Top 10 AWESOME Spin Off Superhero Teams

The X-Men’s Shadowcat, Nightcrawlerand Rachel Summers were in the United Kingdom when they heard that their teammates had been killed in a mutant massacre. That didn’t turn out to be exactly true, but the world didn’t know that yet. The trio worked off some of their grief by teaming up with British superheroes Captain Britain and the shape shifting Meggan to defeat some nasty villains. Thus was born Excalibur, essentially the UK’s answer to the X-Men. With Chris Claremont and Alan Davis as the guiding force, Excalibur established itself as a team with a penchant for inter-dimensional adventures. Though the team had plenty of dark moments, at its best it displayed a lightness of tone that gave it flavor all its own.

This off-shoot came about when the Vision, who was leading the Avengers at the time, felt a second team was needed to battle the Dire Wraiths. The bowman Hawkeye quickly assumed the mantel of team leader and put together an outfit that included Iron Man, Tigra, Mockingbird and Wonder Man. Hank Pym was also around, acting as the team’s scientific wizard. While the line-up eventually expanded to include a large number of heroes, the team worked best when it focused on characters like Hawkeye or Pym – the stalwarts that weren’t quite on the “A” level of Marveldom. giving so-called “lesser” characters a chance to shine gave fans a reason to drop in every month.

After more than a hundred issues, X-Force had begun to get a little stale. Peter Milligan and Mike Allred came in to pump some new life into it – mission accomplished! They dispensed with all the members of X-Force, brought in new ones - and then killed most of the news ones! And that was all in the first issue. The new team eventually became known as X-Statix, and they were conceived as a comment on how superheroes can be affected by their celebrity status. The characters tended to be youthful and ambitious, and stardom was a goal of many in the group. Although some readers complained about the satirical, wacky tone, those who hooked into it were passionate about it.

The X-Men inspired a number of teams, but X-Factor was unique when it started: its roster was simply the five original X-Men! Because Magneto, who had long been an evil mutant, had become leader of the official X-Men, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman and Angel broke off on their own. What was even cooler, though, was that originally X-factor was a team of mutant hunters – kind of. This cover allowed them to track down new mutants and help them to learn to master their abilities – and to disguise themselves from mutant haters. The team evolved through the years, at one point becoming a detective agency with a distinctly “nourish” tone to it.

DC’s New 52 reboot gave creators the chance to try something new – so why not a Justice League made up solely of the more mystical characters in the line-up? The magic-based storylines would be a change of pace, and characters like John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Deadman and the vampire Andrew Bennett promised plenty of internal conflicts. The team bickered plenty, as many of the members had plenty of ego and plenty of reason to distrust each other. Constantine, we’re looking at you. But they also knew how to bring all of their magical gifts together when the occasion called for it, providing readers with some awesome mystic adventures in the process.

The first X-Men spin-off, the New Mutants harkened back to the early days of the X-Men in that they were all teen-aged mutants. Since the original X-Men had all grown and matured, New Mutants represented a chance to re-focus on a more inexperienced team that was learning how to handle their powers and their place in society. Although the series didn’t skimp on adventure, it tended to put interpersonal relationships at the forefront, to great effect. The series also introduced a little character called Deadpool who became kind of popular. The original series evolved into X-Force, paving the way for some new New Mutants. Whatever the line-up, New Mutants had a freshness and verve that was hard to resist.

In the late 1990s, the aging of the original Teen Titans left a void in the DC Universe: there wasn’t a teens-only supergroup. So they brought together younger heroes associated with the Justice League – Superboy, Robin and Impulse – as a new team. The gender imbalance was soon corrected with the addition of Wonder Girl, Arrowette and Secret. Other members were added along the way, and Red Tornado became a kind of adult mentor to the team. Young Justice overflowed with vitality and energy, and the cartoon series based on the premise was a fan favorite for its clever plotting and deft characterizations. Those same qualities were a hallmark of the team in its comic book form as well.

There have been three different versions of the New Avengers. The original Avengers team had disbanded after the Scarlet Witch precipitated a crisis when she lost control of her powers. A group of heroes including Captain America, Iron Man, Luke Cage and Spider-Man later came together to battle a break-out at the super-villain prison. Recognizing a good thing, most of them stayed together as the New Avengers. Arguably just an excuse to get Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine all on the same team, the stories it brought us are well worth overlooking the motivation. At it’s best, New Avengers was a skillful blend of classic and modern Marvel storytelling.

As previously noted, X-Force grew out of the original New Mutants series. Organized by the time-traveling mutant Cable, X-Force was a mutant team with a very different goal. The X-Men and their many sister teams tended to focus on improving relations between humans and mutants, X-Force was intended to stop those evil mutants before they got started. It aggressively hunted down mutant terrorists, so much so that X-Force itself was labeled a terrorist group in its early days. For much of its run, X-Force had a gritty, fairly violent tone, with the group essentially a black ops paramilitary team.

Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

Secret Avengers
Spin-off of Avengers

Omega Flight
Spin-off of Alpha Flight

Future Foundation
Spin-off of Fantastic Four

Proof that a team about young side-kicks can kick as much ass as their adult counterparts. Similar to Young Justice, the Teen Titans have always been about a group of hot-headed teens who want nothing more than to prove they are ready to shed their training wheels and move up to the big leagues. While the team’s original incarnation consisted of the child equivalent of the most popular superheroes including Robin, Wonder Girl and Aqualad, the roster has since expanded and really taken on an identity of it’s own characters like Beastboy, Starfire and Raven becoming staples of the group. It doesn’t matter that they are designed to appeal to younger readers, this group’s adventures are beloved by fans of all ages.