Spoilers Marvel Cinematic Universe spoiler-heavy speculation thread
- Thread starter bbjeg
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Mutants as a historical phenomenon don't fit into the MCU. The only way to bring the X-Men in the MCU as it currently exists is for them to be brand new (you can fudge that they've maybe spent some time in hiding/weren't noticed immediately).
Outside of that, you're either looking at bringing them in from another universe/dimension (lame) or a general reboot of the MCU.
Outside of that, you're either looking at bringing them in from another universe/dimension (lame) or a general reboot of the MCU.
There could be some fudging and the mutants could just be very good at hiding/ keeping a low profile.
Xavier could mindwipe people if the X-men have an adventure
There are more “ enhanced “ humans like quicksilver and scarlet witch
Xavier could mindwipe people if the X-men have an adventure
There are more “ enhanced “ humans like quicksilver and scarlet witch
But the fudging can only go so far. If the X-men have been around forever and just staying under the radar, then they cease to be heroic figures because they've been standing on the sidelines doing nothing for way too long. Even if they've had their own stuff going on that no one else noticed - I see no good explanation for how a fully established X-men never showed up when New York (right in their back yard) was invaded by aliens. Or during the whole Inhuman scare (guaranteed mutants would be getting falsely targeted as Inhumans, and the Inhumans themselves should've been just as welcome at Xavier's school as any mutant). And that's without even talking about the problem of Magneto, who would not oblige Xavier by keeping a low profile. Is Xavier supposed to mindwipe every person who knows magneto exists? And if he hasn't caught Magneto himself, isn't he then just deliberating endangering the whole world?
A few years can be fudged. Anything more than that just doesn't work.
ETA: There is one other possibility I forgot to mention. You could have the X-Men under the radar in the past, then use some time travel event to bring them forward. But I don't see how that approach would ever be worth the effort and exposition time needed to pull it off.
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Given that the MCU has basically treated Inhumans as their equivalent of mutants, do we really need the idea of mutants as a separate thing at all? Maybe just have the X-Men be Inhumans. Have a global Terrigen release that activates all the latent Inhumans and tell stories about them the same way you'd tell stories about mutants. Maybe even have Charles Xavier come along and say "I prefer the term 'mutant' for these individuals, because 'Inhuman' is quite literally dehumanizing." Those who identify with the Attilan culture (or the remnants of the Afterlife culture) could continue to call themselves Inhuman, while those who were just Terrigen-mutated out of nowhere and have no affiliation to that culture would instead flock to Xavier or Magneto and call themselves mutants instead.
Strong point. There's no way to hand wave their lack of participation away in not fighting against the Loki/alien invasion--or any of the "big" events of the MCU post-Avengers.
Another good point.
I forgot about inhumans. I have not yet watched Agents of Shield. What are they exactly?
Honestly, I think it would work, narratively. But it would be a bridge too far for many (most?) X-Men fans. I don't think that's a battle Marvel wants to deal with.
In AoS, Inhumans are the descendants of human/kree hybrids resulting from Kree experiments thousands of years ago. Their DNA has survived and spread throughout the world through all different populations (even though the Kree had intended for all their experiments to be destroyed). They only manifest any power, though, if they are exposed to a specific metal (which there are some artifacts of left over from the kree) - that metal also kills any regular human who touches it. When they touch the metal, their body forms a sort of cocoon, undergoes genetic alterations and emerges as a superhuman. For most of history, the process (presumably) only occurred during the induction ceremony of the one Inhuman community (that we know of) which kept itself hidden in the mountains in Asia and only allowed certain people (who proved they could handle it) to gain powers. Then, later in the show, a significant sample of the metal is accidentally dissolved in the middle of the ocean. The molecule that triggers Inhuman powers entered the oceaned food chain in large enough volumes to trigger powers in any Inhuman who happened to eat the wrong fish/fish oil pills (but not large enough volumes to harm any regular humans). After that point, Inhumans basically were treated the same way Mutants traditionally have been treated. There was even an international conspiracy to wipe them out (though it was kind of a dud) and an evil Inhuman who could control other Inhumans and wanted them to all take over the Earth together.
I'd say a Days of Future Past-esque timeline reset is the way to go. At the end, the only big change is that mutants are a thing and always have been.
I don't like that idea, because it would erase the existing MCU stories from continuity. (As stated, Agents of SHIELD wouldn't work at all in a timeline where superpowered humans were not a recent development.) It's okay in the X-Men continuity itself, since so many of those movies were better off removed from continuity, but I wouldn't want to see it happen to the MCU.
I don't want any artificial, forced changes just to conform to what the comics did. The MCU is not the comics; it's a distinct creation inspired by the comics but using their elements in its own original ways. So the goal should not be to artificially force the MCU into a lazy duplicate of the comics. Whatever is done with the idea of mutants, it should be something that serves the needs of the MCU as an independent creation, something that fits into the MCU as it exists.
Frankly, I don't want mutants to be integrated into the MCU at all. They don't really serve a purpose in the MCU, since it's already got Inhumans filling the exact same role anyway. I like the two distinct cinematic universes as they exist now. I'd like them both to continue as distinct universes, though I'd be fine with an interdimensional crossover.
Honestly, considering the AoS ratings aren't exactly top notch and the earliest possible x-men appearance in the MCU won't be for at least several years down the road, I kind of wouldn't be surprised if the introduction of Mutants officially ended the position that the tv shows (or at least AoS) and movies are in the same universe and simply acted like the Inhumans never existed in the first place and Mutants were a brand new thing happening in the world.
Interesting; thanks for the explanations. Honestly I now agree that maybe it’s better to just keep the X-Men in their own universe.
I hope that "Black Panther" is a sign that the MCU is finally back on track. I have spent nearly three years being disappointed by the franchise's output, until this recent film. I hope that the franchise also did justice to the upcoming "Infinity War" and "Ant-Man & the Wasp" and did not regress back to the mediocre crap fest of 2015-2017.
Thanks to some convoluted writing and the movie, "Logan", that reset didn't exactly work for me.
Thanks to some convoluted writing and the movie, "Logan", that reset didn't exactly work for me.
The X-men need to say in their own universe, but if they want to introduce them into the MCU, they need to be a new phenomenon and the only way to make that work is to have Magneto be a survivor of a different genocide attempt . No more WWII ties for Magneto. He probably can't stay Jewish either.
There might be a major outcry if that happens. Many people are still bitching over the Maximoff twins not being Jewish in the MCU.
Honestly, Feige might as well continue to have the X-Men in a separate movieverse.
Terrigen is not the metal, it's the crystals that were housed in the metal container. It's been a while so my memory isn't real clear, but I think Inhmans could touch the crystals OK, they have to either eat or inhale the crushed crystals to actually activate the Inhuman powers and set off Terregenesis. Terrigen might kill humans when they touch it, but I'm pretty Inhumans needed to get it inside their bodies for it to effect them.
Pure Terrigen crystals and gas are harmless to baseline humans. The metal impurity that contaminated the crystals was what was fatal to non-Inhumans when they were first introduced in Agents of SHIELD. When the crystals were dumped in the ocean, the Terrigen dissolved into the food chain, but the denser metal impurity sank to the ocean floor, which was the reason nobody was harmed by the Terrigen-infused fish oil pills.