WARNING: There are unmarked spoilers on these sheets for all but the most recent comics.

This is a listing of members of the Acolytes of Magneto who appear in the X-Men comic books. Visit here for the main character index.

Acolytes of Magneto

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/acolytes_4.png

"These Acolytes have pledged themselves to my service and my cause. I will not abandon them."

— Magneto

"They are the bravest and noblest company I ever fought with. Their very names are a blazon."

— Exodus

The poster children for What Could Have Been, the Acolytes of Magneto were a team of villainous mutants introduced during The '90s and originally intended to be the sucessors to the Brotherhood of Mutants.

The first generation of Acolytes were introduced during the debut of the X-Men (1991) run and right from the start they were modeled as an Evil Counterpart team to the X-Men, being a group of five mutants (well, four mutants and one brainwashed human) rallying around a charismatic leader. This group did not last very long, however, existing only for a three-issue storyline meant to kill off X-Men villain emeritus Magneto and establish team leader Fabian Cortez as one of the big new up-and-coming threats.

Cortez quickly gathered a second generation of Acolytes, a group with massive numbers mirroring the size the X-Men had grown to by this time and organized around a Church Militant ideology that exalted Magneto as a mutant messiah. Unfortunately for Cortez, Magneto had survived his assassination attempt and recruited a messiah figure of his own, the biblically-powerful mutant Exodus. Deposing Cortez with Exodus's aid, Magneto retook the reins of Acolytes, casting them firmly into the role of Evil Counterpart team to the X-Men as a whole. However, off-panel politics (the continuing fallout of the rather fiittingly titled "Image X-odus) disrupted whatever plans the writers originally had for the Acolytes, Consequently, they lost their focus after two highly-publicized Crisis Crossover stories (Fatal Attractions and Blood Ties) and devolved in short order into a team of Super Powered Mooks.

The third generation of Acolytes was created late in the nineties, and most of its individual members were little more than Cannon Fodder created to pad out pages during the Magneto War, a storyline meant to wrap up the character arc of the mysterious X-Man Joseph (originally intended to be Magneto himself, later established as his clone). Following this storyline, most of the Acolytes vanished into Comic-Book Limbo, having become firm C-List Fodder by this time. Many of them were established as Killed Off for Real en masse during the 2001 E for Extinction storyline eight years after the fact, during 2009's Necrosha.

The fourth and currently final incarnation of the Acolytes debuted in 2008's Messiah Complex, and was a team made up of the most memorable characters from the previous three generations along with new arrivals Random and Tempo (a pair of refugees from X-Factor and D-list villain team the Mutant Liberation Front, respectively). After a failed bid to claim the actual mutant messiah (a baby who would go on to become the new character Hope Summers) and a successful bid at saving the life of Professor X, this generation was defeated by the one force more powerful than any mutant power: logic.^note Following this revelation, Exodus disbanded the Acolytes. Their legacy of integrating religion, once a subject verboten by The Comics Code, into the X-Men universe as an idea to be examined and deconstructed, lingers to this day though, as do a handful of the Acolytes themselves.

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Tropes related to the Acolytes in general

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A God Am I: A delusion Magneto was suffering from around his time as leader of the Acolytes, later implied to be brought on by his high-order elemental powers. Specifically, Magneto modeled himself after the Old Testament God, casting himself as a vengeful and unforgiving deity with love for his chosen people and hate for everyone else. This cast the Acolytes as hardcore fanatics, as they were shown to not only follow but fervently believe in the divinity of a man perfectly willing to kill any one of them on a whim just because he could.
Anti-Human Alliance: Ironic as they are humans themselves (albeit human mutants), but they are allied under a belief that normal humans are a problem. How exactly that problem is addressed varies: in one What If? tale the Acolytes divided into two factions, an isolationist sect led by Exodus that advocated separatism and a genocide sect led by Fabian Cortez.
Back from the Dead: Many of the deceased Acolytes Came Back Wrong during the 2008 Necrosha story. Ironically, none of them have appeared to date in X-Men (2019), despite mass resurrection of the mutant population being a major plot point of that book. The only two exceptions to this so far have been Fabian Cortez and Amelia Voght.
Badass Cape: Capes came standard-issue to the Acolyte uniform, and most Acolytes wore them.
C-List Fodder: Due to writing that was underwhelming at best and poor at worst, most of the Acolytes fell into this. Outside of the big four (Magneto, Colossus, Exodus and Fabian Cortez) very few of them are remembered or used outside of background shots, and even two of those four (Exodus and Cortez) suffer from being semi-recurring B-listers who never got to realize their full potential. Amelia Voght, Joanna Cargill and to a lesser degree Neophyte are the only other Acolytes who have seen semi-regular use as actual characters, with most of the others just being generic Mooks with a gimmick for the X-Men to beat on.
Church Militant: To the point where under Cortez there was an actual Book of Magneto (never seen, sadly) that Acolytes would quote from in battle.
Corrupt Church: Averted, surprisingly enough. Yes, the Acolytes were most definitely a Church Militant group, but they didn't tolerate corruption within their own ranks (driving out their own founder Fabian Cortez after he was outed as a traitor, for instance) and most of their rank-and file were devout within their own extremist ideology.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: Whether it was done deliberately or not, most of the Acolytes were from non-American nationalities.
Heir Club for Men: A lot of them held Quicksilver in high regard and wanted him to lead them, but none of them seemed to care about the Scarlet Witch or Polaris.
Hidden Elf Village: Their Supervillain Lair, Avalon, was this, as it was shielded from all methods of electronic detection and intended to be a sanctuary for all of mutantkind.
Horrible Judge of Character: Almost all the second-gen Acolytes, who unreservedly trusted Fabian Cortez right up to the moment Exodus outed his attempted assassination of Magneto. A mild case though, as Cortez really was that good a liar when he wanted to be.
Insistent Terminology: They all referred to Quicksilver as "Magnusson" on account of him being Magneto's only known son. For whatever reason neither Lorna nor Wanda ever got referred to as "Magnusdotter".
Killed Off for Real: Many of the second and third-gen Acolytes were killed off en masse during Cassandra Nova's assault on Genosha in New X-Men.
Last-Name Basis: This team was a collective pioneer of the Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames trope, as many of the Acolytes didn't even bother with codenames and were instead just addressed and referred to by their surnames.
Messianic Archetype: Half of the reason why Fabian Cortez betrayed Magneto was to turn him into one of these to motivate the Acolytes with, feeling (probably correctly) that his religion of Magneto would be more effective with Magneto himself as a martyr (the other half was that Magneto was worth beaucoup points in the Upstarts competition).
Mutants: Almost all of them, save for a few human associates from Genosha like Dr. Huxley and Phillip Moreau. There was also supposedly Nance Winters, an allegedly brainwashed human S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, who fans have speculated is the mysterious unnamed one-panel-appearance female acolyte from the first generation, for the sheer lack of any other possible candidate (but her identity remains unconfirmed in the actual comics, and the Handbooks canonicity have always been dubious).
Religion Is Wrong: The overarching message of the Acolytes seemed to be basically this as far as the writers were concerned. With the iffy exception of Exodus (who was usually portrayed as being genuinely motivated by his faith to help his fellow mutants but also usually being too crazy to do it without hurting ordinary humans) the faith of the Acolytes was always portrayed as a bad thing, and the Acolytes themselves always portrayed as fanatics for it. Ironically, they would directly predate the rise of X-Men writer Chuck Austen, an even bigger fan of this trope.
Seeking Sanctuary: After the fall of Avalon, a number of Acolytes attempted to seek asylum with the X-Men, only for Professor X to turn them away as this was right after a long attempt to rehabilitate another X-villain that went sour. Of course, the villain in question was Sabretooth...
Shoulders of Doom: Most of the Acolytes had big gold shoulderpads, though how big they were varied from member to member, with The Big Guy Acolytes getting big old 40K-style pads, while female Acolytes generally got pads of a reasonable size.
Super Powered Mooks: They were originally intended to be something closer to an Evil Counterpart team to the X-Men as a whole, but getting their ranks filled with multiple characters all at once turned the majority of them into this instead.
Technology Marches On: Many of the Acolytes wore big gold headsets that looked really cool and futuristic during the nineties but today just look silly and outdated.
Undying Loyalty: To Magneto. Or rather, their ideal of Magneto. This comes to a peak in the fourth generation, where Magneto was Brought Down to Normal and they rejected the actual man while still following his teachings.
Villain Decay: The team itself underwent a decay of sorts, and many of the individual members decayed as well Depending on the Writer. Even Magneto himself suffered this, being reduced from The Atoner as Chris Claremont had written him into your stereotypical A God Am I Big Bad.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: An entire group of them.
The Worf Effect: In the pages of Cable's book they subjected Omega Red (one of the big new Badass villains at the time) to this in order to establish their ability to take down mutant villains just as well as the X-Men could.

First-Generation Acolytes

Magneto

Max Eisenhardt / Magneto

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Magslee_4316.PNG

Notable Aliases Erik Magnus Lehnsherr

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1963)

"A new generation is being born, and with it must come a new world order."

The very first adversary the X-Men ever faced, and the leader of the first team of evil mutants they ever faced, the Brotherhood of Mutants.

See Marvel Comics: Magneto

Fabian Cortez

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

"You do that quite well, Pietro... maybe I should hire you to follow me around and shriek my name whenever I enter a room!"

The leader of the first-gen Acolytes and founder of their second incarnation, as well as a secret member of the mutant-hunting group the Upstarts. The very definition of a Deceptive Disciple, Cortez is a gifted strategist, skilled politician and powerful mutant, boasting Super-Empowering abilities that are a lot more dangerous than you'd think. He is also an expert Manipulative Bastard, successfully ingratiating himself to Magneto and later Exodus time and time again even after they become fully aware of what an Obvious Judas he is. Totally out for himself and no one else, to the point of going so far as to casually condemn his own sister to death, he finally got what was coming to him in 1999's Magneto: Dark Seduction miniseries. With death being what it is in the X-Men universe, however, he eventually found his way back to life, and joined the ranks of the Acolytes once more.

With the rise of the mutant nation of Krakoa, Cortez was amongst the many villainous mutants who accepted the island nation's offer of amnesty for past crimes. He found himself working for Abigail Brand under the reconstructed S.W.O.R.D., utilizing his powers as part of a mutant circuit designed to transverse cosmic realms, but was quickly replaced by the Arakkoan mutant Khora due to his untrustworthiness. Finding himself without influence on the island, Cortez unexpectedly found a path towards redemption with the aid of Nightcrawler, who helped guide the former Acolyte in making amends for his past misdeeds and joining the newly formed Legionaries.

Cortez appears as a boss in X-Men 2: Clone Wars and X-Men: GamesMaster's Legacy. He also has a semi-recurring role in X-Men: The Animated Series, appearing in the two-part episode "Sanctuary" and later in "The Fifth Horseman".

