MEET
THE MUTANTS
Prequels almost always suck. We know this. Nevertheless,
there is something unbearably fascinating about them,
something that makes us long for yet more back story,
yet more insight into beloved characters and worlds, and
yet more -- almost inevitable -- disappointment. The X-Men franchise has already gone this route, of course, with 2009’s ludicrous X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And yet here we are again, with another origin tale -- this one the foundation of Professor Charles Xavier’s revered School for Gifted (read: mutant) Youngsters, along with such key points as the beginning of his feud with one-time BFF Magneto, why they all decided to don costumes, and how the mind-magnifying device Cerebro came into being -- among, one assumes, much else.
A lot of this we may know, or at least think we know, from the decades upon decades, and thousands upon thousands, of X-Men and X-related comic books. Indeed, there is even a comic title in existence called X-Men: First Class, although even a cursory look at the cast list for this film shows that the storyline it established is not really being adhered to terribly strictly… if at all. Which means that for those unprepared to wade through these plentiful pages of four color wonder, this film will serve as the basis of their understanding of the entire many-splendored mythos.
So it had better stand up.With Bryan Singer (the man responsible for propelling this happy band of mutant brothers into the popular consciousness with his 2001 blockbuster, X-Men) given story credit, an impressive and occasionally Oscar-nominated cast, an able director at the helm and a whole JFK-ish Cuban Missile Crisis backdrop, hopes are high for this new addition to the onscreen Marvel Universe.
And just to give the uninitiated a little comic-y history, in the lead up to the film’s June release (yes, it’s a prequel, but of course we should all go see it) here we present the X-Class of 1962…
Professor XReal Name: Charles Francis Xavier
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
First Appearance: X-Men #1, September 1963
Played by James McAvoy
Peaceful warrior, revered teacher, and champion of mutants everywhere, Professor Charles Xavier really needs no introduction. As the founder of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Professor X has educated numerous young mutants in the responsible use of their powers; as a certified genius and telepath of nearly unequalled power, he has saved the world (or at least participated in same) a whole bunch of times. He is notable for his commitment to nonviolence (a trait his creators modelled on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or so the story goes), but at the same time he is fully capable of kicking evil mutant ass… using only the awesome power of his mind, and from the confines of a wheelchair to boot.
Before the school or the wheelchair or most of the ass-kicking, however, there was a lengthy backstory involving an abusive stepfather, the love and loss of beautiful geneticist Moira Kinross (later McTaggert), and a fateful friendship with one Erik Lensherr that was forged while the two were working at a clinic for Holocaust survivors in Israel -- or possibly while they were taking an advanced degree or three at Oxford, depending on how wedded to the canon you are. Can X-Men: First Class do this remarkable backstory justice? As the young Professor, James McAvoy may lack X-Men star Patrick Stewart’s gravitas, but he’s a competent actor and it will be interesting to see what he does with the role, which he has apparently interpreted (per at least one interview ) as “A little bit of a cad… not going too far with it, but [Xavier’s] definitely got an ego and he's definitely got a sex drive as well” -- in contrast with the older Professor, whom he perceives as “like a selfless, egoless, almost sexless force for the betterment of humanity and mortality.” Sexless? A cad? Huh? Wha--? Has he ever actually read the--? Never mind. Okay, James, we’re not sure where you’re going with all this, but you definitely have our attention.
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Kate Nagy
MagnetoName: Max Eisenhardt/Erik Lehnsherr
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
First Appearance: X-Men #1, 1963
Played by Michael Fassbender
A Holocaust survivor who witnessed the massacre of his entire family, Magneto's horrific past is what fuels his hatred towards humankind, his mistrust of the X-Men and the paranoia that what happened to his family will happen once again to his adopted mutant family. As with all of the best comic book villains, Magneto is a tragic figure through and through, his actions not entirely unjustified at times.
A prominent force to be reckoned with, Magneto has been the X-Men's main aggressor in the comic world, various animated TV shows and the hit-or-miss cinematic trilogy, otherwise known as X-Men, X2, and that third movie that kinda sucked. In the live-action trilogy, Sir Ian McKellen lent Magneto the perfect amount of menace and sympathy, and you immediately connected with the rich history he shared with Charles Xavier during his early years as a mutant. We were only ever given brief glimpse into Magneto's past during an extremely effective opening sequence in X-Men, so it'll be interesting to see how much this new film draws from his tortured past.
