20 Of The Weirdest X-Men Stories Ever

(Image via Marvel)

13. Mutant Babies

Is it me, or did this particular trope come up a lot during the 1990s? It happened on Star Trek: The Next Generation, there was Tiny Toons, and of course I have to reference Muppet Babies. Honestly, it would be surprising if the X-Men somehow didn’t get in on this trope at some point.

In Uncanny X-Men Annual #10, villain Mojo exposes the adult X-Men to some mysterious goopy material, the precise nature of which doesn’t exactly matter.
Not only does this stuff make the X-Men lose their powers (and, man, doesn’t that seem to happen every few issues?), but it de-ages them. Like many children, the increasingly younger X-Men are also pretty bad at controlling their impulses.

It’s basically up to the trainees to save everyone. The New Mutants, who are kind of like the farm team for the X-Men proper, are the latest crop of teenagers at Professor X’s school.

Mojo, by the way, is essentially an evil alien TV network head. Like many television higher-ups, he just can’t resist another series or sequel. In Uncanny X-Men Annual #12, he recreates the infant X-Men for ratings purposes. After a series of unsuccessful attempts, Mojo creates the X-Babies. Said Babies rebel and are very nearly destroyed by Mojo until he realizes that they are a ratings juggernaut.

There are almost too many iterations of the X-Babies to recount properly. There have also been numerous X-Babies villains teams, including a “Brotherhood of the Bullies” team that appeared in 1998’s X-Babies Murderama.