Storywise: Magneto, Jean Grey and Charles Xavier. The stories that end up setting the stage for decades of X-Men events tend to relate to these characters in many ways. The meta plot pretty much always plays on their themes. Magneto personifies differences of opinion in the mutant community, Jean Grey personifies ultimate potential and the struggle to stay 'human' despite having superhuman powers (plus her time as Phoenix still generates most of the stories and drives the creation of characters like Rachel, Nathan and Cable) and Charles Xavier set forth the idea of the school and the X-Men's ultimate mission. All other X-Men tend to fall into shades of one or more of these characters, even if they don't overtly pick sides. For example, Emma Frost is similar to Charles Xavier, because she was inspired to create her own school promoting her position in The Hellfire Club. Different character motivations, but same 'stamp' storywise.

My 10:

1. Cyclops - He has lead the X-Men for a crazy amount of time (and still leading them now), sacrificed his teen and young adulthood just to keep the dream alive. Fought for the dream, even after he got married (and well, left his wife), he and the original 5 X-Men started X-Factor, continuing Xavier's dream.

2. Wolverine (tied with Storm) - He has fought for the dream through thick and thin. Hell, he's been in the Uncanny X-Men title more than Cyclops. He has always been the person who takes care of the X-Men's problems permanently (X-Force, anyone?). Also for a killer, he's quite honourable, killing Jean Grey, Mariko for the greater good, starting up a school for kids to be kids.

2. Storm - She has always been the symbol of female pride along the X-Men. Fought for the X-Men since Giant Size X-Men. She has been the Field Leader or the Second leader of the X-Men right after Cyclops. Another person who has been in the Uncanny X-Men title more than Cyclops.

4. Professor X - He is the man with the dream of peaceful co-existence between humans and mutants. He is the one man who formed the X-Men. Why he isn't on the top is because of his massive absence in the many years, being in space, dead etc.

5. Jean Grey - Even though she's been dead for, well, a long time, she has always had her impact on the X-Men. Being the first female mutant to join the X-Men, she hasn't always had it easy, especially with a Phoenix Force constantly trying to possess you. The Dark Phoenix Saga has always been a benchmark for classic American comic book stories, and after its first publication, it pretty much wrote future stories by itself.

6. Iceman - He has always been the guy who people never thought would get anywhere. Well, people were wrong. If you think about it, Iceman has always been fighting for the dream, but writers has always shelved him, making an appearances every other issue but having no real character development. But the point is, he has always been there, even since the original 5 X-Men were formed.

7. Colossus - Cured the Legacy Virus, been the sworn guardian of the X-Men as far as history serves (exclude the part he joins the Acolytes, but he DID redeem himself). He has even broken his "No Killing" rule just to save the X-Men. Death couldn't even hold him, and is currently fighting for the survival of mutantkind on Cyclops' side.

8. Kitty Pryde - Mascot is the wrong word to use here. She has always been a fan favourite since her first appearance, then she got injured in Mutant Massacre and was shipped off to join Excalibur. There, her contributions went unnoticed. Soon after, she returned to the X-Men and became a key member to the Astonishing X-Men title. She was also Wolverine's first teenage sidekick, so take that Jubilee and X23!

9. Rogue - Schizophrenia at its finest. She has come a long way since her troubled self in the 80s. Fighting for the dream without having even the slightest doubts.

10. Magneto - Never has there been a character who's background history ever been so poignant. Magneto has always been the tragic hero, with the loss of this wife, child, trying to constantly fight for his dream of mutant superiority. The only reason why he's so low on the list is because:

a) His contributions were relatively small compared to his evil deeds.

b) He has hindered the X-Men more than helped them. but hey! He's changed now, I hope.

