This weekend The Wolverine will hit screens around the
country. This will be the 6th
time Hugh Jackman has played this character, and the 5th X-Men film
that is centered around him. Yes, I
know, Wolverine is pretty awesome and you have to put the star at the center of
your film if you want it to make money, but is anyone else sick of Wolverine
taking up all the X-Men glory? As a long time X-Men reader I can tell you that
there are plenty of mutants whose story is just as interesting, if not more so,
than Wolverine’s. Logan’s last solo film
didn’t turn out so well, and though this new one focuses more on his samurai roots
I think it’s time the studio gives another character their shot at a solo
film. Lucky for them I know five X-Men
who would be great in their own movie.
5) STORM
Halle Berry played this character in three films and did a
pretty crappy job if you ask me. She had
three different accents in all three films and word has it she wasn’t going to
do X3 unless she got more screen time, which ended up poorly wasted, just like
that whole film. Berry will play Storm
again in the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past and I can only hope her screen
time for this film is limited to several minutes, and no speaking lines.
Aside from Berry’s film performance the character would be a
great focus of a film. Ororo Monroe
started out as a little pick-pocket thief in Africa till she developed her
mutant powers to control the weather.
Then she was worshipped as a god by her people. Professor X found her and convinced her to
join his cause. Since then she’s gone on
to be the X-Men’s field leader and co-head mistress of the Xavier school. Her flaws include her doubt in herself and
the claustrophobia she developed when she was buried alive as a child. The character is dripping with leading lady
material. Just don’t let Berry try to do that horrible African accent again, please!
4) HAVOK
For some reason this character was in X-Men: First Class,
played by Lucas Till. This never made
sense since his older brother looked at Charles Xavier as a father figure, yet in
the film Xavier and Alex were only a few years apart in age. Throughout most of his life Alex Summers has
lived in the shadow of his older brother, Cyclops. Havok eventually stepped out of that shadow
to lead his own team, X-Factor, and it’s been a bumpy road ever since.
Alex spent his childhood jumping foster homes until Scott
and Xavier found him and joined them as part of the X-Men. There he met Lorna Dane and they fell in
love. Polaris and Havok dreamed of
leaving the X-Men and the fight for mutant liberation, but just like his
brother and Jean Grey, the two kept getting
pulled back in. They helped form the
government-based mutant team, X-Factor, and thought they could live happily
ever after. Since then Alex has since
been turned in a brainwashed assassin, traveled to an alternate reality to lead
a rebel band of X-Men, and lead his father’s group of space pirates, The
Starjammers, against his little brother, Gabriel, to stop him from ruling the
galaxy. Now Alex is an Avenger, working
beside Captain American and Thor, trying to redeem himself for the wrongs he and
his family have done. Tell me this
torchered soul doesn’t have enough for a screenwriter to work with?
3) JOSEPH
The character first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #327 with no
memory of whom he was. He looked like a
young Magneto and had his mutant abilities as well. Joseph was taken in by Sister Maria and bunch
of orphans, but after seeing what he can do he sought out to find the
X-Men. He encountered Rogue and soon the
rest of the X-Men and everyone believing he was Magneto, their former
arch-enemy. He joined the X-Men in many
battles, mostly famously the fight against the villain Onslaught. But Joseph’s true origins were a lot complicated
than it seemed.
Joseph was a clone of Magneto, created by one of Magneto’s
scorned allies, Astra. She had Joseph
attack Magneto and he almost defeated the Master of Magnetism, but ended up losing
his memory in battle and later stumbled upon Sister Maria’s home. When Magneto threatened the world by
reversing Earth’s magnetic pull only Joseph could stop him, and did just that,
sacrificing his own life in the process.
His whole existence was a search for who he was, and he turned out not
to be the villain most thought of him, but a hero; till the very end. Let the water works begin to flow!
2) GAMBIT
Played by Taylor Kitsch(or Tim Riggins as I think of him) in
Wolverine: X-Men Origins,Kitsch didn’t do the best job of playing the Cajun X-Man,
but I’ll give him some points for trying to bring to life this extremely complicated
and diverse character. Remy Lebeau grew
up on the bayou with his adopted family, a guild of thieves. In order to keep the peace between the
thieves and assassins Remy married his best friend, Bella Donna, but her brother,
Julian, would have no such peace. In a heated
battle Remy killed Julian and was banished from the bayou.
Remy traveled around, thieving, until one night he ended up
saving Storm’s life. He soon joined the
X-Men and tried to live an honest life, but the sins of his past keep coming
back to haunt him. Gambit fell in love
with Rogue, a woman he could never actually touch, and their forbidden
flirtation has been a highlight of the X-Men for many years. Remy now lives at the Jean Grey School for
Higher Learning, helping teach young mutants how to control their powers and hoping
that enough good can make-up for all the bad he’s done. Redemption always makes for good
entertainment!
1) ICEMAN
One of the original X-Men, Bobby
Drake has always been the comic relief for his teammates. Sometimes he’s been considered a little too
much of a jokester, certainly nothing like his film adaptation, played by
Shawn Ashmore. Bobby Drake’s early career
found him in love with Lorna Dane, but he lost her to Havok. Bobby quit the X-Men once to take of his
father, who was brutally beaten while standing up for mutant rights. During Operaton: Zero Tolerance, while the
rest of the X-Men was either in space or being held captive, it was up to
Iceman to lead a small group of mutants against the evil Bastion and save
mutant kind.
One of my favorite Iceman stories
is when the X-Men were being attacked by vampires Iceman was blessed by a
priest and then threw down his frozen holy water to defeat the invaders. Bobby was the first X-Man Wolverine asked to
join him when he decided to start his school because he knows how likable and
strong Bobby is. Iceman has a strength and
a charm that has gotten him this far in life, but can it get him far enough to
make things work with the co-head mistress of the Jean Grey school, Kitty
Pryde? Everyone loves and underdog!
