5 X-Men Stories We Want To See In The MCU (And 5 We Don't)

With the deal between Disney and Fox finally starting to go through, we’re closer than ever to seeing the X-Men join the Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Whether the stories will be rebooted or all our favorite characters will be recast or they’ll branch off on their own, separate from the Avengers/Guardians storylines, all remains to be seen. But one thing is pretty clear: within the next couple of years, Marvel will be adapting their own X-Men stories for the big screen. So, here are 5 X-Men Stories We Want To See In The MCU (And 5 We Don’t).

Want to see: Avengers vs. X-Men

We’ve seen Batman v Superman, whose title was shortened by fans to BvS, so why not adapt the “Avengers vs. X-Men” comic book storyline, which is often referred to as AvX? What better way to welcome the X-Men to the Avengers-verse than by adapting the storyline in which the two teams face off?

The story is wider and deeper than even Infinity War, so it would be a great next step for the MCU. There are also plenty of great one-on-one battles between our favorite superheroes. It could be a way to redo Captain America: Civil War with the epic scope, grand scale, and huge cast of characters it deserves.

Don’t want to see: The Dark Phoenix Saga

Enough with trying to adapt Chris Claremont’s “The Dark Phoenix Saga” already! It’s one of the greatest X-Men stories ever told, but we saw a butchered adaptation of it in X-Men: The Last Stand and we’ve got another one that doesn’t look promising coming up this summer.

After those two travesties, Marvel should just forget “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and move on to other stories. It’s like how after Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield both had stabs at a Spider-Man origin story, there was no need for the MCU’s Tom Holland to bother with it. The X-Men producers should be taking notes.

Want to see: Proteus

The X-Men movies don’t necessarily have a “villain problem,” but outside of Magneto, they haven’t managed to bring any truly memorable villains to the screen. That could all change with an adaptation of “Proteus,” the story of Moira MacTaggert’s dangerously powerful mutant son who eventually escapes the island he’s held on to wreak havoc against the world.

What would make it work for the movies is the chance it gives the X-Men to really team up and work together to bring down a common enemy. This could even be Marvel’s first X-Men movie, because it’s not an origin story, but it is a good relationship-establishing story.

Don’t want to see: Onslaught Saga

The “Onslaught Saga” storyline was a huge one in the comics, but it shouldn’t necessarily be brought to the screen. It started off involving the X-Men and then the devastating effects of the Onslaught itself involved everyone in the wider Marvel universe in the story.

There’s time travel and ambiguous character deaths and pocket dimensions that tie everything together. However, it led the Marvel universe into a dead end, followed by a years-long creative lull. The fear with a movie adaptation would be that it could be so big and so devastating that it leaves the franchise with nowhere to go.

Want to see: Gifted

Actually getting Joss Whedon in to write and direct an adaptation of his “Gifted” comic book storyline would be the icing on the cake, but the run itself stands on its own as a classic X-Men run, rather than relying on the crutch of being written by Joss Whedon.

Whedon’s signature sharp dialogue and seamless plotting are on display in the comic, which brought back a bunch of fan-favorite characters, including Colossus, and told a heavy story about a mutant cure. With so-called “gay conversion therapy” getting more attention in the media, this could be a poignant story to adapt.

Don’t want to see: House of M

Brian Bendis and Olivier Coipel’s storyline “House of M” is a controversial X-Men story for its flawed premise. In it, Scarlet Witch starts wiping out mutants to rid the world of them. The issue with that is that there are a ton of ways to remove mutant powers without going all genocidal, like those collars we saw in Deadpool 2.

Sure, the focus on Scarlet Witch would be a great way to ingratiate the X-Men into the world of the MCU. It uses a key player from the Avengers movies without having to bring in one of the big dogs like Captain America or Iron Man or Thor. But the problem is the story itself. It wouldn’t make a great movie, and it doesn’t even really make a great comic book.

Want to see: Marvel Team-Up #100

At some point in the comics, Storm and Black Panther got married. They fell in love and Storm became the Queen of Wakanda. The pair later divorced, but they had a great run. They even fought off villains together. Once, Black Panther was killing Klaw while Storm fended off the Deathlok army with a hurricane, and it was an incredible show of the strength of their partnership.

Point is, they’re a real (super)power couple. Joe Quesada, who was Marvel’s editor-in-chief when the union was first introduced, praised the pairing as the Marvel equivalent of “Lady Diana and Prince Charles.”

Don’t want to see: Apocalypse: The Twelve

Apocalypse is one of the X-Men’s greatest foes and, despite the lackluster attempt to bring him to the screen in 2016 with the limp X-Men: Apocalypse, there is still room for an effective big-screen translation of the character. However, “Apocalypse: The Twelve” is not it.

For starters, the way he’s killed at the end is completely underwhelming. He is combined biologically with Cyclops and then Cyclops kills the supposedly immortal spirit of Apocalypse from the inside. Also, the story makes Wolverine a villain as he is taken and transformed into the horseman Death by Apocalypse. It sounds interesting on paper, but we want Wolverine, not Death.

Want to see: X-cutioner’s Song

The X-Men story “X-cutioner’s Song” is one of the most beloved in the series’ history. It starts with Professor X being infected with a dangerous virus by Cable as part of a huge conspiracy revolving around Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Mister Sinister.

This will probably involve recasting a lot of roles, including that of Professor X, but the MCU’s casting team is pretty good. We all accepted Tom Holland as the third Spider-Man in a decade, Andy Dwyer as an action hero etc. – they’ll figure out the right actors to cast. Cable’s involvement would cross over the Deadpool movies into the MCU, too.

Don’t want to see: X-Men: The End

Some fans predicted that the next Avengers movie’s subtitle would be “The End” before it was revealed to be Endgame. But that wouldn’t have been a fitting title. It’s called Endgame, because we see the “endgame” of the Avengers’ whole mission, but it’s not “the end” of the story. “X-Men: The End” was written as a finale for the X-Men, and it’s filled with a bunch of interesting revelations about characters (including MCU favorites like Carol Danvers).

But at the end of the day, we don’t want finales in the world of ongoing superhero stories. Logan worked, because it was the end of Wolverine, but the beginning of a bright future for a group of young mutants. In the end, these stories need to look forward to the future with hope. That’s why we’re all going so crazy about Thanos’ finger-snap – the Avengers lost!

NEXT: How The Incredible Hulk May Have Set Up Wolverine In The MCU