When Being A Hero (or Villain) Runs In The Family: 5 Super Powered Families

Being a parent is tough, plain and simple. I have a 3 year old son and another son on the way...hopefully any day now actually. Being a father to a smart and incredibly over stimulated young boy is difficult. He runs in 15 directions at any given moment and it's difficult to try and keep track of him sometimes. But, I wouldn't change a thing because it's moments like this that really make the trials of being a parent totally worth it.

As difficult as it is being a father, it truly is one of the best things imaginable to have your child run up to you and you can see in their eyes that you are their superhero. Brycen is without a doubt a daddy's boy through and through. He tries to mimic me in nearly everything we do. He wants to walk like me, talk like me and be just like daddy. These are the sort of moments that make all the tears and frustration of parenting completely worth it.

Brycen wants to be just like me, and to that extent he knows that I love superheroes, so that means that he loves them too. His room is decked out with Spider-Man and Superman, he has countless toys as well as posters and plaques littering his walls. His favorite is Spider-Man and mine is Iron Fist, so we make a good team. That all got me thinking about the heroes who come from a lineage of superpowers. Here are my top 5 super-powered father/son or mother/daughter teams.

Mystique / Nightcrawler / Rogue

Mystique is a shape-shifting mutant. She craves power, affluence and money. She probably won't ever win a mother-of-the-year award, but nevertheless Mystique has a son with the demon Azazel. After being chased out of her home, she abandoned the child. Kurt was found and raised by a Gypsy sorceress and he would later be known as Nightcrawler after his own mutant powers of teleportation were revealed. Mystique also would later become the adoptive mother of the mutant named Rogue. Rogue has the ability to absorb the powers, psyche and abilities from anyone that she makes physical contact with.

Cyclops / Cable

Scott Summers, better known as Cyclops is the stereotypical hero. He is brave, self-less and a great leader. Through a fairly convoluted story involving Jean Grey, well actually her clone (Madelyne Pryor) who was created by Mr. Sinister, Nathan Summers is born as the child of Scott & Madelyne. Mr. Sinister had hopes that their child would become a superior mutant and eventually would defeat his nemesis, Apocalypse. The child, Nathan Summers (Cable), was experimented on and eventually his future self would travel through time to stop what would be the future ruled by Apocalypse. Cable was infected by the Techno-Organic Virus which caused half of his body to be ravaged and turned into technology. Cable has alpha level powers of telepathy and control over psionic forces.

Wolverine / Daken

James "Logan" Howlett, also known as Wolverine, is a mutant who was given an unbreakable skeleton thanks to the Weapon X Program, and eventually has it augmented more by Apocalypse. He has superhuman senses, strength and speed as well as bone claws that can be unsheathed through his hand. During Logan's time in Japan, he had a child with his wife Itsu. The child survived after his mother was killed due to receiving Logan's healing ability and was removed from his mother's body by Romulus. The child was named Akihiro by the young Japanese couple whose doorstep he was left on, but was called "Daken" by everyone else as a way to tease him over the fact that he was considered a bastard child. His mutant powers are similar to his father's except he only has 2 retractable claws that unsheathe through his hand and has one underneath his hand. For a time, Daken was known as Dark Wolverine.

Catwoman / Huntress

Selina Kyle has been an on-again/off-again anti-hero, adversary and crime fighter who spent many years crossing paths with Batman before eventually reforming from her career as a burglar, and eventually she began protecting the streets of Gotham with her love interest, Batman. Selena and Bruce had a daughter together names Helena, who was raised to be a crime-fighter like her parents. She was trained in combat and conditioned her body to be in peak physical condition like both of her parents.

Magneto / Scarlet Witch / Quicksilver

Magneto is one of the most powerful mutants known to man, his control over magnetism gives him extensive abilities such as creating force fields, power of flight, electromagnetic manipulation and so much more. Unbeknownst to him at the time, his wife who would later go missing and seek refuge with the High Evolutionary was pregnant with twins. She would give birth to Wanda and Pietro who would be adopted later - but eventually come to meet and work with Magneto on occasion. Wanda would soon be known as the Scarlet Witch and she has the ability to alter reality using chaos magic. She has also shown the ability to use telekinesis and create force fields (similar to Magneto). Pietro, on the other hand, would be known as Quicksilver and his body has adapted to the rigors of super-speed running. He can destabilize his own molecules and can walk through solid objects. He also has superhuman stamina, agility and reflexes.

Ultimately, being a hero or villain doesn't always run in the family, but there are some pretty great stories about the ones that do.