And here we are, my favorite X-Men (or, more appropriately, X-Women.) It’s a blend of a couple of fan favorites, a long-time second-stringer, and a little used pseudo-X-Man. I tell you what, I’d love to see a story that featured these four ladies!
#4. Sabra – Ruth Bat-Seraph
First appearance: (Cameo), Incredible Hulk #250 (August 1980), (Full), Incredible Hulk #256 (February 1981)
Creators: Sal Buscema; Bill Mantlo
Ruth Bat-Seraph was born in Jerusalem and raised in a special kibbutz run by the Israeli government after her mutant abilities manifested. She was the first superhuman to serve with the Mossad (Israeli Secret Service) while also acting as a police officer. Her first public appearance as Sabra was battling the Hulk who she thought was working for Arab terrorists. She became known to the international superhuman community during the Contest of Champions between Death and the Grandmaster. She was forced to ally herself with Iron Man and the Arabian Knight, with whom she shared a particular animosity due to their national conflict. Shortly after this encounter, Sabra’s young son was killed in a terrorist attack. She disobeyed orders in order to bring her son’s killers to justice. She found herself in conflict with the Hulk again, which got out of control as Sabra’s powers temporarily robbed him of his voice, making it seem as if he was still a near-mindless monster. She fought the Hulk, but the two worked through their differences and attempted to search for a child who was foretold to become a genocidal maniac.
Some time later, Sabra become entangled with the X-Men trying to stop an anti-mutant campaign, and began subscribing to the philosophies of Charles Xavier. She was a valuable asset to the X-Men, not only for her abilities, but for her Mossad connections and the access she had to deep governmental information. The X-Men frequently turned to her when seeking to gather knowledge that is deeply hidden. As part of Xavier’s mutant underground, she was repeatedly asked to join the British-based Excalibur, and did reach out to them for help when Legion was threatening Israel. She also came into conflict with the X-Men at one point when she was trying to apprehend Magneto and came into conflict with Joseph, who she thought was Magneto’s alter ego. At one point, she joined the Paris-based X-Corporation and helped the X-Men after Genosha was destroyed.
The British government’s MI5 recruited her to thwart a massive terrorist attack on London. She worked with Union Jack, ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. director Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and the latest incarnation of the Arabian Knight, who she again butted head with ideologically. Her powers came in very handy in stopping this major threat. From there she allied herself with the U.S. government, becoming an operative for the Office of National Emergency (O*N*E) alongside Bishop, Micromax, and Sentinels to help enforce rogue mutants comply with Iron-Man’s pro-superhero registration movement. She frequently appears when global threats strike and presumably has returned to her homeland and continues to work for the Mossad.
Sabra possesses superhumanly enhanced physical abilities, including strength, speed, agility, reflexes, endurance and stamina. She is able to energize others by transferring to them a portion of her own life energy, and in the process, enhance their physical state of health (she has twice used this ability to save dying individuals). This transference also grants the recipients low-level super-powers, which are apparently at random and otherwise unrelated to Sabra’s own mutant powers. The recipient retains their new powers until Sabra herself decides to withdraw them by retrieving her life energy.
Her various costumes, usually based on the design or colors of the Israeli flag, contain additional paraphernalia to enhance her combat capabilities. Often through a special cape she wears, she is able to fly at supersonic speeds. Besides her cape, Sabra also has neuronic-frequency stunners built into her two wrist bracelets that shoot “energy quills”, small bundles of low-density plasma (like balled lightning), that paralyze the nervous system of any organic being almost instantaneously. In addition to her superhuman abilities and equipment, Sabra possesses the standard weapons, and armed and unarmed-combat training given to members of the Israeli military. She is trained in police methods and skills and in anti-terrorist techniques.
Why is she on this list? That’s a good question. Should she be? Is Sabra really an X-Man, or just an ally? She was part of X-Corporation, apparently, a group that didn’t get a lot of visibility, but would have been a cool team to have a book about. My favorite Sabra appearances have actually been in the Incredible Hulk, but written by Peter David, writer of X-Factor, and the reason why many of my favorite X-Men appear here. But regardless, Sabra is a cool character. Israeli secret agent, powerful as heck, confident, tough, and a goldmine for someone who really wants to flesh her character out. There is so much potential there, and I would love to see a good writer give her a series, or a miniseries, or a series of one-shots, or as a member of a team where she can get some good development. And honestly, anyone who can go toe-to-toe with the Hulk is a great character to have on the side of the angels.
