It’s Valentine’s Day and with love in the air, we thought we’d take a look at the 12 greatest romances in all of Geekdom! This is by no means a definitive list, but it’s ours.
12. Vision and Scarlet Witch (THE AVENGERS/MARVEL)
We don’t quite know where Vision and Wanda are headed yet. What with him being dead and she creating a whole new reality to bring him back (talk about love!). But even though the witch and the android have been a couple in the comics for quite some time, the two of them are just now really getting a chance to show off their relationship.
It will be interesting to see where Wandavision, and the MCU, takes the two of them.
11. Hermione and Ron (HARRY POTTER)
Harry Potter introduced a whole generation to the world of magic and fantasy. It also introduced them to young love. The series followed Potter and his friends not only as they took on the forces of evil, but navigated the tricky world of young love.
There was plenty of battles on both fronts, and it was the relationship between Harry’s two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, that stood out, even above Potter’s own relationships. (Like that other wizard boy who was sent to live with his uncle and whose best friend gets the girl. See #3 below.)
Hermione and Ron are not an obvious couple. Even Potter creator J.K. Rowling is on record saying she thinks maybe Harry and Hermione should have ended up together. But that would have been a bit obvious, wouldn’t it? And as we all know, we don’t really get to choose who we fall in love with.
10. Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman (THE FANTASTIC FOUR/MARVEL)
The original power couple!
Marvel’s first power couple, Reed and Sue Richards set the standard for the post-atomic nuclear (powered) family.
The Fantastic Four was always more a family than a super team, and it started at the top. Reed and Sue may not have always seen eye to eye, but they always would come together to overcome any obstacle, whether it be physical threats from the likes of Doctor Doom or the Mole Men or the challenges to their relationship like the advances of the Submariner, Namor, towards Sue.
That is not to say they have had the perfect marriage. Reed, quite honestly, can be a patronizing jerk. It is a testimony to their love that Sue hasn’t just sealed him up in an invisible ball and thrown him into space.
Over the years there have been several attempts with mixed success to bring the Fantastic Four to life. Now that Marvel appears to be back in control of their first family’s on-screen destiny, maybe they can help get it back on track, which would include remembering that for over 50 years you could always count on the Fantastic Four, and on Reed and Sue.
9. Zoe and Wash (FIREFLY)
One’s a battle hardened soldier, who fought for independence in a hopeless cause against the Alliance. The other plays with plastic dinosaurs.
Wash and Zoe make another unlikely but fantastic couple. It’s not that they are opposites, rather they are complements, filling in the gaps in each other to make a couple that is more than the sum of its two pieces.
Zoe has a strength and perseverance that is match by Wash’s loyalty and devotion. That, and she scares him a little too. But in a good way. Their devotion to one another cannot be doubted. When offered a chance to save either Wash or Mal from torture by a cruel gangster, Zoe chooses Wash without hesistation. And when con-woman Saffron tries to seduce Wash, he resists her ample charms without any problems… well mostly.
Like some of the other couples on this list, Zoe and Wash didn’t quite get the happily ever after we wanted for them, but that doesn’t make their love any less extraordinary
8. Captain Jack and Ianto (TORCHWOOD)
In a dangerous life, you don’t always get to choose who you love.
Jack Harkness, the pan-sexual former Time Agent from the 51st Century, would hardly be the type you think you would find on a list of great couples. He has always been a bit of a player, known to hit on just about anything with sentience. But gaining immortality may have given him the perspective that it isn’t always better to be alone.
Enter Ianto Jones. Torchwood’s wheelman, administrative support staff, and supplier of coffee. He certainly never saw himself as gay, but like so many others (both male and female) he found himself drawn to Jack.
What started out as something not so serious, grew and strengthen to a depth of feeling neither man had known in some time. And changed both of their lives.
But Jack burns bright, like a flame, and Ianto sadly learned you can’t get so close to the fire, without it burning.
7. Archie, Betty & Veronica (ARCHIE COMICS)
Perhaps the most famous love triangle of all, the red-headed teen who loves both the blonde girl next door and the raven haired rich girl may not be a true love triangle, but rather a throuple, considering how well the three get along at times.
Archie has dated both Veronica and Betty (and Josie and Valerie from the Pussycats, Sabrina the teenage witch, and Cheryl Blossom, among many others), and somehow he manages to keep his friendship with Veronica and Betty. It’s not like they are sitting around waiting for him to call either (Reggie, Chuck, and the rest of the Riverdale gang have all dated one another.) But ultimately it always comes back to these three.
Of course, Archie and the whole gang have gotten a 21st century update both in the comics and on the television series Riverdale. The comic series did a great job at recreating the classic story of the Riverdale Gang including the classic Archie/Betty/Veronica dynamic. And on TV, the classic love triangle was explored early on. The show has (wisely) not overplayed the rivalry. Instead, they have explored some other interesting pairings before settling into Veronica and Archie as a couple and creating the surprisingly popular Bughead, the romantic portmanteau of Betty and Jughead.
Of course, that show went completely off the rails… and not in a fun way. Who knows how that will all turn out (I stopped watching in Season 2 really). But in the comics, Archie will always find himself between Betty and Veronica.
And who can blame him?
6. Chuck and Sarah (CHUCK)
Charles Irving Bartowski is an underachieving, nerdy, slightly neurotic college drop-out computer technician with a confidence problem and a goofy sort of charm, who suddenly finds himself with a head full of government secrets.
Sarah Walker is the gorgeous, highly-trained CIA operative with a mysterious past and is lethal with a knife, who’s tasked with making sure he stays alive.
