10 Most Heartbreaking X-Men Moments In Comics History

One of the many reasons why the X-Men have remained such an important staple of comic book culture is because the franchise is filled to the brim with emotion.

The series has always had a lot in common with soap opera drama, with each storyline being emotionally investing to remind readers just how heartbreaking a few vibrant panels can be.

One of the things that makes X-Men so heart-wrenching is because of how relatable the franchise has always been to real life issues. Most of us know how the comic book series was originally created as a direct response to the Civil Rights Movement. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby crafted the idea of mutants delicately as an allegory for how black people were treated by white people, the latter being represented in the comics by humans.

When a comic book can hit notes that collide so similarly with real life situations, it's hard for the content to not strike a cord with readers. The X-Men have done so time and time again ever since the first issue hit the shelves in 1963.

For a long time, Doug Ramsey - also known as Cypher - was something of an afterthought in the X-Men. The only power he had to his name was to speak and understand any language known to man. So, basically, he was useless. Without any powers useful for the fight against evil, he was a coward.

Naturally, when it came to scrap someone off the team, Cypher's name was the first on the chopping block. To everyone's surprise, Ramsey would get a noble death that would make us all fall in love with the nobody character.

While on a mission to rescue Bird-Brain, Cypher and his girlfriend Wolfsbane get in a fight with Ani-Mator. After spending most of the battle in hiding, Doug scurries out of his hiding spot to stop a bullet meant for Wolfsbane.

In an instance, the multi-lingual mutant is shot down and passes away. It was such a heartbreaking moment that even Magneto had to recall it as one of his most traumatic memories.