39,327
edits
X-Men (Comic Book): Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (remove unneccessary quote box template) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 76:
* [[Professor X Likes Watching Teenagers Sweat]] (alternate name for [[Danger Room Cold Open]])
* [[Fastball Special]]
* [[Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?]]
* [[The Juggernaut]]
* [[Summers Family Tree]] (Now renamed [[Tangled Family Tree]])
Line 95:
* [[All of the Other Reindeer]]: Many of the X-men are ostracized for their gifts.
* [[Amazing Technicolor Population]]: Mutant skin color ranges far beyond peach to brown seen in humans. Blue is an especially common color, for some reason - there have probably been more blue X-men than black X-men. Background mutants are also commonly given unusual skin color to make their subspecies immediately identifiable to the reader.
* [[Animal
** As for villains, there is Toad.
* [[Amusing Alien]]: Lockheed the dragon.
** Astonishing pointed out that he isn't a regular [[Team Pet]]; he's an alien empath who speaks dozens of languages, and is smarter than the Professor. Also, {{spoiler|He'd been spying on the X-Men for SWORD since he came back.}}
* [[Anti
** At present count, these X-men characters are [[Anti
** While [[Anti
** {{spoiler|Colossus}} in the Breakworld Arc.
** Magik in ''Inferno''
Line 131:
** And last but not least, Cyclops with Jean Grey (Betty) and Psylocke (Veronica).
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Storm, Nightcrawler, Cannonball, Colossus, Shadowcat, Beast, and most notably Jean Grey, are all pretty nice people, in spite of their lives being one big [[Trauma Conga Line]]. But ''don't push it...''
* [[Big Bad]]: The major evils of the X-Men universe are [[Well
** {{spoiler|Magneto}} is currently enduring a case of [[Heel Face Turn]]; however, new big bads have been popping up, most recently bringing Bastion back.
* [[Bigger Bad]]: Sublime, a sentient colony of bacteria almost as old as the Earth itself, definitely qualifies. In "Here Comes Tomorrow", it was revealed to have orchestrated many events in the [[X Men]]'s past, including the creation of the Weapon X program, all in a centuries-old campaign to wipe the mutant race from the Earth (as they are the only species immune to its mind control). It's implied that it may have even manipulated humanity to create the very idea of anti-mutant prejudice in the first place.
Line 148:
* [[Broken Aesop]]: Many.
** Marvel got a ruling saying mutants weren't people for purposes of taxes and tariffs on merchandise. See [http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/04/24/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-152/ here].
** Also, after decades of using mutants as a metaphor for an [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|oppressed minority]] that we should love and respect, Joe Quesada mandates the Decimation event, in which a vast majority of the Marvel universe's mutants are depowered and there are in the low three digits of mutants left.
** One of the taglines for the first movie was "Trust some. Fear the rest." Imagine this being applied to any minority group.
* [[Broken Angel]]
Line 182:
** You'll also notice a subtle difference in the way sympathetic characters use the word "human" as a blanket term for both mutants and ordinary humans, but occasionally use it to mean just ordinary humans when it's clear from context they're not implying a value judgment. Under some writers, though, they'll avoid the second usage or use the word "human" exclusively for non-mutants (e.g. specifying "humans ''and mutants''" when talking to aliens). For a long time, this didn't vary from character to character, except for villains: the anti-mutant racists inhuman freaks unworthy of being part of humanity while evil mutants are emphasizing the supremacy of homo-sapiens-superior over mere [[Muggle|Muggles]]. However with the recent Decimation and Endangered Species events, everyone is referring to mutants as a separate species from humans without regard to the good/bad implications.
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: If you have a detailed understanding of animal behavior, Wolverine seems less like an animal but more like a very violent human while in berserker mode. (Which, of course, he is.)
* [[Differently
* [[Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us]]: One of the key differences between Magneto's and Xavier's viewpoints - Magneto believes this, Xavier doesn't.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: "Mutant = black" was a major theme in [[The Seventies]] and [[The Eighties]], now more-or-less abandoned for "mutant = gay".
*** Legacy Virus = AIDS. Genosha = [[World War Two]] concentration camp.
** Which brings us to [[Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?]]. X-Men is one of the Trope Namers. Mutant = being gay but with superpowers of varying usefulness/appeal, and no marriage controversy, but giant robots want to kill you.
*** It's a lot more obvious in [[The Movie]]. It helps that the director, Brian Singer, and the star, [[Ian McKellen]], are both openly gay.
*** Unless you're a gay mutant. Poor, poor Northstar, who is both of those things, and French-Canadian on top.
Line 206:
* [[Evilutionary Biologist]]: Mr. Sinister; Dark Beast; Apocalypse;
* [[Evolutionary Levels]]: Mutants as "homo '''superior'''".