So naturally they fall in love.
He’s saving the world weekly at 12 bucks an hour. She makes sure he doesn’t get killed doing it.
With the US Government’s supercomputer, the Intersect, in his brain, Chuck can flash on anything, revealing threats both foreign and domestic. Sadly his years of playing Call of Duty do not prepare him to act on what he knows. Luckily, Sarah’s skills to catch the bad guys help save him and the world.
Chuck and Sarah had a few obstacles to overcome on the road to true love, but over 5 seasons on NBC from 2007 through 2013 they eventually found a way to make it work. And they managed to look absolutely adorable doing it.
5. Willow and Tara (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)
A strong, stable female relationship on a show full of strong female characters.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer was just slightly ahead of its time in its progressiveness taking the nerdy, techie Willow and having her explore her latent magical abilities… among other explorations.
Out of all the relationships on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the pairing between Willow and Tara was the most stable, and the most healthy and affectionate.
Of course, since it was the 90s and on broadcast television, the two were very limited in how they could show their affection, but you never doubted that these two were in love.
4. The Doctor and the TARDIS (DOCTOR WHO)
Some of you would probably say Rose Tyler or River Song, or even Sarah Jane Smith, but none of his traveling assistants ever stay with the Doctor any where near as long as his constant companion, that temperamental, run-down, borrowed, type-40 time capsule known as the TARDIS.
It has been noted, by several companions, that it was not unusual to find the Doctor in the console room, talking to his ship, while stroking bits of the console.
The TARDIS, stolen from a maintenance bay on Gallifrey a long time ago, has taken the Doctor across time and space. And while the Doctor’s travel doesn’t always end up as planned, the TARDIS always goes where they are most needed.
It’s when the TARDIS’ matrix was removed and placed inside the body of a woman, Idris, that we find out that the Doctor may have thought he was stealing the TARDIS when, in fact, it was actually her stealing him… and his heart. The TARDIS and the Doctor are kindred souls, both with a wanderlust and a desire to find what is wrong in the universe and make it better
3. Han Solo and Princess Leia (STAR WARS)
No list of the greatest loves in science fiction is complete without the Captain of the Millennium Falcon and the Princess of Alderaan.
The classic bad boy/good girl dynamic may seem a bit obvious. He’s the scoundrel with the heart of gold, and she’s the by the book leader who needs someone she can be vulnerable with. Its love story is sold by the performances of Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, especially in the second film of the original trilogy.
Ford’s famous ad libbed reaction to Leia’s declaration of love set the standard for an entire generation. (“I love you!” “I know.”)
Even more than 30 years later, we still love Han and Leia. It’s a shame we couldn’t have had more time with them.
2 . John Crichton and Aeryn Sun (FARSCAPE)
Not as well known as some of the other couples on this list. John and Aeryn have a pretty standard sci-fi courtship.
- Boy meets Girl
- Girl kicks Boy’s ass around the galaxy
- They live happily ever after (eventually)
At first, it’s not obvious that Farscape is a love story, but as the show made its way through its first season, it became clear that these two would end up together.
Accidentally thrown through a wormhole and across the galaxy, astronaut John Chricton finds himself on the living ship Moya and its crew of escaped prisoners being chased by the Peacekeepers, a mercenary army who don’t quite live up to their name.
Aeryn Sun has spent her entire life as member of the Peacekeepers and was one of their best pilots who wanted nothing more out of life than to serve her unit, until events led her to be ‘irreversibly contaminated’ and finding herself on the run with Chricton and the Moya crew.
More Wizard of Oz than Buck Rogers, all John wants to do is get home. Until he begins to realize home is wherever he is with Aeryn.
What made their romance so memorable was the chemistry between Farscape‘s leading actors Ben Browder and Claudia Black, which made it very easy to believe these two love one another.
1. Lois Lane and Clark Kent (SUPERMAN)
Having more than 75 years of history between them gives The Man of Steel and his award winning reporter partner an advantage over most of the of the other couples on this list. Of course, for a long part of their history, these two were in the second most well known love triangle in comics. A love triangle that only had two people in it as Lois didn’t always know that Superman, and the mild mannered reporter, Clark Kent, were one and the same.
While some other Earths in the DC multiverse had Lois and Clark married and her in the know, in the main continuity, she was always left in the dark.
That changed in the early 90s when DC decided it was time for Lois and Clark to get married in Superman #75. Those plans got put on hold as Superman returned to TV (in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) with a focus on the relationship between them. Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher made Lois and Clark a Tracy/Hepburn act. They had fun and eventually, in the series, the two of them got together. It wasn’t until 3 years later that they finally were married on TV and in the comics.
While many talented actors have played Lois and Clark, none were able to explore their relationship more than Smallville‘s Tom Welling and Erica Durance. The series ran 10 seasons, with well over 200 episodes. Even though Durance’s Lois didn’t arrive on the scene until Season 4, Clark was still on and off with high school love, Lana Lang (Kristen Kreuk). The two clearly had the chemistry needed for the fated couple. The last 3 seasons were spent developing the relationship between the intrepid young reporter and her mild mannered cohort. Durance in particular made watching the two journey from reluctant friends to allies to lovers engaging.
Now we have two more versions of the famous couple in the pop culture zeitgeist. Henry Cavill and Amy Adams will be seen in Zack Snyder’s Justice League film on HBO Max, while Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch will star in Superman & Lois on the CW.
So, was your favorite Geekdom couple on the list? Let us know who you thought should have been included in the comments below, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter!