Re-imagining Fox's X-Men Part One - X-Men: New Genesis

Thanks for the read!!! Always open to critique!
THIS IS JUST A FUN & SPECULATIVE PITCH! I KNOW MY STORY IDEAS MAY BE WAY OUT THERE FOR SOME. JUST HAVING FUN AS A FAN!

Some of the first comic books I ever read were X-Men comics. I was instantly enthralled by the bevy of characters and the stories that shaped them. These characters were heroes, but they were hated. They were a minority in the world, on the fringes of society due to their extraordinary dissimilarities.  At that time in my youth, superheroes, in my opinion, were embraced and exalted for their strange powers and abilities. So, to witness super-powered crusaders who weren’t praised and accepted, was beyond intriguing. The comics subsequently lead me to dive into the amazing animated series. Suffice to say, I was very excited as a kid when I discovered the X-Men were coming to the silver screen.

Fast forward some 20 years almost and my thoughts on the X-Men cinematic franchise have been up and down to say the least. There are a few films in the universe that have pleased me: Logan, X2, Days of Future Past, First Class. And then there are those that have severely disappointed or provoked indifference from me: X-Men, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine and X-Men Apocalypse. It’s been an uneven journey for sure. Over the years, I’ve always had the persistent feeling that the films have missed a lot of opportunities story wise. Honestly, I never felt like they made use of a lot of the mythology; specifically, I just haven’t been a real fan of the trajectory of the universe. The varying timelines, lack of consistent continuity and even the origins of these characters.
 
The Pitch
This re-imagining is a chance to share the various, imaginative story ideas I’ve had bouncing around my head for years, as well as bring some inspired ideas to a cinematic universe that, I think, has lacked such in some regards.

I think re-telling an origin would be hackneyed. Like Spider-Man, I think audiences are familiar enough with the X-Men to realize how they came together. Now, I briefly flirted with the idea of doing another origin modeled after the first X-Men and First Class, but I ultimately went against it. That doesn’t mean my re-imagining won’t make references and hints towards the character’s origins, as they will certainly inform on this story I crafted.

When it comes to the story, it’s about shaking up of the status quo. The X-Men franchise in in dire need of that. Bringing the X-Men forward whilst revamping the whole presentation is the goal, while also riffing on some of the more common tropes of the franchise. The mutant saga has always been friendly to writers with ideas just a little bit ‘out there’ and a liberal blend of science fiction and fantasy, so I think its best that the cinematic stories reflect that.

Format
The scenes won’t be as descriptive and specifically crafted out as my past re-imaginings. It’s a lot broader and more idea driven. Concepts are very important here. Playing around with different ideas. Brief notes will be present as well to explain my reasoning for including things in the plot and its overall significance to what I want to do with the X-Men here.

Here we go…

ACT 1 – Climbing the Evolutionary Ladder
 
“Extinction is the rule, survival is the exception.”

The threat of the mutant menace has reached a point where ordinary humans must take on the fight in which the governments of the world have been negligent!

Mutants are well established in the modern day and have been a part of the public sphere for decades. Also, mutant-kind will become the dominant lifeform on the planet in three generations. The prodigious racism against mutants is no longer as open as it was during the early stages of their inception. This signifies the minorities that the X-Men represent, and how the prejudice against them has transformed over time and become more subtle.

The X-Men are now an international rescue organization. The world trusts them to handle mutant affairs. Xavier’s school is no longer home to just or 10 or 15 mutants. It’s now Marvel’s version of Hogwarts, overflowing with a true variety of mutants, full of big personalities and amazing abilities. The setting is a take on the common X-Men riffs, the dystopian future that could be. This is a world that’s totally credible, and not just about killing off the characters we know. The world is still functioning, it’s not some Mad Max or DOFP type of landscape, but there’s a growing number of mutants and a desire to keep the volatile ones at bay. This mounting mutant population has the world tilting toward colossal contention.

