Choose your X-Men

[EmperorVamp]

My vote for the next X-man to be removed is for Bobby Drake. As Mega stated his connection to Wolvie isn't that strong. Any benefits or powers he has can be replicated by energy or psychic powers from other team members. Bobby is a great guy but doesn't make the cut this time.

Second that anyone?

[Epitaph]

yeah for sure...no arguments here

[Mark Caringer]

ok, I see that some second that, that took awhile. As for the wuestion of how many on the team i would say 7-10, is there an offical siza, mega you probley know better then I.

come on peoplethere is still 12 left, lets cut this down.

Here is who is left:
Cannonball
Real Name: Samuel Zachery (Jackson?) Guthrie
Height: 6'
Weight: 150 lbs
Hair color: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Current Status: X-Men
Nationality: American
Powers: generate thermochemical energy as a blast field, which can act as propulsion, bio-kinetic blasts, a protective force shield, and a containment field around his opponent, or absorb kinetic energy to create shockwaves or supercharge the force behind his punches. Cannonball is also supposedly an External, an immortal mutant,

Havok
Real Name: Alexander Summers
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Hair color: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Current Status: Captain of the Starjammers
Nationality: American
Powers: absorb cosmic energy, such as starlight, x-rays, and gamma rays, then metabolize them into plasma wave discharges that can be used for concussive impact or to superheat and destroy objects. Havok absorbs ambient stellar energy and reemits it as a focused plasma blast strong enough to melt steel or fry a person, although he can finely tune it to cause little or no damage. Alex has at times required a containment suit to keep all the energy from constantly discharging. He is immune to his brother Cyclops' power, and vice versa.

Jubilee
Real Name: Jubilation Lee
Height: 5‘1”
Weight: 96 lbs.
Hair color: Black
Eyes: Blue or Brown (it switches often!)
Nationality: Chinese American
Current Status: Wondra
Powers: Jubilee generates and controlls guided plasma projectiles ("pafs") that explode on command. Most of the time they are small, but when she's stressed or scared, she can cause major damage. She has the unrealized potential to detonate matter on the sub-atomic level.

Juggernaut
Real Name: Cain Marko
Height: 6‘10”
Weight: 900 lbs.
Hair color: Red
Eyes: Blue
Current Status: Excalibur
Nationality: American
Powers: unlimited strength, endurance and invulnerability to physical harm, ability to retain forward momentum, rendering him unstoppable while in motion, generate an inercia-canceling force field, mystical helmet makes him immune to psychic attacks. Cain Marko grew up with his step-brother Charles Xavier, and always hated him, mostly because his father Kurt ignored Cain in favor of Charles (Kurt felt guilty over having caused Brian Xavier's death). When the boys were drafted to Korea, Cain and Charles stumbled on an ancient temple. Lured by greed and thoughts of glory, Cain found a red gem and picked it up. He became a human juggernaut. Protected by that Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, Juggernaut is the irresistable force. His super-strength, combined with his total invulnerability make him nearly unstoppable. His only weakness is psychic attacks, if his helmet is off. Otherwise, get out of the way!

Marvel Girl
Real Name: Rachel Anne Summers
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 125 lbs.
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Current Status: Starjammers
Nationality: American (Alternate Future)
Powers: telepath able to read minds, project thoughts, send out her astral form, and manipulate thoughts to control minds, cast illusions, and alter memories, psychokinetic able to lift, direct, and manipulate physical objects, project psionic force blasts, generate force fields, and fly, project the consciousnesses of herself and other humans through the fabric of time and space. Rachel inherited all of her mother's telepathy and telekinesis. She also has her own mutant power, the ability to project her own or someone else's astral self through time, (as she did to Kate Pryde, an alternate future version of Shadowcat, whose astral self was sent back to our time to warn the X-Men of the "Days of Future Past," a dark future that would occur if Senator Robert Kelly were to be assassinated). All of these powers were amplified tremendously when the Phoenix Force merged with her while she was astrally projected back to the present.

Multiple Man
Real Name: James Arthur ("Jamie") Madrox
Height: 5‘11“
Weight: 155 lbs.
Hair color: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Current Status: X-Factor Investigations (M - may be carrying his child)
Nationality: American
Powers: Madrox duplicates himself upon impact. He has enough control that he can create a "dupe" by clapping, or stick a finger under a door and create a dupe on the other side. He can also survive the death of a dupe, e.g. the one that died from the Legacy Virus. Madrox's duplicates tend to manifest one particular aspect of his personality very strongly, like caution, machismo, or adventurousness, and the aspect increases in strength the longer the dupes remain apart from the original.

Nightcrawler
Real Name: Kurt Wagner
Height: 5'9”
Weight: 170 lbs.
Hair color: Indigo
Eyes: Yellow, with no visible pupils
Current Status: X-Factor Investigations
Nationality: German
Powers: peak human agility and reflexes, prehensile tail, cling to any surface, access to the Brimstone Dimension allows teleportation and a light-sapping field that combines with his indigo fur to enable him to blend in with shadows, razor-edged fencing foils. Nightcrawler has blue fur, yellow eyes, fangs and a prehensile tail. He has three fingers and toes on each appendage and can stick to walls. He is a line-of-sight teleporter and is also a master swordsman and acrobat (his boyhood - and adult - idol is Errol Flynn). His teleportation, which smells of brimstone and sulfur and makes his signature "BAMF!" noise, takes him through another dimension, although he only actually saw it once. Generally, though, his teleportation is instantaneous. The opening to the dimension travels with Kurt at all times, distorting light and leaving him in shadow when it's light out, and rendering him nearly invisible when he's in shadow. He also has an infallible spatial awareness, which is necessary for him to teleport, because if he does not judge distances accurately, he could end up teleporting into solid matter, which could cripple or kill him. As a result, Kurt generally only 'ports to places that he can see, or to those that he knows very well, like his room in the Mansion.

