Time is All Relatives Trivia Quiz

Answer: Magneto

This one is a curly one and a little time dependent. In other words, it depends on when you ask the question and this is why the rider "purported" parents was included in the introduction.

For years Marvel have had us believing that Magneto was the father of the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff aka Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Erik Lehnsherr, after World War II, settled in the European countryside with his wife Magda and daughter Anya, looking for a peaceful life. However, when the local townspeople witnessed his power, they become frightened and burned his house down. Unfortunately, Anya was still in the house and was killed. This sparked Magneto's hatred for humans and sent him on a rampage, killing townsfolk. Magda, too, becomes frightened of him and fled. She was pregnant at that and, later, died (supposedly) giving birth to the twins Pietro and Wanda.

The timeline that follows shows the twins being found by the Maximoff's and raised as their own. They make their first appearance in "X-Men #4" (1964), are discovered by Magneto, who comes to believe that they are his offspring, that their powers are (therefore) inherited and recruits them into the Brotherhood of Evil. Pietro and Wanda are reluctant villains and eventually join the Avengers.

For decades, that is what we believed. That all changed with the release of "Avengers & X-Men: AXIS", a 2014 crossover comic, where Wanda has a personality swap and becomes a villain. She unleashes a spell that is designed to harm her biological family... problem is, the only one that is affected by this spell is her brother Pietro. Oopsie... Erik (Magneto) is not the father. As it turns out, their birth parents really are Django and Marya Maximoff as they originally believed.

Answer: Professor Charles Xavier

If there was a Marvel family that I would choose to avoid being in it would be the Xavier household. Not only could the good Professor read your mind, the man took a life before he sprang out from his mother's loins. In case you didn't know, Charles Xavier had a twin sister... an evil twin sister at that. Charles sensed the innate wickedness in her and took action immediately, killing her in the womb. It didn't quite work out as well as he'd hoped as, like a number of good supervillains, she would return to haunt him as Cassandra Nova.

That's not enough for you... Charles has a stepbrother, a chap by the name of Cain Marko, better known as Juggernaut and a constant thorn to Charles and the X-Men.

The cream on the cake comes from a relationship that Charles has with Gabrielle Haller. It resulted in the birth of a son (that Charles was unaware of), David Haller, better known as Legion. David has the ability to alter reality, however, he also suffers from dissociative identity disorder and each identity has different personalities and powers, making it difficult for him to control his scenarios.

Answer: Jean Grey

The writers of the Marvel Universe love to throw mud into the waters to make things murky and, when it comes to Jean Grey's progeny, the waters are decidedly murky. Part of this is that Jean has the social habits of a lagomorph and has generated many children. The other is that her storylines are spread across alternate timelines, futures and universes. The above two are classic examples of this.

She has a son named Nathan Christopher Charles Summers who becomes known as Cable, and is a highly-accomplished warrior and battle strategist. Thing is, he's only "sort of" her son. It starts with the evil Mr Sinister who dreams of creating a super mutant from the pairing of Jean Grey and Scott Summers. Problem is that (at this point) Jean is dead. So, as evil villains do, he clones Jean. The result is Madelyne Pryor who he introduces to Scott, they marry and, bingo, they have Cable. Long story short, Jean comes back from the dead, kills Madelyne and raises Cable as her own.

The publication "X-Man #1" appeared in 1995 and it introduced us to Nathaniel (Nate) Grey. He is an alternate universe's version of Cable and is the biological son of his dimension's Scott Summers and Jean Grey. He was also the product of some genetic fooling around by Mr. Sinister.

Answer: Sean Cassidy (Banshee)

Jean Grey has managed to come back from the dead more times than I can remember but, if anyone can give her a run for her resurrections past, it would have to be Sean "Banshee" Cassidy. Blessed with the power to generate "sonic screams" that can break through steel, he goes off the rails when his wife, Maeve, dies but is brought back on track when he meets up with the X-Men. He is killed trying to save a planeload of people but, at last count, has been bought back to life to aid in some nefarious scheme on three occasions. However, he foils these schemes, and tries to make every effort to ensure his new life counts for something.

