Being an X-MEN character doesn't devalue what the character brought to the table. Neither did the lack of IP diversity on Capcoms side. Lots of unique looking and playing movesets.
This may be the only point in the entire thread where a function joke might actually be funny.
To be fair, I understand WHY the game was so heavy on those two IPs, the game ported premade characters from Street Fighter and prior Marvel games that started with a heavy X-Men bias. Most of those characters did not "replace" other characters.
However, even acknowledging that it serves to highlight some really bizarre choices by Capcom prior to MvC2... like their strange choices in Marvel villains for example (Blackheart? Shuma Gorath? Spiral? Silver Samurai?).
It also makes no sense that characters like Cable and Marrow were added over Thor or Punisher or any of a dozen mainstream popular Spider-Man villains. Or that Capcom wasted space on original characters over, say, Arthur or more Mega Man characters or anyone from Rival Schools.
MvC2's roster is not a good roster. It's padded for numbers, doesn't well represent either publisher, and several of its characters are pretty barebones in the movelist department.
UMvC3 has an undeniably better roster of characters... unless all you care about is X-Men and Street Fighter.