Every X-Men Character In The Gifted

Despite only running 13 episodes, season 1 of The Gifted was packed with Marvel Comics characters and Easter eggs. Once designed as a Hellfire Club TV show, The Gifted soon evolved to follow the struggle of a family thrust into the Mutant Underground when they learn their children carry the X-gene. While the producers teased the show would tie into the comics (but likely not the films), no one knew how much the series would use the source material as inspiration.Though the X-Men and Brotherhood never show up, they're invoked many times and seem to have set the series in motion just before audiences join in. From there, heroes and villains from across the comics are slowly brought on board as we learn that even the central family has deep ties to the page. So while characters like Agent Turner and Eclipse were invented for the show, The Gifted's ensemble is almost all comprised of characters from Marvel Comics.RELATED: The Best Moments From The Gifted Season 1

Blink

Blink was the first indication that the movies would be in a separate world from The Gifted”given Jamie Chung replaced Fan Bingbing from X-Men: Apocalypse as Clarice Fong (Ferguson in the comics). Removing her purple skin but alluding to her comic appearance with her signature facial marking, eyes, and ears, Blink is a powerful teleporter on the page.

Created for 1994's Uncanny X-Men #317, Blink rose to prominence during the Age of Apocalypse storyline and soon became a hit amongst comic readers. The show sees her still gaining control of her abilities, meaning she currently lacks the energry daggers she can throw to create portals. We also learn that Blink once ran with the Brotherhood and has some evil in her bloodline. This is likely a nod to her Apocalypse, who is an ancestor of Blink's in the comics.

Thunderbird

John Proudstar aka Thunderbird didn't last long in the comics, dying shortly after his debut in 1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1. Meanwhile, his brother Warpath has continued to be prominent in the comics (and even fought alongside Blink in X-Men: Apocalypse). Like in the show, the comics take on Thunderbird has super-strength, -speed, -durability, and -senses. We don't see John run any faster than normal, but he's one of the strongest characters on the show and is shown to be virtually indestructible. His senses, meanwhile, manifest as an almost psychic form of tracking on The Gifted”though the show thankfully abandons the connection to his Thunderbird tattoo early on.

Polaris

Polaris debuted in 1968's X-Men #49 as a supervillain with control over electromagnetism. Sure enough, it was soon revealed that Lorna Dane was actually the daughter of Magneto. The two spent years fighting together in the Brotherhood, though Lorna has also worked with more heroic groups like X-Factor. She also has an on-and-off relationship with Havok, with new character Eclipse taking his spot on The Gifted.

For the show, Lorna's origin is switched around a bit, as she begins working with the X-Men (after what's hinted to be a terrorist past) before joining up with a new iteration of the Brotherhood/Hellfire Club in the season 1 finale. There are also multiple hints that a powerful mutant who ran the Brotherhood and could control magnetism was her father, though there's no telling if Magento will ever show up on The Gifted.

Fenris

Andrea von Strucker and Andreas von Strucker debuted in 1985's Uncanny X-Men #84 as the mutant children of Hydra leader Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. While they possessed powers on their own, holding hands allowed them even stronger abilities which they used under the name Fenris. The Gifted doesn't touch on Baron von Strucker or his Nazi past, but Andrea and Andreas are still terrorists in the series. They also have a family, with the Strucker family the show is centered around being their descendants.

From here, the comic book history is changed quite a bit. But the idea that a new generation of the powerful mutant siblings exists is certainly an interesting twist. Like the original Fenris, Andy and Lauren can combined their powers to unleash a force almost unheard of in the world of The Gifted. And though it's not clear how evil or simply revolutionary the von Struckers were, Andy at least seems convinced enough to potentially follow his comic book namesake to the side of war against humanity.

Dreamer, Shatter, and the Mutant Underground

Season 1 of The Gifted featured plenty of nameless mutants, most created as background characters for the show. But outside of the core group of freedom fighters, the show pulled in a number of smaller characters from the comics to fill out the ranks. The most prominent is Dreamer, called Beautiful Dreamer in the comics, who has the power to change people's memories using her signature smoke. Debuting in 1985's Power Pack #12, Dreamer is a member of the underground Morlocks, who share a few similarities to the mutant resistance. The group and their 'MU' logo, however, are more closely related to the mutants who fight back in the Age of Apocalypse dystopia in the comics.

Joining Dreamer are recurring mutants Shatter, Fade, Trader, and Sage. Each bears a resemblance to the powers of the comics, with Shatter looking strikingly similar to the source material. Along with his indestructibility, he also gains the power to transmute matter to an unknown degree in The Gifted. Meanwhile, Fade can turn invisible (though he's a mob enforcer in the comics), Trader (another Morlock) can camouflage himself and blend in with his background, and Sage has a mind like a computer.