Actually a Doombot: The version of him that is fought as a boss in Clone Wars is not really him, but rather a Phalanx clone of him.
Adaptational Badass: He is actually the toughest boss in X-Men: GamesMaster's Legacy, in what is almost certainly a glitch as he is essentially a more aggressive version of the game's Final Boss, Stryfe.
Adaptational Heroism: A very, very teeny little bit in X-Men: The Animated Series. There, he appears to be a native Genoshan who's genuinely in the fight to end mutant enslavement rather than an outsider only in it for his own interests. His devotion to Magneto also appears to be genuine at first, his treachery coming only after he realizes Mags isn't as hot on killing humans as he'd hoped for. Any sympathy points won by these minor changes are quickly thrown away, though, after the show takes a noticeable deviation from canon by having him climb into bed with Apocalypse.
- He also got some of this in Marvel Zombies, which featured him as a minor character who assisted Magneto in evacuating the newly zombie-infested Earth.
Adaptational Nationality: As just mentioned, he's Genoshan in the animated series, unlike his mainstream counterpart who is Spanish.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He tries pleading for his life when attacked by a Knull-possessed Cable during King in Black. Doesn't save him.
Arch-Enemy: He really, really wanted to be this to Magneto's son Quicksilver, at least after his attempt to become Pietro's Evil Mentor failed. Unfortunately for him, Quicksilver just never seemed to have the time for him.
Aristocrats Are Evil: He hails from Spanish nobility.
Asshole Victim: The first time he dies, it's in the sewers of Genosha at the hands of Exodus, who executes him in disgust after Cortez threatens to murder little Luna Maximoff. The second time, it's at the hands of a vengeful Magneto, who uses his fully-charged magnetic powers to fling Cortez fifty miles and smash him to the ground. Both times, he clearly has it coming.
Badass Spaniard: An evil version, but he is from Spain and hangs in the big leagues as mutants go.
Big Bad Wannabe: Cortez clearly sees himself as a leader in the mutant community on par with Magneto and Professor X, but he's just as clearly the only mutant (or human) who feels this way.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Few outside of the mutant community have ever even heard of him.
Bad Boss: As good as he is as at politics, Cortez is just not a field leader. He might not kill his underlings, but he does berate and insult them mercilessly, at least when they're small and weak enough for him to get away with it. He might bully Neophyte and Rem-Ram all the live long day, but you'll never catch him trying to do the same to Acolytes like Cargill or Unuscione who can kick his teeth in for it.
Bastard Understudy: Seems to be playing this role at first, before it becomes clear his only interest in Magneto is making a martyr out of him.
Beauty Equals Goodness: A minor example. In "The Onslaught Revelation", the book that cements his Heel–Face Turn, he's drawn looking his official height of 6'5 for the first time in many years.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Often effects the persona of a well-intentioned statesman trying to balance out the extremist Magneto or Exodus. No one's particularly convinced by it.
Break the Haughty: After a massive Humiliation Conga going from S.W.O.R.D. to Way of X, Fabian remains his usual smug, entitled self until he's about to be crushed by Phobos, the moon of Mars/Arakko.
Cortez: It's not fair! A-all I wanted was for people to think I'm - I'm important or - to @$%#$% like me - is that so wrong? And - and - and -
Nightcrawler: Fabian. How can you hope for the love of your people when you so clearly despise yourself?
Butt-Monkey: In S.W.O.R.D., in the space of the first issue alone, it's clear ol' Fabien's fallen down the totem pole. Magneto pretends not to recognize him, then brushes him off, while Abigail Brand makes it plain he's only there because they can't find anyone else with his powerset, and no-one else on the Peak can stand him either.
Captain Ersatz: Almost certainly an unintentional one, but Achilles de Flandres from Ender's Shadow has a lot in common with him, both of them being Manipulative Bastard Evil Redhead reliable traitors playing what essentially amount to games of geopolitical Russian Roulette.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Of a sort. Cortez never misses an opportunity to stick the knife in, but he gets to be such an Obvious Judas that few people are dumb enough to give him an opportunity.
Closest Thing We Got: During S.W.O.R.D., it's made clear from the off that he's only around because Brand couldn't find anyone else with the same power (and not for lack of looking), and that the minute she finds someone else, Fab's ass is out the door. She does find such a Mutant come issue 5.
Code Name: An oddity for his lack of one. In S.W.O.R.D., he claims his surname is his codename, taken as reclamation from his human family.
Consummate Liar: Not a very convincing one, but apparently lying is so ingrained in him that he even lies to birds. No word yet on if he lies to any other animals.
Cornered Rattlesnake: In Blood Ties.
Deadpan Snarker: Every now and again, mostly after he makes the transition from dangerous usurper to Butt-Monkey.
Deceptive Disciple: To Magneto.
Devil in Plain Sight: In later appearances, when he's inexplicably allowed back into the Acolytes.
Dirty Coward: In the 1993 Blood Ties event, Cortez takes Quicksilver's human daughter Luna hostage, despite it clearly being the very worst thing he could possibly do. When Magneto's new Dragon Exodus comes calling, he quickly flees to the sewers and tries to force Quicksilver and his friends to get rid of Exodus for him, threatening to kill little Luna if they don't. It goes about as well for him as you'd expect.
The Dragon: To Magneto in the comics, and to Apocalypse in the animated series.
- Dragon Ascendant: Intentionally tried to engineer this by rigging Asteroid M to fall from orbit with Magneto and all the other Acolytes inside. The Acolytes died, but Magneto turned out to be a little harder to kill.
- Dragon with an Agenda: From the moment he joined up Magneto, Cortez was scheming to make a martyr of him to build his cult around.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: In S.W.O.R.D., he demands respect while having done nothing to deserve it, even without consideration of his long list of screw-ups and backstabbing.
Enemy Civil War: Responsible more than once for instigating these within the Acolytes. Really, if this guy hadn't joined up they probably would have eventually overwhelmed the X-Men by virtue of sheer numbers.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played up in his very first appearance with his sister Anne-Marie, only to be cruelly subverted at the story's end. He has absolutely no problem with condemning his own sister to death along with everyone else on Asteroid M, and doesn't even spare a word for her during his Evil Gloating as he flies away.
Evil Counterpart: To Cypher, both have unimpressive powers and are only really useful when part of a team. but while Cypher is an average, humble guy who values his friendships, will always step up if needed, constantly works to find uses for his power and uses his power of communication mainly to make friends with literally anything that can communicate. Cortez is a spoiled entitled rich kid who will betray any team that allows him to be a member to gain more power for himself, copes with his insecurities about his powers with arrogance and bloodlust, uses the ability to make others stronger to manipulate people and use them for his own ends and as a result is Hated by All.
Evil Is Bigger: At 6'5 Cortez is one of the tallest and largest Acolytes. He's not often drawn at this height, though, making it an odd case of Informed Ability.
Evil Redhead: Not very obvious from the profile image, but yeah, Fabian is one of these.
Fantastic Racism: Towards humans. Cortez's lasting legacy in the X-universe is being the man who coined the charming epithet "flatscan", a Fantastic Slur mutants quickly adopt to refer to baseline humans.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Fell into this along with the rest of the first-gen Acolytes. He's also the easiest of them to define, being very definitely a Choleric type.
Freudian Excuse: Tries to claim one. Fittingly, like the man himself, it's pretty pathetic. Namely, he and his sister were denied some of their family's massive fortune when it turned out they were Mutants. He was only given a six-figure sum to live on, the poor baby.
Generation Xerox: In the Marvel Zombies universe he has a son named Malcolm Cortez, who plays this trope straight in both physical appearance◊ and story role. He's rather a bit braver than Fabian, though, and also a bit more justified in his treachery.
Grand Theft Me: His final fate in the animated series, courtesy of a disembodied Apocalypse.
The Gunslinger: Seeing as how his powers can be limited in their battlefield use, Cortez often carries a sidearm. He's a fairly decent shot with it too, though not quite to the point of having any Improbable Aiming Skills.
Harem Seeker: In the 1996 Magneto mini and taken to comedic heights in the animated series. See for◊ yourself◊.
Hate Sink: A rare case as this trope usually applies to mutant haters such as William Stryker or Donald Pierce rather than mutants themselves. But Cortez proved himself to be nothing but a selfish, entitled, narcissistic, asshole who wants to kill for the hell of it. Even after joining Krakoa he still finds ways to stand out when most former villains have embraced their second chance. When he joins S.W.O.R.D., he’s so adamant about changing Krakoa’s “kill no man” rule that he’s willing to force that change through extortion by saying his power is too valuable to S.W.O.R.D. to deny his demand. That’s not even taking account the whole Upstarts and killing his own sister thing. He really sucks.
Hated by All By the time he joins S.W.O.R.D. it's apparent he has no real friends, allies, anyone who might care about him because he's such an obnoxious blowhard. By the fifth issue he gets replaced, and he further alienates himself from Magneto and the rest of Krakoa due to his incessant whining and Lack of Empathy. It doesn't help that he delivered an entire rant about everything he feels is owed to him while completely naked and covered in goo from his rebirth. It doesn't help Fabian's case that the Quiet Council barely cared about anything he had to say, not even enough to angrily chew him out (with the exception of Magneto asking if Fabian honestly thinks his "suffering" is greater than Mag's own).
Heel–Face Door-Slam: The conclusion of his epic Humiliation Conga from S.W.O.R.D. and Way of X. He has a genuine moment of self-awareness, honesty and remorse after some serious Tough Love from Nightcrawler and overcomes his cowardice and selfishness to help him prevent the destruction of Planet Arakko, when he could have easily escaped. As a reward Kurt gives him the task of restoring his memories after he's resurrected from his Heroic Sacrifice, making him a key to Onslaught's defeat and therefore finally achieve his wish of being considered an important part of mutant history. He's then put in a coma by an Onslaught possessed Xavier and since no-one saw/remembered his act of heroism, nobody protested when Xavier denied his resurrection. Thankfully Kurt realizes something is amiss following his resurrection and rescues Fabian from that hell.
Heel–Face Turn: At the end of Way of X, Nightcrawler, against all odds, manages to get through to and rehabilitate Fabian, making Fabian confront someone (Lost) who he has hurt, feel empathy, self-reflect, and bare his own soul, which causes Lost to let go of her hatred of him, depowering Onslaught. Fabian and Lost are last shown working together for the betterment of Krakoa.
Hero Killer: Perhaps the most lethal use of Cortez's powers is seen in What If? #64, where he overcharges Gambit's kinetic molecular acceleration's powers to the point of making him explode.
Hidden Depths: Turns out that, like many other villains, he is a huge fan of Dazzler.
Hoist by His Own Petard:
- After years of trying to slowly kill Magneto with his power infusions, the Master of Magnetism finally returned to his full strength in Magneto: Dark Seduction, and no longer needing Cortez, used his fully-charged magnetic powers to fling Cortez fifty miles and smash him to the ground.
- He also hoisted himself very early on with his first attempt to kill Magneto. While this allowed him to lord it over the Upstarts for a time, it also resulted in Magneto awakening the uberpowerful Exodus, who in short order dismantled Cortez's web of deceit, Cortez's claim to authority over the Acolytes, and Cortez himself.
Humiliation Conga: Issue 5 of S.W.O.R.D. (2020) is a big one for Fabian. First, his rebirth isn't celebrated by anyone (apparently everyone was too partied out after resurrecting Sunfire). Then he has to attend the Quiet Council meeting he asked for completely nude. His points are dismissed, and it turns out Magneto never had any intention of actually going through with them and when he tries to play the "you need me" card, he finds out, nope, they don't. Brand's already found a better replacement for him. Inbetween all this, everyone snarks at him. In all fairness, he really has it coming.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Kind of a weird side hobby for him; he's a secret member of the Upstarts, a group of spoiled rich mutants that hunt and kill other mutants for points in a meaningless competition.
Hypocrite: He's the founder of the Acolytes and their Path of Inspiration which preaches of mutant solidarity and brotherhood... yet behind the backs of all his followers he's competing in a game that awards points for hunting down and murdering his own kind. Calling Cortez a hypocrite is like describing the Grand Canyon as brick-red and very deep.
It's All About Me: Everyone that is not himself is to Cortez an object to be used and discarded when no longer needed, even his own sister. He practically says it himself in his Villainous Breakdown to Exodus:
Cortez: I spent months of my life cultivating those — those sheep— to work on my behalf! I gave them a purpose— I gave them something to believe in! You have no right to walk in here and--
- He's so self-centered that his mutant name is just simply "Cortez"
Joker Immunity: More attributable to the cheapened value of death in comics (in X-Men, it's basically nil at this point) than to any popularity, but Cortez has come back from at least three deaths now, the first by Exodus, the second by Magneto, and the third at the hands (well, palms) of Sentinels. Yet as of 2019 Cortez was shown as back among the living once more, with the writers not even bothering with an explanation at this point.
Just Between You and Me: A Big-Lipped Alligator Moment if ever there was one, at one point Cortez monologues to a bird. Yes, a frigging bird. And then, just in case the reader hasn't worked out yet that he's evil, he crushes the bird in his hand with an expression of pure Dissonant Serenity.
Last-Name Basis: Almost exclusively addressed as simply 'Cortez'. He was very briefly referred to as 'Lord Cortez' by the Acolytes, but that went right out the window once Exodus outed him as a traitor.
Left Hanging: Did Mister Sinister resurrect him? Did he just save his life somehow? The actual evidence for Sinister's hand in Cortez's coming Back from the Dead amounts to no more than a single panel of Sinister's face hanging in the background as Cortez makes a mild Badass Boast about how he's still alive despite how many people want him dead, but nothing is ever definitively stated. For some readers just the appearance of the patron saint of Send in the Clones there was enough evidence that he was Cortez's The Man Behind the Man, but others looking for more concrete proof still consider the matter unresolved.
Lethal Harmless Powers: Though his mutant ability came off at first glance to be relatively benign, Cortez could easily weaponize it by inducing Power Incontinence in other mutants. It had its limits, though, as he was apparently unable to "overcharge" mutants vastly more powerful than himself such as Magneto or Exodus, and had to work on them over extended periods of time instead.
Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Characterized by his ponytail and he would be good-looking if he wasn't so despicable.
Magnetic Mutant Jesus: The Path of Inspiration Cortez sets up for his cult is pretty much just Christianity with every instance of 'Jesus' whited out and replaced with 'Magneto'.
The Man Behind the Man: When Cortez came Back from the Dead about five or six years after being offed by Exodus in Blood Ties, it's with no in-story explanation. Much later, it's (sort of) revealed that his resurrection was the work of Mister Sinister, who was apparently using him to sow discord in Magneto's ranks.
Manipulative Bastard: Being turned into a Butt-Monkey during the latter half of the 90s makes it easy to forget just how good Cortez was at the manipulation game starting out. He is pretty much completely responsible for drawing Magneto back into villainy, playing to Erik's pride and vanity by pushing him to take up an active role in protecting mutantkind again. Then he masterminds a scheme to get rid of the X-Men and Magneto all at once, leaving him free to assume the role of mutantkind's leader with Magneto and Professor X both out of the way. Finally, he organizes what can be argued to be the first real incarnation of the Acolytes - the first version of them was just a quartet of harried refugees, but Cortez's group was a small army rivaling the X-Men in both numbers and strength.
Meta Power: Fabian can augment the powers of other mutants, often to dangerous levels. Cortez can also use this power to read genetic code and harm other mutants while appearing to heal them.
Motive Decay: In Uncanny X-Men (2018), he randomly joins up with the randomly reconstituted Upstarts (no longer being led by Selene or the Gamesmaster, apparently they just all decided spur of the moment to get back together) who randomly kill the Nasty Boys for... reasons? He's killed off again shortly after.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Fabian comes to lead one of the two main factions on Avalon, the 'Annihlists'. Predictably, they advocate a Kill All Humans attitude and want to Take Over the World.
Nuke 'em: Proving that Cortez is a go big or go home kind of guy, his reaction to having a Villainous Breakdown in the 90s cartoon was to promptly go for this option, attempting to wipe out all human life (and mutant life, for that matter) on Earth by launching Asteroid M's stolen nuclear missiles. Fortunately, the recovered Magneto turned up just in time and managed to stop the annihilation before getting his revenge on him.
Opportunistic Bastard: Whatever else you can say for Cortez, the man never saw an opportunity he let pass him by.
Paper-Thin Disguise: In 2016's X-Men '92 he infiltrates mutant rock star Lila Cheney's entourage with nothing more than a baseball cap and civvies to hide his identity from the X-Men. Against all logic, it works.
Path of Inspiration: The Acolytes of Magneto, a cult Cortez builds around Magneto almost immediately after trying to bump him off.
- He also establishes a Mayan cult to Apocalypse in the animated series. In case you haven't noticed, cults are kind of his thing.
Personality Powers: His mutant power is deliberately modeled after his personality — at first glance it seems to merely empower his comrades, reflecting Fabian's love of presenting himself as a helpful servant to his bosses, but it actually undermines and weakens the target, reflecting Cortez's Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and coding him firmly in the realm of Bad Powers, Bad People.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Aside from his tendency to fling around self-coined racial slurs, Cortez is also a hideous womanizer, and at more than one point boasts of his plans to make certain Acolyte lieutenants little more than his glorified call girls after whatever treacherous scheme of the day he's working on comes together.
- He also calls Rogue a "Mississippi swamp rat" in X-Men Forever 2.
Poisonous Person: An interesting example of a character who this trope applies to both figuratively and literally. Figuratively he's your classic Treacherous Advisor, and as for the literal, repeated power-ups from Cortez induce an addiction not dissimilar to that experienced by drug users. And as seen by what he does to Magneto, it's very much fatal if allowed to go on long enough.
Power Incontinence: The primary offensive use of Cortez's powers. He could power up another mutant beyond their ability to control their powers, really doing a number on them, such as when he overloaded Psylocke's telepathy so that she was unable to block out the voices around her, or when he forced Bishop to burn himself out with his own Energy Absorption. He could also induce some Body Horror in mutants with physical mutations; in the 90s cartoon, he forced Beast to mutate into a near-mindless animal.
Primal Fear: He has a very strange preoccupation, almost an obsession, with the question of what his Super-Empowering abilities would do to a human, mulling over it multiple times. And yet, despite having ample opportunities to answer the question, he never chances it, suggesting he might be afraid to find out.
Psychotic Smirk: Pretty much his default facial expression.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The treacherous, constantly grandstanding red oni to Exodus' stoic and loyal blue. He also has this with his sister Anne-Marie, who is also the blue to his red.
Recognition Failure: When they meet at S.W.O.R.D.'s new headquarters, while Magneto does recognize the ponytail, he fails to remember his name. Funnily enough Magneto does recognize Peeper, who is even more C-list than Cortez himself.
Recruiting the Criminal: Abigail Brand has recruited him to be a part of S.W.O.R.D., a decision that absolutely will not come back to bite her in the butt given Fabian's long history of playing well with others. She even went to the trouble of giving him a codename! However, Cirtez doesn't last long enough to betray anyone.
Retired Monster: As of X-Men (2019). It's unclear if Fabian's genuinely given up on his political aspirations after three deaths and unlikely resurrections, or if he's in a forced retirement due to the Quiet Council locking him out of any position of influence. Since Exodus is on said Council and we all know how Exodus feels about Fabian Cortez, it's in all likelihood the latter case.
Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Eventually.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Of a sort. He's a Spanish noble who decided he wanted to play the X-Men version of the game of thrones.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: In X-Men '92 he tries to get the Gamesmaster to bend the rules for him, arguing that as the (former) right hand of Magneto that the rules shouldn't apply to him.
Smug Snake: Very smirky and self-satisfied as long as he's got the upper hand.
Smug Super: Not so much originally, but in X-Men '92 he is very much one of these, as evidenced by the following rant he gives to the Gamesmaster:
Cortez: You say you're charged with finding the next supreme mutant, well look no further! Here I am! Game over!
The Sociopath: A mid-functioning example. Cortez is a competent leader, fairly handy in a fight and seems to always find a way to land the coveted #2 spot despite his long history of treachery, but said history follows him like a rattling string of tin cans wherever he goes and his Lack of Empathy prevents him from ever accumulating any truly devoted followers of his own.
The Starscream: Notable for being one of the few Starscreams to pull it off... for a time, anyway.
Starter Villain: In X-Men Forever 2.
Super-Empowering: Cortez's mutant ability is a form of this that allows him to amplify the abilities of other mutants. Short-term he could use it to induce a healing-like effect, though in the long run it was anything but (see Poisonous Person above). Perhaps what made this ability truly classify for Lethal Harmless Powers is how he could use it to induce Power Incontinence in other mutants at will.
Take That!: Comic book urban legend has it that Chris Claremont named this weasely, treacherous character very specifically for fellow writer Fabian Nicieza, who he was said to have a contentious relationship with (and who ended up taking over the X-books after Claremont's departure).
Team Killer: A literal example, as he directly arranges the deaths of his own teammates (for nothing more than self-aggrandizement and points in an arbitrary competition, no less), making Cortez a literal teamkilling◊ Judas.
Too Dumb to Live: To a degree in Blood Ties. Want to know a great way to get two teams of superheroes and a vengeful Knight Templar kicking in your door? Go abduct Magneto's innocent human granddaughter, then parade her on television for the whole world to see. Let us know how that works out for you.
Took a Level in Badass: In the alternate continuity series X-Men Forever, where he exhibits Super-Strength completely absent from his main universe incarnation (enough to let him trade hits with Rogue) and a vague energy leeching ability.
Treacherous Advisor: To Exodus and Magneto in later appearances.
Troll: To Quicksilver from day one, and later to Exodus and Magneto's clone Joseph in in the 1997 Magneto (the real Mags didn't even show up!) miniseries. In a scheme ripped straight out of a mean girl's playbook, he tricks Joseph into kissing fellow Acolyte Amelia Voght in front of Exodus, intending to bait Joseph and Exodus into fighting to the death. Notably, the stunt is enough to drive the normally-stoic Exodus to tears.
Ultimate Job Security: An unintended result of the Status Quo Is God that the X-books are currently heroically struggling against. No matter how many times Fabian betrays the Acolytes, no matter how many of them detest him (he has no real friends in the group and never really did), hell, no matter how many times Acolytes kill him, inevitably he drifts back into their ranks and slithers his way back into The Dragon position somehow.
The Unfettered: Another contrast between him and Exodus; while Exodus is a Superpower Lottery winner who deliberately fights with one hand (metaphorically) tied behind his back, Cortez has a very situational power that he compensates for by abandoning any and all notions of scruples. From sacrificing his sister to using a little girl as a human shield, if Cortez's history proves anything, it's that there is no low he won't sink to.
Unwitting Pawn: Of Mister Sinister.
Very Punchable Man: Between his constant smirking, the smug attitude that just seems to ooze from him, and his rampant misogyny, Cortez is probably the single most effective Hate Sink character among all the X-Men's villains.
Villain Decay: Zigzagged all over; Cortez's physical threat is someties played up (as in X-Men Forever) but his real threat is in his mind for political machination. He's effectively the Big Bad of the first Acolytes story, leaving everyone, heroes and villains, alike to die on Asteroid M. In Fatal Attractions (Marvel Comics) he's brushed aside by Exodus almost instantly and plays no further part in the story, and in Blood Ties he's The Heavy for having instigated the civil war on Genosha and kidnapped little Luna Maximoff, but once again he's little threat physically and ends up cowering in a sewer, pathetically begging the heroes to protect him from Exodus's wrath.
- This Decay continues during his brief return in the 2018 Uncanny title, in which he is used purely as a power battery by his friends and foes. None of his previous political savvy is on display and he experiences deep Motive Decay, joining back up with the Upstarts for no real reason to kill off low-level mutants for no reward besides spiting Emma Frost.
Villainous Breakdown: He does not take it well when Exodus shows up basically out of nowhere and exposes his treachery to the other Acolytes.
Villainous Friendship: He teams up with fellow Starscreamer Maximus the Mad in the 1997 Quicksilver series.
Weak, but Skilled: Perhaps deliberately so, to contrast with Exodus's being Unskilled, but Strong.
Welcome Back, Traitor: In later appearances, Exodus and Magneto begrudgingly tolerate him, but neither one has any illusions about his loyalties.
- This even extends to the rank-and-file Acolytes, who take every opportunity they get to make Cortez their Butt-Monkey. It's kind of fun to watch, honestly.
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: He hates the fact that his powers are only useful in making other mutants stronger, the Inferiority Superiority Complex he gained as a result is what turned him into the monster we all know him as.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: One of the 1999 annuals reveals that he's deathly allergic to rain forests when Amelia Voght teleports him to one as a Cool and Unusual Punishment after he backtalks to Magneto. Or rather, Exodus disguised as Magneto.
The Worf Effect: He once subjected Bishop (who was pretty much the canonical Worf of the X-Men at the time) to this.
Xanatos Speed Chess: He's clearly trying to play this during Blood Ties, but having very few pieces of his own and facing off against two full armies and the queen of a third means that he never really stood much of a chance.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Done to him twice. The first time was by Magneto, who was using him for power boosts during his stint as Genosha's dictator and promptly killed him off the instant his powers were restored. The second time was at the hands of Emma Frost, who used him to boost her powers and then left him to die at the hands of Sentinels.

