Updated February 27, 2020 28.8K votes 3.5K voters 518.9K views
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Vote up the most redundant X-Men characters.
The great thing about X-Men comics is how each character possesses a unique mutation that makes them special. It's the intermingling and opposition of these unique power sets that make each battle so intriguing. The powers represent an integral component of each delicately crafted personality and delineate characters that can thrive for generations.
That uniqueness highlights a central theme of the X-Men mythos: the chaotic and inimitable process of random mutation. Presenting evolution through the prism of individual perception builds a powerful allegory that has drawn in readers for over 50 years. That's why it's so important that no two mutants are alike... at least until a writer runs out of gas and throws in the towel.
Over the years, X-Men writers have hatched some amazing characters and then followed them up with knock-offs and carbon copies that are in a word... redundant.
The expansion of the mutant population has at some points inferred the existence of thousands of mutants, so some overlap is inevitable, but it's no accident that some of the worst offenders mimic Marvel's most popular characters. Whether they be clones, descendants or just sloppy writing, these are the most redundant X-Men characters of all-time.
X-Men writers love to have a villain change sides and join the X-Men. Sometimes they write an elaborate arc to explain why a character would shift his or her morality so drastically. Other times they just quickly whip out a clone.
Joseph is a Magneto clone that writers desperately tried to make a sympathetic figure in some truly un-engaging story lines. The main difference between Magneto and Joseph is that Joseph sucks.
Wings are cool. Wings look rad. Warren Worthington III (aka Angel) is one of the original X-Men, because he has cool, feathery wings. There was hardly any reason to give Josh Guthrie cool, feathery wings before killing him off. The main difference between Icarus and the original incarnation of Angel is that Icarus is a much better singer.
There was already a blue-skinned, female shape-shifter in the Marvel Universe, but that didn't stop Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld from creating Copycat. Allegedly, her powers are more in-depth than Mystique's, allowing her to imitate a person on a genetic level... nice try guys. Sadly, Copycat is a copycat and not a very popular one at that.
There are lots of Wolverine knock-offs with claws and winged haircuts, but Feral is especially offensive in that she manages to rip off Wolfsbane at the same time. Unlike Wolfsbane, she's not a werewolf, she just looks like one wrapped in anatomically impossible neon clothing. She also has a prehensile tail which is taken straight from Nightcrawler's playbook.
China's official state superhero is actually a combination of five brothers who can inhabit one body or all five separately. When they're together, they have five times the strength of a normal man.
Combining with siblings is Northstar and Aurora's shtick, but when they/he starts making more than five copies of themselves/himself, Collective Man starts to more closely resemble X-Factor's Multiple Man who can make infinite copies of himself.
Rendered Redundant By: Multiple Man
772 votes
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Wild Child
Photo: Marvel Comics
First Appearance:X-Factor #142
A feral Canadian mutant with sharp claws and crazy hair... sound familiar? It's hard to tell if Alpha Flight's wolfish mutant is more of a knock-off Wolverine or Sabretooth, but either way, his pointlessness is off the charts. In the alternate reality of Age of Apocalypse, the writers gave up altogether and made him Sabretooth's pet "Mini-Me" by dressing them in identical costumes.
