X-Men/Awesome

Comic Books
"Jean: "You're a firecracker, Creed. I'm an atom bomb."
 * Jean Grey dispatching the U-Men (humans who steal the organs of mutants to gain their powers) singlehandedly (and VERY humiliatingly) was awesome, and around this time, she had no problem with casually assimilating the knowledge of far-distant people. Then there was the time she turned the wreckage of Asteroid M into a solar-powered ship atom by atom, once she went Phoenix again, followed by the priceless line to Wolverine: "Have your eyes grown back yet?"
 * Earlier when she smacked down Sabretooth. It may not be the in your face kind of awesome, but she wasn't just a wimp when she came back (but those Running the Asylum sure seem to have not noticed she was ever like that).

"Wolverine: You're a nerd who scored a hot chick Parker. I'm happy for ya, but that doesn't mean everyone else is after her."
 * There is a crossover scene where, as Peter previously believed Logan was hitting on MJ, goes beserk and starts aggressively attacking him during an Avengers training session. Wolverine 'accidentally' "snikkets" him, making Spiderman attack him even more aggressively. Iron Man eventually holds him back, which leads to this:

"Capt. America: How'd he get loose? Iron Man: Blood made him slippery."
 * Peter then miraculously gets free, which causes Captain America to ask Iron Man (who can be considered a nerd) what happened.

"Piotr (Colossus): "Shto...? Scott?" Scott (Cyclops): BLAM! "Pete, hey. You would not believe the day I'm having." Piotr: "Katya! (Goes over to fallen Kitty Pryde, NOT shot by Cyclops)" Scott: "She's okay. I'm trying to get her to wake up." Piotr: "By shooting people?" Scott: "Peter, please. I'm an X-Man. I don't shoot people." BLAM! "I'm just trying to make a point.""
 * Cyclops has the scene when, after losing his powers, he's blasting at the members of the new Hellfire Club Inner Circle with a gun while talking casually to a completely befuddled Colossus. Not what it appears.

