Where Was The Rest Of The First Class?
Ah, yes. X-Men: First Class introduced us to so many new characters: Angel, Emma Frost, Azazel, Banshee and Riptide. So what happened to them all? Well, if you blinked at a crucial moment, or had to go to the bathroom, then you probably missed the scene where Mystique uncovered Trask’s secret files, which includes autopsy information for all the mutants listed above, including pictures. Magneto later confirmed that they were killed when he raged out at Xavier for his indifference. Aside from Xavier, Magneto, Beast and Mystique, it seems that the only mutant to walk away from the Cuban Missile Crisis alive is Havok, and then he was sent to Vietnam.
You may say that’s a lot of mutants to lose at any one time, but in the comic books mutant massacres are not uncommon. The first, big “mutant massacre” was when a villain named Mr. Sinister and a group of evil mutants called The Marauders killed a group of disfigured mutants called the Morlocks, who lived in the sewers under New York. Later, the Sentinels would wipe out the population of Genosha, an island nation off the coast of Africa whose population was majority mutant. Being a mutant is a dangerous thing, and there’s always some group or another looking to wipe them off the face of the Earth.
In fact, there’s an expression from the comic book for new teammates: “Welcome to the X-Men – hope you survive the experience.” Sometimes, unfortunately, they don’t.