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transneonneko · 3 years

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Things from Archie Sonic that I would love to see return in the Mainline Games and/or IDW Sonic!!

Recently, I decided to read some of the Archie Sonic Comic, from like issue 186ish up until the first MegaMan crossover and the reboot, mainly because there were some gaps in my knowledge of those stories. Mainly Issues 198 till 235, which I never got to read as a kid and, I have to say, there were a lot of really interesting concepts during Ian's run of comics before the reboot that I really loved. There was a lot of really interesting concepts I love after the reboot too. I wanna celebrate that. A lot of these concepts and story idea I feel really deserve another chance.

So I wanna make this list of stuff I wanna see return in either for stories in the Mainline Games or the IDW Sonic comics. Before we start, I do wanna add somethings. This post isn't meant to be shitting on IDW and being like "IDW would be better if they did this". I really love the IDW comics and universe. I also know that some of these concepts likely can't be done due SEGA Mandates and I'm not gonna include stuff like "Bring back the Freedom Fighters" because I feel asking to bring back characters isn't gonna be very productive, as much as I would like to see their return. Anyways, let's begin.

The Fate of the ARK

One thing that really inspired this list was this scene right her. We'll talk more about Silver's Future later but for now, let's focus on the ARK. I'm gonna assume anyone reading this knows the story of the ARK from SA2 and Shadow. Sadly, the ARK hasn't really been revisited in the main canon since Shadow, despite how iconic of a set piece it is. In the Archie Comics, we get a look at Silver's future and one of things that may have been the cause of how bad things are is the ARK crashed. Sadly, Archie got rebooted before the writers could go more into it but, from SA2, we know that the ARK was set to crash into the planet if all 7 Chaos Emeralds are placed into it, wiping out all life on the planet. This could be an excellent premise of another Silver adventure, whether it be in the comics or games, where Sonic, Silver and some friends have to stop someone from making the ARK crash into the planet.

Expanding the Eggman Empire/Egg Bosses

Something I've always found a bit lacking in the game canon is how the Eggman Empire itself has been presented. In the games, the Eggman Empire is usually just made up of Eggman, Metal Sonic, Orbot, Cubot, a bunch of robots and (recently) Infinite. It's not really an Empire if it's just one guy and a bunch of robots. The main goal is the conquer the world but we hardly see Eggman actually see what happens when Eggman conquers a place, like what happens to the people who used to live there, besides like Colours and Forces, where the Wisps and Mobians are usually just seen being imprisoned. The Egg Bosses are the perfect solution to this and adds so much to Sonic's World.

The Egg Bosses are Mobians who, either willingly or unwillingly, aligned themselves up with Eggman for whatever reason, becoming commanders of the Eggman Empire. This usually comes about when Eggman has taken over a part of the region and the people living in that region have no choice but to join the Eggman Empire, for their own safety. Not only does this make the Eggman Empire feel more than just one person but it also makes Eggman more a villain himself. It able to portray Eggman as someone to be feared and, I mean, this is a dictator and genocider who is pretty much declaring war against the world.

It also brings up some interesting thoughts about the world. Characters like Maw, Thunderbolt and even Nephthys to a degree joined up with Eggman because they felt it was the right thing to do for the sake of the world, or in Nephthys case, to stop things getting worst later on, meanwhile characters like Grand Battle Kukku are plotting to usurp Eggman, with Clove and Beauregard only working for Eggman to protect family or close ones.

As I said before, having these Egg Bosses also makes Eggman look more threaten, both because he's able to look like a "bigger bad" next to these villains he has command of and, because almost all the Egg Bosses hate Eggman's guts, they are cyberized, a terrifying process in which those who work for Eggman are focus to have parts of their body replaced with cybernetics, with either bombs which will blow if they decide to leave or a locking mechanism that will paralyze their entire body, ready to be locked up.

If either in the game or the IDW comic, I would like to see the Egg Boss concept return. It doesn't even need to be the same characters or use the name "Egg Boss." It would help expand the army of the Eggman Empire, as well as provide some fun bosses for the games I think.

