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1[[BackFromTheDead Death is rarely permanent]] in comic books. But when it comes to obstacles for {{Fan Preferred Couple}}s, some fans [[DieForOurShip wish it was.]]
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4* ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' is well-known for the decades long BettyAndVeronica love triangle. Naturally, this has occurred:
5** Betty has overwhelmingly become the preferred girl due to being a sweet GirlNextDoor. Betty/Archie fans who demonize Veronica as a SpoiledBrat and a RichBitch aren't uncommon. This even extends to [[ComicBook/AfterlifeWithArchie some]] [[Series/{{Riverdale}} adaptations]] that [[AdaptationalVillainy exaggerate]] her negative aspects.
6** On the other side, some Veronica/Archie supporters will consider Betty a DumbBlonde and a {{yandere}}. Betty hasn't been that obsessive over Archie [[CharacterizationMarchesOn in decades]].
7** Cheryl Blossom has been very controversial from the start due to being the ThirdOptionLoveInterest for Archie. Shippers often hate her for being a JerkAss or call her "too sexy".
8* Any female that "gets in the way of" Batman family HoYay is almost guaranteed a vilifying in fandom. ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} is exempted because of the GrandfatherClause and her already being a villain; no one else is safe. Similarly, ComicBook/LoisLane is often conveniently ignored as if she didn't exist when there's Batman/Superman HoYay to be had.
9** The general exception to this rule is Stephanie Brown (aka [[spoiler: Spoiler/Robin IV/Batgirl III]]), formerly Tim Drake's (Robin III) canonical love interest. While most of Tim's love interests gets deliberately ignored by HoYay shippers, they generally love Steph and her history with Tim. Except in the cases of Kon/Tim fans who hated her, although it was mostly limited to a VocalMinority.
10** There have been many fights about who Dick Grayson should be with; Tamarean Princess Koriand'r/Kory/Starfire or 'Batgirl/Oracle' Barbara Gordon. Even the writers got into that one: see the ComicBook/TeenTitans example for details on it.
11** It's been said that you just don't get between ComicBook/WonderWoman shippers and Catwoman shippers when they're fighting over Batman. Sorry, but you just don't, if you value life and limb.
12** One baffling example of the trope happened not to a love interest, but an ''infant'': When the Catwoman title had Selina give birth to her daughter Helena, the revelation that the child was not sired by Bruce caused some angry fans to begin calling for Helena's death as they felt she was in the way of Batman and Catwoman ever truly being together, as well as feeling that Sam Bradley being the father was an AssPull. Although Helena wasn't killed off, she did get conveniently written out as being given up for adoption. Come the New 52 reboot, any existence of Helena Kyle has been retconned out (although a rebooted Helena Wayne as Huntress does exist).
13* When it comes to ComicBook/TheFlash, Wally West fans that don't accept Linda as his wife have preferred she'd get out of the way for their own favorite love interest. This can include such options as Raven, Magenta, or Donna Troy (who he had an unrequited crush for).
14** There are also some people who feel Wally should date another fellow superhero in general, as opposed to BadassNormal Linda Park. One strange pairing is Wally West/Jesse Quick, which was even present in-universe; Jay Garrick says that a lot of Wally's friends hoped the two would get together. The two can't stand each other, but hey, Shipping Goggles.
15* ComicBook/GreenArrow is often vilified by Dinah/Babs shippers because of his and Dinah's relationship. They even bashed him when he was dead, but nowhere near as much as they've done since he was resurrected. It's just gotten worse since he and Dinah tied the knot, with Ollie's writers apparently liking to help the shippers with that. On the other hand, the other male in the picture, [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]], gets almost no abuse, but is rather roped into OneTrueThreesome ships.
16* Believe it or not, ComicBook/TheJoker gets this a lot from the Ivy/Harley shippers. Justified in that Ivy does treat Harley better... somewhat.
17** Conversely, if you ship Harley with anyone else, be prepared to duck. There are some [[VocalMinority fringe extremist]] Harley/Joker fangirls will attack you and whatever character you ship her with -- violently. This would probably embarrass most Harley/Joker shippers.
