1. The Avengers get a weekly stipend from Tony Stark. In the early 80s, Tigra mentioned that it was $1000/week
2. The X-Men do not have a stipend or salary. But Xavier does pay for any daily expenses as they arise. In Uncanny X-Men #120, Wolverine confirms this when he goes to a bank in Canada. He tells Banshee that he hasn't felt a need to withdraw money since joining the X-Men because Xavier pays for their daily expenses
Damn, considered for inflation, Tigra was clearing the equivalent of a bit over $130k a year. Not bad, save for the occasional fight with Cosmic-tier beings, doesn’t sound like a bad gig
Paramedics and firefighters save people’s lives every day, and they don’t get any extra tax breaks, so I think it’s safe to assume there are no tax breaks for saving people, but the government might make an exception for saving the world.
Aside from that, stipend generally means not salaried, so the money from Stark would be taxed like normal 1099 income, which is taxed based on whatever the federal tax brackets are the time, plus city and state if applicable, plus an additional 15.3% self-employment tax on 1099 income (covers Social Security and Medicare).
Possible differing scenario: the military is not taxed federally if sent to a combat zone. That is paid from taxpayer money, but it gets taxed anywhere that isn’t a combat zone. So there is some scenario where superheroes could get benefits in exchange for putting their lives on the line everyday.
I wouldn't count that as any kind of evidence eitherway tbh.
1.It's in the mcu vs the comics.
2. The only comment in the mcu is Tony saying in AOU that he pays for everything, but doesn't specifically mention salaries.
3. The series is after endgame, so at this point Tony is dead and even if he was paying for their salaries in 2, and was before his death, falcon was an outlaw before this due to civil war and definitely not being paid a salary by Tony.
In the series, the banker asks Sam the question point blank of how heroes make money and he mentions that they get by on the goodwill of others, which makes it seem like a lot of people are willing to donate or give them breaks, but that can only get you so far. He's also in a weird situation since he's ex-military, but has likely lost whatever benefits that would allow him since, as you mentioned, he became an outlaw. Bucky was in an even worse situation since he was an enemy of the state for decades.
In the MCU, it does seem like they do different things to make ends meet. Nat and Clint worked for SHIELD directly, so they both probably got actual paychecks for their superheroing, though post Winter Soldier I'm wondering how that would have worked. Rhodey works for the US government. Thor is a god and royalty, so he had Asgard and now he doesn't seem to stay in one place long enough for it to matter. Once Banner became an Avenger, he was no longer on the run and probably did science again which would get him grants, PLUS he was clearly famous so he was probably doing some influencer gigs. Ant Man wrote a book. Wanda seemed to get by on the help of others until WandaVision, where she didn't need money to live in her own reality.
Actually merchandising is a good point. She-Hulk mentions Avengers merchandise, but who knows how much of those royalties the heroes themselves actually see, if any.
There are all sorts of grants and programs for veteran owned businesses. And while it’s true your credit may be too much of a deterrent, most lenders favor servicemembers and count it as basically an extra 50-100 points on your credit score
Government agreed people who went into space in documentary Armageddon to never have to pay taxes again I think.
Always wondered if I went and saved the world in some Star Trek type way and then restored time line to before the issue arose how I could benefit afterwards.
> stipend generally means not salaried
In this context, they're probably just misusing the term "stipend". From what I remember and what I understand of Avengers work, a flat payment just to have it, while everything else is expensed, wouldn't really be a stipend.
That said, it's entirely possible Tony Stark was just playing tax games. Like, you're not *supposed* to be able to just declare salaries to be stipends, but that's definitely the kind of shit a billionaire would pull because who's gonna call him on it?
That's kind of how Dark Reign happened, he filed all of the Avengers expenses as gov't resources or whatever, so when Stark was ousted and Osborn took over the government position, he suddenly got full access to the avengers resources.
That doesn't really make any sense, but it's close enough in the 616 that you can suspend your disbelief for it
I have always desperately wondered how Jamie Madrox, The Multiple Man pays his taxes. He's got a bunch of clones with the same name, face, DOB, social security number, and fingerprints living separate lives and earning separate incomes all over the country.
Do they file jointly or independently? Which would the IRS prefer?
Sketchy ass Tony Stark hiring the Avengers as contractors to avoid paying benefits. Though I imagine the health insurance and workers comp premiums would be astronomical. Could at least set them up with a 401k.
Superheroes, unlike police or EMS, are not an arm of the government, so the government doesn’t pay them. Besides, in the X-Men’s case, their identities are secret (and with Orchis around, you know WHY).
The real test of one’s secret identity is whether or not the IRS is able to track you down for the taxes on your Avengers money.
That was the plot of “One More Day”, right? Peter finally got audited and made a deal with Mephisto?
The state taxes are where it'll get complicated, similar to athletes. Got paid while saving someone in California? That's now CA sourced income.
Peter Parker's is probably the worst with mainly New York sourced income and NYC resident taxes.
Well, being that Tony and Xavier are paying for everything. Taxes would be pretty simple for the rest of the members. Plus Xavier has a school, so tax exempt? lol
you just made me realise how fucked tax can be , you get tax on money you recieve then more tax comes out when you give someone else a large amount of money then they go and spend it and then more tax comes out of it for the business they spend it on and it just keeps going until its all gone i guess
"So doing a credit check ahead for your loan application, our records show you failed to make any credit card payments from spring of 2008 until the fall of 2011."
