What makes you like the X-Men over the Avengers?

[Puunk]

Got the idea from the "What makes you like Marvel more than DC?" thread in the MU forum.

Well, what does make you like the X-Men over the Avengers? When I first started reading comics, the X-Men instantly appealed to me simply because they just seemed cooler. The Avengers -compared to the X-Men- seem bland if you asked me (I'm not calling their members bland, but as a team itself).

[Personamanx]

I appreciate almost all comic Characters. But Yeah I do read more X-books over Avenger books. Why? Im really not quite sure......

[Fatguy]

The characters, definitely. I love the Avengers almost as much, but I'm more attached to the X-Men because when I was a kid they just seemed edgier. And really, when you're a young boy, you're gonna plop your allowance down for the comic with the crazy clawed guy and the dude who's throwing super powered playing cards at people while saying "badass" lines much quicker than for the comic featuring the fine upstanding citizen with the million dollar smile and the American shield.

[Mia]

For me there are four factors:


First: One reason I love the X-Men over the Avengers and the JLA. Is because the X-Men do what they do because it's the right thing. It's like they think it's their duty to take the gifts they were born with and help others. Even those who hate and fear them. Whereas more often than not reading the JLA and The Avengers, I get a sense that they act out of self-righteousness. Or even thrill seeking.

Second: Well being a woman, I enjoy the whole soap opera nature of the book. It's like reading The Young and The Restless on paper!


Three: I like their inherant coolness, The X-Men are like a perfect blend of one third underwear models, one third ballet company and one third olympic atheletes.


Four: I love the women, Emma, Psylocke, Sage, Storm and X-23. They are so cool. They are intelligent, strong, resliliant, play to win, feminine and powerful. I really find them amazingly inspiring!

[CrimsonComedian]

Much deeper universe, period. Better conceptually, better stories, better characters.

[Victorious]

Yeah, the whole topics (discrimination, racism, diversity, subcultures, etc) the X-verse were always about (even in the X-Men TAS) were and is always much more attractive to me than someone who has an heroic personality just because and decide to be on a super-heroes team …
The “being different and being an outcast” in society is an aspect I always love about the X-Men. They don’t choose to be what they are, and they are oblige to fight for survival and stick to each others, they are a natural outcast family…
And the characters definitely, the diversity specially, the different backgrounds, interesting powers (and how they handled them), and how such different people have to learn to be a family just because the only thing they got in common is that hey are mutants…

[myspidernadsaretingling]

i like x-men over the avengers:

cause i have nothing is common with a war profiteer, propaganda machine, or a norse god.

[LordAllMighty]

Yeah, the whole topics (discrimination, racism, diversity, subcultures, etc) the X-verse were always about (even in the X-Men TAS) were and is always much more attractive to me than someone who has an heroic personality just because and decide to be on a super-heroes team …
The “being different and being an outcast” in society is an aspect I always love about the X-Men. They don’t choose to be what they are, and they are oblige to fight for survival and stick to each others, they are a natural outcast family…
And the characters definitely, the diversity specially, the different backgrounds, interesting powers (and how they handled them), and how such different people have to learn to be a family just because the only thing they got in common is that hey are mutants…

Give this kid a cigar.:biggrin: To me the Avengers are a team, while the X-Men are a family.

Not saying I don't pick up an issue of Avengers every once and a while.

[deathsatan]

Civil War balanced the scales a bit and made the whole marvel universe feel like the x-men, but basically the outcasts protecting a world that hates and fears them thing is awesome.

[ZNOP]

I never bought into the "They hate us because we were born different" bullshit... That is a defeatest attitude. I like the X-Men over the Avengers becuase they are straight up born with their powers:cool: Nothing more... Nothing less. Don't get me wrong, "The Avengers" is my second favorite title and nothing can take their place -- But, it like MIA said "I enjoy the whole soap opera nature of the book." Only I compare it to Piers Anthony's land of "Xanith" or Robert Jorden's "Wheel of Time" Saga. Also if I had to choose a TV/Movie theme I would have to go with Star Wars and any of the 1970's sci-fi shows (www.marty.com.au/images/stories/scifi/art-sci-fi-70s-science-fiction-heroes-artist-dusty-abell-th.jpg):biggrin:

[The Black Guardian]

For me there are four factors:

First: One reason I love the X-Men over the Avengers and the JLA. Is because the X-Men do what they do because it's the right thing. It's like they think it's their duty to take the gifts they were born with and help others. Even those who hate and fear them. Whereas more often than not reading the JLA and The Avengers, I get a sense that they act out of self-righteousness. Or even thrill seeking.

