Are the Avengers now bigger than the X-Men in pop culture?

[Alex6166]

Individually, the Avengers do have their distinct characteristics. Cap's the patriotic hero who throws a shield. Thor has a big hammer, The Hulk is a big monster, Black Widow's the women, and Iron man drinks a lot. They have those distinct physical tools like shields and hammers that can draw people in. I can see them being popular in the merchandising field. I had a kid I'd buy the one of those big toy Thor hammers the have now.

[Jabare]

Where you been, son? X-men has the 2 best selling Marvel books. Also, like others said, they are collectively more popular and recognizable franchise than the Avengers.

I'll give you 4 characters maybe 5 are highly recognizable the rest not so much. Where ass with the Avengers. Are on the rise.

And Avengers has the best selling marvel books. Avengers took the top 2 spots in march, and now that technically Spider-Man is an Avenger. Overall. Avengers is the premiere team of superhero pop culture

[XPac]

Individually, the Avengers do have their distinct characteristics. Cap's the patriotic hero who throws a shield. Thor has a big hammer, The Hulk is a big monster, Black Widow's the women, and Iron man drinks a lot. They have those distinct physical tools like shields and hammers that can draw people in. I can see them being popular in the merchandising field. I had a kid I'd buy the one of those big toy Thor hammers the have now.

And I think that's a big part of why the Avengers will end up being bigger than the X-Men, if they're not already.

Avengers by their nature are becoming larger than the sum of their parts. They're individual characters who are able to sustain on-going titles and cartoons, in addition to coming together collectively as a top franchise.

On the X-Men side, the same can be said for Logan... and arguably to a greater extent than any of the Big 3. But he's now an Avenger too (in addition to Spider-Man).

So again, regardless of whether or not the Avengers are or aren't bigger than the X-Men, I strongly suspect even if they're not they will be at some point.

[Aquamarine11500]

I'll give you 4 characters maybe 5 are highly recognizable the rest not so much. Where ass with the Avengers. Are on the rise.

And Avengers has the best selling marvel books. Avengers took the top 2 spots in march, and now that technically Spider-Man is an Avenger. Overall. Avengers is the premiere team of superhero pop culture

Nope

You should calm it down.The Avengers are just getting a real push,they aren't that ingrained in pop culture yet.I doubt the Avengers will ever have the significance to truly surpass the X-men.They are another JLA themed type group.They aren't unique,to me they are just like Marvel's Justice League,but better.

The x-men are a more unique team with a better roster of characters and story lines to choose from.The X-men are still Marvels top leading books , Still their most well known team,they've had a movie franchise spanning on 11 years,while the Avenger are just getting stated.They have better established and more well known characters also.They have a larger fan base too.

[mikekerrIII]

i think, for pop culture purposes, whomever had the last successful movie will be on top until the next movie come out.

[Ofpromise]

Nope

You should clam it down.The Avengers are just getting a real push,they aren't that ingrained in pop culture yet.I doubt the Avengers will ever have the significance to truly surpass the X-men.They are another JLA themed type group.They aren't unique,to me they are just like Marvel's Justice League,but better.

The x-men are a more unique team with a better roster of characters and story lines to choose from.The X-men are still Marvels top leading books , Still their most well known team,they've had a movie franchise spanning on 11 years,while the Avenger are just getting stated.They have better established and more well known characters also.They have a larger fan base too.

Someone's obviously bias.

I agree with the other above posters. The thing that really makes Avengers more successful than X-Men is that each member of the "major" Avengers can hold their own solo book nowadays. The same cannot be said for the marvelous muties.

Just how many books does Storm have now? (Not counting team stuff of course..)

