7 Best X-Men Created In The 1990s

Published Oct 13, 2026, 7:17 PM EDT

Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.

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The 1990s were a major turning point for the X-Men franchise. Even as Marvel faced a turbulent, uncertain future behind the scenes, the X-Men were thriving. It was an era of ambitious storytelling and rapid expansion, notable for the introduction of scores of new mutants to the Marvel Universe.

Below is a curated breakdown of the best X-Men characters to come out of the '90s. It wasn't an easy ranking to curate. It involved a lot of hard choices. It involved looking at the immediate and lasting impacts of each character, their reputations then and now, and their past, present, and future status with the franchise.

Question 1 of 3

7 Maggott

Justice for Maggott. Since being introduced in Uncanny X-Men in 1997, the character has been regularly maligned, often called the "worst X-Man," especially early on, when his powers seemed to consist of little more than having two slugs in place of an ordinary digestive system. Maggot has been upgraded and elevated since, notably in Murewa Ayodele's recent Storm series, but he has still spent most o the last 20 years being dissed and dismissed.

Which is unfair. Maggott has been a boundary-pushing mutant character from the jump, helping to redefine what mutation can be in the Marvel Universe. It isn't always sexy, and it isn't always glamorous, and it isn't always exciting or action-oriented. In his earliest conception, Maggott was meant to be representation for an overlooked class of Marvel mutant, which makes him an essential figure in '90s X-Men history.

6 Blink

Blink is a fantastic example of the circuitous path X-Men characters often take to success. The original Blink played a small, but memorable role in the 1994 X-Men storyline "The Phalanx Covenant," which ended in her death. Fans responded positively to the short-lived young mutant hero, though, and the next year, when Marvel launched its ambitious Age of Apocalypse crossover, Blink was reintroduced as a core member of the X-Men in this alternate timeline.

It was this second Blink who later starred in the cult classic Exiles series, starting in 2001, which helped shape the modern Marvel Multiverse as readers know it. The original Blink was later resurrected and has been an on-off recurring character in X-Men since, while another alternate take on her has appeared in Days of Future Past and The Gifted.

5 Monet St. Croix

Generation X spun out of "The Phalanx Covenant" in 1994, and Monet St. Croix quickly proved to be an integral part of the book. In fact, she was at the heart of its early ongoing mystery storyline, a plot that culminated in one of the most bizarre reveals in X-Men history. Long story short, Monet was one of Generation X's breakout stars, and she has consistently been a main player in X-Men lore for over 30 years now.

Monet is a classic "utility player" for the franchise. Put her in any book and it becomes a more exciting book. She's an assertive, Alpha-type personality, and an Alpha-level mutant, the rung on the power scale just below Omega-level. She's "the straw that stirs the drink" for any given X-Men roster.

4 Bishop

Bishop debuted in November 1991, meaning his 35th anniversary as an X-Men staple is coming up fast. The franchise's resident mutant Timecop first traveled back from the future to the "present-day" Marvel Universe chasing the villain Trevor Fitzroy, who was his off/on nemesis during his early years with the X-Men.

That was followed by a turbulent 2000s, in which he was a member Storm's X-Treme X-Men team, then the lead in District X, one of X-Men's most criminally underrated books of all time. After that, he controversially became an antagonist in X-Men: Messiah Complex, before returning to the heroic fold. Bishop remains an X-regular; he isn't a current member of any major team, but his latest solo adventure was a 2026 miniseries.

3 Nate Grey

Nate Grey's codename is literally "X-Man." He was meant to be the most powerful mutant ever created, and he's largely lived up to that role. Which is a curse for the franchise, not a blessing. Nate is an example of a character who has become too powerful to use regularly.

Nate debuted as part of the Age of Apocalypse storyline, and went on to star in his own solo series after that, which ran for 75 issues. This was arguably the character at his best. He later returned as a quasi-antagonist in the Age of X-Man series, the last big X-Men storyline before the franchise's Krakoan Era reboot. Nate Grey largely fell off the radar again during that time, and he remains a sparingly used but extremely unforgettable '90s creation.

2 Deadpool

Rob Liefield and Fabian Nicieza's co-creation Deadpool first appeared as a bad guy in The New Mutants. He was immensely popular right out of the gate, but no one could have predicted the journey the character would go on over the next 3.5 decades and counting. A journey which has included X-Men and Avengers membership, a billion-dollar film franchise, and rising to the status of one of the most widely recognizable superheroes in the world.

The truth is, Deadpool, as a franchise, has transcended the X-Men. But it seemed like, for a time, membership in the mutant superteam was what the character aspired to. Both in-universe and out-of-universe. Nevertheless, Deadpool's mutant status is still a topic of debate, and there's a strong chance he'll be back in the fold with the X-Men at some point in the future.

1 Gambit

There's no questioning Gambit's mutant status. Or his A-list status. Remy LaBeau debuted about six months ahead of Deadpool in 1990, and soon established himself as a permanent, vital member of the team. He sealed his place in X-Men canon by romancing Rogue, a slow burn of a storyline that was interrupted by Gambit's shocking ouster from the team when a dark truth from his past was revealed.

Eventually, the couple overcame the obstacle. Today, they're married, and in the conversation for best X-couple ever. Together with his wife, and on his own, Gambit remains an indispensable fan favorite, and a character X-writers clearly love having on their team. Currently, he's a member of Gail Simone's Uncanny X-Men roster, and is getting into some trouble with the mystical Eye of Agamotto, an ongoing storyline that could bring about a dramatic turning point for Gambit in the near future.

Honorable Mentions:

The 1990s were a prolific, pivotal time for the X-Men franchise, and all the characters cited above all played crucial parts, to one degree or another. The number of mutants in the Marvel Universe skyrocketed in the '90s, to the point where Marvel felt the need to decimate their population, and then some, in the mid-2000s. And there were plenty of characters introduced in the late 1980s that came into their own in the following decade, effectively making them '90s characters, though they've been omitted from this list.

Two big examples: Jubilee and Cable. Jubilation Lee first appeared in '89; Cable debuted the same year, though the revelation of his identity as Nathan Summers retroactively put his character's introduction back in 1985.

It's also worth shouting Monet St. Croix's peers in Generation X, including Chamber, Husk, Skin, and Synch, who have all gone on to varying levels of success as X-Men ​​​​​​​heroes over the years. Finally, this list is stacked heavily in favor of early '90s creations; give a nod to later '90s mutants like Cecilia Reyes, another character with staying power that is approaching their 30th anniversary as a Marvel mutant.

The X-Men franchise, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, centers on mutants with extraordinary abilities. Led by the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier, they battle discrimination and villainous mutants threatening humanity. The series explores themes of diversity and acceptance through a blend of action, drama, and complex characters, spanning comics, animated series, and blockbuster films.