X-men: who was stronger?

[Nightcrawler92]

When it comes to the 1990's Blue & Gold teams, who do you think was stronger?

I grew up with the animated series so I have a special place in my heart for the about A team, but to be frank, I think in terms of diversified power, the Gold team takes it.

Thoughts?

[donpricetag]

Gold team was definitely stronger, but the two teams tackled different level threats IMO. Cyclops' Blue team was more street level while Storm's was more global level at times. If the two teams were going after a sentinel facility, the blue team would be ones infiltrating and destroying their ability to replicate the project while the gold team would tackle the hords of giant killer robots bound to swarm the area.

[rutog98]

The gold team was FAR more powerful. There was simply no comparison between the two in the power department.

[nx01a]

Jean Grey and Iceman stomp the Blue team. Storm is the gravy.
The only thing the Gold team lacks is technical resources. If Beast whips up a mutant power inhibitor, then Blue wins.

[LordAllMIghty]

Jean Grey and Iceman stomp the Blue team. Storm is the gravy.
The only thing the Gold team lacks is technical resources. If Beast whips up a mutant power inhibitor, then Blue wins.

Right...Blue was for the streets, while Gold was for heavy hitters.

[DurararaFTW]

We are talking about this version of Wolverine, correct?

[JmH Reborn]

Gold might have been stronger - but H2H, I think Blue would curbstomp them. Blue has better fighters and better technicians. I think Wolverine and Cyclops could devise a plan to take out Gold

[DDM]

Gold easy. Betsy and Rogue were the only real heavy hitters on Blue.

Now how about Blue vs Gold vs X-Force vs X-Factor vs Excalibur circa 1991?

[Harpsikord]

I think that it was definitely the Gold Team, but at the same time they each had their heavy hitters and the characters that sorta... dragged the team down power wise?

Gold had Jean Grey, Iceman, and Storm but they also had Colossus.

Blue had Psylocke and Rogue and Cyclops but they also had Beast.

That said, comparing Jean, Bobby, and Ororo to Betsy, Rogue, and Scott... no comparison.

Does anyone find it funny that the current Blue/Gold dynamic is ALMOST somehow opposite of how it was originally? More characters in Blue were on the original Gold team, more characters on Gold were on the original Blue team.

[Sutekh]

The team with Jean and Storm on it wins all the wins.

Storm can beat the Blue team leader *without her powers* and Sabertooth nicely showed us what a Jean vs. Betsy 'fight' would be like. (Creed smacked Betsy down, while Jean hoisted him into the air and flung him around like a rag-doll, reminding him that he was the mutant version of a firecracker, and she was an atom bomb.)

From a gamist perspective, it would have made sense to split up the fliers/group transport characters, and the ranged utility characters a bit more. But superhero teams in comic books have rarely, if ever, followed any sort of tactical logic in their lineups, and made sure to balance artillery, armor, infantry, transportation, communication, utility, etc. roles. The X-Men started out with a guy who was all offense and nothing else (Cyclops), a glorified acrobat (Beast), and a dude with wings that had no ability to contribute meaningfully in any other way except when he would be drawn carrying a rocket launcher, because, apparently, that's something superheroes are allowed to do! (Angel) And Jean, who had offensive, defensive, utility *and* transport powers built into her telekinesis, and, oh yeah, was also a telepath (with the dozen sub-powers that come with that, like mental blasts, illusions, mind control, psychic invisibility, memory alteration, turning off people's hearts and killing them with a thought, teaching anyone any skill or language in seconds, astral projection, and, that other thing that telepaths do, oh yeah, *reading minds*)!

[LordAllMIghty]

Gold easy. Betsy and Rogue were the only real heavy hitters on Blue.

Now how about Blue vs Gold vs X-Force vs X-Factor vs Excalibur circa 1991?

Unfair fight, at the time Rachel was part of Excalibur and she had the full power of the Phoenix Force and Meggan was a walking plot device.

[Harpsikord]

Unfair fight, at the time Rachel was part of Excalibur and she had the full power of the Phoenix Force and Meggan was a walking plot device.

This is true, plus the fact that Captain Britain was basically made to be the Magical Tank.

That said, all of the teams around this time in the 90's were particularly strong. The X-Men were a force to be reckoned with both in and out of comics, and when Generation X was added to the mix that didn't change anything.

[Askani's Flame]

It's funny because if I went on my fist initial thought I would have said Blue, because in my memory I somehow remembered them dealing with more powerful foes Magneto, Mojo, Omega Red, etc), but the reality is that Gold was stacked with 3 immensely powerful mutants (Jean, Bobby, Ororo), a powerful energy canon and tactician (Bishop), and then Colossus and Archangel. They could have taken on lots of foes, but it always felt like Blue was your stronger team the way they marketed the book. Plus at that time TAS came out which was mostly Blue (Jubilee, Cyclops, Rogue, Gambit, Beast, Wolverine) with some Gold (Storm and Jean), so Blue gets more recognition initially for me.

Meanwhile power wise in the 90's I'd say that it would be Gold>Excalibur>X-Force>X-Factor>Blue

[Innocent Bystander]

I have to go with those that feel Excalibur was the strongest. Rachel did go mano a mano with Galactus, after all. Excalibur was also formed to deal with a multiversal threat.

Also, Merlyn was a jerk.

[nx01a]

Excalibur's definitely the most powerful thanks to the Phoenix and magic users.