The image in the trope's main page is from Ms. Marvel (2014) — it's a cover from an arc that promises romance between Kamala and another superhero, Red Dagger, who until this point had all of one, brief appearance in the book. Apparently, somebody knew how it's gonna feel to fans and decided to throw a bit of Lampshade Hanging. In the comic proper, the storyline the cover was from actually ended badly — Kamala is so distraught when news organizations come to flock to Red Dagger that she up and walks away, pulling a 10-Minute Retirement that has Dagger searching high and low for her. A storyline following that did have the two attempt a relationship... only for Kamala to realize she still had lingering feelings for her old friend Bruno.
Fantastic Four: Torch and Crystal barely even speak three sentences to each other before declaring themselves lovers-for-life, and the Torch spends the next several arcs pining over Crystal. Still, Johnny was awfully young in those days, but it's not as if he and Crystal stayed together for very long after they were reunited. Subverted in Ultimate Fantastic Four, where he quotes the 'Lovers-for-life' verbatim... then shrugs and admits "I just thought we might get a good thing going." Sue proceeds to voice what pretty much everyone is thinking with "For God's sake Johnny, you've known her for an hour!"
In an oddly well-done example, Mockingbird and Hawkeye, who got married literally a fortnight after meeting. The two realized they had chemistry after knowing each other for about a day (during which they spent most of it bickering, though in an old married couple kind of way), and decided to get married as soon as possible. However, since they do have great chemistry, have similar personalities, and fighting styles which compliment the other, they work well together despite the questionable introduction and, while they're currently broken up and have had several falling outs and breakups, they remain one of Marvel's most popular pairs. Still, Captain America telling Clint that getting married to a girl he just met is the most responsible thing he ever did makes for a narmy moment.
For most of the original series, Chase showed an obvious attraction to Karolina, completely oblivious to the signs that she was a lesbian, but suddenly fell in love with Gert after the latter saved his life. The 2017 series attempts to hang a lampshade on this, retconning that the actual beginning of their relationship was sometime after they broke out of foster care.
Karolina Dean and Xavin. The entire basis for their relationship was that she was a lonely, depressed teenage lesbian, and Xavin was able to become female, and also, they had an Arranged Marriage that had to be consummated or else three different worlds would be destroyed, the result of Karolina's evil parents' machinations. That Karolina had a history of suicidal tendencies gave their relationship some Unfortunate Implications that Brian K. Vaughan apparently had no interest in averting (the little that is shown of Karolina's time among the Skrulls suggests that Xavin kept her completely isolated throughout their courtship). Even Joss Whedon seemed to struggle to make their relationship look good before finally just making Xavin female. Later on, Terry Mooreput Xavin on a bus.
Victor Mancha completely falling for a girl named Lillie the very same day he met her, even going so far to start having wet dreams about her, and cheating on his current girlfriend Nico the very next day. The fact that Nico herself pushed Victor to cheat on her and later justified it as them having discovered "true love" was way too much to swallow. Especially considering that original creator, Brian K. Vaughan, took a long time to develop Victor and Nico's relationship, from a mistake to a real bond of love, before leaving. What's worse, the girl doesn't even stay with him in the end, so the thing just ended up looking like a messy plan to break up Victor and Nico. Makes you wonder if Joss Whedon hated poor Victor or something.
Runaways (Rainbow Rowell) has Nico and Karolina. While there has been a lot of Unresolved Sexual Tension between them over the years, the actual romantic relationship comes at an extremely awkward time, when Karolina has only recently been dumped by her girlfriend Julie, which rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way and led to accusations that Rowell was pandering to fans of the show (where Nico and Karolina have been a couple from the beginning) in order to boost sales. Of course, the pairing has always been very popular in the fandom, so most fans have since forgiven the less-than-ideal timing.
It happens again in the prelude to the Spider-Verse event when Spider-Man starts a relationship with newcomer Silk. Thing is, their relationship only happens because of a pheromone that makes them crazy for one another. That means Spider-Man is being strangled, and Silk is the one pulling on the red string.
Happened again with Peter and Mockingbird (each time by the same writer), who start dating after previously being colleagues, purely because Dan Slott realised that Peter being on a team with a super spy was pretty cool. Unlike when Mockingbird did this with Hawkeye (see above), this did not work out, largely because Bobbi suddenly acted nothing like herself, they spent zero time acting like a couple, and the few times they did it painted her in a negative light. They broke up as abruptly as they got together, and it's ultimately quite disappointing given they actually had the potential to be a good couple if Bobbi was actually written right.
