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A Mother’s Day Tribute To Marvel Super Hero Moms

By Nick Tylwalk

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Mothers everywhere, I hope you’re enjoying your special day. You probably deserve multiple days in your honor, but here’s to the one you have.

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While all moms put in superhuman efforts at times, I figured it would be only fitting to use Mother’s Day to shine a spotlight on the ones who literally were superhuman. I’m talking about the moms who are also Marvel super heroes, meaning that they have to balance dangerous careers with raising their families.

There aren’t tons of female heroes who have embraced both motherhood and saving the world, but a few that have stood out in my mind. Let’s take a look.

Best Super Hero Mom – Invisible Woman

Whatever your feelings about the Fantastic Four as a team, you have to admit that Susan Storm Richards is just the greatest. She’s even more powerful than she is lovely, and while she’s not as book smart as her husband, she’s sharp enough to keep up with the smartest man in the Marvel Universe.

The Invisible Woman also has what has to be the most difficult parenting job in comics, as son Franklin Richards is a scary powerful mutant, while daughter Valeria inherited her dad’s intelligence. Who could keep up with these two? Maybe no one besides Sue.

On top of that, she also seems like a maternal figure to the larger group of Marvel super heroes, as it’s tough to think of a more compassionate costumed crimefighter. If you have to name just one super mom, Invisible Woman is the first one to come to mind.

Best Super Hero Mom, Runner-Up – Jessica Jones

Lots of super heroes have had their share of lows to go with their highs, but Jessica Jones has truly been through some stuff. No one could blame her if she had just wanted to kiss the entire world of spandex and super powers behind after what she went through at the hands of the Purple Man back in the day.

Instead, she’s answered the call with the Avengers when necessary, showing a sense of duty that overcame her reluctance. After her daughter, Danielle was born, Jones has always put her well-being first, making difficult choices about her role and where she should live along the way. She was wise enough to hire Squirrel Girl as Danielle’s nanny, and she’s even managed to keep up one of super hero comics’ most real and honest relationships with husband Luke Cage despite everything both of them have experienced individually and as a couple.

Pretty impressive if you ask me. If you’ve been reading the “Ultron Forever” crossover, you’ve seen that at least in one future, Danielle grows up to be Captain America, so Jessica must be doing something right.

Unluckiest Super Hero Mom, Scarlet Witch

Can a mutant and a synthezoid have children together? When the mutant has the power to manipulate reality, the answer is yes, but if we’ve learned anything from the experiences of the Scarlet Witch, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Wanda Maximoff was certainly one of the happiest moms in super hero comics when twins Thomas and William were born. But in a cruel twist of fate, the boys ended up being missing shards of Mephisto, and the faux devil eventually got them back. Not surprisingly, this was a major factor in Wanda eventually losing a grip on her sanity.

Are the Young Avengers Wiccan and Speed reincarnated versions of her kids? Possibly, but even if they are, it’s tough to believe that anything will replace what Scarlet Witch had taken away from her. Unlucky indeed.

Unluckiest Super Hero Mom, Runner-Up – Wasp

Janet van Dyne has never been lucky in love, dating back to the dissolution of her marriage to Hank Pym, but in the pages of Uncanny Avengers, it looked like that was changing. Sure, it took place in a dystopian future where the Earth had been destroyed, but she married Alex Summers, a.k.a. Havok, and had a beautiful daughter named Katie.

Then things went very, very wrong. Saving the Earth meant some time travel shenanigans that cost her Katie. Havok’s face got mutilated in the final battle with Kang. And after Immortus restored some hope by saying Katie could still exist if Wasp and Havok consummated their love at a particular time (which would have been awkward had the Avengers Unity Squad been in the middle of a battle, no?), AXIS happened. As you can see in the page above, Havok went bad, denying their daughter and their love.

Jan is as tough as they come, but no one deserves all that. It’s not looking too good for her ever getting Katie back, but hopefully some writer will take pity on her and give her some happiness at some point.

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