The one thing I’ve always loved about the X-Men is their message of diversity and unity. If you look past the alien invasions, alternate dimensions and well… crap, the X-Men are at their strongest when they are a story about prejudice. That’s why Magneto is such a compelling villain. He isn’t merely evil for the sake of it: He witnessed the horrors of predjudice firsthand during the Holocaust, and will stop at nothing to prevent that from happening again.
Sadly the X-Men sometimes lose track of that in the comics; and more often than not the current X-team (save for the occasional furry blue mutant) is extremely white. But there are plenty of characters in the X-verse who do not fit this mold, it’s just rare that they receive any focus or special attention.
This is also the case in the VS. System. Despite the fact that the X-Men have been featured over three times now, there are some major minority X-characters who have yet to make an appearance in the card game. Here are two of my favorites, complete with fantasy cards I made myself:
Northstar
Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier [Ed: Thanks gdaybloke!] ) is a Canadian mutant gifted with incredible super-speed. He’s so fast, in fact, that he can travel at speeds up to 99.9% the speed of light — Quicksilver can’t do that! Originally a member of Alpha Flight, Northstar was a fixture of the team in the late 80’s/early 90’s. In 1992 a public controversy was generated when writer John Byrne revealed that everyone’s second favorite Canadian mutant was also a homosexual.
Following the initial controversy surrounding his coming out, Northstar was doomed to obscurity by an editorial mandate. After Alpha Flight was cancelled in 1994 the character remained in limbo for a number of years, appearing in the X-Men titles periodically until he became a regular cast member in the 2000’s.
Sadly the character was killed by a mind-controlled Wolverine during the “Enemy of the State” storyline, then resurrected by The Hand and turned evil, and then taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. As far as I know he’s still locked up, which is a shame because he’s still one of the few gay male superhero characters. The fact that there are eight different incarnations of Rogue and none of Northstar just buggles my mind. Really
With Alpha.Flight rumored to be a team in the upcoming Marvel Universe I’m expecting Jean-Paul to show up. I only hope he is dual-affiliated with the X-Men, because really, nobody wants to play as Alpha Flight.
Dust
Dust (Sooraya Qadir) is a mutant from Afghanistan gifted with the incredible power to transform her body into a cloud of sand and maintain control of herself while in that form. This makes her a living sandstorm, capable of stripping away human flesh of gaining access to nearly impenetrable places with ease.
She was first introduced as a background character in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, but in time grew to become a fixture among the young students at the Xavier Institute. She’s also going to be a member of the upcoming Young X-Men series, alongside the handful of other students who maintained their powers after the Decimation.
Dust is awesome not just because of her powers but because she’s the only positive Muslim superhero out there. Especially given the current state of the world, I can’t imagine an X-Person more important or relevant than Dust.
But she doesn’t have a card. And Wolverine has 13. Sigh.
The Brave and the Blog! 
