PARKERSBURG — Between saving the world, fighting crime, returning from death, dying again and returning again, many comic book characters manage to find time for romance.

Some of these pairings have been translated to other media: Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson, Superman and Lois Lane, Thor and Jane Foster.

A few only happen on screen or are amplified for certain stories. Black Widow and the Hulk were never an item in the comics, and while there have been sparks between Iron Man and Pepper Potts, she actually married Happy Hogan.

In recent Iron Man stories, Tony Stark rekindled an old romance with the Wasp, a fellow Avenger. The first time around he hadn’t revealed his secret identity, so things got awkward when she realized he was a teammate and friend of her ex, Hank Pym, aka Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, etc.

In the 1980s Marvel “Secret Wars” event, the Wasp shared a kiss with X-Men villain Magneto. But it was just one of those two-ships-in-the-night-on-an-artificial-battle-planet situations; they didn’t keep in touch back on Earth.

The Black Widow and Hawkeye fell in love while on the wrong side of the law and were just friends when serving together as Avengers. She later was the partner in crimefighting and love of Daredevil, even sharing top billing on his comic for a while.

DD’s fellow former Netflix star, Iron Fist, was just friends with streaming paramour Colleen Wing in the comics. His primary love interest for a long time was actually Misty Knight.

Peter Parker’s exploits as Spider-Man have interfered with his civilian love life more than once, but he’s also dated within the costumed community. The Black Cat was more interested in the man in the mask than the one under it. Spidey once went on a date with Captain Marvel, and for a while was involved with fellow Avenger Mockingbird, Hawkeye’s ex, who you might remember from “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

In the Ultimate line of comics, Spidey was the boyfriend of the X-Men’s Kitty Pryde for a while. That shouldn’t have surprised anyone, since the main continuity version has been linked with Colossus (Piotr “Peter” Rasputin) and British spy Pete Wisdom and was even engaged for a while to the Guardians of the Galaxy’s Star-Lord (Peter Quill).

DC’s superheroes aren’t strangers to spandex love connections either.

While Blue Beetle once asserted that, deep down, all the male superheroes love Wonder Woman, she and Superman became more than friends in the New 52 reboot. Before that, Wonder Woman had will-they-or-won’t-they relationships with both Aquaman and Batman in the pages of “JLA.”

The “Justice League” cartoon paired Hawkgirl with Green Lantern, but in a recent comic run, she developed a bond with Martian Manhunter. Things really progressed when they visited an alternate reality where they had a child — who came back to their dimension with them.

Superman and Lex Luthor have clashed for years, but there was a time when Supergirl was actually dating Luthor’s son. This wasn’t the Supergirl who was the Man of Steel’s cousin, but if you think that makes it less awkward, Luthor Jr. was actually the original Lex in a cloned body with a luxurious mane of red hair.

Love in comics knows no bounds, including those established by publishers. In the long-awaited JLA/Avengers crossover in 2003-4, Black Canary briefly chose smooth-talking, blond archer Hawkeye over smooth-talking, blond archer Green Arrow when the worlds collided.

Which reminds me, if Marvel and DC ever start doing crossovers again, Kitty Pryde should look up Superman’s buddy Pete Ross.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.