Arsenal
01-02-2006, 02:02 PM
I constructed a similar thread in the DCAU forum that listed my ten favorite relationships from Batman, Superman et al. The intent then was to write a comparable thread for the Marvel cartoons, but first I had to do some research. There are a myriad of Marvel cartoons--everything from X-Men: TAS to Spiderman Unlimited to Avengers: United We Stand to Silver Surfer.
I decided to limit the eligible cartoons to those from the 90's on; so if your favorite coupling from '67 Spidey or Namor is not here, do not be offended. The eligible cartoons were X-Men, Spiderman, The Hulk, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Silver Surfer TAS's, Avengers, Spiderman Unlimited, Spiderman MTV, and X-Men Evolution. (Sorry, no Biker Mice.)
These 'ships were selected solely for their portrayal in the television show. Also, my opinions are subjective. I encourage rebuttal. (Bonus points to people who use the word forevah.)
I believe that will do for a disclaimer and without further prologue:
10. Felicia Hardy and Peter Parker (TAS)
The Semper Spiderman show was chock-full of hook-ups: Terry Lee and Blade, Kraven and Dr. Crawford, Morbius and Felicia, Debra and Flash, Peter and Mary Jane, Harry and Mary Jane, Peter and Felicia, Harry and Peter... wait, no, that's not right.
Very few of these couples received enough screen time. Almost all of them felt rushed. Some of them served no purpose whatsoever. (Debra and Flash only seemed to date so two peripheral characters had something to do. Why would the super-jock and the uber-geek be attracted to each other?)
The couple that received the most screen time, MJ and Peter, was marred because Peter was with MJ's clone for the last two seasons--not MJ. That cracks Peter's relationships into two separate dalliances: Peter with MJ and Peter with MJ2. (Imagine how confusing this would be if Ben Reilly got involved.) Peter didn't even marry the real MJ.
With MJ and MJ2 splitting my vote for favorite S-M:TAS couple, a dark horse was able to ride in and steal the election. Felicia Hardy and Peter had a longstanding flirtation. She even appeared in the show before Mary Jane. Furthermore when she became the Black Cat, she also became a character that could be with both Peter and Spiderman, a woman who need not be in distress. Granted, the creative team legitimately chose not to go in that direction. They wanted to keep Peter with MJ.
But when MJ disappeared who was the character that Peter seeked solace in? Felicia. After MJ2 was revealed as a hydroponic clone, who did Peter kiss? Felicia. Yes, there were Morbius and Mary Jane as obstacles, but it seemed that it was Felicia that Peter could depend on, not Mary Jane.
MJ, in this show, was a damsel in distress. She played the Gwen Stacy role. Think about it, who did the Green Goblin dispatch? Who was left? Felicia and Peter had chemistry; they had common ground; and if the creative team would have had the courage to pursue it, this couple could have been ranked higher than ten.
9. Logan and Ororo Munroe (TAS)
If you don't recall Logan and Storm dating, then you missed "One Man's Worth." It was ostensibly about what the world would be without Xavier, but the stars were an Elseworlds Wolverine and Storm, who saved one world by ending their own universe and relationship.
Doomed love is the most exciting kind. If Romeo and Juliette would have lived happily ever after, they would not be iconic lovers. True love requires tragedy, sacrifice. Maybe not on the scale of helping destroy your own reality, but it does make for compelling drama.
Every other couple on this list had at least thirteen episodes to establish itself. In forty minutes of good storytelling, this couple earned a place on my list. Their last hungry kiss moved me with it despair.
8. Alicia Masters and Ben Grimm
Discounting the awful first season, Alicia and Aunt Petunia's favorite nephew didn't get a lot of quality time together. They were overshadowed by the "Marvel's first couple" Reed and Sue Richards and the season-long story arc that dramatized the separation and reunion of Crystal and Johnny. But the Beauty and Beast dynamic of Alicia and Ben doesn't need a lot of screen time to be powerful.
