How popular are the x-characters individually?

[CrossTagg]

If we are talking about the general public, the top 2 is pretty obvious:
1-Wolverine
2-Deadpool
Now the rest it's hard to say, Magneto, Cyclops, Storm are pretty well know.

[Icefanatic]

And at one point in the 00s WW books were subsided by the other two of the big 3. Which promoted the classic female characters can't sell conversation if WW can't sell. Persistence is key
.
Though if you're talking the FF I think they're long past their shelf life even with big named artists and writers they are definitely missing the X-Factor

:Google fight' used to exist to compare search results

Emma Frost 22,000 searches a month while Warren Worthington 400
Laura Kinney 3600 v Lucas Bishop 480

https://www.searchcommander.com/seo-tools/google-fight/



Iceman's popularity has fallen off a cliff in recent years. He use to get 10,000-20,000 on both those searches and now it's 1,000 on one an ZERO on the other.



Reversing the word order helps somewhat, but it's still a pitiable result compared to what he use to have.

[Master of Sound]

Most popular will be the ones that had roles on the comics, as well as cartoon series and films. Also hoe their solo series do/ did

We know Wolverine is a cash cow, but not as much as before.

Deadpool is another big one, though it's debatable if he's an X-Man.

Storm en Cyclops follow after them two, I think.

Then you have current ones who are popular like Iceman, Jean, Mr. & Mrs. X.

Sonspot, Kwannon and Bishop seem to gain popularity, while Beast and Archangel are less popular than say 10 years ago.

[Rift]

https://www.searchcommander.com/seo-tools/google-fight/



Iceman's popularity has fallen off a cliff in recent years. He use to get 10,000-20,000 on both those searches and now it's 1,000 on one an ZERO on the other.



Reversing the word order helps somewhat, but it's still a pitiable result compared to what he use to have.

Pretty undeniable tbh.

[Angleman70]

I have read many times both on this forum and on other parts of the internet that X-men is historically much more popular compared to other Marvel properties not named Spider-man. Some x-fans wear this as a badge of honor to say their favorite property is also what should be Marvel's first priority both in comics and in other media. Yet when I look at it, out of dozens and dozens of mutant characters only a handful ever get solos. I know Dazzler, Cable and X-23 got respectable runs in the past and Wolverine have always been a property within a property but aside from those Marvel almost always publish x-characters in a team setting. Most what people can hope for is a 4-5 issue mini these days. Why is it so? Is the X-men greater than the sum of its parts? Or does publishing solo series oversaturate an already saturated market? Are the x-characters even designed to work as solo acts? How many of them has a personal rogues gallery? Why isn't someone like Storm, who at one point in history outpaced Wonder Woman in terms of popularity, not getting a solo treatment?

I’m mostly a DC fan but would give some love to Marvel if they gave Polaris some love! As a Lorna Dane fan, I find it mind boggling after so many years of seeing this character overshadowed by Storm, Kitty and any other woman who came after her. Lorna gets no respect by most of the writers. Sure, she’s had some development but not to the fullest! How many more stories have to be focused on Jean, Ororo or Kitty? Really? Ask more writers and they will skip Polaris every time. I can use this argument for Warren’Angel’ fans too. Why have these characters around?

[yogaflame]

I mean, Claremont didn't like her, so she didn't get great stories during the prime years of the franchise. So she's a relic of her original run debut, along the likes of Changeling and Mimic, but at least she got some shine from 90's X-Factor. Jean, Ororo, and Kitty ate GOODT during the Claremont epic, so they are enshrined forevermore.

I do feel bad for Warren though. I mean, other than his Archangel story in X-Factor, and to a much lesser extent his relationship with Betsy, no one has much to say with him. Just on character design(gorgeous angel) and wish fulfillment factor alone(super rich and can fly), he should have risen to great heights.

[JJS]

Wolverine and he became a pastiche of himself about 30 years ago.

Became ridiculous when writers had him shagging everything that moved.

He’s an ugly midget with daft hair, but can pull everything that moves.

Wild.

[Sutekh]

I do feel bad for Warren though. I mean, other than his Archangel story in X-Factor, and to a much lesser extent his relationship with Betsy, no one has much to say with him. Just on character design(gorgeous angel) and wish fulfillment factor alone(super rich and can fly), he should have risen to great heights.

The one advantage of Warren being so ignored for so long, is that he doesn't suffer the same problem of other superhero CEOs, like Tony Stark, by having his company hostile-takeovered every 15 months by a new rival-of-the-week that we've never heard of before (Stane, Hammer, Feilong, etc.). Worthington Enterprises remains stable for decades, while Stark Enterprises and Meachum-Rand swap CEOs almost as fast as Tony Stark and Danny Rand change underwear.

I imagine that if Warren got a solo, his company would burn down, fall over and sink into the swamp within a year, tops, because writers are just that original...

