Abusive Parents / Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

Abusive Parents in this franchise.

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Comic Books

The following have their own pages:

• Spider-Man
• X-Men

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• Black Widow: Black Widow has one in Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov, her adoptive father. While Ivan did rescue Nat from a burning building when she was little and raised her, he also personally signed her up for the horrific Black Widow program, which screwed Natasha up for life and worse, it’s revealed Ivan’s feelings for his adopted daughter are far from fatherly. He even molests Nat by giving her a Forceful Kiss. After Ivan becomes a Brain in a Jar Cyborg who still wants Nat as his lover, Nat kills him without much regret.
• Captain America:
  • Steve Rogers' father Joseph was completely unlike him in every way, being an unstable drunk who violently abused his wife Sarah and his son Steve. While it’s clear Cap got his goodnesses from his mother, interestingly Steve doesn’t speak a single bad word about his father, saying things like “God rest his soul” and overlooking Joseph’s horrible nature, only attributing it to his alcoholism. Cap is still more affected by father’s actions than he lets on, as his Evil Twin in Secret Empire goads “You couldn’t even protect your own mother” signifying Steve deeply regrets being unable to save Sarah from Joseph’s abuse.
  • The Red Skull may be the worst father in comics. When his daughter was born he tried to throw her into the ocean because he didn't want a female heir. He was convinced to allow her to live by one of his servants, but demanded she be raised without love. Skull treats her more like a servant than a daughter, heaping emotional and physical abuse whenever he can. Also when his daughter was injured on a mission, the Skull seemed not care about the welfare of his daughter, instead finding the situation amusing. Even worse, he used a machine to Mind Rape his daughter in order to "educate" her.
  • Baron von Strucker viewed two of his children, the twins Andreas and Andrea, as worthless disappointments and wasn't that shy about that fact. His reaction when Norman Osborn tells him he killed Andreas? That the baron owes him a favor. And he himself killed his other son Werner as part of a HYDRA power struggle.
• Captain Marvel:
  • Joe Danvers, Carol Danvers' dad. Early stories with him establish him as being a major sexist, who refused to let Carol go to college because he didn't think a woman had any business doing anything other than spitting out babies. Later stories establish he was also physically abusive as well, with Carol recounting one time when he "waled the tar" out of her for sneaking out of the house.
  • Elysius, Genis and Phyla-Vell's mother. She didn't start off as this, but a Cosmic Retcon changes her into a major Jerkass who constantly upbraided Phyla, only bothering to tell her about Genis's death in the midst of scolding her. It's implied this is one of the major reasons for Phyla's low self-confidence.
• Daredevil:
  • Bullseye possibly has an abusive father. Whether it's true or not, the guy is dead.
    Psychologist: And you say your father beat you?
    Bullseye: Yes, until I was fourteen.
    Psychologist: Hmmm. I see. And what happened then.
    Bullseye: [kills psychologist with a voice recorder] I killed him.
    • His mom apparently wasn't too great of a woman either.
      Bullseye: [as he becomes a Dark Avenger] Pity I killed my mom in high school- she would've loved this. [beat, as everyone stares at him] Kidding. She wouldn't've cared.
  • According to Elektra: Assassin, Elektra was sexually abused by her father at the age of 5, after which she was told it had never happened until she more-or-less believed it.
• Doctor Strange: In Strange (2022), Umar is a warlord of the Dark Dimension in the same league as her brother, Dread Dormammu. But you don't become an evil overlord by being a good parent, and Clea remarks that there was a time when Umar's approval would have meant more than anything in the world to her. The first and only time Umar considered the possibiltiy of loving Clea as her daughter is when she believed that Clea had manipulated Stephen into making her Sorcerer Supreme as a stepping stone to conquering Earth.