After Dreamer, Sage is one of the most featured members of the resistance not in core team and eventually joins Polaris and Esme. Likely, this is mirroring her spying on the Hellfire Club for Professor X in the comics. On the page, Sage can also unlock mutant powers and use telepathy, though her abilities seem drastically reduced on the show.

The Stepford Cuckoos

The Stepford Cuckoos were a group of psychically-linked quintuplets created by Grant Morrison for 2001's New X-Men #118. Eventually, two of the sisters were killed and only the three (Esme, Phoebe, and Sophie) on The Gifted were left. Clones of Emma Frost, the three are treated both as daughter's and protege's of the powerful and wealthy telepath. There's no telling if Frost will appear on The Gifted, but both her name and the Hellfire Club of which she was a leader are mentioned repeatedly on the show. The Frost sisters also retain their hive mind, telepathy, and money in the show, hinting that their sire may make an appearance someday.

Sentinel Services

The Sentinels date way back to 1965's X-Men #15, but it wasn't until X-Men: Days of Future Past that the giant mutant-hunting robots showed up on film. We heard early on that a version of the Sentinels would appear on The Gifted, eventually proving to be a group of spider-like automatons that are occasionally employed in the field. Mostly, the name lends itself to the government group who hunts down and prosecutes mutant criminals. The comics have had many such groups, most of which eventually start targeting mutants regardless of their innocence. And like the Sentinels themselves, the organizations are usually connected to Trask Industries.

Dr. Roderick Campbell & the Hounds

The same issue that saw the debut of the Sentinels also introduced Bolivar Trask and his technology company. Along with creating the Sentinels, the Trask Industries of The Gifted also does research into stopping mutants, controlling them, and even removing their X-gene. Leading these efforts are Dr. Roderick Campbell, who in the comics is a cyborg from the future. We see nods to his disfigured appearance on The Gifted eventually, though his scars seem to have changed considerably by the finale. And though he looks to have died, there's a chance he'll gain his cybernetic enhancements in season 2 if enough of him is still left.

Like in the comics, The Gifted has Campbell in control of a group of mutants called the Hounds. Mind-controlled into hunting their own kind, the Hounds are mostly new creations outside of the electrical- and power-dampening Pulse. One of their most notable members in the comics, meanwhile, is Rachel Summers”a character who could make her debut in season 2 if time travel becomes a factor.

Hellfire Club and the Purifiers

Like the X-Men and the Brotherhood, the Hellfire Club and the Purifiers are two groups who are mentioned throughout The Gifted. There's no telling what shape they'll take in season 2 of the show, but it seems certain both will play a larger role given how much they were teased in the finale.

The Hellfire Club debuted in 1980's Uncanny X-Men #129 as a play in gentlemen's clubs and secret societies. Made up of wealthy and influential mutants, the group is essentially a more elite version of the Brotherhood. They've shifted alliances throughout the comics, but they generally have their own best interests at heart. And like in the show, characters such as Fenris and the Frost family have been a part of the group. Given the Hellfire Club was originally meant to be the focus of the X-Men TV show, it's no surprise they're being telegraphed for season 2. And with the Brotherhood potentially off-limits, the Hellfire Club should make for some interesting mutant adversaries next season.

On the other side of the villain scale are the Purifiers, a human terrorist organization founded by William Stryker. Created by Chris Claremont just two years after he debuted the Hellfire Club, the Purifiers set up another group of villains that take advantage of the social and political issues inherent in any mutant story. Season 1 of The Gifted was mostly the underground versus the shady government, but season 2 seems to be establishing more radical human groups and more complicated mutant freedom fighters.

Evangeline

The final Marvel Comics character to appear in season 1 of The Gifted is the mysterious Evangeline. We're sure to see her more in season 2 as she seems to be one of the people who recruited for the Mutant Underground on behalf of the X-Men. In the comics, Evangeline Whedon debuted in 2003's X-Treme X-Men #23 as a mutant rights activist and lawyer. True to the source material, The Gifted retains her power to transform into a red dragon.

Whether Evangeline switched sides and helped bring Polaris into the Hellfire Club or will be one of the characters that opens the door to the X-Men appearing, season 2 of The Gifted is sure to flesh out Evageline and the other new characters a lot more. And given how bold the show has been about bringing mutants over from the comics, it wouldn't be a surprise if more well-known heroes and villains began appearing on The Gifted when it returns.

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