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7 Mutants with Head-Scratchingly Weird Powers

Many of Marvel’s mutants are weird. Weirdness, in fact, is part of the charm of the X-Men. Whether feared for their power of forced to live underground because of their physical deformities, mutants have always struggled for acceptance.

This is often compounded by the fact that many mutant’s power are literally just weird, as in it’s really hard to even understand what their powers are or what they do. Head-scratchers, some of them.

This list could easily be 100 strong. But we can whittle it down. Some characters like Stacy X, for example, are weird, yet their powers aren’t that hard to understand. It’s just that the character or storylines were just poorly handled. So, those aren’t on the list.

Got it? Here we go. It’s just the plain weird.

7 Mutants with Head-Scratchingly Weird Powers


Fantomex is a weird character from the weird mind of Grant Morrison who just kept on getting weirder and weirder as time has marched on.

Firstly, Fantomex has 3 brains, I think. It’s confusing because he also has an external nervous system referred to as E.V.A. So, the 3 brains allowed independent processing like multi-core silicon chips, while E.V.A. serves as a symbiotic mind link with weaponry and the ability to morph into different shapes.

He also has Nano Blood, whatever the heck that is.



Goldballs is weird in another way: quirky and silly. Created by Brian Michael Bendis for one of Marvel’s dozen “All-New, All Different” relaunches, Goldballs, er…makes gold balls.

His mutant ability allows him to project at high-speed gold-colored ball-shaped spheres from any part of his body. They can be used as as a concussive weapon, are able to bounce, and make a “poink” sound when they hit something.

Jonathan Hickman added a twist to Goldballs’ powers and revealed that the balls were really “eggs.” Hmmm, I wonder where that storyline will go…


Shatterstar is a product of the X-TRA X-TREME 90s where it was a race to up-the-ante on the apparent bad-a$$ery of characters. As a result, Shatterstar came out as a mish-mash of weird.

Firstly, Shatterstar can’t just have a sword, he has a sword with two parallel blades, for some unidentified practical reason. Secondly, his backstory might be that of the future child of Dazzler and Longshot or maybe he has memories swapped…because Mojo? Not sure.

Now to his weird powers: He begins with the typically heightened reflexes, strength, etc to are seen throughout the superhero community. Then it gets weird:

  • An ability to shift his internal organs within his body, lessening the chances of serious wounds.
  • No white blood cells, which is good…I guess?
  • The mutant ability to control frequencies of electricity, which he channels through his blades sometimes, but not too often, because it makes him sleepy.
  • The ability to open an “X” shaped portal capable of teleporting via the Mojo-verse.


Maggot fulfills the grotesque and icky category of weird.

He has a digestive system replaced by a hollow cavity that houses a pair of semi-sentient slugs called Eany and Meany.

Need I say more?


Xorn is so weird that I wrote an entire article devoted to the effort of figuring him out. It was then converted into a short video, so I’ll send you there.

Glob Herman

Glob is the X-men version of D&D’s gelatinous cube being that he is made of “living wax.”

HIs internal organs float in this bio-paraffin and it gives him increased strength and resilience. Small portions can be flicked off his body and it is highly flammable, meaning he can run around like a candle.


Doop, like Goldballs, is another example that weird isn’t necessarily bad, because Doop is delightfully and charmingly quirky. He is said to be the product of a Cold War era U.S. military experiment but I’m burying the lede: He’s a floating pickle.

No one really knows what he is, what he can do, or, well, much of anything concrete about Doop. But here are some things he’s displayed:

  • A vaguely defined ability to manipulate time and space.
  • In an issue of X-Force, he accidentally sucked the entire team into his body or mind via a popped pimple.
  • Doop uses his mouth as an extra-dimensional storage space like a Bag of Holding.
  • Doop once plucked an eye from his head and then replaced it.
  • He has a second brain in his hindquarters that can be temporarily installed in his head until his original brain repairs.