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Amanda Sefton
Amanda Sefton / Jimaine Szardos / Daytripper / Magik II
Nationality: German
Species: Human
First Appearance: The X-Men #98 (1976)
Nightcrawler's adoptive sister and a long-time ally and friend of the X-Men. A powerful sorceress and arcane spellcaster, gifted with a large range of magical abilities, she's the former leader of Limbo (before Belasco wrestled it from her) and an occasional member of Excalibur and the X-team as well.
- Action Girl: Even though she doesn't fight hand to hand, she was quite skilled at wielding the Soulsword.
- Arch-Enemy: Of Belasco especially.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Yet another of the Shadow King's victims during the Muir Island Saga.
- Chekhov's Gunman: First appears in X-Men #98 as apparently nothing other than a random woman Kurt had gone out with. A few years later she returned, turning out to be a little more important than that.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Just sort of vanishes without comment during the Muir Island Saga, last being seen setting some demons on Jubilee. Of course, the story ends confirming everyone controlled by the Shadow King was freed, Amanda included.
- Cleavage Window: Not always but her current costume sports this indeed.
- Combo Platter Powers: Is gifted with a myriad of magical abilities and can wield various spells at will, depending on her own endurance.
- Crown of Horns: As the second Magik, she used to wear one of these.
- Dimension Lord: Ruled Limbo for a time, until after M-Day, when Belasco comes to take it back by force.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Amanda is a benevolent and helpful blonde woman.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: As Magik, she used the Soulsword the same way Illyana Rasputin once did during her days as Limbo's mistress.
- Functional Magic: Her magicks seem to be inherited from her mother, the gypsy witch Margali Szardos.
- Hot Gypsy Woman: One of the most recognizable ones in the Marvel franchise along with Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch and Sibyl Dvorak, a.k.a Skein/The Gypsy Moth.
- Hot Witch: A very attractive blonde woman who wields arcane magic.
- I Work Alone: Despite being The Reliable One, Amanda walks her own path and mostly does her thing by herself.
- Long-Lost Relative: There are ways to reveal to your adopted brother that the stewardess he's been dating is actually his adopted sister. Having to ward off a murderously vengeful mom probably only makes it slightly more awkward than it already would've been.
- Magical Romani: Her Romani ancestry is rarely ever brought up, even though she never made it a secret. Her mother, Margali Szardos, is indeed a gypsy witch and Amanda inherited her powers.
- Meaningful Rename: Upon entering the USA to look for her brother Amanda changed her actual birth name "Jimaine Szardos" to an English-sounding pseudonym "Amanda Sefton" and has gone by it ever since.
- Most Common Super Power: She's a rather busty sorceress.
- Not Blood Siblings: She's Nightcrawler's adoptive sister... and on-and-off lover.
- Offered the Crown: After Illyana's death in the 90's from the Legacy Virus, she briefly took her mantle as "Magik" before revealing herself as being Amanda Sefton, upon foiling Belasco's plans for the entrapment of Shadowcat's soul and was then crowned the new mistress of Limbo, after wielding the Soulsword the way the first Magik once would.
- The Reliable One: A staunch ally of the X-Men, she has repeatedly lent a hand whenever she could and the rest of the team know they can call her up if extra help is needed.
- Sexy Stewardess: Her actual day job is a flight attendant.
- Solitary Sorceress: A modern version. See I Work Alone above.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Her and Nightcrawler have been an item for quite some time but the discovery of their family tie was instrumental in their initial breakup. They got over it and still act on their love for eachother.
- Stock Superhero Day Jobs: Averted. She was once a simple flight attendant.
- Teleportation: One of her many powers.
- Trapped in Another World: Her mother's scheme to pass into the Afterlife and come back ended with Amanda getting trapped in a world between life and death where she got stranded. She is now dwelling at the borders of Heaven and is being tasked with a yet unrevealed mission.
- White Magician Girl: Zigzagged. As Amanda Sefton, she mostly uses her powers to help others. She's much more proactive with her powers as Daytripper but she's still a firm user of White Magic. As Magik II, she delves into a darker side of her powers, yet she uses them to mostly keep Limbo in check.
Moira MacTaggert
See here.
Senator Robert Kelly
Senator Robert Edward Kelly
"Don't give up, Nathan! On your dream... or on humanity! We're a young species. We make mistakes. But give us a chance to grow... we may surprise you... yet..."
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #135 (1980)
- You say you want to help, but you and your X-Men only ever makes things worse.
