More New Mutants, another guy, and a powerhouse all show up in the next batch of my favorite X-Men, as I crack the Top 10. Three of these characters were created by Chris Claremont, which is no real surprise. He put the X-Men on the map in their glory days in the 1980’s. One of these is pretty unexpected given their history!
#12. Danielle “Dani” Moonstar
First appearance: The New Mutants (1982)
Creators: Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod
Other aliases: Psyche; Mirage
Born in Boulder, CO, Danielle Moonstar is a teenaged Native American from the Cheyenne tribe. As with many mutants, Dani’s mutant powers manifested during puberty when she saw a vision of her parents killed by a demon bear. Shortly thereafter, her parents disappear, and Dani is taken in by her grandfather, Black Eagle. During this time, the Hellfire Club come to kidnap her and in the melee, Black Eagle is killed, but not before he contacts Professor Charles Xavier, who was a friend of Dani’s father, who arrives to offer to train Dani on how to use her powers. She agrees, and joins a group called the New Mutants, which she eventually comes to co-lead, alongside Cannonball.
Dani’s time with the X-Men is convoluted and involves reuniting with her parents, developing a close relationship with Wolfsbane, gaining new abilities, losing her mutant powers, and regaining those powers. She graduated from the New Mutants and served with X-Force, and the X-Men. She taught at the Xavier Institute, and even taught at the government’s Initiative under the Avengers after The Scarlet Witch causes her to lose her powers with thousands of other mutants. She has since regained her powers, and has reunited with the New Mutants where she serves as leader again.
When first introduced, Dani has the ability to manifest someone’s greatest fear. At first, she is unable to control this ability, but with practice, she gains greater control, and learns to call forth a person’s greatest desire as well. The visions are three-dimensional, and incredibly realistic. Dani possesses the limited telepathic ability to form a psychic bond with various fauna and is able to project fears and desires into the minds of animals. She can sense their feelings, consciously perceive images in their minds, and even see through their eyes. This enables her to communicate with Wolfsbane while she is in her transitional half-lupine form or transformed into her full wolf form. She is also able to create visions by channeling residual thought and emotional impressions in an area and showing what has occurred there. For a time, Dani was able to make her visions manifest as solid psionic energy. She usually used this ability to create weapons, such as her “Dream Spear.” She also has displayed the ability to focus her psionic powers into energy arrows which could stun an opponent by disrupting their central nervous system.
Dani gained her most unusual ability by bonding with Brightwind, a winged horse in Asgard, home of the Norse Gods. Birghtwind was a steed ridden by the Valkyries, choosers of the slain, and by bonding with him, Dani became an honorary Valkyrie, and gained the ability to sense the presence of death. Her powers as a Valkyrie, which are ultimately derived from Hela, the Norse Goddess of Death, also grant her superhuman strength. Due to her training at Xavier’s, her time as a Valkyrie , and her natural athleticism, Dani is physically fit and an excellent hand-to-hand combatant. In addition, she is experienced in the use of several primitive weapons, especially the bow and arrow, spear, knife and sword, which she carried as a Valkyrie.
Why is she on this list? I have a weakness for heroes with psychic abilities, especially those that seem limited. Dani has always been a strong character and a capable leader. Some writers get a little sloppy with her, falling back on traits that are sometimes stereotypical of Native Americans. The close relationships she forms with some characters, especially her friends like Wolfsbane, and her brotherly bond with Cannonball, give her added depth. And I do like my New Mutants.
#11. Magik – Illyana Rasputin
First appearance: Giant-Size X-Men #1 (as Illyana Rasputin, 1975), Magik (Storm and Illyana) #1 (December 1983)
Creators: Chris Claremont, Len Wein, Dave Cockrum
Illyana Rasputin debuted as a background character of Giant-Size X-Men #1 in 1975, which premiered the all-new X-Men. She was the 6-year-old sister of Colossus, who he saved with his mutant power from a runaway tractor on their collective in Siberia. She rarely appeared or was mentioned, until 1981 when she was kidnapped by Arcade, along with other X-Men allies. After her rescue, she stayed at the School for Gifted Youngsters alongside her brother, until she was spirited to Limbo, a demonic dimension ruled by Belasco. She reappeared instantly, but time move differently in Limbo, and she emerged second later, aged ten years, and was now a teenager.
