The X-Men are without a doubt one of Marvel’s most popular teams and for good reason. Over their more than 60-year history, the team had some of the most iconic and notable adventures in all of comics and has grown to include many notable characters. The team has even shifted and evolved to include various sub-teams making them one of the biggest forces in Marvel Comics. Their impact has been huge and it just keeps growing — especially with the X-Men set to arrive in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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However, while the X-Men are some of the biggest and most impactful characters in comics, there are quite a few misconceptions about the team and its various heroes. Specifically, there are some things that most fans consider to be “facts” about the X-Men that simply are not true. Here are five such bits of information about the X-Men, things most people believe to be true but are not.
5) The X-Men Are Named For Charles Xavier
With Charles Xavier having brought the heroes together, it makes sense that people would assume that the X in X-Men stands for Professor Xavier himself. However, that is actually not the case. It’s actually a reference to the X-Gene, the mutation that is responsible for making people, well, mutants. It really is that simple. The X-Men are mutants with the X-Gene.
Of course, fans get the misunderstanding about the X-Men name honestly. Not only is the connection between Xavier and X-Men natural (and who wouldn’t want to name their super team after themselves?) but over the years, Xavier has frequently used the summons “to me, my X-Men” which further makes it seem like the team is really “his”.
4) Wolverine and Sabretooth Are Brothers
You can blame X-Men Origins: Wolverine for this one. In the 2009 movie, Victor Creed/Sabretooth is presented as Wolverine’s half-brother and while it would certainly make the rivalry between the two of them much more complex and interesting, the actual fact is that they are not brothers. They aren’t related at all — though Sabretooth’s creator Chris Claremont has previously indicated that he originally envisioned Sabretooth to be Wolverine’s father, something that never actually played out.
Instead of being related, Sabretooth and Wolverine are both participants of Weapon X’s super soldier program but while Wolverine tires to suppress his violent, animal behavior, Sabretooth goes the other way and eventually becomes Wolverine’s biggest enemy, obsessed with forcing Wolverine to embrace his feral side.
3) Jean Grey Is Marvel’s Most Powerful Mutant
As an Omega-level mutant with massive powers of telepathy, telekinesis and more as well as being the physical host for the Phoenix Force, it’s easy to think that Jean Grey is the most powerful mutant in Marvel Comics. The truth is, however, that she’s not. In fact, she’s not even really in the top five.
The spot of “most powerful mutant” changes from time to time in comics — at one point, it was Franklin Richards until it was retconned that he’s not actually a mutant at all — but some of the mutants more powerful than Jean include David Haller/Legion, Matthew Malloy, Nathaniel Essex, and Onslaught with the latter being one of the most feared mutants in the Marvel universe because his powers are insane.
2) Cyclops Optic Blasts Are Lasers
Scott Summers’ best known and most often portrayed power is his optic blasts. It’s an admittedly cool power, even if he can’t control it unless he’s wearing special eyewear and he has to wear some version of the eyewear at all times. But while Cyclops’ optic blasts are often depicted as though they are lasers coming from his eyes, that’s not actually the case at all.
Rather than being lasers, Cyclops’ optic blasts are really a bean of pure concussive force. It’s why the ruby quartz lenses of his eyewear helps him control the blasts (this wouldn’t necessarily work if they were lasers). Furthermore, the blasts don’t actually produce heat themselves — though when they impact their targets and objects can cause friction which, in turn can cause heat that leads to burning or melting, which might be part of why people think they’re lasers.
1) Juggernaut is a Mutant
Is Juggernaut part of the X-Men? Yes. So that makes him a mutant, right? No. As it turns out, Juggernaut gets his powers from the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak which provides him powers such as superhuman strength, stamina, durability, unstoppable momentum, immortality, and more. His powers come not from his own genetics, but from more mystical origins.
Despite not being a mutant, however, Juggernaut was actually given Krakoan citizenship after it was decided to grant citizenship to the human relatives of mutants — which in this cause included Juggernaut because he’s Charles Xavier’s half-brother.
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Image courtesy of Stage 6 Films
