Why didn't Marvel create a solo character mutant to market during theX-Men push?

[Force de Phenix]

Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Gwen, Champions, etc., are on merchandise and were made for the new era of young readers of Disney's Marvel branch.

The X-Office was given a push to market the X-Men like in the 90's and 2000's, and did dozens of books.

Why didn't they take advantage to make a new young mutant to market as a solo character that could be marketed with other Marvel characters and solo?

They ended up opting for taking a well established character to avoid the hard work and slapping an X logo. Kinda like what Diseny did when they bought Marvel and Star Wars.

[Uncanny X-Man]

A couple of reasons come to mind:

The X-Men franchise is fundamentally a team franchise at heart. You can have characters having solo adventures but they always take a back-seat compared to what happens to that same character when they're part of a team, with Wolverine being perhaps the only notable exception. So during the X-Men's heyday they never developed an X Lad and an X Lass solos but they came out with X-Force, Generation X, etc. instead. It's hard to pin down the exact reasons for this: historically, the likes of the Avengers or the Justice League were team books housing pre-existing characters and very often characters who also had solos, whereas the X-Men were born as a team book, its first spin-offs were also team books as were most subsequent ones when the line truly expanded at the start of the 90s. Large ensembles seems to be the way the X-franchise manifests at its best.

The second reason that comes to mind is that the characters you mentioned like Ms Marvel and Miles Morales were created in a different era where the potential for movie adaptations became a priority. Very generally speaking, solo projects are easier to pull off than teams so the emphasis was put on characters who could hold their own franchise solo. This was also the era of "The CompleX" so X-characters were naturally shunned and not part of this process.

As for the future, I'm willing to bet Marvel Studios won't produce dozens of different mutant teams but will likely focus on a few ones + solo projects, so perhaps the comics will eventually reflect this new emphasis on solo characters and will work to create some new ones as well.

[Force de Phenix]

A couple of reasons come to mind:

The X-Men franchise is fundamentally a team franchise at heart. You can have characters having solo adventures but they always take a back-seat compared to what happens to that same character when they're part of a team, with Wolverine being perhaps the only notable exception. So during the X-Men's heyday they never developed an X Lad and an X Lass solos but they came out with X-Force, Generation X, etc. instead. It's hard to pin down the exact reasons for this: historically, the likes of the Avengers or the Justice League were team books housing pre-existing characters and very often characters who also had solos, whereas the X-Men were born as a team book, its first spin-offs were also team books as were most subsequent ones when the line truly expanded at the start of the 90s. Large ensembles seems to be the way the X-franchise manifests at its best.

The second reason that comes to mind is that the characters you mentioned like Ms Marvel and Miles Morales were created in a different era where the potential for movie adaptations became a priority. Very generally speaking, solo projects are easier to pull off than teams so the emphasis was put on characters who could hold their own franchise solo. This was also the era of "The CompleX" so X-characters were naturally shunned and not part of this process.

As for the future, I'm willing to bet Marvel Studios won't produce dozens of different mutant teams but will likely focus on a few ones + solo projects, so perhaps the comics will eventually reflect this new emphasis on solo characters and will work to create some new ones as well.

I would think that with the success of Deadpool and Logan/Wolverine as a franchise, they would start to do more. I guess if Fox hadn't been bought, we'd see the Kitty Pryde, Multiple Man, and Gambit solo movies planned, and the X-Office would've see a solo character's potential.

It's true that the X-Men's dynamic was to be strength in numbers for one cause and people looking for families/groups.

Being a solo mutant would've been an interesting twist to the team dynamic. How would a solo mutant live in an accepting family that nurtures their mutantdom and have friends in a tolerant circle of friends that supports them no matter what? Do people want to leave because they're mutants if they're in a safe place with people who love them?

It's like the Spider-Man trope of "he has to suffer to be good and exist." Especially since Marvel is steering clear of tragedies for their characters to cater to a more kid friendly audience.

[Grunty]

First all those characters were created during a time when the X-men were under the crosshair of the editor in chief, who thought there were too many mutants in the Marvel Comics and likely wanted to push the Avengers to the forefront (New Avengers and the Ultimates were hot properties at the time) and then chief executive officer, who was unhappy with the small share of profit that they got from the FoX-Men movies (ironicaly he was personaly involved in selling the movie rights to 20th Century Fox a decade earlier) while the MCU was "making bank", ordering the X-men reduced in prominence and importance in favor of pushing the Inhumans to take their place.

So there was definetly no "push to the market" for them at the time, but rather multiple sabotage attempts against them.

Even now there is arguably no real X-men push. Rather it feels like the leadership of the comic division is metaphorical treading water and biding their time, seemingly waiting for the MCU to show them how they should orient and alter the X-men to fit the movies.

Second. They actualy had a "hot" new young mutant that they could market as solo character during the mid 2000's.

X-23.

