The Top 10 Greatest Comic Book Couples

If you’re a proud nerd, I need an answer to this mind-numbing question: “How do you feel about comic book couples?” I mean, there you are, enjoying a CBM or flipping through some pages of your latest graphic novel. Then, when you least expect, POW! Two comic juggernauts are getting their freak on.

It’s nice on film, we guess. Sure, superheroes like to rub one out. But do you like it amid a fight scene or rolling out like a risqué centerfold in your comic book? With Matt Reeves leasing the Internet for the next few weeks, we have seen our fair share of “The Bat and the Cat.” Valentine’s Day has passed, but love is still in the house because of The Batman. If you need another ounce of catnip, here it is one more time:

Now then, a few comic book couples may immediately come to mind when posed with this question. Yet, I’ll put money on this list that someone is like, “What the what?!” And that’s because you must examine the history of comics. If you do, you may discover how superheroes and villains were created. Do you know their origin story? How long has this couple been shtupping in print? Do they have a romantic legacy? Or, is it like Spider-Man snapping Black Cat at 2 a.m. with “U up?”

Crawl into your Wayback machine, fasten your seat belts, and put the kids to bed. It’s about to become PG-13 in there.

Here are the Top 10 comic book couples of all time!

10. Scott Summers/Jean Grey

Now, before we get into the steamy romance of these two X-People, you may be thinking, “I thought Cyclops was hooking up with Emma Frost?” Well, he did. But after he got tired of noodling with a popsicle, he went back to the psychic because she’s more of a takeover kinda’ gal.

In comics, most couples don’t get this lengthy and meaningful relationship. Either the heroes are too busy protecting the world or recovering from just doing that. And, if you are a big X-Men fan, you know this comic book couple is essential to the authenticity of the comic and for the mutants overall. This was a relationship that was hyper-saturated in puppy love and warm feels. When you think about it, those X-Men have a few kinks.

You have Jean Grey and Scott Summers, then Emma Frost. Gambit loves Rogue, except when he doesn’t. Then, Wolverine and Jean Grey hook up for a little tryst. Whatever the case, Professor X needs to keep some protection in the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Horny mutant freaks. Sheesh.

9. Black Canary/Green Arrow

If any one of the comic book couples were going to hook up, it would be these two. Ollie and Dinah have always drawn this animalistic vibe out of the other. They don’t have one thing in common unless you count the many times they spin the bottle in the comics. Dang! Get a room, you two!

Green Arrow and Black Canary were so popular as a comic book couple that they had their comic strip together. Maybe if DC Comics got into soap operas, these two would have a starring role in that thing. DC Fans, if you were fishing for them in the “New 52,” keep looking. Dinah had second thoughts and returned her engagement ring. But, as many up-and-down hijinks these two have experienced, look for that soon if you are still into the comic relationship and not what’s on CW. DC Rebirth, anyone?

8. Flash/Iris West

Some comic book couples have their TV series or animated series, but true comic book fans know the distance Barry “Flash” Allen and Iris West have experienced together. Like, do you another couple who have fought off death and the grave to be together? Sure, it’s highly mushy but c’mon, have a heart.

These two have inspired other comic book couples to be who they are, have their family, and keep on rescuing humanity together. Aside from all that, these two are depicted as a couple on 1950s television. Like Barry would shout, “Darn,” and feel guilty. They are positive people and would be lost without each other. Oddly enough, the same break-up-to-make-up cycle happened here too. That’s the thing about the DC fandom; if you screw with the universe of things, they’ll let you know. Maybe, we’ll get to see how Iris is doing following her car crash in ZSJL? We can only hope.

7. Luke Cage/Jessica Jones

These two go back much farther than what you saw on Netflix (and soon to be Disney Plus). Luke Cage and Jessica Jones didn’t just hit it and quit it–they were married and had some deep love for one another. They even joined the New Avengers together, personifying “the family that beats the hell out of bad guys together, stays together.”

As much as casual fans may overlook these two, they are quite literally one of the strongest couples in Marvel history. Their past of finding each other, breaking up, and while Jessica dated Ant-Man (yes, Captain Marvel set them up), she discovered a tiny cage in her belly. How’s this for a legacy? The baby was named Danielle after Iron Fist and was birthed in the Sanctum Santorum.

And then they got married. Go ahead, comic book couples. Top that!

6. Apollo/Midnighter

Midnighter and Apollo make up one of the newest comic book couples in the multiverse, but they are influential. In 1998, WildStorm comics introduced Midnighter, a “more psychotic version of Batman,” and some anti-hero faction called The Authority. That’s where Midnighter met Apollo, who is one of the first comic characters who was created as an openly gay crimefighter. Then, DC Comics acquired WildStorm in 2011. That’s when history was made.

