15 Marvel Characters With Tragic Origin Stories, Ranked

15. Daredevil (Matt Murdock)

Daredevil was blinded by radioactive waste when he tried to save an old man. Although Matt Murdock gained heightened senses after losing his sight, he couldn’t do anything when his father was murdered by gangsters for refusing to throw a fight. As a result of his tragedy, Murdock became a lawyer by day and the vigilante Daredevil by night. His life has been marred by loss and violence ever since.

14. Elektra Natchios

Elektra’s life is filled with violence and manipulation, much like Matt Murdock’s. After her father was assassinated, she spiraled down a dark path. She trained with the secretive Hand ninja clan and became an assassin. Elektra has died and been resurrected numerous times, constantly used as a weapon. Though she shared a loving relationship with Matt Murdock, she was tragically murdered in cold blood by Bullseye.

13. Blade (Eric Brooks)

Blade is a Dhampir—a human-vampire hybrid with all their strengths and the curse of their thirst. He was born when his mother was bitten by a vampire during childbirth. As such, Blade now hunts the very creatures that created him, constantly battling his own dark nature. His life is a daily struggle between his monstrous instincts and his humanity.

12. Deadpool (Wade Wilson)

Deadpool’s cracked and weird humor portrays him as a nonchalant character with no regard for others. But he has been through a lot before he became Deadpool. Wade Wilson was diagnosed with terminal cancer as a mercenary. When he went through the Weapon X program, hoping for a cure, he was severely scarred, mentally unstable and constantly in pain. He did get a healing factor but unfortunately it can’t heal his trauma.

11. Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier)

The Winter Soldier was once the best friend of Captain America. During WWII everybody believed that Bucky Barnes died but unfortunately he was captured by Hydra. They gave him a cybernetic arm and brainwashed him into a min-controlled assassin for Hydra. Bucky kept committing atrocities for decades. The past of Bucky Barnes is filled with trauma, lost memories and action that he can barely live with throughout his day to day life.

10. Gamora

Thanos wiped out Gamora’s entire species in front of her. She is the last survivor of the Zen-Whoberis. Thanos adopted her but only to train her as the deadliest woman in the galaxy. Gamora’s entire childhood was all about forced combat and torture, she was literally moulded into a living weapon by Thanos, the being who destroyed her family and she couldn’t do anything about it.

9. Nebula

Nebula faced a similar fate like her adoptive sister, Gamora. Nebula may have been Gamora’s so called sister but the relationship between the two was more than toxic. Every time they fought and she lost to Gamora, Nebula would be upgraded with a cybernetic part. She was dismantled and rebuilt by Thanos number of times and became a literal machine, fueled by pain, resentment and hatred.

8. Jean Grey

Jean Grey’s power came a tragic moment in her life. When her best friend was hit by a car, Grey telepathically experienced her traumatic death. She was later a host to the cosmic power of Phoenix Force. Grey was too overwhelmed by the power and became corrupted by it. She caused the destruction of an entire star system and billions of lives were lost to the Dark Phoenix, a burden that she carries forever.

7. Magneto (Max Eisenhardt)

Magneto was a Jewish boy born in Germany during the Nazi rule. Max Eisenhardt witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, losing his family and surviving Auschwitz. His mutant powers were fueled by his trauma and his belief that the mutants must dominate humans in order to survive and escape the same fate. The pain and trauma of his childhood is the foundation of his villainy.

6. X-23 (Laura Kinney)

Laura Kinsey is a clone of Wolverine made from his DNA by a sinister organization. She was raised in captivity and trained brutally since childhood to become a perfect assassin. She has faced a lot of torture and forced surgeries including the poisonous Adamantium. She is also conditioned with a ‘trigger scent’ that sends her into a killing frenzy.

5. Moon Knight (Marc Spector)

Marc Spector had Dissociative Identity Disorder as a result of sever childhood trauma involving family abuse and horrific abuse. He became a mercenary and was betrayed by his group, left for dead in Egypt. Spector was brought to life as Moon Knight. He now serves the moon god Khonshu as his violent avatar and as a result, his mental psyche has fractured even more.

4. Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones lost her family in a car accident, which involved radioactive chemicals. The powers she received through the accident became her curse. She was under the mental control of the sadistic villain known as The Purple Man and endured months of psychological and physical abuse under him. She has deep-seated PTSD due to her past experiences and has trust issues around people.

3. Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff)

The furious and dangerous Scarlet Witch is among the most dangerous entities in the entire world fueled by her chaos magic. She has been facing losses in her life since her childhood. At first, she and her twin brother were experimented on, manipulated by Magneto suffering prejudice due to their mutant powers. She lost brother and later found Vision, a humanoid robot and through her magic they had children. But she lost them all as they were demonic fragments and Vision was erased Fromm her life, driving her mad with grief.

2. Wolverine (James "Logan" Howlett)

Wolverine was born in the 19th century and he ended up killing his biological father. For a century, Logan kept fighting in wars and lost loved ones. He was then subjected to horrifying Weapon X experiment and Adamantium was brutally bonded to his skeleton. His memories were erased completely and he turned into a living weapon.

1. The Punisher (Frank Castle)

Frank Castle is the Punisher, a dead terrifying man who literally executes on the spot and doesn’t care about the life of any criminal. However, he was once a decorated U.S. Marine. When he came home to his family, his wife and two young children were gunned down in front of him after witnessing a mob execution. The loss completely destroyed Frank Castle and he became the Punisher, waging a lonely relentless war against crime while being consumed by his grief.