They've been titled Astonishig, Amazing, Classic, Extraordinary, Ultimate, and Uncanny. They are the X-Men. First appearing in The X-Men #1 on September 10, 1963, and created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-Men are one of the most popular comic book teams of all time. They appeared the same year as the Avengers, and created by the same dudes, but we're much different. Where the Avengers were super heroes who gained and learned to use their abilities, the X-Men were born with theirs and as a result were considered a different species. These mutants were met by public ridicule and fear, which was justified considering how powerful, dangerous, and evil some of the mutants were. The X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier led a crusade to protect humans and weaker mutants from their own kind.
The original lineup was Cyclops, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Iceman, Beast, and Angel. In the 70's, Giant Size X-Men #1 introduced Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, and Wolverine. And in the 90's the entire series relaunched, introducing the Blue and Gold teams with Cyclops leading the Blue Team in X-Men, and Storm leading the Gold Team in Uncanny X-Men.
There have been a buttload of X-Men members throughout the years, but we had no problem picking out the strongest team.
THE LINE UP - there's a lot to say about everybody listed, so I'll try and keep it as quick as I can.
CYCLOPS - the famous field commander of the X-Men. He can fire beams of ruby-colored concussive force from his eyes. He can vary these beams in size and power, from tiny enough to fit through a keyhole, to wide enough to fill a football field!
Jean Grey - aka Marvel Girl, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix. Jean has had a tough life. Before the current rebooted run of the Marvel Comic Universe, the Jean Grey I grew up with was a Alpha level 5 mutant (sounds comic booky important right? I made up the term, but at one point she was referred to something like what I said.) She is a super powerful telekinetic telepath, meaning she can control things and people with her mind as well as read and project things into people's minds. Jean is kind of like a Jedi Master, but can also use her telekenetic abilities to create force fields for her own defense and also fire offensive blasts of telekenetic energy at foes. She was the first X-Men character to be possessed by the Phoenix Force, but because it's a Cosmic-Level power, we decided to NOT include it.
STORM - Do you watch the tv show Suits on the USA network? I think the lady that plays Jessica in that show Jessica (Gina Torres) would be a PERFECT movie Storm. The grown up one of course. Anyway, Storm is a very powerful character in that she can manipulate the weather! She's been called Windrider as a nickname, because she literally rides the wind! Her powers aren't what makes her such a powerful character though, that would be her iron will. Storm fights for what's right and NOTHING can stop her from achieving her goals. She's also a former leader of the X-Men.
GAMBIT - Remy LeBeau joined the X-Men in the 90's and has always been a great asset to the team. His loyal and fighting spirit has aided the X-Men in many great battles. He has the ability to energize objects through contact, he then throws these objects and they explode on impact. The bigger the object the stronger the explosion, and the more objects he can energize, the more attacks he can make. Gambit is most famous for tossing playing cards as a primary weapon, making puns about gaming as he fights. He is also highly skilled street fighter, wielding a retractable bo staff that he expertly uses as a melee weapon. He's also very stealthy, often teaming up with Wolverine for recon missions or sneak attacks.
ROGUE - One of my favorite X-Men characters and definitely my sister's favorite character. Rogue can absorb the powers, skills and memories of anyone she touches for a short time, leaving the other person weakened. However, Rogue is able to control how long she holds onto these parts of other people, the longer she holds onto the attributes, the weaker the other person becomes. For example, Rogue once absorbed the powers, memories and part of the pysche of Ms. Marvel (aka Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel) nearly killing her. After some time, Rogue was able to seperate her mind from Ms. Marvel's but keep her powers and THAT is the version of Rogue we are going with. The Rogue that can fly, is nearly invulnerable and is super strong!
WOLVERINE - OF COURSE we're using Wolverine! Not only is he my favorite character, BUT ALSO because Wolverine will keep fighting until his dying breath and THAT will be a major factor in the X-Men's success in this tournament. He's got a super strong healing factor that can bring him back from the brink of death, an adamantium laced skeleton so his bones can't be broken, and razor sharp adamantium claws that can cut through (almost) anything! I could write a book on this guy, but I don't have the time right now. Instead, here are some awesome pictures.
He's fought the Hulk a bunch of times!
This happened in the now defunct Ultimate Universe, but he survived. Crawled two miles to find and reattach his bottom half.
During the first Marvel Civil War, Wolverine tracked down the guy responsible for the explosion that started the Civil War, Nitro. Nitro used his power and blew up Wolverine, reducing him to bones. Somehow, a piece of him survived and his healing factor brought him back to nearly full power before he took down Nitro. Awesome story, I don't care if the critics think the writers jumped the shark here so to speak.
COLOSSUS - Piotr "Peter" Rasputin was a quiet man from Russia with the unique ability to transform into a man made of organic steel, giving him super strength, stamina and durability! He's the first strong guy on the X-Men (and one of my personal favorites), appearing with the other new members in Giant Size X-Men #1. At one point, Colossus even possessed the Ruby of Cytorak, the magical gem that gave the Juggernaut his powers. By keeping the gem, and in addition to his organic metal powers, he added even more superhuman strength, a resistance to injury, plus the unstoppable momentum of the Juggernaut! ***We have not officially decided to use the Unstopple Colossus version of the character in the tournament, but since it is under consideration, I added that information***
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