the x-men assemble for shadows of tomorrow
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Ambrose Tardive
Published 1 minute ago
Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.
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When the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally integrates the X-Men franchise into its on-screen canon, it needs to make the term "mutant" more inclusive. That is, the MCU should classify heroes like the Fantastic Four, Hulk, and even Spider-Man as mutants. That might be controversial for some hardcore comic fans, but it's the best move for Marvel's mainstream audience.
Think about it. An MCU fan reading this article right now just stopped and thought, "wait, the Fantastic Four aren't mutants?" In Marvel Comics lore, technically the answer is no.
The cast of the MCU's Fantastic Four smiling and/or showing their powers in front of the Fantasticar and NYC buildings© Marvel / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
Yet for the MCU, it might be the case that the simplest explanation is best for hooking the widest possible audience.
The MCU Should Extend Mutant Status To Heroes Like The Fantastic Four And Hulk
Making The X-Men More At Home In The MCU
Google "are the Fantastic Four mutants?" or "is the Hulk a mutant?" and you'll find that this question is asked online constantly. Especially by the new generation of fans being exposed to Marvel superheroes for the first time by the MCU. The simple answer would be to say yes, that exposure to radiation activated these characters' latent mutant powers.
Somewhere along the line in Marvel canon, though, it was established that these heroes, mutated though they might be, were a distinct classification of superpowered individual, separate from the mutants of the X-Men franchise. It's messy, but at times it has been used to tell interesting stories about the class divides in the superhero community.
It would be great for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to do something similar. Still, the safer alternative is to break from Marvel Comics canon and welcome Marvel's First Family and other mutated heroes into mutantkind's fold. It's likely the best bet for seamlessly connecting X-Men lore to the existing MCU.
The Difference Between Mutant Heroes And Heroes Who Have Mutated Is Too Confusing For The MCU
The Case For Simplifying The Distinction
Hulk clenches his fists while looking at the reader in Marvel Comics
The Marvel Universe is a patchwork continuity, added to progressively for 60+ years straight. That means complications and contradictions are a feature of canon, not a bug. The operating ethos for many of Marvel's top writers is that canon is what sticks, not the sum total of everything Marvel puts on the page.
For whatever reason, the distinction between mutants and "mutates" has stuck. That doesn't mean it's not confusing, and to many fans, counterintuitive. As it stands, in Marvel Comics, a "mutant" is someone whose powers manifest naturally upon the activation of their "X-gene." "Mutates" get their powers from exposure to an external factor, like gamma radiation, or a radioactive spider.
The MCU has already taken steps toward eliminating, or at least explaining this distinction. Bruce Banner's cameo in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, for example, was used to explain how he and his cousin, Jennifer Walters, were genetically predisposed to absorbing gamma rays that would normally be lethal to other people. This shows that the MCU's creators are already thinking about these things.
Marvel's Tangled Web Of Superpower Origin Stories Is Hard Enough To Untangle Before Factoring In Mutants
The MCU Can Do What It Always Does: Streamline
Tom Holland Wearing Spider-Man Costume On A Soundstage For Spider-Man Brand New Day
There's nothing wrong with having different types of origins for superpowered characters, per se. And there's only so much the MCU can do to reconcile the many vectors for super-empowerment that already exist in its continuity. There are characters like Iron Man who use technology to give them artifical powers, while at the same time, there magic users like Doctor Strange.
Then there is Captain America, whose powers were a product of the Super Soldier serum. In other words, an experimental attempt to induce a specific set of artificial superpowers. But what does that make Spider-Man? His accidental exposure to an irradiated spider mutated him, but what would a mutant Peter Parker powers have been like if he hadn't been bitten?
The Fantastic Four, who each manifested distinct powers following their irradiation in space, are perhaps the easiest to retcon as mutants, akin to the X-Men. It's a decision that would help cut down on exposition in the MCU, but even more crucially, it would serve as a tie that binds the MCU version of Marvel canon together.
The X-Men Have To Fit Into The MCU, But The MCU Has To Adapt To Let Mutants Flourish
Tying The Fantastic Four And X-Men Together Is A Smart Move
Giant-Size House of M #1 cropped cover by Adam Kubert - Ms. Marvel stands with the Avengers and X-Men
Bringing the X-Men into the MCU is more complicated than just having them show up. It's a matter of how they fit into the bigger picture, and how the MCU is going to explain their absence up to this point. It's a similar issue that Fantastic Four faced, which ultimately prompted the period piece setting of First Steps.
The Fantastic Four, as a superhero team, represents the birth of the modern Marvel Universe, but it took 15+ years to make an MCU adaptation work. The film honored this by maintaining the team's in-continuity status as "Marvel's First Family," though it still remains for subsequent movie appearances to fill in the Four's history up to the present day.
As part of that process, Marvel could make the creative decision to tie the Fantastic Four into the X-Men franchise's MCU backstory. It isn't a change that has to extend to the comics, though plenty of readers wish it would, but for the smooth functioning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it would be fitting to expand the scope and meaning of mutantkind.
X-Men
Movie(s)
X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
First Film
X-Men (2000)
TV Show(s)
X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men '97 (2024)
Character(s)
Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23
Video Game(s)
X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
Comic Release Date
213035,212968
The X-Men franchise, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, centers on mutants with extraordinary abilities. Led by the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier, they battle discrimination and villainous mutants threatening humanity. The series explores themes of diversity and acceptance through a blend of action, drama, and complex characters, spanning comics, animated series, and blockbuster films.
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X-Men
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Marvel Cinematic Universe
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