The Brotherhood is one of the most prominent foes of the X-Men, a group of metahumans with an incredible variety of powers and backstories. They are, in essence, Terrorist Santa's Group of Misfit Henchmen. But with the variety in their powers comes some... disparity, we'll say, in their power levels. This is a (relatively) brief look into the most prominent members of the brotherhood. Granted, their ranks have risen and fallen greatly since their inception, and there are many more members than what I am covering here, but most of the members I am not covering here were either more prominent as members of other groups, switched sides, or were among the hordes of heroes and villains alike who were buried in the Silver Age and left to rot as footnotes in the history books. The following is the most well known incarnation of the Brotherhood, and the incarnation I myself am most familiar with.

Magneto

Magneto, the founder and usually the leader of the Brotherhood. Born Max Eisenhardt, Magneto grew up in Nuremburg, Germany, and long before he would become one of the most powerful mutants alive and co-found the X-Men with his close friend Charles Xavier in the face of incredible amounts of anti-mutant sentiment and metahuman hatred, he would face another kind of hatred in his youth, growing up as a Jewish boy in 1930s and 40s Germany.

He survived the Holocaust, where almost every member of his family died. He married a gypsy woman named Magda and took on the name Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, to more easily blend in among her people and avoid the persecution of the Jews. He did all of this before any of his powers ever manifested -- he was simply a man trying to survive.

He moved to Soviet-controlled Russia a short time after marrying Magda, hoping to find a more prosperous life in the city, for both himself and for his family, including his young daughter Anya. It was in Russia that his mutant powers manifested for the first time, when he accidentally used his magnetism to hurl a crowbar at his boss who was cheating him out of his rightful pay. Unsure of what had happened, Magneto returned to his family, only to find that his boss had called the KGB to deal with Max and his still adolescent mutation.

The KGB beat him brutally, and held him down while they forced him to watch his young daughter be burned alive in front of him, triggering his Alpha Mutant powers fully, and causing him to fly into a rage that saw half the city leveled in the wake of his anger. The military was called in to try and stop him, but the meek Jewish boy who had fled his home in fear was no more; Magneto, the master of magnetism, civil rights leader and occasional terrorist, one of the most fearsome mutants alive, had been born. He slaughtered the soldiers without mercy; monsters knew nothing of the power of mercy, and so Magneto believed they should be given none.

Some time later, while treating Holocaust survivors in a psychiatric hospital in Israel, he met Charles Xavier, who would go on to become both one of his greatest friends and one of his most prolific enemies. Though they had many disagreements about human-mutant coexistence, both respected the other's great intelligence, and it was only with the influence of the soon to be Professor X that Magneto was prevented from becoming the same kind of truly irredeemable monster that he had dedicated himself to wiping out.

He helped Charles Xavier found the X-Men, but due to their differences of ideals, shortly departed thereafter, reemerging years later with his telepathy proof helmet and with much greater control over his powers, determined to take over the world in order to reign in the Age of Mutants, and bring an end to what he saw as the tyranny of human-kind. He founded the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants as a coalition of displaced and disgruntled metahumans who had been attacked and shunned for their differences, a home for mutants with nowhere else to turn, and used it as his platform for multiple attempts at world domination.

The 40 odd year history of Magneto's conflicts and occasional allying with the X-Men, SHIELD, the Avengers and so forth would take much too long to get into detail about here. Magneto has one of the richest and most detailed histories of any Marvel character, and is in many ways one of the most complex, and to try and cover it in what is meant to be a brief overview would be difficult.

Powers:

Magneto's full control over the forces of magnetism gives him many unique powers. These include, but are not limited to:

• Flight
• Matter Manipulation
• Body manipulation, as he can control the iron inside of people's blood to make them do as he wishes Control over earth's magnetic poles, which effectively enable him to throw the Earth out of orbit
• Unlimited elemental control; Magneto has raised islands, moved mountains, shifted tectonic plates, all nearly effortlessly
• Electromagnetic X-Ray Vision; he can sense the electromagnetic aura of living beings While not necessarily a superpower, Magneto also possesses a genius level intellect, which makes him a master strategist and a cunning foe to face under any circumstance, depowered or otherwise.

