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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 23, 2021 6:22:24 GMT -5
As a little boy growing up with a severe physical handicap in the '60s, I had very few role models, fictional or otherwise, to look to. FDR was long dead, Ironside hadn't been created yet, and there waas nobody to show me that I could grow up to be a productive, contributing member of society. Equally important, I had nobody to show me that I could find love and happiness, at least not until Stan and Jack gave us: 2. Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters, Fantastic Four
Sue Richards once compared Ben and Alicia's romance to a fairy tale: the beautiful blind princess who fell in love with a monster because she “saw” past his rocky orange exterior to the kind and noble soul within. But I saw them differently. I saw two damaged people who became whole when they found each other. I saw that their respective handicaps didn't stop them from living an emotionally gratifying life. In short, I saw hope. I will never forgive John Byrne for the idiotic, tone-deaf damage he did to this wonderful couple during his FF run. I understand it's been more-or-less repaired, and that Ben and Alicia are actually married now (a story development fifty years overdue). I no onger need them to give me that hope, but it's nice to know they're still out there to inspire to a new generation of comics fans. Cei-U! I summon the original modern-day Beauty and the Beast! |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 23, 2021 6:27:09 GMT -5
2. Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne
This will always be a favorite couple of mine no matter what is said about Hank Pym. From the first appearance of Janet in Tales to Astonish # 44 to as late as Avengers #71 of the third volume, it has been shown that they are still in love with each other. The back hand heard around the world got them divorced. ( Thank’s Shooter) But their Relationship has been rekindled several times afterwards proving to me that they are one of the best and long lasting couples in comics. TTA 44 and Avengers # 29 She declares her love for hank and is by his bed side when it looked like he might pass away In Avengers # 29  West Coast Avengers #47 After Avengers # 213 , their relationship began again  {Avengers # 71}  
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2021 6:31:24 GMT -5
#2 - Vision and Scarlet Witch "Love is for souls, not bodies" This has been a theme for a couple of my other choices. This is the real beauty of their romance, and their true fate for me will always be What If #38 that explores what happens if they DID live happily ever after (unlike the travesty of creative direction that came later), but then face the prospect of Wanda aging naturally but the Vision is unchanged. It is hands down the best Vision and Scarlet Witch story I have ever read and has an incredible ending. 
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2021 6:37:35 GMT -5
#2 - George and Lynne UK newspaper The Sun is a lousy newspaper (as is the Daily Star), but if there is one good thing about it, it’s the numerous strips, including GEORGE AND LYNNE. Created by a writer called Conrad Frost, George and Lynne first appeared in 1976. I believe their strip ended a decade or more ago. What appealed to me was the fact that they were ordinary. They acted like you’d expect a married couple to act, but it was all convincing. Perhaps the writer had an insight into marriage, perhaps he didn’t, but it all felt very credible. I wanted them to be number one on my list, but they are number 2 because, well, George had an affair. Which I think was a mistake. Their appeal as a couple was that they loved each other, warts and all. True love. The affair dented the mystique a little, but it still couldn’t take away from the many humorous and magical moments that they provided. I would buy a volume of the strips.
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Post by foxley on Dec 23, 2021 6:48:27 GMT -5
2. Batman and Catwoman Others have already sung the praises of this pairing, so I have little to add beyond why this rates so high on my personal list. As I said in an earlier entry, I actually think Talia is better match for Bruce on a purely objective level. However, when I was starting to get seriously into superhero comics, it was during a period when Catwoman was attempting to go straight, and started dating Bruce Wayne (without knowing his secret identity). She even had her own back-up feature in Detective Comics for a short time. Eventually, she learned Bruce's secret identity and they became crime-fighting partners for a time. This state of affairs did not last long after the Crisis, but because I encountered it during a formative period in developing my comic tastes and reading habits, it has always seemed natural to me and holds a special place in my affections. 
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 23, 2021 6:52:51 GMT -5
It is hands down the best Vision and Scarlet Witch story I have ever read and has an incredible ending. For my money it's also the best "future avengers" story ever. I loved seeing Rhodey's kid as Iron Man, and showing how the unaging heroes (Vision and Thor) cared for their elderly colleague really gave the team a sense of enduring legacy (and of family). |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
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Post by shaxper on Dec 23, 2021 7:10:12 GMT -5
Archie Andrews and Veronica Lodge-Andrewsas written by Paul Kupperberg Look, I've always been Team Betty, and I'll be honest that I've always raised an eyebrow whenever someone said they weren't. Betty was sweet and caring, and Veronica was a self-serving monster. But then Life with Archie: The Married Life happened, and Paul Kupperberg showed us two futures: one in which Archie married Betty, and one in which he married Veronica. And the one where he married Betty was...boring. The Archie Marries Veronica feature, though! I've never seen a more honest depiction of two people who love each other and yet have very real problems between them, sometimes genuinely afraid to face another and (at one point) even living apart. It was so...real.  and yet, Kupperberg allowed that love to win out in spite of all the struggles, and showed that love--real love--is a choice we each make every day, and not just a feeling when things are running smoothly. Because of their struggles, and because of their heartaches, because of each and every time that all it would have taken would have been one wrong sentence uttered for the couple to divide and go their separate ways, when they ultimately find their way as a unified team, it is so much more rewarding and amazing than for any other couple in fiction.  In the end, I don't love Archie and Veronica in spite of their problems. I love them because they have problems and yet find a way to love each other anyway.
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Post by DubipR on Dec 23, 2021 7:33:26 GMT -5
Today's Song: "I'll Stand By You"- The Pretenders #2- Frank Einstein (Madman) and Josephine "Joe" Lombard The love story between Madman and Joe is one that I've loved since I first read Madman back in Creatures of the Id and the first Madman mini in 1992. It's not a new take on the Frankenstein mythos, even if Frank is stitched up like the creature. While the origin of Madman is a sad and weird one, the romance between an undead former government agent and a secretary from one of the scientists that resurrected him is a happy one. As someone mentioned in their entry for Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers, Joe was the manic pixie girl before the epithet was created. She was the cute alternative 90s girl that a 20-something DubipR was into. She looked a like someone who would play alt bands and Britpop on LP and then hang with Frank to watch the sunrise. She is sweet and kind, never cared about Frank's appearance or his powers; she loves him for him. Frank never put her in harms way, tried to make sure she was safe from street beatniks, alien invaders, a crazy demigod and the afterlife itself. Can't go wrong with coming back from the dead and finding true love in the midst of all of that!  |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 23, 2021 8:02:29 GMT -5
2. Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Bethany CabeThere were three series that become absolute must-reads for me once I discovered them in 1979: X-men, Daredevil and Iron Man. In the latter case, what I found myself really enjoying were all of the goings-on in Tony Stark’s life, both professional and private. He was a jet-setting multi-millionaire industrialist and something of a playboy – until he met Bethany Cabe. She wasn’t a starlet, or model, or rich socialite, she was a security specialist with her own life and career, more than capable of holding her own in crisis situations.  Bethany was mostly unimpressed with Tony’s wealth, good looks and superficial charm and saw the good but flawed man beneath it all. She was the first to note Tony’s severe drinking problem and was there for him when he needed help crawling out of the pit of alcoholism. And Tony realized how lucky he was to someone like her his life. They were a perfect match and such a good couple, one of my favorites in all of comics. So I thought it was unfortunate that - just before the creative team responsible for possible the best run of Iron Man stories ever (David Michelinie and Bob Layton) departed from the title - Bethany was written out of the book, by editorial decree I assume. I feel even more strongly about this couple than I do about Steve Rogers and Bernie Rosenthal, i.e., they should have been left in place from that point onward. So I really like that in the wonderful Iron Man: The End (from 2008), the reunited Michelinie & Layton had the now much older Bethany and Tony back together again. (That’s an underrated gem of a story, by the way, in which Tony has to deal with the realities of his aging body). In my head canon, that’s the final chapter in the Iron Man story. 