Early in his marriage to Maeve, Sean was on an Interpol mission that lasted months, unaware that his wife was pregnant when he left. A girl, Theresa, was born and, soon after, Maeve was killed in an IRA bomb attack. Theresa was raised by her uncle Tom, who kept Theresa's identity secret from Sean. Theresa was blessed with the same sonar gifts as her true father and, initially, was drawn into a life of crime by her uncle. Eventually, Uncle Tom would reveal all, and she would come into contact with the X-Men, a team that she would join, and re-unite with her father.

Answer: Nikolai and Alexandra Rasputin

It appears that Nikolai and Alexandra were not possessed of any significant powers that they could pass down to their three children in Mikhail, Piotr and Illyana. That said, there is an argument that Nikolai may have had the x-factor gene that causes mutations, dormant within his system. In the 2006 publication "X-Men: Colossus Bloodline #1-5" it is revealed that that their great grandfather was the legendary Grigory Rasputin, who was a mutant and carried the gene. This would mean that his progeny could have also carried the gene but it remained latent.

Piotr, the middle of the three children, is Colossus. He discovers his power when he turned thirteen while saving his younger sister from a runaway tractor. He gets recruited by Professor X and moves to America. His sister (Illyana), still a child, goes to visit him but is kidnapped by the monster Belasco and spends seven years in Limbo where she discovers her powers and hones her skills. Whilst she may have spent seven years in Limbo, only mere seconds have elapsed on Earth. When a doorway opens to Earth and demons start to invade New York, she manages to close the doorway but, in the process, sacrifices her powers and returns to her former child self. When the Russians discover the power that Illyana possess, (and eventually becomes Magik) they kill her parents, kidnap her and begin a series of experiments on her.

The eldest brother is Mikhail. He is a famed cosmonaut who is, supposedly, killed in space but the truth is that the accident was faked so that the Russians could explore his mutant powers in private. He becomes a supervillain and a constant thorn to his brother Colossus and the X-Men.

Answer: Thomas & Lucinda Guthrie

There is not a lot to share about Thomas and Lucinda. Thomas makes one appearance, though Lucinda appears at least twenty times in comic stories. However, between them, they spawn at least ten children. Aside from Cannonball and Paige (Husk), there are also Icarus, Aero and Jeb among others... that's some kind of dynasty. Not all of the Guthries would exhibit some form of mutation, though most of them would be de-powered on "M-Day", when Scarlet Witch casts a spell to rid the world of mutants. Jay Guthrie would, eventually, be assassinated by William Stryker.

Sam, or Samuel, has the ability to fly at supersonic jet-speeds encased within an impenetrable forcefield. He would become a founding member of the New Mutants team, graduating to second in command of X-Force.

Paige, who becomes known as Husk, has the ability to shed a layer of skin to reveal another layer of completely different material underneath. It would not be uncommon for her to shed her skin to reveal a layer of metal or stone. She would become a member of the Generation X team and, eventually, the X-Men.

Answer: Sir James Braddock

James Braddock was a member of the Captain Britain Corps. He would eventually marry the Lady Elizabeth, establish the Braddock Manor and develop a super computer in its basement called Mastermind. This machine would eventually murder him and the good Lady Elizabeth. Before that, they would have three children; Jamie Jr. and then, ten years later, the twins Brian and Betsy.

Brian would become the protector of the British Isles as Captain Britain, but he is not born with any mutant powers. Instead, his mystical powers are imbued to him by the legendary sorcerer Merlyn, when he is given the Amulet of Right.

Brian's twin sister, Elizabeth (Betsy), on the other hand is a mutant. She is blessed with telepathic powers and works with the X-Men as Psylocke. She has also operated in the Otherworld as Captain Britain after her brother was corrupted by the evil Morgan le Fay.

