What would you do with and explore about your favorite X-character?

[Mercury]

Let us imagine that Marvel Comics granted you carte blanche with one of your favorite X-characters; in what direction would you take them? What aspects of their history would you mine and plumb? What facets of their psyche and personality would you spotlight and explore? What about your favorite character do you feel you relate to deeply and that only you understand and could exploit fully?

[Wolverine12]

I’d explore some darker aspects of Logan’s past. Logan as a villain has always intrigued me for some reason. I really enjoyed Millar’s Enemy of the State run so it’d be something kind of in that wheelhouse but probably without the mind control aspect.

My favorite comics of all time are Millar’s Ultimate X-Men and Remender’s UXF and Logan is not a very good guy in either of those stories but he does what needs to get done and honestly sometimes it’s not very heroic and I like the idea that this hero has to make these decisions that are sometimes just awful but it’s done with the intention to better the world.

[TheMutantTheorist]

I would wanna explore more of the family aspects of established mutants on Krakoa and what it means to have a mutant family cuz face it, there are clones, alt-reality versions, and psychic entities so family for mutants kinda has a new definition. There is also plenty of familial relations that the mutants of krakoa have to each other and I wanna see them interact and figure out that new definition of family.

[sunofdarkchild]

The first thing I'd like to see explored is Magik's status as a hell lord and how she'd interact with the other hell lords like Mephisto, Satannish, Hela, and Dormammu. What does it take to get an ounce of respect from them? What would happen if they were forced to work together? Would they bring any complaints they may have about Krakoa - specifically the resurrection protocols affecting their bounty of souls - to Magik first or would they skip negotiations and go straight to violence?

[Ambaryerno]

There's a couple things I'd like to see with Laura. To start with:

1. I'd put Laura and Kimura in a situation where they had to work together, and force them to explore just how similar their backgrounds actually are (both victims of severe abuse who had one person in their lives that could have protected them and helped them heal, but that person died before they could actually do anything).

2. Someone needs to confront Laura with the fact that she's frankly a shitty friend. She ran off on the NYX kids, and apparently has never even bothered to help them get off the streets (even a simple "I offered to take them to Xavier's but they refused" would have gone a long way to addressing it). She virtually cut off contact with the NXM, then did it AGAIN with the Avengers Academy kids after Arena.

3. The Hellmark is still unresolved. As is her status as the Unipower's chosen heir.

4. It always surprised me that Sabretooth never went after her to screw with Logan. Considering she's a woman in Logan's life, his "daughter," AND offspring he actually had a functional (if strained) relationship with, you'd think that would have been like catnip for Creed. Instead, the first time we ever saw him interact he makes a lewd comment about "going down" with her when she suggests to Daken that they take her out. Sadly, short of a flashback story it's a bit late for this story to work now.

[Grunty]

Considering that of my favorits she is th one with the least "screen time" and having in my opinion been messed up by her sporadic and unfocused appearances over the last 21 years, i'd pick Marrow and try to streamline her character into something more focused, give her some kind of direction for what she actualy wants in life and how she reflects on her past.

Mainly presenting a person prone to violence as primary solution and temperamental outbursts, who is deeply aware of her own flaws and sins, but also unable to overcome them easily, because these flaws have also allowed her to survive through her worst times.

Also someone who believes they allready lost all chances to go to heaven and instead seek not going to hell (or at least for a good cause), despite her age still leaving enough room to repent.

Though this would take some care not to let her slip into just becomming a wannabe Wolverine in that regard.

If i had to break down her history to the most important parts of what defined her i would argue its these:
1. Spend her childhood in an isolated mutant community who were telling a warped pseudo mythological version of reality to their children.
2. Saw said community get murdered by mutant mercenaries and only escaped via a stranger saving her life.
3. Was transported to a place where she and other children were forced to fight each other daily, indoctrinated with mutant superiority ideology (on top of the warped world view from her childhood) and tasked to climb a massive hill to gain a purpose as soldiers for a madman and his ideology (or stay at the bottom of the hill and make stronger children).
4. Sought to get personal revenge against a world she believed to be against her by harming and killing innocenent people, which her ideology told her were lesser beings compared to herself.
5. Tried to kill or at least humiliate a super hero she had singled out as person "responcible" for her suffering, but getting nearly killed in the process.
6. Became willing to change and accept different perspectives.