 
The story takes place sometime after the tragic death of Jean Grey, who died at the hands of Xorn, a mutant with a tiny star inside his head, and the death of Magneto. Xorn was a mutant who had hoped to stop Magneto’s machinations when the master of magnetism had crossed the line of leading a makeshift army of Manhattan mutants since taking over the island. Xorn was a member of this army and he had grown tired of the lack of food and water provided by Erik. The X-Men were attempting to keep Xorn’s powers anchored when his star started to die out. Jean, along with Magneto, sacrificed herself and saved the entire team. Professor X wrestled with whether he was finally finished working at the Xavier Institute. Cyclops picked up the pieces and began taking control of running the school day-to-day, along with Emma Frost (much to everyone’s dismay). With the death of Jean looming over the school, Professor X wayward in his duties and mutants growing at an immeasurable rate, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is in a state of unrest and uncertainty. Also, Magneto became a martyr of sorts to humanity. This allows a new threat to attack mutant-kind as the defenders of the species are troubled.

 

The wound’s left from Xorn’s incident and Jean’s most recent death are still fresh. Kitty Pryde returns to the school as Cyclops is forming a new team with the goal to promote the mutant cause by putting a flashy group out in public that would be more like superheroes than a bunch of underground militant activists. Civil unrest is brewing amongst the Xavier Institute student body. The X-Men: Cyclops, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Storm, Beast, Armor, Colossus and new recruit Emma Frost, have been struggling to handle the rising number in the mutant population. The students have steadily grown tired with watching the world slowly adapt to them and the new surge in mutants has only decelerated that already sluggish accommodation down even more. As the students watch the X-Men struggle, they grow disinterested in wanting to become them one day. There’s also great dramatic tension among this team with Wolverine pissed off at Cyclops for taking up with Emma Frost so soon after Jean Grey’s latest death. Kitty is a special team member. Even for a noncombatant, she is a crucial part of the team and as a teacher at the school. Her relationship with Piotr aka Colossus is sweet. Emma has been psychically counseling Scott since Jean’s and this has lead an amorous relationship between the two. Kitty doesn’t trust Emma because she doesn’t buy the reformed villain act. Emma was once an enemy of the team, something that will be established using an incident or perhaps a strong sensory impression like a psychic student attempting to peer into Emma’s mind or a telepathically communicating with another student in class, gossiping about Emma being a former villain turned teacher. These kinds of things might bring back the recollection that would then be further fleshed out. Emma thinks everyone but her is a naïve idiot. Even when she's doing good, you get the impression she might have a secret agenda and that she isn't entirely trustworthy. Even so, Scott has fallen for her and started to depend on her, and to her surprise, she has feelings for him that a diamond-hard opportunist and pragmatist like herself might find quite dangerous.

Side note, the Danger Room has been acting twitchy.
 

 
X-Genes are activating every day and what comes with that is a host of mutants with uncontrollable abilities. Xavier has been tracking these new mutants with Cerebro as best as he can. The first act of the film would focus on the X-Men trying to juggle multiple plates: being educators at the school and handling the influx of mutants. With that influx comes fear and doubt in the team’s ability to contain the problem. But this fear doesn’t create the usual racism we’re accustomed to in the world of the X-Men. This isn’t protests, attacking mutants in the streets, and politicians calling for procedures to be taken. No, this is humanity realizing they need to take a step up to survive. They need to evolve to outlast their own extinction courtesy of mutant-kind.

 

 

As mutant culture takes center stage, a new movement begins to affect human/mutant relations. Several school shootings occur where the assailant takes mutant organs to graft to themselves, believing they will transcend to a higher state of evolution. The bizarre case of a kidnapped boy leads the X-Men to encounter the U-Men, a fanatical anti-mutant group that has been abducting mutants from to experiment on them. Wolverine goes on a solo mission and saves a young mutant named Beak, an almost definite victim of the U-Men until Logan intervened. The U-Men are led by a man named Lobe, a crazed “New Age” cult leader who is preaching that mutant organs should be used to turn “regular” humans into super humans. He has successfully altered himself, and his trusted lieutenants Betty, Verre, Burst and Thug; all augmented too. Lobe has been augmented with cybernetic enhancements to mimic mutant abilities such as a healing factor and middling telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Verre can turn invisible. Betty has Colossus level strength. Thug has near invulnerability and Burst can move at superhuman speed. It’s important to note, Lobe carries around the brain of a telepath in a jar. The brain belonged to an Omega level mutant named Matthew Malloy (more on him later). Lobe had his brain removed from his body, keeping the disembodied brain alive in a jar. Lobe controls Malloy through drugs and syringes and uses him to telepathically subdue his opponents.