Mobians and Humans living together

This was always a weird hangup I felt the series had. In the case of games between Sonic Adventure & Unleashed, Sonic and friends were the only Mobians, humans made up the NPCs while Mobians were reserved for main characters. Then in Forces and IDW, Mobians made up the background characters, so then Eggman is the only human. I really prefer it when they have the two living together, it makes it seems more normal and, honestly, a better solution than the whole "Two Worlds" explanation.

Eggman Seemingly Defeated

Can I just that I love Issues 198-200? In these 3 issues, Sonic and friends Eggman's main base, the Egg Dome. This including fighting on the outside of the base, involving fighting hoards of the Dark Egg Legion soldiers and Eggman in the Egg Phoenix. After dealing with the outside, Sonic and friends raid the Egg Dome itself, taking different directions, with the Dark Egg Legion seemingly retreating, until they reach the center of the base, where they are blocked off by a barricade, which only Sonic can pass through, giving a "Point of No Return" vibe, Dark Egg Legion soldiers lining up and saluting Sonic. Then Sonic reaches the center and finds Eggman in the Egg Tarantula, starting their final battle which Sonic wins. This defeat is enough for Eggman to lose his sanity, seemingly ending the war Sonic and the Freedom Fighters have been fighting their entire life.

Of course Eggman returns but, god, it's just such a memorable couple of issues. There's a real sense of finality to it. I would a sequence like this in the games, something that feels like truly ending the Eggman Empire and defeating them once and for all. Of course, it wouldn't be the end, Sonic games are always needing to be made which would lead to...

The New Rulers of the Eggman Empire

In the comics after the defeat of Eggman, the Eggman Empire is taken over by some of it's Commanders, the Iron Queen and Iron King, who rules the Empire as their own until they are defeated and Eggman's return.

I love the idea that even if the Eggman, there will always be someone there to take his place. The games could do this by having Neo Metal or Infinite take his place. Hell, IDW did have Neo Metal take over but I think what made that less interesting was that Neo Metal wasn't doing it for himself, he was doing it for Eggman. I think this would work well if a concept like the Egg Boss was introduced in the games, maybe have one of the characters part of that group take over OR have a lot of the more ambitious Egg Bosses war against each other to take command, until eventually Eggman returns and puts them in line.

Silver's Future

Silver is one of the most recurring characters, who always joins the gang when his future is in trouble. The problem is that we never see his future besides 06. We have no idea what Silver's future is currently until it's in danger and, even then, we never see it.

We see Silver's Future in both continuities of the Archie Comic, with two different takes. Pre-SGW has a destroyed city vibe, like 06 but less lava. Post-SGW brought a whole new take where people are ruled by a corrupt council where people are put into class groups, and security robots will arrest if you are not at your job at the right time. They even re-contextualize Silver's bracelets as cuffs that the robots can activate. With Silver being my favourite character as a kid, I remember being obsessed with this new world and story, wanting to know more.

I'm not saying they would need to copy this world exactly but it would be nice if they gave us a concrete and consistence look for Silver's Future.

The Heroic Metal Sonic

Right before the SGW, we were introduce to Shard the Metal Sonic. His story is that he was the original Metal Sonic, the one that raced Sonic in Stardust Speedway. He appeared later in the comic, where Sonic made him realized there was more to life than just being Eggman's killing machine. He seemingly died, but was rebuilt to serve as a member the Secret Freedom Fighters.

This one would be tricky to be included. It worked in the Archie comic as they had been many Metal Sonics throughout the series, each one getting destroyed. Meanwhile, there's only officially been one Metal Sonic in the games made by Eggman (two if we count Classic and Modern). Admittedly, Gemerl fits Shard's personality and does need to be used more in the games but having it be Metal Sonic is just a cooler concept.

I think a solution to this is that we have Metal Sonic 1.0 made by Eggman and, in Rivals 2, we have Metal Sonic 3.0 by Eggman Nega from the future. But what about Metal Sonic 2.0? I think we could have a game where after Metal Sonic fails, Eggman builds a replacement, being 2.0, which would give reason to Metal Sonic wanting to revolt, which could lead to a redemption? While I am loving the IDW comics, I do really miss a lot of what both Archie continuities offered. I haven't mention the some other concepts and stories I liked that really focused on certain characters such as Naugus, Geoffrey St. John, Dimitri etc. Maybe I'll talk about that another day...

