Xavier, Storm and Cyclops have each defined themselves as leaders of the X-Men, as much for their ability to unite many mutants under one banner as for their ability to lead and direct the X-Men.

So lets take the three out of the equation, who do you think has the ability to become the next great leader of the X-men. To lead teams as large as the Utopia era, as different as the 80's era, and/or as efficient as the 90's teams?

Who could be the next Unite-er of the X-Men?

A veteran like Wolverine, Beast or Rogue?
A younger character with impact like Jubilee, Hope, or Quentin Quire?
Or someone else?

For some reason, I'm thinking Kitty.

@xwraith: Kitty's a serious contender....though it's hard to see the Gambits, Psylockes, and Rogues; X-men who seem to need to need stronger/firmer leaders sticking around for her.

@koays: Characters like Gambit tend to not stick around much for anybodies leadership skills. They drift in, possibly during a major crisis, disappear, come back and maybe stir things up in a small circle of people that know them well then disappear again. Characters like Rogue are usually the ones who get their own team (like Rogue had for a while) but will stand by leaders they agree with. Not sure how the Psylockes deal with things though.

I'd honestly like to see one of the younger X-Men characters slowly fade into the leadership role. WatX keeps teasing that Idie is gonna lead the X-Men in one of the futures.

I hope, and Pray it would be Cannonball i don't think it will be but hes who it SHOULD be. they built him up and made it look like he was ready for it then sent him off to the avengers after AVX which made me so sad lol

Kitty and Cannonball were my immediate first thoughts. Cannonball had been built up quite a bit and has already lead teams, so we know he is capable of the job. Shame they had him jump ship. Emma would be an older candidate, but she was basically co-lead with Cyke, so i'll discount her.

I don't think Beast is leadership material at all...though it would be nice to see him thrust into the position only to find its not so easy and that sometimes difficult choices have to be made, and that when lives are on the line and your in charge, things change.

I think Kitty. I think she has crossover appeal to both Wolverine and Cyclops camps and is the one leading the O5 (well...4)

@frozenedge: Psylocke just doesn't seem like she'd stick around under Kitty. She'd be needed as a senior X-man for sure, but it seems like she'd eventually clash idealistically with how i see Kitty handling threats, and unlike with Cyke or Storm i can't see her differing to Kitty's judgement on say a Purifier or Apocalypse situation. Psylocke's just too quick to make the hard choice for Kitty.

Would it be weird to say Danni Moonstar over Cannonball? Sure she's got know powers but personally i just think she's got more stomach for the job then Cannonball. I mean he basically had a breakdown right before he left the last volume of New Mutants while she went on to hold the team together and bring in some outsiders as well. I see Cannonball as a field leader under her.

@koays: If Kitty were to lead the X-Men, I'm assuming it be similar to how she lead the X-Men/remaining mutants in Ultimate X-Men. She did pretty well in that universe and in time of war she stepped aside and let Colossus take command to make majority of the difficult decisions. I wouldn't be opposed to both Dani and Sam leading the X-Men together. It always seemed like they'd eventually step forth in the future/never gonna happen future.

@frozenedge: Yea, I think Kitty would be pretty strong as a leader early on. I can see lots of X-Men and other mutants getting behind her as a young leader but respected veteran.

I'm more for Dani then Sam, but there both so far away from the X-Men at the moment it's hard to argue for either of them.

I would say Kitty, Dani Moonstar, Cannonball, and Rachel Grey

Cannonball and Moonstar together.

Realistically speaking, i can't really conceive of either Dani, Sam or Kitty becoming the spiritual descendents of Ororo/Cyclops/Xavier where the current context is concerned. As it were, it'd take a lot of narrative concessions to re-establish Sam's place in the X-World in an organic way, being that he's very much detached himself from its ongoing philosophical debacle and the nauseating belabors, and lol, where tf is Dani atm?

