10 Marvel Characters with Worse Luck Than Peter Parker

Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, is Marvel Comics‘ original hard-luck hero. Still, he’s not the only one in the comics giant’s roster of superpowered heroes to repeatedly fall on hard times.

Marvel heroes might have a responsibility to use their great powers for the common good, but it often comes at a great personal price. From endlessly troubled romances to irreversible conditions, the heroes of the Marvel Universe are no strangers to rotten luck.

10 Ben Grimm Is Stuck As The Thing Forever

He’s the Odd Man Out In the Fantastic Four

Benjamin Grimm, aka The Thing, is perhaps the most tragic member of Marvel’s first family, The Fantastic Four. His life before becoming the rock-skinned hero was occasionally troubled, with him often getting into trouble as a child growing up on Yancy Street. Still, his adult life was filled with triumphs and successes until the accident that would change his life forever.

Ben Grimm is permanently trapped in his monstrous Thing form. Though this isn’t without its benefits —chief among them being that The Thing is capable of fighting foes like The Hulk—his fate is ultimately a tragic one. His best friend and long-time teammate, Reed Richards, has tried endlessly to reverse Ben’s condition, but to no avail. Over time, Ben has come to terms with his condition and the unforeseen benefits, but his acceptance of his fate makes it no less tragic and no less unlucky.

9 The Vision Endures Constant Tragedy

Dying Made Him More Human

Ultron created the Vision to fight The Avengers. However, the Vision rebelled against his creator and joined the team. Eventually, he became an invaluable member of the super-group, but his time as an Avenger would be nothing short of tragic.

From his doomed relationship with Wanda Maximoff to his later attempts to create a synthetic family in writer Tom King’s acclaimed The Vision miniseries, Vision has suffered his fair share of bad luck, even if he is a synthetic life form. When Wanda Maximoff briefly lost control of her mental state in Avengers: Disassembled, Vision was killed by his one-time love, a tragic irony that was thankfully able to be rectified when the synthetic Avenger was eventually repaired.

8 Speedball Struggles to Atone For a Major Mistake

His Actions Kicked Off Marvel’s Civil War

Leading into the major conflict of Marvel Comics’ Civil War event, Robbie Baldwin, the small-time hero known as Speedball, became the catalyst for a devastating chain of events. When his super-team, The New Warriors, enlisted a reality television crew to document their heroic exploits, Speedball and his teammates naively chose to engage in a conflict they were woefully unprepared to handle.

After failing to stop the villain known as Nitro, Speedball became responsible for the deaths of dozens of innocent people, including some of his own teammates. He survived the disaster, but for a long while after the incident, he considered his survival unlucky. Robbie later took on the identity of Penance, a way to try and atone for his sins, as well as get his previous identity out of the public eye. Speedball’s story is a tragic, deeply unlucky one, and it serves as a reminder of what can happen when heroes fail.

7 Cable Is Always On The Run

He Was Forced to Live In the Future

Nathan Summers, aka Cable, is the time-displaced mutant son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor. Having been infected as an infant with the techno-organic virus, Nathan was sent away from his parents and into the far future, where he grew up away from his family.

Since then, he has been at the center of a number of unfortunate instances surrounding the X-Men and their mutant compatriots. Cable’s ever-spreading virus requires constant attention to keep it at bay, and he becomes the guardian (and adoptive father) of a young girl named Hope—a mutant hunted by numerous powerful groups. Tasked with protecting Hope, Cable was forced to leave his family in the present once again and take Hope, hopping through the dangerous future in a desperate bid for safety and freedom. Cable hasn’t ever gotten a chance to take a breather, and it doesn’t look like he ever will.

6 The Sentry Is One of The Most Powerful (and Dangerous) Beings Alive

Sentry’s Powers Come at a Terrible Cost

Bob Reynolds, aka The Sentry, was once an uber-powerful hero and ally to many of the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroes. Unfortunately for Bob, his power came at a cost. A terrifying dark counterpart to Sentry known as The Void surfaced and wreaked havoc on Sentry and his allies. Realizing there was no other choice, Sentry enlisted the help of Reed Richards and Stephen Strange to make the world (including Bob himself) forget about him and his powers, therefore stopping The Void from returning.

