For decades, the X-Men have been billed as the "Children of the Atom." While that nickname might not make a lot of sense today, Marvel's mutants were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby during the heart of the Atomic Age. Even though Professor X and some other older mutants may have gotten their powers as a result of their parents' work with radiation and nuclear energy, most modern mutants are a result of genetic evolution. Since that shift happened, families have played an important role in the X-Men's adventures. Over the course of their adventures, a surprising number of the X-Men have even had children of their own, especially in alternate realities and possible futures.
Now, CBR is taking a look at the X-Men kids who are cooler than their mutant parents, along with some X-kids who don't quite measure up to their heroic family legacy. In this hardly comprehensive list, we'll be looking at how these adopted, biological and cloned X-kids live up to their family name, whether they're adopted or biological children. While plenty of mutants have had brief stints on the X-Men, we'll be focusing on the children of characters who were steady members of the team for at least a few years.
15 COOLER: X-23
While Logan will probably never be replaced as the one true Wolverine, X-23 has come pretty close over the past few years. Since was created by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost in a 2003 episode of X-Men: Evolution, Laura Kinney has carved an unlikely path from Saturday morning cartoons to Marvel Universe comics and an R-rated movie. Although she was created in a lab from a sample of Wolverine's DNA, Logan eventually took her in as an adoptive daughter, in comics and James Mangold's 2017 feature, Logan.
Between her razor-sharp claws, expert fighting skills and mysterious past, X-23 has most of Logan's attributes without decades of baggage and contradictory storylines. While Logan spent a few years trapped in an adamantium shell, Laure proudly took Wolverine's name and classic yellow-and-blue costume in the pages of All-New Wolverine. On screen, Daphne Keen's X-23 stole the show with a fierce performance in Logan.
14 WORSE: LEGION
Even though Legion is the only mutant who's ever starred in his own live-action TV show, he doesn't have the most distinguished history in comic books. Since he was created by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz in 1985's New Mutants #25, David Haller has lived a troubled life, which has been complicated by his status as Professor X's son. While Charles Xavier successfully mentored generations of young mutants, he's only had intermittent success in helping his own son deal with his dissociative personalities.
Thanks to his almost-limitless omega-level mutant powers, Legion briefly erased all of reality, twice. In 1995, David accidentally created the "Age of Apocalypse" after a time-traveling mishap changed X-Men history. In 2011, one of Legion's personalities rearranged reality to protect itself in the 2011 storyline "Age of X." While reality was eventually fixed in both cases, those stories show just how unpredictable Legion really is.
13 COOLER: PHOENIX/RACHEL SUMMERS
Since it saved Jean Grey's life in "The Phoenix Saga," the Phoenix Force has been an essential part of the X-Men's biggest moments. While the eternal cosmic entity corrupted X-Men like Jean Grey and Cyclops, that couple's daughter from another world, Rachel Summers, managed to single-handedly control the power of the Phoenix. When Rachel was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne in 1981's X-Men #141, Rachel lived in a dystopian future ruled by mutant-hunting Sentinels.
In 1984's Uncanny X-Men #184, by Claremont and John Romita Jr., Rachel traveled to the present to save her future. While that didn’t quite work out, she found her place with numerous X-Men teams and the long-running affiliate squad, Excalibur. Whether she's calling herself Marvel Girl, Phoenix or Prestige, Rachel has been a consistently underestimated hero, with omega-level mutant powers that are even stronger than Jean's abilities.
12 WORSE: RAZE
In 2013, all of the X-Men's time-traveling shenanigans finally caught up with them in the crossover "Battle of the Atom." In Brian Michael Bendis, Frank Cho and Stuart Immonen's aptly-titled X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1, a future Brotherhood of Mutants posed as future X-Men and traveled to the present to change the X-Men's history. One of this team's leaders was Raze, the shape-shifting son of Wolverine and Mystique.
With a design that borrowed the most distinctive elements from both of his parents' signature looks, Raze cast a striking profile as the Brotherhood's most visually surprising member. After he made it out of that crossover, Raze took center stage again in Mike Carey and Salvador Larroca's X-Men: No More Humans. In that 2014 graphic novel, Raze tried to make the Earth a refuge for mutants from alternate realities before the Phoenix effortlessly sent him back to his timeline.
11 COOLER: CABLE
For a generation of X-Men fans, Cable was the epitome of cool. As soon as he made his full debut in 1990's New Mutants #87, by Rob Liefeld and Louise Simonson, the telepathic time-traveler rocked the X-Men's world with his no-nonsense approach saving mutantkind. Between his arsenal of futuristic weapons, metallic arm, mysterious past and Schwarzenegger-size muscles, Cable brought the hottest trends of the early 1990s together in one inherently awesome package.
