It was tough trying to decide between Nightcrawler and Colossus. And to be honest, I’m expecting Storm to either win or place strongly. She’s been horribly mis-used in the past few years, but she’s still one of, if not the most, pre-eminent female character in Marvel.

Wolverine; cliche it may be, but which of those other characters has done as well ( or well at all, for that matter ) on their own?

I sat and thought about it, trying to come up with a good enough reason for anyone else.

But, no, it’s definitely Wolverine.

Um…Thunderbird?

I guess I’m going to go with Wolverine. I’m more a fan of the X-Men as a team and a concept then the individual members, and most of my favorites are from other eras (Jean, Emma, Rogue, Gambit, Dazzler, Northstar, Angel). Wolverine is overexposed, but he is one of Marvel’s best characters (behind Spider-Man and maybe the Hulk) and works on the team and on his own.

Okay, he’s the most appalling national stereo-type, he smokes, he’s got a girl’s name and the way he letches over Storm borders on sexual harrassment – but I’ve always rather liked Banshee.

I’ve always loved Nightcrawler, though I might have voted for Wolverine if he hadn’t become so ubiquitous; he always reminded me of my uncle when I was growing up. As a kid, Nightcrawler’s teleportation just seemed like it would be the most fun to have out of everyone’s, and the most useful. I mean, just think of all the money that you’d save on car insurance and the time spent commuting everyday. Long distance relationships would be only a hop skip and Bamf away.

Though I’m not sure what how much carbon Bamfing all over the place would produce… hmmf.

The only actual surprise of this poll would be if someone besides Wolverine wins, but I did my part for Nightcrawler. Not exactly the best poll of the set.

Not entirely sure, but will there be a You Decide ’09 master list posted?

For me it was between colossus and nightcrawler. Wolverine will probably come away with a win, but I dislike him as a character. I went with colossus in the end.

I vote Colossus. He is strongest, Dos Vidanya(exclamation point)

Colossus FTW!!

Peace.

Cyclops, without a doubt

I voted for Nightcrawler although I haven’t read any of the Claremont X-Men comics. I voted for him based solely on his kickass special move in the 90s arcade game, which easily trumped the other characters’ abilities in terms of Sentinel-killing power.

Hmm, a tough choice for me between Storm and Nightcrawler. In the end I went with the elf. I wouldn’t be suprised if Wolverine doesn’t win this.

Nightcrawler!

Colossus all the way.

Always been my favorite, always shall be.

So cool that he should have graduated to Avenger status by now as the Beast once did.

As a teen of the 80′s, Forge takes the second spot.

Freaking Warren Ellis…

Nightcrawler; a swash-buckling, wall-crawling, demonesque figure with strong religious beliefs. And I loved his relationship with the early Claremont-Byrne Wolverine.He seemed to be the only member of the All-New X-Men who truly believed that Wolvie had the potential to be a hero rather than a borderline psychotic. I liked that as the run progressed, he truly developed as a character, like in the “Classic X-Men,” back-up story when he decided that he no longer wanted to use his image inducer. Even as new characters such as Kitty were introduced, Kurt had the most interesting dynamic with them; in Kitty’s case, the fact that his appearance disturbed her.

As an addendum, I’ve always felt that while one of the problems with Logan was undoubtedly his ubiquitousness, that another was that as he became more and more popular, his power levels increased disproportionately. By the time the Hellfire Club had been introduced, Wolvie was just a guy with claws, and slightly enhanced healing and senses. In the classic “Wolverine: Alone,” issue, taking out five Hellfire Commandos is a big deal. Here was a guy with an interesting skill set, who was clearly outclassed in terms of powers by his fellow X-Men. His team-mates included a being with god-like powers, a woman who could control the weather, the world’s foremost telepath, and a guy who could turn his body into organic steel. Yet he was an integral part of the team. He was an interesting character not-least because he was surviving and thriving amongst people whose powers dwarfed his own. Nowadays, Wolvie will wade through machine-gun fire, take out hundreds of enemy’s without blinking an eyelid, and seems, even by the standards of comic characters, to be indestructible. What I miss most about the Logan that I loved as a kid, is the “little-guy against the world” aspect of the character.

Gotta be Nightcrawler.

