Actually, the most common reaction is
"AAAHHH! MAVERICKS! HELP!"
as proven in game.
Now lets put Axl in the mix.
Axl: "What for an nice town you have here"
Villager:"HELP! A MAVERICK!"
Axl:"Where!?" *looking around*
Villager:"YOU ARE THE MAVERICK! HELP ME SOMEBODY!!"
Axl:"M...me? But I'm a Maverick Hunter SA Class..."
Villager:"WHATEVER YOU ARE...JUST GO AWAY!!
Axl:"Fine..." *sigh* (Would I have known all of this before, I should have done my reputation first in this age.) T_T
People knows Napoleon, Alexander and others like Socrates, but they don't have a [tornado fang]ing clue about Dr.Light, Dr.Cain and the others.
Either the sunken Libary got destroyed with Ragnarok's beamcannon or Inti Creates does not really care about us the hardcore fans.