The 10 Worst Love Interests In Superhero Movies

The way female characters are portrayed in superhero movies varies greatly in quality, especially when they're more often than not relegated to being love interests for the male lead and nothing more (something which now looks set to change thanks to Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman). As a result, for every Peggy Carter and Pepper Potts, there's...well, the sort of characters you'll find listed here. Whether it's due to the performance itself, or the writing (which is usually the case), what you'll find in this article are some of the worst examples of love interests in Marvel and DC Comics films. From the ones who ended up making your favourite superhero look like a fool to those who were handled appallingly and not given the chance to shine as they do in the comics, the names listed here are the worst of the bunch. Admittedly, there aren't too many strong, well written choices out there when it comes to love interests for superheroes in the movies, but these 10 certainly didn't do the films they were in any favors. 10) Rachel Dawes (Batman Begins) If there's one major flaw in Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, it's the Caped Crusader's love interest, Rachel Dawes. She certainly had her uses as a plot device in this origin story (mostly as a way of connecting Bruce Wayne's past with the present), but that's also a big part of why her presence ultimately dragged the movie down. As integral as Rachel was when a younger Bruce was planning to kill the man he blamed for the death of his parents, the time we spend with her in the third act of the movie feels particularly unnecessary and has a negative impact on the pace of those final minutes. None of this was helped by the bland and often extremely irritating performance from Katie Holmes. It was arguably her who made it so hard to care about Rachel's arc, and of all the characters Nolan could have chosen to bring in from the comic books, it's surprising that he went down this route. 9) Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man 3) The addition of Gwen Stacy to the Spider-Man franchise should have been a reason for celebration. While Peter Parker may have married Mary Jane Watson in the comic books, his true love was always the one stolen from him at the hands of the Green Goblin. In an already crowded movie, creating a love triangle (well, TWO love triangles if you also take into account Harry Osborn's attempts to steal MJ) with Gwen was a bad idea, and ultimately made her little more than a poorly used plot device. Furthermore, Bryce Dallas Howard and Tobey Maguire have very little chemistry, and the way he treated her made it hard to imagine them ever having a similar relationship to their comic book counterparts. This version of Gwen was a complete and utter mess who ended up being little more than a pale imitation of the version fans know and love. Of course, The Amazing Spider-Man's Gwen didn't fare much better. Emma Stone was a solid casting choice, but she also didn't provide the most authentic portrayal of the iconic character. 8) Jean Grey (X-Men) Famke Janssen was by no means a bad choice to play Jean Grey, and she certainly had her moments over the course of the three movies she appeared in (five if you include The Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past). However, it was Bryan Singer's decision to turn her into an object of desire for both Logan and Cyclops which not only negatively impacted those characters but also saw Jean portrayed far weaker than she ever should have been, and ultimately a shadow of her comic book self. The love triangle between these three was admittedly toyed with for years in the comics, but Jean always stood by Scott Summers, a fan favourite character who came across as a whiny loser in these movies. Sure, Jean chose Cyclops over Wolverine by the end of X2, but did anyone actually care by that point? Nope, not at all. As a result, this is one romance best left forgotten, and with a younger version now being played by Sophie Turner, you have to hope that the franchise can move on from this little misstep and have Jean stand on her own as the powerful Phoenix. 7) Christine Palmer (Doctor Strange) Doctor Strange is undoubtedly one of Marvel's best movies, but it let Christine Palmer down in a huge way. While the character is relatively obscure, Brian K. Vaughn made her something of a fan-favourite in Doctor Strange: The Oath, and while it was always obvious that the big screen version wouldn't tend to vigilantes in the same way as her comic book counterpart, expectations were still understandably high despite the fact that their romance was relatively short-lived in comic book terms. Frustratingly, the character only ended up having a handful of scenes here, and none of them were particularly memorable. Other than being a reminder to Stephen Strange of his old life, she didn't really serve much of a purpose in the film and both Rachel McAdams and the movie itself deserved better. Redemption could come in the sequel, but with so many fans anxious for the introduction of Clea, she may end up being left on the back burner. 6) Roxanne Simpson (Ghost Rider) Sure, we're going back a long way for this one, but just about everything in Ghost Rider was laughably bad, regardless of whether it was Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze or villains in the form of Peter Fonda as Mephisto and Wes Bentley as Blackheart (two great comic book bad guys who could and should have been portrayed so much better than they actually were). Eva Mendes didn't deliver a particularly awful performance as the smoking hot Roxanne Simpson, but the love story between her and the titular supernatural hero was unbelievably clichéd. It's not in the least bit unfair to point out that just about every single facet of their relationship felt like they were lifted out of the handbook of "Seen It All Before Love Interests 101," and was eventually capped off with a predictably unsatisfying and eye-rolling conclusion. It's no wonder then that she was nowhere to be seen in the follow-up, though there wasn't really anything in that critically panned sequel which was worth watching anyways - so Mendes arguably had a lucky escape. 