#3. Polaris – Lorna Dane
First appearance: X-Men #49 (October 1968)
Creators: Arnold Drake and Jim Steranko
One of the earliest (if not the very first) image from Marvel comics for is is the splash page of Lorna Dane from X-Men #57… he green hair indelibly etched into my mind, her magnetic powers fading, her capture by the fearsome Sentinels. I daresay it set me on the path of love for superheroines. Not quite an original X-Man, but she was introduced fairly early and like any long-running X-Man, her history is twisted and convoluted. Is she Magneto’s daughter? Is she not? Does she suffer from mental illness? She’s been brainwashed or taken mental control of enough that you couldn’t blamer her. At any rate, I will try to consolidate her history as much as possible.
As a University student, Lorna succumbed to the villain Mesmero who enhanced his powers with a “psyche-generator” to lure mutants with latent powers to come to him in San Francisco. There she encountered Iceman, who snapped her out of Mesmero’s control by causing her to slip on a patch of ice. They returned to his apartment where she met the rest of the X-Men and learned she had mutant powers. Mesmero and his henchmen captured her to his desert lair and his psyche-generator triggered her abilities. When the X-Men arrived to rescue her, Magento revealed himself to be the mastermind behind this plot, and claimed to be Lorna’s father. Despite knowing his villainous ways, Lorna is unable to turn on her father, until Iceman learns from her foster parents that her actual birth parents died in a plane crash when Lorna was a child. Upon learning this she turned against Magneto. However years later it was revealed that Lorna accidentally caused the plane crash that killed her mother with the emergence of her mutant powers. Magneto found her and had the Mastermind erase her memories of the event. Magneto had had an affair with Lorna’s birth mother and was in fact her father.
Despite Iceman’s crush on Lorna, she eventually fell in love with Havok when the two were living at Xavier’s school and helping the X-Men. When the original and new X-Men came together to battle Krakoa the living island, the true potential of Lorna’s powers are revealed as she manipulates the planet’s magnetic lines of and sends Krakoa hurtling into space. After this, Lorna and Havok leave the X-Men to pursue their studies. While pursuing her degree in Geophysics in the Diablo Mountains of CalIfornia, she and Havok are captured by the Shi’ar and brainwashed through mind-control. She takes on the name of Polaris, and with Havok attack the X-Men. Eventually Xavier frees them from this control, and while they do not return to active membership, they relocated to Muir Island with Dr. Moira McTaggart, and assist the X-Men when needed. During one of these periods, Lorna is taken over by the psionic being known as Malice, and attacked the X-Men as the leader of Mr. Sinister’s Marauders. After Mr. Sinister’s apparent death, Malice’s control over Lorna was temporarily weakened and she is able to call the X-Men for help. Before they can arrive, she is taken captive by a half-sister she was not aware of called Zaladene, High-Priestess of the Sun People living in the Savage Land, a prehistoric ecosystem in Antarctica. The X-Men eventually find Lorna, but using machinery built by the cosmic being the High Evolutionary, Zaladene robs Lorna of her powers and takes them for her own. Ironically, this process also frees Loran from Malice. During the ensuing struggle, Lorna’s secondary mutation is triggered: she grew in height, became invulnerable, and displayed superhuman strength. After the conflict was resolved, Lorna returned to Muir Isle where she and Dr. McTaggart discovered that another ability she inherited in her secondary mutation was the unconscious ability to amplify negative emotions around her such as anger and hate. Again, Lorna is taken over, this time by The Shadow King, to amplify negative emotions across the globe. The dual occurrences of Zaladene’s death, and Lorna being victim to Psylocke’s psychic knife enable her to break free from The Shadow King’s control, and also to regain her original powers and shed her secondary mutation.
Polaris then embarks on the next phase, and for me, the best phase, of her comic book career when Valerie Cooper, from the Office of National Emergency (O*N*E) invites her join X-Factor (now being written by that master of character, Peter David). She accepts, and she and her long-time love, Havok are reunited as co-leaders of the team, and while their relationship is restored, it’s a bumpy road, with several break-ups and reconciliations over the ensuing years. Through counseling sessions with Dr. Leonard Samson, Lorna is able to come to terms with all of her experiences being mind controlled, and she develops into a powerful and confident leader. After a period of time, Havok was kidnapped by agents of the Dark Beast, who forged a note explaining that Havok needed to get away from Polaris. This devastated her, causing her to feel abandoned and betrayed. Polaris started to lose confidence in the government, X-Factor and her role with the team when the villains Mystique and Sabretooth are added to the roster. When a mind-controlled Havok and some of Dark Beasts agent attack X-Factor and are defeated, Polaris tried to reach out to him only to be attacked and injured. Not long after that, Sabretooth betrayed and attacked the team, and Polaris was severely injured again. After recovering from her injuries, and learning that Havok’s “terrorist” activities had been a front for his true undercover work, Polaris forgave him, although they did not rekindle their romance. She also agreed to join his new X-Factor team, but during their first team meeting, she could only watch as Havok was seemingly killed in the explosion of a faulty time machine constructed by a mutant from the future. Although Havok had left Polaris in charge of his team while trying to stop Greystone, she did not feel like she could keep the team together, and they disbanded shortly thereafter.
