My Top 10 Significant Marvel Characters for 2014

With 2014 almost done, let me give you my top 10 picks for Marvel characters who were significant this year in one form or another.

Of course, this is just me. You’re very welcome to share your own top 10 picks too…

10. Rocket Raccoon

Rocket’s on this list thanks to the James Gunn movie and partly due to Bradley Cooper’s stellar performance. But peel away the glitz of Hollywood and you’ll see that Rocket’s the second in command of GOTG for being the bravest and most unlikely toughest character. For me he also represents the GOTG; like the team, Rocket’s rough and rugged and very abrasive but he’s got spunk and heart.

9. Thor

A bit controversial gender swap but still a novel idea. We’re getting to see how powerful Thor is as a mantle and title rather than as a person. Whoever the character is under the mask, she’s got tons of adventures to attend to but it’s going to be a fun ride thanks to Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman.

8. Carnage

Methinks Carnage had a good year between having his own set of minis in the past to getting his own tie-in book for Axis, he’s got it made. Unfortunately for him he took the dirtnap. Or maybe not. This is Carnage people.

7. Black Cat

To me, Black Cat almost had it, between taking over the New York mobs in Amazing Spider-Man to showing up (kinda) in Amazing Spider-Man 2 Felicia Hardy showed so much potential. Still she needs a good push from Marvel to be a real A-Lister because right now, people still see her as Spider-Man’s other love interest. She did pretty good teaming up with Electro and showing readers that she’s no longer that kitty cat we all grew up reading.

6. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch

These two had it big this year for a number of reasons.Both of them are returning to the main Avengers fold and co-headlining Uncanny Avengers with Rogue. They’ve also made their appearance in the MCU first through Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘s end credits and then in the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. More importantly both mutants are still being juggled between being mutants or miracles (possibly inhumans) and with the recent reveal that the twins are not Magneto‘s biological children, all bets are off for these two. It’s really a pretty big year for them.

5.Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier

This could have been Bucky’s year but it lacked a certain push. Between a new solo ongoing book and a titular movie Barnes could have had the world by the palm of his metallic hands. Sadly, he’s being relegated to second string. He’s not even actively being used in any Avengers related title. Aaron did use him as a candidate for Nick Fury’s replacement in Original Sin. He could have done great in Secret Avengers but he’s flung into space. Still being the new “Man in the Wall” fits Bucky well. Still Captain America: The Winter Soldier brought in new fans and a few misplaced followers who easily got lost in a world filled with Armor, Mjolnir and vibranium.

4. Miss Marvel

I swear I would’ve placed Kamala Khan a notch higher but I’ve got a specific reason for whose at the number one spot. Anyway, the new (and very much Inhuman) Miss Marvel is a character that showed the world that a book featuring a strong female lead with teenage angst and a different religious and ethnic background can make money. It’s also one of the books from Marvel that snagged a  formerly hard-to-get demographic for Marvel; pretty impressive feat. Lastly. it got people and the media talking about the new change. Another notch on the House of Ideas’ belt.

3. Wolverine

Wolverine died this year. It’s a mix of Marvel movie politics and a bit of selling books still the Canadian canuck will be out of commission for a little while. That’s all good because it’s already generating new stories and turning character beats all over the place. His is a story of death and leaving a bigger legacy. Also he could’ve easily gone to the top spot but Marvel just lacked the ‘oomph’ to push the ‘death’. Still four books under the ‘Death of Wolverine’ is a big deal; Captain America died and we only got Fallen Son.

2. Sam Wilson/ The Falcon/ Captain America

The Falcon gets a tremendous push this year. He appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Anthony Mackie) and took over the role of Captain America. He’s currently the leader of the Mighty Avengers and the official Avengers while at the same time playing one of the bad guys for Rick Remender‘s Avengers & X-Men: Axis. Still this is a promising move for Sam.

1. Star Lord/ Peter Quill

I swear Miss Marvel was supposed to go here but humor me why I picked Quill as THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHARACTER FOR 2014.

Obviously Quill and his Guardians of the Galaxy made a killing worldwide thanks to that movie directed by James Gunn but more than that he practically became a new cash cow for Marvel especially in the light of forever losing the X-Men to Fox. But enough of that, Quill is also the face of the new Marvel. A Marvel that’s willing to experiment and risk losing billions over. Remember Star-Lord was still a B-Lister in the public’s eye before GOTG. Now he’s practically a household name.

That gives him the edge over Kamala for me. He’s all over the place. He’s good for the brand. By 2015 we’ll already have roughly around five GOTG titles (the main Guardians of the Galaxy book, the GOTG team-up book, his own Legendary Star-Lord solo book, a Rocket Raccoon solo and the spin-off Guardians 3000 with Yondu and the original Guardians). He’s also been bopping around in All New X-men thanks to his newfound romance with Kitty Pryde.

Bottomoline, Quill is the face of radical change and a beacon of hope for obscure-yet-promising characters at Marvel.

Is this list to your liking or are do you have other characters in mind?