The U-Men experiments encompass harvesting the organs of mutants so they can enhance themselves, and hopefully the rest of humanity, with the powers of said mutants. The U-Men are an organization of fanatic humans who believe in the principles of tran-speciesism to become physically superior by basically becoming mutants. The group believes that stealing and grafting mutant body parts through surgery, employing immoral genetic modification procedures, and injecting mutant blood transfusions and X-hormone mutagens into their members will create the Third Species, humans empowered with mutant abilities. Beast, being the open-minded thinker that he is, contemplates and tries to comprehend why humans are harvesting mutants, arguing it represents a distinct form of a species natural inclination to survive. This infuriates Wolverine, who’s past is rife with being a mutant guinea pig.
The X-Men manage to rescue the boy but the U-Men escape. The boy is a powerful telepath/telekinetic named Quentin Quire. He’s deeply shaken by the events that have transpired which have caused him to become cynical when it comes to the state of mutant-kind. Add in the fact, that he’s slightly off in the head. When he arrives at the already restless Xavier Institute, he’s wary of their hope for the “future that never comes.” Also, Quire has been exhibiting a second mutation of sorts; a surge in his abilities.

 
ACT 2 – The Future That Never Comes
So, take some mutant teenagers, who are already going through their own issues because they're teenagers, and then chuck in a powerful telepath with sanity issues that is looking to shake up the status quo amongst the student body and you get chaos. Quentin spreads fear, distrust and uncertainty amongst the student body with the threat of the U-Men and his own powerful telepathy to further the anxiety he was already dispersing. He wears a Magneto Was Right shirt and believes in the doctrines of the fallen mutant savior who preached unity amongst mutants. He argues with Xavier about his questionable hope for a better tomorrow and how he’s wasted so much time trying to align mutants and humans that he’s neglected his own people’s problems. Too little too late now that the X-Men govern over mutant-kind. Where was this years ago, when Xavier was on Capitol Hill trying to pass bills to allow mutant kids to attend school with human children, and those same kids were homeless and starving because their parents tossed them out of the house due to fear? And now humanity has discovered that too survive they have to mutilate and harvest mutants to be like them. Quire argues and the student body listens.



Protest and dissention against the conventional, arouses the young. Kitty is meant to be the bridge between the students and the X-Men but she struggles with encountering the discontent among the student body. This is a big aspect of her arc. Kitty is confident but still nervous, intelligent but still naive, and as an adult but still having her sense of childhood wonder. She’s a prime candidate to be the best of both worlds within the institute.

Quentin Quire is equal points insane and somewhat relatable; as an amazingly powerful telepath, if you’re a teenager who gets ignored by the girls you like, shunned by most the world and kidnapped and nearly harvested, it’s bound to lead to some chaos. Wolverine even understands that and he has a unique relationship with the boy. A key part of Logan’s arc is trying to relate to and appease to the troubled soul, that is Quentin. Logan knows all about being difficult.

We have dangerous kids who feel like gods running around who think their ultimate purpose in life is to kill humans and quicken the evolutionary cataclysm that is the takeover of homo superior.
 

The X-Men soon discover an underground organ harvesting market run through an illicit organ smuggling operation by the U-Men. Meanwhile, Quentin Quire is successfully revolting against Xavier and his constant Darwinist approach of new vs. old; an old man trying desperately to appeal to the new generation but misguidedly failing is completely on-point. A riot ensues at the school. Quentin’s telepathic powers influence the student body and he and Xavier engage in battle. Its soon revealed that Quentin is an Omega level mutant and his abilities are formidable.
 

Quentin: “You’ve always inspired mutants to dream”, he lectures Professor X, “How does it feel when your precious student’s dreams don’t align with yours?”

The culmination of Quire’s inflammatory behavior is taking Professor X hostage on an open day meant to foster improved relations between the school and local community. With the aid of Cerebro, Emma stops Quentin and subdues him mentally. In the wake of all the unrest, the X-Men question their roles as educators of the mutant young, as well as their own belief in the dream. The more tenured members, like Logan, Kitty, Storm, Scott and Beast really contemplate with Xavier about what the school means in these trying times. This new generation of mutants is agitated and tired and Professor X and his crew don’t know how to handle it. The team discuss how Xavier, to his discredit, let his dream of peace be defined by Magneto’s dream of war. A dream of shared prosperity would be better, and stronger. Is it even possible anymore? Much is made about Professor Xavier’s absent like mindset, and Scotts’ struggle under the burden of leadership without him, as well as his relationship with Emma.

 
ACT 3 – Monsters Aren’t Real, But Humans Are
With the X-Men in a troubled place, the U-Men make their grandest move yet, which is to attack the X-Men and harvest the organs of their strongest members and students. Using the tech from a long-lost Master Mold A.I. and Sentinel outpost, Lobe and the U-Men construct several slapdash Sentinels, from now archaic tech, to move onto the Xavier compound and take it by force.

Lobe and his cohorts arrive at the mansion and a battle ensues. The X-Men are ill-prepared and caught off guard as are the students who are still reeling from being mentally infected by Quire. Storm drenches the atmosphere in heavy snow to stop Burst from moving at great speeds. A constant snow shower adorns the air as the clash goes on. Quire manages to escape his confines as his secondary mutation kicks in and causes him to be in agonizing mental pain. Its revealed that he now has a power similar to Professor X: He can mentally paralyze others, making it appear as if time has been stopped. Bursts of his telepathic energy surge through the school grounds as the battle between the sentinels, U-Men, X-Men and students rages on. The energy from Quentin causes individuals minds to slowly become impaired and makes it seems as if everyone can only move in slo-motion as their brains and perception have been slowed down; in and out of slo-motion as the energy disperses every 30 seconds or so. This is meant to be a visually extravagant sequence.

Emma and Professor X combine their mental efforts to help Quentin but his power is too unsustainable and Xavier surmises that this is a necessary part of the maturation of his powers, and they must wait it out. Disturbing this transformation could hurt Quentin. Professor X does his best to shield the X-Men and the students mentally, from Quentin’s energy. The mentally ravaged student body is attempting to fend for themselves against a host of U-Men, inside the school, as the X-Men battle outside. Lobe is shielded from the energy using Malloy.

Lobe lectures Xavier and his students on how mutant-kind has forced humanity’s hand.

Lobe: “What happens if in a court of law, a mutant capable of mind-reading says that he killed a human in self-defense, because he sensed an intention of murder? What if there were mutants who had the capacity to induce amnesia in others? Countries would give anything to have mutants with exceptional super-powers work in conjunction with their military. Employers would go out of their way to hire mutant geniuses and clairvoyants on their teams. The structure would eventually cleave to give rise to a social order where mutants are above humans, more than it already has. We can’t destroy you, but we can become you.”

A young member of the student body, Hope Abbott aka Trance, uses her astral projection powers to avoid the mental paralysis being caused by Quentin’s secondary mutation, and manages to phase through and shut down the giant damaged, yet deadly Sentinels. Meanwhile, Quentin’s secondary mutation change has ended. Professor X quickly subdues the boy mentally, as he’s in a weak state after going through such brief psychological hardship. The rest of the X-Men finally defeat Lobe and the U-Men. They save Malloy as well.

The incident at the X-Mansion spreads throughout the world and mutant community. The U-Men’s defeat only inspires more passionate support from crazed humans who believe in the doctrines of the organ harvesters. Additionally, the still constant rise in the mutant population is scaring the world. Due to the rising violence against mutants worldwide, Charles Xavier founds the X-Corporation, a global group meant to mediate support between civilian and mutant populations. The first actions of the organization involve building a small nation on an uninhabited island for the growing mutant population.

In the last scene, as protesters lay siege to the Xavier Institute, Professor X lies in a coma. We see Emma Frost, holding the jar housing the Omega mutant Matthew Malloy, standing over the now unresponsive Xavier. Simultaneously, , a series of psychic attacks leaves Cyclops in a blind, Beast going feral, Kitty phasing uncontrollably, and Wolverine acting like a six-year-old. The X-Men have been betrayed…

*Cliffhanger!!!

TO BE CONTINUED
 
Post Credits Scene
A young woman in a long dark coat stands amongst metal rubble. She’s wearing a helmet of some kind. As she stands still, she then removes the helmet. From what we can see, its Magneto’s famed head wear.


*Notes
The final events that have taken place at the mansion will have ramifications in a sequel. Hate is a constant in the world  of the X-Men, but its never really evolved. Its never taken that next scary step, which is it leading to the genocide of  mutants in the films. This is something the sequels would address.