               

Sabretooth

Victor Creed, AKA, Sabretooth. Much like Wolverine and Mystique, Sabretooth's healing factor and regenerative powers have slowed his aging greatly. Born some time in the 1870's, Victor Creed's powers first manifested when he accidentally murdered his brother over a slice of pie, tearing out his throat with his fangs. His father subsequently chained him up in the basement, keeping him prisoner and repeatedly attempting to remove his "devil's teeth", believing his son to be possessed. After years of torture, Sabretooth eventually broke free from his prison, chewing off his own hand in order to escape, killing his father in the process. His humanity was not entirely lost, however, as he spared his mother, and despite his savage nature, made sure she lived as good of a life as possible. He rampaged throughout Canada, killing and robbing across multiple provinces, until eventually finding work on the railroad.

Creed spent time doing odd jobs and mercenary work, though most of his memories between the 1900's and 1950's have been lost due to tampering by the organization known as Weapon X, a paramilitary group responsible for trying to weaponize mutants and the mutant gene. One of the few things known about this period is that his first encounter with his nemesis Wolverine was around 1912, when he killed a Native American woman named Silverfox, Wolverine's lover at the time, and framed another tribe for her death, sending a rampaging, unstoppable Wolverine their way. After that, however, Sabretooth falls off the map until the late 50's.

At some point, Creed joined the American military and served alongside Nick Fury in Korea, who recruited him into the earliest version of the Avengers. These Avengers were given direct orders by President Eisenhower, and on their first mission were tasked to stop a Red Skull imposter who was attempting to start a Fourth Reich. Creed's teammate, Kraven the Hunter, accidentally shot him in the back, causing his healing factor to kick in, and with it, his former savage bloodlust, causing him to viciously behead the fake Red Skull before they could get the answers they wanted. Sabretooth departed the team a short time later.

A group of former Nazis were working together to try and kill all the Nazi hunters before they initiated World War 3, however, and Victor Creed was on this list of Nazi hunters. He was attacked by a werewolf while hitchhiking to Toronto, and joined back up with Nick Fury's Avengers in order to put a stop to this Nazi group. Creed savaged many members of this group, known as ICON, and its sympathizers, ripping them apart without any mercy. With the threat neutralized, Sabretooth again left the group, heading for Los Angeles.

A decade later, Creed, now officially operating under the moniker of Sabretooth, would find himself a part of a group of covert operatives known as Team X, alongside Wolverine and another man known as Maverick. It was on this team that he would be assigned to guard Leni Zauber, the assumed identity of Mystique, and conceive his son Grayson Creed by her, though both her identity and the pregnancy were unknown to Sabretooth for many years. Creed was kidnapped and subjected to the Weapon X program. Weapon X gave him his age suppression abilities, but also made him into a sleeper agent for the government, ready to be activated at any time to be their puppet. But until they needed his services again, Sabretooth was turned loose once more.

Over the decades, Sabretooth would team up with various groups, including the Marauders, the X-Men, X-Force, and multiple incarnations of the Brotherhood, as well as often going solo and acting on his own as a mercenary. Though never quite "one of the good guys", Sabretooth operates by a code of honor that has often times led him to doing the right thing, even if usually for ignoble reasons. Of all the members of the Brotherhood, and in fact, of all of the villains of the X-Men in general, Sabretooth is by far the most vicious and bloodthirsty, often falling into murderous rages where he will tear through friend and foe alike, dismembering and disemboweling without a second thought. And no matter what side he's on, his century old feud with Wolverine almost always takes precedence over any other threat. The two often clash, and neither has any reservations about killing the other, Wolverine going as far as killing one of Sabretooth's clones  though, Wolverine believed the clone to be the real thing.

