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Is there a superhero who hasn’t had a tragic backstory?


Just wondering

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Luc Robitaille in "Sudden Death". (1995)

That guy scored the game tying goal to extend the terrorist's deadline of the bombs going off when the hockey game was supposed to end after the 3rd period. Name me a bigger hero.

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Loved that movie because the Pens are my team, and it's great to see the Civic Arena again, but it has a huge plot hole.

The bad guys put this complicated scheme together, bribing officials, planting bombs, putting together a large crew. And the plan was to execute it all during Game 7.

Of course, there was no guarantee that Game 7 was going to happen. It could've ended in 4, 5, or 6 games, and all of their dastardly plans would be for naught.

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I agree. But also, the terrorists gave them until the end of the 3rd period or else the bomb would go off. Why did Van Damme think the terrorists would extend the deadline just by Robitaille tying the game up? And what's worse is that the terrorists actually did extend the time.

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That's funny. Hey, at least the terrorists were reasonable, despite killing all those hostages in cold blood.

The best part of the movie was the fight between Van Damme and Iceburgh. Classic.

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I also like when Van Damme gets his daughter back and is hugging her, he says something like, "I'm never going to lose you again", then 30 seconds later he loses her again.

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Jesus Christ…I can’t escape 1995 😓

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LOL

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Superman had a good upbringing, well apart from losing his parents and home planet.

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Wonder Woman. Created and raised by Queen Hippolyta (or the offspring of Zeus and Hippolyta, according to the retcon), she grew up as Princess Diana of Themyscira, an Amazonian utopia sometimes referred to as "Paradise Island."

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I was going to say Wonder Woman! She left the idyllic island of her birth of her own free will, because the humans needed help. (And because she was the only heterosexual on the island, something she must have inherited from Zeus.)

Captain America's backstory isn't tragic. His early life was unhappy rather than tragic, and he volunteered to undergo experimental superhero morphing out of a combination of personal unhappiness and a patriotic desire to contribute to the "good war".

And the Aquaman of the movies had zero tragedy in his background, he was just a regular human guy who discovered he had superpowers and that the powers came with complications and responsibilities. Dunno about the comics.

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Thor - Royal Space God.
Reed Richards, Susan Richards (nee Storm), Johnny Storm - 3/4 of The Fantastic Four (but not poor old Ben Grimm).

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I'm a DC guy, so apologies if this is wrong, but the Fantastic Four and the Hulk being created by accidental exposure to radiation (okay, the Thing and the Hulk might not like what they turned into but I wouldn't call that tragedy in the origin itself).

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I think Hulk didn’t have a very happy childhood

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Hulk was beaten up as a child. That's why his change turned him into the brute. So he could be the one to do the beating.

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Machine Man
Angel
Dazzler
Iron Fist
Thor
Hercules


Booster Gold
Blue Beetle (Kord)
Detective Chimp
Black Canary
Orion
Wonder Woman
The Question


Lots more if I think on it.

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Maybe members of the Green Lantern Corps? It sort of a job for them.

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Mr. Terrific (Terry Sloane) became a hero just to prove he could do it.

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I think there is a death in that origin, though. iirc

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He was murdered at the end of his career. The new Mr. Terrific took on the mantle to avenge the death of his wife and child (or was it children?). Could that be what you are thinking of?

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That all sounds pretty tragic

Unless every Mr. Terrific was a terrible parker, then it's all quite understandable why someone lit them up

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Yep, that's what I'm thinking of. Forgot about original.

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