5 Marvel Heroes Who Could Take a Punch But Can’t Handle Their Feelings

Marvel Comics had to scramble in the Silver Age to take the spotlight from DC Comics, and they did this by making their characters more human. Sure, you still had extremely powerful heroes and villains, but they had normal problems in their personal life. They struggled with both their enemies and their civilian lives, allowing creators to take them in new directions and readers to empathize with them and understand them better. Many of the most powerful Marvel heroes have found that being a hero is much easier than dealing with their own feelings. They’d much rather be in battle, but that can also lead to its own problems.

Over the years, some heroes have struggled with their own feelings, with their emotions often getting the better of them. Sometimes this is because of their powers and other times it’s because of the problems in their lives, but either way makes their lives and missions that much harder. These five Marvel heroes can take a beating, but their greatest enemy is often themselves.

5) The Punisher

The Punisher is one of Marvel’s deadliest heroes, forging himself into the perfect criminal-killing machine. Frank Castle watched his family gunned down in front of him, but even before that he was emotionally-broken man. He was a Marine in the Siancong War, losing himself in the bullets and bombs. His family’s death was the straw that broke his back, leading him to putting on the big white skull. Frank can often seem very cold on the outside, but that’s because on the inside, he’s a roiling cauldron of rage. He’s learned to control it, keeping it from coming out and making him sloppy, but it’s always there keeping him going. He’ll never get over the death of family because he doesn’t want to; he doesn’t want to deal with his problems in a healthy way. He wants the pain to be fresh, driving him forward. Moving on isn’t something that he’s interested in. This is a man who chose to kill people rather than deal with his own feelings, pushing everything down and using it for fuel.

4) Deadpool

Wade Wilson was a soldier who got cancer and volunteered for the Weapon X program. Using Wolverine’s mutant powers as their basis, they created the most powerful healing factor imaginable and gave it to the cancer patient. His disease was cured, but his body would become an ever-regenerating mass of scar tissue. It also broke his mind completely, leading him down the road of madness he’s still on today. Deadpool is the kind of person who uses humor to cover up his pain. He jokes about everything, doing his best to take his mind off his pain and his problems. Deadpool is basically a walking ball of trauma, his broken mind taking all of his failures and intensifying them. Sometimes, his problems catch up to him and his vaunted sense of humor cracks just a little, showing readers the damaged man underneath all the insanity. He’s a tragic clown, killing and joking so he doesn’t have to deal with everything that he’s done and had done to him.

3) Thor

Thor is Marvel’s most storied god, one of their most formidable heroes. The Odinson can seem pretty even-keeled most of the time, but there’s more under the surface than meets the eye. The God of Thunder was raised to be a warrior-king just like his father Odin, keeping his problems on the inside. He can seem like the stereotypical Viking warrior, fighting and feasting with a surprising zeal. However, often times the most well-adjusted people are messed up inside and that’s Thor. He’s never felt good enough to be the heir of Asgard, having to deal with his own feelings of inadequacy. Anger was the only emotion that he was allowed to show and there are few enemies as dangerous as Thor when he’s angry. In fact, there’s a thing called “warrior madness”, where he loses control of himself and gains the triple the power he would usually have. Thor keeps all of the pain on the inside, never dealing with the root causes of his issues, leading him to explode at times.

2) Wolverine

Wolverine is the best there is at what he does, and that’s not deal with his feelings. Logan was known for being on a hair trigger constantly, always ready to fly into a berserker rage. He had a bad attitude and was known for being hard to get along with. While he didn’t always have his memories, the pain of his past was always there, driving him on. One of the interesting things about Wolverine is the way his healing factor works. See, it even tries to heal his brain, doing away with his painful memories. For years, Logan didn’t deal with his emotions because he couldn’t remember why he was hurting; he just knew he was. Wolvie isn’t known for dealing with the pains of his past in healthy ways, usually turning to drinking and killing to hide from his feelings. While he’s gotten much better about not losing his temper, he’s still not one who actually deals with his problems, basically doing everything he can to hide from them.

1) Hulk

The Hulk is the strongest one there is and that’s because of his emotional problems. Bruce Banner’s father Brian was an alcoholic who hated his son, tormenting him mentally and beating him, nearly killing several times. This led to the creation of the Hulk’s personality in his mind, a monster inside of him that allowed him to escape the pain of his abuse. He would keep all of this inside, the pain and darkness growing, but it would all be released when the Green Door was opened and Jade Giant was born. The Hulk is something of a protective mechanism for Bruce Banner, a place where he can take all the emotional turmoil and use it as power. Bruce never learned any kind of coping mechanism other than just pushing it all down, with it eventually being released in the form of Green Goliath’s power. His rage makes him more powerful, but it’s also the most damaging part of his life.

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