History Main / SuperheroesStaySingle

** [[spoiler: Though in the film The Avengers: Next Generation. It is revealed he married Black Widow and had a son]]

* GreenArrow and BlackCanary ''tried'' to avert this but the Mike Grell era signaled the end of their relationship. Their recent marriage proved to be unpopular and was quickly ended by the events of CryForJustice.

* ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk'' ran on this until recently. Even after he was married in the early 1980s, most of the time he was estranged/separated from his wife (and then she died). But now he's got a whole family of Hulks.

* [[TheFlash Barry Allen]] undid his marriage (hopefully unintentionally) as part of the post-{{Flashpoint}} reboot, with the fact that it would open up more story possibilities cited as the main reason by [=DC=].

Compare ShippingBedDeath, which may lead to this in more romance-focused works such as LoisAndClark.

* {{Batman}} falls squarely into this trope in nearly all incarnations, but ''BatmanBeyond'' completely averts it by introducing its [[LegacyCharacter protagonist]] in a serious dating relationship that he maintains throughout the series. [[spoiler: "Epilogue" reveals that they will marry.]]

* Averted in ''TheFantasticFour'': barring the occasional character [[ComicBookDeath death]], Reed & Sue have been more-or-less happily married for quite a long time.

* Grant Morrison {{deconstructed}} this in AnimalMan, killing the titular character's family for drama only to bring them back at the end of the story.

*** Undone by {{New52}} universe reboot.

*** Undone by New52 universe reboot.

*** Undone by TheNew52 universe reboot.

*** Aaaand maybe being played straight as of post-Flashpoint.

* Elizabeth Carson of the WhateleyUniverse has been married three times: two divorces and one husband killed by a supervillain. One of the divorces was apparently caused when one of their kids got superpowers and died from a burnout. She's single now, but has at least one (living) child and at least one granddaughter. (She's over seventy at the start of the series.)

* Cartoonist Lee Falk defies this trope. ThePhantom married Diana back in the 70's (granted, this ''was'' after one of those decades-long NewspaperComics courtships), had two children, and the family is still together today. As for MandrakeTheMagician, Falk got him and Narda married off in a huge storyline than ran shortly before Falk's own death (and heck, Mandrake and Narda's 60-odd year courtship makes the Phantom's look like a Vegas wedding by comparison!). Mandrake and Narda are still together in their comic.

** Spiderman is still married in the daily comic strip.

* Cyclops married Jean Grey, only to be widowed soon after.

* WonderWoman and Steve Trevor dated steadily from the GoldenAge until the 70's. He then spent the next 15 years getting killed or PutOnABus, and then [[TheBusCameBack brought back,]] repeatedly. After the [[CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis,]] George Perez retconned away their relationship completely and married Steve off to supporting castmember Etta Candy. After the approaching Comicbook/{{Flashpoint}} reboot, who knows what his new status will be?

* WonderWoman and Steve Trevor dated steadily from the GoldenAge until the 70's. He then spent the next 15 years getting killed or PutOnABus, and then [[TheBusCameBack brought back,]] repeatedly. After the [[CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis,]] George Perez retconned away their relationship completely and married Steve off to supporting castmember Etta Candy. After the approaching FlashPoint reboot, who knows what his new status will be?

* Cartoonist Lee Falk defies this trope. ThePhantom married Diana back in the 70's (granted, this ''was'' after one of those decades-long NewspaperComics courtship), had two children, and the family is still together today. As for MandrakeTheMagician, Falk got him and Narda married off in a huge storyline than ran shortly before Falk's own death (and heck, Mandrake and Narda's 60-odd year courtship makes the Phantom's look like a Vegas wedding by comparison!). Mandrake and Narda are still together in their comic.

* WonderWoman and Steve Trevor dated steadily from the GoldenAge until the 70's. He then spent the next 15 years getting killed or PutOnABus, and then [[TheBusCameBack brought back,]] repeatedly. After the [[CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis,]] George Perez retconned away their relationship completely and married Steve off to supporting castmember Etta Candy. After the approaching FlashPoint reboot, who knows what his new status will be?

* Donna Troy's husband and child were murdered in a car wreck, arguably for this trope to be justified.

As such, superheroes afflicted with this trope are never, under ''any'' circumstances, allowed to settle down with anyone. ([[AlternateUniverse At least, not in the main canon]]). Unlike the CelibateHero, they may actually date, but expect them to say "ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies", and other excuses of varying plausibility. If they actually do show signs of planning to settle down with someone, expect the CartwrightCurse to rear its ugly head, resulting in the love interest getting killed off, PutOnABus or otherwise removed from the hero's life before story's end or somewhere further down the line.

As such, superheroes afflicted with this trope are never, under ''any'' circumstances, allowed to settle down with anyone. ([[AlternateUniverse At least, not in the main canon]]). Unlike the CelibateHero, they may actually date, but expect them to say "ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies", and other excuses of varying plausibility. If they actually do show signs of planning to settle down with someone, expect the CartwrightCurse to rear its ugly head, resulting in the love interest getting killed off, PutOnABus or otherwise broken up before story's end or somewhere further down the line.

As such, superheroes afflicted with this trope are never, under ''any'' circumstances, allowed to settle down with anyone. ([[AlternateUniverse At least, not in the main canon]]). Unlike the CelibateHero, they may actually date, but expect them to say "ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies", and other excuses of varying plausibility. If they actually do hook up with someone, expect the CartwrightCurse to rear its ugly head, resulting in these love interests getting killed off, PutOnABus or otherwise broken up before story's end.

As such, superheroes afflicted with this trope are never, under ''any'' circumstances, allowed to settle down with anyone. ([[AlternateUniverse At least, not in the main canon]]). Unlike the CelibateHero, they may actually date, but expect them to say "ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies", and other excuses of varying plausibility.

* This may be the mentality behind ''OneMoreDay''. [[FlameBait Please refrain from adding further commentary on the subject.]]

* The SilverAge Superman stories ran on this

* {{Batman}} falls squarely into this trope in nearly all incarnations, but ''BatmanBeyond'' completely averts it by introducing its [[LegacyCharacter protagonist]] in a serious dating relationship that he maintains throughout the series. [[spoiler: "Epilogue" reveals that they will marry.]]

* This may be the mentality behind OneMoreDay. [[FlameBait Please refrain from adding further commentary on the subject.]]

* {{Batman}} falls squarely into this trope in nearly all incarnations, but BatmanBeyond completely averts it by introducing its [[LegacyCharacter protagonist]] in a serious dating relationship that he maintains throughout the series. [[spoiler: "Epilogue" reveals that they will marry.]]