If you were a fan of superheroes growing up in the 1990s, you probably loved X-Men: The Animated Series, the uber-popular cartoon that attempted to translate over 30 years of continuity into 22 minute chunks.While the cartoon successfully poisoned a generation of superhero fans against Cyclops, it also introduced fans to dozens of mutants from every corner of the Marvel Universe.We’ve compiled a list of every mutant guest star that appeared on the show.This list doesn’t include the core team of X-Men (including Morph, who was both a friend and foe on the show) or their main villains Magneto, Apocalypse and Mister Sinister, but every other mutant, but every other mutant who cameoed or had a guest appearance are included:
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X-Factor
In “Cold Comfort”, Iceman tracked his ex-girlfriend Polaris to a government compound that served as the headquarters to X-Factor. The team, based on the government sponsored version of X-Factor from the 1990s, consisted of Forge, Havok, Polaris, Strong Guy, Wolfsbane, Quicksilver, Multiple Man. When the X-Men arrived looking for Iceman (and Jubilee, who had tagged along), Forge sent X-Factor to attack the X-Men as a training exercise. The fight ended in a draw, and Iceman and the X-Men left when Polaris explained that she was in love with Havok.
Several members of X-Factor made other appearances in X-Men: The Animated Series, which are covered in subsequent slides. However, Havok never made a second appearance, even though it was heavily hinted that he was Cyclops’ brother. A flashback showed Havok as a child, but Cyclops never learned that his brother was alive.
Forge
In addition to leading X-Factor, Forge made several appearances in alternate versions of the future. In two separate futures, Forge sent Bishop into the past to stop some sort of calamity in the present day. One Forge sent Bishop back in time to stop Mystique from assassinating Senator Kelly, while a different Forge sent Bishop to prevent Apocalypse from unleashing a virus that targeted humans. A THIRD alternate version of Forge sent Bishop, Wolverine and Storm from an Age of Apocalypse-esque alternate timeline into the past to stop Trevor Fitzroy from killing Charles Xavier.
Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch
Quicksilver and his sister Scarlet Witch both made an appearance in the episode “Family Ties”, when they discover they’re actually the children of Magneto. Upon discovering the truth, the twins decide to murder Magneto, but their plans are thwarted when the High Evolutionary decides to capture all the mutants in the vicinity (including Wolverine) to use for his experiments involving evolution. In the subsequent breakout and chaos, Wolverine gets turned into a giant wolf, slices up some goat/human hybrids, and later returns to his less hairy human state by Beast and Xavier.
Polaris
A longtime ally of the X-Men, Polaris appeared in “Cold Comfort” as a former X-Man who quit the team along with Iceman after she nearly died during a mission. However, retirement didn’t suit Polaris, and she abandoned Iceman to join up with X-Factor. Iceman later recruited the X-Men to track Polaris down, which led to Polaris breaking up with Iceman once and for all so she could be with her new boyfriend Havok. Polaris also showed up in the “Phalanx Covenant” to help a ragtag team of mutants fight the Phalanx. She fought alongside her father, Magneto, although no mention was made of their familial bonds (probably as it hadn’t been confirmed in the comics, yet.)
Bishop
Bishop is a major recurring character in X-Men: The Animated Series as a time traveler constantly mettling in the past to change the future. He first showed up to stop the assassination of Senator Kelly in the show’s version of Days of Future Past, and then returned when he discovered that his future was now ravaged by a virus unleashed by Apocalypse. He also helped Storm and Wolverine go back in time to stop Trevor Fitzroy from killing Professor X in the 1950s (thus causing an Age of Apocalypse-esque alternate timeline). Finally, Cable recruited him to stop Apocalypse from using the Axis of Time to wreck havoc on the timestream. Basically, if there was even a sniff of time travel involved on the show, you could bet Bishop and his oversized gun would suddenly stumble out of a time portal.
Bishop’s sister Shard also made a few appearances on the show as one of his partners and allies in the future.