Plus, Kitty's kind of become a fail of a character. She totes thought she was doing herself some prospective good in coddling the O5, but that was the wrong move to make. She's also further alienated herself away from the heart and soul of Xavier's dream by fundamentally being complicit in Scott's silly revolution and as it stands, i don't see her currently trying to instill any of the tautological principles from which she took with her until her death in Astonishing--into the O5. Anytime i see her now, she's either whining, crying or complaining at someone for something stupid. No thanks.

Rachel, most definitely. At the very least, it'd give her something to do and would make for some nice literary interplay for the juxtapositions that would result from her own leadership ideologies and that of her 'father'.

After that, i'd like: Prodigy, Renascence, Armor, Pixie and Anole as the mutants leaders.

Course, we're probs gonna be stuck with Logan and Scott for the next 50 years lol.

Kitty-she is very passionate about her ideologies and she doesnt treat her team as subordinates but as family. She really loves the o5

Rachel- very passionate in her role as a teacher. Daughter of two leaders, it is in her blood to lead. She did well in leading a rebelion against apocalypse

Jubes- she did well in leading the kids against the sentinels, future has it, that she will be leading the x-men

I would like to see iceman, angel or beast lead.

Kitty seems way too erratic to ever be considered a good leader for the X-Men. Cannonball and Moonstar were the natural next generation of leaders for a long time, so it's a shame they're both out of the X-books at the moment.

Lol. That's Hisako, mate.

@ageofhurricane: Well I would say the current context has done a piss-poor job of respecting continuity and character development. So in some instances its best to just ignore it.

Speaking to the qualities we've seen before, Dani is a good leader with or without problems. She's been a teacher and mentor to the younger generation and she's overcome prejudice and learned how to deal with powers or without. Dani in actuality closely aligns with Storm in terms of style and experiences. The fact that she appears in nothing at the moment is the result of mediocre writers sidelining decent characters in favor of having multiples of the same person running around or eventing knock-offs of already existing and established mutants. Thats no reflection on her leadership.

Cannonball I can understand the hang up with him but the fact that he's left, really is no different from Scott taking off before or Wolverine disappearing as they do. Even Xavier has run off on occasion as has Storm for that matter, who was off with Black Panther during a difficult time involving the Xmen. Again editors and writers approved this stupidity in having Cannonball join the Avengers. In all honesty it could be written in a way to help his cause as a leader seeing as how he's been influenced by the founder of the Xmen, the long tenured leader, and the ultimate future soldier and now the leaders of the Avengers. Plus with those relationships with the Avengers he could be accepted on the whole by humanity and mutantkind as somewhat of a leader. No doubt you'd have those that feel he was a sellout but no different than Wolverine or Beast.

Kitty has not been written well. Bottomline. But she is a decent teacher/mentor and cares about her X-family. She's got experience knows about loss and everything else. She's written as whinny and ridiculous but Kitty could be the real deal and a good leader. Her joining Cyclops was a bit of a joke as was her dealing with the O5 who I choose to ignore because of the stupidity of the premise.

The way these characters have been written previously before the hacks came to town is what Im going by and I think all 4 that I mentioned Kitty, Rachel, Cannonball and Dani would be good leaders.

@hawk2916: Mhhhhmmmmmmmm.

I really seemed like Cyclops and Cable were grooming Cannonball to become the leader someday.

I like Dani Moonstar and Kitty Pryde as the next great X-leaders as well.

Wolverine leading the X-men is stupid, Beast is too much of an overly-emotional jerk to lead a team reliably, and Rogue is better off doing solo adventures or leading small teams.

If Jubilee becomes leader of the X-men I will officially swear off X-men comics and burn all the X-men comics I own, Hope needs some serious character development before she'd make a reasonable leader, and Quentin could be a great leader...if he matured a little and learned some goddamn self-control.

The one person I could really see leading the X-men is Emma Frost. She has the leadership skills to pull it off, the younger generation (Academy X era) already sees her as an authority figure, and while some of the members of the team may dislike her as long as she has some people working under her she'd be fine, I think.

