Warning: Spoilers for Exceptional X-Men #3!Since Charles Xavier set up the first X-Menthe team was home to some of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel Universe. Young mutants need all the help they can get after the fall of Krakoa, and Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde have formed an unlikely alliance to continue educating and training those in need. Now it’s official: Bronze, Axo and Melee are the new X-Men class.
Exceptional X-Men #3 by Eve L. Ewing, Carmen Carnero, Nolan Woodard and Travis Lanham ushers in a new team of mutants under the tutelage of Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde. After a rocky start, with Emma trying to telepathically compel the three young mutants who asked Kitty for help, they settle down and perform some of the most important moves to become a team, revealing costumes, codenames and powers.
Trista Alex and Thao have a wide range of abilities from Trista’s metallic skin to Alex’s mood reading powers and with veteran mentors like Emma and Kitty training them they have all the characteristics of a promising team.
A New Class of Mutant X-Men Officially Forms, Debuting New Costumes
Bronze, Axo and Melee have the trappings of the mighty X-Men
From the beginning, Kitty and Emma’s group of new students some of the most crucial qualities to be a successful team. Trista Marshal, who calls herself the code name “Bronze”, can transform her body into a bronze-like metal similar to Colossus, as well as use vine-like appendages. Alejandro Mateo Luna, or Alex, is named “Axo” after axolotls, thanks to his color-changing skin and mood reading. Thao Tran, whom Trista calls “Melee”, has a similar shapeshifting ability to Kitty and is said to be the member of the group most eager to get into a fight.
It’s not easy being a mutant – especially in a world still reeling from the fall of Krakoa. Trista, Alex and Thao have already faced the prejudices and judgments of human society and decided that they are interested in something bigger than themselves. They want to be heroes and now they are on the right path to achieving that goal. Not only are they lucky enough to guarantee one of the greatest mutant teachers in Emma Frostbut Kitty Pryde has a lot of personal experience with the difficulties of being an X-Men student turned soldier. Axo, Bronze, and Melee are set up to receive the training and support they need.
These New X-Men Students Have a Long Road Ahead
Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost can’t solve all their problems
Although these three young mutants are luckier than many others out there and have secured a spot with two incredible mentors, the odds are still stacked against them. Emma and Kitty are well equipped to train them, but they don’t have the resources of the X-Men’s old training facilities and there is no Institute to house them. They will train and learn to control their powers along with all the problems of being in normal society, which is currently rife with anti-mutant sentiment. There’s a long way to go, but Axo, Bronze and Melee have what it takes to become next X-Men.
Exceptional X-Men #3 is now available from Marvel Comics.