I've decided not to come up with a list of all the people that have been welcomed onto X-Teams with criminal pasts, mostly because it would be pretty long. I was going to when Cyclops initially turned Deadpool down, but since he reconsidered, it seemed unfair. And Cyclops does have valid reasons. I don't think Deadpool's a huge risk to stab them in the back, but he's a major threat to do something damaging to the X-Men's standing with the folks in San Francisco (who are their neighbors) without realizing he's doing that. And as Seangreyson noted, the X-Men don't have anyone on the roster with a strong connection to Wade who might exert some influence over him.
Still, thinking about the list made me wonder how successful the X-Men have been with their reformation attempts. There are some obvious failures. Sabretooth, who's been on (or around) the team twice I know of. Once he killed Psylocke, the second time he ran amok on Providence, killed one member of Cable's Cabinet (Gareb), and would likely have killed Irene Merryweather if Deadpool didn't come parachuting in*. There's Mystique, who seemingly only joins the team for her own purposes, whether that's to gain access to government files**, or to drive a rift between Rogue and gambit, or for whatever reason she stabbed them in the back in Messiah CompleX. Clearly, those two ought to have used up their chances by now, but there have been successes.
Rogue for one, and you might be able to count the Juggernaut, though he did team up breifly with Black Tom, before he switched again, and then got sucked into Other Xorn's black hole head. Then he came back out and joined New Excalibur, and stayed true to their side. Now he's back to being what he was before, so maybe he doesn't count, but if he had kept being a good guy, he would eventually have been useless, since his power's kept fading, so his time on the side of angels would have ended one way or the other (regression to evil, death, retirement). Here's one: What about Wolverine? He's helped save the world, become an Avenger, even become a sometimes team player, but he still (if his solo titles are any indication) goes off on his own and slaughters large quantities of people, usually bad guys. Which is the sort of stuff he's done for decades, if all the stories set in his past are any indication. So how much has being an X-Man done for him.
What about Gambit? I can't keep it straight whether he was always a traitor, or if he just switches sides as it suits him, like Mystique. I guess Magneto counts as a failure, since he inevitably ends up fighting the X-Men again, but Emma Frost would be a success, right? She's turned against Osborn, and even before she was an X-Person, she was a teacher for the Generation X bunch, so she's been helpful for several years now. Wait, when it comes to Magneto, how would his clone, Joseph, factor into that? He was a good guy until almost the end right***?
Then there are characters whose circumstances I'm not clear on (Marrow, Maggott), and I don't know whether you'd count the X-Force kids under Cable, since he was operating with a different set of rules and goals from Xavier's groups.
Based on the folks I can think of, seems to be about a 50/50 split, but with 3 categories. The people who bought into the X-Men way and have basically stuck with it (Rogue), the people who never did (Mystique), and the people who did for a time, but their priorities shifted (Juggernaut, Gambit?). I don't know that there's anything I can conclude from this with regards to Deadpool, especially since he's in such a different headspace from everyone else. Rogue had multiple voices in her head, but they weren't hers, and she was bothered by them. I think Wade likes his inner voices, at least some of the time.
* Domino was already there, but she and Creed were in a standoff, what with her pointing a gun at him, and him with his claws at Irene's throat.
** I remember reading about her doing that when she was around Forge while he was running X-Factor, I think.
*** I have this since that the real Magneto showed up, and Joseph went kind of crazy and died, but until then, he'd been solid. Gambit didn't like him, which should probably be a point in his favor.
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2 comments:
Actually the list of X-men with criminal pasts (some of whom reformed) is probably even longer.
Cyclops himself was working for a villain before Xavier found him (some generic 60's villain who was using Cyclops' power to break vaults or something). Banshee and Sunfire were both villains in their first appearences I believe.
Then there's the guys who started as heroes, went villain, then came back to heroes. Havok and Sunspot have both done that.
All in all the X-men have the highest proportion of former villains as long time members of the team in any of the major teams from both universes (not counting villain-only teams like the Suicide Squad). So as far as that goes Deadpool would be a fit.
I think the strangest part of turning away Deadpool would be simply the fact that Cyclops has consistently begun framing the X-men's situation as a war, and Deadpool would make an excellent weapon to throw at Osborne (over and over again).
seangreyson: Yeah, I knew this wasn't anywhere near a complete list, since I didn't mention the Beast, who was originally forced to steal stuff for some goofball called the Conquistador.
Deadpool could certainly prove useful to Cyclops, which I guess is why he wants to keep him nearby, and under observation. Just not too nearby, apparently.
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