10 Superhero Teams That Should Never Have Worked (But Did)

Marvel and DC Comics have given readers the best superheroes of all time, telling stories that have enthralled generations of fans. One of the most important aspects of superhero stories are the superteams. Superteams started out as collections of heroes that usually starred in different books, allowing fans to read all of their favorite characters in one book. Superteams soon became their own things, with groups like the Fantastic Four, the Challengers of the Unknown, and the Legion of Superheroes starring members that usually don’t have their own books. Superteams are an important part of the superhero eco system, and it’s a lot of fun to see the greatest heroes of all time work together. However, as fun as seeing everyone work together is, it’s arguably more fun to see them when they don’t work.

Over the years, we’ve gotten a lot dysfunctional superteams, to the extent that it’s often surprising that these teams can work together at all. Watching their adventures, we’ve seen many groups weather problems that should have torn them apart. These ten teams are prime examples of that, teams that never should have been able to work but did.

10) Doom Patrol

The Doom Patrol are the weirdest heroes ever, and the fact that they’ve been able to save the universe as many teams as they have is a testament to them. However, there’s no way that they should have been able to work together as well as they have. The Doom Patrol is one of the greatest DC teams ever, a bunch of people brought together by their shared traumas, many of which were caused by Professor Niles Caulder, the man the team calls the Chief. There’s no way that the Doom Patrol ever should have worked together. For example, Cliff Steele lost his entire body and was put into a robot. Can you imagine the existential terror he went through all the time? Plus, even after finding out that the Chief caused all of their problems and killed their friend Joshua Clay, they still let the Chief hang around with them. Then there’s Crazy Jane, whose multiple personalities pull her in a million different directions at times. One of Jane’s alters literally hates all men and there are men on the team. There are so many reasons that the Doom Patrol should never work at all, yet the way they lean on each other to deal with their own traumas has allowed them to shine in ways that no one would have ever thought possible.

9) Uncanny X-Force

X-Force has always been one of those teams that should never work, but the Uncanny version of the team was especially hard up. To begin with there was Archangel, who was slowly but surely transforming into the next Apocalypse and working against the group from the inside. Next, there’s Deadpool, who is known for being basically impossible to depend on. Fantomex was constantly hitting on Psylocke, who was with Archangel, sowing dissension in the ranks. Deathlok joined the team, which could have been fine a disaster because part of him was a serial killer from the future who hated everyone. Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler joined the team to hunt down refugees from his world, and sassed every other member of the team. Somehow, Wolverine and Psylocke were able to hold the group together, and Uncanny X-Force were able to shine when everyone thought that they’d fail.

8) Justice League International

The Justice League International is one of the most entertaining teams in the history of comics, and a big reason for that is because of how dysfunctional they are. Seeing the team squabble with each other was most of the fun with the Justice League International. Guy Gardner was constantly starting trouble with everyone, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold were always going the dumbest things imaginable, Ice was too naive for her own good, and Fire was busy keeping Ice safe. Elongated Man and Sue Dibny were doing their best to keep everyone on task while also making fun of everyone else and ribbing each other. Batman and Black Canary started out with the group, but they ended up bolting, Rocket Red’s first language wasn’t English and it took time for the team to actually trust him. Meanwhile, there was Maxwell Lord in the background, coming up with the craziest schemes possible and secretly building a file on how to destroy the metahuman community. Riding herd on all of that chaos, and the most powerful member when Shazam or Doctor Fate weren’t around (who also ended up bouncing on the JLI’s insanity) was Martian Manhunter, who I’m pretty sure stayed around for the Choco’s and because he found the whole thing hilarious. The Justice League International should have imploded numerous times just from the interpersonal drama, but they excelled, their brand of chaos somehow allowing them to work together long enough to take out their foes.

7) The Defenders

The Defenders are Marvel’s non-team, and the fact that the team stayed together long enough to grow is kind of insane, honestly. The Defenders included two of Marvel’s most mercurial heroes — the Hulk and Namor — with Doctor Strange keeping the peace between the two of them. Silver Surfer would join down the road, which helped Strange keep the peace, but there’s still no way that Hulk and Namor should have been able to co-exist for as long as they did. The funny thing about the Defenders is that their lack of cohesion was what kept them together. They were never trying to be friends, so any drama they they found themselves in was never taken personally. The Defenders were able to grow and change over the years, bringing in heroes as disparate as Beast, Valkyrie, Knighthawk, and Gargoyle, with the team surviving all of the craziness. Later rosters of the team also had Loki involved, and the fact that they weren’t constantly manipulating everyone for their own enjoyment was amazing. The Defenders should have broken up almost from the beginning, and yet they were always able to keep things together long enough to survive.

