CBR's Top Marvel Mutants

Iceman broke the top 50, hells ya! Although I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed in the world of Fandom when Deadpool is number 15 on the list. >.<

@Grief, hey, at least Deadpool got beat by Nightcrawler.

Originally posted by Anna Raven No Professor Xavier yet. I wonder if he will be in the top 3.

Of all time marvel Characters? I doubt that...considering Captain America, Thor, and Spider-Man haven't been listed. Fandom, at least the ones sampled, don't see him as a top 50 character.

Oh yeh Thor was missing too. Well I find that odd he is missing then. I blame Marvel for shoving him to the background.

Interesting that many of these characters, despite their popularity, have not been successful as solo characters.  Rogue, Emma, Nightcrawler, Gambit... considerable fanbase but not enough to carry an ongoing.  Meanwhile, Deadpool can carry several apparently.  I wonder if there are some characters who are beloved more from their role on teams and really only work for fans in that context...

@Blackcyclops - Dazzler was the first mutant with a solo title but she wasn't an X-Man until after her solo series was cancelled.  Wolvie is the first to have an ongoing of his own after serving as an X-Man.

Gambit's series was fairly successful as were Cable's and both did a good job of establishing their own adventures and supporting cast separate from the X-Men.  This is where most X-Men solo series fail.  They are either so connected to the team dynamic that you know nothing eventful or lasting will come from their solo adventures and that all the important stuff will happen in the team book.   It's the just the opposite in Avengers books --- on a drama level, guys like Spidey, Cap and Iron Man sometimes fill like filler on the team because the good stuff happens in their solo books.    You're rarely going to see lasting developments like a serious romance or life-changing event for these guys in a team setting because the characters are shared with the writer on their book.

I think it's a different set of challenges, from a marketing and writing perspective.  When you add Spider-Man to a team book, Spidey fans might check it out and add to the book's sales.... but they'll be assured that nothing that changes his status quo will really happen to him while he's on his team adventures. 

It's the opposite for an established team character like Rogue to suddenly have a solo book.  There's a lot more skepticism and you have to build a readership and convince them that the character can work outside the team setting.  While many may enjoy her on a team, only a percentage of those readers may opt to buy her solo series.   You also have to define a purpose for the series and the solo adventures that works without conflicting with what's happening in the team book.  This means finding an organic way for that character to have their own separate adventures and develop their own supporting cast whose stories center around them.  Not nearly as easy as having Spidey throw in a quip among the other dozen plus Avengers.  And it seems to work very rarely...  especially with characters who were introduced and firmly established as team members first.

It's marketing but also character creation and development.  You can be a star player on a team and get a lot of exposure/panel time, but if you as a character were created to be on a particular team, then that means that you were created to fill a particular niche within an overall team dynamic.  Unless you're the leader (leaders are seen as more capable of going solo, even if they're not a lone wolf by design) you're perceived as more of a bit player and as such a solo series wouldn't work because you can't change that character's personality.  So the whole book is done, in order or most to least likely:

1) wrapped around accommodating that niche-personality, making it rather one note.  Significant action can occur, but significant character development is not as likely.  What occurs is more likely to bolster those niche personality traits, rather than question or redefine them

2) borrow other characters from other writers to make a new side cast for a story, with everybody realizing that this is just filler... you'll only rehash the same core stuff that happened in the main character's team appearances, as well as the last stuff to happen wherever those other characters came from, with only the new characters or long-obscure characters having any real chance for development

3) a writer has to develop a whole slew of probably-never-going-to-be-used-again side characters just to serve as foils to the main character, but then that's the most work for potentially the least amount of payoff, as the main character is still in a status quo and unless you can create a new character with editorial blessing that other writers will be asked to use them, you really just wasted the time of making a new character that you could've spent storyboarding with existing characters.

Characters created to be on a team are often not created or even intended to be their own complete people with a full range of emotions and thoughts, and the all-too-important capacity to contradict oneself.  Until the industry gets beyond that, they're shooting themselves in the foot whenever they try to send a team character into solo territory.

Wait wait wait. WAIT. I know a few of the mutants/x-characters on the list have pulled double shift for the Avengers, and Wanda has never worn an X, but 20 X-characters making a top 50 list? No way will another team (except maybe the Justice League) have as many characters on that list... Does that mean that the X-Men are the most well-represented franchise on the list?

Originally posted by das_boot Wait wait wait. WAIT. I know a few of the mutants/x-characters on the list have pulled double shift for the Avengers, and Wanda has never worn an X, but 20 X-characters making a top 50 list? No way will another team (except maybe the Justice League) have as many characters on that list... Does that mean that the X-Men are the most well-represented franchise on the list?

THat's a good question...the site is down right now...but they might be.

LOL @ Ciel, two Cyclops disses in a row...nice LOL

Edited by Blackcyclops - 03-Oct-2011 at 7:30pm

Well, as many characters as they have in Xmen you'd NEED ethnic diversity or it'd be BORING.

Originally posted by Tyler5618 All of the top females on the list were mutants. The first non-mutant female on the list is She-Hulk at #26. The X-women represent for the MU!

So that means Emma Frost is the top female Marvel character? Very interesting.