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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 10:12am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I'm interested in the X-Men today. Created as mutants with eXtra power, the original X-Men all had one power, although Iceman could use his in a variety of ways.

Come the ANAD X-Men, and it seemed that most of them had multiple powers. Colossus and Thunderbird were pretty consistent with the originals; Banshee and Sunfire kinda fit in the Iceman mold (one ability but used in a variety of ways.) Storm and Nightcrawler and Wolverine seemed to me to have multiple abilities that weren't really related (as I don't think of "weather control" as a singular ability.)

So part of this topic is to discuss the nature of mutants and the various X-Men.

But the biggest one is - exercise your imagination, and make up a new mutant for the X-Men. Try to stick to the original model for my purposes; one power or ability, even if it can be used in multiple ways.

My mutant would be El Oro, with the power of affecting light. He can affect light in a selected area, from total darkness to blinding brightness. He can see in complete dark. He can make himself or others invisible. He can change the color of things. Someday, with a lot of training, he might be able to create an offensive light beam ram, or a laser.

Do you have a mutant you wanted to see or display to us? What do you have?
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John Byrne
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 10:25am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

At the risk of enraging his fans, Nightcrawler annoyed me from Day One. AN extra power. So he’s funny looking, has eyes that glow, fangs, fur, a prehensile tail, can bond to surfaces, teleports (with fire and brimstone!) AND is invisible in shadow!!!! ARRGH!!!!!

And these days, do NOT even get me started on “secondary mutations”!!

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Michael Penn
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 10:36am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

And then there was Nightcrawler's name!


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Thomas Woods
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 10:37am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

At the risk of enraging his fans, Nightcrawler annoyed
me from Day One. AN extra power. So he’s funny
looking, has eyes that glow, fangs, fur, a prehensile
tail, can bond to surfaces, teleports (with fire and
brimstone!) AND is invisible in shadow!!!! ARRGH!!!!

---

Gambit was the worst in this regard, in my opinion.
When he showed up his power was to charge objects in
his hands and throw them and they explode.

But not only that, he had superhuman reflexes that
would easily match Spider Man, was blocking bullets
coming from auto fire rifles (I instantly thought back
to how big of a deal it was that Daredevil blocked ONE
bullet from a revolver), took out Wolverine in a duel,
took out Gladiator with ease. It was nuts, I hated
him.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 10:42am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Gambit was happily after my time.
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John Popa
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 11:22am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

A friend of mine who's maybe a dozen years younger than me once said he's 'old enough to remember when Gambit was cool.'

I replied 'I'm old enough to remember that Gambit was never cool.'

We had a laugh.
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Philippe Negrin
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 11:32am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

I had an idea a long time ago for a mutant who could action any mechanism at a distance (provided he coould see it). Not much of a power but could be useful in a team book. I think I had a name too but can't remember now. Catalyst ?
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John Byrne
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Gambit was a forerunner of that breed of characters whose names tell us NOTHING about them. Not even handy for picking them out of a group. I think Shatterstar may have been the nadir of this “thinking” but I could have missed one or two.
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I think Storm's power set works quite nicely. It is summed up very easily ("controls weather") and the codename ties in well and the whole makes sense. Nightcrawler is a bit of a catchbag though. Walks up walls. And teleports. And disappears in darkness. And can fence with his tail.

Wolverine isn't much better. Great sense of smell. Great sense of hearing. Keen eyesight. Healing power. The adamantium stuff is a clever add-on, making use of his healing power to make him the only person who could have survived the process/surgery, but then you have the stupid retcon that he also has natural claws. He is also strong, fast, agile, has superhuman reflexes, and didn't he have some kind of special psyche that was resistant to mind-reading? He's the best at what he does. And that includes a lot of things.

Trying to think of a mutant on the spot seems difficult, cos so much has already been invented. Makes me appreciate the mutants JB came up with for the Hellfire club. Sebastian Shaw and Harry Leland still seem like fresh takes.

Maybe a mutant called Bellows with super-powerful lungs.

 
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Jason Larouse
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 2:40pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Gambit was a forerunner of that breed of characters whose names tell us NOTHING about them. Not even handy for picking them out of a group. I think Shatterstar may have been the nadir of this “thinking” but I could have missed one or two.

***

Cable was pretty bad in this regard too. Although nobody knew what his powers were supposed to be for about his first decade so I'm not shocked they went with a generic name! 
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Richard Stevens
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Was it Wolverine's psyche that resisted telepaths, or was it the adamantium in his skull? I'd have an easier time accepting the latter.
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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 04 February 2019 at 3:18pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Was it Wolverine's psyche that resisted telepaths, or was it the adamantium in his skull? I'd have an easier time accepting the latter.

——-

One aspect is that his mind had become so fragmented by mind wipes and memory implants that it was difficult for telepaths to effectively navigate his mind. The other aspect is that when he is one of his berserker rages, he is operating on an instinctual level that made him difficult to read or control mentally.
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