No Happy Marriages for DC Heroes

[Karadalis]

I'll never understand this belief some people in comics seem to have that characters getting married is synonymous with being in a stable relationship, or that being married means an end to relationship drama.

Why does it seem like they either have a lack of imagination or an unwillingness to attempt to deal with something which happens in real life all the time with some degree of maturity and respect?

Well perhaps its just that the editors arent really happy with their lives so they want to make the imaginery lives of comic book heroes as miserable as possible?

 

[nathan-dts]

Honestly the entire New 52 universe reboot is a travesty.

 

[Vivi22]

I'll never understand this belief some people in comics seem to have that characters getting married is synonymous with being in a stable relationship, or that being married means an end to relationship drama.

Why does it seem like they either have a lack of imagination or an unwillingness to attempt to deal with something which happens in real life all the time with some degree of maturity and respect?

Well perhaps its just that the editors arent really happy with their lives so they want to make the imaginery lives of comic book heroes as miserable as possible?

What I was trying to get at is that there's no such thing as a truly stable marriage. Marriage is hard, and it never gets to be easy for the majority of people. So some ban on characters getting married because it means stable relationships and stable relationships mean boring is ridiculous.

And god forbid characters do get married and they use it as an opportunity for things to not work out down the road and deal with pretty serious topics like divorce through the lens of super hero comic books. It's just all a little pathetic that they're so afraid of going there, and their reasons for doing it are a crock of shit.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

Q: Is it true that no characters in the new 52 can get married now?
Bob Harras: The new 52, we want surprises. We want things to happen that may be unexpected with romances, relationships. What we ask in general is that we don't want any of our characters rushing into stable relationships. The only character we have married is Buddy Baker, Animal Man, and that was part and parcel of the character.

Attempting to find a glimmer of hope in the quote, the article headline is a tad misleading. DC never said NEVER. Harras emphasizes that weddings as character building should take time and not be rushed, so we could theoretically still see some in the future.

Now that I've done the whole hopeful thing, this guy is talking out of his butt hole. The Bat Girl ordeal went plenty slow enough, unless DC is implying an arc like that requires 10-15 years. This is just their way of throwing the scariest political issues out the window to not 'write themselves into a corner.' If this was their stance from the beginning they should never have greenlit a lesbian wedding in the first place. They just found an excuse to justify throwing it out. If you wanted to be even more jaded in that regard then we could ask why after axing LGBT romance they turn around and praise a hetero marriage.

Here's Ellen Frazier's (wife of the above Animal Man) only dc.wikia bio:
"As the wife of a superhero, she is often involved in her husband's adventures, though she ultimately craves a normal life."

 

[Hagi]

See...

This is what I've never understood in these sort of media. How people seem to believe that drama equals romance, cheap bad drama at that. That the only thing more romantic than an utterly dysfunctional and insecure relationship is an utterly dysfunctional and insecure love triangle.

That if you just get enough people awkwardly trying and utterly failing to get into romantic situations you'll somehow end up in a romantic situation...

 

[lord.jeff]

Married life doesn't offer fun or surprises? Maybe these guys should try watching a sitcom or two. This decision isn't gonna bring about surprises just a bunch of cookie cutter tragic relationships repeated across every hero.

Now to wait another week before DC makes another stupid move.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Is Joe Quesada working at DC now?

AH DAMMIT YOU BEAT ME TO IT.

OT: Seriously? A marriage has it's own challenges and drama that, if done well, could compliment a standard action story well or even be the driving force of it's own story. An generically unstable relationship is not an interesting one. And don't you guys dare do the "they spend five years pretending not to like each other and then hook up" thing, because I swear, if I see one more of those, I'm gonna scream JUST KISS ALREADY DAMMIT!

 

[hickwarrior]

Is Joe Quesada working at DC now?

AH DAMMIT YOU BEAT ME TO IT.

OT: Seriously? A marriage has it's own challenges and drama that, if done well, could compliment a standard action story well or even be the driving force of it's own story. An generically unstable relationship is not an interesting one. And don't you guys dare do the "they spend five years pretending not to like each other and then hook up" thing, because I swear, if I see one more of those, I'm gonna scream JUST KISS ALREADY DAMMIT!

