Weakest X-Men In The Movies

April 17, 2024

Highlights

Cyclops’ leadership and power were downplayed in the 2000s X-Men movies, overshadowed by other characters.
Emma Frost’s powerful telepath abilities were underwhelmingly portrayed in X-Men: First Class, diminishing her character.
Nightcrawler’s combat potential was largely ignored in X2, reducing him to a mutant taxi and missing out on his backstory.

When it comes to the X-Men, not all mutants are created equal. Some have extraordinary, world-altering abilities, like Jean Grey or Storm. Others are a bit less influential, with abilities that aren’t all that powerful, like the kid from X2 who can change TV channels by blinking, or Wraith, whose only ability is to make his skin transparent.

Not every X-Man has gotten a chance at stardom. Here are five mighty mutants who have earned their movie debut.

However, there are times when a powerful mutant from the X-Men comics is adapted for a live-action movie and becomes…a bit less powerful. Often, this isn’t the fault of the actors playing the character so much as the way they’ve been written, but it’s always disappointing to see some classic X-Men team members brought low by a poor adaptation. These are the worst offenders, powerful X-Men in the comics who became much weaker in the movies.

6 Cyclops

X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Anyone who’s seen a demonstration of Cyclops’ powers knows that he is far from weak. His laser eye beams, while a nightmare for him to get through life with, are a devastating ability that demolish anything he turns his gaze upon. He wears his red-tinted sunglasses (or visor) at all times to hold his lasers back, because otherwise, nothing can stop them. Yet despite this, Cyclops is an excellent leader, and a fine teacher at Xavier’s school as well, and anyone currently watching X-Men ’97 knows just how awesome his powers can be.

Yet the Cyclops we get in Brian Singer’s 2000s X-Men trilogy is a bit of a wimp. Yes, his lasers are still very powerful, but the strong and reliable leader that is so often behind them is nowhere to be seen. Technically, Cyclops is still the leader of the X-Men in these movies, but he is almost always usurped by either Wolverine or Professor X on missions, rarely getting any opportunity to take charge. Couple that with his “romance” with Jean Grey relegating him to a third wheel as she and Logan take center stage, and these movies definitely did Cyclops a disservice.

5 Emma Frost

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Emma Frost diamond form x-men: first class

Emma Frost is one of the most enigmatic and complicated characters in the X-Men canon. She begins as the lackey of a mobster, then joins the Hellfire Club, gets sick of Sebastian Shaw and joins The Brotherhood of Mutants, is captured by the X-Men, and eventually reforms herself into one of the most influential and powerful members of the X-Men, and one of the most valued teachers at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. She’s also an exceptionally-powerful telepath – sometimes able to rival Xavier himself – and can turn her skin into diamond.

However, Emma Frost’s depiction in X-Men: First Class leaves much to be desired. She still goes from mobster to Hellfire Club to Brotherhood of Mutants, and she’s still a powerful telepath – at one point overpowering Magneto and throwing him off a boat – but she always seems to be beholden to one man or another, often taking a backseat to their ambitions as opposed to changing loyalties for her own purposes. She’s also easily restrained by Magneto at another point in the movie, and still eventually joins him at the movie’s conclusion once Shaw is killed, only to be casually killed off-screen herself if a quote from X-Men: Days of Future Past is anything to go by. Overall, it was a very underwhelming appearance from a character who has a lot more to give.

4 Nightcrawler

X2 (2003)

Nightcrawler’s introduction in X2 was a moment for the ages. His teleportation abilities are on full display as he breaks into the White House and adeptly clears through every Secret Service agent in the building, making it all the way to the Oval Office where he leaves a clear message for the President: “Mutant Freedom Now.” It’s an epic intro to what remains one of the best X-Men movies ever made, but unfortunately, it’s also Nightcrawler’s best moment.

Michael Fassbender as Magneto. Rebecca Romijn as Mystique.