She starred in her own 4-issue miniseries, Magik (Storm and Ilyana), which detailed her upbringing in Limbo. In order to free himself from Limbo, Belasco needed five bloodstones, which he planned to create by corrupting Illyana’s innocent soul. She is rescued and raised by Limbo’s alternate version of Storm, who trains her in the use of white magic. She is also raised by Cat, Limbo’s alternate version of Kitty Pryde, who teaches her hand-to-hand combat. Cat and Illyana storm Belasco’s castle, but he defeats them, takes Illyana captive again, and trains her in the arts of black magic, slowly corrupting her soul enough to create three of the five bloodstones. At this point, Illyana has learned enough to create her Soulsword, a weapon that manifests the power of her soul, and to defeat Belasco, banishing him from Limbo and taking control over that realm. She then returns to the X-Men a decade older. She subsequently joins the New Mutants.
Partially due to the bond Illyana formed with Limbo’s version of Kitty Pryde, the two become quite close. Obviously, she shares a close bond with her big brother Colossus as well. Others have a hard time warming up to her, given her pseudo-demonic nature and partially corrupted soul.
At one point, Illyana actually succumbs to the Legacy virus and dies. During this time, the mantle of Magik, the Soulsword, and the rule of Limbo falls to Amanda Sefton, a sorceress who is involved with Nightcrawler. Eventually Belasco wrests rule of Limbo away from Amanda, and realizes that he longs for Magik to return to him. Wielding powerful dark magics, Belasco resurrects Illyana as the fully corrupt Darkchilde. During this time she becomes involved in an altercation with the New X-Men, a group of younger students including Pixie, whose innocent soul is partially taken by Illyana in an effort to create another bloodstone and gain additional godlike power. Pixie gains the ability to wield black magic, and ultimately joins with Illyana who regains some of her humanity, to overthrow Belasco’s daughter, Witchfire who had taken control of Limbo.
Magik returns to earth with the New X-Men, but she is still emotionally removed from humanity due to the loss of much of her soul. Later she is recruited by the reformed New Mutants to save Pixie, and begins the slow journey to regain her humanity. A brief detour where she becomes part of the Phoenix 5, and takes on one-fifth of the Phoenix force causes some conflict, but she ultimately regains her humanity and is currently part of the New Mutants team once again.
Magik’s mutant power has nothing to do with sorcery, actually. She has the ability to teleport herself great distances through time and space by summoning “stepping discs” that were part of Limbo. Initially any teleportation required a stop in Limbo midway, but with more experience she has since been able to teleport directly to her destination. Magik is also the sorceress supreme of Limbo. Her sorcery is a unique mix of the black magic she learned from Belasco, and the white magic she learned from the version of Storm who lived in Limbo. While her sorcery has typically been much more powerful in Limbo than on earth, she has since begun training with Dr. Strange and her sorcerous powers outside of Limbo have greatly increased.
The more that Magik uses her sorcery, the more mystical armor appears on her body, as do the demonic aspects of her appearance, such as horns and hooves. This armor protects her from both physical and mystical harm, and provides her with augmented strength. During her imprisonment in Limbo, Illyana also created her Soulsword, made up of her lifeforce energy, and fashioned into a weapon through sorcery. Magik’s Soulsword disrupts magical energies, constructs, and creatures. It also augments the power level of any magic user who holds it. The Soulsword generally has no physical effect, but disrupts even the most powerful magic as it passes through.
Why is she on this list? I had enjoyed Magik as a character in the early days, but during her time as a villain, and then as more of an anti-hero, I found her a little more tiresome and one-note by writers who didn’t really understand how to give her more nuance. In recent years I’ve actually found Illyana to be more interesting, and even fun, when written well. The character has gone through lots of torment, losing her brother and then ultimately herself to the Legacy Virus. Losing her soul, being tormented by demons as a child, and more. Her bonded relationship with Kitty is rather interesting, and fandom has long held that their relationship was more than friendship. She is also a powerful magic-wielder, which is always fun, and her inclusion in the mystical world of Marvel makes her even more intriguing.
#10. Shatterstar – Gaveedra Seven
First appearance – New Mutants #99 (March 1991)
Creators: Fabian Nicieza, Rob Liefeld
Here is a classic example of how a good writer can make you like any character, no matter how poorly conceived. More on that later, let me start with Shatterstar’s origins. Shatterstar comes from the far future where is lived in a dimension called Mojoworld, a twisted place ruled by Mojo, where all that matters is how popular you become on broadcast television. It’s all about ratings, ratings, ratings! Shatterstar was bred to be a gladiatorial combatant on one of Mojo’s reality television shows. During his upbringing and training, he honed his incredible physical prowess and developed his strong sense of honor and pride as a warrior in order to combat the constant violence and death in his life. Eventually he escaped and joined the Blood Cadre Alliance, the rebel group that sought to overthrow Mojo V. As part of this alliance, he was sent back in time to find the X-Men and seek their assistance in overthrowing Mojo.
