Introducing the X-Men to the MCU

[Kyphael]

Just read a fun article on X-perts debating the best way to introduce the X-Men into the MCU. They bad ideas around regarding what roster they would go with, characters, how, and in what way, movies or TV series? I thought it'd be fun to see how X-Men fans in the MMO-C forums would do it.

Here's mine, and I'll dive right into it, gradually, but at the same time hit the ground running. Who's the first mutant we should see in the MCU? Most people might say Wolverine with rumors of Mark Ruffalo pitching a Hulk vs. Wolverine movie to Kevin Feige. Some might even say Professor X. Hell, with Dr. Strange and The Multiverse of Madness, we could see them all at once, we have no idea what to expect from that movie. Me?

I say Black Panther 2.



After credits scene, perhaps the second one after the credits finish rolling, C'thalla, while visiting one of the more impoverished African nations affected by Dr. Doom's warmongering (rumor is Black Panther 2 villain will be none other than Dr. Doom), catches a glimpse of Storm, manipulating the weather for it to rain in order for her village to have drinking water. The two exchange glances, and the MCU logo comes on as the lights come back on and people cheer. You got your first mutant sighting and you have people interested in Black Panther 3, which should be the last Black Panther solo film to wrap up the trilogy.

That very summer, MCU announces X-Men for Phase 6. But how is Storm, as an adult woman and mutant already around? Well, the popular consensus is, Thanos' snap and then Hulk's snap bringing everyone back had a ripple effect that perhaps accelerated mutation in humankind (the half snapped?), jumpstarting the X-Gene and creating mutants. If Storm is a 21 year-old woman in Black Panther 2, let's say, or 18, then when the snap happened, she was just a teenager. The only thing that this sort of origin would affect is Wolverine and other older mutants' origins, so Multiverse of Madness, and having mutants come from an alternate universe might be the best way to go. It's an exciting, yet still complicated hurdle to justify, so how would you do it?

And what would be your ideal X-Men team to jumpstart the X-Men mythos in the MCU? The original 5? New mutants? Uncanny 90's? Fresh roster mixing ideas from different generations?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

X-Men in the MCU doesn't make sense.

First, the whole premise of X-Men is that people with superpowers (called mutants) are ostracized by the public. It's one of the reasons why the Dark Phoenix movie was so stupid. For some reason, the X-Men went to space to save an Astronaut... on public television? And people were cheering them on like they were the Avengers or something? What the hell was that?

In the MCU, there isn't widespread ostracism against superpowered people. The closest we get is suspicion towards vigilantes. You just don't have the high concept idea that made the X-Men interesting.

Second, introducing old X-Men characters like Professor X, Magneto, etc, would imply that these superpowered characters with motivations to change the world have apparently always been around, but never did anything. You'd think that Professor X would've tried to bring Hulk to his school, for example, or that Magneto would have tried to tear down Hydra and recruit MCU characters to his cause. You can't retcon the X-Men in. Professor X and Magneto's conflict was far and away the most compelling story of X-Men. Without that core character drama, you're only other option is to bring in new X-Men by suddenly giving people superpowers... aka, origin story films, of which we have way too many.

[Doctor Funkenstein]

Yeah, it's going to be really hard to figure out how to do it. What, with all of reality being destroyed, rebuilt, and twisted via time travel. There's just no way to do it! Nevermind that one of the most prominent mutants is a mind-bogglingly powerful telepath who could literally rewrite everyone's mind on the planet.

True story.

Yep.

Not a single possibility.

[jellmoo]

X-Men in the MCU doesn't make sense.

First, the whole premise of X-Men is that people with superpowers (called mutants) are ostracized by the public. It's one of the reasons why the Dark Phoenix movie was so stupid. For some reason, the X-Men went to space to save an Astronaut... on public television? And people were cheering them on like they were the Avengers or something? What the hell was that?

In the MCU, there isn't widespread ostracism against superpowered people. The closest we get is suspicion towards vigilantes. You just don't have the high concept idea that made the X-Men interesting.

Second, introducing old X-Men characters like Professor X, Magneto, etc, would imply that these superpowered characters with motivations to change the world have apparently always been around, but never did anything. You'd think that Professor X would've tried to bring Hulk to his school, for example, or that Magneto would have tried to tear down Hydra and recruit MCU characters to his cause. You can't retcon the X-Men in. Professor X and Magneto's conflict was far and away the most compelling story of X-Men. Without that core character drama, you're only other option is to bring in new X-Men by suddenly giving people superpowers... aka, origin story films, of which we have way too many.

