Top 5: Worst X-Men

The X-Men have gone from five awkward teens and a bald, bookish professor into the preeminent superhero team to beat. Along the way they've accumulated the longest roster of heroes, heroines, aliens, alt-reality characters and former villains into their ranks, and undoubtedly there have been a few lemons in the bunch. Here's five of the worst characters ever to hold the distinction of being an X-Man.
 

5. Mimic

Although his power set might make him a favorite when you were playing your Marvel RPG game back in the day, Mimic failed to light fans' imagination on fire in his appearances. Mimic holds the distinction of being the first new recruit after the original five and also the first non-mutant to become an X-Men. Mimic first crossed the Xavier kids' paths as a villain and made his way onto the team only after one of the most foolhardy cases of blackmail in comics history. He's made some furtive steps at redemption in the pages of Excalibur and Dark X-Men, but face it — he's not X-Men material.
 

4. Sunfire

The Japanese hero Sunfire proved to have a personality too much like the powers that gave him his name, making his  membership in the "All-New All-Different" as short as his temper. He's been positioned as more an occasional ally than a trusted part of the team, and has even fought on the side of evil in both Apocalypse's Horsemen as well as the Marauders.
 

  

3. Forge

Although a classic part of the 80s and 90s Uncanny X-Men, and later as a trusted tech-head for the team, Forge has an uncanny ability to screw up on numerous occasions. People might point to his recent villainous turn in Warren Ellis' Astonishing X-Men run as the big strike against him, but he was also responsible for bringing the Adversary to the X-Men's doorstep on the roof of a Dallas skyscraper and led to the deaths of the entire X-Men team at the time. For more, check out Ben Morse's extended write-up over on the Cool Kids Tale blog for the fallacies of Forge in the X-Men. All in all, it looks like a pony tail, cyborg parts and fringed boots are a deadly combination.
 

  

2. Stacy-X

I'm a big fan of Joe Casey's work, but his run on Uncanny X-Men threw me for a loop… especially with Stacy-X. Discovered by the team at a Bunny-Ranch style house of ill repute called X-Ranch, Stacy-X turned from super-powered prostitute to X-Men but forgot to leave her old career behind. After "No More Mutants" she found a second life as Ripcord in the most recent itteration of New Warriors, but was ultimately killed in an superhero accident.
 

  

1. Mystique

The X-Men are no stranger to villains-turned-heroes, with everyone from Magneto to Emma Frost and Namor among their ranks these days. But it seems Mystique can't leave her dark past behind, but the X-Men keep giving her chances only to find it biting them where it hurts. Mystique's done everything from assassinate mutants in cold blood, to causing Wolverine more than a world of hurt on numerous occasions, and to shooting her adopted daughter Rogue in the head. She's proven herself a bad parent to long-time X-Men Nightcrawler and Rogue, so maybe they should take that little skull on her face as a sign to stay away.

Comments

  1. Maggot gets my vote!

    -J. 

  2. I think you have a different definition of “worst character” than I do 🙂

  3. what about that female doctor character that could only project a 1 inch forcefield around her body?

    and yeah, Stacy X is, as they say, shithouse.

  4. Beak & gross Angel definitely deserve spots on the list.

  5. Mimic & Sunfire are pretty lame on Marvel’s main continuity but kicked ass on the Age of Apocalypse

  6. This list needs more Gambit.

  7. Maggot, Marrow, Beak, Jubilee and Chamber would be my picks

  8. What about the Omega Picnic?

    *wishes there were clips of that Conan on the tubes*

  9. What?  No Cyclops?

    /I kid, I kid…..

  10. @saturnmda  Chamber is the bomb, yo.

  11. So does “Worst X-Men” translate to “lamest mutant” or “poorest HR decisions to allow them onto the team”?
     

  12. @finbarbat  I’m assuming the latter

  13. How is Gambit not on here?

  14. This list was made by a MANIAC!

  15. @gobo  If that’s the case then number one should be filled with every New Mutant who died in ‘service’.  Just think of defending all those Wrongful Death suits!  Maddening and expensive.

  16. Never even heard of Stacy-X, she looks like something from WildC.A.T.S.

  17. if Cypher’s not on this list, this list is invalid.

  18. There were a lot of worse X-Men than this group. I was expecting Fiz, Maggot, Marrow, Beak, and yes, Gambit.

  19. There’s so much good and bad among the X-Men.

    By worst, does the author mean deceitful? or poorly dressed in the case of Stacey-X?

    I would add Skin to the worse–meaing ridiculously conceived–characters of the X-Men family. And Cypher’s not my favorite either. 

  20. @player1  Beak? Beak was one of the best characters of the last ten years!

  21. Kebly – Agreed.

    Cypher needs to be on this list.

    At least Forge was occasionally useful and had a cool ability.

    Cypher quick- we need to translate this- Oh nevermind I’ll just google it.

     

  22. What about the guy now that just talks to machines? Maybe he’s not on the team anymore… I stopped reading a while back while Fraction was writing, but he was part of Beast’s “X-Club.” I may have not read enough to give him a chance, but from what I saw he was just a poor man’s Forge. (And that’s saying something.)