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 23, 2021 8:08:15 GMT -5
Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell  (sorry to use a pic from the anime, but I couldn't resist) We haven't had a lot of manga this this list yet, which a find a small bit odd, but I guess just not in people's wheelhouse... while there are a TON of romance mangas, that's not my thing. Full Metal Alchemist IS my thing... by far my favorite anime, the 2nd version of which (FMA: Brotherhood) adapts the manga very closely. And who doesn't love the story of two kida that grow up together, than realize all along they love each other. I've said this in other places, but the great thing about mangas like this is the characters are allowed to grow and change... Ed starts out 12 and ends at 17 ish... essentially going from they typical kid hero to an adult. Winry starts out as the girl next door, then becomes Ed's full time mechanic and his go to when he needs to actual interact with people. I don't always go for cute, but this is pretty cute overall... they fight, they're buddies, then suddenly they realize they've always been meant for each other. Great stuff. 
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2021 8:32:42 GMT -5
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, True Love gave to me Rose Harvester and Fone Bone... From the moment Fone Bone met Rose, he was in love...  a love for her that only deepened over time, a love was forged between them even though the romance aspect of it was decidedly one-sided...  that never stopped Fone Bone from wooing Rose, reading and composing poetry to/for her, sharing his love of things like Moby Dick with her, and putting his life on the line for her time ad again, willing to sacrifice all for her. And Rose had a deep love for Fone Bone as well, it was just of a slightly different bent, and she was always too involved with other things callings to even consider pursuing something romantic as there was no time for herself or for selfish callings with so much at stake. So why are they one of my favorite couples when they never actually became romantically involved and Fone stayed in the friend zone? Because this was a living relationship, they were partners, and the desire was there-the flirtation and the wooing made this much more than "just" a friendship, and they were perfect together as they were. Their dynamic together as perfect as it was. Any more or less would have altered their story, had Thorn given more she would have had less of herself to give to her calling and others would have suffered for it and Bone would have suffered for it. They were what they needed to be for each other, and that makes them one of my favorite couples. -M |
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Post by majestic on Dec 23, 2021 9:08:42 GMT -5
#2. Spider-Man and Mary Jane. Any marriage worth the devil wanting to destroy must be on this list! Yeah maybe everyone is rolling their eyes at this obvious choice but I "grew up" with Spider-Man and "watched" him lose his first true love (Gwen) to the Green Goblin. It was heart breaking. And yet MJ was there to help him work thru his grief. Eventually they fell in love and the rest is history. And even though some at Marvel think Pete shouldn't be married I think a lot of fans feel it was destined to happen. Their marriage has led to some of my favorite Spider-Man stories. One is Spider-Girl the MC2 version of their daughter May. They also had Annie in another glimpse into Pete & MJ's future in Renew Their Vows. But most of all being married to MJ made Pete less one dimensional as he finally overcame his old bad luck curse and truly had a strong woman as his life partner to support and encourage him. And yes I like that since I can relate to that being married 37+ years to someone like MJ.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 23, 2021 9:30:06 GMT -5
#2: Tulip O'Hare and Jesse Custer It was a close call to decide which one would end at #1, and this one held the top spot for a good long while! Tulip and Jesse's love is a torrid affair, an almost primal thing in its intensity. It's as if they were in a Vertigo version of Wild at Heart.The passion they share is however a dangerous one, one that can burn too fast and too hot; a passion that can leave one a complete emotional wreck (which, alas, happened a few times due to the vicissitudes of the plot's demands). The upshot is that both grew during the course of the series, and seemed to reach a more mature, more balanced kind of relationship. Garth Ennis really got me invested in those two. I really cared for them as a couple. So glad that they got to ride off into the sunset together!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 23, 2021 10:25:20 GMT -5
