This Native American Mutant Helped Build the X-Men (and the MCU Could Be the Place That Finally Gets Him Right)

The X-Men are about to explode all over the Marvel Cinematic Universe, bringing an entire superhero universe with them. One of things I think a lot of fans who don’t know the comics understand is just how big the X-Men side of Marvel can be. In the ’80s, the House of Ideas went all-in on the mutant train, introducing new heroes, villains, supporting characters, teams, secret organizations, and everything that the Marvel Universe already had. It became its own universe of characters. You could just read Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, X-Factor, Excalibur, Wolverine, and the assorted X-miniseries and get your monthly quota of superheroes, never venturing into the greater Marvel Universe. You wouldn’t even want to, most of the time. The ’90s went even heavier in that direction, expanding this quasi-universe even more.

The point is that the MCU is about to inherit hundreds, if not thousands, of characters, many of whom could become big stars. Over the years, many mutants have had their time in the sun, but there’s one that Marvel Studios should pay particular attention to. He first appeared in the ’80s heyday of the X-Men and ended becoming a crucial part of the team in the years ahead – the Cheyenne Omega-level mutant Forge. The Native American Marvel hero has a bigger place in the history of the Marvel Universe than most people realize and it’s long past time for him to have a return, both in the comics and the movies.

Forge Was The Next Big Thing That Never Arrived

Forge first came to prominence during the landmark Chris Claremont run on the X-Men. Claremont was the brains behind the biggest expansion of the X-mythos, along with Louise Simonson (who never gets nearly enough credit, something which I’m guilty of and trying to remedy), taking the X-Men in new directions. This was integral to the success of the book and the writer’s own sanity, when you think about it. Readers got a team that was always changing, getting every kind of superhero story that you could want from the group and Claremont got to write new stuff all the time instead of just the X-Men at the mansion fighting evil mutant terrorists and bigots.

One road that he often took the X-Men, and that Forge was related to, was that of mysticism. Forge’s powers made him the ultimate man of the future, allowing him to create any piece of technology he needed. However, he was also a man in touch with the spirit world, acting as a shaman among the Cheyenne. At his core, Forge is a character that represents the intersection of the spiritual and the technological, bridging these two worlds and fighting in the both of them.

He was a Vietnam vet and used his mutant powers to create a cybernetic leg. He created his own little technological empire, creating cutting edge tech for anyone with the money, all while building himself a state of the art compound where he could do his research and whatever else he wanted in Dallas. He and Storm would start a close relationship and the X-Men would become involved in his battle against Adversary, an ancient magical threat that he and the team ended up vanquishing, leading to their “death” and the Outback Era.

Forge would become a key part of the late ’80s X-Men, working with other mutants to do the work the X-Men did, eventually growing even closer to Storm and starting a relationship with her. As the ’90s dawned, Forge had the look that paid off – cybernetic limbs combined with guns both of the regular and sci-fi variety – but his rather passive powers meant that he never got to have the same kind of cool covers that Cable got. His relationship with Storm ended and he left the team with Mystique, who was losing her mind. He’d end up with X-Factor in its government team days, leading from his Fall’s Edge compound.

Forge’s team included Mystique, Sabretooth, Wild Child, Shard, and Polaris, and it was honestly a really cool time in the group’s history. We got the Underground team and Marvel put hot artist Jeff Matsuda on the book, giving the book a boost (it worked on me; I started buying it again). Forge formed the calm nucleus of it all, balancing the different agendas and helping lead the team against every threat they faced. This was the last time Forge was anything approaching a major X-character. He barely appeared in the X-Men books in the ’00s and it felt like no one remembered him. He ended up returning as the big bad of Warren Ellis’s first Astonishing X-Men story, which revealed that he had gone crazy searching the multiverse for mutants after M-Day and was fighting a war against other universes with soldiers he created from mutant DNA and technology.

This was the coolest Forge ever, but no one ever picked up on this and he went back to oblivion. The Krakoa Era saw the character brought back in the pages of X-Force, where he acted as tech support for the team. It was fun, but it felt like a step back for a character who had become a mutant team leader in his own right and was a key part of the bestselling era of X-Men comics. He was Storm’s first major love interest and he’d been retconned as one of the people who helped Xavier build all of the technology for the X-Men, but he was never given a chance to shine (no I don’t count his current return in X-Force as shining and you shouldn’t either).

With the X-Men just starting in the MCU, Forge can play a part in the team’s history in the movies right from the beginning. His mutant powers allow him to create anything, so it would be easy to explain the holographic technology of the Danger Room and the various other high tech equipment the group uses as coming from him. Bringing him in early can make him part of the bedrock of the team, finally allowing more casual audiences to know just how important he is overall. It also allows Marvel Studios to show that there’s a hidden mutant history behind it all, which will tantalize MCU fans.

The MCU’s X-Men Need Someone to Help Forge Their Legend

Forge is one of those characters who if you looked at a group shot of old X-Men, you’d think he was a refugee from the ’90s, when Marvel was slapping everyone with a cybernetic limb and an itchy trigger finger on the cover of X-books. However, he’s a character from the team’s golden age in the ’80s, forming a small but important part of mutant history. His time in the sun was short, but it showed that there was a lot that could be done with him. He seemingly had a lot in the tank, but the character has sputtered out in recent years.

Forge was a part of X-Men ’97, so he’s in the public consciousness as an important B-list mutant. Marvel Studios can take advantage of this and include him in the early stages of the new X-Men movies. Forge can be an older mutant, part of the group who has been working in secret with Xavier, with powers that can be used to explain why mutants have never been seen in the MCU before. On top of that, you can bring in the Native American religious beliefs and give the X-Men a big challenge in the Adversary down the road. Forge is perfect for the MCU and Marvel Studios needs to include the Cheyenne legend in their mutant plans.

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