Oh dear gods... Don't tell me about... Detective conan... That's just one massive tease when it comes to an over arching arc... IT's what I hated the most of it. GET SOME DEUS EX MACHINA INVOLVED OR SOMETHING DAMMIT!

OT: ... Really now? I guess other answers to this topic alread yanswer this enough. Cop out and laziness being the right words for me.

I don't read comics, but I don't like mindsets like this. Try new things, don't just stand there and twiddle your thumbs about a subject... It doesn't always work out, but you could try stuff out that makes sense. But if AT4W is to be believed, these guys don't know what common sense is...

 

[Fox12]

I'll never understand this belief some people in comics seem to have that characters getting married is synonymous with being in a stable relationship, or that being married means an end to relationship drama.

Why does it seem like they either have a lack of imagination or an unwillingness to attempt to deal with something which happens in real life all the time with some degree of maturity and respect?

Because those things would require an iota of intelligence and imagination, two things the editors in question clearly lack. They would rather rely on tired cliches than think of something new.

Why paint a masterpiece when you can fill in the dots? After all, that would require... hard work.

 

[Redd the Sock]

Married life doesn't offer fun or surprises? Maybe these guys should try watching a sitcom or two. This decision isn't gonna bring about surprises just a bunch of cookie cutter tragic relationships repeated across every hero.

Now to wait another week before DC makes another stupid move.

I think a sitcom is their fear. Comics have always struggled with keeping disbelief suspended in its action scenes. We know Superman will beat Lex Luthor, and the fight becomes less interesting unless really really well done. Hence personal lives and the soap operas they became became the tension we concern ourselves with. Now we skim the fight with Luthor because we want to see if Clark can salvage his relationship with Lois, or his job at the paper. Stable relationships (culminating in marriage) either take that off the plate, or reduce the problems into little solvable bites you know won't go anywhere. Now I don't have interest in a hero's personal life because I know it'll probably work out.

It's stupid to be sure, and it actually goes the other way in that now if I know nothing can work out in the long term I don't care for the journey, but I can sympathize with the idea that they want to avoid a situation like a sitcom, a genre known for having everything all work out in 30 minutes or have minimal impact.

Or I could just be being optimistic and all this is so they can easily change relationships based on popularity polls with less heartache and lawyers.

 

[Something Amyss]

i remember this one, apparently it was impossible to make a man who shoots spiderwebs out of his wrists interesting because he was married. this is so stupid.

And they spent like 30 years trying to make him interesting and relatable by shoving him back into his mom aunt's house as a single nerd.

 

[Vausch]

I'm just taking this as another example of DC being run by idiots.

Superman and Lois not being together? Ok, Moviebob made a compelling argument there and I could understand it. Him shacking up with Wonder Woman? Bullsh*t. They have nothing in common aside from their superhero work.

Based on the track record for pretty much every recent superhero wedding, it'd be a surprise if they got married and something didn't stop the ceremony during the most convenient time of "Let them speak now". Happened with Dick Grayson and Starfire if I remember when Raven crashed the party.

 

[Jenvas1306]

when can relationships ever be interessting or enhance a character or even give a superhuman human qualities?
what nonsense!

 

[teebeeohh]

i remember this one, apparently it was impossible to make a man who shoots spiderwebs out of his wrists interesting because he was married. this is so stupid.

And they spent like 30 years trying to make him interesting and relatable by shoving him back into his mom aunt's house as a single nerd.

it's like people don't want to see characters who overcome obstacles and have changes in their lives because that shit is boring as fuck. nothing relatable about that, it's not like the only constant in life is that everything always changes and you need to learn to adapt to that.

sry, thinking about editorial bullshit in comics makes me angry.

 

[Something Amyss]

it's like people don't want to see characters who overcome obstacles and have changes in their lives because that shit is boring as fuck. nothing relatable about that, it's not like the only constant in life is that everything always changes and you need to learn to adapt to that.

sry, thinking about editorial bullshit in comics makes me angry.

But how can we relate to a guy who has marriage and responsibili...Oh crap, this is the guy who says with great power comes great responsibilities...HAND WAVE!