Family ties always make for great dramatic plot points.
And that's not just in stories like Game of Thrones – narratives centered on familial
dynamics are ever so prevalent in comics.
From Marvel to DC to the Golden Age Fawcett Comics, there have always been some serious
fam jam storylines plucking away at the heartstrings of readers.
So today, we're counting down our favorite super-powered family units with our list of
the top 10 superhero families.
And, disclaimer, we're talking blood relatives rather than figurative families for this one.
10 The Marvel Family One of the earliest families to ever grace
the pages of comic books was the Marvel family – a unit of relatives all a part of the
Captain Marvel mythos – a character initially owned by Fawcett Comics that would later be
owned by DC, who changed his name to Shazam.
Also not to be mistaken with Marvel's Captain Marvel, who existed after the company bought
the copyright to the character's name.
Anywho, in 1941 and 1942, Fawcett introduced teen spin-off characters for the hero, which
included Captain Marvel Jr, his sidekick, and his sister Mary Marvel.
Later, Uncle Marvel would be introduced, too, although he didn't have any superpowers.
The Marvel Family comics amassed a whole lot of popularity by the late 40s, There was even
an animal in the mix – Hoppy the Marvel Bunny who had 15 comic book appearances.
If that wasn't a big enough family for you, the character also got three foster siblings
that were introduced in Flashpoint – Eugene, Pedro and Darla.
9 The Asgardians Okay, yes, Asgardians are a race and not the
family name, but you totally know who I'm referencing.
Thor, his daddy Odin and his brother Loki.
Loki, ever the Asgardian fashionista – you all know it's true – isn't technically
Thor's brother by blood – rather, he's the adopted son of Odin after the All-Father
had defeated Loki's biological father, King Laufey of the Giants of Jotunheim.
He was raised alongside Thor as his brother, and once Thor gained the Asgard throne, Loki
became a public enemy, and their sibling rivalry became more dangerous.
Loki was apprehended, and Odin trapped him inside of a tree –but the god of mischief
managed to get out, and brought the fight to Thor, who was on Earth in New York City.
These days, Loki has become a bit more of an anti-hero – something that's even enabled
him to be worthy of lifting Mjolnir, which of course he used against Thor in battle.
The MCU has done a particularly good job at representing Thor and his family up on the
big screen, with Loki being arguably the best villain in the franchise – minus a certain
big purple friend who got his snap on in Infinity War.
8 The Summers The members of the Summers family tree are
quite important when it comes to mutant history in the Marvel Universe.
For starters, Scott Summers aka Cyclops and Jean Grey – known as Marvel Girl as the
time – helped found the X-Men, and led various factions of it over the years.
Jean is one of the most powerful of the lot – an omega level mutant, and the physical
manifestation of the cosmic Phoenix Force, at times she's been one of the strongest
forces in the Marvel Universe.
During a brief period where Cyclops got it on with a clone of Jean's named Madeline
Pryor, they convinced a child, who ended up being Cable after the baby was sent to the
future.
Cable would then adopt and raise Hope Summers – the first mutant to be born after the
Decimation event when Scarlet Witch depowered almost all of the mutants in the world.
Scott also has two brothers – Havok, another character who was a key figure in X-Men stories,
and Vulcan, Gabriel Summers, a supervillain, and the youngest of
the siblings.
7 The Pyms The Pyms are a prime example of how intertwining
many of the families in the Marvel Universe are with one another.
The Pyms are also as unconventional of a 'family' as you can get.
So, in the comics, Hank Pym married Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp.
Hank and Janet never had kids – likely due to their constant martial problems and Hank,
you know, having a mental breakdown and beating her that one time – but Hank is still seen
as a father to a certain Marvel character – Ultron.
In the comics, Hank is the one who builds the robot Ultron, who sees Hank as his dad,
and goes on to create four other robots, one of which is the Vision.
Enter the complicated family tree – Vision married Scarlet Witch, who used to be the
daughter of Magneto and is Quicksilver's twin.
Quicksilver married the sister of Inhuman Queen Medusa.
It gets more complicated from there, and if you consider a bunch of alternate timelines,
Vision can be linked to the Fantastic Four who can be linked to the Summers who can be
linked to Apocalypse, all through marriage and adoption.
So yeah, don't father robots – it can only lead to trouble, in more ways than one.
6 The Hulks Another non-traditional family, Bruce Banner's
clan of hulking monsters is pretty expanded, especially considering the character's sometimes
liking to be on his own.
When his cousin Jennifer Walters was in need of a blood transfusion, Bruce was there – but
this resulting in her acquiring her own Hulk powers that the character could control much
better than Bruce ever could.
In addition to that, other characters with Hulk powers have a familial relation to Bruce
– both his ex-wife Betty Ross and her father, General Thaddeus E 'Thunderbolt' Ross,
ended up becoming Red She-Hulk and Red Hulk.
In addition to that, in Planet Hulk, Banner marries an alien named Caiera and she has
two kids – Hiro-Kala and Skaar.
5 The Waynes While the Bat-Family may be the most iconic
figurative family in comic book history, Bruce does have some familial blood ties that aren't
dead.
Sorry, had to.
