Single Woman Seeks Good Man in Comic Books.
DC Comics
- Aquaman: This is why Mera fell in love with Arthur. Originally the Xebellian princess was sent from her home as a mole in order to kill him as part of a perennial quarrel with Atlantis. Seeing what a good person he was led to her falling in love with him and abandoning her mission and old life.
- Robin (1993), Stephanie Brown was in a relationship with a sleazy douchebag who knocked her up and left her to fend for herself. Her next boyfriend was Tim Drake who took care of her during her pregnancy, brought her to birthing classes, and even crossed hundreds of miles in one night just to see her at the hospital during her labour.
- Although Catwoman sometimes gets sick of Batman's sense of honor, she is in love with him because of his righteousness and kindness towards her. Earth-2 Catwoman fell for Batman (after she had reformed — this was not a Love Redeems situation).
- Batman is an odd one: because he cultivates an almost-villainous reputation, but is in fact Incorruptible Pure Pureness, he's All Girls Want Bad Boys to the heroines who are attracted to him, and Single Woman Seeks Good Man to the villainesses.
- Nightwing: Dick Grayson has had quite a ridiculous number of women fall in love with him, sometimes unintentionally on his part just for being a Nice Guy. In 2005 storyline Girl Power, Supergirl spontaneously kissed him, all because he made a speech about being a good teammate.
- Supergirl:
- Pre-Crisis Supergirl fell for Dick Malverne because he was handsome, sweet and really, —really—, patient. As told in Young Love:Supergirl: I'd had other boyfriends... but there was something special about Richard. He was sweet, and he loved me.
- In the post-Crisis universe, Supergirl had a huge crush on Dick Grayson alias Nightwing because he was nice and understanding. Kara once spontaneously made out with him, all because he made a speech about being a good teammate.
- In the New 52, Kara fell for a nice, kind-hearted guy called Michael. After meeting Red Hood, Michael is worried that she will like a "bad boy" like Jason Todd, but Kara states that she doesn't want bad boys like him, but someone normal and dependable.Supergirl: Some girls go for that sort of thing. Me? I just want something normal. Something real.
- Pre-Crisis Supergirl fell for Dick Malverne because he was handsome, sweet and really, —really—, patient. As told in Young Love:
- Superman:
- Lois Lane (eventually) for Clark Kent, before she found out he was also Superman. That freaked her out a little, but she decided that since he's still a Nice Guy and Clark is his natural personality, it would be foolish to throw him over.
- In the post-Crisis universe, Lana Lang had a crush on Clark because he was a nice guy long before she found out about his powers.
- And in the New 52, Wonder Woman opens up to a relationship with Superman and it's implied several times that his compassion is a very big factor, and that she's not with him because of his incredible power.
- In Watchmen, Laurie eventually realizes that Jon really loves her. Although his detachment from humanity caused him to be used as a walking murder weapon during the Vietnam war, she's attracted to his omniscience, his virility and his power over her. She also realizes that, as a god, he's unable to care for her the way a normal guy could. So she ends up with the nerdy, mild-mannered, fat, balding, initially impotent Dan Dreiberg, and they live happily ever after.
- Wonder Woman:
- Wonder Woman (1942): Steve Trevor draws Diana's attention because he's humble and willing to put himself of the line to do what's right and protect others.
- The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): Diana slowly falls for Steve due to his humble, self-effacing and kind manner.
Marvel Comics
- Fantastic Four: The Invisible Woman always chooses to remain with her husband, Mr. Fantastic, instead of indulging in her physical attraction to Namor the Sub-Mariner.
- Spider-Man: Spider-Man has attracted plenty of cynical women in Marvel due to his nice and heroic personality. This includes Black Cat (a thief), Ms. Marvel (a fellow Avenger who still opposed him due to opposing the SRA), Spider-Woman (his first Distaff Counterpart whom he has Belligerent Sexual Tension with) and Mockingbird (a SHIELD agent who had divorced Hawkeye). She-Hulk has also flirted with him and admitted in the past she’s got a small crush on him.
- Peter’s good nature is directly why Mary Jane Watson ultimately dropped her facade of wild party girl and opened up to him about her Dark and Troubled Past, because Spidey's selflessness inspired her to be better. They got married in 1987 and stayed that way for years until One More Day. The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) however affirms MJ still loves Peter and always will.
- Gwen Stacy also fell in love with Peter for his hard-working Nice Guy nature, especially after getting to know him more.