18** Harley gets a lot of this from people who want to see the Joker with [[FoeYayShipping Batman]] or (among people who mostly watch the movies) [[MadScientist Scarecrow.]] This is goofy because Harley and Joker have broken up in the comics and are now both free to be shipped with anyone.
19** And now the Harley x Scarecrow shippers have started in on the Joker, as evidenced in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lmxW4Txw90&feature=related multiple]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qguso-AsF04 fan videos]] for the pair on youtube. Actually, probably all the alternate Harley pairing shippers have started in on him.
20* In the ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' fandom, Alex/Nico shippers ''hate'' Victor and Karolina - the former for being Nico's rebound love interest, and the latter because the ShipTease between Nico and Karolina began so soon after [[spoiler:Alex's death]].
21* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'':
22** The fandom's attitude towards Sally Acorn gets this way from time to time with Sonic/Amy and Sonic/Mina fans, especially during Sally's {{Chickification}} period. Whole [[{{Hatedom}} fan groups]] were dedicated to drawing/writing her getting [[{{Gorn}} murdered and mutilated]] in [[SeriousBusiness various ways]].
23** Sally Acorn fans are known to bash Amy for her crush on Sonic and her fangirlish behavior, even in universes where Sally ''doesn't exist'' such as in the games or in ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom''.
24* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
25** DieForOurShip ''canonically'' happened with the death of Gwen Stacy. [[WordOfGod Gerry Conway has stated]] that a big reason for killing her off was that he felt Peter and Mary Jane deserved to be together, and Gwen was a boring DesignatedLoveInterest who had little to no personality. The passing of four decades and counting, as well as other love interests for Peter, has yet to defuse the debate among the fans themselves.
26** ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' has relatively little of this despite the [[LoveTriangle love quadrangle]] around Spider-Man, since the fans are fond of both the love quadrangle and its participants. There is, however, a small vocal band of Mary Jane haters who usually ship Peter/Kitty; they were most active during a short period following the Clone saga. The addition of Jessica Drew, Peter's genetically engineered female clone, has led to a lot of [[SlashFic opportunities for alternate pairings]] for girls not currently involved with Peter.
27* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
28** [[DerailingLoveInterests This is actually]] ''[[DerailingLoveInterests canon]]'' for Lois Lane in many Elseworlds, where the writers are constantly offing her so that Superman can hook up with Wonder Woman. This has been so jaw-droppingly overused and cliche, and the Supes/Wondy romances have traditionally been so appallingly badly developed, that it has given rise to all sorts of massive UnfortunateImplications, from the general feeling that Diana spends her life stalking Supes while waiting for Lois to kick the bucket, to the apparent message that superheroes are vastly superior to us PunyHumans, and should not defile themselves by marrying one of our mortal female lumps of flesh.
29** Happened to ComicBook/LanaLang in ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'', a hypothetical ending of Silver Age Superman. Lana was fried by Lightning Lord so that Lois and de-powered Clark could live their life together.
30* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': The comic version has as much of this trope as the animated version. One case? Beast Boy and Raven. When Geoff Johns made the two an OfficialCouple, there was mass rage from not only Beast Boy or Raven fans that didn't want them paired up, but also Beast Boy[=/=][[TheMole Terra]] fans, Beast Boy/Terra II fans, Jericho/Raven fans, [[HoYay Beast Boy/Cyborg]] fans, Nightwing/Raven fans... fans of any pairing other than the two together. Much hate was directed at Beast Boy from the fans who were more sympathetic to Raven and invoking this trope for him, while fans more sympathetic to Beast Boy began calling Raven an evil slut and scrambled to show their canon proof that she would be an abusive and cruel girlfriend to him, as well as stating that he would surely become weak and turn evil because of her. For some of those on Raven's side, kissing the 'green puke' ruined her forever. Of course, it didn't help that the pairing also lacked stability and much on-panel development through the volume 3 run and Winick's "Titans", with Johns first breaking the two up so he could put Beast Boy on the Doom Patrol (feeling that the Titans needed less adults), and then later writers going back and forth on whether the two would get together or not. They finally settled on continuing their relationship at the end of volume 3, but then the reboot hit.