Second: Well being a woman, I enjoy the whole soap opera nature of the book. It's like reading The Young and The Restless on paper!

Three: I like their inherant coolness, The X-Men are like a perfect blend of one third underwear models, one third ballet company and one third olympic atheletes.

Four: I love the women, Emma, Psylocke, Sage, Storm and X-23. They are so cool. They are intelligent, strong, resliliant, play to win, feminine and powerful. I really find them amazingly inspiring!
This.

Except leave the part about Emma. I'm a guy, but I love soap operas.

[Puunk]

The characters, definitely. I love the Avengers almost as much, but I'm more attached to the X-Men because when I was a kid they just seemed edgier. And really, when you're a young boy, you're gonna plop your allowance down for the comic with the crazy clawed guy and the dude who's throwing super powered playing cards at people while saying "badass" lines much quicker than for the comic featuring the fine upstanding citizen with the million dollar smile and the American shield.

I think that's also why I was initially attracted to the X-Men, even before getting into comics.

Yeah, the whole topics (discrimination, racism, diversity, subcultures, etc) the X-verse were always about (even in the X-Men TAS) were and is always much more attractive to me than someone who has an heroic personality just because and decide to be on a super-heroes team …
The “being different and being an outcast” in society is an aspect I always love about the X-Men. They don’t choose to be what they are, and they are oblige to fight for survival and stick to each others, they are a natural outcast family…
And the characters definitely, the diversity specially, the different backgrounds, interesting powers (and how they handled them), and how such different people have to learn to be a family just because the only thing they got in common is that hey are mutants…

Nice points. That's something I really like about them now.

[worstblogever]

The Avengers are often beloved champions of the masses.

The X-Men, however, are a bunch of misfits and often outlaws who are hated and feared, in spite of their heroism.


I like rooting for the underdog. I also like books with more symbolism, and where as the Avengers typically just assemble and beat villainous ass, the X-Men have a lot of themes about tolerance, prejudice, and finding morally difficult situations where what's "right" isn't so clear.

So, mutants > Earth's Mightiest Heroes, at least in terms of an interesting read. Typically, at least. Civil War thru Dark Reign has kind of skewed that dynamic a bit to where both are outlaws.

[Azure]

Because Thor and Captain America and Hulk are rubbish. Also, Grant Morrison never wrote an Avengers series.

[Jay Dogg]

I used to and a lot had to do with the exposure because growing up, all you really saw (at least in my area) were Spider-Man, X-Men, some Incredible Hulk and very minimum Fantastic Four. Only one out of the Avengers that I heard about on a regular basis was Captain America, and being a kid, I didn't see Captain America as "cool" (yes yes I know...). Anyways, my first major exposure to the Avengers was the "Captain America & The Avengers" game for the SNES which had Cap, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and The Vision...now seeing that that's my only knowledge of the Avengers, I thought that it just consisted of those 4 guys, and I thought it was lame...boy was I wrong. From Infinity War (my introduction into comics as a customer) on up, I've been slowly gaining interest...and then in '98 when the Busiek/Perez series was launched, I never looked back. I started to gain even more interest that I decided to check out their older/most classic stuff, and while I love the Korvac Saga, Kree/Skrull, etc., I love their standalone stories better.

X-Men, like I said, I used to love them more and defended them religiously, but the Avengers has become my #1 team, while X-Men went down to #3 behind the JLA (although they're slowly slipping back down as well).