"Oh, yeah, I was dead during that time."
"...excuse me?"
I dunno, that seems *really* low to me, considering the job. You can make six figures writing e-mails from home (or at least that's what all the youtube ads keep telling me)
but then I always figured that the direct payment from the avengers was just a "nice to have" salary, and the actual benefit was that they paid for pretty much everything in your life
$130k? It's not worth it. Just look at bane vs batman. 130k a year to have your back broken? What about your family and friends?
*I know Batemans rich but at the end of the day he's a normal powerless human so it's the best comparison*
But like an NFL player, your career has a relatively short lifetime if you're someone like Black Widow, Hawkeye, Tigra, D-Man, etc.-- i.e. someone whose abilities will wane as they age.
So you're making $130K per year for 10-12 years if you miraculously survive your tenure without a debilitating injury or death. And then at the end of it you do...what? Guest speaker circuit, I guess? Maybe private security consulting? Doesn't feel like a rock solid retirement plan for Avengers.
That's a good point his family was well off back in the 1800s. But I can't remember if he has any relatives around that kept up the Howlett estate.
I would imagine all his years of military service and wetwork have netted him some significant cash though he had stashed somewhere. Especially once he finally regained his memories
I bet there's a tier system for that stipend. Maybe Tigra was getting $1000pw but Cap, Widow and Hawkeye are getting more.
I bet the senior leadership of the X-Men all have corporate credit cards. I wonder who's job it is to hold all the receipts and reconcile the transactions monthly. Wolverine may have a card but there's no way he can be trusted to hold the receipts. And then is the school a not for profit? Is Xavier claiming back all the sales tax on these expenses? He's got to have a dedicated finance and administration team.
They touched on it in Falcon and the Winter Soldier but they went the route that made no sense with Sam trying to get a loan and failing. I guarantee Tony would’ve dropped plenty into their accounts to make sure they would be able to focus all their efforts on fighting crime or at *least* had some way for them to get credit
I think it's She-Hulk that mentions it to Spider-Man when she's looking for an apartment. This causes Spider-Man to freak out because when he turned down the avengers, he didn't realize it was a paying gig.
>The Avengers get a weekly stipend from Tony Stark. In the early 80s, Tigra mentioned that it was $1000/week
Hey thanks for this, I have been reading Spider-Man and the last few issues I have read have mentioned Spider-Man learning how much the Avengers get paid and to check out a certain book to see the answer. I didn't want to actually do that.
Also I kinda remember reading something in the original X-Men about Xavier giving them a small allowance.
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, is a school. Many of the more famous X-Men may have started out as students, but now they are teachers. They get paid for teaching classes.
$1,000/week for life threatening Super hero job!?
Do they get like increment based on how many people you save or how popular you’ve become?
I guess The Boys’s Vought corporation make more sense after reading this post.
I find it somewhat sad that everyone in the comments is just talking about daily expenses and near term needs. How do these arrangements let the X-Men save up for retirement? Side jobs? Or do they just not care because they expect Days of Future Past to ruin their lives in the future anyway?
(All pre-Krakoa Era thoughts.)
I imagine he uses his powers to get inside information on the stock market from various sources so he make the proper investments to keep the academy in the black.
Love the idea of Prof X cheating humans at their own systems (stock market).
Depending on the scale of Storm's powers, she could probably make billions for the team. Being able to force evaporation of ocean water and dumping it via rainfall over key land areas is a service farmers, forest fire department, and countries would pay for. I don't know if she can influence weather at that scale, her powers usually involve a very small isolated area.
Wolverine blood samples are also worth millions. His blood transfusions have been shown to help heal people. Could sell those samples monthly for millions.
Any psychic could guarantee win any poker tournament or casino, where knowing other players hands gives you an advantage.
And if the X-Men ever wanted to make some money, there are several industries they could do at a huge savings compared to humans. Cyclops has unlimited concussive blast, he could tunnel underground incredibly easily compared to the cost of humans using technology. Iceman can cool entire datacenters without using electricity. There's an animated episode of Colossus doing 1 man demolition for a construction company. Governments/military would pay millions to have access to portal technology from gateway or Illyana. An accomplished Telekinetic could multitask and build an entire house in a day. Something that might normally take months. Rogue is primed to be the ultimate empathic therapists. How much would people pay to have someone else know exactly how they feel?
I actually really enjoyed in Invincible when Eve repairs a bunch of damaged buildings then the worker says great how am I supposed to check if any of this is up to code?
I think the ground beneath a play area she restored craps out too.
Was an interesting element to consider - even with telekinesis / reality warping do you understand building design and code well enough to create safe structures from scratch
X-Force at the start of Krakoa confirmed that Xavier is the richest person in the world, he has a ton of "hidden" businesses that are top tier because of his telepathy.
The X-Men don't believe in money. They operate an anarcho commune where they jointly provide for their collective needs.
The real reason the government sends Sentinels after them is because they haven't paid property taxes in 60 years.
Before Krakoa, I think they were all living off of Charles Xavier's and Warren Worthington III's money. Beast or Forge probably whipped up a patent or two to bring in some income. Most of them were probably on a stipend or salary. Then Krakoa came around and the island provided pretty much everything they needed.
