There is only so much room for memorable X-Men heroes!  With a history that runs almost 50 years and about 6,001 team books between them, The X-Men are a very big bunch of people!  Many of them stand out.  Wolverine, for example, is so iconic that he has been a member of a dozen X-teams, as well as The New Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the New Fantastic Four!  On the flipside of that, you have characters like Firefist.  Yeah, that guy.  If you don't remember the name, then you aren't nearly the nerd as the people who edit Wikipedia are.  Thanks to them, I have been able to cobble together a list of the Top 12 Most Forgettable X-Men Heroes of All-Time!  You'll see some names you might know, but a lot of them that only the most hardened X-Men fan will recognize.  I can almost guarantee that 99% will have either never heard of or barely-remember my #1 pick.  Will I be proven right?  Read it and find out...
 
12. Lifeguard/Thunderbird (III)/Slipstream: Three for the price of one!  Lifeguard is/was essentially a walking deus ex machina with her power to gain new powers in order to save someone's life.  Thunderbird (III) was a man who had plasma powers and became a romantic item with her.  Slipstream, meanwhile, is/was Lifeguard's brother and has/had the power to teleport.  When the latter found out that his sister was an alien, he ran off- never to be seen again.  The other two, meanwhile, have yet to make a major comic appearance in the last five years.  Ouch.

 
11. Sunspot: I'm probably going to get flack for this one.  As a member of the New Mutants, Sunspot had a very curious power- he gained super-strength, but only when exposed to sunlight.  You're the opposite of Night Girl!  I don't hate his powers or anything, but that's just too binding.  To be fair, he has been given more powers in recent years to combat this complaint, which is why he's ranked low on this list.

 
10. Skin/Bedlam: Sorry you had to die for no reason!  This pair of characters never really became as big as the others, so they suffered for it.  Skin had, well, super-stretchy skin, while Bedlam could disrupt the energy signature in electronic devices.  Unfortunately for them, both of them were amongst the characters crucified in an X-Men tale that Atop The Fourth Wall fans should recognize.  While Magma and Jubilee were saved, these guys were not.  Oh well.

 
9. Feral: Who needs another Wolverine?  This lady X-Men character has a long history behind her.  She was part of X-Force and X-Factor, but never really amounted to a whole lot.  With M-Day, she lost her powers (alongside thousands of mutants).  In a Wolverine story, she seemed to gain her powers back via science...but was killed by Sabretooth.  As it turns out, she only get her, well, feral appearance back, but not her powers.  Double ouch!

 
8. Archer/Fixx: A double dose of time-travelers.  Evidently the 500 survivors from the dark X-Future wasn't enough, so we get Archer and Fixx.  The two had different powers- Archer can shoot energy, while Fixx can make psionic sprites- but the same basic character concept.  They were also both transported into human bodies in the present day.  The two haven't had appeared since the end of X-Factor either.  Yea.  Speaking of which, they had a partner...

 
7. Greystone: I hope you're happy that you died as a plot device.  As part of X-Factor, this guy is only notable for going a bit crazy and trying to build a time machine.  Unfortunately, the thing blew up, killing him and sending Havok into the Mutant X series.  You're so memorable, Greystone!

 
6. Cypher: This would be a great power to have in any other context.  This New Mutants character has a power that completely beats any Rosetta Stone software you can buy.  You see, he can speak/read any language in the world...or more.  While I'd love to have that power myself, it does very little good when Juggernaut is barreling down on you.  He died.

 
5. M-Twins: This one is a bit weird, but try to keep up.  In Generation X, Monet was gone for a bit and came back a bit different.  In the aftermath of a battle, two girls were found in place of her.  As it turns out, the pair were mutants who could merge and take on new forms.  The form they chose, of course, was Monet.  The whole story wrapped up in Generation X #58 and the characters have neither been seen or mentioned since.  The real Monet, meanwhile, appears in the current run of X-Factor.  Burn!

 
4. Thunderbird (original): What bad luck!  With Giant-Size X-Men #1, the comic world met a slew of international X-Men characters.  Amongst them were future heavy-hitters like Colossus and Storm...and Thunderbird.  Having apparently drawn the shortest straw, this character was killed off early into the team's run because...um, why not?  If only you'd lasted... 

 
3. Firefist: Don't call me Rusty!  This New Mutant had the power to summon fire and cover his body in it.  Gee, you're not The Human Torch.  Unfortunately for the character, he had a run of bad luck that ended up with him being mind-controlled and working for Holocaust...who killed him and took his energy.  On the plus side, he got a guest-spot on the X-Men Animated Series, alongside Boom-Boom and other unused New Mutants.

 
2. Maggott: How did you make the team?  This bizarre character was introduced as part of the many X-Men revivals alongside Joseph.  How did that guy fare?  Oh right- he's dead.  This 'mutant' had blue skin and two giant slugs that he could communicate with.  I live in a house with two cats, but that doesn't make me a mutant.  So yeah, he died and nobody really seemed to care all that much.  Sorry, guy.

 
1. Gomi, Bill and Don: Do you honestly remember these characters?  The X-Men comics spun-off into New Mutants, which also spun-off into a maxi-series (8 issues) called Fallen Angels.  Go ahead- I'll give you a minute to Google this.  Back now?  While many of the characters went on to greater things, Gomi did not.  He had the power of telekinesis and he had two pet lobsters (Bill and Don) to aid him.  No, really.  After issue #8, the team broke up and he never appeared again, only getting a name-drop in a Civil War tie-in comic.  By the way, that comic was released in 1987!

 
For other comic book and film talk, go to my blog.  Now with more Sugar- because it's RETRO!

Next up, I take some potshots at DC Comics instead with the imminent release of Green Lantern.  Who are the most forgettable Justice League members of all-time?  Stay tuned...