The Waynes are a family that have many roots all across the DC multiverse, typically varying
Bruce's parents and altering Batman's origin story.
Prime Earth itself has a Wayne history that stretches back further than 1855, which is
when brothers Solomon and Joshua Wayne purchased Wayne Manor.
The New 52 Batman would briefly explore the life of Alan Wayne in 1922 concerning the
family's history with the Court of Owls – an organization secretly working within
Gotham City.
By the time Bruce's day Thomas Wayne married his wife Martha, he was the only living descendant
of the family until Bruce was born.
The New 52 would also explore the possibility of Bruce having a long lost brother – a
sibling who was supposed to have died right after being born.
Years later, when Bruce hooked up with Talia al Ghul, it was later revealed that she didn't
love him, and was only in the relationship in order to mix the al Ghul and Wayne bloodlines,
resulting in her mothering Damian Wayne, who became the new Robin after he chose to live
with his father.
And the feels between Bruce and Damian are THE BEST – Bruce is often depicted as deeply
caring for his son, and minus, ya know, putting him in danger while fighting crime, he's
actually a pretty solid parent at times.
With Alfred heavily involved in the mix, and Bruce's other 'adopted' sons of the
Bat Family, he and Damian's dynamic often is an entertaining one to read.
4 The Inhuman Royal Family Also known as the House of Agon, the Inhuman
Royal Family are descendants of the former ruler of the Inhumans – a race that was
genetically altered by the Kree centuries ago.
Inhumans predominantly kept themselves hidden from the rest of humanity.
The family consists of Blackbolt, the King of the Inhumans, Medusa, the Queen , who is
also cousins to her husband Blackbolt, Crystal, Medusa's sister, Maximus, Black Bolt's
brother, Ahura, the King & Queen's son, and a slew of cousins – Karnak, Triton,
and Unspoken, the former power hungry Inhuman king who was banished.
And then there's Lockjaw, their dog, who has the power of teleportation and is overall
super awesome.
LOOK AT HIM.
3 The Magneto Family Magneto's lineage is an impressive one.
Aside from being one of the most complex and powerful villains in the Marvel Universe,
his twin children Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver – who initially were the kids of the Whizzer
but that was later retconned – were born to Magneto's estranged wife, and were adopted
by Romani parents.
That was retconned again to them being children who were genetic experiments, led to believe
that Magneto was their father.
They would enter the Marvel Universe as reluctant villains, part of Magneto's Brotherhood of
Evil Mutants in X-Men issue 4 in 1964, uninterested in Magneto's ideologies, and later, became
members of the second iteration of the Avengers team, alongside Hawkeye and team leader Captain
America.
Their family dynamic would continue to be explored over the years, especially in the
House of M story arc, which saw Scarlet Witch altering all of reality to give all mutant's
their hearts desires – and, as you can imagine, Magneto's desires were ones that established
mutant dominance over humans.
This family tree extends down into the Maximoffs, Wiccan and Speed – the children that Wanda
Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, had with the Vision prior to their split.
Quicksilver also had an empath daughter named Luna, whose mother was the Inhuman princess,
Crystal.
Aside from them, Magneto had another daughter named Polaris, most well-known for her mental
health issues and relationship with Havok.
2 The Richards Easily the most powerful family on this list,
the Richards go beyond just being an adorable family unit – they're a succinct team.
Nothing better illustrates that than the family's efforts to rebuild the Marvel multiverse after
the end of Secret Wars.
Many often consider the Fantastic Four to be comic's first 'family', consisting
of Reed Richards' Mister Fantastic, Sue Storm's Invisible Woman, Ben Grimm The Thing
and Sue's brother Johnny Storm, the Human Torch.
Reed and Sue are one of the oldest Marvel couples, and they've had two kids – Franklin
and Valeria Richards, both of whom are crazy powerful – Franklin is a mutant with beyond
Omega Level reality manipulating and psionic powers.
Valeria is a genius, outsmarting her father at a young age, along with a whole arsenal
of other powers.
Ben often acts as an uncle to the kids, and Victor Von Doom is the godfather of Valeria,
having helped deliver the child and thus naming her after a woman he once loved and savagely
sacrificed.
1 The Kents Superman's family has always been pretty
integral to his history, much like Bruce Wayne's.
But these days, Clark Kent is boasting a new family unit since Rebirth with Lois Lane and
their son, Jonathan Samuel Kent.
The firstborn son of Superman, Jon Kent is one of the most adored newer characters to
debut in the DC universe, and the trio's family dynamic is oh so endearing.
Jonathan would go on to become the new Superboy.
The family unit first appeared during the 2015 Convergence story event as the pre-Flashpoint
continuity Superman who, along with Lois had been trapped on another planet where he did
not have powers, and eventually ended up in the Earth-0 timeline.
When DC relaunched itself yet again, DC established Superman as the pre-Flashpoint Superman, meaning
we began to see a lot more of Jonathan, which included him becoming buddies with Batman's
son, Damian Wayne.
There we have it friends!
Which of these is your favourite superhero family?
And would you want us to do a part 2 list, but focus more on figurative families?
Give us a shout in those comments below!
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