7 X-Men Villains Too Controversial for the MCU

The X-Men are about to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has the team’s fans rather excited (well, unless we’re talking about all of the movie synergy that will be forced on the comics; no one wants that at all). There have been numerous rumors and everyone has an opinion on what the movies should look like, which heroes are going to join the group on the big screen, and what villains they are going to fight. The X-Men have the best villains of any comic team and fans have bad guys that they want in the movies more than others. Many of their foes would be perfect for a film, but others wouldn’t fit as well.

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There are numerous reasons for this, but one is controversy. Some X-villains would be much too controversial to include in a movie, causing firestorms that would anger a lot of potential viewers or longtime fans. These seven X-Men villains would too controversial for the MCU and should be left out of the team’s films.

7) Ahab

“Days of Future Past” changed comics forever and this meant that Marvel was definitely going to return to it. This led to the debut of Ahab. The cybernetic villain was a human who enslaved mutants and used them to hunt down other mutants, referring to them as Hounds. The X-Men’s central metaphor is all about racism, so Ahab is a racist slaver and that’s a little too far for the MCU, with a little bit of BDSM thrown in because it was ’80s X-Men. Disney already sanitizes Marvel for the big screen and having a villain whose entire job is being a slave owning racist is a little much even for a property that is all about fighting racism.

6) The Genegineer

The Genegineer is one of those character who was once very important to the X-mythos, but most fans wouldn’t even remember today. He was the head geneticist of the nation of Genosha, creating the mutates that the racist country would enslave. He was constantly trying to find new mutants to experiment, doing terrible things to them in order to create more powerful mutates. This is a villain who created slaves, which puts him on another level of evil from other villains. Fans are already dreading how much the MCU is going to sanitize the X-Men and the Genegineer is exactly the kind of character that Marvel Studios won’t use.

5) The Purifiers

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills is one of the greatest X-Men stories ever and it introduced readers to the Purifiers. The group was founded by Reverend Stryker, a man who used religion as a basis for his own bigotry, and is mostly known for killing mutant children. Since then, the Purifiers have been cannon fodder for various anti-mutants, attacking the X-Men and trying to destroy them. The Purifiers exist in order to show the hypocrisy of religion, namely Christianity, and there’s no way that Disney is going to let them show up on the big screen without heavily modifying them; Fox did the same thing when they used Stryker in the ’00s, making him and the Purifiers into completely different characters.

4) Holocaust

Holocaust standing straight and tall — Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

“Age of Apocalypse” has become the stuff of legend, a story that fans have loved for over 30 years. It introduced several new villains, including Holocaust. As the son of Apocalypse, he was one of the most brutal soldiers of the mutant empire and was responsible for countless deaths. His problem is his name. While the name definitely fits him, the Holocaust is always a hot button issue and Disney is definitely not going to allow Marvel Studios to use it as the name of a supervillain. The character has had this problem in the past as well (his first action figure was named Nemesis and not Holocaust), so it wouldn’t actually be that big of a surprise.

3) John Sublime

John Sublime with a pensive look on his face — Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

New X-Men is massively influential, introducing several amazing villains, including John Sublime. Sublime is an evolved bacteriological lifeform and has existed for billions of years trying to destroy humanity and mutantkind. In the modern day, he created the U-Men, a group of villains who vivisected mutants, grafting their body parts onto others and taking their powers. There’s a lot to unpack there and his ideology is something that Disney wouldn’t want Marvel Studios touching with a hundred-foot pole.

2) Empath

Empath was introduced in the ’80s as a member of the Hellions, the Hellfire Club’s version of the New Mutants. His powers give him control over emotions, allowing him to make anyone feel anything he wants. His powers are pretty standard for the X-Men, where mental powers are all the rage, but it’s the way that he uses them. Manuel de la Rocha is known for forcing people to do things that they don’t want. His entire power set revolves around ignoring consent and that’s not really something that the MCU wants to put forward; there’s a reason the Purple Man hasn’t come back yet (and the fact that he was created when Disney wasn’t in control of the TV shows).

1) Greycrow

Greycrow firing his guns — Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Greycrow first appeared as one of the Marauders, a group of mutant killers used by Mister Sinister. He helped lead the group into the Morlock Tunnels during “Mutant Massacre” and has battled the X-Men and their allies many times. Greycrow may seem like a garden variety villain, but anyone who knows his history knows why he isn’t going to make an MCU appearance any time soon. He debuted with the name “Scalphunter” and that’s not really a name that a Native American character should have associated with them. It’s easier to just not include Greycrow in the movies.

What X-Men villains do you think are too controversial for the MCU? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!