1983

The X-Men:

Professor X/Charles Xavier

Cyclops/Scott Summers

Wolverine/Logan

Storm/Ororo Monroe

Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner

Colossus/Peter Rasputin

Sprite/Kitty Pride

Allies:

Lilandra

Binary

“New Mutants”: Cannonball [ability to release thermochemical energy and fly at jet speeds using this energy while encased in an impenetrable force field, superhuman endurance], Sunspot [solar absorption and rechanneling, superhuman strength, flight, projection of heat and light, concussive blasts], Wolfsbane [ability to shapeshift into a wolf-like humanoid or into a full wolf at will], Psyche [empathy, telepathy, illusion generation, psionic arrows, telepathic rapport with animals, ability to sense and fight impending death in others, ability to create solid objects out of psionic energy, superhuman strength, supernatural sword] and Karma [psychic possession, protection from mental attack, telepathy]*

Rogue

Mariko Yashida

Yukio

Foes:

The Brood

“Morlocks”: Callisto [superhuman senses, heightened strength, speed, agility and reflexes, accelerated healing factor], Sunder [superhuman strength, stamina and durability], Masque [ability to alter flesh and organs of living creatures], Plague [adapt to and absorb any disease, then spread it through touch] and Caliban, among other minor mutants

Silver Samurai [channel mutant energy into most commonly a katana blade, to create a tachyon field capable of cutting anything but adamantium, teleportation ring]

Viper [teleportation ring, enhanced lifespan, sharpened and elongated canine tooth with hollows inside them she keeps a special poison in them, to which she has immunity]

Mastermind

Synopsis:

Directed by Cyclops, they manage to block the hole and restore atmospheric pressure long enough to let the ship's automated repair system actually fix it. Storm’s Brood transformation begins, but stumbling into the galactic core floods her with enough power to halt and even reverse the transformation. Summoning the power of the galactic core itself, she lights up like a young star for a brief moment, killing the embryo and almost dying herself. A young Acanti (large but gentle creatures used by the Brood as starships) bonds with Storm seconds before she dies, in order to survive since it was so fragile and needed a stronger spirit. In return, its body’s natural healing abilities restored Storm’s body and health, and later with the help of Binary, who uses her solar affinity to liberate a former adult Acanti soul for the young Acanti to become more powerful, the other embryos are destroyed. Back to Earth, when they arrive to Xavier’s mansion, they find a new group of teenagers their leader took in as students. They call themselves “New Mutants” and fight briefly the X-Men out of confusion, interrupted by Xavier’s Brood transformation. Thanks to tissue samples of him collected by one of the Starjammers the last time he was on their ship, they manage to clone Xavier’s body and transfer his conscience still intact inside the Brood, to the new body. However he can’t walk due to a psychosomatic response of his mind to nullify the pain of his previous legs, he can walk, but his mind won’t let him. Kitty encounters a small dragon-like alien that saved her in the Brood city, hidden in the maintenance tunnel beneath the mansion. The creature somehow escaped with them. She keeps it as a companion and names it Lockheed. Wolverine decides to spend some time in Japan**. Angel is kidnapped by an underground civilization of renegade mutants known as Morlocks. They were unable to pass as normal due to the external physical changes their mutations caused, so they squatted in a network of abandoned interconnected tunnels beneath Manhattan. Their leader Callisto attempts to make Angel her mate. To set him free, Storm challenges Callisto to a hand-to-hand combat and the winner would become the leader of the Morlocks. Storm wins, but since she will not assume the role full-time, points Callisto as second in charge while she’s gone. Rogue asks for Xavier’s help, since she can’t control the inner struggle between her own persona and Ms. Marvel’s, she’s scared of what could ever happen to her if she can’t control her absorption power in the future, and even though it’s difficult to deal by the others, Xavier accepts her and makes her a probationary member of the X-Men. They're invited to Logan and Mariko’s wedding in Japan, but the ceremony is ruined by her half-brother; Kenuichio Harada (Silver Samurai), who intends to force her to surrender her leadership under clan Yashida’s empire, and Mastermind who returns to toy with her mind and later the X-Men's making them believe that Phoenix returned to kill them. As a result of these events, Mariko decides to keep Logan away until she has expunged the stain upon her clan’s horror, Storm changes drastically into a much stronger and violent persona (projecting all that even visually with a lot of leather and a Mohawk), Rogue earns the X-Men’s trust and Scott marries Madelyne Pryor, a girl he was dating lately that looks exactly like Jean.

* New Mutants started as spin-off series of the X-Men franchise in 1983, but its characters first appeared in 1982’s Marvel Graphic Novel #4.

** This is when the first “Wolverine” miniseries starts. It’s only 5 issues long, followed by “Kitty Pryde & Wolverine”, also 5 issues long, as a start for Wolverine's own series.

1982

The X-Men:

Professor X/Charles Xavier

Cyclops/Scott Summers

Wolverine/Logan

Storm/Ororo Monroe

Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner

Colossus/Peter Rasputin

Sprite/Kitty Pride

Allies:

Lilandra

Carol Danvers*/ Binary [flight, ability to generate heat, light, radiation and access to all other forms of energy along the electromagnetic spectrum on a virtually unlimited scale]

Starjammers

Tigra [superhuman strength, speed, senses and agility, retractable claws, limited mystical abilities, tiger-like appearance, belongs to a humanoid race created by sorcery during the dark ages]

Foes:

Deathbird [superhuman strength, stamina and sturdiness, natural wings, razor-sharp talons]

Samedar

The Brood
Senator Kelly

Mystique

Rogue [energy, psyche and mutant powers absorption via physical contact, after absorbing Ms. Marvel’s powers she gained flying, superhuman strength and durability]

Dracula (yes, the actual Dracula)

Belasco [knowledge of spells]

S’ym (a demon summoned by Belasco)

Synopsis:

Corsair lands on Earth following the trail of a terrorist commando that kidnapped Lilandra and slaughtered most of the ministers of the Shi’ar grand council. He encounters Cyclops and Storm, and warns them about a fast battle force that's on its way to Earth led by chancellor Araki and admiral of the fleet lord Samedar, to rescue Lilandra at any cost. The Shi’ar abducts the X-Men to explain them the situation and ask for their help to seek Lilandra. Back on Earth, while searching, they’re attacked by a Shi’ar named Deathbird (Lilandra’s sister), Colossus is deadly injured in battle and Xavier is kidnapped. Deathbird turns out to be secretly working with lord Samedar, allied with the alien parasites called the Brood and renegade members of the imperial guard, to become the new empress of the Shi’ar and destroy the X-Men, the Starjammers and planet Earth. When Samedar is unveiled as traitor, the communication frequencies are jammed, leaving Lilandra unable to communicate with chancellor Araki, who is murdered by Samedar. Xavier tries to establish telepathic communication, but while concentrating he discovers an alien presence within him. He tries to probe it, but this merely causes him to call out in agony, and falls into a coma. Lilandra finally manages to broadcast that she is safe and the danger in Earth is over with the defeat of Deathbird and Samedar. The X-Men rest, and while Xavier remains comatose, they watch on TV how Senator Kelly demonizes the X-Men on a talk show. Kelly promises that the US government will investigate mutants, and Moira points out that Xavier worked with the FBI, and thus the government already has files of several mutants. Trying to clean their names, using Wolverine and Carol’s military uniforms, ranks and IDs, they stumble with Rogue, the one that stole Carol’s powers and she recognizes her, so they fight. After defeating Mystique and Rogue, Carol successfully retrieves all the mutants’ information from the database. After an inner struggle, Xavier wakes up. The X-Men go to a farewell banquet onboard the Shi’ar flagship, but suddenly Lilandra goes catatonic and Deathbird appears announcing herself the new empress, and the Brood takes the X-Men as "vessels"** to the Brood city. Wolverine’s implanted embryo starts to hatch, he fights it and thanks to his healing factor he kills the embryo and saves the others by entering the Brood city and freeing them one by one, killing the Brood on his way until he nearly gets to the Queen and they’re all transported back to the Shi’ar flagship to prevent them from killing her. The Brood later attempt to get the X-Men back, since they still had the embryos inside, but as they fight, Carol feels weird, the Brood did something to her in their lab. She transforms into something much more than human, and destroys all the surrounding Brood ships. She calls herself Binary. Moments later, she blasts off into space opening a big hole after Wolverine reveals they all still have the Brood embryos inside and the X-Men are suddenly forced to deal with explosive decompression, while Binary flies over to the Brood city to make them pay.

* Ms. Marvel, a former member of The Avengers who lost all her memories and powers to a mutant named Rogue. She stays as a normal person with the X-Men for a while; she believes Xavier can help her to get her powers and memory back.

** They implant an embryo in the host, and when it hatches the host transforms into a Brood. In the process, the host experiences weird dreams from which it can´t escape as long as the embryo absorbs the genetic potential and abilities of the host to pass on to its progeny. If the embryo process is interrupted, it stays inside the body until it can start the process again.

Side Note: Rogue first appeared in Avengers’ annual #10, as a member of Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She was found by Mystique in a forest after running away from home scared by her powers, which turned her boyfriend Cody comatose in their first kiss. In the battle against The Avengers, Rogue absorbed Ms. Marvel’s powers and memories, sticking with them permanently, which started an inner struggle within’ her personality and Ms. Marvel’s. It is yet unknown why Rogue kept those powers for life, it was never explained, though she claims later in desperation it was an accident since her powers were out of control.

1981

The X-Men:

Professor X/Charles Xavier

Wolverine/Logan

Storm/Ororo Monroe

Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner

Colossus/Peter Rasputin

Angel/Warren Worthington III

Sprite/Kitty Pride

Allies:

The Man-Thing [empathic senses, superhuman strength and durability, ability to create a powerful corrosive chemical agent and a counter agent, ability to teleport himself or others through “the nexus of all realities”, speaks the universal language, plant-matter appearance]

Cyclops

Iceman

Banshee*

Havok

Polaris

Spiderwoman

Foes:

The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: Mystique [shape shifting, superhuman agility, healing factor], Destiny [precognition], Avalanche [geological manipulation through seismic wave generation from his hands], Pyro [pyrokinesis] and Blob.

Sentinels

N’Garai (ancient demon race, from the same world Kierrok came)

D’Spayre [illusion casting]

Dr. Doom

Arcade

Miss Locke (Arcade’s bodyguard)

Caliban [ability to sense and track other mutants]

Garokk (Petrified Man)

Magneto

The Hellfire Club: Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost and Harry Leland

Synopsis:

It’s the 21^st century, year 2013, New York city is in ruins, North America is classified now into three classes of people: “H”, humans clean of mutant genes, allowed to breed; “A”, normal humans that possesses mutant genetic potential, forbidden to breed; and “M”, mutants, outcasts by the mutant control act in 1988, millions have died, and the rest are kept under Sentinel vigilance 24/7 in internment camps, wearing necklaces that neutralize their powers. Kitty Pride is sent to a particular task and she takes advantage of this opportunity to meet secretly Logan who has been part of the Canadian Resistance Army until now, to retrieve a strange piece of what she calls “the jammer”. From the X-Men, only a few live besides Kitty: Storm, Colossus (married to Kitty) and Wolverine. Except for Logan, they stay put in the camp, along with Franklin Richards**, his girlfriend Rachel Summers, a mutant with psychic powers, and Magneto. Using the “jammer”, a device that reduces significantly the collars functionality, Rachel transfers Kitty’s conscience to the Kitty of the past, the one that recently joined the X-Men. She explains what happened to her, and that she was sent to prevent the assassination of presidential candidate Robert Kelly, along with Xavier and Moira by the Brotherhood of Evil mutants, soon to happen in that timeline. That would set in motion a set of sequence of events that will culminate in the destruction of the world in a nuclear holocaust. The Brotherhood intends to kill Kelly in order to teach humans to fear mutants. After that, a president that hates mutants would be elected, starting the mutant control act with Sentinels, killing mutants and other heroes alike. But even though Kelly is saved thanks to Kitty, the fact that his life was in danger makes him act against mutants, giving a man named Henry Peter Gyrich*** the task of reassembling a new wave of Sentinels to deal with me mutant threat permanently, working with Sebastian Shaw’s industries, which apparently doesn’t change the future anyways. Kitty’s future conscience returns to her body in the future, and the one of the present goes back to her normal self, not remembering anything about the Kelly situation. Storm, who is the current leader of the X-Men, is tricked to rescue Arcade from Dr. Doom, she falls into a trap and is transformed into a chrome statue. Xavier sends the rest of the X-Men to rescue her, and sends Iceman, Polaris, Havok and Banshee to another location, to rescue some hostages. Both teams fall into traps designed by Arcade, freeing themselves eventually and by the time they restore Storm, she has become one with the planet, with all its elemental forces at her command. She transforms into a terrible destructive force out of control, but after overpowering Doom, Colossus says something that triggers Storm’s psyche to re-assert itself back to normal. The Hellfire club returns, and there’s a new wave of Sentinels attacking as well. Emma Frost exchanges consciousness with Storm in order to infiltrate easily in Xavier’s team and capture them. However, they escape before Shaw can put them to use and Storm manages to get her body back, defeating Emma Frost. Angel leaves the team since he finds Wolverine too difficult to deal with, Cyclops returns.

