Art by Frank Quitely Name: Sooraya Qadir Code Names: Dust First Appearance: New X-Men #133 (Dec ‘02) Powers: Turns into living sand Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Hellions About On Friday May 26th, 2017 on a train in Portland, two teenage girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab, were accosted by a man yelling at them to “go back…
Art by Jusko Name: Gaveedra Seven Code Names: Shatterstar First Appearance: New Mutants #99 (March ’91) Powers: Enhanced physical features, limited teleportation Teams Affiliation: New Mutants, X-Force, X-Factor About Yesterday it was announced that Rob Liefeld would be the inaugural inductee into the Wizard World Hall of Legends. If you know anything about Wizard Magazine, it makes…
Art by Mike and Laura Allred Name: Doop Code Names: Doop First Appearance: X-Force #116 (July ’01) Powers: Is there anything he can’t do? Teams Affiliation: X-Force, X-Statix, X-Men About Comics are weird. No, weird isn’t a descriptive enough word. Some comics are gritty, straightforward, planted firmly in reality. Some are epic tales of gods, monsters, swords and…
Art by Pablo Raimondi and Brian Reber Name: Layla Miller Code Names: Butterfly First Appearance: House of M #4 (Sept ’05) Powers: Knowing stuff, reanimation while taking away the subjects soul Teams Affiliation: X-Factor About There is a special breed of kid. The kind that spent their free time with their nose in a book. The kind that…
Art by “Calamity” Jon Morris Name: Adam Neramani Code Names: X-Treme First Appearance: X-Force Annual #22 (Oct ’93) Powers: Sets blood on fire Teams Affiliation: X-Force kinda About When ratings on The Itchy & Scratchy Show began to decline, executives decided to retool the show with a new character for a new generation, Poochie. He had killer…
Art by Chris Bachalo Name: Robert Drake Code Names: Iceman First Appearance: X-Men #1 (Oct ’63) Powers: Ice manipulation Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Champions, Defenders, X-Factor About My first draft of this article had a pretentious quote from Watchmen (the Pagliacci joke) because I wanted to talk about how much Iceman avoided his real internal problems by being a clown….
Art by David Marquez Name: Katherine Pryde Code Names: Ariel, Sprite, Shadowcat, Star-Lord First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan 80) Powers: Intangibility Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Excalibur, SHIELD, Guardians of the Galaxy About Seeing kids grow up is weird. It is terrifying to look at a thirteen-year-old and think that in just five years we as a culture assume they…
Art by Jim Cheung and Laura Martin Name: Hope Summers Code Names: Hope First Appearance: X-Men #205 (Jan 08) Powers: Power mimicry Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Lights, X-Force About Douglas Adams once wrote, “It’s one thing to think that you’re the center of the universe — it’s another thing entirely to have this confirmed by an ancient prophecy.” That’s the cornerstone…
Art by Clay Henry, Mark Morales, and Christina Strain Name: Several Code Names: Several First Appearance: X-Men #188 (Jan ‘08) Powers: Several Teams Affiliation: The Children of the Vault About The first thing Marc Guggenheim did in X-Men Gold was to lay out an argument for the fear of mutants. Unlike the Avengers, or the Fantastic Four, or…
Art by Paco Medina Name: Peter Palmer Code Names: Spider Man First Appearance: X-Men #35 (Aug ‘67) Powers: Does whatever a spider can Teams Affiliation: The Amazing Friends About With great power comes great merchandising potential. There are more toys, wrapping paper tubes, sippy cups, and bags of confetti with the Spider Man logo on it than all other…
Names: Arthur Maddicks and Leech Code Names: Artie and Leech First Appearance: X-Factor #2 (Mar ’86) and Uncanny X-Men #179 (Mar ’84) Powers: Thought projection and Power negation Teams Affiliation: Morlocks, X-Factor, X-Terminators, Generation X, Future Foundation About There is something pure about a friendship between young kids. The unconditional decision that “we’re friends now” is a joy to…
Art by Sana Takeda Name: Julian Keller Code Names: Hellion First Appearance: New Mutants #2 (Aug ‘03) Powers: Telekinesis Teams Affiliation: X-Men About A healthy awareness of one’s ability is a good thing. When that devolves into arrogance it becomes an issue. That’s why Spider-Man’s mantra “with great power there must also come great responsibility” is so important. Spider-Man would…
Art by Alan Davis Name: Kurt Wagner Code Names: Nightcrawler First Appearance: Giant Sized X-Men #1 (Oct ‘75) Powers: Teleportation, prehensile tail, being a great acrobat Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Excalibur About If there is one thing the X-Men stand for, it is equality. They believe in the dream of a world where people aren’t judged by the color…
Art by Jim Steranko Name: Lorna Dane Code Names: Polaris, Magneta, Malice, Magnetrix First Appearance: X-Men #49 Powers: Mastery of Magnetism Teams Affiliation: X-Men, X-Factor, Starjammers About How important is your parentage? Are you defined by who raised you or your genetic code? For Lorna Dane it wasn’t that simple. She wavered between the person she thought she was,…
Art by Andrea Sorrentino and Marcelo Maiolo Name: Logan Code Names: Wolverine First Appearance: Fantastic Four #558 (but only on a technicality and has unofficially been retconned out of continuity) Powers: Healing factor, enhanced senses, adamantium coated claws in hands and feet Teams Affiliation: X-Men About The beauty of alternate realities in comic books is their ability to show…