Anne-Marie Cortez

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anne_marie.png

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

"In mercy's name, your people need you, now more than ever! Can you abandon them? Can you deny your destiny?"

One of the four mutants who formed the very first incarnation of the Acolytes, Anne-Marie was the sister of their leader Fabian Cortez, as well as being a true believer in Magneto and his 'destiny' as the messiah of mutantkind. Swearing herself to his service, Anne-Marie unfortunately did not get to serve him for long, as like all the other first-gen Acolytes she was Killed Off for Real when her brother showed his true colors.

She was originally slated to make a cameo appearance in X-Men: Children of the Atom (and her sprite is still in the game's code) but was Dummied Out for reasons unknown.

All There in the Manual: Her mutant abilities were never directly shown on-panel and were only revealed in the Marvel Saga RPG tabletop book.
Badass Normal: Very much comes across as this in-series, despite being a mutant. She tends to fight with a BFG rather than her mutant powers.
Dark Action Girl: Definitely the most ass-kicking member of the original four Acolytes, despite her limited panel time.
The Empath: Stated in some bios as being able to sense emotions with her mutant ability.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: She's Spanish like her brother, but less evil (though still fanatically loyal to Magneto).
Evil Counterpart: To Marvel Girl, as they were both the respective telepaths for their teams and the only girls because of The Smurfette Principle.
Foil: To her brother. While Fabian is an Evil Redhead Deceptive Disciple, Anne-Marie is a blue-haired true believer.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: From what little we see of her, Anne-Marie best fits the Melancholic type.
Honor Before Reason: Along with Chrome and Delgado, she elects to stay on Asteroid M with Magneto rather than flee to safety with the X-Men.
Kaleidoscope Hair: Anne-Marie's hair has actually been three different colors: originally blue, then sea green for a single panel (seen above), and lastly pink for her Dummied Out cameo appearance in X-Men: Children of the Atom.
Psychic Powers: According to the Marvel Saga RPG anyway, which revealed that she had an underdeveloped Mind Control ability.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Fabian's the Red Oni, Anne-Marie's the Blue Oni.
Small Role, Big Impact: More than even her brother's manipulations, Anne-Marie's impassioned speech seems to have been what made Magneto decide to step out from his self-imposed exile and take an active hand in mutant affairs on a global scale once more. In that role, she was the perfect Unwitting Pawn for her brother.
Starter Villain: Her and her teammates were the first villains of the 1991 X-Men relaunch.
Undying Loyalty: To Magneto. As her VS System card puts it: "Her powers are subtle; her devotion, absolute."
Unwitting Pawn: To Fabian. Of all the Acolytes, she undoubtedly knew him best, yet she still never saw his betrayal coming.
Villain Has a Point: When she first fights the X-Men in Genosha Anne-Marie reminds them that not only does Genosha engage in Superhuman Trafficking, but not too long ago they had actually attempted to enslave the X-Men themselves.
We Hardly Knew Ye: All of the first-gen Acolytes suffer from this, but none of them had it worse than Anne-Marie. She barely got to do anything before being Killed Off for Real.

Chrome

Allen Marc Yuric / Chrome

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

"Forgive me, Lord, for not coming sooner to your assistance."

A youthful mutant with an extraordinarily potent transmutation ability, Chrome was one of the original four Acolytes alongside the Cortez siblings and Delgado. Flippant in battle yet intensely loyal to Magneto, Chrome chose to sacrifice himself attempting to save the lives of his master and his teammates.

His character is used as the model for the generic Acolyte Mooks in X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse. He is also shown as a prominent Acolyte in the X-Men: The Animated Series two-part episode "Sanctuary".

Adaptational Nationality: He's a Genoshan in the animated series, while his mainstream counterpart almost certainly isn't.
Chemistry Can Do Anything: Chrome's mutant power is basically "lol, chemistry" in the same way that Magneto's power is basically "lol, magnetism".
Chrome Champion: Not one himself but could make his teammates this with his transmutation ability.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: He's among the Non-Specifically Foreign recruits to the Acolytes, or possibly is as his actual nationality seems to be of some dispute (some sources say he is European, others American).
Evil Counterpart: To Iceman, as they were both the flippant jokesters of their teams and both characters had transmutation abilities (Iceman of ice, Chrome of... well, everything).
Four-Temperament Ensemble: From what we see of him, Chrome best fits the Phelgmatic type.
Heroic Sacrifice: Though Chrome's body was not among those found as statues in the wreckage of Asteroid M, it was later confirmed that he had in fact died attempting to save the lives of Magneto and the other Acolytes. He was successful in saving the life of Magneto, and possibly Nance Winters as well, but Anne-Marie and Delgado were lost.
Honor Before Reason: Along with Anne-Marie and Delgado, he elects to stay on Asteroid M with Magneto rather than flee to safety with the X-Men.
Never Found the Body: Chrome's body was not among those discovered in the wreckage of Asteroid M, though Magneto later confirmed that he did in fact die.
Not Quite Flight: He could simulate flight by transmuting the air beneath him into a propelling gas.
Plot Device: In function, Chrome was esssentially this. His nebulous transmutation powers were not only the plot device that allowed the Acolytes to capture a squad of X-Men, they were also the plot device that allowed Magneto to survive the fall of Asteroid M.
Small Role, Big Impact: He's the one who saved Magneto from dying at the hands of Fabian Cortez, allowing the former to return as a full-fledged villain.
Starter Villain: Him and his teammates were the first villains of the 1991 X-Men relaunch.
Super-Empowering: By using his mutant ability to transmute the bodies of his teammates, he could make them tougher to take down in fights.
Taken for Granite: And on the other hand, he could completely immobilize enemies by transmuting them into statues.
Teleport Spam: The Acolyte Mooks based on Chrome in X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse have this ability and abuse it prodigiously. Note that comics Chrome does not have any kind of teleporting, though he does have the Flight (well, Not Quite Flight) and Energy Ball abilities they use.
Uncertain Doom: Played with, as Chrome's body not being among those discovered in the wreckage of Asteroid M would imply that he survived, but Magneto later confirmed his death. It is not known if Chrome was originally intended to survive, or if the absence of his body was simply an art goof.
Villains Out Shopping: In the third issue there's a panel of him at Asteroid M's pool with the other Acolytes and brainwashed X-Men, and he genuinely looks like he's having a good time.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Only appeared in the first three issues of X-Men vol. 2 before being Killed Off for Real.

Delgado

Marco Delgado

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

"Too late, flatscan, for weasely words to save you."

The last of the original gen Acolytes, Delgado was the atypical Big Guy and strongman of the team. Most notable for the confusion surrounding what his first name is.

He makes a cameo appearance in X-Men: Children of the Atom and is shown as a prominent Acolyte in the X-Men: The Animated Series two-part episode "Sanctuary".

Adaptational Nationality: He's Genoshan in the animated series, unlike his mainstream counterpart who hails from Italy.
All There in the Manual: The 'Marco' name never appears in the comics and is only listed as this character's name in annotated materials released after the fact.
Bald of Evil: He's bald as a cueball and spends most of his on-panel time menacing the X-Men.
The Big Guy: To the point where his character sprite in X-Men: Children of the Atom is twice as large as any of the other Acolyte sprites.
Came Back Wrong: Briefly in Necrosha, where he was strangely partnered with Fabian Cortez (the man who betrayed him and got him killed) and Seamus Mellencamp (a member of the second generation Acolytes that Delgado never even met).
Equal-Opportunity Evil: In Marvel Atlas it was revealed that Delgado is Italian. Another case of All There in the Manual, obviously. And sadly, no Gratuitous Italian for him.
Evil Counterpart: To Beast, as they were both the respective strongmen for their teams.
Fantastic Racism: If his use of the "flatscan" slur is anything to go by. It should be noted that he is in the company of the man who created said slur.
From a Single Cell: When he was revived by Selene's transmode virus Delgado gained this ability and had his Nigh-Invulnerability ramped up, to the point where he was able to point-blank No-Sell getting stabbed in the head and every other attempt made by Deadpool to kill him for 20 minutes straight. The only thing that actually could kill him was the mutant Loa, who Deadpool promptly weaponized against him.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: We see enough of Delgado that he can be pretty safely confirmed as a Sanguine type.
Giant Mook: As The Big Guy of the initial Acolytes, it was only natural that he fell into this role.
Honor Before Reason: Along with Anne-Marie and Chrome, he elects to stay on Asteroid M with Magneto rather than flee to safety with the X-Men.
Killed Off for Real: Twice, the first time in the fall of Asteroid M and the second time by Deadpool.
Named Like My Name: The most distinguishing thing about Delgado at this late date is the ambiguity surrounding his first name. In the first issue a man named Major Harry Delgado is the leader of the S.H.I.E.L.D. pursuit team chasing the quartet of refugees that would become the 1st generation Acolytes. Later a large man identified as "Delgado" attacks the X-Men alongside the other Acolytes, with Wolverine and Beast wondering if this is the same Delgado defected to the enemy or a new arrival with a coincidental name. It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it panel, but the Acolyte Delgado is shown on panel beside the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Delgado (the profile quote above is what the Acolyte Delgado says to the agent Delgado), confirming they are two different characters (why they bear the same surname and have near-identical physical builds is never explained, though).
Sizeshifter: His mutant ability. Naturally, he gains the usual Nigh-Invulnerability and Super-Strength brick powers in his enlarged form.
Starter Villain: Him and his teammates were the first villains of the 1991 X-Men relaunch.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Like his compatriots he only lasted a whole three issues before being Killed Off for Real, though he did at least did make a brief return in the modern day, being one of the many deceased mutants who Came Back Wrong during the Necrosha story arc.

Nance

Nance Winters

Nationality: American

Species: Human

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

"Stuff permission, Harry. Just fry the swine."

The fifth and final "member" of the original Acolytes, Nance Winters was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was part of the task force pursuing the band of renegade mutants that would become the first four Acolytes. Like her comrades, she was apprehended by Magneto with a dubious fate awaiting her after her teammate Deke shot Anne-Marie Cortez, but in X-Men #2 a new, unnamed Acolyte was shown on Asteroid M, one who was established years later via All There in the Manual as Nance, Brainwashed into serving the Acolytes by Anne-Marie. Like the other Acolytes, Nance stayed behind on Asteroid M after Fabian Cortez set it to self-destruct, but as her remains were not found her final fate is unclear. Regardless, she has not appeared again.

All There in the Manual: Almost all the information about Nance is this, as in her original appearances she wasn't even identified by her last name and her post-brainwashing incarnation wasn't identified at all until years later in the Marvel Handbooks.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: In the first panel we get of the original, non-controlled Nance, she urges her squad leader Harry Delgado to "fry" the ship of fugitive mutants they are chasing, even though they are currently 150 miles above Russia and, as this was just before end of the Cold War, it could have easily provoked a world war with Russia.
Brainwashing for the Greater Good: From the point of view of Anne-Marie and the Acolytes, what she did to Nance was this. To the reader it's quite a different matter.
Dying as Yourself: Averted, as Nance's last known word (and the online post-brainwashing line she got) was a "No" when asked to join Xavier and the X-Men in evacuating Asteroid M. So not only did she not die as herself, but her last words were almost certainly Anne-Marie speaking through her.
Expository Hairstyle Change: After her brainwashing Nance wore a headband, something no other first-generation Acolyte wore. This, alongside her lack of the gold headset worn by all the other Acolytes, was apparently a visual cue that unlike them she was not acting of her own volition.
Fantastic Racism: Possibly one of these, seeing as how she referred to the fugitive mutants she was pursuing as "swine".
Honor Before Reason: Played with, as she is among the Acolytes who elect to stay behind with Magneto rather than fleeing to safety with the X-Men, but unlike them Nance had no agency in the matter.
Meaningful Name: While her last name of "Winters" was not revealed until years later, it is an appropriate name considering the frosty personality of the actual Nance.
Never Found the Body: Though she was definitely on Asteroid M when it self-destructed, Nance's body was not among those discovered in the wreckage of Asteroid M.
Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Possibly this, assuming Nance did in fact die on Asteroid M. Whether she died or survived, Anne-Marie definitely made her stick it out until the bitter end.
Red Shirt: She was a member of SHIELD, but she didn't quite make the ranks of Badass Normal and died pretty quickly, making her fall into this instead.
Reforged into a Minion: By Anne-Marie.
The Quiet One: Played with, as after being brainwashed she was silent in all her appearances except the very last one (where she speaks a single word), but obviously she was compelled into this, and from what little we saw of the original Nance she was not shy about speaking her mind.
Token Human: She was the only human member of the first-generation Acolytes, and one of the few humans ever admitted to their ranks period, though her status as a "member" is debatable.
Uncertain Doom: As previously noted, Nance's body was not among those discovered in the wreckage of Asteroid M, and unlike Chrome, she was not ever confirmed as dead, though she was not ever seen or mentioned again. There is a very thin chance that Chrome was able to preserve her life as he did Magneto's.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Appeared in all of four issues, but really only appeared as herself in a handful of panels in her first appearance.

Second-Generation Acolytes

Exodus

Bennet du Paris / Exodus

Nationality: French

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Factor #92 (1993)

One of the earliest known mutants, Bennet du Paris was born in 12th century France and participated as a soldier in the Crusades. On a quest to find the mythic Tower of Power, he was tested by the ancient mutant Apocalypse who unlocked his astounding mutant powers after finding him worthy but subsequently trapped him in stasis when he refused to slay his friend and fellow crusader Eobar Garrington. Awakened by Magneto in the 20th century, Exodus was anointed as the Master of Magnetism's new right-hand man and charged with the mission of recruiting the best and brightest mutants to Magneto's Acolytes. A true believer in Magneto's philosophies, Exodus wants nothing more than to protect and defend his people, a task that is complicated by his run-ins with the X-Men and his own fluctuating mental stability.

