"Important/Famous" characters that we'll never see again?

So who are some important or famous x-characters that we'll probably never see again or will never have any relevant panel-time? First and foremost, we will never see X-Man again. And off the top of my head, we wont have Warren back unless he is a hit in the new movie. I think rachel will vanish into the abyss. Gambit may be gone for a long time, especially if his the gambit movie doesnt do well. I dont think cable will be in anything anytime soon either.

What do you mean by "we'll never see them again"? Is never like a couple years, 20 years or literally never. Because if it's the last one then I can't really name any characters because if I've learned anything from comics it's that every single characters returns at some point in some form. Just look at characters like Jason Todd, Bucky, Mar-Vell and Gwen Stacy. Or for x-character examples Magik, Cypher and Blink who were all dead for 10-20 years before returning. Even X-Man himself came back after about 10 years of being seemingly dead.

@tommy_x: well if you read i mention wont see in a long time so yeah not literally never :p

@martinceld: Sorry, should have read it better. I guess I was just a bit puzzled by the dramatic thread title :D

I don't think we'll be seeing Gambit in a while regardless of how his possible solo film might turn out. After all, we likely won't have F4 comic around even though they're about to have a movie soon since Johnny and Ben are both in other titles.

I have to agree with you about Nate not being likely to show up any time soon. Same for Rachel. Such a shame that they were both dropped from the UXM cast. Blink and Mimic are also MIA so they're unlikely to show up either. And writers are clearly struggling to give Hope Summers any importance now that her purpose has been fulfilled. A lot of the former New Mutants and Gen X members are also in limbo and based on the info so far most of the current students are going to join them in there.

Lol, I think it'd be easier to list only the x-characters who might have some focus and stories coming up in the next couple of years.

Dust and Surge quickly comes to mind.

Which really sucks, they are two of my favorite X-kids, but I have to agree. Along with most of the other New Mutants: Trance, Match, Loa, Indra will probably go off into limbo. The only ones I see from that generation sticking around are Hellion, Mercury, Armor, Bling, Rockslide and Anole.

this is a weird question for me, because I've never thought of most of these characters as being important. Certainly not Cable or X-man. Rachel's one of my favorite characters, but I don't think she's especially important outside of the Phoenix mythos, which has been pretty played at this point.

Angel (the least important of the original team) is going to be back in All-new X-men when it relaunches, and Gambit (more of a fan-favorite than essential to the X-men) will almost certainly be featured once his movie's coming out.

To my mind, it seems like the characters that are really important always come back, even after death.

Maybe the original/Present Jean Grey, she has been dead for long time not counting her cameo on Children Crusade and AvsX.

the original Jean Grey has not been seen since 1980.

Or she always comes back and she's back right now.

nate has his own series so id say he is valuable enough. Cable definitely is important. He is an important figure wit regards to apocalpyse and stryfe. He has had a titles like Cable, Cable & Deadpool, Cable & X-Force, He is also the leader of X-Force. Rachel is a vital member of xx-men, and she was in uncanny and amazing x-men as well.

There are 3 X-Men stories that everyone in comics knows at least vaguely.

Phoenix Saga/Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, Age of Apocalypse.

Jean Grey.

Rachel Summers.

Apocalypse.

Teen Jeen's level of exposure has officially made me give up on ever seeing adult Jean again, and with her being a supposedly prominent member of eXtra-Men....i won't be the only one.

Rachel....no comment.

Apocalypse... Not Genesis but actual apocalypse....smh we may as well say good bye.

@oldnightcrawler: Her last death was on New X-Men 148 (23/10/2012). She suposed to exist on A-Force´s tittle but she appears mostly as background cameos and let count her as from another dimension.

Hope actually became kinda interesting in the latest Uncanny X-Force, SPOILERS: Whilst she appeared to be in a coma, she'd actually taken over the new mutant, (and subsequently deceased) MeMe's power set, impersonating her unquestioned until Psylocke noticed. She was also having a cyber affair with Fantomex before he went ultra-evil...then she copied his mutant-virus-matrix thingy (it was a little confusing) but she looked pretty damn cool and saved the day at the end. ;)

Before all of that I thought she was pretty useless along with the Five Lights....Oya was the winner from that whole crew.

