Ariel

Ariel is a mysterious alien girl who first appeared in the 1987 Marvel limited series Fallen Angels, becoming involved with a group of young mutant runaways. Her true origins and nature remained deliberately enigmatic throughout the series.

Few characters can claim membership across such wildly different corners of Marvel's mutant world as Ariel, who burst onto the scene in 1982's Marvel Graphic Novel #5 — a Bronze Age debut courtesy of the legendary team of Christopher Claremont and Brent Eric Anderson. Over more than four decades of publishing history, Ariel has moved through some of the most storied corners of Marvel's mutant landscape, affiliated at various points with the X-Men, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Morlocks, and the Starjammers — a range that speaks to a genuinely fascinating, shape-shifting place in the mythology. With seven collector-recognized key issues to their name and appearances alongside titans like Kitty Pryde, Ororo Munroe, Colossus, and Logan across Uncanny X-Men and Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars, Ariel is exactly the kind of deep-cut discovery that reminds you why digging into the back-issue bins is always worth it.