These are the vital parts of her character history and even though they involve a pocket dimension and the mad reality warper brother of Collosus, i argue they are still relative simple and understandable at their core.

From there on she was relunctantly accepted into the X-men by circumstances, but it seems the writers were never quite sure what to do with her, which eventualy developed into the weird notion that the main source of her violence was that she didn't feel pretty and that all she needs to be a better person would be to become so.

Then she disappeared from the X-men without explanation, was used as mentaly damaged sleeper agent by SHIELD, got recruited by Weapon X with the promise of looking "beautifull" while killing people and abducting mutants for experiments (reducing her to vanity again and having her oblivious to her own past), betrayed Weapon X, got depowered, joined up with some radical ex-mutants, got stabbed by Quicksilver, agreed to be experiments on to get her powers back, lost her unborn child in the process, became mentaly damaged again, joined X-force, joined New Tian as now mentaly sound again fighter, joined the Hellfire Club under Emma Frost, arrived at Krakoa and joined an X-men team which only exist in a single one-shot and is never mentioned anywhere else.

So as wrong as this might sounds, i would actualy try to cut down the last 21 years of her appearances as much as possible, simply because character development wise they were meaningless if not harmfull for her. Instead i would try to build her character up again from her core history mentioned above and the first half of her time with the X-men. Everything beyond that i would ignore, accept in broad strokes or try to retcon out, in order to reduce baggage.

Yes continuity and in universe history are important and shouldn't simply be ignored, but while A- and B-listers have a lot of great stories and continuity elements to overshadow their bad ones, C-listers like Marrow often do not and it can do more for them not to be held down by that (unless it can be used for improvement).

In that regard i would also prefer giving her an out of continuity mini-series to explore her character and what she could be, based on what i proposed above, with a more "on point" version of her backstory* and without the current Krakoa status quo, since i feel it can date stories too much and needs too much explanation when read on it's own eventualy. Though trying to tell a good story with her in current continuity is entirely possible too.

* My out of continuity or "movie" backstory for her would be that she was part of a FARC like mutant guerillia group in south america before it was wiped out government forces supported by mutant super heros like X-force or the X-men.

[Jackraow21]

Here’s what I don’t want to see for awhile with Cable…

1) Time traveling;
2) Stryfe, clones or younger versions/variants; or
3) a story involving him losing control of the T-O virus and/or his powers.

All three have been completely played out IMO. So here’s what I do want to see. I’d like to see Marvel take Nathan Summers in a new direction where he’s at the same time…

1) Part of Storm’s Uncanny X-men based on Mars, essentially filling the Logan role of this team (which is loosely based on the Claremont/Byrne dynamic but updated) as the guy who does what’s necessary;
2) A man of vast reach and resources who still has business on Earth (quite literally) which is tied into his past in this era and related to his previous jumps to the 20th Century; and
3) More exploration of his 20th Century past (versus his time in the far dystopian future where he grew up which has been mined to death for stories) and establishing ties to both existing villains plus some new ones (grow his rogues gallery please!).

So, towards that that end, I’m thinking Storm’s UXM team sees her, Cable and several others filling the roles of Colossus (Frenzy), Nightcrawler (Manifold), Cyclops (Gambit) and Kitty Pryde (Khora) with support roles like Professor X (Abigail Brand) and Beast (Wiz Kid). A very classic dynamic with some fresh new characters as well as some old favorites. I sprung Gambit from Excalibur where he’s just languishing too, as I think he needs some off-world adventures away form his domestic home life with Rogue. Nothing says she can’t be an X-man on Earth while he’s one on Mars, and with the Krakoan gates making the commute easy I think it works fine. At any rate, this replaces SWORD and is obviously still written by Al Ewing since it needs something to boost its poor sales.

