Favorite X-character: Your First Impressions

[caney]

Everybody has their favorites! But was you current favorite X-character number one in your heart the first time you saw them?

What was your very first impression of the X-character who has grown into your current favorite? No matter who your top X-character is, here's a place where you can share your story about your first encounter with greatness. Was it love at first sight? Did you hate their guts? Maybe you just ignored them all together overlooking their total awesomeness.

Let everybody know where you first saw your favorite and what you thought of them. If you loved them from the start do you love them for the same reasons today? If you really didn't notice them or even hated them at first what was the moment when you finally realized how wonderful the are?

Heck, Valentine's Day is coming soon, so why not share with us your own personal X-character love story?!

[caney]

Since I made the thread, I might as well start off.

I first saw my favorite as a little kid watching Saturday morning cartoons on TV. The show was Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. I already thought Spider-Man was the greatest superhero around and now there was this other guy, Iceman, right next to him helping to bring the hurt to evildoers. He was Spider-Man's best friend! He could make snow! I was awesomed by him! <3 <3 <3

That's really all it took for me to love him at first sight. As I got older and started to read comics I was a bit shocked to find out Iceman wasn't best buddies with Spider-Man, but I've found many other reasons to keep on loving him today.

[Cayman]

I was first drawn to Polaris because I thought she and Havok looked cooler than the X-Men featured in the issue I was reading.

[Josef F.]

Oooh, what? a minute ago she was her, now she is him, now she is HER!?
Omg, she is Rogue's FOSTER MOM?!
Omg, she is Nightcrawler's REAL MOM?!

As Originally Rogue and Nightcrawler were my 2 Faves (along with Gambit), it was 2Ooh, their Mommah" and she was always cool, in that crazy way. I was exposed by TAS repeats on BBC2 and Fox Kids.

Now she is the saviour and Prophet of mutancy, and demands 4 solo books.

[Pach!]

My favourite X-men is also Iceman. I remember I was a fan of the X-men so I played X-men Children of the Atom or one of those arcade games and there was this awesome character who started out as an ice block that said ICEMAN and I thought that was awesome. I eventually saw that episode of X-men: TAS with Bobby and I thought his story was cool so I searched for some comics with him and I ran into that X-men story that has Iceman's dad getting beat up for defending mutants and Iceman deciding to stay next to his dad and thats when I realized I loved that character and I started looking for more comics with him and other X-men.
http://www.teamteabag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/xmancota02.png

[alf_to_the_rescue]

My favourite X-men is also Iceman. I remember I was a fan of the X-men so I played X-men Children of the Atom or one of those arcade games and there was this awesome character who started out as an ice block that said ICEMAN and I thought that was awesome. I eventually saw that episode of X-men: TAS with Bobby and I thought his story was cool so I searched for some comics with him and I ran into that X-men story that has Iceman's dad getting beat up for defending mutants and Iceman deciding to stay next to his dad and thats when I realized I loved that character and I started looking for more comics with him and other X-men.
http://www.teamteabag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/xmancota02.png

I freaking love that game. I remember playing it in the arcades by the coast... Good times!

[yanapryde]

The first time I saw an image of Illyana Rasputin, was in one of those X-Men magazines, not the comic. It was in an article about "x-men allies" and there was an image of Brett Blevins' (spelling?) rendition of Magik, half way in a stepping disc from the Fall of the Mutants issue when they fought the Animator.

I saw this adorable blonde girl in a pink circle and the caption said she was Colossus' sister. I was hooked! A hot blonde teleporter?

DONE AND DONE!:biggrin:

[Prodigy55]

I saw Wind Dancer's origin story (New Mutants #1) and it was so sad.
But she was still upbeat and even though she was bullied at school she was still happy.
And I hated her dad and was so happy when she ruined his store.
And I was all "yes! girl!" when she finally went to the Xavier Institute.

[Mia]

Your question is hard to answer but I will try…


My favourite current X-character is Emma Frost. The first time I saw her she was strapped down to a table (some issue of X-Men) shouting at Sean Cassidy about monsters/machines to come and get them. No it was not love at first sight, in fact I was pretty much indifferent to her. As I read more about her she grew on me and I grew to admire her. I liked it that she’s very smart, highly feminine and sexy. She has high standards, class and has unlimited ambition. While she can come across as arrogant and ruthless. You can count on her if you need help.

Yes I love her pretty much for the same reasons today although she had been watered down somewhat.

[Seres]

Why is everything so dark?
Who are these characters?
I don't understand this villain.
They killed someone!
What's going on?
It's so dark.
Fantomex, you never cease to annoy me.
Jean Grey, you have awful taste in men.
Who was that character they killed?
It's Wikipedia time!

All of these, I said in a Geordie Accent to myself.