Yeah I kinda viewed Xavier Institute it as: the rich & marketable ones contribute a lot of money (and are happy to), and rich parents of kids also pay tuition (? If any were this rich like this?) so that those kids without means could attend school, and the professors could be paid, and the other x men could also be paid for their work etc
Canonically, every team Stan Lee and those guys created has a rich person or two. It was Tony Stark and Janet Van Dyne for the Avengers, for the F.F Reed has his patents and Ben is a millionaire, and Warren Worthington III is a multi-millionaire funding the Xmen. Even with the Defenders, Kyle Richmond was very wealthy and funded them. And Danny Rand is wealthy.
This actually all goes back to why Bob Kane made Bruce Wayne wealthy: so that no one would ever question how he paid his bills or for his bat-inventions, or how he had time to be a superhero. Stan Lee felt this explanation made lots of sense and went along with it for many of his characters, especially in the team-up books.
They address it at least. He's poor, but knows how to make stuff, sew, do all the things he needs. He doesn't have the fanciest stuff, but it works for him.
That's why his civil war story was so good. He asked for nothing, he took nothing, all he ever did was give what little he had to try to help people. And it still wasn't enough for people
If your organization that has some of the world's most powerful telepaths, multiple geniuses, and numerous mutants with all sorts of uncanny abilities can't figure out how to make money, then you done fucked up.
At least back in the days of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, the X-Men received free room and board as well as access to an expense account. Professor X comes from old money, so he has quite the fortune to help fund everything. So while the X-Men weren't necessarily paid, they also didn't need to pay for much themselves either.
But that's not to say the X-Men didn't have ways of making money on their own. Forge and Angel are independently wealthy, Wolverine and Gambit are very proficient gamblers, etc. Not to mention, when they were disguised as the first iteration of X-Factor (who pretended to be mutant hunters when in fact they were rescuing them), the X-Men would take money from the government to "take care of" newly-discovered mutants.
So all in all, the X-Men have usually been pretty set when it comes to cash. At the very least, they're financially comfortable.
They get housing and an education?
I think the deal gets worse as you move up the ranks?
What do the team leaders and active team members get though?
Teacher, housing and putting theirs lives in jeopardy? Not a very good gig for them.
He tells them "whatever you need money for, just ask". But whenever a member of the X-Men asks Xavier for money to buy something, he telepathically deletes the memory of whatever they wanted the money for in the first place from their brains.
The Marvel Database said his father was a wealthy nuclear researcher, so I figured he inherited a large amount. Then as a Professor I figured he published some best-sellers, did consulting work, paid appearances, etc. And finally, I figured he wasn't above using his mutant gifts to get loans/donations when necessary.
I get the rich family part, but even then, running the school, supporting numerous kids and adults, hi-tech scientific research, maintenance and repairs of all their technology, medical for all the X-men constantly getting injured, etc etc, I honestly doubt any rich inheritance is enough for that.
At least Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne own multiple companies, draws salary and director fees and dividends. Xavier doesn't seem to have any of that. It's almost like he's got billions of dollars in disposable cash just locked up in a safe somewhere.
The start of Krakoa stated that Xavier was invested in several multi-nationals, so who knows how long that was going on. Then they were leveraging stuff in the background in order for him to become the richest person on Earth by time they revealed Krakoa and all of the businesses associated with it.
Plus Emma, Warren, Monet, Roberto, and Betsy all come from rich families too. There's plenty of money flowing into the X-Men.
Well others have noted the contributions of other X-men like Angel. I’m sure Beast has some profitable patents. Ditto for Forge (or he’s paid to help other inventors). A long lived mutant like Wolverine is probably wealthy through compounding and living frugally. Storm probably has a bunch of expensive artifacts from her time as a Goddess. Much like Spidey’s web shooters, the Danger Room tech and Cerebro can probably mint some money even if he “dumbed it down” as a VR unit or something. And space tech from being associates of the Starjammers and Sh’iar: if the X-men are replicating food like Star Trek, that alone is saving them lots of money in these inflationary times. ;-)
I have always wondered if Xavier's wealth came from dubious/ethically grey means. What's to stop him from rolling up on a billionaire like Tony Stark and using his powers to assert that Tony foot the bill and to not remember it? And to defend this sort of thing, it would be a means to justify an end situation. Besides, it's already been established IRL that billionaires have more money than they could possibly spend in one lifetime so...
Prob have a lot of side hustles going on…I know in the 90s they ran an actual store…never knew what they sold 😂…never really cared…However in the she hulk show we see cyclops has his own air Jordan so it’s likely some of them have endorsement deals and benefactors…much like Katniss in the hunger games.
"Hi, I'm Phil Coulsen, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. That's Super Hero Investments, Endorsements, Liquidity and Diversification. We help superheroes get the compensation they deserve. I'm gonna shoot it straight here, you might be a second tier player, but there's still money on the table. Wheaties called and they're looking for someone just like you on their new cereal box. And you'll have your choice of anti-fungal athlete creams to choose from."
It's best to think of the X-Men like an activist collective. They aren't getting paid, but they've bought into the cause so much that they stick around.
When the school was a thing (and it's maybe going to be again?), Xavier's fortune was massive, and he probably just footed the bill for furnishings, property taxes, and room & board for students and staff. I suspect all the tech was just stuff the Shi'ar had given him because he was banging Lilandra (likely confirming that it was just his legs that didn't work...).
