Senator Kelly

Senator Robert Kelly is an anti-mutant politician.

He is voiced by Dale Wilson.

History
Kelly first appears as a presidential candidate with a strong, even hostile disposition against mutants. He clearly campaigns for a registration of all mutants, claiming them to be "unnatural abominations" that need to be known and controlled. This invited the unwelcome attention of Magneto, who had been severely traumatized by his own experiences with persecution, prejudice and illegal experimentation (the Weapon X project) and therefore decided to kill Kelly before his proposals would become the law.

In order to prepare for a war between mankind and mutants, Magneto hunted and finally kidnapped the young mutant Jean Grey, and planned to have her use her telekinetic powers to inflict a cardiac arrest on Kelly as he delivered a speech in New York City, in order to make it look like a natural death. However, in the meantime Jean had encountered and befriended Tony Stark, James Rhodes and Pepper Potts, who (though Pepper was slightly reluctant due to a slight anti-mutant stance of her own) immediately jumped to her rescue. During the resulting struggle, Kelly was almost hit by falling debris, but was saved by Jean's telekinetic powers; a feat that was captured by a news camera team. When Kelly afterwards continued to profess a hostile attitude toward his life-saver, Iron Man told him off for his lack of gratitude, and under a hail of abuse from his would-be supporters, Kelly left town very quickly. It is implied that his public standing subsequently plummeted because of that incident.

Appearances

 * The X-Factor

Trivia

 * In the original X-Men comics, Kelly maintained a strong anti-mutant policy from his first appearance on until his life was saved by the mutant Pyro, who laid down his own in the process. This prompted a dramatic change in Kelly's disposition, but because of this he was eventually murdered by a crazed anti-mutant activist who felt that Kelly had "betrayed" his ideals.
 * Dale Wilson reprises his role as Kelly from the X-Men: Evolution animated series, as does Venus Terzo with her role as Jean Grey.