What Character or Group Has Had the Least Luck in Terms of Title Quality?

[THANOSRULES]

New Warriors

They keep getting these launches that beat around the bush with reuniting the old team.. instead every series since VOl. 1 has had either some very cheap gimmicks to the hook or has re booted the team to incompetent bumblers. They have never just been allowed to progress.

Nova

This franchise has been frustrating for fans. from 1976 to about 2006 Rider was constantly bouncing back between growth and regression to the Spider man archetype. Then of course he was really screwed over with Sam Alexander/Loeb.

[Mockingbird]

I love the concept of Secret Avengers, but why do most of the writers not even attempt to use the 'secret' part of the title? So many of the members are so far from secret that it's hilarious. Captain America? Valkyrie? Spider-Woman in that costume? They could have at least given her a redesign or had Mockingbird drop off the camotech for her.

Jessica Drew's had a rough deal since her last solo was cancelled, which is a shame because it was really good. And now they're shoving her further into the Spider group, when she doesn't really have anything in common with them, aside from having 'Spider' in her name, along with having Land on her solo.

Hank and Jan have probably had it the worst, though. Bad writing, usually from writers who don't know how to use them.

[Darth Phoenix]

Captain Marvel. I like her but most of her solo stuff lately is boring to me.

[Raye]

Agreed. Though... honestly his range is so limited. The fact that his epitaph is "vampire hunter"
makes him really short on relevance in a lot of circles.
Vampires? Call blade.
No vampires? Do you even "Blade" bro? He just needs to branch out more in my opinion.

Blade: Nights Champion
Might implicitly open the door in peoples minds that he deals with a wider gamut of threats.

I dunno, Buffy made it work. I think he has potential. but yeah, his runs have been meh at best, that I can recall.

As a Canadian, I can recall being disappointed frequently when they do Alpha Flight stuff.

[Psycwave]

Carol Danvers. She keeps getting them but her solos usually stink. I've always been of the mind that she works best as a ensemble character than a headliner.
War Machine also has terrible luck with his solos.

[Tracks]

Agreed. Though... honestly his range is so limited. The fact that his epitaph is "vampire hunter"
makes him really short on relevance in a lot of circles.
Vampires? Call blade.
No vampires? Do you even "Blade" bro? He just needs to branch out more in my opinion.

Blade: Nights Champion
Might implicitly open the door in peoples minds that he deals with a wider gamut of threats.

That's the problem, the exclusive vampire hunter thing was done away with in the 90s and turned to a hate for all things supernatural. Writers still like to limit him though. Ewing and Cornell did a great job of expanding him a bit, even Guggenheim had him on a government team, but most writers just don't know enough about him. HIs past 3 series have also all been pretty bad.

[Wellman]

I think people are confusing cancelled for often for title quality.

That being said, the following have had a lot of trouble maintaing actual quality in terms of content.

- Alpha Flight/Omega Flight
- Blade
- Spider-Man
- War Machine/Iron Patriot
- Ghost Rider
- One can make a good argument for Avengers

[Zero Hunter]

I think one of the main problems is a lot of the books mentioned in this thread start out a run with some great talent and storytelling (original Alpha Flight, Byrnes Namor, 90's Ghost Rider, ect) and then marvel used to have have a really bad habit of dumping either new or mediocre talent on these types of books after the big name would leave. Sometimes it would work but more often than not it would tank a series which would put the stink of failure over the entire property.

[MJ Tanner]

Alpha Flight.
I'm not even trying to be funny, I know they exist but I don't know if they have any storylines of substantial note.

Yep. The magic of the early Byrne run make people think they actually care and want to see more of these characters. They keep getting shots but nothing ever clicks.

[Kuwagaton]

As far as inconsistency goes, Wolverine is basically king of the hill. Claremont spent a lot of time and energy making him awesome across a lot of fairly good stories, but then you have guys like Loeb, Way, and Guggenheim that just put out the worst stories. I like David, Millar, and the dozens of short story writers, but all that totals half of the stuff you find. And speaking of half, Hama and Aaron manage to both do really well and really poorly with the character.

I love the concept of Secret Avengers, but why do most of the writers not even attempt to use the 'secret' part of the title? So many of the members are so far from secret that it's hilarious. Captain America? Valkyrie? Spider-Woman in that costume? They could have at least given her a redesign or had Mockingbird drop off the camotech for her.

Honestly, I love the Black Widow, but her inclusion is really silly. As an A-list Avenger, how could she possibly do anything under the radar? It's like if Clark Kent didn't wear glasses.

[Sasquatch by Night]

Definitely War Machine. I love the character, but it seems Marvel throws absolutely no support behind him. And for a character appearing in their movies, I find that really weird.

Also: Alpha Flight and Secret Avengers. No one knows what to do with Alpha Flight (except kill them), and Secret Avengers tends to be the least secret team ever. Mockingbird has been the only character on that team that ever felt like a "secret" avenger.

