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 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 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…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. After a huge shift in the status quo, the X-Books relaunch with a flagship title written by a famous creator from genre television. It’s pitched as a back to basics premise where the X-Men are focused on heroes again. All of this is viewed through the eyes of…
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 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…
Art by Ariela Kristantina and Sonia Oback Name: Laura Kinney Code Names: X-23, Wolverine First Appearance: X-Men: Evolution Season 3 Episode 11 Powers: Healing factor, enhanced senses, adamantium coated claws in hands and feet Teams Affiliation: X-Men, X-Force, Avengers Academy About In 1943, the writers of the Batman movie serials introduced The Bat’s Cave, a secret underground lair for the…
Portrayed in Logan by Stephan Merchant Name: Unknown Code Names: Caliban First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #148 (Aug ’81) Powers: Can sense other mutants, forces others to feel fear Teams Affiliation: Morlocks, X-Factor, X-Force About If there was one thing Chris Claremont loved, it was dropping references as often as he could. Legion was inspired by a passage in the…
Art by Paul Davidson Name: David Haller Code Names: Legion First Appearance: New Mutants #25 (Mar ’85) Powers: A different power for every personality Teams Affiliation: X-Men About People thrive for control. The unknown is a dark expanse and anything we can to shine a light on it matters. It makes us feel safe because we want to be the…
Art by Marko Djurdjevic Name: Nathan Christopher Charles Dayspring Askani’son Summers Code Names: Cable, Soldier X First Appearance: New Mutants #86 (Feb ’90) Powers: Telepathy, Telekenisis, A Big Gun Teams Affiliation: New Mutants, X-Force, Six Pack, X-Men, Avengers About Continuity is one of the trickiest things in shared-universe superhero comics. In the hands of a good writer, the…
Art by Ron Garney and Mark Morales Name: Sammy Paré Code Names: Squid-Boy First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #410 (Oct ’02) Powers: Generic Aquatic Powers Teams Affiliation: X-Men About In the 2010 Christmas episode of the show Community, Abed Nadir (the website TVTropes given human form) gets asked by his friend why he is excited to do something that he should otherwise hate….
Art by the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Team Name: Elizabeth Braddock Code Names: Psylocke, Captain Britain First Appearance: Captain Britain #8 (1978) Powers: Telepathy, Telekinesis, the ability to teleport though shadows on occasion Teams Affiliation: STRIKE, RCX, X-Men, Exiles, X-Force About The X-Men have always been closely related to the adolescent experience and few things are more crucial to…
Art by Jorge Molina Name: Sarah Code Names: Marrow First Appearance: X-Men: Prime (July ‘95) Powers: Can grow and project bones from her body Teams Affiliation: Morlocks, Gene Nation, X-Men, Weapon X, X-Force About The X-Men are built on second chances. When the original run was canceled with issue #66 it looked like the X-Men would be an…
Art by Lee Bermejo and Marte Gracia Name: Piotr Rasputin Code Names: Colossus First Appearance:Giant Sized X-Men #1 (Oct ‘75) Powers: Massive metal form Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Acolytes, Excalibur, Defenders, X-Force About Piotr Rasputin never wanted to be an X-Man. He was going to be happy using his steel form and enhanced strength to help out on…