After he transformed the New Mutants into the more aggressive X-Force, Cable was revealed to be Nathan Summers, the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey's clone, Madelyne Pryor. Although Nathan was born in the present day, he was sent into the future as an infant to get treatment for the Techno-Organic Virus. While both of his parents eventually betrayed the X-Men, Cable has been a consistent leader, soldier and protector since he got back to the present.
10 WORSE: DAKEN
Since he's lived for well over 100 years, Wolverine has led quite a life, and he's had a few kids over the past century. While those kids usually don't have happy lives, Logan's son Daken has had an especially hard time escaping his father's shadow. Since he was created by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon in 2006's Wolverine: Origins #6, Daken has constantly towed the line between heroism and villainy without truly excelling in either role.
After he was born to Logan and his wife Itsu in 1946, Daken Akihiro was taken by the villain Romulus, who turned him against his father. Using his healing factor and claws, Daken's criminal career took him through various schemes, which even earned him a spot on Norman Osborn's team of Dark Avengers. Despite that, Daken still has a begrudging respect for his father and a sincere soft spot for his sister, X-23.
9 COOLER: NOCTURNE
While Nocturne was a regular player in X-Men comics for most of a decade, she began life with a one-sentence description in an anthology of possible X-Men future timelines. In 2000's X-Men: Millennial Visions, Jim Calafiore introduced Nocturne, the blue fur-covered daughter of Nightcrawler and the Avengers' Scarlet Witch who could teleport and briefly possess people.
Even though she was just a glimmer of an idea in that anthology, Talia "T.J." Wagner was fleshed out when she joined a team of X-Men from alternate realities in Exiles #1, by Judd Winick and Mike McKone. After that dimension-hopping team became a minor success, Nocturne jumped into the main Marvel Universe. Once she was there, she infiltrated the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and joined a new incarnation of the mutant team Excalibur before returning to the dimension-hopping Exiles. Despite her humble beginnings, Nocturne proved to be a surprisingly resilient character.
8 WORSE: KYMERA
During the 2013 crossover "Battle of the Atom," a group of X-Men traveled back in time to help today's X-Men fight Raze and the other time-traveling villains. One of those X-Men was Kymera, the daughter of Storm and, presumably, Black Panther. Created by Jason Aaron and Giuseppe Camuncoli in 2013's Wolverine and the X-Men #36, Kymera could telepathically communicate with animals, including a large black panther that always followed her.
While the rest of the future X-Men returned to their world at the end of that crossover, Kymera stayed in the present day to hunt down Raze and his team. Over the next year, she started to bond with the modern-day Storm and made a few appearances in some X-Men titles. But in 2014's X-Men #17, by Brian Wood, Paco Diaz and Phil Briones, she abruptly left the X-Men, wrote a goodbye letter and vanished into obscurity.
7 COOLER: SIRYN
Although she's spent most of her time in affiliate teams like X-Force and X-Factor, Siryn had a relatively stable relationship with her father, the X-Men's Banshee. When she was created by Chris Claremont and Steve Leialoha in 1981's Spider-Woman #37, Theresa Cassidy started out as a villain who was tricked into a life of crime by her uncle, Black Tom Cassidy. After she met her dad during her teen years, the pair quickly bonded, partially over their identical supersonic scream mutant powers.
Throughout the 1990s, Siryn came into her own as one of the leaders of X-Force when Cable wasn't around. After a stint as a private investigator in X-Factor during the 2000s, Siryn took on a considerably more impressive role by becoming the modern incarnation of the Celtic goddess Morrigan. To save her teammate Polaris, Theresa took on the immense powers of the war goddess from Irish mythology.
6 WORSE: POLARIS
Thanks to the ever-changing tides of the Marvel Universe, Magneto, the X-Men's chief rival and occasional member, is no longer related to his two most famous "children," Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver. A few years before his relationship to those Avengers was erased, Magneto was also revealed to be the biological father of the X-Men's Polaris. Since Lorna Dane was created by Arnold Drake and Jim Steranko in 1968's X-Men #49, Magneto claimed that the magnetic mutant was his daughter.
While those claims wouldn't be verified until 2003, Polaris had lengthy stints in the X-Men and as X-Factor's leader on multiple occasions. Despite her heroic credentials, Polaris spent years possessed by the psychic entities Malice and the Shadow King or under the influence of villains like Apocalypse or the Shi'ar alien Erik the Red. Even though she's an alpha-level mutant, Polaris hasn’t controlled her powers for a surprising amount of her life.