5) Elektra (Daredevil) Daredevil is still considered one of the worst comic book movies of all-time - perhaps explaining why a character with so much potential for big screen success ended up heading to Netflix rather than the big screen - but it does deserve props for lifting Elektra's death scene almost verbatim from the comic books. That's something that the critically acclaimed TV show actually failed to do, which disappointed many fans. Other than that though, Daredevil's Elektra was appalling, somehow going from a businessman's daughter to skilled assassin after just a few weeks slicing up bags of sand with her sais. Throw in some awful scenes like the fight in the playground, and we were left with both a wasted opportunity and an incredible poorly written love interest. But hey, at least Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner found happiness together in real life. Well, for a while, anyways. 4) Silver Fox (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) "Do you know why the moon is so lonely?" No, me neither, but that didn't stop Lynn Collins' Silver Fox rattling off a laughably bad story which was supposed to be a thinly veiled reference to what was going on in this appallingly written origin story. Poor old Logan thought he'd found happiness with his schoolteacher girlfriend, but later he finds her dead at the hands (claws?) of Sabretooth. In reality, she hadn't been killed and was, in fact, keeping tabs on Wolverine the whole time for Weapon X. As nonsensical as all this was, it was capped off by the fact that she actually loved him all along! Snore. Her death had no effect on the audience, making the emotional wallop at the end of the movie about as weak as the rest of this watered down take on Wolverine. I mean, did you even remember her before reading this? Probably not, and while her comic book counterpart is equally forgettable, it's hard to escape the feeling that this was a waste of her potential. 3) Lois Lane (Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice) Seeing as Lois Lane spent such a huge amount of time in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice trying to clear the Man of Steel's name, you may be wondering what exactly she's doing here. Well, as much as The Daily Planet journalist may love Clark Kent, let's not forget that it was pretty much her fault that he died. Lois' random decision to throw that Kryptonite spear underwater forced Superman to rescue her when she later realized her mistake, and that severely weakened him. Sure, he may very well have decided to still use that weapon against Doomsday (sacrificing himself in the process), but Lois certainly didn't help matters by interfering as she did. Lois was also something of a pest in Man of Steel, so it now remains to be seen whether or not she'll cause the resurrected Superman similar problems in Justice League next November. With any luck, her role will have been improved there, but it's still kind of hard to figure out why she's needed in the film at all. 2) Mary Jane Watson (Spider-Man) Sam Raimi turned to the work of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko when it came to inspiration for his take on Spider-Man, and for the most part, it worked wonderfully. Sadly, his take on Mary Jane Watson wasn't anywhere near as effective, and the fun loving MJ who partied to disguise her troubled home life was replaced with a drab, whiny girl next door who became little more than a damsel in distress an alarming number of times over the course of three movies. The fact that she was an aspiring actress instead of a successful supermodel ultimately isn't that important, but watering down Peter Parker's comic book wife to someone who needed saving, again and again, was just a mistake. Throw in the fact that Kirsten Dunst clearly didn't care about this role, and we're left with one of the worst superhero movie love interests of all-time in not just one, but THREE movies. That's a great shame considering the fact we're talking about such an awesome character, and while she was set to appear in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Shailene Woodley was cut and there's currently no official word on MJ's status in Spider-Man: Homecoming. 1) Rachel Dawes (The Dark Knight) That's right, Rachel Dawes was so terrible that she actually gets a second mention in this feature. The main reason for that is because Katie Holmes was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal, an actress who managed to be almost as unimpressive and irritating as her predecessor. Despite being a step up from Holmes, the character still wasn't all that well-written and again served as little more than a plot device in a movie which was severely lacking a strong female presence. Her death was effectively done and served to set up one helluva final act, but it's perhaps not a great sign when most of the audience is relieved to see her meet her maker. Thankfully, Christopher Nolan made up for the Rachel Dawes misfire with Catwoman and Talia Al Ghul (well, sort of) in The Dark Knight Rises. Of course, the latter's death scene has been widely ridiculed while Selina Kyle wasn't exactly very closer to her comic book counterpart, so they too were flawed. Just not as much as Rachel.