Even though we haven’t seen much of mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), they are very prevalent and central to Marvel comics. In the comics, a mutant is a human being who possesses a mutation called the X-Gene. They are born with this genetic mutation—which then manifests itself in them as special powers and abilities. While society often fears and discriminates against mutants for their differences, they are actually sometimes referred to as Homo superior and believed to be the next evolutionary phase for human beings.
Among the most famous mutants are those who are members of the superhero team, the X-Men. The X-Men were founded by Professor X, who also runs a school for mutant children. Professor X’s school and X-Men team both provide protection and refuge for mutants, and also, attempts to bridge the division between humans and mutants. However, some mutants, including some of the most powerful Omega-level ones, have gone rogue and used their powers for evil.
The MCU, for a long time, avoided bringing mutants to the universe due to film rights, as 20th Century Fox owned the X-Men. This is why they changed Wanda Maximoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) origin story to make her powers the result of experimentation, instead of her being a mutant (as she was in the comics, until being retconned in 2016). However, since Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, mutants are slowly, but surely, making their way into the MCU, especially with the bombshell revelation in Ms. Marvel that their version of Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) is a mutant. In preparation for the mutants’ potential entrance into the MCU, here are the most powerful mutants in Marvel comics, ranked.
8. Proteus
Proteus was born Kevin MacTaggert and is an Omega-level mutant. And he’s so powerful that his own body can’t even sustain him. Kevin began manifesting his powers early on and his ability to manipulate energy and matter, and his insatiable appetite for energy, led his body to begin to burn out. He was a danger to others, resulting in his mother, mutant expert Moira MacTaggert, keeping him in solitary confinement where he was sustained by esoteric energy fields. When Proteus escapes confinement, his body immediately burns out. This leads to him seeking hosts and possessing other bodies, temporarily, until they, too, burn out and are abandoned.
Proteus can warp reality by manipulating energy and matter to any effect he desires. Meanwhile, he himself is actually composed wholly of energy, making it possible for him to possess others, absorb and project energy, and making it very hard for him to die. Many times, he was thought to be dead, only for his energy to be discovered lingering on, waiting for absorption or a new host. However, while extremely powerful, his difficulty in maintaining a physical body certainly limits his abilities. He is constantly in need of a new host to function and is also severely weakened in the presence of metal, which can kill him when he’s in his energy form.
7. Professor X
Professor X is an extremely powerful mutant telepath, who has used his intellect and technology to further enhance his powers. Born Charles Xavier in New York, he was always a natural-born genius. However, he had very humble, and rather sad beginnings. He lost his father at a young age, gained an abusive stepfather, and his stepbrother later became the supervillain Juggernaut. Despite this, Xavier used his powers for good, creating Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and forming the X-Men.
Professor X is among the most powerful telepaths in the Marvel universe. His powers include the ability to read, project his own thoughts into, and even manipulate the minds of those within a 250 mile radius of him. He can utilize his powers to mind control others, create telepathic illusions, detect mutant presences, and project his astral form into the astral plane. Not only that, but his genius-level intellect makes him a brilliant strategist and allowed him to create Cerebra, which connects him to every mind on Earth. However, figures like Magneto and Juggernaut have found ways to block Professor X’s telepathy with helmets. And if his telepathic powers can be combated, he can be mortally wounded.
6. Legion
Legion, or David Haller, is the Omega-level mutant son of Professor X. However, Legion exceeds his father in power due the numerous forms his powers can take. Sadly, Legion also had a very traumatic childhood. As a child, he witness his stepfather being murdered by terrorists, causing his powers to unleash and link him to the minds of the terrorists, which he subsequently destroyed. The traumatic experience left him catatonic for years and when he returned to an alert state, his mind had splintered into multiple personalities. What’s unique, is that each personality took on a different mutant power.
Essentially, Legion has the power to create unlimited new mutations which each manifest as a new ability. Meanwhile, he assigns a new personality to wield each new power. Legion has claimed to have as many as 200 distinct personalities, each potentially possessing an Omega-level mutant power such as telepathy, telekinesis, super strength, or time manipulation. While immensely powerful, Legion’s biggest weakness is his mental instability. His own personalities challenge him, threaten to take control, and make it exceedingly difficult for him to wield and manage his numerous powers and personalities.
5. Franklin Richards
Franklin Richards, the son of Reed Richards, is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel universe. He is a reality warper, who can alter reality to whatever he desires, with a mere thought, up to a cosmic level. Richards started manifesting his powers when little more than a baby, leading to Reed shutting down his mind. However, Richards broke free of these mental blocks and defeated Ultron when he was a child. By the time he was a young man, he had defeated some of the Marvel universe’s most powerful villains, restored the multiverse, and held his own against Celestials.
