Welcome to the third part of AIPT’s X-Men Power Rankings!
As a team, we wanted to determine the best heroes the X-Men had to offer, setting out to rank the top 25 X-Men. Part one went over the rules and revealed places 25-21. Then, in part two, we revealed the next five places (that’d be #20-16). Now, we continue as more fan favorites land on the charts, including one, let’s say, “divisive” heroine as we rank #15-11.
Read below to learn who just missed out on our top 10!
— Robert Reed, AIPT Staff Writer
15) Psylocke
When it came to Psylocke, we had wee bit of an issue. How do you address two characters who were merged for a greater part of their history? As problematic as it is that the English Betsy Braddock spent nearly 30 years of real time in the Japanese Kwannon’s body, it does mean that the character most people encountered in video games and beyond was a merge of two separate souls. The answer then was simple, we asked our team to vote for Kwannon and Betsy separately (some voted for both!), and then combined their point totals to determine the placement. It’s a touch complicated, but then so is the character.
Kwannon (53 Points | Highest Placement = 3rd)
It’s easy to boil Psylocke’s popularity down to the fact that she was a psychic ninja; after all, psychics tend to fill up most of the X-Men’s roster, and the ’90s weren’t short on characters who were ninjas. But I think Kwannon has become such a standout because she’s reclaimed her identity in recent years. Most people forget that the Psylocke we often see in comics and other media is Betsy Braddock’s mind in Kwannon’s body, and as much as I love Chris Claremont’s work, that concept hasn’t aged well.
Things have changed following the Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoorminiseries by Jim Zub and Thony Silas. Ironically, in looking for Wolverine, Kwannon ended up finding her own sense of identity. The Age of Krakoa further built on this progression, especially in series like Fallen Angelsand Hellions. Not only did she make peace with Betsy, but she also became one of the few X-Men willing to use lethal force to protect mutantkind.
Kwannon has also thrived in Jed MacKay’s X-Men, where she serves as one of Cyclops’ most trusted teammates and a truly deadly force. For most of her life, she was used as a weapon, whether by the Hand or by Betsy piloting her body. Now, she gets to use her skills on her own terms, which speaks to a lot of fans. Charles Xavier might inspire mutants to fight, but Kwannon is proof that they can also live their own lives.
Betsy Braddock (46 Points | Highest Placement = 10th)
Even before Betsy Braddock made her U.S. debut in the pages of an Uncanny X-Men annual, she was already a going concern. This was before being shoved into another woman’s body, and before inheriting the mantle of Captain Britain, when she was just your average supermodel super-spy in the pages of the UK-only Captain Britain series. The move to the X-Men (and the States) is the perfect example of Chris Claremont liking to keep his toys together; he had created the character in the early CB days (before Alan Moore reinvented the whole thing in a truly incredible move).
Though she never reached the heights of telepathic power of Jean or even Emma, her power set is much more uniquely targeted, a much more hands-on psychic knife situation that makes her all the more distinct from her similarly-powered teammates. It was Jim Lee’s Kwannon design that became the best selling point for the character after she non-effectively bounced around Uncanny, and it’s all the more surprising that the design (and the Kwannon body swap) was meant to be temporary – something that might have hindered the popularity of Betsy but would have arguably been better for her to define her own narrative.
Never quite her own, the lack of serious commitment from creators has always held the character back, and so the sudden inheritance of the Captain Britain mantle – and all the insane, interdimensional magic trappings that come with it – did more to cement Betsy as her own woman, more linked to her origins even as it’s technically inheriting someone else’s identity once again. Interestingly, Betsy has narrative potential that carries her far outside of the general X-Men story, something that few X-members can boast; with all her super-spy and Captain Britain baggage, the right creator could deepen what makes her so unique. Her role in Tini Howard and company’s Excalibur amid the Krakoa era did incredible work revitalizing not only Betsy but the whole of the complicated and indelible Captain Britain mythology, bringing them to the forefront for the first time in decades.
It also gave Betsy her soul back after years living in another woman’s body – it also gave her complicated superwoman powers that further distance her from the other psychic women. Whole Otherworld stories are primed for the telling, stories that can run alongside the X-Narrative or can sustain themselves; like Wolverine and Dazzler before her, Betsy has all the workings of a solo book that doesn’t rely on her teammates. That alone makes her one of the most valuable (if underused) characters in the whole canon.