Shadowcat
Real Name: Katherine (Kitty) Pryde
Height: 5'6”
Weight: 110 lbs.
Hair color: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Curent Status: X-Men
Nationality: American
Powers: Kitty passes the molecules of her body through matter, rendering her insubstantial. This ability also allows her to "walk on air," and even "detach" herself from Earth's gravity and appear to fly off, as she stays stationary while the Earth rotates at up to 1,000 miles per hour. She can phase other people and objects along with herself, as well as only part of an object. Her phasing through any electronic equipment causes it to short-circuit. She has refined this ability to sometimes allow her to cut off a person's nervous system (which is electrical in nature). Shadowcat is also a fully-trained ninja, thanks to Ogun, and is a computer and electronic hardware whiz.

Psylocke
Real Name: Elizabeth Gloriana "Betsy" Braddock
Height: 5‘ 11“
Weight: 155 lbs.
Hair color: Naturally black, either dyed or permanently altered purple
Eyes: Brown
Nationality: British (only the body is Japanese)
Powers & history: psychic mind altered to produce telekinetic energies, allowing her to levitate and manipulate matter with her mind, propel herself through the air, project protective force screens, and generate focused energy blades that can sever the bonds between molecules and disrupt neural relays; immunity to all forms of telepathy. Psylocke was born a powerful telepath, a psycho-blaster with the ability to read minds, though her powers were dormant until her teen years. It is slightly unclear whether she is in fact a mutant, or whether her abilities stem from the fact that her father was one of the Captain Britains from Otherworld, a realm run by Merlin (and then by Roma) in which science and magic are both at advanced levels. After college she became a charter pilot. Later, she became an international fashion model, which doubled as a cover for her position as an agent for the British intelligence team called S.T.R.I.K.E. However, after going through the Siege Perilous Psylocke was used by the Hand and Lord Nyoirin, an Asian crimelord, to reassemble the mind of his assassin, Kwannon, who had been injured in a fall. Matsu'o Tsurayaba, Kwannon's lover, cut a deal with the time-dancer Spiral and Betsy's mind entered Kwannon's body. Her mind was slightly merged with Kwannon's and, with the help of Spiral's Body Shoppe, their bodies were made genetically identical. "Psylocke" was given Kwannon's Asian body and martial arts training. At that point, she manifested her power in the form of a psychic knife that she would plunge into an opponent's head to knock them out. In reality, there was only a part (albeit the majority) of Betsy in Kwannon's body, believing herself to be Psylocke. When the remainder of Betsy (including her body) returned as Revanche (who was really Kwannon) and subsequently died from the Legacy Virus, Revanche returned the rest of Betsy's mind and power to Psylocke and took the missing parts of Kwannon into herself. Months later, the Shadow King tricked Psylocke into initiating a telepathic shockwave that disabled telepaths all over the world, leaving the King in command of the astral plane. Although her astral form was destroyed, Betsy emerged in a new "shadow form" that was certainly a by-product of her exposure to the Crimson Dawn. Invisible to the Shadow King, Betsy was then able to telepathically contain the Shadow King's core, but at a great cost: to ensure that the Shadow King would never be able to escape, Psylocke was forced to permanently shut down her telepathy. Shortly afterwards, Psylocke gained telekinetic power from Phoenix, and no longer had her telepathy. She was powerful enough to move giant beams and fly, but she still had control and stamina problems. She also seemed to have lost the ability to teleport between shadows. During the battle with the saurian Hauk'ka in the Savage Land, she discovered that her telekinesis was more powerful and she was immune to telepathic attacks. When the Scarlet Witch unleashed a reality warp that re-wrote history, Betsy remained unaffected and was able to maintain Rachel's status as well. The women found themselves in the White Hot Room (the core of the Phoenix Force), where Jamie told them they had to help set the world right. Strangely, Jamie's influence did not help the girls from being co-opted into the reality warp of the House of M when they returned to Earth. She was slightly injured when the X-Men intervened in the Shi'ar massacre of the Grey family. She also discovered that she could not be possessed in any way. Then Psylocke saw Jamie for real, but although he attacked the X-Men, he restored them to health and begged them to stop his former friends, who were trying to summon the First Forsaken, the force of nature opposed to the Phoenix. During the ceremony Betsy disrupted the spell with iron and her power, and they were all sucked into a heavenly paradise. The First Forsaken offered this solace to Jamie's friends, but Betsy realized that only the four summoners of the Forsaken would be spared, and the rest of Earth would be frozen in time or destroyed. Being immune to telepathic influence, she stabbed her TK sword into the Forsaken's mind, freeing her teammates and Jamie to act. Jamie, however, refused to let Betsy stay behind and sent her home with the others via a portal. Following a quick detour to Africa to help Storm depose her warlord uncle, Betsy visited Brian in England. While there, the alternate reality Charles Xavier recently captured by Excalibur woke from his coma and asked for her by name. She and Excalibur checked him out at Darkmoor, where the Shadow King revealed his presence to her, having been freed from the Astral Plane during House of M. Fortunately, Betsy's immunity to telepathy allowed her to fight the Shadow King, and she used her TK to induce a stroke in Dark Xavier, forcing the Shadow King out of his mind, where she stabbed him. Since Xavier and the Shadow King had been in alternate timelines, a sort of portal opened and Betsy disappeared. She reappeared in the Crystal Palace, the home base of the reality-jumping team, the Exiles, apparently a selection by the base's computers for a warrior compatible with the team's needs. However, it's probable that Roma had something to do with Betsy's arrival. Regardless, she first encountered Sabretooth (the heroic version from the Age of Apocalypse) and immediately attacked. Creed defended himself and had a great time, but team "dispatcher" Heather Hudson found that she couldn't see the new arrival with any scanners. Finally Betsy realized that Sabretooth wasn't out to kill her, and she joined the team. Strangely, she also found that she no longer had any cross-time counterparts.

