General Marvel Legends

PanchaMaestro said:
Mego was still going in 78 and X-Men were at the top of their game starting the run that would make them. I was a kid and only half understood how they weren't more popular since they were clearly one of the better titles. Kids understanding of the world and all.
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I think 1977 was the last year Mego added new characters, even though the line was being produced until 1980. My first X-Men title I bought at 7-11 was 137, but I was able to go back and fill in to about 100 before the prices got out of hand, so I was behind the curve abit with them, but I was mainly reading Star Wars, BSG and Micronauts. (I never had the Mego Marvel figures but had most of the Batman stuff...)
 
Wonder Woman may have the lady superhero title. Marvel however probably has the next 5 or so spots depending on how you classify Cat Woman.

Yeah. There was no way to know Mego was doomed until 81 or so. Even if it should have been obvious with Star Wars toys in 77
 
PantherCult said:
100% it WAS this. Fox owned the rights for Storm, Invisible Woman, Jean Grey/Phoenix, Elektra, Rogue...

So they pushed the ladies they did have - Black Widow, Scarlet Witch and Carol Danvers
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I feel like there's a tendency towards considering these sorts of external factors that weighs heavily against more recent comics and stories. No doubt the promotion of certain characters in recent years was impacted by perceived marketability, licensing deals, merchandising, etc - but is that really different from previous times? So many of the creations we enjoy came into existence as vehicles for selling or promoting some other thing (advertisements, toys, hostess pies...) that it seems unfair that only more recent creations have that as a knock against their legitimacy.
 
I'm not saying the characters pushed more recently aren't worthy... its just that those other characters would have been bigger if they had always been part of the MCU juggernaut
 
I asked my wife for a top three and she came back with Spider-Man, Cap, and Iron Man. She gave Black Widow as Marvel's #1 woman. Ike Perlmutter should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

It's funny to see so many different permutations of Marvel's top three when I think 80+% of people would agree on DC's. A DC top 10 would be fascinating, though.

Here's my Marvel list (based on recognition) because I can't help myself:
  1. Spider-Man
  2. Wolverine
  3. Hulk
  4. Captain America
  5. Iron Man
  6. Storm
  7. Black Panther
  8. Punisher
  9. Thing
  10. Rogue
My runners-up would be Daredevil, Thor, Gambit, Nightcrawler, and Jean.

The Marvel Comics reddit has been doing a similar exercise for the last few months. They're up to Marvel's top 83 heroes now:

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelcomics/comments/1mryofd/best_heroes_day_84_captain_britain_wins_day_83
Xavion2025 said:
It’s hard to believe now, but the X-Men were minor players at best in the Marvel Universe back in the early to mid 70s.
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Absolutely true. The X-Men didn't work until Claremont took over the book. The X-Men were irrelevant for the first 15 years and then completely and utterly dominant for the last 50. 😉
PanchaMaestro said:
Lots of my friends made fun of it; said they were losers.
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100%. As a kid in the aughts, I felt like I had to hide my toy collection and comic fandom. That didn't fuck me up at all or give me any complexes around my hobby.
Justice said:
Moondragon's Thong coming soon to Marvel Legends roleplay.
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@Beamish enough to knock her off your top 10?
 
TheSameIdiot said:
I asked my wife for a top three and she came back with Spider-Man, Cap, and Iron Man. She gave Black Widow as Marvel's #1 woman. Ike Perlmutter should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

It's funny to see so many different permutations of Marvel's top three when I think 80+% of people would agree on DC's. A DC top 10 would be fascinating, though.

Here's my Marvel list (based on recognition) because I can't help myself:
  1. Spider-Man
  2. Wolverine
  3. Hulk
  4. Captain America
  5. Iron Man
  6. Storm
  7. Black Panther
  8. Punisher
  9. Thing
  10. Rogue
My runners-up would be Daredevil, Thor, Gambit, Nightcrawler, and Jean.
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It makes my heart so happy to see Black Panther on this list. When I was a kid there is no way almost anyone thought of him that way.
 
yojoebro82 said:
I thought of this whole convo today when me and the family were in the smack dab middle of rural Minnesota on a Laura Ingalls Wilder tour. We were inside a sod house (my 8 year old is really into Little House Books). We all liked it and thought it would be a cozy place to live. I added the caveat that I would need a small shelf for about five or six of my figures. None of the three girls in my family believed I could trim hundreds of figures down to five or six. I said I could if I really had to. One daughter asked me to keep the Ninja Turtles. I said, "Ugh! That's four spots down already!" The wife told me to just have Michelangelo for representation. Now THAT seems impossible for me. More than any other team in geekdom, THOSE four seem inseparable. For me personally, who represents FF? Thing. X-Men? Wolverine. Power Rangers? Green Ranger. GI Joe? Snake Eyes. TMNT? Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael.
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Everyone has a favorite turtle though! Mine is Leonardo, so I could easily narrow down to him if I had to pick one. It would be sad to display him solo, but I could definitely do it. I could also use the Thing as the sole rep of the F4. Would he be complemented by his team members? He might even be more recognizable with them. But he could exist as a solo rep. He’s also, like Daredevil, one of Marvel’s best characters.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
I asked my wife for a top three and she came back with Spider-Man, Cap, and Iron Man. She gave Black Widow as Marvel's #1 woman. Ike Perlmutter should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

It's funny to see so many different permutations of Marvel's top three when I think 80+% of people would agree on DC's. A DC top 10 would be fascinating, though.

