X-FACTOR:

CAROLYN FRANCES XAVIER (DOCTOR X): Commonly called the world's most powerful telepath. People like Mary Richards and John Grey in his Phoenix mode are actually more powerful, but Carolyn's combination of raw power, age and experience, still make her one of the most versatile teeps on the planet. In her civilian identity, is a civil rights activist, feminist, renowned psychiatrist most famous for her work with trauma cases and catatonics, and educator, whose Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters went co-ed with the introduction of John Grey (previously it had been the Xavier School for Gifted Young Women.) She can walk, but only slowly and with the aid of a cane, as her right leg was shattered by HYDRA five years before X-Factor's first mission. Has a daughter, Danielle Haller, resident at the school, five as of the first mission. In her superhero identity, she is the founder and mentor of X-Factor, a team consisting (originally) of five mutant teenagers, four girls and a boy. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

STEPHANIE SUMMERS (FOCUS): Stephanie is a serious orphan girl who is completely shy and insecure with the opposite sex, so hides this by pretending they don't exist. She is dyslexic, and has thus been labeled as "brain damaged" and so was never adopted. Her younger sister was adopted, so Stephanie hasn't seen her in years. Despite her dyslexia (which, with Dr. Xavier's help, no longer seriously impairs her-- she just reads slowly), Stephanie has phenomenol spatial perception and high math abilities. Dr. Xavier is the first parent figure she's had, and they're working together on recovering her memories and tracking down her missing sister Sandy. Stephanie's mutant eye beams are uncontrollable without her ruby quartz glasses or visor, requiring her to be rigidly disciplined to avoid hurting anyone with her powers. Has a serious crush on John, but is sure she doesn't have a chance. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

JOHN GREY, JR. (DYNAMO): Already the most powerful member of the team, John is a telepath/telekinetic who was traumatized by the death of a friend, when he was 12. Dr. Xavier brought him out of catatonia then, and has been working with him to control his powers; as of X-Factor's first mission, he's voluntarily inhibited against using his telepathy with anyone but Dr. Xavier, and is constantly being drilled on control and focus of his TK. Assertive, strong-willed, and a little unnerved by being the only guy in a school full of girls. He has a massive crush on Dr. Xavier, which probably won't prevent him from being interested in teammates as well. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

BOBBI DRAKE (SNOWFLAKE): To all appearances, Bobbi is a flirtatious, silly, dumb blonde with a wacky sense of humor. There's more to her than that, and she desperately does not want anyone to know this. Bobbi has no idea what she wants with her life; she originally thought she'd get married and have kids, just because that's what girls do, but for now she thinks it's cool to be a superhero. Dr. Xavier's vision of a world where girls-- and mutants-- can truly be themselves is appealing to her, although she isn't sure what she would be if she could be herself, and isn't even entirely aware that the blonde bimbo she plays at *isn't* herself. Bobbi pretends to be extremely interested in guys, and yet, despite being pretty and flirtatious, somehow never manages to date any. There's a reason for that, but Bobbi herself is in serious denial about the reasons. As of the first mission, her control over her power has extended to covering her body with snow, and making things of ice that, well, look rather snowy. Adaptor: Alestar (writeup by Alara Rogers)

HENRIETTA (ETTIE) MCCOY: (AMAZON): Ettie is a remarkably gifted young woman-- brilliant, strong, agile and quick. Unfortunately, in a world that primarily values girls for their beauty, an average face and huge, apelike hands and feet are a virtual guarantee of pain, no matter what other gifts you have. Ettie has heard the taunts of "Ape-girl!" all her life. She was raised by good folks, and she *wants* very much to believe in Dr. Xavier's vision of a world where humans and mutants are accepted for what they are, where a girl who's brilliant and athletic can be accepted as well as a boy who was, even if she's ugly. Unfortunately, her life experiences have left her unsure if that is possible. In some ways, she's the most ferocious in battle against Polaris and the Mutant Menace, because she finds Polaris' brand of radical feminism and pro-mutant extremism seductive... Her wit and erudition cover up a deep bitterness at the world. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