Rogue
Real Name: Anna Marie (last name unknown)
Height: 5‘ 8“
Weight: 120 lbs.
Hair color: Brown with a White Stripe
Eyes: Green
Current Status: X-Men squad leader
Nationality: American
Powers: metabolize someone's total essence through physical contact, killing them while absorbing and duplicating their memories, skills and special powers, abilities absorbed from Sunfire let her produce an ionization effect that transforms matter into plasmetic solar fire, generate radiation shielding psi-field, and fly. Rogue's mutant power is to absorb the memories, abilities and physical characteristics of anyone with whom she comes into flesh-to-flesh contact. However, she has no control over this power, which first manifested when she kissed a childhood boyfriend named Cody, and drained his energy and mind. After her battle with Ms. Marvel, Rogue retained her opponent's powers of strength, flight, invulnerability, the ability to fly in space without protection, and a precognitive 7th sense, along with most of her psyche. Sometime after rejoining the main X-Men team at the Mansion, Rogue regained her powers. She previously had convinced Sage to use her catalyst ability to jump start Gambit's powers, so it seems possible that Sage may then have done the same for Rogue. However, she does not seem to have regained the abilities she got from Ms. Marvel. Sunfire then forced Rogue to take his remaining power to avenge his imminent death. Rogue was left with Sunfire's power, perhaps permanently.

Storm
Real Name: Queen Ororo Munroe of Wakanda
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 127 lbs.
Hair color: White
Eyes: Blue
Current Status: Fantastic Four
Nationality: American
Affiliation: Fantastic Four, Royal House of Wakanda, X-Men 2.0, X-Powers: sense and influence meteorological energy patterns, creating rain, wind, hail, lightning, snow, sleet, fog and temperature changes. If it has an atmosphere, Storm can control it. Once worshipped as a goddess in Africa, Ororo can generate or disperse all forms of weather, including, wind, rain, typhoons, flash-floods, lightning, hurricanes, snow, sleet, hail, you get the idea. Her body automatically adjusts itself to the surrounding temperature and she can use herself as a lightning rod to channel lightning through her body. Her greatest weakness is an intense claustrophobia, which she developed as a child, while she was buried in her collapsed home following the air raid that killed her parents. She is also an excellent thief and lockpicker, talents learned during her childhood as an orphan thief in Cairo under the tutelage of Achmed El-Gibar.

Wolverine
Real Name: James Howlett
Height: 5’3”
Weight: 295 lbs.
Hair color: Black
Eyes: Brown
Current Status: X-Men, New Avengers, "ten places at once"
Nationality: Canadian
Powers: enhanced strength, speed, agility, stamina, and reflexes, hyper-keen senses, healing factor, adamantium skeleton and retractable claws. Wolverine has a healing factor that can heal virtually any wound or disease, and also slows his aging. He also has retractable bone claws that extrude from his forearms. His bones and claws are bonded with adamantium, rendering them unbreakable. Finally, Wolverine has enhanced senses or sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. He can file scents in his memory and use them to track other beings from even the slightest traces, and can see and hear things much fainter and from much farther away than normal people. And he's the best there is at what he does.

[Megalictis]

There's no set number for an X-team. Just prior to "The Twelve" Xavier disbanded the team and Cyclops, Phoenix and Wolverine were the only acting X-Men (and Wolverine was a Skrull). On the other hand, just after the "Muir Island Saga" while Cyclops' X-Factor and Cable's X-Force were all at the mansion somebody had to ask "What are we gonna' do with 40 X-Men?!" Currently The Astonishing team has 6 while the New X-Men are headed for a team of 11.

Iceman's removal brings us to dirty-dozen characters remaining - and at least two gotta' go!

Female:Male ratio of 6:6.

Racial mix: 8 white, 1 black, 2 Asian, 1 has blue fur.

Ethnicity:
8 (including Storm) were born in the US.
2 are European (Nightcrawler, Psylocke).
1 is from alternate futures (Marvel Girl, Nocturne).
Wolverine is still a Canadian.

Cliques:
2 are members of the "Summers Clan" (Havoc, Marvel Girl).
None are original X-Men
1 has never been an X-Man before (Multiple Man).
One isn't a mutants (Juggernaut).
4 Have led X-Men teams (Storm, Nightcrawler, Havoc, Rogue).

