X-Men...if you are a fan, stand up and be counted!

[Master Nero Attoru]

I love the X-Men!  My other obsession besides Star Wars, they have always been my favorite superhero comics.  It all started when I was a kid and I started watching the 90s TV show (a classic), back then my favorite character was naturally Wolverine.  Later on I read up on more of the stories, and got more well versed on the actual comics, and it gave me a much wider view of the franchise as a whole.  Eventually I gravitated towards the Ultimate line of Marvel Comics, which essentially gave a new universe to reintroduce Marvel characters into (often with a darker twist).

Onto the questions!

So I guess the questions will reveal much but one can hope...

1. Who was your favorite mutant character (include pics!) within the X-Men realm (good or bad)?

2. Which single mutant power/ability do you most gravitate towards or favor?

3. Which story arc was your favorite?

1.  Originally my favorite was Wolverine, because let's face it... what kid doesn't love him?



Later my tastes grew a bit more mature, and I gravitated towards a character much more like myself... Beast!



I know, I know, you're gonna ask if I'm blue and furry... but the thing is, I was drawn to the guy because of his temperament and intellect most of all.  Despite being physically imposing, he's actually very friendly and passionate about science, which was always a love of mine as well.  He's just an all around great character, and seems to have much more depth than many other comic book superheroes.

2.  This is a tough question, and I've gone back and forth a lot.  I was always more of a fan of direct powers - super strength, energy beams, etc.  As a younger man you can see how these things would be attractive, the brute force method over the more subtle skills.  However, thanks to Heroes I've become a big fan of telekinesis, and I think that would be my power of choice if I had to pick.

Of course, there are a number of mutants with really interesting and unique powers - Gambit with his ability to charge objects, Bishop with his ability to absorb attacks, Magneto with his mastery of magnetism... they really did a good job fleshing out that world with original abilities!

3.   Hmmm another toughie... I'd have to say the Phoenix saga (and the corresponding Dark Phoenix one) is up there, and as I said I'm a big fan of the Ultimate comics, so many of the arcs from that universe are great too.  Age of Apocalypse is another great one, just because of how it turned the whole world on its head.

[ed_ification]

Hm, not sure how I missed this thread.

I first got into comics as the X-Men series that aired on Fox in the states came out.  A well-drawn show, with good voice acting, serious plot, deep villains (but then, Fox was doing some great stuff between X-Men, Spider-Man, and Batman: The Animated Series).  The show regularly featured Gambit, Storm, Jubilee, Jean Grey, Scott Summers, Professor X, Wolverine, Rogue, and Beast, but one also saw Juggernaut, Magneto, the Brotherhood, Mr. Sinister, Apocalypse, Colossus, Banshee, the Shi'ar, Bishop...  I then hit the Age of Apocalypse storyline, and was fascinated, to the point that I picked up Legion Quest, X-Men Alpha, all of the separate issues making up AoA, X-Men Omega, and X-Men Prime.  Still have 'em.  Nightcrawler's takedown of Dead Man Wade was damned impressive (note:  do not make someone who can selectively teleport upset).

Most of the X-villains were multi-dimensional, which I always appreciated.  That wasn't seen often in DC, by comparison.

Favorite characters:

1)  I always really liked Beast.  He was erudite, intelligent, and a superhero to boot, who approached things like another sci-fi hero of mine, Spock.  Beast used logic as much as he did he acrobatic senses.  His doppelganger from AoA was pretty freaky at first, and definitely a good Sith source for those not wanting to play slavering monsters.



Honorable mentions:  Bishop, Mr. Sinister, AoA Magneto

2)  Power/ability:  TK.  The ability to use your mind as a literal weapon!

3)  Favorite story arc:  Has to be Age of Apocalypse.  I've gone back and read others, but never went to gather the issues like I have since.

[reiperx]

Reiperx...we consult the online random number generator...

...permanent change, whole body, absorption of inorganic material (retaining a small portion of the absorbed material forever, so over time with many samples will look bizarre to say the least) gaining the value of said material (steel=hardened flesh, silicone rubber=flexible/stretchy flesh, sand=flowing flesh)

So I'd be a combination of Speedball, Collosus, and Sandman. I think I can live with that, even though the deformities would probably drive me insane in the end and I end up going super villian.

[Master Rel]

To the Deadpool thing, it is safe to say that nobody would know who he was if he were a sales clerk primarily because he wouldn't be a superhero/villian, therefore would have never gotten into the comics.  But give him any decent skillset/abilities or just implant his personality on another decent mutant, and I'd probably really like him (I'm not a fan of a few abilities that just ruin characters for my, like Juggie)

No I meant to say that the new vision of deadpool was not an assassin but a store clerk BEFORE he became a subject of an X-Men story line/arc...not he stayed a clerk lol.

