The Surfer toon pissed me off. Thanos destroys the universe at the end of one episode, and then the next new episode to air featured Adam Warlock and had nothing to do with where the previous episode ended. And then I found out that the Warlock episode was actually supposed to be earlier and that the series was canned without a resolution.
You got me I some areas dude... Ghost Rider and Darkhawk...we may never know the real reasons for their exclusions - maybe they weren't 'main streamed' enough? Who knows? If I recall correctly, only Avenger members (past and present) were called up but then again Nova showed up...I can't recall if he was am Avenger back then. There were a lot of continuity errors also. For example, Doom bragging to Surfer that he fought their 'last encounter' when timeline-wise, he 'forgot' that he was almost killed. There WERE survivors. I can't recall exactly who but the Hulk did survive - he was turned 'small' and he appeared that way in his encounter with the Abomination before the IG storyine wrapped up. Dude, the Silver Surfer was hot before the Infinity Gauntlet...so much so that Thanos was re-introduced into via his book. As well as re-introducing the Skrulls and Kree. It can be even argued that Surfer's push stagnated and dropped after that particular event when he became Thano's punching bag. Anyway, the point I was making that the Avengers didn't have much memorable story lines as compared to the X-men and that Avenger characters like Iron Man were laughable weak prior to the MCU.
Yeah Iron Man was really on the lower tier of their main heroes back then. Hell I don't even recall him being featured in the 2nd tier character battles in Marvel vs DC. He was that low. As for the IG's missing heroes it's probably because Starlin wanted to managed the cast a bit and given that he was an old school writer, most likely wasn't too familiar with heroes recently introduced. He did get to put in lesser known heroes such as Nova and Quasar (both introduced during the 70s) and Cloak (introduced in the 80s). With regard to the survivors, yes there were - Hulk, Firelord, Drax, Thor, and Doom. The story point of how they survived wasn't clearly explained in IG but was covered in Dr Strange (back when crossover tie-ins could actually be required reading). Man all this talk of IG makes me wish we could get comic-accurate toys of the Infinity Watch, or at least comic-accurate ones of Adam Warlock, Drax, Pip and Gamora.
Considering the early lates/early 90s is considered one of Iron Man's best time eras, next only to the demon in the bottle era, and that's the period we're discussing during Infinity Gauntlet, this is the problem with perception and not actually reading the books. "These character sucks back then cause I didn't read their books" doesn't equal "The movies were the things that made them awesome now."
In Thor's case I would say the MCU made him less awesome. Thor is my favorite comic book character of all time and I'm not a fan of the Hemsworth portrayal of him. I haven't read that many current titles but in the few I have it seemes like that MCU influence has really brought him downhill. You also have feminist writers hell bent on making him a shitty character for some reason. Whatever though.
No, but that's only because of Fox owning his movie rights. In spite of that, Deadpool is EVERYWHERE (I had the unfortunate luck to follow a family member into a Hot Topic store. They should just rename it "Deadpool 'n Stuff"). If marvel had his rights, I firmly believe he would absolutely be the face of the company (and this is coming from someone who is not a deadpool fan). My teenage nephew, who has never read a comic in his life, asked me about Deadpool (well before the movie). I showed him my original copy of New Mutants #98, and his eyes glossed over with confusion ("What's a 'New Mutant'?"). This is a kid who couldn't possibly name a single member of the FF, but he knows all about Deadpool. I don't know how or why, but the character is ubiquitous. If marvel still put little heads in the UPC box, I guarantee that Deadpool would be on every single book. Anyhoo, I'm not arguing the historical significance of Spidey, FF, and Cap being the "face" of Marvel, but just having their noggins in the most UPC slots thirty years ago doesn't mean they are the flagship Marvel books or most popular characters. I would argue that Spidey truly is based on popularity and sales. I would argue that Cap has never been Marvel's flagship character, nor has his title ever been the flagship book - *maybe* for a six-month span during Bru's original Winter Soldier run, but not for any significant length of time in Marvel's history. The same could be said for FF. When has FF ever been the best selling title at Marvel post 1960-something? Never. I'm just saying that the X-Men have been infinitely more important characters and made more money for Marvel Comics than FF or Cap ever dreamed. Why the toyline doesn't reflect that significance is beyond me. Catering to just the movie flavor-of-the-week seems short-sighted, and hasbro's potentially leaving a lot of money on the table by not giving us more ML's that reflect the true popularity of the characters. That's my point.
Again, that's the difference. You're talking about popularity and money making, I'm talking about the faces. I'm not going to look up numbers but willing to bet the licensing they've made on Cap over his history would beat X-Men. And yeah, while IM was significantly brought to the spotlight by MCU, he wasn't exactly always a chump before. He was definitely big time in the comics in the 90s and on.
Not saying IM sucks, just saying he wasn't quite as top of mind as he is now especially with regards to other Marvel characters. Most noncomic people in the late 80s/90s probably couldn't even tell you his secret ID. Compare that now.
