Well Luke Cage, I thought only his mom was still alive.

 

Dead parents and friends of superheroes are overused.

Villains should go after their pets. You'd never expect the pets.

"Ha ha! Captain Justice, you may have saved the city, However, you could not save...YOUR PRECIOUS HAMPSTER!"

"Noooooooo Mr. Squiggles!!!!! Whyyyyyyy!?!?!?!? Wh-h-h-h-hyyyyy!?!?!"<sobs>

 

For some characters that info really isn't easy to find. I assumed Cage had a mom at least. Considering how blaxploitation he's always been, it was unlikely he had a dad.

 

Depends on continuity. In many continuities Jonathan Kent is dead by the time Clark becomes Superman, and in many continuities Wonder Woman doesn't technically have a father.

If you're talkin Silver Age Superboy though, yeah, he's got two adoptive parents. Or comic-troll Superboy Prime.

 

Jonathan Kent stroking out when Clark is around 18 is something that originates with the Donner movies. And if it's used, it's as a shout out to them. Still most times he's alive. And I was talking about Kon-El Superboy. Consdering his parents are Superman and Lex Luthor.

 

"My two (superpowerful) dads"

While yes, it does originate in the Donner films (though presumably superman prime's adoptive parents would have already passed), it has been used in enough sidestories and sub-continuities that I think it counts, especially when combined with the weight that superman being a biological orphan is given in terms of how his origin is described.

Other superheroes with living folks:
Jean Grey / Marvel Girl
Norrin Radd / Silver Surfer
Firestorm
Blue Beetle III

Other superheroes missing parents:

The Flash (Barry Allen)
Aquaman
Cyclops
Rachel Summers / Phoenix
The Goon
Sue and Johnny Storm

 

Superman Prime's planet got wiped out with all the others by Antimoniter. Trying to restore it is his only motivation as a character.

The only member of Ted Kord's family I've ever heard of is his super villian uncle Jarvis.

Barry Allen was an orphan raised by foster parents. Although Barry got decent ones, and his twin brother Cobalt Blue got crappy ones. And Aquaman is a king, that pretty much requires dead parents.

 

I meant pre-crisis Superman Prime, but yeah, if the Prime kents weren't dead before Crisis, they were afterwards.

Oh shit, yeah, Jaime would be Blue Beetle III, corrected. Forgot about the original Blue Beetle.

I included Allen since the murder of his mother has been a prominent (albeit recent) feature of his characterization. And Aquaman was raised by his father, his mother dying while he was very young.

 

He's always on the phone with his mom in Avengers Adventures.

 

 

Yep and the parnets would have only themselves to blame! 

 

 

I know the story you're referring to. Barry was one of a pair of twins, the Thayne family's child was a stillbirth. The doctor, reasoning both families deserved to have one child more than one deserved to have two, decided to cover up the dead baby and give one of the twins away. Barry was raised by his own parents. Cobalt Blue was raised by the Thayne family - the same bloodline that eventually gave rise to The Flash's greatest foe, the Reverse Flash.

As I recall, a few of the younger heroes out there have still-living parents. Mostly of the ones I'm familiar with the Teen Titans. Raven's father's still out there, but in pretty much all cases that's a bad thing. Her dad being the demon Trigon and all.

 

Hulk/Bruce Banner's parents are dead. I don't think it's overused per say, it's not like they bring it up constantly.

 

Well with Hulk it was the father kills the mother, then the son kills the father.

 

Goku

 

With Batman, it was done extremely well. Don't think it was? Go play Batman: Arkhsm City and pay your respects. That shit made me tear up.