8Ball Presents… The Ultimate X-Men Team

Happy birthday Hugh Jackman! A man with many talents, shelves full of awards and… who are we kidding? The guy is Wolverine and Wolverine only, let’s talk about our dream X-Men team.

The X-Men are the definition of a team. They have no stand alone hero, no money maker. What they have is a bond, a connection, each member gets their moment to shine and plays their own part in each mission successfully. A team that has been around for more than 50 years, the X-Men are an unstoppable force and an ever changing line-up. Chris Claremont’s iconic run on Uncanny X-Men cemented the group not as a team but rather as teams. Characters die, they join new teams, they get replaced by time-travelling alternate universe daughters, this gives us a lot of x-tremely super powered mutants to work with when compiling our list of the ultimate X-Men Team!

Wolverine may be one of the most popular Marvel characters thanks to Mr Jackman and the countless movies that he has appeared in over the last 16 years, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is the best X-Man. To compile our list we took a number of X-Factors into consideration. We didn’t really we just had to use that pun somewhere in this piece, we’re very x-cited you see. We also apologise if we have missed your favourite member of the X-Men team, we’re only human… unlike everyone on this list.

Gambit

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #266
Power(s): Ability to mentally create, control, and manipulate pure kinetic energy

The ragin’ Cajun is the ultimate kinda weird X-badass. He has a long-term relationship with the one woman who cannot be touched, we’re not here to judge. A former thief who possesses an ability to manipulate kinetic energy. Gambit makes the 8Ball X-Men squad as we know that he would be on the front lines, fighting the fight for the team. Or he’d be a great member to sacrifice and/or blame if things don’t go to plan.

Rogue

First Appearance: Avengers Annual #10
Power(s): Absorbs memory and powers through skin

For a long time she was the original girl with no name. A lot of Charles Xavier’s team of mutants have drawbacks to their powers. Cyclops has to always wear sunglasses, even indoors like he is a giant douche. Beast is big, blue and hairy so bath time must be a bitch, but poor Rogue’s power is the most tragic. Another former villain (one who absorbed the powers of Ms. Marvel) who was brought to the X-Men by her surrogate mother Mystique, her powers may be tragic but when used right make her the most powerful of all the mutants. So obviously we think that she makes the perfect member of the 8Ball squad, although we would be no use to her. Our powers consist of barely hitting a dart board, piling dirty dishes in the sink like a game of Kerplunk and of course folding t-shirts at an alarmingly fast rate.

Psylocke

First Appearance: New Mutants Annual #2
Power(s): Telekinesis, Martial Arts, ability to kick ass

Betsy Braddock started her Marvel journey along with her twin brother in the stories of Captain Britain with each of the twins becoming the captain at some point. Then came the turning point for the English telepath, the merging of consciousness with the ninja Kwannon, thus creating Psylocke. She is the ultimate assassin and a born leader, a must have player on the 8Ball X-Men team. Plus she has a psychic knife, every team needs a psychic knife.

Colossus

First Appearance: Giant Size X-Men #1
Power(s): Organic Steel Skin creating a super strength

What makes Colossus different from the hundreds of other superheroes with super strength and invulnerability is that he is hard on the outside and soft on the inside, a bit like an armadillo in a Dime advert. Colossus is the big guy we need to round off our team. With organic steel skin and a super strength this burly Russian mutant should make every make believe, put together X-Men team.

Cypher

First Appearance: New Mutants #13
Power(s): Omnilingual

Just imagine how amazing it would be having Google Translate with you all the time?! Ok, so you may have your phone with you pretty much all day, but what about the places with no Internet service? What would you do then? Never again would you have to add an o to a word to make it sound Spanish/Italian. The ability to order something off of a menu in a foreign country without the waiter laughing in our faces is a power that, let’s be honest, we all wish that we had… Sorry but if you agree with any of this, then you’re madder then we are. We couldn’t resist. We don’t see how the ability to speak German could help anyone in a battle against a sword or metal claws or laser eyes…

Start your own X-Men team with our range of Fancy Dress Tees. Stick with the moody movie feel X-Men team or go all out, kick up the nostalgia  and choose the infamous bright yellow comic book colour that we all know and love.