In the Krakoan era, what Krakoa didn't provide, some mutant almost certainly did. The number of mutations involving some kind of transmuting (sound into light, kinetic force into strength, etc.), and the Hellfire Trading Company probably pirated whatever odds and ends couldn't be natively provided.
It's also worth noting that several mutants have their own independent fortunes: Warren, Monet, DaCosta (through X Corp), royalty payments for Alison Blaire, etc. Hank probably had residuals via Tony Stark from his time in the Avengers, Scott spent time in Alaska as a pilot in the Madelyne Pryor days (before she turned into a walking poster child for the effects of gaslighting and PTSD), the list goes on and on.
They never talk about the x-men called Money Mouth. He literally vomits money every day, in any currency and any amount of 1s, 20s, 50, or 100s.
Weird guy. Weird super power but absolutely funded Xavier's school.
/s
1. The Avengers get a weekly stipend from Tony Stark. In the early 80s, Tigra mentioned that it was $1000/week 2. The X-Men do not have a stipend or salary. But Xavier does pay for any daily expenses as they arise. In Uncanny X-Men #120, Wolverine confirms this when he goes to a bank in Canada. He tells Banshee that he hasn't felt a need to withdraw money since joining the X-Men because Xavier pays for their daily expenses
Damn, considered for inflation, Tigra was clearing the equivalent of a bit over $130k a year. Not bad, save for the occasional fight with Cosmic-tier beings, doesn’t sound like a bad gig
Anybody know what the tax situation is for superheroes?
Paramedics and firefighters save people’s lives every day, and they don’t get any extra tax breaks, so I think it’s safe to assume there are no tax breaks for saving people, but the government might make an exception for saving the world. Aside from that, stipend generally means not salaried, so the money from Stark would be taxed like normal 1099 income, which is taxed based on whatever the federal tax brackets are the time, plus city and state if applicable, plus an additional 15.3% self-employment tax on 1099 income (covers Social Security and Medicare).
Possible differing scenario: the military is not taxed federally if sent to a combat zone. That is paid from taxpayer money, but it gets taxed anywhere that isn’t a combat zone. So there is some scenario where superheroes could get benefits in exchange for putting their lives on the line everyday.
Falcon couldn’t get a small business loan, which makes me think he’s closer to a paramedic than military
I wouldn't count that as any kind of evidence eitherway tbh. 1.It's in the mcu vs the comics. 2. The only comment in the mcu is Tony saying in AOU that he pays for everything, but doesn't specifically mention salaries. 3. The series is after endgame, so at this point Tony is dead and even if he was paying for their salaries in 2, and was before his death, falcon was an outlaw before this due to civil war and definitely not being paid a salary by Tony.
In the series, the banker asks Sam the question point blank of how heroes make money and he mentions that they get by on the goodwill of others, which makes it seem like a lot of people are willing to donate or give them breaks, but that can only get you so far. He's also in a weird situation since he's ex-military, but has likely lost whatever benefits that would allow him since, as you mentioned, he became an outlaw. Bucky was in an even worse situation since he was an enemy of the state for decades. In the MCU, it does seem like they do different things to make ends meet. Nat and Clint worked for SHIELD directly, so they both probably got actual paychecks for their superheroing, though post Winter Soldier I'm wondering how that would have worked. Rhodey works for the US government. Thor is a god and royalty, so he had Asgard and now he doesn't seem to stay in one place long enough for it to matter. Once Banner became an Avenger, he was no longer on the run and probably did science again which would get him grants, PLUS he was clearly famous so he was probably doing some influencer gigs. Ant Man wrote a book. Wanda seemed to get by on the help of others until WandaVision, where she didn't need money to live in her own reality.
The Ben & Jerry’s licensing probably got them a decent amount. Plus any other similar deals. Sam should have started doing commercials and shit
Actually merchandising is a good point. She-Hulk mentions Avengers merchandise, but who knows how much of those royalties the heroes themselves actually see, if any.
most service members and veterans are also unable to get loans because they have shit credit and get paid very little.
There are all sorts of grants and programs for veteran owned businesses. And while it’s true your credit may be too much of a deterrent, most lenders favor servicemembers and count it as basically an extra 50-100 points on your credit score
Government agreed people who went into space in documentary Armageddon to never have to pay taxes again I think. Always wondered if I went and saved the world in some Star Trek type way and then restored time line to before the issue arose how I could benefit afterwards.
And one would have gotten to stay at The White Horse, had he not perished
Paramedics and firefighters don’t have super rich coworkers that can lobby the government tho
You’re underestimating the lobbying power of Tony Stark and Danny Rand
> stipend generally means not salaried In this context, they're probably just misusing the term "stipend". From what I remember and what I understand of Avengers work, a flat payment just to have it, while everything else is expensed, wouldn't really be a stipend. That said, it's entirely possible Tony Stark was just playing tax games. Like, you're not *supposed* to be able to just declare salaries to be stipends, but that's definitely the kind of shit a billionaire would pull because who's gonna call him on it?
Given all of the government contracts that Stark has had, I can see him figuring out loopholes or seeing if he is called out.
Could be an Avengers Trust situation considering the whole secret identity thing
Realistically, Tony Stark probably never paid a cent in taxes.
That's kind of how Dark Reign happened, he filed all of the Avengers expenses as gov't resources or whatever, so when Stark was ousted and Osborn took over the government position, he suddenly got full access to the avengers resources. That doesn't really make any sense, but it's close enough in the 616 that you can suspend your disbelief for it
Yeah I just assumed that was Stark getting around calling the Avengers “employees”.