"Kitty: Okay, so...Serious wedgie."
 * Scott's good at these. We can't forget the bit in Astonishing X-Men where Cyclops tugs off his visor and gives a rampaging Sentinel a full blast of his Eye Beams... which pretty much destroys the Sentinel and scythes most of the mansion's landscaping clean. As Wolverine says, "Sometimes, Summers, I'm reminded why you're in charge."
 * And then there's the time in Astonishing when Cyclops, still depowered, after having tricked the villain Kruun by lying, gets asked what else he's lying about. Cyclops gives him a Psychotic Smirk, then fires off an optic blast that obliterates the top floors of the alien fortress he's in and carries on up into the outer atmosphere.
 * This is followed by Cyclops, through Emma, saying "To me, my X-men. Let's finish this." The first sentence previously was one of Xavier's trademark lines. Considering that there had been some doubt in Scott's mind as to whether he could really be a leader, taking on his father-figure's catchphrase should tell you his final answer. This is followed/preceded (someone correct me) by Once More, with Clarity, showing how he used Emma's psychic powers to link up with the rest of the team to plan a Batman Gambit on the villain. Because they were in one of Kruun's spaceships at the time, and Kruun was using his surveillance to tell what they were saying and doing. The entire plan was worked out over the course of one scene.
 * Don't forget the time while Professor Xavier was comatose and Mastermind made everyone believe he was the still-evil Phoenix, he lured every member into the Danger Room, and took them down one by one - including Storm and Wolverine - but more importantly, he made them start doubting their eyes. And in a pure stroke of genius, Cyclops forced Rogue to touch Xavier so she can could read everyone's mind and realize what's really going on. This my friends, proves why Scott is the Leader of the X-men.
 * That arc was a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Mastermind as well, a former B-Lister, who had been left in coma by Phoenix. Some villains announce their comeback with a rampage. Mastermind announced his by nearly destroying the X-Men.
 * Also, one from decades ago, when the X-Men have been defeated by Proteus, Scott picks a fight with the entire team -- starting with Wolverine -- and defeats them single handed in order to help them focus. While knowingly risking being carved to giblets by Wolverine (who he deliberately fights hand-to-hand).
 * Cyclops gets jumped by six guys while out Christmas shopping. He's effectively blind, as opening his eyes would smash innocent folks into goo. He calmly annihilates his attackers in hand-to-hand combat, then finds his glasses, purely by memorizing the steps he took. While fighting.
 * Once upon a time Cyclops was captured and immobilized by a Mad Scientist wanting to cut out his eyes. Cyclops first pointed out that he'd memorized the brand names of the equipment, so if the Mad Scientist doesn't kill Cyclops, he'll track him through that. And if he does kill Cyclops, there's going to be a very angry nigh-omnipotent psychic redhead looking for him. Either way, the Mad Scientist is going to end up having a talk with Wolverine. Said Mad Scientist wisely lets Scott go.
 * Cyclops masterminding the defeat of the Dark X-Men and Norman Osborn, and the creation of his own mutant nation, was a glorious moment for him.
 * He pulled a nice one recently. So we have the Void, reality-warped Evil Counterpart of the batshit insane Sentry. After hovering around in Emma's diamond form for awhile, it gets into Scott's head when the latter tries to help her. Emma promptly goes back into the mind link to try and save him, only for Scott to boot her out of his head, then use all of the emotional repression he's learned from his time with the X-Men to utterly own the Void, sealing it into a harmless inert form when it tries to take over his mind by driving him insane.
 * Secret Invasion X-Men, Chapter 1, after hijacking an Invading Skrull ship they're stopped by an alien priest calling himself a soul Shepard before comanding that they kiss his feet, Cyke just bluntly blasts him into a wall before telling the X-Men to strip the ship of everything they can use against them.
 * Curse of the Mutants. Scott plays the Vampires like tools. After turning Jubilee, the Vampire nation plan to use her to lure Logan to their base and allow her to turn him, and then send him to kill Cyclops. However, Scott knew this and had Wolverine's Healing Factor checked against Vampire Venom to see if he'd be able to cure himself. When he descovers he would be, he disables it so that, when Jubilee attempts to turn him, they wont just capture him if he turns out to be immune. So When Vampire Logan goes to kill him, he remotely reactivates his power, purging him of Vampirism and reverting him to normal, right in the heart of the Vampire army. During this, Cyclops had also had Dracula resurrected, and tricks him into getting revenge on the Vampire nation for betraying him. Once he regains power and decides that he too would like to turn all the mutants into vampires, Cyclops reveals he had made a special device that would kill him during the time he was dead. While Dracula tries to pretend he doesn't believe him, Cyclops insists he's not bluffing, convincing Dracula to abandon any attempts to turn any mutants into vampires. Yes, Cyclops Outsmarted every vampire in the world and then scared Dracula into peace.
 * He had an awesome moment at the end of God Loves Man Kills. Professor X was hooked up to send his psychic energy out to kill all nearby mutants and time was running out. He gives Wolverine the okay to have Nightcrawler teleport him next to Charles and kill him and then turns his head to the side and fires a beam. Cue that beam bouncing off reflections while Wolverine's attempt fails and he is mind bolted. With Xavier distracted he doesn't realize until too late that the optic beam will hit him and is hit across the jaw and knocked out. Wolverine was just a distraction and Cyclops pretty much created a plan before Xavier could detect it and before Cyclops himself could think of it!
 * A very subtle one in Astonishing. When the mutant cure is all over the news and Beast is being tempted to take it, not only does Cyclops not once contemplate it himself despite the fact his powers are arguably far worse than Beast's and have basically ruined his life, but he holds absolutely no hard feelings towards anyone who does, and upon hearing that Beast may/may not take it, he merely asks that he tells him what he's going to do. So, you have a guy who is offered a free way out of what must be a constant hell for himand doesn't once even contemplate it, but also does so not because he believes its right and lets others, including who was at the time his best friend, chose for themselves. There is a reason Joss is one of my favourite writers, and its because he got Cyke right.
 * And somehow, Scott is still considered boring by Wolverine fans.
 * Rogue has two at the end of the X-Treme X-Men "Invasion" arc: first when she single-handedly held off an entire alien invasion force using the powers of every powered being she's ever touched, and again later when - having just been stabbed through the heart - she beat Vargas in a swordfight.
 * Shortly after we meet Moira McTaggart for the first time, a monstrous N'Garai demon calling himself Kierrok the Damned busts into the X-Mansion. What does Moira do? Cower like a good Damsel in Distress? Nope! She pulls out her machine gun and cuts loose.
 * Incidentally, Moira's OHOTMU profile gives her a "fighting skills" rating of 2 precisely because of this, rather than the 1 a normal research scientist would normally merit.
 * Close to the end of the first arc of Astonishing X-Men, Colossus has come back from the dead. Wolverine is on the team with him, and fans are asking, "When are they gonna do the Fastball Special?" Cue the villain escaping on a spaceship. Colossus tells Wolverine that he is strong. Wolverine says, "I have two words for you." The next two pages are Wolverine flying through the air... with Colossus on the ground in a throwing pose.
 * Also in the end of the second arc, a similar thing happens, with Kitty talking Colossus into doing it with her in order to get her to the Wild Sentinel. Pretty awesome, but gets better once she's inside and manages to poker face the Sentinel into reliving its past and leaving them. The actual toss however, is more funny than awesome.

