10 X-MEN Storylines From The Comics That Marvel Studios Should Tackle

10 X-MEN Storylines From The Comics That Marvel Studios Should Tackle

Comic book fans are eagerly anticipating the addition of Wolverine, Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after a 12 movie, 19-year film series at 20th Century Fox.

Feature Opinion
By MarkJulian - Jan 19, 2020 12:01 PM EST
Filed Under: X-Men
What started with 2000's X-Men has now concluded with 2019's X-Men: Dark Phoenix - or is that 2020's New Mutants? Either way, some of Marvel's most powerful and interesting heroes are now back home thanks to Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox. 

While the myriad of Fox's X-Men films were definitely hit or miss, even the most ardent MCU fan has to admit to just a twinge of melancholy that this era of superhero cinema is over - albeit those melancholy feelings are likely due to all the missed opportunities in the Fox X-Men era. Namely, the studio failing to capitalize on a ton of opportunity by not adapting any of the storied comic book arcs from the X-Men's wide-ranging history. Sure, there were attempts to tackle Days of Future Past, Dark Phoenix and X-Men: Gifted storylines, but they were completely butchered and adaptations in name only.  

These attempts were so far off the mark it was as if someone looked at a two-sentence summary of the arcs and attempted to turn that into a feature-length film, skipping the nuance and intrigue inherent with the stories from Chris Claremont and Joss Whedon. However, Fox's loss is Marvel's gain.

It's with that notion in mind we look at some of the most notable X-Men stories from the comics that would be perfect for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

X-Tincton Agenda



While the storyline is notable for bringing together the X-Men, X-Factor and the New Mutants for the first time, the tale centers on the mutant-hating country of Genosha and the mad (cyborg) scientist Cameron Hodges, who want to wipe mutantkind off the face of the earth. With such an ambitious goal. their naturally going to target the world's most famous mutant institution, The Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

X-Men: Schism

 


 With Professor X jettisoned from the school (Cyclops kicked him out after discovering Xavier altered his memories), the X-Men split behind two different leaders, Cyclops and Wolverine. The former wants to take a more militaristic stance in the battle between mutants and humans while the latter wants a more peaceful coexistence. In essence, it's the "Professor X vs Magneto" conflict all over again, except this time its Cyclops and Wolverine in leadership roles. 

Phalanx Covenant

 


 If your knowledge of the X-Men is limited to just the Fox films, you'll be surprised to know that Marvel's merry band of mutants have a ton of adventures involving outer space and aliens (a ton!). That's an element only briefly dabbled within the lackluster swan song, X-Men: Dark Phoenix.  However, Fox's aversion to the source material makes storylines like the Phalanx Covenant perfect for the MCU, as it's a way to create something holistically different from what Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg crafted.

Case in point, the Phalanx Covenant deals with a cybernetic alien species who are parasitic in nature and wish to assimilate all life in every known galaxy (think of the Borg from Star Trek). The Phalanx first appears in Marvel thanks to a group of mutant-hating humans wishing to become human Sentinels, however, it soon becomes apparent that they've bitten off more than they can chew and their conflict with the X-Men becomes a race to prevent the Phalanx on earth from contact the rest of the Phalanx in space.  

House of M

 


 One of the more infamous storylines sees the Scarlet Witch goe absolutely mental and her reality-warping powers create a world where mutants are the dominant species and humans are treated as their inferiors. Wolverine is the only mutant who remembers the original timeline and slowly goes about assembling a team of non-mutant superheroes to change things back. The tale famously ends with Scarlet Witch uttering the words, "No More Mutants." In a flash of white light, the world returns to normal but the large majority of mutants have lost their abilities

Avengers vs X-Men

 


 The 2012 Marvel crossover event was somewhat of a dud (mostly due to a large number of tie-ins) but the concept was solid. The premise centered on the Phoenix Force returning to Earth and the fact that the planet lacked a host for the "universal embodiment of Creation" as Jean Grey was dead.  The Avengers and X-Men come to blows over how to deal with the cosmic force's arrival but they eventually iron out their differences although Cyclops further descends into his Magneto transformation (see X-Men: Schism). 

Age of Apocalypse

 


 Professor Xavier's powerfully inept son Legion travels back in time with the intent of killing Magneto to create a better world. Instead, Xavier sacrifices himself to save Magneto resulting in a vastly different timeline with only the time-traveling mutant Bishop aware of the changes. Outside of Days of Future Past, the Age of Apocalypse is the most popular alternate timeline version of the X-Men. 

X-Men: Season One

 


 X-Men: Season One is a modern retelling of the origin of the classic line-up of Cyclops, Beast, Ice Man, Angel and Jean Grey. Believe it or not, the Fox films have never covered this roster as their "First Class" included a team of Mystique, Cyclops younger brother Havok, Darwin, Beast, and Banshee. 

The Phoenix Saga



 Why is The Phoenix Saga on this list? Because the two Fox adaptations solely focus on The Dark Phoenix saga and largely ignore the part that comes before it. At the start of the story arc, the Phoenix Force (in possession of Jean Grey) and the rest of the X-Men venture off into space and saves the entire universe before the Phoenix Force starts to question the morals of humanity and succumbs to the dark side. However, this slip is very gradual and in order to accurately depicted on the big screen, has to occur across multiple films.

X-Men: Manifest Destiny

 


 The anthology miniseries deals with the X-Men leaving Westchester and changing their base of operations to San Francisco. They send out a telepathic message to all mutants around the globe, inviting them to join them at their new digs. Surely nothing could go wrong...

