This thread makes me tired. It’s all taking stabs at characters and individual personal opinions, all while being stuck in the false consensus bias in thinking that any opinion expressed here speaks for the majority of Marvel’s readership (the bulk of whom are not on social media discussing comics... online fandom actually makes up a very small percentage of a fanbase. Actually got the figure from a script writer and producer who works in Hollywood once, he posted it on a Trek board, it’s 4%. Only 4% of a viewer/readership is zealous enough to join in online fandom discussion). With comics that number is probably smaller as too many people bootleg comics and are not actually paying customers.
At the end of the day Marvel will do what any business does: take the path that will appeal to the majority of their paying customers. That means that if the bulk of fans want the X-Men to remain as a part of the larger Marvel Universe with crossovers than the X-Men are going to remain as a larger part of the Marvel Universe with crossovers and that is that.
RE: Kitty Pryde: there is no such thing as a ‘bad’ character, there are only bad writers. Every single character at Marvel is one fantastic writer away from being amazing or one bad writer away from being terrible. With intellectual properties as old as most of Marvel’s catalogue it’s a fact of life that most of these characters have a history of both good and bad runs to their name. To focus on only the bad is not only a bad faith reading but it’s cherry picking, and that is a logical fallacy. Kitty is a Jewish character, so representation-wise she has the potential to give some much needed and in-depth representation to the Marvel Universe. She shouldn’t be defined by one bad writer’s clear racism. Give her to a POC writer to explore and expand on her and watch her shine.
RE: Steve Rogers and the Captain America mantle.
In literally Every. Single. Cap. Run. since Englehart Cap has stated that he does not support the government, he supports the ideals, the ‘dream’. Literally every Cap fan has this fact permanently tattoo’d into their brain because a variation of this is stated in every run:
Moreover Cap is infamous for openly rebelling from the US government whenever he disagrees. He became Nomad because of Nixon’s corruption. He became The Captain rather than work for Reagan, whom he, elegantly, told to piss off when the Reagan administration tried to forcibly draft him. When he didn’t agree with the SHRA (an allegory for the Patriot Act) he rebelled against the Bush administration. Just recently, in Aaron’s Avengers, he told the US government off again. Conflating Cap with the government indicates a lack of knowledge of the character. And yes, Cap is a proponent of free speech even if he very much detests the speech being said. He recognizes the importance of a democratic society because the guy fought in WW2 and saw, first hand, the dangers of speech and press suppression. Hitler was able to accomplish what he did because he controlled the press and the narrative and no one was allowed to dissent.
RE: Marvel’s Cash Cow. In 2015 it was as announced that the most lucrative superhero/franchise was Spider-Man, who, with licensing for merch as well as comics, brings in 1.3 billion a year. The closest superhero or team to that was Batman, who brings in $494m a year. So as you can see, it’s not even a close contest. The X-Men, while yes, popular, are not actually the IP carrying Marvel. Look at it this way, when you go into a store, how much Spider-Man product (t-shirts, Funkos, chewable multi-vitamins) do you see versus the X-Men? Probably more Spider-Man. There’s your answer. I’m not denying the X-Men’s popularity what I am saying is they are far from being Marvel’s cash cow.
The most lucrative part of an IP is not movie box office. It’s licensing. It’s owning that IP outright so you can charge companies to use their likeness. This is why Disney wasn’t satisfied with buying just film rights, the way Fox and Sony did, they wanted everything. This is why Sony got the short end of the stick in lending Peter Parker’s film rights back to Disney as the deal was Sony would get the box office returns but Disney got MCU Peter’s licensing profits.
When and if the X-Men as a franchise can bring in billions in licensing just by themselves then, and only then, maybe, Marvel might consider separating them into their own universe.