Cable
X-Men: The Animated Series other time traveler, Cable makes multiple appearances in wildly different roles. During the first season, Cable appeared as a lone wolf mercenary who helped topple the oppressive, mutant-enslaving government of Genosha. However, he appeared in later seasons as a resistance leader in the future fighting Apocalypse, complete with a new cybernetic arm. When Cable’s future was erased because Bishop prevented Apocalypse from unleashing an anti-human virus, he traveled back in time to stop Bishop (and the X-Men) and restore the future. Eventually, Cable and Bishop compromised by infecting Wolverine with the virus, which in turn created antibodies that somehow stabilized the mutant race in the future. Later, Cable gathered a team of mutants to stop Apocalypse from taking the Axis of Time, which would grant the mutant total control of the timestream.
The cartoon gave several hints that Cable was Cyclops and Jean Grey’s son, but never stated that fact outright. I guess some storylines are too complicated even for X-Men: The Animated Series.
The X-Terminators
A version of the X-Terminators appeared in the episode “No Mutant is an Island” as orphans under the telepathic control of the Purple Man. Cyclops, who was visiting his childhood orphanage because he’s the saddest man in existence, discovered the manipulation and freed the orphans before Killgrave could use them as pawns for his bid to become governor. The orphans showed included Rusty Collins, Boom Boom, Skids, Rictor and Whiz Kid.
In the comics, Cyclops and his original X-Factor team posed as the mutant hunting “X-Terminators” to find and train mutants in danger. These younger mutants used the X-Terminators name while helping the New Mutants during Inferno. Several of the X-Terminators later joined various X-Men teams. Boom Boom became a member of X-Force, Rictor joined X-Factor, while Skids became an agent of SHIELD.
Banshee
After the X-Men helped him break free from the villainous Factor Three organization, Banshee became a loyal ally and occasional member of the X-Men. Although most of his history with the X-Men isn’t referenced in X-Men: The Animated Series, Banshee still plays an important role in several episodes. First appearing as Moira MacTaggart’s boyfriend, Banshee first helped the X-Men rescue the Shi’ar princess Lilandra from his brother Black Tom Cassidy. Several seasons later, he then helped the X-Men deal with Proteus, his girlfriend’s reality-warping son, during the mutant’s rampage across Scotland. Banshee was also part of the ragtag team of mutants who fought against the Phalanx.
Colossus
Colossus was one of X-Men: The Animated Series‘s first guest stars, appearing in “The Unstoppable Juggernaut”. After the X-Mansion is destroyed by an unknown mutant, the X-Men find Colossus nearby and try to beat him up, because he’s a muscular dude and clearly he must be the culprit. However, Wolverine realizes that Colossus doesn’t smell like a homewrecker, but Colossus gets arrested by police anyways. The X-Men then break Colossus out of prison and figure out that Juggernaut, Xavier’s half-brother, was actually the bad guy behind the attack. Colossus helps the X-Men defeat Juggernaut, but declines an offer to join the team.
Later, Colossus returns to the X-Men for help fighting Omega Red, who was trying to reform the Soviet Union under his rule. Being red-blooded Americans, the X-Men agreed to help and stamped out communism once and for all!
Magik
A child version of Magik appeared twice in X-Men: The Animated Series, once as a captive of Omega Red and once as a potential future victim of a virus that sounds suspiciously similar to the Legacy Virus. Unfortunately, the show never showed Magik using her teleportation powers, nor did it reference her becoming a ruler of hell, growing a pair of goat legs, and losing her own soul in the process. As mentioned later in the slideshow, hellfire seems to be a line X-Men: The Animated Series doesn’t want to cross.
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler makes two major appearances in X-Men: The Animated Series and has one of the strangest cameos in the show. Nightcrawler first appeared as a cloistered monk living in Switzerland who was attacked by an anti-mutant mob. Luckily, the X-Men were skiing at a nearby resort and stop by to help their newfound fuzzy friend. Later, Nightcrawler and the X-Men discover that Mystique is Nightcrawler’s mother, and she’s helping her other son Graydon Creed and his anti-mutant neo-Nazi group the Friends of Humanity for some reason.