The Messiah Trilogy


 


 Although it lacks in execution, X-Men: Messiah Complex just might be the most ambitious X-Men miniseries of the last 15 years. For several years, the X-Men books deal with the aftermath of House of M and the decimation of the mutant population. The tale chronicles the first mutant born after the Scarlet Witch's disastrous hex and many (MANY) factions that are after her. Thanks to timetravelers Bishop and Cable, no one is sure whether the new mutant child will save mutantkind or doom it to a future of concentration camps.
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polarkyle
polarkyle - 1/19/2020, 12:32 PM
Wait how was Avengers vs X-Men a dud?
MarkJulian
MarkJulian - 1/19/2020, 12:35 PM
@polarkyle - It was successful from a commercial standpoint but that storyline sucked!
blackandyellow
blackandyellow - 1/19/2020, 12:39 PM
X-Men 2 was a pretty good adaptation of God Loves, Man Kills.
lvcl
lvcl - 1/23/2020, 9:02 AM
@blackandyellow - a pretty good adaptation?

The only thing in common with that graphic novel was Striker as the bad guy

And only the name because in the novel he was a prayer that has nothing to do with the Stryker of the movies
Shadowmaster35
Shadowmaster35 - 1/19/2020, 12:50 PM
I would love to see Messiah Complex, Second Coming and Messiah War, but I think it would have a better shot if they did animated movies of them like the DC movies. X-tintion Agenda would be cool after some character establishment, and Phalanx would be a cool big Marvel Universe event (since they f'd the Secret Invasion stuff) having people gradually become infected though the movies. But for an opener they really need to do the actual First Class some justice.
MovieMonster
MovieMonster - 1/19/2020, 1:04 PM
I love the First Class movie but I would like to see a new tale on the X-Men origins with a comic accurate line-up. Have Shadow King be the villain they face since Professor X assembled the team that way they can fight him.
drfate
drfate - 1/19/2020, 1:12 PM
"...even the most ardent MCU fan has to admit to just a twinge of melancholy that this era of superhero cinema is over..."

You, sir, are mad. No. There is ZERO melancholy that the FOX era of butchering the X Men is over. Quite the opposite: JOY.

The X Men's worst and most fearsome foe is not Magneto, the Brood, the Brotherhood or even the Hellfire Club; their most evil and deadly antagonist is Bryan, The Singer!
MarkJulian
MarkJulian - 1/19/2020, 1:14 PM
@drfate - "albeit those melancholy feelings are likely due to all the missed opportunities in the Fox X-Men era."
TheManWithoutFear
TheManWithoutFear - 1/19/2020, 1:22 PM
I want the original 5 against the sentinels. The original purple sentinels. The villains are secondary to the team dynamics and the persecution of mutants.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 1/19/2020, 3:21 PM
@TheManWithoutFear - Having random giant robots patrolling around looking for global threats doesn't seem like much of a stretch in the post-Infinity War MCU. I know everybody is sick of Iron Man being the source of everybody's villains, but I could imagine that (in addition to EDITH) Tony has worked with world governments to develop big clunky non-lethal peacekeeping robots that get retrofitted for anti-mutant policing once some incident puts mutants in the spotlight.

And if not Tony specifically, Hammer/Forge/Trask could easily have taken inspiration from the Iron Legion. At least, it makes enough sense that a movie won't need to spend a lot of time excusing it.
AnthonyVonGeek
AnthonyVonGeek - 1/19/2020, 1:36 PM
I want them to properly introduce mutants and the X-Men first, then properly build up the characters and then add some of these awesome stories, specially X-tinction Agenda that was one of my favorite X crossovers.
Feralwookiee
Feralwookiee - 1/19/2020, 1:40 PM
Let's table any talk of the Phoenix Saga for now. Fox did enough to shit all over that several times. Give it a few years, then we can think about it.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 1/19/2020, 2:02 PM
They need to start with Sinister manipulating Bolivar Trask to trick him into creating Sentinels. So Trask outs mutants to the world and spins them in a bad light, telling everyone that they are the next step in evolution, which causes panic among regular humans.

The X-Men work as an outreach program for mutants to help them control their powers. They don't become a superhero team until the Sentinels start attacking mutants in the streets.

This is the best way to introduce the world of mutants to the MCU and establish the dynamic between humans and mutants.

Then they need to have Magneto come out of hiding and attack humanity by taking over a military installation and threatening them with nukes if any further attacks on mutants take place. Instead of a Holocaust survivor he is a survivor of a government testing facility that performs horrible tests on mutants and sometimes kills them. This way he still has the same motivations as he did when he was a Holocaust survivor. We can also get a younger version of Magneto in the current timeline like this.

After that, the 3rd movie should be about Sinister coming back out of the shadows and trying to capture Cyclops and Jean to make the most powerful mutant in history. Cyclops and Jean have a baby in this movie. When they beat him he infects the baby with the techno virus out of spite. He warns them that he was doing all of this because Apocalypse is coming and it's the only way to defeat him.

This sets up the next trilogy where Cyke and Jean send the baby into the future and Cable returns.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 1/19/2020, 2:36 PM
@CorndogBurglar - I can tell you thought this over. It's actually pretty decent way to introduce them
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 1/19/2020, 2:26 PM
I think any story that involves time-travel is gonna a tough one to tackle
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