In 2000, X-Men: Evolution premiered on the WB network's Kids WB Saturday morning block. The series showed several X-Men characters in younger forms, attending high school. Some considered this (and still do) to be Beverly Hills 90210 with mutants... and I won't deny it, a few episodes did seem like it. The series focused on six particular kids who made up to core group of X-Men... but who care about them?
In 2001, then-teenager King of the Worthless decided to write X-Men: Evolution fanfiction, focusing on the Brotherhood. Actually, I was one of the first to write Brotherhood fics (and among the few who didn't write the Brotherhood as two-dimensional thug characters, which was how they were viewed at the time), and in a way, I like to think I'm partially responsible for the surge of Brotherhood fics that followed suit (though I sort of doubt that) and the fall of Kurtty (though Lancitty or whatever it's being called took care of that anyway... not to mention big fat fucking overrated "Romy"). This continued for a while, until, in late 2001, my account suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. There are two explanations for this: either a disgruntled Kurtty fan got offended and reported me and I was then banned, or, apparently, I had an enemy within the administration, most likely a Digimon fan. I'm not going to get into why I think it's a Digimon fan... if I suddenly disappear again, you know what happened. Avenge me.
...But I ramble. I've returned! Anyway, the X-Men can't exist without enemies... namely, the Brotherhood of Mutants, who are the protagonists of these stories. During the first season, the Brotherhood were basically just standard thugs, there to move the plot along. Finally, during the second season, they started becoming human, as we got glimpses of them just sitting in their crappy house, being slackers. By the beginning of the third season, they had finally become full characters. Strangely, the way I depicted them turned out to be accurate once they actually became characters. Is this a coincidence, am I being spied on, or do I really control the fate of X-Men: Evolution? Well, care to take a guess? Hahahahaha! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAnone of them. I just happened to make four good calls based on what few aspects of their personalities we were given to begin with, and I wasn't the only early Brotherhood writer to accurately judge their personalities before they fully developed. Now then, the Brotherhood's roster keeps changing, so I'll introduce them in sets.
The Core Group
-Lance Alvers (Avalanche, voiced by Christopher Grey) had a minor role in the comics and the first X-Men cartoon (though his real name was Dominic Petros in both of those), though he was in quite a few Brotherhood incarnations in the comics alongside Mystique and Blob, so there you go. This version, however, seems to be based more on the X-Force character Rictor, and if you just changed Rictor's named to Avalanche, you'd be close to Lance Alvers. Lance is short tempered and hot-headed, and has a tendency to take control of things, especially if there's nobody there to stop him. He's got morals and for the most part, he's a good person, but his anger tends to take control of him and when it does, you can pretty much throw that "good person" crap out the window. Lance has one big soft spot- Kitty Pryde, his girlfriend. This leads to a subdued version of Romeo and Juliet (since neither side really cares enough to stop them, though they are both teased). Lance gets along pretty well with the rest of the Brotherhood, but their antics tend to annoy him. As older brother and de facto leader of the Brotherhood, he's usually bossing the others around, though he's more casual than Pietro and generally treats the others like equals, though he still has to remind them from time to time that he's the alpha wolf in the pack. Lance isn't stupid, but he's not very bright either. He prefers to act before thinking, which gets both him and the others in trouble. Lance's name comes from his ability to control seismic activity and make lame "shake" and "rock" puns. Thankfully, he's cut down on that.
-Fred Dukes (The Blob, voiced by Michael Dobson) has always been fat and stupid. This version makes him more muscular (but still fat) and a little smarter, but he's still dull. Because of his size, Fred's never had it very easy; as anyone can tell from the Mutant Crush incident, his social skills are sorely lacking. Most people mistake Fred's aggression towards Jean as outright malice, but the truth is that he didn't know how else to react to someone being nice to him. I'm not saying what he did was right, or that Jean was wrong to telekinetically throw crap at him, but c'mon, lay off the poor guy. He probably values the Brotherhood most, seeing as they're the only friends he's ever really had. Fred's skin and fat make him tough and impervious to most harm, and his muscles make him strong enough to lift trucks and, with effort, small planes. He's still clumsy, though. He has a sensitive side, and though he's not too self-conscious around his pals, he tries to hide it behind his tough exterior. He gets along well with Lance and especially Toad, and though Fred will accept the leadership of someone he respects (or fears), he doesn't like being bossed around, which explains why he tends to follow Lance's casual leadership instead of Pietro's more militaristic approach. At the end of the day, Fred doesn't care about good guys and bad guys and world domination and peaceful coexistance with humans- all he wants is to be himself and to hang out with his buds, because to him, that's all that really matters.
