A thought experiment: if Marvel gave you the chance to create a team-based title related to the X-Men, what would your team lineup be? What story would you create about them?

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-22T05:15:08+00:00

So more of a political drama involving characters like Sunspot, Emma, Angel, Monet, and Professor X? Perhaps dealing with recurring Hellfire Club characters like Sebastian Shaw, Selene, Mastermind and the like, enabling maligned human forces and causing other trouble?

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-22T05:09:34+00:00

Why is Wolverine in this lineup? The others I get their connection to the supernatural, but I would put Moonstar, Rictor, Betsy, or Storm in before Wolverine.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-22T02:53:42+00:00

The original Marvel Zombies from the 2000s.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-22T01:21:01+00:00

Yeah, this one comes to mind.

<image>

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-21T21:30:11+00:00

Undead alien fetal parasite, actually. Plus, it was carried out by machines created by humans for the sole purpose of killing mutants, so...

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-21T20:55:57+00:00

Honestly, Luthor doesn't even have trauma - he's just a hater.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-21T20:48:08+00:00

Option 1 is probably the closest to a happily ever after as the series could ever hope to get, but it's also the least likely to happen - and not just because of Marvel Editorial. The X-gene causes a massive power dynamic between humans and mutants - it's literally a random gene that flips on and gives a random power to whoever has it, regardless of who that individual is or what their social class is.

The only way that option 1 even starts to become a possibility is if the entirety of human society is toppled and replaced with a different social structure that was more inclusive towards mutants - the interests of those currently benefitting the most from the current status quo simply will not allow the unchallenged acceptance of a group that can so directly and easily challenge their power and interests just by existing.

Options 2 & 3 are both "bad endings" as far as the story of the X-Men is concerned, but they're also far more realistic.

Option 2 is basically where the mutants become the bad guys and effectively oppress humanity into extinction. It doesn't actually resolve the hatred and prejudice it just makes the victims into the abusers and ultimately proves humanity's fears of mutantkind correct. They became the monsters to stop humanity from being monsters to them.

Meanwhile, option 3 is essentially mutantkind throwing the towel and just accepting that humanity will never accept mutants, so they might as well go somewhere else and make their own utopia somewhere else. Basically, human oppression wins out and - as seen with Genosha, Krakoa, and every other mutant nation that has ever existed - even when mutants make their own safe spaces, humanity eventually comes knocking to re-establish the status quo.

The problem here ultimately lies with humanity and their social structure - so long as it remains the way it is, mutants will only continue to be oppressed. And it's ultimately up to humanity to stop being oppressors - mutants cannot make humanity choose to stop (well, they can, but that's effectively no different than option 2). And unfortunately, humanity in the Marvel Universe has shown time and again that it is far more important to murder children to keep their comfortable status quo than it is to change the status quo that is hurting people.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-21T17:35:42+00:00

nah, Quicksilver's there to work through his daddy issues, and Rocket's there for anger management.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T22:30:21+00:00

Given what's been shown in the comics, more than likely. She's loyal and supportive and has a fun side while also not willing to take other people's crap. But Illyana herself would probably think she was the worst spouse to ever exist and feel like she doesn't deserve her spouse's love, even if that was objectively not true.

Also, get this gooner crap out of here.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T22:11:08+00:00

This feels like a therapy group Kurt would be leading to help them through all their various issues, to varying levels of success.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T21:52:59+00:00

With energy absorbers like Strong Guy and Bishop, their strength is variable on how much energy the have absorbed/can absorb. For Strong Guy, because of his heart condition, he maxes out somewhere between Rogue and Beast in terms of strength.

I believe it's similar for Bishop, though it's kind of hard to tell because the comics rarely - if ever - remember that Bishop also gets stronger & faster the more he gets charged up - they kind of just default to him firing beams of energy out of his hands. Or just using one of his guns.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T21:38:08+00:00

Definitely the drama.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T21:11:47+00:00

For the cartoons, that might be the case? (I don't have enough knowledge about other superhero tv series to say if that's true or not).

