Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #490: Graydon Creed

So, I was thinking of doing another of the background characters from Deadpool & Wolverine, but then I got to thinking how the character in question might be a little too much in use for my tastes, but noticed a reference to a different character in the original character’s Wikipedia entry, one that wasn’t in this or any of the X-Men movies, that would make for a better entry.

That would be a certain Graydon Creed.

Graydon Creed is the sort of character that got a lot more screentime in the 90s but I can’t claim to have seen much of since then.  First appearing in writer Scott Lobdell and artist Brandon Peterson’s Uncanny X-Men #299 in April of 1993, Graydon Creed would probably be the next in a long line of anti-mutant humans if it weren’t for one little thing:  both of his parents are mutants, and fairly well-known ones at that.  His father is Sabertooth, and his mother is Mystique.  Somehow, these two managed to have a non-mutant baby.

Granted, maybe if Graydon’s parents had been, you know, not some homicidal murder machine or a shapeshifter who seems to have abandoned all of her children–Nightcrawler and Rogue both have reason to call her “mom”–then maybe Graydon would have turned out OK.  Like, what if an actual loving mutant parent raised him?  But no such luck there.  Graydon opted instead to form the Friends of Humanity, all while keeping his parentage a secret because the Friends of Humanity aren’t that friendly in the grand scheme of things.  Apparently, pointing out that you know firsthand how awful mutants are doesn’t get you very high ranking in a mutant hate group.

Oddly enough, Graydon sometimes did work with mutants, joining the Upstarts with immortal witch Selene and omnipath Gamesmaster in disguise to hunt mutants for points, opting to go for his own parents because he hated them that much.  He’d be blackmailed into giving up prime information to the New Warriors later on, and then he’d try to do the obvious thing in the X-Men’s corner of the Marvel Universe and opted to run for President on an anti-mutant agenda.  Now personally, I don’t think single-issue candidates have what it takes in the long haul, but his security and background checks were pretty bad since Bastion on one end and Iceman and Cannonball on the other infiltrated his campaign.  Bastion was there to keep Graydon’s parentage a secret from the press (it got out anyway), and Iceman and Cannonball were going by the names Drake Roberts and Samson Guthry, respectively, and somehow still managed not to get caught.

Moot point:  Graydon was shot and killed by an assassin, eventually revealed to be a time traveling future version of his mother.

Later, because this is comics, Graydon would be revived by the techno-organic virus only to be put down again by Hope Summers, and then later a zombie version of him was taken down by Lady Deathstrike, the original pick for this week’s column.

Now, given the time period that Graydon Creed was most visible, let me just say that of course he was on X-Men: The Animated Series.

But as far as I know, he’s never been in a live action movie.  I think it is safe to say for now that won’t be changing any time soon.