Marvel is allowing fans to vote in the final member of the new X-Men team, and the former villain Tempo is the most surprising candidate.
Marvel is giving readers a unique opportunity to determine the final member of the new X-Men team that is scheduled to debut in June. While current issues of X-Men have the mutants of Krakoa voting on who they want to represent them on the team, the publisher is conducting a fan vote to determine the final member of the team.
The X-Men voting options include long-time mutant heroes such as Banshee, Polaris and Forge, along with a few New Mutants like Cannonball and Sunspot and former X-team mainstays like Boom-Boom, Strong Guy, Marrow and Armor. However, one potential X-Man, Tempo, has never been on a heroic team, and this relatively obscure mutant stands as the most surprising name on the list.
Tempo, aka Heather Tucker, began her career as an X-Men villain, as a mutant terrorist who worked for Stryfe in direct opposition to Cable’s team of mutants that would eventually become the first X-Force. She was part of the Mutant Liberation Front and debuted in New Mutants #86 by Louise Simonson, Rob Liefeld, Bob Wiacek, Glynis Oliver & Joe Rosen. In this issue, the MLF bombed a federal research facility and demanded the release of mutants that the government-sanctioned group Freedom Force had captured — Rusty and Skids of the New Mutants — or they would continue to destroy everything in sight.
The MLF became a thorn in the New Mutants’ side as they evolved into X-Force. They were used as a tool as part of Stryfe’s larger campaign against Cable, which was an extension of their deep personal vendetta. The MLF often outclassed the mutants, and Tempo’s time-manipulating powers were a big part of that equation. With her chronokinesis, Tempo can manipulate time itself, slowing or stopping others and speeding herself up. However, Tempo reconsidered her role in the MLF after facing the combined might of the X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force.
Reignfire, an evil clone of the New Mutants’ Sunspot, broke Tempo out of prison with other members of the MLF and relaunched the group, sending them to kill Henry Peter Gyrich. However, Tempo instead chose to save Gyrich. After this betrayal, Reignfire banished Tempo from the MLF, and she left with X-Force. However, she rejected the chance to join them, electing to go to college instead.
After fading from view entirely for years, Tempo was later recruited to join Exodus’s Acolytes during “Messiah Complex” and died a hero in “Age of X” when she fought against the Human Coalition. She was resurrected on Krakoa and has presumably remained on the island ever since. Tempo was last seen in Marauders #10, aging whiskey for Sebastian Shaw. With her potential election to the X-Men, Tempo now has the opportunity to do something much greater with her powers, and she could potentially provide a tremendous boon to the team if elected.
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