Summary
- The X-Men movies made several changes to various characters and storylines that the MCU could eventually revert to their original state.
- Characters like Storm, Rogue, Mystique, Darwin, and the Juggernaut had their origins rewritten and their powers watered down.
- Wolverine and Sabretooth are not brothers in the comics, whereas Mystique is Rogue's foster mother, and Cyclops is the X-Men's leader instead of Wolverine.
- Professor X's first X-Men lineup is quite different in the source material, and Jean Grey's Dark Phoenix takes much longer to arrive after her first adventures with the team.
Fox's Ryan Reynolds' first Deadpool iteration.
Some changes the X-Men movies made to Marvel's mutant lore were actually an improvement on the source material. For instance, X-Men: Days of Future Past expanded the original story and added extra layers like Mystique's subplot and Quicksilver's breakout scenes. On the other hand, multiple characters failed to live up to their comic book counterparts, and a few storylines suffered as a result. Given that some of these inaccuracies were a product of their time, the MCU's X-Men movies and shows can stay closer to the source material in order to do these characters justice.
9 Storm Is Much More Powerful In The Comics
Ororo Munroe Is A Godlike Omega-Level Mutant With A Large Variety Of Creative Powers
X2: X-Men United
- Release Date
- April 27, 2003
- Runtime
- 133 minutes
- Director
- Bryan Singer
Cast
Logan / Wolverine
Professor Charles Xavier
WHERE TO WATCH
- Budget
- $110–125 Million
Storm appears in six X-Men movies and participated in important events such as the mutants' extinction at the hands of the Sentinels in X-Men: Days of Future Past and the X-Men's fight against En Sabah Nur in X-Men: Apocalypse. However, Storm's abilities are mostly limited to flying, summoning lightning, and invoking rain. Storm's live-action powers aren't that strong either. Alexandra Shipp's Ororo Munroe can barely hold her own against Vuk's D'Bari soldiers in Dark Phoenix, and Halle Berry's Storm spends most of X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men: Days of Future Past mildly altering the weather.
In the source material, Storm is an Omega-level mutant who's worshiped as a goddess in her home country. She's capable of modifying temperature, pressure, and moisture, which allows her to weaponize a whole planet's weather. Storm's creativity also boosts her mutation. For example, some of Ororo Munroe's most impressive feats include the creation of artificial atmospheres, controlling electromagnetic energy, and manipulating earth, wind, and water to her will. After losing her powers, Storm also proved her worth as a skilled hand-to-hand fighter.
In X-Men '97 episode 1, Storm uses lightning to turn sand into glass, and then uses wind to turn the glass shards into sharp bullets.
8 Sabretooth Is Not Wolverine’s Brother, But His Archnemesis
Victor Creed Has No Family Connections To Wolverine And Fights Him More Often
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- Release Date
- April 28, 2009
- Runtime
- 107 minutes
- Director
- Gavin Hood
Cast
-
Logan / Wolverine
Liev SchreiberVictor Creed
WHERE TO WATCH
- Budget
- $150 million
X-Men Origins: Wolverine's epic opening montage reveals that Wolverine and Sabretooth are half-brothers who fought side by side for centuries, and that they had a complex relationship due to their rough upbringing. Wolverine's first solo movie also shows how Victor Creed a.k.a. Sabretooth allies himself with William Stryker while Wolverine escapes, though Victor returns briefly in order to help his brother defeat Weapon XI. Years later, Wolverine and Sabretooth cross paths once again in X-Men, but they don't seem to recognize each other.
Wolverine does have an evil brother in the comics: Doc Logan, who may have inspired Liev Shreiber's take on Sabretooth.
Outside the live-action X-Men movies, Wolverine and Sabretooth aren't related. Instead, the two feral mutants are usually depicted as lifelong enemies. They start out as partners in secret ops missions, until Sabretooth's murder of Silver Fox creates a permanent rift between them. Sabretooth develops a thirst for blood, while Wolverine becomes a hero and s the X-Men. Throughout the years, Wolverine and Sabretooth clash countless times, and Sabretooth commits heinous acts that only motivate Wolverine to be harsher on his archnemesis.