Months later Nightcrawler found Lorna in a church, convinced that she was being followed and that Havok was alive. This embroiled her in another encounter with Magneto, who discovered that he use Lorna’s ability tap into the Earth’s magnetic field to bolster his own fading powers. Polaris agrees to return to Genosha with Magneto to supply him with power and to help him keep order. She believed she was doing it for the greater good, but also enjoyed the education in her powers that she received. Magneto launched a full-scale assault on Carrion Cove in order to gain access to technology that would restore his full abilities. Polaris attempted to stop him, but she was defeated and left the country. She later returned with Quicksilver to help oppose Magneto’s tyrannical rule. Although Quicksilver was discovered and forced to leave Genosha, Polaris maintained a low profile in order to covertly transport refugees from the war to other nations, as well as monitor Magneto’s actions. After Magneto’s spine was severed by Wolverine, Polaris was able to steal a blood sample from his medical tests, which she used to confirm that Magneto was indeed her biological father. When Cassandra Nova’s Sentinels destroyed Genosha and massacred millions, Polaris was one of the few survivors. She was left emotionally scarred after witnessing the massacre and being unable to save them. When the X-Men found her there, she was deranged from the electro-magnetic imprints and last memories of all those who had died during the attack. This severely traumatic experience had left her with a darker, more ruthless personality. Havok broke up her after they were about to be married, leaving her at the altar for nurse Annie Ghazikhanian with whom he had a telepathic affair while he was in a coma. Polaris now driven to instability yet again went berserk and commenced to go on a rampage that nearly resulted in her killing Havok, Annie and her young son. She remained in this unstable state until undergoing psychic therapy with Professor Xavier. Polaris promised to do no more harm and she was accepted back to the X-Men.
Lorna is one of the many mutants who loses their powers during M-Day when the Scarlet Witch rewrites reality, although she keeps it from the rest of the X-men for as long as she can. When the truth is revealed, she and Havok leave to try and find a way to restore her powers. During this period she is kidnapped again, and transformed by Apocalypse into one of his Four Horsemen, Pestilence. Ultimately she is freed, and her powers are restored. From there she joins a team of X-Men who embark on a major cosmic adventure depicting the rise and fall of the Shi’ar Empire struggling against Vulcan, becoming a member of the Starjammers, and becoming embroiled in the War of Kings, before eventually finding their way back to Earth.
When Havok leaves to lead the Uncanny Avengers, Lorna takes leadership of the newest incarnation of X-Factor, now a corporate team working for Harrison Snow’s Serval Industries. Her time with this new X-Factor was fairly brief, and subsequently Magneto reaches out to her and requested help in guiding the time-displaced original X-Men to prevent himself from going back to old leadership habits, and as a means to have somebody that could challenge his strategies. Currently, Lorna resides on Krakoa and is about to embark on another stint with a new X-Factor.
Polaris’ powers enable her to sense and control magnetism by manipulating the magnetic fields of the earth, including controlling metals which are susceptible to magnetism. She can generate magnetic energy pulses, create force fields, and allow herself to fly. Polaris can focus her magnetic energy into powerful concussive blasts. She can also overload or short-circuit electrical systems. She has been shown destroying Shi’ar warships with a single magnetic pulse. By concentrating, Polaris can perceive the world around her solely as patterns of magnetic and electrical energy. Polaris has been shown absorbing some forms of energy through her magnetic force fields to temporarily boost her own strengths. Early in her career with the X-Men, she absorbed Storm’s lightning blast, Cyclops’ eye beam, and Havok’s energy beam at the same time, giving her enough strength to propel an entire island from the earth and into space. She can perceive the natural magnetic auras surrounding living beings as well. Polaris has such control over her powers that she is able to manipulate the natural iron within the blood of living organisms. She was capable of reversing the flow of an entire crowd’s blood in order to render them unconscious. Polaris has a great ability to be able to levitate objects metallic and nonmetallic, with her electromagnetic field she can levitate objects and destroy them in the air, or through a small manipulation of gravity, can also cause non-metallic objects to levitate in the air and manipulate it through electromagnetic energy. She has the ability to indirectly manipulate non-metallic objects via metal ores they may contain. She can perceive and manipulate matter at the sub-atomic level. Polaris has the ability to manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum and some energies like electricity, electromagnetic and magnetic (the limits of these are unknown). Polaris has a connection to the electromagnetic field, allowing her to handle various types of energies such as electric, gamma, x-rays, ultraviolet, visible light, lasers, and more. She has bright green hair, the first indication of her mutation.
