guess the theme

[breadmaster]

earth wind and fire is correct!

new one (should be pretty easy)

thunderbird
nightcrawler
storm
colossus

[teesaw]

I'm sure this is not correct, but this random facebook post that i found (https://www.facebook.com/akalewouldsay/posts/548656031848638) lists their countries of origin (USA, Germany, Kenya, Russia) as the top 4 in some kind of contest.

Is it related to the characters all being of international origin?

[breadmaster]

not that, teesaw.  it's a much tighter theme than that

is IS comic continuity related though

[gameplan.exe]

not that, teesaw.  it's a much tighter theme than that

is IS comic continuity related though

Is it more specific than the New X-Men?
(which, teesaw, is related to their international origins, as that was a focal point of the direction of the new team when Claremont took over)

[teesaw]

not that, teesaw.  it's a much tighter theme than that

is IS comic continuity related though

(which, teesaw, is related to their international origins, as that was a focal point of the direction of the new team when Claremont took over)

Happy to help where I can

[breadmaster]

it IS more specific than new x-men, but that's on the right track. 

what do those 4 have in common that the others (Cyclops/banshee/sunfire/wolverine) don't?

[chuu]

is it the x-men gold team?

[teesaw]

I could be cynical and say they were all created specifically as "tokens" of their respective backgrounds

[breadmaster]

hint: think of when the 'all new, all different x-men' were at their newest

[srezvan]

thunderbird, nightcrawler, storm, and colossus all had their first appearance in Giant Size x-Men #1.

[breadmaster]

bingo was his name-o!

here's one that I think might me trickier

silver surfer
punisher
batman
wolverine

[teesaw]

silver surfer
punisher
batman
wolverine

Mutiple guesses:

Are they all characters who had their families murdered which spawned their life as heroes?  It might be a bit of a stretch, because I know of so many different iterations of Wolverine's backstory, but the one that comes to mind is 'Old Man Logan' miniseries, where his family is murdered by the children of the Hulk.

I was also thinking they were all heroes who were given their crime-fighting tools by someone who would eventually become their enemy:
- Silver Surfer received the power cosmic from Galactus
- Punisher received his superhuman commitment to justice and vengeance after the murder of his family [kind of a stretch]
- Batman was trained by Ra's al Ghul and the LoS (others could his super powers are (1) a superhuman hatred of evil-doers and (2) money; both of which were given to him upon the murder of his parents)
- Wolverine received his adamantium skeleton from the Weapon X program

[breadmaster]

those are interesting, but not what I was thinking

couple hints

-the theme is NOT overpower or continuity related
-there are only a few other characters on that fit the theme: superman, spider-man, and captain America (and if you really stretch it out, you could add vision/hawkeye/iron man, and Cyclops/storm/iceman/colossus/nightcrawler)

wow...that second hint probably just adds more confusion!

[teesaw]

I got it!

They were all the title characters of games released for the NES
Silver Surfer (1990)
Batman (1990)
The Punisher (1990)
Wolverine (1991)

Also:
The Uncanny X-Men (1989) Featured the X-Men Mentioned in the "stretch" portion
Captain America & The Avengers (1991) featured Vision/Hawkeye/Iron Man as "the Avengers"
Spider-Man: Return of The Sinister Six (1992)
Superman (1987)

[breadmaster]

nailed it!

I thought I had gone too vague there...good catch.  the only nitpick is that they are not just title characters, but the protagonists.  otherwise you'd have to include joker in the main category, and the sinister six overpower characters in the 'stretch'.  (and perhaps more I missed)

on a side note, uncanny x-men was the first NES game I bought, after saving up my paper route money and buying the NES bundle.  it gets torn to shreds by critics (and probably rightly so), but it holds a special place in my heart