Powers:

• Healing Factor  
• Unbreakable Skeleton 
• Slowed Aging 
• Tolerance for extreme heat/extreme cold  
• Superhuman Speed/Strength/Agility  
• Hyperacute Senses 
• Ultrahard Claws/Fangs; enhanced by his unbreakable skeleton 
• In addition, Sabretooth is a trained martial artist, special agent, and master tracker and hunter

Mystique

Raven Darkholme, AKA Mystique, mother of Nightcrawler, former lover of many, including Professor X, Victor Creed (AKA Sabretooth), James Howlett (AKA Wolverine), the demon/prime mutant Azazel, and numerous others, right hand woman to Magneto, Ex-member of the Wolverines, occasional leader of the Brotherhood, and all around badass queen bitch. Little is known about Mystique's early life: Mystique herself has forgotten most of her early years. Whether or not Raven Darkholme is her true name, or simply an alias she adopted, is also undetermined. What is known is that the mutant known as Mystique is, in addition to being a shapeshifter, she is well over a century old; her earliest known escapades found her in front of a Mexican firing squad for the crime of being blue in the year 1921. It was here that she met for the first time the man who would later become the X-Man Wolverine, who was about to be executed as well. It was the first time she was face to face with another person like herself: another mutant, though she had no idea of this until Wolverine recovered from the oncoming hail of bullets, brushing off his execution like it was a paper cut.

The friendship she and Wolverine had would be tumultuous at best, however, as the young Mystique was not keen to trust others, and very keen on betraying just about anybody if it suited her needs. She happily threw Wolverine under the bus in order to make her escape and start a new life as far away from her home as she could manage. It was in these travels that she first encountered the mutant Destiny, then only known as Irene Adler, an Austrian immigrant with precognitive powers, who would become one of Mystique's greatest friends and allies, as well as her on again/off again lover. Destiny enlisted Mystique to try and prevent some of her most awful visions from coming to pass, and as such, the two set off on a globe-trotting adventure together.

Some years later, after Destiny went her own way and Mystique lost contact with her, she met Victor Creed, soon to be the mutant Sabretooth, under the guise of Creed's diseased partner. The two became lovers, and Creed would become the model for all of Mystique's future lovers. The two had a son, Grayson Creed, who despite being the child of two mutants, was not a mutant himself, and as such, was disowned by his mother, and never knew his father due to Mystique faking her own death in order to leave Victor before Grayson's birth. He would grow up to become the leader of a prominent anti-mutant coalition that, left unchecked, would have led to a mutant genocide long before there were any groups in place to deal with such an event. As such, a time travelling Mystique eventually had to put an end to her first son, before he could do any of the harm she found he was capable of.

Some time later, she would marry Baron Christian Wagner, a wealthy German man whom treated Mystique well, but could not satisfy her as a lover. It was at this time that Mystique was courted by the demon/prime mutant Azazel, an immortal interdimensional creature who served as the basis for Satan. He was progenitor of the Neyaphem, an offshoot species of mutants who all physically resembled the traditional idea of demons in the Marvel universe. It was by him that she bore her second son, the mutant later known as Nightcrawler.

The Baron was rightfully suspicious of the child's conception: when he ordered that the unborn child be tested to determine whether or not it truly was his, Mystique murdered him, burying him in the courtyard before anyone knew he was missing. When she gave birth, however, she lost focus on her disguise, and was revealed as the blue skinned mutant she was. The townsfolk accused her and her newborn son of being demons, and gave chase with the intent to slaughter them both. Mystique escaped, but abandoned her son in the process, leaving him to be raised by a gypsy woman until he was found by Professor X some years later.

Mystique went into hiding once more, eventually finding her former lover Destiny again and taking on the role of a Senator's wife, and later, a politician herself. During this time, she took in the mutant Rogue and did her best to raise her as her own daughter. A decade later, she would eventually found the third and origin of the most prominent incarnation of the Brotherhood, consisting of herself, Destiny, Avalanche, Pyro, and the Blob.

Though her adoptive daughter would eventually go on to join the X-Men, believing that Professor X could help her live a more normal life, Mystique would stay towards the darker side. She was briefly a member of groups such as the X-Factor, the X-Men, and most recently, the Wolverines, but her allegiances have always been questionable at best.

