Marvel’s merry band of mutants has always been the outsiders of the Marvel universe. The X-Men were born with incredible powers and abilities that set them aside from society, which sometimes led to some very odd encounters and weird storylines over the years. The X-Men have lived through a few strange events that tested their belief in the world around them.
Any encounter with magical leprechauns is sure to mystify even veteran heroes like the X-Men. However, they have also faced near death from strange alien threats like the Phalanx Covenant. Villains like Mojo have also continued to inject weirdness into the X-Men’s daily lives with odd but loveable characters like the X-Babies.
10 They Encountered A Group Of Knowing Leprechauns
The X-Men have faced quite a few powerful mythological beings in the comics. They have encountered dragons, Wendigos, and cosmic firebirds over the years. However, nothing could prepare them for the might of a few knowledgeable leprechauns. The X-Men headed to Banshee’s Cassidy Keep in Uncanny X-Men #102, by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum.
They encountered a group of leprechauns who secretly lived in Cassidy Keep, which was under attack from two of Marvel's most feared villains, Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut. The leprechauns saved Nightcrawler from being captured, and he freed the rest of the X-Men. They even revealed Wolverine's secret identity to fans for the first time when they called him Logan.
9 The X-Men Faced Dracula A Few Times Over The Years
Leprechauns might seem like the weirdest beings the X-Men might have encountered over the years. However, the mutant team has also faced off with literary legends like Dracula, lord of the vampires. In their first encounter, Dracula bit and turned Storm into one of his undead, though the X-Men were able to restore the incredibly powerful omega-level mutant.
The X-Men faced Dracula again in a war against the vampires after they relocated to Utopia on the coast of San Francisco. The vampires attempted to use the mutant healing factor in Wolverine's blood to give them protection against sunlight to usher in a new vampiric age. Thankfully Blade teamed up with the X-Men to stop Dracula's dark scheme.
8 Psylocke Swapped Bodies With A Highly-Trained Ninja
Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock first joined the X-Men as the telepathic mutant Psylocke after her time working as a British secret agent. She worked with the team during their underground era in the Australian outback. However, she escaped a Reaveer attack alongside the team by escaping through the Siege Perilous, which deposited her in Japan.
The Hand took her injured body and swapped her mind into the body of a deadly ninja assassin named Kwannon. She returned to the X-Men after a brief stint as a mind-controlled assassin named Lady Mandarin. She spent years as a British telepath trapped inside a Japanese assassin's body, though both Betsy and Kwannon eventually returned to their original bodies.
7 The Phalanx Covenant Tried To Assimilate The X-Men
While it might seem weird to fans, most Marvel characters have had close encounters with a few different alien species over the years. However, the X-Men dealt with one of the weirdest when they were almost assimilated by a human/alien collective during the Phalanx Covenant event.
The New Mutant named Warlock came from an alien race known as the Technarchy which carried a unique techno-organic virus. A human group of mutant hunters used the T/O virus on themselves to become a horrifying alien collective. They captured most of the X-Men and tried to assimilate them into the collective, but the free X-Men defeated the Phalanx.
6 Emma Frost Took Control Of Iceman's Body
The White Queen was originally a member of the Hellfire Club, one of the X-Men's deadliest rivals. However, Emma Frost eventually turned on the Hellfire Club and started her own mutant school. When Trevor Fitzroy attacked her school and murdered her students, Emma Frost appeared to have died in the attack as well when her consciousness left her body.
The X-Men kept her body on life support in the school while they attempted to determine what happened to her. Eventually, Iceman discovered that her psionic persona had jumped into his body, and she slowly took control of his form. Emma Frost unlocked parts of Iceman's power he had never exhibited before while the X-Men found a way to return her to her body.
5 Professor X's Psychic Twin Cassandra Nova Attacked
The X-Men discovered a strange and previously unknown familial connection to Professor X when his psychic twin Cassandra Nova attacked the team. Nova developed in the same womb as Charles Xavier, though they battled before their birth and Xavier absorbed his defeated twin.
However, Cassandra Nova survived as a psychic Mummadrai on the Astral Plane before she was able to rebuild her own body. She committed genocide by killing millions of mutant inhabitants in Genosha. Cassandra Nova's DNA and psychic imprint were the same as Xavier's which allowed her to take control of her brother and tarnish his name in the Shi'ar Empire.
4 They Were De-Aged Into The X-Babies On Mojoworld
Mojo is one of the X-Men’s strangest villains, though also one of their deadliest foes as well. He is the ruler of Mojoworld, a multiversal dimension consumed with televised entertainment that developed a taste for the X-Men’s adventures. Mojo captured the X-Men and tried to make them star in his dark shows on more than one occasion.
He even de-aged the X-Men into infantized versions that became known as the X-Babies before they returned to their normal age. They proved to be so popular on Mojoworld that Mojo created his own version of the X-Babies, though they escaped. The X-Babies have continued to grow through the different eras of the X-Men as they fight back against Mojo.
3 The X-Men Teamed Up With Two Enterprise Crews
Comic book fans love a good crossover, especially when characters from very different universes team up. The X-Men had the strange opportunity to cross over with not one, but two different crews of the starship Enterprise from the hit Star Trek TV series. Each time they faced the combined threat of the X-Men's worst enemies and Star Trek's greatest villains.
The X-Men first encountered the crew of the original Enterprise in Star Trek/X-Men. Captain Kirk and his crew teamed with the X-Men to stop Deathbird and the powerful Lt. Mitchell. The X-Men later met Captain Picard’s crew in Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Second Contact, where they teamed up against Kang the Conqueror and the Borg.
2 The Original Five X-Men Were Brought To The Future
The modern-day X-Men faced their past selves thanks to the poor decision-making process of the Beast. Upset with the direction of the X-Men after Cyclops’ killed Professor X, he decided to show their past selves what they become. Beast proved he was a Marvel hero with a loose honor code when he traveled back in the past to bring the original five X-Men to the future with him.
Beast hoped that showing them the future would stop it from happening. The surviving original members of the X-Men dealt with strangely living alongside their younger selves when they were stuck in the present day. Thankfully, the original five found a way back to their original era and restored the endangered timeline.
1 The X-Men Became Mutant-Saving Pirates
When the X-Men set up their new mutant society on the island of Krakoa, they welcomed mutants from around the world to join them. Unfortunately, not every country allowed their mutants to safely defect to Krakoa. This led Kate Pryde to take on a new role as the leader of the Marauders, a pirate group of X-Men who sailed the seven seas.
While the Krakoan Marauders were a huge success, it was still a strange path for the X-Men to take. It was weird for the team to use the Marauders' name given the team's dark history during the Morlock Massacre. It was also strange to see the X-Men accept their new roles as sea-faring pilots, even with the advanced tech contained in their ship.