What is Marvel's flagship title?

[Mister Mets]

A dispute at another forum got me thinking: What book would you guys say is currently Marvel's flagship title?

I'd argue that for the last few years it's been New Avengers, which included Marvel's most popular heroes (including Spider-Man and Wolverine), and has been tied to four of Marvel's last five events (Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion.) But if you can make a case for another title, or give more reasons I'm right. :biggrin:, I'll be glad to read it.

[Expletive Deleted]

In the sense of the book that's setting the tone and direction for the rest of the line, I'd say NEW AVENGERS is probably right on the money.

But it really depends on how you define "flagship."

[carabas]

I think it changes from time to time, but right now it's probably Avengers, both New and Mighty, but New more than Mighty

.

[SkinFromBone]

Yeah New Avengers.

[anomaly]

A dispute at another forum got me thinking: What book would you guys say is currently Marvel's flagship title?

I'd argue that for the last few years it's been New Avengers, which included Marvel's most popular heroes (including Spider-Man and Wolverine), and has been tied to four of Marvel's last five events (Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion.) There you go then :)

[scouse mouse]

Definitely New Avengers.

[roundman]

I think it changes from time to time, but right now it's probably Avengers, both New and Mighty, but New more than Mighty.

I agree. They're almost like one book, in a sense, as they're providing two different points of view of one very interwoven story.

(I prefer Mighty to New, though.)

[jpk]

I don't think there is a flagship title at the moment, but there is a flagship team, and that is the Avengers. New, Mighty and the Initiative are the key books in the MU, grabbing the place that the X books once occupied on the frontline.

[XPac]

With Spider-Man and Wolverine on the top selling on-going book in the company, I definately think it's hard to argue that New Avengers at least right now isn't the company's flagship title.

It brings together the Spidey, Avenger, Xmen, and street level corners of the MU all together in a way I'm not sure ANY marvel on-going has ever done before. Mighty Avengers may be the complementary book to New Avengers, but it doesn't quite resemble the core of the MU like NA does... it's more a straight up Avengers book (which is a GOOD thing in my view... though it does lessen it's contention for being the companys flagship title).

The only other book you could argue may be the flagship is Amazing Spider-Man. That's marvels flagship character coming out thrice monthly. And unlike New Avengers, it's got a long long history being in the high profile position it is now. Avengers as a franchise was a sadly neglected corner of the MU until Bendis came along and revitalized it.

Uncanny X-Men would have been an arguable point in the 90's... but things have shifted a bit since them.

[Magneto Rocks]

It's not the best one, but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that New Avengers is the flagship of Marvel right now.

[JCurwen]

I agree. It's New Avengers.

[CyberHubbs]

New Avengers. Though, I would've liked to see more of a street-level crime-fighting on their part. Feels like that's where they were obviously supposed to be, given their team, but they never quite got there.

Now, with them fighting Skrulls, even less chance of that.

But, yeah. They're the current flagship title.

[TotalWorldDomination]

New Avengers, obviously.

Though I'd say strong arguments could put ASM close and that MA could become the flagship title soon, depending on how SI works out, it's clear that NA is the tentpole of the MU right now. Even when Bendis ISN'T writing the events the New/Mighty Avengers are the main characters (Civil War, WWH).

[rZi]

They used to say ASM...

But I think New Avengers is pretty much the core book that shapes the MU, well by todays standards anyway.

[Dagger]

It's totally Hudlin's Black Panther. That book is involved in EVERY corner of the Marvel U. right now!

[IronKing]

New Avengers

The X-Universe almost seems like it's own entity. So I'd go with either Uncanny or Legacy.

[The Shadow]

This thread needs a poll.

[matthewaos]

If it matters anything at all, I started working on a comic shop, and the top three books in the latest order were:

New Avengers (64)
Secret Invasion (55)
Conan (52) and Amazing Spider-Man (52)
I'm not counting DCU Zero, we had about a million of them.