* Banshee’s vocal cords are still damaged, so he uses laser guns. Funny Xavier asks him for help despite this LITTLE detail.

** Son of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman from the Fantastic 4, who are all dead in that timeline.

*** In the first X-Men movie, this character is used as Senator Kelly’s assistant, who is killed by Sabretooth, and Mystique takes his shape to fool Kelly and kidnap him. 

Side note: Days of future past reassembles the mass murder of genocide, were millions of Jews died during World War II. In the holocaust, death was forced upon those under such belief, but more than a religious matter, it was more about race, thinking it was a blood line that needed to be eliminated. In the future timeline of this story, we get to see how mutants, heroes and villains alike were wiped out from the planet and only a few remain kept in concentration fields. 

1980

The X-Men:

Cyclops/Scott Summers

Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner

Storm/Ororo Monroe

Colossus/Peter Rasputin

Wolverine/Logan

Phoenix/Jean Grey

Professor X/Charles Xavier

Allies:

Dazzler [ability to turn sound into light beams of various forms and intensity]

Kitty Pride [ability to phase through solid materials]

Angel

Beast
Alpha Flight

Foes:

“Hellfire Club”: Black King/Sebastian Shaw [metabolizes energy into greater physical attributes], White Queen/Emma Frost [telepathy, mind reading and control, memory alteration, mental bolts, induced paralysis, illusion casting, astral projection, capable of shapeshifting into a solid diamond from which grants her superhuman strength and durability], Black Bishop/Harry Leland [ability to increase mass], White Bishop/Donald Pierce [cyborg body, superhuman strength and reflexes, mechanical genius, able to create numerous types of energy], Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind) and Black Queen/Jean Grey.

Dark Phoenix [she can also suppress mutant powers]

Wendigo [superhuman strength, durability, endurance and healing factor, hardened talons, a fur-covered monster that seems to be a northern curse that affects cannibals when inside the woods of Northern Canada]

Synopsis:

After a short farewell, Banshee leaves the X-Men to stay with Moira at Muir Island, along with Havok, Polaris and Multiple Man, since his vocal cords were severely damaged in the battle against Moses Magnum. A group of wealthy industrialists who seek social, political and economic power in the world called “Hellfire Club” plans to recruit more mutants to their cause, so they try to capture a couple of mutants that end up helping the X-Men against them instead. Afterwards, both; Dazzler and Katherine "Kitty" Pride decline Xavier's proposal to join the X-Men. Mastermind, who’s now a probationary member of the Hellfire Club, tries to control Jean’s mind, manipulating her through the use of his own powers and a mind-tap mechanism created by Emma Frost, a member of the Hellfire Club, which he uses to project his illusion directly into her mind, causing her to believe she is living out the life of a Victorian aristocrat who is married to Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind), and is the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. He eventually succeeds and  turns her against the X-Men. Moira, who was studying Jean’s power before Proteus’ intervention, affirms Jean was aware of having the power of a god, and she couldn’t cope with the totality of that power, so to protect itself from itself, her mind engaged a series of psychic circuit breakers that cut her power back to a level she could handle. But lately someone has been releasing those breakers and there’s almost none left. After a battle against the Hellfire Club members, Phoenix breaks free from Mastermind’s control and fully dominates Jean’s body driving him insane. Phoenix speaks now as an entirely different being, Jean Grey’s conscience has disappeared. She strikes down the X-Men and departs for a distant galaxy, absorbing energy from stars and destroying planets. A council of intergalactic associates concludes that the Dark Phoenix is an even more serious threat that the planet-consuming Galactus and must be destroyed. Breefly, Jean goes back to her normal self and returns to Earth, to her home, but she realises she can't control Phoenix anymore and quickly flees before hurting her parents, fighting the X-Men again. In this part Jean’s consciousness comes and goes, trying to fight the Phoenix, she even asks Wolverine to kill her. Xavier has a telepathic battle against the Dark Phoenix and he barely wins with the help of Jean, placing a new set of circuit breakers around the Phoenix powers. This allows Jean’s normal personality to reassert control *. The Shi’ar abduct the X-Men, and declare that Phoenix must die. Xavier challenges Lilandra to a Shi’ar duel to decide Phoenix’s fate: the X-Men win, Jean lives, they lose, and Jean dies. In battle, Jean’s circuit breakers start to shatter and the Phoenix breaks free again. Jean runs inside a ruin, struggling to keep control and activates an ancient weapon which disintegrates her after an emotional goodbye to Cyclops. He leaves the X-Men after the funeral since Jean’s death is so hard for him, Angel decides to stay and Kitty Pride joins the team. Wolverine settles down his issues with Alpha Flight in a friendly way, so they stop chasing him around.