• Hawkeye: Poor Clint Barton had the misfortune of getting multiple abusive dads in a row. His father Harold was an abusive drunk and after his parents died in a car crash Clint and his brother Barney got sent to a foster home where they got abused again by their adoptive father. After fleeing to the circus they finally got some caring guardians, ironically in the form of Swordsman and Trick Shot, a pair of villains who raised then. However when Clint learned about the duo’s crimes, he was beaten and left for dead. No wonder Clint has a chip on his shoulder in adult life.
• The Incredible Hulk: There's Bruce Banner's father, Brian. He'd been abused by his father, leading Brian to believe his father was a monster, that he had inherited the 'monster gene', and that any children he had would be monsters too. Brian initially chose to ignore Bruce, believing him to be a monster in the making (and resenting him for first nearly killing his mother just being born, then for "stealing" her love). When it became apparent Bruce was a child genius, Brian saw his worst fears confirmed, and started beating both Bruce and his mother, Rebecca. After several years of abuse, Rebecca attempted to escape with Bruce, but Brian killed her and intimidated Bruce into saying Brian hadn't done anything to them. The truth only came out when Brian got drunk and boasted about what he'd done. Brian was locked up in a mental institution, dying shortly after release. End result? Bruce developed multiple personality syndrome - and after a certain accident with a gamma bomb, his personalities became the various Hulks. And Bruce (accidentally) killed him. In a subsequent story, Banner himself admits it might not have been accidental. He came back from the dead and in Devil Hulk form in the Chaos War tie-in, but the Hulk sent him to Hell... only to return as a body-hopping spirit to confront his son in Immortal Hulk.
• Iron Man:
  • Howard Stark, Tony Stark's father, was verbally and emotionally abusive. As a child, Tony respected his father greatly and wanted to please him. However, in spite of Tony's genius, Tony's reluctance (and inability) to assimilate his father's "ethics" caused Howard to resent and despise his son. Howard's rejection hurt Tony deeply, and although Tony has long since lost all respect for his father, he's never entirely gotten over it, as shown in Iron Man: Legacy of Doom:
    [in Mephisto's Realm, Howard Stark's spirit appears before Tony]
    Tony: Y-you?
    Howard: Losing again, eh, boy? You always were a wimp. Never had the stones to do what had to be done.
    Tony: I always tried to do what was right!
    Howard: Brilliance isn't enough. You'll never reach your true potential worrying about consequences. You're weak.. [...] You're no son of mine.
    Tony: I'd heard it all before. But the pain was still enough to distract me from the physical task at hand.
    [Howard lunges; Tony flees, unable to attack his own father]
    Howard: COWARD! You were my greatest shame, but I'll make a man of you yet! I'll beat it into you!
    [later, after Howard is defeated]
    Tony: You can't kill something already dead. I'd been telling myself that for a long time.
  • In Legacy of Doom, Howard is also physically abusive, but it's unclear whether or not Howard ever physically abused Tony in life. (Although Tony doesn't seem too surprised by Howard trying to kill him; but then again, Tony is in hell.)
  • Howard makes Tony drink a cup of bourbon when he's a child in order to win some momentary approval. He may have not forced it down Tony's throat, but he did coerce Tony into doing it, and that transcends into physical.
  • The Secret Origin of Tony Stark seems to have given a major reason to all of this - stress due to the fear that the Rigellian Recorder would realize that Tony wasn't his true son, that he was adopted to save his biological son, Arno, from being used as a weapon. Tony... is still mixed about the whole thing.
• The Mighty Thor: It was hinted that Loki's biological parents were neglectful and downright abusive. He managed to get his revenge, though.