Powers:
4 (5?) have Flight (Cannonball, Marvel Girl, Rogue, Storm - possibly Psylocke).
1 is a Telepath (Marvel Girl).
1 can Teleport (Nightcrawler).
4 are limited to close-combat attacks (Juggernaut, Multiple Man, Shadowcat, Wolverine).
2 combine close and range combat (Cannonball = living reusable, guided projectile, Nightcrawler - teleportation).
2 suppliment range combat with Telekenesis (Marvel Girl. Psylocke).
4 are primarily range combattants (Havoc, Jubilee, Rogue, Storm). Note: all four (even Jubilee) pack potential firepower to be classed as living weapons of mass-destruction).

Rather than remove anyone just yet (because I can see strategic or interpersonal reasons to support any of them) I'd like to take one more factor into consideration: team focus or emphasis. It might make the choices easier if we agreed on a direction. Some characters might stand-out as more suitable than others.

Since we're already playing fast and loose with continuity we'll just call it an "Alternate Universe" X-Team, so we don't need to worry about contradicting what's going on in the comics. We've pretty much designed this team around Wolverine (did that surprise anybody?), but what kind of X-Team do we want? As the team takes shape I'm betting some of you are imagining this bunch of X-Men together. Maybe you have some specific ideas about what Wolverine's team of X-Men does?

For instance, at present there are seven X-teams, four are primary teams connected to the mansion (X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Astonishing X-Men and New X-Men) and three are peripheral teams based completely outside the mansion (X-Factor, New Excalibur, and Exiles). Each team has it's own emphasis, and focuses on specific types of missions and stories.

(Adjectiveless) X-Men (currently Rogue's team though in transition) is the most independent primary team. The team consists of "loose cannons" and "watchdogs" and handles missions against general threats worldwide.
Uncanny X-Men (most recently Xavier's intergalactic team) handles threats specific to the X-Men and mutants. This is the Mansion's primary response team.
Astonishing X-Men (Cyclops and Emma's Team) was originally formed as "good PR for mutants" team but has ended up being the "home" team as far as guarding the mansion.
New X-Men is the trianing team, consisting of all students considered most ready for field missions. Sort of a "reserve team."
X-Factor (Multiple Man's team) is completely independant from Xavier's and acts as a detective agency.
New Excalibur started as a British super-team with loose ties to the X-Men and has ended up primarily responsible for defending the multiverse.
Exiles are an even looser collection of heroes (mostly X-Men) from different realities who's mission is converging with New Excalibur's.

And in the past there have been other types of mission-driven teams not quite like any of these.
The X-Men of the Australian period fought a covert fight against enemies who believed them dead.
Xavier's Excalibur was based on Genosha and was intent on trying to rebuild that country.
The New Mutants and Generation X were training teams, but were not intended as "reserve X-Men."
X-Force started as a young-adult student team turned first into a para-military mutant strike force (under Cable) and later as a black-ops team under Wisdom.
The original X-Factor (under Cyclops) posed as "mutant hunters" while secretly helping the mutants they hunted. Later, under Havoc and Forge, it became the US Government-sanctioned mutant team of anti-mutant-terrorist.
The X-Treme X-Men were originally formed as a result of growing mistrust between Storm and Xavier to hunt for Destiny's prophetic diaries, but ended up becomning the X.S.E - UN-sanctioned mutants-policing-mutants.
X-Corps (Banshee's team) was an unsanctioned attempt at a European-based para-military version of the XSE.

Here's a few ideas I had, but I'd like to hear yours:

1. "Mix-n-Match" Different universe = different life choices = different members making up different teams (kind'a like the animated series). This is the home team. The only X-Men. Xavier died destroying the Shadow King and these are the only team he ever had. They live in the mansion, fly around in the Blackbird, and fight the same classic villians. Except this world is different. Xavier never formed his first X-Men because he married Moira, devoted his time to research on Muit island, and someone beat him to it. Nathaniel Essex chose to raise his "Sinister Scions" himself to be exactly what he needed. Cyclops and Jean Grey (and their darling little son), Beast, and the three Rasputins are his. Magneto of this world not only located and acknowledged his children much sooner in this world, he also forged a much more powerful Brotherhood of Mutants around Polaris, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, including Sunfire, Winterking (Robert Drake) and Exodus. The Helfire Club is split in two as each side plays for points with White King Warren Worthington and White Queen Emma Frost face off agianst Black King Sebastian Shaw and Black Queen Raven Darkholme. Donald Pierce quit long ago, wheedled his way into control of the Sentinel project during Operation: Zero Tolerance, forced a hostile take-over of Stark Enterprises, and now contolls a batallion of giant Iron Men all jacked directly into his brain. And in a world this mixed-up Apocalypse has to pick now to be reborn, leading War (Random), Famine (Abyss), Pestilence (Phantazia) and Death (Sabretooth).

2. "Phoenix War" Shortly after Xavier went away and seemed to "fall off the earth" Jean came back. With all the power of the Phoenix totally integtated and "under control." And the X-Men were happy. And then "mean old Emma" died on a mission and nobody seemed to care. And Scott was in love with Jean again like Emma never even happened. On the outside it still seems like the X-Men, except to some of them all this seems pretty strange, so they "take a vacation" before it's too late. They abandon the mansion to hopefully save the team from the Phoenix from the outside, while still trying to operate as the X-Men. Wolverine and his team need to drop off the radar so they head for the one place the Phoenix might not be able to find them, so they find Gateway who hides them in the past, while still providing a means of access to the present.