She got very positive reception by the viewership of X-men Evolution, despite only appearing in around 3 episodes, which not only led her to be adaptated to the comics (albeit heavily altered), but even becomming recognized by the wider fanbase quickly.

Her appearance in Logan was arguably less being introduced to a wider audience, but rather expanding further into it, since she was allready known quite well.

Essentialy X-23 got an attention and popularity that young mutant characters from the 80's to 2000's could only dream of and yet Marvel comics seems to have failed on really expanding on it beyond her early introduction.

Though to be fair all the above mentioned "hot young characters" suffer from the comics not really being able to expand on their popularity or know what to do with them.

Miles Morales's greatest push was the first Spiderverse movie.
Spidergwen actualy originates from the same.
Ms. Marvel's earlier popularity seems to have actualy decreased as her comics simply don't seem to catch on anymore. Worse the Avengers game where she was a prominent character was rather badly recieved and her Disney+ series seems to have been mostly met with a resounding "meh".
America Chavez likely seems to have not caught on too much after her appearance in Multiverse of Madness, while her comic version is apparently still suffering the after effects of a disasterous solo series.

The Champions as a whole are still a blank slate to a lot of Marvel fans. So it's difficult to say how marketable they are.

All of this also makes it noticable that it's not the comics which can make or break a "hot new characters" but the outside media. So if we are to wonder where the next "hot new mutant character" is we have to wait what the movies and cartoons will produce.

And in this regard basicly everyone could be it.

[Ambaryerno]

Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Gwen, Champions, etc., are on merchandise and were made for the new era of young readers of Disney's Marvel branch.

The X-Office was given a push to market the X-Men like in the 90's and 2000's, and did dozens of books.

Why didn't they take advantage to make a new young mutant to market as a solo character that could be marketed with other Marvel characters and solo?

They ended up opting for taking a well established character to avoid the hard work and slapping an X logo. Kinda like what Diseny did when they bought Marvel and Star Wars.

Clearly you've forgotten someone.

X-23 debuted in the comics in December, 2003, a mere four months after she appeared in X-Men Evolution that August (it took Harley Quinn almost 7 years before she made the jump from Batman: TAS and its related material to DC's main comics continuity). In her first two years she was a prominent character of the flagship X-Book under Claremont, (though honestly she was badly written, something that's become a chronic problem) and had two solo miniseries before becoming a lead character in two additional team books (NXM and X-Force). She made multiple appearances in one-shots and team-ups outside the X-Men during the 2000s, and had two well-received solo books in the 2010s, both of which were ended because of changes in editorial direction and because Marvel wanted to use her somewhere else, (they sent her to Avengers Academy to prop that book up, and took away ANW because of Logan's return) not because of sales, and continues to appear in stories outside the X-books. Across all of her self-titled series she's had more solo issues than any other X-Woman, (I think she JUST edges out Dazzler) and she's consistently one of the only X-Men who can consistently support a solo series (not even stalwarts like Cyclops, Storm, Rogue, and Jean Grey can boast that).

[JB]

Yeah Laura has been the best example of a mutant with solo power success in recent history. Even though I wasn't actively reading her books at the time I remember seeing panels of her and Spider-Man and other heroes and thinking how cool that is for a young mutant character. Her omnibus released just last month I think and it's beyond rare for a solo X-character to get an omnibus.



Short video showing off the gorgeous book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQZrlXitqmc
That's a thicc, beautiful piece for a shelf.

[Force de Phenix]

First all those characters were created during a time when the X-men were under the crosshair of the editor in chief, who thought there were too many mutants in the Marvel Comics and likely wanted to push the Avengers to the forefront (New Avengers and the Ultimates were hot properties at the time) and then chief executive officer, who was unhappy with the small share of profit that they got from the FoX-Men movies (ironicaly he was personaly involved in selling the movie rights to 20th Century Fox a decade earlier) while the MCU was "making bank", ordering the X-men reduced in prominence and importance in favor of pushing the Inhumans to take their place.

So there was definetly no "push to the market" for them at the time, but rather multiple sabotage attempts against them.

Even now there is arguably no real X-men push. Rather it feels like the leadership of the comic division is metaphorical treading water and biding their time, seemingly waiting for the MCU to show them how they should orient and alter the X-men to fit the movies.

Second. They actualy had a "hot" new young mutant that they could market as solo character during the mid 2000's.

X-23.

She got very positive reception by the viewership of X-men Evolution, despite only appearing in around 3 episodes, which not only led her to be adaptated to the comics (albeit heavily altered), but even becomming recognized by the wider fanbase quickly.

Her appearance in Logan was arguably less being introduced to a wider audience, but rather expanding further into it, since she was allready known quite well.

Essentialy X-23 got an attention and popularity that young mutant characters from the 80's to 2000's could only dream of and yet Marvel comics seems to have failed on really expanding on it beyond her early introduction.

Though to be fair all the above mentioned "hot young characters" suffer from the comics not really being able to expand on their popularity or know what to do with them.