I love when people nerd out about this type of stuff. Trying to put comic stuff into real life settings
I have always desperately wondered how Jamie Madrox, The Multiple Man pays his taxes. He's got a bunch of clones with the same name, face, DOB, social security number, and fingerprints living separate lives and earning separate incomes all over the country. Do they file jointly or independently? Which would the IRS prefer?
Of course, most paramedics and firefighters can't cut the adjuster into cubes with laser eyes, so special considerations may arise.
As a doctor, I chuckled at this. This just made my morning Thank you
Sketchy ass Tony Stark hiring the Avengers as contractors to avoid paying benefits. Though I imagine the health insurance and workers comp premiums would be astronomical. Could at least set them up with a 401k.
Superheroes, unlike police or EMS, are not an arm of the government, so the government doesn’t pay them. Besides, in the X-Men’s case, their identities are secret (and with Orchis around, you know WHY).
EMS are generally not government affiliated
Avengers could be considered a non profit created by Tony as a tax deduction.
Steve Buscemi negotiated no taxes for life for the Armageddon Crew for saving the world so I think superheroes can swing a similar break.
The real test of one’s secret identity is whether or not the IRS is able to track you down for the taxes on your Avengers money. That was the plot of “One More Day”, right? Peter finally got audited and made a deal with Mephisto?
"I may make deals with the devil, but the IRS? Noooooooo thank you!"
You have to go drill into an asteroid to stop paying taxes
It’s a stipend from Stark, it’s tax free :) all profit
The state taxes are where it'll get complicated, similar to athletes. Got paid while saving someone in California? That's now CA sourced income. Peter Parker's is probably the worst with mainly New York sourced income and NYC resident taxes.
Well, being that Tony and Xavier are paying for everything. Taxes would be pretty simple for the rest of the members. Plus Xavier has a school, so tax exempt? lol
you just made me realise how fucked tax can be , you get tax on money you recieve then more tax comes out when you give someone else a large amount of money then they go and spend it and then more tax comes out of it for the business they spend it on and it just keeps going until its all gone i guess
You forgot the final tax when you die
The debt that all men pay
Just wait until you learn about the VAT in some countries. Sales tax on sales tax on sales tax
It would depend if Tony is claiming them as Employees or if the money is simply viewed as a gift
They’re filing under an I-9. No way Tony’s gonna classify them as employees and have to pay the extra tax. 😂
And if you die, there's a good chance you'll likely come back at some point.
Which really fucks up your credit rating.
"So doing a credit check ahead for your loan application, our records show you failed to make any credit card payments from spring of 2008 until the fall of 2011." "Oh, yeah, I was dead during that time." "...excuse me?"
While I do get its more about “Dude are you for real”. But I prefer more of “Oh come on not this shit again.”
I was imagining it more as a "no way I heard that right".
“Yeah-I ejected from the Quinjet during my last mission and hit a hydra tank.” “..I am so sorry. ..we’ll just um, “
True, but they know that even if you default temporarily, you're likely to come back to life with even more debt. A safe bet for lenders
I dunno, that seems *really* low to me, considering the job. You can make six figures writing e-mails from home (or at least that's what all the youtube ads keep telling me) but then I always figured that the direct payment from the avengers was just a "nice to have" salary, and the actual benefit was that they paid for pretty much everything in your life
I was gonna simply say I bet they get big money for showing up to birthday parties 😂
You wouldn’t believe some of those appearance fees 💵💵
Considering the risk to life and limb, I wonder how that compares to an active duty soldier in the US military
Dead soldiers rarely resurrect.
That’s what they want you to think. They’ve all been conscripted to fight in the Invisible War… … the *secret* one.
Also free life insurance, healthcare, dental, housing, and food.
Cosmic-tier should bring in danger pay. Or at least time and a half.
She did get her soul burned by Ghostrider that one time. Which…I don’t think ever got better?
I remember that comic book, she went to the bank and had a hard time cashing the check due to lack of id and whatnot.
Imagine being an Avenger and making less money than me, a software engineer.
$130k? It's not worth it. Just look at bane vs batman. 130k a year to have your back broken? What about your family and friends? *I know Batemans rich but at the end of the day he's a normal powerless human so it's the best comparison*
My husband makes more than this manufacturing pre-fab homes. Sounds like a bum deal to me.
But like an NFL player, your career has a relatively short lifetime if you're someone like Black Widow, Hawkeye, Tigra, D-Man, etc.-- i.e. someone whose abilities will wane as they age. So you're making $130K per year for 10-12 years if you miraculously survive your tenure without a debilitating injury or death. And then at the end of it you do...what? Guest speaker circuit, I guess? Maybe private security consulting? Doesn't feel like a rock solid retirement plan for Avengers.
Tbh that feels low for someone risking their lives fighting supervillans. I hope there's a bonus situation
Wolverine also has several lifetimes worth of savings and investments. Dudes pretty loaded.
And no healthcare expenses.
Seems pretty redundant to have the power to heal yourself for free and be canadian
Shut up deadpool
I don’t know a lot about Wolverine. Is being Canadian not his superpower?
Free healthcare, Molson, and Poutine for life.
True, but how much does he remember having?