I think you're missing the crux of the idea. That the snap that decimated the world populace and then the second snap that brought them back is what triggers the mutant gene. Essentially it causes mutants to spring up around the world. They would be a new phenomenon. Suddenly, all over the world people are discovering strange new powers. That could definitely cause strife and fear. It's one thing when people like Captain America and Thor have powers. It's another when suddenly Timmy from down the street can make people melt with his eyes.

It would change the X-Men origin, sure. But the MCU has already taken quite a few liberties with characterizations, so this would be no different. The biggest change would probably be that advocates for mutants like Prof. X and Magneto are brand new to the world.

[Egomaniac]

X-Men in the MCU doesn't make sense.

First, the whole premise of X-Men is that people with superpowers (called mutants) are ostracized by the public. It's one of the reasons why the Dark Phoenix movie was so stupid. For some reason, the X-Men went to space to save an Astronaut... on public television? And people were cheering them on like they were the Avengers or something? What the hell was that?

In the MCU, there isn't widespread ostracism against superpowered people. The closest we get is suspicion towards vigilantes. You just don't have the high concept idea that made the X-Men interesting.

Second, introducing old X-Men characters like Professor X, Magneto, etc, would imply that these superpowered characters with motivations to change the world have apparently always been around, but never did anything. You'd think that Professor X would've tried to bring Hulk to his school, for example, or that Magneto would have tried to tear down Hydra and recruit MCU characters to his cause. You can't retcon the X-Men in. Professor X and Magneto's conflict was far and away the most compelling story of X-Men. Without that core character drama, you're only other option is to bring in new X-Men by suddenly giving people superpowers... aka, origin story films, of which we have way too many.

Professor X would have no interest in the Hulk. Hulk is not a mutant. Magneto wouldn't try to recruit MCU characters to his cause because none of them are mutants.

The hatred of mutants is not due to them having superpowers. It's a combination of things.

One of those things is that anyone can be a mutant. Your own children could be mutants and you might not know. You might be living with a weapon of mass destruction and have no idea. The next time your teenager has a temper tantrum he might shoot force beams out of his eyes and obliterate your cat.

Another is that mutants are a step up on the evolutionary ladder. Humanity is watching itself slowly become extinct. It's sort of like the neanderthals watching as Cro-magnons slowly start to replace them.

[JstAGySyngWhtHThnks]

do they know each other in the comics?

[Crillam]

It's gonna be hard for them to do. Magneto is such a great villian because of his origin. He grew up in auschwitz. He saw the worst in humanity and what they are willing to do and now he just wants to protect his race again, something he couldn't do before when he was younger. And yeah WW2 was... was quite long ago now so he origin can't be that he was a Jew during WW2 because that would now make him 90-100 years old, and I don't wanna see a 90 year old Magneto. So they will have to change his origin to something more recent? Maybe The Rwandan genocide? However they'll do it, it will be weird. THere must be some sort of merging with universes during The Multiverse of Madness (Best title ever btw). Like where have they been all this time? They wouldn't have been hiding, that would even be impossible.

But that is not my problem to try and figure out, I just hope they make it work.

[Jester Joe]

X-Men in the MCU doesn't make sense.

First, the whole premise of X-Men is that people with superpowers (called mutants) are ostracized by the public. It's one of the reasons why the Dark Phoenix movie was so stupid. For some reason, the X-Men went to space to save an Astronaut... on public television? And people were cheering them on like they were the Avengers or something? What the hell was that?

In the MCU, there isn't widespread ostracism against superpowered people. The closest we get is suspicion towards vigilantes. You just don't have the high concept idea that made the X-Men interesting.

Second, introducing old X-Men characters like Professor X, Magneto, etc, would imply that these superpowered characters with motivations to change the world have apparently always been around, but never did anything. You'd think that Professor X would've tried to bring Hulk to his school, for example, or that Magneto would have tried to tear down Hydra and recruit MCU characters to his cause. You can't retcon the X-Men in. Professor X and Magneto's conflict was far and away the most compelling story of X-Men. Without that core character drama, you're only other option is to bring in new X-Men by suddenly giving people superpowers... aka, origin story films, of which we have way too many.

There's a huge difference between Thor and someone like Rogue though.

Thor has complete control of everything he does.
Someone like Rogue accidentally touched a person and drained their life though.

That's the key here, mutants run the risk of not being able to control their power (Cyclops also says hi)

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do they know each other in the comics?

Spiderman has aligned a few times with them as far as I recall, and they consider him a mutant too or something I believe.

But Spiderman gets around I guess too.

