History HoYay / XMen

* In TheSeventies and TheEighties, ''ComicBook/XMen'''s Mystique and her "friend" Destiny fell into this trope -- with comics now subject to fewer restrictions, however, current references to Destiny make no attempt to hide that she and Mystique are a married couple. Late in Creator/ChrisClaremont's first run on the series, he has the Shadow King refer to Destiny as Mystique's "leman", an archaic term for lover, paramour, or spouse. (Thank you, gayleague.org.)
** It was actually Claremont's plan at one point to reveal that Mystique was not Nightcrawler's mother, but ''[[GenderBender his father]]'', having impregnated Destiny while in the form of a man. The editors nixed this idea. But considering the enraged reaction of the fans to the revelation of Kurt's real father, it has been suggested that it be retconned to the truth.
** However, this goes against other established canon. Mystique is not able to shapeshift on a genetic level. So even if she ''were'' to impregnate Destiny, they don't have a Y chromosome between them, meaning Kurt couldn't be their son. (Unless Nightcrawler is secretly transgender. Or Mystique is. Or Mystique (and/or Destiny) has an extra chromosome. [[HandWave Or because mutant reasons.]])

** In the BadFuture of ''ComicBook/SinsOfSinister'', which takes place after Magneto's death, Hope snarkily comments on Xavier pining for his dead boyfriend.

* In TheNineties, the X-Men were a metaphor for being gay. There was even a mutant AIDS.
** Maybe even now. Matt Fraction made them live near San Francisco...
** The X-Men made San Francisco a temporary base in the early days when they couldn't go back to Xavier's mansion for a while. And this back in the '80s.
** "You didn't ask so I didn't tell," anyone? (''Film/XMenFirstClass'')
** Even before the above film, ''Film/X2XMenUnited'' anviliciously hammered this home by having Iceman's mother ask him "Have you ever tried... ''not'' being a mutant?"
* Young girl mutant Bling!, looking back on almost being devoured alive by the vampiric mutant Emplate in ''X-Men Legacy'' #230:
-->'''Bling!: '''Well, you know, it had its upside. [...] Having ''Rogue'' come riding to the rescue, and sweep me up in her womanly arms? Kind of ''hot''.
** Considering that Bling! ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS the exclamation point is required]]!) is openly gay, this isn't surprising to hear from her.

** ''X-Men Red'' shows us that Laura's younger clone "sister" Gabby is gay, or at least in the process of discovering her sexuality.

* Iceman and Beast also get this every now and then.
* Northstar had a crush on Iceman at one point. That this might lead somewhere was hinted as not being entirely outside of the realm of possibility at the time, although the plot line was soon dropped.
* Being an out lesbian it's only natural that Karma gets this a lot. As far as named characters go there was Kitty Pryde in the Mechanix miniseries written by Chris Claremont. Then there was Luna DePaula, coffeehouse barista in ''New Mutants'' and ''New X-Men: Academy X''. Most recently it was Shi'ar warrior Warbird in ''Astonishing X-Men''. It gets kind of amusing with the fact that, despite being one of Marvel's most prominent gay characters, none of them have gone anywhere and in fact outside of a one page one night stand in the Brubaker/Fraction run of Uncanny she's had zero romantic relationships. Her seeming failure of a love life is part of the reason why some fans like to say that [[TheWoobie "being Karma is suffering"]].
* Anything with Iceman now is taken to a new level when you consider that his time displaced version from the past has come out as gay -- and in doing so prompted his present-day self to confess to being gay as well.

*** It's incredibly to easy to look at the relationship Gambit and Wolverine have with X-23 as [[HasTwoMommies Has Two Daddies]].

* And then there was Dani and Rahne in ''ComicBook/NewMutants''. [[http://www.wgp.org/rahnedani/proof.html This page]] lists some of the alleged {{Subtext}}, make of them what you will.
** Dani does have the superpower of mentally bonding with animals and Rahne is a werewolf. Still...
** This is pretty clear: Dani: '-you're not alone. Moira loves you, and I-' Rahne: 'I know. But that doesn't make me ache any the less.'
** Apparently some creators noticed as the ''Film/NewMutants'' movie [[spoiler: has Dani and Rahne fall in love.]]
* New Mutants:
** Illyana gives a distinct impression she crushes on Kitty,
** The same occurs with Warlock on Cypher. Although this stray into DiscountLesbians because Warlock belongs to an asexually reproducing race and thus is a "he" only by default.
** Warlock's love for Cypher played a part in the sad story of Earth-8545, where Warlock fused with Doug Ramsey in a last-ditch attempt to cure him of the Legacy Virus - and instead ended up turning almost every human and mutant on the planet into cyber-zombies.
** "I love you and you are breaking my heart." - it's pretty much explicit with Warlock/Cypher upon Doug's [[spoiler:return from the dead]] although not in a sexual manner.