14) Kate Pryde
(107 Points | Highest Placement = 3rd)
Katherine “Kitty” Pryde has had many names. Shadowcat. Ariel. Sprite. The Red Queen. She’s also briefly worked for S.H.I.E.LD., founded another X-team in Excalibur, and even joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. When you look at her life, it’s in a constant flux — which mirrors her powers of phasing. Yet she’s one of the few mutants who keeps coming back to the team and fighting for mutantkind.
Kitty’s shining moment comes in the X-Men: God Loves, Man Killsstoryline by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson. Toward the end of the story, the X-Men debate fanatical preacher William Stryker, who ends up shouting, “You dare call that thing — human?!” while pointing at Nightcrawler. In response, Kitty delivers a fiery rebuttal that calls Stryker out for being the narrow-minded bigot he is, and chooses to stand by her friend. Coupled with a moment where she’s willing to fistfight someone else for insulting her friends, it’s clear she’ll fight for Xavier’s dream with her whole heart and soul. And, of course, we can’t forget the amazing moment in Astonishing X-Menwhere she phased a giant bullet through the Earth. Even though it separates her from her friends and family, she’s willing to lay her life on the line to save the world.
For my money, Kitty’s best era came during Marc Guggenheim’s criminally underrated X-Men Goldrun. Most people write off X-Men Goldas trying to ape Claremont’s “golden years” (if you’ll forgive the obvious pun), or only ever remember the romantic back-and-forth between Kitty and Colossus. I remember it as the moment when Kitty came into her own as the leader of the X-Men, a position that was more than well deserved. From an awkward teenager to a bona fide hero, Kitty Pryde is a character that truly embraces everything the X-Men stand for.
Kitty Pryde is the perennial heart of the X-Men. She is the character who stands in for the audience, first in the 1970s, when readers needed a grounding point for a series that was radically evolving past its rote super-team roots and into something wider, deeper, and stranger. She all but disappeared during the company’s extra rough ’90s, which had unceremoniously dropped her creator Claremont in favor of brash young kids with (let’s face it) largely bad ideas. When she did return in the early-2000s, it was with jaded, untrusting eyes. She couldn’t buy in, at first, to the Astonishing book or its team (particularly Emma), much like readers were unsure of the franchise after a decade of mistreatment.
Like Kitty finding Peter in that series, readers found something familiar and beloved there, too. Her role as teacher to the young original team in Brian Michael Bendis’ time-travel period could be seen as that creator — and his fans — guiding the concept of the X-Men into the modern age of comics. Finally, as Krakoa heated up, her inability to use the Gates signified a readership who was largely uncertain of the bold, seismic shifts the franchise was undergoing; Kitty had to learn to be Krakoan alongside that readership, and she had to become cutthroat, at Krakoa’s end, as the experimental era fought for its right to continue despite readership backlash.
Kitty is an analogue, the barometer by which the franchise is measured. If that perpetual adaptation doesn’t mirror the constantly changing of mutants and Xavier’s dream, then what does?
13) Beast
(111 Points | Highest Placement = 3rd)
Hank McCoy was one of Xavier’s original five X-Men and has remained a major Marvel character for decades, serving with the X-Men, Avengers, X-Factor, Defenders, and other squads. Outside comics, he’s a standout in X-Men: The Animated Series, X-Men ’97, multiple live-action films, and plenty of games. His blue-furred appearance has also made him one of the franchise’s most instantly recognizable mutants.
Beast’s relationship with Xavier’s dream is especially fascinating because he once seemed like its perfect representative. Hank is brilliant, charming, educated, and deeply invested in proving mutants and humans can coexist. He’s a scientist who wants reason to prevail over fear. Yet his history increasingly subverts those very ideals. His willingness to justify morally questionable actions for what he considers the greater good eventually reaches disturbing extremes, particularly during the Krakoan era. (And don’t get me started on Dark Beast.) Beast eventually became an example of how believing you’re the smartest person in the room can become dangerous when nobody ever says “no.”