A New York senator with Fantastic Racism leanings as regards mutants. He started out merely afraid (quite understandably) of what they might do; after his wife was killed in a mutant-on-Sentinel battle it became slightly more personal. He wants mutants to be registered and controlled (despite, you know, silly stuff like the constitution), but on occasion has actively fought against more extremist politicians like the pro-genocide Graydon Creed. Swings between Well-Intentioned Extremist and Strawman Political, Depending on the Writer. The Brotherhood of Mutants keep on trying to kill him and the X-Men keep on saving him in the hopes that one day he'll be grateful. Eventually, he was. Then an anti-mutant activist killed him anyway.
- Antagonistic Senator: Got his start as one of these.
- Beware the Superman: His political message, encouraged by Man Behind the Man Sebastian Shaw who actively stokes the embers of Kelly's paranoia in hopes of getting his company into a lucrative contract selling Sentinels to the government.
- Death by Irony: Ultimately, the lunatic who finally ended up doing Kelly in wasn't one of the mutants he feared at all, but instead one of his own disenchanted supporters.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Passed away in Cable's arms as he lay dying from the assassin's bullets, imploring the world weary time traveler not to hurt his assassin or to give up on the human race.
- Doomed Contrarian: Numerous storylines revolved around assassination attempts on Senator Kelly's life, starting with the classic Days of Future Past, and no matter how many times the X-Men saved Kelly his ass would inevitably just find itself firmly in the crosshairs of some other lunatic.
- Fantastic Racism: Against mutants, but unlike most anti-mutant villains he is allowed to have actual logical reasons behind his racism and not just slavering hate. He also gets better eventually.
- Heel–Face Turn: After years of being an Ungrateful Bastard he finally was allowed to get better... only to get assassinated anyway right after because, as ever in comics, Status Quo Is God.
- Humans Are Flawed: Comes to realize this about his side of the debate, by the end of his life, pleading for Nathan Summers not to give up on them.
- Jerk Justifications: His first encounter with the X-Men was when they were fighting the Hellfire Club in The Dark Phoenix Saga. It didn't make a good impression. Then his wife was killed by pieces of falling Sentinel...
- Killed Off for Real: By a racist nobody mad about Kelly "betraying his own kind" when he softened his stance on mutants.
- No Party Given: He has been given political positions that fall on either side of the political spectrum and while he is a senator from New York (which traditionally elects Democrats), his supporters seem to nearly all be of a Republican bent. Note that in the supplementary material of his film incarnation, he is given suffix R-KS, which means that in the films he is a Republican from Kansas and defies this trope.
- Odd Friendship: With the telepathic, telekinetic, cyborg One-Man Army time travelling mutant X-Man Cable at the end of Kelly's life, who was assigned to be his bodyguard for the entirety of the senator's campaign, the two greatly differing men coming to an understanding and mutual respect. To the point that between failing to protect Kelly from his assassin and the death of Moira MacTaggert, Cable soon decided to leave the X-Men and resume adventuring alone.
- Only Sane Man: Senator Kelly is notable for being pretty much the only one of the numerous characters to fill the "anti-mutant politician" role in the X-Men series who is allowed to have a realistic and layered opinion on mutants, as opposed to being just a frothing Strawman Political.
- Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Played for Laughs when we meet his wife Sharon. Turns out she was employed as a maid by the Hellfire Club in her youth, and during a lunch with Sebastian Shaw she pranks him by walking in wearing her old servant garb. Kelly is shocked, but Shaw finds the prank hilarious.
- Properly Paranoid: Kelly's fears that mutants are a destructive force that will wreak destruction if not kept in check is not entirely founded, yet over the years with their numerous battles (and the numerous attendant collateral damage) they're definitely not entirely unfounded either. If you looked up
Strawman Has a Point in the X-universe, you'd probably find Kelly's picture next to the entry. - "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a very pointed one to Professor X and the X-Men in X-Men '92. His profile quote is taken from said speech, which can be read in full below:Senator Kelly: Is that what you think this is about?! I may have mistrusted mutants at one time, but I saw the error of my ways during the Westchester Wars. No, this isn't about trusting mutants — I just don't trust you! You've always claimed to be our protectors, but what have you really done? You react. You respond. You help to minimize the crises that you create. You're so caught up in petty squabbles and love triangles that you never see the bigger threats to the entire planet — even when they're hanging directly over your heads! You say you want to help, but you and your X-Men only ever makes things worse. So no, I reject your particular brand of "help", Professor X! It's time we entrusted the safety of this planet to another. Someone who doesn't just dream about the future, but shapes it.
- Redemption Equals Death: Finally changed his opinions of mutants when Pyro saved his life... and then got killed.