As for my second idea above, I would reveal that in coming back and forth through time that Cable made many investments in the past that paid off handsomely. In fact, it’s how he affords all of his safe houses and whatnot. This was actually established in an issue of Deadpool I believe, that showed Nathan coming back to the 1920s or 1930s and making investments in the stock market. Well, I would reveal that after the stock market crash of 1929 he bought up a bunch of stuff, including a railroad and shipping company. Over the decades his holdings grew, and those companies merged and gobbled up other companies. So now he owns this globe spanning transportation conglomerate and no one knows it. Or at least he’s the majority shareholder. This leads to some solo stories on Earth where dark forces are using his company’s assets for nefarious purposes like human trafficking and also illicit black market sales of Krakoan flowers, drugs made from those flowers, etc. Thus it leads into some corporate intrigue type stuff, including facing off against some new villains who are backed by rival corporations and have dealings with Orchis. Stuff like that. We even get him a new arch nemesis in the form of the Inhuman and former Dark Rider, Gauntlet, whose hate for mutants — and especially Cable — burns white hot. He’s made a deal with a rival company to conduct corporate espionage and even raids on Cable’s company holdings, and leads a new team of Dark Riders. He’s also been upgraded by a modified version of Cable’s own T-O virus that an Orchis scientist cooked up. Lots of story potential here on Earth, and in the present day.

Finally, my third and final idea sees a story detailing the connection between Cable and both The Children of the Vault as well as Weapon Plus and specifically its World facility that created Fantomex, as the former (the CoTV’s Conquistador ship) was the predecessor to the latter (The World facility) actually. And both stem from Cable making a callous mistake in the past when he was running with his mercenary outfit Six Pack and was injured, accidentally leaving part of his bodyslide device, which allows him to time travel and teleport, in the field. It was found by scientists who used it to artificially accelerate time, creating the Conquistador ship and thus the CotV. Weapon Plus later killed those scientists and got ahold of their research and technology, and then of course used it to create The World facility for their own purposes. So we find that Cable is basically responsible for these events, and thus might even be responsible for the eventual rise of homo novissima, who we know from House of X/Powers of X will eventually subjugate mutantkind in the future (and then will assimilate into the Phalanx). Moira reveals this to Cable — at least his culpability in their creation (not the eventual defeat of mutants in every life she’s lived, though he may suspect that honestly) — and this revelation sends him and Storm’s UXM team on a collision course with the CotV as well as Weapon Plus. This could be a very big arc, possibly even a crossover with Duggan’s X-men team honestly. And it also explores Cable’s past relationship with Moira, which runs deep, and I think is 100% in need of exploring after HoX/PoX.

Finally, there would obviously be other adventures on Mars and in outer space where we could meet some new threats and villains, including new alien races as well as Arakki gangsters who run the slums on Mars. Stuff like that. There’s so much freakin’ story potential here…

[Paragon]

Is it too vague to just say I'd like to see Mercury actually used as a featured member of a book's cast for the first time since Pixie Strikes Back in 2010?

Otherwise, the first thought that comes to mind is something exploring the potential of Mercury's powers. One reason for this is that Mercury's default character arc always seems to center on her inability to accept herself for what her mutation has done to her body, so I'd like to see something positive that could help Cess heal her psyche and fully accept who she now is (maybe she'd learn how to completely shapeshift to her original appearance but decide she now likes her silver form and keeps that as her default). Plus, it would also give her an upgraded utility where she could be used more frequently in books if she does things besides turn into a puddle and make her arms into blades.

[Mercury]

I absolutely love what has been shared so far. You all are making me look at characters I never gave much thought to in a different light.

[Lady Midnight]

I would explore the aspects of Pyro that are either being ignored or forgotten:

According to the Handbook, he was a journalist before becoming a writer of romance novels.

He was said to be proficient in various styles of hand-to-hand combat, but he has lost every Arena fight he's been in.

[Kingdom X]

I'll start with Storm:

1. I think her current status quo is rife with potential. I think we could see an entire series of her finding her place on Planet Arrakko as an outsider, which could showcase the nuances in that society and how Ororo strives as a leader outside of the traditional X-Men structure. The Arraki could give her a true supporting cast and rogues gallery of her own.

2. If Storm were to return to earth, I'd like to see her have a home base in Harlem where she could connect to her father's community and other Marvel heroes in the area. Her global adventures would revolve around her magical background from her mother's side. These adventures would take her to Africa and we could see her balance her mutant identity, African identity, and African-American identity.

3. Some combination of both where she gets to fly among the stars and connect to her roots. Outside of plot developments I'd just like writers to realize that Storm is a multifaceted character again. Yes, she's powerful and iconic but she also has insecurities and trials and tribulations that she has to go through.

