Entry 092 – Senator Robert Kelly

Name: Robert Kelly Code Names: N/A First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #133 (May ‘80) Powers: Political ones Team Affiliation: The US Senate About The mutant metaphor isn’t perfect. Unlike every other persecuted minority in the real world, there is a clear and present danger from mutant powers, especially from those who don’t know how to control them. Bryan Singer addressed this…

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Entry 091 – Spiral

Name: Rita Wayword Code Names: Spiral, Ricochet Rita First Appearance: Longshot #1 (Sept ‘85) Powers: Teleportation, magic Team Affiliation: Freedom Force, X-Force About The poet Ocean Vuong had an insight about something an Italian philosopher observed. “Vico had this theory that time moves more in a spiral than it does in a line. He believes that’s why we repeat…

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Entry 090 – Beast

Name: Hank McCoy Code Names: Beast First Appearance: X-Men #1 (Sept‘63) Powers: Beast like strength, reflexes, and agility Team Affiliation: X-Men, Avengers, Defenders, SWORD, Illuminati About Intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence are two different things. It often seems that the brightest of minds have a chip on their shoulder. Even if they play the scenario out a dozen…

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Entry 089 – Ariel

Name: Ariel Code Names: Ariel First Appearance: Fallen Angels #2 (May ‘87) Powers: Persuasion, ability to make doors open into different doors Teams Affiliation: Fallen Angels, X-Men About In 1983 recording artist Cyndi Lauper took the world by storm with her massive hit single “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. With its amusing lyrics and an inescapable…

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Entry 088 – Bishop

Name: Lucas Bishop Code Names: Bishop First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #282 (Nov ‘91) Powers: Energy absorption and redirection Teams Affiliation: XSE, X-Men, X-Force About When I was young I had a weird idea that I was just fixated on. I wanted the next Metal Gear Solid game to give Solid Snake a teen sidekick who could be…

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Entry 087 – Magneto

Name: Max Eisenhardt, Erik Magnus Lehnsherr Code Names: Magneto First Appearance: X-Men #1 (Sept ‘63) Powers: Control of Magnetism Teams Affiliation: The Brotherhood, X-Men, Hellfire Club About Conflict is at the root of all storytelling. All the exciting set pieces and witty banter doesn’t mean much if there isn’t a strong conflict to get the audience invested. X-Men:…

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Entry 086 – Nimrod

Name: Nimrod Code Names: Nathan Hunter First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #191 (Mar  ‘85) Powers: Body transformation. time travel, teleportation, lasers Teams Affiliation: N/A About Evolution is key to the X-Men. Not just an evolution of characters and their powers, but an evolution of ideas. Since X-Men will never really end, at least not in the foreseeable future, nor…

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Entry 085 – Havok

Name: Alex Summers Code Names: Havok First Appearance: X-Men #54 (Mar  ‘69) Powers: Plasma Beams Teams Affiliation: X-Men, X-Factor, The Brotherhood, The Six, The Starjammers, The Avengers About Siblings have a relationship that few others do. There is the unique challenge of living up to an older brother who is so accomplished. Younger siblings can feel left in the…

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Entry 084 – Emma Frost

Name: Emma Frost Code Names: The White Queen First Appearance: X-Men #129 (Jan ’80) Powers: Telepathy, Organic Diamond Form Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Hellfire Club, Generation X About Ambition is a powerful force. The desire to control your own destiny and get what you want drives many lives. Ambition isn’t good or evil, ambition is just a quality in a…

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Entry 083 – Beak

Name: Barnell Bohusk Code Names: Beak, Blackwing First Appearance: New X-Men #117 (October ’01) Powers: All the bad parts of being a bird Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Exiles, New Warriors, Teen Brigade About I like to think we all know someone who means well, who is the sweetest guy, but life dealt them a bum hand. They aren’t…

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Entry 082 – Gambit

Name: Remy LeBeau Code Names: Gambit First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men Annual #14 (July ’90) Powers: Can charge objects with kinetic energy, southern charm Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Marauders, X-Factor, Horsemen About When I was 10 Sonic Adventure 2 Battle came out. That game introduced a dark brooding version of Sonic the Hedgehog creatively named Shadow the Hedgehog. He…

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The Other Weapons

The Weapon Plus program gave us some of the greatest creations in the Marvel universe including Captain America, Wolverine, the Stepford Cuckoos, Fantomex, Allgod, and that Squirrel version of Wolverine. Writer (and I stress writer, not artist) Luz Bianca imagined what some of the less successful Weapons might have looked like…

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