Miles Morales's greatest push was the first Spiderverse movie.
Spidergwen actualy originates from the same.
Ms. Marvel's earlier popularity seems to have actualy decreased as her comics simply don't seem to catch on anymore. Worse the Avengers game where she was a prominent character was rather badly recieved and her Disney+ series seems to have been mostly met with a resounding "meh".
America Chavez likely seems to have not caught on too much after her appearance in Multiverse of Madness, while her comic version is apparently still suffering the after effects of a disasterous solo series.

The Champions as a whole are still a blank slate to a lot of Marvel fans. So it's difficult to say how marketable they are.

All of this also makes it noticable that it's not the comics which can make or break a "hot new characters" but the outside media. So if we are to wonder where the next "hot new mutant character" is we have to wait what the movies and cartoons will produce.

And in this regard basicly everyone could be it.

There's been a huge push for the X-Men for the past 6 years. They have more comics than all of Marvel, had X-Men 97 in the works, and they just made an established character an X-Men for no other reason than her being the first mutant in the MCU.

You can't deny the push. X-23 was marketed to adults and her debut comic was basically rated R. So she was a breakout character, but they didn't choose to make her a Miles and Kamala type kid/teen friendly character to sell merchandise, etc. to young people.

The X-Office had tons of time to make an mutant answer for young Marvel, but only focused on legacy characters for some odd reason instead of taking advantage of a wide open opportunity.

[Arachne]

Marvel as a whole mainly focuses on legacy characters when it comes to teens.

And you forgot Nate Grey. X-man ran 75 issues or so and, IIRC, was mainly cancelled because an editor decided there were too many x-books. (I think all the secondary titles were cancelled around that time.)

[NewMutant]

X-23 fits the bill. And Ms. Marvel is now a mutant...

[BroHomo]

Being a solo mutant would've been an interesting twist to the team dynamic. How would a solo mutant live in an accepting family that nurtures their mutantdom and have friends in a tolerant circle of friends that supports them no matter what? Do people want to leave because they're mutants if they're in a safe place with people who love them?

you just described my last Friday night. not picking up my phone ignoring my friends and yeah everything was chill and peaceful but not very very exciting

[lefthanded]

The weird thing is that around the time of Marvel's recent youth push, unfortunately the Xbooks were in a place where the time displaced original five X-men were present. As such, it is easy to just toss in one of the O5 into the youth push, since you have the benefit of instant brand recognition (Young Cyclops looks just like Cyclops, and it is Cyclops)

Now, instead of getting a new legacy character to join the youth team, instead you just have young Cyclops join, which is a dead end.
Whereas Miles and Kamala get further character development by being a part of the series, young Cyclops' time is entirely forgotten since it is overshadowed by his adult self entirely. If you thought the potential of Miles being overshadowed by Peter is bad, just imagine about being overshadowed by your adult self.

Miles/Kamala could have solo series + Champions to build their brand.
Young Cyclops' Champions appearance, on the contrary, builds the X-brand, not his own. Even now, you have the narrative disconnect of Cyclops doing Krakoan things, and then randomly being reminded that he was a Champion.

If Marvel created a new character, or tossed in any number of other young mutants (Laura like a poster suggest, or someone like Armor or Hellions), then there may have been another young mutant to rival Miles/Kamala in popularity.

[rcaguy]

Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Gwen, Champions, etc., are on merchandise and were made for the new era of young readers of Disney's Marvel branch.

The X-Office was given a push to market the X-Men like in the 90's and 2000's, and did dozens of books.

Why didn't they take advantage to make a new young mutant to market as a solo character that could be marketed with other Marvel characters and solo?

They ended up opting for taking a well established character to avoid the hard work and slapping an X logo. Kinda like what Diseny did when they bought Marvel and Star Wars.

Because they knew from past history that it wasn't going to be worth the effort (See most of the Gen X Characters and lamer follow-ons looking at you Anders) when what they really need to do is sit down and actually develop the ones they already had.

[rcaguy]

Marvel as a whole mainly focuses on legacy characters when it comes to teens.

And you forgot Nate Grey. X-man ran 75 issues or so and, IIRC, was mainly cancelled because an editor decided there were too many x-books. (I think all the secondary titles were cancelled around that time.)

And they were too many. When something gets to the point that the people creating something can't keep up with it,you've got a problem on your hands.

[Triniking1234]

If by X-Men push you mean the current Krakoa era, the point of Hickman's status quo is that every mutant Marvel ever created for the X-Men is available for use so writers were more focused on using old characters which led to more team books so they can get opportunities to show these characters.

[NewMutant]

If by X-Men push you mean the current Krakoa era, the point of Hickman's status quo is that every mutant Marvel ever created for the X-Men is available for use so writers were more focused on using old characters which led to more team books so they can get opportunities to show these characters.

Just like the point of HoM was to make less mutants. It never happens. Writers must shoehorn their new characters to make their mark. Even though a great take on an underutilized character typically gets more attention.