[tetragene]

I've actually come to like the Avengers books more than the X-books. The X-characters keep me reading X-books, but as far as stories, development, etc goes I feel the X-books (AXM and UXM) have been severely lacking. The mutant dynamic was, for me, finally going in an interesting direction under Morrison. The numbers had increased, there was an actual mutant culture, the did seem to be like the next evolutionary stage, etc--but it's like Marvel can't help but always bring the X-Men back to the basics of "we're hated and feared! no one likes us! we must help those that hate us! prof x! magneto! ignore the cultural/social/political aspects for the cliched superhero aspects! out of a pool of 200 characters let's use the same damn 5 all the time!" It's getting tired--and for me the drama and intrigue of it all is wearing thin. We've seen this happen yet again in the span of about 15 issues--the X-men were accepted and loved in San Fran, now they're feared/hated and segregating themselves again...with Namor. Yawn. It doesn't help that 90% of X-stories are so self-contained in their own X-verse that the X-Men themselves have little impact on the main MU or play very little role in the overall MU universe

For me the Avengers books are better than the 2 core X-books--but there are more X-characters I'm endeared to than Avengers characters.

[direction9]

just like marvel vs dc, i'm just trying to read good books man. it ain't a competition.

[Goshin]

The X-Men were there for me when I grew too old for ninja turtles ;)

What drew me towards them?

The 1990 original marvel trading cards we traded in school had cool characters like Longshot and Marvel Girl (Jean, red costume) and Havok and I wondered who the hell the x-men were.

Renting Pryde of the X-Men on vhs a couple times again wondering who the hell were the x-men.

THE X-MEN ARCADE GAME! It was better than the ninja turtle game and helped pull me over.

X-Men the Animated Series 1992!!!!!!!

The first three seasons made me fall in love with the x-men. This is my first exposure to Gambit and Beast, who was my fave in the original five but lost to Cyclops after turning into a cat. Rogue became my fave female hero next to Storm because she could fly and smash the hell outta shit like superman. And when I found out she could steal your powers for five minutes I flipped the fuck out.

Only thing is I started reading x-men classic reprints around the dr doom/arcade fight and didn't read uncanny until around x cutioner's song. Questions began to come up. Where's Nightcrawler? Why is Angel blue? Who the hell is Cable? And for the longest, I thought Dazzler from the arcade game and jubilee were the same person...

The first modern-day x-book I ever bought was an issue of wolverine when he fought some omega red knock off named epsilon red (who?) And I remember my friends drooling over Psylocke's ass (my first exposure to her). And to make things more difficult I started reading X-Men Legacy right before there were two psylockes on the team. I couldn't even pronounce her name right until she appeared on the cartoon.

I still had my old trading cards and wondered who longshot was, and when he appeared on the cartoon I bought all the outback issues and became a big havok fan because of hiis hot temper and his funny headgear costume.

I kinda quit reading the two core books after fatal attractions and stuck with x-men classic reprints and the wolvie solo book and old reprints until AoA!!!!! But thanks to my earliest exposure to 70s and 80s claremont x-books I believe the x-men are the greatest team of all-time. I still get goosebumps reading about proteus and phoenix and the issue rogue took a bullet to save mariko's life and logan kissed her to save her.

But the alternate reality AoA has to be the best and baddest crossover when I was a kid it brought me back in and I bought every issue of joe mad's anime run since I was getting into dbz and anime at the time and seeing the x-men drawn like that was like crack.

I quit reading when x-crap maGgot and marrow came and came back when nightcrawler and kitty rejoined. I flipped out that the original 1986 lineup was back..... PLUS GAMBIT! You could tell me nothing bad about the 80-99 era. I thought the evil cerebro x-men were bad ass and still wished they came back even though I admit the plot was kinda stupid and only served to bring back the excalibur members. But the x-men are family I feel I know them inside out because I grew up with them. I have known Peter and Kurt and Ororo since I was 9 and I just turned 26.

I read some Avengers too post acts of vengeance and the george perez reborn issues but didn't really become a fan until the revamped New Avengers because of Wolverine, Spiderman and LUKE CAGE! (My dad bought a big-ass stack of old powerman and iron fist comics from half price book store around the time I started reading and remember them fighting sabretooth before he was wolverine's baddie)

All I gotta say is X-MEN FOREVER!