Why is she on this list? Well, I was pretty smitten with her back in the early 70’s when i first encountered her. That green hair, the wicked cool costume, and the slightly hippy vibe. While I still enjoyed her during the next phase of the X-Men, she was always being manipulated and controlled, so she was usually a villain. Then, thank god, Peter David took her under his wing for his first round of X-Factor, and she really became a fully-realized, independent, powerful woman, worthy of being this high on the list. While she has suffered some under the pen of other writers since then, her mental instability is perfectly understandable given the myriad mental manipulations she has endured. I appreciate her darker, more aggressive personality that she manifests when she is mentally stressed, and her conflicted relationship with Magneto can be very interesting, as long as they don’t make it all about the fact that she’s Magneto’s daughter (which fortunately, they usually don’t.) I also like how this gives her familial connections with the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Crystal of the Inhumans.
#2 – Jean Grey
First appearance: The X-Men #1 (September 1963)
Creators: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Aliases: Marvel Girl, Phoenix
The second lady of Marvel comics (followed by the Invisible Woman), Jean Grey was the sole female member of the X-Men under the name of Marvel Girl. She was Professor Xavier’s first recruit, when, as a child, her mutant telepathic powers emerged when her best friend was killed was hit by a car and killed. Jean was left comatose after she telepathically linked with her friend and nearly died with her. Her parents reached out to Professor X, who blocked her telepathy until she was old enough to handle them leaving her only with her telekinetic abilities. After years of training and several adventures with the X-Men, Xavier was able to lift those blocks and give Jean access to the full range of her abilities. During her time with the original X-Men, she and Cyclops developed a strong relationship which led to long-lasting love, although Jean also shared a secret attraction with a later member of the team, Wolverine.
After an adventure in space, Jean was the only person able to both pilot the space shuttle back to earth by telepathically absorbing the knowledge needed from the astronaut on board, while also telekinetically screening out the deadly radiation that would kill anyone else who tried. That was the idea, anyway. As the radiation threatened to overwhelm her, she cried out telepathically for help and was answered by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force, the sum of all life in the universe. Moved by Jean’s bravery and love for her friends, the Phoenix Force created a duplicate body to house Jean’s psyche, but became overwhelmed and believed itself to be Jean Grey. It created a healing cocoon in which it placed the real Jean Grey whose body has been ravaged by radiation, and entered the duplicated body it had created and piloted the shuttle back to earth where it crashed into Jamaica Bay. There the force, as Jean Grey, emerged from the bay in a new green and gold costume, and proclaimed her new title as Phoenix, displaying incredible cosmic-level abilities. Meanwhile, the cocoon containing the real Jean Grey sank to the bottom of the bay unnoticed. Phoenix continued Jean’s life with the X-Men, going on many adventures with them, continuing her relationship with Cyclops and single-handedly saving the universe. Soon after, Mastermind subtly attacked “Jean” with incredibly realistic telepathic illusions that slowly and unknowingly overwhelmed the Phoenix force and corrupted it with darkness. The entity gradually morphed into “Dark Phoenix,” destroyed a star system, and nearly killed the X-Men. Captured by the Shi’ar she is put on trial but before they can be defeated, Jean’s psyche asserted itself and forced the Phoenix to commit suicide before it lost control again, destroying the duplicate form.
Upon its suicide, the Phoenix Force dispersed its original form and a fragment found the still healing Jean Grey in its cocoon, and tried to merge with her. Jean sensed its memories of death and destruction as Dark Phoenix and rejected it, causing it to instead to animate a lifeless clone of Jean Grey created by the villain Mr. Sinister with the intent to mate with Cyclops and create genetically superior mutants. Named Madelyne Pryor, the unaware clone met Cyclops and the two fell in love, married and gave birth to a son, Nathan Summers. Meanwhile, the cocoon was discovered and retrieved by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Jean emerged with no memory of the actions of the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix. After she is told what happened and that she was believed dead until now, she was reunited with the original X-Men and convinced them to form the new superhero team X-Factor. Jean learned that Cyclops had romantically moved on with Madelyne, who was angered over his decision to lead X-Factor and neglect his family. Though Jean encouraged Cyclops to return to Madelyne, he found their house abandoned and assumed that Madelyne had left him and taken their infant son. The team’s adventures culminated when Madelyne eventually resurfaced, with powers awakened by a demonic pact, calling herself the Goblyn Queen. Learning of her true identity and purpose drove her insane and she planned to sacrifice Nathan to achieve greater power and unleash literal Hell on Earth. While attempting to stop her, Jean was reunited with the other X-Men, who were happy to learn that she was alive, particularly Wolverine, who reminded Jean of her unaddressed feelings for him. Jean and Madelyne confronted each other, and Madelyne attempted to kill them both. Jean managed to survive only by absorbing the remnant of the Phoenix Force housed within Madelyne, which gave her both Madelyne’s memories and the Phoenix’s memories.