- Shout-Out: Named for the poet Robert Kelly, who was one of Chris Claremont's professors in his college years.
- Super Registration Act: The Mutant Control Act/Mutant Registration Act, his signature legislative bill that he is always trying to get passed, regardless of adaptation.
- Ungrateful Bastard: For a long time there it seemed that no matter how many times the X-Men saved him, he would always go right back to commissioning Sentinels the next day.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His assassination at the hands of Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants would have been the catalyst to the first and most well-known of the X-Men's many, many Bad Future timelines, the Days of Future Past.
- Unwitting Pawn: Of Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club, at least in his first few storylines.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: In 1989 he was given a Morality Pet in the form of wife Sharon Kelly... who was then killed by a rogue Master Mold in the very next issue.
Zelda & Vera Cantor
Zelda Kurtzberg & Vera Cantor
Nationality: American
Species: Human
A pair of human girls who used to double date with Beast and Iceman. Zelda was a flighty beatnik girl and Vera was a Hot Librarian. Vera's relationship with Beast went on for several years, but Iceman dumped Zelda without telling her, and never went on a date with her without Hank and Vera.
- Beautiful All Along: Vera
- Hot Librarian: Vera
- Satellite Character: They don't have much role or personality besides dating Hank and Bobby.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl
Ted Roberts
Theodore "Ted" Roberts
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: X-Men #24 (September, 1966)
A college friend of Jean Grey's. An overachieving Muggle who feels he couldn't live up to his brother. His brother Ralph later became yet another evil counterpart to Iron Man called the Cobalt Man. Was at least smart enough to see through the X-Men's disguises.
- Satellite Character: For Jean Grey.
- Third-Option Love Interest: For Cyclops's Betty and Angel's Veronica. He never stood a chance.
Candy Southern
Candace "Candy" Southern
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: X-Men #31 (April, 1967)
Warren's childhood friend who he began to date after Cyclops and Jean Grey finally started to become involved. Though not superpowered, she did briefly serve as leader of the Defenders.
- Damsel out of Distress: Zigzagged after she is captured by the villains in X-Men: The Hidden Years. She feigns unconsciousness before resourcefully overpowering several Mooks… only for it to be revealed that this was all an illusion brought on by her captor Mastermind to keep her from trying to escape for real. Then, during the final battle of that arc, Warren tries to place her outside of the zone of combat, only for Candy to use a rope ladder like a trapeze to catch a villain off guard and knock him out with a kick.
- Disposable Fiancé: She lived together with Warren for quite a long time, but that did not stop some writers from involving him with other women elsewhere, e. g. in Dazzler's short-lived solo title.
- Fun T-Shirt: Warren gives Candy at least two t-shirts that say "The Brain Behind the Defenders" as a present, and she happily wears them.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Roy Thomas named her after the heroine of the novel Candy by Terry Southern.
- Small Role, Big Impact: An extremely important character in Warren's character development, and maybe the X-Men's first true human ally, yet only appeared in a grand total of 50 issues over 20 years.
- Spoiled Sweet: She is an unemployed Fiction 500 heiress who went to finishing school, is wealthy enough to have hereditary Hellfire Club membership (although she only attended one meeting due to being rightfully wary of the regular club members), and is a warm and helpful ally to her boyfriend and his superhero teammates.
- Victorious Childhood Friend
Stevie Hunter
Congresswoman Stephanie "Stevie" Hunter
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: X-Men #139 (November, 1980)
A star dancer who injured her knee and was forced to retire from performing, so she decided to become a dance instructor instead. Shortly after Kitty Pryde joined the X-Men, she was enrolled in Stevie's school, where Stevie became a sort of older sister figure, and eventually became close friends with the other X-Men as well, particularly Storm.
- Broken Bird: Never done to the extend of Wangst, but every now and again this showed up regarding her injuries.
- The Bus Came Back: After having not appeared since 1994, Stevie returned in 2017 and was elected to represent Connecticut's 3rd congressional district in the House of Representatives and invited X-Men leader and old friend, Kitty Pryde, to testify before Congress on the state of mutant affairs.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She was a regular supporting character for years, but with a tendency to be forgotten at times. Her appearances by years go as following: 1980-1984, 1986-1987, 1990-1994). Chris Claremont and Fabian Nicieza were the only writers to regularly use her, and her last appearance was as part of a crowd in the wedding of Cyclops and Phoenix. She then vanished without explanation despite being a faculty member at Xavier's school.
- Cool Big Sis: To Kitty Pryde. Storm doesn't take this well at first. She gets better.
