Unreality Companion: Why the X-Men Shouldn't Join the MCU

In which I expand upon the content of my weekly Unrealitymag.com article.

Most of you are probably already aware about how Marvel and Fox are increasingly at each other's throats over the film rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises.  The short of it is that Marvel wants them and Fox will keep pumping out sequels, reboots and remakes for as long as it can afford to (in order to retain those films rights for the foreseeable future).  But the question that nobody ever seems to ask is "does Marvel even really need those franchises?"

Movie rights are funny things.  As long as you keep making more movies and don't want to sell them back, they're yours to keep.  That's why Sony rebooted Spider-Man after Raimi's trilogy concluded.  That's why Marvel initially couldn't make a Hulk movie (or a Daredevil series).  And that's why Fox is able to tie up two of Marvel's most iconic teams outside of the comic publisher's meta-franchise.

But when you stop and think about it, what do the Fanastic Four - or even the X-Men - bring to the table that Marvel didn't already have?  I mean, I love Wolverine as much as the next guy, but does he really need to suit up alongside Cap' and Iron Man?

The short answer is no.  While we might miss out on adaptation of Avengers vs X-Men and the full breadth of Age of Apocalypse, neither franchise really needs what the other has.  The MCU has damn-near the full breadth of Marvel's expansive roster of heroes and villains to work with, and X-Men has an obscenely wide character base to draw from as well.

And Fantastic Four?  They haven't been relevant in decades.  This is why when Marvel decided to go to war with Fox over their film rights, they canceled the Fantastic Four comic book.  While the team launched Marvel's Age of Heroes and has been historically important to the shared universe, they haven't sold especially well in years, and can't help but feel dated more than fifty later.

The only thing that Marvel would even want from them is Doctor Doom, who's about as awesome as Marvel villains come.  Guardians of the Galaxy is doing a great job of covering Marvel's cosmic canon while the Avengers are doing just fine with their terrestrial adventures.  People just aren't all that interested in watching a team in matching onesies fight the Mole Man.

While X-Men does offer a lot more than the Fantastic Four does, it's always struck me as a supremely insular franchise that never really jived well with the rest of Marvel's offerings.  In a brilliant twist on the Civil Rights Movement, mutants are feared and hated simply because they're born different.

It's insightful.  It's dramatic.  It doesn't really fit with every other super-powered character and team that they've come up with since 1961.

Why are the X-Men so reviled when the Fantastic Four are superhero celebrities?  Why do people loathe mutants when Thor gets away with doing the exact same thing?  Why are people okay with Captain America, but not with Charles Xavier?

And really, can you blame him?

For everything Spider-Man has to put up with, he really only gets ragged on by one angry guy on a soap box.  The only other guy who's in the same boat as the X-Men is Hulk, and he's an actual, factual monster who's just as likely to rip you in half as he is anything else.

The social and tonal disparity between X-Men and basically everything else has always been a cause for pause with me.  It's filled with nuanced characters, rich stories and excellent writing, but when push comes to shove, for as much as I love the franchise, X-Men simply never belonged with the rest of Marvel.

So while  Marvel misses out on any number of fantastic characters to throw into the ring with (against?) Stark & Co., They're better off on their own.  Marvel has a hard enough time trying to fit all of the characters that they actually do own the film rights to into any given phase, never mind having to worry about the literal hundreds of mutants that they would have at their disposal.

And sure, Magneto solves the perpetual "Marvel Problem" of never having an interesting villain.  Apocalypse too.  Hell, you could say the same thing about Stryker, Phoenix, Mystique and any number of X-villains.  They're all phenomenal, nuanced and incredibly interesting characters, but they simply don't fit the logic of the MCU.

Besides, Marvel's been managing just fine without them.  Say what you will about its fidelity to the comics, but Iron Man 3's twist on The Mandarin was the most memorable thing that a villain did in any superhero movie short of asking people if they wanted to know how he got his scars.  Thanos' long-game with the Infinity Stones is proving to be the best-laid conflict of any series pumping out sequels today.  Ultron was a phenomenally tragic character with surprising layers of nuance.

What's more is that the two franchises in question seem to be in remarkably good hands.  Days of Future Past was easily one of my favorite movies from last year.  Same goes for X-Men: First Class in 2011.  X-Men: Apocalypse is easily one of my most anticipated movies for next year (behind only Captain America: Civil War).  It might have taken them the better half of two decades to do so, but it looks like Fox has finally gotten a pulse on what makes the X-Men tick.

And while I still have my reservations about the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, I think that I'm starting to come around to it.  It doesn't seem quite as grim-dark and tone-deaf as its first trailer suggested.  Hell, by DC standards, its muted color pallet and low-key lighting look downright cheery.  And although far too young for their roles, the cast is otherwise excellent.

So do you think that Marvel should reacquire the film rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four?  If so, how would you like to see the new franchises incorporated into the existing MCU?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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