10 geeky ‘ships and why we love them
W e’ve all had our share of ‘ships and #LoveTeams courtesy of Hollywood and yes, even local Pinoy entertainment, all of which manage to exude charm and fancy. And while those team-ups may have won our hearts and made us all collectively sigh and let out “awwws” because of their inherent sweetness, it remains a fact that these team-ups are all too normal for those who possess hearts of the geeky kind.
I know, I know: superpowered pairings often come and go — sometimes in the span of only a few issues. But when two superheroes (or antiheroes!) make it work, legendary relationships can be forged. And even if those relationships end in disaster — as they often do — they still remain important aspects of superhero history.
In celebration of everyone’s favorite unofficial holiday, here’s a list of some of geekdom’s most iconic, not to mention powerful, ‘ships. Get ready for a (superpowered) feels trip, everyone.
Wiccan X Hulkling (Young Avengers, Marvel Comics)
Ah, young love. Arguably Marvel’s most famous gay couple to ever come out (pun not intended) from its pages in recent years, WicLing, as this couple is more famously known, is quite the pair: Billy Kaplan / Wiccan, after all, is a reality bender slash quasi-multiversal messiah, while Teddy Altman / Hulkling is a shape-shifting royal Skrull/Kree hybrid. Complicated, I know. Ever since their debut in the pages of Young
Avengers in 2007 under Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, this pair of young heroes has gone through quite a lot of strain in their relationship: from being hunted down by Skrull and Kree extremists and battling with other heroes in the Superhuman Civil War, to thwarting a magic-wielding iron-fisted dictator and eventually battling an interdimensional
Cyclops and Emma Frost | MARVEL parasite, WicLing has, in a sense, had almost everything thrown at them, with the two emerging stronger and more committed every single time. #RelationshipGoals
Scott Summers X Ema Frost (X-Men Marvel Comics)
Seen as quite a controversial move from Marvel when it first came out, the Scott X Emma pairing came about after Scott, still reeling from his temporary merging with Apocalypse, became estranged from his wife, the telepathic mutant Jean Grey. Looking for someone to talk to, he turned to his teammate, Emma Frost, forging a strong emotional bond with her in the process.
After helping each other get over their various psychological hang-ups, Scott and Emma then took the next step forward with their relationship following Jean’s death, before eventually reopening the Xavier Institute as co-headmasters in Joss Whedon’s critically acclaimed Astonishing X-Men series.
Superman X Lois Lane (Superman, DC Comics)
A classic pairing, Superman and Lois Lane are the quintessential DC couple — never mind the fact that their 70-year courtship got whisked away with the New 52. That editorial blunder aside, the pair has the distinction of setting the template for superhero and love interest dynamic in comics, with Lois and Clark enjoying decades of playful flirting and secret identity dodging before finally tying the knot in the mid-1990s.
Batman X Catwoman (Batman, DC Comics)
Another fan-favorite pair, the attraction between Batman and Catwoman has been brewing for decades, and with good reason: the freewheeling Selina Kyle appeals to the justice-obsessed Bruce Wayne’s bad side. At the same time, Bruce appeals to Selina in the opposite way, inspiring her to choose another, more righteous path that ultimately leads to her constant struggle of being a hero and being another Gotham City rogue.
Though they’ve never really been “official,” except perhaps in alternate realities such as Earth-2, where their daughter grew up to become the vigilante Huntress, the pair have gotten so close that even Batman’s enemies know that to strike at the Dark Knight’s heart, one just needs to strike at Catwoman. I’d feel bad for anyone who tries that stunt though.
Colossus X Shadowcat (X-Men, Marvel Comics)
One of Marvel’s power couples, Colossus and Shadowcat’s pairing started off quite awkwardly, with the older Piotr Rasputin constantly rebuffing the advances of his younger schoolmate Kitty Pryde. Despite their rocky start however, the steel-skinned Piotr would gradually come to see the matterphasing Kitty as mature beyond her years and, not surprisingly, the two would later on become a couple.
Despite being a pretty solid one, the pair’s relationship ended abruptly after Colossus sacrificed his life to cure the deadly Legacy Virus. After Kitty and the rest of the X-Men discovered him to be alive and well after being revived by an alien extremist however, the two renewed their relationship, this time both as adults.
Baal X Inanna (The Wicked + The Divine, Image Comics)
Another power couple, this time in the universe of The Wicked + The Divine, Baal and Inanna are rock stars of the highest order: they are manifestations of the traditional Semitic and Mesopotamian deities of rain, lightning, and fertility. Oh, and they happen to be both gay as well.
Despite keeping it hush-hush and away from the