X-Men: Days of Future Past Director Confirms Ink

One of the things that seems to have slipped below the radar during Bryan Singer's Twitter chat on [...]

young-x-men-ink

One of the things that seems to have slipped below the radar during Bryan Singer's Twitter chat on X-Men: Days of Future Past is that he gave the name of a mutant never before known to be featured in the film. Asked which new X-Men will be featured in the film, Singer said "a lot," listing off a number of previously-confirmed new characters...and Ink. Most casual fans might not even be aware of the character, who first appeared in Arrow Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim's run on Young X-Men; he's not quite as out-of-left-field a choice as X-Men: First Class made with Azazel, but certainly there weren't a lot of people expecting new mutants to be confirmed during the Twitter chat, let alone one without a log of brand recognition.

For those uninitiated, Ink doesn't actually have his own powers but is granted powers by tattoos placed on him by a mutant tattoo artist. It's a bit like DC Comics's Tattooed Man, except instead of his tattoos coming to literal life and leaving his body, they are emblematic of the type of powers they grant him. While the character had never been confirmed before, a reader e-mailed in to let us know that you can see a character who appears to be Ink behind Havok in the promotional photo below.

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Here's a rundown of what he's got, courtesy Wikipedia, but of course many of these are tied in with comic book backstory and may not appear onscreen:

  • The tattoo on his right palm in the shape of a biohazard symbol which gives him the power to make someone extremely ill.
  • The Caduceus symbol on his hand allows him to heal others.
  • The tattoo on his left hand gives him super strength. The lines look similar to the banding on Colossus' flesh when he transforms, indicating a toughening of Ink's flesh also.
  • The "explosive" symbol tattooed on his right biceps allows him to blow up objects, and once even helped him punch through a wall.
  • The two lightning bolt tattoos on his head give him the ability to read minds, but can be blocked by psi-shields, taken from a comic book depiction of psychic abilities (actually an early Marvel Comics publication image of Professor X).
  • The tattoos of wings on his back grant him flight.
  • The Phoenix Force symbol over his eye allows him to use a facsimile of the Phoenix's powers.

That last one might turn out to be particularly significant, if kept, considering that Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand killed off Jean Grey and there's no other Phoenix yet in the X-Men film canon. X-Men: Days of Future Past is set to hit theaters on May 23, 2014.

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