Great Heroes of Mutantkind

[gambitxremy]

New Avengers 23 made me think a lot about this quite a bit. who are the great Heroes, leaders, Defenders, champions of mutantkind? Good or Bad, "Hero or Villain" who has stood up to defend or save the mutant race....
And why
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now with this topic there will be spoilers.....

[sprior93]

Doop, Beak, and Maggot.










R2D2

[gambitxremy]

Doop, Beak, and Maggot.










R2D2

Why..................

[Beezzi]

Doop, Beak, and Maggot.








R2D2

Oh Maggot - I miss him. He was all kinds of odd fun. Since the X-Men now have a brain floating around in No-girl - can we please have Maggot back? Yes, his digestive system is two slugs, but how is that weirder than a brain in a jar or a boy thats all eye's. I'm sure Cyke would love to have him in his mutant revolution - his the epitome of what it means to be an awesome mutant. I see him hanging out with GoldenBalls.

[Ambaryerno]

The problem with this thread is that it's going to get highly subjective very fast, especially because so much is depending on the writer.

I mean you have the obvious classic cast (the O5 + Wolverine and Storm) who have been prominent heroes from near the beginning. Then there's the New X-Men, who killed Stryker (well, Elixir killed him and X-23 decimated a large part of the Purifiers during the school attack), as well as defeated Nimrod, whom Cyclops said even the full X-Men were never able to do.

Individually you get wrapped up with what one writer tried to establish vs. other writers who disregarded it (IE, Liu was setting up X-23 to be very important in the future as heir to the full power of the Enigma Force, as opposed to the temporary "minor" buff previous hosts received, but who knows if any writers will actually use that).

I think there needs to be a bit more specific criteria to this question.

[Beezzi]

The problem with this thread is that it's going to get highly subjective very fast, especially because so much is depending on the writer.

I mean you have the obvious classic cast (the O5 + Wolverine and Storm) who have been prominent heroes from near the beginning. Then there's the New X-Men, who killed Stryker (well, Elixir killed him and X-23 decimated a large part of the Purifiers during the school attack), as well as defeated Nimrod, whom Cyclops said even the full X-Men were never able to do.

Individually you get wrapped up with what one writer tried to establish vs. other writers who disregarded it (IE, Liu was setting up X-23 to be very important in the future as heir to the full power of the Enigma Force, as opposed to the temporary "minor" buff previous hosts received, but who knows if any writers will actually use that).

I think there needs to be a bit more specific criteria to this question.

Agreed - everyone has different critria for what protecting mutant kind means - the whole Cyke/Wovie debate is just a good example and I'd be surprised if this didn't get twisted into another thread about who was right.

[CongoJack]

Cable fits the bill in the 90's the Xmen had two different angles on him one they didn't like him very much because he wasn't very "Xmenie", and two he was needed around so he could save them on a near constant basis. And the fact that there are mutants around to this day he also had a big hand in that.

[Mr. Brightside]

Agreed - everyone has different critria for what protecting mutant kind means - the whole Cyke/Wovie debate is just a good example and I'd be surprised if this didn't get twisted into another thread about who was right.

Both had decent points, but it depends what you see as heroic. Like saying Cyclops' X-force was evil but then being ok with Wolverines. I don't consider either "heroic", but they were very much necessary.

As for this question, hands down Cyclops. The moment he had power to change the world and redo it in his image, get back at all the humans that hated his kind, and not be stopped by anyone, he does the opposite and helps out the poor and hungry, regardless of race/species/whatever, destroys sentinels and other machines of war, and even saves the people that he had JUST finished fighting, along with keeping his enemies alive, even at the insistence of his girlfriend and king friend. And this is all before planning victories like in Fear Itself, the Secret Invasion, etc in the name of mutantkind.

I think most of the non-shady-pasts X-men are heroic as well, such as Nightcrawler, Storm, and Rogue, devoted members helping the very people that fear and hate them.

[Beezzi]

Let's see:

Here's some unlikely picks:

GenX Emma Frost, Banshee and Xavier - By becoming teachers - they have arguable done more for mutantkind than anyone else. How many mutants wouldn't have know how to control their powers if it wasn't for them? Not as heroic and flashy, but still a vital contribution.

Bishop - Gave up his own present to save the life of the daddy of all mutants...I'm ignoring Onslaught and that Marvel turned him into a heel and used the poor guy to put Hope over.

And....you all knew this was coming....

Jubilee....now wait....before you all roll your eyes - I can totally back this one up!