I'd personally like to see Rachel take an X-Crew into space to find a new purpose. Bishop, Longshot, Forge, Gambit & Lila Cheney (Marvel has an interstellar teleporter rockstar...and they barely use her!) Maybe hang ten with Silver Surfer, get cozy with the Celestials and run amuck among the Shi'ar, Kree, Skrulls and other space-folk.

Phoenix and the Starjammers has a cool ring to it ;) It'll be so late 80s/early 90s ...mullets for all!

every Jean Grey is from another dimension.

@thunderscream: i read every release of x-force but like 3/4 through the series i just got lost and could not understand what was going on. I have no idea wtf happened with fantomex and th whole thing with hope is blurry to me. They made it so complicated

@thunderscream: I actually know that since Spurrier's X-Force was like one of the only two or three stories after AvX that was actually good and worthy of reading. I liked it though it wasn't as good as his XML run was to me.

Spurrier did decent job with Hope but even he still couldn't get me to like her. She was a pretty decent character before Second Coming but after that she became too annoying (ruined by writers who came after her creators) and AvX finished the job of making her completely unlikable to me and apparently to many others as well. And making her have a stupid teenage crush on Fantomex (who is another terrible character ruined by writers who came after his creator) didn't do her any favors in my eyes. I guess i don't hate her so much anymore as I just find her pathetic and laughable now.

She was just a macguffin that served her purpose and it's clear that Marvel had problems with making her matter after AvX. They should have just killed her off in that story and/or made her go crazy while being high on PF and thus redeeming Bishop a bit while giving her some purpose even if it was as a villain. I have a hard time believing that her taking over X-Force will ever be followed up on. After SW they'll probably just act like Hope's X-Force isn't around anymore and probably ignore most of Spurrier's story seeing how we have yet another Fantomex (AAAARRRRGGHHH!!!!!!! HATE!!!!) on UXM.

Well, if you want to define "important x-characters" as only the a-list X-Men then that's fine but I think to many that's a bit narrow description of an important character. Rachel has ties to classic stories (DoFP), concepts (Askani) and other important characters (Kitty and her whole family). Nate, who is one of the few x-characters to have a long running solo title, is also tied to classic stories (AoA) and important characters (Sinister, Apocalypse, Jean and Cyclops) and yet again same goes for Cable who has had multiple solos and team-up titles and is tied to Cyclops, Jean, Madelyne, Deadpool, Sinister, Apocalypse and Stryfe. Those ties make them pretty important characters and they all have their share of fans to whom they are important characters. Besides I assume that in the context of this thread important character would be defined as any character who has been part of a cast of an ongoing x-title and hasn't just been limited to cameos or had only 1 issue appearance. Of course that's just me.

You think Angel is the least important out of O5? I don't know, at least he has had some character development over the years while Iceman has stayed virtually the same (At least until Bendis revealed that he's "full gay")

@martinceld I know what you're saying. Spurrier has a habit of writing stories that are more for an acquired taste which is probably why he shouldn't be put on to a flagship title. His style and way of writing aren't always easiest to read. With X-Force I kind of had the problem of getting tired of reading his dialogue even though I could follow the plot and I loved his XML run. His stories are best in small doses.

1. When I think of characters who are important to the X-men mythos, I think of the characters that the main X-men stories were about. Take Angel, for example: he was in the Dark Phoenix Saga and DoFP, but those stories weren't about him at all; in fact, it wouldn't have changed the stories at all if he hadn't been in them. That's just an example of a couple stories, of course, but do you see what I mean?

2. Well it was only retroactively asserted that Rachel was in DoFP; originally that character had no last name (remember, Claremont had just killed Jean and when Rachel did appear as we know her, it was from an alternate future) and her only role in the story was to explain how the mind transfer could take place -if that was the only story she was in, she would have no character. The Askani aren't really important to the X-men either, having only been featured in spin-off books like X-force and X-factor. Don't get me wrong, Rachel is one of my favorite X-men characters (especially from her time on Excalibur :v), but she's rarely been very important to the story of the X-men themselves. Maybe if Jean had stayed dead after DPS Rachel would have become an important character, but that's not how that went down.