[Waterlily]

When I first saw her in X-Men TAS I thought her name was Miss Teak. I thought it was the oddest name ever given to a villain, but I really liked her character design so I looked past it.

[wanderlust565]

The first time I saw the Scarlet Witch was on the back of a Charleston Chew wrapper. It said under the trivia section that she was Magneto's daughter, which I thought was cool

[Novaya Havoc]

I liked Dazzler because she looked like April O'Neil in that X-Men Arcade Game.

Oh, and she threw big blobs of PINK energy!

I'm gay like that.

[lockerogue]

The hair, the accent, the sass, and the strength it was like love at first sight when I saw Rogue on TAS. I loved her powers and how she referred to everyone as sugah. Also how can I forget her classic line "She's more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rockin chairs". I loves Rogue.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelvscapcom/images//thumb/2/2f/Mvc2-rogue.jpg/300px-Mvc2-rogue.jpg

[The Black Guardian]

Kitty had me from the moment I saw her on the cover of Uncanny #139. Cute girl. Almost my age. "Hope you survive the experience!" WTF? The more I read the more I wanted to read.

[$5 Milkshake]

Well, though he's not my favorite anymore, I definitely remember when I fell in love with Gambit. He was the first X-Man I went nuts over. I remember seeing him in the old blue and gold outfit in space, badass attitude and kicking butt all over the place. I fell in love during the scene where he unleashed the whole deck against Wolverine. That was a great fight scene, and the issue where I became an X-Men fanatic.

God knows, you want to hook a kid on comics, show him some violent fight scenes and Psylocke as drawn by Jim Lee.

[DeniseXfrost]

Emma Frost.

Who is this bitch?! I love her!

[Muggs]

I didn't think anything about Gambit when I first saw him. It took me ages to realise he was supposed to be a fucked up version of Robin Hood.

[AdamYJ]

Well, when I first saw my favorite, I liked her because she was the "kid member" on the Fox X-Men cartoon. She didn't really do much, though. By later seasons, her role could have easily been played by a chair.

Now, a little later I got into the X-Men comics and they were doing the whole lead-in to Generation X. And they were doing all this stuff about how she acted tough on the outside but was sad underneath because she couldn't do anything to help her adopted family. Then, I started to see she was a character with layers.

Now, the last part happened when I somehow came into the possession of some old Marvel Handbooks from 1989. I think a neighbor was getting rid of them. That's when I read her backstory. That's when I learned all this stuff about how she was a rich kid who lost her parents and then got bounced from Juvenile Hall to an orphanage and then fended for herself in the Hollywood Mall before ending up living under the X-Men's Australian base. That's when I started to get into my head this idea that she's basically a rich kid turned street urchin. A kid who is really resourceful and clever and can just roll with the punches but still has a certain sense of honesty about her and a degree of sadness. At first, it actually made me think of one of my favorite Disney characters: Aladdin (nowadays, I see her as having a little bit of Aladdin and a little bit of Ro from "The Zeta Project"). I think that's when I really fell for the character.

That is, in essence, my Jubilation Day. :biggrin:

[justinkos91]

Since Siryn is my current favourite
I saw her in a preview to X-Factor on the internet.
At the time, I was only reading X-men (before it became Legacy) and Uncanny
I wanted to see a preview to one of those but accidentally clicked X-Factor.
It was a preview to one of the earlier issues and her look had me intrigued
The green outfit, the red-hair, the appeal of X-Factor itself had me drawn.

[creaky]

I've only been in the Nightcrawler fandom a few years, but it was indeed fandom at first sight. He IS pretty striking, no? Then, the more I read about him, the more I wanted to read. I still want more.

[.LuckyStar.]

I liked Psylocke because I'm always drawn to supporting characters instead of the big stars. I liked her purple hair, her red tattoo, her personality, I even liked her bathing suit at the time. lol

[Babylon23]

If the Scarlet Witch counts as an x-character, then I first saw her in Australian B&W reprints of early X-Men issues. She was with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants at the time but clearly didn't want to be. She seemed kind of interesting but never really struck me as an amazing character.

Then I read Avengers 147, with Wanda trying to fight off the control of the Serpent Crown, alone at first and then with the help of the Vision. It's a great scene that made me interested in finding out everything I could about both Wanda and Vision.

[Will J.]

When I first saw Havok, I just thought his costume and powers were cool, and I became even more of a fan because of the whole younger brother insecurity thing. I always related to that over the years, even though I think it's played out now.

[x_goalkeeper]

I really liked Cyclops, and I still do I guess. He has many good women in his life so he must be good :smile:

[rojash]

I liked Wolverine when I first got into the X-Men. Over the years though, I kind of "grew up" and realised that it was OK to like girls, and my love of Rogue's character blossomed.

Then I developed a thing for Cyclops, so now I'm just weird.

[timbox]

When I saw Bishop jamming his huge gun in that stupid baby's face, I knew it was love at first sight.

[shadowki]

God knows, you want to hook a kid on comics, show him some violent fight scenes and Psylocke as drawn by Jim Lee.

Exactly what got me going with Psylocke~~
Issue #1, the sewer scene//

[Twisted Bliss]

Illyana Rasputin

New Mutants Issue 53 - Part evil, totally sexy, majorly powerful with an attitude, but caring to her friends.

[AcesX1X]

when i first saw colossus, i fell in love.

unfortunately, his personality was not as dynamic as the rest, and he grew boring.

but, he is still pretty to look at.

[The M.E.]

I actually didn't like Cannonball all that much when i first starting collecting comics (X-force 1 was one of my first comics ever). But i remember reading a trade of the Asgard saga and liking him more, and then after Cable left X-force around issue 14 and Sam took charge, I fell in love. I suspect it had something to do with the fact that as a misunderstood fellow hick and coal miner's son, it was cool to see him amount to something and be confident and awesome. And his new lil tight blue costume didn't hurt as i kicked off puberty lol.

[Schuimend Mormel]

Cyclops... I first saw him in the 90s cartoon. I liked him a lot, but at the time I didn't prefer any member of the cartoon's X-Men team over another, I thought they were all equally cool. It wasn't until I started reading the comics, where Scott often spoke or thought about his optic blasts being a burden, and keeping his distance from most people as a result, and trying to be this model X-Man, dedicated to the mission and not socialising well, that I was really drawn to him.

Rachel... I guess I first saw her in TAS as well, but it was only a cameo as one of the telepaths abducted by Apocalypse in an episode, so all I noticed was her rather odd look... Later, I had bought a handful of comics that featured Rachel, and the first panel I saw her in, she was sitting on the stairs, listening in on a private conversation of Prof X and the X-Men. Her history was briefly explained in the following pages, and more was revealed in the other issues. I knew Scott and Jean, but I had never heard of this Rachel before. As I was already a fan of Scott, I really liked the idea of his daughter from the future being a continuation of the original X-Men in a way. I liked her look (hair/clothes), her attitude, and her moods. And the more stories I read about her, the more I like her.

[rwsmith]

Wolverine. When he appeared in a couple of issues of Todd McFarlane's Spider-man series I instantly liked the character. He seemed to be a big gruff badass (next to Spidey) and, as a 13-year old lineman on my 8th grade football team, something about that appealed to me. What's funny is that I never even knew he was supposed to be a little guy until I went and read some old Claremont/Byrne back issues!

That's why to this day I don't care if he's not drawn short, as I never even knew he was supposed to be until about a year or so after he became my favorite character.

[pryde15]

I think I first read Kitty in Excalibur at somepoint, I'm really not sure. Either way that flat-chested brat captured my heart.

[TJKernan]

First was Storm, with the mohawk and black leathers, kicking Callisto's butt to become new leader of the Morlocks. She was a bad mutha (shut yo mouth!) and even as an impressionable young boy, I felt kinda funny...

[Mesmer]

I really do'nt remember. I think it might have either been Jean or Iceman.
I was like "woah Jean is one sexy mutha fuh...look at her pimping out dat telepathy, telekenisis, and phoenix force."
For Iceman it was the same thing.

and for cyke I was all "How does his eyelids contain those beams man"

i know now.

[ClanAskani]

When I first started reading X-books (my older brothers had tons of them so I randomly began reading them), I thought Rachel was Rahne at first. I think I finally figured out who Rachel was reading X-Men & Alpha Flight and started really liking her character, then went back and read her appearance in Uncanny.

I thought Cable was interesting at first, because New Mutants was going nowhere, but I quickly got tired of his big guns and how much Marvel was trying to make him cool.

[Psy J]

My first exposure to X-23 was on X-Men: Evolution. I was pretty unimpressed, to be honest. A little girl version of Logan? Er, okay.

Then I read her in New X-Men and was intrigued. I found her emotional detachment and animalistic focus captivating.

Finally, I got my hands on Innocence Lost and Target X, and I was hooked. The way that she was conditioned to be so utterly devoid of feeling and sympathy struck a chord with me and I've hearted her ever since.

[steve2275]

when i first saw colossus, i fell in love.
unfortunately, his personality was not as dynamic as the rest, and he grew boring.
he is still pretty to look at.
thats the first thing i liked about him
i played him in the original x men arcade (the 6 person one)
HE IS THE REASON i got into comics (x men classic started it)
and he ISNT boring
u guys just dont understand him

[steve2275]

when i first saw colossus, i fell in love.
unfortunately, his personality was not as dynamic as the rest, and he grew boring.
he is still pretty to look at.
thats the first thing i liked about him
i played him in the original x men arcade (the 6 person one)
HE IS THE REASON i got into comics (x men classic started it)
and he ISNT boring
u guys just dont understand him

[NickFury90]

For a long time, Gambit was my fave. I remember watching him on the X-men cartoon, and he came in the room like "Everyone can relax! Gambit has returned." Then Bishop pointed that gun at him, and he was like "Hey Mon ami, maybe a mistake, yes?" At 5 years old, I thought that was incredibly awesome. He had a funny accent, cool powers, and he just oozed style.