#Sonic #sonic the hedgehog #archie sonic #idw sonic #pre-sgw #post-sgw #sega #eggman #eggman empire #egg bosses #shard the metal sonic #silver the hedgehog

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eddycurrents · 5 years

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House of X #2 kind of broke my brain. It changed the rules so thoroughly and basically tore up the map we thought we had that trying to correlate different information now might be an exercise in futility. It’s fun, but it could all just be steam and dust, floating on the wind. In one issue, Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, Clayton Cowles, and Tom Muller changed the game and made us realize pretty much anything was possible. And not to necessarily believe our eyes because anything was possible.

Powers of X #2 was more subdued. Not as brain-breaking, but still makes you wonder about how all of the pieces come together and what exactly is going on when and to which iteration.

We continue on here building out a more logical progression of story within the various time periods, even while working within the new framework. While the scope of the story being told remains massive, it’s at least being delivered in manageable and entertaining chunks.

RB Silva, Adriano Di Benedetto, and Marte Gracia gives us possibly some of the most beautiful artwork to date on this story. The composition and colour in the opening pages is just exquisite. It seems like as the story unfolds into a gigantic, almost living organism itself, the art is keeping up in pace. The visual storytelling is integral to the increasing huge ideas presented in the tale.

This continues to be an incredible, must read story.

There will be spoilers below this image. If you do not want to be spoiled on Powers of X #2, do not read further.

SPOILER WARNING: Below I’ll be discussing the events, themes, and possibility of what’s going on in Powers of X #2 and beyond. There are HEAVY SPOILERS beyond this point. If you haven’t read the issue yet and don’t want to be spoiled, please stop reading now. You’ve been warned.

PREAMBLE | First Impressions

As I stated above, because of what happened in the last issue of House of X, I really don’t know what to think any more. The tapestry of introducing Moira’s multiple lives and the variance of the time frames means that it’s no longer clear what’s happening when. There’s no concrete information provided in text as to what life we’re on, or even whether or not the different time periods we see are even the same life.

Hickman and his collaborators have essentially rigged the story where it’s still possible to go deep, overthink and analyze everything that’s going on (and I mean, this is fun as hell thinking of all of the different possibilities), but it’s almost at the point where you should just sit back in awe of what’s going on and let it unfold. Our frame of reference has shifted and our understanding of the universe has been called in to question.

It’s incredible storytelling and it puts you on edge for what’s possibly coming next because it feels as though anything is possible.

ONE | The Long Con

A question is raised through Moira’s revelation to Charles and then to Erik of her status as a mutant, and the combined history of her previous nine lives, when it comes to how this fits, or even if this fits, within our current understanding of the existing 616 Marvel universe continuity.

Though there are possible permutations, I feel like there are two primary possibilities for what we see from the knowledge that Moira X imparts on the two “old friends”. The first is fairly simple, Life Ten and what we’re seeing in X0 and X1 are new. They’re offshoots that are similar to the mainline continuity that were accustomed to previously, but that it’s a new timeline. That Professor X and Magneto working together in this fashion is something new (quibbling about how what’s presented in X0 not entirely lining up with a Year One since Charles is in a wheelchair now and Magneto has his island notwithstanding) and the collected mutants are operating based on the knowledge that Moira has shared to achieve supremacy goals.

The other option is that Xavier and Magneto have been lying to their friends, students, and fellow mutants for countless years, playing at being enemies, and keeping the truth of the nature of reality and the man-machine/mutant conflict a secret for countless years. Though certainly plausible, especially given the other retcons that we’ve seen regarding the deadly genesis and how many times Magneto’s mind has messed with in one form or another, it seems a bit like a jerk move. Controlling certainly fits with the excesses of some of Xavier’s narcissism, but it’s a retcon that kind of makes them more villainous. I think if we’re aiming for a “best possible world” scenario that unlocks a Life Eleven, running a long con on everyone would potentially be detrimental to the scheme.

Also, at the very least the X1 version of Cyclops seems to be marginally aware of a broader plan as Xavier and Magneto are discussion the timeline’s manifestation of NIMROD. Granted, that could be a deliberately dropped misleading reference to make us think that Cyclops is in the know (given that he’s faced NIMROD before and could just be taking it as a reference to a future that he already knows), but in a story where time, space, and reality matter, it feels more like a hint.