See Marvel Comics: Exodus

Colossus

Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin / Colossus

Nationality: Russian

Species: Human mutant

Joined In: Uncanny X-Men #304 (1993)

"What I'm saying, Magneto, is that if you will have me, I would join you in your chosen plight."

A Russian strongman and mainstay of the second generation of X-Men, Colossus experienced an extreme crisis of faith after losing his parents, brother and sister all in a relatively short span of time. This crisis led him to denounce Xavier's ways and turn to Magneto instead, a choice he stuck by even after Magneto was reduced to a vegetative state. He ultimately stayed with the Acolytes up until they were forcibly disbanded by the fall of Avalon, and along with Amelia Voght was usually portrayed as the Only Sane Man among their ranks.

See X-Men: '70s Members

Frenzy

Joanna Cargill / Frenzy

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Factor #4 (1986)

"Human lovers! If you were true mutants, you would follow the teachings of Magnus!"

An Ascended Extra from a C-List Fodder team dating back to The '80s, Joanna Cargill is one of the few Acolytes with a prior history, as well as one of the most developed Acolytes in general. Originally a fairly stock Scary Black Woman stereotype, Cargill got considerable development after Exodus disbanded the last known incarnation of the Acolytes during X-Men: Legacy. As of 2015 she is a junior member of the X-Men.

Frenzy has a semi-recurring role in X-Men: The Animated Series, appearing in the two-part episode "Sanctuary" and later in "One Man's Worth" as a member of the Mutant Resistance. She also appears in all three books of the X-Men Mutant Empire Trilogy.

See X-Men: 2010s Members

Scanner

Sarah Ryall / Scanner

Notable Aliases: Screener

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Avengers #357 (1992)

"I am Scanner, an acolyte of the fallen messiah Magneto. I bring you a message from Exodus, the heir of Magnus."

A talented but impressionable young mutant who acted as the field scout of the Acolytes and was De-Powered on M-Day. She appears in the Wolverine and the X-Men episode "Greetings from Genosha" and in all three books of the X-Men Mutant Empire Trilogy.

Anti-Villain: Much less malevolent than most of the people she chose to acquaint herself with.
Army Scout: Functioned in this role with the Acolytes, as her mutant ability allowed her to travel far ahead of the rest of the team and survey areas before sending the others in.
Astral Projection: Her secondary mutant ability is the ability to perform a version of this that can be seen by even non-telepaths. When she Took a Level in Badass she gained the ability to fight in this state.
Blind Obedience: Much like fellow Acolyte Cargill, Scanner seemed afflicted by a compulsive need to seek out strong leaders and obey them without question, going so far as to model herself after her chosen leader's beliefs. While she followed Cortez Scanner talked like a stock supremacist, all "flatscan" this and "flatscan" that. Later when she followed Exodus during the Siege of Wundagore she couldn't stop parroting his talk about racial purity (something he was on a kick on at the time). It's unclear what, if any, of this rhetoric, Scanner herself believes.
Brought Down to Normal: Lost her powers on M-Day. Ten years later she still hasn't gotten them back, and being C-List Fodder like most Acolytes she probably never will.
Early-Installment Weirdness: Her debut appearance has her with the handle of "Screener" and lacking the Facial Markings that would come to be a distinctive feature of the character.
Even Evil Has Standards: She was shown to be pretty horrified by the hospice attack mission and later was among the Acolytes who advocated to not let the X-Men freeze to death.
Facial Markings: Sports vaguely Native American facial tattoos.
Kill All Humans: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Scanner joins Fabian Cortez's Acolyte faction, the 'Annihlists' who advocate human genocide and want to Take Over the World.
Mission Control: She took up this role after the death of Milan. Having the ability to astrally project herself to her teammates came in awful handy during the Quicksilver miniseries.
Nonindicative Name: Let's face it, you don't read "Scanner" and instantly think "psychic mutant scout/tracker", do you?
Number Two: To Fabian Cortez in her debut appearance and for a brief time to Exodus in the Quicksilver mini.
Projected Woman: Manifested this way whenever she astrally projected. Non-telepaths could see her, but they couldn't harm her in any way.
Reformed, but Rejected: By Professor X after she and group of Acolytes sought sanctuary with the X-Men. She really doesn't take it well when Chuck turns her and her friends away, despite having previously gave shelter to the likes of Sabretooth.
Put on a Bus: When she lost her powers on M-Day.
Scarily Competent Tracker: A notable perk of her mutant ability. By projecting herself in proximity to a single person, Scanner could essentially function as a bloodhound leading the Acolytes unerringly towards any target they chose. This ability was put to work during the Siege of Wundagore to track down the High Evolutionary.
The Squadette: Trains in her Acolyte gear for a Genoshan soldier's uniform during Magneto: Dark Seduction.
Super-Senses: To the point where even egomaniac Fabian Cortez acknowledges her skills, admitting she can perceive wavelengths of energy "that the rest of us are blind to".
Took a Level in Badass: When she and her party get a visit from Professor X during the Magneto War she reveals that she's been training in the use of her powers and is so good with them now she can scramble a person's bioelectric rhythm if they're appearing by Astral Projection. Later during Magneto: Dark Seduction she graduates to The Squadette.
Villain Respect: "Why can't we disagree with the X-Men but still respect them?"
Woman Scorned: During the Magneto War she met Professor X again and demonstrated how she Took a Level in Badass since being Reformed, but Rejected by him. Combines with Badass Boast:
Scanner: You could have given me — us, a second chance, a real home! Instead you turned us over to the authorities — your loss, since I improved my control over my powers!

Voght

Amelia "Amy" C. Voght

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

"I am Voght — an ancestor, of sorts, to all who call themselves Xavier's children!"

One of the many women to fall victim to Charles Xavier's Cartwright Curse, Amelia Voght was a Combat Medic during the The Korean War and fell hard for Xavier after finding him to be both a fellow American and a fellow mutant. She accompanied Xavier back home after the war, only to become disillusioned with him as he threw himself into his plans to create the X-Men. Decades later, an older and more embittered Voght would encounter Xavier again, this time as an enemy as she had lost her family to humans and chosen Magneto's radical ideologies over those of her former lover.

Voght has a semi-recurring role in X-Men: The Animated Series, appearing in the two-part episodes "Sanctuary" and "The Phalanx Covenant". She is also the POV Acolyte character of the X-Men Mutant Empire Trilogy and appears in all three books.

Aborted Arc: During the Fall of Avalon, Xavier revealed that Amelia had become full-time intangible, her powers having transformed her into the years to the point that her mist state was now her natural state and her human state the one she had to work to be in. While Voght reluctantly admitted he was right, this was never referenced again.
Adaptational Jerkass: In X-Men: The Animated Series, she broke up with Xavier because she hated being a mutant and wanted to live a quiet and secluded life, while Xavier wanted to found the X-Men to fight and work for mutant civil rights. She eventually showed up years later, having joined up with the Acolytes as a mutant terrorist and blames Xavier for this because his X-Men's exposure of mutants made it impossible for mutants like her to live a quiet life anywhere. Though true to an extent, her own decision to join up with a human-hating genocidal fanatic like Cortez and to serve under Magneto whose own mutant supremacy terrorism fostered more hate towards mutants than anything the X-Men pulled ruins her point. In the end she just comes off as an entitled shrew with an It's All About Me attitude that makes her shift blame to her old lover for choosing his dream over her.
Amicable Exes: Has become this with Charles by 2020, as they're able to have a polite conversation with one another again.
Beware the Nice Ones: Voght is very mild-mannered and levelheaded compared to her colleagues, but don't let that fool you. She has one hell of a set of Lethal Harmless Powers at her disposal.
Character Development: Voght gets major character development in the Mutant Empire book trilogy, where she is usually the POV character during the Acolyte chapters.
Combat Medic: Met Charles Xavier while working as one of these in Tibet and has usually found work as a nurse during the periods when the Acolytes were disbanded.
Death by Origin Story: Voght's family, who were all killed by racist humans after she left Xavier. This tragedy was what led her to embrace Magneto's philosophies of mutant supremacy.
Everyone Has Standards: A story arc in Cable's book saw Amelia help Cable foil a plot by Omega Red to unleash his death spore virus across the planet. Though she advocates mutant supremacy, the indiscriminate slaughter of billions was far too much for her to stomach.
First-Name Basis: She is notably one of the only characters to refer to Exodus by his human name of Bennet. Seeing as how he specifically said that "no one living" knew his name when fighting Holocaust, presumably he revealed it to Voght off-panel after the fact. This might be a factor in her Undying Loyalty; read below for more on that.
Forgotten Friend, New Foe: Established as one of Xavier's past paramours though she was not mentioned once in thirty years of his stories.
Fun Personified: According to her 2018 Fleer character card, she was "known for her upbeat, fun personality". This doesn't exactly jive with her depiction in the comics but compared to Darker and Edgier Acolytes like Javitz and Senyaka one could well call her upbeat and fun. She's one of the most well-adjusted Acolytes, at any rate.
Hospital Hottie: An especially attractive nurse with an hourglass figure, notable bust, and an upbeat attitude. It was this status, in addition to being an American mutant, that hooked Xavier's affection.
Intangibility: She can phase through attacks by transforming herself into mist, and at one point was even stated to have become a full-time mist being, though the latter was dropped.
Last-Name Basis: Usually just addressed by her last name, like the other members of the Acolyte Power Trio.
Lethal Harmless Powers: Oh, turning into mist is no big deal, right? Wrong. Never underestimate the threat of a mutant who can Tele-Frag at will.
Love Makes You Evil: Her lost love with Charles is played up as a major factor in her opposition to the X-Men, though it's not the reason why she joined the Acolytes in the first place.
Mook Lieutenant: Served as this to Cortez in her very first appearance, being his field leader, and also got her start as this during the Mutant Empire trilogy before being promoted by Magneto to...
Number Two: In Mutant Empire, Amelia eventually works her way up to this role, eventually being granted authority over all the rest of the planetside Acolytes by Magneto himself.
Older Than They Look: She's known Xavier since he first lost the use of his legs and even decades later she still looks like a redheaded bombshell.
Only Sane Man: Amelia was often portrayed as this, being the only Acolyte other than Colossus to acknowledge Magneto to be a man and not a divine mutant messiah. She also tried to limit casualties whenever possible and was just in general one of the few Acolytes who acted like a human being.
Personality Powers: Amelia's a good woman at heart, but she has a tendency to run from her problems. How fitting, then, that she manifests the mutant ability to turn into mist and rematerialize in the place of her choosing, the ultimate escape hatch for a person naturally drawn to them.
Power Trio: The third and last seen of the three "Power Woman" Acolytes who often acted as Mook Lieutenants to the rest of the second generation.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Amelia joins Exodus's Acolyte faction, the 'Isolationists' who advocate bailing on Earth completely and taking Avalon into deep space. Regular verse Amelia also had this attitude about the purpose of the Acolytes in general, arguing that the only way for mutantkind to survive was to leave humanity behind.
Start of Darkness: She turned to Magneto's cause after humans killed her entire family.
Status Quo Is God: Despite repeatedly leaving the Acolytes, Amelia inevitably gets written back into their ranks whenever a new writer takes over. A good example of this is 2019's House of X, where after several years of being MIA she was shown in The Cameo of Acolytes Exodus had reorganized (for whatever reason) once more.
Super Smoke: Amelia can turn intangible or teleport herself by transforming into mist.
Tele-Frag: Though she prefers not to do this, she's quite the adept when she wants to be. Transsubstantiating people hundreds of feet in the air, transsubstantiating away body parts selectively, transsubstantiating away the very air a person is breathing... yeah, Lethal Harmless Powers indeed.
Teleporters and Transporters: Her mutant ability is "Transsubstantiation", the ability to transmute herself and other things/people into a mist state and then rematerialize in the place of her choosing. It's powerful enough that she can transport an entire team of Acolytes between Earth and the orbiting space station Avalon.
Took a Level in Badass: In Salvation, the third book of the Mutant Empire trilogy, she teaches Unuscione a lesson or two about the dangers of Lethal Harmless Powers.
Undying Loyalty: To Exodus, as she was not only one of the Acolytes to rally to him after Avalon fell on his watch but chose to follow him again even after he menaced her with a Xenomorph knockoff and otherwise treated her like a dick during the 1996 Magneto mini (of course, she might have simply tried to forget that as hard as the fans did).
Woman Scorned: A more understandable example than most, due to Chuck briefly succumbing to despair/temptation and using his powers to force Amelia to stay with him. It was only a second's moral failing, but boy did it ever end up having the opposite effect.

Unuscione

Carmella Unuscione

Aliases: Stand-Off

Nationality: Italian

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #298 (1993)

"Blasphemer! In the name of Magneto, I will see you crushed in my psionic exoskeleton before I allow you to speak that name again with such reverence!"

The (probable) daughter of classic Silver Age Brotherhood member Unus the Untouchable, Unuscione took up her (probable) father's legacy by joining Magneto's Acolytes. Her fairly unique appearance and powerset has made her one of the more visually enduring Acolytes over the years, and she has been a mainstay through four consecutive generations of the team.

Unuscione appears in the X-Men: The Animated Series two-part episode "Sanctuary" and in all three books of the X-Men Mutant Empire Trilogy.

Aborted Arc: X-Men: Blue saw Unuscione make a return as a recruit for the newest incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants, being one of the only two Acolytes (along with Exodus) recruited for the group. This was abruptly abandoned after the conclusion of X-Men Blue, however.
Adaptational Nationality: She's Genoshan in the animated series, unlike her mainstream counterpart who, like her probably father, hails from Italy.
Ambiguously Related: Due to the sliding timescale and the fact its never been clearly stated on panel, it's still up in the air whether she is Unus' daughter or younger sister.
Barrier Warrior: Like her father, Unuscione has the mutant power to create barriers, but her version of the ability is both more limited and more potent, as she focuses it exclusively on psionic Powered Armor that she surrounds herself with. While this is limited compared to Unus the Untouchable's version of the ability, it has also been seen to be more useful in a fight, and unlike her father, Unuscione has rarely been seen to suffer from any form of Power Incontinence.
Berserk Button: Badmouthing her father, at least in the Mutant Empire trilogy.
Character Development: Not quite as much as the other Acolytes, but Carmella is still fairly fleshed out in the Mutant Empire book trilogy, where she's The Rival for POV character Amelia Voght and something of a Psycho Supporter for the Acolytes in general, constantly dancing on a hair's edge of becoming a full-fledged Ax-Crazy madwoman.
Early-Installment Weirdness: A few early appearances drew her with her hair color changing when she used her powers.
Freudian Excuse: In the first Mutant Empire book, X-Men: Siege, Magneto muses that Unuscione's bad attitude is the result of her bitterness over losing her father Unus.
Future Badass: In X-Men: Blue, where she is among the members of a new Brotherhood of Mutants assembled by Magneto in the future to save mutantkind from the Reaver virus (which the Avengers and X-Men both fail to do).
Giant Mook: Unuscione is not herself a giant, but her psionic exoskeleton often assumes a giant size, and she can shape it into various monstrous forms if she so chooses.
Heel–Face Turn: In the alternate reality universe Age of X Unuscione, going by the code name of Stand-Off, is one of the Force Warriors who protect Fortress X, the last sanctuary of mutantkind. She also gets a very minor version of this in the main title when Exodus disbands the Acolytes. She is mentioned as moving to Utopia with Cargill, but unlike the latter, she is never seen helping the X-Men in any way.
Last-Name Basis: Usually just addressed by her last name, like the other members of the Acolyte Power Trio.
Legacy Character: She's the daughter of Silver Age Brotherhood member Angelo Unuscione, aka Unus the Untouchable.
Luke, I Might Be Your Father: Her relation to Unus is only confirmed in the Mutant Empire novel -X-Men: Sanctuary, which may or may not be canon.
Make It Look Like an Accident: Tries this in the third Mutant Empire book, X-Men: Salvation in order to get her rival Amelia Voght out of the way once and for all. It doesn't work, and a thoroughly exasperated Voght simply teleports her back to Avalon for Exodus to deal with.
Mook Lieutenant: Served this role in her very first appearance, and in occasional appearances thereafter.
Pet the Dog: Her, Cargill and Milan were the ones who gently coaxed the mutant teenager Neophyte out of hiding, staying with him for two days straight at the abandoned church he'd holed up in.
Power Incontinence: Suffered from this in a 2017 story arc thanks to the release of the Mothervine virus.
Primal Fear: One issue revealed that Unuscione has a very deep fear of dying like her father, who suffocated to death inside his own forcefield.
Power Trio: The first of the 'Power Woman' Acolytes who often acted as Mook Lieutenants to the rest of the second generation.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Unuscione joins Exodus's Acolyte faction, the 'Isolationists' who advocate bailing on Earth completely and taking Avalon into deep space.
Sickly Green Glow: Her psionic exoskeleton is usually colored this way.
Status Quo Is God: Despite half-handed efforts by writers over the years to lift Unuscione up into something more than just another background X-villain with a gimmick, inevitably she resets to default whenever a new writer takes over. See her Stand-Off stint in Age of X and the previously mentioned Brotherhood-member-for-5-minutes bit in UXM vol. 5 for good examples.
Undying Loyalty: To Exodus, as she was one of the Acolytes to rally to him even after Avalon fell on his watch.
Worthy Opponent: As quickly as her first appearance she begrudgingly admits the X-Men are more worthy opponents than Cortez led her to believe.
Would Hurt a Child: To show how Obviously Evil the Acolytes were (subtlety was not something comics in The '90s had much use for) their first mission had them attacking a school bus full of children. And when the mutant child they were sent to retrieve turns out to also have Down's syndrome, she discards him as worthless to be killed with the human children.