Powers:

Total Shapeshifting; Mystique can alter her form to be an exact replica of anyone she has ever seen, including voice, physical deformities, fingerprints, and to some degree, their memories. These abilities lend themselves well to her primary occupation, infiltration.

• Greatly Retarded Aging; Mystique's age is uncertain, but due to her shapeshifting, any signs of aging, if they existed at all, are nonexistent
• Immunity to disease  
• Master martial artist 
• Accelerated healing 
• In addition, Mystique is a trained special agent and master marksmen, as well as an experienced actress, from over a century of shapeshifting escapades

      

Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch

Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, AKA, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Twins, sometimes lovers, and the adopted children of Magneto, the often conflicted and rather controversial duo were not members of the Brotherhood for very long compared to the others on this list. Both joined the X-Men and shortly thereafter, the Avengers, but are commonly associated with the Brotherhood and are both very important characters in X-Men lore.

Though not traditional mutants, as they were actually experimented on by the supervillain and mad scientist known as the High Evolutionary in order to give them mutant genes, granting them their powers. Born to a Romani couple in Serbia, the pair were very close from an early age, being forced to look out for one another when their parents proved incapable and unwilling. Their powers manifested when they were young children, and resulted in them being run out of their village when they stole from a nearby town to feed themselves, causing a mob to form in the belief that Wanda truly was a witch. They were saved from death by Magneto, however, who adopted them and took them back to America and adopted them as his own children. It was Magneto who gave them their names and their costumes and pressured them into joining the Brotherhood, which they eventually did out of obligation to their surrogate father.

After Magneto's defeat, however, the duo were quick to abandon the brotherhood, instead seeking refuge with the Avengers, wishing to use their powers for the good of all people instead of just for mutant kind. Along with Captain America and Hawkeye, the duo became part of a new set of temporary Avengers while the main members took a leave of absence, quickly proving themselves to be worthy of their spots on the team.

Over the next decade or so, the twins honed their powers, occasionally shifting allegiances briefly back to their father's side when he made several more attempts at world domination, though Wanda remained on the side of good more often than not, until Quicksilver was injured and separated from the Avengers and was taken in by the Inhumans, where he learned that Magneto was not their father and had his memories of his time in Serbia restored to him. Disillusioned with Magneto's lies, he finally put to rest his allegiances to his father. Both Wanda and Pietro took lovers in this time period, Pietro marrying the Inhuman named Crystal and Wanda falling in love with the sentient robot, Vision. In the Ultimates universe, Pietro did not spend time with the Inhumans, and instead developed a romantic relationship with his sister, but in the main timeline, the incestuous relationship has only ever been hinted at.

Scarlet Witch's attempts to expand her powers led to some rather unfortunate success. Eventually she gained the ability to harness the chaos magic that fueled her mutant powers, giving her great power, but causing great mental strain on her. Her ability to manipulate probability evolved into an ability to manipulate reality itself. This culminated in Wanda having a mental breakdown, and eventually creating the House of M, an alternate reality where mutants were the majority species and humans were the minority. She wiped the world's memories and allowed them to live in this alternate, more peaceful reality. The Avengers and X-Men both regained their memories eventually, however, and went to go and try to stop Wanda. It was then that they found out that Pietro was the one who had convinced Wanda to create the House of M. Angered by what Pietro had done in his name, Magneto lashed out and killed his surrogate son, causing Wanda to utter the phrase "No more mutants", destroying the House of M reality, but depowering 90% of mutants in the real world, in an event later known as M-Day. Pietro was restored to life, and with the help of Dr. Strange, retained his powers, but fell into a deep depression after Wanda's disappearance after the events of M-Day.

