A common complaint among X-Men fans is that with each new era, new classes of new (lowercase n) mutants (lowercase m) get introduced, only to be forgotten about in the next, save for a couple who look good in group shots or whose personalities are so strong as to stick by force.
This is true.
Think about the Generation X kids. Jubilee sticks around because she’s on the cartoon. Chamber sticks around because his face is on fire. M/Penance sticks around because she’s a rich, sassy gal with Superman powers and a Hulk personality. Synch sticks around because he now has all the powers. But when was the last time you saw Husk or Mondo?
Think about the Academy X kids. Laura Kinney is the best Wolverine. Quentin Quire is obnoxious and has pink hair. Glob Herman is shaped like a friend and everyone loves him. Rockslide is a big guy made of rocks. Anole is a green lizard boy. Prodigy was one of the Gillen/McKelvie Young Avengers. The Cuckoos are little Emmas. But name me five more of them. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Just kidding, I won’t wait, I don’t have time.
Of the Five Lights, Hope was the mutant messiah, Oya/Temper dated Quentin and got thrown in the Pit on Krakoa. The other three were also there.
Of the Bendis kids, Egg and Tempus became part of The Five. Benjamin Deeds, Triage and Hijack were never seen again. I mean they were, but were they?
Of the Christina Strain/Amilcar Pinna Generation X kids, one was Quentin, Nature Girl went on to become an eco-terrorist, Eye-Boy is covered in eyes and, um, there were two others, right?
I vaguely recall there being trainee mutants on Krakoa. I do not remember their names or their powers. This is no fault of Vita Ayala or Rod Reis, just the passage of time.
And then of course, there are the patron saints of forgotten mutant trainees, Rusty and Skids, who will never matter because they joined the New Mutants way too late in that book’s run and were all but erased by the dawn of the ’90s.
But these kids? Axo, Melee and Bronze?
I love these kids.
DON’T YOU HURT THEM, MARVEL!
Check out our exclusive preview of Exceptional X-Men #9, out next week, and keep scrolling for the basic deets.
And for our coverage of Exceptional X-Men #8, click here.
(W) Eve Ewing (A/CA) Carmen Carnero
The team figures out the truth about Sheldon Xenos’ true identity, and EMMA FROST has to go somewhere she really, really doesn’t want to go – deep inside the mind of one of her worst enemies, SINISTER!
RATED T+
In Shops: May 21, 2025
$3.99
Buy Exceptional X-Men #9 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
