http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UnintentionallyUnsympathetic/MarvelUniverse
Instances of Marvel Comics characters being
Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
- The Avengers manage to catch this in Avengers vs. X-Men, thanks to a thorough distribution of Conflict Balls among characters normally much less dickish. The Phoenix is flying through space on direct course for Earth - and destroying every planet it comes across in the meantime, killing billions.
- While the Avengers are trying to save billions of lives, the way they go about it makes them seem like a bunch of assholes. Wolverine gives the Avengers biased information that painted a terrible picture of both the Phoenix and Hope, framing Scott as being still hung up on Jean's death in the process - when, if anything, he's the one who's hung up on Jean and acting irrationally because of it. He later decides the only solution is to kill Hope, the innocent teenage girl, despite the fact that The Phoenix is pretty much Resurrective Immortality personified and that as a result, just stabbing is never, ever going to work. Captain America acts antagonistically, parking an army on the X-Men's front steps and demands they hand over Hope, who is Cyclops's granddaughter and essentially a messiah to them and mutantkind as a whole (whose population is at roughly 200 and falling). Cap also refuses to even think about consulting them on how to deal with the Phoenix, despite the fact the X-Men, especially Rachel Summers and Scott Summers, are by far the most experienced with it.
- When the Phoenix gets closer, Iron Man's technobabble weapon ends up splitting it, resulting in the Phoenix Five, five X-Men each empowered by a portion of the Phoenix.
- The Avengers, who reason the P5 are dangerously unstable, decide to provoke said dangerously unstable demigods by taking Hope again. Since the P5's benign dictatorship basically takes place between issues, the reader sees the Phoenix stopped and the conflict ended, and then the Avengers immediately starting another conflict.
- Was also a problem with Marvel's controversial Civil War (2006) where, depending on the writer, the level of sympathy one could feel for the characters at any given time wavered greatly. Sympathy for Iron Man in particular took a big hit when he and the other Pro-Registration Heroes started throwing the Anti-Registration Heroes into an extra-dimensional prison without trial(s), not to mention hiring murderous super villains to hunt down their former friends.
- Came back in full force with the sequel between Carol Danvers, Tony Stark and The Inhumans, due to the fact that all three trying to act sympathetic in their causes between using and not using the Inhuman Ulysses, their actions tend to drive readers (and also drove Laura (X-23, now the "New Wolverine") and various junior Avengers who all were stuck in the middle of the chaos) away, tired of the in-fighting.
- Carol in the aftermath of Civil War II is somehow even less sympathetic. Despite having caused mass destruction, attacked people before they even committed crimes, even killed Tony Stark herself (before they all got better) Carol isn’t punished or reprimanded for any of her actions and is completely let off the hook. This wouldn’t be so bad if Carol at least regretted her actions later, but all she gives is a token “I got carried away” excuse and her apology to Tony note quote: “So I’m off the hook for killing you Tony?” is so ridiculously half-assed it comes off as insincere. Also not helped by later comics such as Immortal She-Hulk where Jen upon remembering the events before dying, antagonizes Iron Man for being grief stricken and furious at her bedside and supports Carol (even wishing she’d attack Tony) despite Carol being partly responsible for her hospitalized state in the first place.
- Spider-Man:
- Doctor Octopus is supposed to be the protagonist of Superior Spider Man, being a Darker and Edgier Anti-Hero. To some he comes off as an Invincible Villain. Some of the fans despise him and the series for various different reasons. The behavior of Dan Slott has not helped in the slightest. While the ending (and Spider-Verse shortly after), which established that Peter was the true 'Superior Spider-Man', helped, many feel it only mitigated matters. One particular detail is Otto is praised by Peter (and the narrative) for "letting go" of Mary Jane, rather than carry out plans to commit rape-by-deception on her by posing as Peter, with the severity of the situation pretty much unexplored.
- Carlie Cooper, Spider-Man's one time love interest, was featured in stories designed to make her seem similar to Spider-Man and therefore a more appropriate love interest and a better match for him as a person than Mary Jane Watson. Unfortunately, it caused her to come across as selfish, entitled and self-centered, declaring that Peter couldn't possibly understand what she went through. Her attempts to be seen as a more appropriate match for Peter and a more sympathetic character ultimately made her into someone the audience couldn't stand.
