Marvel pulled it’s most ambitious reinvention of the X-men yet last fall, with Jonathan Hickman’s “House of X” event series. House of X has changed everything we know about X-Men mythos – past, present, and even future. Those changes weren’t just contained to the X-Men franchise – the ramifications of House of X are still reverberating through the larger Marvel Universe in significant ways.
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As Marvel fans know, the X-Men are also poised for major re-invention on the movie screen, as well. Thanks to the Disney-Fox merger, the X-Men movies will be rebooted within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and there some pretty good ideas that House of X introduced, which the MCU should not overlook:
Decimated Species
One of the biggest problems the MCU X-Men are already facing is explaining to the fandom how mutants have existed but never been seen in the MCU. House of X has provided an easy answer to that question: mutants are a decimated species that didn’t want to be decimated any more. Without getting too deep into Hickman’s sci-fi storyline (more on that later), House of X gave mutantkind the foresight to see how their existence plays out in many different timelines, and allowed them to create a world where they not only survive, but thrive. Led by significantly different versions of Professor X and Magneto, working together, mutantkind has started gaining an upper-hand.
Given how the MCU is now playing with its own alternate timelines and versions of history, revealing that the X-Men are living in hiding in this version of the MCU (due to visions of other timelines that have ended badly for them), wouldn’t be far-fetched. Nor would their sudden emergence into the world, if events like The Snap and/or whatever happens in WandaVision / Doctor Strange 2 threatened their kind all over again.
Mutant Homeland
As for where the MCU X-Men have been living and thriving in hiding: House of X provided that too: Krakoa. One of the X-Men’s oldest enemies (a living island that feeds on mutants) has now become their official homeland, and it truly is a world unto itself. Krakoa can change its terrain, its location, and through its vegetation mutants can do everything from create portals to healing diseases no human medicine can. All of that makes it easier to believe that an entire race of mutant has been living in the MCU all this time, left to their own devices.
Mutant Culture
House of X also created an entire new mutant culture for the X-Men’s world, complete with language, laws, religious / mystical rituals, technology, and so many other things that are still being fleshed-out and explored in the books. The timing couldn’t be better, because the MCU X-Men need to be distinguished as “others” by something more than just being born with superpowers. To a mainstream audience, that’s just not enough.
However, if MCU mutants are truly a unique race of beings in every aspect – from how they achieve superpowers, to what kind of world they built for themselves – it would make a lot more sense why they don’t fit in. And why they eventually come to blows with the likes of The Avengers.
ResurreXtion
One of the biggest things House of X did was given the X-Men’s new mutant culture one major collective “superpower” they never had before: unlimited means of resurrection. Through a union of five special mutant powers, the X-Men can clone any mutant that falls, and rebuild his/her mutant powers and consciousness in that new body. It would be a big twist for the heroes of the MCU to find out that there’s an unkillable species of super-beings out there – and a very new twist on the X-Men’s usual story of being hunted and killed.
The Human Threat
When the X-Men established their own homeland and revealed it to the world, it (not surprisingly) inspired a whole new slew of threats from a fearful human population. THose threats include more sadistic and cunning human supremacy groups in the present – and even the combined threat of human aggression and machine A.I. evolution hanging over the future. Given how jumpy the world of the MCU has been regarding superheroes (see: The Sokovia Accords), just imagine how how they will react to an entire mutant world springing up in their midst.
Darkest Timelines
House of X didn’t just set up a new present for the X-Men – it established an entire new set of histories and futures for them, as well. Those future were not particularly kind ones. With dark visions of man and machine melding together in a new supremacy – or a “Post-Human” race threatening things from an even more distant future, the X-Men can be a quick conduit to a major MCU Crossover event that touches many other franchises.
Moira X
House of X re-invented Charles Xavier’s close confidant Moira MacTaggert, and made her the new center of not only the X-Men series, but arguably the entire Marvel Universe. Moira has been rebooted as a powerful mutant with a unique power: when she dies, Moira gets to relive her lifetime all over again – while retaining full knowledge of the prior lives she’s lived. That effectively makes Moira a one-woman reboot machine, and master of alternate timelines, all in one. That’s the kind of game-changing figure the MCU could X-Men need to have in their mythos, as it could connect mutants to some of the larger sci-fi storylines that have been building after Avengers: Endgame.
Here’s Marvel updated MCU Movie release dates:
- Black Widow – November 6th
- The Eternals – February 12, 2021
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – May 7, 2021
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – November 5, 2021
- Thor: Love And Thunder – February 18, 2022
- Black Panther 2 – May 6, 2022
- Captain Marvel 2 – July 8, 2022