During Zero Tolerance, Bastion kidnaps and psychologically and physically tortured Jubilee for days to learn the X-Men's secrets. When Bastion later captures the other X-Men, they manage to escape, only to have, at the last minute, their way is block by a massive door and they are trapped and about to be overpowered. While Bastion's back is turned Jubes hits the switch, opens the door and gives her family the opportunity to escape - knowing full well with the X-Men gone, her only means of getting rescued is gone as well. She basically sacrifices her own freedom, to give her mutant family a chance to fight back. The X-Men go on to kick Bastion's behind and save all of mutant kind. But none of that would've been possible without one scared teenager. All of mutantkind owes her a favour. You liked Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean, Storm, Cannonball and every other mutant on the planet? She saved them all. Get in line Hope, we already had a mutant messiah.

I would add that Jubes has one opportunity to escape Bastion's lair when she first captured, but instead of leaving, she decides to do CPR on a human soldier she blasted with her plasmoids.

The Bastion thing is always overlooked, by Marvel and fans alike, because Bastion and Zero Tolerance is never mentioned in GenX again. We never see the aftermath of the torture, it's always been a weird bit of Jubes history.

[Kisinith]

Honestly its too broad a topic as what was described is pretty much the job description of an X-Man.

If you want to talk about who has done the most... Xavier, because even with all of the shady crap he's pulled he created the X-Men, molded them and gave them their drive. After that the Summers family, Cyclops, Cable and Jean Grey. They have consistently been put into the role of sacrificing everything for the cause, reputation, health, life, friendships, family, children. Defending their people and the world that hates and fears them has been their largest driving motivator and its cost them pretty much everything.

Special mention should go to Magneto, because as much as I like him he really shouldn't be on this list. As much as he's fought for mutant kind, been one of its most ardent defenders, he's also been one of its biggest enemies and that tends to mitigate some of his accomplishments.

[People Of The Earth]

Xavier and Jean Grey of course: both died martyrs at the hands of madmen.
They both are iconic to most mutants, either inspirational figures or hated ones - bottom line, their legacy don't let anyone insensitive.

Also, Magneto is a villain, a mass murderer and a racial supremacist through and through - he's not a hero in the slightest.
But, it's undeniable that he's one of mutantkind most prominent figures and leader. People from all around the world have historically sided with his ideas, or against them. Beyond Xavier, he's one of the most prominent leader mutantkind ever had.

Same with Apocalypse: he might be a worst villain than Magneto, but he and his clan gathers thousands of followers. He's also one of the most prominent figures in mutantkind, for better or worse.

[Master of Sound]

The ones who really did a lot for mutants (good or bad) are clearly Xavier, Magento, Apocalypse, Cyclops, Cassandra Nova and Scarlet Witch.

[Vic Vega]

You can count the amount of Mutants who had a big picture worldview on the fingers of one hand.

The Professor, Magneto, Cable, Apocalypse and ironically enough, Callisto (its just that her big picture only applied to her tribe of Morlocks).

The guys with big ideas and the means to carry them out will have contributed more in total then their respective followers.

[wunderpanda]

I'm not sure Apocalypse makes the list, yes he has the survival of the fittest mantra and has impacted the lives of some mutants, even had his god-like run altering time and space, but it has so far been fairly underground. He has his clan of followers and he faced the XMen a few times, but I don't recall him being portrayed as a public threat or leader until far into a future that hasn't happened yet. Including Apocalypse would be similar to including Mother Askani, behind the scenes playing a long game, or Sinister for coercing relationships and selective breeding to create mutants.

Magneto has been the public face of mutant resistance for decades and leader of his own nation, he would be on my mutant Mt Rushmore. So would Xavier, being his ally and adversary, training mutants to be caretakers, tolerant of those who are afraid. After that it gets tricky, Cyclops should be included as leader of Utopia, the voice of a species and he lead using lessons learned from Magneto and Xavier. Not sure about a 4th, Cable takes action to guard against the future but could end up causing it. Phoenix was a cosmic force that affected reality but Jean wasn't, she touched those around her but wasn't a rallying cry or martyr for mutants as a whole.

Any of the government sanctioned team members from Freedom Force or X Factor could be nominated; Mystique, Havok, Polaris, Madrox or Avengers like Beast but it just seems like the closest in standing (to the other 3) would be Sunfire. Japans only hero, powerful family, worked with the government, was revered as a mutant and was in the public eye. I considered Angel and Shaw more as business leaders than mutants, thought about Wolverine because he opened the school, but there is no way of knowing if that will have any bearing on the future and most of his past consists of espionage and stabbing. Banshee was great in Gen X, it just doesn't seem enough.

Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, Sunfire

[Darth Phoenix]

Colossus he died to stop the legacy virus, Magneto for standing up to humans no matter what.