Subsequent to this conflict, The X-Men reunited, and Jean rejoined her old colleagues. She and Scott got married, and then went to the future to raise their child. They later discovered that Rachel Summer, Jean’s daughter from another timeline, sent them to the future to protect Nathan, and per Rachel’s request, Jean adopted the codename “Phoenix” once again to establish it as a symbol of good after all the bad it had caused. Later, following Cyclops’s possession by the mutant villain Apocalypse and apparent death, Jean continued with the X-Men, but is distraught by the loss of her husband. Jean began to suspect that Cyclops might still be alive and with the help of Nathan Summers (by this point the aged adventurer Cable), was able to locate and free Cyclops of his possession by Apocalypse. As Jean found she was able to tap into the powers of the Phoenix Force once again, her marriage to Scott began to hit a rough patch. Jean and Wolverine addressed their long-unspoken mutual attraction, deciding it was best not to act on their feelings; Cyclops grew further alienated from Jean due to her growing powers and sought consolation from the telepathic Emma Frost, to address his disillusionment and his experiences while possessed by Apocalypse. These therapy sessions led to a “psychic affair” between Scott and Emma. Jean’s discovery of the psychic affair resulted in a confrontation between her and Emma, though ultimately Jean realized that Emma truly loved him.
In a final confrontation with a traitor at the institute (the X-Men’s teammate Xorn, posing as Magneto) Jean assumed complete control of the powers of the Phoenix Force, but was killed in a last-ditch lethal attack by Xorn. Jean died, telling Scott “to live”. However, after her funeral, Scott rejected Emma and her offer to run the school together. This created a dystopian future where all life and natural evolution was under assault by the infectious, villainous, sentient bacteria called Sublime. Jean was resurrected in this future timeline and became the fully realized White Phoenix. She then used the abilities of the Phoenix Force to defeat Sublime and eliminate the dystopian future by reaching back in time and telling Cyclops to move on. This led him to accept Emma’s love and her offer to run the school together. Jean then reconciled with Cyclops and fully bonded with the Phoenix Force and ascended to a higher plane of existence called the “White Hot Room.”
Years later, strange psychic phenomena began to occur around the world, which included a large bird flaring out from the sun and an explosion on the moon, which raised red flags for the X-Men and led them to one conclusion: the Phoenix Force was back on Earth. The X-Men also discovered that psychics were disappearing or falling ill, which prompted the team to investigate the grave of Jean Grey, which they discovered was empty. They raced to locate the Phoenix before it could find a suitable host, but the cosmic entity had already resurrected Jean. However, Jean didn’t recall her life as a mutant or an X-Man, and terrible visions from her previous life had left her unsure of the difference between reality and fiction. The X-Men suspected that the strange psychic phenomena were subconscious cries for help made by Jean Grey and that they had to stop the Phoenix from from merging with their old friend. Old Man Logan was able to make Jean remember her true life and she learned the fate of her family and several of her friends, among them Cyclops. As Jean faced the Phoenix Force, she was finally able to convince the cosmic entity to stop bringing her back and to let her go. Alive once again, Jean was reunited with the X-Men as the Phoenix Force returned to the cosmos.
Restored to life, Jean gathered some of the greatest minds on Earth together so that she could read their minds to plan her next move. She recognized that there had been a sudden surge in anti-mutant sentiment, to the point where there were plans to abort pregnancies if the mutant gene was detected. Jean formulates a plan to establish a more official mutant nation, not a geographic location as had been done in the past, but as a community. To support her in this goal, she assembled a new team called X-Men Red.
When the X-Men opened the mutant island of Krakoa as a refuge for all mutants worldwide, Jean was asked to join the Summer section of the Quiet Council. Summer consisted of Jean, Storm, and Nightcrawler, who represented the more empathetic, level-headed, and just members of the X-Men. Jean helped draft the basic tenets of the new mutant nation. Following their deliberation, Jean and the rest of the Council joined in the festivities taking place on the island, celebrating the recognition of Krakoa as a sovereign nation by the United Nations. Emma and Jean appeared to bury the animosity between the two of them, in particular over Scott, over a couple of beers.
