X-Men (Semi) Daily

Posting our favorite mutants and X-Men characters on an occasional basis and hopefully giving an in-road to their comics. Admin uses She/It. Inspired by DailyMutantsX on Twitter

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Today's X-Character of the Day is Danielle Moonstar A.K.A. Psyche A.K.A. Moonstar A.K.A. Mirage

First Appearance: Marvel Graphic Novel: The New Mutants (September 1982)

Created By: Christ Claremont and Bob McLeod

Powers: Dani has the power to manifest someone's worst fears or their heart's desire. She's also occasionally granted the powers of a Valkyrie and has a pet Pegasus named Brightwind.

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For Dani you can very easily just start with her first appearance in Marvel Graphic Novel: The New Mutants and pick up with New Mutants #1 and just start reading. If you want to skip straight to the Dani-centric stuff (or have seen the New Mutants movie) you can read the Demon Bear Saga starting with issue #18. After that you can jump to New Mutants Vol. 3 by Zeb Wells as Dani plays a major role in that, and it takes place after she lost her powers following House of M which gives an interesting layer to her character. As of writing the limited series Moonstar: Edge of Doubt by Ashley Allen and Eduardo Audino has just finished up and is a really fun time if you want a quicker read!

As always feel free to add your own suggestions and give recommendations for how to improve the blog! I'm planning on making a big X-Men reading guide soon for this blog soon which will give more general jumping on points for the franchise ^^

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Today's X-Character of the Day is Emma Frost A.K.A. The White Queen!

First Appearance: X-Men #129 (October 1979)

Created By: Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Powers: Emma's an omega-level mutant with the power of telepathy, and a secondary mutation to turn her body into pure diamond - though she's unable to use her telepathy in that form

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The most obivous recommendation for her is Grant Morrison's New X-Men (2001), which is the story that really sets her redemtion in stone and sees her officially join the X-Men. And it is in general one of the best X-Men runs out there. You can also read Generation X (1994) which sees her and Banshee teach a new class of mutant students. If you want a more villainous Frost, I'd recommend just starting with her first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #129 and read up through the Dark Phoenix Saga as she plays a pretty big role in the first half of that storyline.

As always if you have any additional suggestions feel free to add them! Or in general any suggestions for how to improve this blog ^^

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Today's X-Character of the day is Xuân Cao Mạnh A.K.A. Shan A.K.A. Karma!

First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up #100 (September 1980)

Created By: Chris Claremont and Frank Miller

Powers: Karma is a telepath with the ability to possess others! She's also a lesbian, which on this blog is a power in of itself!

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Now some may wonder why I'm doing Shan before many of the other more iconic X-Characters out there. Well, it's because the New Mutants are my favorite X-Team and I want everyone to read their books! Of course for Shan I'd reccomend starting with Marvel Team-Up #100, which is a pretty fun issue featuring Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. After that you can go to Marvel Graphic Novel #4, which sees the initial team being gathered. Unfortunately she's only on the team from New Mutants #1-6, though eventually rejoins from issues #29-54. She then goes into the Wolverine solo from the time and disappears for a while again. The next big reccomendation I have is New Mutants (2009) #1-25, which is Zeb Wells' run on the team and finally promotes Shan to being one of the leads of the book, which she deserves.

As always feel free to add your own suggestions or give ideas for how to improve this blog! I have a few ideas but for now I'm liking this format ^^

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Today's X-Character of the Day is Jean Elaine Grey A.K.A. Marvel Girl A.K.A. Phoenix

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (July 1963)

Created By: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Powers: Jean Grey is an omega-level mutant with the abilities of telepathy and telekinesis. She's also the occasional host of all powerful cosmic entity known as the Phoenix.

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Jean is a harder character to reccomend readings for because, compared to her teammates, she's spent a lot of time dead. Of course you can simply start with X-Men #1 from 1963, however I feel like for most of her history up until Chris Claremont took over she generally gets reduced to being "the girl" of the team and not much else. You can start with Giant Size X-Men #1 and read Claremont's run up through the end of the Dark Phoenix saga (issues 94-137) though she's not a very consistent member of the team. Specifically you can read Uncanny X-Men #97-101 which covers the original Phoenix storyline, after which she disappears for a bit, and then Uncanny X-Men #125-137 sets up and goes through the Dark Phoenix saga. You can also start with X-Factor (1986) #1 which sees the original five X-Men reunite. Grant Morrisson's New X-Men from 2001 is another good place to start as that run's generally really good and gives an interesting potential end to Jean's story. I've also heard X-Men: Red (2018) is a good read though I haven't personally read it. It is one of the few stories that lets Jean stand on her own, though.

As always feel free to add your own recommendations or suggestions for how to improve this blog ^^

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Today's X-Character of the day is Scott Summers A.K.A. Cyclops!

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (July 1963)

Created By: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Powers: Scott has the ability to blast powerdul concussive beams from his eyes, however due to a traumatic brain injury as a kid he's unable to control them.

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Cylcops is another character where you can simply start with Giant-Size X-Men #1 and read from there. You can start with the issue of Lee and Kirby's X-Men though I wouldn't reccommend that as I personally find most of the 60s content pretty boring. You can also start with X-Factor (1986) #1, which sees the original five X-Men reunite and form a team to continue Charles Xavier's dream. That does pretty quickly lead into the Mutant Massacre and Inferno events, both extremely important storylines to the late 80s. If you want more modern stuff New X-Men by Grant Morrison would be my recommendation. It sets the stage for Scott throughout most of the aughts and 2010s and is one of the best runs of X-Men imo.

Feel free to add your own recommendations in the comments or give suggestions for how to improve this blog. I hope everyone has a wonderful day ^^

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Today's X-Character of the day is Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin A.K.A. Colossus!

First Appearance: Giant-Size X-Men #1 (April 1975)

Created by: Len Wein and Dave Cockrum

Powers: Piotr has the ability to transform his body into pure organic steel, enhancing his strength and durability to a massive degree. He's also a very talented artist!

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For Colossus I don't think you can go wrong with just starting with Giant-Size X-Men #1 and going from there starting with Uncanny X-Men #94. It leads to one of the best eras of the comics which defines a lot of things and he's one of the main members of the team. He also has a small arc in the original Secret Wars event that's an interesting point in his character's history. If you want something a bit more immediately action packed you could skip to the Mutant Massacre event starting with Uncanny #210 which is a big crossover between the X-Men, X-Factor, and a buncha other characters, in which a lot of shit happens to Colossus.

Admittedly his stories post-Claremont are kind of a blind spot for me, so feel free to add your own below. And also always, feel free to add suggestions for how to improve this blog ^^

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average new mutants plot

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For this blog's first post today's X-Character of the Day is Erik "Magnus" Lensherr A.K.A. Max Eisenhardt A.K.A. Magneto! He also went by Michael Xavier for a bit. Huh!

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (July 1963)

Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Powers: Erik is an omega-level mutant who posseses mastery over the electromagnetic spectrum able to manipulate almost every form of metal, create electromagnetic forcefields, and many many other things over his 60 year history.

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Suggesting issues to read for Magneto is tough because for the first 20 or so years of his appearance it's pretty sporatic. I wouldn't recommend a lot of the 60s content since in my opinion that's not really Magneto in the way we understand him now. I would recommend Uncanny X-Men #s 150, 161, and 200 as that covers the start of his redemption arc, his history with Charles Xavier, and the famous Trial of Magneto story. If you read those and like the idea of him being a headmaster that gets fleshed out a lot more in New Mutants starting with issue #35! Magneto: Testament is a miniseries from 2008 that's also worth a read as it covers a lot of his backstory hinted at in those old Chris Claremont issues, though it is VERY heavy in its content as it's about his time in the Holocaust. But! It's also the first time he's explicity identified as Jewish on page, though it was heavily implied previously.

Feel free to add your own recommendations or suggestions for how to improve this blog/format! These first few posts will definitely be me feeling it out ^^