X-Man



X-Man was a Marvel Comics Comic Book series starring Nate Grey, a psychic of near-cosmic level who was an Alternate Universe version of Cable of the X-Men.

The character first appeared in X-Man #1 (March, 1995), created by Jeph Loeb and Steve Skroce. X-Man was originally planned as a four-issue miniseries that was part of the Age of Apocalypse crossover. It was later promoted to an ongoing series. Initially written by Jeph Loeb, it changed several writers before Terry Kavanagh came aboard; he wrote the book for most of its run. The series lasted for 75 issues (March, 1995- May, 2001).

Nate was created by his universe's version of Mister Sinister using DNA taken from Cyclops and Jean Grey (in the main universe Sinister had to manipulate Cyclops into marrying a clone of Jean Grey to achieve the same result) his final goal being the same: to create a being powerful enough to destroy his nemesis, Apocalypse. Nate was one of four beings that were accidentally transported from the Age of Apocalypse reality to the main Marvel Universe after it was destroyed due to a combination of changes to history and the explosion of a Cosmic Keystone. (The other survivors being Sugarman, Holocaust and Dark Beast- all villains.)

The book followed Nate's exploits at finding his own place in this new world as well as dealing with various villains trying to manipulate him for his vast superpowers. In 2000 it was heavily Retooled and a year later canceled because Joe Quesada thought that there were too many X-Books. Nate was killed off in the last issue and stayed "dead" until a point during Dark Reign where he under went a Unexplained Recovery and went up against Norman Osborn and his team of Dark X-Men, before being captured. After Osborn's defeat, he is captured again by Sugar Man but rescued by the New Mutants and has since joined the team.

This series contains examples of:

 * Alternate Company Equivalent: The Protectorate to The Authority. Curiously, several members were actually versions of pre-existing Marvel characters.
 * Back From the Dead: Madelyne Pryor, and eventually Nate himself.
 * Cape Busters: Gauntlet, a team of low-level telepaths dedicated to taking down Nate. They proved to be formidable enough threats thanks to psi-blocking armor and didn't care much about casual victims or collateral damage.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: All members of Nate's support cast were never mentioned after the series ended.
 * Dimensional Traveler: At the height of his powers he can achieve this.
 * Divided We Fall: The first encounter with Professor Xavier (who had been long dead in his universe) going bad led Nate to keep his distance from the X-Men for a long time.
 * Femme Fatale: Madelyne Pryor.
 * Fish Out of Water: Nate.
 * Forgot About His Powers: From time to time Nate forgets about one of his powers or another.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Nate dispersed his essence to every living being on Earth to prevent an alien parasite from consuming them killing them both.
 * Kid From The Alternate Universe: Nate for Cyclops and Jean Grey.
 * Laser Guided Tykebomb: Nate was created by the Sinister of the Age of Apocalypse timeline, for the express purpose of killing Apocalypse, who Sinister currently served as a Horseman.
 * Let's You and Him Fight: Nate's acquaintance with characters from the main Marvel Universe usually started from trading blows.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: The people controlled by.
 * Parental Incest: Although combined with Fridge Logic. Nate had a relationship with Madelyne Pryor who is a clone of Jean Grey, an alternate version of the woman whose DNA he was created from, making her essentially his genetic mother. And it got worse when she was killed and impersonated by Jean Grey from yet another alternate universe.
 * Person of Mass Destruction: Nate was considered to be the most powerful mutant in the world with Phoenix-level power.
 * Planar Champion: As part of the 'Mutant Shaman' retool.
 * Power Degeneration: Nate's power put a huge strain on his body and would kill him before he turned 21. This was eventually revealed to be a fail-safe put into place by Ao A!Sinister, because he didn't want Nate to be around to destroy *him* after he took out Apocalypse.
 * Shout-Out: Harvester's arrival to Earth is very clearly a twisted reflection of Superman's. First his spaceship destroys a military aircraft. Then an elderly couple who are married (but not to each other) witnesses its crashlanding and goes to investigate. They are turned into stone. Yeah, what we have here is the opposite of a saviour.
 * Younger Than They Look: Despite being for all intents and purposes in his late teens Nate actually is only a few years old due to accelerated aging by Sinister.
 * Younger Than They Look: Despite being for all intents and purposes in his late teens Nate actually is only a few years old due to accelerated aging by Sinister.