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As so often happens with characters who have teleportation abilities, Nightcrawler spends the rest of the movie doing little more than acting as short-range transportation for the rest of the X-Men, rarely getting another opportunity to show off his combat prowess. He basically just becomes a mutant taxi. It does a huge disservice to his comic book character, who is one of the most beloved and well-respected members of the X-Men. Nightcrawler was even cut from X-Men: The Last Stand, meaning his fantastic backstory – including his relation to Mystique – was never explored, leaving both characters underdeveloped as a result.

3 Wolfsbane

The New Mutants (2020)

Played by Maisie Williams

Wolfsbane is, to be blunt, just a werewolf. She has more control of her powers than the average werewolf, in that she can transform at will and can fully become a wolf, on top of her more lycan-esque form, but really, that’s all there is to her powers. As such, she’s not exactly the strongest mutant on the block. However, she has been through a lot on a personal level, from being orphaned as a baby to being chased out of her hometown when her mutant powers emerged, which has hardened her as a character. Eventually, she ends up joining the X-Force, and is even a teacher at Xavier’s school for a bit.

Unfortunately, we see none of that in her character’s first live-action appearance in The New Mutants. This version of Wolfsbane is still terrified of her powers, and is reluctant to use them at all due to her strict religious upbringing, meaning an already average-strength mutant is weakening herself further for most of the movie. This is the kind of character arc that would typically come around by the end of an X-Men movie, but she doesn’t really get that opportunity either, and is left as a mostly-forgettable character in a mostly-forgettable movie who rarely uses her abilities in any way.

2 Angel

X-Men: The Last Stand (2007), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Played by Ben Foster in X-Men: The Last Stand
Played by Ben Hardy in X-Men: Apocalypse

Angel has appeared in the third movie of both X-Men film series, and both times, they’ve bungled his adaptation. The Angel in X-Men: The Last Stand at least has a compelling character arc (carried in large part by the always excellent Ben Foster), but it has nothing to do with his comic book inspiration. The Angel from the comics was a superhero long before he joined the X-Men, and was never so disillusioned by his powers that he would deliberately seek to cure his mutation. He’s basically the Iron Man of the X-Men, a rich, carefree kid with wings who just loves saving people, and was a founding member of the X-Men because of it.

Saddest X-Men Movie Deaths (Magneto and Logan)

The X-Men movie franchise has had its fair share of heart-breaking moments; across the films, most fan-favorite characters have died at least once.

X-Men: Apocalypse really does a number on Angel though. While it does adapt an actual arc from Angel’s comic history – where Apocalypse recruits him to be one of his Four Horsemen and gives him metal wings – the movie skips everything that leads up to this moment. In fact, it skips pretty much everything about Angel’s character, period. This is a mutant who’s been a member of almost every major team in Marvel canon: The Avengers, The X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, The Defenders, and more. He’s an iconic Marvel character – especially the metal-winged Archangel – and yet, in this movie, he barely says anything and gets knocked out by a plane. Angel has never been the strongest X-Man, but he’s certainly stronger than this.

1 Jubilee

X2 (2003), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Played by Kea Wong in X2
Played by Lana Condor in X-Men: Apocalypse

Jubilee is in a unique place as a mutant. Her power to generate light explosions of varying intensity – which she calls “fireworks” – isn’t always presented in a way that makes her seem powerful. However, she’s also shown that these light explosions can blind people, blow apart trees and metal, and even detonate subatomic particles and cause a nuclear explosion, depending on the intensity she applies to them. She’s also immune to telepathic influence, making her a very slippery student for Xavier and Jean Grey to deal with, and she trained under Wolverine, which is hardly something a weak person would survive.

Neither version of Jubilee in the movies displays any of this ability. In X2, she’s captured by William Stryker – who is not a mutant – and has to be rescued by the X-Men. In X-Men: Apocalypse, she’s captured by William Stryker, and has to be rescued by the X-Men. At least in Apocalypse, she uses her powers one time to play an arcade machine for free, but of all the well-known mutants to get multiple live-action treatments, Jubilee has been completely disrespected as a character in both instances.