jesusjoe

X-Factor, no doubt. It's definitely had it's lulls, but some of the more recent stuff is some of the best of the series, and it was pretty damn good to begin with. X-Force was great and all, but Necrosha didn't really do it for me, and it never really felt like a team- more like a long term team-up, if you know what I mean... people complain about X-Factor being slow at times, but characterisation pays off in the long run. Just tends to work better as bookends to arcs, rather than interrupting them.

Well, character's who could just show up and bail everyone out when needed ala Wolverine, yet still be disliked by teammates and preoccupied with their own thing? Namor and Longshot. The 'technically a mutant, but no-one thinks of him as one' X-Man and the  'technically bot a mutant, but everyone thinks of him as one' X-Man.
 
Or, speaking of X-Man... Cable? Everyone loves Cable! Except everyone who doesn't... but they said the same thing about Deadpool, and now he's everywhere. And everyone who hated him loves him, and everyone who loved him hates him, and everyone still hates Rob Liefeld. And while we're on Liefeld creations, I have to second @Thunderscream about Shatterstar; he's gone from being so bad he's good so so good he's freaking awesome, which is definitely a Wolverine move (although it only took Wolvie 3 issues, not 15 years...)
 
I can't second Iceman though; I think single 'gimmick' character's like him work best as supporting. Not that character isn't paramount, but can you think of any really kick-ass characters with a single power they're identified with? Wolverine has Samurai training+Adamantium+Healing Factor+Really old. Iceman, he's just too predictable in a fight. Now, if they gave him some sort of shoulder mounted laser cannon it would... no, that would suck.

I got excited about having jumping on points for comics I wasn't reading yet; then realised I was reading all of these. Even HULK, for reasons unknown (but likely related to whatever reason I had for paying to see Transformers 2).

Whilst I disagree with  @emptytomb  's reasoning, I think the Punisher and Batman have some similarities in the position they fill, in that they take the place of the 'outcast' hero that goes too far in the eyes of others- it's just that the line for 'too far' is very different in both universes. Having said that, you could easily make the same argument for Wolverine; perhaps more successfully, since he and Batman are both flagship characters. And Wolvie has seen plenty of family members (wives in particular) killed, and since House of M has childhood trauma too (which, as far as I know, 616 Punny doesn't- although you could make an argument for PunisherMAX if you read 'The Tyger').  And takes on the image of a feared creature as his costume and namesake. And his definititive story involved 80's Frank Miller (though prior to Garth Ennis, I would have said the same about the Punisher - Child's Play is still one of my favourites). Of course, using this sort of thinking, from the 'real world' point of view, well; Academy Award winners aren't really clamoring to make a Moon Knight film, are they?

For a traditional team book, 5-8. If you take a more 'anthology' style approach to the storytelling though, with arcs focusing on different character's or sub-groups of character's you can probably ramp that up.

It's Cable though. I mean, did we even get an explanation for his return after he died in C&D forty-whatever? Far as I recall, he just showed up, and everyone went 'Guess he's not dead'. I mean, even if 'our' Cable is dead, there's probably one in an alternate version of the future he last traveled to building a time machine that doesn't kill everyone who tries to go through for no particular reason. And he'll come back with the Wolverine of that universe, and we'll get TWICE as many Wolvie titles per month, thus causing mass deforestation, at which point someone from the future will travel back in time to assassinate Rob Liefeld, in an attempt to stop Cable from ever existing. At which point Peter David will yell at the assassin for not killing Louise Simonson instead.

Can't say that I can justify the cleavage window as a logo. Not for the name 'Power Girl'. 'The Mammary Matron', or 'Lady Lumps' or 'Sister Silicone'... that'd work with the costume. Really, I'm happy with them changing either one, but ifyou're going to have power in your name, your logo needs to be more... intimidating. Maybe if she tattooed lighting bolts there or something. No wait, I've got a better idea- that, but for a female version of Flash... get it?

Just out of interest, can anyone name his first movie WITHOUT looking it up? I think I know it; French movie, Luc Besson, about subway station musical hobo's? With Jean Reno? Can't remember the name, but I'm pretty sure I remember thinking it was his earliest... It was something really simple, like 'Train', but I think it had an S in it... but I don't think it was Subway...

I think it would work better because the Marvel U has more of a system set up for 'street level' characters. It almost doesn't make sense that Batman can roll with the JLA, and there are some clear contradictions; War Games, for example, suggested he was an urban legend in Gotham, but in Identity Crisis we see him on a newspaper front page with the rest of the JLA (apologies if there's an explanation for that, I don't read that much other JLA stuff). What's more, part of the rationalisation given in Identity Crisis was that the 'big two' (himself and Superman)  were always running away to deal with their own issues instead of helping the JLA clean up theirs; yet when Batman runs off because 'Two-Face is robbing a bank', any one of the members who lament his loss could easily have jumped in and solved it, some in a matter of seconds. He may be the world's greatest detective, but 0.3 IQ Kon-El could work out who's robbing a bank WHEN IT'S HAPPENING THEN AND THERE. 
 
In the Marvel U, there's a bit more of a social gap between the street levelers and the outrageous superpowers; a little less now, with Bendis's Avengers stuff, but certainly when Miller, if he said it, said it (as he hasn't said anything without swearing profusely since well before Avengers Dissasembled) . Captain America told Moon Knight to stay the hell out of the Civil War, and eventually extended that to The Punisher; Daredevil tried his best not to get involved in the first place. And as far as I know, not one of them has ever been to space; Batman's gone thousands of times by now, and should probably have equipment that just lets him see through time or some crap to solve crimes. In the Marvel U, he'd fit right in because he WOULDN'T be accepted; I think the 'Iron Spiderman' suit is a good example of the difference between a street level outsider and someone on the top tier payroll.
 
EDIT:
Oh, and for the people mentioning Punisher/Batman, there were two crossovers in the 90's. First I haven't read, but I think it was with Azrael, so I guess that doesn't really count; in the second, the Punisher is about to shoot the Joker before the Batman steps in and tells Joker to run. At which point he punches Frank, and tells him to stay out of Gotham. So he lets TWO homicidal maniacs go. Doesn't even attempt to arrest Frank, nor chase after the Joker.  Worst. Vigilante. Ever. Good thing it's non-canon...