5 X-Men Movie Villains the MCU Can Fix

The X-Men have been one of Marvel’s most storied franchises for over 50 years. They accomplished this by developing their heroes and villains into the best in the Marvel Universe. The X-Men were Marvel’s first major franchise to hit the big screen — Blade may have come first, but no one considered Blade a major Marvel character — and the Fox X-Men movies took advantage of decades of great characters created for the team. However, the Fox X-Men movies didn’t do all of them justice, and this went doubly for many of the villains.

While they did a great job with villains like Magneto and Mystique, many other classic X-Men villains were completely misused. With the X-Men coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s time to change that. Marvel Studios can fix these five X-Men villains, making them as great as they are in the comics.

Toad

Toad appeared in X-Men, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Deadpool & Wolverine. Toad was played by three different actors — Ray Park in X-Men, Evan Jonigkeit in Days of Future Past, and Daniel Medina Ramos in Deadpool & Wolverine. Toad was always shown as a lackey, first of Magneto and then later of Cassandra Nova, which is pretty true to his comic past. Toad is often played for comic relief in the comics, but in the early ’90s, he took over the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and battled X-Force.

Toad’s story in the comics is quite interesting. His mutant powers made him ugly and Magneto physically and emotionally abused him in order to control him. As the years went on, this treatment angered Toad and he turned that anger on the X-Men and their allies. In the alternate future from the comic Earth X, Toad became a mutant king, beating down Magneto and making his former abuser into his lackey. Toad in the MCU can be played like he was in the comics – a beaten-down lackey who becomes more and more evil, eventually starting his own war with the heroes. The character has all the potential in the world, and the MCU can unlock it.

Lady Deathstrike

Lady Deathstrike was in two X-Men movies — X2: X-Men United and Deadpool & Wolverine. Played by Kelly Hu and Jade Lye respectively, Lady Deathstrike was a lackey of Colonel Stryker in X2 and joined Cassandra Nova’s forces in Limbo in Deadpool & Wolverine. While the movies did a great job of showing how dangerous she was, they completely failed at showing her as a character. Lady Deathstrike in the comics is much more than the characters seen in the movies.

Yuriko Oyama’s father created the adamantium bonding process and his notes were stolen by Weapon X and used to enhance Wolverine. Yuriko decided to go after the man she looked at as stealing her father’s legacy and had her body cybernetically enhanced so that she could stand up against Wolverine. Lady Deathstrike has tested Wolverine like few other villains, sometimes fighting alongside the cyborg Reavers and other times going after him on her own. Her relationship with Wolverine has also evolved over the years, showing just how much potential the character has. Wolverine has some amazing villains and Lady Deathstrike is among the best. Lady Deathstrike is pretty simple to fix, honestly; all Marvel Studios needs to do is develop her as an actual character, showing that she’s more than a set of claws for slashing Wolverine.

Emma Frost

Emma Frost appeared in X-Men: First Class and was played by January Jones. In the movie, she was a member of the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle, working with Sebastian Shaw. Shaw, played by Kevin Bacon, was magnificent in the movie, but unfortunately Jones’s Frost barely got any time to shine. Calling her a character is a little too much; she was basically just a set of powers in the movie, using her telepathy and ability to transform into a diamond to fight against the nascent X-Men. This portrayal of the character didn’t do justice to Emma Frost, who has become one of the most important X-Men.

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Emma Frost is a complex character in the comics. She came from wealth but gave all of that up to make her own way in the world. She used her telepathy to amass a fortune, joining the Hellfire Club as their White Queen. Emma loved her power and wealth, but she also loved teaching and has trained many young mutants over the years. She eventually joined the X-Men and became part of the bedrock of the team. Emma Frost has a great character arc, and all the MCU has to do is follow the comics to make her great.

Dark Phoenix

The Dark Phoenix Saga is the white whale of the Fox X-Men movies. They tried to do it twice — once in X-Men: The Last Stand, where the character was played by original Jean Grey actress Famke Jansson, and again in Dark Phoenix, where she was played by Sophie Turner. Neither of these portrayals of the character worked at all. The problem was that the movies couldn’t actually sell the change from Jean Grey to Dark Phoenix. The reason why this worked so well in the comics was because writer Chris Claremont and co-plotters/artists Dave Cockrum and John Byrne took years to build the story of Jean’s fall, while the movies tried to do it all in one movie each time.

Dark Phoenix needs time to develop and Marvel Studios has shown that they’re willing to take that time to make their movies work. Look at the first three Phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; they were all about building up the characters and the plots, which culminated beautifully in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. In order to do Dark Phoenix right, all the MCU has to do is follow the blueprint it set out for superhero films — build up to the fall of Jean Grey and her transformation into one of the most dangerous beings in the history of the Marvel Universe.

Apocalypse

Apocalypse appeared in the movie X-Men: Apocalypse after being set up in the end credits scene of X-Men: Days of Future Past. The villain was played by Oscar Isaac and was a huge disappointment to fans of Apocalypse from the comics. While X-Men: Apocalypse isn’t a terrible movie, it’s not exactly good, and Apocalypse is one of the biggest problems with the movie. In the comics, Apocalypse is an ancient mutant powerhouse, a dark lord who has changed the course of human history. The movies were never able to capture the true heart of the character.

Again, this is a job for the Marvel Studios approach. Apocalypse in the comics was built into a powerful villain and became a major player in mutant affairs. In order to do Apocalypse right, Marvel Studios has to do the same. They can follow the approach they used with Thanos — introducing him in small roles in order to build him up before pulling the trigger on him as the main villain of several films. Apocalypse is one of the X-Men’s best villains, and Marvel Studios can easily make him into a superstar by following the example of Thanos.