Yeah yeah, I know it’s been written about ad nauseum… who will win when the X-Men and the Avengers fight this year? Earth’s mightiest heroes or the children of the atom?
But forget all that for a minute and ask yourself this… who do you
want to win?
It’s true that you may have your opinions on who’s more powerful or who’s more popular, or whom everyone
else wants to win. The Avengers, for example, boast most of Marvel’s most powerful heroes, and they’ve got a blockbuster movie coming out this year, so they’re the most favored. It may seem like, since they’re Marvel’s A-list in terms of powers and reputation, that they’re
supposed to win, so that’s the team you’d vote for in a poll.
It’s also true that you may have your theories on how certain story beats will play out, which will give one team an advantage. Let’s take Storm and Wolverine, for example. They’re running around in the Avengers right now — and Wolverine’s doing double duty on both — but they’re X-Men in their hearts above all else, so maybe you’re expecting them to switch sides and say, “Forget the damn Avengers, I have to help protect my fellow
X-Men, goddammit!” which would give the X-Men the advantage perhaps. If two Avengers jump ship in the middle of the fight or work as double agents, then perhaps that would give the mutants the upper hand.
Or maybe you’re thinking, “Look. This is a superhero crossover event. No one’s going to really ‘win.’ They’re going to beat each other up for a little bit before they come together to beat up the bad guy.”
And who knows? You could be right. I don’t know. I haven’t really read too many spoilers or news stories about the event. I’ve only seen those versus pictures, like where Magneto and Iron Man look like they’re about to fight each other. I have no idea how this storyline will play out, or even why these two teams are going to be fighting in the first place.
But again, I’m not asking you to make predictions on how the story will play out. And I’m not asking you who you think
would win. I’m asking you whom you
want to win if there’s a fight.
I’m asking you to pick your favorite team. When you were a kid, which group of heroes made you rush to the comic book store on Wednesday because you couldn’t wait? Did you almost die when you found out that Fox was airing an X-Men cartoon after school? Or did you not give a crap because they weren’t as cool as the Avengers? Who would you cosplay as if you had the body? Wolverine or Captain America? Black Widow or Jean Grey? Which team members would have you tearing writers and artists apart on message boards for messing them up? Which team members are the ones who are closest to your heart?
If you know which team those characters belong to, then you probably know which team you’d
want to come out on top, in spite of how you think things
will play out.
So I guess what I’m really asking you is this: if YOU were writing this damn story, who’d come out on top?