The Leader of the X-Men is Professor X, a wheelchair-bound genius who set up a school for mutants. His main superpower is telepathy. One of his most famous colleagues is Wolverine, a man who has animal senses and sharp metal claws that extrude from his fists. Another popular hero is Cyclops, who wears special goggles to control optic ray blasts from his eyes. Rogue, one of the younger members of the X-Men, has the ability of absorbing the powers of other mutants through physical contact. Another common character is Storm, who has the ability to summon lightening, wind and tornadoes.
Gambit appears in many of the X-Men comics as an anti-hero, and has the ability to cause objects to explode. Nightcrawler, a blue-skinned superhero, has the gift of teleportation. Iceman, one of the more common characters in earlier comics, can control ice and frost. A hero with Russian origins, Colossus, has the ability to transform his flesh into metal. Angel is another one of the lesser-known heroes, and is able to fly by using his back-mounted wings.
The leader of the villains in the X-Men comics, known as the Brotherhood of Mutants, is Magneto, a man born with the gift of magnetism. One of his more common sidekicks is Mystique, a woman with shape-shifting abilities. Another common villain is Sabretooth, who has both fast healing abilities and superhuman senses. William Stryker is another main villain, however he has no superpowers. Instead he leads a witch hunt on the X-Men and other mutants.
Lady Deathstrike, also known as Yuriko Oyama, exhibits similar abilities with that of Wolverine. Pyro has the ability to control fire, and is seen as the antithesis of Iceman. One of the more cerebral villains, the Scarlet Witch has the ability to control mathematical probabilities. A former villain who has switched to the role of hero in recent years, Juggernaut is not technically a mutant but was given the power of super-human physical strength later in life.