There was a thought these two could have done much more than fight crime and be compared to two-thirds of the DC Trinity. Apollo was already a hero to the LGBT community in real life, so the minds at DC took it up a notch by making the duo a duo. These two got married. Imagine Kal-el and Bruce Wayne hooking up, finding an attorney, and adopting a super bat kid of their own. This was the modern-day version of that, and this union deserved all the real-life accolades it received.

5. Daredevil/Elektra

Daredevil and Elektra. These two sweethearts of the shadows earned this distinction long before Marvel and Netflix made them a thing. Even before whatever the hell that Ben Affleck movie was. And talk about opposites attracting. We have a good Catholic boy gone deaf because of some ooze who lives to protect Hell’s Kitchen. Then, we have a trained assassin who is almost a bigger badass than Matt Murdock.

Elektra Nachios and Matt Murdock have always been connected, which has become more of a foundation for both characters. Not even death seems to stop these two from being together. Bullseye flings one of her sais at her, she dies in Matt’s arms, but dunk her in a vat of blood and maybe creatine, and she’s back. Both can kill at will. Both hang out in the wrong crowds. Yet, they have been jonesin’ for each other since the late 1960s. Ain’t love grand?

4. Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy

Shout out to the dirty old men who troll cosplay conventions looking for this comic book couple portraying the part. (Please. You know who you are.) Everyone can be in a toxic relationship–straight or gay, binary or fluid, cat or dog. These two girls have more baggage than the Beverly Hillbillies moving into town, but somehow, they make this work.

In real life, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are part of one of the most avant-garde comic book couples ever. They have been shown together (and “together”) in print and cartoon (DC Animated Series Harley Quinn, Season Two, Episode Seven, you pervs). DC and WarnerMedia may have screwed up many things in the past, but a dynamic source of equity they have rocked from the jump.

3. Batman/Catwoman

Selina Kyle is Bruce Wayne‘s catnip when discussing the Bat and the Cat. Movies have tried to depict it. TV shows have flirted with it. But these two have had a hot-and-heavy romance among the pages of DC Comics. They have been engaged several times, had some famous babies, and were even involved in a steamy love triangle with Talia al Ghul.

And if you want to see how passionate these two show the love, get into the Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee masterpiece graphic novel, Hush. (And, not for nothing, I have believed–and said–for three years now that Dr. Thomas Elliot will be in The Batman somehow.) Bruce and Selina have tackled life head-on. At times, they have been steamrolled, and others captured the obstacles and started juggling with them. For their dedication to each other alone, they must be one of the top comic book couples ever.

2. Spider-Man/Mary Jane

This relationship is interesting if you know canon for the neighborhood lothario. MJ has always had the eye of Peter Parker’s affection, but he’s been known to close his eyes and give in to a web of affairs (see what I did there). Peter Parker has been known to get his web stuck in other places. His first romance wasn’t even MJ; it was Gwen Stacy. She was a bit of a rebel and listened to the beat of her drummer. Then came MJ, whose “girl next door” approach to humanity has made her synonymous with Spider-Man. Not for nothing, but Peter did have a few booty calls with a Catwoman of his own, Felicia Hardy or Black Cat.

Regardless of the storyline, Peter usually ends up back with Mary Jane. And that fool even gave her cancer once, but love prevails, even though his radioactive Spider-Sperm did her in. She is Peter’s “always” because the fans want it that way. And fortunately for Marvel fans, that’s a company that listens to what fans have to say. Now, that is hitting the jackpot!

1. Superman/Lois Lane

How is this pre-eminent comic book couple not the runaway top seed here? Lois Lane has always been there from the very beginning of Kal-el’s existence in print. Sure, Lana Lang snuck in there for a minute, but it wasn’t the Lois and Superman mystique. When people argue about comic book couples, these two usually set the standard of the argument. They have always been depicted in print, cartoons, movies, and sundry television programs.

Superman was created with numerous Messianic connections (i.e., not from around here, does things no one else can, considered a danger until he rescues others, died so the world could be safe). One of the most pronounced connections there is his tie to humanity. His altar-ego is exceptionally human. And we love him because he’s a huge nerd too. We have always excepted him as both man and machine. Lois sees him as Clark, wherever he goes or whose ass he is kicking.

These two will always be the gold standard in this debate.

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Shawn Paul Wood

Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).

From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.