The MCU/X-Men Problem Everyone Is Talking About

Let’s be real here, we’re all hyped about the Marvel/Disney/Fox merger. It means that we have a lot more of the core characters to play with AND they finally have the X-Men and company™—but that doesn’t make everything sunshine and roses automatically. Fandom-Company relations are never so seamless.

I’ll be expressing some of my basic concerns and potential solutions that could implement a smoother process. Why, you may ask? Because what else am I going to do? I’m a nerd on the internet. I gotta get my opinion out it’s like policy anymore. Remember, please, that I’m just a person with some ideas and opinions, I’m not right, you’re not wrong. Now, let's dig in shall we?

The two biggest concerns are how exactly Marvel plans to incorporate these new properties into the MCU, and what that will mean for the already established Fox franchises... We all know what’s going on at Sony, well actually, no, we don’t, because I don’t even think Sony knows what’s going on at Sony anymore. *Soulte of solitude*

Their supposed "Spider-verse without Spider-man" has already raised a lot of speculation and worry from fans and investors alike. (Though supposedly Tom Holland will be making a cameo, so that should put some minds at ease.) Though there was that commercial for a Spider-verse film with Miles Morales so lord only knows whats going on anymore.

I have an idea of how the mutants could be integrated, it’s an idea I’ve heard others’ bounce around before as well. Who here actually reads the comics? I know not everyone one does, and that’s ok. There will be no "not a true fan" shaming here, we’re not 12.

I ask because a few years ago Marvel combined it's Ultimate Universe with its main 616 Universe, more commonly known as the Prime Marvel-verse where all the major and core stories happen. (And yes; comics have multiple universes, it’s how they get away with ‘"What if's," alternate futures, and 1800s versions of characters etc.)

They got a lot of new characters this way. Well, different versions of characters such as Wolverine’s alternate son that he had with Magneto’s wife while they were "on break," crazy evil Reed Richards, Ultimate Thor’s hammer. (Yup, not Thor, just his hammer and some weird energy stuff.)

Not to mention the numerous others that were already in the 616 verse from other strange time-space jumbled stuff. There are teen and adult versions of the X-Men running around because Secret Wars 2, or something, I don’t remember. Ultimate universe was weird, yo. But it did give us Miles Morales! Oh god do I love Miles! His team up(s) with prime Spider are, like, just *kisses finger* magnifico.

Ok there, was a point to all that, was not just rambling for the sake of comic lore explanation, and that point was in fact that they combined universes. It allowed them to do a lot that they couldn't do before.

Truthfully, I think that would be the best possibility if they want to combine the X-Men and MCU. I don’t know what their other idea could be. The mutants start just ‘popping up’ like the Inhumans, maybe and…honestly that sounds horrifying.

Especially when you consider how bad the Inhumans mini-series was received. They have to do what they did with 616 and the ultimate verse, that’s the only way I can see this going smoothly.

Combining their own version of the universes just seems like the most painless route to go. That, however, does still come with its own set of problems. Do they take the canon that Fox has already established and bring it into the MCU? That could be messy, especially when you consider the number of reboots their X-Men franchise has gone through over the years, both hard and soft. I'm not even going to talk about the Fantastic Four, for the sake of my sanity and all of yours.

In all honesty, I think this combination would be the easiest way to introduce mutants depending on how they want to work with what ‘Fox’ has done. And though Disney has been great for Marvel, for the most part anyway, there is some real fear among fans that these new characters will be ‘Disney-fied.’

They might just go the ‘everything Fox did prior or on their own is a separate universe.' Which, really I’m kinda hoping for, cause X-Men and Fantastic Four, they can those franchises they can help but dear sweet God please do not touch Deadpool! Do not Disney up Deadpool!

Ahem, pardon. I’m just very passionate about this. The other option is somehow incorporating what Fox has already done into the MCU and as I stated earlier, that would all just be very messy in all regards.

The best course of action just seems to be marvel creating their own X-Men universe and combining it with the MCU in some kinda movie event. People would eat that up, like legit.

In this way, it would allow Marvel to use the characters in the way they want but more importantly, it still leaves Fox with their version of the pre-established cannon and their versions of the characters.

Now some may say, “But that's confusing!” To which I reply, “Um, have you ever read a comic book?” If the two different versions of X-Men is too confusing for you, you better not look into their history cause it only gets worse from there.

And for real, I've been waiting for something like this to happen. Not just more reboots and retcons, hard or soft. I want them to finally give us a real comic dynamic universe, where there is never just one of anything.

One reason comics have lasted so long and through so much turmoil, persecution, degradation, and just plain bankruptcy is their power to rewrite their own worlds when needed.

Even though it’s now more of a corporate ploy to squeeze money outta people it more or less ended up creating an idea reservoir. Comic fans have a saying, “Don’t like it? Wait for the reboot.”

Headcanon the crap outta those bad plot points.They opened up a greater can of worms then they could have ever known at the time. The possibilities are quite literally endless now.

I know we’ve been focusing on Marvel here but let's head over to the other side of the coin for a second and look at one of DC’s biggest and arguably most influential verse-swap to date. Flashpoint was an invent in which Barry Allen tried to save his mother from being killed but by doing that makes a whole alternate timeline, so to right this, he goes back to stop himself and let her die. Problem solved? Mostly.

The universe he knew is still a bit different from then on out. The event was literally all about changing comic canon so they could set off their ‘New 52’ world.

Arguably, it wasn’t worth all that hype but that’s for another time. Universes are literally built on the principle of being reworked, rewritten, overhauled and combined now. It’s one of the main way comics are able to survive and remain relevant.

Now you may be saying to yourself, “Wait, why do you want them to do this to the movies?”

Um, why wouldn’t I? Jeremy Jahns reviews movies on YouTube; he gave his thoughts on the recent announcement of there being a Joker stand-alone movie that wouldn’t mix in with the current canon of the DCEU, and his words on it were, “It sounds like a comic book, that’s what they do with comic books.”

Also, I’m paraphrasing.

With this set of ideas implemented on these films, much like their parent comics, will now have a and even greater wealth of possibilities then what they ever had before, and it was hella big before. It will allow the franchise to remain fresh, to bring in new blood when needed. Imagine, alternate one-shot movies in alternate universes just for the heck of it? Seeing the Marvel universe in the year 2099, Spider-Gwen! Literally, anything you can think of!

The sky's the literally the limits...well, the budget's the limit, but you get the idea.