Top Ten: Comics Bad Dads

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Spider-Man

Okay. So he's decent in Spider-Girl. But in the 616? Again, okay . . . we suppose that he was duped into thinking that his daughter died. But Spidey knows that baby-snatching and horrible trickery go hand-in-hand with super-heroics. Did he ever dig deeper, call in Reed Richards (not really a great dad either by any stretch...) or Dr. Strange to check things out? No. Then again, the implication is that OMD actually did make him and MJ forget this bit of their past completely. So we guess Peter's not exactly a bad father. He just loves his rickety old aunt more than his marriage and the memory of his own daughter.

Trigon

Extra-dimensional demon lords rarely make ideal fathers. Just ask Raven. Trigon appeared via a ritual and seduced Raven's mother. Only later did his violent (and let's face it, ugly) true face show. Fond of siccing his giant doggie on his subjects or coldly killing a child just to teach his own daughter a lesson, Trigon's a textbook example of how not to be a parent. And now, in Titans, we've learned that he has sons who are chips off their old man's block.

Norman Osborn

The inherent disgust factor of the Gwen Stacy revelation aside (and those kids), Norman Osborn in any incarnation has never been Dad of the Year. He regularly belittled his son Harry and inflicted severe emotional damage on him; this character trait is so pervasive that it appears in every media incarnation of the character. Norman's treatment was also a factor that pushed Harry toward drug abuse. After his alleged death in Amazing Spider-Man #122, Osborn slunk away to Europe to manipulate events from afar. Of course, that more or less abandoned Harry to eventual death. Good work, Dad!

The Pride

Technically including moms and dads, when the kids in The Runaways used to get together for a play date, their parents would go off to the basement for a charity fundraiser. Or at least the kids thought. They eventually discovered the 'rents were actually downstairs committing murder, sacrificing the blood of young women to giant god-like beings. And although the members of the Pride were apparently killed later, one of the dads, Geoffrey Wilder, comes back and kills a member of The Runaways in a last-ditch evil effort at immortality. No wonder they ran away.

Darkseid

Darkseid could almost be forgiven for sending his son Orion to New Genesis in exchange for Scott Free; after all, it was a trade that bought a temporary truce and led to the birth of two heroes. Still, much of Darkseid's energy has been directed toward defeating the prophecy that declared that Orion would overthrow him. If his dogged antagonism of Orion weren't enough, Darkseid's downright hateful to his other son, Kalibak. He's been known to smack Kalibak about or even blast him with his Omega beams. Doesn't quite strike us as an easy guy to ask for the car.

Brian Banner

Before he became The Hulk, Bruce Banner grew up in an abusive home, his father Brian a delusional alcoholic who would beat his son and his wife, Rebecca. When the two tried to run away from the abuse, Brian killed his wife in front of young Bruce by bashing her head into the pavement. Years later, in dramatic comic book fashion, Brian gets into a fight with his son at Rebecca's gravesite during a stormy night. Bruce ends up killing his father in much the way he once murdered his mother -- by bashing his head into the side of her gravestone. A rotten dad through and through, Brian should have known -- Hulk smash.

Magneto

We suppose that Magneto can't be blamed for not knowing that he fathered kids (THREE TIMES!) until much later. We suppose that he can't be blamed for many of the negative forces that shaped his life. We believe that he CAN be blamed for repeatedly trying to use his children to further his own agendas. Magneto is an unrepentant user, and that trait doesn't generally carry over well to positive parenting. Then again, Magneto never had much contact with any of his kids until they were in their teens or older, so how much parenting has he really ever done?

Omni-Man

It doesn't get much worse than discovering that everything you thought you knew about your dad was an act he was putting on while secretly scheming to enslave the Earth. And a superhero like Omni-Man doesn't go much more evil than when he leaves the world's greatest superheroes that trusted him in a bloody heap in their headquarters. But Invincible's dad Omni-Man took it a step further by beating his son to within an inch of his life, then abandoning him and his mother. While he's made later attempts at redemption, Omni-Man's got a whole lot of making up to do.

Ra's Al Ghul

Anyone who names his albino son "White Ghost" has got to have a cruel streak, but the real evil in Ra's fatherhood is his insistence that his kids sacrifice everything for him. When Ra's went Nazi, he stood by as his eldest daughter Nyssa was victim to experiments in a concentration camp. When his daughter Talia gave him a grandson, instead of bouncing the boy on his knee, daddy Ra's tried to kill the kid and use his body. While there's something to be said for admiring a grandchild enough to want to possess him, you can bet Damian won't be inviting grandpa Ra's in for career day anytime soon.

Deathstroke

Quick count: screwed up and got Joe's throat slit. Saw Grant assume his HIVE contract on the Titans and die. Stabbed and killed Joe as an attempt to do something [i]right[/i]. Savagely manipulated Rose up to the point where she gouged out her own eye. Yeah, Deathstroke's a winner all right. And that's all without counting rampant other despicable acts, like nuking a country and having sex with underage Terra. For his callous use of his children and the significant wreckage that each of their lives became, Deathstroke wins hands down as the Worst Dad.