- X-Men:
- Generally, the Love Dodecahedron between the main characters tends to revolve around this. Jean Grey picks Cyclops over Wolverine because he's a Nice Guy, but dumps him when he starts to get too manipulative for the team's good. Cyclops has barely shown any attraction to Madelyne Pryor since her Face–Heel Turn, but went steady with Emma Frost since she became one of the good guys. And on and on it goes. Most of the time. In X-Men (2019) this is all settled by some Polyamory with Jean sleeping with both Cyclops and Wolverine rather than choose between them. As both Scott and Logan love Jean so much, they don't object to this arrangement (if anything Jean is one thing they actively bond over).
- While it on the surface seems like a case of All Girls Want Bad Boys this is why Rogue fell in love with Gambit and ultimately chose him over Magneto * Gambit was the first person to completely accept her even with her Touch of Death Power Parasite mutation and despite his Handsome Lech qualities showed her genuine compassion even in her most depressed and angry moments. The fact he was the first man she slept with was also a factor in this, as Rogue thanks to her powers had never been that intimate with a single person before in her life. Her previous sexual encounter while de-powered in Genosha was horrific having been badly molested by some guards, so it’s no wonder Gambit’s gentle love is something she cherishes.
Other Comics
- Blacksad has Alma Mayer, who simply wants a man who will be dedicated enough to bring her to Niagara Falls.
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy goes after Xander, her best friend and ally in demon-fighting.
- Diamondback, a villainess member of the Serpent Society, dated Captain America and offered to drop crime for him on their first meeting. She took a while getting around to it, but she did do it.
- In Jennifer Blood, the title character fell in love with and married a mild-mannered, goofy, and good-natured accountant precisely because he was the opposite of every man — all hardened ruthless criminals — she had ever known in her life. In her own words, her husband is the kind of man her evil uncles would have dismissed as "weak" because he's the kind of man who makes society work instead of preying on it.
- The entire reason in Invincible why Atom Eve pursued a relationship with Mark, the titular hero. While she thought he was cute upon their first meeting and admired his heroics, it's not until after the hard collapse of her relationship with Rex-Splode who cheated on her that Eve realized she had feelings for Mark who comforted her in her heartbreak. But due to him dating Amber, she tried her best not to act on them (though she couldn’t resist giving him a Big Damn Kiss in Africa). After Mark and Amber break up, Eve asks him out right away and they spend almost the rest of the series together, have a daughter and pull off one of the biggest cases of Earn Your Happy Ending in comic books.
- Scott Pilgrim has a variation of sorts. Scott is a Downplayed Trope of both a Nice Guy and Jerk with a Heart of Gold (so somewhere in between, but ultimately leaning more toward Nice Guy). Scott has plenty of flaws, such as being Innocently Insensitive, acting without thinking and making poorly thought-out decisions. However, he is at his heart a decent and nice guy while functioning as The Heart of his group of friends. It's this reason that Ramona ends up being with him.
- She even calls him the nicest guy she's been with and the fact that he is learning to recognize his mistakes and improve on himself is what separates him from the other exes (while also motivating Ramona to do the same.)
- This extends to Scott's relationship with his ex-girlfriends. His first girlfriend, Kim Pine, has known him the longest in their circle of friends and despite her snarky demeanor and sour attitude, she really cares about Scott and his happiness. Though her brisk attitude toward him is due to how their relationship ended (while it was due to Scott having to move, Scott mishandled on telling Kim, which is his real mistake here). Also, the basis for Scott and Knives being together; while the ending of their relationship was ultimately Scott's fault, they were happy during the time they were together and Scott was a good and attentive boyfriend for her, it's why Knives still has strong feelings for Scott.
- Gender Inverted example as well since all of Scott's past girlfriends were all decent women at heart, including Ramona (despite being rough around the edges like Scott was). Conversed regarding Scott with Natalie a.k.a. Envy; he liked her because she was a nice girl and they shared interests. Their relationship began to decline when she began to change... and not for the better. Having joined Scott and Stephen's band, Kid Chameleon, her talent brought plenty of newfound fame and success to the band, which led to her changing her image, usurping control of the band while adding in more people, dismissing the opinions of the rest of the band members (especially with their rise in fame) and becoming more aloof and uncaring in her relationship with Scott. Ultimately, while Scott instigated the actual argument that spelled the end of their relationship (which he did not remember, Stephen claims he got drunk, which presumably is why), the change from Natalie to Envy was the main force in their relationship ending.