[Buried Alien]

I think the balance of power shifted decisively towards the Avengers with this scene:



Before that scene, the X-Men still had hope of holding on to their decades-long dominance, but with that scene, the entire game changed.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[AgentFelix]

I'm of the opinion that comparing the movies is and unfortunate but unfair coincidence. I have read all of Avengers run since Disassembled and love the franchise. But my love of X-Men goes back to the 1993 animated series when I was 6. When the X-Men movies came out in high school I was very happy that they had finally made it to the big screen. However, Singer definitely downplaying the "comicbookiness" of it all. He even made pointed jokes at the code names. So the X-Men wore black leather and were less like the source material. But the next year Spider-Man followed. If X-Men laid the ground work, Spider-Man blew the roof off the building and the trend was off and running. By the time 2005 came around people didn't care how crazy the comic book movies were, because it's now the popular thing. Avengers will be more popular in the general public because they are going to be flooded with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Avengers sequels while their kids watch Avengers cartoons.

I say this with love and affection as I loved First Class to death but the X-Men franchise is handicapped. After X-Men 3 when wonderful decisions to kill off the big guns left and right happened, they had nowhere to go but back in time. And then you insert the B-list of X-Men characters (seriously? Darwin and lady-Angel?) and even if you get the quality of movie out, it cannot compete with the symbolic appeal of the characters in the Avengers. They are even still tied to the black leather because it's in the same continuity of the original movies.

Part of me wishes in a way that it had been some other hero series that kicked it off first. Maybe just Spider-Man in 2002. Then X-Men could have waited and come out years later just like the Avengers movies and we could've had the quality product that Avengers is.

Just my thoughts...

[destro]

Nope

You should clam it down.The Avengers are just getting a real push,they aren't that ingrained in pop culture yet.I doubt the Avengers will ever have the significance to truly surpass the X-men.They are another JLA themed type group.They aren't unique,to me they are just like Marvel's Justice League,but better.

The x-men are a more unique team with a better roster of characters and story lines to choose from.The X-men are still Marvels top leading books , Still their most well known team,they've had a movie franchise spanning on 11 years,while the Avenger are just getting stated.They have better established and more well known characters also.They have a larger fan base too.

The X-Men will continue to be popular, I don't know why the X-Fans are so threatened by all of this. It's just that the Avengers are likely going to be in the lead for the awhile due to the massive success of the movie and Marvel putting their most visible big talents on the Avengers books. The X-Men enjoyed decades of being Marvel's #1 most promoted team, let someone else have a chance for awhile. Eventually tastes will shift again and the X-Men, or possible some new group of characters will be on top. It's not that big of a deal.

Also doesn't being the #2 team fit in more with their outcast status? ;) Maybe being a little out of the main spotlight will be good for the X books, shake things up a bit?

Some of us who were Avengers/Cap/Thor/Iron Man fans during the X-dominated years had to suffer when the books we liked got almost no attention and most of the super star writers/artists were just constantly rotated from one X book to the next. At least the X-books still get big talent on them, unlike what we suffered through in those years. Sour grapes, totally guys..

[USERNAME TAKEN]

The X-Men will continue to be popular, I don't know why the X-Fans are so threatened by all of this. It's just that the Avengers are likely going to be in the lead for the awhile due to the massive success of the movie and Marvel putting their most visible big talents on the Avengers books. The X-Men enjoyed decades of being Marvel's #1 most promoted team, let someone else have a chance for awhile. Eventually tastes will shift again and the X-Men, or possible some new group of characters will be on top. It's not that big of a deal.

Also doesn't being the #2 team fit in more with their outcast status? ;) Maybe being a little out of the main spotlight will be good for the X books, shake things up a bit?

Some of us who were Avengers/Cap/Thor/Iron Man fans during the X-dominated years had to suffer when the books we liked got almost no attention and most of the super star writers/artists were just constantly rotated from one X book to the next. At least the X-books still get big talent on them, unlike what we suffered through in those years. Sour grapes, totally guys..

Quoted for truth.

The X-men were really "put over" the Marvel heroes in the 90s and it's only fair that the Avengers get their fair shake.

