10 Comic Stories Fox Could Adapt
Outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are a group of characters known as the ones under 20th Century Fox. Things like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are Fox properties that continue to thrive good or bad because they keep sending out movies. If this is an ongoing process, here is a list of stories that Fox could adapt with their rights.
All New X-Men
Thanks to Days of Future Past, the X-Men films (aside from the infamous X-Men The Last Stand) are now connected with characters and actors crossing over with each other, and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine refusing to die in any movie. An adaptation of the All New X-Men comic gives another chance at working with this combined universe as older and newer mutants are put against each other thanks to the use of time travel. If the studio saw fit to use the time travel plot point in Days of Future Past, it might as well go all the way with the conflict that should come up with changing reality that would also involve the upcoming Deadpool and Gambit movies. Of course, there would be the question of having it all make sense, but it’s still alternate universes. No one’s planning that to make sense anyway.
Secret Invasion
A contrast to the massively destructive alien invasion of The Avengers, “Secret Invasion” features the shape-shifting Skrulls replacing notable heroes and wreaking havoc. Of course, Fox would never own the right number of characters to do it, but those are petty details. Marvel’s doing Civil War with half the characters. The X-Men should do just fine. Besides, the X-Men could use a little more world threatening storylines, and the Skrulls still need an edge on their mortal enemies the Kree who’ve been featured prominently in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Onslaught
The X-Men films love the Professor X and Magneto relationship on a marginally similar level as Wolverine. The use of Onslaught, a character that combines the powers and consciousness of both men, would work on a newer, weirder level. If the studio’s willing to go for the Dark Phoenix storyline in The Last Stand (last time this film gets mentioned I swear), the whole subconscious-being-evil thing isn’t that much of a stretch. Either way, Onslaught’s hardly been used beyond comics, so it would at least be a change of pace.
Cable and X-Force
Cable’s also less used as an X-Men character, mostly because being the son of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey is surprisingly harder to depict than a time-travelling consciousness. Either way, Cable is a pretty badass character along with the X-Force that deserves a good feature or two from Fox. Plus, a reboot of the X-Force could be a good way to add new characters that could still inconceivably be connected to the older series. They would find a way, I’m sure.
X-Men Forever
This should be used based on title alone considering Fox will probably never let X-Men go now. One form of the comic series was also basically the use of time travel to close plot-holes, much like Days of Future Past. If anything, it could at least work with possibility of having a dangling ending with several questions left unanswered. Go ahead, call the next X-Men film X-Men Forever.
Dark X-Men
The mutants vs. mutants fight is not a new concept for the movies since it’s also something that undoubtedly works regardless of the less adequate plots. The introduction of the Dark X-Men, though unfortunately without the Sony-owned Norman Osborn, is an easy way to have conflict even though it probably couldn’t adapt the Utopia storyline with the whole Dark Avengers connection. Still, it’s a whole government-operated mutant team against the X-Men which could be cool without the post-apocalyptic scenario of the Sentinels.
Messiah Complex
This is, ironically, a post-apocalyptic scenario for the mutants which should be a problem but it just isn’t. Following the mutant destruction from “House of M,” two separate mutant groups search for a rare baby born with the X-gene leading to the inevitable fighting and time-disruption that comes from X-Men. It’s another classic us vs. them that could as a bonus introduce the world to Cable should Fox go for it all the way. No one’s stopping them.
X-Men Legacy
Eventually the series has to be rebooted no matter how many times they cheat their way around the timeline. Granted X-Men Legacy is still connected to X-Men continuity, but a good portion of the issues attempt to go beyond Professor X, Magneto, and Wolverine as main characters. At this point, Fox could just go for any story beyond these three characters for something different. I’m serious. That should be its own place on this list.
Future Foundation
This is mostly because there really should be things besides X-Men on this list. Being founded under the Fantastic Four, the Future Foundation is probably under Fox’s jurisdiction. However, the group, besides using the original team, tends to cross mutants and other Marvel-related characters such as Spider-Man. At this point, it would be a good time to prove exactly who the studio can lay claims to at the moment. Or, more likely, play a game of how far they can go like Marvel’s uses of Quicksilver and Spider-Man as of recently. Again, no real storyline, just an idea.
Fantastic Four vs. The X-Men
Okay, this one is cheating since it involves the X-Men, but Fox seems pretty serious with its latest adaptation of the Fantastic Four. There are apparently some discussions on the table for a movie, and it would always be a missed opportunity to not see two teams battle out their problems in live-action. The future plans for the Fantastic Four are still up in the air for now until the movie is successful, so it’s not impossible to use the X-Men who have already been successful on screen. It would be crowded as hell, sure, but it could happen.
Fox’s Marvel movies are pretty hit-and-miss at this point, but they keep coming and once in a while do something spectacular. Whether or not the Fox movies survive after X-Men: Age of Apocalypse doesn’t mean they won’t stop trying. The only real request this article makes is to try something without the word Wolverine in the title. There's always Deadpool or Gambit, I guess, but I shouldn't have to mention the dangers of relying on one character to save the rights, especially when there's still so much to do anywhere else.
