The X-Men vs. The Justice League – Who Would Win? | TVStoreOnline
Superhero History
Superhero teams first became really popular when Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four in the early 60’s. Since the idea of superhero teams really took off, two of the most popular have consistently been another of Lee’s creations, the X-Men, owned by Marvel Comics, and the Justice League, owned by rival company DC Comics.
X-Men: Tale of the Tape
The X-Men have consistently been some of the most popular superheroes and their popularity spans all of media from comics, to movies, to video games, and even board games. They’re hook is that they’re mutants, otherwise normal people who were born with extraordinary abilities who devote their lives to protecting a world that otherwise despises them. They have a wide range of abilities that vary in power. Some of them are incredibly strong like Jean Grey and Charles Xavier (who are both now dead in the comics but will invariably be back eventually as death is never the final stage in the world of superheroes) who are both very powerful psychics, and the ever-popular Wolverine (also dead) with unbreakable bones and an ability to heal and regenerate on an almost godly level. Actually, scratch that, Thor is a god and he can’t heal like Wolverine can. Other characters have limited powers like Nightcrawler who can only teleport short distances, which is still cool, but relatively limited.
Justice League: Tale of the Tape
The Justice League is the pantheon of major heroes from the DC Comics stable. At one point or another, really every major hero in the DC Universe has been part of the League. Lead by DC’s holy trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, they protect the Earth from all forms of evil. Other staple members are: The Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman. The team roster does change frequently but almost always includes most if not all of these characters.
The X-Men vs. The Justice League Fight card
A fight between these two groups is tricky because they both serve different functions. The Justice League are supposed to be the ultimate superhero team. Their members all have god-like powers with the exception of Batman, though he makes up for this by being brilliant and having an infinite number of resources. The X-Men however, are typically written to speak to the part of us that feels like an outcast. They’re the Island of Misfit Toys for superheroes. They are typically not even an Avengers-level super team, let alone the Justice League. Let’s now put aside all of that though and get down to the actual fight.
First we should answer, why are they fighting? Let’s say for whatever reason, the Justice League is transported to the Marvel Universe. Once there, they see that the world hates mutants. They maybe see news clips of the Brotherhood causing mayhem and an old photo of Charles Xavier and Magneto together flashes across the scene. They then see the X-Men in New York and assume that they must be bad and up to no good. In essence: it’s on.
The Scales of Justice
Unfortunately, the fight would probably be incredibly short. Superman possesses the strength to atomize all of them within moments. Even if we want to pretend that Wolverine would be durable enough and heal fast enough to survive an onslaught from Superman, then Green Lantern would be able to put him in a box and throw him into the sun, or a volcano which I imagine would be more convenient. I would like to pitch this as being more competitive, but realistically, outside of Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and Charles Xavier himself, I can’t think of any one of the X-Men who can mount an offense against Superman, and God-forbid Shazam/Captain Marvel happens to be on this version of the Justice League too. Superman has no real defense against telepathy so they could perhaps control him, or maybe Rogue could absorb his traits since he would probably be arrogant enough to not worry about her touching him, but then Batman always has Kryptonite on hand for when Superman gets out of line. I’m sure if nothing else, it’d only be a matter of time before they realize that they shouldn’t be fighting each other. Maybe Martian Manhunter reads Cyclops’ mind and realizes he’s a good guy (notice I’m going off of Chris Claremont’s run on the X-Men more than the current version since those teams are more fractured so we’re going to pretend that Cyclops isn’t public enemy number one.) or Magneto shows up and the League sees that the X-Men are his enemies also.
Justice League and X-Men would Probably never Fight
At the end of the day, they’re all heroes who shouldn’t be fighting each other, but if they had to, then I’m picking the Justice League by armbar in the first round. Seriously though, that would be a huge mismatch pitting the two teams against each other. That said, power doesn’t make a character interesting, and though the Justice League would be able to do whatever they wanted to the X-Men, I’d rather read about the loveable mutants any day.