[Goshin]

Holy shit. Did I just spend fourty five minutes typing a single post? I'm afraid I became the kinda poster I told myself I would never become...

[ExodusCloak]

The reason why the X-Men had one up over the Avengers for so long is because they were matter of fact...I love the fact that they're so pragmatic especially Emma on her good days not so much Wolverine anymore I think he's gone soft.

[Puunk]

Holy shit. Did I just spend fourty five minutes typing a single post? I'm afraid I became the kinda poster I told myself I would never become...

No no, it's good! It's cool you've got a lot to say.

[RoguefanAM]

The Avengers, like the JLA, have the same problem of not having something that really drives them together (besides occasional world domination plots). Each member is like a cut and paste job of individual heroes forming a bad collage. With the X-men everybody fits.

Even the FF, a team advertised as a family, sometimes feels like "what are these people still doing together? Isn't it time for Johnny and Ben to move on?". With the X-men, you get the feeling that they'll always belong. Because no else in the world wants them.

...eh, I didn't really express myself very well, but I tried. It's hard pinning down what exactly I like about them.

[LordAllMighty]

So, mutants > Earth's Mightiest Heroes, at least in terms of an interesting read. Typically, at least. Civil War thru Dark Reign has kind of skewed that dynamic a bit to where both are outlaws.

LOL, the Avengers had to semi-become the X-Men to make them interesting again.

[frog]

Yeah, the whole topics (discrimination, racism, diversity, subcultures, etc) the X-verse were always about (even in the X-Men TAS) were and is always much more attractive to me than someone who has an heroic personality just because and decide to be on a super-heroes team …
The “being different and being an outcast” in society is an aspect I always love about the X-Men. They don’t choose to be what they are, and they are oblige to fight for survival and stick to each others, they are a natural outcast family…
And the characters definitely, the diversity specially, the different backgrounds, interesting powers (and how they handled them), and how such different people have to learn to be a family just because the only thing they got in common is that hey are mutants…

All that, and the characters in X-Men have always simply appealed more to me as well.

[Midnightblue]

I fell in love with X-men watching The animated series and I found the idea of mutants born with their powers really original. They have no choice, they just suddenly change when they hit puberty, they become blue or start shooting lasers from eyes and everyone hates them for that. I think that's the reason the comics are so popular, because young people can identify with them when they are in the age when everyone feels hated by the others.

And of course outcasts are more interesting for readers then national heroes:biggrin:

[Talisman]

I'm the opposite, I love the Avengers even more than the X-Men, I just started reading the X-Men first is all.

I like them because it's an escape. If I wanted to think about prejudice all the time, I'd start screaming out that HAY, GURRL, I'S BE'S A HOMO to everyone I meet. I love Cap and Iron Man over Wolverine and Cyclops. Hell, I love their rogue's gallery equally as much as I do the X-Men's. Except their classic. They don't have to be trendy and cool. Their classics, and I love them for that.

[S'Cipio_66]

The X-Men were created as a team, with a reason for being together, and thus the concept of them as a team has always "worked".

The Avengers, on the other hand, look like an editor took a handful of popular characters with solo books and said, "You guys are now a team". (Because, really, isn't that how the book started?)

That's always been the difference for me. Some of the Avengers characters are fantastic, but I always think they work better in their respective solo titles than they do in an Avengers book. On the other hand, there have been a lot of attempted X-Men solo titles that I never thought worked.

-S'Cipio

[tetragene]

The X-Men were created as a team, with a reason for being together, and thus the concept of them as a team has always "worked".

The Avengers, on the other hand, look like an editor took a handful of popular characters with solo books and said, "You guys are now a team". (Because, really, isn't that how the book started?)

That's always been the difference for me. Some of the Avengers characters are fantastic, but I always think they work better in their respective solo titles than they do in an Avengers book. On the other hand, there have been a lot of attempted X-Men solo titles that I never thought worked.

