10 X-Men Characters Writers Need To Stop Using

WhatCulture

Some X-Men characters are overused, problematic, or flat out boring; find out which need to go!

Transcript

00:00Marvel's Merry Mutants have long been a fixture in the canon of the 616,

00:03but like any story that's been around for that long,

00:07some characters can get a bit stale,

00:08or worse, prevent the X-Men from moving forward.

00:12With that in mind, I'm Will for WhatCulture,

00:13and here are 10 X-Men characters the writers need to stop using.

00:1810. Wolverine.

00:20Believe it, bub.

00:21The X-Men's most iconic mutant has been in more than his share of comic scraps over the years,

00:26but it might surprise you to know that, besides Spider-Man,

00:29Wolverine has appeared in more issues of Marvel Comics than any other character in their superhero universe.

00:35This is all the more impressive, seeing as Wolverine didn't debut until 1974.

00:39Wolverine is a compelling character most of the time,

00:42but Marvel's insistence on riding their cash cow into the ground has cheapened his value as a character.

00:48If Marvel keeps pushing him everywhere,

00:51he will go from a beloved yet oversaturated icon to an annoying one-dimensional whipping boy.

00:579. Firestar.

00:58Best known for her time on the 1980s cartoons, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends,

01:03Angelica Jones has been portrayed in the comics as a mutant.

01:06Originally a part of Emma Frost's rival Hellions at the Massachusetts Academy,

01:10Firestar took an extended absence from mutantdom,

01:13before growing to become a professor with the X-Men at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

01:18Since her reintroduction to X-relevancy,

01:20Firestar has made a handful of appearances without really doing much of anything.

01:24When she is in a book, it often feels like the writers don't know what to do with her character,

01:28often falling a bit flat as a result.

01:31Take 2014's Amazing X-Men for example,

01:33and you have to wonder, if the writers don't actually use her character in the story she's in,

01:38why include her in the story at all?

01:408. Captain Britain slash Psylocke.

01:43Betsy Braddock.

01:44Though Betsy Braddock now goes by Captain Britain,

01:46she is best known by her other codename, Psylocke.

01:49Betsy was born as the younger twin sister to Brian Braddock, the original Captain Britain.

01:53Once she joined the X-Men, Psylocke underwent a, let's say, extreme transformation,

01:58while her white British aristocrat persona was put into the body of Quanon,

02:03an Asian woman who was promptly dismissed from her body.

02:06In recent years, appropriation has become less of a cool fashion trend,

02:10and more understood as the horrible extension of racism that it is.

02:14Betsy Braddock is now thankfully back in her own body,

02:17but her legacy remains undeniably tainted and more than a little bit uncomfortable,

02:22and is in desperate need of a shake-up, or perhaps better yet,

02:25just to be retconned out of existence and left in the trash where it belongs.

02:297. Namor.

02:31The editorial department has tried to make Namor work many a time.

02:34Even calling him an X-Men character is a bit strange,

02:37because of the wide dispersal of his appearances.

02:40But the Atlantean is a mutant,

02:41and he joined the X-Men during their stint on the island nation of Utopia.

02:45During the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline,

02:47he even managed to acquire one-fifth of the Phoenix Force

02:50by teaming up with Cyclops and his team.

02:52The problem is Namor's blunt narcissism and hatred for those inferior to him.

02:58And in his opinion, that is quite literally everyone.

03:00These traits make it virtually impossible to keep him on a team for long periods of time.

03:04And the eventual discord he causes becomes predictable and honestly boring.

03:09Keep him messing around with the Richards family in Fantastic Four,

03:12and away from our beloved mutants.

03:146. Magma.

03:16Despite her near 40-year existence,

03:19Magma has rarely been at the forefront of X-Fans' thoughts.

03:23A big part of this is the fact that she has never really been shown

03:25to have a deep connection with her teammates.

03:28In fact, the mutant she seems to have become most linked with

03:30is Master Manipulator Empath of the rival Hellions.

03:34The less said about that relationship, the better.

03:36But I assure you, it's loads of yuck.

03:38Magma was eventually written out of New Mutants in its original run

03:41and appeared infrequently until the early 2000s,

03:44when she was literally crucified.

03:46Writers clearly felt bad for her and her mistreatment over the years,

03:50and they brought her back with New Mutants' second volume,

03:52where she reunited with her old classmates.

03:55Magma is still hanging around the periphery of X-Books,

03:57and every time a new Mutants' book is released,

04:00she seems to resurface within it.

04:02However, the question remains,

04:03if you're going to do nothing with the character,

04:05except for, you know, crucify her,

04:07maybe just leave her out of it.

