The X-Men are one of the most diverse teams in Marvel history. In its first incarnation, there was the industry standard one woman on the team, but as time went on, not only did we get more women, but we got characters of numerous racial backgrounds and sexualities. The X-Men are all about diversity, and their women have always played a massive role in the history of the group. Marvel is often looking for their Wonder Woman, but they rarely look in the right place. While they try to push someone like Captain Marvel or Scarlet Witch as their A-list superheroines, the X-Men have been platforming women for decades in leading roles.
The women of X have helmed the most popular books in comics for ages, and have been integral to the development of the team. In fact, some of the X-Women are among the most popular women in comics. These seven women made X-Men history what it is, showing that Marvel has always had more than one Wonder Woman-level heroine.
7) Mystique
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Mystique is one of Marvel’s best supervillains. She played a key role in the X-Men adventures in the ’80s. Writer Chris Claremont was moving Magneto away from villainy, and he needed someone to replace him and Mystique slotted into that role perfectly. She made for an amazing antagonist, and yet there was so much to her. She played big roles in numerous awesome X-Men stories, was the adopted mother of Rogue, and became a key part of the Krakoa Era. She’s a superstar, having appeared in most adaptations of the team at some point, and fans love her.
6) Kitty Pryde
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Kitty Pryde joined the X-Men as a teen and has since become one of the most beloved women in comics. She’s had more codenames and costumes than you can shake a stick at, and she has relationships with the most important members of the group. She’s led the team several times over the years, was basically the main character of Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3), played a major role in the Krakoa Era, and so much more. Kitty is a character who is constantly in flux, always looking for herself and her role in the world, and fans have been able to connect to her since she first showed up.
5) Rogue
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Rogue has become one of the most important X-Men of all time. The adopted daughter of Mystique and Destiny (who just missed this list; she spent too much time dead to make the cut), her powers gave her the kind of drama that creators were able to mine for decades. The Southern belle fit in the team like a glove, and after some problems because of her past became a stalwart for the group. She’s led both the X-Men and the Avengers, was a founding member of the Avengers Unity Squad, and has starred in numerous solo books. Her role in X-Men adaptations have brought her to a greater crowd, showing off just how important she’s become.
4) Moira MacTaggert
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Moira MacTaggert has always been a more important character than she seems, and that’s before we even get to her place in the mythos of the X-Men’s Krakoa Era. Moira worked with Xavier for years, helping study mutation, and before she was revealed as a mutant was the one human that mutants could count on. She’s the mother of Proteus, tried to ensure that Magneto became a good guy again, which led to his villain turn in the ’90s, and helped study the Legacy Virus until her “death” as the only human to come down with the virus. House of X #2 revealed she was a mutant and the role she played in creating the mutant nation of Krakoa, and she’d eventually become a part of its end, cementing her place among the team’s most important women.
3) Emma Frost
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Emma Frost is an X-Men great, and has been since she first appeared way back in the beginning of “The Dark Phoenix Saga”. She was the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and helped battle the team for years and would later create the Hellions, a group of young mutants to fight the New Mutants. She died in a Sentinel attack, and put her mind in Iceman’s body, helping him unlock his powers’ potential, trained the next generation of X-Men in Generation X, and joined the X-Men during Morrison’s New X-Men run. She ended up with Cyclops for years, helping lead the mutant race, and has since stayed in a key role in the team’s hierarchy.
2) Storm
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Storm has become X-Men royalty over the years. She was the token woman of the All-New, All-Different team until Jean rejoined the them, but would keep growing as the years went by. She would become the leader of the group for years, leading them through their most successful period of the ’80s. She’s known as a goddess, and that describes her perfectly. She is the team’s goddess, and her role in their history couldn’t be replaced. She has important relationships with basically every member, and the group would look very different without her there.
1) Jean Grey
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Jean Grey is the patron saint of the X-Men, the team’s first woman and one of the most important characters on the team. Jean Grey’s place as the Phoenix would be enough to put her here, but just looking at her role in the group over the years shows just how important she really is. She’s served as the heart and soul of the X-Men for decades, and has long been one of the most powerful members of the group. You could lose any of the women on this list and still have the X-Men, but if you lose Jean, you lose so much of what makes the team work.
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