Nightcrawler also makes a cameo in “The Steel and the Lotus” as the personification of Wolverine’s conscience. Which is weird, because everyone knows that Wolverine doesn’t have a conscience. Wolverine reacts accordingly and slices up his hallucination of Nightcrawler, which again is a totally rational thing to do.
Archangel
Angel/Archangel is another recurring guest star on X-Men: The Animated Series, appearing a total of six times. The show established Angel as one of the original five X-Men, but he quit the team to search for a cure for his mutant condition. He found a doctor that promised to remove his wings, but she was actually Mystique in disguise, looking for mutants to serve Apocalypse. Mystique kidnapped Angel and transformed him into Archangel, one of Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen. When the X-Men free him from his brainwashing, he spends several episodes hunting down Apocalypse for revenge. He makes one final appearance in the final season of the show to help Cable and the X-Men stop Apocalypse from his grandiose plan to control the entire timestream. During that adventure, he catches Psylocke (one of his girlfriends in the comics) trying to break into his ancestral castle.
Psylocke
Psylocke appears in the episode “The Promise of Apocalypse” as a ninja thief who targets Archangel’s castle (yes, he has a castle) because he’s not spending his wealth to promote mutant causes. As she fights Archangel and the X-Men, Apocalypse sends Sabretooth, Magneto and Mystique to kidnap Psylocke, because he needs psychics for his plan to CONTROL ALL OF TIME. While Psylocke spends most of the story arc trapped in a tube, she does get to use her psychic knife on Sabretooth, which is pretty cool. She also mentions her brother Captain Britain, although in the X-Men: The Animated Series universe, he seems to be some sort of mutant freedom fighter.
Darkstar
Darkstar appeared in the episode “Red Dawn” as part of a group trying to reestablish the Soviet Union. When the group freed Omega Red and he started kidnapping and killing people, she switched sides and helped the X-Men lock him up a second time. Darkstar is definitely one of the most obscure cameos in X-Men: The Animated Series
Maverick
Wolverine’s history with the Weapon X project was all the rage in the 90s, which probably explains why Maverick kept popping up on X-Men: The Animated Series. After frequently appearing in Wolverine’s flashbacks and suppressed memories without any real context, Maverick finally appeared in the episode “Weapon X, Lies and Videotape”, when he, Wolverine and the other members of Team X discovered the truth they had a bunch of false memories rattling around in their brains. In the comics, Maverick spent several years as a freelance mercenary before rejoining the Weapon X project after contracting the Legacy Virus. In exchange for a cure, Maverick agreed to become Agent Zero, an enhanced mutant designed specifically to kill Wolverine.
Longshot
Longshot makes two appearances in X-Men: The Animated Series, both of which involve the Mojo and the Mojoverse. In the first episode, Longshot helps the X-Men escape from the Mojoverse after Mojo captured them to prop up ratings for his failing network. It should also be noted that Longshot frees the X-Men only because he didn’t want the X-Men to uproot him as Mojo’s top rated star. In the second episode, Longshot arrives on Earth trying to flee from the Mojoverse. Jubilee gets an uncomfortable crush on him, so he decides to head back to his home dimension to “lead a rebellion” AKA get away from the teenage girl who’s practically trying to jump him. Longshot also makes a cameo appearance in one of Jubilee’s dreams, which sounds a lot more salacious without context.
Cannonball
Cannonball makes two appearances in X-Men: The Animated Series, that happen to totally contradict each other. He first appears in the very first episode “Night of the Sentinels” on a television screen, using his powers and dressed in his traditional superhero costume. Several years later, he appears in “Hidden Agendas” as an untrained mutant still trying to learn how to use his powers. The X-Men and an evil government organization battle to recruit Cannonball into his ranks, while his hometown of Hicksville, Kentucky wants to lynch Cannonball for saving some coal miners.