3. X-man wasn't even important to the X-men in AoA, and was only briefly associated with them afterwards. His own series was about him, not the X-men, so I don't see it as being important to the X-men's story whatsoever. Cable's maybe somewhat more relevant if only for his connection to Cyclops and reoccurring association with the team during big crossovers, but not because he was ever a long-standing member or central to the story. To me Cable's an honorary X-man at best, and X-man is not even noteworthy.

4. I disagree. I mean, Quicksilver is Magneto's son and had his first appearances in X-men as well, but we don't consider him a major X-men character because of it. And a character having fans doesn't make them important to the story; like I say, I'm a big fan of Rachel, but I can still see that she's not one of the most relevant characters :/

5. By that rational Mimic and Stacy X would be important characters. I don't see it that way.

6. When both characters returned to the team in the 90's, Iceman was featured regularly in both books, while Angel barely appeared at all, a trend that continued for decades since. Iceman's character development may not have been as drastic as Angel's, but I do think it could be argued he had just as much. And as a character featured in far more stories, I think it's still safe to say he was more of a main character. And almost all of Angel's character development took place in X-factor and X-force and, to my mind, was only marginally important to the story of the X-men themselves.

hopefully Rachel Summers.....

616 adult Jean Grey.

RIP.

@rubear: @koays:

@oldnightcrawler: I completely get what you're saying and in a way I agree with you. However, by your definition only important characters are A-listers like Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine and Jean etc. And these characters are around pretty much all the time. Even when they're dead they are featured in some form (Jean, Wolverine) so to me it's kind of pointless to even mention those characters in a thread like this and I just sort of automatically disqualify them from the discussion in my mind and focus on B- and C-list characters like Gen X, New Mutants and New X-Men students.

I have to disagree with you on Iceman getting the same amount let alone more development than Angel. Angel's development may have taken place in a spin-off title and Iceman may have been a cast member on main x-books more than him (has he really?) but I still think Angel is more important, relevant and better developed. For one, other than having been revealed to be an Omega level mutant who's an underachiever when it comes to utilizing his powers Iceman is still pretty much the same goofball that he was back in the 60's and even when a writer (Liu) has done something with him it's been ignored and forgotten and he's been mostly stuck in this loop of the same story.

Meanwhile Angel's story has been continued from him having his wings cut and being turned into a Horseman for a time to then him getting his angel wings back only to be revealed that they were still techno-organic and then he developed a dual personality and started running X-Force with Logan which eventually lead to Dark Angel Saga where he died and was then reborn. Aside from that Psylocke and him are probably one of the most prominent x-couples and he's had multiple girlfriends before and after and had that unrequited love for Jean like Wolvie did.

So basically if we oversimplify it a little, it's like Iceman has been hanging around in the main titles while Angel was off in the satellite titles getting panel time and actual focus. To me the latter is the better option and it doesn't make the story less relevant simply because it was told in a satellite title. Those titles still count and can have great stories that have effect on and influence the ongoing X-Men story. For example Angel's time as a Horseman has been quite the influence on X-Men comics where it's become a tradition for X-Men members to be turned into Horsemen so much that it's almost a kind of a joke. (Hey, even a bad influence is better than no influence!)

On top of that we've had more adaptations of Angel's stories than Iceman's. Even TAS featured that story and Angel wasn't even an X-Man there. Iceman's only appearance in TAS didn't adapt any of his stories from comics. And even the upcoming film will have the Angel as Horseman story being a big part of it while Iceman continues to contribute very little to the films themselves. Same as the comics, he's around but doesn't really get to do anything, he's just kind of there.

Edit: Well, to be fair his relationship with Rogue got a bit of a focus but that is one of those things Fox added there which didn't originate from the comics. (Ultimate comics got it from the films, not the other way around)

hope summers but i want to see a new x-force with hope being in charge

I imagine we wont ever see Hope Summers again since her part in X-Men history has come to it's conclusion and no one seemed to be able to figure out what else to do with her since.

okay, well.. Moonstar and Wolfsbane were important New Mutants characters I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't around for a while.. Chamber and Husk were important Generation X characters that never seem to be relevant enough to the X-men to do much with.. Beak and Angel Salvadore were important to the original New X-Men, but we probably won't see them again after Secret Wars..

