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These character often started out well enough, but no one expected them to hit as hard as they did. They were able to connect to the audience in a way that surprised everyone and have become superstars. These ten Marvel characters inexplicably became A-listers, surprising everyone.
10) Rogue
Rogue is one of the most popular X-Men nowadays, but it’s a shock she’s gotten here. She first appeared and was used to write Carol Danvers out of the Avengers comics, and then was shunted into the X-Men. The team was popular, and the former villain became a favorite of fans as the years went on, her popularity snowballing. The introduction of Gambit was just the ingredient she needed and suddenly she was one of the most popular women on the team. She was always a character fans liked, but her seemingly doomed love for Gambit helped her become the icon she is now.
9) Carol Danvers
Carol Danvers first appeared as a sidekick for the first Captain Marvel, and kept getting more and more popular until she was the star of her own book, Ms. Marvel. She’d eventually move over to the Avengers, and became a solid B-lister. Then Avengers #200 happened, Chris Claremont used Rogue to take her to the X-Men, and she became a Starjammer before fading away for years. She’d start showing up again in the late ’90s, and went back to being a solid B-lister. Making her into the new Captain Marvel was the push she needed, and now she’s one of the biggest characters the publisher has.
8) Spider-Woman
Much like Carol Danvers, Spider-Woman became a solid B-lister in the ’70s and then faded away over the ’80s. She was replaced by Jessica Carpenter as Spider-Woman and was relegated to being a supporting character in the Chris Claremont-written Wolverine (Chris loved two things: the X-Men and ’70s Marvel women). However, all of that would change in the ’00s, when writer Brian Michael Bendis, who loved her as a kid, made her a key part of the mid ’00s flagship book New Avengers (she was originally supposed to be the star of Alias, but Marvel did not want her… well if you read the first issue, you know). No one had thought of her in years, but she became mega-popular and was a mainstay of the Avengers and solo titles for a while after.
7) Luke Cage
Luke Cage has a lot in common with both Carol and Spider-Woman. He was a ’70s Marvel sensation that faded away as the years went on. The Hero for Hire popped back up in the early ’00s in the MAX series Cage, from Brian Azzarello and Richard Corben, reminding fans why he was once a star. Bendis was a fan of the character, and brought him into Alias as Jessica Jones’s boyfriend before putting him in New Avengers. Suddenly, he was one of the most beloved members of the book’s cast and became a major Marvel character for years.
6) Black Widow
Black Widow started out as a villain, was redeemed, joined the Champions and became Daredevil’s girlfriend, and then was put on the Avengers in the late ’70s. She stayed around the team and its members for years, even becoming chairwoman for a short time in the ’90s when the team was at its lowest ebb of popularity. She’d get a Marvel Knights miniseries in the late ’90s, and went back to being a solid B-lister. Then Iron Man 2 happened and she was pushed to the stars. She suddenly was played as some Avengers icon, even though that really wasn’t ever the case, and is still one of the publisher’s most well-known characters.