Warlock
While he never met any of his New Mutant teammates, Warlock had a prominent appearance in the two part “Phalanx Covenant” episode. Warlock and his life-partner tried to escape the evil Phalanx race, but the techno-organic alien race followed them to Earth and promptly tried to take over the planet. After the Phalanx quickly assimilated the X-Men and his life-mate, Warlock recruited a hodge-podge of mutants that included Amelia Voght, Beast, Forge and Mister Sinister to drive the aliens (which were led by Cameron Hodge) off the planet. Sadly, the cartoon version of “Phalanx Covenant” did not end with Emma Frost and Banshee forming the Generation X team. No New Mutants, no Generation X, it seems like X-Men: The Animated Series hates teen mutant teams.
Iceman
As one of the five original X-Men, Iceman appears in plenty of flashbacks along with Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and Angel. As we mentioned previously, he’s prominently featured in the episode “Cold Comfort” as a stalker. During the episode, it comes out that he quit the team after Polaris nearly died in a mission, but she broke up with him and he wants to know where she disappeared to. He eventually convinces the X-Men to help him stalk Polaris and later fights her new boyfriend Havok. Weirdly enough, Iceman is portrayed as a bit of a hothead, and butts heads with Cyclops, probably because Iceman reminds him a lot of the team hothead Wolverine.
Dazzler
Dazzler’s first appearance on X-Men: The Animated Series was as a makeup artist for Longshot, her longtime beau in the comics. She had a more substantial role in “The Phoenix Saga” when the Hellfire Club tried to kidnap her after she performed at a club, but Cyclops rescued her. She and Cyclops then got surprisingly cozy with one another, and Dazzler ended up kissing Cyclops right in front of Jean Grey, who was in the middle of getting brainwashed by Mastermind. Actually, that kiss is what ended up turning Jean Grey into Dark Phoenix, so…good job, Dazzler. You almost destroyed the universe!
Fabian Cortez
Fabian Cortez appears as the leader of the Acolytes, a group of mutants who fanatically follow Magneto and his principles. However, Cortez betrayed Magneto and framed the X-Men for his supposed death, leading to a fight between the two teams. Magneto later returns and imprisons Cortez, but he’s freed by Apocalypse and Deathbird. Cortez starts a cult in Apocalypse’s honor and tries to find a new body for Apocalypse, but Apocalypse ends up possessing him instead. While Cortez is one of the more evil villains shown on X-Men: The Animated Series, he does torture Gambit for a bit, so the guy isn’t all bad.
The Acolytes
Magneto’s other Acolytes include Joanna Cargill, Unuscione, Chrome, Marco Delgado, Burner, and Amelia Voght. Weirdly enough, Voght plays a prominent role in several episodes as Charles Xavier’s ex-lover who broke up with him when he started the X-Men. She became a member of the Acolytes, but helped the X-Men discover the truth behind Magneto’s supposed death. After quitting the Acolytes, she moved to Muir Island to work alongside Moira MacTaggart (another one of Xavier’s ex-girlfriends) and helped stop the Phalanx when the alien race nearly consumed the island.
The Morlocks
The Morlocks appeared in multiple episodes, including an adaptation of the classic two part arc that first introduced the Morlocks to X-Men lore. In the series, Callisto kidnaps Cyclops (instead of Angel in the comics) intending to make him her husband, but Storm fights her for leadership of the Morlocks. The X-Men later rescue the Morlocks from the Reavers, and Wolverine gave Leech a blood infusion to help cure a nasty illness he had picked up on Christmas Eve.
In addition to Callisto and Leech, other Morlocks that appeared included Erg, Masque, Sunder, Plague, Annalee, Ape, Scaleface, Tommy, Tar Baby, Mole, Glowworm and Caliban. Caliban also appeared as a member of the Apocalypse’s Hounds, mimicking his transformation into one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen in the comics.