"Jubilee: "You wanna go around killing people? That's your choice. But don't think for a fraction of a second you're gonna make a murderer outta me.""
 * There's also the instance where, after having just been reunited with Kitty, Colossus gets into a fight with Ord. "I am not made of metal, I am made of RAGE!" The line itself may be somewhat Narmy, but the ass-kicking sure wasn't.
 * Jubilee after being captured by Operation: Zero Tolerance. Not when she blows her cell apart. Not when she takes out a squad of guards without even trying ("Three words, chump: back and off!"). It's when, half-way through the escape attempt, she realises that the bad guys' armour wasn't as tough as it looks, and stops her getaway in order to perform CPR on one of the people who was trying to kill her only moments before.

"Colossus: "HARPOON! Make peace with your gods, little man! YOU. ARE. NEXT.""
 * There's also the scene in which recently reformed supervillain Emma Frost attempts to lecture Jubilee and her friends on ethics. This really needs to be read to be believed.
 * Early in her career, when she was basically still Wolverine's new sidekick, she learned what kind of potential she had. Captured by the Mandarin, and thinking that Wolverine had been killed... well, lets say the Mandarin had to rebuild a hefty chunk of his castle.
 * While still a captive of Bastion's, Jubilee was subjected to images of her fellow X-Men being tormented, told by the Big Bad that she could stop it if she would provide information. When Bastion shows her a video of Wolverine being tortured, she starts laughing.
 * In an issue of Uncanny X-Men Cannonball had an incredible Crowning Moment of Awesome: He took down Gladiator, leader of the Imperial Guard, who is a nigh-unstoppable Superman Expy. While in the air, Cannonball took the impact of one of Gladiator's devastating punches without injury by triggering his indestructible forcefield. When Gladiator realized Cannonball was unharmed he lost his confidence (which is the source of his god-like powers). Using the kinetic energy from the impact, Cannonball hurls Gladiator to the pavement at extreme speed and totally awesome force.
 * Cannonball once split up A Marrow/Wolverine fight by grabbing Logan and smashing him through a wall. When Storm and the other X-Men objected, he had an awesome speech, along the lines of: "This wasn't training, this was a cockfight. Why are you doing this to Marrow? What, are second chances out this year?" Which was a pretty compelling argument since they had Joseph on the team at that point in time, despite believing him to be the original Magneto.
 * Colossus in the story arc "Mutant Massacre". When both Nightcrawler and Shadowcat are disabled, he slowly walks to Riptide, who is launching deadly projectiles at incredible speeds, grabs him by the neck and snap it, killing him. The cold look of steel (pun not initially intended) is his C M o A.

"Colossus: "You...enjoy causing pain...death. Before I met you, I never understood...evil. You are evil, Proteus. But you have made a fatal mistake. You toyed with me when you should have slain me, allowing me time to change from Peter Rasputin...to Colossus! That mistake will be your last!" Colossus slams his metal fists into Proteus' energy form (which is vulnerable to metal), destroying him instantly in a spectacular explosion."
 * Another Colossus moment fairly early in his career. After evading or defeating all the other X-Men, the incredibly powerful body-snatcher Proteus is about to kill his mother, Moira only to be hurled aside by Colossus into a wall, which destroys the rotting body he is inhabiting and revealing his true form. Proteus retaliates by simultaneously turning the air around Colossus into living flame and telepathically making him relieve the memories of his brother dying in a fire as well and then promising to kill his friends after he's done with him. Colossus, who hadn't transformed before Proteus' assault, is on his knees and Proteus is going in for the kill...