WENDY WORTHINGTON (ANGEL): Born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth, Wendy Worthington was the "poor little rich girl." She has always had the best: horseback riding lessons, charm school, the entire deal. Problem was, Wendy grew up privileged and with little attention from her parents. So she grew up to be a haughty, arrogant little bitch who knew that money talks. She also knew she had power from her looks, and wasn't above using that to get what she wanted. However, when she was a teenager, she found her world thrown askew as pains in her back revealed the fact that she was growing a pair of white, feathred wings. Mortified by this, she kept them hidden beneath her clothes, until her dormitory caught fire one night. While she was narcissistic and selfish, Wendy was not quite selfish enough to let her classmates and friends burn to death. So she revealed her wings in the process of rescuing them. It was the vision of a beautiful blonde in a sheer nightgown, wings silhouetted against the fire, that gave her the nickname Angel. She took that as her codename as well, once Carolyn Xavier approached her to form a mutant group.

However, Wendy much preferred her wealthy life. She never entirely had her heart in the feminism thing. Who needs to fight for sexual equality when money can get men to wait on you hand and foot? She will stay with the team, most likely, until she sees it's not all fun and games -- and gets hurt. Then it's time to move on ... at which point she sees that the dream has rubbed off on her somewhere -- and that she can't separate being a mutant from being a woman. This will either bring her *back* to Carolyn's fold, or have her starting her own group. Adaptor: Raafel Sant'Anna Meyer (writeup by Indigo)

ALEXANDRA SUMMERS (HAVOK): The sister of Stephanie Summers, who Stephanie finds before her powers fully manifest after Stephanie undergoes therapy to recover her memories. "Sandy", who later takes up the nickname Alex, is brought into the school as an emotionally damaged young woman recovering from repressive, overcontrolling foster parents, and has psychological issues with the concept of control by other people or by herself. After swinging in the opposite direction of the repression she suffered and becoming something of a wild girl, eventually Alex will settle down and seek stability in her life, drop the superhero shtick, go to college and study geology. She becomes involved with Lorne Dane very early on (and in fact is a major factor in his quitting the Mutant Menace and joining X-Factor.) Adaptor: Alara Rogers

LORNE DANE (MAGNETO): Lorne was a good kid from a good middle-class family, but a sense of alienation from his family (he was adopted, and never felt like he fit in) and a need to belong led him to join up with a bad crowd in high school. One day he dropped acid for the first time. This catalyzed his latent mutant powers, and brought him to the attention of Polaris, who forced him to join the Mutant Menace and claimed she was his natural mother (actually, she put Dreamweaver in charge of recruiting the boy, Dreamweaver told him Polaris was his mother, and Polaris played along.) Desperate for a genetic family and a place to fit in, Lorne tried to follow Polaris, but his heart wasn't in it-- he didn't hate humans and he couldn't bring himself to kill people. And then he fell madly in love with X-Factor's blonde powerhouse Havok, and betrayed Polaris to protect her, and Alex for her part dug up information stating Lorne's mother was not Polaris. With one thing and another Lorne left the Mutant Menace and sought sanctuary with X-Factor, gladly turning his back on supervillainy. He wasn't really all that into the superhero thing either, though-- mostly he just wanted to be with Alex, and when she decided to quit the team and pursue a science career, he came to the conclusion that that would be better for him too, and went into archaeology. Has a bad habit of getting possessed and manipulated by people. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

OMARI MUNROE (STORM): Child of a black American photographer and an African woman, Omari was orphaned at an early age (and became incurably claustrophobic from the incident that killed his parents.) He was taken in and trained to be a thief by an old man in Cairo; later he wandered the continent of Africa, discovering his powers, and being worshipped as the son of the Goddess in many places. Adaptor: Alara Rogers (writeup by Indigo)

PAVLA (PAULA) NIKOLAEVNA RASPUTINA (TITANIA): Pavla was raised on the Ust-Ordynski Collective, near Lake Baikal in Siberia. She idolized her older sister until Masha defected to the US. Doing farm work helped to develop Pavla's strength, and she grew into a tall, muscular girl. When her powers first manifested themselves, she kept them a secret, because she was worried about how the rest of the Collective would react. But she was forced to reveal them when a tractor nearly ran over her little brother. The other members of X-Factor generally call Pavla 'Paula', a more Western sounding variant of her name.