- Norah Winters is an Intrepid Reporter, a good guy character who worked with Peter when they were both members of the press and helped him out as Spider-Man numerous occasions, was teased as a potential love interest during the Brand New Day era and was the lead protagonist of the spin-off miniseries "Osborn". She was also portrayed as casually racist on at least three different occasions that were all played for humor, with a few fans criticizing this aspect of her character, and Dan Slott (one of the writers who includes this humor) defended it by saying it's ok because Spider-Man was the main character, not her, going so far as to accidentally Godwin himself and Norah by using Captain America and the Red Skull as an example. Ironically, the next writer, Nick Spencer, who wrote the infamous "Hydra Cap" story where Cap was a Nazi villain, brought Norah back and didn't bring back this character trait, while also making sure to portray Norah as far from being a decent human being.
- Peter Parker/Spider-Man himself has also become this, mostly stemming from frustration from the controversial One More Day and Superior Spider-Man stories. Many argue that Spider-Man's new personality, coming as it does from external retcons makes him almost an entirely different character from the one planned by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee. This led to a series of Spider-Man stories has Peter serving as a businessman and owner of his own industries which many argue, 1) undoes Peter's original Working-Class Hero appeal, 2) is unearned, since it came from Otto Octavius hijacking his body. Unsurprisingly, it was ditched near the end of Dan Slott's run and many of the fan's issues with Peter were mitigated when a new writer took the helm.
- The 9/11 Very Special Episode during J. Michael Straczynski's run revealed even Marvel's big-name supervillains were horrified by the death and destruction, with the narration even saying, "Because even the worst of us, however scarred, are still human. Still feel. Still mourn the random deaths of innocents." All of this while a close-up shows Doctor Doom shedding tears. Fans were not touched, pointing out that these villains have had absolutely no regard for innocent lives in the past (that's kind of what the description "the worst of us" entails, plus Juggernaut is there and he toppled the Twin Towers before), and that they routinely commit acts of evil just as bad and often times even worse than anything bin Laden could ever do.
- X-Men:
- Mystique is ultimately this in the long run. While Raven does have a Dark and Troubled Past involving at least one abusive father, has aided the X-Men, has a loving relationship with her girlfriend (later retconned wife) Destiny and has a few Pet the Dog and redeeming moments concerning her children Nightcrawler and Rogue. None of that changes the fact that Mystique is a chronic backstabber, mass murderer who formed the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, is an insanely abusive mother to all children and has even sexually assaulted a minor in Worst X-Men Ever. It’s most glaring in House of X where Sabretooth is subjected to a Fate Worse than Death for his crimes, whilst Mystique is part of the Krakoa Mutant high council even though her villain record is as bad as Creed’snote a later comic X-Men #6 The Oracle has tried to rectify this last detail. It clarifies Mystique is still very much a criminal but has to work off her crimes by serving Xavier for the small chance to get Destiny back. It's supposed to come off a case of Love Redeems but given Raven's history with how (poorly) she's treated her other loved ones, it's debatable that Mystique deserved to be reunited with Destiny. Not helped by the fact Destiny herself Took a Level in Jerkass upon getting resurrected making them both unsympathetic. This got even in worse in X-Men Blue: Origins with Si Spurrier giving Mystique another Heinousness Retcon with her having never meant to abandon Kurt and was simply made to forget by Xavier and the comic ends with Raven and Kurt sharing tearful hug. The writer very much wants the reader to ignore the numerous times she was abusive and cruel to Kurt and her being his father now (as Chris Claremont originally intended) absolutely isn’t enough to soften decades of terrible parenting, especially since her horrible treatment of Rogue still remains and has no retroactive excuse behind it.
- Magneto can come off as this thanks to some writers. Although he likely has the best Freudian Excuse in comics, having grown up in Auschwitz and subjected to the worst of humanity, that still does not excuse or justify the actions he commits when written at his worst, which have involved killing numerous innocent humans and teaming up with the likes of Doctor Doom. Not to mention his horrendous parenting of Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Polaris, which unlike his actions towards humanity, can't be excused by his backstory. House of X also supports Mags’s attitude towards mankind despite the previous thousands of comics proving he was wrong. The tender reunion between Magneto and Wanda at Hellfire Gala as well as the finale of X-Men: The Trial of Magneto where Wanda is all forgiving hugs with her father is all supposed to touching, but to some fans came off Marvel yet again trying to sweep the sheer amount of abuse Magneto has given his children over the years under the rug.
