate in some level of new understanding per the scene below after Dawnstar goes on the “grand tour” which is a tradition of her culture to find her soul mate. While it feels like something more than friendship but still not full long-term romantic commitment, nonetheless it does seem in some way like a positive step in their relationship. Dawny and Drake were the last couple I cut from my list, and the image I had selected was exactly the one you chose! I'm glad they got a nomination. Their ability to maintain a romantic relationship without physical contact, and acknowledging that it is a problem but not an insurmountable one, shows a lot of maturity. |
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Post by brutalis on Dec 16, 2021 10:47:28 GMT -5
#9. Destro and the Baroness
The Cobra couple you hate to love, but they are just despicably great as a couple. Both can declare their love for the other even while plotting behind their back some new scheme. More than capable of ruthlessly using each other or taking advantage of a momentary weakness (a lot like real life eh?) for their own delight, yet both still have their own code of honor in their evilness.
Break up to make up seems to be the song of choice playing during this duo's dances. If 2 people "deserved" each other's abuses and love then it is this power couple. There is a cold ruthless love burning hotly in their hearts which makes for great comic book reading.
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Dec 16, 2021 11:07:07 GMT -5
#9. Destro and the BaronessThe Cobra couple you hate to love, Am I the only one who was shipping Destro and Cobra Commander all along? |
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