With the X-Men soon set to officially join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, many fans are wondering exactly how the franchise will handle their story. Despite being one of the most iconic superhero teams in the history of Marvel Comics, the mutant heroes of the X-Men have, for many years, been conspicuously absent from the MCU. This was because the rights to the characters resided elsewhere, but now that they’ve returned to the all-encompassing Disney fold, the MCU’s X-Men reboot is finally on its way. A handful of characters have already been announced and cast, and speculation about which other Marvel mutants will appear in the team’s official franchise debut continues to run rampant among eager fans.
While the X-Men’s arrival in the MCU is undoubtedly cause for huge excitement, there are a handful of obvious pitfalls associated with their introduction. As well as there being certain X-Men mutants who must feature in the MCU reboot, there are also characters that the franchise should avoid adapting. In each of the following cases, there’s a clear and obvious reason that the character wouldn’t work in the MCU, meaning that we really hope the franchise doesn’t try to introduce them into its ever-expanding roster.
In many ways, Glob Herman is just one in a long line of truly bizarre Marvel mutants from the comics. While he’s far from an integral part of the wider world of Marvel’s mutant characters, he has featured in many X-Men storylines that the MCU might adapt, and that could see the franchise opt to introduce its own live-action version of Glob Herman somewhere down the line. To say that the MCU should avoid doing so is pretty self-explanatory, as there aren’t many important comic book stories that truly warrant the character’s presence. With his bizarre appearance and concept, the risk would be that the MCU would simply include Glob as a comic relief character, and that would serve as the antithesis of his subtly sad nature. The whole point of Glob Herman is that his mutation makes him constantly conspicuous, but the MCU has a habit of treating Marvel’s weirder characters as sideshows rather than complex, interesting beings in their own right. As such, hopefully the MCU leaves Glob Herman alone.
In fairness, the mutant known as Skin, born Angelo Espinosa, is a relatively minor figure in the X-Men’s wider Marvel story. While that might make it seem unlikely that the MCU would opt to include him in the franchise’s Mutant Saga, it’s actually perhaps more likely than it may seem. After all, the MCU has a habit of bringing lesser-known characters to the fore, as it did with the likes of Iron Man and Thor, who were both relatively fringe figures until the franchise put them front and center of its story. Skin has been featured in multiple prominent X-Men comics storylines, but he’s another character that the MCU should avoid. His mutation is essentially that he has six feet of extra, malleable skin that he can manipulate at will. It’s effectively a lesser form of shapeshifting, and it can often look decidedly grotesque. Again, the MCU’s habit of treating such characters as comedic props rather than fully fleshed-out — no pun intended — figures makes Skin another mutant that we’re hoping the MCU doesn’t introduce.
Toad is a complex case, because, in many ways, he seems a natural inclusion. In many X-Men adaptations, he has been a prominent member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, and he’s a loyal follower of Magneto. This, combined with his memorable gimmick, has seen him become better-known than many other X-Men characters, particularly after his inclusion in Fox’s X-Men franchise. While some consider him an X-Men movie villain the MCU could fix, his disastrous previous big-screen outings should be enough to rule him out of a prominent MCU role. His toad-like attributes and powers make him another character that seems ripe for gross-out humor and comic relief, and that’s something that the MCU’s X-Men will need to carefully administer. After all, displaying mutants as freaks to be disgusted by or laughed at only reinforces the prejudice they face within the context of their stories. Above all else, Toad is also a character that has already proven difficult to adequately adapt into live-action.
Mojo is one of the most powerful non-mutant X-Men villains, and that might make it tempting for Marvel to include him in the MCU. Always pitting the X-Men against other mutant threats can grow tiresome, so the need for non-mutant villains is obvious, but Mojo is a character that the MCU needs to give a wide berth to. Adapting Mojo into the franchise would require giving context to his backstory, which involves being the ruler of his own dimension where all beings are addicted to his gladiator-style TV shows. An incredibly bizarre being designed to be purely satirical, introducing Mojo would require bringing the X-Men out of the main MCU continuity and into an alternate reality. Doing so would be particularly jarring after the conclusion of the Multiverse Saga, so Mojo is another character that the franchise will hopefully avoid adapting into live-action, because he’s simply too weird and difficult to explain within the wider context of the MCU.
The MCU will need many X-Men characters to flesh out its Mutant Saga, but there are some that are surplus to requirements. Random is a character who has featured in several stories over his history in Marvel Comics, but who would be pointless to include in the MCU. His ability stems from his protoplasmic physiology, which allows him to generate different weaponry from his body. This makes him versatile, but his shifting allegiances and designs in the comics ultimately make him pretty forgettable. While he has been both a hero and villain in connection with X-Factor, the MCU simply doesn’t need a character like Random. In terms of concept, he risks becoming an incredibly basic and uninteresting figure, and that’s something that the MCU needs to keep out of its Mutant Saga. Though it’s easy to see how he could slot into various X-Men stories in the MCU, he’s a character who doesn’t need to be adapted into the franchise at all.
