X-3 Primer

So I’m off to a screening of X-Men: The Last Stand tonight, and I thought I would offer up a primer for some of the new characters you’ll see in the flick. Now these characters have gone through many incarnations (Ultimate X-Men, Age of Apocalypse, Marvel Adventures), but I’m going to just stick with the main Marvel Universe (Otherwise known as Marvel 616 for those geeks out there).

Beast

Real Name: Henry Philip McCoy
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1
Powers: superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, dexterity, acrobatic prowess, night vision, enhanced senses, healing abilities, razor edged claws
Group Affiliations: X-Men, X-Factor, Defnders, Avengers
Notes: Beast was Bryan Singer’s dream character to introduce into the X-Men universe. Finally (with the sad subtraction Nightcrawler) he comes to life. Beast has always been one of the most popular X-men, and he is probably the first to break the “strong guy” mold. Traditionally, the really strong guy on a team or in a comic (Hulk, Thing, etc) have never been all that smart. With Beast, Stan Lee made the brute force of the team also the team genius.
As far as the movie goes, I find the “Kelsey Grammer” casting a little un-inspired. I feel like they’re focusing on the mold of the X-Men cartoon character of Beast which was a tad 2-dimensional.
Recommended Reading: Astonishing X-men 1-6. A cure for mutation is found (Yes, this story was one of the inspirations for the movie) and nobody is more conflicted with this choice more than the Beast.

Shadowcat

Real Name: Kitty Pryde
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #129
Powers: phase her molecules into intangibility, letting her move through objects, walk on air, and disrupt electronic systems
Group Affiliations: X-Men, Excalibur
Notes: A really great character who has only really come into her own until the last few years. In many ways Shadowcat is the soul of X-men’s concept. In the comics we got to see her develop from a scared child who struggled with control of her powers, to a young woman working towards peace between mutants and humans (with the occasional all out drag out fight in between).
In the movie, she’s played by Ellen Page who was amazing in the film “Hard Candy”. I’m really looking forward to see how she does in X-Men, especially because Shadowcat is one of my all time favorite characters. I do have one gripe however, the previews make it look like there is a love triangle between her, Rogue and Iceman. What I would much rather see, is some of that blossoming romance between her and Colossus, who have always had a thing for each other in the comics. We already have one triangle established (Jean Grey/Wolverine/Cyclops), why do we need another? The Colossus/Shadowcat story would be pleasing to fans, and allow great character development for both.
Recommended Reading: Astonishing X-men 1-6. Yeah, I’m going here again. This book marked the return of Shadowcat to the X-men. The other reason I’m choosing this book is because the producers of the X-men film actually used the dialogue from this book when screen testing actresses for the part of Kitty Pryde.

Angel
Real Name: Warren Worthington III
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1
Group Affiliations: X-Men, X-Factor, Defenders, Champions, Four Horsemen
Powers: peak human strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, eyesight, and hearing, feathered wings allowing flight, healing power in his blood rejuvenates him and anyone with a compatible blood type it touches.
Notes: From what I’ve heard, you’ve already seen most of Angel’s screen time in the previews, and that’s fine with me. Angel has always been a little bit of a bland character, in need of a writer to come along with a fresh view. In a nutshell, he’s a rich dude with wings. For Angel was his coolest, when his wings were mutilated and removed. He was taken in by Apocalypse and had metal wings grafted onto his back, eventually leading him to become Archangel. A bad mo fo who was just a little on the psycho side.
Recommended Reading: The Mutant Massacre Trade Paperback. The X-men go up against the Mauraders in one of the bloodiest battles the X-men have taken part in. This is the story that led to Angel’s wings getting mutilated, and also featured the first appearance of Gambit (although this wasn’t revealed for nearly 15 years)