Here's my Marvel list (based on recognition) because I can't help myself:
  1. Spider-Man
  2. Wolverine
  3. Hulk
  4. Captain America
  5. Iron Man
  6. Storm
  7. Black Panther
  8. Punisher
  9. Thing
  10. Rogue
My runners-up would be Daredevil, Thor, Gambit, Nightcrawler, and Jean.

The Marvel Comics reddit has been doing a similar exercise for the last few months. They're up to Marvel's top 83 heroes now:

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelcomics/comments/1mryofd/best_heroes_day_84_captain_britain_wins_day_83

Absolutely true. The X-Men didn't work until Claremont took over the book. The X-Men were irrelevant for the first 15 years and then completely and utterly dominant for the last 50. 😉

100%. As a kid in the aughts, I felt like I had to hide my toy collection and comic fandom. That didn't fuck me up at all or give me any complexes around my hobby.

@Beamish enough to knock her off your top 10?
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I don’t think my parents could even name 10 DC superheroes. They’re my litmus test for a lot of pop culture. They’ve been empty nesters for over a decade and watch a lot of current movies and TV - more than me. They’ve seen the new Superman, but I don’t think they touched any of the Snyder stuff. On the flip side, they usually watch whatever Marvel puts out. The studio has a formula and is pretty consistent, though they are waning a bit. They weren’t interested in Fantastic Four, but I did give it a recommendation so they may have seen it by now.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
My runners-up would be Daredevil, Thor, Gambit, Nightcrawler, and Jean.
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So I follow Sara Alfageeh over on bluesky and she recently did a thing where she asked other artists to show her their work as she suspected you could pin someone's age by their style. I feel confident she didn't pin me due to my style, but one of the pieces I showed was a Nightcrawler and she said "I just don't think anybody under 30 is that hyped for Nightcrawler" and though I was mortally wounded for being called out that way, I think she's probably correct. Kurt's the dad-rock of Marvel, and I don't think 60 yr old Alan Cumming is going to change that anytime soon.

Maybe X-Men '97 revitalizes him some, but that show is also made for us olds.
 
JakeEkiss said:
So I follow Sara Alfageeh over on bluesky and she recently did a thing where she asked other artists to show her their work as she suspected you could pin someone's age by their style. I feel confident she didn't pin me due to my style, but one of the pieces I showed was a Nightcrawler and she said "I just don't think anybody under 30 is that hyped for Nightcrawler" and though I was mortally wounded for being called out that way, I think she's probably correct. Kurt's the dad-rock of Marvel, and I don't think 60 yr old Alan Cumming is going to change that anytime soon.

Maybe X-Men '97 revitalizes him some, but that show is also made for us olds.
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That pains me to hear. She may not be entirely incorrect, but still- ouch. He's always been one of my favs. I do think/hope 97 and Doomsday will help add some "Oomph", or should I say "Bamf", to Nightcrawler's popularity, just like 97 and D&W did for Gambit.
 
Wonder Woman is really the only female superhero who has true mass pop culture name recognition I think - she is also one of the only characters who has had books published for 80+ years, a TV show, movies, and been featured in the main team book as a core member, etc. Marvel's top females have only been in team books - Sue Storm, Jean Grey and the Wasp were never the lead in a solo book. But if I had to pick long term it would be Sue or Jean as the top female hero for Marvel.

Captain Marvel, Black Widow - I have them at the same level as Black Panther, Ant Man or Hawkeye as high level supporting characters that make great guest stars in other books or on teams.
 
fac said:
I think 1977 was the last year Mego added new characters, even though the line was being produced until 1980. My first X-Men title I bought at 7-11 was 137, but I was able to go back and fill in to about 100 before the prices got out of hand, so I was behind the curve abit with them, but I was mainly reading Star Wars, BSG and Micronauts. (I never had the Mego Marvel figures but had most of the Batman stuff...)
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I remember Mego being pretty much done by 1978. Most of the original Mego kids like myself had aged out and were no longer playing with toys, and the next group of kids entering their toy prime were all about Star Wars.

I think I started collecting/reading X-Men every month in the 110’s (circa 1977-1978), but I already had several key issues at that point. I think I had GSX #1 and 94-101. By 1980, I had already filled in what I was missing from the 100s.

I remember X-Men as being a book that “serious” comic book readers and collectors were into in the late 70s…the ones that were going to comic stores. The kids buying and reading comics off the rack still weren’t that into them. That started to change in the 130s, and by #141 (Days of Future Past), the book had exploded.
 
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JakeEkiss said:
So I follow Sara Alfageeh over on bluesky and she recently did a thing where she asked other artists to show her their work as she suspected you could pin someone's age by their style. I feel confident she didn't pin me due to my style, but one of the pieces I showed was a Nightcrawler and she said "I just don't think anybody under 30 is that hyped for Nightcrawler" and though I was mortally wounded for being called out that way, I think she's probably correct. Kurt's the dad-rock of Marvel, and I don't think 60 yr old Alan Cumming is going to change that anytime soon.

Maybe X-Men '97 revitalizes him some, but that show is also made for us olds.
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Respectfully disagree. I know a lot of 20 somethings that love him.

He's not human looking. That's all the rage.

Arguably a furry.

He's got a great personality.

Anyone that touches the comics or 97 in my circles loves him. Also usually the first action figure they hover over.

A cool design is a cool design.

Anyway regarding the challenge, were there any standouts to you that held up the rule?
 
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