In spite of the increasingly frustrating rivalry amongst some superhero movie fans – who preferred Batman v Superman over Civil War or vice versa, and who apparently to want to fight about it – most audience members seem to love the Marvel Studios movies.
And to be fair, Marvel Studios has done a lot to deserve the praise. They took superheroes who were thought to be on the b-list (or worse… hey Ant-Man, I didn’t see you there) and transformed them into blockbuster franchise material. They crafted an extended universe of franchises, most of them interacting with each other, spawning a whole new paradigm for the rest of Hollywood to follow. And they did it all by respecting the characters, making a few changes here and there but mostly adhering to what made Iron Man, Captain America and The Black Widow great in the first place (to name a few).
So when a Marvel movie made outside of the Marvel Studios system goes badly, or at least fails to give audiences exactly what they wanted, one of the most common comments you will see on the internet is that we’d all be better off if the rights to those characters went back to Marvel. It worked for Daredevil, and it seems to be working for Spider-Man (although that’s a more complicated legal situation), so it only stands to reason that it would work just as well for the X-Men… right?
Well, no. Not necessarily.
20th Century Fox
Also: ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Review | All-New, All-Indifferent
X-Men: Apocalypse came out this weekend. I didn’t care for it and I wasn’t alone on that, although the film does seem to have its admirers. Regardless, once again we’re hearing the clarion call of the fanperson, and my Twitter feed is once again full of comments about why this franchise would be better off if the rights were held by Marvel Studios, where they arguably “belong.”
And make no mistake: Marvel would like this to happen. The X-Men movies are based on Marvel comic books and yet they remain outside of the studio’s control, made by 20th Century Fox, and not always made terribly well (although Deadpool of course kicked ass). If the rights to the X-Men movies did come “back” to Marvel Studios, then Marvel would certainly find something to do with it, and probably even do a good job.
But the problem doesn’t have anything to do with the rights to the X-Men, or even with sound business strategies. The problem is the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself, which is very clearly defined in a way that leaves no room whatsoever for the X-Men as characters… or even as a concept.
20th Century Fox
Also: Dear Fox: Just Reboot the X-Men Already (You Know You Want To)
The X-Men aren’t just a bunch of superheroes who happened to get powers, band together and fight bad guys. The X-Men are mutants, representative of a massive evolution in the global gene pool, which left a significant percentage of the Earth’s population with superhuman abilities. They sprang, in the comics and in the movies, out of a sociopolitical environment, not just out of a standard origin story involving accidental exposure to radiative waste.
To put it another way: the very concept of The X-Men, as a social and political allegory, relies on them having been around for a while. Magneto faced persecution in World War II. The government has been performing experiments on them. Legislation has been put in place to ease the fears of the non-mutant population, who are all aware of the existence of mutants and who aren’t uniformly rational about it. These aren’t incidental ideas, they are fundamental building blocks of the franchise.
Disney-ABC
And none of that has any place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it currently exists. We saw what happened in World War II, and mutants weren’t there. The government doesn’t know about the existence of mutants, because we’ve seen S.H.I.E.L.D.’s detailed files about superhuman individuals and we know that mutants haven’t been discovered yet. And if there was some legislation being put forth to curtail the “mutant menace” it probably would have come up during the whole “Civil War” debacle, wouldn’t it?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been operating as if mutants don’t exist, and hasn’t left any loopholes to allow them to suddenly have been around all along. It’s easy to say Spider-Man has been kicking around a while, because it’s been a while since we’ve taken a close look at what’s going on in New York City, and it’s plausible that a single, solitary hero has swung under the radar. But we have seen the world, and know there aren’t a whole bunch of mutants in it.
20th Century Fox
There are ways around this, of course, but I’m not sure any of them would be satisfying to audiences. You could suddenly have an event that “activates” mutants all over the world, but then every mutant would be stuck at square one. No secret history of Wolverine for anybody. It might make sense dramatically but it wouldn’t be the X-Men we’ve always wanted to see in a movie. In fact, it would be fundamentally different.
Which leaves us with a second option, in which the X-Men exist in an alternate reality, separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. A crossover would be possible, thanks to the Infinity Stones or futuristic alien technology or what have you, and maybe it would even be totally awesome, but then the status quo would have to return after a movie or two. Audiences who want the X-Men “back” at Marvel don’t just want the characters kept separate all of the time. After all, we already have that.
