No Point of Origin: X-Men Movies We Don’t Need

X-Men Origins: Wolverine kicked open the door to the summer movie season, raking in huge dollar [...]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

kicked open the door to the summer movie season, raking in huge dollar amounts, but not necessarily rave critical reviews. With word of a Deadpool film in the supposed works, and an origin film of Magneto already in development, can it be safe that say that a wave of these origin films and spinoffs will follow?

Safe bets such as Cyclops, Storm and Professor Xavier would probably be on the table at some point in the dialogue, but who else should be considered? More importantly, would there be a glut of characters who don't need to have films suddenly finding the green light?

If that's the case, then let the voices of protest rise up as one if any of the characters mentioned below come up for discussion as possible subjects for future origin films, be they villain or hero.

Dazzler

- Alison Blaire was conceived in 1980, just as disco music was on the decline, which was a shame considering that her power allows her to create energy beams out of sound waves. Who wouldn't be beaten into submission by "Ring my Bell"? Despite some pluses for making a film out of her origin (think of the soundtrack! the costuming!) a film version of her life and times might be as problematic as her own mid-1980's solo series. There could be several intersections of her life with those of other X-Men from that era, but the film may end up feeling more like a version of Fame rather than a true X-Men origin movie.

Sabretooth

- This option is eliminated by default. While a movie featuring the murderous arch-nemesis of Wolverine would have been an interesting idea before, the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine renders this film a moot point. How do you begin to separate this guy from another origin film, especially when he spent so much time and effort appearing in a large portion of the Wolverine movie? Perhaps a film about what happened between the end of the Wolverine film and the start of X-Men could be made, but would there be too much comparison between this and the Hugh Jackman feature?

Angel

- Angel, later Archangel and then Angel again, is one of the most complex characters in the X-Men universe, but that complexity would perhaps be the undoing of a film in which he was the star. Is he possibly the only original X-Man who could not carry a film on his own? Perhaps. While a film about his change from Angel to Archangel could be an interesting angle for a story, his very brief appearance in X-Men: The Last Stand doesn't really stir viewers into wanting to see him fly solo.

Psylocke

- Introducing some sophisticated martial arts skills into an X-Men movie would be a pretty cool addition, and certainly no other X-Man has that quite like Betsy Braddock, the telepath with the 'psychic knife'. As Psylocke, she was a staple of 1990's era X-Men comics, but a twisted character in development. First a sister of Captain Britain, then an Asian assassin, then dead, now alive again, Psyclocke has been it all. A big question though, as might have been the case with Wolverine, is perhaps there too much to make an effective movie? Maybe.

Banshee

- Perhaps on the other side of the coin from Angel, this X-Man could perhaps be the only member of the "new" team of X-Men introduced in Giant Size X-Men #1 that may not be able to carry an origin movie on his own. Even though he had premiered in earlier X-Men issues, his debut as a full-fledged team member here pales when compared to the stories and rich histories of characters such as Nightcrawler, Storm and Colossus. Plus how much screaming could a person tolerate inside a state of the art theater with quality sound? His relationship with Moira MacTaggert would be an interesting way of connecting him to Xavier, but overall there's not enough here to shout about.

Perhaps one day these characters will flesh out enough for the silver screen, even those who are possibly, for now, deceased in the comics realm. For now though, let them be content with their storied places in X-Men history, on the page anyway.

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