-Todd Tolensky (The Toad, voiced by Noel Fisher) was once Mortimer Toynbee, Magneto's frog-faced, pudgy, boot-licking lackey. This version of Toad has a different personality and different powers: specifically, the powers his movie version had, which include the ability to leap (which was his only real power in prior versions), the ability to cling to walls, a long tongue, and the ability to split slime. This Toad's personality is also very different; he's neither an asskisser nor a thug. He's basically just a weasely kid who can't catch a break. He tends to stick close to his friends for both protection and assurance, as he lacks the self-confidence to really do much on his own. Toad is referred to as Toad by EVERYONE, friend and foe alike; at first, this probably hurt him, but he's gotten used to it, and even seems to prefer it. Like Kurt, he creates false confidence to mask his low self-esteem, so while he may appear to be proud of his froggish nature, he's not entirely comfortable with it. Similarly, though Toad is smart (though uneducated), he tends to hide that as well, preferring to come across as a cool guy with no worries and masking it behind a cutting wit, which is itself hidden behind a seamingly more innocent sense of humor, and really, you have to be pretty stupid not to see the edge to his humor. Toad happens to be my favorite character, and it helps that he's the most fun to write. This version of Toad is a bit of a pervert, and a bit of a hopeless romantic... strangely, this turned out to be the case, as he lusts after Wanda.
-Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver, voiced by Richard Ian Cox) is a little different from his comic book counterpart. Both started out as villains in Magneto's service (as well as both being Magneto's son), except this version is still a bad guy. He's a quick-moving, quick-thinking, quick-mouthed jerk who especially likes teasing others and making wise-ass comments (almost as much as Toad, though he's far less subtle about it). Pietro lives by one philosophy: look out for number one. Almost everything Pietro does is for selfish reasons; if he helps out his friends, it's only because he expects the favor to be repaid. He is arrogant and sees no reason to think highly of anyone else. His loyalty is to himself, so it can easily be bought- after all, what does he care if someone else gets hurt so long as he benefits? If it suits his purposes, he's as likely to be loyal to Magneto as he is to Mystique or the Brotherhood. Magneto put Pietro in charge of the Brotherhood so that he could groom them for service as future Acolytes, though the Brotherhood was still mad at Pietro for selling them out. After a while (and thanks partially to Wanda's continued membership), the others accepted Pietro back as one of their own, but they're cautious. As for Pietro, he seems to like having others to potentially boss around; like daddy, Pietro likes being in charge, but he hasn't learned the subtleties of leadership as well as his father; Pietro expects people to follow his orders on principle alone and without question. Whenever he has to smooth-talk people into doing something, he can, but he'd prefer it if he didn't. Pietro's only noticeable superpower is his super-speed, though he (like Toad) has numerous smaller abilities that help things run smoothly. A lot of people (including myself) believe that Pietro may be gay. This is why most stories have at least one ambiguously gay line from him. See if you can find it!
-Wanda Maximoff (The Scarlet Witch, voiced by Kelly Sheridan) is almost as drastically changed from her comic counterpart as Rogue. This version of Wanda has been locked in a madhouse for quite a while because her father Magneto couldn't deal with her out-of-control powers. Once rescued by Mystique, she obsessively hunted Magneto for a while until he had Mastermind mess with her memories. Someone people weren't happy with this move. Myself... well, she's easier to write now. Her personality's not all that different, just toned down. She gets along with her roommates but doesn't seem to be particularly close to anyone except her brother, Pietro- she knows he's selfish and arrogant (if she only knew...), but he's still her brother. Wanda is usually fairly calm and though she's a good person, she can be pretty unsympathetic, pessimistic, a tad cynical, and when crossed- downright vengeful. Though she's openly emotional (what mood she's in is rarely a mystery), she almost seems afraid to open up to other people, so she doesn't talk about her problems or really work out any frustration and lets it boil inside her, which can lead to occassional outbursts. Her artistic side- particularly, her fondness for writing- has no real basis in the series... in fact, after Mastermind's mindwipe, we really don't see much of her, but I figured that someone who didn't express herself clearly verbally probably did so through other means. Her powers... well, it's hard to say. She seems to be able to change probability fields and basically do whatever the hell she wants, which is really weird, so it's toned down a bit here. The guys still don't mess with her, though. As a late addition to the team, Wanda is absent from a lot of the stories here, but it's become clear that she's loyal enough to the Brotherhood to be considered part of the core group.