Powers: 

• Superspeed Physiology; Quicksilver has a body composition that allows his body to be more well suited to his superspeed powers than a regular person, including an advanced metabolism, increased durability to survive the high speed impacts, enhanced agility, strength, and reflexes
• Superhuman Speed; Quicksilver can move at nearly Mach 5, well over 3,000 miles per hour
• Reality Warping; Scarlet Witch has the ability to totally manipulate reality to her will, though the extent of these powers is now limited due to the immense strain they put on her mental state. Probability/Luck manipulation; Scarlet Witch can effect the probability of an event occurring or conversely, not occurring, to make whatever she wants effectively impossible or effectively unstoppable. The extent of this power is often not tested, however.

the Juggernaut

Cain Marko, AKA, the Juggernaut. The only member of the Brotherhood to not actually be a mutant, Cain Marko the Juggernaut is actually a human powered by the gem of Cyttorak, a mysterious god-like cosmic entity from another dimension who seems to revel in chaos and rage, though never affects the Earth directly, acting only through his Crimson Gem to create his avatar, the Juggernaut. Marko was born to a prominent nuclear scientist, Dr. Kurt Marko, whom, despite his brilliance, had a rather poor relationship with Cain's mother Marjorie. His parents separated when he was a baby, and his mother died shortly after his third birthday. One of Dr. Marko's colleagues, Dr. Brian Xavier, the father of Charles Xavier, died in a lab accident, leading to Dr. Marko eventually marrying Xavier's widow, Sharon, and giving the young Professor X a resentful and abusive stepbrother in the form of Cain.

Dr. Marko favored his stepson, Charles, who was very gentle and highly intelligent, to the generally much more brutish and troubled Cain, causing the young Juggernaut to act out even more, usually taking his frustrations out on Charles. This also led to Dr. Marko abusing his biological son severely, further worsening his mental anguish. When Charles' mutant powers first manifested, he used his telepathy to read Cain's mind, and therein found out about the horrible beatings he received from his father, something Cain was greatly ashamed of. Somehow, Cain could detect Charles reading his mind, and his resentment of his stepbrother grew even more.

Eventually, due to the death of her former husband, Sharon Xavier died of a broken heart. This led to a confrontation between Cain and his father, in which Cain accused his father of murdering Dr. Xavier in order to marry his widow. Dr. Marko responded violently, lashing out at his son for the accusation, and causing Cain to fight back. The ensuing chaos led to the lab being set ablaze, and Dr. Marko sacrificed his life in order to save both of his sons. As he lay dying, he told Charles that he regretted not saving his father when he had the opportunity to, and that he needed to hide his mutant powers from his brother. Cain overheard this conversation, however, and mistakenly believed that Charles had invaded his mind deliberately, from then on considering him to be an enemy because of it.

As time passed, Charles continued to excel scholastically and athletically, eventually outshining Cain in every way possible. After the two got into a fistfight, one that Charles easily won, Cain left home in order to find his own way, becoming a mercenary at some point and doing odd jobs in foreign countries. Eventually, he joined the US Army, and he and Charles found themselves in the same infantry unit in Korea. It was here that he found the temple of Cyttorak, and within it, the Gem of Cyttorak. The inscription on the pedestal read: "Whosoever touches this gem shall possess the power of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak. Henceforth, you who read these words shall become forevermore a human juggernaut." A bombing raid on the temple led to Cain being crushed under tons of rubble, and his brother, believing him to be dead, returned to their unit alone.

Cain had not died, however, as the power of the Juggernaut not only increased his size and strength tremendously, but it also took away his need for food, water, and even oxygen. He was completely invulnerable now, and he found later that his helmet gave him total immunity to psychic powers, like those that his step brother possessed. He eventually dug his way out of the ruins of the temple, and made his way for Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the base of the X-Men, planning to take vengeance on his brother. His powers made him nearly unstoppable, and the X-Men couldn't defeat him alone. Only with the assistance of the Human Torch could they eventually melt the bolts off of his helmet, removing it and his psychic resistances with it, and allowing Professor X to put him into a coma until they figured out how to remove his mystic powers.

Some time later, a now-forgotten Silver Age supervillain group known as Factor Three awoke the almighty Juggernaut in a bid to kidnap Professor X. They succeeded in their plot, and Cain nearly destroyed the X-Men in the ensuing chaos, until he was tricked into the dimension of Cyttorak, the Crimson Cosmos, where he was lost for many years, until he found his way back to Earth via the powers of Dr. Strange.