31** However, the Beast Boy/Raven fans were not entirely innocent themselves. Some of them had bashed and wished death on any other woman that other fans dare suggest get paired with him, like the later two Terras or [[PluckyGirl Flamebird]]. They got one wish when Terra II was killed off. Terra III (Atlee) was then erased by the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'' reboot, and Bette Kane now has no connections to Gar in the new continuity while the first Terra has been rebooted as a hero. The New 52 reboot thus resets the ship war to being between the first Terra and Raven. To complicate things, in the finale of ''The Ravagers'', most of the Ravagers (including Terra) have been captured. Beast Boy was left for dead, but Raven finds him and takes him to the Teen Titans to combat Trigon.
32** Nightwing/Starfire is often bashed by fans who pair him with Oracle and who feel that a Batman character does not belong with an alien or anything more supernatural than what is normally seen in Gotham. Devin Grayson was notably opposed to the pairing and did what she could to [[ShipSinking discourage and sink it in her Titans run]], going as far as to [[DerailingLoveInterests portray Starfire as a shrill, embittered harpy who would fling starbolts at Nightwing if he (easily) offended her]]. Let's just say that, if you value your sanity, do NOT instigate a discussion of if Oracle or Starfire would be the better girlfriend for him.
33** Cassie Sandsmark was hated by some shippers for her relationship with Kon-El, partially for her personality becoming increasingly obnoxious (though [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on who was writing her]]), and also because she was considered "in the way" of people shipping Robin and Superboy together. Even further back to the ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' days, Cassie earned controversy due to Peter David killing off Kon's previous love interest (Tana Moon) in favor of her, making a canon example of this trope unrelated to slash.
34** During Bryan Q Miller's short run on the Titans, he attempted to have Aquagirl actually get in the way of Blue Beetle and Traci 13's relationship. The result? Enraged fans called for the character's death, referring to her as "The Aquaslut". Although in the end, Blue Beetle and Aquagirl didn't get together.
35** A few old-school fans still wishing that Kid Flash/Raven would have happened can be rather vitriolic towards any of their later love interests, such as Linda Park (who Wally married). Although, some have also been accepting of Linda and don't approve of DC having erased her (and thus Wally, their marriage, and family) with the reboot.
36* In the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' fandom, [[HoYay Rorschach/Dan]] shippers tend to turn Dan's [[OfficialCouple canon]] LoveInterest, Laurie, into a) a shrieking harpy who either b) dies horribly or c) turns into a supervillain. Or all three. This allows Dan to be with his true love, Rorschach... who is a homophobic, right-wing ugly nutjob who never bathes and has NoSocialSkills. Oh, fandom.
37** The fact that Dan and Laurie didn't have a true relationship until the very end of ''Watchmen'' (they were FriendsWithBenefits at best before the climax of the story) means that desperate Dan/Rorschach shippers not only have to break Dan and Laurie up, but come up with a workable way to ''resurrect Rorschach from death by '''molecular dispersal''''' (with the one man plausibly able to do so having left the planet, and also just happens to have been Rorshach's killer in the first place). This speaks volumes about the skewed mentality of the Die For Our Shippers.
38* Some ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' fans hate ''any'' guy that might develop a relationship with her; they feel that ''nobody'' is worthy of her, which makes it more a case of "Die for her celibacy".
39** Exceptions: Steve Trevor due to GrandfatherClause (though he wasn't an option for a long while post-''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''), ComicBook/{{Superman}} (although the presence of Lois means that's limited to Elseworlds [[MayflyDecemberRomance and]] [[EternalLove far]] [[HisHeartWillGoOn future]]), and Batman (for obvious [[EnsembleDarkhorse reasons]]).
40** There are actually a fair number of Wonder Woman/Superman shippers (not ''nearly'' enough to outnumber the Clark/Lois fans, but they exist) who excitedly fantasize about the possibility of Clark and Diana getting married and giving rise to a dynasty of Kryptonian/Amazonian super-babies. Bonus points if their first super-baby is a daughter who can grow up to inherit the mantle of Queen of Themyscira AND the mantle of Last Daughter of Krypton (ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} is either conveniently ignored, or goes into retirement so that Clark and Diana's daughter can become the new Supergirl). These fans of course, get vilified by the more hardline members of the SM-Lois camp who go as far as to try to shut down the SM-WW camp's non-canon sites, which is taking things to a Main/{{FanDumb}} level.
