Eric Draven
[ranking: 1]
Eric Draven's story in The Crow gets excruciatingly dark, and what makes it even sadder are its roots in a real-life tragedy. In the comic, Eric and his girlfriend Shelley return from a romantic getaway when their car breaks down. Then a local gang stops by, shoots Eric in the head, and forces him to watch them rape and murder his girlfriend before he dies a few hours later.
The whole comic came from author James O??Barr who created the character as a way to cope with the death of his girlfriend, who was killed by a drunk driver.
Doctor Strange
[ranking: 12]
Before he became the sorcerer supreme, he was Dr. Stephen Strange, the best doctor in his field who also happened to be an egotistical jerk. One night he found himself in a freak car accident that shattered the bones in his hand and took away the one thing that made him a worthwhile human being. After the accident he was unable to perform the most basic of tasks and essentially became a waste of space until he found himself in the Himalayas.
After studying under the Ancient One, he finally learns to let go of the pain that chased him across the Atlantic ocean.
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Doctor Manhattan
[ranking: 7]
Born Dr. Jonathan Osterman, or rather Jonathan Osterman because no one is born a doctor, Dr. Manhattan lived a fairly normal life until things became a real drag after being accidentally locked in an intrinsic field experiment test chamber in 1959 and blasted with radiation. That may seem fairly normal for a comic book, but the fact remains his colleagues essentially allowed him to vaporize rather than risk their lives to save his.
It could be noted that this was the first moment that separated Manhattan from the rest of humanity. His sadness may be slow burn, but it's not any less sad.
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Bo
[ranking: 11]
At a young age, Bo lost both his parents - his father, a Navy officer, died in action, while his mother died of illness shortly after. With no other adults around, Bo had to take care of himself and his little sister Tina. Unfortunately, the aspiring street magician could barely make enough money to support themselves, so he eventually ends up working for the neighborhood drug dealer and diving deep into the criminal world.
Spawn
[ranking: 5]
If you have a PhD in comic book math, then you know the spookier the character, the sadder the origin story. Before Spawn was Spawn, he was Al Simmons, a contract killer who got double-crossed by his best friend and murdered while on a job. From there, his soul was sent to Hell, and then he was unceremoniously dropped back on Earth as Spawn.
If that weren't bad enough he would shortly learn that while he was dead his wife, Wanda, married his best friend and fathered his child.
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Spider-Man
[ranking: 8]
Spider-Man's origin story pretty much defines sadness 101, it's kind of a miracle that he didn't turn into a spider-themed supervillain. In case you've been living under a rock, super nerdy teen, Peter Parker, got bitten by a radioactive spider on a field trip, and things felt super cool for a couple of weeks. He even made some cash off of his powers, but after purposefully avoiding a fleeing thief, he arrives home hours later to discover the criminal he ignored murdered his Uncle Ben. Wooooooof, that's got to be tough.
Weighed down by his uncle??s death, he took to heart the last piece of advice Ben gave him: "With great power comes great responsibility," and decided to use his powers to protect people rather than for financial gain.
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