Over his nearly fifty years of appearances since then, Juggernaut has clashed with the likes of Spiderman, the Avengers, the Hulk (whom he has actually beaten, multiple times), Wolverine, and many more. He has gradually shifted from being a villain into more often being a hero, though he still has much inner turmoil about his jaded criminal past. He has lost most of his powers on multiple occasions, as Cyttorak only bestowed Cain his powers due to his anger and unmitigated hatred, and doesn't approve of his heroic antics. Even without most of his strength, Cain has still been a member of the X-Men, the Thunderbolts, X-Factor, Excalibur, and many other groups from time to time.

And thus we come to the first error in Brotherhood continuity between the comic timeline and the the timeline of the animated series/cinematic universe. The comic continuity of Juggernaut was never actually affiliated with any of Magneto's or Mystique's incarnations of the Brotherhood, at least, not more than very brief alliances. Only in the films and in the cartoon was he ever actually a part of the Brotherhood. In modern times, he briefly joined up with Black Tom's Brotherhood of Mutants, but he was intending to deceive them from the start, as he was spying on them for the X-Men.

Powers:

Though not a superhuman himself, the favor of Cyttorak and the armor of Cyttorak afforded Juggernaut many powers that make him one of the most dangerous enemies ever faced by the X-Men

• Self Sustenance; the Juggernaut needs no food, water, or oxygen
• Unstoppable Momentum; Juggernaut is force embodied, and as such, is nearly impossible to stop when he gets moving
• Immortality, as he never ages while in the suit
• Force Field; a shield that can protect him and his allies alike, shown to stop even the force of Thor's hammer Mjolnir
• Limitless Strength, enough to go toe to toe with Marvel's heaviest bruisers
• Superhuman Stamina; the Juggernaut requires no rest, and has nearly limitless energy
• Superhuman Regeneration

the Blob

Frederick Dukes, AKA, the Blob. With his mutant powers manifesting at a relatively young age, before even the onset of puberty, Fred Dukes considered himself little more than an "extra strong freak" and took a job as a strong man at a carnival. His career options were limited as it was, as he was not very intelligent, prone to anger and violence, and had very poor self esteem. He first encountered the X-Men when they sought him out with the help of Professor X and Cerebro, hoping to enlist him into their ranks. The Blob refused Xavier's offer to join the X-Men, however, and instead found confidence in his newly found knowledge of his superhuman status. He went back to the carnival and abused his powers to take it over and terrorize the humans present, believing himself to be superior, before taking the carnies there to lead an attack on the X-Men. This was swiftly thwarted, however, and Professor X wiped all of their memories of the X-Men.

The Blob was forgotten about for some time, until Magneto went to seek him out and recruit him into his Brotherhood. After being struck on the head, his previously forgotten memories of the X-Men returned, and he agreed to Magneto's offer. Whilst doing battle with the X-Men though, Magneto launched missiles at both combatants, apparently unfazed by the idea of blowing up Dukes along with his enemies. It was then that Dukes' secondary mutant powers presented themselves, and his body absorbed the missiles without sustaining any damage at all. Betrayed, Dukes swore to never trust anyone again, and returned to the carnival once more.

Despite his feelings of betrayal, the Blob, under the influence of an alien known as Lucifer, joined up with various criminal groups, joining forces with Unus the Untouchable and the previously mentioned Factor Three at various points, before eventually joining Mystique's newly reformed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who were later renamed to the Freedom Force when they joined up with the US government in attempts to round up all of the world's mutants. Dukes did not care that he was harming his own kind: he got to act on his violent tendencies, and he was written a hefty paycheck for doing so. Eventually, the Freedom Force was disbanded, and the Blob was sent drifting once more. Over the years, he teamed up with various supervillain groups, though none for very long. He was often used as a henchman by more powerful or more convincing villains.