Instead he found the New Mutants, who were about to be transformed into X-Force, a paramilitary group led by Cable, the child of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from an alternate future. Shatterstar became a founding member of X-Force when Cable assured him that they would help to defeat Mojo. As part of X-Force he befriended Rictor, and the two became close friends. He even learned Spanish by watching to TV to be able to communicate with his friend in his native language. Shatterstar had a long career with X-Force, most of which I missed because it was the pinnacle of bad 90’s comics, and drawn and eventually written by one of my absolute least favorite comic creators around, Rob Liefeld.
When Shatterstar’s time with X-Force ended in about 2004, it was five years before he emerged again, in a most unexpected place. At some point after leaving X-Force, one of Jamie Madrox’s dupes went rogue and took control of Shatterstar and sent him to attack Jamie Prime and his friends who were part of X-Factor Investigations. Shatterstar found and attacked Rictor and Strong Guy, and when the ensuing battle was over, and Shatterstar was freed from Cortex’s control, he grabbed Rictor and passionately kissed him, much to Rictor’s surprise. It was the first full-on male/male kiss by mainstream heroes in a Marvel comic.
Shatterstar had some random adventures with X-Factor members and eventually joined the team. During this time, Rictor and Shatterstar embark on a steady, romantic relationship. Rictor had come to terms with his sexuality and was longing for a monogamous relationship. Shatterstar, on the other hand, was just embracing his ability to feel emotions and sexual passions, and longed for a polyamorous lifestyle. This caused some issues, but they were also ultimately able to work things out.
During a battle in Hell, Mephisto transported Shatterstar and Rictor to Mojoverse in the past. Shatterstar was again controlled into battling Rictor in the gladiatorial arenas, but Rictor managed to escape with the help of rebels, including that era’s Longshot, Mojoverse’s most well-known hero and at some point in time, an X-Man. While Shatterstar was captured, he was cloned, and his DNA was ultimately used to create Longshot, making Shatterstar essentially Longshot’s father. Rictor and the rebels freed Shatterstar who was then able to transport the two of them forward in time. In this new time period, the pair came across Dazzler, who as about to give birth. Her son, whose father was Longshot, ended up being Shatterstar, making him both Longshot’s father and son. Sheesh!
Shatterstar possesses an overall superhuman level of physical and mental attributes (senses, strength, speed, reflexes, agility, flexibility, stamina, and intelligence), as a result of the extra-dimensional genetic engineering that created him. He is an excellent military strategist and has had extensive training in many forms of interpersonal combat; in particular, he is a master swordsman. His bones are hollow, making him far lighter than he looks and further increasing his athletic and acrobatic skills. He also has enhanced learning capabilities, being able to quickly learn and master languages and technology. He customarily wields two single-edged swords with spiked hand-guards. Shatterstar is able to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue much faster than an ordinary human. Injuries such as slashes and stabbings heal completely within a matter of hours. Additionally, he possesses the ability to shift his internal organs within his body, lessening the chances of serious wounds that get through his body armor. He also has the mutant ability to control frequencies of electricity, which he can use to generate powerful bioelectric vibratory shockwaves.
Why is he on this list? That is a really good question. When he debuted in 1989, he was the epitome of everything I hated about the coming 90’s phase of comics. I had no interest whatsoever in the character, and actually read very few of his adventures. What made Shatterstar the anchor of my Top 10 X-Men is Peter David, a writer who is responsible for many of my Top 20 characters making this list (M, Madrox, Siryn, Layla Miller, and some still to come.) The character development David bestowed upon Shatterstar in a relative few number of issues fundamentally changed who the character was. It helped that he got a whole new visual design that jettisoned most of the 90’s hyper-masculine imagery he was saddled with beforehand. His relationship with Rictor, and his emerging emotions were in stark contrast to his history, but in way that created dramatic and emotional tension, rather than just a complete reboot. The relationship was handled with great maturity and forthrightness, making it unique at the time in comics. Even in his appearances since Peter David’s X-Factor, writers have continued to build on the new, modern-day Shatterstar much to my pleasure, and I look forward to future appearances.
#9 – Rachel Summers
First appearance – The Uncanny X-Men #141 (January 1981)
Creators: Chris Claremont, John Bryne
Other aliases: Phoenix, Rachel Grey, Marvel Girl, Prestige
Oy. where do we start with Rachel Summers? Perhaps the most convoluted history of any X-Man. Well, in the Top 10 anyway. I’m going to leave huge swaths of history out of this synopsis because, there’s just too much. And much of it I didn’t actually read, so it doesn’t contribute to the reasons why she’s in my Top 10 X-Men.
