X-Men Introduces Brand-New Hero To Marvel Lore

Published Oct 18, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. 

Sign in to your ScreenRant account

Marvel introduces a completely new X-Men hero with potentially zero mutant abilities or initial ties to the squad. X-Men characters usually divide themselves into four categories, with heroic mutants who rally behind Charles Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence and radicalized villainous mutants on either side of most battles. This perpetual conflict is instigated by ordinary humans, who use political legislation and media-driven hysteria to oppress the rising mutant population. Human supremacists' most lethal weapons are the mutant-hunting Sentinels, who in turn seem destined to take over the world and replace the humans themselves.

However, not every major X-Men character belongs to one of these clear-cut categories. The Juggernaut is Charles Xavier's stepbrother, but he derives his immense strength from the mystical Crimson Gem of Cyttorak rather than a genetic mutation. Likewise, Deadpool owes his hyper-accelerated healing factor to the Weapon Plus program's artificial experimentation. Kitty Pryde's pet friend Lockheed is an alien dragon from the extraterrestrial Flock, and Warlock is a techno-organic shapeshifter belonging to the cybernetic Technarch species. Longtime X-Men ally Brian Braddock's power comes from Arthurian magic, while his sister Betsy body-swapped with the mutant psychic Kwannon.

These characters are so close to the X-Men that it's easy to mistake them for mutants, and oftentimes, they're even more essential to mutant teams than many children of the atom.

Cliffhanger Makes Her Official Debut In X-Men Lore

X-Men: Outback #5; Written By Steve Orlando; Art By Stephen Segovia & Alex Sinclair

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Steve Orlando, Stephen Segovia, and Alex Sinclair's limited series X-Men: Outback #5 shakes up the Mojoverse with the introduction of Cliffhanger, a new non-mutant protagonist in the same vein as Longshot. Desperate for a ratings hit after believing his primary meal ticket have been killed, Mojo launches a new lethal broadcast network, the "Murder Video Channel," where the action series "Fired Up" is led by "the original Murder Video Artist" and "Princess of Perfect Recall" star Cliffhanger. Cliffhanger's performance-based role evokes Longshot’s early days as a gladiatorial star and adds a new layer of meta-commentary on media exploitation to the late 1980s-era X-Men.

Preview pages for X-Men: Outback #5 reveal Cliffhanger's appearance, with a small glimpse of her performance in "Fired Up," wearing an all-black leather outfit, with a small black top underneath a leather jacket, plus a blue bandana and a blue mark around her left eye. Besides, the solicitation for X-Men: Outback #5 confirms that Cliffhanger is Longshot's ex, which teases a complicated dynamic between them. Given her parallel origin as a manufactured superstar of Mojoverse programming, Cliffhanger may soon break free from Mojo's mental shackles and become an independent hero in her own right, like Longshot himself.

Mojo's Corner Of X-Men Mythos Is Still Overlooked

Cliffhanger Enters A Forgotten Corner Of The Marvel Universe

Mojoworld has been largely sidelined since the peak of its popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The rebellion leader Longshot, once a breakout star of the 1980s thanks to his luck-manipulation powers and his era-appropriate extreme style, has been mostly forgotten in modern comics, often relegated to supporting roles or cameos. For instance, Mojo is only a threat in lighthearted non-canon stories like Muppets Take the Marvel Universe or distant realities like that of Jeff the Land Shark: Superstar. Mojo may be an absurd character by nature, but he can be a serious threat in mainstream continuity if given the chance.

Mojo's absence is even more apparent in live-action. All Fox and Marvel Studios movies so far have ignored Mojoworld and its characters, even in the form of references, easter eggs, and post-credits teases. This is an especially painful oversight for Mojo, whose entire mission is to keep movie and television audiences engaged within the Marvel Universe. Fortunately, now that the MCU is exploring everything Fox's X-Men movies never did, Mojoworld and heroes like Longshot, Spiral, and Cliffhanger have a bigger chance to have their due time in the spotlight.

Would you like to see more of Mojoworld in Marvel Comics?