* [[Face Heel Revolving Door]]: Magneto. In his backstory he was a friend of Xavier until they split over disagreement about how to best help mutants and almost all versions of Magneto are [[Well
* [[Face Heel Turn]]: Gambit, Bishop.
** Gambit, especially has turned this into a revolving door.
Line 215:
** Which is about the only thing keeping that particular power out of [[Deus Ex Machina]] territory in this universe...
* [[Fights Like a Normal]]: Several have powers which are either not directly applicable to combat or are too dangerous to fling about willy-nilly, and rely primarily on combat training instead.
* [[Fire
** Given enough time, every team develops this. It's the main reason the "All-New, All-Different" crowd is as tight as it is.
* [[Five
* [[Five Token Band]]: Seven, actually. The All-New, All-Different X-Men could be considered this, with at least three characters (Storm, Sunfire and Thunderbird) being of a different ethnicity, but each one of them comes from anywhere in the world: the aforementioned Thunderbird is the only American in the team.
* [[Flight of Romance]]: This trope is taken to a extreme when Angel has sex with Husk in mid air in front of her ''mother'', Nightcrawler, and several other people.
Line 245:
* [[Hand Blast]]: A common manifestation of mutant powers. For example, Havoc fires concussive beams from his hands.
** The Sentinels typically fire Hand Blasts in their mutant-hunting endeavors.
* [[Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?]]: See [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]].
** There was a beautiful use of this during [[Joss Whedon (Creator)|Joss Whedon]]'s ''Astonishing'' run. When a "cure for the X-gene" is found, Beast want to investigate it and see if it works, and White Queen explicitly asks him if he'd feel the same if it were a "cure" for homosexuality. Emma Frost is a beautiful, rich white woman whose powers are telephathy and turning to nigh-invulnerable diamond. Beast is a random guy from Illinois who was turned into an agile catperson who is blue, and has had more and more trouble controlling his instincts. The implication is that it's easy for Emma to say she doesn't need to be "cured", but not so much for Beast.
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Gambit, Magneto during his "headmaster" phase, Emma Frost, Juggernaut, Rogue.
Line 260:
* [[An Ice Person]]: Founding member Iceman is one of these.
* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]: A number of mutants, thanks to the aforementioned [[Fantastic Racism]] and being [[Blessed With Suck]]. Rogue is the poster child for it; her powers make her an outcast among her fellow outcasts.
** Interestingly, a lot of human parents [[Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?|feel this way about their mutant children]] but when a lot of the students were [[Brought Down to Normal]], [[Put On a Bus]] and [[Dropped a Bridge On Him|the bus blew up]], they never bothered to collect their remains.
** Surprisingly averted with some characters who have obvious physical mutations, like Nightcrawler. He's perfectly happy with the way he looks, even though, resembling a blue demon, he actually would have some legitimate reasons to complain. If such a character were written by another writer and not [[Chris Claremont]], he likely would've fallen into this trope.
* [[I Just Want to Be Special]]: The U-Men are a bunch of humans who want to be Mutants.
Line 273:
* [[Joker Jury]]: Factor 3.
** Also Magneto, to Gambit.
* [[The Juggernaut]]: Arguably the [[Trope Namer]]... [[This Is
* [[Killer Robot]]: The Sentinels
* [[Kudzu Plot]]: Claremont's uncannily long stint on ''Uncanny X-men''
Line 281:
* [[Lethal Harmless Powers]]: Nightcrawler and Teleporting. Also, Kitty often threatens to phase a part of her body into a part of an enemy's. Of course, this would result in mutual [[Tele Frag]] and Kitty would run out of hands in a hurry.
** This depends on how well her [[Required Secondary Powers]] do - there is a villain with similar power, Shinobi Shaw, and he does exactly that as his trademark move.
* [[Load
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: And loads and loads. The Decimation event stripped the number of mutants down to 198 because the boys at Marvel had gotten sick of trying to keep up with so many mutant characters in the ranks.
* [[Look Ma, No Plane]]: Rogue does this in the ''X-Men'' comics, buzzing Air Force One and giving ol' Ronnie Reagan a thrill. She does it again in the first issue of her limited series, this time planting a kiss on one of two fighter jets.
* [[Loves the Sound of Screaming]]: Sabretooth. In spades.
* [[Lost Aesop]]: Is being a mutant supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing? Many X-Folks have pointed out how the X-Men don't do much beyond [[Conflict Ball|fight other mutants or mutant-haters]]. Then there's [[Blessed With Suck]] mutants like Rogue who [[I Just Want to Be Normal|want to lose their mutant "gifts" altogether]]. [[Muggles]] want to [[Muggle Power|gain those same gifts]] because [[I Just Want to Be Special|mutants are special]]. But anytime either side tries to change their situation with the best intentions in mind, things go wrong real fast and [[Status Quo Is God|status quo reasserts itself]].