The Auxiliary Members:
Two others may be team members, depending on what time period the story is set in:
-Tabitha Smith (Boom Boom, voiced by Megan Leitch) is able to make little marble-shaped bombs. She had serious potential, being the only New Mutant to have an episode to herself... well, before the producers suddenly decided that Magma had a fanbase, and apparently she does now, even though Amara's a violently boring character (I do enjoy mismatched adjectives). Anyway, Tabitha's a flirt, using her feminine charms to get her way, especially with Nightcrawler. She left the X-Men for a while and joined the Brotherhood, though that little plot point went NOWHERE and all her potential was wasted. Then she re-joined the X-Men. I used to like her, but she's became such a waste of space; there's only so much you can do with a moocher character like Tabby before she gets old. She appears again from time to time and is the subject of the newest romantic pairing: Omnitha. If you don't know what "omni" means, stop reading my stories and run through the wall at McDonald's. You'll save us both some trouble.
-Mystique (Raven Darkholme, voiced by Colleen Wheeler), the blue-skinned shapeshifter, as cruel and manipulative here as she's always been. She started off as the Bayville Principal, Ms. Darkholme. Using her school ties, she helped her boss Magneto gather the core Brotherhood. Eventually, she got tired of being used, and turned on Magneto. She took the Brotherhood with her, though she disappeared for a while. When she showed back up (after freeing and recruiting Wanda), the Brotherhood stayed loyal, except for Pietro, who helped Magneto screw them over. She can take any form she wants, but often just remains her sexy blue self. She has a tendency not to be home, so she rarely appears in stories taking place after Season 1. Even then, she mainly keeps to herself and lets her thugs do the work for her, so she's basically just the seldom-seen team leader.
-Kent (set apart just so you'll pay attention) is the name I've given to Mystique's black-and-orange haired alter ego in Shadowed Past, so whenever Kent appears in these stories, it's really Mystique. Actually, he only appears in about three season one era stories, but I don't think they all explain the Kent alter-ego. Just a heads up.
Now to the hated enemies:
The X-Men
Now, you all know the X-Men. Every other story on this site is devoted to those halfwit goody-goods, so I'm not going to bother explaining who they are or even listing their members, since the roster is at something like 19 now. Since the X-Men aren't the only recurring characters, I'll just list characters whose appearance here is somehow noteworthy:
-Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat, voiced by Maggie Blue O'Hara) has the ability to phase through solid objects, which means she's damn near useless in battle. As of now, her only real purpose is to give Lance someone to talk to besides the Brotherhood and give him a reason to leave the house from time to time. Strangely, she's had greater importance in these stories than the rest of the X-Men even before she started dating Lance. Earlier stories had Toad pining after her (though he was never as open about it as he is with Wanda). Her valley girl accent comes and goes (later stories tone down on it, reflecting the way the series itself has kept the "like" and "totally" to a minimum), but for the most part, she appears as she does on the series. Once she started dating Lance and Toad's crush on Wanda was introduced, the Toad-Kitty thing was basically dropped, though hints of it still surface from time to time, mostly as an in-joke for older readers rather than a real aspect of the characters.
-Professor Xavier (voiced by David Kaye) is the kind but firm gentleman who seems to be middle-aged or older and though he is confined to a wheelchair, he is gifted with great telepathic abilities as well as an unexplained source of income that allows him to build mansions with crazy military bases beneath them and giant robots and all sorts of war machines which he constantly forces his young wards to fight. There's a bit of a trend in the stories where Xavier's concerned... I started out writing him pretty much as he appears on the show, but the more I thought about his situation (which I just summarized), the more I imagined him to be secretly insane, and eventually that began to seep into the writing, so if you read the stories in chronological order, you'll notice he gradually becomes more maniacal towards the end, not to mention strangely creepy. I promise I'll stop dishonoring the character like that, but come on. Think about it.