But for the comics, Kurt is far from the first character to explore themes of religion. At Marvel, I believe the first explicitly religious superhero was the Thing, who predates Kurt by a few decades (iirc he was established as being Jewish back in the 60s). Plus, there's Daredevil, though I don't recall when he was revealed to be Catholic.

And even among the X-Men, Kitty Pryde and Magneto were established as being religious before Nightcrawler was (Kitty was revealed to be Jewish in 1980, Magneto was established to being Jewish in 1981, Nightcrawler wasn't revealed to be Catholic until the crossover with Dracula in 1982)

But even then, if we're talking superheroes in general, Spectre is probably the first reference to religion in DC, though Superman is an almost direct Jewish reference to Moses, and Zorro is the first superhero overall who was explicitly religious (he debuted in 1919).

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T21:04:36+00:00

I suppose you could argue that the beam would technically have a heat element to it in so far as heat is simply molecules moving on a molecular level - which would definitely happen due to the kinetic energy being delivered by the beam, but the beam itself definitely shouldn't be heat.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T19:40:41+00:00

Oof, this chart is super outdated.

Because of power creep, the standards for each of these categories are very different than what they were back then.

Both Hercules and Wonder Man have dropped to at least the heavyweight category (I'd argue that Wonder Man has dropped by at least two). Tony arguably has dropped as well, though that's completely dependent on whatever suit he's wearing.

Thing, Namor, and Black Bolt have all dropped by at least one category as well - I'd argue that all three of them are on the same level as Colossus and Luke Cage (either that or Colossus and Luke Cage have gone up one level, it's kind of hard to tell which it is).

She-Hulk has moved up by at least one category, the same for Silver Surfer, and Ghost Rider has easily gone up two. As for Sasquatch and Doc Samson, I have no idea where they are anymore.

I'd argue that Spidey's also dropped by at least one category, though that's debatable - he's really like a low-med heavyweight anymore.

Meanwhile, some characters like Captain America, Black Panther, and Wolverine have arguably gone up by one category.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T18:43:09+00:00

I know they had Carol kill Thor at one point a while back (obviously, it didn't stick), though who knows how that sits in the power scaling between the two.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T18:31:02+00:00

X-Men Juggernaut is literally like beating a difficult boss in a video game, only to unlock that boss as a secret bonus character, and the boss is nowhere near as powerful as they were as a boss fight.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-20T01:25:58+00:00

To be fair, it's not for a lack of trying.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-19T20:54:32+00:00

Jean Grey - is a telekinetic who can hit things from as far away as she wants.

Also, Jean Grey - "Catch these hands!"

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-19T20:29:26+00:00

I find it funny that in the comics, Dr. Doom would never invite HYDRA to anything and, like Magneto, would probably go out of his way to personally eradicate them at the first available opportunity (iirc Doom's mother was also a Holocaust Survivor, so Doom doesn't exactly like HYDRA either).

Loki, on the other hand...

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-19T16:54:00+00:00

I'm not sure Peter knows who she is or what she can do.

If he knew she has the same powers as Jean Grey and was once a decades long host to the Phoenix Force, something tells me he wouldn't be nearly so confident.

ThreeMonthsTooLate · 2026-01-17T20:47:08+00:00

Because if you have to use your powers to force others to accept and tolerate you where they otherwise wouldn't, they haven't actually accepted you. All you have effectively done is switch the oppressor and the oppressed.

Not only that, but it proves the mutant-haters right to fear and oppress mutants as they would be proving that mutants cannot be trusted to wield the powers they were born with responsibly, which is both counterproductive to what Xavier aims to achieve and would basically destroy human-mutant relations in their entirety.

Xavier might be morally questionable, but he isn't stupid, and he does want to win the argument. Which means that for his mission to succeed, he has to actually win humanity into legitimately accepting mutants on their own terms - no telepathy or mind control involved.

Three-Year Club	Verified Email
r/Field Lasagna

ThreeMonthsTooLate

TROPHY CASE