I just hope that Fox can get the X-movies into some reasonable shape. First Class was a good movie but the big question is where do they go from there? The whole re-boot/no continuity thing will kill the X-movies IMO.

[Push You Down]

Quoted for truth.

The X-men were really "put over" the Marvel heroes in the 90s and it's only fair that the Avengers get their fair shake.

I just hope that Fox can get the X-movies into some reasonable shape. First Class was a good movie but the big question is where do they go from there? The whole re-boot/no continuity thing will kill the X-movies IMO.

I think we'll have to wait and see how the Spiderman reboot does before we can say one way or another.

[esc0]

Marvel has been on a mission to make the Avengers their #1 property since I guess Bendis took it over and the whole company has pushed it from tv, film , comics, etc

[XPac]

Marvel has been on a mission to make the Avengers their #1 property since I guess Bendis took it over and the whole company has pushed it from tv, film , comics, etc

If that's true, I honestly do think it makes more sense for the Avengers to be the top franchise in the company.

Number one, I think the Avengers work better as the core of the MU from a story telling standpoint, since the X-Men franchise sort of works better on it's own somewhat apart from the other franchises.

Secondly, because marvel itself creates the movies I'm assuming they're a more profitable franchise for the company. And they have more control over it.

[Nomads1]

The X-Men will continue to be popular, I don't know why the X-Fans are so threatened by all of this. It's just that the Avengers are likely going to be in the lead for the awhile due to the massive success of the movie and Marvel putting their most visible big talents on the Avengers books. The X-Men enjoyed decades of being Marvel's #1 most promoted team, let someone else have a chance for awhile. Eventually tastes will shift again and the X-Men, or possible some new group of characters will be on top. It's not that big of a deal.

Defenders should be Marvel's next big franchise. Doc Strange, Namor, She-Hulk (the reception for this one might me a little bit dubious), Luke Cage, etc... Great films and comics could be made out of this guys, as long as they get the push in the right direction. Think about it, much more then Avengers, I think the Defenders embody Marvel's tendency towards anti-heroes and characters with feet of clay. Of course, with the possible exception of Namor, their reconizability factor is much lower than the other two franchises.

Peace

[motherofpearl1]

I'm of the opinion that comparing the movies is and unfortunate but unfair coincidence. I have read all of Avengers run since Disassembled and love the franchise. But my love of X-Men goes back to the 1993 animated series when I was 6. When the X-Men movies came out in high school I was very happy that they had finally made it to the big screen. However, Singer definitely downplaying the "comicbookiness" of it all. He even made pointed jokes at the code names. So the X-Men wore black leather and were less like the source material. But the next year Spider-Man followed. If X-Men laid the ground work, Spider-Man blew the roof off the building and the trend was off and running. By the time 2005 came around people didn't care how crazy the comic book movies were, because it's now the popular thing. Avengers will be more popular in the general public because they are going to be flooded with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Avengers sequels while their kids watch Avengers cartoons.

I say this with love and affection as I loved First Class to death but the X-Men franchise is handicapped. After X-Men 3 when wonderful decisions to kill off the big guns left and right happened, they had nowhere to go but back in time. And then you insert the B-list of X-Men characters (seriously? Darwin and lady-Angel?) and even if you get the quality of movie out, it cannot compete with the symbolic appeal of the characters in the Avengers. They are even still tied to the black leather because it's in the same continuity of the original movies.

Part of me wishes in a way that it had been some other hero series that kicked it off first. Maybe just Spider-Man in 2002. Then X-Men could have waited and come out years later just like the Avengers movies and we could've had the quality product that Avengers is.

Just my thoughts...

Sadly I think X Men as a movie franchise died when Brett Ratner destroyed them. First Class was great but most of the characters were 'B'listers. What does upset me is how the comics have been changed so much. They're unrecognisable from what they once were. If X Men as a movie franchise is to succeed again they need to completely forget X3 and get a director like Whedon. but I really don't think they'll bother.