12 Superhero Movie Romances That Actually Didn't Suck
Shocker: Thor and Jane Foster didn't make the list.
Despite superhero movies being among the most popular of film genres today, it's baffling how the overwhelming majority of them still can't deliver entertaining and charming romantic subplots.
Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a consistent bastion of quality comic book cinema, has served up eye-rollingly forced "love" stories for Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Bruce Banner (Edward Norton/Mark Ruffalo) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).
That's to say nothing of not-quite-convincing romances for Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana), or Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly).
Elsewhere, there's the truly problematic likes of The Joker (Jared Leto) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), but every single one of these under-cooked superhero romances has one thing in common: they exist simply to tick a box for the studio.
Thankfully not all superheroes are saddled with the same feckless love stories, and a few dare to actually put real dramatic weight and emotion behind their character-driven romances.
They're not as common as they should be, but across Marvel, DC and beyond, there are some easy stand-outs...