12 Superhero Movie Romances That Actually Didn't Suck

Shocker: Thor and Jane Foster didn't make the list.

By Jack Pooley /

Warner Bros.

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.

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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).

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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.

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They're not as common as they should be, but across Marvel, DC and beyond, there are some easy stand-outs...