5 COOLER: ALIYAH BISHOP
After one of the X-Men's cosmic adventures, the time-traveling mutant Bishop spent some time traveling with the deposed alien Shi'ar princess Deathbird. In the alternate reality of 2004's X-Men: The End #1, by Chris Claremont and Sean Chen, the couple had a daughter, Aliyah Bishop. Born in the vacuum of space, Aliyah was raised by her mother and the minor X-Man Lifeguard.
As a teenager, Aliyah joined the Starjammers, a group of the X-Men's intergalactic allies. Along with an older Nightcrawler, she traveled the galaxy with Captain Marvel, who had merged with their spaceship. Together, these Starjammers fought parasitic aliens called the Brood and found a resurrected Jean Grey. After the X-Men defeated the Brood and Charles Xavier's evil twin Cassandra Nova, Aliyah was crowned as the new ruler of the Shi'ar Empire and took her father, Bishop, as her chief advisor.
4 WORSE: RUBY SUMMERS
While the children of Cyclops and Jean Grey are usually power players in Marvel's future timelines, Ruby Summers, the daughter of Cyclops and Emma Frost, played a key role in one alternative reality. Created by Peter David and Valentine De Landro in 2008's X-Factor Special: Layla Miller #1, Ruby lived in the same Sentinel-controlled dystopian future where Bishop was born. After meeting some time-traveling X-Men, Ruby and her elderly father used their optic blasts to launch the Summers Rebellion, where mutants and humans united to overthrow their robot masters.
After her boyfriend, Trevor Fitzroy, took a blast meant for Ruby, she begged the time-tossed mutant Layla Miller to save his life. While Layla saved Fitzroy, her mutant powers took away his conscience. Unfortunately, this was Ruby's Pandora's Box. After leaving her, Fitzroy went on to carve a path of destruction through the X-Men's past, present and future across multiple timelines.
3 COOLER: THE LEBEAU SIBLINGS
While Rogue and Gambit have one of the X-Men's most tumultuous relationships, they eventually got married in one alternate reality. In 2005's X-Men: The End #5, Chris Claremont and Sean Chen introduced their children, Olivier and Rebecca LeBeau. Like his mother, Olivier can absorb other people's powers, but he has a much greater degree of control over them. Still, he permanently absorbed the power of telepathy from an unknown source. Rebecca, also called Ray or Becka, is an exceptional thief and has some of the most famous powers that Rogue absorbed, including flight and super-strength.
Like Gambit, both kids are unusually talented martial artists, and Rebecca even uses a bo staff like his. After Rebecca helped mend a fractured relationship between her father and brother, both LeBeau kids joined GeNext, a short-lived alternate reality team featuring other children of the X-Men.
2 WORSE: GENESIS
Before he traveled back to the present, Cable had a son in a far-off future timeline. Shortly after Tyler Dayspring was introduced by Fabian Nicieza and Art Thibert in 1993's Cable #1, Stryfe, Cable's evil clone, turned the teenager against his father. Tyler was sent into the modern age, where he was tasked with making sure that the stage was set for Apocalypse to take over the world.
Eventually, Tyler took matters into his own hands and became Apocalypse's heir, Genesis. After recruiting Apocalypse's old henchmen, the Dark Riders, Tyler tried to manipulate Wolverine into serving him. Since Magneto had pulled the adamantium out of Logan, Genesis tried to give the X-Man a new adamantium skeleton. That effort failed miserably in 1996's Wolverine #100, by Larry Hama and Adam Kubert. After his body rejected the adamantium, Logan devolved into a beast-like state and made short work of Genesis and his minions.
1 COOLER: HOPE SUMMERS
While Cable didn't have the best luck raising Tyler, he helped his adoptive daughter Hope became the savior of the mutant race. Created by Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo in 2008's X-Men #205, Hope was the first new mutant born after the global mutant population was decimated. In the immensely enjoyable crossover "Messiah CompleX," various mutant squads fought each other to use Hope for their own ends. When the dust settled, Cable took the infant into the future and adopted her as a daughter.
As Cable and Hope hopped through time, she grew into a hardened survivor and battle-weary warrior. After returning to the present and leading a team called Generation Hope, she embraced her destiny and merged with the Phoenix Force to create new mutants all around the world in 2012's Avengers vs. X-Men. Since then, Hope has continued to forge a path for the next generation of mutants.