The mantle, iconic helmet and rather large shoes have been passed onto Michael Fassbender, who has seemingly popped in from obscurity over the last few years (anyone remember him from Hex?). Tasked with playing a younger Magneto, an ally of Charles' who helped form the mutant academy, it'll be interesting to see if Fassbender has the chops to give Magneto the hauteur required of such a scene-chewing, complex villain. Considering he managed to carry off Rochester convincingly in this year’s Jane Eyre, we can only hope so.
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Mark Ritchie
BeastReal Name: Dr Henry (Hank) McCoy
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
First Appearance: X-Men #1, September 1963
Played by Nicholas Hoult
Beast is one of the original X-Men and one of the few characters in this movie to actually be in the canonical first class at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters (the others being Jean Grey, Cyclops and Iceman). In each X-Men timeline, Beast starts off looking predominantly human with only oversized hands and feet to go with his super-strength and agility. He acquires his trademark blue fur and more animal-like features through medical experiments performed in some versions by Weapon X (the people Wolverine worked for) and in some versions by himself. He is the X-Men’s scientific genius as well as being the most articulate and widely read.
Beast has spent most of his time working with the Avengers, rather than as part of the core X-Men team. He comes back to the X-Men whenever necessary and spends a good long time searching for a cure to the whatever it was that took all the mutants’ powers away (well, it was a witch and I’m not sure how Beast thought he could find a cure to magic, but anyway).
His low-point is being played by Kelsey Grammer in X3, who captured the learned but not the action part of Beast’s character. Hopefully his high point can come in this movie.
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Brad Crammond
MystiqueName: Raven Darkholme
Created by: Chris Claremont and David Cockrum
First Appearance: Ms. Marvel #16, May 1978
Played by Jennifer Lawrence and Morgan Lily (young version)
There seems to be an obsession with the color blue for mutants in the X-Men world, but by far the hottest of these azure-toned inspirations-for-the-Blue-Man-Group (note: citation needed) is Mystique, possibly the second best-known X-Men villain behind Magneto -- she's Catwoman to Magneto's Joker, if a DC comparison may be allowed. Most recent fans would know Mystique as played brilliantly (if "brilliant" = "hot") by Rebecca Romijn, wearing blue paint, blue pasties, and not much else, in the earlier X-Men movies, but Mystique has been looking hot, kicking ass, and being all kinds of evil for quite a while.
Utilizing her shape-shifting abilities to their full extent (not to mention her wit, cunning, gift for impersonation, ninja-esque fighting skills… and did we mention her hotness?), Mystique has been terrorizing the good guys for years, acting as both part of, and then leader of, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She is also mother to Nightcrawler ((played by Alan Cumming in X-2), and foster mother to Rogue (Oscar-winner Anna Paquin in X-Men 1-3), which has led to her occasional dalliance with the good side in an attempt to help out her kid(s).
Not much is known about Mystique's origins, but in the comics she has referenced being more than 100 years old, with her shape-shifting powers allowing her to remain youthful (and hot). However, it appears that perhaps she is young in the upcoming movie, being played both by a child actress and by 20-year old Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence, thus representing another example of the movie messing with comic history and continuity. What this means for the potential reintroduction of Nightcrawler remains to be seen.
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K. Burtt
BansheeName: Sean Cassidy
Created by: Roy Thomas and Werner Roth
First Appearance: X-Men #28, 1967
Played by Caleb Landry Jones
Geek Speak’s Irish contingent can’t help but get a little fan-girlishly excited over the inclusion of Banshee in First Class. In comic lore, Sean Cassidy is an ex-Interpol agent from Co. Mayo with a love-torn past who discovers he has the ability to omit supersonic blasts that enable him to fly, disable foes and dish out serious headaches, and which also guarantee that he's banned from all snowy, mountainous terrain.
Played by Friday Night Lights' Caleb Landry Jones, the immediate movie difference from his comic counterpart is the decision to hack a few years off Banshee for the big screen. Normally Banshee is an older, scruffier mutant, who typically takes on the role of mentor to younger mutants just coming into their abilities. Another startling alteration is that they seem to have ditched Banshee's Irish heritage entirely! We may be jumping to some wild conclusions here, but during the individual character trailers released for First Class over the last month, in the few scenes with dialogue we get Banshee sounds very American. For shame!