I eliminated Cyclops since he’s not really “All-New”, and Nightcrawler since I really like him as a supporting character, but I don’t think I could see him as a lead.

Wolverine by a hair, then.

Have to disagree with Chen, Cyclops, while being an original five, is the glue in which Len Wein/Chris Claremont were able to keep the name and spirit of the X-men alive in a time of transititon. One wouldn’t say Robin wasn’t considered part of TNTT would they?(Yes I understand the irony) Cyclop was, is ,and always will be the heart and soul of the X-Men.

It’s got to be Kurt, with Piotr running a close second…

Y’know, it’s awfully close Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Collossus. If I were voting my current perspective, Storm might well edge the others out, but it’s so close, I decided to vote for my classic favorite. Colossus because he was far and away my favorite when I first got into the X-Men when I was a kid; the artist, the romantic, the kind-hearted warrior. He resonated with me the most, so I voted for him.

Colussus, because he’s probably the most prominent athiest comics character.

As a P.S. if this pole was taken in the Eighties (that’s right I said it) it would have been much tougher to dismiss Logan (not James Whatever). Marvel’s whoremongering of his character is nothing short of criminal. A once promising character’s development has been a literary clusterfuck of commercialization whose fruition seems to need 7 to 8 different monthly books to exploit. He use to be the bad-ass wild card know he’s a cliche. Sad.

I vote Phoenix

Strange, as much as I loved the All-New X-Men in the Claremont years, I can’t say I had a big favorite. The magic of the comic was in the interaction between these disparate personalities, more than in any one character. Every one of them had such an individual voice. You can’t say the same of any other supergroup of the time, with the possible exception of the Fantastic Four, but the X-Men were so much more interesting.

I think I’m going to vote Wolverine, just because he was the breakout character, and pretty damn complex and intriguing before he became the invincible dude that can regenerate from an atomic explosion in 2 seconds and is a member of 257 teams at once.

Runner-ups for me would be Storm and Cyclops.

Despite the fact that Nightcrawler is my all-time favorite X-Men, I voted for Colossus- Because way back when I first read Giant Size X-Men #1, he was the one I liked the most, and that’s the point of this poll, no? To judge the characters as they were back then? Nightcrawler’s charms would only become apparent later, while Peter was always the same.

By the White Wolf! In Soviet Russia Favorite X-Man chooses you. (So I went with Piotr.)

Banshee, for sure.

I’m thinking Wolverine will win, but I did my part to help Nightcrawler to pull the upset

I voted for Banshee. He has the most un-squandered potential! And he’s dead, sure, but you can’t win ‘em all.

Here’s the new boss, same as the old boss: Cyclops. Pretty much always has to be Cyclops for me. I do have some major love for Nightcrawler, though, and Colossus and Banshee are up there as well.

Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm and Kitty Pryde is pretty much always going to be the X-Men for me. Everyone else is just superfluous, even Beast who really belongs on the Avengers. There, I said it.

The only actual surprise of this poll would be if someone besides Wolverine wins, but I did my part for Nightcrawler. Not exactly the best poll of the set.

The poll is interesting for that very reason, as I don’t believe Wolverine WILL win, so who DOES win will be interesting.

Not entirely sure, but will there be a You Decide ’09 master list posted?

There is one.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/10/01/you-decide-09-master-list/

I really have never been a big X-men fan, but Nightcrawler is an absolutely amazing character. The dynamic between him and Wolverine is one of the best in comics.

….Thunderbird…. don’t judge me!

I’m going with Thunderbird, he had potetial. And I really liked his looks.

Another vote for Nightcrawler. The elf had flair and hasn’t been ruined nearly as much as the others.

My 38 year old self hates this answer, but it is Wolverine. I can’t deny that I drew him in my sketchbook as a young teen more than any other X-Men character. He was my David Cassidy.

“Colussus, because he’s probably the most prominent athiest comics character.”

Isn’t Wolverine supposed to be an atheist too?

My favorite is the same now as it was when I was most into this series at age 12 (right around the time of the Brood Sage): Nightcrawler, all the way.