** Perhaps it's a case of "be yourself," which in the real world is the best solution.
** As a general rule, the more powerful they are, the more likely they are are to actually ''be'' a threat to humanity. This is especially true of Omega level mutants. Even in a best case scenario you have instances like [[Goo Goo Godlike|Franklin Richards]] and the [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Scarlet Witch]]. On the more deliberately villainous side of things you have [[The Social Darwinist|Apocalypse]], [[A God Am I|Dark Phoenix]], [[Master Race|Magneto]], [[Generic Doomsday Villain|Proteus]], [[Dystopia Justifies the Means|Onslaught]], [[The Conqueror|Vulcan]] and others. Is it really irrational that regular humans might be just a tad bit disconcerted by this state of affairs and feel that it could be prudent to [[Muggle Power|do something about it]]? For the most part, the writers have made such a point of creating dangerous and/or evil mutants, and then hurling them at the general public, that one would think humanity would have to be ''insane'' to not be terrified for their lives! Which unfortunately makes their [[Fantastic Racism|attitude towards mutants]] seem more than a little bit justified.
* [[The Magic Touch]]: Gambit has the power to turn anything he touches into an explosive.
* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Mr. Sinister, resident [[Evilutionary Biologist]].
Line 293:
** Even Professor X has his moments.
** Cyclops lately has also been taking a page or two from Xavier's book.
* [[Mass Super
** Inverted with the (incorrectly named) Decimation Wave created by the Scarlet Witch, which depowered 90% of all mutants.
* [[Mental Affair]]: Scott and Emma. Not entirely surprising that Jean, a fellow telepath, catches them in the act.
Line 313:
* [[No Fourth Wall]]: [[Deadpool]]. His entry at the top should really tell you all you need to know, but if you're still in doubt you can just go ahead and check my- I mean HIS [[Shameless Self Promoter|awesome main article]]... Uuh... I have to go now. Ciao!
* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]: The proper pronunciation of the "M'kraan crystal" has been a source of frustration for fans for years. It doesn't help that [[X-Men (Animation)|the 90's cartoon]] pronounced it "Em-Krahn" while the video game ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'' pronounced it "Muh-Kran".
* [[Not So Different]]: Comparisons between Magneto's ideology and Hitler's are inevitable, particularly as Magneto oscillates between a [[Well
* [[Oddly Common Rarity]]: Omega level mutants. Mutants in general are supposed to be rare. Mutants whose potential and/or actual power levels are so great as to be difficult to measure should therefore be almost unheard of. Only they are not. During the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] and the [[The Bronze Age of Comic Books|Bronze Age]] it was generally held that Professor X and Magneto were the most powerful mutants in the world. But in recent times mutants whose power equals or exceeds their's are surprisingly common, and with the recent reduction in the size of the overall mutant population they stand out even more.
* [[Opening a Can of Clones]]
Line 319:
* [[Outside the Box Tactic]]: Sebastian Shaw absorbs any kinetic energy directed at him, even a bullet, so Storm covers him in snow, which actually saps his energy, due to cold being a lack of said energy. <ref>Ironically, 15ish years later the X-Man Bishop--whose powers are similar to Shaw's--would charge himself up ''by using snowfall''.</ref>
* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: Deadpool is perhaps one of the shining stars of this trope, due to his [[Medium Awareness]] for his being in a comic book, to the point of answering his own letters column.
* [[Painted
* [[Pettanko]]: Jubilee in her earlier appearances. More recent depictions have shown her with the standard [[Most Common Superpower]], much to the outrage of some fans.
* [[Phlebotinum Battery]]: Cyclops' red optic blasts are charged by solar power. In a pinch they can be charged by Storm's lightning (which turns them white) but it is not at all pleasant for him.
Line 327:
** Heroic examples Sunfire and Neal Sharra.
* [[Playing With Syringes]]: The Weapon-X project.
* [[Power Creep, Power Seep]]: The powers of several characters have been inconsistently portrayed.
** Magneto is the most notable example, with his power level depending heavily on which side of the [[Face Heel Revolving Door]] he is on at any given time. As a rule, when he is being a villain he has practically unlimited power. When behaving more benignly his powers are usually dialed back substantially.
** Professor X also tends to drift around a bit, usually in response to how much he might [[Story Breaker Power|mess up the plot]]. Back in the early days, he could telepathically [[Mind Rape|mindwipe]] an entire town. More recently, even a little bit of [[Psychic Static]] can give him a [[Poke in The Third Eye|headache]].
Line 336:
*** It's worth mentioning that the rules of her duel with Callisto specifically forbid Storm to use her mutant power, and she ''still'' defeated her, even though she hadn't yet fully recovered from a sickness caused by another Morlock, and even though everyone assumed Callisto to be the better fighter. So it could be said that the duel with Callisto was a prelude to her [[Badass Normal]] period.