The least known of the siblings is Jamie Jr. who is also a mutant with the power to manipulate reality. He was driven insane at the hands of Dr. Crocodile and struggled to keep his powers in check.

Answer: Christopher (Corsair) Summers

Christopher Summers and his wife Katherine were flying back from a vacation when their plane was attacked by a scout ship from the alien Shi'ar Empire. Before they were captured, Katherine placed parachutes on their two children, Scott and Alex, and pushed them out of the plane. Katherine was killed by the Shi'ar Emperor D'Ken in front of Christopher who, in turn, was sentenced to work in the mines for life. Christopher would escape, steal a ship called the Starjammer, and turned to piracy. He called himself Corsair and his targets were ships of the Shi'ar Empire. He believed that his sons would not have survived the fall from the plane and chose not to return to Earth (for a time) and relive, what would have been, painful memories.

Scott would become Cyclops and a long-time leader of the X-Men and Alex would grow to become Havok. The curious thing is that Scott and Alex are mutants though neither of their parents exhibited these traits. There is a third brother in their lineage, Gabriel, would become known as Vulcan. For the record, Christopher does get to see his children eventually.

Answer: Raven Darkholme

Raven Darkholme is better known as Mystique. Where she comes from is a mystery, not even she understands. Whether or not she is human is also questionable. While she has the power to shapeshift and is a master manipulator, the same cannot be said about her powers of motherhood.

She worked her way into a relationship with Victor Creed (Sabretooth). The affair was a short one but Raven still had to fake her death to escape from the tryst. The consequence of the affair was that she would end up with the child Graydon Creed. As the offspring of two mutant beings, she had expected similar qualities would be exhibited within Graydon. He arrived in the world as an ordinary human and Raven lost interest. Graydon grew to hate his parents, hate all mutants, formed the mutant-hating organization Friends of Humanity and then rose to political power. Now, how's this for a twist. Graydon would be assassinated and the shooter, at the time, was unknown. It proved to be a time travelling Mystique. The plot is too convoluted to go into here.

Later, disguised as a human, Mystique (Raven) married Baron Christian Wagner in an effort to have another child. The Baron proved to have fertility issues. Raven then had a string of affairs until she fell pregnant to the teleporting demon Azazel. The resultant child was Kurt Wagner who'd inherit his mother's blue skin and father's teleporting abilities. Raven abandoned him as well. He would be raised by the Romany sorceress Margali Szardos and, eventually, join the X-Men.

Answer: Wolverine

James Howlett, the Wolverine, was born to a wealthy family in Canada in the 19th century. He was forced to flee when his powers manifested themselves. As a loner, he adopted the name Logan. Having lived for hundreds of years, it is not surprising that he "sowed a few oats" in that time and, at last recall, he could count at least sixteen children on his adamantium claws. Sadly though, it is highly unlikely that any one of them is a chance to nominate him for the Father of the Year Award.

Toward the end of World War II Logan was in Japan where he met Itsu and their affair led to her being in child. Before the child was born Itsu was killed by the Winter Soldier as a means to draw the Wolverine out. The child was cut from the womb of Itsu and left on the doorstep of a wealthy family. It is assumed that the child survived because of the Wolverine's healing qualities having been passed down to him. Nicknamed Daken by the local children (because it meant "mongrel") Daken's first meeting with his biological father was one on which great relations are built - Daken slashed him across the stomach and then walked away, leaving him to bleed out. Daken is blessed with Wolverine's abilities and claws but they're made of bone rather than adamantium.

"X-23: Innocence Lost" (2006) is the origin story of Laura Kenny or X-23 or Wolverine's clone. Laura is raised by an organization that is known as The Facility and before she reaches her teenage years is already a gifted assassin. She escapes from the Facility and works the streets as a prostitute before joining the Xavier Institute. Unlike Daken, she meets and bonds with her father and becomes a valued member of the X-Men. The wonderful 2017 film "Logan" casts a slightly different spin on this origin story.