20th Century Fox
One of the hardest things for a fan to accept is the knowledge that what you want to see won’t happen, and for a very good reason. It’s not just petty legal squabbles keeping the X-Men and Avengers movie franchises apart, it’s also rational storytelling. And while it’s entirely possible that somebody at Marvel and/or Fox could figure it all out, it’s an enormous uphill battle that won’t be scaled anytime soon, and especially not because some of us have written a bunch of tweets about it.
Whether you loved X-Men: Apocalypse or hated it, this is the situation as it stands right now. If you don’t like what 20th Century Fox is doing, don’t pay for it. If enough people vote with their money (or rather, by choosing to withhold their money), then change will come. Maybe it will require a complete reboot of the X-Men franchise, which would be severe but completely manageable, or maybe there’s an altogether different solution that nobody’s thought about yet.
But the solution probably won’t be the X-Men going “back” to Marvel Studios, so my advice is not to get your hopes up.
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The 20 Best Superhero Movie Posters
Top Photo: 20th Century Fox
The 20 Best Superhero Movie Posters
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3 Dev Adam
Also known as That Turkish Ripoff Film Where Captain America and El Santo Team Up to Fight Evil Spider-Man. The film is at least 70 times more spectacular than anything cooked up by Disney, and this poster reflects that.
Image: Tual Film Arsel
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Ant Man
To assure viewers that Ant-Man was tied in the The Avengers series, the marketers released a series of posters showing our tiny, tiny hero to scale with his future teammates.
Image: Disney
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Batman (1966)
Camp was the word of the day in 1966, and this is still perhaps the most enjoyable Batman film of them all.
Image: 20th Century Fox
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Batman (1989)
It may be difficult to describe just how huge Tim Burton's 1989 film really was back in the day. To tease us, the posters only displayed the Batman logo.
Image: Warner Bros.
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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
In its own personal continuity, the animated Batman feature had an appropriately stylized poster.
Image: Warner Bros.
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Batman Returns
While there have been numerous iterations of Catwoman over the years, this single image has become the defining image of the character in the minds of many.
Image: Warner Bros.
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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Although the film has been largely panned, it cannot be denied that these street art renditions of the two title heroes are pretty cool.
Image: Warner Bros.
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Darkman
Sam Raimi's over-the-top vigilante movie came from the era of hand-painted posters, when they all looked way cooler.
Image: Universal
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Deadpool
The snarky, self-aware superhero comedy film faked you out with these Nicholas Sparks-inspired romance posters. Surprise! It's an R-rated comedy!
Image: 20th Century Fox
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Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
The best thing about Ghost Rider is the way he looks like a living tattoo. This poster highlights that to an amazing degree.
Image: Columbia
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Guardians of the Galaxy
Although it is just a few glory shots of the team, a graphic designer thought to add some color. It certainly catches the eye.
Image: Disney
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Hellboy
This poster, painted by the legendary Drew Struzan, wasn't used in the U.S. Our loss, I suppose.
Image: Columbia
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Mystery Men
One of the funniest of all superhero movies, the clever Mystery Men took not-too-impressive superheroes (like The Shoveler and The Spleen) and made them look epic.
Image: Universal
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Spider-Man 3
Non-fans see a moral conflict. Fans see a glimpse of an evil alien blob that takes the form of a costume. Either way, good choice.
Image: 20th Century Fox
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Supergirl
Often jeered, this goofy Superman spinoff has a poster that outdoes most of its peers.
Image: TriStar Pictures
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Superman III
This hand-painted poster was only used in international markets, but the images and the colors translate all over the world.
Image: Warner Bros.
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The Amazing Spider-Man
No one asked for this reboot, but this image did lend an air of mystery to a story we already knew from a few years before.
Image: 20th Century Fox
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The Dark Knight
The kid gloves are off, and buildings got blowed up. The image became iconic. Question: Did Batman burn that building in a bat shape, or did the Joker do it to discredit Batman? I always saw it as the latter.
Image: Warner Bros.
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The Shadow
I loved how shiny and glossy blockbuster posters were in the '80s and '90s. This image became a logo for the film, and the colors are still unique to this day.
Image: Universal
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X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men 7 was when they started to mess around with alternate timelines in earnest, and the posters let us see the overlap.
Image: 20th Century Fox