Colossus' instant infatuation with Zsaji in Secret Wars (1984) counts — despite his long-established relationship with Kitty Pryde, he falls head over heels for the alien after she heals his injuries. Possibly justified by Be Careful What You Wish For, as some theorize that Zsaji was the Battleworld granting Colossus' wish for "the perfect girlfriend". It was also implied that Zsaji's healing powers also created some degree of an emotional bond between her and the recipient. In Real Life, the reason for the instant romance was Executive Meddling — Jim Shooter, who wrote the story, was becoming increasingly concerned and alarmed at Chris Claremont's romantic pairing of Colossus, who was 19-20 at the time, and Kitty Pryde, who was 14, especially after scenes where Kitty had offered herself sexually out of despair to Colossus (he refused) and where the two shared a kiss. He took the opportunity of Secret Wars to completely and (he thought) irrevocably sink the Kitty/Colossus ship. It would not be raised until decades later, and both characters were of legal age.
Scott dating Emma Frost. What's really bad is the excuse given for why they're dating so soon after Jean's death is "not" a rebound relationship (Grant Morrison had them have an adulterous psychic affair before Jean's death, but realistically that was Emma — his supposed therapist — unethically taking advantage of him when he was vulnerable). As proof it was contrived, there is this Bad Future that Jean needed to avert. Going back in time, like every other such future, somehow wasn't an option this time. Instead, the only options were 1. Scott and Emma didn't get together, the X-Men would fall apart and things go all to holy hell; or 2. Jean brainwashes her husband into forgetting his feelings for Jean and giving in to his attraction to Emma. Funny enough, it worked out well and it's become a very popular relationship in the fanbase.
Black Panther and Storm's marriage resulted from Reginald Hudlin's hamfisted railroading of the relationship from casual acquaintance to Wedding of Perfect Couple as soon as possible and they were made out as some kind of First Couple of Black Superheroes. Subsequent writers were not subtle about their distaste for the pairing and found any possible reason to have Storm go on missions with the X-Men or for T'Challa to have solo adventures. After the events of Avengers vs. X-Men, where the two fought, their marriage has been annulled.note Their marriage in the older Earth X miniseries wasn't nearly as hated since it took place in the future where Ororo and T'Challa presumably had a healthy romance before tying the knot. Storm even says at one point that he made her feel like a queen long before he made her one.
Sabretooth and Monet is a big example. After Secret Wars (2015), the books have an 8-month time-skip with many off-panel developments, which includes the start of this romance in Bunn's Uncanny X-Men. The Ship Tease is in full effect the first issue as they engage in Snark-to-Snark Combat. Psylocke reveals it's typical behavior by asking if they were still bickering, why they don't just Get a Room!, and thinking they may be flirting. The seeds of romance were planted asap. Bunn confirmed they had a torturous love & their feelings were so apparent, six characters could see it throughout the two books they shared. Yuriko has an exposition moment in Weapon X #22 when her elaboration on Monet was "as in Sabretooth ex-girlfriend."◊ Domino, Deadpool, and Omega Red shipped them. Domino gushes at them twice, Deadpool impatiently asks when they're gonna kiss, and Omega Red grins at them during a heartfelt convo. She & Creed never met prior to all this and we skipped straight to them already being in love with numerous sources pointing it out.note Creed met the M-twins during Phalanx Covenant when they were impersonating Monet.note Even though Creed was a good guy during his pairing with Monet, it was controversial among fandom with many hating the idea of putting a someone of her caliber with a man who has a history of bad treatment toward women. This was compounded with Creed's newfound goodness being brought about by magic. He was inverted by a spell from Scarlet Witch that reversed his moral alignment, making anything he did seem artificial since it wasn't of his own accord to do better, but merely a result of magic beyond his control.
Bobby Drake/Iceman and Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat. As of the seventh issue of the Wolverine and the X-Men (Marvel Comics) comic, Bobby and Kitty have shared two kisses, despite how they've spent years as distant acquaintances at best. They had a decent relationship arc in the Ultimate Marvel universe, and writers have been known to mix the two up before. It comes completely out of nowhere in the main Marvel Universe. However, this, too, was crashed into the ground, this time by the events of Battle of the Atom after Kitty gets fed up with Wolverine's Holier Than Thou attitude and, after chewing out Iceman for not trying to stand up for himself and leaning towards Wolverine's way of thinking, breaks it off and goes to join Cyclops' team.