Kleinstocks

Eric and Harlan and Sven Kleinstock

Nationality: Swedes

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #298 (1993)

"Hah! Nothing we like more than offing a few flatscans, eh brother?!"

A trio of Ax-Crazy mutant Bash Brothers, the Kleinstocks are among the most cruel and bloodthirsty of all the Acolytes. In the comics, one of them, Eric, is killed on his first mission, reducing them to a duo.

The full trio of Eric and Harlan and Sven appear in the Wolverine and the X-Men episode "Battle Lines" and make a cameo appearance in X-Men: Children of the Atom. They also appear in all three books of the X-Men Mutant Empire Trilogy.

Asteroids Mutant: Hit them hard enough in their combined form and they'll split back into separate people.
Ax-Crazy: They're disturbingly enthusiastic about killing "flatscans".
BackupTwins: Either Harlan or Sven was this to the other, as they were able to continue being a threat after Eric's death.
Bash Brothers: All three of them.
BFG: Both Kleinstocks carry one in their sprites in X-Men: Children of the Atom. Note that in the comics they never use any weapons other than their mutant powers.
Big Brother Instinct: Though it's not clear which Kleinstocks are older than which, Sven certainly acts like the big brother to Harlan in Mutant Empire, threatening Wolverine after finding that the Canuck has ambushed and knocked out his brother.
Combo Platter Powers: Boy do these three have a platter. Their most distinctive power is a Fusion Dance ability that allows the duo (or trio) of Kleinstocks to combine into a single being. This also seems to overlap with All Your Powers Combined, as the fused Kleinstock duo is unable to fly as Eric Kleinstock did and after his death the remaining siblings almost never fight in any state other than fused. Each Kleinstock seems to bring something different to the table.
- Flight: An ability only shown in the comics as being used by Eric Kleinstock.
- Hand Blast: Both Eric Kleinstock and the fused Kleinstock duo exhibits this ability, indicating it may have been a power they all shared.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: An ability only seen used by the fused Kleinstocks. Definitely not one Eric Kleinstock had, as a simple shotgun blast was all it took to kill him.
- Super-Strength: Also only seen used by the fused Kleinstocks, though their 2019 Heroclix figure◊ implies that Sven is the Kleinstock who wields this ability.
Dumb Muscle: Harlan and Sven. Highlighted in the Mutant Empre book trilogy; while most of the Acolytes get significant fleshing out in that book, the Kleinstocks act more like a pair of prepubescent teenage bullies of the sort you'd see in a Goosebumps book than anything else. POV character Amelia Voght even thinks of them as little more than overgrown children.
Dull Surprise: Their response to being teleported off Avalon by the X-Men during Fatal Attractions (Marvel Comics) is a hilariously flat "Oh, crud."
Equal-Opportunity Evil: They provide Sweden's contribution to the Acolytes, being a trio of Swedes who are all psychopathic manchildren.
Even Evil Has Standards: And so does at least one Kleinstock brother: in the third book of the X-Men Mutant Empire Trilogy, Sven Kleinstock objects to Unuscione's plan to get rid of Amelia Voght and Make It Look Like an Accident, even saying that "She might be a pain, but she's one of us." Whether he would have fought his brother Harlan (who had no such standards) is unclear, as Voght teleported the homicidal Unuscione back to Avalon before things could go that far.
Fearless Fool: Eric Kleinstock blows off Unuscione's warnings not to charge in recklessly. A panel later, he's dead.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Played with, none of the Kleinstocks are what you'd call responsible, but at least Harlan and Sven weren't dumb enough to get killed on their very first mission.
Kick the Dog: Attacking innocent humans in a hospice and sadistically killing at least one by boiling their IV drip with mutant powers is about as low as it gets.
Kill All Humans: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed the Kleinstocks join Fabian Cortez's Acolyte faction, the 'Annihlists' who advocate human genocide and want to Take Over the World.
Lighter and Softer: They were distinctly less evil for their appearance in Wolverine and the X-Men than they ever were in the comics.
The Load: An issue of Uncanny released directly after the Fall of Avalon proved that while the Kleinstocks might be moderately good at punching X-Men in the face, they have absolutely no skill at all for wilderness survival. As an exasperated Unuscione puts it: "All you've done is complain since our pod landed!"
Mental Fusion: According to their VS System card◊, they fuse minds as well as bodies when using their Fusion Dance abilitty.
Mooks: Probably the most generic and Mook-y characters among all the Acolytes. They were duly adapted as generic enemies in X-Men 2: Clone Wars.
- Giant Mook: They turn into one in their combined form.
Prematurely Grey-Haired: In Quicksilver's miniseries for some weird reason.
Psychopathic Manchild: They act significantly less emotionally developed than any of the other Acolytes and have a child's Lack of Empathy when it comes to other human beings.
Sadist: One of the Kleinstocks (probably Harlan) really got into the hospice attack mission, sadistically boiling an immobilized patient's IV drip with his mutant powers while wearing a Psychotic Smirk.
Same-Sex Triplets: Like the later-appearing Stepford Cuckoos, the Kleinstocks are triplets that all share a single gender between them.
Sibling Team: No Kleinstock ever fights by himself.
Those Two Guys: Harlan and Sven after the death of Eric.
Too Dumb to Live: Dear God, Eric Kleinstock. He's pretty much an evil Foil to Thunderbird (complete with his own Backup Twin(s)!)
Two Siblings In One: After Eric's death, Sven and Harlan used their mutant ability to become this literally.
Ungrateful Bastard: Cyclops saves Harlan and Sven's lives during the collapse of Avalon but they never thank him, and spend most of the trek back to civilization whining about the heat.
Voice of the Legion: In their combined form they were sometimes written this way, speaking with a strange overlapping kind of dialogue.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Neither of the surviving Kleinstocks have been seen since Magneto lost control of Genosha. Given what happened shortly after, their fates do not look good.
Wonder Twin Powers: Harlan and Sven have sometimes been shown holding hands when using their blast power, implying that like other powered twins they get stronger when in physical contact with each other.
Would Hurt a Child: Harlan and Sven have no problems with executing an elementary school student because he's a human and not a mutant.

Javitz

Isaac Javitz

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

"For years I have observed you from afar... the mighty Cyclops and his X-Men, suppressing any mutant who didn't embrace the mainstream!"

A disgruntled mutant who watched the X-Men for years and became frustrated by what he perceived as their oppression of any mutant who didn't embrace Xavier's ideology, Javitz readily answered the call of Fabian Cortez and continued serving the Acolytes after Cortez was exposed as a traitor when Exodus took over. He was slain by Holocaust during the fall of Avalon, though he reappeared among the ranks of the Acolytes during the Siege of Wundagore and Magneto War storylines. He has not been seen since.

He appears in all three books of the X-Men Mutant Empire Trilogy.

Back from the Dead: At Exodus's hand, apparently. He was seen in occasional background shots during the Siege of Wundagore and Magneto War storylines, but has not been seen since.
The Big Guy: Served this role among the second-gen Acolytes, being kind of a Sucksessor for Delgado.
The Bully: He constantly belittled Milan for not having as offensive a mutation as some of the other Acolytes.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- During the hospice attack mission Javitz groused about the Kleinstocks being "dramatic" and generally didn't seem to take the same sadistic pleasure in it that they did (though he certainly still participated in it).
- He also shows some loose scruples in the third Mutant Empire book Salvation, being one of the two present Acolytes (along with Sven Kleinstock) who objects to Unuscione's plan to get rid of Amelia Voght and Make It Look Like an Accident.
Eye Scream: He lost his left eye at one point, with the Mutant Empire novel trilogy revealing that he lost it in battle with Wolverine. That couldn't have been pretty.
Eyepatch of Power: Wears a blue bandanna over his left eye.
Giant Mook: At a truly enormous 9'11, Javitz was officially the largest of all the Acolytes, but outside of his grudge with Cyclops he had little personality to speak of (at least in the comics).
Handicapped Badass: A one-eyed mutant who is good enough to throw down with (ironically) Cyclops.
Hidden Depths: His personality is much more fleshed-out in the Mutant Empire trilogy than it ever was in the comics.
It's Personal: As his page quote shows, he kind of has this weird grudge against Cyclops. It gets even weirder when the Mutant Empire trilogy revealed it was actually Wolverine who was responsible for the loss of his eye.
Kick the Dog: Attacking innocent humans in a hospice is about as low as it gets.
Kill All Humans: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Javitz joins Fabian Cortez's Acolyte faction, the 'Annihlists' who advocate human genocide and want to Take Over the World.
Mistaken Identity: During the Magneto War a character with Javitz's unmistakable appearance appeared fighting the X-Men but was referred to by his teammates as Kamal (a third-gen Acolyte who replaced Javitz as The Big Guy).
Super-Strength: His mutant ability, which came with the usual requisite dose of Nigh-Invulnerability.
Uncertain Doom: His death at the hands of Holocaust. While he definitely died, the question is whether Javitz stayed dead.
Villain Forgot to Level Grind: When he fought Strong Guy. Though initially more powerful than Guido, the latter's ability to increase his strength by absorbing kinetic energy meant he got stronger as the fight went on, ultimately KOing Javitz with one punch.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite being shown as resurrected by Exodus, Javitz hasn't been seen since the Magneto War, leaving his actual fate unclear.

Kath

Katu Kath

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/katu.jpg

Nationality: Russian

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

"You never would have made a good Acolyte, my friend."

An elderly Inuit man who was crippled and forced to watch his family die at the tentacles of Omega Red thirty years ago. After being forced for some years to work for the Russian military, he went AWOL and joined Fabian Cortez's Acolytes, eager for revenge on the humans who had ordered his family killed.

Artificial Limbs: Sports an even two, to replace the ones Omega Red ripped off of him.
Beard of Evil: While his evil quotient fluctuates, he definitely has a big bushy Santa beard.
Brought Down to Normal: Briefly depowered by the High Evolutionary during one of his schemes.
Came Back Wrong: Katu was one of a handful of Acolytes resurrected by Selene during the Necrosha storyline.
Cyborg: With those two artificial arms and part of his chest also roboticized, Katu is clearly some mixture of machine and man now.
Death by Origin Story: Katu's family, including his son, were all slaughtered by Omega Red 30 years before the events of the series.
Elemental Powers: Katu's mutant powers combine this with Magnetism Manipulation, as he is a "living satellite dish" that can absorb and refract various atmospheric wavelength energies. He can use this to create Hand Blasts and to effect limited Weather Manipulation.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: He's the Inuit contribution to the Acolytes, and while not as evil as some of the others he still chose to follow the teachings of Magneto.
Elite Mook: A favored Acolyte of Fabian Cortez, and one of his three personal guardsmen.
Evil Old Folks: He's significantly older than most of the other Acolytes and was evil enough to blast an indiscriminate bystander simply because she was human.
Handicapped Badass: For a given value of "badass", but Katu is still a man who chooses to throw down with the X-Men in spite of having both his arms ripped off and replaced with bionic prostheses.
Heroic Sacrifice: Seemingly done in Cable #11 to stop Omega Red from unleashing his death spore virus across the planet. They both got better, of course.
Hidden Depths: He was a much more fleshed-out character in Cable #10-11 than he ever was in any other appearance.
It's Personal: Between him and Omega Red, who ripped his arms off in his backstory.
Kidnapped by the Call: After being crippled by Omega Red he was abducted by the Russian military, who fitted him with his first bionic arms and forced him to work for them as a soldier.
Killed Off for Real: By Wild Sentinels during Cassandra Nova's mass genocide of Genosha.
Nigh-Invulnerability: At least when getting shot at by electromagnetic energy weapons.
Noble Demon: Enough of one that he and Cable became friends.
Power Trio: Along with Senyaka and Spoor as Fabian Cortez's private guard.
Running Gag: In fights the X-Men would usually drop Katu before he ever even got to use his ridiculously-complex powers.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Katu joins Exodus's Acolyte faction, the 'Isolationists' who advocate bailing on Earth completely and taking Avalon into deep space.
Super-Strength: Via his bionic arms.

Mellencamp

Seamus Mellencamp

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

"Sorry, not all mutants are drop-dead gorgeous."

The so-called "Noble Knight" of the Acolytes, Seamus Mellencamp is a monstrous powerhouse of a mutant. His distinctive appearance made him common in Acolyte group shots, but like most of the undeveloped Acolytes he was Killed Off for Real off-panel (though he briefly came back during Necrosha).

A Twinkle in the Sky: His fight with Jean Grey ends with her telekinetically hurling him into the sky Team Rocket style. He's thrown from Normandy and lands somewhere in the Pyrenees. And survives.
Blessed with Suck: Mellencamp's physical powers made him one of the strongest Acolytes, but they also cursed him with a truly monstrous appearance, severely hindering his ability to live a normal life.
Brought Down to Normal: Briefly depowered by the High Evolutionary during one of his schemes. The effects in his case were not pretty.
Came Back Wrong: Mellencamp was one of a handful of Acolytes resurrected by Selene during the Necrosha storyline, and was partnered with old boss Fabian Cortez and first-generation Acolyte Delgado.
Combo Platter Powers: His mutation gives him Nigh-Invulnerability, Super-Senses, Super-Strength, Wolverine Claws (animal variant) and possibly a Healing Factor (see below)
Curb-Stomp Battle: His very first fight goes this way, but then he did have the bad luck to be throwing down with Jean Grey.
Early-Installment Weirdness / Spell My Name With An S: Spelled as "Melloncamp" in his very first appearance.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: It's never exactly specified, but his first name strongly hints at him being Ireland's contribution to the Acolytes.
Eye Scream: Inflicts this on one of Multiple Man's dupes. This being the nineties, it was depicted in excruciating detail.
Green and Mean: His body is green and he's not a very friendly mutant..
Healing Factor: Not officially listed with one, but often speculated to have one owing to his recovering from some truly insane injuries (including a Ludicrous Gibs moment when Multiple Man made one of his dupes manifest in Mellencamp's mouth). Being a reptilian mutant, it's possible he has a slower acting one compared to other Healing Factor mutants like Wolverine.
Humanoid Abomination: Spiky, dark green skin, and a face not even a mother could love.
I'm Your Worst Nightmare: Declares himself to be this to Jean Grey. That doesn't last very long.
Informed Attribute: His nickname among the Acolytes is the "Noble Knight", but he wasn't very noble in battle, or anywhere else for that matter.
Jerkass Has a Point: During the Magneto War, when Scanner asks why they can't still respect the X-Men even though they disagree, Mellencamp counters that the X-Men never showed any respect to them, taking in the likes of Rogue, Wolverine and even Sabretooth yet turning them away. Mellencamp might be a giant Hypocrite but he has a point here, especially when it comes to Sabretooth (who is much more evil than any of the Acolytes ever were).
Kill All Humans: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Mellencamp joins Fabian Cortez's Acolyte faction, the 'Annihlists' who advocate human genocide and want to Take Over the World.
Killed Off for Real: By Wild Sentinels during Cassandra Nova's mass genocide of Genosha.
Mood-Swinger: Outside of battle Mellencamp is unfailingly calm and polite, but once he enters battle he shows his true colors as a savage Sadist.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: His appearance is distinctly reptilian, with scaly green skin and yellow eyes.
Shout-Out: Upon seeing him, Jean Grey's initial reaction is to wonder if Mephisto had kids.
- His name is also a very obvious Shout-Out to real-life musician John Mellencamp.
Unskilled, but Strong: Specifically mentioned as being an untrained fighter, but was probably one of the most physically dangerous of all the rank-and-file Acolytes.
Villains Out Shopping: A few panels during the Magneto War storyline show him kicking back and playing cards with Kamal in his leisure time.

