Personal Bias: I’m a DC guy, so I favor MM. That said, the X-Men are my favorite Marvel property. I liked the X-Men movies, yes, even the third one. I never read the comics, but I enjoyed all the cartoons. Marvel and DC have crossed over X-Men vs. JLA in the past, but I don’t see how one could realistically write the X-Men as having a chance against the JLA. So I’m using just one member to go up against the X-Men. To the X-Men’s credit, I think Martian Manhunter is the only single JLAer who would have a chance.

Ground Rules: The fight takes place in the X-Men Danger Room without any obstacles. As the combatants are from different universes, they are unaware of each others’ powers and weaknesses until they are made evident. The X-Men line up is Wolverine, Cyclops, Colossus, Storm, Iceman, Jean Grey and Professor Xavier.

Fight! Wolverine gets a read on the Martian Manhunter as an alien threat similar to those the X-Men have met in the past, such as Gladiator. In an attempt to shut down the threat immediately or at least test the alien’s abilities for the others, he springs into action. While Wolverine pounces on MM, Cyclops calls for the X-Men to hold the line to protect Professor X.
The Manhunter swats Wolverine away before his claws had the chance to connect, hurling him into the far Danger Room wall. He then scans the minds of his attackers for weakness, noticing a strong mental presence in the woman called Jean Grey, when suddenly a psychic shadow falls over his mind. Professor X is attempting to take over his body. Martian Manhunter’s own telepathic abilities hold the attack at bay, but it distracts him from the physical onslaught of the remaining X-Men. Iceman condenses the air around the Manhunter’s legs, freezing him in place. Cyclops opens fire with his eye beams and Colossus rushes their trapped prey.

The trap doesn’t last long. Cyclops’ blast lets up to allow for Colossus to tackle the Manhunter, but MM turns immaterial just before the point of impact and Colossus fumbles right through the ghostly state. Martian Manhunter then goes from immaterial to invisible. He returns Cyclops’ eye beams with those of his own “Martian Vision.” Jean Grey telekinetically pushes Cyclops out of the path of the attack. Feeling Professor X’s mental power weighing on him, Martian Manhunter decides to make quick work of the rest of the team in order to disable Xavier. MM grabs the unexpecting Colossus by the ankle and hurls him towards the X-Men. The hit takes down Jean Grey and Iceman like bowling pins, leaving Professor X wide open to attack. MM primes to fire another blast towards Xavier when Wolverine sinks his claws into the Manhunter’s back.

Wolverine’s heightened sense of smell allowed him to locate his invisible foe, but he isn’t quite strong enough to dig his claws deep enough into Martian Manhunter’s super dense tissue to reach the heart. The Manhunter retaliates with spinning his body at super speed until Wolverine is flung out of him and into the shadows.

Colossus regains his footing to see the Manhunter shape-shifted to appear as Wolverine. Professor X warns Colossus of the shift, but the moments confusion is all Martian Manhunter needs to blast Xavier out of his wheelchair. Colossus stands with Cyclops and a quickly healing Wolverine to carry on the fight, but with Manhunter’s telepathic ability now freely available in him, they don’t stand a chance. Martian Manhunter invades their minds and makes them fight each other until they are weak enough to restrain.

Results: The Martian Manhunter wins. If the X-Men seemed a little slow on the uptake, envision this entire fight taking place in the span of a few moments. Martian Manhunter is the only fighter with super speed, so he could easily deal with multiple opponents. The only chance the X-Men really had was to discover the Manhunter’s fire vulnerability, but again that is hard to do in a manner or mere moments. Lucky for the Manhunter, Pyro is not a X-Man.