  Loki: You will never strike me again! NEVER!!!
• New Warriors: Arnold Astrovik was physically abusive towards his son Vance (Marvel Boy, later Justice). Arnold's beating ultimately caused Vance to lash out with his powers and kill him by accident. Arnold later learned that his father was a closeted homosexual who had been abused by his own father as a kid.
• Runaways:
  • The very first time we see Chase Stein, his dad is punching him in the face for getting bad grades. It's implied that this sort of thing has been happening regularly for most of Chase's life, and as the series goes on we find serious issues under the Book Dumb jock facade. He eventually admits that he convinced himself there must be something wrong with him to justify all that, and suffers from Multiple-Choice Past as a result. He can't quite tell which bits are the lies he told himself anymore.
  • Later on, the group adopts Klara Prast, a Swiss immigrant from the early 20th century whose parents declared that she was wicked because of her strange powers, and thus sold her into marriage to a creep who repeatedly raped her, sent her to work in unsafe factories, and threatened to sell her into outright slavery if she complained. And this was when she was only goddamned eleven years old.
• Thanos: Being Darkseid’s Marvel Expy, Thanos shares the latter’s horrific parenting skills. To please Lady Death, Thanos butchered his numerous illegitimate children along with their mothers without hesitation. He has brutally tortured his “granddaughter” Nebula, such as in The Infinity Gauntlet where he leaves her in state between life and death for hours just 'cuz. He has frequently hurt his son Thane, including punching him through a planet and condemning him the hellish God Quarry. The only child of Thanos whom he does arguably treat well (by his low standards at least) is Gamora, who got a surprisingly amount of affection and care from him during her youth. Although even then Thanos was still not above putting Gamora through Training from Hell, brainwashing, forcibly giving her cybernetic upgrades, and did try to kill her once when she betrayed him for Adam Warlock (though he forgave her later). Being Thanos’s favourite child really isn’t that much better than being one he despises, given Gamora became quite the Tyke Bomb.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • Ultimate Fantastic Four:
    • Gary Richards. It's no wonder Reed turned out so mentally unstable. Gary is from the first issue shown to be verbally and emotionally (if not physically) abusive toward Reed, having no interest or tolerance for Reed's tinkering, yelling at him for turning the phone into a device, then throwing it at Reed's dinner. A later issue suggests Gary was physically abusive as well. Thanos manages to torture Reed by conjuring an image of Gary prepared to beat him.
    • Thanos to his three children. He physically abused Ronan to make him subservient, and removed all the skin from his daughter's arm, just for talking back. Hearing Atrea trail off describing his parenting style causes Ben to remark that he sounds like Reed's father.
  • Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra: Trey's father got him out of prison, but once they are alone... how does he dare to drag the Langstrom name to the mud? He slapped him and ordered him to end the problem.
  • Ultimate X-Men (2001):
    • Magneto was deeply abusive to both his kids, but especially Quicksilver. It's explained that this is because their mother was a human, which Magneto considered an act of bestiality, making Pietro a walking, talking reminder of the most shameful moment of his life. And for added flavour, looked exactly like him.
    • The parents of Beast are the absolute worst of any X-Men. He mentioned once how his father used to take potshots at him after coming home drunk since he was an infant. His mother is considerably bigoted and refused to even respond to a phone call about her son nearly dying from being injured by Sentinels. Of course, once he gets famous and respected they're totally eager to reconcile...
    • Iceman's parents kicked him out for being a mutant. And after Ultimatum, he tried going home. They kicked him out again.