Milan

Fransisco Milan

Nationality: Italian

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

"I can't think about that now. Better to lose myself in the electropathy... become one with the machines."

An Italian mutant with the power to interface with machines, Milan's background was largely unexplored, though his status as the team's form of Mission Control made him a mainstay of the second-gen Acolytes. He was the first Acolyte to be slain by Holocaust during the fall of Avalon, though during the Siege of Wundagore he briefly reappeared among their ranks once more.

He appears in the in the Wolverine and the X-Men episodes "Greetings from Genosha" and "Battle Lines".

Anti-Villain: Like Scanner, Milan doesn't seem to be nearly as malevolent as most of his fellow Acolytes.
Back from the Dead: At Exodus's hand, apparently. He was seen in occasional background shots during the Siege of Wundagore, but has not been seen since.
Butt-Monkey: To a certain degree he was this to the other Acolytes, owing to his being a Non-Action Guy, though he didn't get hazed as much as Neophyte.
Cassandra Truth: He tried to warn Exodus that maybe bringing the frozen mutant they found out in space onto Avalon wasn't the best idea. The frozen mutant, of course, was an Omnicidal Maniac who promptly went on a rampage, with Milan tragically becoming his first victim.
Cool Shades: Sports a pair of cyberpunk goggles that look like they were lifted straight out of The '80s.
Endearingly Dorky: A tragic example, as he was only shown as this in his death scene, where he remembers dreaming of seeing the wonders of the universe as a child with his last thoughts. Along with this and his getup in general, it is pretty safe to say that Milan was a Science Fiction fan.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: Another Italian recruit to the Acolytes, and with that name he borders on Captain Ethnic (but thankfully averts it by having no other stereotypical qualities).
Evil Counterpart: Seemed to be one of these to Forge, though he wasn't actually all that evil...
Facial Markings: Sports prominent red facial tattoos on his chin and forehead.
Mission Control: His primary job as an Acolyte.
Non-Action Guy: As one of the few Acolytes whose mutant power did not lend itself to combat at all, he was this, and boy did the Acolytes give him grief over it.
Personality Powers: An introverted Non-Action Guy more comfortable with machines than people just so happened to manifest the mutant ability of Technopathy? Well don't that just beat all.
Pet the Dog: Him, Cargill and Unuscione were the ones who gently coaxed the mutant teenager Neophyte out of hiding, staying with him for two days straight at the abandoned church he'd holed up in.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Milan joins Exodus's Acolyte faction, the 'Isolationists' who advocate bailing on Earth completely and taking Avalon into deep space.
Shout-Out: During one mission Joanna Cargill skeptically wonders if one of Milan's gadgets is just a converted Game Boy.
Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: Indulged in a certain degree of mechanical anthropomorphism, as when opening a security system in the first book of the Mutant Empire trilogy he spoke to it as if it were a human, musing about how lonely it must have been and asking if it would like him to visit again later.
Technopath: His mutant ability, Electropathy, was this combined with Awesomeness by Analysis.
Uncertain Doom: His death at the hands of Holocaust. While he definitely died, the question is whether Milan stayed dead.
Undying Loyalty: To Exodus, as despite doubting his mental stability he spends his Last Words calling out to him after being grabbed by Holocaust. This loyalty apparently paid off, as he was shown resurrected by Exodus during the Siege of Wundagore storyline.
The Unfavorite: Most of the rank-and-file Acolytes gave him grief over his relatively passive mutation. Interestingly, team leader (at the time) Cortez wasn't among them and in fact treated Milan kindly in spite of being a complete Jerkass. This deliberate manipulation explains why a relatively nice guy like Milan wound up with the Acolytes in the first place.
Unusual User Interface: He frequently interfaced with machines by plugging a cord into what looked like a USB port — in his Cool Shades.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite being shown as resurrected by Exodus, Milan hasn't been seen since the Siege of Wundagore, leaving his actual fate unclear.

Neophyte

Simon Hall / Neophyte

Nationality: Swiss

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

"Cortez! I won't stand by and let you take the life of another mutant, the way you turned Magneto from a savior to a martyr!"

A gentle Swiss teenager who sequestered himself in an abandoned church when his mutant powers first manifested. Coaxed out of hiding by the Acolytes, he joined their ranks as their most junior member.

Badass Pacifist: Very briefly in his debut appearance, when he became a Guest-Star Party Member and helped the X-Men defeat Fabian Cortez.
Beware the Nice Ones: As Fabian Cortez found out the hard way.
The Dog Bites Back: Fabian Cortez bullied him and treated him like a servant, so it was only fitting that he was instrumental in Cortez's downfall.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: He's Switzerland's contribution to the Acolytes.
Guest-Star Party Member: In the latter half of his debut appearance. The issue ends with the implication that he might join the X-Men, but it never went anywhere.
Harmless Villain: His powers have little offensive use and he's so meek that he's hardly ever even tried to fight the X-Men, usually just running away instead.
Minion with an F in Evil: A decent kid who's just looking for someone to believe in.
New Meat: To the point where his very codename was a synonym for "new guy". Strangely, he kept that codename even after shedding his rookie status.
Personality Powers: Like Voght, Neophyte has a passive personality and prefers to run from problems rather than facing them, which his mutant power (like Voght's) very helpfully lets him do.
Poor Communication Kills: He fled the Acolytes after turning against Cortez and was dragged back after Exodus took over. Telling the Acolytes why he left might have helped his case considerably, but for whatever reason Neophyte never did.
Psychic Teleportation: A minor version, as a side perk of his Intangibility ability.
Put on a Bus: He's been on one ever since his 2010 appearance in New Mutants, where he helped the X-Men defend Utopia from a legion of Nimrods.
Token Good Teammate: He's without a doubt the kindest and most compassionate member of the Acolytes.
Took a Level in Badass: Or Useful, as during the Magneto War he was shown as having developed greater control over the Intangible Man aspect of his powers, learning to extend them to his fellow Acolytes as well as himself via physical contact.
What Happened to the Mouse?: He hasn't been seen since 2009's Second Coming storyline, during which he helped the X-Men defend Utopia from an invasion of MK-II Nimrods.
Yo Yo Plot Point: He usually helps the X-Men in some way whenever he shows up, only to rejoin the Acolytes in his next appearance. As ever, Status Quo Is God.

Senyaka

Suvik Senyaka

Nationality: Sri Lankan

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

"If you wish me to kill for you, then I will. You need not trick me or convince me. I have killed for Magneto, for Exodus, for Sinister — I will kill for you."

Perhaps the most menacing of all the Acolytes, Senyaka is a cold-blooded Sri Lankan with a Life Drinker mutant ability. Originally distinctive only for being the Sacrificial Lamb used to show how far gone Magneto was, Senyaka inexplicably revived and began a slow but steady quest to take as many badass levels as he could, culminating in the X-Force (2008) storyline Necrosha where he was recruited into the Inner Circle of Big Bad Selene.

Senyaka makes minor appearances in both X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon and Wolverine and the X-Men. He also appears in all three books of the X-Men Mutant Empire Trilogy.

Adaptational Nice Guy: In the Mutant Empire novels, which portray him as significantly more sane and trustworthy than he ever was in the comics. He's still a villain, mind, just not an Ax-Crazy one.
Alliterative Name: Suvik Senyaka
Asshole Victim: Irrationally killed or not, it's really hard to feel sorry for this guy when Magneto pulps him in Uncanny X-Men #304 after reading what he got up to beforehand.
Ax-Crazy: He pretty much lives for the kill and makes no pretensions or apologies for that fact.
Bad People Abuse Animals: Deer and a bear were shown among his human victims when Selene sought him out in Sri Lanka.
Blood Knight: Part of why he's been one of the few Acolytes to transcend his C-List Fodder background. Omega Red being dead also helps.
Creepy Child: Selene tells the reader that "even as a child, he knew his purpose" when she seeks out Senyaka in the jungles of Sri Lanka.
Crazy Survivalist: Lives in the jungles of Sri Lanka when he isn't killing people for the Acolytes or Selene.
Darker and Edgier: One of the many Life Drinker mutants introduced during The '90s. Necrosha took it up to eleven.
The Dog Bites Back: He attempted to get revenge on Magneto when the latter took over Genosha, joining a squad of rebel Acolytes secretly supported by (of course) Fabian Cortez.
Early-Installment Weirdness: His name was spelled as "Sanyaka" in his first appearance.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: He's from Sri Lanka, which was probably the most obscure nationality at the time the Acolytes were introduced.
Expy: Basically got his start as off-brand Omega Red. He's developed enough since then to be considered his own character, even if the two still share many similarities.
The Faceless: Has never been seen not wearing his distinctive cowl.
From Nobody to Nightmare: From a jungle-dwelling Sri Lankan to a member of Selene's Inner Circle in her bid for godhood.
Insanity Immunity: Selene appears to him as a child to test him, but being as Ax-Crazy as he is, he smells the death on her and knows right away who and what she is.
Kick the Dog: Attacking innocent humans in a hospice and choking a nurse to death slowly just for being born human is about as low as it gets.
Kill All Humans: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Senyaka joins Fabian Cortez's Acolyte faction, the 'Annihlists' who advocate human genocide and want to Take Over the World.
Killed Off for Real: By Wolverine and X-23. Yes, it takes both of them to put this guy down.
Lack of Empathy: He's a cold-blooded killer without any trace of hesitation or remorse for what he does.
Life Drinker: His mutant ability allows him to sap the life of those struck by his psionic whips. Think Omega Red. He can also use it for Liquid Assets, simulating an ersatz Healing Factor.
Mook: Got his start as one of these, and was randomly thrown back into the Acolytes during the Siege of Wundagore even though it made no sense for him to be there.
- Elite Mook: A favored Acolyte of Fabian Cortez, and one of his three personal guardsmen.
Not Quite Dead: After Fatal Attractions (Marvel Comics). It took him a few weeks to siphon off enough life-force to where he could get back on his feet.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Some of the Acolytes have legitimate grievances motivating their extremist actions and beliefs. Senyaka is not one of them. Despite fervently professing to be a Super Supremacist, his character arc and the glimpse of his past revealed in Necrosha make it clear that for Senyaka, mutants rights are just one in a long line of excuses he finds to do what he loves most: killing.
Personality Powers: Befitting his status as the most cold-blooded of the Acolytes, Senyaka got a Life Drinker power, a case of Bad Powers, Bad People if ever there was one.
Power Trio: Along with Katu and Spoor as Fabian Cortez's private guard.
Sacrificial Lamb: Used this way in UXM #304, being pulped by Magneto both to show how powerful the latter had become and how far gone he was.
Sadist: A trait of his on full display during the hospice attack mission, which featured Senyaka sadistically choking a human nurse to death with his whips while telling her she deserved it.
Serial Killer: After wearing out his welcome with the Acolytes, Senyaka returned to his home nation, where he became basically a mutSri Lankan Expy of Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th (2009).
Sickening Slaughterhouse: His hideout in Sri Lanka was a shack in the middle of the woods. Inside was hooks, chains, and plenty of bodies in various states of death.
Staying Alive: His mutant ability allows him to do this, to the point of being able to revive himself after being crushed into a cube by Magneto during Fatal Attractions.
Took a Level in Badass: Several levels, actually. He goes from a generic Mook to throwing down with Cable, then Deadpool, then all the X-Men on behalf of Selene.
Whip of Dominance: He is the most hateful and sadistic of Magneto's Acolytes, and his mutant power gives him psionic energy whips that can sap the life of those struck by him, something he delights in doing, especially when his victims are humans.
You Have Failed Me: A really weird example. Magneto kills Senyaka during Fatal Attractions after learning of his role in an attack on a hospice, but his reason isn't the attack itself, but because Senyaka didn't ask for permission. Keep in mind that all the Acolytes believed Magneto was dead at the time, and Senyaka wasn't even the leader of the mission, so this was really just an excuse for Magneto to throw around his power.

Spoor

Andrew Hamish Graves / Spoor

Nationality: Scottish

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

"Hard t'talk behind this muzzle, Havok m'lad, so why don't you cut me loose — and I'll give ye a mouthful."

A self-loathing Scottish mutant who inexplicably named himself for poop. No, seriously.

Animal-Themed Superbeing: Not themed after any one animal in particular, but generically invokes these types of characters with his hirsuite appearance, tooth-and-claw fighting style and meaningful codename.
Belief Makes You Stupid: He immediately capitulated to X-Factor when he saw that "the Magnusson" (Quicksilver) was among their ranks, even though Pietro was utterly repulsed by him.
Blessed with Suck: Spoor's Charm Person power is this, as it is affected by his internalized self-loathing and so has the opposite effect, driving everyone in his vicinity to hate him rather than love him.
Butt-Monkey: His backstory is pure cringe, from his father murdering his mother for giving birth to such an ugly freak (and then telling the young Spoor she ran away) to forcing said child to eat garbage.
Came Back Wrong: Spoor was one of a handful of Acolytes resurrected by Selene during the Necrosha storyline.
Combo Platter Powers: He's basically the very hairy, very ugly love child of Wolverine and Gambit, sporting the latter's feral mutant qualities (sans healing factor) and the former's low-level Charm Person ability.
Death Seeker: Revealed to be one after being interrogated by Excalibur. Turns out Spoor didn't really have as much of a Lack of Empathy as he pretended to have, knew that attacking humans was wrong, and wanted to die because he knew and did it anyway.
The Dog Bites Back: He was among the Acolytes who was abandoned by Magneto after the Magneto War and summarily recruited into a rebel Acolyte faction secretly led by (you guessed it) Fabian Cortez.
Elite Mook: A favored Acolyte of Fabian Cortez, and one of his three personal guardsmen.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: He's Scotland's contribution to the Acolytes.
Kick the Dog: Attacking innocent humans in a hospice is about as low as it gets.
Kill All Humans: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Spoor joins Fabian Cortez's Acolyte faction, the 'Annihlists' who advocate human genocide and want to Take Over the World.
Killed Off for Real: By Wild Sentinels during Cassandra Nova's mass genocide of Genosha.
Kneel Before Frodo: Kneels willingly and starts groveling the second the "Magnusson" enters the room (prompting Deadpan Snarker Strong Guy to remark that after years of thinking he was God Pietro finally got his wish for someone to treat him like it).
Meaningful Name: "Spoor" is a technical term for the track, trail, scent or droppings of an animal.
Poisonous Captive: During the time when he was held prisoner by Excalibur. He and Rory Campbell brought out the very worst in each other.
Power Trio: Along with Katu and Senyaka as Fabian Cortez's private guard.
Villainous Friendship: Considers fellow guardsman Senyaka a friend, and attacks Wolverine viciously when he thinks the latter killed him.
Violent Glaswegian: As mentioned above, he's a Scotsman who gave into his wild side. Odds are him and Proteus would have been fast friends if ever they met.

Rakkus

David Anthony Rice / Rakkus

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Avengers #380 (1994)

"Wundagore is not yours, Evolutionary! We Acolytes have claimed it as a sacred place and Exodus will allow you to defile it no longer!"

A parasitical metamorph and one of the most mysterious Acolytes. Exodus sends him to possess a human shepherd named Fyodor as part of a Batman Gambit to draw the High Evolutionary out of Wundagore Mountain.

All There in the Manual: He is never referred to by his human name on panel, and it was only ever revealed in supplementary materials.
Batman Gambit: He possesses the human Fyodor because Fyodor is one of the confidants of the anthromorph Bova, one of the High Evolutionary's most devoted servants, and poisons her with a slow-acting venom while pretending to care for her for weeks because he knows her plight will eventually draw the Evolutionary out of Wundagore Mountain.
Breath Weapon: His Humanoid Abomination form can breathe fire.
Body Horror: The transformation process he inflicts on his hosts is clearly painful, as Fyodor is seen screaming shortly before Rakkus emerges.
Dying as Yourself: Fyodor dies shortly after Rakkus leaves his body, which was reverted to human but still ravaged by the High Evolutionary's energy blasts.
Enemy Within: He's this to anyone he possesses.
Giant Mook: His Humanoid Abomination form lies somewhere between this and Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: When he's possessing someone. It's unknown if he has them normally, as he is never seen in his normal body.
Humanoid Abomination: With particular emphasis on the "abomination" over the "humanoid". He makes Mellencamp look positively cuddly.
Living Shadow: Possibly, as it's never revealed if he retains his own original human body, or if he ever even had one at all.
The Mole: Uses his powers to possess an old man named Fyodor in a scheme to draw out the High Evolutionary.
Monster of the Week: He's menacing enough to throw down with Quicksilver, Crystal and the frigging High Evolutionary, but was never seen again outside of the three-issue storyline he originally appeared in.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: His Humanoid Abomination form has a huge maw full of fangs.
Special Person, Normal Name: He's among the most exotic and mysterious of Acolytes, but his name is... David Rice.
The Virus: His DNA strain form that he possesses people with.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Appears to do this on a cellular level.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Specifically mentioning as being "called back by his master" at the storyline's conclusion, yet he was never seen or mentioned again.

