I think its crazy how much X-men has obtained a fan base,I dont even think it was this popular when X-1 or X-2 came out.X-men as always the bastard child of comic books IMO while more iconic popular superhero's would get the spotlight(Spider-man,Iron-Man..etc)

But it seems the most people who love it can relate to some of the characters being outcasts and what not.Anyways its just really amazing 8 years ago or so nobody would hardly be talking about this movie I think it has some what to do with technology aswell.Back then you couldn't really show what the X-men were really capable of because being limited to technology and resources and not to mention the first two films didn't really have a big budget but yeah we will see this could always end up like X-3 but I doubt it theirs reason's why that happened.

X-Men has been one of the biggest names in comics for 35 years, from what I know.

Who are these..."X-Men" you speak of??

@xwraith: Im sorry I was going by the movies.

A bunch of superheroes who had a sex change because going by just The Men didn't sound as interesting.

They've had a huge following for years, their huge fan base is nothing new. The X-men have been Marvel's most lucrative team for quite some time, too.

They could of been the Now-Women.

(currently on the floor stroking from laughter)

I actually think the fan base has shrunk

They were saving that for their Marvel Now redesign.

They're significantly less googled for what it's worth: http://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore#q=x-men

It's uncanny.

I think that's partially because they've become more well known outside of comics, as well as there being more and more other resources to explore such things. It's hardly surprising (but still interesting) that all of those spikes correspond with when the movies were coming out.

Calling the X-Men Marvel's bastard child is probably pushing it. The X-Men cartoon was already popular by the time the first X-Men movie came out and X-Men Evolution was just picking up.

The x-books haven't sold this poorly in decades.

I remember when X-Factor outsold the Avengers (this was before the cartoon came out).

Yeah, but the Avengers were also pretty much a C-list title all during the 90s when the X-titles were dominating the industry.

I always thought they had a strong fan base.

My interest for the X-Men has been there since I was a kid.

The X-Men had been popular since the 70s, although they might be losing their popularity to the Avengers lately ever since the Avengers movie came out.

Yeah, the popularity of the X-Men has definitely decreased a lot over the past decade. They used to be Marvel's top seller and dominated the comic book medium. Now that Marvel's Avengers movies are so popular, those books and character popularity have sky rocketed while X-Men has remained stagnant due to bad story telling.

I do too

I keep seeing people say it's because of the movies. In fact Avengers popularity was gaining ground before that at least in comics. Interest just swung that way after being off for a long while. It will also swing away again. Same with the X men

@polarity: Very true. X-Books have out done the Avengers for the longest. My opinion is pretty much that the combo of the really successful movies for Avengers characters, and bad to mediocre story-telling in the X-Verse has shifted the popularity balance toward the Avengers.

@flameboy298: If you said pretty much anyone from Avengers I would agree with you, but Marvel's two most popular ip's in the 90s were X-Men and Spider-man Animated Series,so no it doesn't surprise me that people have grown up with them are liking them.

Well, Spider-Man and the X-Men have always been Marvel's poster boys. That's the reason they sold the movie rights of in the first place. Nobody wanted the Avengers. Who were they?!

I'm not sure that the X-Men's fanbase has really been shrinking. Probably just not keeping up with the number of new people being introduced to the Avengers due to the movies.

X Men have always been popular. I am pretty sure the Guinness Book of Records lists the highest selling comic issue ever, as an X Men comic.