(Same thing happens to superhero rulers. Wakanda, Latveria, Atlantis, Asgard, Attilan, etc. change hands, or get blown up!, every five years or so, making any super-ruler seem just terrible at their job. Did Atlantis get blowed up seven times under the King before Namor?)

[ARkadelphia]

So being a team is basically baked into X-men's dough. I get it. Batman is about one mans crusade about crime and corruption in his city but that didn't stop DC from giving every batkid their own book over the years. I think focusing on X-men so much as a team didn't give Marvel enough room to fully utilize its characters. It also doesn't help that there are so many mutants fighting for panel time nowadays.



I have heard many times that Bruce Wayne, the man famous for his many sidekicks over the years, once asked to be Hellion's sidekick.

No. That’s Chuck Norris.

[bat39]

The vast majority of X-men characters were created to be part of the X-men/mutant concept, so they don't really work outside that context beyond a point. There are very few exceptions. Wolverine is the biggest one of course, with Deadpool being a close second.

If you look at Wolverine, there's actually a lot more to his character and mythos than being an X-man, or hell, even being a mutant. There's his century-long history, a shady backstory involving multiple wars and shady black-ops, experimentation and torture at the hands of Weapon X, brainwashing and false memories, his association with Japan, a number of unique supporting characters and villains. Yes, his mutant abilities facilitate a lot of this, but him being a mutant, and dealing with mutant issues, isn't really one of his defining attributes. And being an X-man is a fraction of his life in-universe. Of course it helps that Wolverine was not originally created as an X-men character, and had a mutant identity retrofitted to him.

Contrast this with even the most popular X-men characters, taken by themselves. Take Magneto for instance. Being a mutant who is ideologically opposed to the X-men (at bare minimum) is his whole deal. It's nigh impossible to do a Magneto story which doesn't go back to him being a mutant (okay you can do one about his being a Holocaust survivor, but even that ties back to his being a mutant ultimately).

Cyclops? What is he really, beyond being a mutant with out of control destructive abilities and the very first X-man (and one of the X-men's most prominent leaders)?

With Storm I suppose there's a bit you can do with the idea of her being a 'weather goddess' in Africa, but that's really just rich fodder to add onto her real story, which is being an X-man. The most they've been able to make Storm work outside the context of the X-men is by making her a love interest and wife of Black Panther's.

Even Cable I don't think really works outside the context of some kind of X-men story (even if the X-men themselves aren't part of it), since his whole deal is time-traveling to prevent some apocalypse related to mutants.

I'd say there are several tiers.

You have Wolverine all the way at the top. Even casuals across the world love him.

Two of his derivatives/associated characters have ridden his coattails to great heights, moving lots of merch/comics/even films, but are less important/almost negligible to the core franchise/story:

Deadpool/X23

Then you have the central/core X-Men who are nowhere near as marketable in terms of singular adventures/comics, but are well known and beloved, even for casuals/the masses, and have moved merch for decades:

Storm/Jean/Cyclops/Xavier/Magneto

Then you have other important X-Men, but they are not quite as recognizable to the masses, despite some high profile pop cultural adaptations, but still have rabid fanbases within the genre aware:

Cable/Rogue/Gambit/Jubilee/Beast/Emma/Iceman/Psylocke/Shadowkat/Bishop/Nightcrawler/Colossus

Then you have additional X-Men and affiliates who are still relevant to the story, but have much less popular awareness among causals/the masses, but still have reasonable fandoms within the genre aware:

Angel-Archangel/Domino/Dazzler/Polaris/Havok/Rachel/Warpath/X-Factor/X-Force/Excalibur/The New Mutants/Generation X/Academy

They you have characters that are late additions and/or have little impact on the overall franchise, nearly zero popular awareness, only the most niche fandom within the genre aware:

Everyone else.

Yeah, I think this is pretty accurate.

[Jackraow21]

Even Cable I don't think really works outside the context of some kind of X-men story (even if the X-men themselves aren't part of it), since his whole deal is time-traveling to prevent some apocalypse related to mutants.

He did in the 90s, quite well. Interacting with the Avengers, Black Panther, Hulk, Ghost Rider, S.H.I.E.L.D., etc., and villains like Immortus, Doom... even randoms like Zzzax. Also in the Cable/Deadpool series in the 00s. He put the mission to stop Apocalypse's ascension to bed long ago. Took on a new mission to raise Hope, the mutant messiah, and completed that one. The guy can now just focus on building a better future... like every other Marvel character. Just takes a talented creative team. I mean, if Carnage, She-Hulk and Captain Marvel still have solo books, I think Cable could manage one too.

[OmegaStorm87]

Pretty undeniable tbh.

This meme was done before and done better.

[Rift]

This meme was done before and done better.

So has your mom.

[OmegaStorm87]

So has your mom.

I've got two dads so the jokes on you. That burn was about as original as your dullard persona.

[Rift]

I've got two dads so the jokes on you. That burn was about as original as your dullard persona.

I mean it was meant to be a joke, not a serious insult. Sorry if you were genuinely hurt by it.