In "A Blind Man shall Lead Them," the most poignant scene is when Ben prepares to pop the question. He may lose his courage to propose after he regains his crusty exterior, but it's a memorable scene to watch someone so strong be so vulnerable to the woman he loves. Ben is always ready with a quick quip or a walloping punch. It's only the cute, incidentally blind redhead who can disarm him.
Ben Grimm may provide the strength in the relationship--all puns intended--but it is Alicia who provides the stability. Remember what a wreck Ben was in "Fantastic Fortitude" without Alicia? Not even a randy She-Hulk could console him. Nah, for this Grimm, it's got to be the real thing. (No more puns now, I promise.)
7. Nova and Silver Surfer
"But wait!" one might exclaim. "When were these two a couple? Didn't Norrin Radd spend his entire series searching for his lost love Shalla Bal."
"Sure," I would respond with a smarmy tone, "but the subtext. You gotta read between the lines."
The soliliquies that the Surfer directed toward Shalla Bal were as overwrought and uninteresting as a monologue from "Othello" to a groundling who was waiting for a swordfight.
The Surfer was all about pomp and honor; but when the California-girl-gone-galactic flirted with him, you could tell he got a little... hot. (Last pun. Now I'm finished.) The palpable sexual tension between the two melted away some of the *ahem* frustration that the Surfer must have felt at not being able to see Shalla. While Shalla Bal was an ideal of a woman, unattainable and distant, Nova was girl-next-door pretty and available. C'mon, they even flirted in Galactus' innards.
I'll paraphrase Larry Boyd's series bible: if the Surfer never found Shalla Bal, it would not have been from lack of effort. It would have been because of Nova.
6. Bruce Banner and Betty Ross
Forget season two ever happened. Do it, you'll feel better. Is it gone? Okay, let's continue.
Doomed lovers. Mortal enemies. Gamma radiation. Hulk-busting robots. This, my friends, is Shakespearean. Bruce and Betty desperately love each other, though Betty can't wholly trust Bruce because every now and then he turns into a rampaging monster that can destroy cities. Meanwhile, her father is trying to destroy Bruce and drives himself insane in the process. Finally, Bruce is on the lam because he doesn't want to hurt anyone--least of all Betty.
It all climaxes in a botched wedding where the best man is shot, two Hulks form, and Bruce leaves Betty again. Want to know what happened next?
Me too. Too bad we got season two instead.
5. Scott Summers and Jean Grey (TAS)
I deliberated whether to include the TAS or Evo rendition of this couple. Both had their strengths: Evo let the couple come to a slow simmer than introduced Duncan, Taryn and other red herrings to the recipe. It finally came to a boil in "Blind Alley" when Jean declares, "Get away from my man." Later, she cradles Scott in her arms. And the couple didn't do a damn interesting thing after that.
Evo was all about the chase, the moment they got together the tension was gone. (Think Moonlighting or Lois and Clark.) In TAS, there was no chase. At the series' beginning, they were already together. Sure, there was Wolverine and Callisto; and it got pretty steamy when a torn-tuxedoed Logan told Jean, that he needed her, on her wedding day, no less. But we knew it was Scott and Jean. If they ever wavered, it was imperceptible.
Scott and Jean (TAS) are hard to peg. They're never as hot as Rogue and Gambit, not as antagonistic as Warren and Betsy, not as sweet as Beast and Carly (who nearly made the list, but, in the end, they were too similar to Ben and Alicia.) What Scott and Jean are is stable, and stable can quickly become boring. It is true that Scott and Jean often depended upon external circumstances to carry an episode. Both of their marriages were interrupted. They couldn't even get through a date without the Morlocks hijacking them.
Also, I could do without the "Jean!" "Scott!" shouting.
Though imperfect, what sealed the Summers-Grey's place in my relationship countdown was Scott's grief after losing his wife for the first time. Scott's a quiet, personal guy. His breakdown was painful to watch. (And unlike Peter Parker, we never saw Scott stray in the interim.) Sometimes stable is boring, and sometimes stability speaks volumes.
4. Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker (MTV)
Let me preface this entry by saying I didn't like the MTV series. Too many stupid villains. (Even if I didn't mind Electro as an awkward undergrad, an Eve-voiced Talon was too much to tolerate.) That having been said, the MTV series portrayed the conflicted Peter well. Whenever there was a romantic opportunity with MJ, he absconded to do something superheroic. Oh yeah, then he dated Indy. (I hated her too.)
MJ and Peter were awkward. They could never express themselves to one another. In thirteen episodes, they couldn't even go on a decent date. Their feet constantly wound up in their mouths, and the closest thing they got to resolution was when Peter shoved the other woman off of a roof. Sounds like young love to me. (Except for the roof bit. Loved that.)
3. Lance Alvers and Kitty Pride (Evo)
I fear Evo shippers. They are an opinionated bunch, and it seems like everybody has a favorite coupling from this show. Well, this is mine. I like it because it made no sense.
First meeting, Lance collapses a roof on Kitty's parents. Sure, some guys tug pigtails when they like a girl, but attempted homicide is bad flirting etiquette.
Second season, suddenly Lance has a crush. He's saving Kitty's life. He's risking his own. He's joining the X-Men. Most important, he's making less "rock 'n roll" puns. We have a well-developed character and an unlikely romance.
Third season, they break up. (If you can count one dance and a few late-night phone calls as a relationship.) They'd have to. Lance did try to blow up Kitty's house. (Lance's feelings could be summated by Julian Keller to Sofia Montega in New X-Men: "Like you, hate your friends.")
Fourth season, they reconvene. Not because it made anymore sense. No, he was still a high-school dropout squatting at his ex-principal's house, and she was still uptight (though less sheltered). No, they made up because that's what the characters would have done. And by now, the characters were so well fleshed out--in no small part, because of their relationship--that the relationship could be understood... as well as any "sleeping with the quasi-enemy, sometimes ally" relationship can.
2. Wanda Maximoff and Wonder Man/Vision
Much of Avengers: United we Stand show was bad, painfully bad. That includes the Tigra/Falcon flirtation. (I imagine their children looking like Griffins.) Surprisingly, the show got one of the most complicated relationships transliterated from the comics correct.
The Wanda and Simon stuff seemed rushed at the beginning of the series. Of course, they only had two episodes before he was put in a coma and replaced by a former antagonist, Vision.
Then came the complicated stuff. Vision was given Simon's "imprints." Does that make him Simon? Simonesque? Is that why Vision is so concerned for Wanda? Does that mean all the light flirting between Wanda and the robot is cheating? Okay, enough rhetorical questions.
Just when the robot-mutant flirtation became less creepy and more cute, Simon wakes up. He realizes that Wanda is seeing "imprints" of him. (In essence, he lost her to himself.) Wanda tearfully replies that things are "complicated."
Complicated, indeed. And soap-opera brilliant. When Simon returns to his coma, Wanda is torn between two men who are really one man and one robot, who are really one man.
Avengers mercifully ended after one season with many plotlines unresolved. This is the only one I regret.
1. Tony Stark and Julia Carpenter
Apropos of nothing, Julia is the fourth redhead on the list.
Usually the guy chases the girl. Pepe Lepew, the Mario Brothers, Ross, Cyrano de Bergerac... they all chased the girl. Well, Cyrano only chased in the loosest sense. First, he helped Christian win Roxanne's affections, then he... I'm getting off on a tangent, aren't I? Women chasing men is not uncommon; but, due to gender roles, it is unexpected in most media.
Julia tried for two seasons to chip through Tony's shell. (That wasn't supposed to be a pun.) Every time Tony tried to push her away, she came right back. When Force Works disbanded, she stayed. Even after that nonsense of marrying a robot, she stayed. She was committed to emotionally-crippled narcissist. Sometimes we wondered why she stuck around, but we were glad she did; because we knew what Tony didn't. He needed her.