"Kitty: You want to know who I am? I'm Katherine Pryde. That's the only thing that matters. The rest are just labels."
 * On Nightcrawler's birthday, Marvel's resident devil Mephisto appears to him to offer a deal. He promises to bring back his dead brother, and to spare his other friends in a coming war if he does not take a side. Nightcrawler then socks him in the face!
 * There used to be a site that was dedicated to scans of Nightcrawler's many crowning moments. Anyone know where it is or what happened to it?
 * In the recend X-Men crossover Second Coming, Kurt has to take the last born mutant, Hope, back to the coast of San Francisco, while being chased by Bastion and his anti-mutant supporters; when they finally run into Bastion,
 * Kitty Pryde tends to collect these:
 * The first is in Uncanny X-Men #143, in which Kitty is staying alone at the mansion on Christmas Eve. A N'garai demon attacks the mansion and, after spending most of the issue doing escape-and-evade through all the walls and floors of the house, and luring the demon through a maximum-hazard Danger Room sequence that still fails to put it down, Kitty finally manages to sucker it into following her into the hangar -- where she punches the engines of the X-Men's SR-71 "Blackbird" to full afterburner. While the demon is standing directly behind the plane. Final scorecard: Kitty 1, N'Garai 0, X-Mansion minus several million.
 * Parenthetically, Wolverine's gaping shock at the beginning of next issue at just how thoroughly "one cute kid" managed to total the entire mansion was also a Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * What makes this moment even better? Earlier, Xavier was thinking of demoting Kitty to the New Mutants, thinking she wasn't ready. In one issue, she proved that she was cut out to be an X-Man.
 * The second is a non-violent example of a CMOA, in New Mutants #45. The whole issue is sort of a Very Special Episode about racial slurs/labels, because the story deals with a transfer student named Larry Bodine who is secretly a mutant but attempts to crack "mutie" jokes with the New Mutants; he thinks it will help him to fit in. Naturally, this backfires and they all start ignoring him, which culminates in Larry committing suicide when he thinks (due to a cruel prank by some of his classmates) that the "mutant extermination team" X-Factor is coming to get him. The last few pages contain Kitty's speech to her classmates at Larry's memorial, concluding with the words:

"Kitty: Disappointed, Ms. Frost? Emma Frost: Astonished, Ms. Pryde."
 * Taking on the entire Hellfire Club alone in Joss Whedon's "Torn" arc.
 * Phasing the Breakworld bullet through the Earth in the Grand Finale of Whedon's run on Astonishing.

"Stryker: Human?!? You dare call that -- thing -- human? Kitty (passionately): More human than you! Nightcrawler's generous and kind and decent. He had ever reason to be bitter -- every excuse to become as much of a demon inside as out. But he decided he'd rather learn to laugh instead. I hope I can be half the person he is. And if I have to choose between caring for my friend and believing in your God, then I choose my -- my friend!"
 * In the God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel, Kitty pwns (and seriously pisses off) popular anti-mutant preacher William Stryker. The scene so far: Rev. Stryker is making a speech to an admiring crowd at Madison Square Garden. The X-Men, having won through various obstacles backstage, confront him on-stage. Cyclops tries to argue with him, contending that mutants, while different, are as human as anyone. An outraged Stryker indicates a particularly demonic-looking Nightcrawler.

"Karnilla: Ha! He's as impressed by the girl as he is enraged!"
 * This scene is so awesome it sends Stryker straight into a Villainous Breakdown, and he pulls out a pistol and tries to shoot Kitty. Turns out, trying to put a bullet in an unarmed 13-year-old girl is a bad idea when standing in a public place. The nearest cop puts one into Stryker, and his whole 'glorious crusade' pretty much ends right then and there after the entire viewing public sees him try to murder a teenager in cold blood on live national TV.
 * And that's not the only villain Kitty's pwned. After Loki's plot to lure the New Mutants to Asgard to be destroyed by the Enchantress (as proxy revenge for the X-Men's foiling his plot in X-Men vs. Alpha Flight) has fallen through, and his subsequent plot to enthrall Storm and then enshrine her as a puppet 'God of Thunder' falls through, he confronts the assembled X-Men and New Mutants in Asgard and is about to destroy them all in a rage... until Kitty cheerfully points out that since Loki has made the mistake of tricking them all into entering Asgard, all he's done is help all the witnesses to his recent Midgardian crime spree reach the place where they can actually tell people about such crime spree. And that if so much as one mutant present lives long enough to reach one reputable Asgardian (such as Balder, the Warriors Three, etc.) with the story, Loki's life expectancy can be measured in how long it eventually takes the news to reach Thor or Odin plus ten minutes. Loki, the God of Lies and Mischief himself, is left standing there speechless because Kitty's right, he didn't think this one through, and ends up having to swear an eternal vow of non-vengeance against the entire X-family in return for a non-disclosure agreement.