Third-Generation Acolytes

Kamal

Kamal el Alaoui

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Magneto #1 (1996)

"Fellow Acolytes, it is good to be reunited! Gather around and I shall be honored to tell you of Lord Magneto's exploits during our long journey here."

A boisterous Muslim Acolyte with the ability to absorb and mimic the physical properties of any object he touches. Hasn't been seen since the Magneto War.

He appears in the Wolverine and the X-Men episode "Hindsight".

Adaptational Attractiveness: Compare his original incarnation◊ to his animated appearance◊.
All There in the Manual: He is never referred to by his full name on panel, and it was only ever revealed in supplementary materials.
The Big Guy: At 6'7", Kamal is officially the shortest Acolyte to serve this role (previous holders Delgado and Javitz being 6'8" and 9'11" respectively) but was still the tallest Acolyte of his generation.
Boisterous Bruiser: He's basically supposed to be a cross between the Absorbing Man and BRIAN BLESSED.
Brought Down to Normal: Briefly de-powered by the High Evolutionary during one of his schemes.
Captain Ethnic: Calls the X-Men "infidels" to remind us that he's Muslim.
Elemental Shapeshifter: At least in the cartoon, as he never displayed any powers in the comics beyond being big and strong and tough. Like the Absorbing Man, Kamal's mutant ability allows him to mimic the physical properties of any object he touches. Note that unlike Creel, Kamal must touch solid objects, and can not duplicate liquid or energy states such as electricity.
- Actually his absorbing powers were never even mentioned or depicted at all in his original comic appearances, but were just added by fans in his own Wikipedia article, which was apparently taken at face value by the creators of Wolverine and the X-Men who decided to later canonize the fanon in their animated adaptation.
Expy: He's more or less a mutant version of the Absorbing Man, at least in terms of his powers and appearance. His personality is a lot less repellent than Creel's, though.
Non-Specifically Foreign: Though his precise nationality is never specified, his name and appearance hint at him being Middle Eastern in origin, making him that region's sole contribution to the Acolytes. He's also noteworthy for being one of the rare few Muslim characters who predates The War on Terror.
Super-Strength: As with the Absorbing Man, Kamal's strength level depends on what object he has absorbed the properties of.
Villains Out Shopping: A few panels during Magneto War show him kicking back and playing cards with Mellencamp in his leisure time.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Hasn't been seen or even mentioned since the "Magneto War" storyline.

Orator

Victor Ludwig / Orator

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Magneto #1 (1996)

"You are among friends here, brother, for we too are seekers of Avalon."

An action-figure sized mutant empath. As his name indicates, he was also something of a spokesman for the Acolytes before he disappeared into the ether.

All There in the Manual: He is never referred to by his human name on panel, and it was only ever revealed in supplementary materials.
Amazing Technicolor Population: Has sickly green skin, which is probably part of his mutation since he also sports giant pupil-less red eyes.
Cool Helmet: He was briefly shown to have an adorable little helmet he wore that was more or less a replica of Magneto's.
The Empath: His mutant ability. Occasionally bio-sites expand it to Mind Control levels, but he was never seen on-panel doing anything other than sensing emotions.
Evil Old Folks: He has white hair and at one point is called a "geezer", though he never does anything particularly evil besides being part of a supervillain team.
Hostage Situation: Taken hostage in the second of his two appearances by a racist human soldier. He survived the experience thanks to Joseph, however.
Living Lie Detector: A handy perk of his empathy, and possibly the reason why he disappeared (Fabian Cortez did rejoin the team right around that time, after all).
Non-Action Guy: Due to varying in size between being a dwarf and being literally less than a foot tall. Whatever size he was at, Orator wasn't going be throwing down with any superheroes.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted — he has pupil-less red eyes, but isn't particularly malevolent.
Sizeshifter: Possibly, as one panel showed him being small enough to stand on Kamal's hand while another depicted him as being large enough for a human soldier to put in a chokehold. But the art in this miniseries wasn't exactly what you'd call "consistent", making it a bit unclear if he's really one of these or not.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Marvel apparently forgot he existed, as he was never seen again after the 4-issue Magneto miniseries.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Has the dubious honor of being probably the single most obscure character of all the Acolytes. He appears for exactly two issues and is never seen or mentioned again.

Decay

Jacob Lashinski / Decay

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Quicksilver #9 (1998)

"He ignores me, thinking I am nothing! But I am Decay! My enemies die while I grow strong!"

An elderly mutant Life Drinker who joined the Acolytes at a time when they had seized and were trying to hold control of Wundagore Mountain. He was killed in battle with the High Evolutionary.

All There in the Manual: He is never referred to by his human name on panel, and it was only ever revealed in supplementary materials.
Bad Powers, Bad People: Subverted — he is seen muttering about how much he "hates this" when draining a victim, hinting that he's not all that happy with what he does.
Blessed with Suck: Decay's mutant power caused his lifeforce to rapidly deplete itself, giving him the appearance of an emaciated geriatric. His actual age is unclear.
The Eeyore: Constantly glum and self-pitying thanks to being forced to drain people's lifeforce to stay alive.
Hoist by His Own Petard: He gets a little more than he bargained for when he tries to drain the High Evolutionary of his powers.
How Do I Shot Web?: He was unable to control the amount of lifeforce he drained from a victim, always taking everything they had. This proved his undoing when he met the victim who had more to give than he could take, leading to...
Killed Off for Real: Attempting to drain the High Evolutionary. The results were not pretty.
Life Drinker: A fairly stock example of the many mutant Life Drinker villains prevalent during The '90s, though his particular variation of the ability was more curse than blessing.
Liquid Assets: His Life Drinker powers come with a side of this, as he reverts to a younger, more vital form after draining a victim. The effect doesn't seem to last for long, though.
Too Dumb to Live: Trying to drain the power of a cosmic being like the High Evolutionary? He really should have known better.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He only appeared in a few issues towards the end of the Siege of Wundagore storyline.

Gargouille

Lavinia LeBlanc / Gargouille

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Quicksilver #9 (1998)

"We are Acolytes, non? Exodus has given us this chance to prove ourselves, oui?"

A diminutive yet plucky Flying Brick who joined the Acolytes at a time when they had seized and were trying to hold control of Wundagore Mountain. Possibly recruited by Exodus from Gargoyles.

Alliterative Name: Lavinia LeBlanc.
All There in the Manual: She is never referred to by her human name on panel, and it was only ever revealed in supplementary materials.
Amazing Technicolor Population: As part of her mutation. The actual color of her skin changes; in early appearances it was a slate grey and in her supposed final appearances it was more of a greyish blue.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: She's the Canadian contribution to the Acolytes.
Flying Brick: A very downplayed example, as she had low-level Super-Strength, Nigh-Invulnerability and Super-Senses along with Flight thanks to her wings.
French Jerk: Either French or French-Canadian, it's never made clear which.
Gratuitous French: Occasionally, as her quote aptly demonstrates.
Humiliation Conga: After the Acolytes disbanded, she was supposedly reduced to a homeless beggar on the streets of New York, according to reader speculation (however, aside from still being a human female, her last appearance barely looked like her).
Killed Off for Real: if Fanon is to be believed (and its most doubtful based on the obvious differences in physical appearance alone), she was supposedly Eaten Alive by a Predator X.
Most Common Superpower: Half of the time she was drawn it was this way.
Sizeshifter: why the fan speculation regarding her death is most doubtful, unless you believe in “artist error” to the point of absurdity, given that her listed height is 3'8" and in her early appearances she was drawn as such, yet her supposed final appearance (where she was never even identified by name to begin with in the first place) , depicted her at the size of an average person , ‘’minus her wings and single pair of long head horns, replaced with a set of small horns all around her face’’ (and her hairstyle and hair color were also entirely different too).
Winged Humanoid: Sported big leathery gargoyle wings as part of her mutation.

Projector

Zachary Williams / Projector

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Quicksilver #9 (1998)

"Dolts! Look at them bang on my forcefield."

A smug mutant Barrier Warrior who joined the Acolytes at a time when they had seized and were trying to hold control of Wundagore Mountain. Like most of the third-gen Acolytes, he was abandoned by Magneto and sided with Fabian Cortez after the Magneto War. One of the few third-gen Acolytes to survive into the present day.

All There in the Manual: He is never referred to by his human name on panel, and it was only ever revealed in supplementary materials.
Barrier Warrior: His mutant ability is essentially this with a side of Power Armor. So, basically Unuscione-lite (are you getting the idea of how out of ideas the writers were by this time?).
Distaff Counterpart: He's basically a male version of the X-Men's Armor (or rather, Armor is a female version of him, since he came first).
The Dog Bites Back: He was among the Acolytes who was abandoned by Magneto after the Magneto War and summarily recruited into a rebel Acolyte faction secretly led by (you guessed it) Fabian Cortez.
Glamour Failure: His force fields were shown to be affected by physical objects, cracking on Wolverine's skull and later being sliced into chunks by his claws.
Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: Brags about his forcefield as the Knights of Wundagore tried to break through it, but he's generally less effective against powered combatants.
Real Men Wear Pink: Or have a pink personal force field, either or.
Smug Snake: If his fight with the Knights of Wundagore is anything to go by, he gets this way in fights where he has the upper hand.
What Happened to the Mouse?: He hasn't been seen since 2008's Messiah Complex storyline, in which he played a minor role as a stool pigeon pressured by the X-Men into revealing what he knew about Exodus.

Vindaloo

Venkat Katregadda / Vindaloo

Nationality: Indian

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #366 (1999)

"I can do this all night, you Russian freak!"

A Pyromaniac Indian mutant and late addition to Magneto's Acolytes. Unlike most of his fellow third-gen Acolyte brethren, he was deemed worthy of remaining at Magneto's side after the Magneto War. One of the few third-gen Acolytes to survive into the present day.

Bad Powers, Bad People: Like Pyro before him, Vindaloo's power to turn people who bug him into crispy critters classes him firmly in the role of villain.
Beard of Evil: A little Jafar-style goatee.
Brought Down to Normal: Briefly depowered by the High Evolutionary during one of his schemes.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: He's India's contribution to the Acolytes.
Lack of Empathy: Watching the X-Men slowly freeze to death doesn't move Vindaloo at all.
Meaningful Name: "Vindaloo" is a very spicy type of Indian curry, a fitting-if-goofy name for a napalm-hurling mutant.
Obviously Evil: His face was drawn with very harsh and angular features, invoking no one so much as Jafar from Disney's Aladdin movies (and the perpetual Psychotic Smirk didn't help either).
Playing with Fire: His mutant ability, which allows him to generate a flammable gel he could either shoot from his hands Kamehameha style or throw as fireballs.
Pyromaniac: Seemed to enjoy barbecuing X-Men a little too much, judging by the Psychotic Smirk he almost always sported in battle.
Retired Monster: If his last appearance in 2016 is any indication, he's given up the supervillainy game and now tries to lead a quiet life alongside other low-tier retired villains like Scrambler.
Smug Snake: Basically think a less charming and more Obviously Evil Pyro and you've got this guy.
Villains Out Shopping: A few panels during the Magneto War storyline show him lounging and reading a book in his leisure time. Years and years later he showed up at a cookout held by the former Marauder Scrambler.

Barnacle

Mortimer Everett / Barnacle

Species: Human mutant

Nationality: Australian

First Appearance: X-Men: The Magneto War #1 (1999)

"Errol Flynn never wrote kktss no nightcap. Not even in kktss 'Gentleman Jim'."

The poster mutant for Blessed with Suck (yes, he even beats out Toad), Barnacle was a late recruit to the Acolytes. Like most of the third-gen Acolytes, he was abandoned by Magneto and sided with Fabian Cortez after the Magneto War.

All There in the Manual: He hails from Australia, a detail that was only ever revealed in the Marvel handbooks.
Awesome Aussie: Like him or hate him, the guy has to be given credit for persevering through a truly nightmarish mutation and trying to make a difference in the world, however misguided he may have been in going about it.
Blessed with Suck: His mutant ability, Moisture Solidification, which allows him to turn any type of moisture into a hardened shell. Not only does the ability overlap with Body Horror when you realize he mostly used it to ensnare people in their own bodily fluids, it also left his face and arms scarred, with one abscess so swollen it completely covered his left eye. It also left him with a Speech Impediment.
Butt-Monkey: Seemed to be one for the writers, owing to his almost-too-awful-to-be-believed mutant powers and bad luck in general, even being give the name Mortimer.
Came Back Wrong: Barnacle was one of a handful of Acolytes resurrected by Selene during the Necrosha storyline.
The Dog Bites Back: He was among the Acolytes who was abandoned by Magneto after the Magneto War and summarily recruited into a rebel Acolyte faction secretly led by (no points for guessing this one) Fabian Cortez.
Flaw Exploitation: Deliberately pitted against Storm by Fabian Cortez, owing to the former's claustrophobia.
Hidden Depths: Freakishly scarred mutant terrorist... and avid cineaste with a taste for Hollywood classics.
Killed Off for Real: By Wild Sentinels during Cassandra Nova's mass genocide of Genosha.
One-Steve Limit: Averted. He and traditional Brotherhood Butt-Monkey Toad share the same first name, but since Toad was on the outs with Magneto at the time they never appear together.
Reformed, but Rejected: He was the spokesman for the Acolytes that sought refuge with the X-Men, even going so far as to beg Professor X for forgiveness, only to be turned away.
Sycophantic Servant: Implied to be one of these on his Versus System card, where even the toady-loving Fabian Cortez tells him to get lost.
Took a Level in Badass: In Magneto: Dark Seduction, thanks to having his mutant abilities powered up by Fabian Cortez.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Has appeared in less than half a dozen issues, though he was deemed significant enough to get his own VS System card◊.

Rem-Ram

Marcus Andrews / Rem-Ram

Nationality: Belgian

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men: The Magneto War #1 (1999)

"Give me a break, Cortez. This is all kinda new to me."

A young Belgian Acolyte with the power to observe and influence others through their dreams, Rem-Ram was recruited by Fabian Cortez to aid in a search for Magneto (who was alive but missing at the time). Like most of the third-gen Acolytes, he was abandoned by Magneto and sided with Fabian Cortez after the Magneto War.

Anti-Villain: He wasn't particularly malevolent, and even apologized to the X-Men after all was said and done.
Bedtime Brainwashing: Command flavor, but weak. He could enter people's minds while they dreamed and influence them to do things while sleeping such as use their mutant powers. Cortez implied that he had actual Psychic Powers, albeit very undeveloped ones, and was capable of full-fledged Mind Control if pushed hard enough.
Came Back Wrong: Rem-Ram was one of a handful of Acolytes resurrected by Selene during the Necrosha storyline.
The Dog Bites Back: He was among the Acolytes who was abandoned by Magneto after the Magneto War and summarily recruited into a rebel Acolyte faction secretly led by (naturally) Fabian Cortez.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: He's Belgium's contribution to the Acolytes, though he's more misguided than evil.
Exotic Entree: He describes the dreams of Charles Xavier as "tasty".
Killed Off for Real: By Wild Sentinels during Cassandra Nova's mass genocide of Genosha.
Meaningful Name: His codename refers to dreams (Rapid Eye Movement) and memories (Random Access Memory)
Naïve Newcomer: As his page quote demonstrates, Rem-Ram was quite new both to supervillainy and being a mutant in general.
Non-Action Guy: Second only to Milan in the "Acolyte least suited for physical combat" category.
Reformed, but Rejected: He apologizes to Professor X and the X-Men for what he does, and is among the Acolytes who petition for asylum only to be rejected by Chuck.
We Hardly Knew Ye: So much so that Rem-Ram has actually made more appearances in death than he did in life.

Static

Gianna Carina Esperanza / Static

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men: The Magneto War #1 (1999)

"Too late for chitchat, kiddo. My bioelectric static pulse is strong enough now to scramble even your energy form!"

One of the last known Acolytes, Static was recruited by Fabian Cortez to aid in a search for Magneto (who was alive but missing at the time).

