Published Feb 3, 2026, 10:00 PM EST
Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows.
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Mutants in Marvel Comics are almost always overpowered in some way, but a certain subsection of the X-Men takes the crown. Some Marvel mutants wield apocalyptic forces capable of destroying countries or planets, while others possess subtler powers whose sheer utility makes them just as dangerous. Sometimes, the most disruptive abilities are invisible.
From iconic mutations like flight, healing, and magnetism to hyper-specific mutant abilities involving probability and time perception, the X-Men mythos covers nearly every imaginable power set. Some mutations are flashy, others deeply weird, but all serve a narrative purpose. Among them, the most consistently useful and potentially broken power is also the least flashy and, surprisingly, one of the most common.
The X-Men Have A Major Telepathy Problem
Too Many X-Men Characters Are Supposed To Be Psionic Powerhouses
The X-Men corner of the Marvel Universe is overflowing with telepaths, many of whom are explicitly described as omega-level or near-omega threats. Professor X, Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Psylocke, Rachel Summers, Cable, Hope Summers, Kid Omega, Exodus, Shadow King, Cassandra Nova, Madelyne Pryor, the Stepford Cuckoos, Legion, and even villains like Apocalypse and Mister Sinister routinely wield advanced psychic abilities. These powers range from telepathy and telekinesis to astral projection, mind control, memory alteration, precognition, and reality-adjacent mental constructs.
At the center of this web are Marvel’s most iconic psychic mutants. Charles Xavier is the moral and ideological heart of the X-Men and all mutantkind. Jean Grey is an original X-Man whose psychic potential is limitless even without the Phoenix Force. Emma Frost, meanwhile, occupies a unique dual role as both X-Men leader and Hellfire Club member. These three alone have similar mutations that rarely overlap even though they should.
In theory, if this many psychic mutants achieve superhuman feats with the power of their minds, they should completely invalidate most conflicts. Telepaths should neutralize physical threats instantly, be able to see through any lie and conspiracy, counter each other constantly, and collapse entire plots before they begin. Instead, telepathic mutants' psionic powers keep being restrained, both willingly and against their wishes, to prevent them from solving every problem immediately.
Psionic Characters Are Among The Toughest To Handle
Mental Superpowers Are Overpowered By Definition
Technically, a competent telepath should be able to read most people's thoughts, detect lies, uncover hidden allegiances, and anticipate betrayals almost instantly. Subtle mental nudges like implanting doubts, amplifying fears, or steering decisions would be far more effective than brute-force mind control and nearly impossible to detect. If telepathy were portrayed even semi-realistically, conflicts would end in record time. All superpowers require a certain suspension of disbelief, but limitations are rather obvious when it comes to psionic powers.
Heroic telepaths like Professor X or Jean Grey are justified in that they actively choose not to exploit their powers for evil or self-serving purposes. The problem is that most psychic characters are not bound by those moral codes. Villains like the Shadow King, Cassandra Nova, or Legion have little reason to hold back, yet they rarely act with the ruthless efficiency their powers imply. Even in the highly unrealistic Marvel Universe, these characters should dominate encounters in an instant.
Unlike physical and energy-based abilities, telepathy is abstract and largely invisible, which makes it inherently less spectacular and harder to dramatize. When too many characters share this mutation, it becomes background noise, and as a result, these powers are often forgotten. For instance, every time villains like Mister Sinister or Stryfe get cornered, they should be able to turn things around easily by simply toying with their enemies' minds, yet they rarely do it because it would be anticlimactic and repetitive.
When Every Character Is Extremely Powerful, Nobody Is
There's Not Much Characters Like Charles Xavier Can Really Achieve
Many of the X-Men's psionic characters are technically capable of shutting down entire battlefields with a thought, but this quickly becomes unsustainable when dozens of characters share that same power ceiling. Telepaths cancel each other out and stalemates become the norm. As a result, telepaths rarely achieve anything decisive with their powers. They’re present, they’re theoretically godlike, but the story can’t allow them to act like it, so they don’t.
The problem only worsens when telepaths interact with non-psychic characters. A single mental command, illusion, or memory wipe would collapse a plot on page one. To avoid that, X-Men writers impose artificial rules on telepathy. Telepaths can’t interfere, won’t interfere, or suddenly forget they can. This constant self-sabotage strips telepathy of its impact. In trying to make everyone powerful, the narrative flattens them all.
Telepathic Powers Should Be Nerfed A Lot In The Marvel Universe
Psionic Abilities Are More Impressive If They're Limited
One of the most effective ways to fix Marvel’s telepathy problem is to drastically reduce the breadth of mutant psionic abilities. Most telepaths shouldn’t be able to access all psychic abilities all at once. Lower overall power levels and narrower scopes would solve the question of why telepaths don't casually end every conflict, and also make their abilities feel earned and costly.
Each psionic mutant should also specialize in a distinct, largely exclusive niche. One character might excel at long-range mind-reading but be incapable of mind control; another might manipulate emotions but be unable to access surface thoughts; another could rewrite memories but only after prolonged contact; another might dominate psychic combat yet be functionally blind to non-hostile minds. In exchange for their specialty, they would lack other psychic functions entirely. This approach would preserve the mystique of telepathy and eliminate redundancy.
First Film X-Men (2000)
TV Show(s) X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men '97 (2024)
Character(s) Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23
Video Game(s) X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
Comic Release Date 213035,212968
English (US) ·