"Magneto: Not yet, you soulless bastards. NOT QUITE YET!"
 * Storm getting at a lockpick in her headdress and opening her shackles with her mouth while reduced to the physical level of a six-month old. Absolutely. Awesome.
 * Tied somewhat to the one above, during the "X-Tinction Agenda" story arc, Gambit took a projectile spike to the thigh, hindering his mobility. Later on, the depowered X-Men are shackled to the wall, about two feet from the ground. Cyclops looks over at the Cajun and says "It's time, Gambit." (Which was pretty awesome of Cyclops, incidentally, figuring out Gambit's plan and calculating the time Psylocke would need to make her move.) Gambit proceeds to lift his lower body upwards into a jackknife position, pulls the spike out of his thigh WITH HIS TEETH, lowers his body, spits out the spike...and catches it between the insoles of his feet! He then proceeds to lift his body into a jackknife position again, and using only the insides of his feet, PICKS THE LOCK WITH THE SPIKE. As he clicks free, he smiles at the others and goes "Voila, mes braves! Beat that, Stormy."
 * Also in his solo series, Gambit outwits X-Cutioner who was about to kill him by spitting a wad of kinetically-charged gum in his face when he was stuck in a glue trap.
 * Enemy soldier had a grenade launcher. Gambit casually caught the grenade in mid-air and threw it back.
 * On the non-powered side, Dr. Peter Corbeau sneaking the X-Men onto the space shuttle and arranging an emergency launch to save their friends. And flying both the positions of both Pilot AND Commander.
 * Also, he crashed the shuttle right through the wall of the bad guy's space station. And there wasn't a blasted thing the Sentinels could do about it.
 * Magneto has a moment that is right on that line between awesome and horrifying, when he tracks down a trio of rednecks who had killed a mutant girl as a hate crime. He's very much a villain there, and yet...
 * Magneto versus the Red Skull. See, the Red Skull is a Nazi. Magneto? Is a Jew. And a survivor of Auschwitz. Use your imagination.
 * X-Men Legacy writer Mike Carey seems determined to give Magneto as many moments of this as possible. Case in point: getting up off a hospital bed to protect X-Men's mutant island sanctuary from a army of Nimrods:

"Surge: "No. This has to end. We have to end it. Forty-seven of us are dead. Jay is dead. Max is dead. Laurie is dead. Brian is dead. John went insane, and who knows where Kevin is. The X-Men can't save us. The O* N* E and their Sentinels are a sick joke. They'll probably be coming after us next. And the Avengers don't care. It's up to us. The X-Men are half a world away. We can't wait for them. Forge could still be alive, and if he's not, then Nimrod is coming for us next. This thing was involved with Stryker. It helped him kill our friends. So we'll save Forge. And we'll take this thing down.""
 * At the end of the "Messiah CompleX" Crossover, the New X-Men team gets a CMOA when Scott orders them to attack the Marauders. The Marauders, who had trained for years and were holding their own against the older X-men get their asses handed to them by a bunch of teenagers.
 * Later on, during Uncanny after New X-Men was shut down, Pixie got her very own CMOA against Empath. Empath was running roughshot over the X-Men, taking each of them out just by making eye contact (which hits them with every piece of emotional baggage they have ever suffered). Pixie comes in, he tries this on her, telling her that her Dead Father is burning in hell. She replies "I've been to hell, you wouldn't like it there." and STABS HIM IN THE HEAD. Emma Frost makes a comment about wishing she got to see this.
 * Another New X-Men related CMOA, their fight against Nimrod. At this point in the story, the New X-Men kept getting pounded by the bad guys, and while they had managed to fight them off, they were on the defensive. Many of their friends had died, the other X-Men had left for Storm's wedding, and now an invincible robotic killing machine that had never been beaten was after Forge. Things are looking grim, and then Surge has her own personal Crowning Moment of Awesome:


 * And they do it too.

