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Breakout Character / Marvel Universe

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Marvel Universe

Breakout Characters from this Shared Universe setting.
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Comic Books

  • Captain America: Bucky Barnes. He was just another teen sidekick when introduced, and then killed off in flashback by Stan Lee when he reintroduced Cap into the Silver Age. For decades Bucky became a running joke as "one of the only characters to stay dead" in comics. Fast forward to 2005 and at the very beginning of his run Ed Brubaker proceeds to bring Bucky back as the Winter Soldier, a brainwashed assassin used by the Russians during the Cold War who is eventually freed from control and goes on to become a well-characterized anti-hero. And then when original Captain America Steve Rogers was killed, Bucky wound up taking over the mantle to honor his partner. And he wound up becoming such a hit that when Steve was inevitably brought back to life, the fans actually didn't want him resuming his old identity and replacing Bucky. And for a little while, they got their wish: Bucky remained Captain America and Steve operated without a code name as the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.. While Steve eventually became Captain America again, Bucky continued to be a major part of the Marvel Universe, getting his own series, then leading the Thunderbolts — the major role he's played in the MCU has catapulted him into Marvel's A-List.
  • Cosmic Ghost Rider from Thanos. While Donny Cates' Thanos run is very well regarded, what really stood out to many was the Cosmic Ghost Rider, an insane version of Frank Castle who became the Ghost Rider and Herald of Galactus. So he's a Punisher with a flaming skull who rides through space on a flaming motorcycle. It didn't take long for Marvel to give him his own series set in the main Marvel Universe, and he's due to join the Guardians of the Galaxy once that ends.
  • Deadpool was originally designed to be a one-shot villain of the New Mutants and a rip-off of DC Comics' Deathstroke. He was later teamed up with Cable and briefly joined the X-Men and X-Force. His sociopathic comedy and constant fourth wall breaking have pushed him to the elite of Marvel characters with his popularity rivalling that of Wolverine and Spider-Man.
    Wrecker: Buncha minor league wannabes, yer kidding right?
    Deadpool: Wannabes?
    Deadpool's Thought Box: Yeah, we got two books out right now.
    Deadpool's Other Thought Box: And another one coming out next month.
  • Elektra's popularity, which stretched beyond the traditional male population and drew a large female readership, would eventually ensure her own miniseries and in 1986 she would star in Elektra: Assassin. She was supposed to stay dead after her death in Daredevil, but she was resurrected because of her popularity and frequently used since, despite Marvel's initial promise to Frank Miller that the character would not be used in any other publication.
  • Fantastic Four: The first one to get his own series was Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, likely due to him being a roundabout revival of a Golden Age trademark. However, the writers quickly realized that the most popular member was Ben Grimm, The Thing. His well-defined personality, highly distinctive look, and strong concept resulted in him getting a few solo series, joining multiple other teams, and even being the main star of Marvel Two-in-One, a book whose whole point was to show Ben teaming up with other characters. This even extends to other media, where, if a TV series, a piece of merchandise or anything else of that nature features just one member of the Four, it will almost always be the Thing.
  • The Avengers: Hawkeye. Originally a villain and one of then-villain Black Widow's many short-lived boyfriends that she manipulates into fighting Iron Man. Then, Hawkeye joins the Avengers, where he becomes The Lancer to Captain America. He would then go on to get several largely successful miniseries until finally becoming the leader of his own Avengers team in the form of the West Coast Avengers, which lasted quite a while. Then he fell back into the C-list, but then returned as one of the core Avengers, being a member or supporting member of most Avengers teams, and to tie in with the 2012 film even got his own ongoing that became one of the most critically acclaimed books published by Marvel, while also being a core cast member of the Avengers Marvel NOW! book, the Avengers Assemble comic book, and the Secret Avengers.
  • The other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, similarly has broken out from her Young Avengers team-mates. With the Young Avengers splitting up, Kate Bishop was able to take over the lion's share of top billing from fellow Hawkeye, Clint Barton after the acclaimed Matt Fraction Hawkeye series. She now leads the West Coast Avengers with Clint and has appeared in the MCU series Hawkeye, where she fancies herself as a partner to Clint Barton, while many of the Young Avengers are in comic book limbo.
  • Howard the Duck is one of the biggest examples as he was never intended as more than a joke for one or two panels and ended up as one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe and comics in general. This led to a feature film (making him the first Marvel character to get his own theatrically released movie) and a much better received cameo in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
  • Jessica Jones is this to the Marvel MAX line. Intended to be Marvel's R-rated imprint for their entire universe, the thing most know about it was that it was what introduced Alias and the starring character. Since starring in her own Netflix adaptation in 2015, she's become known to the public after years of being a fan-favorite.