Richards is the only figure on this list who actually isn’t a mutant. Instead, Richards warped reality to make himself seemingly have the X-Gene and to be an Omega-level mutant. As long as his powers lasted, though, so did the simulated X-Gene, technically making him a mutant. However, it’s not Richards’ simulated mutation that weakens his ranking on this list. It is the fact that his powers can, and currently have been, depleted completely. His powers have been depleted and replenished before, but they appeared permanently gone after he restored the multiverse. When he has his powers, he’s the most powerful semi-mutant being, but the fact that he can lose them, greatly weakens him.
4. Magneto
Erik Lensherr was originally born, Max Eisenhardt in Nuremberg, Germany, to a German Jewish family. When World War II and the Holocaust broke out, Eisenhardt’s entire family was murdered. As the sole survivor, he was sent to Auschwitz where he witnessed more unspeakable horrors. His experience during the Holocaust would later lead him to fear the same might happen to mutants in the present day. This leads him to reject the notion that humans and mutants can co-exist, and to oppose the X-Men on many occasions. However, he maintains a complicated friendship with Professor X, and, at times, actually aids the X-Men and acts as a hero.
Lensherr is an Omega-level mutant with the ability to create and manipulate magnetic fields. This means he can, in turn, manipulate any form of metal or even non-metal elements that have traces of metal ore. Meanwhile, there is no known limit to his powers. He can manipulate the magnetic fields of entire planets, cause devastating earthquakes, raise 30,000 ton submarines from the ocean, surround himself with protective force fields, make himself immune to telepathy, sustain magnetic flight, and shoot magnetic pulses. Lensherr is an extremely powerful mutant who exhibits little to no weaknesses and has no known limit to his powers.
3. Matthew Malloy
Matthew Malloy might be the most powerful mutant, but it’s hard to tell considering he was so powerful he was prevented from being born. Malloy is an Omega-level mutant from an alternate universe. His peaceful life with his wife, Jules, was disrupted when they were caught in a Skrull invasion. This deeply traumatized Malloy and when his emotions got out of hand, his powers manifest. They manifest with an enormous burst of energy that obliterates and kills everything in his surrounding area. S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to detain him twice after this outburst, but each resulted in him causing another obliteration and even killing both Cyclops and Magik.
Eventually, Professor X and Tempus went back in time to prevent Malloy’s birth. This undid all of the death and destruction he caused. As a result, the exact extent and nature of his powers is difficult to gauge. However, he displayed god-like powers in the areas of telekinesis, telepathy, matter manipulation, and energy manipulation. He also showed he can resurrect himself—when he obliterated himself in one of his outbursts. If his existence hadn’t quickly been undone, he might be the most powerful Omega-level mutant.
2. Mister M
Like Malloy, Absolon Mercator (a.k.a. Mister M), is another rather mysterious mutant with only a brief Marvel history. However, he is an Omega-level mutant with god-like powers in matter manipulation. Mister M was born in Belgium but was sent away to the states after his mutant powers manifested and led to him murdering a bully. In the U.S., Mister M kept a low profile, though he made it clear he had the power to obliterate entire cities and even survived being shot. His motives aren’t always clear, though he was hailed by some as a mutant savior. When the scheming duo, Demetrius Lazer and Johnny Dee, succeeded in depowering and killing him, Mister M simply resurrected himself.
Mister M’s current whereabouts in the Marvel universe are unknown. However, the powers he has displayed are almost second to none. He can manipulate matter down to a molecular level and his powers have manifested themselves by creating new life, obliterating cities, manipulating organic matter to change a person’s physical form, controlling machinery, and manipulating plants, air, and electricity. Essentially, he can control nearly any element and can even make new creations or alter one’s physiology. Still, his elusiveness, and the fact that he mostly refrains from big displays of powers, leaves us uncertain of just how powerful he is. From what he’s shown so far, though, he seems nearly omnipotent.
1. Jean Gray
Jean Grey is the most powerful Omega-level mutant telepath in the Marvel universe. As a young girl, her powers first manifested when she linked her mind to her dying friend, nearly also dying in the process. Though she fell comatose, she recovered and had mental blocks put in place by Professor X, until she could control her great powers. Later, she was recruited into the X-Men, where she gained full access to her powers. While always a hero at heart, Grey struggled to her control her powers, especially when she was chosen to be the avatar of the cosmic entity, the Phoenix Force.
Grey, even without the Phoenix Force, is the most powerful mutant in the Marvel universe. Unlike Professor X, her powers go beyond telepathy and extend to telekinetic and psionic powers. Her telepathic, telekinetic, and psionic powers, have virtually no limit. She also has unique empathetic powers, in which she can manipulate the emotions of others. Grey has strong psychic powers and the ability to resurrect herself. Without the Phoenix Force, she has three major, potentially devastating powers, all at an Omega-level. With the Phoenix Force, her powers rise to a cosmic level. Either with or without a cosmic entity inside of her, Grey is nearly unstoppable, with powers that no other mutant has quite attained.
(featured image: 20th Century Fox)