It wasn't until Tony fought the Hulk that he realizedhow much he cared for her. If only something big, green and ugly would've knocked some sense into him sooner.
I decided to limit the eligible cartoons to those from the 90's on; so if your favorite coupling from '67 Spidey or Namor is not here, do not be offended. The eligible cartoons were X-Men, Spiderman, The Hulk, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Silver Surfer TAS's, Avengers, Spiderman Unlimited, Spiderman MTV, and X-Men Evolution. (Sorry, no Biker Mice.)
These 'ships were selected solely for their portrayal in the television show. Also, my opinions are subjective. I encourage rebuttal. (Bonus points to people who use the word forevah.)
I believe that will do for a disclaimer and without further prologue:
10. Felicia Hardy and Peter Parker (TAS)
The Semper Spiderman show was chock-full of hook-ups: Terry Lee and Blade, Kraven and Dr. Crawford, Morbius and Felicia, Debra and Flash, Peter and Mary Jane, Harry and Mary Jane, Peter and Felicia, Harry and Peter... wait, no, that's not right.
Very few of these couples received enough screen time. Almost all of them felt rushed. Some of them served no purpose whatsoever. (Debra and Flash only seemed to date so two peripheral characters had something to do. Why would the super-jock and the uber-geek be attracted to each other?)
The couple that received the most screen time, MJ and Peter, was marred because Peter was with MJ's clone for the last two seasons--not MJ. That cracks Peter's relationships into two separate dalliances: Peter with MJ and Peter with MJ2. (Imagine how confusing this would be if Ben Reilly got involved.) Peter didn't even marry the real MJ.
With MJ and MJ2 splitting my vote for favorite S-M:TAS couple, a dark horse was able to ride in and steal the election. Felicia Hardy and Peter had a longstanding flirtation. She even appeared in the show before Mary Jane. Furthermore when she became the Black Cat, she also became a character that could be with both Peter and Spiderman, a woman who need not be in distress. Granted, the creative team legitimately chose not to go in that direction. They wanted to keep Peter with MJ.
But when MJ disappeared who was the character that Peter seeked solace in? Felicia. After MJ2 was revealed as a hydroponic clone, who did Peter kiss? Felicia. Yes, there were Morbius and Mary Jane as obstacles, but it seemed that it was Felicia that Peter could depend on, not Mary Jane.
MJ, in this show, was a damsel in distress. She played the Gwen Stacy role. Think about it, who did the Green Goblin dispatch? Who was left? Felicia and Peter had chemistry; they had common ground; and if the creative team would have had the courage to pursue it, this couple could have been ranked higher than ten.
9. Logan and Ororo Munroe (TAS)
If you don't recall Logan and Storm dating, then you missed "One Man's Worth." It was ostensibly about what the world would be without Xavier, but the stars were an Elseworlds Wolverine and Storm, who saved one world by ending their own universe and relationship.
Doomed love is the most exciting kind. If Romeo and Juliette would have lived happily ever after, they would not be iconic lovers. True love requires tragedy, sacrifice. Maybe not on the scale of helping destroy your own reality, but it does make for compelling drama.
Every other couple on this list had at least thirteen episodes to establish itself. In forty minutes of good storytelling, this couple earned a place on my list. Their last hungry kiss moved me with it despair.
8. Alicia Masters and Ben Grimm
Discounting the awful first season, Alicia and Aunt Petunia's favorite nephew didn't get a lot of quality time together. They were overshadowed by the "Marvel's first couple" Reed and Sue Richards and the season-long story arc that dramatized the separation and reunion of Crystal and Johnny. But the Beauty and Beast dynamic of Alicia and Ben doesn't need a lot of screen time to be powerful.
In "A Blind Man shall Lead Them," the most poignant scene is when Ben prepares to pop the question. He may lose his courage to propose after he regains his crusty exterior, but it's a memorable scene to watch someone so strong be so vulnerable to the woman he loves. Ben is always ready with a quick quip or a walloping punch. It's only the cute, incidentally blind redhead who can disarm him.
