They are Marvel Comics’ premiere mutant superhero team. The X-Men have saved the world and all of reality from the brink of destruction multiple times. The X-Men, as seen in both the movies and comic books, are some of the strongest superheroes on the planet. While the cinematic versions of the mutant heroes are usually watered down, you still get a sense of their strength. There are plenty of X-Men however, who are not seen in the films. With such a rich and oftentimes convoluted history, many mutants not on the prime Uncanny team fail to receive time in the spotlight. This can be for numerous reasons: certain characters are too lame or certain team members might be either too scary or are host to immeasurable powers that wouldn’t translate well.

RELATED: 15 Mega-Powerful X-Men That Are Way Scarier Than Their Villains

When you have mutants who can reshape reality or bringing people back from the dead, a certain sense of stakes is lost. For movies to work, you need to feel the overwhelming sense that the protagonists are in a no-win situation. X-Men with deus ex machina abilities, who can end a problem in an instant, wouldn’t make for an interesting story. Here at CBR we’re looking at 15 X-Men who are way too powerful to be in the movies.

15 QUENTIN QUIRE

An obnoxious brat, Quentin Quire is also a skilled and deadly telepath. Boasting one of the most ridiculously powerful skillsets of anyone, including the teachers, at the Xavier Institute, Quire thinks highly of himself and appropriately so. Calling himself Kid Omega, just to rub his sense of elitism into everyone’s noses, he’s a troublemaker with an appreciation for complete anarchy. His telepathic level is so high, that Emma Frost’s trio of psychics, the Stepford Cuckoos, could barely take him on together.

Quire’s powers are great enough to influence those around him, either secretly or overtly, and his Omega Level abilities give him intense telekinesis, heal wounds, and even exist without a physical body. In an alternate future, Quire became host to the Phoenix, though even in mainstream continuity he has a relationship with the giant flaming bird. With obnoxious powers, Quire is too OP for any X-Men movie.

14 RACHEL SUMMERS

The daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey from an alternate timeline, Rachel Summers is more powerful than either of her parents. Rachel comes from a dystopia where mutants have been hunted to the brink of extinction. As a child her powers already started to blossom. Endowed with incredible abilities, i.e. telekinesis, telepathy, when Rachel was a child in this nightmarish reality, the X-Men headquarters at Xavier’s School of Gifted Youngsters was attacked. Rachel was abducted and drugged in order to suppress her immense psionic abilities. She was then turned over to the cruel Ahab, who tortured and brainwashed Rachel into using her powers to hunt down surviving mutants.

Rachel’s history isn’t enough to keep her from the movies, but her powers are. Like her mother, she’s been host to the Phoenix, but unlike Jean, she could control the cosmic energies. It’s unlikely the movies need two Phoenix Forces running around.

13 VULCAN

The Shi’ar raised Gabriel Summers as a slave after his mother was murdered. He was also part of Professor Xavier’s first Uncanny X-Men team. He and his teammates were sent to save his original five X-Men from the mutant island Krakoa. Nearly everyone on the team died; Vulcan was left for dead. When Vulcan reappeared, he wasn’t especially happy. An Omega-level mutant, Vulcan’s clashed with the X-Men, nearly conquered the Shi’ar Empire, fought Gladiator, and battled the Inhumans.

His range of abilities includes manipulating all energy, super strength, flight, telekinesis, energy absorption, controlling others’ psionic abilities with his own powers, and he controls the seven elements. Likely unable to die, Vulcan is more than a match for god-like beings like Onslaught. Vulcan’s power is ghastly and probably the very reason we don’t see him in comics anymore, not to mention the movies; he’d be too fearsome.

12 LEGION

While it’s true that Legion has his own TV show, the oddball mutant will never make it to the big screen. Barring the fact that Legion and his misadventures are extremely cerebral and might not translate into box office dollars, his powers, when completely unleashed, could end any threat in moments.

The son of Charles Xavier, Legion is the planet’s most dangerous telepath. Far stronger than his dad, David Haller suffers from a severe case of multiple personality disorder. Every personality has it’s unique power-set; it’s impossible to know which personality will surface at any time. Some personalities are more murderously psychotic or friendly than others. Though Legion might have a god’s power, he’s rarely in control of himself. Capable of generating fire, time travel, warping reality and anything the story requires, David is best known for going back in time, killing Xavier, and starting Age of Apocalypse.