Pavla is a shy, naive young woman who is insecure about her physical appearance (although she's better off in that department than Ettie is) and uncomfortable with the nature of her powers. American culture is very different than that of her native Siberia, and seems very strange to her. She finds Dr. Xavier's vision of the future inspiring, but has difficulty imagining what such a world would be like, particularly the feminist aspects of it. Her primary solace is drawing or painting, which she enjoys a great deal and is very good at, although she has trouble believing that she is. Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

HEIKE WAGNER (NOCTURNE): She's a bit harder than Kurt, she's had to be to protect herself from the reactions her appearance stirs up. Her personality has more of a biting edge now. She doesn't have any swashbuckling movie heroines to style herself after, though Heike loves the movies. She can blend into the darkness there and forget the fear she so often inspires. She's more of a fan of the old movie queens: Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Maureen O'Hara. She knows she doesn't have to be dainty (she couldn't be if she tried, she's an athletic and dexterous girl) but she's got a sharp tongue to set back any one that might try to sneer at her for any reason. Adaptor: Andrew Wheeler (writeup by Dandelion)

LOREN (HUNTER): Loren is very contradictory. Everything has to be taken situation by situation. She and her ideals are the only permanent fixtures in her life. Everything else turns to dust, eventually. Because of this, she doesn't have complete trust for anybody, and prefers her own company. Also because of this, however, her ideals are the world to her. She is incredibly loyal, with a strong sense of honor and duty. She is also very sentimental of the past.

But don't get me wrong. This stuff doesn't show on the first date. She is, for all appearances, tough, violent, cold, and sexy. She doesn't smile; she smirks. Basiacally, Loren is ancient, she's lived a thousand lives, from government spy to Inuit fisherman to gardening housewife; and this's made her wise and strong. However, this oppresive weight of memories with nothing to show for seems hollow, like a big joke; and that's made her cynical and angry. Physically, she's somewhat similar to Logan. She's short, but not stocky. She's very strong, and it's very apparent by looking at her. She has unruly black hair (it doesn't do that weird pointy thing; I'll never understand that) that comes a little below her shoulders; it always looks windblown. Her eyes are blue, like Logan's, and she has a crooked nose. She's not unattractive; she's very distinctive.

The past does not veer too much from Logan's. Obviously, Loren never officially served in the military; although she was a part of a special ops woman team during the Cold War, and she did some freelance stuff for the government aside from that. She's worked as a mercenary, an assassin. She was an unwilling participant in Project X. Though the original plan had been to manipulate her body into giving birth to the ultimate host for the adamantium, something went wrong (they were in danger of being found out, someone was looking for Loren, they lost their funding, etc.) and they didn't have the time to wait a gestation period, so they simply implanted the adamantium into Loren instead. From there, she did go berserker, and she was found by James and Heather (Jamie and Harlan?) Hudson in the woods, and she did join Alpha Flight. Except, in this continuity, she had an incident with the team that resulted in her leaving (which didn't do wonders for her view of mutant teams) and going back to the freelance thing. This led her to a job that sent her to Japan, where she was hired to assassinate the crime lord, Shingen Yashida. Here, of course, she meets Mariko,Yukio, and, fortunately, Hiroko Yashida. Stuff, stuff, stuff you don't want to hear about, and Loren ends up teaming with Yukio, with whom she lives in Japan. She is approached by Hiroko about X-Factor and, though initially she refuses, stuff, stuff, stuff, she ends up joining X-Factor, which is where the story begins. Adaptor: Alestar.

SHAUNA CASSIDY-ROURKE (BANSHEE): Heiress to Cassidy Keep, a former agent of Interpol, and the widowed mother of Terry Rourke, Shauna first encountered Carolyn Xavier in 1978, where she sought her help and advice with her own powers and Terry's. She didn't join X-Factor until 1980, however, when Carolyn recruited the All-New team. Adaptor: Rivka Jacobs.

STARJAMMERS:

CHRIS (CHRISTINE) "CORSAIR" SUMMERS: Mother of Stephanie and Sandy Summers, widow of Calvin Allan Summers, ex-United States Air Force pilot, leader of the Starjammers. (NOTE: In the canon universe, Christopher Summers was never revealed to be a mutant; however, the creator of this particular XXY character belongs to the school of thought that the Summers power runs on the Y chromosome, therefore the original Chris MUST be a low-level or latent mutant, and therefore he does swap in this universe. Plus, it was too darn cool to pass up and Alara said it was okay. ;) As in the canon universe, Chris and Calvin were taken prisoner by the Shi'ar as human specimens; Calvin barely managed to shove their two terrified daughters to "safety" with a single parachute between them before the little plane was sucked into the belly of the alien warship. D'ken took a liking to the feisty Chris, and when Calvin tried to interfere he was thrown into the slave pits. In his attempt to rescue his wife with the help of several other prisoners, he was gunned down by the guards (well, he wasn't the tough one of the pair in either universe...). Chris was rescued by the escapees, who at first thought that D'ken's latest plaything might prove to be a useful hostage. Heh heh heh. Hardly. After some tense leadership scuffles with Hepzibah, Chris took charge of the motley crew and began to wage a one-ship war of revenge against the mad Emperor, the man who killed her husband...and who also unknowingly planted the third Summers daughter in her belly. See EVE for further details. Adaptor: Kelly "Kielle" Newcomb

EVE (aka EveX): Daughter of Christine "Corsair" Summers and the Shi'ar Emperor D'ken; she is therefore half-Shi'ar. (NOTE: IMHO, in the canon universe AdamX may not be a mutant, as judging by his parentage he doesn't carry any Summers genes. This is assuming that he IS Kate Summer's son by D'ken -- if he is later revealed to be Christopher's lovechild by some little Shi'ar chippie, oh well. In this universe, however, being CHRIS's child, he IS a mutant just like his two sisters and thus swaps over too.) At the time of the "modern" comics he is, well, however old Stephanie is minus however old Steph was when she was tossed out of the plane by her parents (eight? nine?). So about a max of twenty, maybe as young as sixteen. She's been raised on the spaceways by Mom and the Starjammers, so she is not the lonely, melancholy outcast her male counterpart appears to be in the MU. Personality yet to be 100% determined, but she's definitely going to be one wild young piratess. Running her into her more staid older sisters is going to be...amusing. ;) Adaptor: Kelly "Kielle" Newcomb

NEW WARRIORS:

VANESSA ASTROVIK (MARVEL GIRL): As a child, Vanessa Astrovik was fascinated by space travel and superheroes. Her father disapproved of her unfeminine interests, but despite the abuse and beatings she received her interest in space and heroes never failed. Eventually, in the face of a particularly harsh beating, Vanessa's latent powers activated to a small degree, giving her telekinesis with extremely limited range and power. It was enough, though, to cause a blood vessel to burst in her father's neck, incapacitating him but not killing him. Fearing what her father might do and stricken with guilt, she ran away from home. After a few days on the streets, she met Lucky and Ariel and was recruited by them.

During the Coconut Grove incident, Lucky used his previously unknown mutant ability to amplify others' mutant abilities to boost Vanessa's abilities to her full potential. With effort, she was able to stabilize her abilities at that level. After she gained sufficient control over her abilities that she was certain she wouldn't hurt her father again, she returned home to whatever punishment awaited her. She just took whatever abuse her father did to her then and later without resistance, thinking that she deserved it. Once she turned 18, she tried to join the Avengers as something of an atonement for what she had done, only to be rejected by Captain America. She was then recruited into the New Warriors, going by the name Marvel Girl.

Vanessa is as much of a fan of superheroes as her 616 counterpart. Her guilt over hurting her father and fear of doing it again makes her just submit to his abuse without any attempt to defend or even protect herself, since she thinks the pain and bruises are only what she deserves. She's much more underconfident than her counterpart is, and has quite a ways to go before being able to be a competant leader like he is. Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

Andrew Jones (Firebolt): Andrew's mom died when he was young, so he was raised by his father Bartholomew and his paternal grandmother. The family moved quite often due to Bart's job, so Andrew grew up lonely. His grandmother, by sheer coincidence, died on the same day that his powers manifested. He was recruited by Emmett Frost in his Emma guise for the Hellions. Emmett tried to seal Andrew's loyalty to him by convincing Andrew that 'Emma' was the only person who could help him control his powers. During the Hellions' trip to Genosha, he was caught trying to aid the mutates and left there by Frost to be turned into a mutate himself.

He was rescued from Genosha by others after spending a couple of years as a mutate. The mutate process was reversed during or after his rescue. Returning home, he tried to fit himself back into normal life, but discovered he'd been too scarred by his experiences in Genosha to do so. He readily joined the New Warriors when asked, wanting to do his part to stop others' suffering.

Andy is more comfortable with his powers than his mainstream counterpart, but is still leary of using them at their highest levels. He has a lot of anger and emotional scars stemming from his time in Genosha, and a real hatred of Frost and the Hellions. This angers flows over onto other types of victimization, which creates a much stronger desire to be a hero in him than his counterpart ever had. He is also a bit more independantly-minded than his counterpart. Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

Duanne Taylor (Nightfall): Duanne was born into a wealthy family. Her parents were apparently killed by criminals when she was a child. (In actuality, they were killed on Tai's orders because of her father's refusual to participate in the Pact.) The girl pledged herself to a war on crime, and was raised by Andrew Chord and Tai, who was posing as a housekeeper. Provided for by the money her parents left her, she worked to hone her body and mind in pursuit of her purpose.

In time, she met Midnight's Fire and Silhouette, a brother and sister pair who also worked to take down gangs, and began a partnership with them. Silhouette became like a sister to her, and Midnight's Fire became her lover. Things ended badly, with Silhouette getting shot and apparently killed, and Midnight's Fire blaming Duanne for his sister's 'death'. Though she felt burned by the way the partnership ended, it made Nightfall realize how much more she could accomplish with a group, and she began forming the New Warriors.

She is a very driven individual, having spent every waking moment since her parents' deaths studying, training, and preparing for her war on crime. She has a tendency to focus on one goal to the exclusion of all others. At first, she'll be very cold and distant towards her teammates, not wanting to care too much about them in case things go sour. And having had her first romance go to pieces on her has made her very leary of getting romantically involved. She also tends to be closed mouthed and a bit high-handed with the team. Still, she'll give the team a firm direction and is an excellent tactician when not blinded by emotion. She doesn't use a skateboard, but she does use a pair of battle staves similar to the 616 Mockingbird's. [Was Dwayne Taylor, aka Night Thrasher. Yes, there is some slight evidence in the comics for him being a mutant, either low-powered or latent, and I think he's more interesting genderswapped than not.] Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

EXCALIBUR:

MORGAN: Born to a gypsy family during a severe blizzard, his power adapted him to the cold by growing fur. The people in the camp thought he was cursed to be a monster, and their fears influence Morgan through his empathy, causing him to change to fulfill those fears. His family hid him in their van, and he watched TV all day, only coming out at night when they were far from civilization. His memory of this time is blurry due to his out of control powers.

Captain Britain finds Morgan and decides to help him as he did Morgan's mainstream counterpart. However, their relationship develops into something of a big brother/little brother one, not the romantic relationsip that happened in the mainstream for obvious reasons. As a result of this, Brian encouraged Morgan to be assertive and find his own identity more and the two took a trip to Europe looking for Morgan's parents. They didn't find them, but Morgan did find out more about himself from an old, mystical creature that they rescued.

Morgan is an eldritch, fay creature, with powers that are tied to the earth and the British Isles. He is beautiful in a masculine way, and found his true form much earlier than his counterpart did, and it is the form he normally uses. He also has more control over his empathy, which is sort of part and parcel of his ability to see into one of the spirit planes. He does not have the broader elemental control abilities that the 616-Meggan developed. Though he is more assertive and has a strong sense of self than Meggan does, he still has something of her sensitive, caring nature and is fairly innocent. Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

BRIAN BRADDOCK (CAPTAIN BRITAIN): Pretty much the same as his mainstream counterpart. His relationships with his siblings have probably been altered by their swapping, though. Also, when he met up with Courtney Ross again they got together, since Brian was not involved with Morgan like he was with Meggan. Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

CAITLIN MCKAY (KAYLYN): Caitlin was born with cat-slit eyes, a small sign of her mutantcy. When she was seven, the English crime lord Vixen heard of her existance and had Caitlin kidnapped. Caitlin managed to escape due to the overconfidence of the Vixen's henchmen, and hid in a derelict factory (which happened to be the same one that Arcade had built a new Murderworld under). The henchmen tracked Caitlin to the factory, but encountered Excalibur. During the ensuing battle, Torque (Masha Rasputina) accidentally sent Caitlin to another dimension.

