Man oh man, the X-Men are everywhere these days! The new cartoon revival — X-Men ’97 — is going off like gangbusters! Everyone is loving it, myself included! And now the big Krakoa Era is coming to an end, with a From the Ashes relaunch ready to go for the summer! I’m also saving up money for the hopefully soon-to-be-announced X-Mansion LEGO set, but I suppose that’s more niche.

Anyway, to celebrate the X-Men, I thought I’d do a list of my all-time favorite X-Men characters!

I’ve done plenty of such lists over the years because it’s super fun to talk about the X-Men, especially obscure ones. I thought about doing a list of characters I’d like to see show up on the new cartoon, or a list of who I would include in my own imagined From the Ashes team lineup. When I realized both of those lists would be pretty similar, I decided to just make it easy on myself and throw together a list of my favorite mutants and X-Men-related characters in comics! This is a list borne from decades of reading X-Men and adjacent comics, and it cane get pretty niche and obscure. That’s on me.

Join me after the jump for my all-time favorite X-Men characters, and feel free to share your own in the comments below!

6. Iceman

Iceman is one of the original five X-Men, with the ability to generate and manipulate ice and cold. He’s been around since the very beginning of the X-Men, and was my favorite when I was first exposed to original X-Men comics as a kid. Iceman had the coolest power of the five — pun intended — and was the jokester of the team. So he was an easy favorite. And he remains my favorite of all mainstream X-Men. From now on, this list is going to be some pretty niche and obscure characters. That’s on me. The Iceman episode is also, in my opinion, the best episode of the original 90’s animated series.

5. Stacy X

Stacy X, Miranda Leevald, is a modern mutant with snakelike skin and the ability to use pheromones to control people. She’s most famous for being a former mutant power prostitute. Stacy X (should be Ecstasy!) was introduced at about the time I really started buying, collecting and reading comics on my own. I was still a bit uptight as a fan, so I didn’t embrace Grant Morrison’s New X-Men as much as I should. Instead, I was reading the sister title, Uncanny X-Men, largely because it was the one that starred Iceman, heh. Anyway, that’s where Stacy X showed up and I liked her from the start. Everyone else’s low opinion of her over the years has just endeared her to me more.

4. Maggott, Marrow, Cecilia Reyes

I group these three together for a very specific reason that I’ll get to in a moment. Maggott’s digestive system is a pair of pet slugs, that burrow out of his torso and can eat anything. Marrow is a Morlock whose bones grow out through her skin, and she can break them off to become weapons. Dr. Cecilia Reyes has a personal forcefield, but is mostly the team medic. All three were either introduced or rose to prominence in X-Men comics in the late 1990s, and, quite specifically, X-Men #70 in 1997.

That is the oversized issue where several different X-Men storylines from the past year or so all came together in a story where the various teams reunite at the X-Mansion. Maggott, Marrow and Dr. Reyes had joined up with those teams over the prior year, and in X-Men #70, they were all welcomed into the X-Men as a reunited team. And for some reason, I had randomly purchased that issue off some spinner rack somewhere. It’s a great comic, a great introduction to those new characters, and I did my best to keep in touch with the subsequent issues. So those 3 will always have a special place in my heart as some really obscure, but really awesome mutants. Maggott is one of the most brilliant mutant ideas of all times and I really, really hope he gets to appear for real in the new X-Men ’97.

3. Blob

Blob is one of my all-time favorite comic book villains. He’s Fred Dukes, a big fat guy with the power to control his personal gravitational pull, making his gigantic, invulnerable form also immoveable. Nothing moves the Blob! I’ve really come around on Blob in just the past few years. Not only because we’re both big fat guys, because I’ve really started to dig into what Blob represents, and it’s how mutants are all just folk. I love the idea that being a mutant is the great equalizer between the X-Men, the Brotherhood of Mutants are all the best X-related characters. The Avengers are all independent superheroes who come together to fight evil. The X-Men are all mutants who come together through shared community. In the grand scheme of genetics, there is nothing different between Blob and Cyclops, other than life paths. I dig that idea. And Blob has had a small but enjoyable character redemption arc over the past few years that I really enjoy. He’s also just a big, mean bully idiot character, and those can be a hoot. Tutti-frutti!

2. Mimic

Mimic is Calvin Rankin, a human whose father’s science experiments gave him the power to mimic the super powers of others, especially mutants. He started out as a villain to the original five X-Men before joining them for a short stint, becoming the first ever new member of the X-Men after the O5. Mimic is the Green Ranger of the original five X-Men, the villain with similar powers to later joins the heroes. When I was a kid, I wasn’t allowed to touch my father’s bagged and boarded comic book collection, but he did let us read some of his worn out, aged issues that were falling apart. And for reasons that were clearly fate, some of those comics were the Mimic comics where he fights and joins the X-Men. And then I can still remember the moment in the 1990s when we were in a store and my dad noticed that the Mimic was on the cover of a new issue of X-Force on a spinner rack.

Reading about him as a kid, and then finding him again in the 90s, cemented Mimic as one of my all-time favorite comic book characters. He doesn’t appear very often, but that’s part of the charm. Finding Mimic appearances is like playing Where’s Waldo with comics! He’s gotten more depth since the 90s, and has had some cool appearances. He’s just neat, and the universe really right-timed, right-placed me to be a big fan!

1. Multiple Man

I’ve been a Multiple Man for some 30 years now. Jamie Madrox is a wisecracking mutant with the ability to create duplicates of himself. If first discovered him in the 90s, when he was a member of X-Factor and had a really awesome costume. I don’t remember exactly how I came to love him, only that it probably involved his trading cards, which I was big into collecting, and X-Factor #79, which starred Multiple Man. He was this chill, sarcastic funny guy whose sense of humor has really come to match my own. He’s got a somewhat unique power and, again, doesn’t appear in every single comic, so he’s been fun to track down — when he’s not dead. When Multiple Man is in a comic, he’s a fun, funny and relatable character with a neat power and some great costumes. He doesn’t get nearly the attention he deserves!

Honorable Mentions: Strong Guy, Emma Frost, Morph, Lacuna, Omerta, Wraith, the Chicago Morlocks, modern Cyclops, Armor, Avalanche, Toad, Abyss, Goldballs, Lady Mastermind, Rhapsody and probably a bunch of other random, obscure characters!

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