[Jim Thompson]

In order:

1. Amazing Spider-Man -- easily Marvel's most recognizable, well known character. The company was nearly built on this character's popularity.

2. The X-Men -- after Spidey, I think these are the characters most regular people would be familiar with.

3. The Hulk -- while his movies haven't done as well, he has the benefit of a hit TV show that still keeps him in the public's eye.

4. The Avengers -- the Avengers have some fairly recognizable characters, especially since the Iron Man movie came out, but by and large they are not publicly known.

[Aziz Abbasi]

Every X-Men Title (X-Men are the current main rivals of Spider-Man is selling franchise and making cartoons about)
Invincible Iron-Man
&
Deadpool

[PKIronMan]

Marvel has done a great job in the past few years of distributing storyline across many books. So if I had to limit my pull list to just ~one~ book I'd just walk away from comics. I'd feel completely at a loss trying to keep up with all the mini-series and wouldn't enjoy it.

So I'd say Marvel doesn't have a flagship by design and doesn't desire one for story integrity (WOW, I just said that about Marvel so I've officially gone mad).

[Omega Alpha]

NA would be the one that fits the definition best, though not as central to the MU as JLA is (usually) to the DCU.

[JulianPerez]

FANTASTIC FOUR was the first Marvel comic, the first to have Stan Lee's Marvel "attitude," his way of looking at and writing superheroes. FF was easily the best written comic of that era, and introduced the most innovations into the Marvel universe. I've heard an argument that the only two truly significant ideas not added by FF were mutants in X-MEN and Asgard in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY.

Even today, if somebody asks me what Marvel is all about, I show them Lee/Kirby FF: heroes with problems, great villains, cosmic adventures that come from heroes' personalities and goals rather than just a desire to fight crime, and witty, brassy dialogue.

I read a great argument by Kurt Busiek that because the Avengers are so integrated into the "core" of the Marvel Universe, and so very connected to everything (the Vision for instance, is the wife of the Scarlet Witch, who is the brother of Quicksilver, both of whom are children of Magneto, and the Vision is also the son of Ultron, who was created by Hank Pym, the ex-husband of the Wasp, etc., etc.) that in his words, "if the Avengers don't work, Marvel doesn't work."

Different books have been different flagships at different times. For nigh-20 years, X-Men was just about the top-seller. As a result, almost everything important in the MU was about the X-Men for a very long time.

[yadadaimhollaing]

id still say spiderman is the flagship title. no matter what spiderman is the most recognizable marvel character so hell always be the flagship to me. even though hes a part of the new avengers right now its still a team book and doesnt totally revolve around spiderman.

id also add the xmen above the avengers as a flagship title. main thing with uncanny xmen are the mutants almost seem like theyre in another world. they dont interact with non mutants as much as the regular super heroes do. youre much more likely to find an xmen character making an apperance in a xmen book as opposed to an xmen character making an appearance in an avengers book.

now while i still look at amazing spiderman as the flagship i dont think hes book is the most important book in marvel. while looking for the most important book marvel has to offer id agree that its new avengers and mighty avengers since marvel revolves around what happens with these characters.

[bebopeva88]

Traditionally, I'd say Uncanny and Amazing, but as far as a combination of sales and setting the tone for the company, it's New Avengers.

[Aziz Abbasi]

id still say spiderman is the flagship title. no matter what spiderman is the most recognizable marvel character so hell always be the flagship to me.Bro; he will is shortened to he'll, not hell

[yadadaimhollaing]

Bro; he will is shortened to he'll, not hell

i dont use much puncuation, im not a great typer

[RolandJP]

It's totally Hudlin's Black Panther. That book is involved in EVERY corner of the Marvel U. right now!


You tease!

Anywho, My vote is New Avengers, it used to be Amazing Spiderman.
Sidenote--- Ultimate Spiderman is the Magnus Opus of Marvel Titles--it will titled as such in a few years..Bendis/Bagley and now Immonen made that book their B*tch.