"Wolverine: I'M! NOT! FINISHED!"
 * This leads to Hellion, notorious Jerkass and former leader of the X-Men's Slytherin equivalents proceeding to do the most awesome thing he has ever done or will ever do after X-23 is gravely injured. He begs Emma Frost to unlock his full powers, which leads to him carrying Laura while flying at supersonic speeds, back to the mansion, ramming an armored car through a guard Sentinel on his way there because it was in his way. He then busts into the traumatized Elixir's hospital room, and gives him the pep talk of the century. Elixir heals Laura, and all is well. And then Hellion passes out, and doesn't wake up for over thirty hours.
 * Grant Morrison's Fantomex is a CMOA incarnate.
 * During the AU story "Old Man Logan," Wolverine explains how the X-Men died. They were all killed by one man: Needless to say, it's a Tear Jerker, but at least one X-Man takes a CMOA to the grave: Jubilee. Yes, the Kitty Pryde of the 90s not only holds her own against her attacker, she keeps it an even fight for a full ninety minutes before she goes down. Keep in mind that the whole time, she was facing down on equal terms a nigh-invincible killing machine that   and just slaughtered her friends and surrogate family in front of her eyes. Sadly, the reader   Thus, the CMOA is posthumous.
 * House of M does not contain much fighting in it, but when it does, it gives Crowning Moment of Awesomes like it was an Academy Award ceremony.
 * Rogue punched through the wall without Ms. Marvel's power during one specific issue. It didn't do much, but it looks awesome! Anyway, during the big fight in Issue #7 Rogue attacked Namor the Sub-Mariner and Storm while sucking the cosmic power of Genis-Vell, thus making her unstoppable. She even defeated Quicksilver just by mocking him.
 * Quicksilver, who just after his defeat by Rogue became furious and became faster than he should be, defeating Spider-Man, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Kitty Pryde, Ms. Marvel, Cyclops, Moon Knight, Matt Murdock, Mystique, Black Cat, Nightcrawler (while he teleports), Tony Stark, Spider-Woman, Toad and Iron Fist in a time-span of three seconds.
 * Magneto, furiouser than ever, walked in the air and incapacitated every hero by wrapping them up in metal while beating Quicksilver (having just defeated all of the heroes above) into a bloody pulp.
 * Scarlet Witch who incapacitated Magneto (who had just defeated Quicksilver who had just defeated all of the heroes above) with her thoughts, erased his mouth from existence while reviving Quicksilver.
 * Northstar gets one in Uncanny X-Men #391 (the first issue of the Eve of Destruction crossover). During his first meeting with former mob hood Paulie Provenzano, Paulie's left dazed, wondering what happened before Northstar comes running in. Northstar had taken offense to Paulie's homophobia and so Jean-Paul knocked him straight on his ass. Paulie just smirks saying that it doesn't matter because his power is invulnerability. Northstar replies by asking if that means he can hit Paulie as much as he wants: he proceeds to punch Paulie in the face repeatedly, bloodying his nose and knocking him out. Northstar knocked out and hurt a guy who's power is that he CAN'T GET HURT!
 * The climax of the Joe Casey's first arc: new guy Maggott starts angsting about his power during an invasion by (everyone assumes) the X-Men's old foes the N'Garai. Wolverine snaps him out of it by telling him, "We all got our crosses to bear." Then it turns out that, not only is some different crowd (who were the N'Garai's slaves until they instigated an Enemy Civil War), but that thanks to the wonders of the Timey-Wimey Ball, they regard Wolverine as their deliverer. Wolverine doesn't take it well... until Maggot says, "We have have our crosses to bear! Is yours any heavier? Is it?" Wolverine promptly outs claws, takes a running jump, and informs the villain thus:

