Top 10 Worst Love Interests In Marvel And DC Superhero Movies
Love interests are a huge part of superhero movies, but for various reasons, many of them end up dragging those down. What you'll find here are the worst examples from recent Marvel and DC blockbusters...
The way female characters are portrayed in superhero movies often varies greatly in quality, especially when they're more often than not relegated to being love interests for the male lead and nothing more (something which now looks set to change thanks to Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman). As a result, for every Peggy Carter and Pepper Potts, there's...well, the sort of characters you'll find listed here.
Whether it comes down to performance or more often than not the way they're written, what you'll find here are the ten worst examples of love interests in Marvel and DC Comics movies. From the ones who ended up making your favourite superhero look like a fool to those who were handled appallingly and not given the chance to shine as they do in the comics, the names listed here may surprise you.
10. Lois Lane (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)
Seeing as Lois Lane spent such a huge amount of time in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trying to clear the Man of Steel's name, you may be wondering what exactly she's doing here. Well, as much as The Daily Planet journalist may love Clark Kent, let's not forget that it was pretty much her fault that he died! Lois' random decision to throw that Kryptonite spear underwater forced Superman to rescue her when she later realised her mistake, and that severely weakened him.
Sure, he may very well have decided to still use that weapon against Doomsday (sacrificing himself in the process), but Lois certainly didn't help matters by interfering as she did. Lois was also something of a pest in Man of Steel, so it now remains to be seen whether or not she'll cause the resurrected Superman similar problems in Justice League next November.
9. Silver Fox (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
"Do you know why the moon is so lonely?" No, me neither, but that didn't stop Lynn Collins' Silver Fox rattling off a laughably bad story which was supposed to be a thinly veiled reference to what was going on in this appallingly written origin story. Poor old Logan thought he'd found happiness with his schoolteacher girlfriend, but later her finds her dead at the hands (claws?) of Sabretooth.
In reality, she hadn't been killed, and was in fact keeping tabs on Wolverine the whole time for Weapon X. As nonsensical as all this was, it was capped off by the fact that she actually loved him all along! Snore. Her death had no affect on the audience, making the emotional wallop at the end of the movie about as weak as the rest of this watered down take on Wolverine. Thankfully, Mariko fared a lot better a few years later in The Wolverine.
8. Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man 3)
The addition of Gwen Stacy to the Spider-Man franchise should have been cause for celebration back in 2007. After all, while Peter Parker may have married Mary Jane Watson in the comic books, his true love was always the one stolen from him by the Green Goblin, and after two movies focusing on MJ, Gwen being added to the mix felt genuinely exciting.
Sadly, in an already crowded movie, creating a love triangle (well, TWO love triangles if you also take into account Harry Osborn's attempts to steal MJ) with Gwen was a bad idea, and ultimately made her little more than a poorly used plot device. Bryce Dallas Howard and Tobey Maguire had very little chemistry, and the way he treated her made it hard to imagine them ever having a similar relationship to their comic book counterparts.
7. Elektra (Daredevil)
Daredevil is still considered one of the worst comic book movies of all-time (perhaps explaining why a character with so much potential for big screen success is being relegated to a Netflix series, despite the fact that Marvel finally has the rights back), but it does deserves props for lifting Elektra's death scene almost verbatim from the comic books.
Other than that, Daredevil's Elektra was appalling, somehow going from a businessman's daughter to skilled assassin after just a few weeks slicing up bags of sand with her sais. Throw in awful scenes like the fight in the playground, and we were left with both a wasted opportunity and an incredible poorly written love interest. But hey, at least Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner found happiness together in real life...well, until fairly recently that is.
6. Rachel Dawes (Batman Begins)
If there was one major flaw in Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, it has to be the Caped Crusader's love interest Rachel Dawes. She certainly had her uses as a plot device in his origin story (mostly as a way of connecting Bruce Wayne's past with the present) but that's also a big part of why her presence ultimately dragged Batman Begins down.
As integral as Rachel was when a younger Bruce was planning to kill the man he blamed for the death of his parents, the time we spend with her in the final act of the movie feels particularly unnecessary and has a negative impact on the pace of those final minutes. None of this was helped by the bland and often extremely irritating performance from Katie Holmes. It was arguably her who made it so hard to care about Rachel's fate, and while she would be replaced in the sequel, that didn't really help as you'll find out a little later here.
5. Lois Lane (Superman Returns)
Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane was a serious cast of miscasting. The 22-year-old actress was far too young to play a character who had a five-year-old son and years of history with Brandon Routh's Man of Steel, and was generally just unconvincing in the role. Throw in the fact that she shared little to no chemistry with the titular superhero (as well as the awful scenarios that this mess of a movie put Lane through) and we were left with what many consider the worst version of the Daily Planet journalist ever.
Bosworth was a talented actress who did her best, but the script and direction let her down at the end of the day. It's not surprising then that Bosworth's career hasn't really taken off since Superman Returns...maybe she could also end up landing a role in The CW-verse like Routh has with Legends of Tomorrow?
4. Jean Grey (X-Men)
Famke Janssen was by no means a bad choice to play Jean Grey, and she certainly had her moments over the course of the three movies she appeared in (five if you include The Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past). However, it was Bryan Singer's decision to turn her into an object of desire for both Logan and Cyclops which not only negatively impacted those characters, but also saw Jean portrayed far weaker than she ever should have been, and ultimately a shadow of her comic book self.
The love triangle between these three was played out for years in the comics, but Jean always stood by Scott Summers, a fan favourite character who came across as a whiny loser in these movies. Sure, Jean chose Cyclops over Wolverine by the end of X-2, but did anyone actually care by that point? Nope. Brett Ratner would finish off this character assassination in X-Men: The Last Stand.
3. Roxanne Simpson (Ghost Rider)
Just about everything in Ghost Rider was laughably bad, regardless of whether it was Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze or villains in the form of Peter Fonda as Mephisto and Wes Bentley as Blackheart (two great comic book bad guys who could and should have been portrayed so much better than they actually were). Eva Mendes didn't deliver a particularly awful performance as the smoking hot Roxanne Simpson, but the love story between her and the titular supernatural hero was unbelievably clichéd.
It's not in the least bit unfair to point out that just about every single facet of their relationship felt like they was lifted out of the handbook of "Seen it all Before Love Interests 101", and was eventually capped off with a predictably unsatisfying and eye-rolling conclusion. She thankfully didn't return for the sequel, but that still sucked regardless.
2. Rachel Dawes (The Dark Knight)
That's right, Rachel Dawes was so terrible, she actually gets a second mention in this feature! The main reason for that is because Katie Holmes was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal, an actress who managed to be almost as unimpressive and irritating as her predecessor. Despite being a step up from Holmes, the character still wasn't all that well-written and again served as little more than a plot device in a movie which was severely lacking a strong female character.
Her death was effectively done and served to set up one helluva final act, but it's perhaps not a great sign when most of the audience is relieved to see her meet her maker. Thankfully, Christopher Nolan made up for the Rachel Dawes misfire with Catwoman and Talia Al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises, but even then there's an argument to be made that her arc had some serious issues.
1. Mary Jane Watson (Spider-Man)
The fact that she was an aspiring actress instead of a successful supermodel ultimately isn't that important, but watering down Peter Parker's comic book wife to someone who needed saving again and again was just a mistake. Throw in the fact that Kirsten Dunst clearly didn't care about this role, and we're left with one of the worst superhero movie love interests of all-time in not just one, but THREE movies.
Which of these superhero movie love interests do you think was the worst? Have we missed any other worthy contenders? As always, be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments section.