But wait! There are so many more:

Gambit, Cable, Bishop (before he went bat-crazy), Psylocke, Beast, Archangel, Jubilee, Cannonball, Moonstar, Forge, Rachel Sumemrs, Havok, Polaris, Multiple Man, Strong Guy, Wolfsbane, Nightcrawler, Chamber, Husk, X23. Warpath, Pixie, Magik, Sunspot, Magma, Rictor, Lockheed (not really an X-Men), Emma Frost, Siryn, Banshee, Quicksilver, Domino, M, Namor and Hope (currently important, but not historically), Karma.

They all have had an impact in the X-Universe, some great, some small, but either way, important.

Wolverine, the guy is effing everywhere.

the ones that mainly appear in movies. tv. and comics... so i have to go with 2 lists. 90s. and now.

90.s

1. wolverine

2.cyclops

3.jean

.4.xavier

5.storm

.6.rogue

7.gambit

8.beast

9.nightcrawler.

10.cable.

i could see at least 5 more xmen but i know more about these guys in the media.

now.

1.cyclops

2.wolverine.

3.storm

4.magneto

5.collusus.

6iceman

7.emma frost

8.hope

9.rogue

10.namor

iceman and hope are kinda debateble as shadowcat and psylocke among others could take thier spots. notice how wolverine scott xavier and magneto are most likely the most popular guys to have anything to do with xmen and storm jean emma and rogue are the most known female.

Charles Xavier without him they might not be a team call the xmen

@time said:

Who has always been the most important X-Men characters of all time. So I'm asking, who is the most important X-Men characters of them all. I listed mine first and then I explain later.

1 Charles Xavier

2 Cyclops

3 Jean Grey

4 Wolverine

5 Magneto

6 Cable

7 Hope

8 Rachel Grey

9 Mr Sinister

10 Colossus

What do guys think, Who has always been the most important X-Men characters. Who has been the most useful X-Men characters. Who done more for the X-Men than anyone?

I guess Prof X would be #1, but I would give that honor to Jean Grey. Cyclops has been constant, but... yawn... who cares. He is my least favorite X-Man. I seen your explanations for 6 through 9, most of those storylines are what I dislike about the X-Men (besides Rachel and Mr. Sinister)

So here is my list...

1. Jean Grey
2. Charles Xavier
3. Wolverine
4. Cyclops
5. Magneto
6. Mr. Sinister
7. Apocalypse
8. Roma
9. Mystique
10. Lilandra Neramani

Honorable Mentions - The Brood, Storm, Rachel Grey, Illyana Rasputin, Sabertooth, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Kitty Pryde.

@PhoenixoftheTides said:

@TheFlash11 said:

i cant belive none of you said mystique shame on you guys

Curious. How is she an important X-Men character?

A major enemy and occasional ally. Graydon Creed and Nightcrawler's mother and Rogue's mother figure.

I'd say these.

• Wolverine
• Cyclops
• Professor Xavier
• Jean Grey
• Rogue

these in no particular order

Professor X

Wolverine

Cyclops

Jean Grey

Storm

Magneto

@knighthood said:

@time said:

Who has always been the most important X-Men characters of all time. So I'm asking, who is the most important X-Men characters of them all. I listed mine first and then I explain later.

1 Charles Xavier

2 Cyclops

3 Jean Grey

4 Wolverine

5 Magneto

6 Cable

7 Hope

8 Rachel Grey

9 Mr Sinister

10 Colossus

What do guys think, Who has always been the most important X-Men characters. Who has been the most useful X-Men characters. Who done more for the X-Men than anyone?

I guess Prof X would be #1, but I would give that honor to Jean Grey. Cyclops has been constant, but... yawn... who cares. He is my least favorite X-Man. I seen your explanations for 6 through 9, most of those storylines are what I dislike about the X-Men (besides Rachel and Mr. Sinister)

So here is my list...

1. Jean Grey
2. Charles Xavier
3. Wolverine
4. Cyclops
5. Magneto
6. Mr. Sinister
7. Apocalypse
8. Roma
9. Mystique
10. Lilandra Neramani

Honorable Mentions - The Brood, Storm, Rachel Grey, Illyana Rasputin, Sabertooth, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Kitty Pryde.

