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.

Top Twelve X-men (part III)

Now before I start in with my honorable mentions and the list itself, I want to clarify how I'm trying to sort this whole process out. This list will be based on a combination of my love and appreciation of the character as well as the significance of their contribution to the Marvel Universe. 

Professor Charles Xavier

This is going to be the one that people are most likely to complain about. After all, if there weren't a Professor X, there wouldn't be the X-men. He's the one that started it all. This is true, but there are some good reasons why I counted him out of the top twelve.
1. The Professor is a powerful mutant, that is for sure, but aside from a few story lines since the original run of the comic, his powers haven't been that important to the storyline. (And most of the early stories involved the professor doing things that telepathy aren't capable of doing-like disarming a bomb.)
2. Let's list a few of the bad guys that are a direct result of Professor X's past: Juggernaut, the Shadow King, Magneto, and the list goes on. If he's so great at creating a peaceful world, why does he have these bad guys in his past?
3. Onslaught-the evil monster created when Professor X wiped out Magneto's mind. Yeah the evil impulses of Professor X combined with the pure physical power of Magneto. Great idea.

OK in the Professor's defense, he was the first of his kind (well, at least he was when the X-men started-you've got to love retcons.) There wasn't a manual and there wasn't really anyone to turn to, but that doesn't change the fact that outside of his dream and his team, he hasn't been that big of a player.

Longshot

Longshot had the corner on the mystery market. He starts off with a mini series that raises more questions that provides answers, then he joins the X-men armed with a mysterious power that just makes him lucky, and has some unexplained ties to Mojo. (For those who don't know about Mojo, he is the spineless (literally, he has no spine) ruler of the Mojoverse a reality ruled by media. He wants to use the X-men for better ratings, but he hates all creatures with spines.) Longshot has a rope with a hook on the end and razor blades that he uses in battle and always seems to hit his mark thanks to his luck.

 Longshot had some fun and adventures with the X-men and there were all sorts of hints that he might actually be Mojo, but I'm not sure that question was ever resolved. He disappeared for a while and I'm not sure what's up with him. He'd probably be on the list if he were still around regularly.

Banshee

Sean Cassidy has a very interesting story. He started off as a part of Factor Three a group of evil mutants that were trying to take over the world, but then it turned out he was actually an undercover agent trying to stop the organization. He joined up with the X-men when the series rebooted with a new more diverse team, but his age started to catch up with him forcing him to retire for a while. Later it was revealed he had a daughter he never knew who just happened to have the exact same power, which is unusual in the comic book world. He popped up from time to time and then shared the responsibility for running the school with Emma Frost. After that he started an organization that used mind control of villains and butted heads with the X-men. At the moment he's dead, but how long does that last for anyone in the comics? I really do enjoy Sean, but he's not getting on the list.

Cypher

Poor Douglas Ramsey never had a chance in the comic book world. He started off as a character created in a fan promotional event. You know the kind of thing-create the next member of the New Mutants. Some kid out there thought him up and somehow won the contest and as a result one of the least significant mutants entered the Xavier Institute. Cypher has the super power to translate any language instantly. I'm not saying the power isn't useful, I could have used it in Spanish class, but it's not the kind of thing that will come in handy in a fight. (At least it's better than the guy that popped up in the X-men during my least favorite era with the superpower to remember everything he sees-yeah, photographic memory) Doug had delusions that he could be a hero and fight villains with the power he had, and the rest of his classmates were willing to bring him along when they got into fights even though he was more of a liability than an asset. This led to his untimely demise when he jumped in front of a bullet meant for Wolfsbane. He was a great character, he just had a bad power.

Well those are the honorable mentions. I think for part III I'm going to do a tribute to characters that left too soon. I realized there are a few of them that deserve some attention so be on the look out for that.

Top Twelve X-men (part II)

I was going to start writing about some honorable mentions that didn't make my list, but I realized that before I can do that, I really need to list a few characters that I really do not like. I'm sure there will be some disagreements with me on these, but please remember that this is my list. Feel free to express your opinions below if you want to though.

Mimic
Back in the early days of the X-men when it was just Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Iceman, and Marvel Girl working for Professor Xaviar, the writers knew they wanted Cyclops to be the leader, but for some reason they just couldn't write him the way they wanted to. So someone decided there should be a new member that could help the process of Scott 'Slim' Summers becoming the leader the team needed him to be. That was when Mimic was dreamed up. Even though he wasn't officially a mutant, he still had a power that justified bringing him into the team-he has the ability to copy the powers of any mutants within a certain range of himself. It was a good idea, but then he started going crazy and they had to write him out of the story. After all, who needs the X-men if you can have one guy that can do it all instead?
My problem with Mimic is more to do with his role in the books after his initial run. Most of his appearances are the 'crazy and maybe evil' bit. Also, it looks like he just has the original team's powers and doesn't branch out any more.

