X-Men:Students

Students

Cyclops (Scott Summers) is toned down from his comic book counterpart; he is less stiff and possesses a greater sense of humor. Contrasting with many other incarnations, Cyclops is not the aloof, doubtful loner, but a handsome and confident leader who exudes natural authority. While the other students tend to look up to him, his competitive nature and closely-held temper will get in the way at times. He is the most officious and rule-abiding of the X-Men and the least likely to fool around. After the third season, Cyclops and Jean Grey began teaching the younger students at the Xavier Institute how to better control and utilize their powers. This Cyclops also owns, drives, and maintains a car.



Jean Grey was "Miss Popular" of the X-Men: smart, athletic, beautiful, well-liked, and the second-in-command after Cyclops. However, she is more insecure than her comic book counterpart and possesses a jealous streak when it comes to Scott Summers. Unlike many mutants who began as social outcasts and came to find their horizons expanded through their association with the Institute, Jean starts out from a high position of status. After the third season, Cyclops and Jean Grey began teaching the younger students at the Xavier Institute how to better control and utilize their powers. Jean Grey's unique mutant abilities allow her to manipulate matter through the force of thought alone, and tap into the minds of others with telepathic powers.




Rogue a serious departure from the comic Rogue, is a reclusive, paranoid goth. She has a great deal of angst with respect to her powers, which keep her from ever safely touching anyone. Due to the machinations of Mystique, Rogue initially distrusted the X-Men and joined the Brotherhood of Mutants, but she soon switched loyalties. Rogue was infatuated with Cyclops for most of the show, but later developed a flirtatious relationship with Gambit. The series itself established no name for Rogue and gave no hints to it. In fact, after her introductory episode, her name is never brought up again. Rogue's mutant ability is as dangerous as it is powerful, allowing her to draw upon the aspects of another through bare skin to skin contact.





Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) is the humorist of the team. The Evolution Nightcrawler is very similar to his comic version and has a friendly big-brother relationship with Cyclops. During his early days at the institute, he was still feeling very insecure about fitting in and compensated for it with excessive goofiness until the episode "Middleverse." Due to censorship issues, Nightcrawler's Catholicism was not transferred from the comics. Kurt is the biological son of Mystique, but was raised by kind foster parents in Germany (instead of being abandoned by Mystique, she accidentally dropped him over a bridge while escaping Magneto, and when she saw he had been taken in by foster parents, she decided to let him remain with them). He speaks with a soft accent. For much of the show, Nightcrawler uses a holographic image inducer in public to hide his appearance.




Shadowcat (Katherine Pryde) is the brainiac of the team, with the mutant ability to pass through solid objects as easily as a cat slinks through the shadows. She initially had a thick valley girl accent, but it was reduced and eventually phased out after the first season. Unlike her comic version, she was not the youngest member of the team upon her induction, but is nevertheless still very naive. Kitty led a very sheltered life before joining the X-Men and was initially afraid of Nightcrawler's "demonic" appearance, but she has since grown into a very open-minded and worldly young woman. She is one of the most optimistic and idealistic of the X-Men. The strongest departure from her character in the comics is that she has an on/off romance with Avalanche.




Spyke (Evan Daniels) , an entirely new character, is Storm's nephew. Spyke would much rather play basketball or skateboard than study; he has problems with authority, making him the "rebel" of the main team. Spyke and Quicksilver had an ongoing rivalry since childhood that culminated when Pietro framed Evan for robbery; however, their feud was rarely mentioned after their introductory episode and never mentioned at all past the first season. In the third season, Spyke left to join the Morlocks. He made a guest appearance in the fourth season, where he was seen as a protector of oppressed mutants. Many critics liked the change of the Spyke character, from a stereotypical teenager to a violent-minded vigilante. Spyke has been compared to the comic character Marrow (both have similar attitudes, powers, and ties to the Morlocks) but the creators have stated that they were unaware of Marrow when the show's production began.