The upcoming “Hellfire Gala” event is set to put Marvel’s mutants and their nation Krakoa on a new path, potentially changing how the world sees them and cementing their place in the Marvel Universe. And in one of the most anticipated moments of the event, a brand new X-Men team will make its official debut in the Marvel Universe. At the event, the new roster of the X-Men will be revealed to the public, with the team still being a mystery.
The team’s roster features a mix of iconic mutants like Cyclops, Jean Grey’s Marvel Girl and Rogue, along with slightly more obscure fan-favorite characters like Sunfire, Synch and X-23’s Wolverine. The last member of the team, Polaris, was determined through a real-world vote. However, the results of who didn’t make it onto the team are just as telling as Polaris’ victory.
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Following the events of X of Swords, Cyclops and Jean Grey decided to help create a new incarnation of the X-Men that can work to protect the world and save lives on a global level. But as a part of making the team fully representative of Krakoa, it was announced that they would be holding elections to determine the full roster. This even extended to the real world, with audiences getting the chance to vote in an online vote to determine the final member of the team. The candidates were Polaris, Banshee, Strong Guy, Forge, Armor, Marrow, Boom-Boom, Tempo, Sunspot and Cannonball, with one of them being guaranteed a role on the team.
Last week, Marvel teased which candidates in the election didn’t win through a series of short comic strips by Zeb Wells, David Messina and Rachelle Rosenberg. Each of the short sequences shows two of the losing candidates speaking with one another about their loss during the course of the Hellfire Gala.
Former X-Factor teammates Forge and Strong Guy are shown at the bar, with the latter joking this proves he and Forge are equally important in the eyes of Krakoa. Meanwhile, New Mutants founders and former Avengers Cannonball and Sunspot bicker over which of them beat the other in terms of numbers. Former young X-Men Marrow and Armor debate over which of them is more worthy of inclusion, before sharing a drink out of disbelief over losing. The New Mutants foe Tempo is accosted by the New Mutants’ Boom-Boom, who sobs over not being popular enough to make the team. Finally, Banshee and Polaris share a toast to one another, and Banshee graciously accepts his loss to the past and future X-Man.
As revealed in the full final results, Banshee was a strong contender for the spot, coming in with a respectable second-place finish that illustrates a clear fan appetite to see the long-absent hero back in action. However, Sean Cassidy was never the front-runner to the contest — nor should he have been.
Instead, Polaris seemed destined to earn a spot on the X-Men, almost serving as a long-delayed response to Cyclops’ invitation to join him and the Summers Family on the Moon in Jonathan Hickman and Leinil Yu’s X-Men #1. Polaris has risen in prominence in recent years, embracing her role as Magneto’s biological daughter and taking a major position within X-Factor. She was crucial in X of Swords, delivering a prophecy to Krakoa’s Champions and creating an Otherworld Gate from the remains of Rockslide, who sacrificed himself to save her life). She’s also received a major boost in wider popularity thanks to her fan-favorite role in The Gifted, which positioned Emma Dumont’s Lorna Dane as one of the lead characters trying to protect mutants in the short-lived live-action TV series.
However, there are some notable victories and losses among the other candidates. Tempo, a relatively obscure former member of the Mutant Liberation Front, getting any kind of spotlight and coming in fifth in the final total could be seen as a victory. Meanwhile, Boom-Boom has been going through a serious character arc in the pages of New Mutants, but now that story won’t get the chance to play out on the biggest stage possible.
While Cannonball’s second-to-last ranking is a mild surprise, he, Sunspot and Forge have semi-regular roles in other ongoing X-titles that keep them in the periphery of the X-Men’s world. While Armor has made some appearances in New Mutants recently, the vote leaves her, Marrow and last-place finisher Strong Guy without clear places to make regular appearances.
Although the X-Men franchise has thrived by bringing in new groups of characters regularly, it’s somewhat surprising that Polaris and Banshee, the two oldest characters in the election, had the best showings. But considering how frequently these two have taken a backseat to their peers or become passengers in their own stories, it’s clear that there’s an appetite to see these old-school mutants jump back into action in a big way,