by: Stephanie Shamblin Gray

It’s Valentine’s Day, and for most of us that means, flowers, chocolates, and greeting cards filled with endearments. But our lives tend to be pretty ordinary. Most of us are not dealing with zombie apocalypses, vampires, or any demonic force other than our respective employers. But for our favorite horror comic characters, life and love are not so easy. While Tennyson once said “'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”, it’s hard to believe that all of these protagonists would agree. Here is a look at five doomed horror comic romances.

Jackie Estacado and Jenny (The Darkness)

While Jackie may have been a playboy, a hitman for the mob, and the wielder of The Darkness, Jenny was a sweet and lovely barmaid who was devoted only to Jackie. His childhood friend, Jenny finally found the courage to tell Jackie how deeply she cared for him, but Jackie was unable to reciprocate and let her leave. Unfortunately for them both, Uncle Frankie saw an opportunity to get revenge for Jackie turning his back on him and shot Jenny in the head. To ensure Jackie knew the fate of sweet Jenny, he sent Jackie the videotape. Sadly, Jackie did realize that he loved Jenny, but never told her because he was too afraid. Would Jenny still be alive if he had, or would she have become fodder for the darklings? We will never know.

Stella and Eben (30 Days of Night)

Stella and Eben were a happy and ordinary husband and wife that found their selves in an unusual situation; their town was overrun by vampires in the long winter night of Barrow, Alaska. Forced to fight for their lives, they had no choice but to get creative. Eben injected himself with vampire’s blood, turning him into a vampire so that he was able to fight the vampires and defend his lady-love Stella. The vampire blood did grant him the power to defeat the vampire leader and save the town, but Eben also began to forget what it meant to be a human in love. Knowing what must be done, Eben and Stella watch the sun rise together one last time in Barrow, turning Eben to ash and leaving Stella to face the world alone and tell their tragic tale of woe in an attempt to educate and save others.

Rick and Lori (The Walking Dead)

It’s almost hard to include Rick and Lori Grimes on this list of doomed romances because they managed to live so long together in a zombie apocalypse; but doesn’t that really make it even more heartbreaking? After the dead began to walk, Lori and their son Carl fled their hometown believing Rick was dead. Shortly thereafter, Lori became romantically involved with Rick’s partner, Shane. After Rick amazingly survived waking up in a hospital full of zombies and traveling to another city (through more zombies), he actually managed to find Lori and Carl. Lori quickly returned to Rick’s loving arms, never to speak of the adulterous affair or the fact that their daughter, Judith, is really daughter to Shane. All’s well that ends well? Not quite. In a jealous rage, Shane threatened Rick with a gun, only to be shot by Rick’s son Carl. Later, during an attack by the living, Lori and baby Judith were shot and killed before Rick’s eyes. Poor Rick. He’s left only with memories and the imaginary voice of his dead wife on an old phone.

Eric and Shelley (The Crow)

Savagely attacked on the side of the road, Eric and his Shelley are left for dead. Luckily, there just happens to be a supernatural crow available to be the link between this world and beyond. This supernatural crow will provide Eric a means to avenge his and Shelley’s death. Coming back from the dead to avenge his beloved? Now that’s romantic! This is one of the most heartrending tales of undying and ill-fated love.

Johnny Blaze and Roxanne Simpson (Ghost Rider)

So, no matter how awesome and spectacular a man’s riding skills, it’s probably not a good thing to have a flaming skull for a head. However, it is good to have a wonderful woman who will love you as you are, save you with her exclamations of pure love, and bargain away your children on your behalf. Well, maybe not the part about the children. But as can be expected in these sorts of romances, the cursed really doesn’t stand much of a chance of keeping his beloved. Either she’ll be tricked into renouncing her love for him, murdered, or turned into a demonic servant, or in this story, all of the above.

Like any ordinary person, these characters had no idea they would find love, or that it would be taken away so swiftly and so brutally. As we eat our chocolate-dipped strawberries and fancy ourselves hopeless romantics on this most sweet of days, let’s remember that for our favorite horror comic characters, love leans less to the side of romantic and more to the side of hopeless.

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Published on: 2011-02-10 (721 reads)