The Unusual First Instance of an Unmarried Superhero Couple Sharing a Bed

Today, we look for the first time that an unmarried superhero couple shared a bed in a Comics Code-approved comic.

In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

This time around, we're looking to see when the Comics Code finally relaxed enough to allow an unmarried superhero couple to sleep together (or perhaps it wasn't a case of "relaxed enough" and perhaps it was more an issue of not paying enough attention. Read on to learn which one it was!).

HOW ROMANCE WAS HANDLED WITH MARRIED COUPLED VERSUS UNMARRIED COUPLES

Obviously, during the heart of the Comics Code era in the 1950s, superhero publishers didn't even DARE tempt fate by messing around with romance. Catwoman went missing for over a decade, not because the Comics Code said she HAD to go but more because DC just assumed that she wouldn't fly. However, by the end of the 1960s, things started to relax a bit, especially when it came to married couples.

In 1969's Flash #192 (by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, a reunion of the long-running Wonder Woman creative team), the issue opens with Barry Allen about to leave on a mission as the Flash. However, his wife, Iris Allen wants some loving, and so he spends some time with her in bed...

Four years later, though, in Action Comics #428 (by Elliot S! Maggin and Dick Giordano), Green Arrow and Black Canary's love life is all suggested and handled off-panel...

Famously in the late 1960s, Jim Steranko also ran afoul of the Comics Code when it came to the romance between Nick Fury and the Contessa (not superheroes, but it is still interesting).

Here is the page of Nick and Contessa spending some alone time together as it appeared in Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #2...

In the middle of the bottom panels, there is a picture of a phone.

Steranko originally drew a phone off the hook...

but Marvel had another artist literally draw the phone ON the hook, because a phone off the hook was too suggestive.

As Steranko recalled, "One panel also showed a telephone that was off the hook. They considered it suggestive, and put it back on. Now, every time I pass a phone that's off the hook, I get horny!"

In the last panel on the page, here is what Steranko originally drew - the Countess and Fury embracing while clothed..

And here's the panels aligned with the original panels...

Instead, though, Marvel had someone on the production staff take Fury's gun from earlier in the page and copy it and put it into the last panel.

Isn't that fascinating? Especially because, as Steranko notes, "They reproduced Fury's holster slung over a chair, which was much more suggestive: a big gun fitting very tightly in a holster, which was a sexual metaphor much more potent than my figures."

THE COMICS CODE GETS INVOLVED WITH DAREDEVIL AND BLACK WIDOW'S LIVING ARRANGEMENT

In the Daredevil comics of the early 1970s, Gerry Conway decided to make Daredevil and Black Widow a couple. They meet, get involved and eventually fall in love. Over time, they decide to get a fresh start by moving to San Francisco together in Daredevil #87 (by Conway, Gene Colan and Tom Palmer)..

The two heroes are living together, but that's a tricky situation for an unmarried couple and Gerry Conway explained to Lex Carson in TwoMorrows' Back Issue #45 that Marvel had to get approval from the Comics Code Authority as to what would be an appropriate living arrangement for the two unmarried heroes to have if they were to live together and that set-up was written right into Daredevil #87, as Natasha explains to her chauffeur/mentor, Ivan, that he and Matt will share a floor...

while she has a floor to herself...

Too funny.

In the pages of the New Teen Titans, Dick Grayson (Robin) and Starfire started dating and eventually became very serious about each other.

When Dick decides to quit being Robin in New Teen Titans #39 (by George Perez and Marv Wolfman), he attributes a lot of his growth directly to his relationship with Starfire...

This leads us to New Teen Titans #1 (by Perez and Wolfman), a new Direct Market volume of the series that started in 1984. In the issue, Jericho is shocked to see the coming of Raven's father, Trigon, and it wakes up the rest of the Titans, including Dick (who is now Nightwing) and Starfire, who are sharing a bed...

This, though, while controversial for the time, took place in a book without Comics Code approval, so it didn't have to worry about the Code.

However, amusingly enough, over a decade earlier, a Legion romance snuck past the Code.

THE ACTUAL FIRST TIME TWO UNMARRIED SUPERHEROES SHARED A BED IN A CODE-APPROVED BOOK

In Adventure Comics #342 (by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan, Sheldon Moldoff and George Klein), Starboy is facing explusion from the Legion due to killing someone in self-defense, but Dream Girl raises his spirits by agreeing to be his girlfriend...

When he is voted off of the team at the end of the issue, they both joing the Legion of Substitute Heroes together...

They eventually rejoined the Legion. Okay, so they were a longtime couple by the time 1973's Superboy #201 came out, in a story by Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum, Cockrum cleverly drew a panel so thait was obvious that Dream Girl was not sleeping alone when one of her dreams alerted her to danger for Karate Kid...