[Kyphael]

I think you're missing the crux of the idea. That the snap that decimated the world populace and then the second snap that brought them back is what triggers the mutant gene. Essentially it causes mutants to spring up around the world. They would be a new phenomenon. Suddenly, all over the world people are discovering strange new powers. That could definitely cause strife and fear. It's one thing when people like Captain America and Thor have powers. It's another when suddenly Timmy from down the street can make people melt with his eyes.

It would change the X-Men origin, sure. But the MCU has already taken quite a few liberties with characterizations, so this would be no different. The biggest change would probably be that advocates for mutants like Prof. X and Magneto are brand new to the world.

Exactly my point. Fear would come from what were originally normal human beings, maybe friends and family members believed dead, snapped back, suddenly developing super powers. People know Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner are lab experiments, the latter gone wrong, a monster if you will. They know Thor is a God, Iron Man is just a rich guy in a suit, and Dr. Strange with his sorcery isn't exactly that well known publicly. Having millions of mutant freaks suddenly adds a brand new layer of fear to the MCU reminiscent of the X-Men. It just means starting from the very beginning, and Logan isn't like a Civil war veteran and Magneto wasn't a concentration camp survivor, which I'm sure Disney likely wants to avoid anyway.

[JDL49]

I would open up the multi-verse concept and put them on a different Earth. This one is too crowded ! And as for the anti-mutant thing they already did that with the Inhumans. More of the same in the same Earth would be boring.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Spiderman has aligned a few times with them as far as I recall, and they consider him a mutant too or something I believe.

But Spiderman gets around I guess too.

They don’t consider spiderman a mutant He’s just friend's with a few of them. It’s X gene or bust for the xmen.

[deenman]

X-Men in the MCU doesn't make sense.

First, the whole premise of X-Men is that people with superpowers (called mutants) are ostracized by the public. It's one of the reasons why the Dark Phoenix movie was so stupid. For some reason, the X-Men went to space to save an Astronaut... on public television? And people were cheering them on like they were the Avengers or something? What the hell was that?

In the MCU, there isn't widespread ostracism against superpowered people. The closest we get is suspicion towards vigilantes. You just don't have the high concept idea that made the X-Men interesting.

Second, introducing old X-Men characters like Professor X, Magneto, etc, would imply that these superpowered characters with motivations to change the world have apparently always been around, but never did anything. You'd think that Professor X would've tried to bring Hulk to his school, for example, or that Magneto would have tried to tear down Hydra and recruit MCU characters to his cause. You can't retcon the X-Men in. Professor X and Magneto's conflict was far and away the most compelling story of X-Men. Without that core character drama, you're only other option is to bring in new X-Men by suddenly giving people superpowers... aka, origin story films, of which we have way too many.

but in the mcu we didnt have many actual superpowered mutants,ironman is a ..man,thor is an alien,captain america is an artificial mutant i guess but he was a national hero and icon so he proly gets a pass,hulk was very feared by the public we saw that many times

[Axxil]

They don’t consider spiderman a mutant He’s just friend's with a few of them. It’s X gene or bust for the xmen.

He's a mutate same as Cap.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

He's a mutate same as Cap.

Sure by our standers he’s a mutant but by marvel/xmen standers he is not. This is the whole point of his house of M comics mutants don’t see people who were born with out the X gene to be mutants no matter how they got there powers or what effect they had on there body’s.

[Dellis0991]

do they know each other in the comics?

They were married in the comics at one point, they even fought each other.

edit: my bad I assume you was talking about t'challa and storm

[Egomaniac]

do they know each other in the comics?

Pretty well. Some Avengers have been X-Men and vice-versa. And there's always the big crossovers which bring almost everyone together.

[Kallisto]

In the MCU, there isn't widespread ostracism against superpowered people. The closest we get is suspicion towards vigilantes. You just don't have the high concept idea that made the X-Men interesting.

They actually are in non film MCU media. Inhumans in Agents of shield got the whole "People hate mutants." plot line Between seasons 2 - 5

[Daymanmb]

do they know each other in the comics?

Yes.

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X-Men in the MCU doesn't make sense.

First, the whole premise of X-Men is that people with superpowers (called mutants) are ostracized by the public.

Thats an easy fix. You have a situation call into question the allegiance of mutants. A public outcry fueled by fear. How would that be hard? Also dont conflate superheroes with mutants. Theyre not the same, though there is some overlap.

[Devilyaki]

Honestly I like the two separate but I am sure marvel can make it fun.

[Axxil]

Sure by our standers he’s a mutant but by marvel/xmen standers he is not. This is the whole point of his house of M comics mutants don’t see people who were born with out the X gene to be mutants no matter how they got there powers or what effect they had on there body’s.

No no, it's MUTATE. Mutate's are man-made/environmentally made as opposed to mutants being born with the gene.