3. "That Flamin' Tears It!" They've had their differences in the past, but this one crossed the line. Cyclops puts his foot down and Wolverine walks (right over it)! X-Men are finally split apart - not over two different interpretations of Xavier's dream, but over loyalty to two men. Logan and his X-Men leave the mansion for good, to do things their own waY. No politics, no O*N*E, no "registration." First item of business: find a new home base. And with Wolverine at the helm of the Blackbird, you can bet it's gonna' be Madripoor. (No one said following him meant taking the easy road).

4. "X-Cell" Some X-teams you never see on the 6:00 news. Some X-missions don't ever hear about. Some X-missions even most X-Men don't hear about. Hell, Xavier don't even know, far as anybody can tell. "Plausible deniability." He probably wouldn't be too thrilled about some of those missions anyhow. Okay, most of 'em. That don't mean they don't still have to happen. Because sometimes the X-Men's worst enemies don't just walk up to the front gate in tights an' a cape and challenge 'em to a fight. Sometimes you gotta' hit them before they can hit you. An' sometimes the ol' canucklehead ain't enough to get the job done all by his lonesome. Fortunately he's got people he can trust for that. An X-team inside the X-teams. A roster to pick an' choose from as the situation demands. Most of 'em don't even know who all the rest are.

[Mark Caringer]

WOW mega choices 3 and 4 are awesome, 4 actually gave me chills, so when are you going to start writing and sending marvel your stories, I know you can write them.

[wildcat]

Huh! that sounds too cool ;D
And I think too that your stories would be reeaally nice to read, if that ^^ is what kind of stories you would write!

[EmperorVamp]

Nice work!
My vote is for an "X-Cell" Black Ops (sleeper cell) team. I like the idea of a fluid team roster dependant on the task at hand, and every one is taking orders from Logan... and on a "need to know basis"only.
Sounds like a series I would buy!
You might want to pitch this concept Mega!

[Megalictis]

Thank you, but I'm not a writer. In fact I'm dyslexic. And I don't have the kind of contacts to pitch an idea to Marvel. I was just using those as examples of what Logan-centric X-Teams might be like.

The idea for X-Cell came when Wolverine was on all three teams. I realized that he was being handed an opportunity to evaluate a lot of different X-Men in real field situations. And that begged the question: evaluating them for what? That evolved into an idea for an X-Men companion book kind'a like Marvel Team-Up, but with Wolverine instead of Spidey. Since all their adventures were happenning "behind the scenes" it would be easy to avoid continuity conflicts with the core titles. And because Wolverine never tells them they're a "team" and never mentions the name "X-Cell" he's the only one who knows it exists. This allows for a larger, floating team roster because the individual stories would only focus on a few characters at a time.

The original premise was that Wolverine decides to set up his own "splinter cell" inside the X-Men, to handle things that the X-Men can't do (as Xavier had done with Mystique and Sage). Every so often Logan would call one or two others aside, and they go off and do something on a "let's keep this just between us" sort of basis. Kind'a like he did with Jubilee, and Kitty before that, and Nightcrawler before that...

And then it hit me like a Daniel Way retcon: Logan didn't just suddenly form X-Cell - he's been doing it right from the start! Taking Nightcrawler to Canada. Following Kitty to Japan. The "Meltdown" thing with Havoc. All those missions with Jubilee. Maybe even Cannonball. He was grooming them to become his team and none of them ever even knew it was a team. And if X-Cell went back to Wolverine's early days with the X-Men that opens the possibility to tell stories set during any point in the X-Men's history from then on.

ANYWAY... like I said, that's just an idea. Marvel owns the copyrights so feel free to write fan-fiction with it or whatever.

Now does anybody else have any other ideas that might help us whittle down that list from 12 to 7-10?

[Mark Caringer]

I think you X-Cell idea was the winner, and if we went this that theme, are start to think that maybe juggs and storm might not fit that, juggs isn't really a covert kinda guy and I'm not sure if a secret team is up storms alley either, I think she would be against it, but Wolvie probably would have given her the opportunity to join. Jubilee i remember kinda doesn't fit, but I didn't follow her character through the GENX days or her own series, so i don't know maybe she would fit now, what do you guys think?

[wildcat]

I think that too that juggs doesn't fit in so i'm secondin' that (or how you say it ;D)

[EmperorVamp]

Megalictis,
I understand your position, but I really thing you should take the "risk free" leap and send your X-Cell concept to Marvel.
- The worst case result would be no reply.
- Good case result they use your idea and we get to read comics with a great concept and path.
- The BEST case result would be a check and possibly a job for you from Marvel!!!

What do you have to lose?
www.marvel.com/company/pdfs/idea_submission_form.pdf


P.S. I would have submitted it myself in your name but I don't have the info "I got your back bro!"

[Megalictis]

Thanks, EmperorVamp, I didn't even know marvel accepted unsolicited ideas.

If we move in an X-Cell direction then I'm going to suggest some very specific criteria for consideration of the candidates (things Logan might have to think about):

1. Ignoring powers, does this character have skills or experience that would make him/her useful on covert or fast-strike missions?