6) Nightwing’s Outsiders

After the Young Justice and Titans battled a wild Superman robot, with Donna Troy dying in the fight, Nightwing decided that the biggest problem with superhero teams was that they often treated each other like family. So, Nightwing created a new team, one full of people who he figured would never care about each other as any other than co-workers — the Outsiders. The Outsiders had once been the name of a team that Batman had created that would listen to him, unlike the Justice League, and Nightwing created his Outsiders in lieu of the Titans, because he didn’t want to feel bad about potentially ordering people to their death. The team consisted of Arsenal, Jade, Thunder, Grace, Shift, and Indigo, and Nightwing held himself aloof from the rest of the team, purposely not developing any relationships with any of them. Everyone started to couple off, and Indigo was actually a plant by Brainiac. Somehow, the Outsiders were able to make due with a leader who didn’t really care about them, an evil infiltrator, and Grace, who was mouthy as all get out and got with Arsenal and Thunder, which should have caused some trouble. However, they excelled, and were able to defeat powerful villains like Sabbac and the Fearsome Five.

5) The Second Illuminati

The Illuminati actually worked pretty well together in their first incarnation. Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, Professor X, Namor, Black Bolt, and Doctor Strange all had the same goals and very few problems working together. However, the second roster of the Illuminati had a lot more problems. Beast replaced Professor X, Black Panther joined, and Captain America was put on the team, but they had to mindwipe him once they learned what they’d have to do to stop the Incursions. After this, the team was committing genocide on a wide scale, and that was wearing them on a group. Tensions were high and only got higher as they kept failing to stop the Incursions. While it’s arguable whether they worked or not — they never figured out how to stop the Incursions and Black Panther and Namor were constantly at each other’s throats, with Namor leaving the group and Doctor Strange helping Doctor Doom stop the Incursions — they didn’t kill each other, which in their circumstances was actually pretty good.

4) X-Factor Underground

X-Factor became a government sponsored team after “The Muir Island Saga”, things got crazier for them as time went on. Eventually, most of the original government team — Havok, Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, Multiple Man, and Random — would leave the group, with only Polaris and government liaison Val Cooper staying. Forge would take over leadership of the team, and would be joined by Mystique, Sabretooth, Wild Child (Marvel was trying to remind people of the Age of Apocalypse team-up between Sabretooth and Wild Child), and Shard. Any team with Mystique and Sabretooth is going to have a huge problem working together, and this team was no different. Mystique was manipulating everyone and Sabretooth almost killed Wild Child. However, the team did work pretty well in battle still, mostly because of the force of Forge’s personality. They wouldn’t last forever as a team, but the short period they went underground did see them succeed better than anyone would have imagined.

3) Legion of Superheroes

Some people are going to question why the Legion of Superheroes are here. They’re one of those classic teams that always seemed perfect, but there’s several reasons that the Legion’s success was so strange. To begin with, they’re hormonal teenagers from across the galaxy with superpowers all in the same place. There were grudges between members, members running off half-cocked into situations that could have killed them, break-ups that hurt their cohesion, and just so many members of the team in battle that accidents could have easily happen. Members like Brainac 5, Lone Wolf, Ultra Boy, and Lightning Lad were all rather contentious, and the team squabbled constantly. However, the Legion were able to overcome all of this to become one of the most legendary teams in the history of superheroes.

2) Dark Avengers

Norman Osborn was a better leader than anyone ever expected and if you need any proof of that, look no further than the Dark Avengers. Osborn got Moonstone, Bullseye, Venom, and Daken, dressed them up as Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, and Wolverine and somehow got them to work together without killing each other. This is extremely impressive, because Bullseye wants to kill all of them at some point. On top of that, there was Ares, who Osborn had to keep in the dark about the more shady things that Osborn was doing so he wouldn’t kill all of them and the mess of problems that was the Sentry. The Dark Avengers saved the world several times and honestly would have defeated the heroes if it wasn’t for the Sentry. The Dark Avengers worked together better than anyone would have ever imagined.

1) Justice League

Let’s start with the biggest reason that the Justice League should never work — Batman. Batman is one of those people who needs people more than anything, yet also doesn’t trust anyone and is always getting ready for them to betray them. Most problems within the Justice League can be placed squarely on his shoulders. Beyond Batman, though, there are other problems with the League, especially when the group would expand beyond the Big Seven. Green Arrow made a science of angering everyone around him, and the regal bearing of Aquaman rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Hawkman seemed to hate everyone but Hawkgirl. Superman was an inspiration to everyone, yet he was hands off most of the time. The Justice League is a huge connection of egos and there’s no way they should be able to work together, but they do.

What is your favorite contentious team? Sound off the comments below.

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