No special skills, just a kid with the cellular regeneration and crazy behavior  

Puts the love to the test?  Could have a costume just like the original, just sans the blades and guns...but the crazy attitude and wacky behavior...


*****


Anyways...back to actual X-Men.

Favored setting, Age of Apocalypse...one of the highlights of the comicbook arc for me was Sabertooth and Wildchild




If you were able to create a character to fit with in the AoA...would you go the sith route and join Apoc or fight against him?

Let us say your character is not X-Men standard level but close...so a major power or a couple minor ones chained together...Gamma-Level mutations

(clipped)

Gamma mutants have very powerful mutations, but they have flaws. Unlike the Beta mutants a Gamma mutant's flaw is a major flaw that makes his or her life very hard. The best example is probably Rogue. Rogue can absorb anybody's power, which makes her very powerful, but she can't touch people without triggering her power, which makes any kind of romantic life difficult. Also, while Alpha and Beta mutants can pass as regular looking humans, many Gamma mutants cannot because they have physical deformities like Blob or Marrow.

    Classify mutants as Gamma Level if their mutation is powerful, uncontrollable, sometimes useful but usually detrimental to living a normal life, such as a monstrously inhuman appearance that can't be switched off at will.

(clipped)


So your character would be on the lower end of the Gamma range...appearance is Gamma and power level is closer to Delta.


*****


Example...I will make a quick one...


Lovecraft...minor empath with an electrical/magnetic field...most intense power affect is by touch...he can cause short term memory loss, stunning shock, and with extended contact more lethal results (coma or death)...his most effective use is an a living EMP generator, albeit short range...and as a tracker/lie detector using his empathic sense.

His grey skin is covered in a short coarse black fur with a shock of hair on his head/neck...fairly thin for his weight...tough and resilient...he grew up alone and wild, reverting back to this behavior with a frenzy of movement when engaged.

His training has focused on him getting in and out without drawing to much attention, a scout normally.

[Master Rel]

So I'd be a combination of Speedball, Collosus, and Sandman. I think I can live with that, even though the deformities would probably drive me insane in the end and I end up going super villian.

Hmmm perhaps I described it incorrectly...I can not for the life of me see how you got Speedball out of that description lol.

Think of the one it was patterned after, the Absorbing Man.

Not near his power level, as he is an iconic villain   

Your ability is to touch and alter your flesh into a living version of said inorganic...glass, steel, sand, silicone, iron, vulcanized rubber, etc.

Once you change back to your at rest form, you would be human with patches of inorganic material...after many many absorptions the at rest form would be a hot mess of materials.

The Sandman thing is a bit of a stretch (ah ah wait for it...sigh), while you could becoming a living sandman, it would be a damage reducing sort of thing with some element of entangle at a touch aspect, smother...but not the growing to a huge sand monster or stretching across the city sort of thing 

Tons of potential...try to put your own identity to it rather than clone an existing character   

[reiperx]

Hmmm perhaps I described it incorrectly...I can not for the life of me see how you got Speedball out of that description lol.

Think of the one it was patterned after, the Absorbing Man.

Not near his power level, as he is an iconic villain   

Your ability is to touch and alter your flesh into a living version of said inorganic...glass, steel, sand, silicone, iron, vulcanized rubber, etc.

Once you change back to your at rest form, you would be human with patches of inorganic material...after many many absorptions the at rest form would be a hot mess of materials.

The Sandman thing is a bit of a stretch (ah ah wait for it...sigh), while you could becoming a living sandman, it would be a damage reducing sort of thing with some element of entangle at a touch aspect, smother...but not the growing to a huge sand monster or stretching across the city sort of thing 

Tons of potential...try to put your own identity to it rather than clone an existing character   

I just got speedball from the rubber part.

But yeah I understood the gist of it, and was thinking more along the examples given, not going really out there like with Sandman.

As far as that particular character I'd have the following:

Name: Rook or Reiper (nothing to do with the powers, but both are my gaming tags I've used for years).
Since I would in essence be a gamma mutant (as described later) I would end up wearing a full set of armor with an organic material lining. I would have a way to get quick to remove the gloves, or part of it to absorb qualities as needed (which I assume woudl be very painful), and would end up keeping some samples stowed on myself (this is assuming that I do lose the quality when I revert forms (although I would bypass this if I kept the qualities even in 'normal' form)).
I'd originate as a bodyguard type person in it for the money more than actually protecting people, even though after I got the money I'd end up being more philipastic (I butched the word I know) with it. But over time the disfigurment would really begin getting to me and I'd go super villain unless there was something to keep me grounded.

