Reading inspires people.
Perhaps that is why we all originally fell in love with comics and our favourite superheroes.
They inspired us to do good, to be better or rather to be super.
They helped us escape our mundane realities and imagine a world where anything is possible.
But what happens when comics inspire the individuals who later make the comics?
Ultimately we get more heroes who are similar to those we may have already fallen in love
with.
But of course, not too similar as that would mean lawsuits.
A twist may be needed, a unique presentation.
Maybe a darker or grittier twist for a character, something to make them stand out, something
to draw readers in and shock them.
In this list we will be exploring the scarier side of the X-Men as we explore alternate
stories and characters who may have been inspired by our the strangest heroes of all time.
Ready?
Let's get counting.
10 Troll
The series Youngblood from Image Comics is definitely "trolling" us with this one.
Youngblood is a series about a government run and endorsed team of superheroes.
It explores the idea of a world where superheroes garner celebrity like status, similar to the
series the Boys and X-Statix.
The team even includes Vogue, a Russain model who later uses her fame to create a makeup
line.
Troll is a member who is beast-like in appearance, covered in muscles.
Upon seeing him in his true form one would immediately be forced to call to mind Beast
from Marvel's X-Men crew.
Because get this, Troll normally is covered in blue fur.
Yeah!
Though admittedly he is often seen without it as he shaves his entire body to appear
more human, as he is as his name suggests an actual troll.
While also agile and physically strong like Beast, he does not appear to hold the same
level of intelligence.
Though he once wielded a terrifying weapon, a book that could be used to rewrite one's
own history and can tell the future, he lost it in a card game.
Someone smaller but just as fierce as the Beast but with less intellect sounds pretty
scary and dangerous to me.
9 House of X & Powers of X
These two new comic series retcon and relaunch X-Men history and although they operate within
the world of Marvel and the world of X-Men themselves I feel as though they are important
to mention.
When we talk about comics inspiring people, it is important that we also recognize some
of those who were inspired are fortunate enough to do the writing and illustration within
the realm of the world that inspired them.
How cool is that?
When we turn to these new Marvel series, we see at the writing helm, Jonathan Hickman
who has brought us a much more daring story when it comes to familiar motley crew of mutant
heroes.
In fact he has even reintroduced to some heroes that we may have forgotten.
The time in which mutants fight for their rights, freedoms and even for isolation on
Krakao is painted as much more desperate and bleak.
Part of this is the beautiful artwork and colours created in combination by RB Silva,
Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia.
The writing builds up the high stakes and if you want to feel that tension and see how
ruthless these mutants can get, check out House of X's issue #2.
8 Steeljack
Astro City is has changed publishers so many times, I'd rather not list them all, instead
I'll just say the series is currently listed as belonging to Vertigo Comics.
More of a concrete jungle vibe, in this series we have different factions or gangs of heroes
in the city.
The most similar one to the X-Men being the Astro City Irregulars.
Among the characters of the series we find Steeljack, a wannabe superhero who acquired
the power of metal skin.
Sound familiar?
Steeljack is like a permanent metal version of Colossus.
Originally this character was actually a villain in the series.
I don't know about you, but I would not want to deal with a villainous version of Colossus
in any form.
7 Sarah Rainmaker
Coming to us Wildstorm Comics, now owned by DC, is a Storm-inspired hero.
Let's spread some of that Storm love!
In the Gen 13 series, Sarah Rainmaker is introduced as one of a group of gen-active teens, think
mutants, who are "invited" to participate in government testing.
The group is kept in a prison-like testing facility before they escape.
Sounds like some creepy X-Men gone wrong scenario where they get successfully rounded up by
the government.
Sarah Rainmaker's abilities allow her to control weather only so far as air and water, though
she can also fly and create lightning.
So we're looking at a character who isn't quite on Storm's power level but definitely
has similar abilities.
Other interesting facts are that Sarah Rainmaker identifies as a lesbian and that her character
was originally introduced as a member of the native-American Apache tribe.
6 Allison Hargreeves
Coming to us from Dark's Horse's the Umbrella Academy comic series which now also has a
Netflix show, we have Allison Hargreeves also known as the Rumour.
This story is definitely a much stranger and darker one than X-Men in terms of moods and
vibes and was written and created by Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance.
This connection is a little more loose than some of the others, especially if we are looking
for a huge correlation in appearance.