Films

• Marvel Cinematic Universe
  • In Captain America: Civil War, Howard Stark is portrayed in Tony's memory as overbearing and emotionally crippling, particularly in how he constantly taunted Tony with cruel verbal remarks. It's also revealed in one of the tie-in comics that Howard was physically abusive as well, and seemed to engage in such actions even when Tony wasn't necessarily doing anything — he hit Tony for leaving his toys on the floor, then proceeded to curse at him and yell at him for “wasting his time” playing with toys. Tony himself would later describe Howard as cold and calculating, and adds that Howard was apparently happy when he shipped his 6- or 7-year-old son off to boarding school in Iron Man 2. It’s complicated in that Howard, at least according to Tony’s mother, missed Tony when he was away, and even recorded a video confessing parental love toward Tony for his son to find when he was older. Though this doesn’t really help Tony’s case, as he wouldn’t make peace with his father’s treatment of him until his early fifties after he becomes a dad himself and bonds over parenthood with a past version of his dad.
  • Also zigzagged with Odin in regards to adoptive son Loki and even his favourite child Thor. Much like Howard, Odin set high standards for his sons, promising Thor and Loki that were both born to be kings, which emotionally degraded Loki when it was clear that only Thor could claim the throne. When Thor tries to take revenge on the Ice Giants, Odin wastes no time violently banishing his son to Earth (which even Frigga calls him out on in a deleted scene) in an attempt to teach him humility. When Loki returns to Asgard after attacking Earth, seemingly dying and then invading Earth, Odin cruelly says Loki was meant to die as a baby and claims it’s only because of Frigga that he isn’t executed (to be fair, Loki did betray his family and murder innocents). While Odin isn’t gonna win father of the year, it’s important to note Odin did love his sons and only wanted what he perceived was best for them, even if that meant lying to them. In Thor: Ragnarok we understand Odin’s actions better thanks to Big Bad Hela (the eldest child) who symbolises what Thor and Loki would’ve become if they weren’t kept in check.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:
    • Ego ultimately becomes this as he sees his son Peter Quill as no more than a means to an end, and has no qualms forcibly draining the life force out of his own son when he refuses to cooperate. Worse still, Ego murdered ''thousands'' of Peter's half-siblings and has a huge Kick the Dog moment when he crushes Peter’s Walkman which his mother gave him effectively shattering the last link Peter has to his beloved mother. Meanwhile, he doesn't even acknowledge that Mantis is his daughter at all. To Ego, she's just a glorified pet that he only keeps alive because her powers are useful to him.
    • While Yondu genuinely loved Peter Quill as a son, his treatment him is still quite bad. In the first movie, he not only slaps Peter repeatedly but grabs his face and threatens to kill him with his arrow. Yondu also claims he could’ve fed Peter to the crew, something he apparently held over Quill until manhood. However, he also is shown to care for Peter several times, and tends to be pretty lenient with his betrayals, something that his crew brings up several times. Yondu also says that he was never serious about feeding him to his crew and thought that Peter knew. Being too soft on Peter could also have made Yondu's crew mutiny earlier and doomed him, so he was also Cruel to Be Kind.
    • Yondu's parents were no better as he mentions that they sold him to the Kree as a slave.
  • It's clearly shown and implied Madame B, Black Widow's mentor, was pretty damn awful to Natasha. Not only because she forced her pupil in sterilization, but because decades later she still haunts Natasha as shown in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
  • Played straight with Thanos towards his adoptive (kidnapped) daughters Nebula and Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Infinity War. Right off the bat Thanos’ treatment of Nebula is horrific; not only would he force the sisters to fight but every time Nebula lost he would replace a piece of her with a machine to point where she’s a Cyborg after countless defeats birthing a hatred of Gamora in Nebula. Worse still, Thanos openly states Gamora is favourite daughter right in front of Nebula. In Infinity War we see the abuse first hand as Thanos tortures Nebula in order to get Gamora to reveal the Soul Stone. In the Final Battle when Nebula states Thanos should've killed her when he had the chance he retorts to his daughter that "it would’ve been a waste of parts"... yeah Nebula's anger hardly needs any justification. Thanos' abuse of Gamora is more psychological as fans have noted while he does genuinely love her, Thanos still emotionally manipulates Gamora and plays off her insecurities to shape her into something she inherently isn’t. Gamora at one point states to her adoptive father that it “isn’t love” between them and much like Real Life Thanos just mistakes his abuse as his own form of love, and even worse Thanos is shown to be prepared to kill his daughter if his goal requires it, as he chucks Gamora off a cliff to get the Soul Stone.
  • Played straight in Captain Marvel as Carol's dad is shown in flashbacks to be an abusive asshole (the scene onthe beach with Carol as little girl even implies physical abuse). This poor relationship with her father darkens Carol’s attitude towards most men and it’s suggested she joined the US Air Force because of a desire to prove herself. Carol’s later breakdown over her identity and fact she softens up to Talos immensely when she learns he's a loving husband and father gives validation to this idea.
  • Played straight again in Black Widow (2021). Dreykov sees himself as a father to his Black Widows, but horrendously tortured, sterilized, and enslaved them from birth to be the perfect assassins. Heck, he even remotely forced one of his widows to kill herself because she was no longer useful to him. And this is nothing compared to his treatment of his biological daughter, Antonia, whom he brainwashed into an Empty Shell to serve him as his robotic enforcer, The Taskmaster.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: The High Evolutionary. His interactions with his creations just scream this trope. Besides subjecting actual alien and animal children to horribly painful experimentation, he constantly berates them for the smallest perceived infractions, shows no hesitance in coldly telling them that they're ultimately expendable, and remorselessly kills them after they've served their purpose. It's rather telling that Nebula thinks he's worse than Thanos in this regard. Ultimately, he considers himself less as a parent but more as a creator god who thinks he has the privilege to decide the fate of all his creations.
• Implied in the Spider-Man Trilogy. Mary Jane's father is heard yelling at her, and we hear him mentioned, but we never lay eyes on the man. Of course, he's abusive so it's no great loss that we don't know anything more about him.
• X-Men Film Series
  • William Stryker in X2: X-Men United lobotomized his mutant son Jason and reduced him to a wheelchair-bound source of mind control serum. He even stops referring to his son by name, calling him "Mutant 143". Xavier is horrified that William would do this to his own son, but William claims that his son is already dead, just like the rest of mutantkind.
  • In The Wolverine, Shingen Yashida is seen slapping his daughter early on, and later tries to kill her.