Personally, I love Beast because there’s so much range to the character. He can be the jofrom the ceiling, the compassionate scientist searching for an impossible solution, or a deeply flawed man whose intelligence is also his greatest weakness. His friendship with Wonder Man is also one of Marvel’s great odd-couple pairings
At his best, Beast represents the joyful weirdness of the X-Men: a brilliant mind inside a big blue bouncing beast.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde reveals that the unsavory Mr. Hyde and the amiable Dr. Jekyll are, in fact, the same man. Dr. Henry McCoy is of a similar kind
Beast is an omnipresent X-Man, depicted in nearly every representation of the franchise. He has fought alongside his fellow mutants against a myriad of foes. As a kid, I always loved that Beast was a nerd, and the way he always seemed to have either a book in his hand or a quote for the moment made him my personal favorite X-Man. Beast is also the first proper X-Man to become an Avenger, embodying Xavier’s dream at arguably the highest level of superheroics. He also becomes a Defender, making him the one character at the time to be part of three of the four big teams at Marvel (the fourth being the Fantastic Four). But, like Dr. Jekyll, Beast also has a dark side.
At his core, Beast has sort of become an allegory for the destructiveness of passing (I say “sort of” because I don’t think Marvel has ever truly mined into this the way they ought to). Beast wants to be able to appear human, an act resulting in him becoming even more monstrous in appearance. But beyond that, his wrestling with identity means he indulges his dark side with increasing frequency. Sometimes, it’s an adventure in poor taste — he pretends to be gay to strike back at his then-lover Trish breaking up with him. Other times, he becomes monstrous in ways that only a human can be. He even becomes a literal destroyer of worlds in the pages of New Avengers by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting. And his personas as Dark Beast and the Chairman are some of the X-Men’s greatest foes. These are not merely Beast going down a dark path due to desperate times — hey are a man giving life to his cruelest, most selfish desires.
So Beast is not just the embodiment of Xavier’s dream; he is also the embodiment of Xavier’s nightmares. He is the Anakin Skywalker to Xavier’s Obi-Wan Kenobi.
12) Iceman
(116 Points | Highest Placement = 5th)
To misquote Shrek, “mutants are like onions: onions have layers, mutants have layers.” From Iceman’s debut in X-Men#1, there’s something below the surface of Bobby Drake that would take years to unravel. The moment Jean Grey arrives at Xavier’s School, Scott, Warren, and Hank are immediately infatuated while Bobby is annoyed by their boorish stares. Likely meant to show the age difference between the ~13-year-old Bobby and his ~16-year-old teammates, instead it became the foundation for decades of readers having questions about Iceman’s sexuality. More and more of Bobby’s arcs became about a deeply held secret holding him back, and romances with women that just didn’t make sense. By the time of Marjorie Liu’s tenure with the character, it was clear that comic creators at Marvel were in agreement with readers that Iceman had frozen himself in the closet, even if that wasn’t allowed to be said on panel.
Cut to All-New All-Different X-Men, when Brian Michael Bendis was finally given the go ahead from Marvel. Teen Jean outing Teen Bobby to himself is already an iconic moment, only more so considering their meeting is what started this journey all those years ago. In the years since, Bobby has led his own solo titles more than once, expanded his power set, and achieved much more narrative potential in exploring his new relationships as well as revisiting his failed closeted ones.
One more layer that gets less play in Iceman’s stories are his roots coming from a Jewish and Irish Catholic family. I’d argue this helps add to the critique of Xavier’s dream, especially as it existed in the ‘60s. Though Stan Lee loved to claim that he co-created the team out of inspiration from the civil rights movement, writers like Connor Goldsmith have astutely noted that the O5’s early days read much more like a metaphor for Jewish children navigating assimilation into white America. In light of this, Bobby’s long suffering journey out of the closet further indicts Xavier’s willingness to let mutants harm themselves for the sake of respectability.
Bobby Drake is one of the X-Men who tends to get put in a box. Most people see him as the “kid” of the original X-Men, since he was the youngest and often joked around the most. Others just see him as “the guy who shoots ice.” But some moments show Bobby’s untapped potential and how he might be the most underrated member of the X-Men.
