How the X-Men will enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe

With Disney buying most of Fox’s properties, Marvel has reacquired the rights to the X-Men.  I’ve seen a half dozen theories on how they’ll integrate them into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  They’re all wrong.  Marvel is going to re-concept them, albeit using the same characters.  I don’t know exactly how they’re going to re-do them, but I do know why.  The core concept is that mutants are the next step in human evolution.  Evil mutants are trying to enslave humanity and the X-Men are standing against them and protecting unaligned mutants, while humanity is discriminating against all of them.  This is going to prove too edgy for Disney, not to mention that mutants are used as allegories for several different groups.  The X-Men are too strongly identified with causes now, rather than being outlaw heroes in a superhero soap opera, which is what actually made them popular.  Further, the failed Inhumans TV show and concept blurred the line somewhat with mutants, as Inhumans are basically mutants with a common specific origin. 

As coherent as the Marvel Universe has tried to be outside of the comic books, mutants are an aberration.  All the other superheroes and villains have an explanation for their powers.  Mutants just have a hand-wavy excuse.  Born with random useful superpowers?  The Inhumans already made this look a little silly, which is why it’s been relegated to just the TV side.  Their powers were activated by a combination of genetics and world-wide dispersion of a special mist which triggered the change.  (Or something like that.  I don’t really care about the Inhumans.*  Nobody does.)  Originally, the X-Men were called “The children of the atom.”  Mutants came about because of the use of nuclear power and weapons, which mutated human children in the womb into a new species.  Later, mutants were retconned into being present in all of human history.  The Inhumans and mutants are two concepts that are a bit too close to each other.  If Marvel had known they’d be getting the rights to the X-Men back this quick, they’d never have introduced the Inhumans, certainly not as some sort of replacement for mutants.  (Maybe they wouldn’t have run the X-Men comic book into the ground as well.)   

Further, there’s a racial supremacy angle to the mutants that strangely both evil mutants and the X-Men acknowledge.  Both groups think they are the future and normal humans are the past.  The X-Men want to protect humanity against evil mutants, because they see themselves as superior and protectors of the lesser species.  Simultaneously, normal humans discriminate against and oppress mutants.  So, mutants are both Nazi’s and Jews at the same time.  It’s not entirely easy to empathize with superpowered beings against normal people who are just fearful of them, as opposed fighting normal Hydra soldiers and people like that.  Then there’s that angst-y dichotomy that some mutants wish they were normal humans (especially those with a non-human appearance), but some relish having superpowers and being different than normal humans.  There are evil mutants and X-Men that have both of those feelings.  This is all a difficult, multi-facetted concept for a superhero comic book, much less a movie.      

Fox’s The Gifted show has done a good job of showing mutants being oppressed.  What it hasn’t shown (or at least I haven’t seen it) is why they’re being oppressed.  A bunch of people born with superpowers would be celebrities, recruited by companies, the military, and government agencies in our world.  They’d be followed like royalty . . . unless there was a good reason to think they were all just dangerous.  This seems to go back to whatever incident has made the X-Men and the Brotherhood disappear, which has been referenced, but not explained, on the show.  They’ve also referenced at least one other act of unintentional mutant power use, which caused major damage.  However, the bias against mutants probably goes back further than that. 

Supergirl, with a similar angle on illegal “space” aliens on earth, has at times at least acknowledged why people are justifiably suspicious of aliens, since they’re not all nice like Kara and Clark.  (Of course, humans are usually portrayed as the real monsters.)  The Gifted has just shown one side of the argument, with those against the mutants just fulfilling personal vendettas or seeking creepy experiments on them.  They’ve also shown the mutant issue as being fairly common and wide-spread.  Logically, given how powerful and uncontrolled some mutants are, I can’t imagine this not resulting in some kind of horrific race war.  Unless mutants are very rare and basically in the shadows, it’s hard to imagine society not being consumed with the issue.       

So, this concept could work, but it’s going to make mainstream audiences a bit uncomfortable.  I think Disney execs are going to ask Marvel to go back to the drawing board with a more palatable presentation of the X-Men.  Otherwise, the mutant concept would take over the whole Marvel Universe.  It’s too big and would be used as a sociological tool in the hands of an activist.  (That’s already happened by the way in the Fox movies and TV show.)  That’s not what Disney is into, certainly not blatantly, because it won’t make them money or enhance their properties.  The X-Men have represented many different things during their existence to different people, fans and creators alike.  Satisfying all of them wasn’t going to happen anyway. 

Underground, outlaw heroes will be a good place to start, as the X-Men have always been more iconoclasts than superheroes.  Expect that.  They’ll work with other Marvel heroes, but won’t be trusted.  Villains may even court them.  (An intriguing moment in Secret Wars actually had Professor X contemplating the X-Men deserting the heroes and joining Magneto.)  Magneto and the Brotherhood will be a big enough threat to merit a crossover with the Avengers eventually.  I think there will be a true origin to explain why certain people have certain powers, to make it less random.  The change in the X-Men’s concept will be sold as how they could integrate them into the Marvel Universe without retconning anything or doing a goofy multi-universe.  Everything else is going to be up for grabs.  I’m not going to try to figure out how to re-do the X-Men and mutants in general, but I’ve at least warned you that you’re going to get something very different than you expect (but Wolverine will still be there).          

And what about the Fantastic Four?  Apparently, Fox didn’t actually own the rights to the characters!  Fox, and now Disney, owns the rights to distribute Fantastic Four movies, but not the actual characters.  Some film studio that I’d never heard of has the rights.  This might not be a big deal except this probably includes the rest of the Fantastic Four mythos like Galactus, the Skrulls, and the Silver Surfer.  Disney needs to work out a deal with these people or just buy them out altogether.  Certainly they can point to the previous Fantastic Four movies as a reason why this studio should let Marvel make the movies.  I want to see the Silver Surfer hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy!  I want my Fantastic Four/X-Men/Avengers/Guardians versus Galactus movie!  (Whoever makes that movie will die of a heart attack trying to coordinate it.) 

    

*I have to make one little sidebar to make about the Inhumans.  Medusa is thoroughly a comic book character.  She’s a chick with super-strong living hair.  Hair.  Without a serious change in concept (like psychokinetic force tendrils taking the form of head snakes), Medusa sounds more like something out of a shampoo commercial.  (“Do you want superhuman hair?  Try Inhuman Essence Blue.”)  And there’s the other thing.  You’d imagine a hot model doing that commercial.  In the comic books, Medusa’s also always been portrayed as glamorously gorgeous.  I don’t know how to say this more tactfully: the actress playing the part doesn’t quite live up to that.  She didn’t even have good hair. 

So, you’ve got this somewhat unappealing woman with a weird superpower.   What’s the first thing they did with her?  They shaved her head.  This made her even more unappealing and now useless.  And she’s one of the main characters.  Oh, and one of your other main character doesn’t speak.  And they live on the moon.  Was anyone surprised this didn’t work out?  After this actually somewhat faithful comic book recreation, I’m real sure Disney is going to have some adults in the room to make sure that the X-Men are not canonical to the point of looking ridiculous.