-Magneto (Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, voiced by Christopher Judge) is the Master of Magnetism and champion of mutant rights whose methods fall somewhere between noble and terrorist... also, he's the loving father of the Maximoff twins and frequent Brotherhood boss. While his kids are living at the boarding house, Magneto will provide some financial support for the Brotherhood, but in return he demands their loyalty and obedience, so he sends them on missions every so often. Magneto's fathering skills aren't the greatest and he has no idea how to react whenever his kids get emotional on him. He usually just stays clear of them and hopes they don't call.
-Scott Summers (Cyclops, voiced by Kirby Morrow) is, if nothing else, Lance's rival. He's the opposite of Lance: hard-working, honest, responsible, caring... the kind of guy you can't help but want to punch in the face. Scott represents the X-Men best, and as the antithesis of the Brotherhood's leader, he appears most often whenever the X-Men's ideals clash with the Brotherhood's. Though he's a "good" person, Scott tends to be a jerk to the Brotherhood, even the others besides Lance, but will never (or at least, rarely) openly antagonize them if he doesn't think they're doing something wrong. Unfortunately, he is overly suspicious of them.
-Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde, voiced by Campbell Lane), is an ugly old man who has the ability to cast illusions... and apparently, scan minds and alter memories as well. Mastermind is an odd one... I have no idea why I like him (might be that he's played with a degree of intelligence and charisma that's usually not given to a character with an appearance like his), but I do, so he makes frequent cameos in later stories. One story has Mastermind revealing to Toad that he is his father (and come on, there's a resemblance), and a few stories afterwards still mention or imply it (though it's only been the actual subject of one story). After a while, I thought that this angle might make some parts of stories seem inaccessible (since it's not a canonical relationship and I'm about the only one who believes this relation exists), so the idea was dropped entirely. Like Toad's crush on Kitty, Mastermind's supposed fatherhood does resurface from time to time as an in-joke for loyal readers (one I'm fond of is at the beginning of "Halloween Comes a Day Late and a Dollar Short"). So what's his deal? I don't know. We first see him in Italy, but he has the accent of an educated American- which is very odd, since he looks very much like a homeless monkey. He's an intelligent man and appears to have some minor history with Magneto, though he's a weird villain in that he doesn't seem to be particularly angry or malicious, though considering his efforts to hide from Italian policemen and citizens, he's not exactly a model citizen, either.
-Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler, voiced by Brad Swaile), the class clown/angsty demon teleporter guy is, for the most part, as he appears on the show. However, just like his accent is inconsistent, especially between seasons, his accent isn't always written down as it sounds. Usually, "th" is written as "z" and sometimes "w" becomes "v", but since his voice actor tends to forget that, his dialogue here reflects that. We'll just say his English is improving. Also, this Nightcrawler, though most of his traits are accurate, doesn't always seem to realize that the Brotherhood boys hate him... at least not in the early stories. Later, this shifted towards Iceman.
-Gambit (Remy LeBeau, voiced by Alessandro Juliani) is a smooth Cajun manwhore who can make things explode. His official purpose for appearing is that he's one of Magneto's lieutenants and the one most familiar with the Brotherhood, so he's often sent to deliver messages and brief them on missions. Gambit's depiction here is a little more cynical than the others (oh, come on, like ANYBODY on this site can write him properly). In the series (and especially in the original show and the comics), he's a sweet talker who's got a way with the ladies... here, he's spouting shitty pickup lines and is, of course, just trying to get in their pants and failing pretty miserably. That's okay, Gambit, you still have your staff. Since few people understand the differences between Evo Gambit and Canon Gambit, let me draw a map for you. There's one, tiny difference between the two: Evo Gambit is a sociopath. If you don't know what that is, please do not write for Gambit anymore until you do. In fact, if you don't know what that is and refuse to look it up, do not talk to me. If I ever meet you, I will punch you in the face.
-Bobby Drake (Iceman, voiced by Andrew Francis) can make ice... and stuff. I have nothing against the original comic Iceman, but I really, really hate this guy. Since his introduction, he's more or less been given Nightcrawler's obliviousness, since this Iceman seems to think the Brotherhood are his friends, or at least seems to think that they don't want to punch his face in... and since I hate him, he is often tortured.
-Twix... not really a character, but it shows up an unusual amount of times. Hmmmmm...
Anyway, here come the fanfictions... you want them? You REALLY want them?! GO AHEAD PUNK! CLICK! NOW! I COMMAND IT!
Seriously. I command it.