3. Cannonball
What Makes Cannonball a Great Character: Samuel Guthrie made his wide-eyed first appearance in the eighties in Marvel Graphic Novel #4: The New Mutants. He went on to star in the subsequent series the New Mutants and was the first, and for a while the only, one of the new recruits to have been promoted to full X-Men status. Sam can generate a thermochemical blast field which allows him to fly through the air with incredible force. While "blastin'" Sam is virtually indestructible and he can extend his blast field to encompass others and offer them the same invulnerability. Like many characters before him, what makes Sam so likeable isn't necessarily his powers, but his character. Being born and raised in Kentucky, Sam is the ultimate Southern gentleman. He is a natural leader and often butted heads with fellow teammate, Danielle Moonstar, for leadership of the New Mutants. After his time with the X-Men, Sam led X-Force in the wake of Cable's absence and when the New Mutants reformed as a side squad of X-Men Sam once again took the lead. Cannonball is one of the very few characters that is perfectly flawed yet displays no annoying or irredeemable qualities, unless you strongly dislike Southern accents. Of the many men within the X-Men, Sam is the ideal man. He alone reminds readers that within this universe chivalry isn't dead.
Why He is So Under-Rated: You would think that a character with such likeable qualities and an interesting mutant power would get more attention, but you'd be wrong. The reason Sam was the only New Mutant to graduate into an X-Man is because he was the sole student to be worthy of such a promotion. Unfortunately for Cannonball, when he joined the X-Men he quickly took a backseat to the other more established characters and even a few new ones. He had no stories that featured his character and was nothing but a source of support. The nineties didn't treat our favorite Southern gentleman with the respect he deserved. After leaving the X-Men, Sam was put in charge of X-Force once more but ended up taking the team in the wrong direction. X-Force became a vigilante group akin to terrorists which was incredibly uncharacteristic of Sam. He later joined the X-Men once more, but history repeated itself as he became nothing but a source of support for the bigger names and newly expanded student body. There has been no indication that Cannonball will make the jump to the big screen and his only appearances on the small screen were small cameos. To understand why Sam Guthrie is deserving of more, check out X-Force #19 in which he delivers a passionate speech to Professor X declaring his and fellow teammates independence from Xavier. He pulls a similar stunt in X-Men (2nd series) #72 standing up to Storm and Wolverine over their ill treatment of Marrow. Those displays notwithstanding, Sam's crowning moment of awesome comes in Uncanny X-Men #341 in which he took on powerhouse Gladiator alone and won. He repeated his display in skill holding his own against the sadistic Lady Deathstryke in X-Treme X-Men #29 and saving Wolverine's life in the process.
Where He is Now: Sam is now a member of the Avengers as someone outside the X-Men has finally taken notice of his talents. He continues to be placed behind other more popular characters but here's hoping he will take the lead once more with time.