And the runner-up goes too... 2. Jesse Custer and Tulip O'Hare. I was beginning to wonder if this was going to be my second none duplicated pick, but RR swooped in and showed exquisite taste. Preacher is easily a top five favorite comic for me and a huge part of that is Jesse and Tulip. This is a love that has survived more than almost any other you can come up with in funnybooks. Deaths, resurrections, evil family, buddy-f@*%$. You name it, Tulip and Jesse have weathered the storm. It hasn't been easy and it hasn't been pretty. But it's a love that will burn hot and last until the end of the world.   |
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 23, 2021 11:02:55 GMT -5
2. Adam Strange and AlannaIt took me several years of reading comics before I could “graduate” to the Adam Strange series in Mystery in Space. I tried it the first time I ever saw an issue ( MIS 86), in my dentist’s office in the summer of 1963. I was all of nine years old, and I plunged into the cover story, but I couldn’t get anywhere. And because I must have been going to the dentist’s office a few times that summer, I gave it more than one shot. (The comics didn’t change too frequently.) The cover grabbed me every time, but the interior art was like nothing I’d been reading in those early years of comics reading. When I was able to buy a comic, or read some of my friend’s, it would inevitably from the Weisinger or Schiff offices, which made sense, as the art and writing were more kid-friendly, as we would say today. My older cousins always had a GL or Flash around when we visited them, but like MIS those stories just were beyond my understanding, with their harder approach to sf and their emphasis on complex plots and reliance on reason over emotion. I did find the art fascinating, with the buildings and decor and landscapes looking like the ones I saw on TV shows like Dick Van Dyke and a lot of the newer Warner Brothers cartoons. We just called it “modern.” By the time I was ready to plunge into Adam Strange’s adventures, his series had been canceled. I had to wait till 1969 when DC brought back Adam reprints in Strange Adventures. The reprints must have been a hit because DC turned SA into one of their reprint titles and wound up featuring an Adam reprint in every issue, nearly 30 of them. Now, a tad more knowledgeable as a comics reader, I looked forward to Adam Strange and his trans-galactic girlfriend, an archeologist and comic book scientist, too, the ravishing, intrepid, intelligent Alanna of Ranagar. I don’t think Infantino ever drew a more beautiful female character than the raven-haired, lithe Alanna. She fell in love with Adam on first sight and he with her, but theirs must have been the most frustrated love affair in comics, as their assignations were entirely dependent on Adam’s calculating when and where the Zeta Beam would appear on Earth and transport him to Rann. That was bad enough, but his arrival always coincided with the arrival of a monster, alien invasion, uprising, or natural disaster on Rann that only Adam, usually with the help of Alanna, who knew everything about Rann and was an excellent combatant. Menace eventually dispatched, Adam and Alanna could turn to matters of romance at last. Except that that almost never happened, as Adam was always snatched back to Earth and Alanna was left bereft. I loved their wits, their courage, their perseverance, and the way they would soar gracefully (via jet-pack) through the Rannian skies together. We’d often see them stealing time alone together in the Rannian wilds looking for all the world like chic contemporary lovers unbound by traditional morality. A grown-up relationship much like others in Schwartz titles, and completely unlike the puerile relationships that were all the rage in the Weisinger stable.
 You couldn’t help but admire their stoicism. Oh, Alanna would cry once in a while when Adam was taken away, but the two accepted the absurd improbability surrounding their trysts without any Marvel-style navel-gazing and self-pity. I was always glad that Adam finally was able to figure out how to stay on Rann and that the two were able to marry (in an issue of Justice League of America) and stay married happily. Anything more recent, I know nothing of. For me, Adam and Alanna are always zipping through the skies of Rann finding a beautiful place to spoon before zipping off to defeat the latest deadly threat to Rann.
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