… and to
be clear, as I write this its only being reported by one source so
pinch of salt but if they do buy Fox (or “the bulk of Fox's media
assets” as the Newsarama article put it) then I look forward to
what Marvel Studios does with the Fantastic Four.
The X-Men,
not so much.
Put the
pitchforks down and let me explain. Now, I'm not quite on board with
the idea a lot of people seem to have that the X-franchise should
have ended with Logan. It was
a great movie (only the second or third the series has produced,
shockingly) and I loved it but I also really want to see what the
franchise can do now that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is off the table.
There are so many characters, teams, storylines and ideas floating
around in that property that have gone unexploited for so long. Hell,
I'm even looking forward to that odd superhero/horror hybrid they're
putting out under the New Mutants name.
I
just don't think there's much mileage to putting the X-Men in the
MCU. They've got the Inhumans for better or worse to be their
standard issue excuse for why this person who doesn't rate an
involved origin has powers. They've got the Avengers to act as their
big tentpole team. I'm not sure what the X-Men or the mutant concept
offers at this point.
So
maybe it might benefit Disney to keep the X-Men as a seperate
franchise. There's an audience pop to be had in adding Wolverine to
the Avengers but I think that's about it.
Contrary
to popular belief I think what the X-Men movies need isn't to be part
of the all-powerful and critic-proof MCU but to just be under Disney
management. Fox might be getting better at commissioning and making
non-Wolverine films like Deadpool and The New Mutants but let me put
it like this:
The
X-Men movie franchise deserves special recognition for being a series
whose timeline made no sense before
time travel was introduced to the mix. Take Mystique, for example,
who we now know to be Xavier's adopted sister and as much as she
denies the role she obviously feels a great deal of affection for him
and the school.
Then
you go back and watch the first movie where she coldly and
calculatingly tries to murder Xavier in his home. Character
consistency would be nice. Being able to hold on to the core of a
team for more than a film would be nice.
A
version of Jubilee who bloody does something for a change (and there
have been two film versions of the character now) would be nice.
Okay, this grudge is purely generational because Jubilee was “my”
generation's teenage POV character what with the cartoon and
everything but, in all seriousness, could Fox just stop being Fox for
a second and allow the POC character they spent as much time
introducing as Nightcrawler and Cyclops in on the action?
Actually,
now I mention that I notice the utter absence of Karma in the New
Mutants trailer.
Fox
are dicks, please buy them out, Marvel.