There is, of course, a kind of monkey wrench thrown in the idea, though, in that we’re left wondering why now for the decision to move to Krakoa, to plant the seeds, and to claim their own piece of the pie. What’s the catalyst to drive the new world order? Why not do it before in terms of placement within Marvel’s timeline.

TWO | Beyond Good & Evil

There’s a very complex morality at play in this story, starting with Magneto’s guided tour in House of X #1 through to the conflicting and contrasting ideologies of Xavier and Magneto that are at least attempted to be bridged in the opening scene from X0. That there needs to be a redefinition of what’s good and evil in context of the full survival of mutantkind.

It’s interesting that Hickman is using Magneto here as the arbiter of good and evil, both from his own history, but also from the various Jewish ideas and connotations that have been seeded since even the opening pages of House of X and the tree. Here we’re getting moral philosophy by way of Nietzsche and at least a feeling of ressentiment in relation to mutant society continually being beating down.

Xavier and Magneto coming together suggests breaking a repeating cycle of blame and failure, of counting one as good and one as evil, rather counterbalancing one another’s natures to achieve something greater. It recontextualizes the struggle into something else and the knowledge that Moira brings to the situation demands breaking the previous cycles and old patterns. It necessitates them thinking of the conflict with man as something else.

And I’m not sure we’re there yet. While at this point there may be a reconciliation and cohesion between the visions of Xavier and Magneto, there’s still an external bogeyman in humanity and their machines that triggers the overall schism between one people and another. Even if mutants are united, they’re still at odds with man who want to destroy them, perpetuating the deleterious cycles.

But there seems to be a third way outside of Xavier or Magneto’s traditional positions of integration versus domination. In X2, in the future Apocalypse is still contemplating survival of the fittest as mutantkind on Earth has dwindled to barely more than a handful and all of existence seems to be threatened by the Man-Machine Supremacy guided by NIMROD. It feels like in the future presented here mutants have already lost. Even with the possibility of maybe recreating either of the forms of breeding pits, it feels like the genetic diversity to support an entire population is dead.

So, we’re left wondering why we’re seeing this dystopian future, other than just playing with similar themes to X-Men comics. Personally, I think it’s trying to tell us that there needs to be a merging of the philosophies of Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse, a true transcendence of previous divisions and a synthesis of their ideologies.

I get the impression that X2 is Moira’s Life Nine, rather than the future of X0 or X1, and we’re learning something that should be applied in Life Ten. Of course, I could be completely wrong. Also, like with the shaggy tree thing seemingly being a composite of Krakoa and Cypher, rather than Black Tom, and the possibility that Green Magneto isn’t Magneto, I don’t know what to think any more.

This also ignores X3, which is the point at which I tap out. The structures of societies and the ideation of hive minds is beyond me. Me trying to interpret it would be like your dog trying to explain red. I’m not sure how it fits, since, to me at least, absorption into a singular mind, minus individuation, while it is some people’s conception of godhead, sounds like a nightmare.

It is neat, however, how it incorporates more traditional Marvel and X-Men history as it suddenly makes the Phalanx and the Technarchy important again. Even with a bit of rejiggering of their various statuses.

CONCLUSION | A Fool on a Hill

So where does that leave us?

With four different time periods that we don’t succinctly know how they’re truly connected. A game plan from Magneto and Xavier that might lead to salvation, but possibly ruination again. And a whole lot more questions as the series continues to unfold in unexpected but exciting ways.

Also, Marte Gracia’s colours are gorgeous. If nothing else, even as the story threatens to fracture your mind with its implications and twists, it’s beautiful to look at.

d. emerson eddy is prepared to have everything he’s written here be proven wrong again come this Wednesday. It may well be an exercise in masochism.

#Examinations #X-Men #Powers of X #2 #Jonathan Hickman #RB Silva

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britesparc · 3 years

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Weekend Top Ten #461

Top Ten Good Things That Actually Happened in 2020

Well, thank God that’s over, am I right?