Marrow
I feel bad for Sarah, but she is such a waste as a character. The writers had a great idea. What if the Morlocks that disappeared with Calisto and Mikhail Rasputin didn't die, but were transported to another reality? That's where Marrow comes from. It is a harsh world that creates strong mutations and ruthless fighters. Marrow is not suited to the world of the X-men because of her history. This usually isn't such a big deal. It's not the first time the X-men have embraced a mutant that doesn't fit in well with others. (Wolverine is the most popular example, but there are plenty of others.) But there's a big problem with this type of character. It's hard to keep that outsider interesting when they start adapting to the team and the world. Marrow started to gain control of her powers and let go of some of her anger, and that wasn't good for the drama of the story, so the writers kept trying to come up with excuses for her to go back to the character she'd been. This upset a lot of readers who liked the progression of her story and didn't want to go back.
Eventually, Marrow got lost in the mix and disappeared during M Day.

Stacey X
Stacey X probably could have been a better character if she hadn't popped up in the era that she did. During a period of X-men history, there was way too much focus on Angel and who he could be sleeping with, which according to the storyline seemed to be everybody. Oh, I almost forgot the storyline where his blood is magical and can heal people. Sorry, that's a rant for another time. Stacey X is a mutant with the ability to secrete a variety of drugs from her skin that can distort perceptions, reduce pain, and I think just about anything else she can come up with. I was also intrigued by her back story. She is a mutant prostitute that uses her mutant abilities to give her clients false memories of wonderful sexual experiences. I probably would have liked Stacey X more if she'd been  used in a different era, but she didn't stand of chance of being likable in the days when Nightcrawler was an unsuspecting part of a plot to make a mutant (Nightcrawler) the pope.

Northstar
I hated Northstar back before he joined the X-men. I started reading comics with Northstar in them back during the first run of Alpha Flight. He was a pompous jerk with little to no concern for anyone other than himself. He really hasn't gotten better over the years. I probably should have seen that he was gay way back in his story when he violently attacked the Purple Girl for entrancing him. It wasn't just the entrancing, it was the fact that it was a girl kissing him. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not anti gay, I'm anti Northstar. More issues I have with Northstar: he's controlling of his psychotic sister, overwhelmed with his Quebec background, and more than willing to use anyone if it will give him what he wants.

OK, next time we'll get into our honorable mentions which will give me a chance to decide who gets top billing on my top 12 X-men list.

Top Twelve X-men (Part I)

So as I was getting ready to write this series of blogs, I realized why the connection between two things that I dearly love, the X-men and Doctor Who. Both ideas were first presented to the world in 1963. I certainly wasn't alive at the time that it all started, but I have been a fan of both the X-men and Doctor Who from the first time I encountered them. Both concepts take you into a world of pseudo science and give you plenty of opportunities to explore the what ifs of the world.

I have really enjoyed working on top twelve lists and I don't see any reason not to continue the trend with another universe that I have long enjoyed. I'm not as big a fan of the X-men as I was in the past. Every time I pick up a comic I find myself getting frustrated with the direction the book has taken so I usually put it back down. There are some newer characters that I really enjoy, but not enough to get me past the X-men moving to San Fransisco and building what basically is equal to a military force on Magneto's previously sunken island. So much for the dream of Professor Xaviar of a world where humans and mutants can live together. I'll save other rants like the death of Nightcrawler for further down the list.

I was going to do some honorable mentions before I got into the list, but at this point, I think I'll save that for part II and talk some more about why I love the X-men.

My first exposure to the X-men was in fifth grade we had a magazine that we'd gotten from somewhere that was talking all about mutations. It started off with real-world examples of mutations and then started talking about the X-men. It was simplified for the less than average fifth grader, but it really caught my attention. That weekend I decided to take the little money I had and ride my bike the 12-mile-each-way trip to see if I could find a comic book in the closest thing we had to a commercial center. I bought my first X-men comic and biked home with it wrapped around my handle bar because the bag kept getting in the way. (I know, it was horrible for a collector to do that, but what did I know back then?) I also stopped on the side of the road about halfway back to read it. That was the day I fell in love with Shadowcat.

Other things I love about the X-men? Well, I love the powers and adventures. I used to love to think about what kind of power I would have. (Let's be honest, I still do some times.) I loved the turmoil created by trying to do the difficult thing by using super human powers to help people that hate you. One of my favorite books from the X-men was Excalibur, and not the new book that is a waste of paper, but the original version with Kitty and Nightcrawler and Rachel. Those books were just so much fun. That's what I really miss in the X-men these days. It's all so serious.

Anyway, I'd better wrap it up for now. Be on the look out for part II where I'll list the honorable mentions before I get into the real list. Feel free to comment below.