Marvel’s Best Siblings Aren’t the Ones You Think They Are

Marvel Comics has peopled their universe with some of the greatest families in comics. While DC has their superhero families, groups based around various mantles that bring together families both biological and found, Marvel has a lot more actual families. So, for example, we have the Summers clan of mutants, a group that has blood family members, married relations, and close friends. The House of Ideas has many great sets of siblings and there’s one that jumps to the top of everyone’s minds, especially nowadays – the Maximoff twins Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The two of them have often been smack dab in the middle of the biggest moments in Marvel history and have earned some rather large – and in Wanda’s case loud – fanbases.

It would be fair to think that they are the greatest siblings in the Marvel Universe. Scarlet Witch has her own solo book and Quicksilver has joined the cast of the fantastic Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 6), keeping them in the limelight, even if it’s not exactly the brightest in either case. However, there’s another set of siblings who are arguably more important overall and, honestly, just plain better – Charles Xavier and his step brother Cain Marko, the man who would become known as Juggernaut. What started out as a cliche sibling set-up has turned into one of the most interesting ever, growing and changing as the years have gone by. While the two of them are in very different places from the Maximoffs in terms of position in the Marvel Universe currently, their history has helped inform the overall narrative of the X-Men and Marvel in some astoundingly important ways.

Professor X and Juggernaut Have a Storied Past

Both the Maximoffs and Xavier and Marko have been siblings that have molded the Marvel Universe. The Maximoffs first appeared as villains, much like Juggernaut, with Quicksilver as the stereotypical protective brother and Scarlet Witch as the troubled young woman. This has been the extent of their relationship for most of their existence; it hasn’t really changed at all. It’s one of the reasons why, as siblings, they aren’t the most interesting to read about. You basically always known what you’re going to get from any scene they’re in together. It can be fun sometimes – Pietro’s hyperbolic manner means that every slight to his sister gets turned into an honor duel – but it’s rote.

For decades, one could say the same about Charles and Cain. Their relationship was also stereotypical – Charles was the intelligent, quiet one and Cain was the loud, big, evil stepbrother. It’s a classic fictional dichotomy and it was the extent of their relationship. The Markos married the wealthy Xaviers and resented them. The two fought together in the Korean War, which led to Cain becoming Juggernaut, and would meet up years later, with the X-Men battling Juggs many times over the years. Their relationship stayed predictable, with Black Tom Cassidy added to the mix as Cain’s best friend/work husband, but then something funny started to happen.

Chuck Austen’s run on Uncanny X-Men is one of X-Men fans’ most hated eras, but it did one thing right – it was able to make Juggernaut a member of the X-Men and allow him to grow as a character. He came to terms with his hatred of his brother and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father’s role in the whole situation, starting to work through it. Since then, Cain hasn’t really been a villain, per say; when he showed up, the best way to usually describe him was an antagonist and he would eventually lose the power of Cyttorak to Colossus. He’s since been able to regain greater power than before, using various pieces of Cyttorak-created weapons and armor to reforge his own, and has gotten even closer to his brother and the X-Men than ever. However, Charles often holds him at arm’s length, despite Cain doing his best to make up for the past.

The evolution of their relationship is one of the reasons why it works better for readers as a story. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s relationship never really changes; they change, but it stays the same. Scarlet Witch is now the Sorcerer Supreme, but if Pietro thought Wanda was in danger, he would be there in seconds as the overbearing brother. Charles and Cain’s relationship is one that has grown as they have grown, changed as they have changed. It has a beginning, middle, and end (to the extent that any plotline in comics can have an ending). In fact, in a lot of ways, it completely shifted, showing where each of them is in their life.

Back in the day, Charles was the one who tried to reach Cain, trying to help him get past the rage and pain and become a better person, with Marko constantly rebuffing him rather violently. Now, Xavier is the more villainous of the two characters, more pragmatic than evil, and Cain is a member of the X-Men in good-standing, working with Cyclops and Magik as one of the most experienced members of the current group. He reached out to Charles during Krakoa, but was denied entry to the island by Xavier. He was later brought onto the island by his brother, but the two rarely interacted. It was Juggs who has been trying to have a relationship lately, with Xavier pushing him away, a cool subversion of their previous relationship.

Finally, you can’t deny that Charles and Cain’s relationship was more important. Cain was one of the first humans who hated Xavier personally for who he was. He was jealous of the younger, smarter, richer Charles who seemed to know what everyone was thinking and took that out on him. This treatment colored the way that Xavier saw the world and how people would react to those with mutant powers, leading to the creation of the X-Men as we know them. Marko helped birth the team that he would join years later. While Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s relationship has birthed some important events, none of them are on the par of creating the X-Men.

Growth Is the Key to Family, Especially Superhero Ones

Scarlet Witch’s popularity has skyrocketed due to the MCU, and Marvel has been pushing her to the moon for years now, even if the sales are barely there (rebooting her book every ten issues is a way to boost sales, although Sorcerer Supreme is looking pretty solid). It’s easy to look at her position at Marvel lately and the amount of Scarlet Witch PFPs on Twitter, then assume that her and her brother are the best sibling duo in the Marvel Universe. There’s no shortage of people who have barely read the comics who will tell you that.

And here’s the thing – they are pretty great siblings and their histories have changed the Marvel Universe in many profound ways. However, when it comes right down to it, you always know what you’re going to get from them. Their relationship never really changes. It can be fun, but it’s usually just sort of there. At the end of the day, calling them the best is overrating them heavily, more for how important they’ve been than for how cool it is to read about them.

The same can’t be said for Professor X and Juggernaut, though. Their relationship was one of the building blocks of what the X-Men would become, Cain’s treatment of Charles and his gifts showing the young mutant how dangerous the ignorance and anger of humanity could be. It formed a crucial part of the superstructure of the team, and as such plays a critical role in the history of Marvel. The Maximoffs have their moments, but nothing near “helped form the X-Men” levels.

Their relationship has also evolved in a way that the Maximoffs just haven’t. Charles and Cain started out cliche, just like their Eastern European counterparts, but instead of staying that way began to evolve. Xavier and Marko changed as characters and this set their relationship in new directions. Families need to change to survive, just like superhero comics need change to keep things vital. Professor X and Juggernaut’s relationship has been able to become something else entirely, showing why it’s the best in Marvel history.

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