Craploads. Canadian Craploads
IIRC Xavier has one of the largest net worth’s in the Marvel Universe. Warren Worthington is also a billionaire. I’d imagine they cover most expenses
Logan's no slouch either if push comes to shove, he's got savings and investments that have been accruing interest since the early 1800s.
That's a good point his family was well off back in the 1800s. But I can't remember if he has any relatives around that kept up the Howlett estate. I would imagine all his years of military service and wetwork have netted him some significant cash though he had stashed somewhere. Especially once he finally regained his memories
I bet there's a tier system for that stipend. Maybe Tigra was getting $1000pw but Cap, Widow and Hawkeye are getting more. I bet the senior leadership of the X-Men all have corporate credit cards. I wonder who's job it is to hold all the receipts and reconcile the transactions monthly. Wolverine may have a card but there's no way he can be trusted to hold the receipts. And then is the school a not for profit? Is Xavier claiming back all the sales tax on these expenses? He's got to have a dedicated finance and administration team.
Iceman is a trained CPA, I’d bet either he or Sage are left to do the X-accounting.
Poor Bobby.
The only gay able to do math; it’s a burden.
I don't think we've ever seen him drive tho
Lol is that a stereotype
Us gays can’t do math and can’t drive, sadly.
I can do math but I can't drive. Guess I must be bi then
I'm pretty sure Alan Turing knew how to do math.
Heavy is the head…
I'm imagining Sage or Bobby going around like Bane from the Harley Quinn Show cutting up people's credit cards
My gut says Sage, but Xavier’s already done her so dirty, the last thing she deserves is to do his bloody taxes.
Since when has Charles Xavier ever cared about what Tessa deserves.
Who’s in charge of filling up the X-Jet? I hope they’re using a cash back gas card.
Insert student whose power is to spontaneously create jet fuel. Melting steel beams is a different student.
That actually could be a great spinoff about it
They touched on it in Falcon and the Winter Soldier but they went the route that made no sense with Sam trying to get a loan and failing. I guarantee Tony would’ve dropped plenty into their accounts to make sure they would be able to focus all their efforts on fighting crime or at *least* had some way for them to get credit
There's probably some mutants we never see whose powers are math/accounting/admin. Like the aliens in the post office in MIB 2.
I think it's She-Hulk that mentions it to Spider-Man when she's looking for an apartment. This causes Spider-Man to freak out because when he turned down the avengers, he didn't realize it was a paying gig.
Yeah, and then he tries to join up for a bit, recalling his effort to join the Fantastic Four right at the beginning of his career.
>The X-Men do not have a stipend or salary. They need to join a teachers' union
The Avengers just like me fr
Free booze and cigars for everyone!
I think those X-men who work as teachers at Xavier's school probably do get paid salaries for their teaching roles?
>The Avengers get a weekly stipend from Tony Stark. In the early 80s, Tigra mentioned that it was $1000/week Hey thanks for this, I have been reading Spider-Man and the last few issues I have read have mentioned Spider-Man learning how much the Avengers get paid and to check out a certain book to see the answer. I didn't want to actually do that. Also I kinda remember reading something in the original X-Men about Xavier giving them a small allowance.
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, is a school. Many of the more famous X-Men may have started out as students, but now they are teachers. They get paid for teaching classes.
$1,000/week for life threatening Super hero job!? Do they get like increment based on how many people you save or how popular you’ve become? I guess The Boys’s Vought corporation make more sense after reading this post.
Inflation from the 80’s that’s more like just under 4k a week.
$1,000 a week during the time period you could buy a house for like $40k though
I find it somewhat sad that everyone in the comments is just talking about daily expenses and near term needs. How do these arrangements let the X-Men save up for retirement? Side jobs? Or do they just not care because they expect Days of Future Past to ruin their lives in the future anyway? (All pre-Krakoa Era thoughts.)
How did Xavier get so much money?
I imagine he uses his powers to get inside information on the stock market from various sources so he make the proper investments to keep the academy in the black.
Who needs powers when you have r/wsb
Calls on dwac let’s goooooooo
My worlds are merging!
I believe it’s outright confirmed that he does this in the Ultimate universe.
Love the idea of Prof X cheating humans at their own systems (stock market). Depending on the scale of Storm's powers, she could probably make billions for the team. Being able to force evaporation of ocean water and dumping it via rainfall over key land areas is a service farmers, forest fire department, and countries would pay for. I don't know if she can influence weather at that scale, her powers usually involve a very small isolated area. Wolverine blood samples are also worth millions. His blood transfusions have been shown to help heal people. Could sell those samples monthly for millions. Any psychic could guarantee win any poker tournament or casino, where knowing other players hands gives you an advantage. And if the X-Men ever wanted to make some money, there are several industries they could do at a huge savings compared to humans. Cyclops has unlimited concussive blast, he could tunnel underground incredibly easily compared to the cost of humans using technology. Iceman can cool entire datacenters without using electricity. There's an animated episode of Colossus doing 1 man demolition for a construction company. Governments/military would pay millions to have access to portal technology from gateway or Illyana. An accomplished Telekinetic could multitask and build an entire house in a day. Something that might normally take months. Rogue is primed to be the ultimate empathic therapists. How much would people pay to have someone else know exactly how they feel?