Live-Action TV

• In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • Fitz' dad was a real piece of work, at least according to Simmons; constantly belittling Fitz, telling him he would never amount to anything, that he was stupid and worthless.

    Mack: I'd like to have a few words with that man.
    Simmons: You and me both.

  • This really comes up in season 4 when the team is put into the Framework, a virtual reality simulation of a world under HYDRA control where lives have taken different roads. In this world, Fitz was raised by his father and as a result is a brutal, near-sociopath who sees nothing wrong with torturing and murdering innocent people. Once freed, Fitz is horrified at how his life could have been, confessing that turning into his father was always his greatest fear.
• Jessica Jones (2015):
  • Dorothy Walker was a ruthless Stage Mom who made her daughter Trish into the highest paid child star in history. She was emotionally and physically abusive, tried to force an eating disorder on Trish, and is implied to have turned a blind eye to (or even have encouraged) Trish's pill addiction. As an adult, Trish tries to keep Dorothy out of her life as much as possible.
  • Season one's Big Bad Kilgrave briefly tries to convince Jessica (and the viewers) that he is the way he is because his parents performed brutal experiments on him as a child. Then it's revealed he was merely part of an experimental study meant to cure him of a terminal illness, and after he got his mind control powers he spent years terrorizing his parents. They abandoned their son after he made the mother burn her own face with an iron, and at this point Jessica feels their greatest mistake was setting Kilgrave loose on the world.
• Runaways (2017): Much like the source material, Chase's dad has been verbally and physically abusing him for years, and tries to *kill* Chase in episode seven.

Western Animation

• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Norman Osborn barely conceals his contempt for his son, Harry. This manifests in snide criticisms about his son's issues, hobbies and successes, and also in blatant, stunningly passive-aggressive displays of Parental Favoritism towards Harry's best friend, Peter Parker, when both boys are present. That is, when Norman isn't dismissing Harry and ignoring him entirely in favor of his job. Harry's mother does this too, not even verbally acknowledging him when he greets her. As a result, Harry has... issues.
• Found in X-Men: Evolution one episode, where we learn that Tabitha/Boom Boom's father was a con man who routinely pressured her into using her powers to help rob banks and/or run scams.

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