Name: Neena Thurman Code Names: Domino First Appearance: New Mutants #98 (Feb ‘91) Though it is a bit more complicated than that Powers: Luck Teams Affiliation: X-Force, X-Men, Six Pack, Merc$ for Money About There is a beauty in coincidence. Domino Harvey was the daughter of Academy Award winning actor Laurence Harvey and, if she wanted, she…
Name: Mortimer Toynbee Code Names: Toad First Appearance: X-Men #4 (March ‘64) Powers: Jumps good, long tongue, weird spit, experiences lightning the same way everything else does Teams Affiliation: Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, The Misfits, The Hellfire Academy About My son is eighteen months old and is really into Disney’s 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast….
There are a lot of models for how to assemble an ensemble cast. Some of it is going to be dictated by the show’s concept and setting – Star Trek modeled its cast after the functions of a ship at sea (or space as the case may be): A captain, first officer, helm, security, medical,…
In our modern 2017 world, one question haunts all. “Do you vape bro?” Today I intend to answer this for the X-Men. Please note that my answers are definitive based on my experience as both a self-proclaimed X-Pert and a 2016 Reddit /r/comicbooks “/r/comicbooks Award” nominee (of which I was robbed). Professor X – He…
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…