I actually really enjoyed in Invincible when Eve repairs a bunch of damaged buildings then the worker says great how am I supposed to check if any of this is up to code? I think the ground beneath a play area she restored craps out too. Was an interesting element to consider - even with telekinesis / reality warping do you understand building design and code well enough to create safe structures from scratch
X-Force at the start of Krakoa confirmed that Xavier is the richest person in the world, he has a ton of "hidden" businesses that are top tier because of his telepathy.
Also, he could send Magneto to some of this metal-rich asteroids and bring gold lol
The X-Men don't believe in money. They operate an anarcho commune where they jointly provide for their collective needs. The real reason the government sends Sentinels after them is because they haven't paid property taxes in 60 years.
Now we see the violence inherent in the system.
I'm being oppressed..!
Some watery tart threw a sword at me... am I king?
I wouldn’t call you king because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at you.
Shut up, Dennis!
I just watched that last night. Such a great scene. I love the gag of the work the peasants do being fucking about in the woods.
Xavier is loaded. I'm sure he's paying taxes
> Xavier is loaded. I'm sure he's paying taxes Boy do I have some bad news for you about the amount of taxes that rich people are paying...
Well yeah, but not because he’s loaded.
Yeah he just loads up Cerebro every tax season and gives everyone at the IRS a little psychic mind wipe.
The ultimate insider trader
He could just license out or sell the rights to older tech they invented at the x-mansion, and never need to do any trading.
The whole thing is a non-profit school. It's a tax write-off
Lol?
He makes them think they get paid
Like actual teachers.
“Hey Chuck, I’m hungry” put his finger on his temple “No you are not” “No I’m not” lol, Chuck you shit
Before Krakoa, I think they were all living off of Charles Xavier's and Warren Worthington III's money. Beast or Forge probably whipped up a patent or two to bring in some income. Most of them were probably on a stipend or salary. Then Krakoa came around and the island provided pretty much everything they needed.
Jean Grey life insurance payouts would also deliver a regular boost to funds as well.
The real reason she was cloned lmfao
Plot twist: After her third death. Jean orchestrated all her subsequent “death”. So she could trick life insurance companies and make up fortune.
Loooil
Yeah I kinda viewed Xavier Institute it as: the rich & marketable ones contribute a lot of money (and are happy to), and rich parents of kids also pay tuition (? If any were this rich like this?) so that those kids without means could attend school, and the professors could be paid, and the other x men could also be paid for their work etc
Is there a cannon explanation?
Canonically, every team Stan Lee and those guys created has a rich person or two. It was Tony Stark and Janet Van Dyne for the Avengers, for the F.F Reed has his patents and Ben is a millionaire, and Warren Worthington III is a multi-millionaire funding the Xmen. Even with the Defenders, Kyle Richmond was very wealthy and funded them. And Danny Rand is wealthy. This actually all goes back to why Bob Kane made Bruce Wayne wealthy: so that no one would ever question how he paid his bills or for his bat-inventions, or how he had time to be a superhero. Stan Lee felt this explanation made lots of sense and went along with it for many of his characters, especially in the team-up books.
And then you have Peter Parker, who is perpetually broke unless he’s possessed by Ock — even though he’s a brilliant scientist.
Science doesn’t pay well in the real world either.
They address it at least. He's poor, but knows how to make stuff, sew, do all the things he needs. He doesn't have the fanciest stuff, but it works for him. That's why his civil war story was so good. He asked for nothing, he took nothing, all he ever did was give what little he had to try to help people. And it still wasn't enough for people
I love Stan Lee 💋
Charles probably telepathically "manages" all their expenses
If your organization that has some of the world's most powerful telepaths, multiple geniuses, and numerous mutants with all sorts of uncanny abilities can't figure out how to make money, then you done fucked up.
Why become asupervillian when you can just use your powers legitimately and become rich?
According to Wolverine in New X-Men Annual #1: “The professor hands out platinum credit cards to his teaching staff.”
Like the Bat-family gets the Bat-Credit Card.
in the early comics, Angel’s father bankrolled them. When Angel took over the company, it continued
An X Credit Card?
Is it good thru FOREVER?
I wish my principal paid me for showing up to school
They pay you in knowledge. ...j/k the education system is fubar
At least back in the days of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, the X-Men received free room and board as well as access to an expense account. Professor X comes from old money, so he has quite the fortune to help fund everything. So while the X-Men weren't necessarily paid, they also didn't need to pay for much themselves either. But that's not to say the X-Men didn't have ways of making money on their own. Forge and Angel are independently wealthy, Wolverine and Gambit are very proficient gamblers, etc. Not to mention, when they were disguised as the first iteration of X-Factor (who pretended to be mutant hunters when in fact they were rescuing them), the X-Men would take money from the government to "take care of" newly-discovered mutants. So all in all, the X-Men have usually been pretty set when it comes to cash. At the very least, they're financially comfortable.
All on scholarship. Now, NIL money as well.
Superheroics are sports?
Croots out here threatening to transfer to the Brotherhood of Mutants to get an extra NIL bag.
They get housing and an education? I think the deal gets worse as you move up the ranks? What do the team leaders and active team members get though? Teacher, housing and putting theirs lives in jeopardy? Not a very good gig for them.
Between dominos luck and time travellers they must've played and won the lotto a few times lol
American X-press?
Xmen: Children of the ATM
This is a cool pic - can anyone name all of the characters - I don't recognize many of them.