[Gripstir]

Gambit

-Bring his importance back up to the same level as Rogue. Make them feel like a power couple.
-Make his thieving feel more suspenseful. I feel like he gets captured a lot but never feel like he’s going to die so I just wait to see how he will escape
-revamp the thieves guild. Make it more dynamic and interesting and more of a threat to the overall Xuniverse
-explore his friendship with Pete Wisdom. They have interacted a few times but there’s something about them together that I really like even though there hasn’t been a ton of them together

[Su_Whisterfield]

Kurt (duh!)

The first thing I would do is ret-con the abominable Azazel mess and make Irene and Raven his parents as god (Chris) intended.
Second, I would have him state, clearly and concisely, in words the everyone could understand, that he was not and has never been an ordained Catholic priest. It was mind control and deception. It never happened. Then I’d never mention his religion ever again. It was a side note for the first 20+ years of his existence, writers have proved again and again that they can’t use it without making him sound like a born-again nutjob or a hypocrite. Enough. It’s a private matter between him and god, stop waving it about in public.

I would make Kurt the champion and the voice for mutants who can’t pass for normal. The ones who look different, who have difficult or inconvenient or painful mutations. Useless mutations, dangerous mutations.
He’s is a position of incredible privilege, mostly just through luck (and 45 years of comics history) and I want him to use that to speak truth unto power.

I don’t think he’s the amorphous and vague ‘soul of the X-Men’ he is their most visible reason for existing. Hated and feared for just existing.
It’s always why he’s been important to me, for 40+ years, someone who doesn’t look acceptable to society yet still has confidence and kindness, who doesn’t wallow in self pity and doesn’t allow themselves to be constrained by others expectations.

And I want him to go for a beer with Logan again, I miss their friendship so much.

[Grimsmack]

Kurt (duh!)

The first thing I would do is ret-con the abominable Azazel mess and make Irene and Raven his parents as god (Chris) intended.
Second, I would have him state, clearly and concisely, in words the everyone could understand, that he was not and has never been an ordained Catholic priest. It was mind control and deception. It never happened. Then I’d never mention his religion ever again. It was a side note for the first 20+ years of his existence, writers have proved again and again that they can’t use it without making him sound like a born-again nutjob or a hypocrite. Enough. It’s a private matter between him and god, stop waving it about in public.

I would make Kurt the champion and the voice for mutants who can’t pass for normal. The ones who look different, who have difficult or inconvenient or painful mutations. Useless mutations, dangerous mutations.
He’s is a position of incredible privilege, mostly just through luck (and 45 years of comics history) and I want him to use that to speak truth unto power.

I don’t think he’s the amorphous and vague ‘soul of the X-Men’ he is their most visible reason for existing. Hated and feared for just existing.
It’s always why he’s been important to me, for 40+ years, someone who doesn’t look acceptable to society yet still has confidence and kindness, who doesn’t wallow in self pity and doesn’t allow themselves to be constrained by others expectations.

And I want him to go for a beer with Logan again, I miss their friendship so much.

I also choose Nightcrawler. I would simply have him join the Avengers or the Fantastic Four and see what those creative teams do with him for a couple of years.

It would be great to see his interactions with Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, etc. and it would introduce an incredible amount of character development for Kurt. I think most writers would be intrigued with depicting his powers in combat and start there, and then going forward, they would explore his engaging personality.

I've always wondered: is he on some sort of reserved list that prevents him from being used on a non X-team?

Since the turn of the millennium, he's been overtly religious and X-team writers can't seem to deviate from that. Does anyone really enjoy a bible beater?

[Su_Whisterfield]

I also choose Nightcrawler. I would simply have him join the Avengers or the Fantastic Four and see what those creative teams do with him for a couple of years.

It would be great to see his interactions with Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, etc. and it would introduce an incredible amount of character development for Kurt. I think most writers would be intrigued with depicting his powers in combat and start there, and then going forward, they would explore his engaging personality.

I've always wondered: is he on some sort of reserved list that prevents him from being used on a non X-team?

Since the turn of the millennium, he's been overtly religious and X-team writers can't seem to deviate from that. Does anyone really enjoy a bible beater?

I’d buy that!
And the religious bollocks is a real albatross for him (I have night that the reason Si Spurrier thinks he’s ordained is by editorial decree, because that is how he’s going to be introduced into the MCU, shudders) I never want to see hide nor hair of it ever again.