Iceman gets it again in his solo series, which began shortly after he came out as gay. This was already contentious among some fans who felt like it came out of nowhere, and many complained that the series seemed far more interested in being a Coming-Out Story than a superhero book. While in L.A. Bobby goes out with a guy whom he found on a dating app, winds up sleeping with him, and immediately decides to move in with him, which of course means relocating across the country and leaving the X-Men. Must have been some really good sex, huh?
X-23 and Angel of the O5 getting together in All-New X-Men. Despite having not interacted on-panel at all through the first two story arcs after Laura joins the team — and in fact, Laura having been Ship Teasedwith an entirely different character altogether up to that point — Warren suddenly decides he's interested in her in the third. It comes so far out of left field that many fans are convinced that the romantic plot was meant for Laura and Scott (the character with whom she was being teased in the first two arcs), but some combination of Executive Meddling and his leaving the book for the Cyclops series forced Bendis to revise the plan and he just picked a random member of the O5 who wasn't doing anything else important. Such views are only reinforced by accusations that Warren has become a Satellite Love Interest in the second volume, with everything about his character in the first few issues revolving around his relationship with Laura.
The relationship between Rachel Summers and Nightcrawler in X-Men: Gold seems to be viewed like this by most fans, as they get together with zero buildup, almost never spend any time around each other and generally don't display much chemistry as a couple. Since the writer of X-Men: Gold, Marc Guggenheim, has flat-out said that the main focus of X-Men Gold is the romance and wedding between Kitty Pryde and Colossus it makes one wonder why he even put Rachel and Kurt together in the first place as them being a couple contributes nothing to the overall plot. One issue even made fun of their lack of screentime together.
Mystique and Sabretooth is a villainous example. In the '90s, Victor has critically wounded Raven without a problem on two occasions. On her end, Raven has raped, used, and poisoned him. She tries to hurt him by taking the form of his dead mother, seems to find him disgusting in X-Factor while having feelings for Forge. Come Aaron's 2010 X-run, they're a couple, captioned in Wolverine #300 as "Marvel's Hottest and Deadliest New Couple". Since then, Creed has consistently been depicted as loving her, to the point that hurting her is a Berserk Button. Inverted Rogue threatened to kill her in front of him just to hurt him and Lady Mastermind has pointed out that he thinks Mystique the be all and end all. Mystique's feelings for him vary. On good days, she's very affectionate with him, but on bad days, she's got no issue selling him out or being willing to sacrifice him in favor of reviving Destiny.
During his run on The Avengers writer Jonathan Hickman paired up his new character, Izzy "Smasher II" Kane and former X-Man and current Avenger, Cannonball. Up to that point, Avengers readers would be hard-pressed to name a time the two had even talked to each other, let alone established a relationship. In the space of a couple of years, Smasher and Cannonball went from "Didn't know they knew each other's real names" during Infinity to "they have a son together" by the time of Time Runs Out.
All-New Ultimates: The fight against the Femme Fatales ended, and the focus suddenly moves to Cloak and Dagger breaking up, something that had no previous build up.
The Uncanny Avengers run brought us Havok paired with The Wasp. After approximately three issues of flirting, readers were suddenly flung into a time skip where they were married with a five-year-old daughter. And then, after timey-wimey stuff caused said kid to get erased, everyone to get sent back to the present, and Alex to get turned evil, he kidnaps Jan to "make sure they get their daughter back", only for this to then be dropped and the two to show up again separately, making no mention of what happened.
This has happened to the Wasp a few times, with Quicksilver, Magneto, Hawkeye, Paladin, and many more occasions of her randomly getting together with characters out of the blue. One notable example was her and Iron Man, since it happened twice. The first time in a classic one-and-done story that has Janet meet Tony out of costume and the two having a fling, only to break up when he reveals his Secret Identity to her because it made their relationship needlessly complicated. The second time was in Tony Stark: Iron Man #4, which at least did a good job of setting up why they'd get together, especially as in the time since the initial example the two had become very close friends, making their relationship feel much more believable. Surprisingly, despite it being written by the same guy responsible for all the Spider-Man examples above.
Unfortunate Implications that Brian K. Vaughan apparently had no interest in averting (the little that is shown of Karolina's time among the Skrulls suggests that Xavin kept her completely isolated throughout their courtship). Even Joss Whedon seemed to struggle to make their relationship look good before finally just making Xavin female. Later on, Terry Moore put Xavin on a bus.
& their feelings were so apparent, six characters could see it throughout the two books they shared. Yuriko has an exposition moment in Weapon X #22 when her elaboration on Monet was "as in Sabretooth ex-girlfriend."