On the other hand, maybe we’re just being saved from enduring Jones's no doubt excruciating efforts at donning an Irish accent. For a generation still audibly scarred by David Boreanaz on Buffy, this can only be considered a good thing... and yet, it’s not like there aren’t a crop of young, talented Irish actors on the market right now who would be more than capable of doing the job. And so excitement over Banshee’s inclusion here is tempered by largely patriotic concern.
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Mark Ritchie
White QueenReal Name: Emma Grace Frost
Created by: Chris Claremont and John Byrne
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #129, January 1980.
Played by January Jones
Emma Frost is a perplexing X-Men character. Taking the opposite trajectory to Magneto, Emma starts off as a villain and goes on to become absolutely central to the X-Men universe. By the current comics (or at least relatively recent –-- it’s so hard to keep up) Emma is sleeping with Cyclops, and with Xavier incapacitated she’s the top telepath. But she begins as a member of the Hellfire Club who, at least in one version, aim to bring back the Phoenix... killing Jean Grey in the process. But since Jean’s not in this movie, it’s hard to tell what their plan is for Emma this time out.
Apart from being a telepath, at some point along the line Emma survived a nuclear blast and, like Radioactive Man, got additional super powers -- in her case the power to turn into diamond, making her indestructible. Of course, it’s a special type of diamond which means she can still move just like a normal person, only more indestructiblier.
Emma also happens to be widely recognised as the most attractive comic book character out there. We’re not sure if this is because she wears hardly any clothes, because she’s a bit of a bitch, or because she has, like, crazy telepathic sex. Whatever it is, hopefully January Jones can do her justice.
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Brad Crammond
TempestAngel Salvadore
Created by: Grant Morrison and Ethan Van Scriver
First Appearance: New X-Men #118, November 2001
Played by Zoë Kravitz
Tempest’s inclusion in First Class is so confusing as to border on the mind-boggling. In her comic form, Angel Salvadore was thrown out of home at fourteen when she manifested her mutation: she’s pretty much a human/fly hybrid. Discovered by Wolverine, she is taken to Xavier’s School, and she eventually finds her place under the tough-love tutelage of Emma Frost. Her big storyline involves her teen pregnancy, when she and fellow student Beak (a human/chicken hybrid) conceive; Angel lays her eggs on the school grounds but the two keep their parenthood a secret for fear of expulsion. At one point, Angel falls under the sway of Magneto and joins the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, though she later recants; in 2007 she joined the New Warriors team and got herself a bunch of new and nifty powers, in addition to taking on the moniker of Tempest.
In an alternate Earth, she is a supermodel.
Now, what the hell is this X-Universe newbie doing in this origin story? There’s only one explanation. Someone, somewhere, got confused between the original Angel (Warren Worthington, AKA Archangel), who was indeed a member of First Class in the comic series of the same name, and decided to put in a hot young mutant chick instead of her aristocratic and angsty progenitor. And since it must be conceded that Warren, in all his poor little rich boy splendor, appeared as a young man in X-Men 3: The Last Stand, which takes place forty years after the events in this film, perhaps the substitution isn’t entirely unwarranted.
There is, after all, nothing wrong with adding in a few more hot young mutant chicks.
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Rachel Hyland
HavokReal Name: Alex Summers
Created by: Arnold Drake, Don Heck and Neal Adams
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #54 (1969)
Played by Lucas Till
Canonically, Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, was the very first X-Man recruited by Professor X, and Alex -- AKA Havok -- was his little brother. But in the latter-day universe brought to us by 20th Century Fox, Cyclops was very obviously a twenty-first century mutant, and because his incredible powers have never included eternal youth he couldn’t possibly have been around in the early 60s, when the current movie is set. So in this rebooted origin story Scott is nowhere to be found and Alex is, evidently, his father. This isn’t the only place the producers have played fast and loose with canon (to say the least), but we think it may be one of the more egregious.
