Characters Who Missed Out

[Agent Grayson]

Certain characters missed being part of events, status quos, teams, etc. because they were dead or otherwise written out at the time. The obvious example is Jean, who wasn't around for storylines like Decimation or Utopia. Which characters do you wish had been part of an era that they weren't and how do you think they would have changed things?

For one, I would have loved to have seen a non-de-aged Magik as part of the original X-Force when the New Mutants broke away from the mansion with Cable. She would have added an edge to the team and I can imagine her butting up against Cable's militaristic leadership.

[Jackraow21]

Man... that would've been fun. Very cool idea. Now I want to see that as a What If... Magik Was on the Original X-Force?

[JB]

Good question. The biggest one for me was Claremont killing off Betsy early in X-Treme. I was sad she wasn't around and then learning his plan to bring her back later in the run in her original body wasn't approved was a real bummer. I'll always wonder what could have been.

[Jackraow21]

Okay, I'll bite... but think I'm going to give mine a twist here. I hated the way the OG Cable missed out on most of the Krakoan era in favor of his younger counterpart, but a lot of folks loved the Kid Cable dynamic with his parents, Scott and Jean, and his sister, Rachel, and the fact that they were one big Summers family living on the moon (with Uncle Logan) for awhile there. Even Grandpa came to visit and everything.

Sooo... I'll say that the character who missed out in this era might've actually been Stryfe. Let me explain... in a time where villains are all being given a second chance, and you have this Kid Cable storyline that Duggan wants to do... why not give Cable fans the best of both worlds? I'm talking about a Stryfe mini series which reimagines the villain as Krakoa's secret weapon... a one-man back up for X-Force, the mutant CIA... the guy you send in when things have gone completely FUBAR because he's basically Cable without restraint... but he's working on that.

Could've been fun if done right, at least IMO. Lose the spiked armor. Give him a more streamlined look. Maybe nerf his powers a tad, because when they bring him back via the Resurrection Protocols -- something Kid Cable and Rachel decide to do because they're being haunted by Stryfe's ghost or something -- they recognize that him having access to his unfettered powers is actually the cause of his madness, not to mention the fact that it's slowly killing him physically at a cellular level too. Destabilizing him. So he comes back both nerfed, and with much of his childhood trauma from being raised by Apocalypse wiped from his memories, to give this clone of the original Nathan Summers a second chance at life on Krakoa.

Maybe a fun way to keep both Kid Cable and also give OG Cable fans a clone of their boy to root for at the same time... while also kind of rectifying (in a roundabout sort of way) the old retcon that actually reversed things, making Cable the original and Stryfe the clone (initially it was going to be the other way around, but the powers that be at Marvel thought that making the original a clone would ruin him). In this sense, Stryfe would still be a clone, but trying to find his way in the world as a good guy... or at least an anti-hero.

I can see scenes where ORCHIS is trying to keep tabs on everything and someone says...

... "Wait... I thought this was Nathan Summers. Who is this guy?" ...

... "He's a clone of the original Nathan Summers. Goes by Stryfe, and is a mutant terrorist. Led a cell called the Mutant Liberation Front for a time."

... And, in this sense, with him being a powerful mutant soldier who was once a wanted terrorist, he's very much back to basics "early Cable" in tone. And then go from there, writing a whole new chapter for the character.

Weird, I know. But might've been fun. *shrugs*

Just a random thought I had the other day...

[GoingGreen]

Polaris, Havok, and Rachel Grey stuck in space during Messiah Complex-War-Second Coming, Necrosha, Age of X, etc. Really important eras to miss, because the x-line was still riding the FoX-Men films attention wave during this period.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Man... that would've been fun. Very cool idea. Now I want to see that as a What If... Magik Was on the Original X-Force?

It wasn't technically X-Force, but it looks like Illyana was slated to rejoin a revamped New Mutants (along with... Magma? Skids?) as per this promo image by Rob Liefeld that didn't quite materialize as such:

[Jackraow21]

Maaan... Liefeld's art was weird. But somehow I liked it once. Never saw him on the level of Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo or Jim Lee; but I liked it. I probably put Whilce Portacio in the same boat as Liefeld.

[GoingGreen]

Maaan... Liefeld's art was weird. But somehow I liked it once. Never saw him on the level of Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo or Jim Lee; but I liked it. I probably put Whilce Portacio in the same boat as Liefeld.

I did some research into why he was so highly regarded in his hay-day, and what I've learned is that he really changed the game when it came to panel arrangements. For such a static medium, he made it extremely dynamic in ways that other artists just hadn't explored yet. He didn't just understand the essence of the 90s Action craze, he led it in the comic industry. He also had no formal education, he was just this artist with an angle who made something of it. During this time, he also made some really smart (if cut throat) business decisions.

I don't like him or his messaging to the gay community. I don't like his art style. But I really respect what he did for the industry and in paving the way for explorative artists in the future. I really don't think we'd get to enjoy artists like Skottie Young in the same way if not for Liefeld, because the opportunity just wouldn't have existed.

[sunofdarkchild]

As much flak as I give Louise Simonson, it was never her intention that Magik should be absent and dead. It might be neat to see a kind of 'New Mutants Forever' where Simonson wasn't replaced by Liefeld and her plans were explored, such as revealing that the real Illyana just stayed in Limbo to clean it up rather than deaging or erasing herself at the end of Inferno. If Bob Harris had been more open-minded about magical characters existing in the X-Men line she probably would have been a regular fixture in 90s stories instead of them abandoning both Claremont's and Simonson's plans and rushing to kill her off as soon as possible.

[Grunty]

Can we count the majority of characters who got depowered and not being lucky in getting a position as "the depowered" on a team like Rictor in X-factor or Prodigy in New X-men?

[Uncanny X-Man]

Not 100% comics related but I think Ms. Katherine Pryde missed out on being the POV young mutant in X-Men: TAS (and possibly the first X-Men movie) due to her being part of Excalibur at the time and not Jim Lee's X-Men.

[davetvs]

Storm wasn't written out but I wish she was in Morrison's run instead of X-Treme.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Maaan... Liefeld's art was weird. But somehow I liked it once. Never saw him on the level of Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo or Jim Lee; but I liked it. I probably put Whilce Portacio in the same boat as Liefeld.

I also enjoyed his art at the time but always felt like Liefeld peaked circa those very first X-Force issues... the latter part of his run and Youngblood always looked vastly inferior to his New Mutants/early X-Force artwork.

And I never really loved Whilce Portacio's art personally but I think his X-Factor, Uncanny X-Men and Wetworks artwork was top-notch. His page composition was what a lot of Image artists aspired to but never quite achieved. Again, he was never one of my favourites the way Lee and Silvestri were, but I always felt he was leaps and bounds above Liefeld.

[Dante Milton]

It would have been interesting to see how Colossus would have been used in Morrison’s run like they originally wanted.

It was weird how little Rachel was used during AvX considering how much it involved the Phoenix.

I don’t particularly like Rosenberg’s Uncanny run but there were several characters unaccounted for during what should have been an all hands on deck situation.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I think Moonstar's missed out on way too much as a member of the X-Men.

When the team was first introduced, Dani was the only one who made it across the Danger Room. She was clearly meant to be the Cyclops of the team.

Yet she keeps getting sidelined. Barely a part of X-Force, kicked out of that revamp (though that was a good thing), only brought back full time as a teacher Emma always walked over and then depowered.