However when it comes to powers the connection and personality the connection is a strong
one as Allison resembles that of another famed X-Men and Avenger and one of my favourite
superheroes, Scarlet Witch.
That is to say Allison's powers are that she can alter reality, not using chaos magic perse,
but by using the phrase "I heard a rumour."
Anything spoken after those words by her that is untrue ultimately becomes true.
Scarlet Witch has also famously spoken aloud some of her changes to reality only to have
them come true.
Though her wishes are not as connected to the need to speak as Allison's are.
Beyond that Allison is also prone to fits of hysteria and emotional outbursts echoing
that of Wanda's struggles with her emotions and mental health.
5 Toyo Harada
One could compare Toyo Harada of Valiant Comic's Harbringer series to Professor Charles Xavier
save that he is evil.
Toyo is one of the most powerful psionics in the world.
Again psionics are kinda like mutants.
His powers echo that of Professor X, namely his an insanely powerful telepath who can
control minds but who also possesses the powers of telekinesis.
His goal is to recruit others with superpowers and take over the world so that he make protect
it and guide humans in the next step towards their evolution.
Spooky.
4 Ripclaw
A combination of Warpath and Wolverine, Ripclaw comes to us from Image Comic's Cyber Force
team and series.
His origins story resembles a horror story and echoes some of Wolverine's origins, which
let's be honest, all of Wolverine's origins stories are pretty terrifying in and of themselves.
Namely when Ripclaw's mystical Apache powers however garnered him some attention from the
Cyberdata corporation who used him to do their bidding as their agent after brainwashing
him and giving him cybernetic enhancements.
Ripclaw is also a member of the native-American Apache tribe, like X-Men's Warpath and oddly
enough also like our number 7, Sarah Rainmaker.
He was granted mystic abilities by the spirits of his ancestors to take on animal like abilities,
similar but different than Warpath's Apache shaman spirit abilities which he used to defeat
the Demon Bear.
His long black hair and red accents on his outfit also leave him looking similar to Warpath.
3 Silver Banshee
What happens when you DC maybe gets a little inspiration from Marvel's X-Men member, Banshee?
We get Silver Banshee, who I actually think is an even cooler character.
These two characters are similar in name and abilities only though.
Both have super sonic deafening abilities, though Banshee tends to operate on the lower
frequency while Silver Banshee is perceived as operating on a higher frequency.
And her sonic death cry is more deadly.
If she can see you and knows your name and you hear her you are dead.
Though their names are also quite similar, Silver Banshee is known for being a villain
in the DC world where Banshee, though controlled by villains before, is usually a good guy.
While Banshee is also male while Silver Banshee is female, he did have a daughter who also
has similar powers who went by the name of Siryn before taking up her father's old mantle,
Banshee.
Though she has never explicitly been an X-Men member she was one of the original X-Force
members.
2 Cyblade
Also coming to us from the Cyberforce crew we have Cyblade, who looks very very very
similar to X-Men's Psylocke.
Although Cyblade's powers are described as being electromagnetic while Psylockes are
described as being telekinetic, the fact remains that both can use their powers to create weapons
with which they use to fight.
While Cyblade is known for her electromagnetic daggers, Psylocke is more famously known for
her telekinetic katanna among other weapons.
And if you don't think there is some kind of crazy connection between these two heroes,
then just look at them side by side.
It's hard to ignore the visual similarities here.
And while Psylocke's origins story is pretty frightening, so is Cyblade's.
1 Lobo
Lobo comes to us from DC and is actually stated as being created in an attempt to poke fun
at violent and gritty heroes like Wolverine.
So there you go.
One could argue that he is an even more violent rendition of Logan as Lobo was also inspired
by Marvel's Punisher.
He is fond of cigars just like Wolverine and shares some abilities, namely that he is known
for being super durable and possesses accelerated healing abilities.
He also has a heightened sense of smell which he often uses as a bounty hunter to help track
his bounties.
Oddly enough Image and Marvel have even created parodies of him.
A parody of a parody, go figure.
Thank you for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
And I hope you twice before ever considering something new to be truly original.
In fact some people even suspect that the Strangest Superheroes of All, the X-Men were
inspired by DC'S World's Strangest Heroes, Doom Patrol.
What do think inspired the X-Men?
Spark a debate in the comments below.
And as always remember to subscribe, share and like while you're down there.
This has been top 10 nerd and I'm your host Amanda McKnight, reminding you as always to
stay nerdy, YouTube.