41** While few shippers kill them in fic, shipping Diana with Clark or Bruce is still a huge BrokenBase issue and a great way to start a {{flame war}} at any comics forum. Rama and Io, on the other hand, Diana's two most obscure suitors (one was in a story arc nobody read, and the other is a female love interest [[HideYourLesbians too subtle for most fans to pick up on]]), are generally liked by anyone who's heard of them and are probably protected from this mostly because most fans aren't aware of them.
42* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
43** The LoveTriangle ComicBook/JeanGrey/ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}/Wolverine from ''ComicBook/XMen'' has long been a complicated storm of controversy. Many fans have shipped ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}[=/=]Jean Grey since the day Wolverine joined the X-Men, but Marvel has long refused to give into fan demands. So fans engage in Scott ''and'' Jean bashing. Marvel has also changed ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} (first [[spoiler:having him abandon his wife Madelyne Pryor and newborn son Nathan Summers, something not even ''Jean'' approved of]] and later [[spoiler: being sent to reformed villainess Emma Frost for therapy over his post-traumatic astral possession stress, who promptly took advantage of him - her extremely mentally vulnerable ''patient'' - in a fashion that was presented simply as her being into the kinky sex/role-playing that Jean refused to engage in -- while they portrayed ComicBook/JeanGrey as a forgiving and enabling saint who ultimately gave her blessing to Scott and Emma on her deathbed)]]. Meanwhile, perhaps spurred by those who dislike the often [[DoubleStandard misogynistic views upon marriage]] that Marvel takes (that is, it's always the woman's fault if a marriage fails in a Marvel Comic), Marvel in recent years have portrayed Wolverine as [[spoiler:refusing to consider a relationship with Jean out of respect for Scott, even going as far as to reject a desperate Jean's advances when she confided to Wolverine that Scott was refusing to touch her sexually]]. So, the badass is "always right," and his love rival is "always wrong". <sigh>
44** In typical Creator/MarkMillar fashion, ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' had the "cool guy" Wolverine not only take Jean Grey's virginity, but also [[MurderTheHypotenuse STAB the nerdy, put-upon "loser" Ultimate Cyclops and leave him to die]] to ensure that Jean would be his and his alone. And the Fan Dumb ''rejoiced'', but their rejoicing was hilariously cut short when Cyclops turned out to be NotQuiteDead, staged a return, and angrily optic-blasted Wolverine off the team. And when Jean found out about Wolverine's MurderTheHypotenuse plan, she threatened Wolverine with all sorts of MindRape if she ever caught him having even ''one'' romantic or sexual thought towards her.
45** Then there were the Pete vs. Piotr {{Flame War}}s. When Creator/WarrenEllis first hooked up Pete Wisdom and Kitty Pryde in ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur|MarvelComics}}'', Colossus' initial reaction was to beat the dogsnot out of Wisdom. This, even though in his most recent previous appearance Colossus had come across as level-headed and wasn't even thinking of Kitty. [[WordOfGod Ellis]] himself admitted later that he wrote Colossus OutOfCharacter. Alas, the damage was done; Colossus is still reviled by a vocal sub-group of X-fans for one OutOfCharacterMoment. Many Pryde/Wisdom fanfics treat Colossus as mentally retarded at best and a rapist at worst.
46** And that's not even counting all the ''canon'' DieForOurShip examples for ''X-Men'' (and ''many'' other comic book series too) coming from those RunningTheAsylum. Just go to DerailingLoveInterests to read them in all their tawdry glory.
47** Following the films, Iceman gets this now from rabid Romy fans. In the comics, Bobby and Rogue were just close friends, but received a RelationshipUpgrade in the films (which is then adapted into the Ultimate universe), and with the third film and Bobby being tempted to cheat on Rogue with Kitty (Again, happens in the Ultimate universe too), people now, whenever writing stories based in those universes, will write him off as a despicable, cheating bastard or just out right say they hate his guts now based solely on the Film Script writers.

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