- Sassy Black Woman: Less overtly so than most, but she is black, female, and very no-nonsense.
- Satellite Character: She doesn't have much role besides her friendship with Storm and other mutants.
- Stern Teacher: Though never quite to Professor X's jerkiest moments, she could be quite harsh on her students if she thought they weren't putting in the effort.
Peter Corbeau
Doctor Peter Corbeau
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: Incredible Hulk #148 (February, 1972)
A highly-skilled scientist, and close friend of Charles Xavier. Was also Bruce Banner's college roommate. Plays no small part in Jean Grey becoming The Phoenix (in that he was the one who provided the space-shuttle that Jean was piloting when it happened, using his knowledge).
- Badass Normal: Has no actual superpowers, but he's still willing to fly a space-shuttle towards a hostile space-base for people he barely knows.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Holy crap, yes. He's an astrophysicist, he's capable of piloting shuttles (and has the authority to organize a launch in a matter of days at most), he designed his own hydrofoil, and he can somehow identify the breakdown of reality itself.
- Put on a Bus: Disappeared from Uncanny around the mid-eighties, though he's reappeared once or twice since then.
- Secret-Keeper: Was fully aware of Charles being a Mutant, and knew about the X-Men, before we first see him and Charles interacting.
Gabrielle Haller
Gabrielle Haller
Nationality: Israeli
Species: Human
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #161 (September, 1982)
Gabrielle Haller was a catatonic Holocaust survivor. After the war, Gabrielle was hospitalized in Israel. It was here that a young Charles Xavier first met her. Charles was a mutant with telepathic abilities. He used his powers to help cure Gabrielle. As she recovered, the two fell in love. Though they soon broke up, the result of this union would be David Haller, one of the most powerful Mutants to ever live.
- Bed Trick: It's implied during Legion Quest that an amnesiac David used his powers to pose as Charles and then sexually assault his own mother.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The Holocaust. However, of note is that Gabrielle refuses to fall to the same cynical depths as Magneto would, despite having gone through the same experience.
- Rape as Drama: It's implied in Legion Quest that an amnesiac David forced himself on Gabrielle.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Another person who tried telling Erik, just as he was about to hit his Start of Darkness, that what he was doing was wrong, but Erik dismissed her and flew off.
Anya Eisenhardt
Anya Eisenhardt
Nationality: Polish
Species: Human
First Appearance: Classic X-Men #12 (August, 1987)
The daughter of Erik and Magda Lensherr. Sadly for the young girl, her father incurred the wrath of some local authorities, and while her parents were out their house was set on fire, while Anya was still inside. Her father was prevented from saving her by the people who'd started it. It was than that Erik lashed out with his mutant powers to kill them in revenge, starting on the path to becoming Magneto.
- The Lost Lenore: As might be expected, Erik is still driven by the pain of her loss. He even dedicated a part of Genosha to her.
- Muggle: Unlike her father or half-sister, Anya was by all accounts a plain-jane human. Of course, she also didn't live long enough to demonstrate any Mutant powers. She was confirmed to be a human after the creation of the "waiting room" by Wanda that would allow the Five on Krakoa to resurrect any dead mutant or potential mutant. Magneto hoped this would include her, but sadly she was not amongst the minds within.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Nothing more than a nice, kind, innocent young girl, killed to motivate Magneto's Start of Darkness.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: In S.W.O.R.D. issue #7, Magneto notes that Wanda (who may or may not be her sister, depending on which retcon you subscribe to) looks like an adult version of her, and that's why he was able to believe Wanda was his daughter.
Magda Eisenhardt
Magda Eisenhardt
Nationality: Polish
Species: Human
First Appearance: Avengers #186 (August, 1979)
Magda was Magneto's wife, and mother of his children; the late Anya and twins Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. More recently, it was hinted that Magda was not really the twins' mother.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Can't be more dark and troubled than spending your teenaged years in Auschwitz.
- Death by Childbirth: Died giving birth to Wanda and Pietro.
- The Lost Lenore: In a lot of ways, Erik's never gotten over her death, much as he might deny it. He even renamed a part of Genosha after her (slightly less sweet now that Genosha's a mass graveyard, but hey...)
- Muggle: She was a completely normal human (well, at first). She ran from Erik when she saw him use his powers to kill a bunch of men who had prevented him saving Anya.
- Posthumous Character: Dead for somewhere near two decades before her first appearance.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: She looks very similar to Wanda.
- Wham Line: She helped provide one. An issue of Avengers established her as the mom to Pietro and Wanda, by an unknown man (since she gave birth to the twins alone and then died). A short time later, an issue of X-Men has Magneto going over some old files, and finds one of his lost wife... Magda.
