Marvel Comics released a crossover storyline 10 years ago that showed how powerful six famous X-Men could be. This was an event where the Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men teamed up, and the Black Vortex empowered the heroes. The Black Vortex is an ancient artefact that the Celestials created eons ago, a mirror that allows a hero to glimpse their full potential if they submit to it. That happened in this series, and six members of the X-Men unlocked the full potential of their powers. However, this is a cursed artifact that has destroyed entire societies. The X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy had to keep from letting the power corrupt them so they could stop the destruction of the galaxy.
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Here is a look at the six X-Men members who the Black Vortex empowered, and how it increased their powers.
6) Storm
Up first is Storm, one of the most respected leaders in X-Men history. On her own, she is an Omega-level mutant and one of the most powerful in history. She has powers over the weather, and there is no limit to what she can do concerning the elements. She is also a goddess, and that makes her powers even more impressive. With the Black Vortex, she was shown powers on an even greater scale.
When Storm looked into the Black Vortex, she saw herself wielding more powers than she ever imagined. In reality, she became the Goddess of Thunder. She could ride solar winds between stars in space and had enough power inside her to destroy entire worlds. However, Storm is an incredibly disciplined hero, and she rejected the power and tried to convince everyone to destroy the Black Vortex.
5) Beast
If any X-Men hero had the highest chance to be swayed by the Black Vortex, it is Beast. No formerly beloved hero fell harder than Beast in Marvel Comics. From the moment he used time travel on the young X-Men and stranded them in the present to the moment where he decided to attempt genocide as the leader of X-Force, Beast became the most corrupted X-Men hero in ages.
Beast’s thirst for knowledge and scientific curiosity is greater than any morality he once had, so his idea of empowerment by the Black Vortex was hard to shake. Beast looked into the Black Vortex while his teammates were debating destroying it. He gained the ultimate intelligence, the ability to see the entire multiverse and the nature of reality. It was a rare chance where he realized he was in the wrong and rejected the Black Vortex.
4) Angel
Archangel has accepted great power before. When he lost his wings as a member of X-Factor, he was almost killed in a plane bombing and was saved by Apocalypse. When offered to become a Horseman as Death, he agreed to become an Archangel, and it changed him forever. He had another chance with the Black Vortex.
However, this wasn’t the Angel who gave himself to Apocalypse. This was the time-displaced Angel, the one that Beast stranded in the present. He submitted to the Black Vortex and gained more power than before, with wings of cosmic energy that turned him into fire. Unlike Beast and Storm, he kept his powers and became very similar to Archangel. Kid Cable finally showed up and saved him, taking his powers away and returning him to his own era.
3) Cyclops
Cyclops is another X-Men member whose thirst for power and control often causes him to make questionable decisions. However, Cyclops is one of the few to give himself over to the Black Vortex, but with an ulterior plan. Thanks to his psychic connection with Jean Grey, she convinced him to give in and trust in his own heart that he would remain a force of good in the universe.
Cyclops was scared the Black Vortex would unleash the darkness inside of him, but Jean knew there wasn’t darkness as Scott believed there to be. He was one of the few people who accepted the Black Vortex’s transformation that didn’t come close to losing control of himself. The only real upgrade he received, though, was more powerful optic blasts, and he had control over them for the first time in his life.
2) Iceman
Iceman is a unique X-Men member to get the Black Vortex powers because it never really showed what he was capable of. Iceman and Groot looked into the Black Vortex together and never saw how much more powerful they could become. For Iceman, he was shown to have more enhanced ice powers. This is interesting, but Iceman is much more powerful than the X-Men comics have usually indicated, as he has had his full powers unlocked more than once, proving he is an Omega-level mutant.
1) Kitty Pryde
Kitty Pryde has shown more than once that she is a lot more powerful as an X-Men member than just someone who can phase through walls. The Brood threatened to destroy the planet of Spartax, the X-Men, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, and it was Kitty who had to save the day. That is when she submitted to the Black Vortex and accepted the enhanced powers.
She ended up massively overpowered and was no longer attached to this plane of existence, able to communicate with every version of herself in history. However, it is always important to remember that Kitty is one of the best heroes in the X-Men, and she resisted the temptation for evil and used her new powers for good by phasing an entire planet and destroying enemy spacecraft in her hands.
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