With comic book superheroes being more popular than ever, it’s hard to find someone out there that wouldn’t want to be one of the great Marvel or DC characters. They seem to have everything cut out for them and never really have to deal with problems they can’t somehow solve.
Some of those characters don’t quite fit the above description though. They’re dealt so many bad hands it’s hard to not feel bad for them. Let’s take a look at some of the unluckiest comic book characters that you can find.
Jason Todd
The second Robin has one of the most tragic stories in DC history. After getting blown up by the Joker and having the fans decide his fate, he was doomed to die. Then due to some comic book shenanigans they somehow did bring him back, but as the infamous Red Hood.
Peter Parker
Lost his parents when they were killed by Red Skull. Lost his uncle when he decided not to intervene in a crime in progress. Lost the first big love of his life when she was killed by the father of his best friend. Had to sacrifice his marriage to save his aunt’s life. Yeah, Peter’s had it pretty rough over the years.
Dr. Manhattan
While becoming a literal god might seem like an interesting prospect, it made Dr. Manhattan so detached from humanity that he had to enforce an exile upon himself and went to live on Mars. This was also because one of his closest allies convinced him that anyone that spent too much time around him would get cancer.
Strong Guy
A pretty back-burner mutant, Strong Guy (and yes, his name is also all his powers) was definitely not strong in the brains department. His ineptitude at taking risks has led to his death 3 times already – which isn’t counting the time he was revived without a soul and had to fight his way through Hell to get it back.
Nova
Nova’s life as a superhero began with and is constantly surrounded by tragedy. Richard Rider was reluctantly chosen as Nova Prime, only to then have the entire Nova Corps destroyed by the supervillain Annihilus. After a near-death experience he was also infected with a virus that turned him into a slave. He then restored the Nova Corps, only to watch it get wiped out again.
Bane
The venom that was supposed to kill him turned him into the biggest and baddest luchador around, but sadly it also forced him into a life of addiction as the venom caused severe withdrawal every 12 hours. And then when Bane was locked up and finally kicked the habit, they gave him a stronger version of venom where the withdrawal would flat-out kill him.
Daredevil
There’s a lot to be said when it comes to superhero bad luck, but Daredevil’s is a special kind of brand. For some reason, the man just can’t keep his secret identity secret – at all. Throughout his history he’s had to invent and fake a twin’s death, fake his own death, use his skills as a lawyer and resort to mass hypnosis to get his identity secret again.
Magneto
I guess growing up in the Holocaust as a young Jewish boy alone warrants enough tragedy to get on this list, but Magneto’s misery didn’t stop in 1945. He was shunned as a Jewish boy, shunned as a mutant, saw his parents get murdered, saw his daughter get burnt to death, and then just figured he’d had enough. Who wouldn’t?