Suzanna Dane
Suzanna Dane
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: X-Factor vol 1 #243 (2012)
The mother of Lorna "Polaris" Dane, killed under mysterious circumstances when Lorna was very young. Circumstances involving a plane and magnetism...
- Adaptation Name Change: A version of Susan appeared in the Christos Gage written Civil War: House of M in 2008, the first time either a name or face had been given to Lorna's mom, but there she was Susanna.
- Death by Origin Story: Suzanna and her husband were killed when Lorna was a child, resulting in her being adopted by her relatives.
- Muggle: Much like Magda, all indications are Suzanna was entirely human.
- Plot Archaeology: During Chuck Austen's time on X-Men, it turned out Lorna had been doing some digging into her mother's death, and found evidence that the wreckage of the plane crash was magnetized. Given the timeline, this would've been Magneto in the days when his powers were subtly driving him mad, making it look a hell of a lot like he did it. Lorna went to confront him... at Genosha. After Austen left, this was forgotten about until toward the end of Peter David's second run of X-Factor, which finally gave a conclusive answer to just what happened.
- Unseen No More: Lorna was introduced in the 60s. Readers didn't get a glimpse of her mother until 2008, and her Earth-616 version didn't get an on-page appearance until 2012.
- The Unsolved Mystery: For years, the question of just how Lorna's mother and step-father died went unanswered, but looked an awful lot like Magneto might've had a hand in it, until X-Factor revealed the truth: Suzanna's husband found out Lorna wasn't his kid, and confronted Suzanna about it while they were flying in a plane. Unfortunately their arguing woke up Lorna, who was a mere three years old at the time. She saw them arguing, and panicked... and that's when her Mutant powers of magnetism flared up, destroying the plane and killing Suzanna.
Charlotte Jones
Charlotte Jones
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: X-Factor vol 1 #51 (1990)
A detective in the New York police department who got repeatedly involved in the X-Men's activities.
- Badass Bystander: More than once her involvement in X-Activities came from just being nearby when stuff was happening to them, and getting involved.
- Badass Normal: She's an entirely normal human being, but she's survived some crazy things, including a fight with Apocalypse on the Moon.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Last seen in 2007.
- Commuting on a Bus: Charlotte had a tendency to disappear and reappear for long stretches.
The Greys
John and Elaine Grey
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: X-Men vol 1 #5 (1964)
The parents of Jean Grey, and her numerous siblings.
- Forced Transformation: Madelyne turned them into a pair of demons for mistaking her for Jean.
- I Have No Son!:
- John has a Freak Out when meeting the Dark Phoenix, angrily renouncing the idea she's his daughter (which, thanks to the retcons, is true). Claremont would later suggest this was one of the major points of divergence between the regular timeline and the Days of Future Past one where Jean lived through the whole Dark Phoenix farago.
- Elaine's last words to Rachel, just before getting killed by the Shi'ar Death Commandoes. Kitty tries telling Rachel she didn't mean it, but since Ray's a telepath she knew Elaine meant every syllable. Ouch.
- Innocently Insensitive: In fairness to them, Madelyne is an identical clone of Jean, and she was standing over Jean's grave. They could hardly be blamed for assuming she was their daughter.
- Killed Off for Real: During the Shi'ar government's mass purge of the Greys, just after M-Day.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Initially, weren't told a thing about their daughter being a Mutant, or what the Xavier Institute was. They just thought it was a progressive academy (okay, fair enough). They only learned about the truth after Jean's little incident with the crashing shuttle and the cosmic force.
- Muggle: Just a pair of completely ordinary humans. They... really don't handle exposure to typical X-Men weirdness very well, never mind the atypical weirdness, which is probably a good reason for keeping them out of the loop.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Elaine nearly causes an accident the first time she met Scott, wanting to examine his glasses. Y'know, the ones keeping his uncontrolled Mutant powers from demolishing everything in sight. Scott had to claim he had a nasty eye infection to make her back off.
Aleytys "Lee" Forrester
Lee Forrester
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #143 (1981)
A human fishing boat captain who found herself tossed in the whirlwind world of mutants.
- Love Father, Love Son: A variation. In the 1980s, when Cylops was mourning for the loss of Jean Grey, Lee was his Love Interest for a time, before he met Madelyne Pryor (his first on-panel marriage). Later, in the early-1990s, she and Cyclops's son Cable, who is a badass cyborg soldier from the future, share a kiss after an adventure, but soon part ways.