7 Rogue Usually Plays A Much Bigger Role In The X-Men’s Comic Book Stories
Rogue's Comic Book Stories Aren't Exclusively Focused On The Downsides Of Her Mutant Abilities
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X-Men: Days of Future Past
- Release Date
- May 15, 2014
- Runtime
- 132 minutes
- Director
- Bryan Singer
Cast
-
Logan / Wolverine
James McAvoyCharles Xavier
WHERE TO WATCH
- Budget
- $200–205 million
Rogue is one of the protagonists in 2000's X-Men, but loses relevance in the plot of all the following movies. In X-Men, Anna Paquin's Rogue struggles to accept her powers and finds herself targeted by Magneto, who plans to use her abilities to transform humans into mutants. After surviving the ordeal, Rogue falls in love with Iceman in X2: X-Men United and takes the mutant cure in X-Men: The Last Stand. Several years later, - The Rogue Cut reveals that the advanced Sentinels owe their adaptability to Rogue's mutation.
Rogue has a much more complex and extensive story in the comics. Anna Marie starts her journey as a villain, having been adopted by the mutants Mystique and Destiny. Years later, Rogue s the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and fights the Avengers, but soon regrets her actions and accepts an invitation from Professor X to be part of the X-Men. Rogue then develops a romantic relationship with Gambit, goes on heroic missions with other mutants (temporarily absorbing many of their powers along the way), and s various teams such as Excalibur and the Avengers Unity Division.
Rogue's most famous feat of power may be her fight with Carol Danvers, whose powers she permanently absorbs.
6 Professor X’s First X-Men Team Is Very Different
The First X-Men Line-Up Is Founded By Five Mutant Icons
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X-Men: First Class
- Release Date
- June 3, 2011
- Runtime
- 131 minutes
- Director
- Matthew Vaughn
Cast
-
James McAvoyCharles Xavier
Erik Lehnsherr
WHERE TO WATCH
- Budget
- $140–160 million
The first X-Men movie suggests that Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Storm were some of Professor X's earliest students. However, X-Men: First Class later reveals that Professor X's first-ever mutant team was founded by Charles Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, Beast, Havok, Banshee, Tempest, and Darwin. Shortly after creating the X-Men, Magneto and Mystique deserts the team, while Banshee and other mutants are killed by the government and used as research for Bolivar Trask's early Sentinel experiments.
Marvel Comics' original X-Men team, as introduced in 1963's Uncanny X-Men #1, hasn't appeared on the big screen to this day. Professor X's first X-Men lineup is composed of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, and Iceman. These characters made their debut throughout Fox's first live-action X-Men trilogy, but they never appeared together as a team, let alone as the first iteration of the X-Men. In the comics, they are publicly known as the founding of the X-Men.
5 Mystique Is Rogue’s Foster Mother, Not Charles Xavier’s Childhood Friend
Mystique Is Closer To Rogue, Destiny, And Nightcrawler Than She Is To Professor X And Magneto
Rebecca Romjin's Mystique resembles her comic book counterpart quite closely in of behavior. Throughout the first X-Men trilogy, Raven Darkhölme is a ruthless assassin who believes in Magneto's ideals and uses her shapeshifting abilities to mislead her victims before murdering them in cold blood. However, X-Men: First Class retcons Mystique, revealing that she's Charles Xavier's childhood friend who sides briefly with Magneto, discloses her secret identity after failing to kill the president, and formally s the X-Men before meeting her end at the hands of a Phoenix-possessed Jean Grey.
Comic-book Mystique couldn't be farther from Jennifer Lawrence's interpretation of the mutant shapeshifter. In the source material, Mystique is a treacherous assassin by nature, though genuinely in love with the clairvoyant mutant Destiny. Mystique is also captivated by motherhood, which leads her to have various children, including the human Graydon Creed, the teleporting mutant Nightcrawler, and her adoptive mutant daughter Rogue. The first encounter between Mystique and Charles Xavier only comes when she assembles her own version of Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
4 Darwin Is One Of Marvel’s Few Truly Unkillable Characters
Darwin's Limitless Mutation Makes Him Impossible To Kill By Definition
An especially infamous change that Fox's X-Men movies made to Marvel's mutant lore is Darwin's mortality. In X-Men: First Class, Hellfire Club leader Sebastian Shaw uses his energy-based abilities to detonate Darwin's body from the inside out. Despite transforming his highly-adaptable body into metal and stone, Darwin is unable to withstand Sebastian Shaw's energy and explodes. Darwin had only showcased his powers a couple of times mere minutes prior to his death, and only as a party trick to impress his fellow X-Men alumni.
The Perfect Deadpool 3 Cameo Would Fix An X-Men Mistake 13 Years Later
Deadpool 3 will be releasing 13 years after Fox's prequel-come-reboot X-Men: First Class, which introduced one mutant who'd be perfect for the MCU.