-S'Cipio

that's essentially what the X-Men have become though? There is now a whole army of mutants gangled together on an "island nation" for no real apparent reason. "Teams" of mutants have formed (really under just one "X-Men" guise) but what purpose do any of them serve outside of the same 5 we see every month?

People can say what they want about Disassembled, Civil War & Secret Invasion, but I feel the events, the lead-up to the events & the aftermath of those events really set the stage for heroes to come together to even form an Avengers. None of these recent X-events have given me a good reason why these groups of mutants should even be together at all.

[Maestro]

um, I don't. I probably wouldn't even be reading the X-books if not for Wolverine!

[RoguefanAM]

that's essentially what the X-Men have become though? There is now a whole army of mutants gangled together on an "island nation" for no real apparent reason. "Teams" of mutants have formed (really under just one "X-Men" guise) but what purpose do any of them serve outside of the same 5 we see every month?

People can say what they want about Disassembled, Civil War & Secret Invasion, but I feel the events, the lead-up to the events & the aftermath of those events really set the stage for heroes to come together to even form an Avengers. None of these recent X-events have given me a good reason why these groups of mutants should even be together at all.

I'll agree that Nation X really doesn't make sense, but the multiple team thing does.

X-Force is there to take care of threats that Cyclops wants shut down permanently. Uncanny's where the classic team get's together. Astonishing really doesn't have a purpose. Rogue + X-kiddies, is not really a team book - just Rogue taking care of the kids. X-Factor is becoming the MU detective team. New Mutants is just a secondary team, where Scott doesn't have to worry about policing (leading) them - possibly grooming Cannonball for more prominent leader role in the future.

Really the only mutants that feel out of place to me is Namor. And that's only because he never really cared what happened to mutants before, so it's jarring seeing him doing so now. The rest are there because they got kicked out of San Fran, a last ditch effort to get some acceptance. Then Scott said #$%@ it, and made a nation with a whole bunch of mutants on it. ...It makes sense why the mutants are together, just not on a island (considering Magneto's own failure).

[darknessatnoon]

The Avengers are corporate stoodges, god love 'em.

[pryde15]

Right now I much prefer the Avengers franchise to the X-Franchise. I only get X-Men: Legacy out of the X-Verse.

Avengers Franchise- New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, and Spider-Woman.

[LordAllMighty]

Right now I much prefer the Avengers franchise to the X-Franchise.

OK, you got me there. I've found the X-Franchise to be kind of boring lately

[NewMutant]

I love the X-Men.

I like the Avengers.

I am more forgiving when the X-Men series isn't as good than Avengers because I love them. Support it till they get it right, where Avengers title that are struggling I will just drop.

The X-Men have a better concept and characters. Avengers is more plot driven. Which I think is part of the fact that they are all more solo heroes coming together, rather than being started as a team. Where X-Men is generally character driven, but can be plot driven as well.

To me the X-Men are friends. Fantastic Four is family. Avengers are co-workers. (Which doesn't mean those relationship don't overlap)

Right now the Avengers Universe is more solid than the X-Universe. For many reason. Marvel pushed New Avengers to be the JLA title of their company. Also you had one writer build up the Universe, so it all felt connected. (Similar to Claremont back in the day). They also put their two most popular characters on the team, which certainly doesn't hurt.

My issue with the Avengers "world" is basically everyone thats not an X-Man is considered an Avengers. Just like my issue with the X-World is that all mutants are now X-Men. Which then excludes the X-Men from the events.

If I ever dropped X-Men, I'd probably drop comics altogether. Which has happened before, but the movies brought me back.

[Waterlily]

Familiarity and Grant Morrison.

[ProfeZZor X]

I consider the Avengers like the "old folks" of Marvel teams... Boring, all talk, and most likely to be the first to call it a night...

The X-Men provide a cornacopia of color, powers, and personalities. Theyr'e the life of the party, and will always keep your attention.

[Jumpoff!]

I was kind of forced into liking the X-men when I was younger(most people liked them hey it was the early 90's) So I read the issues but then I started to learn about all of marvels other heroes and they just seemed a lot cooler to me, with better origins and better motivates. For the longest the only X-title I read was GenX until that got canned :frown: