Create Your Own Mutant

[Chris0013]

I would make Riri Williams neighbor/friend Xavier King a mutant with psychokinetic abilities like Vector of the UFoes.

[Rift]

I have a couple OC mutants.

Name: Rift (Raymond Cruz)
Powers: Portal creation
Nationality: American (Mother is from Ireland)
Bio: A freelancer who uses his powers to spy on people, or act as a super-fast Uber. Because his powers let him leave awkward situations as he pleases, he constantly walks out on people the second things get too difficult for him.

Name: Marvelous (Hunter Jackson)
Powers: Can use pieces of his soul to create sentient constructs, like animals, weapons or clothing. His power has also died his hair red.
Nationality: Canadian (Mother is from Costa Perdita, father is from Madripoor)
Bio: His father runs a mutant trafficking ring, breeding mutants to create a generation of powerful, loyal weapons. Marvelous is one of his victims and has devoted his life to bringing down the organization. Paranoid conspiracy theorist. Years of living under his thumb make him quick to rationalize and excuse any abuse he suffers, making it easy for people to take advantage of him.

(Still kind of working on him. I'm thinking of making his skin a little darker to make it clearer that he's half-SEAsian.)

Name: Playmaker (Jack Lastman)
Powers: Can absorb objects into his body and store them, or apply their material to his body ala Absorbing Man.
Nationality: American
Bio: A former amateur hero, now he acts as a henchman for [insert villainous group here.] He's extremely condescending and manipulating, he loves to mock people when they fall for his tricks.

Name: Sword King of Aqiria (Zaidi Fassoud) (No picture yet)
Powers: Is mute, has black sclera and reddish, tattoo-Krakoan letters on his body, despite his mutation manifesting long before Krakoa was developed. He can resurrect anyone who has died within three days.
Nationality: Aqiri
Bio: His resurrections lead people to developing a cult around him, which lead to people leading crusades and campaigns in his name. His people have taken over a small corner of the country and made him their leader. The Sword King himself doesn't care about leadership, but chooses to take on the the god-like, ethereal role they have placed on him, in order to keep them happy.

[Chris0013]

Name: Marvelous (Hunter Jackson)
Powers: Can use pieces of his soul to create sentient constructs, like animals, weapons or clothing. His power has also died his hair red.
Nationality: Canadian (Mother is from Costa Perdita, father is from Madripoor)
Bio: His father runs a mutant trafficking ring, breeding mutants to create a generation of powerful, loyal weapons. Marvelous is one of his victims and has devoted his life to bringing down the organization. Paranoid conspiracy theorist. Years of living under his thumb make him quick to rationalize and excuse any abuse he suffers, making it easy for people to take advantage of him.

(Still kind of working on him. I'm thinking of making his skin a little darker to make it clearer that he's half-SEAsian.)

Serious question...what happens to his soul if the constructs he creates are destroyed?

[Rift]

Serious question...what happens to his soul if the constructs he creates are destroyed?

They go back in his body, so there's no harm in destroying them. The real problem is if they last too long - then they develop their own souls and he loses control over them.

[marhawkman]

back in the 90s when I was a teen I came up with a lot of mutant ideas. A lot of them were pretty simplistic ideas though. Also it was 20 years ago and I don't remember all of the names and backstories.

One was a very powerful telekinetic, the main limit to her powers though was that she had little in the way of superhuman senses. She could feel the molecular structure of matter she was using her powers on, but that was it. Odd physical trait: neon orange hair that glows when she uses her powers.

Next: green skinned woman with green hair and vampire like fangs, powers? Super human strength, and also the ability to absorb sunlight and fire it off as energy beams later. Since it's actual stored sunlight it's like showing dawn to vampires. Extra quirk: since her power is fueled by absorbing sunlight, natural light can't dazzle or blind her. She just absorbs it.

the Bio-transmutator, her power is re-writing DNA. She's used her powers on herself so often she has enormous powers but... her powers are unstable due to her changing them so much. It's relatively easy for her to create stable changes in others because it's.. someone else. She also changes her appearance on a whim so often no one really knows what she looks like.

Adding to this....

"Officer Starr" a police officer whose family name seemingly influenced the form her powers took when they manifested. Her power is making solid light objects, and those first appeared as star shapes. Eventually she figured out how to control the power well enough to make other shapes though.
Odd quirk: star shapes that look like tan lines on the backs of her hands. These appeared when she first used her powers and never faded.

Metalix: a young woman whose powers manifested when she got hit by a car. She went splat... but not in the normal way. She found that she'd shifted to a liquid metal form, and quickly learned to shift back to Human form. Her metal form is malleable into a wide array of shapes and impressively strong as well as flexible. She is nearly impossible to injure with ordinary physical force since she can just re-form if injured.
Secondary mutation: can turn ice near her into super-cold liquid water. If she wills it to stop, the water will insta-freeze in it's current shape. This sometimes happens as a reflex or unconsciously.
Odd quirks: her mutation turned her irises metallic.
Note: the original inspiration was NOT the T-1000 but characters in Capri-Sun commercials that have no actual power beyond turning liquid and moving around that way.

then there was one who was a lady who was a powerful telepath who couldn't walk.... but in her case instead of being lame... she's a mermaid, and thus has a fish-tail instead of legs.

[Sutekh]

Thanks! I'm always a sucker for butterfly imagery for some reason, and I think black women and girls in comics rarely get opportunities to be depicted with soft imagery or associations as well as or instead of aggressive physicality, so I wanted to come up with something for her that let her be a bad-ass but didn't have to just manifest with that kind of energy.

Back in the 80s, when Psylocke started manifesting those purple butterflies, and Jean had already manifested her fiery bird effect, I thought it would be neat if other telepaths had signature animals or motifs. One could manifest snakes. An Atlantean telepath might manifest eels or a psychic image of a kraken overlaying themself, with their psychic attacks or links being visible (to them, anyway) as tentacles. A spider themed one might be super-creepy, with the appearance of spider-images crouching on the heads of those they are linked to (or controlling!), connected by strands of 'webbing' to a larger spider-image crowning their own noggin.

All sorts of possibilities, and they don't have to all be animals. Emma's 'power image' could be a flawless diamond around herself, and her mental attacks appear as razor-edged thrown jewels (but just be your bog-standard telepathic attack, no more actual gemstones than Psylocke manifests actual butterflies or Jean throws flaming chicken at people!).

And I definitely like the idea you're talking about as well and think it has room to be distinct (particularly like both being able to 'dial up AND dial down' the magnification of stuff, as well as being able to amp even anything that kinda just comes in his sphere of influence, or like the second something even like light interacts with his body, it falls under his power's purview to affect and amplify it too). But like, lol I think we and comics tend to be too hard on powersets the second they even TRY to be distinct or unique, because I mean, if there's room in comics for a dozen high profile characters whose powers are essentially just shapeshifting or telekinesis or super-speed or flight, then surely there's room for a few instances of niche powersets that somewhat overlap with each other while still being far more unique than the average energy-blasting mutation.

Yeah, more creative and 'out there' powers would be neat. Super-strength, energy zaps, teleportation, telepathy, flight, etc. tend to get overused, IMO. I'd like more funky stuff like weather control or astral projection or size-changers, as well as some really odd stuff like the Magnification/Probability Butterfly ideas! Since Storm, for instance, has claimed the Omega crown for weather control, any additional weather controlling mutants can be less focused on RAWR power feats and more on clever use of meteorological / barometric / etc. effects.

Another odd one I'd considered was someone able to displace their visual image, making them hard to hit, but also, eerily, able to 'fake' all sorts of powers. They appear to be able to walk through walls, by displacing their image through a solid barrier in front of them. They appear to be able to become invisible, if they've projected their visual image straight down into the ground! They appear to be able to stand on thin air and walk across nothing at all, again, projecting their image straight up. But imagine if it's not just their image. Imagine if their sensory focus can be shifted as well, allowing them to see or hear stuff going on on the other side of a wall or door. Imagine if their physical mass, *but not their image,* could be shifted, so that you go to punch them, but there's nothing there but a visual 'hologram,' while their mass has appeared behind you and is now punching you in the back! (They'd appear telekinetic, able to move stuff from several feet away, just by miming the action of grabbing at it. Meanwhile, someone like Daredevil, able to 'see' mass, but not visually, would not even know they were displaced, since he'd see them wherever their mass was, and appear to be punching at thin air, but mysteriously hitting them anyway!) The 'average' displacement would be about three feet, which wouldn't be much of a big deal, but with effort, they can extend it up to thirty feet, and spy on stuff 30' away (by displacing their senses), manipulate stuff 30' away (by displacing their mass), or just appear 30' away (by displacing their image).

I vaguely recall the MLF jobber Wildside or Blindside or whatever (the one that looked like a clown) having a similar power, and thought it could be neat either as an OC, or a 'power up' for that dude to make him a little more interesting / versatile.

[BobbysWorld]

Back in the 80s, when Psylocke started manifesting those purple butterflies, and Jean had already manifested her fiery bird effect, I thought it would be neat if other telepaths had signature animals or motifs. One could manifest snakes. An Atlantean telepath might manifest eels or a psychic image of a kraken overlaying themself, with their psychic attacks or links being visible (to them, anyway) as tentacles. A spider themed one might be super-creepy, with the appearance of spider-images crouching on the heads of those they are linked to (or controlling!), connected by strands of 'webbing' to a larger spider-image crowning their own noggin.

All sorts of possibilities, and they don't have to all be animals. Emma's 'power image' could be a flawless diamond around herself, and her mental attacks appear as razor-edged thrown jewels (but just be your bog-standard telepathic attack, no more actual gemstones than Psylocke manifests actual butterflies or Jean throws flaming chicken at people!).



Yeah, more creative and 'out there' powers would be neat. Super-strength, energy zaps, teleportation, telepathy, flight, etc. tend to get overused, IMO. I'd like more funky stuff like weather control or astral projection or size-changers, as well as some really odd stuff like the Magnification/Probability Butterfly ideas! Since Storm, for instance, has claimed the Omega crown for weather control, any additional weather controlling mutants can be less focused on RAWR power feats and more on clever use of meteorological / barometric / etc. effects.

Another odd one I'd considered was someone able to displace their visual image, making them hard to hit, but also, eerily, able to 'fake' all sorts of powers. They appear to be able to walk through walls, by displacing their image through a solid barrier in front of them. They appear to be able to become invisible, if they've projected their visual image straight down into the ground! They appear to be able to stand on thin air and walk across nothing at all, again, projecting their image straight up. But imagine if it's not just their image. Imagine if their sensory focus can be shifted as well, allowing them to see or hear stuff going on on the other side of a wall or door. Imagine if their physical mass, *but not their image,* could be shifted, so that you go to punch them, but there's nothing there but a visual 'hologram,' while their mass has appeared behind you and is now punching you in the back! (They'd appear telekinetic, able to move stuff from several feet away, just by miming the action of grabbing at it. Meanwhile, someone like Daredevil, able to 'see' mass, but not visually, would not even know they were displaced, since he'd see them wherever their mass was, and appear to be punching at thin air, but mysteriously hitting them anyway!) The 'average' displacement would be about three feet, which wouldn't be much of a big deal, but with effort, they can extend it up to thirty feet, and spy on stuff 30' away (by displacing their senses), manipulate stuff 30' away (by displacing their mass), or just appear 30' away (by displacing their image).

I vaguely recall the MLF jobber Wildside or Blindside or whatever (the one that looked like a clown) having a similar power, and thought it could be neat either as an OC, or a 'power up' for that dude to make him a little more interesting / versatile.

Ugh, it would literally be SO easy to turn telepathy from one of the more generic powersets of the Marvel Universe into a showcase of writer/artist creativity and character individuality, just by the mechanism you're describing of giving each telepath their own personal aesthetic and telepathic gimmick or angle tailored to them, a manifestation of that telepath's unique astral fingerprint and self-expression. With every telepath thus having a unique power signature that keyed into SOMETHING about their personality specific to them, or even just a different kind of psychic weapon particular to their style of psychic attacks. With Betsy having her psi-blade, Quentin his psychic shotgun, the AOA mutant telepath Damask had like psychic talons...hell, even back in that random Kitty Pryde and the X-Men cartoon movie from the 80s, that version of Emma Frost was shown manifesting like psychic spears she hurled as her signature form of psychic attack, and it made that one depiction of her so much more distinct and thus MEMORABLE than 90% of her other appearances. The potential to diversify telepaths and make them so much fertile a playground in terms of creativity has always been RIGHT THERE but most Marvel writers are like nah, better not. afhlskhflakhfla

Ah well. And yeah, that misdirection style power you're describing sounds awesome too. Its amazing how much more unique and resonant a powerset becomes the second you just open up even the possibility of it having more niche, deliberately directed usages that the power-user can control or differentiate between....as without that, its essentially just the vague, generically and often inexplicably utilized deus ex machina style misdirection ability we get with characters like Fantomex....but the second you allow a little specificity to enter the picture, it becomes so much compelling to imagine or engage with on multiple levels.

As far as the clown character, lol, yeah that's Wildside of the MLF and his ability to create like, fields of invisibility or mental distortion that don't have to be linked to him or emanate him but he can cast or project from a distance. Which I honestly always liked as its a bit different, and its actually led to a couple of very unique and memorable fights between him and Dani Moonstar, for example. Y'know, the 90s X-Force-style era in comics has the kinda cringe reputation it does for a reason lol, but it deserves to be acknowledged more that at least writers tended to TRY to be a little more creative and distinct with their character creations and powers in various ways. Its just.....a lot of the time they MISSED and what we ended up with wasn't so much unique, distinct or special, it was a bit past the line into 'trying so damn hard to be unique and special that it just ended up plain weird' territory. And thus we got like...Maggott. LOL, who has his fans and deserves them, but let's face it, that was one weird mutant.

Anyway. Have you ever read the prose anthology series of superhuman novels called the Wildcard Universe, best known for being edited by George R. R. Martin? Its got like thirty volumes spanning a good eighty years timeline wise, with thousands of original characters written by a few dozen different writers including some of sf/f's biggest names....and Chris Claremont actually wrote a few stories for them in a couple of the middle volumes, like the Volumes 8-12 arena I believe. So just saying, a lot of the approach to superhumans and superpowers throughout that series draws on and prioritizes similar elements and aesthetics to those characterizing Claremont's creations in X-books....like there's a similar feel in the kinds of powers and creative hallmarks present throughout the Wildcard universe, to like, the trademark characteristics of Claremont's 'style' of mutant characters and powers. If you've never checked them out, they're worth a try for the sheer scope of unique and well-developed superpowered characters in that series, with tons of powers I've never seen anything similar to elsewhere, and a strong focus on making the powers connect organically to their wielders' personalities and distinctive character traits.

[Alan2099]

I've always liked the idea of a real muscular looking tough guy that's actually a telekinetic, but he tells people he's super strong because he thinks mental powers aren't macho enough.

[marhawkman]

I've always liked the idea of a real muscular looking tough guy that's actually a telekinetic, but he tells people he's super strong because he thinks mental powers aren't macho enough.

Funnily enough, that's canonically true of at least one character in Malibu comics (Prime) and Random in Marvel comics. The faces most people see when meeting them aren't what they really look like. It's transformed state they took on to look tougher.

That said, Malibu is a bit done, and modern writers seem to have forgotten that about Random. but it's a neat idea.

[Lox]

Name: S n a f u

Bio: A total schmuck kid from suburbia nowheresville. Truly has nothing going on - not a bad kid, just beyond uninteresting. Uses powers to try and find nominal outcomes for rough situations. Encounters the X-Men when time-displaced members start feeling wildly uncomfortable chronal shifts. Overall the kid is nice, perhaps a bit of ADD, and uses their powers to redo situations that they dislike, resulting in a LOT of do-overs to seem cool in front of the X-Men which again, time-displaced characters dislike immensely. People catch on that around Snafu, the best possible outcome for them is likely not the first attempt, resulting in many Krakoans feeling weirdly personally violated. Certainly one of those characters that has a friend or two that trusts them completely with everyone else polite but on edge around them.

Powers: Rewinds time up to three minutes at a time. No one remembers the rewind. Does not create branching timelines or anything - those moments in time are transmuted into pure cosmic energy and are sent out into the void blah blah blah. The explanation doesn't matter. Initially recruited for battle planning / interrogation for X-Force or Mauraders, once Snafu makes a personal call outside the jurisdiction of Xavier or whoever the head is, they decide to remove them from any important role in the team for safety reasons.

This was just off the dome. If someone wildly similar already exists, I am sorry to repeat ideas.

[Sutekh]

Ugh, it would literally be SO easy to turn telepathy from one of the more generic powersets of the Marvel Universe into a showcase of writer/artist creativity and character individuality, just by the mechanism you're describing of giving each telepath their own personal aesthetic and telepathic gimmick or angle tailored to them,

Agreed, in this case by the simple expediment of letting the *artist* play with the visuals, and not leaving the heavy lifting of telepathy use to the writer.

Ah well. And yeah, that misdirection style power you're describing sounds awesome too. Its amazing how much more unique and resonant a powerset becomes the second you just open up even the possibility of it having more niche, deliberately directed usages that the power-user can control or differentiate between....as without that, its essentially just the vague, generically and often inexplicably utilized deus ex machina style misdirection ability we get with characters like Fantomex....but the second you allow a little specificity to enter the picture, it becomes so much compelling to imagine or engage with on multiple levels.

Yeah, powers with limits and definitions are more fun to write around, because you can really challenge the hero, instead of just throw up some new feat where they just do whatever because their magic/mutant power is literally 'do whatever.' As for Fantomex, I literally don't know what his power is. Same with Dr. Nemesis. 'Self-evolved intellect?' Whatever. Reminds me of the Authority, some of whose 'powers' seemed to be marketing buzz-words and pithy catch-phrases.

As far as the clown character, lol, yeah that's Wildside of the MLF and his ability to create like, fields of invisibility or mental distortion that don't have to be linked to him or emanate him but he can cast or project from a distance. Which I honestly always liked as its a bit different, and its actually led to a couple of very unique and memorable fights between him and Dani Moonstar, for example. Y'know, the 90s X-Force-style era in comics has the kinda cringe reputation it does for a reason lol, but it deserves to be acknowledged more that at least writers tended to TRY to be a little more creative and distinct with their character creations and powers in various ways.

Yeah, Dragoness and Tempo and even Thumbelina have pretty rare or unique concepts, back in the day (not a lot of shrinking mutants, for instance, and, back then, Tempo was quite original, only to be joined by a half-dozen other time-manipulating chicklets with Tempus, Kiden Nixon, Lacuna, Sway, Switchback, etc., etc.).

But also, yeah, then there's completely unoriginal concepts like Forearm (didn't they already have one of these as a Savage Land Mutate?) or Sumo (ooh, a Japanese Blob) or Kamikaze (Cannonball 3.0, assuming that Jetstream is Cannonball 2.0...).

Anyway. Have you ever read the prose anthology series of superhuman novels called the Wildcard Universe, best known for being edited by George R. R. Martin?

I have indeed. I'm a big fan of superhero stuff in general, and at least one of the authors frequently in the anthology (Walter Jon Williams) in particular. I kinda like how one of my favorite ideas from the series, a bit character named Kid Dinosaur, has kind of appeared in Marvel, as Reptil, a teen who can, ta-da, turn into dinosaurs! (Which totally would have been my favorite power ever, when I was eight, and more into dinosaurs than super-heroes.)