Ok, I completely disagree on that, but whatever. Until Cap's mild resurgence in the comics and film 10 years ago, he was a complete afterthought, "face of marvel" or not. I'm simply arguing that Hasbro should give us the more popular characters that aren't f$%&ing avengers, and the X-Men have been more popular than the "face" Cap and FF for... going on four decades.
Well, considering how many Cap figures I have including my definitive Mezco One:12 version, I agree with getting some different characters. But it's funny and strange how all these companies choose to make so many Cap figures throughout history when the X-Men are so much more popular.
As a solo character, he is more popular than most non-Wolverine solo x-men. But as always, as a group, the X-Men are always vastly greater than the sum of their parts. And as such, you'd think that people selling action figures would gravitate toward giving fans the chance to collect a large, diverse team with many interesting characters -- rather than 47 versions of a single character that Marvel wishes was more popular than he really is. No blue text needed.
I'm *trying* to keep my points tied to why Hasbro should make more ML X-Men... but f#$% it. Just let them make more z-list avengers characters that no one alive has heard of; then people can buy them all for $5 at clearance... because pegwarmers. I give up. Enjoy your Stingray, Torpedo, and Captain Ultra figures
Haha, just some fun talk about the characters. I guess nacho knows more about who the core characters at Marvel are than Marvel does so maybe they should hire him unless they just hate money. I wonder why even non Marvel companies try to obtain licences on Spidey and Cap (and FF) more than the X-Men? They must all be idiots! Again, I'd love to have more diversified charaters but just saying...
Outside a very elite group of comic characters though, those people couldn't tell you the secret id of 99% of comic characters. If you look at it from a pure franchise point though, the Avengers franchise has always been stronger than any other franchise. The individual parts being worth more than the grand total. Which is why the corner stone book of avengers could branch out into b lister in the 90s and not always focus on the big three. I think a lot of our are also clouded by that late 90s low point of the franchise, but if anything I'd say that horrible cap movie from the 90s did more to help the franchise in the long run than hurt it.
It's like you've never heard of Ike Perlmutter He put a moratorium on X-Men and FF licensed products for several years in order to shift focus to properties that Marvel Films have rights to. It wasn't that all these non Marvel companies didn't want to obtain licenses for the X-Men. They literally weren't allowed to. They made Avengers & Inhuman related products because that was all Marvel would license. Marvel kneecapped two big franchises... out of spite. So yeah, I know plenty, and they are idiots. Like what you want, but just saying... Edit - for the google-challenged, here's an excerpt from an IGN article on the topic: XM Studios revealed they've been “asked to put a hard stop to all X-Men characters” indefinitely. This forced the company to cancel several products in mid-development, including a statue of the cybernetic mutant soldier Cable and a massive diorama depicting the X-Men battling a Sentinel. XM also confirmed that the Fantastic Four are similarly off-limits. It's a disappointing turn of events, especially considering that XM already produced this work of art: [pic - magneto statue] XM is hardly the only company to be affected by Marvel's increasingly hardline ban on all X-Men and FF merchandise. Companies like Diamond Select Toys, Topps, Kotobukiya and Sideshow Collectibles are also being limited in what characters and franchises they can focus on. Video games like Disney Infinity 2.0 and the recent mobile game Marvel Future Fight are completely devoid of X-Men and FF characters. [snip] The worst case scenario is that Marvel's restrictive approach to the X-Men and FF bleeds into the comics themselves. I wish I could say there’s no evidence that this is happening. Unfortunately, it’s hard not to be concerned about the downward trajectory of the Fantastic Four comics in recent years. Not long ago, Fantastic Four was a two-book franchise that attracted some of Marvel’s biggest and best talent. In 2014 it shrunk back to one title before ultimately being canceled last month. One of the fundamental pillars of the Marvel Universe doesn't even have a comic to call its own anymore. The X-Men are in a healthier state, but the fact remains that sales are slumping and the two most popular and lucrative characters in the X-Men franchise, Wolverine and Deadpool, were both killed off in the past year and aren’t a part of the main Secret Wars summer event comic. How does Marvel go from hinging the franchise on those two characters to wiping them off the table in such a short time? It's worrisome to think that these storytelling choices and book cancellations might be influenced by completely outside factors like licensing revenue and movie rights. Ultimately, Marvel is a corporation owned by a bigger corporation, and their primary goal is to make money. But they’re also a company predicated on storytelling and acting as stewards for characters with decades of history and millions of fans. Their behavior regarding the X-Men and Fantastic Four is beginning to make Marvel look like one of the many sinister, money-grubbing corporations in their own comics. Perhaps holding these characters hostage is good for Marvel’s bottom line, but it’s not good for the characters, and it’s not good for the fans who adore them.
To be fair, i dont think unwarranted to be concerned that the current glut of legends isnt going to have some draw back. More than once we have watched 6 inch lines doe from less, so might behove hasbro to take a less is more approach for a spell.
Isn't that ign article several years old now, clearly th door has been opened again, and the success of the xmen wave and the soon be legion series displays a boarder mind of marvel to ease the breaks on the xmen/FF freeze.
