Most disruptive x-characterization twists

[crimsontt]

There are really abrupt changes in characterizations in the x-lore. A few x-treme makeovers, sometimes for the good sometimes for characters assassination.

Which has been the boldest move in that way?

Betsy going from British rose to ninja assassin.
Moira going from a supportive human resource to a pragmatic mutant antiheroine.
Maddie becoming Goblin Queen
Jubilee becoming a vampire
Xavier becoming a manipulative motherfucker after the mid 2000s
Beast going from the heart and brains of the team to the reckless maniac in the last decade

[LordUltimus]

Jubilee becoming a vampire wasn't really a characterization twist, it was a powers twist.

Also, I think we can upgrade Moira to "genocidal villain" now.

[Captain Nash]

I would not say Beast's decline was abrupt. I think it was a very slow tumble downhill. From the 90's to now though (since he was fairly the same after going grey/blue to the 90s) it's a huge shift in personality. But not abrupt. in much the same way I'd say 80's Emma frost to today's Emma Frost is also a huge transformation, but not abrupt.

I'm going to go with Betsy's early 90's transformation. Because the nature of the change couldn't really have a build up, it was abrupt. One could argue that changing the outside doesn't necessarily change the inside, but I have to disagree. But read like a different person, I mean a different voice.

Runner up for Magneto around the early 80's. Before that, he was prominent but not very nuanced. That changed around issue 150, they started giving him more character and back story and taking the reader into his head a bit.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

They really are trying to out-goofy Xorn with this Moira story lol

[gonnagiveittoya]

Yeah Moira is categorically the biggest and most impactful swerve. Arguably character obliterating

[Romy134]

I would love for Gambit to get a character shake up. Maybe there's is something to come in Knights of X.

Also I liked the Vampire thing Jubes got.

[Milici]

Honorable mention to Nature Girl.

[Arachne]

Turning Sunspot into Reignfire was pretty bold. Of course, it got retconed later.

[Alan2099]

I think Moira's deal takes the cake.

Of course there's few others that I think are worth mentioning.

Angel becoming Archangel.
Wolverine going feral and losing his nose.
Magneto being (then not being) Joseph and then Xorn

[superjosh]

A few that I found kind of problematic:

- Whatever the hell they did to Bishop at the end of Messiah Complex
- Trying to make Kitty a leader (X-Men Gold specifically) when she's way more suited as a tactical asset
- Any of the stuff Lorna went through with Chuck Austen

[Slicknickshady]

Yeah Moira is categorically the biggest and most impactful swerve. Arguably character obliterating

Yep. This, it’s disgusting.

Honorable mention to Nature Girl.

This as well. Cuts me deeply.

[H-E-D]

Probably got to give it to Bishop’s Messiah Hunter era.

[PopCulturePooka]

Bishops heel turn
Turning Jubilee into a single mom. I feel this is a lot more disruptive than VampiLee, because nowadays its ALL she is. Shogo this, Shogo that. The old Jubilee is gone.

[numberthirty]

Counter X

.........

[sunofdarkchild]

Moira takes the cake for sure. They have basically pulled a Maxwell Lord with her for no reason.

Jean becoming Phoenix. The purpose of being merged with a cosmic force was to up her power levels, but this eventually led to the retcon that she was actually the the most powerful telepath all along and always an omega level mutant when she was originally treated as one of the weaker mutants.

Cyclops after Jean's return. Going from growing up and being a responsible family man to a stunted man-child who couldn't live without shooting lasers at bad guys and abandoning his wife and baby for his ex-girlfriend. There's a very good reason many fans and even Claremont grew to hate him.

Louise Simonson writing Magik after Claremont left the New Mutants is perhaps a more subtle version, but no less impactful or detrimental. All of her character development in her origin story was undone and she was treated as if she had killed Belasco instead of sparing his life. This led to her doing things she never would have done like trying to kill Forge or dropping people in Limbo for the purpose of having them killed. Illyana would never have done those things because she knew better from her time in Limbo. This was as out of character as Batman suddenly killing like the Punisher, and it treated her like her big Return of the Jedi moment never happened. And while Louise Simonson's various other mistakes with the character have been fixed by better writers later on, that mistake has never been fixed. Simonson's Magik and Claremont's Magik might as well be different characters since their origins and morals are so different.