Nightcrawler 1st, then Cyclops, then Wolvie.
i haven’t read Marvel for about a decade, so i’ve missed the worst part of the Wolveration of the MU, but i was around for the begining.
That said, have always loved Nightcrawler.
DFTBA

Nightcrawler. But only old-school fun swashbuckling Nightcrawler, not modern-day whiney bitch Nightcrawler.

Close call for me between Nightcrawler and Colossus, which seems to have been a common dilemma with this poll, but Colossus pulls it out by a hair.

Wolverine he’s not just my favorite X-Man but my favorite hero so its pretty simple to vote for him. Although I wont be sad if he gets beaten by nightcrawler he does deserve some love as well

” Isn’t Wolverine supposed to be an atheist too? ”

And outside the X-Books, we have Iron Man, Hank Pym, as well as Mr. Teriffic ( who is far lower profile, but has been very open about his lack of faith ). Colossus isn’t the most prominent comics atheist, especially when you consider that his lack of religion was a product of the Soviet state that can’t exist in his modern continuity background.

I had to be honest and vote Wolverine. But I really liked Banshee, too, and wished he’d lasted longer. He was the only one besides Wolverine who would advise or even question Cyclops’s judgment at times (although he’d be pretty polite about it).

Nightcrawler and Colossus were great too. And I liked Cyclops. And Thunderbird and Sunfire didn’t stick around long, but they were great visually.

Wow, that was a pretty great team.

man this one was tough. i fully expect wolverine to win. i had a hard time picking between storm, nightcrawler and colossus, but ended up with storm. her battles to control her mood because it would affect the weather in many ways expressed the ‘great power great responsibility’ dictum much more powerful ..

I wanted to be the only one to vote Sunfire

I voted Cyclops. The mutants Cpt.America. ’nuff said.

Wolverine may not win because people like to different, and they like the underdog. I have to be honest and throw all that out: it’s Wolverine for me.

djsweet, that is sweet!

Aw, it’s Wolverine. I ain’t proud of it but he really IS the best there is at what he does. And what he does isn’t very nice, no. From the moment he killed that guard on the Savage Land, followed closely by killing a dinosaur? Come on. Although Nightcrawler is DEFINITELY cool and it’s nice to see him making such a strong showing. Peter? No. Cyke? No. Storm hasn’t gotten many votes, which is funny because there was a time where she would blast her clothing off every month.

hard to call for the team is my favorite version of x-men but had to go with Colossus for he was willing to give up his simple life he loved to journey to a strange country and gave the team a heart. not to mention he helped save his kind by curing the legacy virus .

I just bought the first two Essentials volumes of this series and am reading them in full for the first time (I had friends with a few back issues and I used to grab issues of X-Men Classic whenever I got the chance, but was missing huge gaps in the stories), and I gotta say, these were damn fine superhero comics, miles ahead of anything else by Marvel or DC at that time, including New Teen Titans.

Nightcrawler is definitely my favourite, shining in nearly every issue despite a lack of panel time, and Piotr was awesome as well. Wolverine was at his best then, and has become watered down and lamer with each passing year, and Cyclops was truly great, it likely should have been him dying along with Jean at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga (with a return for neither).

Man, what great comics, it’s not a surprise that nearly every single writer since Claremont and Byrne has tried to resurrect the main elements of this run.

Some people, in citing the fact that Wolverine was the “breakout” character or the most popular or successful one as the reason for voting for him, seem to be forgetting a) that the vote is for “favourite” character, and b) that “favourite” means what you like the best, not what was most popular or was the big craze with everyone else.

Though I initially thought Wolverine or Nightcrawler, I pulled the trigger on Banshee.

Whats funny is everyone thinks Wolverine will win and yet most comments seem to indicate Nightcrawler or Colossus will win. I voted Nightcrawler hes blue and has a tail how cool is that.

Based on past polls, the choice that seems most popular in the comments is quite often not the top vote getter, so I still wouldn’t be surprised if Wolverine won despite a lack of love in the comment section

I went with Nightcrawler, also. For all the same reasons as everybody else, I guess. (I’ve been disappointed that few of my choices have won on these polls, but now I feel kind of sad at picking such a popular choice.)