2. Based on powers, does this characer serve a useful tactical function?

3. Is this character willing to "bend the rules?"

4. Even if it means breaking the law?

5. Will this character kill if s/he has to?

6. Does Wolverine trust this character?

7. If it came down to it, is this character more loyal to Xavier, Cyclops, or Wolverine?

As far as Juggernaut goes I can see how he fails to meet enough criteria to disqualify him. He's not subtle. It's pretty hard to make him inconspicuous in the best of circumstances. Strategically he can do lots of damage, but can't get away with it. That makes him a diversion at best. While he has no problem breaking the law, his primary loyalty is to himself. I don't think Logan would trust him. In any case, two votes means he's out, right?

Both Storm and Jubilee are more difficult. Both seem to meet most of the criteria. Both have been theives (though Jubilee was more of a con-artist). Wolverine trusts them both (more than most people) and both are closer to Logan than Xavier or Cyclops. Storm has killed before to protect herself and to save others. Jubilee was willing to kill for revenge but Logan himself persuaded her not to. Both have acted as a moral compass for Logan, and that might be a reason he'd want them "in on it" - to help him make sure he's doing the right thing.

In each case I have a only one single reservation. Would Storm's personal ethics prevent her from doing something dirty and underhanded? Will the ends justify Logan's means? And as for Jubilee, Wolverine spent the most time training her, but how dirty and underhanded is Logan willing to see her become? I wouldn't automatically cut either on these grounds, as these "problems" might provide conflict useful for story idead and that could just as easily be reason to include them on the team.

[Mark Caringer]

Glad to see that you guys agreed with my juggs vote, he is gone, now its up to one of you to pick the next.


Here is who is left:
Cannonball
Real Name: Samuel Zachery (Jackson?) Guthrie
Height: 6'
Weight: 150 lbs
Hair color: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Current Status: X-Men
Nationality: American
Powers: generate thermochemical energy as a blast field, which can act as propulsion, bio-kinetic blasts, a protective force shield, and a containment field around his opponent, or absorb kinetic energy to create shockwaves or supercharge the force behind his punches. Cannonball is also supposedly an External, an immortal mutant,

Havok
Real Name: Alexander Summers
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Hair color: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Current Status: Captain of the Starjammers
Nationality: American
Powers: absorb cosmic energy, such as starlight, x-rays, and gamma rays, then metabolize them into plasma wave discharges that can be used for concussive impact or to superheat and destroy objects. Havok absorbs ambient stellar energy and reemits it as a focused plasma blast strong enough to melt steel or fry a person, although he can finely tune it to cause little or no damage. Alex has at times required a containment suit to keep all the energy from constantly discharging. He is immune to his brother Cyclops' power, and vice versa.

Jubilee
Real Name: Jubilation Lee
Height: 5‘1”
Weight: 96 lbs.
Hair color: Black
Eyes: Blue or Brown (it switches often!)
Nationality: Chinese American
Current Status: Wondra
Powers: Jubilee generates and controlls guided plasma projectiles ("pafs") that explode on command. Most of the time they are small, but when she's stressed or scared, she can cause major damage. She has the unrealized potential to detonate matter on the sub-atomic level.

Marvel Girl
Real Name: Rachel Anne Summers
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 125 lbs.
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Current Status: Starjammers
Nationality: American (Alternate Future)
Powers: telepath able to read minds, project thoughts, send out her astral form, and manipulate thoughts to control minds, cast illusions, and alter memories, psychokinetic able to lift, direct, and manipulate physical objects, project psionic force blasts, generate force fields, and fly, project the consciousnesses of herself and other humans through the fabric of time and space. Rachel inherited all of her mother's telepathy and telekinesis. She also has her own mutant power, the ability to project her own or someone else's astral self through time, (as she did to Kate Pryde, an alternate future version of Shadowcat, whose astral self was sent back to our time to warn the X-Men of the "Days of Future Past," a dark future that would occur if Senator Robert Kelly were to be assassinated). All of these powers were amplified tremendously when the Phoenix Force merged with her while she was astrally projected back to the present.

Multiple Man
Real Name: James Arthur ("Jamie") Madrox
Height: 5‘11“
Weight: 155 lbs.
Hair color: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Current Status: X-Factor Investigations (M - may be carrying his child)
Nationality: American
Powers: Madrox duplicates himself upon impact. He has enough control that he can create a "dupe" by clapping, or stick a finger under a door and create a dupe on the other side. He can also survive the death of a dupe, e.g. the one that died from the Legacy Virus. Madrox's duplicates tend to manifest one particular aspect of his personality very strongly, like caution, machismo, or adventurousness, and the aspect increases in strength the longer the dupes remain apart from the original.

Nightcrawler
Real Name: Kurt Wagner
Height: 5'9”
Weight: 170 lbs.
Hair color: Indigo
Eyes: Yellow, with no visible pupils
Current Status: X-Factor Investigations
Nationality: German
Powers: peak human agility and reflexes, prehensile tail, cling to any surface, access to the Brimstone Dimension allows teleportation and a light-sapping field that combines with his indigo fur to enable him to blend in with shadows, razor-edged fencing foils. Nightcrawler has blue fur, yellow eyes, fangs and a prehensile tail. He has three fingers and toes on each appendage and can stick to walls. He is a line-of-sight teleporter and is also a master swordsman and acrobat (his boyhood - and adult - idol is Errol Flynn). His teleportation, which smells of brimstone and sulfur and makes his signature "BAMF!" noise, takes him through another dimension, although he only actually saw it once. Generally, though, his teleportation is instantaneous. The opening to the dimension travels with Kurt at all times, distorting light and leaving him in shadow when it's light out, and rendering him nearly invisible when he's in shadow. He also has an infallible spatial awareness, which is necessary for him to teleport, because if he does not judge distances accurately, he could end up teleporting into solid matter, which could cripple or kill him. As a result, Kurt generally only 'ports to places that he can see, or to those that he knows very well, like his room in the Mansion.

