On the Sixth Day of Christmas, True Love gave to me the face that launched a thousand ships-Helen of Troy and Paris



Paris and Helen is one of folklore's (history's, mythology's) most well known couples and perhaps one of the most toxic and problematic, but the crus of one of the most fascinating cycle of stories humanity has ever created. Eric Shanower's Age of Bronze is one of my favorite modern tellings of the Trojan War cycle and his depiction of Helen and Paris is fascinating. They are a couple not of love, or even lust, but of duty and spite. They are a couple I love to hate. Helen is seen as the the most beautiful woman in the world, and her wooing was the stuff of legends that required a sacred oath to bind her suitors together for life so they would not slay each other in the process of winning her hand. She marries Menelaeus, an Achean prince, and the rest of her suits swear to ally together to make sure she is never stolen or harm done to husband. Along comes Paris, rash, ambitious, arrogant, and spiteful or all those who he considers beneath him. He had a dream where Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world, and sees Helen as rightfully his, and using a pretense of retribution against the Achaeans for their abduction of King Priam of Troy's sister many years before, abducts her when he has the opportunity, sparking the series of events leading to the Trojan War. Helen for her part, believes she had a vision from Aphrodite herself telling her it is her duty to go with Paris, and so meekly acquiesces when Paris comes to take her.

There is no love in this couple. Most of my previous choices were about true love in one form or another, about sacrifices made to make the relationship work and such. There is none of that here. This one is representative of all the couples that are pawns in the greater game (political matches, arranged marriages, etc.) and where the woman is relegated to a possession, a pawn to be contested over and won. It is such a patriarchal view (and a toxic one), yet one ingrained in western (and other) societies and prevalent in so much of our body of storytelling. Helen and Paris are among the earliest of such relationships in western tradition, and because of the richness of the stories surrounding them, one of my favorites to read about.

-M

#7. Valerian and Laureline

Can a space hopping time traveling man from the future and a medieval peasant girl from the past make their love work? From 1967 to 2010 they do just that becoming a French and then international classic to eventually being brought to life in a movie.

This is a recent favorite for me in the last few years as the original series here in the USA was always sparce findings and expensive until the movie release. Quickly I fell in love with pairing of heroic Valerian and the feisty, intelligent, sassy, beautiful red head Laureline. As they travel the universe through space and time we quickly find the couple's complexity and strongly humanist and left-wing liberal political ideas mixed with humor and love.

There is a natural ease and warmth found here and it shows that love can be found and be as spectacular as the wonders of the vastness of space and time.

#7 E-Man and Nova

Edo beat me to it; but, was there ever a cuter couple than E-Man and Nova? Not in the talented hands of Joe Staton and Nicola Cuti! The archeological student and exotic dancer met the being of energy backstage, after he was pulled to Earth and the pair never loked back. E-man, or Alec Tronn, was the naive one, learning human customs, but knowing from the start there was something special about Nova. Nova is the worldly one who doesn't exactly give E-Man the full story about things (especially her night job); but, can't help loving the little ball of energy, because he is without human prejudices and hang ups. oh, his nature gets her into trouble, but it's usually pretty fun trouble, like E-man falling under the sway of a ray beam and acting like King Kong, causing Nova to do her Fay Wray bit to get through to him, before he gets blown up by Air Force planes. he ends up fine, but Nova's reaction says it all....



Later, Nova gains energy powers, like Alec's, and they end up becoming, literally, an explosive couple, as Nova finds out when she kisses E-Man. Luckily, they can reconstitute themselves, so that they can go on having fun.

The relationship was never as good, when Nic Cuti wasn't involved, as the First Comics series, with Marty Pasko scripting, went more for parody, with Nova reflecting characters like Jean Grey, and the series losing a bit of that fun, innocent spark that it had at Charlton. E-Man and Nova were the Frankie and Annette of the comic world, a cute couple you enjoyed, even with the cornball silliness (which even the original comic had, at times).

#7. Ralph and Sue Dibny.

I have nothing new to add since they have been mentioned several times. Just a great couple... Ralph was one of the first DC heroes that was married and one of the first to give up his secret ID as the Elongated Man. Also the couple had one of the most stable marriages in comics.

I thought I was going to be the only one with this choice, but great minds think alike...

7. Nightfall and Redlance

Elves don't need your foolish human gender norms!

I love this couple because Nightfall is the warrior, the aggressive fighter, strong, powerful, decisive. Redlance, on the other hand, is a gardener. He uses his magic powers to help plants grow, to nurture life. He's gentle, kind, peaceful, a caregiver.

The relationship between the two is perfect, and I love how they also ultimately choose each other over destiny - instead of waiting for the genetic imperative of eleven "recognition" to steer them to a partner, they share their secret selves with each other and forge their own path.

7. Adam Strange and Alanna



The ultimate long-distance romance! One of the fun things about pondering all of the many pairings in the comics--and all fiction, really--is how they can focus on different aspects of real world love and romance. Adam's entire heroic career is driven by his need to be with his love, Alanna. He must go to exceptional lengths every month simply to see her, light years away from his home planet, and then, face immense challenges against unknown threats virtually every time they meet. And these meetings can never last, as the zeta beam always wears off and pulls him away, even as he's spent almost the entire time outwitting the story's threat to her world, giving him eve less time for romance. It's a terrific premise on which to hang an adventure series that resets between each installment, providing a frustration factor that works in its favor to reflect what real-life lovers feel when they can't be together full-time, where the drive to make those rendezvous happen becomes the primary motivation in life.

Glad to see more Elfquest love on here. 

Everyone's been on fire with their picks.