was also worshipped as a goddess, although Xavier eventually called her out for her exploitation of her believers and Storm conceded to his point.

Storm is not the only X-Man to be worshipped, though. In the ‘90s, Magneto, who was up to this point viewed as a political provocateur at best and a terrorist at worst, became something of a cult figure when dozens of mutants joined him on his satellite in space, Asteroid M. Calling themselves the Acolytes, they admired Magneto as a religious figure. Later, when he fell to Earth from his destroyed home, it was the nuns of a small convent who nursed him back to health.

Uncanny X-Men #327, cover art by Joe Madureira

One X-Man actually founded her own religion, albeit many centuries into the future.One of the more interesting underused concepts in all of comics, Rachel Summers, the alternate reality child of Cyclops and Phoenix, travels into the future to found a woman-based faith called the Askani Sisterhood. Rachel assembles the group to defeat the immortal villain Apocalypse, and her followers worship her on the level of a religious or cult figure.

God Loves Man Kills

Finally, one of the most well-regarded X-Men stories of all time, God Loves Man Kills, was specifically written to compare religious intolerance of queer people to the persecution of mutants. The villainous William Stryker has a son who is a mutant, and the shame he feels leads him to apparently kill his wife and son. He attacks the X-Men and attempts to kill Kitty Pryde while dehumanizing mutants