Eventually, due to the events of M-Day, Blob, along with thousands of other mutants, lost his powers. His body was not ready for this, however, and he was left horribly disfigured with many folds of loose skin hanging off his body as he returned to the size of a normal human. He became depressed and suicidal, blaming his loss of powers on the government and joining the terrorist group X-Cell, before once again joining forces with Magneto in an attempt to get his powers back, with limited success.

Powers:

• Impact Absorption
• Superhuman Strength
• Force Redirection; he can totally reverse the momentum of any projectiles fired into his body
• Pain Immunity; his nerve endings register no physical pain
• Immovability; as long as the Blob is making contact with the ground, he is totally immovable
• Mass Control; the Blob has complete and total control over his body mass, and can change from being enormously fat, well over multiple tons, into being an average sized man

Avalanche

Dominikos Petrakis, AKA, Avalanche. An immigrant from Greece, Avalanche came to America with the explicit desire to seek out the Brotherhood and fight for the rights of mutant kind. In his home country, mutants were hunted down and killed in the streets, and he had suffered under the hatred of his compatriots too long. He believed that humans were all vicious and cruel, and that mutants were the superior species. He was one of the founding members of Mystique's brotherhood, and spent much of his history with them, coming into conflict with the X-Men and Avengers on a regular basis. He once threatened the entire state of California with his seismic powers, holding the state ransom under the threat that he would activate the San Andreas fault line and kill millions, but he was easily stopped by the Hulk.

He was also a part of the Freedom Force, though unlike most of his companions, was less than thrilled to be forced into hurting his own kind. Being very loyal to his friends, he was very unhappy when he was forced to abandon Pyro and Blob in Kuwait, and disillusioned with the idea of fighting for mutant rights, Avalanche decided to become a mercenary, doing whatever task for whoever paid the highest.

When he learned of Pyro's contracting of the Legacy Virus, his loyalty to his former teammate, as well as his guilt over having abandoned him years prior, caused Avalanche to join with Pyro and his band of mutants to try and find the cure for the virus, only to be abandoned by the Acolytes with Pyro and the rest after they were defeated by his former teammate Quicksilver and the Heroes for Hire, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

Avalanche disappeared for some time after that, eventually being recruited by Banshee to be a member of X-Corps, a group of mutants intended to police the mutant community. Avalanche was one of many former villains to be a part of this group, though it was later discovered that Banshee was keeping the mutant Mastermind prisoner, who was using her powers of mental manipulation to dull the violent tendencies of many of these villains. Mastermind was eventually freed by Mystique, and without her, many of the former villains went back to their old ways, effectively dissolving the X-Corps.

Avalanche was one of the few mutants to retain his powers after the events of M-Day, but with so many of his former mutant allies dead or depowered, he decided to retire anyway, assuming the name Nick and opening a bar to make a living with and live a quiet life in the suburbs of San Francisco.

Throughout the next few years, Avalanche would occasionally be forced out of retirement to assist in several events, including the anti-mutant riots in San Francisco and stopping the power-maddened Juggernaut in the Serpent War. Wolverine offered him safety at X-Men Mansion, but Avalanche refused his offer, instead deciding to return to his bar and try and continue his quiet existence.

Despite his desire to stay out of the action, Avalanche was kidnapped by the Red Skull and his genetically enhanced mutant team, the S-Men. Red Skull lobotomized Avalanche, replacing his frontal cortex with a device that caused him to go into a berserk rage, destroying great swaths of New York City in order to reignite the populace's fear and hatred of mutants. He came into conflict with Captain America in his berserk state, and after a brief battle, used the last of his willpower remaining to throw himself off of a nearby cliff in order to prevent himself from harming any more people, bringing a tragic end to the former mercenary.

Powers:

Seismokinesis; Avalanche had very fine control of the seismic energy that came out of his hands. He could use it to disintegrate walls, move objects of great size out of his way, create localized earthquakes, and with enough concentration, even move tectonic plates.