It feels kinda weird to be sitting here looking back over the wreckage and general weirdness of 2020, a year that pretty much defines the word “anxiety”. I have a lot to be thankful for: none of us died, for a start; we all seemed to avoid The Plague in its entirety for the whole year. We still have a house, we still have food, we always had enough toilet paper, and above all we had each other. It was hard, it was long, it sucked a great deal at times, but there are substantially worse hands to be dealt all things considered.

Anyway, amongst all the crap, there were some good things, too. And I don’t mean the end-year highs of them finding a vaccine, Biden beating Trump, and us narrowly avoiding No Deal by eating a ton of rotten mud instead of actual shit. No, throughout the year, there were actually some things that happened that were genuinely good; great, even.

And so once again, with no further ado, here are my ten favourite things. Like usual, these are, y’know, things that I watched or played or whatever. I don’t go on about my great kids being great, or the fact that I finally finished writing and formatting enough children’s books to start showing them to agents. But my kids were both elected their respective class’s reps to the school council, which is pretty badass. Here you go. Ten good things. Watch them on catch-up, or whatever.

Mega Mando: without a doubt the best “thing” that I saw was the second season of The Mandalorian. Managing to be both an event-of-the-week show (a heist! An infiltration! A siege!) as well as a long-form narrative; feeling distinct and its own thing but tying into so many aspects of Star Wars; full of absolutely excellent scenes and direction and performances; and holy crap what an ending. When you watch a few of these kinds of shared-universe genre shows, this sort of thing is a rarity to the point of my never having seen it before. Seasons that are too long? Filler episodes? Disappointing lore? A “thirteen-hour movie”? Mando swerves all of these things and – notwithstanding my love for The Last Jedi – emerges as possibly the best thing Star Wars has done since at least the classic LucasArts games of the late nineties.

Series SeXy: finally the new consoles came out, and I got an Xbox Series X. It was quite a ride for yours truly: I managed to successfully pre-order one from Microsoft directly; it turned up on the day of release, except it was late in the evening and the kids were around so I couldn’t open it; then, after briefly testing it, I shoved it back in its box till Christmas. Honestly, you wanna talk about anticipation much? It was literally in my house and I still didn’t properly set it up till the evening on Christmas Day. Anyway: it’s great. It just works, y’know? It’s a beautiful boxy delight, with its chunky green holes and its shiny edges. It makes all my games look amazing, it’s so fast and buttery-smooth. It’s like upgrading a PC, but far more successful and expansive an upgrade than I was ever able to do when I was actually upgrading a PC. Anyway, it’s great. It even runs Cyberpunk 2077.

Lockdown Crossing: Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrived at exactly the right time. Lockdown was starting, everything was darkness and fear, people were dying, we needed distractions, and here was a game about being happy and friendly and doing up your house and digging up fossils. It was perfect. It was also a great social game, with my kids loving sending presents to each other, or meeting up with their uncle (who they literally saw only once this year). A great game at just the right time.

The Stream Where it Happens: Mando might have been my TV highlight of the year, but film-wise my favourite new movie was not only not really a movie but was also several years old. Hamilton popped up almost by surprise on Disney+, and it was the first time I’d been able to experience it – and it was just as good as I’d heard. At this point you don’t need me to rhapsodise about the lyricism, performance, staging, and West Wing references; I think you either get it or you don’t, and I got it big time. Weirdly, experiencing it at home made some kind of perfect sense, and it made up for missing out on the big cinematic musicals such as In the Heights and West Side Story.

Fantabulous Harley Quinn: Harley rocked on both the big and the small screen this year. Birds of Prey, or whatever it ended up being called, was actually the last film I saw at the cinema before the Big Shutdown of 2020. It’s not perfect, sure, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun; Margot Robbie is a blast, it’s really funny, and is edgy in just the right way, rather than feeling like it’s trying too hard. I was more sceptical going into the Harley Quinn animated show (starring Penny off The Big Bang Theory, for goodness’ sake!), as “sweary adult Harley Quinn cartoon” is pretty high on my checklist of “things that are trying to be edgy”, but I’m glad I gave it a chance, because it followed a very similar line to the movie. Hilarious, violent, filthy, but also offering a subtle unpeeling of Harley’s psyche and giving her more character development than she gets in most of her comic appearances. It was a great year for Harley. Just wish they’d show the second season of her show.

