Marvel Universe
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Comic Books
Comic Books
- Silver Age Marvel Comics tended to see this pop up a great deal with heroines and manly-man opponents — e.g. the Fantastic 4's Sue Storm to the Sub-Mariner (while he was a functional villain), or the Scarlet Witch towards Arkon (who later dated Storm, but his relationship with the X-Men was on friendlier terms). Arguably, this resulted less in creating interesting tension than just creating a less effective heroine.
- Spider-Man:
- Spider-Man and the Black Cat who became Spider-Man's girlfriend for a couple of years before he married Mary Jane Watson and on-and-off lover after the "divorce". However, things between them soured badly during the Superior Spider Man's run-in with the Cat (who, like everyone, didn't know that Doctor Octopus had taken over Spidey's body): he beat her up and left her to the police without so much as a "hello". Not only was she arrested, but everything she'd pilfered over the years was confiscated. This caused her to snap and perform a full-on Face–Heel Turn. Her "queenpin" lifestyle led to nothing but stints in hospital and general humiliation from more experienced mobsters, and she eventually turned good again. She realized the reason she couldn't think straight was that she no longer knew Spider-Man's identity. Peter ultimately decided to share his secret with her, triggering a much-needed reconciliation.
- Subverted with The Queen in The Spectacular Spider-Man. Despite her beautiful appearance and her flirting, Spider-Man is not attracted to her at all and finds her disgusting, but that doesn't stop her from forcing herself on him. However, all of New York thought this trope was being played straight when the News captured the first kiss between them and assumed it was Spider-Man who initiated the kiss with his new adversary.
- Squadron Supreme: Nighthawk, the team's Batman expy, has this relationship with Catwoman expy the Mink in Mark Gruenwald's maxiseries. It doesn't end well, with Mink dying in Nighthawk's arms.
- The Mighty Thor and The Enchantress (Amora), a goddess of Asgard, who spent years hatching plans to harass and seduce the god of thunder. He eventually relented and had a brief romantic relationship with her. "The Reigning" storyline saw the two wed, and have a son named Magni. But these events were eventually wiped from reality.
- Captain America dating Diamondback, a member of the Serpent Society (a group of snake-themed supervillains). This is a somewhat defanged (no pun intended) instance, as Diamondback offered to drop crime for him practically in their first meeting. (Not that she came off all that convincing, but...)
- Iron Man and Madame Masque/Whitney Frost. Then again, it's not surprising considering the number of paramours Tony's had over the years. It came to the point where Frost masqueraded as Tony's personal secretary after they first broke up and resumed their relationship once her cover was blown. Also, he eventually got into a relationship with Black Widow, a former enemy.
- Daredevil has many. Elektra, Typhoid Mary, etc. While the Black Widow had long reformed when she got involved with Daredevil, her previous relationship with Hawkeye had an element of this for a time, between his Heel–Face Turn and hers.
- The Fantastic Four's Human Torch briefly dated a villainess from the future known as Psionics. Johnny Storm also dated (and eventually married) a Skrull named Lyja who impersonated Alicia Masters (Ben Grimm's longtime girlfriend). Arguably, as this was all part of a plot and the Torch didn't know who she really was, this may not count. But the two later revealed that they had indeed developed strong feelings for each other.
- Storm of the X-Men is a notable case in that it's practically become a running gag (and yes, it's been lampshaded) that villains want her (and sometimes Storm herself is interested back). No less than Doom himself decided at one point that Storm would make for a perfect consort.
- Ant-Man ended up having this kind of relationship with Beetle
. He didn't take this development well because when he first became a superhero Captain America expressly warned him to avoid this trope.- Ant Man: (while lying in bed naked with Beetle) I'm so sorry, Captain America.
- Karolina Dean of the Runaways first encountered her sometime girlfriend Julie Power back when the latter was part of a group that had been organized specifically to shut down the Runaways. They later hooked up after Julie's then-employer Hank Pym tried to kidnap Molly Hayes and Klara Prast.
- In Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), Gert and Victor become a couple, despite both of them knowing full well that in at least one alternate timeline, they were mortal enemies.
- In a miniseries from the '90s, Greer Grant-Nelson aka Tigra of The Avengers infiltrated a police academy to find answers about the murder of her husband Billy. While there she met and fell in love with Sergeant Matt McMullin who was an instructor at the academy. Unfortunately for Greer, Matt was involved with the Brethren of the Blue Fist, a group of vigilante cops operating out of the academy. Worse, Matt was revealed to have been the one who killed Billy to keep him from exposing the Brethren's crimes.
- All-New Ultimates: Miles Morales received a "Take That!" Kiss from Diamondback. It was not mutual nor consensual but got worried that he may not be loyal to Kate Bishop because of it.
Films
Films
- In the cancelled Spider-Man 4, Peter was going to end up leaving Mary Jane for Felicia Hardy, who in this continuity was also the daughter of the Vulture. However Peter says in Spider-Man: No Way Home that he made things work with Mary Jane, meaning either the events of the cancelled films never came to pass and his bigger adventures stopped with Spider-Man 3 or it did happen and they moved past it.
- Avengers: Infinity War: In the two years since Captain America: Civil War, Vision and Wanda Maximoff have secretly been meeting up for romantic holidays, even though Wanda is a fugitive and a member of the Secret Avengers, while Vision is a member of the New Avengers and part of his duties are trying to apprehend rogue superheroes.
Live-Action TV
Live-Action TV
- Luke Cage (2016): A retroactive example in season 2. In high school, Mariah Dillard briefly dated Thomas Ridenhour. As adults, he went on to become a cop while she became a corrupt politician and eventually a crime boss.
- The Defenders (2017): Daredevil and Elektra. She doesn't try to kill him as much and he keeps trying to reach out to her good side.
Western Animation
Western Animation
- The Spectacular Spider-Man has the usual heavy flirting (and one kiss) between Spider-Man and Black Cat. However, they part on less friendly terms after she blames him for her father, who is Uncle Ben's killer, refusing to break out of jail.
- Wolverine and the X-Men (2009) does this with Nightcrawler and the Scarlet Witch. However, the relationship between them is difficult to define. Kurt cares about her and tries to steer her on the right path, yet never openly admits he cares about her as anything more than a friend. Wanda herself does love Kurt and it's admitted as such, but it's hard trying to date an X-Man when your father's ideology directly opposes theirs. Wanda throughout the first season struggles between the loyalty to her father and her crush on Kurt; in the end, Nightcrawler's charm finally seeps through and she rejects her father partly because of Kurt's influence, mostly because he was willing to sacrifice other mutants to achieve his ultimate goal. (Before anyone thinks this is completely out of the blue, there is' actually an Alternate Universe in the Marvel Multiverse where Kurt and Wanda did get together and they have a girl named Nocturne.)
- In X-Men: Evolution, Kitty/Shadowcat of the X-Men and Lance/Avalanche of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants got together during the second season, though unlike most cases the villain in question was acting much more noble than previously, and the relationship led to a considerable amount of character development for him later.
