Marvel Comics differentiated itself from DC Comics when the company started by making its characters more relatable to regular people. While DC had a roster of godlike heroes whose powers compared to those of the Greek gods, Marvel chose to have characters with everyday lives and often tragic personal histories. Spider-Man is a perfect example. He was a high school student with no friends and had a tragic backstory since his beloved Uncle Ben died because of his poor decisions. Spider-Man isn’t alone either, as it seems Marvel creators love to kick their heroes when they are down, and often refuse to let up.
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From heroes whose loved ones seem to always die to a mutant who no one remembers, even when he saves the world, here are the Marvel Comics heroes with the worst personal lives.
10) Iron Man
If there is a Marvel Comics hero who has a terrible personal life because of his constant bad decisions, it is Iron Man. Tony Stark, from the start of his tenure in Marvel, has been a mess. He is hot-headed and often rushes into bad situations without thinking. As a result, he has developed some tumultuous relationships with people who should be his closest allies. He has fought Captain America countless times because Tony believes he is always right. He almost died at the hands of Carol Danvers because he didn’t know when to slow down. He turned evil more than once and has betrayed even his closest friends. The fact that he still has anyone who trusts him is a miracle. It is a miracle that he hasn’t lost a lot of girlfriends to death, but most of his exes want nothing to do with him.
9) Eddie Brock
Eddie Brock’s only friend for years was the symbiote living inside of him. While Venom and Eddie started as villains, it was because they both hated Spider-Man. In the end, though, they both just wanted to be heroes, and thanks to their appearance and often violent actions, they never found acceptance. Even when they are trying to help, the government and other superheroes always want to bring them down. Eddie has often found himself hunted down, even when he doesn’t have Venom inside of him, and the two can’t seem to hold down a relationship. Even Eddie’s wife, Ann Weying, wanted nothing to do with him and died by suicide when she watched him turn into Venom one too many times. He even has a strained relationship with his son, Dylan, and Eddie can never seem to get his life in order.
8) Cyclops
Scott Summers has always had a rough life. Cyclops’ family tree is complicated, and this has played into a lot of his problems. He watched the love of his life, Jean Grey, die by suicide to save him and the X-Men, and then got married to a woman who later turned out to be Jean’s clone. His son Nathan ended up with a deadly virus and had to be sent to the future to survive, and grew up without his dad, only to return as Cable. He has never gotten along with all the X-Men, with complicated relationships with Wolverine and Storm. After he killed Professor X, it caused many mutants to hate him, while others followed him as a martyr. Even now, with Krakoa ended, Scott is often someone who can’t relate to anyone around him. Cyclops is a great leader, but he is a terrible teammate.
7) Hulk
There are plenty of people who are alone all the time thanks to their superhero persona. While Venom is hunted no matter what he does right, the Hulk was the first superhero who ended up hunted as a villain, no matter how many lives he saved. This is all, of course, thanks to his Jekyll and Hyde storyline, where Bruce Banner changes into Hulk, who has anger control issues and destroys as much as he saves. Once people figured out Bruce was Hulk, he had no choice but to go into hiding, and even when he has moments of clarity, it isn’t enough because he always ends up hunted down again when he loses control. This has cost him the love of his life and most of his friends over the years.
6) ForgetMeNot
There might not be anyone with a worse personal life than ForgetMeNot, and it has nothing to do with personal tragedies or making bad decisions. It is all about his powers. ForgetMeNot is a mutant whose power is simply that people immediately forget he exists when they stop looking at him. It is one of the worst mutant powers in Marvel Comics, but ForgetMeNot has been able to use it to save the X-Men more than once. However, to understand how terrible his personal life is, none of the X-Men even know he saved them, and the only ones who don’t forget him (Fantomex) don’t want to hang out, making him alone and friendless all the time.
5) Moon Knight
Moon Knight has changed a lot since his first appearance. Marc Specter never had it good since he was a mercenary who almost died when Khonshou chose him as an avatar and gave him his powers. In his early days, Marc would use a few fake identities to help him with his missions. However, eventually, Marvel changed this to dissociative identity disorder, and Marc ended up struggling with his mental health. Sadly, this put him at odds with several other heroes, including Captain America, who believed Marc was not stable enough to serve as a hero. Even when Moon Knight has control, he mostly remains alone now and understands he can’t trust himself with getting too close to anyone.
4) Wolverine
For many years, Wolverine had no memories of his past, and that made him a loner with nowhere to go. Professor X then did the unthinkable and rearranged his mind to force him to join the X-Men, which was just the latest time that someone messed with his memories. As Wolverine finally chose to settle down, tragedy always struck. His first love was Rose O’Hara, and she died when he was in a fight with a rival. He was engaged to Mariko Yashida, but that ended in tragedy, and he eventually had to kill her when The Hand poisoned her. He always loved Jean Grey, but she always chose Cyclops over him. He also has children, including some who hate him, such as Daken. Even his multiverse variants don’t have a good personal life, as Old Man Logan’s entire family was murdered by Hulk’s gang.
3) Hank Pym
Hank Pym was one of the first superheroes Marvel Comics ever introduced when he appeared as Ant-Man in Strange Tales #75 in 1960. However, his life became very complicated during his time with the Avengers. He fell in love with Janet Van Dyne, who served with him as The Wasp, but he always seemed unsure of himself, causing jealousy issues. Things got bad when he ended up inhaling some dangerous gases that caused him to experience schizophrenia. He changed to a character named Yellow Jacket without telling anyone and “killed’ his other hero identity, Goliath. This led to feeling even greater guilt for creating the AI robot known as Ultron, and he became unstable, ultimately creating fake villains to establish himself as a better hero. When he struck his wife and ended up court-martialled, it ruined his life. Hank has had a redemption arc, but it has never allowed him to live a happy life, and he has never forgotten his greatest failures, pushing him further into despair.
2) Spider-Man
Spider-Man’s origin story was traumatic, as he allowed a burglar to escape, believing it was not his responsibility to stop him, and that man then went on to kill Uncle Ben. Peter Parker was a teenage high school student when this happened, and it was one of many tragedies that befell the young man. There have been so many deaths in Spider-Man’s life, and it just started with Uncle Ben. His Aunt May has seemingly died more than once. His first true love, Gwen Stacy, died. His best friend, Harry Osborn, turned evil and then died, only to be resurrected later. He then made a deal with Mephisto, giving up the one thing that was good in his personal life, his marriage to Mary Jane Watson. It almost seems that Marvel editors hate Spider-Man.
1) Daredevil
While Spider-Man has had a terrible personal life since his start in Marvel Comics, no one has had it worse than Daredevil. He got his powers when he went blind as a child after saving someone’s life. Soon, while he was still a young child, his father died. Things got worse when he grew up and became Daredevil. There were several terrible romances for Daredevil, many that ended in the death of the women he loved. He had Kingpin ruin his life when one ex sold his identity for drugs, and he ended up losing his job as an attorney and was homeless for a short time. He allowed himself to be put in jail more than once, and his Catholic guilt has caused him to hate himself, which ruins almost every relationship and friendship he has ever had. Spider-Man has suffered through tragedies, but Daredevil’s entire life is a tragedy.
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