Ben Grimm may provide the strength in the relationship--all puns intended--but it is Alicia who provides the stability. Remember what a wreck Ben was in "Fantastic Fortitude" without Alicia? Not even a randy She-Hulk could console him. Nah, for this Grimm, it's got to be the real thing. (No more puns now, I promise.)
7. Nova and Silver Surfer
"But wait!" one might exclaim. "When were these two a couple? Didn't Norrin Radd spend his entire series searching for his lost love Shalla Bal."
"Sure," I would respond with a smarmy tone, "but the subtext. You gotta read between the lines."
The soliliquies that the Surfer directed toward Shalla Bal were as overwrought and uninteresting as a monologue from "Othello" to a groundling who was waiting for a swordfight.
The Surfer was all about pomp and honor; but when the California-girl-gone-galactic flirted with him, you could tell he got a little... hot. (Last pun. Now I'm finished.) The palpable sexual tension between the two melted away some of the *ahem* frustration that the Surfer must have felt at not being able to see Shalla. While Shalla Bal was an ideal of a woman, unattainable and distant, Nova was girl-next-door pretty and available. C'mon, they even flirted in Galactus' innards.
I'll paraphrase Larry Boyd's series bible: if the Surfer never found Shalla Bal, it would not have been from lack of effort. It would have been because of Nova.
6. Bruce Banner and Betty Ross
Forget season two ever happened. Do it, you'll feel better. Is it gone? Okay, let's continue.
Doomed lovers. Mortal enemies. Gamma radiation. Hulk-busting robots. This, my friends, is Shakespearean. Bruce and Betty desperately love each other, though Betty can't wholly trust Bruce because every now and then he turns into a rampaging monster that can destroy cities. Meanwhile, her father is trying to destroy Bruce and drives himself insane in the process. Finally, Bruce is on the lam because he doesn't want to hurt anyone--least of all Betty.
It all climaxes in a botched wedding where the best man is shot, two Hulks form, and Bruce leaves Betty again. Want to know what happened next?
Me too. Too bad we got season two instead.
5. Scott Summers and Jean Grey (TAS)
I deliberated whether to include the TAS or Evo rendition of this couple. Both had their strengths: Evo let the couple come to a slow simmer than introduced Duncan, Taryn and other red herrings to the recipe. It finally came to a boil in "Blind Alley" when Jean declares, "Get away from my man." Later, she cradles Scott in her arms. And the couple didn't do a damn interesting thing after that.
Evo was all about the chase, the moment they got together the tension was gone. (Think Moonlighting or Lois and Clark.) In TAS, there was no chase. At the series' beginning, they were already together. Sure, there was Wolverine and Callisto; and it got pretty steamy when a torn-tuxedoed Logan told Jean, that he needed her, on her wedding day, no less. But we knew it was Scott and Jean. If they ever wavered, it was imperceptible.
Scott and Jean (TAS) are hard to peg. They're never as hot as Rogue and Gambit, not as antagonistic as Warren and Betsy, not as sweet as Beast and Carly (who nearly made the list, but, in the end, they were too similar to Ben and Alicia.) What Scott and Jean are is stable, and stable can quickly become boring. It is true that Scott and Jean often depended upon external circumstances to carry an episode. Both of their marriages were interrupted. They couldn't even get through a date without the Morlocks hijacking them.
Also, I could do without the "Jean!" "Scott!" shouting.
Though imperfect, what sealed the Summers-Grey's place in my relationship countdown was Scott's grief after losing his wife for the first time. Scott's a quiet, personal guy. His breakdown was painful to watch. (And unlike Peter Parker, we never saw Scott stray in the interim.) Sometimes stable is boring, and sometimes stability speaks volumes.
4. Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker (MTV)
Let me preface this entry by saying I didn't like the MTV series. Too many stupid villains. (Even if I didn't mind Electro as an awkward undergrad, an Eve-voiced Talon was too much to tolerate.) That having been said, the MTV series portrayed the conflicted Peter well. Whenever there was a romantic opportunity with MJ, he absconded to do something superheroic. Oh yeah, then he dated Indy. (I hated her too.)
MJ and Peter were awkward. They could never express themselves to one another. In thirteen episodes, they couldn't even go on a decent date. Their feet constantly wound up in their mouths, and the closest thing they got to resolution was when Peter shoved the other woman off of a roof. Sounds like young love to me. (Except for the roof bit. Loved that.)
3. Lance Alvers and Kitty Pride (Evo)
I fear Evo shippers. They are an opinionated bunch, and it seems like everybody has a favorite coupling from this show. Well, this is mine. I like it because it made no sense.
First meeting, Lance collapses a roof on Kitty's parents. Sure, some guys tug pigtails when they like a girl, but attempted homicide is bad flirting etiquette.
Second season, suddenly Lance has a crush. He's saving Kitty's life. He's risking his own. He's joining the X-Men. Most important, he's making less "rock 'n roll" puns. We have a well-developed character and an unlikely romance.
Third season, they break up. (If you can count one dance and a few late-night phone calls as a relationship.) They'd have to. Lance did try to blow up Kitty's house. (Lance's feelings could be summated by Julian Keller to Sofia Montega in New X-Men: "Like you, hate your friends.")
Fourth season, they reconvene. Not because it made anymore sense. No, he was still a high-school dropout squatting at his ex-principal's house, and she was still uptight (though less sheltered). No, they made up because that's what the characters would have done. And by now, the characters were so well fleshed out--in no small part, because of their relationship--that the relationship could be understood... as well as any "sleeping with the quasi-enemy, sometimes ally" relationship can.
2. Wanda Maximoff and Wonder Man/Vision
Much of Avengers: United we Stand show was bad, painfully bad. That includes the Tigra/Falcon flirtation. (I imagine their children looking like Griffins.) Surprisingly, the show got one of the most complicated relationships transliterated from the comics correct.
The Wanda and Simon stuff seemed rushed at the beginning of the series. Of course, they only had two episodes before he was put in a coma and replaced by a former antagonist, Vision.
Then came the complicated stuff. Vision was given Simon's "imprints." Does that make him Simon? Simonesque? Is that why Vision is so concerned for Wanda? Does that mean all the light flirting between Wanda and the robot is cheating? Okay, enough rhetorical questions.
Just when the robot-mutant flirtation became less creepy and more cute, Simon wakes up. He realizes that Wanda is seeing "imprints" of him. (In essence, he lost her to himself.) Wanda tearfully replies that things are "complicated."
Complicated, indeed. And soap-opera brilliant. When Simon returns to his coma, Wanda is torn between two men who are really one man and one robot, who are really one man.
Avengers mercifully ended after one season with many plotlines unresolved. This is the only one I regret.
1. Tony Stark and Julia Carpenter
Apropos of nothing, Julia is the fourth redhead on the list.
Usually the guy chases the girl. Pepe Lepew, the Mario Brothers, Ross, Cyrano de Bergerac... they all chased the girl. Well, Cyrano only chased in the loosest sense. First, he helped Christian win Roxanne's affections, then he... I'm getting off on a tangent, aren't I? Women chasing men is not uncommon; but, due to gender roles, it is unexpected in most media.
Julia tried for two seasons to chip through Tony's shell. (That wasn't supposed to be a pun.) Every time Tony tried to push her away, she came right back. When Force Works disbanded, she stayed. Even after that nonsense of marrying a robot, she stayed. She was committed to emotionally-crippled narcissist. Sometimes we wondered why she stuck around, but we were glad she did; because we knew what Tony didn't. He needed her.
It wasn't until Tony fought the Hulk that he realizedhow much he cared for her. If only something big, green and ugly would've knocked some sense into him sooner.