I understand why you put Apocalypse and Mystique and listed some of the others, but why Roma, Lilandra and The brood.

@time: The X-Men died, and Roma resurrected the team. I think that is fairly important.

Lilandra was an romantic interest to Chuck, help introduce the X-Men intergalactic adventures. There would be no Dark Phoenix Saga without the Shi'ar and Lilandra, but I'll admit she's probably a bit of a reach.

The X-Men except Wolvie were turn into Brood warriors. Then Wolvie tries to mercy kill everyone.

X-men: Xavier, Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Kitty

Foes: Magneto, Apocalypse, Sinister

Sure its important but Roma has what how many appearances in 40+ years of history. Hardly consider her a character who almost always been important to the X- Mythos.

I guess it depends on the person. Someone could have a decent argument that Corsair is a fairly important character as well.

@X35 said:

In alphabetical order: Cyclops, Rogue, Storm, Wolverine.

This.

I've been collecting Uncanny X-Men since early 80's (brief hiatus in the 90's) and when I think of 'X-Men' I think of a family of mutants (working together in the Danger Room. playing baseball, the inter-relationship(s) with one another) not their enemies or obscure characters that added to the X-Men mythos over the years. So to answer the question I list them as:

1. Charles Xavier

2. Marvel Girl / Phoenix

3. Cyclops

4. Beast

5. Wolverine

6. Storm

7. Kitty Pryde

8. Angel

9. Colossus

10. Nightcrawler

Me i'm going with each X-Men brought something to the team.

That's all i'm going with.

The most influential characters in the X-Men over the years are:
Xavier - without him there are no X-Men
Magneto - his influence is almost as strong as Xaviers. Most of the X-Men in current X-Men comics are taking a middle ground between Xaviers idea of peaceful coexsistence and Magnetos more aggressive stance.
Cyclops - Original field leader and now leader of the X-Men. I do not count Wolverine as a leader as I feel this was forced on us as an editorial decision. It certainly was not a natural progression of the story line.
Senator Kelly - Before Bastion, Nimrod, Church of Humanity, Purifers it was Senator Kelly using his power and influence as a US Senator to have all Mutants labled and catalogued that was the biggest threat and is the source to this day of the X-Men 
                           being the outsider heroes in the Marvel universe. Also it was partly due to Kellys influence that the Sentinel project started, leading the the Nimrods and Bastions to be faced later. Also with strong support in the government groups that would 
                           later become the Church of Humanity, Purifiers and others get started and sometimes go their hands on weapons and technology they could not normally access.

For me these 4 characters have had the strongest inpact on the X-Men over the years. Everyone else is a smaller contributer whos role could have been played by others if the writers had liked one character over another 20-30 years ago. Yes Wolverine, Storm, 
Nightcrawler and Colossus were crucial to the X-Men gaining popularity and becoming the best super hero team in comics but by the time they were introduced the core influences of the X-Men were already in place.

Pffft dat Wolverine sells the books.
BB

chuck, slim, logan, beast, nightcrawler, shadowcat

1.Wolverine-He's the face of the team,one of the only characters big enough to maintain his own book 
2.Charles  Xavier-He started the team,in most possible outcomes of the future he seems to be needed or the key to something 
3.The Summers\Grey Family-Alot of big moments in mutant history revolves around them
4.Magneto-The most formidable opposing force to mutant\human relations

1.Wolverine-He has alwasy been the one that makes you buy the book.

2.Cyclops-He was the first and best leader of X-Men.

3.Charles Xavier-He started the team.

