20 Lesser-Known Female Superheroes

Callisto versus Sabretooth (Image via Marvel)

13. Callisto

Callisto lives in the sewer. She wears an eyepatch. She has cool facial scars. Callisto is highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and often uses knives. You either want to be Callisto, or you want to be very, very nice to her.

Callisto clearly hasn’t had an easy life, though her origins remain murky. For one, she’s has enhanced senses, which is probably rough in a sewer. During one of her earliest appearances, she kind of explains the scars by exclaiming “how dumb a mistake” it was to live amongst non-mutated humans.

After this murky before-time, Callisto escapes human society and takes up residence in a bomb shelter amongst the sewers. With the help of Caliban, a fellow sewer-dwelling mutant, she begins to set up a society for fellow rejected mutants. Naturally enough, they decide to call themselves the Morlocks.

When Callisto kidnaps X-Man Angel to make her his mate, things start to fall apart. During the rescue attempt, X-Man Kitty Pryde becomes ill. Callisto refuses to release Kitty to the surface world for medical treatment, though Pryde is clearly getting worse. To rescue her teammate, Storm challenges Callisto to a duel. When she wins, Storm becomes the new leader of the Morlocks. She declares that said Morlocks need to calm down and stop terrorizing people on the surface; in exchange, the X-Men will help to bring peace to their society.

Callisto, meanwhile, starts to nurture an intense hatred of Storm. It’s mutual.

Unfortunately, some of Callisto’s stories revolve around her lost good looks. It isn’t enough that she’s a badass; Callisto has to feel bad about her scars. Rather, I’d prefer to focus on later storylines, such as the one where she returns to the sewers. This time, however, Callisto is more kind and loving to the runaways that gather under her charge. She still manages to get into yet another fight with Storm, but the two eventually reconcile. It’s a good place to leave her, for now.