The MCU Just Set Up The X-Men’s Biggest Villains

Warning! SPOILERS for Ms. Marvel episode 2.

The first hint at the introduction of the X-Men's biggest villains in the MCU has been hidden in Ms. Marvel. Despite their popularity, Marvel mutants have never been alluded to within the MCU, which suggests the X-gene has yet to be awakened. Fortunately, with Disney's acquisition of Fox, MCU mutants are expected to arrive in the future. But while the MCU awaits the highly anticipated introduction of the X-Men, some non-mutant X-Men-related characters already appear to be taking shape.

The X-Men have some of the most famous villains in all of Marvel comics, including foes such as Magneto, Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix. However, not every X-Men villain happens to be a mutant. The Sentinels are robots created by the human anthropologist Bolivar Trask with the goal to exterminate mutantkind, fueled by a paranoid fear of the X-Men's mutant gene, which Trask and his supporters believe will lead to humanity's extinction. The Sentinels famously decimate the mutant population in the iconic storyline X-Men: Days of Future Past and its 2014 movie adaptation, where they successfully exterminate all mutants in a post-apocalyptic timeline. No mutant character has been introduced canonically in the MCU itself as of yet, but the Sentinels could join the MCU sooner than expected, which would expand the franchise in some unexpected but interesting ways.

Although the perceived threat of mutants won't be a thing in the MCU for a long time, the basis for the Sentinel program already exists. Ms. Marvel reveals that Damage Control took advantage of the Stark drones they confiscated from Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home and programmed them to hunt down superhumans. Kamala Khan already had an encounter with the drones at the end of Ms. Marvel episode 2, where she barely managed to escape. Clearly, the fragile drones have a long way to go before they match the monumental size and strength of the Sentinels, but they already set the precedent for the persecution of superhumans.

Kamala Khan and X-Men Sentinels in Ms Marvel

It's only a matter of time until Damage Control, or any other entity inspired by them, perfects a weapon that only targets superpowered individuals. In the MCU, Iron Man preceded Damage Control's plan with Ultron and the Iron Legion, two systems that intended to automate the defense against large-scale threats. Despite their catastrophic results, Damage Control — or the MCU's Bolivar Trask — could see the potential in developing anthropomorphic robots that serves the same purpose as the Stark Drones, only more powerful.

Ms. Marvel reveals that the Earth is going through a golden age of superheroes, who are treated like celebrities by regular humans. Soon, however, entities like Damage Control could flip their public image with an argument against their dangerous abilities and solid proof that they bring disaster everywhere they go. Then, the rising number of superhumans and the birth of the MCU's first mutants could be the last straw that awakens hostility toward those who possess special abilities. Damage Control's Stark Drones aren't a worldwide threat in Ms. Marvel, but they could transform into a huge problem for mutants by the time they join the MCU.

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