Professor X Magneto, Cyclops, Beast and Wolverine. (no order)

People might have said this but I consider thefirstX-men (Cyclops, Ice man, Beast, Avenging Angel, Jean Grey) due to being the first X-Men and therefore starting the whole thing. As well as Wolverine because the dude has got huge history which the X-men get involved with, plus his one of the mentors of that team (at the moment). And then you have the foes, such as Magneto whose played a big part in the whole adventure of X-men, the Dark Phoenix maybe (if you can count her) due to her opening a new chapter for the X-Men. That's what I think. :/

@Yai_Inn said:

@PhoenixoftheTides said:

Storywise: Magneto, Jean Grey and Charles Xavier. The stories that end up setting the stage for decades of X-Men events tend to relate to these characters in many ways. The meta plot pretty much always plays on their themes. Magneto personifies differences of opinion in the mutant community, Jean Grey personifies ultimate potential and the struggle to stay 'human' despite having superhuman powers (plus her time as Phoenix still generates most of the stories and drives the creation of characters like Rachel, Nathan and Cable) and Charles Xavier set forth the idea of the school and the X-Men's ultimate mission. All other X-Men tend to fall into shades of one or more of these characters, even if they don't overtly pick sides. For example, Emma Frost is similar to Charles Xavier, because she was inspired to create her own school promoting her position in The Hellfire Club. Different character motivations, but same 'stamp' storywise.

Well said and examined. However I would say there are other characters who represent Xavier's dream to a better degree (not saying they would rank over Xavier in any list however, it is his dream after all). For example Beast, because of the physical mutation - he is basically the forerunner in the category of mutants who look monstrous but are sophisticated. Also Dazzler, I think she is the only prominent example of an X-Men living up to the dream. She's past the silly fighting, she uses her powers in public to work within the human world as a mutant. No one has any love for Thunderbird?

To me, there is an important distinction between individual character history and history for the team, in general. A lot of these characters have been through a lot over the years, but if Professor X did not have luck training Jean Grey, he might not have gotten the idea to recruit other X-Men, and though certain characters have a lot of history with the team, there are certain events that are so pivotal that the entire dynamic of the team would change if they never happened.

For example, you state that Beast is an example of physical mutations, but originally, he looked quite normal except for having large feet and a large build, whereas it was really Angel who dealt with having an obvious physical mutation (he had to hide his wings and used straps to keep them contained). But I think obvious, physical mutations are not actually that important to the X-Men in general, and Nightcrawler has dealt with this far more intimately than Angel or Hank but despite being a fan favorite, he's not really a cornerstone to the team's history. And I like Dazzler a lot, but an argument could be made for others as far as that dynamic goes.

So I think it's best to try and distill what the X-Men are essentially about, and I think it is essentially about the conflict between two very different philosophies (Charles vs. Magneto) and young, impressionable members of the next generation who get drawn into the resulting conflict (Jean Grey and the rest of the first class). There are various subplots, but without the driving force of these three relationships, the X-Men would be a very different team. I can imagine the X-Men without Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and many other characters, but I can't really imagine them being the X-Men without Magneto, Professor X and Jean Grey being major parts of the history. I see this as less being a question of which X-Men I like, and more about which characters drove stories that are quintessential to the core of the team. For example, I think Kitty Pryde is more important to the team than the entire group of All New, All Different X-Men - she was the first trainee Professor X had taken in after years of running a superhero team and she grew up as a representative of the next generation - but I still wouldn't list her as more important than Jean. Just my opinion, of course, so your list may be different from mines.

why is everyone so in love with this hope girl. she's only been in in the comics for a few years,and yeah nightcrawler should DEFINITLY be on the list,so should psylock.

@time: 1 Charles Xavier

2 Cyclops-first x-men

3 Jean Grey-first student

4 Wolverine-stupid and shouldnt be on the list hes very confusing because hes in avengers and all over marvel comics (not important)

5 Magneto-main villan then friend very important

6 Cable-idk

7 Hope-dumb bitch

8 Rachel Grey-daughter of jean grey kinda

9 Mr Sinister-other important villain

10 Colossus-one of the first x-men

your list was very accurate