Jean Grey is an Omega-level mutant, who, at her greatest potential, fully merged with the Phoenix Force, was able to defeat Galactus. Jean is a powerful empath, as she can feel and manipulate emotions of other people, as shown when her power first emerged and she felt her friend Annie Richardson slowly dying. Jean can also connect people’s minds to the feelings of others and make them feel the pain they inflicted. As an Omega-level telepath, Jean can detect and read the thoughts of others, project her own thoughts into other’s minds, form psychic links with other beings, control others’ minds so as to manipulate their physical functions, mentally stun opponents with bolts of pure psionic force, cast near-flawless mental illusions, and project her mind and the minds of others onto the astral plane. At close range, she can manipulate almost any number of minds; however, she can only take full possession of another’s mind one at a time and can only do so if she is within that being’s physical presence. Jean possesses a high-level of telekinetic ability that enables her to psionically levitate and rapidly manipulate matter. She can use her telekinetic abilities on herself or others to simulate the power of flight or levitation, stimulate molecules to increase friction, create protective force fields out of psychokinetic energy, or project her telekinetic energy as purely concussive force. The outer limits of her telekinetic power have never been clearly established, though she was capable of lifting approximately fifty tons of rubble with some strain.
While empowered by the Phoenix Force, Jean has total telekinetic control of matter at the molecular level, allowing her to manipulate atomic structures on a universal scale. She can generate any form of energy in seemingly unlimited amounts, as well as absorb energy from sources as great as a supernova or even convert her physical form to pure energy and back again. She can also exist in virtually any environment without harm and create space/time warps to travel through hyperspace or traverse the timestream, and her telepathic abilities are also vastly enhanced. When using its power, the Phoenix Force will manifest itself around Jean in the form of a bird of cosmic flame, the size of the bird varying with the amount of energy she is using. The Phoenix Force can also resurrect the dead under some conditions, and absorb the life force from other sentient beings to bolster its own.
Why is she on this list? Well, like I said, after the Invisible Woman, Jean is one of the original Marvel superheroines. I think jean and Sue are pretty similar, actually. Their powers are not that dissimilar, and they’ve both gone through a lengthy evolution from the girls as they were created, to the women they have become. What I love about both Jean and Sue is the fact that they were created in the early 60’s, during the time when women were girls, they were housewives and moms; girlfriends, they were damsels waiting to be rescued, and surely both Jean and Sue had all of these qualities as they were products of their time, created by men of their time. But despite that, they were on superhero adventure teams where they had to be seen as competent, brave, able to hold their own weight when battle Magneto, or the Sentinels. So they did that despite the shackles of the conventions of the time, do even though Jean spent a lot of time pining about Scott, she also saved the team on more than one occasion. As the years went on and times changed, so too did these classic superheroines. Smart writers built upon the personalities and histories that Jean and Sue had lived through and just gave them agency and power; they slowly made the fully realized women with the potential to be anything. So sure, at some point in the 80’s a female character could be created that right off the bat was kick-ass, tough, every bit as strong as the men around them, with just as much right to be one who saves the world, but they didn’t have to prove themselves worthy and powerful in the 60’s and 70’s, and that extra seasoning makes Jean (and Sue) more complex and fascinating (for me) than most.
I also love how Jean has always been depicted as an empathetic, caring woman. Despite her long (convoluted) history, Jean has spent much of her 57 years since her creation dead, so she hasn’t actually gotten as much exposure as another character who might have been around that long. I was really disappointed that X-Men Red had such a shortish run before it was cut-off by the latest major X-Men reorganization, because it was smart, it was creative, and as leader, Jean really got to strut her stuff and show her many dimensions. I would definitely see a return to X-Men Red as a great step, or even better, another solo series. If her time-displaced teen self (who I didn’t even go into in this article but I also loved) could get one, there’s no reason why the original couldn’t.
#1: Karma – Xi’an Coy Manh
First appearance: Marvel Team-Up #100 (December 1980)
Creators: Chris Claremont; Frank Miller
And here she is, our dark horse winner. Who? You say? Yeah, even regular X-Men readers might pause and scratch their head with this reveal, but Karma’s been around a pretty long time. The first among New Mutants; a queer, Vietnamese woman; single parent to her younger siblings. She’s had it pretty rough (okay, who hasn’t in comics) but she’s still here and she’s got so much potential that she’s landed in my top spot for favorite X-Man.
Born in the central highlands of Vietnam, Xi’an Coy Manh origins were fraught with tragedy. Her father was a colonel in the South Vietnamese army. When Xi’an’s twin brother Tran was attacked by a Viet Cong soldier, Xi’an unwittingly used her ability to possess another’s mind for the first time to protect him. Tran realized he shared the same ability, and forced the solider to kill himself. He relished using his powers cruelly, while Xi’an was frightened by them. While Tran was rescued from the throes of war by their crime lord uncle, General Nguyen Ngoc Coy, Xi’an’s father was shot and killed. Xi’an escaped on a cramped boat with hundreds of others, including her mother and her younger brother and sister, Leong and Nga. The boat was boarded by Thai pirates on the way to the United States and she and her mother were raped. Her mother died shortly thereafter.
