Some are touched by the supernatural. Some are the products of science that went horribly wrong. And others had one very bad day that changed their lives. In the eyes of some people, they may even be called monsters.
But they are (or were) people with the same hopes and dreams that drive most people. They may come from many different places but they all wanted to be good people, even though that is now impossible. The one thing they have in common is that the price was far too high for any benefits they achieved. And the thing that makes them special has become a curse.
10 Morbius
Michael Morbius was born with a rare blood disease that affected his appearance and made exposure to the sun painful. The intellectually gifted young man read voraciously and grew to become a gifted biologist and biochemist, in part to find a cure for his own condition.
Morbius attempted to use vampire bat DNA and electroshock to cure his condition but it made it far worse. Morbius now had a form of “pseudo-vampirism” where he gained some of the powers of the mythical beast and the need to drink human blood. This and his attempts to cure himself brought him into conflict with Spider-Man and The Midnight Sons.
9 Werewolf by Night
Jack Russell was born with the family curse of lycanthropy, created centuries ago by Dracula and the Darkhold. Russell learned of his own lycanthropy from his mother the night before she died. On the nights of the full moon, Russell would become savage and anyone who crossed his path is either killed or infected.
Russell often found himself controlled by others or forced to work against his own interests. This often brought him into conflict with many heroes like Spider-Man, Captain America and Doctor Strange. Russell was alos mind controlled to be part of the team The Night Shift but saved by Moon Knight.
8 Werewolf by Night
Dr. Curt Connors was a brilliant military surgeon who lost his arm to a bomb blast. He became obsessed with researching the regenerative powers of reptiles. Connors experimented on himself and regrew his arm, but it had the unintended side effect of transforming him into a humanoid lizard-like creature. Spider-Man helped Connor change back the first time and that would become the common theme of their relationship.
Connors as the Lizard was often used by villains of higher intelligence or charisma. Dr. Connors himself wanted nothing more than to be rid of the curse of the Lizard as it had cost him his reputation, his marriage and the life of his wife. Connors found himself less in control as the Lizard gained intelligence.
7 Ghost Rider
The Spirit of Vengeance has taken many human hosts and unleashed them on an unjust and sinful world. The most famous of the modern Riders is Johnny Blaze, the daredevil stunt cyclist who bargained his soul to Mephisto. Blaze wanted his beloved mentor’s cancer cured only to have the man die in a failed jump. Mephisto tricked Blaze and bound him to the demon Zarathos.
According to Doctor Strange, the fully empowered Zarathos possessing Johnny Blaze is one of the most powerful mystical beings in the universe, capable of defeating the Hulk. Despite the Rider’s general unpleasant nature, he has been a member of a number of teams including the Midnight Sons, the Champions and the Fantastic Four.
6 Sauron
Bitten by mutant pterodactyls, Dr. Karl Lykos became an energy vampire that drains the life force from people by touch. But if he drains the life energy from mutants, Lykos transforms into the humanoid pteranodon called Sauron. Sauron is a separate personality from Lykos and is bent on world domination.
Lykos started out as a doctor and a colleague of Professor Xavier who had his first transformation when he was helping Xavier with an ailing Havok. Next, Sauron allied himself with the Savage Land Mutates against Ka-zar and the X-Men. Lykos has sadly endured more transformations as Sauron wants to stay in control.
5 Blade
Eric Brooks’ prostitute mother was bitten by the Vampire Deacon Frost in childbirth, killing her. Blade grew up in the house of ill repute until he encountered Jazz trumpeter and vampire hunter Jamal Afari. Afari took the angry young boy under his wing and taught him to be a dangerous man. Dracula turned Afari, and Blade had to kill his mentor and this set him on the path of killing the Vampire Lord.
Although Blade is perfectly happy to battle vampires alone and his abrasive personality makes him difficult to work with, Blade has gained a number of allies. Dracula ancestor Frank Drake and vampire Hannibal King are the longest, forming both investigation agency Borderline Inc. and The Nightstalkers. Blade also aided the Avengers, Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, and Morbius.
4 Man-Thing
Dr. Ted Sallis was a scientist attempting to recreate the Super Soldier Formula that gave the world Captain America. After A.I.M. operatives attempted to steal it, Sallis injected himself with the formula. Sallis crashed his car in the swamp and it changed the scientist into the near mindless Man-Thing. In the presence of fear, the Man-Thing secretes an acid that will burn anyone that he touches.
The seemingly normal swamp is ,in fact, The Nexus of All Realities. It is a surprisingly active hub that the Man-Thing needs to guard against dimensional intruders and villainy from this reality. Sorceress Jennifer Kale and displaced arthropod Howard the Duck are just some of the visitors to Man-Thing’s swamp.
3 Patsy Walker/Hellcat
Patsy Walker isn’t cursed by her powers as much as by life. She has been through so much. Her formative years were chronicled in a comic by her over bearing mother and she married her high school sweetheart who became an abusive maniac and eventually, a super villain.
Wanting to become a superhero, she pestered the Beast into helping her and she found Tigra’s old Cat costume and became the Hellcat. Patsy joined the Defenders where she met and married Daimon Hellstrom. Seeing his true demonic self drove her to insanity and suicide. In Hell, she is forced to fight endlessly until Hawkeye’s Thunderbolts brought her home. Patsy’s may have the most ironically cursed life ever.
2 Thing
Benjamin J. Grimm, astronaut and pilot, warned his best friend and scientist Reed Richards that the shielding on his rocket was too thin. Reed assured Ben that he had thought of everything. All seemed well when the four, including Reed’s girlfriend Sue and her brother Johnny, blasted off. But as they crossed the Van Allen Belt, Ben was proven right. Cosmic rays irradiated the ship and their bodies. Feeling too heavy to move, Ben crash the ship back on Earth.
Ben hates being trapped in this form and it has caused bouts of anger and depression. Conversely, Reed has recently postulated that Ben has subconsciously rejected attempts to revert him back to human form. Ben feared losing the love of Alicia Masters, who he believed prefers the Thing. Ben also believed that his only usefulness to the Fantastic Four is as the muscle. His sense of nobility and selflessness is so strong that he has sacrificed a normal human life to save his team more than once.
1 Hulk
Scientist Robert Bruce Banner was about to test his newly created gamma bomb when he saw a teenager driving across the test site. Banner knocked the teen into a safety trench but is caught in the full brunt of the blast. Banner was seemingly unhurt, but that night, teenager Rick Jones saw Banner change into a lumbering monster. The Army officers that pursued him called him “a hulk” and the name stuck. The military would become Hulk’s most persistent antagonist.
Stress and anger became the trigger for the Hulk’s transformations and the catalyst was the abuse from his father Brian Banner. Dr. Leonard Samson surmised that the gamma bomb just gave form to a savage personality that lived inside of Bruce, one of several as it turns out. As much as Hulk wants to be left alone, he has touched the lives of millions and was instrumental in the creation of the Avengers, the Defenders, and a substitute Fantastic Four.