Chief among those moments is an early issue in Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men. The newly founded Jean Grey School for Higher Learning is under attack; Bobby strikes back by forming an army of icy clones, which save the day and also allow him a romantic moment with Kitty Pryde. If that wasn’t impressive enough, Planet Size X-Menhas him literally terraforming Mars, showing that he’s earned his Omega-level status. These moments also show that Bobby is willing to support the X-Men however he can.
Iceman’s presence in other media is just as impactful, especially in the X-Men movies. In X2:X-MenUnited, there’s a key moment where he talks with his parents about his mutant abilities, and his mother asks, “Have you tried…not being a mutant?” This entire scene resonated with a lot of people, especially as the subtext felt like a gay teen coming out to his parents; it ended up resonating even more when Bobby was revealed to be gay in the comics. While debates have raged about the mutant metaphor and its effectiveness, Iceman’s coming to terms with his identity is a shining example of when it truly works.
11) Colossus
(119 Points | Highest Placement = 5th)
My first experience with Piotr Rasputin (aka Colossus) may very well have been the 1992 arcade game X-Men. It was ubiquitous in pretty much every mall arcade in America throughout the ’90s. The side-scrlling beat ’em up genre was perfect for the X-men, and though I usually picked Wolverine, Colossus was always a close second. (Especially in multiplayer matches when my older brother would invariably take Wolverine first.)
That level of “dependability” is because Colossus stands as one of the clearest embodiments of Xavier’s dream, largely because his character is defined by gentleness, humility, and moral steadiness rather than internal conflict about his identity as a mutant.
Piotr grew up a farm boy in the Soviet Union, and that grounded, communal upbringing shaped him into someone who sees his mutant strength as a responsibility to protect others, and not a source of alienation or power to exploit. He willingly joined the X-Men to help people, and his metal form, despite its intimidating appearance, is consistently portrayed as defensive rather than offensive. This mirrors Xavier’s vision: mutants using their gifts in service of a shared, peaceful world rather than as tools of domination.
Colossus reinforces that core dream through his relationships, particularly his enduring bond with Kate Pryde. His willingness to sacrifice himself repeatedly for the team (most famously curing the Legacy Virus at the cost of his life in “Fatal Attractions”) embodies the idea of self-sacrifice for coexistence.
Where Colossus complicates the dream is through his brief stint with the Acolytes and later willingness to kill Jean Grey (as the Phoenix host) to prevent a catastrophe, and his conflicted feelings about that act. These moments show that even the most morally centered mutants can be pushed toward pragmatism or violence when survival is at stake.
Colossus is arguably one of the most sincere adherents to Charles Xavier’s dream. But his rare departures reveal the dream’s real-world strain under existential threat.
Piotr Rasputin could be considered to be the bedrock of the X-Men. Part of that is due to his mutant power to transform into solid steel, making him physically strong and virtually invincible. But it’s also in the bonds he’s formed: with his family, particularly his sister Illyana, a “Three Musketeers” style dynamic with Wolverine and Nightcrawler, and a tumultuous relationship with Kitty Pryde.
That means that whenever Colossus’ faith in the X-Men is shaken, or he falls prey to evil, it makes a huge impact. And make no mistake, he’s been through plenty of events thay have shaken his dense core. Surrendering himself to Cyttorak’s will; being possessed by his own brother Mikhail during Benjamin Percy’s X-Force; and the shocking moment where he kills Proteus — each instance proves that fighting for Charles Xavier’s dream was always going to cost dear Piotr.
The biggest moment, though, lies in the aforementioned “Fatal Attractions” storyline. Most people remember this story as “the one where Magneto rips out Wolverine’s adamantium.” However, it’s also when Colossus, bitter from losing Illyana to the Legacy Virus, chose to join Magneto’s Acolytes. It was a sobering moment that showed that a broken, embittered heart lay within his steel form, and an instance that shook the X-Men to their core.
Colossus is slated to play a major part in Christopher Yost and Tony S. Daniel’s Maximum X-Men, where he joins a team dedicated to protecting the Earth. It’s a big deal, as the X-Men are stepping up in a way the Avengers can’t. But it shows that no matter what, Piotr Rasputin will continue to be the X-Men’s rock.
X-Heads, stay tuned for Part 4 on Thursday, November 12!
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