Colossus
Real Name: Piotr Rasputin
First Appearance: Giant Sized X-Men #1
Powers: Enhanced Strength, can convert his body into organic steel
Affilations: X-Men, Excalibur
Notes: One of my all time favorite X-Men (or comic book characters for that fact). Collosus, in my mind, is the heart of the X-men. He is a giant of a man, yet probably the most compassionate. Colossus’ relationships with his teammates were some of the most interesting. Of all of the X-men, he was one of the only that Wolverine would call a close friend. Of course, you’d have to be close when your signature move involves being thrown at enemies by the big man himself (the appropriately titled “Fastball Special”)
As far as the movie goes, most of my dread lies with Colossus. In X2 we were treated to a glorious cameo that I still adore. Just that moment of Colossus rushing up to Wolverine saying “I can help you” gives me goosebumps. But from what I’ve seen of him in the film, I’m apprehensive. First off…he looks like crap! Secondly…he shouldn’t look like crap! He looked awesome in the last film, why change it if it aint broke? Also, from what I’ve read he isn’t given much to do in part 3, which is a shame…
Recommended Reading: Uncanny X-men #390. A cure for the Legacy Virus (which was basically an airborne AIDS that only affected mutants) is found…but at what cost? And of course, after reading this, go read Astonishing X-men 1-6 (What can I say, Joss Whedon has made the best X-book in 20 years)

Juggernaut
Real Name: Cain Marko
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #12
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.
Notes: He’s the Motherf**king Juggernaut! The thing I always liked about Juggernaut, was that when he usually showed up, all it really meant was a knock down, drag out fight. And every once in a while, that can just be fun. If he’s used right in the movie, he should be a blast.
Recommended Reading: Uncanny X-Men #217-218. Just a big fight w/the Juggernaut that involves him totally owning Dazzler.

Callisto
Real Name: Unknown
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #169
Powers: Heightened strength, agility, reflexes, and sensory perceptions, regenerative powers, arms have been transformed into multiple suction tentacles
Group Affiliations: Morlocks
Notes: Callisto was a little before my time, and hasn’t been used much since. I’ve read some of the various morlocks stories, but I’ve never been huge fans of them (with the exception of the Mutant Massacre). I know in the movie she’s going to be one of Magneto’s goons, but beyond that…I don’t have much.
Recommended Reading: Mutant Massacre Trade Paperback. I’ve already mentioned this for Angel, but this series was a very defining moment in the history of the X-men. This is really the first time an X-men story had a real body count. Not an alternate future or Jean Grey destroying a planet, but a bloody much more resonant body count.

Multiple Man
Real Name: Jaimie Madrox
First Appearance: Giant Sized Fantastic Four #4
Powers: create exact physical duplicates of himself upon contact with any amount of kinetic energy
Group Affilations: X-Factor
Notes: I love this character. In the comics, he’s a fantastic character, and his concept has been as fully realized as any character you’re likely to come across. I don’t even want to spoil some of his cooler quirks in hopes that some of you actually read the recommended reading selection. From what I’ve heard about the movie, the Multiple Man is nothing more than a cameo, which is a shame. He’s a really fun character.
Recommended Reading: Madrox Trade Paperback. A Multiple man solo adventure, and a really great one at that. The story itself is basically a film-noir crime story, but with a X-men edge. It’s cool enough reading that even non-comic book fans would probably even dig it.

Psylocke
Real Name: Betsy Braddock
First Appearance: Captain Britain Vol. 1 #8
Powers: Telekinetics allow her to manipulate matter through directed psionic energy, focus her mental energies into a psionic katana.
Group Affiliations: X-Men, The Hand
Notes: For me, depending on the writer, I either seem to hate or love Psylocke. She does make a pretty cool bad ass, but I never seemed to care about her as a character. From what I hear, she’s a bad guy in the movie, and her role is pretty tiny. I haven’t seen the actress they’ve cast her in, but I’m hoping they at least make her psi-knife cool. I always loved that freaking thing.
Recommended Reading: X-Tinction Agenda Trade Paperback. Jim Lee seemed to love to draw Psylocke, and he did a damn fine job of it. This storyline doesn’t really focus on Psylocke, she basically just runs around with Wolverine a lot whooping a lot of whoop@$$.

Omega Red
Real Name: Arkady Rossovich
First Appearance: X-men #4
Powers: Peak human strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes, death factor generates bioplasmic energy to feed the life energy of others into his own storage, retractable carbonadium tentacles that focus the death factor.
Notes: Big Russian dude that likes to give Wolverine a hard time. That’s really all there is to Omega Red. He doesn’t really show up that much anymore, and is really a victim of the “Style over Substance” glut of the early nineties. I have no idea what capacity he is in the movie, but I doubt it’s much.
Recommended Reading: X-men #4-6. The X-men throw down with Omega Red for the first time. Shenanigans ensue.