[Master Rel]

Picture you as you are right now...then after some traumatic moment of life you touch a concrete wall and turn into a living concrete version of yourself...then after the excitement wears off you revert back to "normal" but a patch of skin/flesh retains that concrete nature (random location)...your right elbow.

After a few experiments, to your horror, the patches always follow you back into your at rest form...you end up with a concrete elbow, a stainless steel right ear/partial cheek, steel knee, glass left ear, etc.

Your left ear gets damaged and carries over to your at rest form...takes the normal healing time but is deformed...fused glass.

Something like that 

One would assume that with much practice, focus, and training you could patch an area with a different material...say replacing a glass or plastic section with steel or kelvar for example.

The real danger here of course would be allowing too much of your at rest form to become inorganic, potentially losing your connection to humanity...who knows right?


*****


Back to the topic...X-Men...which characters spoke to you in the Age of Apoc story arc?

[reiperx]

No I meant to say that the new vision of deadpool was not an assassin but a store clerk BEFORE he became a subject of an X-Men story line/arc...not he stayed a clerk lol.

No special skills, just a kid with the cellular regeneration and crazy behavior  

Puts the love to the test?  Could have a costume just like the original, just sans the blades and guns...but the crazy attitude and wacky behavior...
[/quote]

I'd still not really consider him a super hero at the time, therefore he still would be unknown to me (and if thats how it is now, I haven't actually read comics in about 10 years minus a few of the civile war saga).

If you were able to create a character to fit with in the AoA...would you go the sith route and join Apoc or fight against him?

Let us say your character is not X-Men standard level but close...so a major power or a couple minor ones chained together...Gamma-Level mutations

(clipped)

Gamma mutants have very powerful mutations, but they have flaws. Unlike the Beta mutants a Gamma mutant's flaw is a major flaw that makes his or her life very hard. The best example is probably Rogue. Rogue can absorb anybody's power, which makes her very powerful, but she can't touch people without triggering her power, which makes any kind of romantic life difficult. Also, while Alpha and Beta mutants can pass as regular looking humans, many Gamma mutants cannot because they have physical deformities like Blob or Marrow.

    Classify mutants as Gamma Level if their mutation is powerful, uncontrollable, sometimes useful but usually detrimental to living a normal life, such as a monstrously inhuman appearance that can't be switched off at will.

(clipped)


So your character would be on the lower end of the Gamma range...appearance is Gamma and power level is closer to Delta.

I found this actually quite funny. We did a PnP RP back in the day for the X-Men that was during the AoA. What makes it even funnier to me, is my 2nd TOR character (Rhavana) in the RP here is based off of that character very closely. For this purpose I am using her powers when I started rather than in the middle or when she died in the PnP.

AoA Character
Name: Syn (I'm a mythology buff).
Powers: Mind control (moderate) - Requires minimal concentration. Able to control the actions on an individual within line of sight (video cameras do not count, must be true line of sight). Subject can break line of sight and stay under the control until the final actions are performed before LOS is broken. Able to give commands that can be semi-complex but cannot access the contolee's memory (example: cannot force someone to punch in a security code that Syn doesn't already know).
Mass mind control (limited) - Requires great concentration. Able to manipulate everyone within a 10 foot sphere to perform simple commands. Ability affects everybody within the sphere. Not able to issue individuals commands, but able to send individual commands to those in a certain direction (ie can tell the people infront to duck down and the people in the rear to do jumping jacks).

Note: Commands do not require speech to be sent.

Blue skin, bright yellow eyes, white hair, slightly thin build.

Syn grew up in a political family, and learned how to manipulate people early in his life. Once his powers developed and his skin began changing, his famliy shunned him for being different. So one day he returned and had his father burn down their mansion, nobody was harmed but his family lost everything just as he did. He eventually joined a group of vandalls that stole to get by in life. He utilized his powers to not only get more things for his group, but also keep keep violence down.

The character was really fun to play, and not nearly as overpowered as it sounds on paper. He ended up dying when he got hit by a train (I made a really really bad roll).

Back to the topic...X-Men...which characters spoke to you in the Age of Apoc story arc?