[NewMutant]

The fact that X-Men is mentioned makes me laugh. And if you want to throw their name out there then you might as well do Spider-Man and Avengers which has also become over franchised. Hell, I can't even tell the different between the rest of the Marvel Universe and Avengers anymore. Every character has been some sort of Avenger. Secret AVENGERS is a Shield title. Guardians of the Galaxy's first story was "Cosmic AVENGERS" and the team has to have a mainstay Avenger on the team now.

You can debate the "quality" sure... but come on... half of Marvel's title can't even sustain a long term run. While popularity doesn't mean quality; quality usually leads to popularity. Agents of Atlas, Alpha Flight, Exiles, New Warriors, Thunderbolts all had decent first volumes but can't sustain an interesting run since. Most of the solo Avengers books were terrible until the more modern runs. How many times can we keep altering Ms. Marvel name, powers, and appearance before we bring it back to the basics and relaunching with a new number one? Same with War Machine/Iron Patriot. Blade had popular movie but can't sustain a solo title. The Inhumans have had a ton of great minis, but now they have an on-going with a huge push from Marvel yet aren't getting great sales.

But yeah, it must be X-Men must have had the least luck. I really enjoyed the 5 Heroes for Hire movies and two spin off films. I'm not sure which Cloak and Dagger cartoon was my favorite. I love seeing all the kids running around dressed as the Power Pack for Halloween.

Sorry if I'm coming off as an ass (or offensive). Maybe I'm a crazy die hard X-Men fan or just don't like the phrasing of the question, or both. Quality is what drives sales which gets the product made. I even like a lot of the titles/characters I've mentioned but it almost feels like comparing apples and oranges. X-Men, like many of the top Marvel properties, has been running for years; where most Marvel titles can't even make it to 50 issues. X-Men has absolutely had ups and down in terms of quality and gets bloated with too many books/characters, but its had more luck than not. You can't judge something with countless number of issues, spin offs, etc with a book that can't even break 50, 100, etc issues.

[MASTER-OF-SUPRISE]

I think people are confusing cancelled for often for title quality.

That being said, the following have had a lot of trouble maintaing actual quality in terms of content.

- Alpha Flight/Omega Flight
- Blade
- Spider-Man
- War Machine/Iron Patriot
- Ghost Rider
- One can make a good argument for Avengers

That seems rather true.

[Pat Thomas]

The fact that X-Men is mentioned makes me laugh. And if you want to throw their name out there then you might as well do Spider-Man and Avengers which has also become over franchised. Hell, I can't even tell the different between the rest of the Marvel Universe and Avengers anymore. Every character has been some sort of Avenger. Secret AVENGERS is a Shield title. Guardians of the Galaxy's first story was "Cosmic AVENGERS" and the team has to have a mainstay Avenger on the team now.

You can debate the "quality" sure... but come on... half of Marvel's title can't even sustain a long term run. While popularity doesn't mean quality; quality usually leads to popularity. Agents of Atlas, Alpha Flight, Exiles, New Warriors, Thunderbolts all had decent first volumes but can't sustain an interesting run since. Most of the solo Avengers books were terrible until the more modern runs. How many times can we keep altering Ms. Marvel name, powers, and appearance before we bring it back to the basics and relaunching with a new number one? Same with War Machine/Iron Patriot. Blade had popular movie but can't sustain a solo title. The Inhumans have had a ton of great minis, but now they have an on-going with a huge push from Marvel yet aren't getting great sales.

But yeah, it must be X-Men must have had the least luck. I really enjoyed the 5 Heroes for Hire movies and two spin off films. I'm not sure which Cloak and Dagger cartoon was my favorite. I love seeing all the kids running around dressed as the Power Pack for Halloween.

Sorry if I'm coming off as an ass (or offensive). Maybe I'm a crazy die hard X-Men fan or just don't like the phrasing of the question, or both. Quality is what drives sales which gets the product made. I even like a lot of the titles/characters I've mentioned but it almost feels like comparing apples and oranges. X-Men, like many of the top Marvel properties, has been running for years; where most Marvel titles can't even make it to 50 issues. X-Men has absolutely had ups and down in terms of quality and gets bloated with too many books/characters, but its had more luck than not. You can't judge something with countless number of issues, spin offs, etc with a book that can't even break 50, 100, etc issues.

You came off as an ass, but you make a great point. You can't compare a title that runs a couple of years to one that runs for 50. Also, these books come out every month, every year.
They can't all be masterpieces. It would be nice if they were, but the only way for that to happen is to only print a book when a great story is available, and the fans wouldn't put
up with that. I think Marvel tries to put what they consider the most quality item on the shelf every month, in between the stories that end up as classics. Sometimes work out better
than others.