  • The new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, proved a surprise success, even outselling her parent book. She received a lot of positive mainstream attention and has been stated to have cross-cultural appeal, bringing in readers who wouldn't traditionally be interested in American superhero comics. This has led to several volumes of her solo book, a role as a key member of the Champions team, her own Disney+ adaptation, the decision to launch Marvel's Love Unlimited webcomic with a Ms. Marvel arc, a set of one-off team-up specials to accompany the TV adaptation, and a forthcoming film appearance as one of the leads of Captain Marvel (2019) sequel The Marvels (2023).
  • She-Hulk Jennifer Walters started out as a less extreme female copy of the Hulk in The Savage She-Hulk. But over the years she gradually developed into an arguably much more interesting, distinctive, and unique character than just being a female copy of the Hulk.
  • Spider-Man:
    • Spidey himself qualifies. The series started out as a one-shot story for a failing anthology comic and received his own comic book series only a few months later due to sheer fan-demand for more Spider-Man stories. Since then he's long been considered the flagship character of the entire Marvel Comics universe and is the third most well known/highest-selling superhero of all time behind Batman and Superman. Stan Lee even admitted Spider-Man was his favorite character that he created, being the one he identified with the most.
    • The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #42: Peter Parker has a blind date with the neighbor's niece, Mary Jane Watson, whom the writer and artist intend as a minor character to play second banana to the real love interest, Gwen Stacy. But when in the final panel Mary Jane's face is finally seen and she says the much-quoted words "Face it, tiger, you just hit the jackpot!", the letters calling for her to become Peter's girlfriend start coming. Stan Lee and John Romita eventually discover that no matter what they do, MJ is more popular with the readers than designated love interest Gwen. To cut a long and complex story short, 250 issues later Mary Jane finally consents to become Spider-Man's wife.
    • Two alternate universe characters, Spider-Girl and Ultimate Spider-Man, were supposed to be a one-shot and a mini series respectively. Sales and fan response were so positive that Marvel decided to create an entire alternate universe and a line of comics for both characters, the Marvel Comics 2 and Ultimate Marvel.
    • Venom aka Eddie Brock. While he was intended to be just another regular villain (he made his debut in a double-sized 300th issue), neither Marvel nor its creator foresaw him becoming the most popular Spider-Man villain before becoming one of Marvel's most popular anti-heroes. While known as one of the "big three" along with the Green Goblin and Doc Ock, Eddie would further grow through most of the types of Anti-Hero and become even more popular as a result, to the point Eddie has been a good guy longer then he has been a villain. At the beginning, his creator David Michelinie even had plans to eventually kill him off, but his popularity prevented this and even Marvel editorial couldn't stop his character development, as Tom De Falco (the Marvel Editor-in-Chief) or his successor, Bob Harras (both not liking Eddie's transition from villain to anti-hero) tried stifling it by refusing to allow Venom to have a proper title. However, the mini series Lethal Protector was so popular Venom continued to get solo mini series after mini series till Bob forced Tom Brevoort to put a end to them...only for Eddie to eventually get his own running title after taking the reigns from Flash who revived the brand. Even finally burying the hatchet with Peter to boot! (Also thanks to Flash getting Peter to drop his grudge)
      • Flash Thompson became popular once Peter left high school as an example of a well-developed supporting character who grew beyond his Jerk Jock caricature. He matured and became a nice guy and war hero. Eventually, he proved popular enough that Dan Slott made him the fourth Venom, and the first straight-up heroic one. (after some character development) This incarnation was popular enough that Flash would get multiple Venom ongoings out of it and he's still the only Venom aside from Eddie Brock that has gained the widespread acceptance of fans.
    • Spider-Man 2099 Miguel O'Hara by far the most popular hero of the Marvel 2099 line, and is typically the poster boy for alternate, non-contemporary Spider-Men in comics and other media.
    • "Spider-Gwen", a Gwen Stacy from an Alternate Universe who was bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter, was first mentioned in interviews leading up to Spider-Verse. With a lack of Gwen Stacy in the comics, seeing her in action and as a hero struck a chord with readers. To the point where people were cosplaying as her months before her first story in Edge of Spider-Verse #2. Before the Spider-Verse story proper started, Marvel had already announced a series for her. When the first part of Spider-Verse was released, her appearance gave her the tagline "Your new favorite". As the ultimate testament to this, Ghost-Spider (2019) saw Gwen immigrate from her own universe and into the main Marvel Universe, thus putting her in the same world as the Marvel stable.