Pyro

St. John Allerdyce, AKA, Pyro. An Australian native, Pyro's powers manifested at puberty, but had no obvious benefit to the young man, as they could make him no money, and as such, Allerdyce only used his powers in emergencies. He drifted from country to country for much of his youth, shifting from job to job, as well as becoming a novelist with international readership, though critics and serious novelists despised his work. At some point, he met with Mystique, and agreed to join her newly formed Brotherhood, with the promise of wealth and fame drawing him in.

As his first act as a member of the Brotherhood, he attempted to assassinate the anti-mutant politician, Senator Robert Kelly, though he was swiftly thwarted by X-Men and their allies. He and the rest of the Brotherhood were imprisoned, until they were enlisted by the government to form the Freedom Force, the previously mentioned rebranding of Mystique's Brotherhood. During a mission in Kuwait, the government disbanded the Freedom Force, however, stranding Pyro and his comrade Blob in the Middle East, leaving them as POWs until they agreed to use their powers to be bodyguards for high ranking Iraqi officials.

Some time later, Pyro found out that he had contracted the the Legacy Virus, a mysterious and lethal disease affecting mutants that tore through the metahuman population, killing hundreds of people. Facing his imminent death, Pyro decided to try and go out in a blaze of glory rather than dying alone, slowly fading away in a hospital bed. This decision led him to becoming more and more reckless with his decisions, and brought him into conflict with various heroes, most notably Daredevil.

Pyro was eventually contacted by a scientist who claimed that he had the cure to the Legacy Virus, but also had a very high price that he asked for this cure, causing Pyro to turn to robbery to try and get the funds for what he thought was his last hope. In the course of this robbery, however, Pyro was shot multiple times. In addition to his failed robbery, for which he would face legal prosecution, he also found out that the cure he was seeking never actually existed. He escaped the hospital and disappeared once again.

He reappeared months later, accompanied by Magneto's Acolytes and several other mutants in the Savage Lands, still searching for a cure to the Legacy Virus. The Acolytes, however, had no intention of finding the cure, and abandoned Pyro there in the Savage Lands, forcing him to find his own way home, where he would then be relentlessly pursued by a rogue Cerebro. He eventually defeated the murderous AI, but was severely weakened in the process, and was captured and held prisoner by SHIELD. After eventually understanding his lethal condition and his failing health, however, they gave him a compassionate release to live out his remaining days in peace.

Allerdyce, having abandoned his Pyro persona, appeared at a rally held by Senator Kelly, where he caught wind of another Brotherhood plot to assassinate the Senator. He warned the X-Men of their plans, however, and even went as far as killing the mutant Post in order to save the Senator who hated him and his kind both. It used the last of his energy to defeat Post, however, and the severely weakened Pyro collapsed into Senator Kelly's arms, using his last breath to plead with him to bring peace between the humans and mutants, before succumbing to the virus and dying a hero.

Powers:

• Pyrokinesis/Flame Manipulation; though he cannot directly produce flames himself, Pyro has full manipulation over existing flames, which is why he requires the assistance of his flamethrowers
• Wrist mounted flamethrowers 

                      

Toad

And then, after all these awesome, original characters with cool powers, complex motivations, and detailed backstories, we get... sigh Toad. Fucking Toad.

You see this fucking asshole? He's the worst. He's garbage. The only reason this useless Spiderman abortion is on the team is because nobody has the heart to tell him that, when it comes to fighting the X-Men, his high school drop out level intelligence and his really long tongue just aren't gonna make the fucking cut. Magneto recruited him because he thought he was exceptionally expendable. He's also literally so ugly that his parents abandoned him, not because they thought he was a mutant, but because he was just that fucking horrible. Nobody cares about Toad.

Toad's Powers? He can kind of jump high? And can also kind of walk on walls, sort of? He's also got a really long tongue, so that counts for something I guess? Oh, yeah, his spit is acidic, kind of. Not like, melt padlocks acidic, or burn through flesh acidic, more like "oh jeez that kinda stings" acidic. He's the worst. I would take Squidboy in a fight over Toad. And Squidboy's powers are that he just looks like a fucking fish person. Fuck Toad. 

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