  23. Vote Calvin Rankin

  24. Guys… knock off the Cypher talk… Paul can hear you… (I just don’t want to see any iFanboy members murdered.)

  25. One more vote for Marrow.  Blech.

  26. Marrow had a useful mutant ability.

  27. Maggot is the worst.

  28. I think people are missuderstanding worst x-man for worst mutant stacy-x fits in both catagories and mimic was really badly done as a character in general (though the one in exiles ruled).
    However forge is a great character who brought alot to the x-books he was just really bad at being an x-man cuase he was always screwing up.
    Mystique is an amazing character and a great as a solo AND team villain who always has a solid recognisable character whilst still having range and moral abiguity she was just terrible at being an x-man cause she never had any belief in ‘xaviers dream’ or in saving anyone but herself.

  29. What? No Maggot on this list. Bunk!!!

  30. 5. Beast
    4. Angel
    3. Iceman
    2. Marvel Girl
    1. Cyclops

    The world still hates and fears mutants. Mission failed.

  31. Marrow and Maggot made me ashamed to read the book.  When I saw their sketches in Wizard I knew the team was over.

    @Andrew  Hehe what about Professor X?  Is this his list of worst X-Men?… I blame all the hanging in Greenwich Village and listening to beatnik poetry…

  32. RE: Andrew: Bravo. That, sir, won you a hearty laugh.

    -J. 

  33. When all the good mutant powers are taken, whatt’re you gonna do? Create Marrow and Maggot.

  34. I actually thought Maggot was interesting as far as the background of the character.  Unfortunately, his power had no basis in reality.  I actually really liked Marrow because she had not only a painful mutation, but painful upbringings.  Unfortunately, they made her a sexpot in the New X-men books and ruined the character.  Cecilia Reyes was an interesting effort, but talk about a character that went nowhere.  Does anyone remember Lifeguard or Magma??  I actually liked Indian Thunderbird, but he disappeared as well.  I know people will bitch, but I will always HATE Dazzler.

  35. Oh yeah…..Douglock…Ugggh…Meggan…Uggh…Kylun….Ugghg

  36. Speaking of X-men, has anyone seen this yet

    http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/UncannyXMen/

  37. Mimic was lame in X-Men, but his “alternate universe” version in that Blink team book that Judd Winnick wrote where it was basically X-Men meets Quantum Leap was AWESOME.

    Jubilee is the worst X-Men. She was annoying, her power was useless and she had the worst costume of all time.

    Gambit was awful. Wasn’t he responsible for the Mutant Massacre? 

  38. This seems part worst X-Men as in lame and part untrustworthy or all around bad teammate. Mystique is a great character. But how about all of the current young X-Men if they’re even still doing that book, and while were at it throw all the Avengers Academy lame ass characters in there. I know they’re not X-Men but needed to say that somewhere.

  39. Anole.

  40. No, but thank you for introducing me to the stupidest thing ever put on the internet ever.

  41. LEECH

  42. @VichusSmith  (Hmm, guess that link was spam)

  43. @JohnVFerrigno  The singular form of X-men is X-man. Yeah, Jubilees powers were lame and they should have done something to make them more effective, but she played a good sidekick and was a good character besides.

    So Gambit is a bad X-man because he’s very agile, good at stealth missions, or can make any inanimate object EXPLODE with kinetic energy?

  44. @VichusSmith  Sorry, I didn’t realize we were being graded on our comic book team grammar 🙁

    I thought Gambit was a bad X-Man because he was responsible for the Mutant Massacre. Or did they Retcon that away? 

  45. @JohnVFerrigno Well he gathered the Marauders for Mr. Sinister, but he didn’t know what they were going to be used for… and he clearly blamed himself, shown by his emotions causing Rogue to abandon him in the Anatartica.. but it wasn’t really an intentional evil act as far as I know

  46. Gambits sweet but occasionally a bad teammate but hey, he’s Gambit and they knew what he was like when they got involved with him. 

  47. Is Anole a character or is Leech the one I was thinking of? Lizard looking kid? I think Legion sucks too and the stories that revolve around him aside from a few early issues of the current New Mutants run just because it really showcased they’re having to step up as a frontline team and tested the relationships of the team and their strengths as a team in general.

  48. Ok so Legion inadvertently started Age of Apocalypse so there are more good stories with him then I gave credit but he’s still pretty lame as a character.

  49. @LadyHandGrenade  I’m sure that all the dead mutants who got slaughtered for no reason feel better knowing it wasn’t an “intentional” act of evil. Plus, if you are gathering harpoon and Sabretooth for something, you should probably know it’s nothing good. So now Gambit is a bad member because he’s stupid.

  50. I agree about Maggot. Also throw Jubilee in there! She drives me nuts. I had no issue with Forge or Mystique.

  51. everybody in Generation Hope,except for Hope

  52. Jean/Pheonix. If they ever bring her back to life i’m gonna burn down some remote half-way home. yea. Its like that.

  53. Glad to hear someone else hates Jean Grey.  I always thought she was utterly useless.

  54. @JohnVFerrigno  If you mean bad as in evil, then sure!

    @JSAkid  Yeah, Anole is the most lizard-y out of the two.