** In fact, in the final episode of the ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' animated series, Jean asks "Did you love Charles Xavier?"; Erik's response is to be outraged that she could ''doubt'' it.

*** And the part in First Class where Erik is practically cuddling him. Okay, it loses something because Charles has just [[spoiler: gotten the injury that will put him in a wheelchair forever, and it was Erik's (accidental) fault]], but it still has the highest "are you ''sure'' he's not the love interest?" quotient in the movieverse.

** [[http://comicsalliance.com/poll-who-should-magneto-hook-up-with-in-his-last-days/ This poll by ComicsAlliance.com]] asks, "Who Should Magneto Hook Up with in His ''Last Days''?", and the current leader is Charles Xavier, who has so far earned a whopping 95%! Some of the comments at the bottom of the article basically express that this contest is totally unfair for the other four female candidates.

* Take one good look at the average episode of [[WesternAnimation/XMen the '90s cartoon]] and it's possible to interpret ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} as flirting with ''every male character present'', provided you squint a bit in the case of Professor X.

* Take one good look at the average episode of [[WesternAnimation/XMen the '90s cartoon]] and it's possible to interpret {{Wolverine}} as flirting with ''every male character present'', provided you squint a bit in the case of Professor X.

* When Rob Liefield and Fabian Nicieza wrote ''X-Force'' in the 90s, it was a [[RatedMforManly catalog of testosterone]], with Shatterstar, the Mojoverse warrior who was interested only in fighting. When Nicieza took over after Liefeld left, Shatterstar began [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove figuring out human emotions]] and struck up a friendship with fellow teammate Rictor. Jeph Loeb took that one step further, giving Shatterstar a very obvious crush on Rictor and developing a subtext between the two men that eventually became difficult to ignore and a LGBTFanbase ensued (detailed extensively [[http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20090628072652/http://www.shatteringtheearth.com/ThePairing.html here]]). Years later, Peter David writing ''X-Factor'' reunited the pair and had them become a canon couple, to the [[http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/07/liefeld-cant-wait-to-someday-undo-shatterstar-development/ disapproval]] of Liefield who said that his vision of Shatterstar was as a 'gladiator' and 'Spartan', [[ManlyGay apparently precluding him]] [[CriticalResearchFailure from homosexuality]].

* In Claremont's later run on Uncanny, when Rachel discovers that Colossus is back with Kitty, she storms out of their (Kitty and Rachel's) shared room and acts all mopey and depressed.
** And the overly friendly way she hugs Kitty in the ''X-Women'' one-shot. Guess who wrote said one-shot.

* In TheSeventies and TheEighties, ''ComicBook/XMen'''s Mystique and her "friend" Destiny fell into this trope -- with comics now subject to fewer restrictions, however, current references to Destiny make no attempt to hide that she and Mystique were lovers. Late in Creator/ChrisClaremont's first run on the series, he has the Shadow King refer to Destiny as Mystique's "leman", an archaic term for lover, paramour, or spouse. (Thank you, gayleague.org.)

* In TheSeventies and TheEighties, ''ComicBook/XMen'''s Mystique and her "friend" Destiny fell into this trope -- with comics now subject to fewer restrictions, however, current references to Destiny ([[DeathIsCheap still posthumous after twenty years!]]) make no attempt to hide that she and Mystique were lovers. Late in Creator/ChrisClaremont's first run on the series, he has the Shadow King refer to Destiny as Mystique's "leman", an archaic term for lover, paramour, or spouse. (Thank you, gayleague.org.)

** Not to mention ComicBook/{{Magneto}}. He had a fair number of FoeYay occasionally bordering on regular HoYay moments with Xavier, while his near-infinite patience with Magneto's villainy and the respect the two men hold for one another can't help but remind viewers of [[DatingCatwoman similar relationships]]. Somewhat HilariousInHindsight seeing as as several years on, openly gay actor Creator/IanMcKellen was cast as Magneto in the live-action films.

** Scott and Lance. More HoYay than their usual FoeYay when Lance joined the X-Men in one episode.

** [[http://musings-flamefeathers.blogspot.com/2012/01/reasons-i-watch-x-men-evolution.html Ta-da!]] More FoeYay really, but still ... just take a look.

* Speaking of Magneto, sometimes it's ''very'' hard not to see his longtime disciple Exodus as an IgnoredEnamoredUnderling. When he took over the Acolytes post-''ComicBook/FatalAttractions'' he all but doted on the comatose Mags, to the point of attacking one of the other Acolytes just for looking at him in his comatose state. He is later driven ''to tears'' by the prospect of Magneto being in a relationship with female Acolyte Amelia Voght, and when the two finally meet again in ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen2016'' he boasts of all his actions being "for you", and when Mags doesn't agree, going so far as to allow himself to be beaten by him. Apparently this was enough for Magneto to forgive him, as they have since reconciled (though Mags certainly doesn't return his utter devotion).