If you read my blog, you know that I’m a big fan of superheroes. From the ones made by Marvel and DC to those made by others, I love superheroes. I still have all my comics (I call it my retirement insurance). After seeing my friend Jirayan start something called the 30-Day Marvel Challenge, I knew I wanted in. I know I’m a days behind, but that’s not gonna stop me. So let’s start with day 1- my favorite character

Hope Summers, The Mutant Messiah

It would be so easy to say someone like Captain America or Spider-Man, but I don’t want easy! My favorite character has to be Hope Summers, the Mutant Messiah.

If you don’t know who she is, I don’t blame you. She’s not seen that often outside the comics. Nonetheless, she had a big role to play in the Marvel Universe.

Here’s the story: back in 2004, Scarlet Witch’s powers went nuts and started altering reality in the event known as “Avengers: Disassembled” forcing her teammates in the Avengers to take her down teammate down. Afterwards, the X-Men and Avengers decided she was now too dangerous to live. Before they could do anything, though, she used her powers to rewrite reality into one known as “The House of M”

In this new reality, Magneto ruled a world where mutants were the majority, and all the heroes had their greatest desires fulfilled. Thanks to the efforts of Wolverine, the House of M was undone and reality restored to normal. However, Wanda used her powers once more, uttering three words that would have devastating consequences:

As a result, 99% of all mutants in the Marvel Universe were de-powered into normal humans. Only 198 were left, and thanks to Wanda, no more mutants could be born. Or so it seemed. One year after the mutant decimation, the impossible happened, and a mutant child was born.The X-Men waged a war to protect this child, who had the potential to save their species. In the end, the baby was taken into the future by the time-traveling hero Cable, who raised her as his daughter and gave her her name: Hope Summers.

Eventually, Cable and Hope chose to return to the present, kick starting the “X-Men: Second Coming” story line. The X-Men waged a war against the Sentinel Bastion and his army of mutant haters to protect Hope. In the final battle in San Francisco, Hope demonstrated her ability to copy and use the powers of any mutant, and with her full power unleashed, Bastion’s plans for mutant genocide came to an end.

In the aftermath, more mutants began to appear, and for a time, it looked like Hope would save mutantkind from extinction. Then things get weirder. The cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force started making its way to Earth in search of Hope, who it had chosen to be its next host. While the X-Men see this as a a chance to revive their race, the Avengers don’t want to take any chances.

This leads to the war between the biggest superhero teams in Marvel, Avengers vs. X-Men, and thanks to the meddling of the Avengers, the Phoenix Force is split between five of the X-Men. Predictably, they all become corrupted by the Phoenix’s power, culminating in Cyclops becoming Dark Phoenix.

In a poetic way to end the saga that began with “House of M”, Hope teams up with a repentant Scarlet Witch to defeat Dark Phoenix and finally inherit the Phoenix Force. She then uses it to undo Wanda’s spell and restore mutantkind, fulfilling her destiny as the Mutant Messiah.

Hope Summers may not be the most important character in the Marvel Universe, or the most well-known, but I consider her my favorite because of the amazing story she has. Born in spite of a spell so powerful it was woven into the fabric of reality, hunted across the space-time continuum before returning to the present to save her people. The whole thing just sounds so amazing to me. Plus there are her powers. She can copy and use the powers of any mutant in the Marvel Universe. If she used them to the fullest, she could become the strongest person in the Marvel Universe!

Following her story was the reason why I started seriously collecting comic books, and I do not regret it for a second. If you haven’t read her story yet, you should. It’s some of the best X-Men stories in the last twenty years. I wish they would adapt the whole thing into an animated mini-series. I would watch it.

If you want to learn more about the events mentioned here, click these links:

• Avengers: Disassembled
• House of M
• Messiah Complex
• Messiah War
• X-Men: Second Coming
• Avengers vs. X-Men