[Panther]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Nash

Coming from the same time period when I got into main Marvel comics (1987 to be exact), I feel the same way. I never thought of Thor, Cap and Iron Man as B-list, but what I think happened in the 80's and 90's is the X-Men were everything and the Avengers were very much sidelined. In the 60's and 70's it was opposite, Avengers were much more popular than X-Men, at least until Claremont came along. A few years into the 00's and onwards and Avengers have been on top again. Spider-Man of course being on top through the entire time, always A-list, but in the 80's and 90's it is not a stretch to say that Wolverine, Hulk and Storm were their # 2-4 characters for those decades. They were the A list for those decades. It's not that the Avengers Trinity were not A-list in comic terms, they just weren't on the public radar, despite being known they were not stepped in mainstream culture as much. So to say they were not A list might be correct to a fault, but only because of the flip flop of what was popular in comics at the time. I don't know if that makes sense or not.

Yes! I'm only talking in terms of the general audience, which to your point is correct to a fault. We as readers always knew they were heavy hitters, however, to the masses they couldn't tell you anything about Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, or who they are. It took the general audience to make them into a $14 Billion franchise, not just us.