The natives who found her saw her arrival as a good omen, and brought her before their Queen, Ai'sha. Caitlin was placed under the care of one of her counselors, the mystic Zz'ria, who trained her as a warrior. Since she was of an age of the Queen's daughter, the Princess Sa'tneen, they became playmates and best friends. After Caitlin, now called Kaylyn, had grown to adulthood, Excalibur arrived, looking for her. Kaylyn, after pondering whether or not to stay, decided to go with Excalibur to try to return home even though a lot less time had probably passed back on Earth. After they finally returned to their home dimension, Kaylyn decided to join Excalibur permanently.

Kaylyn is a serious, dedicated young woman [not that she never laughs or smiles. She isn't 616-Bishop :^)] who is somewhat embarassed by her mutant power to reproduce any sound she's heard. Her only other mutant aspect is her somewhat feline appearance, including a light covering of fur and her cat-slit eyes. She is a master swordswoman who's skills are all the more impressive for not being aided by mutant abilities. The swords she carries are enchanted to cut through both flesh and magic, but are unable to hurt the truly pure of heart. She enjoys the challenge of fighting, but in some ways wishes for a normal life, which is impossible for her now due to her appearance and experiences. Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

SUSAN WRIGHT (MICROMAX): Susan is a British mutant with the ability to control the size and mass of any portion of her body. When she first discovered her ability, the previously flat-chested average looking woman used it to reshape her body into that of a supermodel, and proceded to pursue a career in that. After a time, she became bored with using her power just to reshape her body into that one form, and decided to play at being a super-heroine, since she'd also enjoy the glory that went with it. A little bit after Excalibur formed, she ended up battling beside them and, wanting to cash in on their popularity, asked to join. The members agreed, a decision they sometimes regret.

Susan tends to be a self-absorbed vamp, rather headstrong and prima donna-ish. She'll likely come on to all of the male team members at one point or another. Her powers let her shrink to the point where she'd find it easy to spy on others, but her personality is such that she wouldn't make a very good spy. Even though she goT into the hero business for kicks, she may start to care about her teammates and saving lives despite herself... Or she may not. Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

MARIANNA (MASHA) NIKOLAEVNA RASPUTINA: Six years older than Pavla, Masha was always the bolder and more adventurous of the two sisters. While still young, she demonstrated aptitudes that caused the State to choose her to be trained to become a dancer. She participated in a few performances in the West, and discovered an attraction to the freedom living there would offer. So she defected to the US when she was 20. She now dances as part of a New York City dance company, and has no idea that she is a mutant, as her powers have never manifested themselves. Adaptor: Carolyn Vaughan

THE NEW MUTANTS:

In 1983, Carolyn Xavier re-opens the School for Gifted Youngsters as an actual school, and begins actively recruiting children. The New Mutants are not supposed to be a superhero team-- their training concentrates on teaching them to defend themselves, and make maximal use of their powers in a real world setting as well as in superheroing, if they choose to do that. In other words, they're not intended to graduate and become members of X-Factor necessarily, though Carolyn would very much like it if they did.

DANIELLE HALLER (PSION): The obvious first of the New Mutants. An enormously powerful young mutant, but one who's probably been taught extreme rigid control all her life, given who her mother is. Danielle is a much more openly passionate person than her mother, and is very insecure about where she stands with her mother, who has always seemed to put X-Factor first before her. She'll probably be totally dedicated to her studies in an effort to please her mother, who, in trying to avoid favoritism, will probably not give Danielle nearly as much encouragement as she needs. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

JUDITH MABASO (KOPPA): 16 years old when she joins the New Mutants, Judith is a former student of Polaris', not because she has any belief in Polaris' methods or goals but because Polaris saved her life when she was 12, enabling her powers to manifest-- a pair of sentient sluglike creatures who serve Judith symbiotically to supply her life energy by eating things, as Judith has no digestive system-- and when Judith could not control her slugs, Polaris was the only person she knew to turn to for control. Though she initially resented X-Factor and Carolyn Xavier greatly because she believed them responsible for Polaris' death, when Polaris turned up alive, told her that Carolyn was putting together a school for mutants, and asked her to join, Judith was quite willing to put her resentments behind her. She's a South African black girl, who lived most of her life under apartheid and in grinding poverty, and is absolutely thrilled to be living in the US. Flirts with boys outrageously but would probably be shocked if any of them took her up on it. She's less boastful than her MU counterpart Maggott, younger (because she enters the plot earlier), and her South African dialect isn't quite as strong, as Polaris tried to train her to speak in a way that other people would understand. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

CATSCLAW (TOM SMITH): Though Catsclaw is in fact a human who turns into a cat, he was raised by cats and therefore thinks of himself as a cat who turns into a human. Most of his life's contact with humans was spent with the Morlocks, who also thought he was a mutant cat. He first discovered the ability to turn human when he was shot by minions of Sinister, after hearing and responding to Carolyn Xavier's telepathic call for help when she was deaged. depowered and amnesiac, and he reverted to his body's true shape because of the injury. After Xavier got her powers and memories back, she remembered the young cat-mutant who'd saved her, and tracked him down to invite him to join her school. She legally adopted him and gave him the name Tom Smith-- there's no way to find out what his parents' name really was. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

SALLY GUTHRIE (SHOOTING STAR): Sally worked in a textile mill until an accident occurred with the industrial machinery; she would have lost at least a leg, and others would have lost lives, if her powers hadn't activated. Therewas some sort of financial windfall in it for her - possibly an out-of-court settlement, possibly a reward for meritorious valour in saving the lives of other employees ("powers? what powers?"), possibly the First Annual Montgomery Burns Award For Outstanding Achievement In The Field Of Excellence - and used a goodly chunk of the money to rent recording equipment so her younger sister Justine could make a demo tape. (Yeah, I know recording equipment's not THAT expensive. It's not like the mill owners gave her THAT much.)

Anyways. Justine was a big hit - magic voice and all - she paid back Sally in full plus interest (which made Sally more than a little uncomfortable - she doesn't really want to be PROFITING from her good deed/panic attack), then set about upgrading the rest of the family's living conditions. Sally was contacted by Emmett Frost to join the Hellions, but found that he made her profoundly uncomfortable, and so when she got a second offer, to come to the Xavier School, she accepted that one instead. Adaptor: Danny Sichel

LUCAS GUTHRIE: When Luke's power to become super-strong and invulnerable manifested in the middle of a fight with his uncle, his mother told him to leave-- trying to break up the fight, but Lucas took it the wrong way, and ran away from home. He fell in with other runaways in New York City, protecting them, until he was attacked and nearly gang-raped by chickenhawks. Shaken by the experience, he got in touch with his older sister Sally, and joined the New Mutants. Adaptor: Tammy Moore

FED-X:

A team of mutants (and a duck) selected by the US government as agents (mostly because no one else would do it...) Most of them are messed-up misfits of one stripe or another, and part of the requirement for their membership is that they do therapy with Dr. Leonard Samson... which just makes his day. :-)

KEVIN 'KEV' KILLGRAVE (THE PURPLE BOY): The only known child of Zebediah Killgrave, Kevin is an angry youth who wishes to take up his father's job, only to support his mother. He gets caught up in weapon dealer's gang, and is sold as one of the weapons. (See, no crush on Northstar to get him in contact with Alpha sooner, though I guess he could have a crush on Maddie...) Once Kevin, under the dealer's control, causes massive damage, he is rescued and then recruited by Alpha Flight. Adaptor: Jesse Willey.

MADELINE JEFFERIES-BOCHS: Is a mutant with the power to transfrom and manipulate machines. She was recruited into Beta Flight by James Hudson. While in Beta Flight she met, fell in love with and then married, teammate Roger Boches. They are still happily married today. (Since Roger only argeed to join forces with Omega because he thought he could impress Aurora, see?) Adaptor: Jesse Willey.

JAMIE MADROX was raised alone in the New Mexico desert with her mutant ablity to duplicate herself. She decided (well most of her...) to go to stay on Muir Island, at least for the time being. Jamie has often seen flirting with Terry Rourke, (Banshee) Adaptor: Jesse Willey.

TERRY ROURKE, the son of Shauna Cassidy, he is not only a medical assistant on Muir Island, but also a well train computer expert. He's usually deadly serious, but appreciates Jamie's presence to lighten things up. Adaptor: Jesse Willey.

