The small world of comics doesn't always do things by halves when it comes to depicting romantic relationships between its characters... In some cases, it even goes completely off the rails! Particularly with its mutants, Marvel has pushed the boundaries of what is and isn't acceptable, especially considering that a young audience reads its comics without necessarily having the necessary perspective to know whether a love story is healthy - or not. After selecting our favorite couples for Valentine's Day, discover below 6 love stories that we wouldn't risk seeing happen today, between incest (!) and toxicity.
#1 Voyeurism: Angel & Husk
Compared to what we're going to describe below, you'll probably find the relationship between Angel & Husk in She Lies With Angels absolutely adorable. Yet, in this somewhat lunar story, we still have Warren Worthington III, the famous X-Men with angel wings, making love with his current crush, Paige Guthrie (we are then in 2004), in the skies, above his mother! Indeed, their airborne antics have several spectators who we would bet our hand that they have no desire to attend, especially when it comes to the mutant's mother. Add to that the fact that Angel is about 30 years old, and Paige Guthrie is just 19... Marlene Alraune
Moon Kinght (played by Oscar Isaac in the MCU) and Marlene Alraune had an abusive relationship in the comics, the ins and outs of which would be even less tolerated today. Toxic on both sides, their love story begins while Marlene is still married, while Marc is very absent, distant, and mean to her for no reason. He hit her once, while she sexually assaulted him more than once. Her dark and tortured character will push Marlene Alraune to protect their daughter Diatrice by keeping her away from her father and his customary violence.
#3 The Age Difference - Rogue & Magneto
In most X-Men comics, Rogue is between her late teens and early twenties. Magneto, on the other hand, was born in 1930, and is generally depicted in the comics as a man in his fifties (although theoretically, he is older). So there are several decades separating these two characters, whose romance is largely fueled by the fact that Eric can have carnal relations with the young woman without her draining him of his powers. In Age of Apocalypse, they got married and had a child because Magneto found a way to touch her, without really touching her, by creating an ultra-thin electromagnetic field around her body that allows sensations but not real contact. A strong argument for the mutant, but one that makes us very uncomfortable!
#4 The Age Difference (bis) - Piotr Rasputin& Kitty Pride
When the two young people fell in love, Kitty Pride was just 13 years old, while Colossus was already 19... Their relationship would last for several years, until X-Men Gold #30 (2017-2018), where the mutant would ditch her fiancée during their wedding ceremony, realizing that their tumultuous history did not constitute a solid foundation for a sacred union. They began dating in the societal context of the 80s, in a completely different climate than the one we live in today.
To cite just the example of France, in 1982, the Law lowered the age of sexual consent to 15, after many philosophers and thinkers (Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Louis Althusser) signed a petition addressed to Parliament demanding the repeal of several articles of the law and the decriminalization of all consensual relationships between adults and children under fifteen (!). Another era, fortunately over, and which highlights the aberration a posteriori of the relationship between Piotr Rasputin & Kitty Pride.
#5 Incest: Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver
Yes, you read that right: Magneto's children, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, had an incestuous relationship. In the old Ultimate universe, different from the continuity we all know, and where the "main" version of the superheroes evolves, the brother and sister have developed "a kind of love that no one in this room can really understand", according to the authors Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira.
It is very explicitly stated that the two characters share a romantic relationship, well beyond that which traditionally unites two children of the same family. A decade later, we remain astonished that Marvel condoned such an incestuous relationship, even outside of its Earth-616 timeline, which represents the main continuity.
#6 Incest (even "worse"): Carol Danvers & Immortus
Even creepier than the incestuous relationship between Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver, here is the forced incest between Captain Marvel and his son, Marcus. In Avengers #197 and #200, Carol Danvers, then known as Ms. Marvel, is dragged into a never-ending nightmare by David Michelinie, Carmine Infantino, Bob Layton, George Perez, and Jim Shooter. She's only a few days pregnant, without having had sex with anyone, when she gives birth to a baby who grows into a full-grown man in no time, naming himself Marcus. It turns out he's her own father, from another dimension, and had kidnapped the vigilante to rape her, leading to his own birth. The icing on the cake of this murky and unhealthy story is that the Avengers, instead of treating this as an extremely serious situation, are "happy" for Carol! In 2011, many years later, Jim Shooter published an article on his website to apologize for this shameful plot:
...at the time, anyway, the buck stopped at my desk. I take full responsibility. I messed up. I lacked judgment, or perhaps I wasn't paying enough attention. Sorry. Avengers #200 is a joke.
And you, which Marvel couple do you find the most disturbing?
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