Boomer

Tabitha Smith is a mutant with the ability to generate explosive plasma spheres she calls 'time bombs,' which detonate on a mental command. A rebellious runaway, she cycled through several codenames — including Boom-Boom and Meltdown — while serving with X-Factor, X-Force, and the X-Men.

Explosive in every sense, Boomer burst onto the Marvel scene in 1992 courtesy of Fabian Nicieza and Greg Capullo in X-Force #16, arriving at the height of the Copper Age when mutant titles were among the hottest books on the rack. Over a remarkable three-decade publishing run spanning X-Force, The Uncanny X-Men, and X-Men, this character has earned affiliations with not one but three of Marvel's most storied mutant outfits — X-Force, X-Factor, and the X-Men themselves — sharing pages with heavy-hitters like Shatterstar, Warpath, and Charles Xavier along the way. Two of those appearances carry key-issue status, making Boomer a genuine target for collectors who dig deep into the mutant corner of the Marvel Universe. If your longboxes skew toward the era when X-titles ruled Wednesday afternoons, Boomer is a name worth tracking down.