[Shambles]

Name: Walter

Bio: Walter is the kind of guy most people overlook. Not particularly intelligent brave or exciting. Walter likes fixing radios and is very fond of puns. Met Mary in high school and for some reason she took a liking to him; it was a pity really.
Walters home town was destroyed in a tragic incident the true nature of which is heavily classified by SHIELD.
Walter is kept in secure isolation in a SHIELD blacksight and now only interacts with his robotic prison guards. Strict orders are in place that Walter is NEVER to be released.

Powers: cursed with a supernaturally contagious personality. All those who interact with Walter begin to mimic his speech patterns, mannerisms, physicality and eventually his very thoughts. The victims own personality and identity is overwritten entirely.
It is not certain that the imprisoned Walter is the original or one of his victims.

[marhawkman]

Yeah, Dragoness and Tempo and even Thumbelina have pretty rare or unique concepts, back in the day (not a lot of shrinking mutants, for instance, and, back then, Tempo was quite original, only to be joined by a half-dozen other time-manipulating chicklets with Tempus, Kiden Nixon, Lacuna, Sway, Switchback, etc., etc.).

But also, yeah, then there's completely unoriginal concepts like Forearm (didn't they already have one of these as a Savage Land Mutate?) or Sumo (ooh, a Japanese Blob) or Kamikaze (Cannonball 3.0, assuming that Jetstream is Cannonball 2.0...).

I'm not THAT bothered by the "unoriginal" thing. the real question is if the character is boring or badly written.

Also... the various time manipulating characters have slightly different powers. sooo... hmm....

[Rift]

Name: Walter

Bio: Walter is the kind of guy most people overlook. Not particularly intelligent brave or exciting. Walter likes fixing radios and is very fond of puns. Met Mary in high school and for some reason she took a liking to him; it was a pity really.
Walters home town was destroyed in a tragic incident the true nature of which is heavily classified by SHIELD.
Walter is kept in secure isolation in a SHIELD blacksight and now only interacts with his robotic prison guards. Strict orders are in place that Walter is NEVER to be released.

Powers: cursed with a supernaturally contagious personality. All those who interact with Walter begin to mimic his speech patterns, mannerisms, physicality and eventually his very thoughts. The victims own personality and identity is overwritten entirely.
It is not certain that the imprisoned Walter is the original or one of his victims.

Damn, that's a really scary, but fun power. I love this story.

[Sutekh]

Name: Walter

Bio: Walter is the kind of guy most people overlook. Not particularly intelligent brave or exciting. Walter likes fixing radios and is very fond of puns. Met Mary in high school and for some reason she took a liking to him; it was a pity really.
Walters home town was destroyed in a tragic incident the true nature of which is heavily classified by SHIELD.
Walter is kept in secure isolation in a SHIELD blacksight and now only interacts with his robotic prison guards. Strict orders are in place that Walter is NEVER to be released.

Powers: cursed with a supernaturally contagious personality. All those who interact with Walter begin to mimic his speech patterns, mannerisms, physicality and eventually his very thoughts. The victims own personality and identity is overwritten entirely.
It is not certain that the imprisoned Walter is the original or one of his victims.

Ooh, he's like a reverse Rogue. Instead of absorbing your personality, he infects you with his! I like!

(I had a whole reverse X-Men, for a superhero RPG, back in the day. Reverse Rogue indeed worked like this, dashing around in combat and touching people to overwrite their personality with her own, for a time. Reverse Cyclops had a vortex in his mouth, and wore a special face-mask to keep it covered, because when he opened his mouth everything in front of him got pulled in and destroyed. Despite different powers, the characters personalities were similar, and Reverse Wolverine quipped during the fight, after Reverse Cyclops/Charybdis first showed off his power, "Yeah, that's our fearless leader, the guy with the mutant power to suck really hard...")