5 Marvel Heroes Who Had to Survive Their Parents Before They Could Save the World

Marvel Comics like to do things some thing their own way, but there are some comic book tropes that have always been “not broke, don’t fix”. So, while Marvel made superheroes more human, they used a lot of old school ideas from the superheroes that came before them, including using parents in a lot of origins. There were the common dead parents trope – which appears in basically every kind of storytelling you can imagine – but there was also the bad parents one. Many Marvel heroes had bad parents, making their childhood even more terrible than it should have been.

Over the years, Marvel has introduced readers to some of the worst parents you can imagine. Some of the heroes were lucky to survive their childhood, their parents endangering them with almost fatal situations. The people who should have loved them almost caused their death, giving them sometimes horrific childhoods. These five Marvel heroes had to survive their parents in order to become heroes, defying death years before they put on the unstable molecule spandex.

5) Rogue

Rogue is one of the most powerful X-women, raised by Destiny and Mystique after her powers manifested. Now, Irene and Raven loved Anna Marie with all their hearts and did their best to prepare her for the family business of being a mutant terrorist. However, here’s the thing – they made her a teenage mutant terrorist. This was before she had invulnerability; her powers forced her to be right next to someone to be useful. She could have been killed by a lucky sharpshooter at any time or just a lucky goon with a machine gun. Mystique had her attack the Avengers on her own, which is one of the most dangerous chores you could give your child. They put her into a life where she was always in danger, forcing her to be tough enough to survive. It was a dangerous life for her, even if her adopted parents loved her deeply. Plus, if you want to go back far enough, her bio parents probably would have put her into danger at some point as well. She was never going to have a normal childhood once her powers manifested.

4) The Vision

The Vision is one of the most stalwart Avengers, but if you think about Ultron’s original plan, the synthezoid was always meant to die. He was created to be a sleeper agent for the mad android, allowing him to destroy the Avengers from within. While the Vision is extremely powerful, Ultron threw him up against some of the most formidable members of the team – Hank Pym as Goliath, the Wasp, Black Panther, Hawkeye, and Black Widow, with members like Cap, Iron Man, and Thor waiting in the wings. Ultron almost certainly knew that Vision was going to he destroyed in the battle; it was probably part of the plan. It’s honestly surprising that the Vision wasn’t equipped with some kind of self-destruct mechanism as a failsafe. Ultron never cared about at all about his “son” and would have been fine with his destruction as long as he hurt the Avengers. Of course, it all went wrong for the mad android’s plan, with Vision’s change of heart surprising everyone.

3) Wolverine

Wolverine is the best there is at what he does and that was survive some horrible parents. James Howlett was born to the wealthy Howlett family in Canada in the late-19th century. His father John was loving and well-meaning but weak. His wife Elizabeth was beautiful and bored, eventually beginning an affair with groundskeeper Thomas Logan, a rough and tumble man. She had two children of Logan’s – John Junior and James. John had supposedly died, sent away from the family and becoming a shadowy manipulator, and James grew up on the estate, a sickly young boy with his nursemaid Rose and Dog, Thomas’s other son. It all led to one fateful night, when Thomas decided to kill John and James, taking Elizabeth and any money in the house. John was shot, but James’s mutant powers manifested that night. He killed Thomas and slashed furrows into Dog’s face with his new claws, going into his first berserker rage. Elizabeth would kill herself not long after he and Rose ran away. If all of this had happened one night earlier, there never would have been a Wolverine.

2) The Hulk

Bruce Banner is better known as the Hulk, created with gamma radiation by the One Below All the day he was testing the bomb that would have made him a legend. He’s the most powerful human in the Marvel Universe, with infinite power potential. However, the only reason the Hulk exists in the form he does is because of Brian Banner’s abuse. Brian Banner hated his son Bruce; he was jealous of the boy’s relationship with his mother Rebecca and grew to hate him even more as he grew older, jealous of how intelligent the boy was. He thought he was a mutant and was willing to get rid of him at any time. The violent alcoholic ended up killing his wife and would have killed Bruce as well if he could have. He did horrifying damage to his son over the years, never holding back on him even when he was toddler, both physical and mental. Brian Banner would have happily buried his son, just like he did his wife.

1) Cyclops

Cyclops is an X-Men legend, leading the team through some of the most desperate battles in Marvel history. However, the only reason any of this even happened is because of his parents. The really sad part is they did nothing wrong, they just couldn’t salvage the situation. Christopher and Katherine were flying with their two children Scott and Alex when a Shi’Ar scout ship decloaked and attacked them. Christopher was forced to have his children abandon the plane with just one parachute, leading to the brain injury that would break Cyclops’s powers forever. While this isn’t nearly as terrible an action as any of the other entries on this list, it gets made worse when you remember that instead of coming back to Earth to see if his children survived, Christopher stayed in space and fought the Shi’Ar Empire. Scott and Alex ended up in an orphanage, under the not-so tender ministrations of Mister Sinister. Christopher could have made his children’s lives better, but instead kept them in danger because of his need for vengeance.

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