With all this time travel gloopily-glop that’s been going around, I thought it appropriate to talk about the group of heroes that do it best. The X-Men, of course. You’re reading an article written by me, and that’s all I talk about, so you’re going to sit there (or stand, your choice) and read every word I have to say!
Now that that’s out of the way, we aren’t going to be focused on time travel more than how often we as X-Men readers have glimpsed into the future. I’m not saying that there isn’t a little time-hopping going on, mind you, because there is.
The X-Men have always been portrayed as a dysfunctional family above most other things, even over being superheroes at times. With those more familiar ties comes romance, and eventually, children are produced. Hopefully not amongst family members, because that’d just be awkward. Or your typical episode of Game of Thrones. Comic book heroes tend not to age much, so every so often we get peeks into the future or someone takes a trip back in time. Without further ado, here are the top 10 future children of the X-Men.
#10 Raze Darkholme | First Appearance: X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1
Probably most people’s least favorite piece of the Bendis era of X-Men is the shapeshifting Raze Darkholme. Blue skin, claws, red hair, and the power to shapeshift. It’s not hard to figure out who his parents are. If the last name and character design weren’t enough, then I’ll tell you. Raze is a child of Wolverine and Mystique from a possible future. I can understand Mystique going for Logan, seeing as she’s reproduced with Sabretooth of all people, but unless Logan was at the end of his rope… well, I suppose Mystique can be anyone’s “type.”
Raze turned out to be a villain and even headed up his own version of the Brotherhood. Raze’s master plan was to wipe the present timeline clean and make it a safe haven for all persecuted mutants within the Marvel multi-verse. Yeah, it sounds like a ridiculous story, from a ridiculous and utterly forgettable run.
#9 Becka Munroe | First Appearance: GeNext: #1
You’ll see many members of the GeNext team on this list. It’s one of the only true teams of X-Men mostly created from the 2nd and even 3rd generations of former members. Becka is one of these.
Not a whole lot is known about her, outside of the fact that she’s the daughter of the X-Man, Storm. Her father was never revealed, but I’m assuming it may be Black Panther if I had to guess. Because you know, Storm doesn’t seem to know anyone else (there’s another child from the two on this list and another named Azari). Jokes aside, other than the weather powers Becka inherited from her mother, she can sprout claws and has larger than normal bicuspid teeth. In addition to this, she has superhuman agility, strength, senses, reflexes and a denser bone structure… So, maybe Wolverine? I don’t know.
#8 Pavel Rasputin | First Appearance: GeNext: #1
The only grandchild on this list is Pavel Rasputin. The son of Kid Colossus, who is the son of Peter Rasputin, the original Colossus! His mother is presumed to be Polaris, whom Kid Colossus was romantically involved with, but that has never been confirmed. Both his parents died during X-Men: The End, so getting confirmation on that, especially with GeNext out of print, will probably not be possible.
He inherited his father and grandfather’s ability to cover his body with organic steel armor, thus he also took on the codename Colossus. He’s not the giant mound of muscle his grandfather was but his costume is reminiscent of his Age Of Apocalypse getup. When he’s not training or fighting, Pavel dabbles in art.
#7 Megan Frost-Summers | First Appearance: X-Men: The End #2
Megan is the first of 4 children sired by Cyclops and Emma Frost within the X-Men: The End timeline. Like most Summers kids she’s psionic with vast telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Not to mention her mother is one of the most skilled telepaths on earth, so there’s that as well. She’s extremely level headed and mature, like her father, but fortunately didn’t inherit her mother’s frostier disposition. Within the GeNext series, Megan demonstrated the abilities of telepathic communication, possession, and levitation. She’s also not bad at hand-to-hand combat.
#6 Ruby Summers | First Appearance: X-Factor: Layla Miller #1
The 2nd Summers child today is Ruby Summers, again a daughter of Cyclops and Emma Frost from a possible future. In terms of pure character design, she’s quite striking, even if her powers are pretty derivative. X-Men creators have this bad habit of making the children of mutants have the same powers as their parents or some crazy mixture of both. What we have here is the later. Ruby can project concussive beams from her eyes like Cyclops and transmute her body into a ruby, similar to how her mother turns into diamond (never liked that power…).
Ruby grew up in a future where she and her father lived in the ruins of Atlantis until they, along with Layla Miller, played pivotal roles in creating a mutant rebellion. Ruby popped up again in a Secret Wars tie-in but hasn’t been seen since.
#5 Rebecca “Becca” LeBeau | First Appearance: X-Men: The End #5
Rebecca is the 2nd child of Gambit and Rogue’s union from the X-Men: The End timeline. Unlike her older brother Oli, she wasn’t initially training be an X-Man. She made the decision to follow in her father’s footsteps.