Shadowcat
Real Name: Katherine (Kitty) Pryde
Height: 5'6”
Weight: 110 lbs.
Hair color: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Curent Status: X-Men
Nationality: American
Powers: Kitty passes the molecules of her body through matter, rendering her insubstantial. This ability also allows her to "walk on air," and even "detach" herself from Earth's gravity and appear to fly off, as she stays stationary while the Earth rotates at up to 1,000 miles per hour. She can phase other people and objects along with herself, as well as only part of an object. Her phasing through any electronic equipment causes it to short-circuit. She has refined this ability to sometimes allow her to cut off a person's nervous system (which is electrical in nature). Shadowcat is also a fully-trained ninja, thanks to Ogun, and is a computer and electronic hardware whiz.

Psylocke
Real Name: Elizabeth Gloriana "Betsy" Braddock
Height: 5‘ 11“
Weight: 155 lbs.
Hair color: Naturally black, either dyed or permanently altered purple
Eyes: Brown
Nationality: British (only the body is Japanese)
Powers & history: psychic mind altered to produce telekinetic energies, allowing her to levitate and manipulate matter with her mind, propel herself through the air, project protective force screens, and generate focused energy blades that can sever the bonds between molecules and disrupt neural relays; immunity to all forms of telepathy. Psylocke was born a powerful telepath, a psycho-blaster with the ability to read minds, though her powers were dormant until her teen years. It is slightly unclear whether she is in fact a mutant, or whether her abilities stem from the fact that her father was one of the Captain Britains from Otherworld, a realm run by Merlin (and then by Roma) in which science and magic are both at advanced levels. After college she became a charter pilot. Later, she became an international fashion model, which doubled as a cover for her position as an agent for the British intelligence team called S.T.R.I.K.E. However, after going through the Siege Perilous Psylocke was used by the Hand and Lord Nyoirin, an Asian crimelord, to reassemble the mind of his assassin, Kwannon, who had been injured in a fall. Matsu'o Tsurayaba, Kwannon's lover, cut a deal with the time-dancer Spiral and Betsy's mind entered Kwannon's body. Her mind was slightly merged with Kwannon's and, with the help of Spiral's Body Shoppe, their bodies were made genetically identical. "Psylocke" was given Kwannon's Asian body and martial arts training. At that point, she manifested her power in the form of a psychic knife that she would plunge into an opponent's head to knock them out. In reality, there was only a part (albeit the majority) of Betsy in Kwannon's body, believing herself to be Psylocke. When the remainder of Betsy (including her body) returned as Revanche (who was really Kwannon) and subsequently died from the Legacy Virus, Revanche returned the rest of Betsy's mind and power to Psylocke and took the missing parts of Kwannon into herself. Months later, the Shadow King tricked Psylocke into initiating a telepathic shockwave that disabled telepaths all over the world, leaving the King in command of the astral plane. Although her astral form was destroyed, Betsy emerged in a new "shadow form" that was certainly a by-product of her exposure to the Crimson Dawn. Invisible to the Shadow King, Betsy was then able to telepathically contain the Shadow King's core, but at a great cost: to ensure that the Shadow King would never be able to escape, Psylocke was forced to permanently shut down her telepathy. Shortly afterwards, Psylocke gained telekinetic power from Phoenix, and no longer had her telepathy. She was powerful enough to move giant beams and fly, but she still had control and stamina problems. She also seemed to have lost the ability to teleport between shadows. During the battle with the saurian Hauk'ka in the Savage Land, she discovered that her telekinesis was more powerful and she was immune to telepathic attacks. When the Scarlet Witch unleashed a reality warp that re-wrote history, Betsy remained unaffected and was able to maintain Rachel's status as well. The women found themselves in the White Hot Room (the core of the Phoenix Force), where Jamie told them they had to help set the world right. Strangely, Jamie's influence did not help the girls from being co-opted into the reality warp of the House of M when they returned to Earth. She was slightly injured when the X-Men intervened in the Shi'ar massacre of the Grey family. She also discovered that she could not be possessed in any way. Then Psylocke saw Jamie for real, but although he attacked the X-Men, he restored them to health and begged them to stop his former friends, who were trying to summon the First Forsaken, the force of nature opposed to the Phoenix. During the ceremony Betsy disrupted the spell with iron and her power, and they were all sucked into a heavenly paradise. The First Forsaken offered this solace to Jamie's friends, but Betsy realized that only the four summoners of the Forsaken would be spared, and the rest of Earth would be frozen in time or destroyed. Being immune to telepathic influence, she stabbed her TK sword into the Forsaken's mind, freeing her teammates and Jamie to act. Jamie, however, refused to let Betsy stay behind and sent her home with the others via a portal. Following a quick detour to Africa to help Storm depose her warlord uncle, Betsy visited Brian in England. While there, the alternate reality Charles Xavier recently captured by Excalibur woke from his coma and asked for her by name. She and Excalibur checked him out at Darkmoor, where the Shadow King revealed his presence to her, having been freed from the Astral Plane during House of M. Fortunately, Betsy's immunity to telepathy allowed her to fight the Shadow King, and she used her TK to induce a stroke in Dark Xavier, forcing the Shadow King out of his mind, where she stabbed him. Since Xavier and the Shadow King had been in alternate timelines, a sort of portal opened and Betsy disappeared. She reappeared in the Crystal Palace, the home base of the reality-jumping team, the Exiles, apparently a selection by the base's computers for a warrior compatible with the team's needs. However, it's probable that Roma had something to do with Betsy's arrival. Regardless, she first encountered Sabretooth (the heroic version from the Age of Apocalypse) and immediately attacked. Creed defended himself and had a great time, but team "dispatcher" Heather Hudson found that she couldn't see the new arrival with any scanners. Finally Betsy realized that Sabretooth wasn't out to kill her, and she joined the team. Strangely, she also found that she no longer had any cross-time counterparts.