* In X-Men 3: The Last Stand, a lot of elements of the Dark Phoenix Saga were used to show Jean's transition to a new and powerful being that consumed her in the end. Ratner used plenty of elements for his portrayal of the Phoenix, such as Jean being able to supress Cyclops' optic blast, the inner struggle, the explanation of how the Phoenix was held captive by "psychic blocks", even the telepathic battle between Jean and Xavier, among other things. It's just crazy how Ratner didn't explain some things, and ended up killing a bunch of characters. Xavier's death is a commonly used element in X-Men, but they always try to bring him back or explain how he actually didn´t die. Although, in this movie, his death seems a lot like his "death" in issues to come, where they have to clone his body and transfer his conscience into the new body (see the Brood situation between 1982 and 1983).

1979

The X-Men:

Cyclops/Scott Summers

Banshee/Sean Cassidy

Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner

Storm/Ororo Monroe

Colossus/Peter Rasputin

Wolverine/Logan

Phoenix/Jean Grey

Professor X/Charles Xavier

Allies:

Moira McTaggert

Multiple Man

Havok

Polaris

Lilandra

Misty Knight [superhuman strength and technopathy in right robotic arm]

Colleen Wing

Luke Cage [superhuman strength, stamina and durability, unbreakable skin is highly impervious to damage and temperature, accelerated healing factor all granted by experimental accident]

Sunfire

Foes:

Amahl Farouk [telepathy, possession, immortality and astral projection]

Moses Magnum [ability to generate powerful seismic waves from his hands]

Alpha Flight {Weapon Alpha, Northstar [superhuman speed and durability, flight, light manipulation]*, Shaman [carries a bag which contains a pocket dimension, can summon anything needed from the bag], Snowbird [flight, ability to turn into a white-furred version of any animal native to Canada, innate godly potential to wield magic, all granted apparently by some mystical connection with her mother; the Inuit goddess Nelvanna], Sasquatch [ability to transform into a massive, furred form that grants him superhuman strength, endurance, durability and stamina, regenerative healing factor, sharp claws and teeth, ability to leap vast distances] and Aurora [flight, superhuman speed and durability, light generation/manipulation, light projection]**}

Arcade [genius intelligence]

Proteus [reality warping, body possession and psionic energy composition]***

Synopsis:

Jean leaves the mansion again, since it’s too difficult for her to deal with the loss of her comrades and Scott and staying there brings too many memories. Lilandra approaches Xavier to comfort him, and he tells the story of how he traveled to Cairo, right after his relationship with Moira ended. He encountered and battled a powerful mutant with psychic powers. After defeating him, he realized how dangerous mutant powers could be in the wrong hands, so he started confronting them begining with Lucifer, to protect mankind. The X-Men make their way into Japan after six weeks of sea traveling. They enter Magarashima, Sunfire’s birthplace, threatened by Moses Magnum, who claims he will sink Japan with an earthquake unless they make him their ruler. In the mean time, Xavier leaves Earth with Lilandra, mourning the “death” of the X-Men. After beating Magnum, the X-Men have a Christmas reunion, while Jean arrives to Scotland, and joins Moira, Havok, Polaris and Multiple Man to spend some time with them at Muir Island (Moira’s research facility). Wolverine gets romantically involved with Sunfire’s cousin; Mariko Yashida while being in Japan. The X-Men fly to New York, but the plain is forced to land in Canada by Alpha Flight, who aims to get Wolverine back into their team, but they fail again and the X-Men finally return home. After the throne is finally empty, Lilandra prepares herself to be crowned empress of the Shi’ar and Xavier celebrates with her, but he later returns to Earth after sensing great danger about Jean’s new powers. Beast returns to the mansion and finds the X-Men he thought dead, alive; they reunite with Jean and the others at Muir Island after a dangerous mutant named Proteus escapes Moira´s facilities possessing one of Multiple Man copies and then other people, growing stronger with every new body. His last body is destroyed in the battle and before he could take another host, Colossus punches him while in his energy form. Due to Proteus’ intolerance for metal, he was unable to maintain his energy form, dispersing across the world.

* He’s one of the few known gay characters in the Marvel universe.

** Northstar’s twin sister. Suffers from dissociative identity disorder or multiple personality disorder.

*** Moira’s son. He was held captive in her facility since he was so dangerous. Also called “Mutant X”.