All There in the Manual: Subverted, and it's sadly the most distinctive thing about her. Unlike many of the C-List Fodder Acolytes whose names were only released in supplemental material, Static's name was confirmed in X-Force (v3) #21.
Came Back Wrong: Static was one of a handful of Acolytes resurrected by Selene during the Necrosha storyline, though she was only mentioned, not seen on panel (that's how obscure she is).
Foil: Used as one for Scanner in Magneto: Dark Seduction (it's Scanner she's addressing her her profile quote above).
Kaleidoscope Hair: Had brown hair in one appearance and blonde hair in the other.
Killed Off for Real: By Wild Sentinels during Cassandra Nova's mass genocide of Genosha.
Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: Literally every line (all 2 of them) Static had was her talking about her mutant power.
Non-Specifically Foreign: Like Kamahl above she was too obscure to have her exact nationality specified, but her name is clearly meant to evoke this. Spain or Genosha are the two best bets for her nationality.
The Paralyzer: Her mutant ability was this with a side of Power Nullifier.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Ties with Orator for being the most obscure of all the Acolytes, appearing in a grand total of two issues, period, and being offhandedly mentioned in a third.
Woman Scorned: After being abandoned by Magneto at the conclusion of the Magneto War storyline she threw in her lot with a band of rebel Acolytes secretly supported by (who else?) Fabian Cortez.

Fourth-Generation Acolytes

Random

Marshall Evan Stone III / Random

AKA: Alex

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Factor #88 (1993)

"Sorry, guys. If it's any consolation, I'm the soft option."

A kind of Sixth Ranger to X-Factor, Random was a mysterious mutant mercenary (and the walking incarnation of the '90s) who was left rudderless when that team disbanded. After pinballing around for a little while, he was recruited by Exodus into the last generation of Acolytes. He makes minor appearances in the X-Men: The Animated Series episodes "Sanctuary" and "Secrets Not Long Buried".

'90s Anti-Hero: Visually, Random is the '90s antihero, being more or less a walking cliché of everything about that period. This was eventually established as a very deliberate lampshading of this trope, with the reveal that Random was actually a young boy who modeled his musclebound antihero appearance on a kid's idea of what a badass looked like and used his shapeshifting abilities to achieve it. Subsequent writers have forgotten this, to the point where when even depowered he was shown in his uber-nineties form.
Adaptive Ability: Random's mutant power is adaptive shapeshifting. He can harden his skin when stabbed or reconstitute himself from protoplasmic goop when caught in an explosion. The guns are just his preferred form for combat.
Apologetic Attacker: To Cable, when his new allegiances as an Acolyte forced the two into combat.
Bad Powers, Bad People: Subverted, since Random is actually a heroic guy whose unsettling power is to shoot you with guns.
Becoming the Mask: He was initially ordered to team up with X-Factor by the Dark Beast so he could be The Mole but as time went on, he truly began to enjoy their company, particularly that of Havok and Polaris.
Bounty Hunter: His day job, at least when he was first introduced.
Cool Car: Completing the uber-macho stereotype, he has a bright red Lamborghini. Polaris smashes the first one, but Forge later buys him a second one.
Cool Shades: Never seen without these.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: In his first appearance, Havok got him to go away simply by writing him a bigger check than his present employer was paying him. Later Forge wrote him a second check in exchange for offering his assistance to X-Factor. He offered Random a full-time job, too, but he turned that down.
Dual Age Modes: He usually appears in the form of an adult to hide the fact that he's really a kid.
Everyone Has Standards: Even when playing the merc-for-hire Random was utterly disgusted with the nurse-killing Acolyte Senyaka and took particular pleasure in cleaning his clock.
Guns Akimbo: Justified as Random has never had any actual training in the use of the firearms he manifests at will.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: Goes from being a neutral agent to an ally of X-Factor to a traitor working for the Dark Beast to a neutral agent working for the Acolytes, then an Acolyte for real, and finally joins up with the X-Men on Utopia. He doesn't stay with the team but returns to them when they seemingly unite all of mutantkind in House of X.
Hellhole Prison: During the early 2000's he was captured by the revived Weapon X and sent to the mutant concentration camp Neverland. Amazingly, he was able to survive this, unlike most of the other Neverland inmates (RIP Maggot and Siena Blaze).
I'm Melting!: Prone to having this happen to him when he loses control of his powers. The whole reason why he was loyal to Dark Beast for so long was he because he was stabilizing Random's physical coherence, and later in a fight with Omega Sentinel she reduced him to protoplasmic goo (he pulled himself together after the fight was over).
It Only Works Once: Averted. Unlike higher-end Adaptive Ability users, Random doesn't retain any immunity to whatever he adapts against. In fact, it's perfectly possible for him to adapt to a power in one fight only to be overcome and defeated by the same power, being used by the same person, in another fight.
I Let You Win: He never admitted it, but both Polaris and his employers believed Random let Polaris win his fight with her, with the latter deciding that You Have Outlived Your Usefulness because of it.
Meaningful Name: Random began life randomly as a mess of protoplasmic goo (at least in one origin) and randomly adapts to any mutant power used against him.
Multiple-Choice Past: Thanks to Depending on the Writer. In one take, Random is actually neither human nor mutant but is instead a Tyke-Bomb mass of sentient protoplasma created For Science! as part of an experiment by the Dark Beast. In the other, Random was a mutant boy born normally who was then kidnapped and experimented on by Dark Beast.
Only in It for the Money: Until the truth about his identity came out, Random put on the facade of an indifferent mercenary who only cared about his paycheck. He'd long since abandoned this attitude by the time he joined the Acolytes, though.
Precocious Crush: He developed a crush on Polaris that looked a lot like a Villainous Crush but was actually this, him being a kid and all.
Put on a Bus: Hopped on one after the fall of Utopia and wasn't seen for a good few years. The Bus Came Back in X-Men (2019), where he was given a token cameo as one of the many characters that show up to live on the mutant nation of Krakoa, and he gets a job at S.W.O.R.D..
Regretful Traitor: He didn't want to betray X-Factor, but Dark Beast wouldn't take no for an answer.
Shapeshifter Weapon: Combines this trope with BFG, as he can transform his limbs into any weapon he chooses — and he always, always chooses giant 90s guns.
Sixth Ranger: Tended to fall into this during his time in X-Factor.
Sir Cameos-a-Lot: An oft-cameoed character, due to his very, um, distinctive appearance. Sadly this has led to him drifting Out of Focus and in most modern-day stories he's simply used as a face in a crowd.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He and Frenzy didn't mesh well together at all, with Frenzy constantly chewing him out for his scruples while he sarcastically demonstrated the various other options she had besides brute force when she'd inevitably pick the brute force option (breaking down a door when she could have just opened it, etc).
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Doesn't look like it at all, but he subscribes to this. As an Acolyte he asked for reassurance from Exodus before the mission began that they wouldn't kill anyone, and when fighting Cable he told him they weren't trying to kill him, even if the sentiment wasn't returned on Cable's part.
Token Good Teammate: During his time as an Acolyte.
Token Religious Teammate: Inverted, as he's one of the few Acolytes (and definitely the only one of the 4th generation) who doesn't believe in their whole Magneto dogma. He even offends Exodus by asking why they don't just refer to the depowered Erik Lehnsherr as Magneto, since y'know, they're the same person. Exodus doesn't agree.
Took a Level in Cynic: Since his time with X-Factor and the Acolytes, he's become a lot more cynical. His more recents appearances saw him butting heads with Hope Summers, the so-called "mutant messiah" who he is openly skeptical of.
Vanity License Plate: His Lamborghini (that Polaris smashed him with) had RANDOM for its license plate. No telling how many accidental tickets that got him from the DMV...
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The government agency that hired him to test Polaris by trying to kill her declared him to be this after coming to suspect than he intentionally threw the fight with her.
Younger Than They Look: Uses his shapeshifting abilities to appear as a big testosterone caricature, but is actually a teenager (and was only a child when he first appeared in X-Factor).

Tempo

Heather Tucker / Tempo

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: New Mutants #86 (1990)

See X-Men: Mutant Liberation Front

Acolytes in other realities

Byron Calley

AKA: Burner, Crucible

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Captain America Annual #4 (1977, original debut), X-Men S4E10 Sanctuary Part 1 (1995, as Acolyte)

A pyrokinetic mutant and member of Magneto's little-remembered second team, the off-brand Brotherhood called Mutant Force. A fairly stock Mook, he drifted into new employment with the Resistants and the Secret Empire (acquiring a new codename along the way), but never made it past the ranks of C-List Fodder and was last seen in the '80s fighting the New Warriors.

An adaptational counterpart of Burner appears in X-Men: The Animated Series. Going only by Byron Calley in this version, he is a founding member of Magneto's Acolytes, as well as an old friend of Gambit. At first kidnapped by Magneto, he quickly becomes a believer in the Master of Magnetism and puts his skills as a mutant scientist to work for Magneto's cause.

Adaptational Heroism: The original Byron Calley was a Mook who did whatever Magneto or his other employers told him. His adaptational counterpart is a nice enough guy to be friends with Gambit and refuses to fire nuclear missiles at Earth on Fabian Cortez's say-so.
Adaptational Intelligence: The original Byron Calley was a mercenary of no real mental note. His adaptational counterpart is a scientist smart enough to warrant abduction to Asteroid M by Magneto.
Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Neither of his codenames are ever used in the cartoon, just his real name.
Contrived Coincidence: The reason he is given an adaptational intelligence upgrade is to give Magneto a reason to kidnap him, and the reason he is given an adaptational friendship with Gambit is to give Remy a reason to accompany Beast and Professor X to Asteroid M.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: He's Genosha's contribution to the Acolytes, along with the other Acolytes who experience Adaptational Nationality.
Mad Scientist: Subverted — Calley is a scientist and is working for a supervillain group, but he is quite sane. When Cortez orders him to launch Asteroid M's nuclear missiles at Earth, he is horrified by the prospect.
Playing with Fire: His mutant power is this, as evidenced by his comics-only codename of Burner. His adaptational counterpart is also shown to have this ability during the battle on Genosha, though it proves ineffective against Genosha's Sentinels.
Punch-Clock Villain: The original Byron Calley was one of these, drifting into the employment of various low-level villains and their groups after being abandoned by Magneto.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Both versions of Calley have succumbed to this, with the comics version last seen tangling with the New Warriors back in the 80's and the cartoon Calley returning to Earth after the destruction of Asteroid M but never being seen again after.
White Hair, Black Heart: Averted mostly, as while he has white hair and is technically a supervillain he has always been more of a Mook in the comics than any villainous driving force. And as for the adaptational Calley, he's a downright Adaptational Hero.

Malcolm Cortez

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Marvel Zombies v2 #1 (2007)

"My time has come!"

The son of the Marvel Zombies incarnation of Fabian Cortez, Malcolm Cortez is the leader of his world's incarnation of the Acolytes, as well as the Evil Chancellor to his world's version of the Black Panther. In many ways Malcolm is a stock Generation Xerox character, boasting a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses of his father, though in other ways he is quite different from Fabian. Initially chasing the ever-coveted Klingon Promotion, Malcolm is forced into pursuing new goals when the cosmic-empowered Marvel Zombies return from space. He is ultimately successful in ridding his world of the Marvel Zombies, and to all indications has ruled New Wakanda unchallenged ever since.

Ambition Is Evil: Just like his father, Malcolm is shown as a character who hungers for power and control. Unlike his father, this trait is very slightly justified, as unlike the privileged Fabian Malcolm grew up in a ravaged post-apocalyptic world.
Anti-Villain: To the point where he would probably qualify as a Designated Villain if not for the ambition mentioned directly above. The fact that he is the antagonist to a group of Villain Protagonist characters also helps.
Arch-Enemy: To the Black Panther of his world.
The Bad Guy Wins: Marvel Zombies 2 actually ends with a wholesale victory for Malcolm — he is successfully able to banish the Marvel Zombies to another dimension, and the last issue ends with him standing triumphant over Forge, who he may or may not have just beaten to death.
Church Militant: He leads the Acolytes of his world, who worship Magneto as a messiah just as the original Acolytes did. How much Malcolm himself believes in the Acolyte doctrine, however, is unclear.
Crazy Survivalist: Seems to be one of these, as in his Motive Rant to Black Panther he admits flat-out he likes the post-apocalyptic hellscape that is the Marvel Zombies Earth and says he has no interest in knowing what functional civilization is like.
Empowered Badass Normal: He is a mutant like his father, but his powers are unknown and in all his fights he uses only Good Old Fisticuffs, qualifying him for this.
Even Evil Has Standards: He refuses to indulge in Would Hurt a Child (at least not until the child is old enough for him to be okay with it; see below) and was not actually intending to beat/kill Forge, as Forge stumbled in by chance and declared he would bring the zombies back, sending Malcolm into a murderous rage.
Evil Chancellor: He serves Black Panther, who is still King of Wakanda (or rather, New Wakanda) while plotting against him, making him one of these even if he had no known formal title.
Evil Redhead: Like his father, though his evil quotient is a little more fluid than that of his Obvious Judas father.
Gadgeteer Genius: He manages the very impressive feat of disabling an interdimensional teleporter in such a way that Forge (whose mutant power is being a Gadgeteer Genius) is neither able to fix it, nor able to detect the sabotage, for years even, making Malcolm most certainly qualify as this.
Generation Xerox: Just like his father, he's a Manipulative Bastard Evil Redhead who suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
Klingon Promotion: His initial goal is the assassination of Black Panther, but when Black Panther becomes a zombie instead and the other Marvel Zombies return, he has to adjust his plans a little.
Legacy Character: He's the son of Fabian Cortez and dresses in a uniform identical to the one worn by his father (it might even be the uniform worn by his father, as Malcolm and Fabian have identical heights and builds).
Loser Son of Loser Dad: Played with, as in-story no one speaks ill of Malcolm for any reasons related to his father, and indeed the Fabian of the Marvel Zombies universe was a recipient of Adaptational Heroism compared to his normal incarnation. But as he is a Generation Xerox character who also suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, Malcolm falls into this trope in a narrative sense rather than a literal one.
Manipulative Bastard: He is able to convince Black Panther he is a faithful servant while secretly undermining him, and at the end manages to trick all the zombies into standing on an interdimensional teleporter so he can banish them into another dimension.
Multiversal Conqueror: Inverted. Malcolm has the technology to become this but uses it to exile the beings who could help him achieve it.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Marvel Zombies 2 ends with him giving one of these to Forge. He may in fact have beat Forge to death.
Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: Painted as one of these, but the "bigot" status is extremely debatable as he is depicted as a sort of Straw Racist against zombies (who not only are neither a race nor an ethnicity unto themselves, but are also the beings responsible for reducing his world to a post-apocalyptic hellscape).
Villainous Valour: Despite his many parallels to his father, one trait Malcolm does not share with Fabian is cowardice. Indeed, he is shown in one panel as being ready to throw down with a horde of Elite Zombie versions of the Marvel Zombies (who qualify as Elite Zombie even by default; the zombies Malcolm was challenging were empowered by having devoured Galactus). Like him or hate him, a move like that takes balls.
Would Hurt a Child: Played with, as he tells Black Panther flat-out he plans to kill his son, but notes that he'll wait until the boy is "old enough". How generous of him.
Xanatos Speed Chess: Much like his father Malcolm plays this game, and if the ending of his canon is any indication, he's actually rather a bit better at it than his old man.
You Are Too Late: When he gives his Motive Rant to Black Panther, Panther flat-out asks Malcolm why he is admitting to this when he knows he will be killed for it. Malcolm's response is simply "Because I can." Then he banishes Black Panther and all the other zombies into another dimension.

Characters / X-Men: Acolytes

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WARNING: There are unmarked spoilers on these sheets for all but the most recent comics.

This is a listing of members of the Acolytes of Magneto who appear in the X-Men comic books. Visit here for the main character index.

Acolytes of Magneto

First-Generation Acolytes

Max Eisenhardt / Magneto

Notable Aliases Erik Magnus Lehnsherr

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1963)

Fabian Cortez

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

Anne-Marie Cortez

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

Allen Marc Yuric / Chrome

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

Marco Delgado

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

Nance Winters

Nationality: American

Species: Human

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1991)

Second-Generation Acolytes

Bennet du Paris / Exodus

Nationality: French

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Factor #92 (1993)

Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin / Colossus

Nationality: Russian

Species: Human mutant

Joined In: Uncanny X-Men #304 (1993)

Joanna Cargill / Frenzy

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Factor #4 (1986)

Sarah Ryall / Scanner

Notable Aliases: Screener

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Avengers #357 (1992)

Amelia "Amy" C. Voght

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

Carmella Unuscione

Aliases: Stand-Off

Nationality: Italian

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #298 (1993)

Eric and Harlan and Sven Kleinstock

Nationality: Swedes

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #298 (1993)

Isaac Javitz

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

Katu Kath

Nationality: Russian

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

Seamus Mellencamp

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

Fransisco Milan

Nationality: Italian

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

Simon Hall / Neophyte

Nationality: Swiss

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)

Suvik Senyaka

Nationality: Sri Lankan

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #300 (1993)