But never mind that for now. Havok is an interesting guy -- he can absorb cosmic energy and then eject it from his body in the form of powerful plasma rays, and unlike Scott, he eventually develops a certain amount of control over his powers. He also has counterpart Alexes in multiple realities, and he serves as sort of a point of entrance into this universe for all those other guys. No word on whether his trans-dimensional activities will play a part in the movie, or whether it will touch on his romance with long-time partner Polaris. Or whether, if Alex is Cyclops’ father, Polaris is now Cyclops’ mom. Hmmm…
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Kate Nagy
DarwinReal Name: Armando Munoz
Created by: Ed Brubaker and Pete Woods
First Appearance: X-Men: Deadly Genesis #2, February, 2006
Played by Edi Gathegi
If Angel’s appearance in this movie is mind-boggling, then Darwin’s is simply baffling. Okay, yes, he has a mighty cool power: he “evolves” at need, which basically means his body can adapt to any given surrounding in only a few instants. In the dark, he can see. In the cold, he is warm. In a vacuum, he can breathe. He has the requisite troubled mutant childhood, is one of the Marvel Universe’s few biracial characters (his father is African American, his mother Latino), and his appearance shifts as easily as his biology. For all of his coolness, though, the newly emerged Darwin didn’t have a whole lot to do in the comics until he joined the team X-Factor (into which he is, in fact, recruited by Banshee’s daughter Siryn; dammit, movie, how are you going to make that make sense?) and his most recent trial came as the result of evolving into a death god. A death god!
The only relation he really has to this storyline is that he becomes one of Moira McTaggert’s mutant foster kids (see below), but as played by Edi Gathegi (Laurent from Twilight, shorn of dreadlocks) fame, perhaps Darwin can somehow fit himself into this origin story.
He is highly adaptable, after all.
-- Rachel Hyland
AzazelReal Name: That's it, apparently
Created by: Chuck Austen and Sean Phillips
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #428, October 2003
Played by Jason Flemyng
A relative new-comer to the Marvel universe in person, if not in effect, Azazel stands a bit different than most other mutants featured here, as it is not entirely clear if he is a mutant or not. Azazel is the leader of a group of demon-esque mutants called Neyaphem, supposedly banished to another dimension a few millenia ago after a long war with the angel-esque Cheyarafim.
Being the high-and-mighty leader, and thus having the coolest powers, only Azazel was able to return to Earth for relatively brief periods of time. And what's a demon to do when only on Earth for short times? Why, sleep with as many women as possible, of course! (Obviously!) One of whom was Mystique, with the liaison resulting in (and most likely being the reason for Azazel's presence in the upcoming movie) the birth of perennial fan-favorite, Nightcrawler. Azazel has also managed to father Abyss and Kiwi Black, among many other yet-to-be-named progeny.
Wielder of powers such as the teleportation (inherited by Nightcrawler), energy blasts, shapeshifting, immortality, and the ability to use mind-control on the reptile-like inhabitants of his current home dimension, Azazel also likes to portray himself as Satan, Beelzebub, or a variety of other Devil-esque personas. Whether or not he is any of those, or simply a powerful mutant preying on fears and superstitions, remains to be determined.
As such, how his portrayal in the movie by Jason Flemyng will be presented, and how integral his presence is to the plot besides the seduction of Mystique, remains a bit of a mystery. Flemyng, however, is no stranger to comic book movies, having previously been seen in adaptations of Alan Moore's From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and thus Azazel appears to be in good hands.
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K. Burtt
SynchName: Everett Thomas
Created by: Scott Lobdell and Chris Bacalo
First Appearance: X-Men #36, September, 1994.
Played by Tony Rich (no, not the 90’s R&B crooner)
Though this character’s name has been given only as “Thomas” in the production notes, we have deduced that it is Synch we’ll be dealing with here, considering his special power is to take on the mutant abilities of anyone within a certain range and he’s to be played by a young African American. Sure, there’s diversity in the Marvel Universe, but not so much that it’s at all difficult to identify those few mutants of color who do manifest powers.
An unassuming and stalwart teen from St. Louis, Synch came into his mutant abilities in a typically fortuitous manner; he gained access to Banshee’s “bio-genic aura������� and emitted a supersonic scream, bringing him to the notice of the local police force and the Phalanx, who were out to destroy all up and coming X-types. Rescued by his future mentors, he soon became one of the more notable members of writer Scott Lobdell’s Generation X, a group of young mutants trained by Banshee and Emma Frost in their not-quite-rival school, until his necessarily heroic death (not long before the death of the team’s comic itself, after 75 issues in 2001).
