Charlie Brown Is a Member of the X-Men in Marvel Continuity - But What's His Mutant Power?

Summary Charlie Brown is a mutant X-Man in Marvel Comics canon, with unspecified powers.

The original Peanuts comic strip may offer clues as to what Charlie Brown's powers may be.

Charlie Brown's meta-impact led to his cameo in X-Men, but his impact on the comic book community stretches beyond that, as he may have even inspired DC's Kite-Man.

Charlie Brown is the main character of Charles M. Schultz’s Peanuts, but that’s not all he is, as Marvel Comics confirms that Charlie Brown is also a mutant and a member of the X-Men. Charlie Brown has appeared once in Marvel Comics canon, and while his appearance was little more than a cameo, the circumstances surrounding it make him an honorary X-Man, as he took part in one of the most dangerous missions in the team’s history. However, while fans know he’s a mutant, Marvel never specified what Charlie Brown’s powers are - leaving ample room to speculate wildly.

In Astonishing X-Men #9 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, the X-Men are reeling after Emma Frost claims the Danger Room itself has not only gained sentience (something it’s had the entire time), but that it’s ‘mutated’, allowing it to act autonomously outside its programming, which, in turn, allows it to kill. Emma brings this information to the rest of the team while Kate Pryde and practically the entire student body is inside the Danger Room - and one of those enrolled mutants fighting for his life is none other than Charlie Brown.

When readers are shown what’s happening inside the Danger Room, they are greeted with a swirling hellscape of the sentient machine’s own making. Given its unlimited control over the environment, the Danger Room wanted to simulate a very real danger in order to convey its newfound power and freedom. The room then shifts to a vast desert, where the mutants are given a chance to get their footing if just for a moment, despite the fact that fighting is useless. And that’s where fans see Charlie Brown, who is just as stunned and confused as the rest of his classmates.

So… What Are Charlie Brown’s Mutant Powers in X-Men Canon?

The original Peanuts comic strip may offer clues as to Charlie Brown’s mutation!

Charlie Brown is not shown using any kind of superhuman powers whatsoever in this X-Men comic, but the fact that he is enrolled at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters means that he has to be a mutant, which means he has to have powers. So, what are they? While X-Men may not have answered that question, perhaps the original Peanuts comic strip could help identify Charlie Brown’s mutation.

As shown in the comic strip above, Charlie Brown’s baseball games and practices are almost always getting rained out, yet Chuck is always insisting that it ‘looks like it’s going to clear up’. Charlie Brown takes playing baseball very seriously, but almost every time it’s time to play, the rain comes. Perhaps Chuck has the power to manipulate the weather (like Ororo Munroe aka Storm) that he’s unaware of, and his desire for it not to rain inadvertently causes the downpour.

Going off of that, perhaps Charlie Brown doesn’t have the power to inadvertently and ironically manipulate the weather, but actually has luck-based powers similar to Domino - but in reverse. Just as Domino is ‘lucky’ (which is a simple way to say that she can manipulate probability in her favor), perhaps Charlie Brown’s power is that he’s ‘unlucky’, and he just hasn’t learned how to manipulate his probability like Domino, making most everything that happens to him decidedly ‘unlucky’ (that would explain how he wound up in the Danger Room the one time it became murderously sentient…).

Though fans can actually take this one step further, as maybe Charlie Brown’s powers are even more subtle than weather or probability manipulation, and have been staring fans in the face with every Peanuts strip. Peanuts has been around for decades, yet no one seems to age or change. Perhaps Charlie Brown has the power to trap his environment in a never-aging bubble, hence the franchise’s longevity.

Unfortunately, fans may never know what Charlie Brown’s mutant powers are, but the one thing they can be sure about is his meta impact on the Marvel Universe, and the entire comic book industry as a whole.

Why Charlie Brown Even Made a Cameo in X-Men in the First Place

Peanuts’ Charlie Brown is a massively influential figure for comic creators in Marvel & DC!

While his in-world reason for being there is unclear, what is clear is why Charlie Brown was even given a cameo in Astonishing X-Men to begin with: Peanuts is a widely influential comic that many artists and writers take inspiration from. Obviously, Joss Whedon and John Cassady felt inclined to include Charlie Brown in this Astonishing X-Men issue, which implies that they felt a nod to the legendary Charles Schultz was in order. But they are far from the only comic book creators who have been inspired by the Peanuts comic strip.

Acclaimed comic creator Tom King, who’s been responsible for storylines including Rorshach, Mister Miracle, and a number of Batman titles, once stated on the record that Peanuts is “the best comic of all time”. King gives this opinion in an interview with Popverse, where he elaborates further:

Tom King: I personally think that Peanuts is the best comic of all time in terms of combining pictures with words. I think Charles Shultz is the absolute best of the best. My oldest son is named Charlie, that’s how deep my nerd goes.

Enjoy the full Popverse interview in the video above (Tom King speaks on Peanuts at the 29-minute mark).

Charlie Brown is Seemingly the Inspiration for 1 DC Villain: Kite-Man

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Not only do real-world comic creators find inspiration from the work of Charles Schultz and the adventures of Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic strip, but Charlie Brown himself may have directly inspired the creation of one DC character: Kite-Man.

While not outright confirmed, Kite-Man was seemingly inspired by Charlie Brown, and is essentially a ‘what if’ alternate future for the Peanuts star. Indeed, Kite-Man’s real name is Charlie Brown (yes, really) who says ‘rats!’ when things don’t go his way (just like Peanuts’ Charlie Brown), which is something that happened for the first time in Hawkman #4 when he crashed into a tree. It’s also theorized that Charlie Brown ‘became’ Kite-Man after being driven insane by the ‘kite-eating tree’ that makes a number of appearances throughout the original Peanuts strip, which plays off Chuck’s ongoing conflict with said tree.

Related 10 Funniest Peanuts Comics Where Charlie Brown Takes On The Kite-Eating Tree Charlie Brown tries his best to reason (and argue) with the relentless Kite-Eating Tree in these side-splitting Peanuts comics, to no avail.

From Tom King singing the praises of Charles Schultz, to Charlie Brown being the presumed inspiration for DC’s Kite-Man, to Charlie Brown himself making an outright appearance in Astonishing X-Men, it’s clear that Peanuts’ Charlie Brown has had an immense impact on the entire comic book industry.

Unfortunately, none of this answers the burning question presented in X-Men: what are Charlie Brown’s mutant powers? While at the moment it’s unclear, there is plenty of time for Marvel Comics to answer that question, as one thing is abundantly clear about Charlie Brown: his influence will continue to be felt in the comic book community for years to come.

Source: Popverse/YouTube