You can’t swing a dead mutant around these days without hitting a movie theater playing a Marvel comic film. An overwhelming amount of films based on the X-Men and Avengers books are on their way, and that’s just the tip of the Bobby Drake-created iceberg.
With the original Blade film, Marvel proved they could take a lesser known character and turn it into a reasonably profitable film, thus opening the doors for the first X-Men and Spider-Man movies, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Now all their main heroes either already have or very soon will have movies of their own, and the cinematic Marvel universe is becoming almost as overpopulated as its funny book equivalent. But what about the great characters they haven’t tapped yet?
A few that spring to mind:
The Black Cat — Felicia Hardy’s anti-hero alter ego is the prima donna of the Spider-man series, a morally ambiguous and emotionally complex character, and looks damn good in black leather. But the Spider-man films so far have had an unwritten rule that women are only allowed to pout, look tempting, or be kidnapped, thus sadly the Black Cat has been absent from the silver screen.
She would make a great addition to the series: beyond the fact that she would be a nice foil for Mary Jane, she is practically Spider-man’s physical equal, and could provide some nice rooftop sexual tension the likes of which we haven’t seen since Batman Returns.
Of course, I’m not suggesting hastily adding her to one of the future films just for the sake of having her there - remember what happened to Venom.
Apocalypse – Really? ALL those X-Men films on the horizon and no whispers yet of the biggest baddie of them all? Apocalypse has been making life hell for the X-men, and in fact, much of the world, since the days of Ancient Egypt, and isn’t looking to slow down any time soon.
We only got a small dose of Warren Worthington 111, aka Angel, in X-Men 3, but that character’s storyline with Apocalypse is unforgettable. Born rich, smooth, blond, and handsome (if angel wings are your thing), Warren was a fun-loving playboy until a devastating battle in which he lost his wings. After this, Apocalypse transformed him into an evil follower, turning his skin blue and giving him razor-sharp metal wings. Though he eventually turned good again, Warrne was never the same. And that’s just a taste of the nastiness Apocalypse gets up to.
Northstar – I’m just going to put this out there: it’s time for a gay super-hero on screen. I’m sure studios are iffy about the idea, worrisome that it may be too risky a venture, but the world is ready. While the Marvel universe has a small handful of LGBT characters, none is more well-known than Northstar, the first Marvel superhero to come out of the closet, and in 1992, no less.
Northstar has a very cinematic appeal: handsome, edgy, and the movie-friendly powers of super-speed and flight. Hopefully in one of the estimated 26,985 X-men films coming out in the next few years, Northstar just may pop up. Fingers crossed.
Moonstar – While we’re on the topic of inclusion, a demographic that’s widely overlooked on the big screen is Native Americans (and it currently seems that their only filmic representation is as werewolves in the Twilight series). Marvel has always been ahead of its time in its inclusion of minorities, and one of these examples is the New Mutants’ Danielle Moonstar, who could communicate telepathically with animals as well as project bursts of psionic energy.
There is some chatter about a New Mutants film some day, and let’s hope that Moonstar is part of the action.
These are only a few examples of currently-overlooked characters. We all have characters we’d like to see. Feel free to share some of your own.
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Black Cat? Really? I’d be happy to see a well-written Black Cat added to the Spider-man franchise, but Raimi’s treatment of just about every character except for Spider-man, Green Goblin, Doc Ock and to an extent Harry (aka “Night Goblin” or whatever his action figure from the third movie was called) has been questionable at best (still a huge fan of the first two films though - plus Lucy Lawless cameo in the first one).
I would expect Black Cat to be as well-written as Gwen Stacey was in SM3. I think they should definitely do something to try and create some tension between Peter and MJ (provided they can keep Kirsten Drunkst sober), but if they couldn’t get sparks flying between Peter and his original “one true love”, I’m not sure they’ll do a good job with Felicia.
Apocalypse would be cool, but I’m still hoping that one day we’ll see the Sentinels. If Transformers 2 can include 101 ugly robots running around on screen, surely the next X-Men (whether it is No. 4, “First Class” or “New Mutants”) could afford 10 or so well-rendered Sentinels to menace the mutants. Mutant vs giant robots would ROCK!
Would be cool to see Northstar, but I think we probably have a better chance at seeing Anole or perhaps Graymalkin. Wiccan and Hulking would also be cool, but Hulking’s design may ensure he isn’t considered for inclusion (due to the “Thing” prosthetic suit vs. 100% Hulk-like CGI debate). Or they could go the “ultimate” route with Colossus if there is a No. 4.
And agree about representing the full spectrum of heroes. Isn’t Silver Fox meant to be Native American? I didn’t get that impression from Lynn Collins portrayl in “Wolverine”, but then she was also meant to be the sister of the blonde-haired Emma Frost, so I’m guessing they didn’t put a lot of thought into casting true to the comics when they didn’t stay true to the comics for most other “details”.
My major problem with the X-Men films is the absence of the Scarlet Witch (though she appears in the animated series/video games).
Wanda is Magneto’s daughter, Quicksilver’s twin sister and a mathematician (hot!).
She altered reality to make mutants the rulers of Earth, and eventually returns the world to normal; leaving 90 percent of Earth’s mutants without their powers.
When I was a young girl she was portrayed as a light brown-skinned woman with curly black hair. Curiously, she’s now become white with red hair. No doubt a new problematic trend (see casting of Silver Fox in Wolverine mentioned in the post above).
I would actually like to see a new series of Marvel movies based on the Ultimate universe. They are already re-doin Spider-man, so why not do them all but base them on the Ultimate series? The Ultimatum story line would make for some awesome visual effects and mutant battles.
Plus maybe a Fantastic Four movie which does not suck would be nice….