Quite how Synch fits into the First Class motif here, considering Xavier’s School was well established when he was a teenager and yet this movie tells of the foundation of that very institution, is something of a mystery. More than likely, his appearance will be little more than a throwaway cameo (along the lines of Kitty Pride’s in the first X-Men movie) which begs the question: why the foolish messing with continuity?
Oh, yeah. It’s a comic book movie. And mutants of color are vanishingly rare.
--
Rachel Hyland
RiptideReal Name: Janos Quested
Created by: Chris Claremont, John Romita, Jr. and Dan Green
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #210, October 1986
Played by Álex González
Riptide is a kind of a human tornado, capable of spinning his own body incredibly rapidly. He’s also a bad guy, having allied himself with Sinister and his evil Marauders. Crime doesn’t pay, though, and Riptide is killed…at least a couple of times, although this being a superhero comic there’s usually someone around who can clone him, whereupon the clone enthusiastically and without hesitation continues Riptide’s decades-long streak of bad behavior.
The appearance of Riptide in the movie, like that of Synch, is something of a mystery, given that the Riptide of the comics didn’t appear until a generation after Professor X’s school was founded. Is it reasonable to predict a time-travel angle, or are Marvel Studios et al. just messing with us?
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Kate Nagy
Moira
MacTaggertCreated by: Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #95, December 1975
Played by Rose Byrne
When Moira MacTaggert burst onto the comic scene in 1975, she was introduced the Xavier School’s “housekeeper.” She was, however, so very much more than that. A Nobel Prize-winning geneticist and silent partner in the founding of the school, she was also Xavier’s ex and founder of a Mutant Research Center on Muir Island. In addition, she was the lover of several other X-Men, most notably including Banshee, and the mother (biological and/or foster) of several more -- most of whom turned out to be some flavor of psychotic. And although she was indisputably one of the good guys, she had, let us say, a flexible moral code, and in particular was not above tinkering with anyone’s genetic complement if she thought it was in the best interests of her cause.
Here, the Scottish Moira has been reinterpreted as an American (as portrayed by the Australian Rose Byrne). There’s no word on any possible children, but we think a romance with Banshee is unlikely, given that if Byrne is a young woman then Caleb Landry Jones is pretty much a fetus. However, she is, in the movie, affiliated with the CIA, and in most movies isn’t “CIA” basically shorthand for “ethically flexible”? So, there’s that, anyway.
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Kate Nagy
Sebastian
ShawAKA: Black King, Black Bishop, Lord Imperial
Created by: Chris Claremont and John Byrne
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #129, January 1980
Played by Kevin Bacon
As anyone up on their history of England’s middle-Georgian period may know, the Hellfire Club was a notorious collection of dilettante aristocrats who sought out every possible form debauchery in the 18th and 19th Centuries as a way of passing days made dreary by lives of surpassing privilege (and a deplorable lack of television). The Marvel Universe version of the Hellfire Club is similar, and is indeed a direct descendant of the original, except that at its core there is a thirst for world domination. As though it’s elite and above all wealthy membership doesn’t rule the world already.
Sebastian Shaw is at the heart of the organization (which also at one time included in its rolls Emma Frost; yes, that woman has done it all), a secret mutant who rose from obscurity to become a successful industrialist. Ruthlessly efficient and yet outwardly debonair, comic Shaw is continually locked in an endless struggle for control of the Hellfire Club and his own business interests -- once being ousted, and left for dead, by his own son!
So, can Kevin Bacon play him? Of course. That man can play anyone. And if nothing else, his appearance as part of this extensive ensemble cast will make playing that Six Degrees game just a little bit easier.
-- Rachel
HylandX-Men: First Class Worldwide Release Dates:
UK -- 1 June 2011
France -- 1 June 2011
Australia -- 2 June 2011
Hong Kong -- 2 June 2011
Israel -- 2 June 2011
Portugal -- 2 June 2011
Russia -- 2 June 2011
Singapore -- 2 June 2011
Thailand -- 2 June 2011
Canada -- 3 June 2011
Finland -- 3 June 2011
Iceland -- 3 June 2011
India -- 3 June 2011
Norway -- 3 June 2011
Poland -- 3 June 2011
Spain -- 3 June 2011
Sweden -- 3 June 2011
Turkey -- 3 June 2011
USA -- 3 June 2011
Italy -- 8 June 2011
Germany -- 9 June 2011
Greece -- 9 June 2011
Japan -- 11 June 2011
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