Time travel is the status quo when it comes to comic books, but the X-Men are on a whole other level. The team’s roster is filled with mutants from past, alternate and future timelines; it’s a hot mess of clones, identical-but-different individuals from identical-but-different worlds ruled by Apocalypse, or by Sentinels, and even occasionally by Magneto.
But which are the X-Men who’ve made Earth-616 their home?
Nathan Summers, aka ‘Cable’: Ah, the life that Cable has had…infected by the Technovirus at a very early age, he had to be taken into the far-off future in order to be cured; ultimately, that didn’t quite happen. What happened instead is that Cable made it his life’s goal to stop Apocalypse from ruling in his usual fashion in that same future, which is the purpose he had in mind when he returned to the proper timeline. He’s the one who kept Very Special Mutant Hope Summers alive through a pretty horrifying ordeal that involved X-Man-turned-traitor Bishop. Speaking of Bishop…
Ah, Lucas Bishop. He grew up in a mutant concentration camp, 80 years in the future, after the Summers Uprising, which didn’t work out for our guys at all too well. He came back to the future, and was alright for a while; people liked him, he liked himself, I even think that Storm liked him a bit too much! …And then Hope Summers was born, and he decided that if he were to kill her, all his problems, or his future’s problems at least, would magically go away!
That was a conscious decision he made after…what, over fifteen years among the X-Men? Twenty? No matter what you do in the mainstream continuity, you ain’t changing nothing about yours, man. Sorry to spoil that for you…
Hope Summers was the first mutant to be born after M-Day, the day when the Scarlet Witch took away 99% of the mutants in the world’s power. Pretty big deal…not as big a deal as being hunted by a demented Bishop, going further and further in time and suffering through constant hunger, thirst and near-complete isolation. On the bright side, she’s amazing at kicking things’ asses!
Rachel Summers is yet another amazing telepathic X-Man from a future timeline; yet another daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey(as Cable is; although he is actually the son of Jean Grey’s clone, Madelynne Pryor…yeah, I know…), and another host of the Phoenix Force. I…got nuthin’. She’s a badass, who’s been through an awful lot in life, and I love her to death. Rachel’s also got these tattoo-like things that appear whenever she uses her abilities; they give her a very unique look, which is plain awesome.
Nate Grey, aka…X-Man. Confused yet? Nate Grey was created by Mr. Sinnister in the Age of Apocalypse(AoA) timeline–not the timeline from which Nathan Summers (Cable) comes from, mind; just one with a somewhat similar premise. Now, Nate Grey isn’t actually the son of Jean Grey; he’s a gene-spliced baby, created by the DNA of Jean and of Scott Summers, who’s not a particularly nice guy in AoA. X-Man, for his part, was a near-omnipotent mutant, whose powers at their height were comparable to a Phoenix Force-imbued Jean Grey (or anyone, really). I haven’t seen much of him lately, but I opened Wikipedia to check out what’s been going on; he apparently burned his powers out while opening a portal to..Sugar Man’s home reality. I’m not sure what that means, or why Nate was so in need for some sugah, but I suppose this song fits perfectly.
I should really catch up with his latest adventures, I’ve always been fond of Nate.
Last but not least…Young Jean Grey! Marvel recently announced that the real Jean Grey is finally coming back from the dead, after years upon years of denying the possibility. Woo-hoo! However, over the last couple of years, a hip new(or old, depending on your view) version of Jean has been running over the wonderfully contrite mainstream Marvel universe. That’s right, everybody! It’s teenage Jean Grey, enjoying the benefits of being a female character written in the 2010’s as opposed to the 1960’s! No longer in X-Men comics just as decoration, Teen Jean’s been a fun character to explore for a number of authors; mostly Brian M. Bendis, who ran the X-Men parade and came up with the idea of bringing the original Five X-Men to the future. Praise Bendis!
Oh, you were expecting me to say something about Jean? Well, she’s quite horrifying at times, having mind-controlled a number of teammates –okay, Angel, and it’s not like anyone cares about him, but still– over a number of times. Her powers developed quite a bit faster, as did her desire to make out with three out of four of her teammates.
Thank the X-Gods that Bobby is gay now.
On a serious note, she’s great; Bendis did a lot of solid stuff with her over his course as main X-Writer, and she’s currently got herself a nice little ongoing which has Hope and Rachel and Quentin Quire guest starring in its very first arc. I haven’t read it yet, but I will.
Gosh, what a post! This has been all about pesky Summers-Grey family members, clones, adopted daughters and granddaughters and all sorts of other madness, hasn’t it? I decided not to add the rest of the Young Original Five that’re currently kicking around in the present, but their time will come soon enough…don’t you worry ’bout that!
Damn, I forgot to mention Stryfe. Stryfe is Cable’s clone. Cool, huh?
Cable and Stryfe! Hah!
#madnessliveshere
The Grimoire Reliquary 
Heh heh I like the song addition. 😛
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right? It’s wonderful!
LikeLike