Originally Posted by
Sundown
This is a hotbed topic for some that I'm basically just playing devil's advocate on, here.
You're right, no one has the real numbers, only speculation.
In my opinion, the existence of the new book may have more to do with placation than interest -- a whole different topic -- but I guess we'll see how it does. I do think there's solid enough interest in him being a part of a team, though.
But none of what you wrote makes them compelling to me. /shrug See, readers are different in what they want to see. There's not a right or a wrong answer. As a business in it for profit, Marvel has to determine what makes money and what doesn't, then try to balance that with decent story telling.
In my personal head canon, Storm is bi, as are Kitty and Rachel. (I see Illyana as asexual or close to it.) One of my favorite speculative couples is Storm/Yukio, and I really wish Marvel had allowed Mystique and Destiny to be Nightcrawler's parents, rather than dragging in Azazel. My point is that we're more likely to see something along those lines being a success rather than pushing forward near non-entities in an overcrowded franchise. To push those newer characters is to risk shoving to the side some mainstays, which is a bad idea in today's market.
If they launch another kid book, then maybe a couple of these guys will get used. They should, but I don't have any high expectation that any book using newer character will be a success or boost the cast to prominence. I expect that's part of what this culling is about.
If Marvel would put a halt to new character creation in full and take maybe seven or eight from all the younger ones created and stick to them for awhile (maybe a decade or so of staying in a young title), then I think it could work to make them more of a known asset to the franchise.