Otherwise, I think Nightcrawler might make a competent leader. Might.

@squares: Lol what's wrong with Jubilee?

And i think that Nightcrawler would be interesting, though I do vaguely remember him turning down even small team leadership before...interesting though.

Yea, I just think Dani needs to be brought further into the X-fold first. Though it may be difficult since Cyclops seemed to be the X-Man she interacted with the most (trying to keep her from leaving after M-Day, and assigning her as a team leader post-schism).

Kitty just seems like an Xavier in the making to me, having a similar magnetic presence and inspirational moments that make people want to get behind her.

I would say Kitty. That's just who I see in my head as the next to step up. I think Havok would also have potential. I'd really enjoy an issue set in the future that established Fabio (Goldballs) as the leader of the x-men. Mostly just for laughs but the future deadpool from battle of the atom did know who he was. I'd find it funny if he really was a serious contender in the future.

i detest Kitty in absolutely every respect (more than even Beast) so in all honesty i would actually give up the x-men if she were leader. It already bothers me that she's the new Professor in ANXM. Hope too, if she were to lead the x-men... i would give them up.

I don't think Wolverine, Emma, Havok or Rogue could ever be counted in this list. All have led the x-men before, all have had a moment to shine, and except for Emma, have blown it or be shown up as ineffective in some way. Emma's position was always in co-leadership with Cyclops, but she herself commanded on many occasions.

Jubilee enjoyed her time as leader of the X-Men when they fought the Sentinels at Catalina. Wasn't Future Jubilee (BotA jubes) leader of the X-Men? I have no problem with Jubilee becoming leader of the x-men.

Cannonball hasn't ever quite shown the mettle required, the skill perhaps, but not as often the fortitude. Dani Moonstar has him beat there. (in many ways they're like the Scott/Ororo sides of the leadership debate for the New Mutants). Having said that, i don't think either have been proper x-men to qualify (or long enough as in Sam's case).

Hellion could be moulded into a formidable leader. I feel his fiery temperament could actually be a good thing. He's not stupid, he's had training as a squad leader - it just needs more development.

@koays: Jubilee is beyond unsuited to lead a team, let alone a large team. She's a snarky, petty little b*tch who has never successfully led a team of any import and has no leadership qualities.

beast, iceman if trained properly.

@squares: True to a point. She's definitely got experience though, and is generally liked and respected within the X-Men.

@koays: She has experience leading teams...poorly. Remember what happened to Generation X and The New Warriors?

And I'll never understand why anyone likes or even tolerates her within the X-men.

A four-person leadership division: Danielle Moonstar, Samuel Guthrie, Rachel Grey and Kitty Pryde.

Danielle Moonstar should be the overall leader of the teams in combat or security situations, while Samuel would be the big brother type, looking out for the various members and students as individuals. Rachel Grey and Kitty Pryde would be the veterans that could bridge the gap - they have the experience and motivation to make sure Dani and Sam have solid co-leaders in whatever situation they find themselves in though I see Kitty dealing more with strategy and the educational planning side of things, while Rachel would deal more with security and acting as a mentor/counselor to the students.

I want to continue in the direction of seeing a sharing of leadership, with certain people taking the lead based on expertise. I also wouldn't mind if the dream continued to the next step; the older members "retire" as teaching staff or active duty X-Men, and have a chance to serve as mentors or lead their own lives making special appearances when large threats loom (and also conveniently keeping them around so their copyrighted code names don't become available via Big Events). IMHO, the heavy hitters can be brought out for Big Events, while the X-Men line should be as self-contained as possible.

@phoenixofthetides: Definitely not a bad idea. Either that or all the big name veterans get sent to an alternate universe and leave the 616 to the younger generations. lol

I would love to see what Emma would do with a team, unfettered.

And I'd like to see Beast try and do better.