04:095. Domino slash Longshot.

04:11This spot is reserved for heroes with probability-based superpowers.

04:15It's not that Domino and Longshot are uninteresting characters.

04:18In fact, both are extremely likable in very different ways.

04:21The problem is, while they are fun,

04:24their powers are just too useful.

04:26With the nebulous power of being lucky,

04:28any problem can be solved,

04:29and any battle won instantly.

04:31With that level of MacGuffin,

04:32any dramatic tension a comic book tries to create

04:35is instantly sabotaged.

04:37In a world where the powers are made up

04:39and the conflict's malleable,

04:41you'd hope writers could find a more creative way

04:43to resolve the plot.

04:444. Cannonball.

04:46Sam Guthrie has been a man of many teams.

04:48The New Mutants, X-Men, X-Force,

04:51and The Avengers, to name just a few.

04:52And while Sam has always been a mutant character above all else,

04:56it was actually his tenure in Jonathan Hickman's Incredible Avengers run

05:00that Sam met his future wife, Izzy Kane,

05:02also known as Smasher.

05:04Izzy serves as a super guardian of the Shi'ar Empire,

05:07meaning Sam is currently out in the galaxy,

05:09living it up and taking care of their newly born child.

05:12What's more, is he seems genuinely happy

05:14having traded spandex for diapers.

05:17X-Men comics have already had their fair share of absentee fathers.

05:21Cough Professor X, cough Cyclops.

05:23So please, writers, let Cannonball have his legacy

05:26and his completed story and take care of his cannon baby.

05:303. Jean Grey.

05:32For all that Jean Grey has been through,

05:34she's been treated remarkably poorly as a character.

05:37Between the constant deaths and resurrections,

05:39she has become synonymous with being written as an object

05:42for Cyclops and Wolverine to fight over.

05:45And Jean has gotten the short end of the stick many times.

05:47But one storyline in particular has been damaging to her character.

05:51Since the Dark Phoenix saga premiered in the 1970s,

05:55Jean has been typecast as the vessel of the Phoenix.

05:58Yes, there have been stints where writers focus on other aspects of the character,

06:02but without fail, whenever Jean is brought to the prominent role in a book,

06:06the Phoenix is quick to follow.

06:07That's problematic because the continued re-emergence of the Phoenix

06:10not only keeps Jean from evolving as a character,

06:13but it also dampens the impact of one of the greatest comic stories of all time.

06:17She can never eclipse that destiny,

06:19so unless writers can resist yet another Phoenix story,

06:22Jean needs to stay on the sidelines.

06:252. Beast.

06:26Many remember Hank McCoy as the verbose,

06:29lovable heart of the X-Men in the 90s cartoon.

06:32Indeed, it's hard not to fall in love with that characterization,

06:35but modern Beast is less of a cuddly science nerd,

06:37more deranged mad scientist.

06:39This recent radicalization has led Beast to take insane risks

06:44and indulge in some rather shady activities.

06:46He joined the Illuminati to secretly represent the X-Men

06:49without telling his teammates when the fabric of the multiverse was at stake.

06:53He again risked space-time itself by bringing the original five X-Men to the present day,

06:58again consulting none of his team in the process.

07:02And now, on Krakoa, Beast leads X-Force with the mentality of,

07:06quote,

07:06do what's best for all mutant kind, no matter the cost.

07:10Far be it from us to say that characters can't change,

07:12but with Beast, he seems to have strayed so far from his moral core

07:16that writers would be best to take a break on the character.

07:201. Professor X.

07:22The founder of the X-Men, Charles Xavier, takes the top spot here.

07:26Anyone who has read the many, many terrible retcons of the X-Men over the years

07:29knows the weird and despicable things Xavier has done.

07:33Whether it's lusting after students or telepathically deleting the existence

07:36of Cyclops' brother from his memory, Xavier's credibility has been shot.

07:41Yes, he's found a new function on Krakoa,

07:43but that doesn't change his guilt over his past misdeeds.

07:47Xavier's dream has always been more important than the character himself,

07:50and with the emergence of Krakoa, that dream is constantly changing.

07:54Die a hero or live long enough to be a villain and all that nonsense.

07:58Xavier's motives may be for the benefit of mutants,

08:01but in a book that is an allegory for so many marginalized groups in society today,

08:06it sends a rather convoluted message.

08:08And there you have it, folks,

08:09our admittedly controversial take on the 10 X-Men characters

08:13who need to take a step back from the limelight.

08:16Feel free to leave a comment down below with your own thoughts on the matter,

08:19like and subscribe, and I'll see you next time.

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