Marvel has a substantial number of characters inside their universe, who occupy many different archetypes, personalities, and Origins. Most characters go through trials and tribulations without losing too much in the process. However, this is not always the case, as many other characters suffer a little more throughout their arc. The Hero's Journey is a difficult one paved with consequences for every choice, but sometimes a moment in a character's story leaves a reader sympathetic.
There is an endless list of characters who have it the worst in the Marvel universe. Some have nearly destroyed their own lives or the entire world, while others just seem to have a string of dire misfortune. These characters take it in stride, but should catch a break sometimes.
10 Wolverine
Wolverine, also known as James Howlett, is an old-timer in the Marvel universe. He's been all the way to the end and back again, bearing several different looks along the way. Throughout his life, he's had more than his fair share of misfortunes.
Wolverine's bad luck began with killing his father after his mutant power manifested, then being brainwashed by a secret military experiment that turned him into an unstoppable killer. He's also lost the love of his life multiple times. Over and over again he's lost everything else, gotten it back, then lost it again. Under the word "tragedy" in the dictionary, Wolverine is who you'll find.
9 Scarlet Witch
The Scarlet Witch is a strong contender for possibly the unluckiest of Marvel characters. She goes through misfortune in all mediums she appears in, even video games. Starting as the daughter of Magneto, he raised her during his zealot phase — which was not a pleasant upbringing.
She then fell in love with a bio-organic android, only for him to be completely destroyed right in front of her. Even after creating the perfect world with her mutant power, things should look up for the Scarlet Witch. Instead, it's ripped away from her along with her sanity, pushing her to nearly make mutants extinct.
8 Strong Guy
A life of trouble defines Strong Guy very well. He was a timid and gentle child, who was often bullied until he manifested his mutant powers. His powers allow him to absorb kinetic energy, but the energy he absorbed misshaped his body and made him an even bigger outcast.
Later on, his parents would die in a fatal accident when a satellite fell on top of them. He would receive a large settlement that he would squander, and thus wind up penniless. Ending up on the X-Men team and tacking on his near death on a mission, Strong Guy is living the life of hard knocks.
7 Morbius
At birth, Dr. Michael Morbius was plagued with bad luck, being born with an incurable blood disease. This disease made Michael extremely weak, but pushed him to one day find a cure for it for himself and people like him.
To this end, Michael performed a dangerous experiment on himself that permanently changed his body's DNA, mixing it with bat DNA. As a result, he was granted powerful abilities. However, this was accompanied by an intense thirst for plasma as well as his body and mind mutating, much like Spiderman and Wolverine.
6 Jubilee
Jubilee started out with it all: a trustworthy best friend, wealthy parents, and a lot of potential. But one bad decision almost landed her in jail until her mutant gene manifested and wiped out an entire alley, resulting in the cops chasing her. Soon after, she lost her parents and started living at the mall she used to frequent.
While working as a street performer, Jubilee would come across the X-Men and join their team, where her life would take more unfortunate turns. She went from being an outcast to a prisoner of Zero Tolerance, and finally was turned into a vampire and set up for murder. But Jubilee doesn't let anything hold her back, and lives her life to the fullest.
5 Flash Tompson
Once the high school bully turned war hero, Flash Thompson was on top of the world for all of five minutes before he was knocked off his feet, and his feet were knocked off of him. Losing his legs in the military, Flash came home to fight another war: one of mental illness and drastically different life in a wheelchair.
Luck would look his way once more when he is chosen to wield the black symbiote and become agent Venom, only to lose the symbiote later before being killed by the Red Goblin.
4 Spiderman
One would think being bit by a radioactive spider and getting superpowers would be a good thing. Instead, since becoming Spider-Man, Peter Parker has suffered the death of a girlfriend at the hands of Green Goblin, the death of his uncle Ben, the loss of his best friend to crime, and being labeled a menace to society by the media.
Spider-Man always seems to get into troubling situations, even when his only goal is to do the right thing. He's proof that no good deed goes unpunished.
3 Caliban
Caliban has had a muddled history in the Marvel universe. He has not had it easy ever since his mutant powers manifested and turned his skin gray, robbing him of even the possibility of passing as a normal person.
He was gifted the ability to sense mutants in a large radius, which made him valuable to many factions who sought to harm mutant kind. Starting as a Marlock, living in sewers, to being "evolved" into a blood hound to Apocalypse, Caliban always seems to end up a pawn in a larger game.
2 Legion
One of the most powerful mutants and one of the most unstable (though it would be great to see him in a video game), Legion is the son of Charles Xavier and is gifted with tremendous mental power, even more so than his father. His mutant gene manifested at a young age as a reflex when he witnessed an assassination as a reflex: Legion shattered the minds of the killers and the victim and absorbed their memories.
Unfortunately, this split his mind into pieces with multiple personalities, which led to Legion being unpredictable and liable to cause mayhem at any moment. Legion would even create entirely different realities and have no memory of doing so, due to his uncontrollable powers.
1 Speedball
Speedball makes it to number one on the list, having one of the darkest moments in his creation. Speedball was a member of the New Warriors, rising to stardom as a reality TV superhero, saving the day on camera. But while out on a mission, he and his team ran into a group of villains; among them was Nitro.
Speedball, who was still inexperienced, would cause a catastrophic event that would forever change the Marvel universe and spark a war between heroes and government. He would later take up the mantle “Penance” after realizing that his foolish antics caused the death of 672 civilians.