DOLLY CAROSELLA was never the prettiest or the most ordinary of girls. She played with worms and such. While she was also the class nerd, she doubled as class clown to make them stop picking on her. She is completely unaware of her mutant powers. (See, Dolly didn't chase that girl and get hit by a bus.) Adaptor: Jesse Willey.

SAMANTHA THE DUCK, from the dimension known as duck world, often complains of being in a world she never made. Samantha has the mutant ablity to see the truth and complain about any situation, no matter what the angst. (Okay, I know Howard wasn't a mutant, but if Kielle can have Corsair...) Adaptor: Jesse Willey.

RAY SINCLAIR is a rather shy boy, who spent the first years years of his life living as at the orphanage run by Reverend Craig. Upon discovering his mutant powers he decided to go and get his first real taste of the world, which lead him directly to the Muir Island research center where there were others like him. In the later years he develops a crush on Jamie Madrox, but finds the 'double' dating quite contradictory to the beliefs he was raised with. Adaptor: Jesse Willey.

OTHER GOOD GUYS:

MALCOLM KINROSS: Malcolm Kinross was a brilliant young student of genetics and biology, and fell in love with Carolyn, who of course, was too preoccupied with her goals and studies to notice. Malcolm married on the rebound. He met a fellow Scot. A stunningly gorgeous black-haired beauty named Josephine MacTaggart. But Josephine couldn't have been more opposite from Carolyn Xavier. Josephine was femme-fatale beautiful, and she had ambition. She was smart but mostly she was amoral and completely pragmatic. She wanted power. She was a minor executive of a pharmaceutical corporation, and she wanted to be president of the company. She thought marrying the Nobel-prize winning genetics researcher and doctor Malcolm Kinross, would help her chances. She and Malcolm also had a sexual hunger for one another, initially, so enticing him and manipulating him into marriage wasn't hard, when you factor in Carolyn Xavier's repeated rejections.

And it's during the honeymoon, which is a week-long private sex-fest that Josephine arranged for the two of them in New York, that Josephine got pregnant. (She forgot to take her pill for a couple of days, or something.) This week-long festival-for-two, included a lot of activities that Malcolm really didn't approve of. (Kinky stuff. Malcolm was very conservative.) And the arguments started there. Malcolm also realized, apart from the sex, he had almost nothing in common with Josephine, and he in fact, didn't like her. When Malcolm compared her to Carolyn, he got sick to his stomach. The week ended up in a major fight between the two of them -- Malcolm was just disgusted with himself, and woke up finally, and realized what Josephine actually wanted, and why she really married him. Malcolm left her at the hotel in New York, and the marriage was over. But, Josephine, ever ambitious, refused to divorce him, and Malcolm was too proud and absorbed in his work to put up a legal fight.

Malcolm retreated to an obscure piece of Kinross family land, Muir Island, to continue the research he wanted to carry out with Carolyn's help. He became a hermit, living alone. But he kept in constant touch with Carolyn, once she founded X-Factor. Adaptor: Rivka Jacobs.

MINDA GARFIELD: An omnipath who was catatonic until Carolyn Xavier managed to break through her self-imposed walls and give her the ability to shield against and distract herself from the force of every mind on earth battering against her head. Minda came out of her catatonia a near-sociopath, perceiving almost everyone in the world to be nothing more than "drops of rain" in the thunderstorm against her head. However, she sees Carolyn as a person, and is fanatically loyal to her, putting all the emotion she cannot direct at anyone else toward Carolyn. Thus, unlike her counterpart Gamesmaster, Minda has some degree of ability to actually care about people personally, though generally it's only because Carolyn likes them. She is Carolyn Xavier's assistant and nanny to Danielle. Adaptor: Alara Rogers

ALVIN BLAIRE. Partner in the law firm of Murdock Nelson, Walters and Blaire, Alvin's childhood dream was of becoming a famous singer, but this was pretty much wrecked when, along with his mutant powers emerging, his voice changed. His backup dream was following in his father's footsteps as a lawyer. (This was actually a plot point in the mainstream _Dazzler_, by the way.) Alvin does a lot of civil-rights work pro bono, and would plausibly be on the defence if ever Erika went on trial. Adaptor: Danny Sichel