Rebecca is the spitting image of her mother, down to flight, and super strength but without that whole annoying “I can’t touch nobody”-powers. She’d eventually come to join her brother and the X-Men, but before that embraced the LeBeau Clan culture, even going as far as wielding a bo-staff like her old man. Most of her adventures can be read in the pages of GeNext.
#4 Kymera | First Appearance: X-Men #36
Undoubtedly, the daughter of Storm and Black Panther, we first met Kymera during Battle of the Atom. Physically, it’s easy to figure out her connection to Storm, but Kymera didn’t inherit her mother’s powers like her alternate timeline sister Becka (#9 on this list).
Whether due to her Wakandan roots, mystical pedigree, or an X-gene, Kyerma can commune with animal-life, such as the giant black panther she walks around with. Outside of her powers, she is also adept at using knives, a skilled hunter and combatant- which is expected, given her superb lineage.
Like Raze, Kymera spent time in the main timeline and because of this has a more lasting presence within the greater Marvel universe, though I doubt we’ll be seeing much of her as we move forward.
#3 Oliver LeBeau | First Appearance: X-Men: The End #5
The eldest child of Gambit and Rogue from the “The End” timeline, we didn’t get to see much of Oliver (or Oli) until his time in the short-lived GeNext series. He’s an interesting mix of both is parents. He looks most like his father, but his personality and power to absorb other’s abilities is more likening to Rogue.
Unlike his little sister, Oli holds some disdain for his father. This is seemingly for two reasons.
- He believes Gambit dumped him and his sister, Rebecca, with Mystique, their grandmother.
- Because Oli partially blames Gambit for Rogue’s death.
Like how his mother imprinted Carol Danver’s powers, Oli has done much of the same with telepathy. It’s suggested that it came from his girlfriend, Megan Summers. Keep in mind, in this timeline/universe Gambit was revealed to be a clone of Mister Sinister with some Cyclops DNA mixed in. Oh, man… that just hit me. That’s nasty.
#2 Nocturne | First Appearance: Blink #4
Nocturne, or Talia Wagner, is a future alternate-reality product of a union between Nightcrawler and the Scarlet Witch! Though most of her claim to fame comes by way of Exiles titles, she’s also been a member of the Excalibur team.
In her home reality, she grew up to be an X-Man under the tutelage of both her father and Wolverine. As a member of the Exiles she’s visited many realities and for a while spent some time in the main universe, fought against Mojo, and participated in the House of M.
Nocturne’s powers include her father’s excellent natural acrobatic skills, the ability to possess the bodies of others, and project bolts of energy sourced from the same dimension Nightcrawler teleports through.
Honorable Mention
Wild Thing | First Appearance: J2 #5
The Healing factor, temperament, and senses of Wolverine with the added ability to create psionic constructs similar to Psylocke- Rina “Wild Thing” Logan is the daughter of Logan and Elektra (back when she was still considered a mutant) from Marvel’s first attempt to create a sub-imprint under the name “J2”. Consider it the Alpha version of the Ultimate Universe.
#1 Rachel Summers | First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #141
The queen of future timeline X-kids is none other than Rachel Anne Grey-Summers aka Phoenix, aka Prestige (that’s a stupid name, man), aka Marvel Girl, aka Mother Askani and at least 5 other names.
Rachel is the future daughter of Jean Grey and Cyclops, had they actually managed to produce a child together. She’s from the Days of Future Past timeline and is basically the only reason we know about it. She originally sent Kitty Pryde’s consciousness back to the present to warn the X-Men in hopes that they could take steps to avoid her future. Before that, she was held captive and manipulated into becoming an animalistic predator of other mutants for the villain Ahab. It wasn’t until she turned on him was Rachel sent to a concentration camp and subsequently put into contact with Kitty.
While transporting Kitty’s consciousness to the past, Rachel drew the attention of the Phoenix Force. At the request of Kitty, the Phoenix transported Rachel through space and time and deposited her in the same present they’d visited.
In the main timeline, Rachel became a member of Excalibur and eventually the X-Men. For a time, she was a host for the Phoenix Force and probably controlled it better than anyone before or after her, including her mother. She’d part ways with the cosmic force, but by no means is she to be considered any less capable. Like her brothers Nate and Cable, she is an immensely powerful psionic mutant.
In the end, I’ve come to a decision on two things. The first being that Cyclops is super fertile with more than 8 possible kids to his name including Nate and Cable. Secondly, Marvel needs to find someone other than Black Panther for Storm to spend time around. I hope you enjoyed the list. Let me know what you think below!