The Uncanny X-Men have been a pillar of Marvel Comics for over 40 years and counting. However, status aside, when you’re around for that long and gain new members every other week, it becomes more and more difficult to lead them as a singular team. While today there have been countless lineups over two different main teams, they more often than not are led by the same few characters every single time. Charles Xavier has more often than not been the figure head while he either puts Cyclops or Storm out as the field leaders. Wolverine gets to lead sometimes as well and while he is capable of leading the team but is more of a loose cannon and Magento, he’s also led and done decently wel in the role. But while these characters are common choices, there are other X-Men who should lead the team and really deserve to have the chance.
Some of the characters listed here are characters who have experience leading X-Men adjacent teams such as the New Mutants, X-Factor, Excalibur, etc. but not explicitly the X-Men directly. A handful of them may have been leader for a small run of issues but this is more about a long term run. Whether or not they’d actually be “perfect” for the role is up for debate but these are the ones I believe are best up to the task.
1) Kitty Pryde
Kitty Pryde was one of the first members to join the X-Men after Chris Claremont took over the title during his legendary 17 year run, and became the audience surrogate of the team for a long time. Kitty joined the team when she was just 13 years old and has grown up with the team. During the “Fall of the Mutants” event Kitty, along with Nightcrawler, and Rachel Summers, co-founded the mutant team Excalibur while the main team was believed to have been killed. While there wasn’t a set leader of that team, she along with Rachel would lead more often than not. With her experiences co-leading Excalibur and the Guardians of the Galaxy way later, she has shown an innate ability to lead.
Her mutant ability to phase through walls as well having her pet dragon Lockheed at her side makes her a fierce fighter as well as a very sneaky member of the X-Men. In battle her powers would make her virtually unstoppable and hard to defeat in a fight giving her plenty of leeway to coordinate with the other members of the team. The X-Men have been her life for as long as she’s been around and she would be perfect to take the reigns whenever the time may come.
2) Cannonball
An original member of the secondary team of the X-Men, the New Mutants, Cannonball, born Samuel Guthrie, was co-leader of the New Mutants along with Dani Moonstar due to being the oldest member of the team. As the initial series continued he was boosted to the role of team leader in the field after Dani had left to stay in Asgard. By the end of the series Sam was taken under Cable’s tutelage as one of the main members of X-Force and was once again field leader for that team alongside Cable.
With that experience, Sam is no stranger to stepping up into the leader role and would make an excellent leader for the X-Men if given the chance. With the heavy hitting ability of blasting his body into the air like a cannonball he has the perfect edge in a fight. His experience as the oldest member of the New Mutants and leading members such as Sunspot who was 13 at the time of joining also show his ability to be able to work with younger members of the team with time and patience, which is a skill not often mentioned but absolutely needed for leading the team.
3) Forge
Known only by the name Forge, he is a creator of anything he can see in his mind and has invented many weapons and technology to help the X-Men in their battles over the years. His mutant ability is one of the most useful of any mutant who’s ever donned the “X” and has proven himself on many occasions.
Part of his backstory included that Forge fought in the Vietnam War and was the leader of his troops in that conflict. While an accident got his team killed, he has never been able to forgive himself and often goes to extreme lengths to make sure nobody dies on his watch while a part of the X-Men. He can strategize formations in battle, give the team new technology he just created to help in a fight, and puts everyone before him. If that doesn’t make him worthy of leading I don’t know what does.
4) Rachel Summers
Displaced from the “Days of Future Past” timeline, Rachel Summers is the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from her reality. Later becoming a mutant hunting slave in her timeline, Rachel manifested her mother’s Phoenix abilities and was sent back to the main timeline. When she first joined the X-Men she was the most powerful member and even led the X-Men in a battle against the omnipotent being known as The Beyonder and was able to reason with him. To say she was at her peak and still is one of the most powerful mutants to exist is saying it lightly.
Having co-founded Excalibur with Kitty and Nightcrawler, Rachel’s abilities give her a nigh unstoppable edge in battles. Along with the trauma she endured of losing all of the X-Men in her home reality, she makes sure at every point that the X-Men will not be lost in battle and fights for a better future for not only herself but all of mutantkind. With the fate of the universe constantly on her shoulders, Rachel is very well suited to leading the X-Men and would help reshape the future for all.
5) Nightcrawler
An original member from the teams that debuted in Giant-Size X-Men, Kurt Wagner, the Nightcrawler, has been one of the most popular members of X-Men for 50 years now and has rarely had a time to shine as the leader. While he led the team briefly while Storm was incapacitated and Wolverine was off in Japan with Kitty, Kurt was the most tenured member at the time and led the team cautiously as leader. If any character should have led the team long term by now it’s the teams very own “Fuzzy Elf.”
Nightcrawler’s mutant ability to teleport would make him a hard target to catch and would make it easy to get help to other members of the X-Men in a battle. Throw in his knack for acrobatics and wielding three swords, you’ve got the makings of a brilliant yet unusual fighter as well a fast paced leading member capable of being in multiple places at once. With how popular he is, it amazes me that he has never been a full on leader for longer than a handful of issues.
6) Angel/Archangel
Warren Worthington III is a founding member of the X-Men known as both Angel and Archangel. Whether he’s the more good natured Angel or the darker version of himself Archangel, he has been a constant for many variations of the X-Men. With flight being his main ability and the ability to throw poison tipped razor feathers, Angel is the eye in the sky of the team and is able to scope out the enemy team in a lot of battles.
While his personality flips flops at the drop of a hat, Warren would make an excellent leader as Angel or Archangel. Being an original to the X-Men would help his case for leading the uncanny team as is tenure means he’s seen and experience pretty much everything. The man has alos been able to grapple with a lot of issues in his life but has always been able to soar above them and be the best version of himself, something that would be useful in the interpersonal aspect of leading a team.
7) Bishop
A time traveling energy redistributor mutant, Bishop has been a long underrated player for the X-Men ever since his debut in the 1990’s. Already being another time traveler with similarities to Cable and Rachel Summer, Bishop gets lost in the mix often when he really shouldn’t. While he may not be a full term member of the X-Men due to when he comes from, Bishop has been known to lead many mutant freedom forces in the future giving him leadership experience.
In a similar vein to Rachel, fighting for a better future if he chose to stay in the past for an extended amount of time, Bishop would be an excellent leader to the X-Men. Keeping key members alive in the past could help him change the tide of the future and could potentially close off the timeline he originates from. The desire to build a better future and his experiences together would make him a great X-Men leader.
8) Magik
Taking charge as one of the standouts of the New Mutants, Illyana Rasputin aka Magik is one of the powerhouses of the X-Men. While her time with the New Mutants often saw her being the catalyst for storylines due to being raised in Limbo, Magik more often than not would take charge of the team while not actually being a leader. As the years have continued she has risen in popularity significantly and is one of if not the most popular member of the New Mutants and would have enough popularity to back her as leader.
With her base mutant ability being stepping discs, a form of teleportation, Magik grew up in the hellish dimension Limbo where she learned a lot of magic and spells. Surviving with a bit of help from an alternate version of Storm, Illyana essentially grew up by herself from single digit ages to her early teens and took over Limbo during that time. If she’s able to rule a hell like dimension and still have time to care about and help her friends, I’d say she’s more than capable of leading the X-Men.
Is there anyone else you think we missed? Let us know in the comments!
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