In the comics, Darwin is truly one of the few characters who boasts the power of immortality through his near limitless power of adaptability. Regardless of the environmental factors and the nature of each fight, Darwin's body naturally comes up with the perfect transformation to protect him, from the creation of an impenetrable layer of skin to instant teleportation. All a future live-action adaptation of the character needs to do to fix X-Men: First Class' Darwin mistake would be to allow his body to counter any attack.
3 Juggernaut Is Professor X’s Non-Mutant Half-Brother
Cain Marko Is Powered By The Crimson Gem Of Cyttorak And Holds A Grudge Against Charles Xavier
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X-Men: The Last Stand
- Release Date
- May 26, 2006
- Runtime
- 104 minutes
- Director
- Brett Ratner
Cast
-
Logan / Wolverine
-
Professor Charles Xavier
WHERE TO WATCH
- Budget
- $210 Million
X-Men: The Last Stand introduced Vinny Jones' Juggernaut as a villainous mutant with the ability to destroy everything in his path. Magneto recruits Juggernaut into his Brotherhood of Mutants, but even though the seemingly unstoppable villain gives Kitty Pryde a hard time, he ends up knocking himself out when he comes close to the mutation-negating Leech. In Deadpool 2, a different version of Juggernaut played by Ryan Reynolds comes across Deadpool and rips him in half for threatening Russell Collins a.k.a. Firefist.
A common misconception that the X-Men movies' version of Juggernaut helped perpetuate is that Cain Marko is a mutant villain who just so happens to run into the X-Men very often. In reality, Marko is Charles Xavier's step-brother, who holds a grudge against the telepath out of frustration about his father's death and envy over Xavier's abilities. Besides, Marko isn't a mutant like his step-brother. Instead, Cain Marko receives his power from the ancient mystical being Cyttorak after he touches the entity's Crimson Gem, which transforms him into "a human Juggernaut".
2 Jean Grey’s Dark Phoenix Arc Requires Many Years' Worth Of Build-Up
Jean Grey Has Starred In Many Other Conflicts Besides The Dark Phoenix Saga
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X-Men: Dark Phoenix
- Release Date
- June 5, 2019
- Runtime
- 114 minutes
- Director
- Simon Kinberg
Cast
-
James McAvoyCharles Xavier / Professor X
Sophie TurnerJean Grey / Dark Phoenix
WHERE TO WATCH
- Budget
- $200 million
Both live-action Dark Phoenix adaptations attempted by Fox's X-Men movies failed to do the source material justice. While both Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner's Jean Grey portrayals are depicted as powerful and corrupted, their downfall happens too quickly, and the sacrifices the X-Men have to make in order to stop the Dark Phoenix seem too abrupt and unearned as a result. For instance, Cyclops' and Professor X's deaths in X-Men: The Last Stand and Mystique's death in Dark Phoenix have less emotional impact on the rest of the characters than they should have.
Marvel's iconic Dark Phoenix Saga was preceded by almost twenty years of history between Jean Grey and her fellow X-Men. Jean had already struggled with many other conflicts before, which made her slow-burn evil turn much more painful for her friends. After the Dark Phoenix Saga concluded, Jean Grey faced a wide variety of challenges, proving that her story isn't entirely defined by the Phoenix Force. Fortunately for the next live-action Jean Grey, Dark Phoenix's similarities to the MCU's Scarlet Witch may require the MCU to wait a long while before making another attempt to adapt the same storyline.
1 Cyclops Is The X-Men’s Field Leader, Wolverine Is The Team’s Wildcard
Scott Summers And Wolverine's Original X-Men Dynamics Are Flipped In The Movies
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X-Men
- Release Date
- July 13, 2000
- Runtime
- 104 minutes
- Director
- Bryan Singer
Cast
-
Logan / Wolverine
-
Xavier
WHERE TO WATCH
- Budget
- $75 Million
It's no secret that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine has stolen the spotlight in the X-Men movies for over twenty years. Despite the large number of characters introduced in Fox's X-Men universe, Wolverine could easily be named the franchise's protagonist. Even in films that are based on famous comics where Wolverine plays a much smaller role, Hugh Jackman's Logan receives most of the screentime and carries the scripts' main point of view.
Throughout the decades, every major Marvel mutant has received their own moment in the limelight, from prominent heroes like Storm, Nightcrawler, and Beast to lesser-known X-Men characters like Glob Herman and Beak. Not to mention, the X-Men's traditional dynamics place Cyclops as the unanimous leader, with Wolverine being the team's volatile powerhouse. Just like X-Men '97 utilizes Wolverine as a ing character in order to help the rest of the team to shine, the MCU's X-Men characters could strike a better balance within its version of the iconic mutant team.
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