11 X-MAN

Like his siblings Cable and Rachel Summers, Nate Grey comes from an alternate timeline. Mr. Sinister artificially created Nate Grey from genetic material taken from Cyclops and Jean Grey, and aged Nate’s body rapidly to the point of being a teenager to battle Apocalypse.

Stronger than his “brother” Cable, Jean, or Cyclops, Nate is one of the strongest mutants to ever exist; he could do nearly anything. In fact, he was just as powerful as Jean Grey at the height of her Dark Phoenix abilities. Nate became almost too strong, and Marvel needed to find a way to turn him into something that wasn’t a god. They did this by burning out his powers thanks to the Omega Machine. Even so while X-Man became weaker, he remained stronger than the majority of mutants. Effectively a god, movies studios struggle enough with representing Phoenix, much less someone of equal power.

10 SUNFIRE

Sunfire is the pride and joy of his homeland Japan. It’s easy to underestimate Sunfire; he hasn’t been given his due in recent years. He also experienced some hardships when he made poor decisions and decided to hang out with Apocalypse after losing his legs. It didn’t go well and the hero fell into disgrace. Nonetheless, Sunfire’s power to convert solar radiation into plasma is just as powerful as it sounds. Though his Age of Apocalypse version is stronger, the regular Sunfire’s plasma-based attacks are wrath of God level stuff.

Sunfire can biochemically ionize matter, converting it into super-heated plasma and discharge it at temperatures of over one million degrees Fahrenheit! Additionally, he can absorb solar and electromagnetic energy, using it as he sees fit to create psionic force fields and turns mountains to ash. Viewing his surroundings in infrared, few can escape his gaze either.

9 TEMPUS

The ability to control and manipulate time is enough to put one on the level of a god, and bending it it fully to your will is something else altogether. Eva Bell, better known as Tempus, has such abilities. For her, it’s more a curse than a blessing, as is often the way with the X-Men.

Initially, Eva’s mutant ability was to control time and space. She would do this by creating temporal bubbles that froze whatever was inside. These bubbles last twenty hours and she can create multiple bubbles at once, each spanning a city block. After she accidentally jettisoned herself into the future, Eva learned how to time displace enemies, sealing them away in time if she wanted. Since she couldn’t control her powers effectively at first, she stays in the future, has a family, only to then get thrown back to the present, losing said family.

8 DANGER

The X-Men are a well-oiled machine of a team. The X-Men’s training sessions in the Danger Room prepared them for nearly every eventuality. Then one day their danger room control unit gained sentience, took humanoid form, and joined the X-Men.

Made up of Danger Room technology, Danger is the host to especially dangerous powers. Though her elementary abilities consist of the typical super strength and energy blasts, Danger can do much more. She can take on the form of nearly any object she wishes, as seen in how she’s the new Blackbird plane. She can interact with and control most machinery and even technoorganic individuals. Her most frightening trait is since she originally trained the X-Men, she possess an in-depth knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the entire team; she knows how to defeat any X-Man at any given time.

7 ELIXIR

A student over at Xavier’s institute, Elixir could potentially be the deadliest mutant on the planet. His powers aren’t particularly flashy, nor does he look intimidating, but he’s the perfect example of why you never judge a book by its cover. Josh Foley is known for his phenomenal biological manipulation. In layman terms, Elixir has the power over life and death itself. He can restore life or just as easily take it away. One of the few Omega Level mutants in current day X-Men comics, everyone should be thankful the young mutant chooses to use his powers for good.

Elixir’s powers work on the sub-atomic level, which means he can alter a person’s genetic code; Josh can turn people into mutants. He’s never been written to showcase his full potential, but many assume Elixir’s barely tapped into his latent potential. A character that can kill or resurrect with a touch would ruin the sense of stakes in any movie.

6 HOPE SUMMERS

Another Omega Level mutant, Hope Summers was born with remarkable power. Despite having grown up, she’s still unaware of her full potential. Her birth alone sent out a psionic pulse powerful enough to destroy Cerebro. Hope has displayed many different kinds of abilities and powers, but her primary power revolves around power mimicry; she can repeat any power she sees, without time limits or the need for physical contact.