Academy X/New X-men seem like they've gone back to just being background characters (like they and most every student team always were outside of their own book), but while some of them are sometimes featured with the main team, it kind of seems like there's an effort to keep them together as a set (more so than other student teams which are usually broken up and pillaged after their book ends), which makes me think they want to be able to give them their own book again at some point.

with the student casts, I guess I mostly think of them as supporting characters outside of their own books, so I guess I'm more pleasantly surprised when they are part of the main story, than, say, disappointed when they aren't.

As for your B or C-list actual X-men (beyond, say Cannonball, Husk, Armor, etc),

• yeah, probably won't see Bishop or Rachel Grey too much for a while (already have two time-displaced characters on the main team),
• Northstar probably won't be used now that Iceman's gay (messed up, but probably accurate);
• they're always trying to do stuff with Havok, but mostly it seems like people don't care, so I could see him being retired again whenever,wouldn't surprise me if Gambit and Rogue were in the same boat (but maybe they're too A-list to disappear for too long)..
• I dunno if anyone knows what to do with Angel anymore anyways, so I could see him disappearing in favor of the All-new Angel..

For me it just seems like Angel's got his story (basically, becoming Archangel in various permutations), and it's decent enough, but even when he's actually on the team, he's still kind of caught up in his own thing more than a really central member of the team or the main story (the SF/Utopia era being maybe the only exception to that, and kind of just barely).

Besides being a central member on the team far more often than Angel (it's true, trust me, I've read almost all of them), Iceman's been developing close relationships with several other characters on the main team ever since the 90's, where his big brother role from X-factor carried over to characters like Rogue and Jubilee, who were themselves main characters at the time. Later, when characters like Polaris, Northstar, or Cannonball were getting the spotlight, he was central to all of their stories.

Besides just not being around as much, Angel's only real connections to the team were Psylocke and the other original members (who Iceman was also close to), while Iceman was a central supporting character for several main characters. Iceman's character moments may be more subtle and change him less over time, but his role on the team (and therefore to the stories) have almost always been a far more central constant to the tone and personality of the team than Angel's ever was.

yeah, Angel's Archangel story has been adapted a few times, but that's kind of all people do with Angel because he's sort of only got that one story. Iceman might not have any truly iconic story that people associate with him, but he's been a more constant voice on more versions of the team, ultimately contributing more to the personality of the team.

People say that Ultimate comics got it from the film, but in truth Iceman had a very intensely close platonic relationship with Rogue through most of the mid-90's (confiding things in her that he didn't confide in others, going to look after her whenever she left the team, etc), which carried over into multiple subsequent versions of the team later. I honestly always felt that it was that closeness that inspired the romantic relationship in both adaptations.

The important X-Men are probably:

Cyclops

Jean Grey

Angel

Iceman

Beast

Colossus

Storm

Wolverine

Nightcrawler

Kitty Pryde

Rogue

Psylocke

Bishop

Cable

Gambit

So, the 90's trio look to be in danger, Rogue is now an Avengers, Kitty is Star-Lord with boobs, Wolverine is dead, Jean + Angel are the 05 version, Cyke is MIA but is too important to be in danger and Beast is an inhuman.

So we have:

Iceman, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler and Psylocke in the X-books.

Cyclops can count too since he won't be MIA for long.

Wow... this is depressing lol.

I think Gambit is in trouble, but for all the wrong reasons. I actually think the movie could be well done, and I am very much looking forward to it. I don't see Marvel using Gambit (not in one of the new books, and that is apparently not him in Daredevil), and, much like the FF, see Marvel not wanting to promote a movie not of their (Disney) making. Like Channing, Gambit is my character. If Gambit isn't in any of the books, then there are no Marvel books I'll be buying. If he's in a book, I'll buy it. Simple logic, but this petty war between the studios is really a major "screw you" to the fans.