- This is the problem with The Inhumans, especially in the All-New, All-Different Marvel era that sees them at odds with the X-Men due to the Terrigen Mists.
- We're supposed to be sympathetic to the Inhumans because the Terrigen Mists are what activates the powers of Inhumans and losing the mist essentially means no unawakened Inhuman can get their powers. However, the mists are killing mutants who happen to get caught in its path at worst, giving them a disease and sterilising them at best, and the mutants are left trying to figure out a way to solve this problem before they go extinct. Instead of trying to help the mutants contain the clouds safely or get rid of them, the Inhumans Royal Family actually does their best to keep the mist clouds alive, guns ready to shoot down anyone who tries to interfere, citing cultural genocide (as opposed to the cloud's straight-up genocide of mutants). Even more so, this is all the fault of Inhumans member, Black Bolt, due to the events of Infinity, where he released said cloud on the world — previously, Terrigenesis was a coming of age ritual performed in an isolated chamber. Why this can't be how it is again is unaddressed, and that the cloud isn't a part of Inhuman culture, merely a changed version of the Terrigenesis ritual, is also not addressed. In a nutshell: the Inhumans are not only not helping to resolve the problem which they caused in the first place, they're canonically willing to attack people for fixing the problem. You really have to ask just what exactly makes these guys the heroes in the first place.
- Two things suck even more sympathy points away from the Inhumans. One: there have been ways of activating Inhuman powers without the Terrigen Mists for some time now. Two: in the tie-in issue of Deadpool and the Mercs For Money, it's proven that the Inhumans value the Terrigen Mists over other races' lives, as an alternate future showed that the Inhumans declared open war on the Mutants for the latter committing the crime of... successfully altering the chemical makeup of the Terrigen Mists so that they harm neither mutants nor humans, but still activate Inhuman powers.
- Even prior to this storyline, the Inhumans have long been considered among the hardest Marvel characters to take seriously as protagonists, as they're members of a classist and elitist absolute monarchy that practices eugenics and for a significant portion of their history, owned slaves, and when they were made to abolish slavery, they... just stuffed the slave race into a ghetto and hoped they didn't complain, with many comics detailing that the former slave race were treated as second class citizens.
- Bruno Carrelli in Ms. Marvel (2014)'s tie-in to Civil War II. At the end of the crossover, Bruno, furious at Kamala over how her interactions with her heroes lead him to losing the use of his left hand and all sorts college-related awards, ends his friendship with his childhood friend and decides to take up a scholarship at the only place that would take him, over in Wakanda. While this is tragic, the problem was that the situation that landed him there was his own fault - he attempted to bust out a friend who was unreasonably detained and the bomb he built and he armed blew up in his face. A friend who was going to be released the very next day, which meant that, had Bruno succeeded, he would have been in even more trouble. And he blames Kamala for all of this because she didn't want to help him break the law. Compounding on this is the fact that he turned and left his girlfriend, Mike, which hurt her even more adds on to the lack of sympathy.
- The Punisher became this in the notoriously polarizing one-shot The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe. His backstory is changed so that his family is inadvertently killed by the Avengers and the X-Men during a fight with the Skrulls and the Brood in order to give a plausible motive for him to go along with following the orders of Kesselring and his organization of people unintentionally harmed by superheroes to kill all superhumans, plus he is wracked with guilt after he kills Daredevil and discovers him to be his friend Matt Murdock, but all of this is offset by the fact that he blindly goes about murdering hero and villain alike without once considering that the heroes' harmful actions toward civilians were not deliberate or that the heroes have loved ones of their own.
- The Ultimate Marvel version of the Invisible Woman dumping Mr. Fantastic in the fallout of Ultimatum was supposed to read as a reaction to Reed being too logical and uncaring about his loved ones, except the reason for the break-up was due to Reed prioritizing saving the world from Magneto instead of staying by her bedside during an ongoing crisis. Needless to say, for many readers, it made Sue come off as extremely narcissistic to expect Reed to stay by her while the world burns when there was still time to try and save it.