X-Man - Like I said earlier, I'm a big Cable fan and I thought it was amazing to see how he would have developed if it wasn't for his virus.
Gambit - I liked him better in that series for some reason, never been a hug gambit fan.
Blink - I liked her character in the series, never really paid any attention to her before or after the AoA

[Master Rel]

Deadpool...no he is not as described by me, I was making a point lol 


The AoA character sounds great to me...not overpowered in my mind at all...now if the range were 10 miles and no limit of people affected well then that would be silly, your description sounds right on the money to me 

The line of sight is an interesting thought...I would counter offer that it could be LOS for extended range and touch for greater affect?

But I like it as is 


Back to X-Men (trying to balance on and off topic )  AoA, that setting established a benchmark for me that satisfied my interest, I just did not need to follow up with all the dozens of titles...I mean I still did casually follow the other titles, I am a bit of an easy mark that way, but not committed.

AoA is so burned into my brain that I am currently working with a pair of game designers to work with the flavor of AoA without stepping on toes or creeping into IP territory...so I have been rereading and researching.

Loads of fun that setting is 

[reiperx]

Deadpool...no he is not as described by me, I was making a point lol 


The AoA character sounds great to me...not overpowered in my mind at all...now if the range were 10 miles and no limit of people affected well then that would be silly, your description sounds right on the money to me 

The line of sight is an interesting thought...I would counter offer that it could be LOS for extended range and touch for greater affect?

But I like it as is 


Back to X-Men (trying to balance on and off topic )  AoA, that setting established a benchmark for me that satisfied my interest, I just did not need to follow up with all the dozens of titles...I mean I still did casually follow the other titles, I am a bit of an easy mark that way, but not committed.

AoA is so burned into my brain that I am currently working with a pair of game designers to work with the flavor of AoA without stepping on toes or creeping into IP territory...so I have been rereading and researching.

Loads of fun that setting is 

I get where you are going, but like I said before, dump his personality on many different characters and I would probably like it. The clerk to X-Man doesn't really work storywise.

I'd be interested in learning more about those games when you get to finishing them up? Video, PnP, or other type of game?

I'm like you with me liking how they meshed the different teams together so well. Although I was a pretty big X-Men and X-Force fan before the series, but this got me more interested in a lot of the others as well.

Another short stint that I liked, but they drove it into the ground was the 2099 serieses but I think Marvel went too far with too many of them. XMen 2099 in itself I thought was fairly fun to read.

 

[Master Rel]

Yep, agreed the 2099 was a fun read.

 

[Master Nero Attoru]

Hm, not sure how I missed this thread.

I first got into comics as the X-Men series that aired on Fox in the states came out.  A well-drawn show, with good voice acting, serious plot, deep villains (but then, Fox was doing some great stuff between X-Men, Spider-Man, and Batman: The Animated Series).  The show regularly featured Gambit, Storm, Jubilee, Jean Grey, Scott Summers, Professor X, Wolverine, Rogue, and Beast, but one also saw Juggernaut, Magneto, the Brotherhood, Mr. Sinister, Apocalypse, Colossus, Banshee, the Shi'ar, Bishop...  I then hit the Age of Apocalypse storyline, and was fascinated, to the point that I picked up Legion Quest, X-Men Alpha, all of the separate issues making up AoA, X-Men Omega, and X-Men Prime.  Still have 'em.  Nightcrawler's takedown of Dead Man Wade was damned impressive (note:  do not make someone who can selectively teleport upset).

Most of the X-villains were multi-dimensional, which I always appreciated.  That wasn't seen often in DC, by comparison.

Favorite characters:

1)  I always really liked Beast.  He was erudite, intelligent, and a superhero to boot, who approached things like another sci-fi hero of mine, Spock.  Beast used logic as much as he did he acrobatic senses.  His doppelganger from AoA was pretty freaky at first, and definitely a good Sith source for those not wanting to play slavering monsters.

Honorable mentions:  Bishop, Mr. Sinister, AoA Magneto

2)  Power/ability:  TK.  The ability to use your mind as a literal weapon!

3)  Favorite story arc:  Has to be Age of Apocalypse.  I've gone back and read others, but never went to gather the issues like I have since.

Sounds like we have pretty similar tastes!

[DarthAsphyxious]

Favorite hero: Morph from AoA, Exiles and Animated Series. I just like shapeshifters and I really liked the Morphs from those series.
Favorite Villain: Probably Mr.Sinister or Loki. Mr. Sinister just cause he's such an excellent evil/mad scientist type. Loki cause I like Norse Mythology and in my mind he isn't really evil, just a prankster.
Favorite Wildcard: The goddamn Deadpool, Bitch! 

My favorite setting/era: The Animated Series, it's what I'm most familiar with. :3