Shadow King
The Shadow King appeared as the villain in two episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series with ties to both Storm and Xavier’s past. A criminal living in Egypt, the Shadow King used children such as a young Storm to run his illegal activities. Xavier freed Storm and forced the Shadow King to abandon his body, but he came back in a monstrous astral form for revenge against the pair. The Shadow King first went after Storm by possessing her “spirit son” and later tried to possess Xavier when he suffered a concussion.
Omega Red
Omega Red first appeared in “Red Dawn” as a former Soviet operative who led an attempt to reform the Soviet Union in a coup. He was defeated by the X-Men and Wolverine (who had fought him previously during his time with the Weapon X program). He later tried to nuke the United States using a stolen Russian sub, but was again stopped by Wolverine and Storm, who left him in the bottom of the ocean to die. While the cartoon had no problem playing up Omega Red’s Soviet fanaticism, it simplified Omega Red’s powers a bit. The show kept Omega Red’s tentacles and life force draining ability, but did away with the death spores that he could secrete at will.
Trevor Fitzroy
Trevor Fitzroy appears as a time traveling assassin working for Master Mold who kills Xavier in the 1950s, thus creating an Age of Apocalypse-esque alternate timeline. When he found out that Master Mold planned to assassinate him too, he reversed course and helped a time-traveling Wolverine, Storm and Bishop stop his younger self from going through with the assassination. Similar to Omega Red, the show toned down Fitzroy’s energy draining abilities. In the comics, Fitzroy left his victims as a lifeless husk, but the cartoon version of Fitzroy simply knocked out victims when using his powers.
The Inner Circle
Since X-Men: The Animated Series was a children’s cartoon made in the 1990s, they had a problem using the Hellfire Club, due to the presence of “Hell” in their name. So, the Hellfire Club became the “Inner Circle”, which consisted of Sebastian Shaw, Jason Wyngarde, Emma Frost, Donald Pierce, and Harry Leland. While the show had a problem with the word “Hell”, it had no problem keeping Emma Frost in her scandalous lingerie inspired outfit. The Inner Circle attempted to brainwash Jean Grey, but they only managed to turn her into the Dark Phoenix. The botched brainwashing left Wyngarde catatonic, and Wolverine murdered Leland for good measure, which is probably the one time an X-Men actually killed somebody on the show.
Deadpool
Deadpool never actually appeared in X-Men: The Animated Series, but he did pop up in a flashback tied to Wolverine’s history with the Weapon X program. Both Morph and an evil version of Charles Xavier later used Deadpool’s image to taunt Wolverine about his fractured memories. While Deadpool doesn’t make any quips or show any sign of personality, keep in mind that the cartoon was made before Deadpool was transformed from generic 90s’ assassin to the kooky, fourth wall breaking Merc with a Mouth we all know and love today.
Miscellaneous Villains
Several miscellaneous mutant villains appear in one-off episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series, usually hatching some plot that the X-Men need to stop. Black Tom Cassidy tries to kidnap Lilandra for Eric the Red, but is stopped by his cousin Banshee (and the rest of the X-Men). The Purple Man tries to brainwash some mutant orphans into becoming politicians as part of a long term plan to overthrow the government, but he’s stopped by Cyclops. Proteus (Moira MacTaggert’s reality-bending son) wants to meet his birth father and gets ticked off when his dad turns out to be a jerk, but Professor X calms him down by talking to him.
The Nasty Boys also appear in several episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series as Mister Sinister’s goons and operatives. That version of the team consists of Gorgeous George, Hairbag, Ruckus and Slab.
Cyclops also fights a mutant supremacist group called “The Children of the Shadow”, which includes Solarr and Toad and a bunch of other unnamed mutants.
All of the Other Background Characters
Just about every other mutant than existed before 1996 also appeared in X-Men: The Animated Series, usually as a non-speaking background character. Sunfire, Domino, Feral, Rictor, Warpath, Random, Arclight, Blockbuster, Stryfe, Typhoid Mary, Senyaka, Forearm, Reaper, Strobe, Ape, Mole, Slither, Copycat, and Tusk all appear in crowd scenes or cameo appearances in different points of the series.
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Image Credit: Marvel Comics
