Where do the official channels of pop culture get their knowledge, if not from fans? At some point, doesn't the conversation have to eventually trace back to the people who liked the thing enough to talk about it in the first place?
I'd say marketing is a strong contender here. I am learning that The Avengers has comparable numbers to the X Men, but I'm not seeing that it has comparable pop culture penetration, so it can't be simply about the size of the fanbase--the fervency of the fanbase, perhaps? The fact that the X Men can be reduced to a MLK vs. Malcolm X or homophobia type issue and is easier and more exciting to re-package for the mainstream?
How do you sell the Avengers to a group of people that's not actually stopping to buy?
Superheroes punch each other and blow/rip shit up?
Admittedly that didn't work with the Hulk movies, but the plural aspect might help.
Superheroes punch each other and blow/rip shit up?
And how do you tell that apart from anything else, and why can't you just get that from the X-Men while you're there for the prejudice angst anyway? Why bother writing the story on them?
In my head, X-Men are Marvel's JLA
After the JLA comic became a success at DC, Stan Lee's boss ordered him to create a rip-off of it for Marvel. So he and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four.
So he and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four.
But do they have the profile? I'm not considering in-universe factors, nor even meta things like that. Just--this comic book company has a group of heroes named...what?
Avengers Assemble
People are continually disappointed when they come in expecting Emma Peel's trip to Ikea.
It's a common trope going back at least a couple millennia, as in Jason and the Argonauts. If you have a bunch of popular heroes, why not put them in a story where they're together?
When I first saw the trailer for The Avengers some months ago, it was not at all what I was expecting. I don't know who I thought the crew was going to be but it wasn't that crew.