One of Marvel’s most complex heroes, Sentry eventually began to regain his memories. After he began to remember his previous life, Bob was wracked with mental illness and guilt over his dark counterpart. Every aspect of his current life was a wreck, and he was incapable of trying to live a normal existence. With The Void lurking in the recesses of his mind, he could find no peace, forcing him to live a life devoid of love, kinship, or any kind of good luck.

Its Not Easy Being Green

One of Marvel’s most iconic characters, Bruce Banner, aka The Incredible Hulk, is a tragic figure through and through. Akin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bruce Banner must coexist with the enormous green monster inside of him. He and Hulk are inextricably linked, and there is no hope for him to have a normal life while Hulk remains a part of him, even if their coexistence occasionally leads to some incredible fights between Hulk and his foes.

Constantly hounded by enemies on all fronts, Banner desperately attempts to seclude himself from others in order to protect them, something that leaves him in a constant state of loneliness and isolation. Though Bruce and the green-skinned giant inside have often found common ground and been able to cooperate for the greater good, there’s no denying that luck was against Bruce Banner when he was forced to take on the burden of the Incredible Hulk.

4 Rogue Can Never Get Too Close

She Can Kill With a Single Touch

Anna Marie Lebeau, aka the iconic powerhouse X-Man, Rogue, has had her fair share of bad luck. From her complicated past as an enemy of the X-Men to her constant doubts about her parentage, Rogue is often suffering. Worst of all, however, is Rogue’s unfortunate mutant ability—one that makes her incapable of getting too close to anyone she cares about.

Sapping the powers, memories, and general lifeforce of anyone she touches directly, Rogue’s abilities mean that she can never touch the people she loves for fear of doing them harm. Without having to use her powers, Rogue is a fearsome fighter, however, and she has even occasionally been able to get a handle on her mutant abilities. But the constant fear of potentially losing that control haunts her. Life as a mutant in the Marvel Universe can be unlucky enough to begin with, so having a power like Rogue’s just adds insult to injury.

3 Flash Thompson Suffered to Become a Hero

The Former Bully Didn’t Deserve This Fate

The one-time bully of a young Peter Parker, Flash Thompson, sometimes known as the mysterious Agent Venom, has a complicated history with heroes in the Marvel Universe. After joining the armed forces and seeing more than his fair share of dangerous combat, Flash tragically lost his legs in battle—something that would seemingly signify the end of his fight against evil.

After the incident with his legs, however, Flash was given the opportunity to take up the mantle of Agent Venom, an alternate version of the iconic Eddie Brock anti-hero. As Agent Venom, Flash was able to walk again with the help of the symbiote, but he was only able to stay bonded for forty-eight hours at a time; otherwise, the alien parasite would take full control of his body. Flash Thompson eventually came to terms with his condition and his role as a venomous hero. He matured and moved far beyond his past as a brutish bully, but it cost him dearly to reach that point.

2 Wanda Maximoff’s Life Is Nothing But Chaos

Her Reality-Altering Powers Have Taken a Serious Toll

The Scarlet Witch has endured immense hardship throughout her history in Marvel Comics. Often betrayed or hurt by those closest to her, Wanda has been at the center of numerous tragedies. From losing her magically created children, both of whom miraculously returned as heroes Wiccan and Speed, to unintentionally causing the devastation of House Of M, Wanda’s life has been a constant tragedy.

Being one of the most powerful people on Earth, Wanda struggles to control her reality-altering powers. She has been ostracized by groups like the Avengers and the X-Men on numerous occasions, and she finds herself constantly looking for a place in the world around her. Her chaos magic has brought her bad luck in love, parenthood, mental health, and friendships. She is a constant reminder of the difficult toll power takes on individuals.

1 Matt Murdock Cannot Catch a Break

The Man Without Fear Doesn’t Have It Easy

Lawyer Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, is just about the unluckiest a person in the Marvel Universe can get. Daredevil’s love life is always in shambles, his personal life is constantly being thrown out of balance, and his superhero career is either always in danger of being revealed to the world or teetering on falling into unending darkness and pessimism.

Having his secret identity weaponized against him by his foe Wilson Fisk in the pages of Frank Miller’s iconic Daredevil: Born Again is just the tip of the iceberg. Matt Murdock’s love interests are constantly being killed, institutionalized, or driven away, and his enemies are some of the most vindictive, personal foes of any Marvel character’s rogues gallery. It’s a genuine miracle that he’s able to wake up each day and keep fighting against the forces of evil that try to corrupt his city. The toll on his life, both masked and public, is greater than most heroes could even imagine.