I really don’t think you should’ve restricted this to the characters from Giant-Size X-Men, though. Really, the image of the ‘new X-Men’ extends all the way to the death of Phoenix, and if you had gone that far you could’ve included Kitty Pryde (since she was invited to join just as the Hellfire Club was recruiting Jean, and she arrived at the X-Mansion during the funeral). If Kitty were a candidate, I would really have somebody to root for.

Jack – I like all of them, that is why Wolverine being the breakout character decides it for me.

Storm.

Another “no hesitation” job, this poll.

Cyclops, by a hair over Nightcrawler and Colossus. Chris McAree (above) is totally right about what went wrong with Wolverine – he was vastly more interesting when he could reasonably be considered weaker than the other X-men.

Wolverine is the “the best” for a reason, so I voted for him. I’m guessing the final order will be Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm, Banshee, Cyclops, Thunderbird, and Sunfire.

” Some people, in citing the fact that Wolverine was the “breakout” character or the most popular or successful one as the reason for voting for him, seem to be forgetting a) that the vote is for “favourite” character, and b) that “favourite” means what you like the best, not what was most popular or was the big craze with everyone else. ”

As a visceral favorite, mine was Colossus, but I voted Wolverine simply because he’s been the most prominent AND in the largest number of stories I’ve enjoyed. Not just as the breakout X-Man of the 2nd generation, but in all his solo adventures, and even some of his guest-spots. Colossus, on the other hand, has been largely a supporting character with a few decent moments here and there, but little dynamic spotlight.

And as for solo Colossus stories; there was that weird Excalibur one-shot where he teamed up with Meggann to fight Arcade, which was only saved by Bryan Hitch’s art ( and even that was in his pre-widescreen days ). There was that recent mini-series where he was revealed to be related to THE Rasputin, or some such nonsense. And…I’ve got nothing else.

I suspect Wolverine will take this in a walk, but I had to vote for Nightcrawler– he’s just too fun as a character to ignore.

Nightcrawler. I have a soft spot for characters who don’t quite make it into the Legion of Super-Heroes, for whatever reason. That, and when done right, Kurt’s a Fun Personified character.

This is the first poll that has made me think, “Curse you for making me choose, Cronin!”

Nightcrawler v. Colossus v. Banshee. That was tough.

Oh, and Lufio – 2 things. One, Nightcrawler would have a hard time teleporting to work; unless he’s gotten a huge upgrade since I stopped reading the X-Universe regularly, he’s got like a 2-mile range. He’d have to live pretty close.

Also, the only chemical byproduct of Bamf-ing appears to be sulfur-based, and no one has complained about anything but the stink. No big gagging or choking, implying that it’s not harmful stuff.

The vote goes to “Snikt!!”
Seriously, that’s a character-defining sound effect, don’tcha think? “Thwip!!” comes a close second, with “Bamf!!” being third.
They’re all Marvel sound effects, though..Does DC have prominent sound effects such as these?

I voted Nightcrawler because he basically just came across as the coolest. I particularly liked when Cyclops and Storm were both gone and he became the leader and pretty much sucked at it.

The great thing about the All-New X-men is that they are all great characters, and they are all handled well. Having read this stuff for the first time in the past year I can say it all still holds up really well.

The fuzzy blue elf, hands down.

One more vote for Nightcrawler! Scrolling through the comments, I think we actually may be able to pull this out

I had to think back to who was my favourite at the time. I really didn’t like Wolverine until his mini-series with Kitty Pryde. I remember wondering why he wasn’t locked up with the criminals during Secret Wars.

I had to go with my favourite then, and now: Cyclops. Seriously, his only real character flaw is that so many writers don’t know what to do with him anymore. I agree with the comment that he and Jean should have died at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Then, we would have happy memories of him as competant, not memories of him stammering “sir” around Professor X, or running out on Maddie, or cheating on Jean with Emma, or etc.

Theno

Always thought Storm was way overrated but she’ll probably come strong, but anyway this list is a bit difficult tho I’ll go with wolverine.

I don’t think Scott should have died, but maybe I’d prefer if Scott had gone into semi-retirement after the Dark Phoenix Saga, settling down with a normal non-redhead woman like Lee Forrester (anyone still remember her?), and coming back to help the X-Men only occasionaly.

On the other hand, once a character attains a certain level of popularity and importance in comics, he can never truly die or retire. It’s simply a fact of superhero comics.