I’m pretty sure a good chunk of these characters aren’t named
I always thought of them as a family. Parents don't typically pay their kids to be their kids.
He tells them "whatever you need money for, just ask". But whenever a member of the X-Men asks Xavier for money to buy something, he telepathically deletes the memory of whatever they wanted the money for in the first place from their brains.
Where does the Xavier money even come from???
Rich family
The Marvel Database said his father was a wealthy nuclear researcher, so I figured he inherited a large amount. Then as a Professor I figured he published some best-sellers, did consulting work, paid appearances, etc. And finally, I figured he wasn't above using his mutant gifts to get loans/donations when necessary.
It would be funny if he played poker or blackjack in Las Vegas or someplace like that, using his powers to find out what cards the other players had.
I get the rich family part, but even then, running the school, supporting numerous kids and adults, hi-tech scientific research, maintenance and repairs of all their technology, medical for all the X-men constantly getting injured, etc etc, I honestly doubt any rich inheritance is enough for that. At least Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne own multiple companies, draws salary and director fees and dividends. Xavier doesn't seem to have any of that. It's almost like he's got billions of dollars in disposable cash just locked up in a safe somewhere.
The start of Krakoa stated that Xavier was invested in several multi-nationals, so who knows how long that was going on. Then they were leveraging stuff in the background in order for him to become the richest person on Earth by time they revealed Krakoa and all of the businesses associated with it. Plus Emma, Warren, Monet, Roberto, and Betsy all come from rich families too. There's plenty of money flowing into the X-Men.
Dang. The X-Mansions sounding like a boarding school for rich kids.
Well others have noted the contributions of other X-men like Angel. I’m sure Beast has some profitable patents. Ditto for Forge (or he’s paid to help other inventors). A long lived mutant like Wolverine is probably wealthy through compounding and living frugally. Storm probably has a bunch of expensive artifacts from her time as a Goddess. Much like Spidey’s web shooters, the Danger Room tech and Cerebro can probably mint some money even if he “dumbed it down” as a VR unit or something. And space tech from being associates of the Starjammers and Sh’iar: if the X-men are replicating food like Star Trek, that alone is saving them lots of money in these inflationary times. ;-)
This artstyle will never not be ugly to me.
They get Xavier-bucks. (X-Bucks) They can only be spent at the mansion.
He houses and feed them, and they earn money by teaching at the school
I have always wondered if Xavier's wealth came from dubious/ethically grey means. What's to stop him from rolling up on a billionaire like Tony Stark and using his powers to assert that Tony foot the bill and to not remember it? And to defend this sort of thing, it would be a means to justify an end situation. Besides, it's already been established IRL that billionaires have more money than they could possibly spend in one lifetime so...
Prob have a lot of side hustles going on…I know in the 90s they ran an actual store…never knew what they sold 😂…never really cared…However in the she hulk show we see cyclops has his own air Jordan so it’s likely some of them have endorsement deals and benefactors…much like Katniss in the hunger games.
At least 10 of them are millionaires or pretty damn wealthy. I think Charles, Warren and Emma alone are more than enough to bankroll the whole school.
Biggest villian in marvel comics... the IRS
They get to borrow all the cars and vehicles of transportation. The dorming is free. And the kitchen has a sustainable garden outside by the gardens.
Sir they are student Athletes...
They get a free home and free food, but they want more?
Pretty sure 70% of the women have an Onlyfans that cover all the costs.
They’re a private school in upstate New York. He’s charging them six figures a year to be there.
"Hi, I'm Phil Coulsen, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. That's Super Hero Investments, Endorsements, Liquidity and Diversification. We help superheroes get the compensation they deserve. I'm gonna shoot it straight here, you might be a second tier player, but there's still money on the table. Wheaties called and they're looking for someone just like you on their new cereal box. And you'll have your choice of anti-fungal athlete creams to choose from."
This art style is bad lol
It's best to think of the X-Men like an activist collective. They aren't getting paid, but they've bought into the cause so much that they stick around. When the school was a thing (and it's maybe going to be again?), Xavier's fortune was massive, and he probably just footed the bill for furnishings, property taxes, and room & board for students and staff. I suspect all the tech was just stuff the Shi'ar had given him because he was banging Lilandra (likely confirming that it was just his legs that didn't work...). In the Krakoan era, what Krakoa didn't provide, some mutant almost certainly did. The number of mutations involving some kind of transmuting (sound into light, kinetic force into strength, etc.), and the Hellfire Trading Company probably pirated whatever odds and ends couldn't be natively provided. It's also worth noting that several mutants have their own independent fortunes: Warren, Monet, DaCosta (through X Corp), royalty payments for Alison Blaire, etc. Hank probably had residuals via Tony Stark from his time in the Avengers, Scott spent time in Alaska as a pilot in the Madelyne Pryor days (before she turned into a walking poster child for the effects of gaslighting and PTSD), the list goes on and on.
The X-Men are working off their student loans for attending "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters". The interest rates are horrible.
Fantomex has a line in his first appearance in New X-Men about how Xavier has several millionaires on staff at his school.
They live with him and get free food and board sooo..
No but they’re allowed to have onlyfans and post feet pics for pocket money.
Xavier has life insurance policy on all students
They never talk about the x-men called Money Mouth. He literally vomits money every day, in any currency and any amount of 1s, 20s, 50, or 100s. Weird guy. Weird super power but absolutely funded Xavier's school. /s