Image Comics has always been a place where creators could tell the kinds of stories they always wanted to without restriction, and nowhere is this clearer than in its depiction of romantic relationships. Good stories, like good romances, are driven by the people in them. Thankfully, there is no shortage of great characters— or great titles— to choose from here.
There are hot young lovers bursting with passion and old flames trying to rekindle the dying embers of their ardor. There are married couples, happy throuples, and some people still just trying to figure everything out. These stories and the characters within them show that Image still knows how to give fans the types of romance that really makes love feel eternal.
10 Marko & Alana (Saga)
Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples’s Saga is one of the best-selling and most widely beloved comics of the past decade. One reason for its success is the way the comic portrays relationships between characters. The story is narrated from the perspective of a child, Hazel, whose parents Alana and Marko are from different alien races at war with one another.
Despite living on the run, Marko and Alana build a happy life together. They give their daughter a nurturing home, teach Hazel important life lessons, and still find time for themselves and each other, enjoying both physical and emotional intimacy. There are also numerous other relationships of all kinds in the comic that are just as well-written, but Marko and Alana take center stage.
9 Lisa & Ally (Sunstone)
Romance comics are hard to pull off, but Stjepan Sejic’s Sunstone is one of the sweetest, funniest, and most intimate examples currently in print. The story focuses on a relationship between a writer named Lisa and a techie named Ally.
They meet online, begin roleplaying some, and enter into a total power exchange BDSM relationship, defined at first as friendship with benefits before growing into more. Sejic’s art beautifully illustrates every moment, and while the depictions of the physical aspects of their relationships might excite readers, it is the facial expressions of the characters that give them life as they laugh, cry, flirt, pout, and banter in one of the most relatable and enjoyable romance comics ever made.
8 Mark & Samantha (Invincible)
Ever since The Walking Dead came out, it seems that writer Robert Kirkman is mainly praised for his work writing zombie horror, but just as good (if not better) is the work he did with artist Cory Walker on Invincible.
Mark Grayson is the son of the superhero Omni-Man, and when he develops powers as a teenager, he takes the new superhero name Invincible. He has a couple relationships, but his romance with Samantha Eve Wilkins (aka the creatively-named Atom Eve) is arguably the best portrayal of young lovers who grow and mature together in real time that has ever appeared in a superhero comic.
7 Hazel & Mary (Bingo Love)
This graphic novel by Tee Franklin and Jenny St-Onge is an absolutely fantastic story about two women of color, Hazel and Mary, who meet when they are girls back in the '60s— but who are denied the ability to form a relationship at the time due to the biases of their families.
That story of losing a childhood love would be sad but relatable enough on its own, especially given that it is written for young readers who may be dealing with similar struggles. However, what makes this story unique is that the two reconnect as older women and then try to figure out how to make their love work after all that time has passed.
6 Wanda & Al Simmons (Spawn)
Many of the most popular Image Comics titles from the '90s had a meteoric rise, burned white hot for a brief time, and then fizzled out fast. Todd McFarlane's Spawn is one of the few from that era that has had staying power.
The tortured protagonist, Al Simmons, was sent to hell after his death, then resurrected and given terrifying new powers by the devil. After Al died, his wife Wanda remarried. Their relationship is not a conventional "romance," but is instead a story of love lost, and pained life that stretches agonizingly on after that loss.
5 Suzie & Jon (Sex Criminals)
Both love and delight can make time seem to stand still. In Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsk’s brilliant post-modern comedy caper Sex Criminals, time quite literally freezes when its protagonists, Suzie and Jon, achieve a very specific kind of pleasure— giving them some of the most controversial powers in all of comics.
When the two meet, they are both shocked to learn someone else can also stop time through this particular act. This premise serves as a great metaphor about how lonely dating can be and how finding the right person can feel like it changes everything, even breaking the laws of physics.
4 Laura & Cassandra And Their Various Partners (The Wicked + The Divine)
Kieron Gillen and Jaime McKelvie's The Wicked + The Divine is notable for its representations of many different types of love across the gender and sexual spectra. Protagonist Laura Wilson's first relationship is never initially consummated, but she begins to fall for Luci, one of the gods who have returned to Earth (in this case, Lucifer). After Luci's apparent death, she has a passionate romance with Baal, a frenzied tryst with Sekhmet, and an intimate kiss with Amaterasu— as well as a complicated entanglement with Baphomet.
Laura’s final romance of the series is with Cassandra Igarashi, a trans woman who was previously in a throuple with two other women. Far from just some tokenized listing of different relationship dynamics, all of the characters in The Wicked + The Divine are fully fleshed out and their relationships are just as diverse and dynamic. The insecurities of Cassandra’s other partners as their dynamic shifts, the electric tension between Laura and Luci, and the profound friendship and tender affection with her and Baal make each of these interactions unforgettable.
3 Dan & Cathy (Swing)
Swing is a story about two young lovers, Dan and Cathy, who meet and college and— after Cathy becomes pregnant— they start a family, settling into comfortable but boring domesticity. When they try to spice up their romance, Cathy persuades her husband to consider swinging.
Written by Matt Hawkins and Jenni Cheung with art Linda Sejic, this slice-of-life comic focuses more on the characters' emotions and their journey together than on the titillating nature of their new lifestyle— though that certainly isn't lacking. This is a story of love and the very real struggles people go through balancing work and child-rearing with their own pursuits of passion. Cathy has felt stifled by the judgments of her traditional Chinese mother, and Dan gives up his dreams of becoming a novelist so he can get a teaching job to support his family. But even as they sacrifice some of their expectations and desires, the two find something new to enjoy together.
2 Maika Halfwolf & Tuya (Monstress)
The most captivating and powerful relationship in Monstress is not some sweet romance or the usual tale of love triumphing over all. Instead, it is the pained relationship between Maika Halfwolf and Tuya, old friends forced by circumstance to be rivals. But despite a war and the fact that Tuya is married, both have feelings for the other that run much deeper than mere friendship.
This comic by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda is set in a war-torn matriarchal world that mixes East Asian folklore, Lovecraftian horror, and steampunk colonialism. The politics of the war forces these two apart, making enemies of them despite their yearning for one another.
1 All of Them (Rat Queens)
Rat Queens has its serious moments, but unlike most romance comics, it is largely just pure fun. Created by writer Kurt Wiebe and artist Roc Upchurch, this book follows an all-women fantasy adventuring party. These hard-drinking, bar-brawling friends go on their first “adventure” when they are sentenced to perform community service for their drunken shenanigans.
The group consists of the rockabilly elven mage Hannah, the mushroom-chomping hippie rogue Bettie, the hipster dwarven fighter Violet, the human atheist cleric Dee, and the trans orcish barbarian Braga. Each of these women develop meaningful and complex relationships with other characters, and each approaches sex, romance, and friendship in a unique way. From Betty’s deliriously delightful fun to Hannah’s brooding emotional depths, these characters— and their love lives— are worth following, and their fantasy adventures are some of the funniest ever put in a comic book.