By: Amelia Lozano
I have recently rekindled my childhood fondness toward the X-Men which returned after the release of “Deadpool and Wolverine.”
As a longtime lover of all things superheroes and comic book movies, I remember watching most of the Marvel movies in theaters and growing up with a slightly above-average knowledge of the characters.
Thanks to my sudden obsession with the X-Men, I’ve done a bit of a deep dive into the franchise. I rewatched all of the Fox films and – in my craving for more spandex-wearing characters – I started to watch the 1992 animated series, “X-Men.” I noticed plenty of differences, as expected of any comic book adaptation.
The series, for one thing, leans more towards portraying the racism metaphor of the X-Men. Both show and movie portray mutants as an oppressed people, though the allusions to race are more prominent in the similarities between the anti-mutant group Friends of Humanity.
In comparison, the films play into the homophobia metaphor of mutantkind. This is seen most clearly in a scene in “X2” of Bobby Drake (Iceman) coming home to greet his family, in which his mother says the famous line: “Have you tried not being a mutant?”
The show also features more of my personal favorite characters, Rogue and Jubilee. While the characterization of said women is at times questionable – How many times are we going to see Rogue crying over a guy? Why is Jubilee still relegated to the annoying teen girl stereotype? – there is at least some comfort in knowing these beloved women get to shine. There’s also Remy LeBeau (Gambit), the card-dealing Cajun who has an on-and-off romance with Rogue, whom I have come to appreciate more after his brief and questionable portrayals in “Wolverine: Origins” and “Deadpool and Wolverine.”
The film does feature Rogue in the first X-Men movie, but much of her storyline is actually derived from the familial/mentor-mentee relationship between Jubilee and Wolverine in the show and comics. Jubilee is featured as a background character in the original X-Men film trilogy, though she has a slightly larger role in “X-Men: Apocalypse,” where she is played by Lana Condor.
One of the most confusing aspects of the X-Men films is the timeline. Unlike the show, which stays on one (generally) stable track, the conflict of buying character rights and the chaos of movie production makes the X-Men films difficult to watch in order. Scott Summers (Cyclops) is a character who grew up in the foster care system in the 1992 animated series; but in the film franchise, his background isn’t really explored, though we can surmise from scenes in “X-Men: Apocalypse” that he still lives with his biological brother, Alex, and his mother throughout his teenage years.
At the same time, Cyclops also appears as a teenager in “Wolverine: Origins” as a kidnapped mutant, which is years before the events of “Apocalypse” where he is also a teenager, so… There’s a big question mark over his background. Just in general, the movies don’t care much about Scott – he gets sidelined since the very first movie and killed off in the third with little fanfare – which is unfortunate given that he is usually portrayed as the leader of the X-Men.
Since the 1992 show runs on the typical “weekly villain” cycle of an action series, there is little focus on character development in favor of the action. Many of the characters remain stagnant throughout the series, and the complex nature behind mutant rights is left unexplored.
This is particularly relevant with Erik Lehnsherr, better known as Magneto, who is often considered a villain of the X-Men; but the films (mainly “X-Men: First Class”) explore his complex background as a Holocaust survivor and his radical stance on uplifting mutants. The show does acknowledge that Magneto is a Holocaust survivor — though perhaps not with any tact, given that Professor X telepathically beams traumatic memories into Magneto’s mind early in the series out of self defense. Not sure what to make of that. Speaking of Magneto: there is, again, some questionable timeline nonsense going on with him and Charles Xavier (Professor X) in the rebooted films, which show the characters in their youth. Young Professor Xavier is played by James McAvoy while Michael Fassbender plays young Magneto.
In “X-Men: First Class,” the characters are in their mid-20s; then, a decade passes between “First Class” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past”; another decade passes, bringing us into “Apocalypse” and yet another decade goes by into the final Fox film, “Dark Phoenix.” This would leave Charles and Erik at about fifty- to sixty-years-old, but James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were only in their early forties at the time of filming. So basically, these characters need to drop their skincare routine expeditiously because they hardly aged over the course of thirty odd years.
I cannot definitively say whether either of these adaptations are better than the other. They both have their merits – the show has a better rendition of Jean Gray’s “Dark Phoenix” character arc, and the movies have the coolest fight scenes you will experience in your life, mainly thanks to Magneto.
If you want fast paced, silly, comic book-y fun, the 1992 series is for you. If you can spare a couple hours (read: days) to watch through the entire film franchise, you will undoubtedly enjoy the performances. There’s a very good reason why Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine on-screen for over twenty years.
I’ve had more than my fair share of superheroes in my lifetime, but the X-Men remain a staple in my childhood. Excuse me while I look ahead to watching whatever new scraps of them I can get.