Comic book fans have been treated with a Mutant franchise for nearly 22 years in live-action form, whether you like the films or not, this run of form that they’ve had has been incredible, and fans have got to witness some great Mutants come to life in live-action form over the course 13 movies.
While some characters have been done incredibly well like Professor X, Magneto, Deadpool, and a few others, we’ve also had not-so-great characters like Jubilee, Archangel, Juggernaut (although not a Mutant), and a few others as well.
It’s only in the last couple of years we’ve seen Disney buy the rights to these characters so it won’t be long until they have graced us with their presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But which characters should be done correctly and why? Well in this list of my top 5 Mutants I’ll explain why.
5. Angel (Archangel)
Angel is a fantastic character in the comics, who has graced our screens twice in live-action form. The first time was in The Last Stand where we got to see him essentially just fly around with his wings, the next was in X-Men Apocalypse where he had a much bigger and better role. However, I feel like within the MCU he needs to have a more focused arc, where it’s just him and not him being someone’s henchman.
4. Jubilee
Jubilee is a character that we have seen many times in live-action, however, those appearances never add up correctly, especially in the timeline. First, we saw her in the first three X-Men movies, X-Men, X2, and X-Men: The Last Stand. Next, we got to see the concept art of her character which would have been in Days of Future Past however this didn’t play out. Lana Condor was cast in Apocalypse which was set in the ’80s, even though the X-Men timeline was broken, we saw the same character in different periods. This is the major reason why she needs to be done correctly in the MCU and portrayed by a young actor who can give this character the love, care, and appearances she deserves.
3. Gambit
Gambit, Gambit, Gambit. The one character that has been announced for solo movies and forgotten about. I truly hope that this is one of the major characters that can get a decent run inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gambit has the swagger, the funny qualities, and amazing powers to have such a great run in the MCU. I can fully see Gambit holding down a movie or even a Disney+ series on his own, not to mention that this could be such a great partnership for Rogue.
2. Iceman
Now, you could say “Well, ICeman had a decent run in live-action” and don’t get me wrong, I loved Iceman in the X-Men movies. Shawn Ashmore is the sole reason why I absolutely love the character of Iceman, in movies and comics alike. I just believe we didn’t truly get to see the immense power that Iceman has. We barely scratched the surface with this character’s abilities, especially for being an “Omega-Level Mutant”. If you don’t know what an Omega Level Mutant is are mutants whose dominant power is deemed to register, or reach, an undefinable upper limit of that power’s specific classification. Iceman is one of these characters yet we haven’t even touched it in live-action. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN in the MCU.
1. Cyclops
Another character that you could say had a decent run in movies. We got to see three versions of this character, an older Cyclops who was a teacher at the school and a younger version who was portrayed by Tye Sheridan, and another young version in the Wolverine origins movie. For me, growing up watching cartoons and reading comics, and playing video games, I’ve always thought of Cyclops as a leader, protector, and father figure to younger Mutants. In the movies, he’s always sort have been pushed to the side and it makes me truly made to see this. I want to see Cyclops be a leader, a righthand man to Charles in the MCU. Give us the powerful version of the character. Go all out for this character.
These 5 characters are just a handful of characters that deserve to be standout characters, to gain more focused stories, for 22 years the focus has been on Magneto, Charles, Jean Grey, Wolverine, and in some ways even Mystique. It’s time to let background Mutants become the focus, to become what they truly are, iconic leaders, powerful Mutants.
I truly hope Kevin Feige does right by these characters and more going forward into the future of the X-Men characters, stories, and more.