Arriving in the States, Xi-an was helped by a Catholic priest, Father Michael Bowen, who worked with Vietnamese immigrants. He helped Xi’an find an apartment and a job. Unfortunately her uncle, General Coy learned of her whereabouts and kidnapped Leong and Nga to force Xi’an to use her powers in his employ the way Tran had been. Coy was a major crime lord by this point, but was known to the public as a respectable businessman. Thinking Spider-man was a criminal from the reports in the newspaper, Xi-an took possession of him to attack Coy at one of his parties to rescue her siblings. Unfortunately, the Fantastic Four were guests at the party and intervened. Unaware that his sister was possessing Spider-Man, Tran, who was a guest at the party, took control of Spider-man long enough for the Thing to knock him unconscious. With the help of Professor Xavier, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four located Xi’an, and after hearing her explanation, agreed to help her liberate her siblings. Unfortunately, Tran possessed the Fantastic Four and set them against Spider-Man who was outmatched by Tran’s ability to use the Fantastic Four as a single cohesive force due to his greater experience with his powers. Xi’an finally lashed out, absorbing her brother completely, killing him, and taking the name Karma. Her powers doubled after absorbing her brother.
Professor X brought Xi’an to his school where she became the first recruit and the leader for his new team of mutant teenagers, the New Mutants. Hee also employed Xi-an to be the secretary for the school, and provided housing for her and her younger siblings. During a battle with Viper and the Silver Samurai, Karma was caught in an explosion and presumed dead by her New Mutant teammates. In actuality she was attacked by a mutant psychic entity, Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King, who possessed Shan’s body and used his and Karma’s own powers to carve a criminal empire. Shadow King indulged his excessive appetites, causing Karma to become incredibly obese. When two of the New Mutants are taken captive and forced to battle each other in one of Farouk’s gladiatorial games Xi’an comes into conflict with her former teammates. The New Mutants pursue her and ultimately drive Farouk to flee from Karma’s body, and she defeats him in psychic combat.
While recovering with Storm and her colleagues in the Greek Isles, they were abducted by the Asgardian sorceress, The Enchantress. To escape, Magik used her teleportation disc, but it collided with the mystic shield around the Enchantress’ castle and dispersed them across space and time in the Asgardian realms. Karma ended up in a desert wasteland and, still despondent at her obesity, decided to lay down and die. However, the Norns intervened and placed a seemingly helpless, young child near her. Karma is compelled to survive in order to help the child out of the desert. The two lived in the desert for months, using Karma’s powers to stun the wildlife for food, and scavenging weapons and shelter from travelers who had perished in the wasteland. By the time she found her way to Asgard and reunited with her friends, she had shed her excess weight and her hair had grown to waist-length.
After her return, Xi’an was reunited with Leong and Nga, who had been under the care of Father Bowen. She resumed her responsibilities at the Academy, at the time being run by Magneto, and took a small apartment with her siblings in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. One day the children’s did not return from school, and after utilizing all the resources at her disposal, she left the New Mutants to return to General Coy’s service believing her uncle would have a better chance of finding them.
In Madripoor, she worked to help her uncle establish himself as one of the nation’s two major crime lords. After the X-Man Wolverine, operating as Patch, appealed to her conscience, she began covertly acting against Coy when his actions threatened innocent lives. General Coy strung Karma along for several months with promises of finding the children, but after he and some of his associates orchestrated the massacre of an entire village, she broke her ties with him and allied herself formally with Patch and Tyger Tyger, Madripoor’s rival crime lord against her Uncle.
Xi’an continued her search independently, and learned the children were abducted by Shinobi Shaw and sold to Viper and Spiral, who sent the children through the “Body Shoppe”. With the aid of Cannonball and Beast, Karma finally located and freed Leong and Nga, while learning that her brother’s essence was still alive, though dormant, within her.
Xi’an reunited with the original New Mutants for a time before going off on her own again. She later encountered them again at a desert rave, where she had drastically altered her appearance with dyed hair, body piercings, and revealing clothing; a surprising difference to the repressed Catholic image held by many of her former teammates. She then moved to Chicago with Leong and Nga and took a job as a librarian for the University of Chicago while attending classes. There, she ran into Kitty Pryde and assisted her in her mission against the anti-mutant hate group, Purity, while also hinting at a attraction to her. Not long after, she came out as gay.
Months later, Danielle Moonstar arrived at the University of Chicago while trying to recruit Prodigy to the renamed Xaiver Institute. Xi’an returned to Xavier’s with Dani, where she served as the librarian and French teacher. She was specifically chosen as a mentor by the younger student Anole, and later became mentor to all students less than fifteen years of age (thus too young to be assigned to squads.) With her responsibilities at the Institute Xi’an had little time for adventuring, but during one particular adventure the New Mutants must subdue the recently returned Legion. While attempting to save a young girl that had been absorbed into Legion’s mind, Xi’an was also absorbed by Legion, and battled to protect the young girl from his multiple personalities. Aided by Magik and her soulsword, Xi’an was able to escape Legion’s mind along with the young girl. Due to their success in reining in the dangerous Legion, Karma and the other former New Mutants on the mission were sanctioned as an X-Men squad by Cyclops.
