Characters who became much more prominent than they were intended?

[Alan2099]

Spider-girl started as a character in a What if comic. Nothing more than a cute one and done story.

She ended up headlining an entire line of books and having a series that ran for 100 issues (not counting relaunches and spin-offs) making her Marvel's first and (as far as I know) only female character to have a title that reached 100 issues.

[Grapeweasel]

Spider-girl started as a character in a What if comic. Nothing more than a cute one and done story.

She ended up headlining an entire line of books and having a series that ran for 100 issues (not counting relaunches and spin-offs) making her Marvel's first and (as far as I know) only female character to have a title that reached 100 issues.

Super-hero.

Millie the Model ran longer.

[Steel Inquisitor]

Spider-girl started as a character in a What if comic. Nothing more than a cute one and done story.

She ended up headlining an entire line of books and having a series that ran for 100 issues (not counting relaunches and spin-offs) making her Marvel's first and (as far as I know) only female character to have a title that reached 100 issues.

May Parker goes back further than that. What inspired her character was the Parker's daughter's in canon in the 90's, who was gaining momentum in the Spider-man comics except editorial nixed her at the last moment then dropped her out of canon. IIRC the Spider-girl comics were built on the idea if she lived.

[Gaastra]

(as Carol would've stayed on the Avengers) had her solo book not been axed.

Wouldn't her book getting axed be a bigger reason to keep her in the avengers as now they can use her however they want without having to worry about her main titles plots?

Wonder man and black knight didn't have a title and got to stay in avengers so why remove ms marvrls powers then throw her out over her book getting axed? Her time with the X-Men would be short anyways as she takes off mad as soon as rouge shows up.

Oh well. In the end it did launch rouge to be a big X-Men in the future.

[Gaastra]

Millie the Model ran longer.

What about future hellcat patsy walker? She first showed up in miss America then spun off over 100 issues plus spin-offs and a second series!

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[Revolutionary_Jack]

What about future hellcat patsy walker? She first showed up in miss America then spun off over 100 issues plus spin-offs and a second series!

How many issues did she have as Hellcat?

Every single issue with Spider-Girl ran for 100 issues.

Obviously we are talking exclusively superheroes here.

[Gaastra]

Kind of a tough question. She does become a hero later and first showed up in a super hero comic. (miss America) It's like dc comics lois lane comic and marvels mary jane comic. Do they count as hero comics?

All three had outfits or powers at one point but do they count as hero comics? Guess it's up to who you ask.

[ed2962]

Betsy especially, as she was created merely as Captain Britain's sister and wasn't meant to be a superhero at all!

Incorrect. That annual was in fact two unpublished issues of the cancelled Ms. Marvel. Carol, Mystique and Rogue were all moved to Claremont's other book X-Men due to the cancellation. Avengers #200 was used to remove Carol from that team, setting up that move, and that issue would've been completely different (as Carol would've stayed on the Avengers) had her solo book not been axed.

I think we might be conflating two different things. I'm pretty sure the unpublished Ms Marvel comics showed years later in Marvel Superheroes or Marvel Presents but would have come out right after Avengers #200 had her title not been cancelled ( and had not that comic been re-written). Avengers Annual #10 even though it clears up Carol's loose ends, she's only in it for a few pages.

[DrNewGod]

Spider-girl started as a character in a What if comic. Nothing more than a cute one and done story.

She ended up headlining an entire line of books and having a series that ran for 100 issues (not counting relaunches and spin-offs) making her Marvel's first and (as far as I know) only female character to have a title that reached 100 issues.

I loved the M2 line.

[pageturner]

I dont know about intended but characters the outgrew their origin
Luke Cage Part of 4 different teams and became one of the most trusted characters in the MU
Carol Danvers started as a spinoff character and now is completely out of MAR-vells shadow
Kitty Pryde grew from the wide eyed kid to a solid leader and core Xman

[Toxin45]

Like for characters spider man started off as nothing special but after amazing fantasy he became a hit got his own series and became a flagship for marvel and his supporting characters have also become breakouts like Mary Jane and lilies morales.
For breakout villains he have Norman Osborn,Hippo,mister negative,overdrive,screwball,morlun,venom,and carnage.

[Dr. Skeleton]

Black Widow, Rocket Raccoon, Starlord, Groot and Squirrel Girl definitely comes to mind.

[Tulku]

This has been a really interesting question. It seems that a number of Marvel's most popular characters...weren't really designed that way! There is probably a lesson there somewhere.

I submit Dr. Stephen Strange. He first appeared in Strange Tales #110 (as the 4th story in that book). He appeared again in Strange Tales #111 (as the 4th story). And then....ummmm.....he was not in the next two issues. He reappeared in Strange Tales # 114 (as the 3rd story). He finally had his origin story in #115----yeah, he wasn't considered important enough to even have an origin story until his fourth appearance. He doesn't even get a mention on the cover of Strange Tales until #117 and he doesn't get his picture on the cover until #118.

Maybe it is just me, but that doesn't sound like the career arc of a character that was intended to be prominent.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Molecule Man was not initially intended to have the station or power that he currently holds.

I also think that several of the X-Men characters weren't originally intended to be as prominent as they eventually turned out to be simply because they operated within a team dynamic. That includes Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Emma Frost and Psylocke.

Wolverine was created because, I think, Roy Thomas challenged Len Wein to write a Canadian character (apparently it was due to his ability to write "accents"). He was then put on the new team of X-men and, according to John Byrne, Claremont was always looking for an opportunity to get rid of him as his character served no real purpose but to antagonize everybody else. Out of the new X-Men, everyone at Marvel thought Colossus would be the breakout character. Cockrum pushed Nightcrawler and Byrne pushed Wolverine.

Moon Knight was never intended to become as viable as he did. He was just meant to be a one-off villain for Werewolf By Night. But editorial liked the character and pushed for more appearances. Now here we are, 40 odd years or so later, the guy has 200 issues and is about to get a tv series.

[phantom1592]

My first thought was Deadpool. He was created to be an assassin antagonist. The 'bad guy'.... Not the 4th wall breaking funny semi-heroic face of the Marvel universe that he became. Considering that never even happened under Liefield but with... Kelly I want to say??? I would definitely rank him as 'more prominent than the creator intended'.

Wolverine. Chris Claremont wanted get rid of the Wolverine cuz all he did was argue with people. And if you notice, in contrast to being the ultimate bad ass he is today, Logan used to get smacked around quite a bit in those early days.

Honestly that was my FAVORITE Wolverine. In the 80's and 90's I absolutely HATED Wolverine because he was just too overpowered and one-note. "I'm the best at what i do... but what i do ain't pretty'... He was annoying and i couldn't understand how he was so popular.

Then I went back and read some of those early appearances where he was the rebel... and he was tough, but he constantly got beat down... just found a way to crawl back into the fight... and I could suddenly understand HOW he became popular in the first place. He was cool... but not superhumanly indestructibly powerful. He had limits and weaknesses. The fact that they kept powering him up kind of ruined him for me.

It's really why my favorite X-men movie is still the first two. They meet Wolverine after getting his butt kicked by sabertooth and he wakes up at the school. By the last stand... he's walking forward as his skin is burned off taking it like a champ. ughhh... >.<

I dont know about intended but characters the outgrew their origin
Luke Cage Part of 4 different teams and became one of the most trusted characters in the MU

Luke Cage was one of the first ones that I thought of. He was intended to be tough and strong... but since getting in the Avengers his role in the MU just skyrocketed and he's now performing strength stuff like She-hulk or Iron Man.... It's... not Luke Cage.