LogFAQs > #884558608

The way I see it, DC's trinity is so cut and dry because their Big 3 have both defined an entire culture and they are popular and consistently relevant both in and out of the comics.

Marvel isn't like that. Characters fade in and out of popularity all of the time, and most of the ones we'd consider part of the Big 3 are simply popular, and not necessarily culture redefining. I mean, that's the main reason we don't consider DC's Big 3 a Big 5 with Flash and Green Lantern included. A-list characters in their own right, but not necessarily iconic in the same way Supes, Bats and WW are.

There's certain heroes that at one point would basically be a lock for Marvel's Big 3 due to historic relevance and popularity combined, but one or both elements start to fade over time. The Fantastic 4 and The Hulk are prime examples of this. The F4 are a relic from the 60s and The Hulk simply isn't as popular as he used to be.

I would even include Wolverine in this list. He'll always be popular, but you can't really say he's representative of modern day culture like he was back in the 80s and 90s when everything and everyone aspired to be an XTREME anti-hero.

That's where Cap and Iron-Man come in, with Cap representing our fears of the government and Iron-Man pretty much being the most flashy and marketable superhero EVER from a pure conceptual standpoint. And Spider-Man will always fill the niche of the relatable everyman superhero (until they basically made him Tony Stark).

Deadpool is a choice that I think works quite well in a modern Marvel Big 3 since he really does feel like a superhero tailor made for millennials. The only thing is that he's still relatively new so who knows if he'll maintain that cultural relevance past this generation.
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