Kuan-Yin Xorn

Kuan-Yin Xorn is a powerful Chinese mutant who spent years imprisoned by his own government before being discovered and brought into the X-Men's orbit, his head containing a star in place of a brain — a phenomenon that made him both extraordinary and deeply isolated.

Grant Morrison and Leinil Francis Yu introduced Kuan-Yin Xorn to Marvel's Modern Age in 2001, and this enigmatic figure has quietly accumulated a presence that spans an impressive quarter-century of comics history. With 39 catalog appearances — four of them collector-significant key issues — Xorn has proven far more durable than a one-off curiosity, turning up across X-Men, New X-Men, and even the irreverent Deadpool & the Mercs for Money. The company Kuan-Yin keeps is rarefied: Wolverine, Cyclops, and Logan all share the page, placing this character squarely at the heart of Marvel's mutant universe. For readers who love a character with genuine mystique and a Morrison-era pedigree, Kuan-Yin Xorn is absolutely worth tracking down.