By JV Tanjuatco
After almost twenty years and twelve films, X-Men: Dark Phoenix will close out this current X-Men movie series. Now that Marvel Studios has regained the movie rights to these characters, they have plans to reboot them and assumedly integrate them into the MCU. While many X-fans will always have fond memories of the Hugh Jackman-led films, there was a lot of source material that fans would love to see make it in the new movies. Let’s look at a few crucial ones:
Balanced character development: So many mutants were featured in the films but arguably Wolverine, Deadpool, Professor X, Beast, Mystique, and Magneto were the main protagonists. Major characters in the comics like Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm were usually sidelined in the films. The comic books don’t have that issue as there is a wide line of X-titles that focus all the characters and the MCU has a knack for letting their characters shine.
Witty dialogue: During Chris Claremont’s run, the book was known for how witty and entertaining the characters talked. It might have sounded a bit OTT yet it made for a fun read. Lines like “I’m the best there is at what I do but what I do isn’t nice”, “I got better” and “No quarter asked, none taken” sounded very cool. Sounds like a great fit for Marvel Studios who specialize in realistic conversations without falling into cliché.
Characters closer to the source material: Hugh Jackman’s performance as Wolverine was a real crowd-pleaser even if he was way taller than his diminutive comic book counterpart. It would be great if Marvel could find an actor that had a similar physicality to Logan. It would also be awesome to have Cyclops be the strategic leader he’s depicted as in the comics. As mentioned earlier, only a few X-Men got any real story arcs and some of them were radically different from their comic book counterparts. Still, the benefit of focusing on just a handful of X-Men in the current movies is that there’s a lot of area the MCU can cover with characters like Cyclops and the rest.
Closer connections to the Marvel Universe: In the comics, the X-Men have all sorts of connections to the world around them. Wolverine and a couple of other X-Men have been Avengers! Rogue stole of the powers and memories of Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)! Black Panther and Storm were married! Magneto is the Scarlet Witch’s father! Deadpool, Captain America, and Wolverine were all a part of the same Super-Soldier program! All these ties would be interesting to adapt in the MCU and make for intriguing developments. In addition to that, the X-Men were adventurers who went to Asgard, the demonic underworld Limbo, the Mojoverse dimension, the galaxy-spanning Shi’Ar empire, and the hidden dinosaur-filled place called the Savage Land.
Super hero costumes! While the black and yellow leather uniforms looked functional and cinema-friendly, a great way for the MCU to redefine the X-Men is to put them in their iconic costumes from the comics. It would be a real treat for fans to see Wolverine and Cyclops looking like super heroes, masks and all! After all, if MCU could make moviegoers accept the costumes of Captain America and Spider-Man, why not our merry mutants?
The villains: Even with over 12 movies, the X-Men movies barely tapped the deep well of X-villains from the comics. After many teasers that set up fans for debut of Mr. Sinister, it doesn’t look like this evil geneticist will ever show his pasty face in this version of the series. While the Hellfire Club composed of Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, Jason Wyangarde, and Donald Pierce do make cinematic appearances, they stray far from how they were originally depicted. In the books, they’re all highly respected members of society who secretly seek world domination behind the scenes. The murderous Marauders, Nimrod the Sentinel from the future, the nasty alien race called the Brood, and the Genoshans (high tech slave masters who use mutants sustain their country) are but a few of the other villains that could be worth adapting for the big screen.
The relationships: If there was anything else that was not deeply explored movie-wise, it was how the X-Men related to each other. Yes, there was a mentor-student connection between Xavier and Logan, the love triangle between Logan, Scott Summers, Jean Grey, and the friendship between Magneto and Prof. X. While it’s understandable that there’s only so much screen time available, there’s so much material that has yet to be utilized – the close camaraderie between Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus, the mother-daughter relationship between Storm and Kitty Pryde, former villain Rogue’s acceptance to the team, and the poly amorous relationships between the entire team when they went incognito in Australia (just testing if you were awake but this really did happen!). The MCU movies have proven that given the right script that these inter-relationships could be properly depicted, making the X-Men franchise a perfect addition.
About the author:
JV Tanjuatco, comic book writer/editor/publisher, founded Comic Book Lab that publishes the comic book titles Mythopolis and War of Whispers (co-created and co-written by him). Comic Book Lab’s most recent project was the graphic novel anthology Stay: 21 Comic Stories authored by Palanca Award winner Angelo R. Lacuesta and illustrated by a stellar line-up of artists including Trese’s Kajo Baldisimo. He has also written articles/reviews for Spot.ph and Ain’t It Cool.