* [[Power Strain Blackout]]: Nearly all the female characters, especially telepaths like Jean Grey, have done this at least once across many incarnations.
* [[The
* [[Pretty in Mink]]: Some of the ladies will wear fur at some points. Even those not rich might wear a fur-trimmed coat.
* [[Psychic Powers]]: Professor X, Jean Grey (and all of her time-traveling offspring), Psylocke, Emma Frost... the list goes on.
Line 353:
* [[Sapient Ship]]: The Brood used [[Mind Rape|lobotomized]] [[Space Whale|Space Whales]] for transport, and the surviving ones at liberty were both sentient and ''not happy at all'' about the situation.
* [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]]: The Brood exist to mutilate and enslave other races, transforming them into still more of their depraved kind. The Phalanx exist to convert all other entities in the universe into part of their race of living circuitry. Both have clashed with the X-Men.
* [[Self Duplication]]: Jamie Madrox, aka Multiple Man. If he leaves his duplicates separated for too long, they start to [[Literal Split Personality|become more independent and develop their own personalities]]. Sadly making a [[
* [[Shape Shifter Swan Song]]
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story]]: {{spoiler|Banshee}}'s death in ''Deadly Genesis''. Not only does Vulcan kill him, but the plane he was trying to save at the time crashes, killing everyone aboard. This is often cited among fans as one of the absolute least-satisfying X-deaths, and as one they want to see reversed.
Line 361:
*** Nightcrawler might as well be co-owner of the X-Men Fetish Fuel Station if that page is anything to go by. Hell, he's the one topping the X-Men Fetish Fuel list.
*** ''[[Cable]] & [[Deadpool]]'' spawned a legion of Cable/Deadpool slash fic - though considering the content of the comic, one has to wonder if [[Ho Yay|that was their intent]].
* [[Sixth Ranger]]: Havok and Polaris both filled this role when they joined the original [[Five
* [[The Sneaky Guy]]: Nightcrawler might be the best example.
* [[Spider Limbs]]
Line 385:
* [[Super Hero School]]: ([[Trope Maker]]) Xavier Academy, especially right in the beginning and in recent years.
* [[Super Human Trafficking]]
* [[Superman Stays Out of Gotham]]: Why the Avengers and other non-mutant heroes on friendly terms with the X-Men don't get involved in their [[Fantastic Racism]] troubles: because they don't have to deal with it themselves. [[Lampshaded]] during the [[Marvel Civil War|Civil War]] when Emma Frost gives a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] speech to Tony Stark asking why the X-Men should care about Stamford when none of the other heroes got involved after the destruction of Genosha.
** To be fair, the absence of non-mutant heroes at Genosha had more to do with the fact that [[Grant Morrison]] was trying to distance ''[[X Men]]'' from its roots as a superhero comic, and insisted on going the whole run without other superheroes even making cameos. Hell, under Morrison's watch the other superheroes didn't even bother to show up when Magneto destroyed half of New York City.
* [[Super Wheelchair]]: Professor X frequently gets this though it is [[Depending On the Writer]]. Hovering is common.
Line 409:
* [[Vocal Minority]]: An In Unverse version. Most mutants that are seen are usually relatively powerful, but its been said that most mutants are either relatively weak, or even completely harmless, but are still treated to the same stuff the actual dangerous ones are, and is usually the reason the Mutants are a minority metephor works. But of course, no one wants to read a comic about a group of people who only have an extra pair of hands or the ability to glow.
** Actually, having stories about a group of people with minor things like an extra pair of hands or the ability to glow would be interesting. They could have stories about the "everymutant" who is just trying to live his or her life without getting persecuted.
* [[Walk, Don't Swim]]: Juggernaut's default method of crossing bodies of water.
* [[What Measure Is a Non
* [[
** Taken to extreme lengths with everyone's reaction to finding out Scott assembled the X-Force, a black ops team with the most dangerous mutants to go and kill the X-Men's most deadly enemies who could possibly erradicate the last of the mutants. What they (and sadly [[Fan Dumb|some fans]]) fail to notice is that that is exactly what has prevented every last mutant on earth from being eradicated. Note that the second that Bastion and the Purifiers are defeated, Scott disbands the team since they won't be up against anyone as dangerous as them in the meantime.
** Mind you, Wolverine and Angel immediately re-band the team as "Uncanny X-Force", which tends to find itself up against plenty of extinction-level threats.
* [[White
* [[A Wizard Did It]]: As knowledge of genetics and radiation became more prominent, it was eventually decided that [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] "planted the seeds for beneficial mutation," rather than natural processes giving random people cool superpowers. [[Lampshade Hanging|This is not explicitly stated as fact though it at least acknowledges the underlying problem]].
* [[Wolverine Publicity]]: [[Trope Namer]].
| |||