"Basilisk:"No last-minute appeals. Justice will be done." (blasts a guard)"
 * Actually, that issue was pretty much Crazy Awesome.
 * Bishop. One specific example, The X-Men are down, the X-traitor finally revealed, standing over them. Ready to unleash the killing blow, ready to create Bishop's terrible future. Bishop stands up and absorbs the attack, enough psychic/electromagnetic energy to kill the entire team, telling the baddie that the dream will never die.
 * This Troper beleives that X-men is full of Crowning moments of awesome that are hardly remembered because they aren't done by the characters the writers give all the 'good powers' to. Examples?
 * Squidboy. Kid's basically just an ugly Aquaman Jr. without the superstrength, hook, or ability to command sharks to maim the bad guy. But when he finds out that the Brotherhood of evil mutants, led by an Axe Crazy ent and Sabertooth is going to attack the mansion and that his best friend (who, by the way, is Juggernaut) is involved, does he run? No, he steps out of the bushes and calmly tells Juggernaut what he thinks of him, before launching himself at said Axe Crazy Ent.
 * Also, Elsee Dee, Who is a genius intellect android that mimics the appearance of a little girl, is pack with enough explosives to kill Wolverine (and is in fact specifically designed to kill Wolverine... and is now best friends with Wolverine.) She gets her moment when Sabertooth and Wolverine are fighting in the sewers, with the water rapidly rising and the only door out locked. Cable refuses to open the door, basically condemning them both to drown, and when Elsee Dee demands that he help, he responds "What are you going to do, kick me in the shins?" Elsee replies, "No, I'm going to bite you on the knee." And she removes her head and throws it at cable, prompting him to shoot open the door.
 * Also of note, The nameless police officer who shot Col. Stryker during the God loves Man kills storyline. Nobody's going to shoot a defenseless girl on his watch. Granted if Stryker had actually shot Kitty, she would have phased, but still.
 * Some have argued that Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-men was a CMoA of itself, and had a few that have thus far gone unnoticed.
 * Ord, an alien who is on Earth trying to save his planet, has lured out the X-men and beaten them all. Who saves them? Lockheed, Kitty's pet dragon from her days of youth. He shows up out of nowhere and burns Ord so badly it gives him a phobia.
 * Xavier uses his wheelchair as a decoy for, and then rams her with a truck. That's right.
 * Kitty tricks
 * Said robot attempted to stop the  It failed, but points for trying.
 * Uncanny X-Men 522  "Du bist tus dar, tztzkeleh."
 * Which is Yiddish for "You are thin, pet."
 * Evil Storm takes the lead here. Her swift incineration of Logan, her blinding of Sabretooth, her ownage of her former bosses, and most recently, putting aside her genuine love for T'Challa just so she could arrange his murder and rule over Wakanda without an equal. She's basically the X-Men's version of Doctor Doom now.
 * Madelyne Pryor's story arc is a long, sad mix of Cloning Blues and Character Derailment...but she gets one fantastic scene during Cyclops' courtship of her. When he asks her if she's the reincarnation of a then-dead Jean Grey, after proposing marriage, her only response is a furious right cross to the jaw. Things go downhill for her after that, but it was still a beautiful response to the question.
 * A favorite Wolverine one from way back when: A Hellfire Club goon shoots Kitty Pryde with a stun gun of some sort. Wolvie (whom Kitty had just sprung from a power draining cage) catches her, looks up at the guy and says "Sucker, you just made the biggest mistake of your life." SNIKT "And the last."
 * In the new X-Men AU, Age of X, Magneto rescues pretty much every mutant in the world, who were all in the same building and completely surrounded, he picks up that building and a bunch of other buildings, and just flies them a few miles off, before setting them back down.
 * Also, Basilisk, Age of X!Cyclops, who was used as a tool to execute other mutants, and even had his eyelids cut off so the only way to stop him from vaporizing everything in sight is with a special mask, he breaks out of Alcatraz and promptly frees all the mutants housed there, vaporizing everyone else.


 * Emma Frost gets one when she turns down Ms. Marvel's asking her to register with The Government, by giving her an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech complete with telepathic Mind Rape. Ms. Marvel is left almost catatonic, and knowing what Emma had just gone through in previous issues with the Avengers doing nothing, it feels completely and utterly deserved.
 * Colossus gets another one way back in the crossover between the X-Men and the New Teen Titans. The X-Men have practically dogpiled Darkseid and he's ready to unleash his Omega Beams. Cue Colossus, who runs up and covers Darkseid's eyes, reflecting the Omega Beams back into him! Granted, it was due to how the writers didn't know how Darkseid really worked, but you can't deny the fact that someone other than Superman can beat a Dark God.