    • Miles Morales, the second Ultimate Spider-Man. He received widespread mainstream attention when first announced, and has proven popular enough to appear in several video games and the Ultimate Spider-Man TV series. He's also one of the few characters from the Ultimate Marvel universe to survive the end of the line and transition into the mainstream Marvel Universe after Secret Wars. His popularity reached mainstream levels when he starred in his own film and triple A video game.
    • Scream was initially only one of five symbiotes spawned by Venom and wasn't even given a name — alongside the rest of the spawn — in her first appearance. However, out of the five, she would go on to become the most popular due to her unique aesthetic and fleshed out characterisation (at least for symbiote characters). She even appeared in The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man as a member of the Sinister Six. After the original host of Scream, Donna Diego, was killed, Marvel would bring the symbiote back in the Absolute Carnage event, with an entire miniseries dedicated to it, while the rest of the Venomspawn were made to share a one-shot. Furthermore, the character received an ongoing, Scream: Curse of Carnage, after the event's conclusion.
  • The Punisher started out as a one-shot character in The Amazing Spider-Man #129, manipulated by the villainous Jackal into trying to gun down Spider-Man. He proved popular enough to get a few more appearances as an anti-heroic foil to Spider-Man, Captain America, and Daredevil before getting a miniseries (and later several ongoing series) of his own.
  • X-Men:
    • Back in the early to mid-1980s, the series was known for its ensemble cast. Everyone was allowed their moments to shine. However, Wolverine (James "Logan" Howlett) eventually became popular, and over the next decade or so, he not only had his own solo comic, but also seemed required to be in every X-Men comic (and plenty of other ones) as well. It got to the point where one writer even lampshaded this by including one scene where Wolverine complained to his leader that he couldn't be assigned to every X-Men subgroup. In adaptations, the franchise has made a complete shift from "X-Men" to "Wolverine (and some other guys in the background)." Can you say Wolverine Publicity? Wolverine wasn't even an X-Men character originally to begin with. He was originally meant to be a one-shot nemesis for The Incredible Hulk. It also took Wolverine some time to become the breakout character; initially he was at risk of being killed off in his second issue as an X-Man. He and another new member, Thunderbird, were the candidates for the chopping block because their very similar personalities were seen as redundant, and Wolverine was kept around because his powers and appearance were considered more interesting than Thunderbird's generic super-strength and stereotypical Native American costume.
    • Like Father, Like Daughter. Wolverine's Opposite-Sex Clone, X-23 (Laura Kinney), did this as well: Ensemble Dark Horse and Breakout Character on X-Men: Evolution, she became a Canon Immigrant and has started to become the same in the books, even taking over the identity of Wolverine after Logan was killed off (he got better however).
    • Gambit was introduced as a shady Trickster Mentor to a de-aged Storm in Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 #266. Only five issues later, he joined the X-Men and has stayed a consistent member since then. Gambit has gotten his comic series, dozens of crossovers with other Marvel characters such as Spider-Man or even DC characters like Nightwing, and had a solo movie stuck in Development Hell for five years. He is one of the few X-Men who can effectively rival Wolverine in popularity, and he and his lover Rogue (see below) are rarely ever exempt from big comic events.
    • Emma Frost is the most prominent and popular 21st century addition to the X-Men. From a supervillain and foe of the X-Men, to a superhero and one of the X-Men's most central members and leaders.
    • Old Man Logan appeared in a self-contained story arc in Wolverine as an alternate future Wolverine. That storyline's enduring popularity resulted in him, years later, being transported to the mainstream Marvel Universe. His film adaption's success only upped his popularity. The Old Man dystopian future format has been so successful it's led to spin-offs Old Man Hawkeye and Old Man Quill as well as parody Old Lady Harley.
    • Once she got her body back, Psylocke (Kwannon version) has become a prominent character in the Krakoan era and either led teams or provided a substantial role in Fallen Angels, Hellions, Marauders, Uncanny Avengers. Not surprising as it was her looks that propelled Psylocke (Betsy Braddock version) into her breakout from a prior role as a fragile-looking girly girl telepath in pantaloons.
    • Rogue was introduced in The Avengers Annual #10 in 1981 pretty much as a 1-shot villain, mainly intended to be a way for Chris Claremont to handwave away the remnants of the trauma that Carol Danvers had infamously undergone a year earlier in issue #200. After a two-part appearance as a villain in Dazzler #22 and #23, she approached the X-Men seeking their help in Uncanny X-Men #171... and went on to become a smash hit amongst fans, rising to one of the X-Men's leading ladies and developing a far larger and more consistent fandom than Carol Danvers ever enjoyed.
    • Ultimate X-Men (2001): Kitty Pryde became of the most rounded and well received characters of the post-Ultimatum X-Men, to the point that she was transferred to the All-New Ultimates when the X-Men comic was closed.

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