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Joseph Gauthier
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 March 2009
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| Posted: 01 August 2026 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | 1
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I was thinking about how quickly the population of named mutants grew from the mid-80s on. I may have overlooked some--I would love to be corrected if I did--but my cursory exploration called to mind 43 mutants introduced in the above listed era. My count (mostly chronological) is included below.By the way, I'm not intending to imply anything with my chosen endpoint, I just happen to think of #144 and beyond as substantially different from the era before. And while I'm not going to speculate on reasons for this, it is fascinating to note how quickly Marvel's mutant population grew after these bookending dates.
1. Charles Xavier 2. Cyclops 3. Angel 4. Beast 5. Iceman 6. Marvel Girl 7. Magneto 8. The Vanisher 9. The Blob 10. Quicksilver 11. Scarlet Witch 12. Toad 13. Master Mind 14. Unus 15. Mesmero 16. Banshee 17. Polaris 18. Havok 19. Larry Trask 20. Sunfire 21. Franklin Richards 22. Wolverine 23. Storm 24. Colossus 25. Night Crawler 26. Thunderbird 27. Sabertooth 28. Mystique 29. Willie Evans Jr. 30. Amahl Farouk 31. Aurora 32. Northstar 33. Proteus 34. Kitty Pride 35. Emma Frost 36. Sebastian Shaw 37. Dazzler 38. Harry Leland 39. Karma 40. Rachel Summers 41. Pyro 42. Avalanch 43. Destiny
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Vinny Valenti
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Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8650
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| Posted: 02 August 2026 at 2:28am | IP Logged | 2
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I often think about how the original OHOTMU entry for the X-Men fit every character's face in a 2 page spread, and that's including the New Mutants and ancillary characters like Changeling and Fred Duncan(!), and wonder how many pages would be needed today.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 02 August 2026 at 5:21am | IP Logged | 3
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It was sheer laziness that led to the proliferation of “mutants”. So easy to just say So-and-so is a mutant than to put in any kind of creative thought.
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Edward Aycock
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| Posted: 02 August 2026 at 10:36am | IP Logged | 4
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While I can't remember much about how many mutants had been introduced by 1985, the numbers must have been going up even more (plus we had all the Morlocks, many created just to be killed off, and IIRC, there were faint intimations that Power Pack may have had something in their DNA that was ignited once they met Whitey...)
Anyhow, when "Longshot" was introduced in the miniseries, I loved that he was so unique and that he WASN'T a mutant, he was wholly original, a created being. And then within a year ...
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James Johnson
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| Posted: 02 August 2026 at 10:42am | IP Logged | 5
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I guess you can add the mutants (Burner, Lifter, Shocker, Peepers, and Slither) from CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL #4 to your list.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 02 August 2026 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | 6
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CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL #4That was a strange one! Roger Stern was assigned to oversee the book. Although not technically the “editor”—Kirby himself had that title—Roger was ordered to tweak a lot of the copy, including a speech Jack had given Cap as he looked at a crashed flying saucer and remarked that it was the first such ship to arrive on Earth!
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Michael Penn
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| Posted: 02 August 2026 at 6:45pm | IP Logged | 7
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> 43 Mutants Introduced Between X-Men #1 and X-Men #143 <
Rough math: 17 years from 1963-1980, except 5 years of reprints, so really 12 years. That's an average of 3-4 new mutants every year. Just enough but not too much?
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Joseph Gauthier
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 March 2009
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| Posted: 02 August 2026 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | 8
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Thanks for the additions, James. I never came across that issue.
Edited by Joseph Gauthier on 02 August 2026 at 7:47pm
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