Top Twelve X-men (part IV)

I'm going to take one more break to talk about X-men that don't make the Top 12 so I can mention a few names of characters that didn't get a chance to show what they could do with the team for whatever reason. These are characters that had lots of potential, but left the team (or died unexpectedly) before they could get integrated into things.

Sunfire

 Sure Sunfire is still running around in the Marvel Universe, but his tenure with the X-men was very short. Shiro Yoshida is a mutant with the ability to generate superheated plasma and like most fire-based super-powered types can fly. He was born into an important Japanese family and has a lot of issues, both with his superiority  complex and in playing well with others. Sunfire joins the X-men during a transitional period. (You may not have known this, but the X-men comic was actually canceled at one point during the 60's.)

The creative team wanted to diversify the team and give it some powers that were a little different from what the old team had. The creative team decided to draw some characters that had appeared throughout the Marvel Universe and create some others. Sunfire and Banshee had appeared in the pages of the X-men as villains and Wolverine had appeared in the Incredible Hulk.

Sunfire stormed out of the pages of the X-men shortly after the new team saved the old team. I do think it would have been interesting to see how the challenges the team faced would have been different with this Japanese hot head on the team.

Thunderbird

 Thunderbird was a part of the 'New X-men' I was just talking about in the section about Sunfire. He was an original creation put together for the reboot of the series. My guess is that the creative team put as many different ideas on paper and waited to see how the fans reacted. Thunderbird has a great back story. He's an Apache Indian who served in the Marines during the Vietnam War. He has super strength, durability, and speed, as well as enhanced senses that make him an excellent tracker. There's one small problem, he's redundant on the team. He's not as strong as Colossus, and Wolverine is just as good a tracker as Thunderbird. It didn't take the writers long to decide that Thunderbird would never be a major player on the X-men.

It was decided that John Proudstar would see his own inadequacy and take it to heart. While the team is on it's second mission, Proudstar is denied opportunities to use his powers and is taken out of the battle early on. When he realizes that Count Nefaria is going to escape in a jet plane, Thunderbird jumps on the plane and destroys it even though it costs him his life. Even though Thunderbird is dead, his death is one of the most significant moments in X-men history. It is the first time a member of the team dies on a mission and his death leads to significant story lines for his younger brother, James, who has similar powers.

I do wonder what would have happened if Thunderbird had lived longer and been a part of the X-men or moved on to a different team. Thunderbird also has the unique distinction of being the only X-man to die and not come back from the dead. There have been some stories where there is a fake Thunderbird, and he has shown up in the book Exiles, but the original has never come back, and I don't think he ever will. His death is too important to take back.

Maggot

 OK, I know what you're thinking. He's blue (not very original in the Marvel Universe) and he's hanging out with strange maggots, what's so great about that? Sure he has a very lame kind of power: his digestive track separates from his body and can eat anything. When they're gone he also becomes super strong and invulnerable. The real attraction I had to Maggot was his story. He's on this obsessive search for Magneto, but why? I think the X-men have overcome lamer powers in the past and the same could have been done with Maggot. [Examples of initially lame powers: Dazzler makes a hypnotic light show, Shadowcat walks through stuff, you get the idea.]

Blink

I'll admit that this one is a bit of a cheat. Blink was never on the X-men. She didn't even live long enough to make it to Generation X. Even so, after seeing what Marvel did with the character in Exiles, I really wish she hadn't gotten the bum rush. I can see her being a major part of some of the story lines involving the X-men. Of course she probably would have ended up in a love square during the Angel-leading-a-team era. (Yeah, I'm going to complain about that a lot. It was just so bad.) Go check out Exiles and see what Blink is up to (assuming she's in the book at the moment, the teams changes quite a bit.)

OK so that's the end of my little side tracks. Next time you see the Top Twelve X-men list, it will be with #12. I decided to do each character separately so I can give them the write up they deserve. Excelsior and all that Stan Lee type stuff.