X-Men International (1970s)

Ah, the team that introduced some of the most beloved X Men of all time. Welcome to the new age of X-Men. No longer teenagers, the adults that comprised the team hailed from many different countries and had many different powers and personalities.

Scott Summers: Cyclops

Now the leader of the team in name and action, he has had to develop a maturity and strength that may have been considered absent of his semi-laid back nature when the X-Men were just forming. Along with his leadership, Cyclops is gifted with powerful optic blasts that he controls through the use of his ruby quartz visor. Without this or his ruby quartz sunglasses, he cannot control his powers due to a head injury when he was younger.

Piotr Rasputin:Colossus

This peaceful and selfless Soviet born mutant was first recruited into the XMen to save the original team. His powers allow him to transform his body (at will) into "organic steel." Colossus cannot transform a portion of his body into this armored state; he must either transform completely or remain within his normal state. In his armored form, Colossus possesses superhuman levels of strength, as well as superhuman stamina and durability. Also, in his metal form, he is immune to telepathy and all kinds of psionic attacks.

Kurt Wagner: Nightcrawler

The pious blue elf from West Germany has lead a difficult life, but with his faith he has overcome much. Part joker part clergy, he seems quite capable of being anyone's friend. Anyone, that is, who can look past his appearance. He has blue fur (much shorter and less shaggy than Henry McCoy's inevitable blue fur), a pointed "devil's tail," yellow eyes, and his hands and feet only possess three digits. His mutant abilities allow him to teleport (or "bamf," his teleportations occur in a flash of smoke, smell of sulfur, and the bamf noise), and become invisible in deep shadow. He has adhesive hands and feet and his tail can grasp things. He is also super humanly agile, an ability he has also enhanced through his time in the circus and he enjoys sword fighting.

Storm (from Kenya), and Thunderbird (a Native American from the Apache nation), along with three previously introduced characters, Banshee (from Ireland), Sunfire (from Japan), and most notably Wolverine (from Canada), who eventually became the breakout character on the team and, in terms of comic sales and appearances, became the most popular X-Men character. A revamped Jean Grey soon rejoined the X-Men as the popular Phoenix; Angel, Beast, Havok, and Polaris also made significant guest appearances.