Rogue
Real Name: Anna Marie (last name unknown)
Height: 5‘ 8“
Weight: 120 lbs.
Hair color: Brown with a White Stripe
Eyes: Green
Current Status: X-Men squad leader
Nationality: American
Powers: metabolize someone's total essence through physical contact, killing them while absorbing and duplicating their memories, skills and special powers, abilities absorbed from Sunfire let her produce an ionization effect that transforms matter into plasmetic solar fire, generate radiation shielding psi-field, and fly. Rogue's mutant power is to absorb the memories, abilities and physical characteristics of anyone with whom she comes into flesh-to-flesh contact. However, she has no control over this power, which first manifested when she kissed a childhood boyfriend named Cody, and drained his energy and mind. After her battle with Ms. Marvel, Rogue retained her opponent's powers of strength, flight, invulnerability, the ability to fly in space without protection, and a precognitive 7th sense, along with most of her psyche. Sometime after rejoining the main X-Men team at the Mansion, Rogue regained her powers. She previously had convinced Sage to use her catalyst ability to jump start Gambit's powers, so it seems possible that Sage may then have done the same for Rogue. However, she does not seem to have regained the abilities she got from Ms. Marvel. Sunfire then forced Rogue to take his remaining power to avenge his imminent death. Rogue was left with Sunfire's power, perhaps permanently.

Storm
Real Name: Queen Ororo Munroe of Wakanda
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 127 lbs.
Hair color: White
Eyes: Blue
Current Status: Fantastic Four
Nationality: American
Affiliation: Fantastic Four, Royal House of Wakanda, X-Men 2.0, X-Powers: sense and influence meteorological energy patterns, creating rain, wind, hail, lightning, snow, sleet, fog and temperature changes. If it has an atmosphere, Storm can control it. Once worshipped as a goddess in Africa, Ororo can generate or disperse all forms of weather, including, wind, rain, typhoons, flash-floods, lightning, hurricanes, snow, sleet, hail, you get the idea. Her body automatically adjusts itself to the surrounding temperature and she can use herself as a lightning rod to channel lightning through her body. Her greatest weakness is an intense claustrophobia, which she developed as a child, while she was buried in her collapsed home following the air raid that killed her parents. She is also an excellent thief and lockpicker, talents learned during her childhood as an orphan thief in Cairo under the tutelage of Achmed El-Gibar.

Wolverine
Real Name: James Howlett
Height: 5’3”
Weight: 295 lbs.
Hair color: Black
Eyes: Brown
Current Status: X-Men, New Avengers, "ten places at once"
Nationality: Canadian
Powers: enhanced strength, speed, agility, stamina, and reflexes, hyper-keen senses, healing factor, adamantium skeleton and retractable claws. Wolverine has a healing factor that can heal virtually any wound or disease, and also slows his aging. He also has retractable bone claws that extrude from his forearms. His bones and claws are bonded with adamantium, rendering them unbreakable. Finally, Wolverine has enhanced senses or sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. He can file scents in his memory and use them to track other beings from even the slightest traces, and can see and hear things much fainter and from much farther away than normal people. And he's the best there is at what he does.

[Mark Caringer]

Since no one has been able to pick another x-men and I'm not going to choose it, I will suggest that Storm, Marvel Girl and Psylocke seem to be the most out of place IMO.

I have stated before that Storm I think would not totally agree with a secret team, but Logan would have asked her or told her in some way about it.

Marvel Girl is like a Jean, but Wolvie and her don't have a huge connection, but she would be a great asset to the team.

Psylocke isn't that close to Wolvie either, but again with stealth in mind Psylocke is a great ninja with telepathic powers.

very hard decisions to make and these are just my suggestions, anyone is welcome to pick the next x-men to get rid of, remember someone has to second your pick though, I'm waiting ;D

[EmperorVamp]

I will second the vote for Storm. As Megalictis stated earlier, I believe that Storm's personal ethics may prevent her from operating as Wolverine needs on certain "underhanded" missions. And in a stealthy navy seal-like operation doubt and disagreement with orders will jeopardize the mission and most likely result in deaths on the team - in other words La-La-Liability.

Plus, depending on the universe we are pulling from, Wolvie's feelings for her may become an issue.