This weekend brings us the latest chapter in Marvel’s ambitious Cinematic Universe. In anticipation for ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, let’s vote to see which Marvel superhero is our readers’ favorite.
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As Marvel fans know, not all of the company’s characters are part of the official Cinematic Universe that coalesced into ‘The Avengers’. The movie rights to characters like Spider-Man, Daredevil, the X-Men and others are currently licensed to different studios that don’t want to give them back. That’s why, unless (or until) the various companies can eventually strike some kind of mutually beneficial deal, you won’t see Wolverine or the Fantastic Four teaming up on screen with Iron Man and Thor, regardless of what might have happened in comic books.<\/p>\n
With that said, I’ve decided to expand the following poll to include other Marvel characters outside the Cinematic Universe that have also appeared in live action form on theater screens. However, I’ve limited it to only those characters that have headlined their own movies. You won’t find supporting characters like Black Widow or Hawkeye here. Nor will you find the characters from upcoming movies such as ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ or ‘Ant-Man’ that haven’t premiered yet. Groups like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four appear collectively since that’s how their movies were billed, while Wolverine also merits his own separate entry because he’s been featured in a couple of solo movies.<\/p>\n
Please keep in mind that this vote should be based specifically on how the characters have been depicted in the live action movies, not on any other versions found in comics, cartoons or elsewhere. While I’ve included options for the separate actors who’ve portrayed the Hulk, Punisher and Spider-Man, note that Mark Ruffalo’s version of the Hulk has not yet gotten his own solo movie and should only be considered part of the Avengers as a group.<\/p>\n
The poll is also restricted to feature films. I haven’t included an option for ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, not that anybody would vote for it anyway.<\/p>\n
Personally, of these choices, I’d probably favor the X-Men, even though I think that group has only actually had one really good film (‘X2: X-Men United’) and several mediocre-to-bad ones. I just find the character roster there more appealing than the others. <\/p>\n