But as time went on(and Gambit became less and less prominent in the X-men world), Wolverine became my fave. He was the badass ninja of the group, with a fantastic design and some great superpowers as well. Whether its in team books like Astonishing X-men/Ult.X-men/New X-men, or his many indiviual moments in his various solo books, I think he's a really cool character, and is right there with Spider-man and Nick Fury as my fave Marvel character.

[Purple]

Why is everything so dark?
Who are these characters?
I don't understand this villain.
They killed someone!
What's going on?
It's so dark.
Fantomex, you never cease to annoy me.
Jean Grey, you have awful taste in men.
Who was that character they killed?
It's Wikipedia time!


That's just how I felt after reading X-Men for the first time. It was so different from all the other comics I had read :smile:.

I think that, when I started reading X-Men, my favorite character was Cyclops, but now I think it is Storm.

[Romy]

I started readin the comics around the same time I started watching TAS when I was around 9 and Gambit was by far my favourite character and that stays to this day. Rogues voice in TAS was so sexy too that made me love the character too so that' stuck, not everything about that time stuck though as I used to be a huge beast fan which although I don't hate him now, has definitely dampened over time.

[Rivka]

(Uncanny) X-Men #1, and #4, and #5. The real comics, on the rotating rack in the local drugstore. It was at the end of 1963 or early 1964.

I said, who is that clown in the red and purple? He's supposed to be a villain? He's nothing, I feel sorry for him. He's not the real villain.

It was Charles Xavier who scared me. Really scared me, gave me nightmares. It was Charles Xavier who made me stop reading X-Men for a while and switch to the Legion of Super Heroes.

Great poem, Seres. Maybe poetry is the only thing left for us to express our feelings about current comic books.

Here's my poem:

1963

Charley is in their heads
He's on their skin
He's thinking for them
And they didn't let him in

He's looking in their mirrors
And windows
And in their hearts
And they do what he says
And they act their parts

"Come to me my X-Men"
He says, without irony
Calling his pets and pawns
You're graduated and free

Welcome to my mutant army

[Filthy Mutie]

X-Men: Alpha came out. I was really, really into Age of Apocalypse--still am, and Apocalypse in particular as a villain. In that issue there was a shot of the Four Horsemen assembled, which included a much cooler looking and more dynamic Sinister, a character who was everywhere until this series and I was largely indifferent to because he looked dumb and was called MISTER Sinister.

On this and the surrounding pages was this new guy, Abyss, who was very striking visually (as was Holocaust), but was not a by-the-book powerful evil guy in his demeanor. When Amazing X-men came out, there he was again, being this taunting, sadistic villain--not quite Deadpool, but they were in the same wheelhouse.

He could uncoil himself, which had an appealing weirdness factor and also made for great visuals with his already different appearance. I was really into him putting people in this undefined Bag of Holding in his chest, namely the child he held hostage and drove crazy as a result. All of this and the "psychic tremors" he could generate gave him a very unique powerset. I was hooked.

Later his 616-version appeared as this capable bodyguard to a member of Xavier's very intriguing, secretive Mutant Underground. He looked a little different, but not too, and he didn't mess around too much--although he did feel bad for accidentally killing someone. He wasn't quite the AoA-version, but he was the logical progression (regression) of that version in a 616 world.

I wanted more very badly and got that in the form of crap stories that tied him to the Draco, made him an unsure plot device in X-Corp., changed his look every time (although in X-Corp. he was closer to his best version), and took away his powers.

I'm on the fence about X-Cell since he had mysterious technology that gave him techno-tendrils without any explanation and he may or may not have been fodder for Quicksilver's BS remedy for lost mutant powers. Hopefully someday someone (PAD?) will revisit this and say something to the effect of "imploding himself willingly into a mysterious dimension (Brimstone?) somehow halted the effects of the Terrigen Crystals" and may have repowered him. He's imploded on himself before in AoA and survived, so it's not impossible.

[AcesX1X]

thats the first thing i liked about him
i played him in the original x men arcade (the 6 person one)
HE IS THE REASON i got into comics (x men classic started it)
and he ISNT boring
u guys just dont understand him

LOL! i'm pretty sure i do. there's not much of him to understand, after all.

[Valerie]

As a Catholic kid who was picked on all her life and rarely felt included in anything, who always liked Star Wars and adventure movies, and who had a very German last name most Anglophones routinely mispronounced, I was drawn immediately to Nightcrawler.