She can also combine powers of various abilities she’s acquired and now possess the combination of every mutant on the planet. If that wasn’t enough, Hope is also connected to the Phoenix Force and its immense power, but she can’t control the connection efficiently. Should her powers fail her, Cable trained Hope her whole life in military combat and tactics, shaping her into a living weapon. The movies wouldn’t know what to do with such a powerful character.

5 ROCKSLIDE

Currently enrolled at the Jean Grey School For Higher Learning, Santo Vaccarro, aka Rockslide, is one of the strongest young mutants around. Much of Santo’s history is unknown, but what is known is that Rockslide’s range of strength-driven powers is rather astonishing. Though just a teen, he’s an incredibly valued an important member of any X-Men team he’s on. His physical strength alone is impressive, allowing him to go toe-to-toe with the Hulk, but it’s his passive abilities that make Rockslide OP.

With a body made of inorganic granite, comprised of psionic energy, there’s little that can actually hurt him. For all intents and purposes, Rockslide is effectively immortal; he doesn’t need an actual body to live. So long as there’s stone somewhere on the planet, he’s okay. This has allowed him to be totally disintegrated and come back later like it was no big deal.

4 HELLION

Hellion might be rather obscure, but when it comes to OP mutants, he deserves mention. Emma Frost’s prize pupil, Hellion is a very powerful telekinetic who lost his hands during the "Second Coming" event. Fortunately, they got replaced with cybernetic replacement and he’s a student at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

Hellion’s abilities include flying at subsonic speeds, creating telekinetic force barriers, fire telekinetic force blasts, create force constructs, and lift incredible weight with his mind. For instance, he once simultaneously carried a plane while tunneling through over a mile and a half of rock. Ever since Emma unlocked his potential, he’s grown even stronger. X-23 once stated that if he wanted to, Hellion could easily defeat invulnerable foes like Kimura by expanding force bubbles inside of them, so they’d explode. Hellion is ever so reluctant against killing, but his true potential is pretty scary.

3 FANTOMEX

Fantomex doesn’t have the flashiest powers; his strength lies in subterfuge and misdirection. Fantomex uses his duplicitous nature and powers to confuse and manipulate his opponents. Developed by the Weapon Plus program, those responsible for Wolverine, Fantomex was artificially evolved in their headquarters, The World. When he was younger, Fantomex produced E.V.A., an external nervous system. She later continued growing and turned into a flying saucer; EVA is capable of independent thought.

Fantomex’s misdirection is powerful enough to fool large numbers of people and even the most powerful and experienced telepaths on the planet like Jean Grey and even Professor X. His fighting prowess is top notch; he’s defeated a small army of Deathloks who’d merged with superheroes like Spider-Man, Cyclops, and Captain America. Essentially, with only a gun, misdirection, and general awesomeness, Fantomex destroyed an onslaught of powered-up mecha-superheroes.

2 GENESIS

Often considered the first mutant, Apocalypse is thousands of years old and one of the X-Men’s most powerful foes. Believing that only the strongest should live, the villain spends most of his time trying to bring carnage into the world. With virtually limitless powers, he’s nearly succeeded multiple times. When he was resurrected into the form of a child, the mutant Fantomex killed him. Afterwards, Fantomex took some of the blood, and cloned Apocalypse; the result was Evan Sabahnur, aks Kid Apocalype and/or Genesis. Raised by Fantomex is a virtual reality world, Evan grew into a kind-hearted teenager with no desire to bring about ruin.

Evan has all the powers of Apocalypse, but unlike his predecessor, he’s been trained by Phantomex to be potentially deadlier. Still, he’d rather not use his lethal powers, but visions of the future have shown Genesis responsible for bringing about the end of the world.

1 FRANKLIN RICHARDS

Though some might nitpick here, Franklin Richards was a member of the X-Men. Even though he wasn’t a member of the prime timeline team, he was a member of the New Mutants during the "Days of Future Past" storyline. Unquestionably Marvel’s mightiest mutant, Franklin Richards is the youngest child to Reed and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four. His power is such that the Celestials consider him on their level, although he defeated two Celestials in combat as an adult.

He can time travel, resurrect the dead, create planets, and even created a pocket universe following the Onslaught saga, where he remade the Avengers. There is almost nothing he cannot do. In the future, Galactus, one of the most feared beings in creation, is Franklin’s personal servant. Unrivaled in every capacity, creating universes with the flick of a finger, Franklin Richards towers above most other superheroes.

Did we miss an OP X-Men? Let us know in the comments!