Thursday, August 9, 2018

Random Thoughts On... How the X-Men could be handled in the MCU


So, what is going on with the MCU lately? Avengers: Infinity War was just released digitally, so that’s nice. I’ll touch on it here soon. There’s that whole situation involving James Gunn (the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies) that I won’t touch upon that here. I think Twitter’s ran the gamut on that whole, weird topic anyway. Has something else happened recently that involves Disney making some big purchase with 20th Century Fox-- Oh. Yeah. That did just happen.

On July 27th, 2018, it was announced that Disney would be purchasing movie and tv assets from 20th Century Fox. For those who don’t know, Fox has had the film rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four properties for years. This means that we may get those heroes and villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe soon. This was something that left folk pretty happy and a few folk kind of disappointed. As for me, I’m a little mixed since I mostly liked what Fox was doing with the X-Men franchise… mostly, mind you. I haven’t forgotten what happened in 2006 and 2009. You can also throw the FF movies in that lot since they weren’t that good either.

Folk have been constantly theorizing on how the X-Men and FF would fit in the MCU. Would they be fully integrated or left off on the side somewhere? Would Marvel continue what was laid out with Fox or would it be a straight-up reboot? I wasn’t thinking about that stuff too much myself, but my mind did lay out some possibilities. While I was walking in Kroger a couple of nights back, I was wondering how this could work if they did a full-on reboot with the X-Men. So, here are six things that I hope the creators take into account.


1. Shelve Wolverine, Magneto, and a couple of major players from Fox
Yeah, I said it, so put your pitchforks, fake claws, and other metal things down. If there is a reboot, I’d like to see the major players from Fox downgraded or left out for a while. We got lot of Wolverine, Magneto, Mystique, and a few others over the years. Look at Wolverine for example. I get that Logan is one of the best X-Men, but there are others who are just as cool and he completely overshadowed them in those movies. Heck, he had three movies to himself, so hopefully Marvel doesn’t overload us with more Adamantium Rage. We’ve seen just about everything with the character, so revamping him and doing it all over again wouldn’t be the best thing.

The same goes for characters like Magneto and Mystique who were major players in the more recent slew of films. I’d even include Rogue and maybe Scott and Jean. I’m not sure about those two since I think those two would need to be up front in a reboot. Xavier would definitely be needed but I doubt we’ll get what we got with James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart. I’m not saying that all of these folk should be completely shelved but they should be at least left off the table for a bit. Really Logan and Magneto should be out for a bit. Also, can we stop putting William Stryker everywhere? One movie was enough, Bryan Singer!


2. Focus on other members, the feeling of being different, etc
I would like to see the students or denizens of the X-Mansion (maybe most aren’t students) get the focus in this revised series. The old franchise tried to hammer this down and they did succeed at times. We experienced the pros and cons of being a mutant. Heck, look what happened to Rogue, Iceman, and a few others from Fox. I do wonder how that’ll factor into the MCU, though. The movies are not exactly kid friendly, but they sometimes shy away from darker aspects of the comics. I wonder if someone even could work something like the destruction of Genosha, the Dark Phoenix Saga, or the Purifiers killing random mutants into an MCU movie.


3. Showcase different villains
While Fox did showcase other villains like Bolivar Trask, Mystique, Apocalypse, the Hellfire Club, and William Stryker, the master of Magnetism always had to show his head. Since Magneto and Xavier have their ongoing battle, he’s pretty much needed. Still, I’d like to see other villains step up to the plate. We haven’t seen ones like Mr. Sinister, Arcade, Onslaught (how could that work), Proteus, Ord, or even Mojo (ugh) show up in live action yet. There are also human-only groups like the Purifiers who could be a threat… I wonder what the Mouse would think of that! You can also get newer versions of villains we’ve seen before. We could definitely use a new Emma Frost since January Jones stunk that up.


4. Have a nice, consistent tone (a mix between Spider-Man: Homecoming and Captain America: TWS)

There needs to be a good tone set for the series. The previous series had a tone that was pretty serious, but it could have fun at times. In fact, that tone would work perfectly in the MCU. My preferred tone would be something that’s a mix between Spider-Man: Homecoming and the later Captain America movies. Since some of the X-Men may be teens, you know there are going to be some shenanigans with powers. The humor should be more natural, though. There also needs to be a nice blend of seriousness and fun. After all, I wouldn’t want to get too silly. The MCU can go there and it has for good and ill.


5. Hold off on the politics for a bit
Now, I’m not talking about “I don’t want politics in something because I don’t agree with them! Arrrghhhh!” crap, I’m pretty much talking about the government side of things. In the previous franchise, we got a bit of government stuff like the Mutant Registration Act being tossed around. I think we also had a few US Presidents involved. Heck, the First Class trilogy took place at critical events in world history like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Paris Peace Accords. What I’m saying is that the big stuff we’d get (what should be done about mutants) should be left for later. Fox went to that well a lot and it kind of needs a break.


6. Check out X-Men: Evolution for a nice example
If Disney/Marvel needs any more of an inspiration, tell them to check out X-Men: Evolution from 2000. Yeah, it had most of the X-Men in high school, but it was a pretty good series.  To be honest, it’s kind what I based my previous points on. Instead of copying what the 90’s animated show did, it took its inspirations from the comics and the 2000 movie. It focused on the students, kept Wolverine somewhat in the background, used Magneto sparingly but in a cool way, and upped the stakes over the four seasons. Normies didn’t even know about mutants until the end of the second season. Then, it got much darker. Anyway, if you haven’t seen the show, check it out. The first season’s not the best but it gets better over the four seasons.

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Well, that’s pretty much all I got for this list. Do I think Disney/Marvel will listen to anything I say? I can only dream they would. I might get some money out of it. Whatever they end up doing, something tells me that I’ll be checking it out. Hopefully, it’ll be good. Anywho, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.
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Oh yeah, I forgot about the Merc With A Mouth. Hmm… Nope. Got nothing. I still don’t care about Deadpool.

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