Animation
""All right, you egg-suckin' piece of gutter trash, you always liked pushin' around people smaller than you. Well, I'm smaller! Try pushin' me! ... You always were second best. And in this business, second best don't cut it!""
 * X-Men
 * Gambit gets one in the original series, when Morph is imitating Professor X. After Morph says something that doesn't sound like something the Professor would say, he flips a playing card on his desk, causing Morph to use his legs to crawl away in fear... and the card wasn't charged at all. Win.
 * Also in the original X-Men, cartoon Gambit throws down a charged card into a tunnel of Sentinels. One of the Sentinels asks what it is. The other kneels down and says "It appears to be the ace of spades." Then the card blows up, taking off the Sentinel's head.
 * In the fight scene preceding the above, Wolverine solos a Sentinel horde in the pitch-black tunnel, the battle sparsely illuminated by the latter's energy blasts.
 * Finally, just when it all seems to be over, Master Mold bursts from the top of the mountain, fully intact. By this point, Professor Xavier has had more than enough of this thing, and he shows it by ramming it with the Blackbird (which he has filled with explosives for just such an occasion) while charging it with being the embodiment of all that is evil in mankind. That about does it.
 * No, it doesn't! Not until we honor Magneto for clinging to the Blackbird and protecting it with his forcefield against Master Mold's blasts.
 * At the end of the two-parter "Sanctuary," Magneto goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against his own asteroid base...all to get revenge on his betrayer, Fabian Cortez. After spending most of the arc weakened from his efforts, seeing him shut down hundreds of nuclear warheads and drag an asteroid through Earth's atmosphere, while bidding a fond farewell to Charles Xavier...* sniffle*
 * A CMOA that lasted an entire season ensued during the show's second season, where Professor Xavier and Magneto were depowered and stuck in the Savage Land, though Xavier was given the ability to walk normally as a side effect. Using only their considerable intellect and willpower, they manage to outwit the most hostile place in the X-Men universe (not counting Bishop's Bad Future), even though they are captured by the Big Bad at the end...
 * Which leads to one of the most impressive Battles Royale in the entire series, when Xavier, Magneto, and the entire team of X-Men battle Sinister and the Savage Land Mutates during the season finale.
 * Beast living up to his name in "Beauty & the Beast," in which he unleashes a brutal beating on the Friends Of Humanity for kidnapping the woman he loves. Wolverine gets one in this episode, too, for using his intelligence instead of his beserker attitude to bring down the organization.
 * Wolverine confronting Sabretooth in "Deadly Reunions":

"Cyclops: So, you like playing God with mutants' lives? JUST KEEP AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!"
 * Cyclops laying a massive beatdown on Mister Sinister in the season 2 opener.

"Apocalyse: I am the rocks of the eternal shore. Crash against me and be broken!
 * "Courage," in which Morph faces his fears to help the X-Men - single-handedly taking down several Sentinels.
 * bonus Points for one of those Sentinels being freking Master Mold!
 * Crowning Music Of Awesome:
 * The kickass theme song.
 * The Days Of Future Past theme, and the themes for various characters; Juggernaut, Cable, Archangel, Wolverine, Gambit, Nimrod, Bishop, Magneto... the list goes on.
 * The Japanese theme.
 * Magneto demonstrating in the beginning of the third episode that he indeed has the power to crush humans.
 * In "Obsession," Apocalypse effortlessly battles the assembled X-Men and Archangel, leading to this moment:

(a mini-jet suddenly kamikazees him into a wall, as the pilot safely hits the floor)

Gambit: The name is Gambit! Remember it!"

" Kurt: I'd be careful * drops arms* You don't have any more mechanical arms to lose."
 * Wolverine and the X-Men
 * Rover, after having his back ripped open, both weapons failing, and one hand blown off, still gets up to continue fighting when Marrow is injured, surging energy from his severed arm and using it like a blade to slice two sentinels in half, before sacrificing himself so the other X-men can escape.
 * Kurt gets one after he finds out the secret of Genosha. He escapes magneto's trained goon squad mutants and escapes magneto in his metal city. when he gets to the edge of the island Magneto tells him its hopeless to try and reach the x-men because they're too far for his powers to reach them, he still jumps, two miles at a time, by line-of-sight, he makes it there, after being wounded, tired, and scotched by fire he makes it to the manor, across the sea which took days by boat.
 * This Troper considers his CMOA to be several episodes earlier, when the aforementioned boat is attacked by the Reavers, the adult mutants are kidnapped, and the children are left on board to drown. Kurt escapes, helps the children repair the ship, and sets off to rescue the adults. The Oh Crap look on Spiral's face when she sees the ship she thought she had scuttled pursuing them, with Nightcrawler standing at the bow holding a cutlass is priceless. The fight between Spiral and Nightcrawler shortly thereafter also qualifies.