In a later mission, Xi’an was sent with her teammates to engage The Right, and Cameron Hodge at his facility. During the battle, while attempting to take psionic control of Hodge, her leg was impaled and badly damaged by his metal pincer blades. Hodge was ultimately defeated, but as a result of her injuries, Xi’an lost her left leg just above the knee. She was given a prosthetic, bionic leg from Madison Jeffries.
Xi’an next joined an ad hoc team of X-Men who found themselves under attack by the Marauders, led by Susan Hatchi, a successful weapons developer who had wanted to test out new nanotechnology that her company had developed. After taking Xi’an captive, Hatchi revealed that she had personal reasons for targeting her. Born Da’o Coy Manh, she was the illegitimate half-sister of Xi’an’s. Da’o’s mother had sought out their father for protection and for Da’o to be recognized as his daughter. Instead, he shot and killed her mother and abandoned Da’o to work at a sweatshop. Da’o eventually manifested low-level telepathic powers, changed her name and began building her weapons development company. She later discovered that their father had used his influence to smuggle his legitimate family to the U.S., which made her resentment grow. This was further compounded when she lost her powers during M-Day.
In a later confrontation with the X-Men, Hatchi used her nanotechnology to seize control of the team. Wanting not only to demonstrate the effectiveness of her weapons, but to draw out their father from hiding by publicly using Karma as bait, she ordered the X-Men to takeover Madripoor or she would use her technology to kill the inhabitants of New York City. Xi’an used her own mutant abilities to forge a psychic link with her half-sister and showed her the struggles she’s had in her own life, despite the fact that their father had acknowledged her. While the two sisters reach reconciliation, their father took advantage of their engagement and shot Hatchi. After Hatchi’s death, Karma inherited her company as the only eligible relative of age and effectively became a billionaire.
Most recently, Xi’an and most of the New Mutants were reunited on Krakoa, the mutant sovereign nation where they resided. The group traveled into space to find their former teammate, Cannonball, who married a member of the Imperial Guard and was living in the Shi’ar Empire. After a series of space adventures, the team has recently returned to earth.
Karma possesses telepathic and psionic based powers involving possession, mind scanning and limited telepathy. She has limited to moderate telepathic and empathic capabilities which were never truly developed by Professor Xavier, although subsequently she did receive some training from Emma Frost. Like most telepaths, Karma can read an individual’s thoughts and feelings, sift through memories, or discharge mental blasts to overwhelm opponents. Her principal and most powerful ability involves psychic possession. This psionic ability allows her to project a mental energy surge that overwhelms her victims’ consciousness while placing her mind in command, operating their bodies as if they were an extension of her own and experiencing what the subject’s senses perceive. During the possession, her subject’s higher brain functions revert to diminished levels, similar to their state in a dreamless sleep, and the subject is left with no memory of the actual possession. When Karma first takes possession of someone, she can only move her subject’s body awkwardly until she acclimates herself to her new host. Although Karma can possess multiple subjects simultaneously, her control over her subjects is fragmented as she shifts her attention from one to another. Possibly she will overcome this handicap as her experience in using her powers grows. Karma is able to control her subject’s actions and thought patterns allowing her to alter their perceptions and memories, and command entranced opponents to divulge information. She also possesses the ability to form a scrying link either through partial or remote possession and gain the feelings and sensations of the target. While ranged possession means controlling a body in another location and requires her to see through her victim’s eyes, she needs greater focus to control them and has sometimes appeared to be in a meditative state.
Why is Karma #1 on this list? i’ve always had a soft spot for superheroines who were a little more reserved, or hesitant, especially when their powers are more limited and used creatively. Karma is definitely in this category, yet she’s not often written all that creatively, either facing foes who can resist her powers, or being taken out before she can be effective. her debut appearance, written by Chris Claremont, naturally, really showed off her skills and her personality well. She has a backstory laden with tragedy and she has overcome so much. She’s a quiet leader, and has been portrayed relatively consistently throughout her long tenure. She’s a character that hasn’t had a whole lot of spotlight, so giving her a prominent role on an X-Team would be great. I’d love a miniseries to really explore the young adult Xi’an’s life, and her role as a parent to her siblings, the owner of a multi-billion dollar company, a lesbian, and a Vietnamese immigrant living in the U.S. I always root for the underdog, or the more obscure character, which gave her a slight edge over Jean Grey. Unfortunately, I don’t think she’s flashy enough to get the attention she deserves, but I can always hope.