Rachel Summers is the daughter of Cyclops (Scott Summers) and Phoenix (Jean Grey), from the future of an alternative timeline. In Rachel’s timeline, her mother, Jean, actually bonded with the Phoenix, survived the Dark Phoenix transformation, married Scott, and gave birth to Rachel. Because of this, Rachel inherited the legacy of the Phoenix. The timeline in which Rachel spent her adolescence led to a grim, dystopian life. Senator Kelly is assassinated by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, kicking off the ratification of the Mutant Registration Act, the enforcement of anti-mutant sentiment by the Sentinels, and the creation of mutant concentration camps. Rachel is captured by Ahab, who, using a combination of drugs and hypnotherapy, turns Rachel into a “Hound,” a mutant who hunts down other mutants. Her time as a hound filled her with grief and despair due to the psychic connection she invariably formed with her targets. She ultimately overcame Ahab, scarring his face with hound marks in the process. This landed her in the concentration camps where she met the surviving X-Men and the the adult Franklin Richards, who became her lover.
Working with the X-Men, Rachel used her powers to send Kate Pryde back in time in order to prevent Senator Kelly’s assassination, the act that sent mankind spiraling down this dystopian path. Kate was successful, but nothing changed in Rachel’s world. Rachel sent her astral self into the past and discovered that Kate had been sent into an alternate timeline. On her way back to her own time, Rachel encountered the Phoenix force, who followed her. When Rachel passed out from exhaustion, the Phoenix force presented itself to Kate Pryde asking to give Rachel a fresh start. Kate and Rachel’s next mission was to take down Project: Nimrod, which was creating the next model of Sentinel. Doomed to failure, Kate spoke the words “Dark Phoenix,” the trigger for which the Phoenix force removed Rachel from her timeline and sent her physically back in time to the timeline in which Kate had prevented Kelly’s assassination. Sadly, Rachel’s grief and struggle continued in this timeline, where she learned that her mother had died, and her father’s new wife, Madeline Pryor, was pregnant with a son (Nathan Summers).
Rachel became a member of the X-Men, and during that time, visited her grandparents’ home where she found a Shi’ar holoempathic crystal imprinted with a portion of Jean Grey’s essence. Rachel vowed to honor her mother’s memory by taking the costume and name of Phoenix, after which the Phoenix force fully bonded with her, granting her greater powers, although not the full powers of the force. Her time with the X-Men following was marred by her vendetta against Selene, Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. Rachel was prepared to kill Selene and was only stopped by Wolverine, who pierced her heart with his claws. Close to dying, Rachel fled and was lured to Spiral’s body shoppe.
When Rachel returned, most of the X-Men were presumed dead, so while recuperating in London, Nightcrawler, Kitty and Rachel decided to uphold Xavier’s teachings and start a new team along with Captain Britain and Meggan, which they dubbed Excalibur. From there Rachel has been a fairly regular member of the X-Family comics, after Excalibur, returning to various incarnations of the X-Men. She was instrumental in the upbringing of Nathan (Cable) Summers, by bringing Scott and Jean into the future to raise hm. She was involved in a major cosmic epic, the Rise and fall of the Shi’ar Empire and was lost in space with Havok and Polaris for months. More recently, after Kitty returned from presumed death in a giant cosmic bullet, she was featured in X-Men: Gold with the new codename of Prestige.
Rachel possesses powerful psionic abilities, including telepathy, telekinesis, and limited time manipulation. Rachel’s virtually unlimited telepathy allows her to receive, broadcast, and manipulate thoughts in complex ways. She is able to create enduring mind-links across distances, project blasts of psionic energy that disrupt aspects of brain functioning, shield her mind from other telepaths, create illusions, and render someone imperceptible to the five senses. In addition, Rachel has demonstrated the ability to telepathically suppress superpowers; control, repair, and exchange minds; as well as safely edit memories. By using telekinesis, Rachel can manipulate matter even on a sub-atomic level. She can channel this ability to create protective force fields and blasts of concussive force. By using her telekinesis to levitate herself, Rachel can fly at incredible speeds. Combined with her time manipulation abilities, Rachel can temporarily transplant a person’s mind and send it through time into a younger/older version, a close ancestor/descendant, or as a disembodied astral form. Rachel’s power level and scope of abilities have been inconsistently described by writers over the years. However, she is usually depicted with “virtually unlimited” potential in her dual psionic talents due to her bond with the Phoenix Force.
Why is she here? I love characters with psionic powers. I also love the character of Jean Grey, and Rachel’s connection, though tenuous, as they haven’t had a lot of opportunity to spend time together, gives her some nice dramatic, familial potential. Her childhood and adolescence were filled with trauma that she has been able to largely overcome. The intricacy of her backstory and all the time jumping is a bit of a hindrance to her character, and no writer since Chris Claremont seems to really know what to do with her. I’d love to see a limited series focused solely on Rachel really flesh out her character and propel her to her next, hopefully stable, stage.