All This Plus Disney: yeah, I’ve already singled out Mando and Ham (great unmade detective show, there), but I’ve gotta say Disney+ in general has been a huge highlight. From getting all yer Marvels and yer Star Wars in one place, to a wealth of preschool and middle-grade shows for the kids (my youngest mainlined Vampirina this Spring), to being a home for loads of high-quality family films from years gone by (it was the prime destination for many a family movie night), to, well, the future. WandaVision launches in a couple of weeks, followed by dozens of great shows and movies; not just ones about sad superheroes, either – personally I can’t wait for the likes of Chip & Dale. I’ve gotta say, I’ve been really impressed, and once they roll out the sexier, swearier Fox stuff later this year, it’ll only get better.

A Schitt Year: we got into Schitt’s Creek rather late (like many a sitcom – I think we only discovered Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place in the last eighteen months or so), but it’s truly sublime, and it only got better and better as it built towards it joyous climax (ewww, David!). It was a great show about a family of people who were kinda arseholes, but were really very nice underneath it all, and how this town of people who were sorta idiots but kinda nice underneath it all brought out the better natures of everybody. It was, basically, a show about the all-encompassing power of being Nice. I’m so, so happy that it achieved huge success in its final season, winning literally all the Emmys. Hot Schitt.

Top Trek: 2020 was bookended by the two newest incarnations of People Boldly Going, Picard and Discovery. I was super excited to check in with Jean-Luc and pals nearly twenty years since we’d last seen them; although the show wasn’t a Best of Both Worlds-style masterpiece, it presented a believably fractured vision of the Federation, and a sadder, wearier Picard. It got a bit bogged down in Borg stuff, and I wasn’t totally sold on the ending, but I’m very, very eager to spend more time with these characters in future seasons. Discovery, meanwhile, flashed forward, with a season set about 900 years after Picard, and gave us what amounts to the closest Star Trek gets to a dystopia. It took its time settling in, but by crikey it pulled its threads together for a great run of episodes as we gear up to the finale later this week. I’ve very much enjoyed Star Trek on TV this year, and I’m really looking forward to whatever comes next.

Netflickin’ Ass: on the one hand, it was quite nice to see streaming services picking up the slack during the cinema closures, with many films winding up on Prime Video or Netflix or wherever; there were also those “Premium VOD” options, such as Trolls World Tour or Mulan, but I never quite fancied parting with so much cash for a rental (“Only if it’s Black Widow or Wonder Woman,” I said… so, yeah, see you later this month for the latter!). One trend I did notice, however, was Netflix also picking up the slack of “big Hollywood star-driven action movie”. Y’know, the stuff that had Van Damme or Seagal in it in the ‘90s, before everything became franchised (Mission: Impossible could almost fall under this banner, but Cruise became too huge and the series itself eventually was the draw, I’d argue). Anyway, these sorts of films nowadays are low-rent DTV fodder starring slumming former megastars, so fair play to Netflix for resurrecting the genre and giving it a fresh coat of paint and lease of life. Stuff like Extraction and The Old Guard weren’t exactly masterpieces, but they were solidly entertaining with great central performances and some nicely turned-out action. Looking forward to more of the same – bigger, better, and with more people getting killed with rakes!

A Summer of Anticipation: it was a weird year – well, yeah, of course it was, you know, you were there. But one of the things that was weird was that so much was going to happen. I mean, there were loads of things I was looking forward to as the year began; from the MCU and Star Wars shows to big movies, smaller movies, and – of course – new games consoles. And as the year went on, amidst the angsty real-world wait-and-see, there was also a steady drip of news and non-news as we held on to find out which films were pushed back, which were skipping the cinema, and mostly what the games would look like on the new consoles. Barely a week seemed to go by without new rumours, new stories, and new leaked videos or imagery. It was maddening and infuriating but also, weirdly, glorious. This strange ongoing sense of anticipation and wonder, even if quite often the news ended up being disappointing as more and more big hitters slipped to 2021 (everything from Bond to Halo to pretty much the whole MCU). But like an entire year made up of Christmas Eves, it felt for the longest time that anything was possible… just round the corner.

See? It wasn’t all bad. And maybe this year we’ll get to enjoy all the stuff we thought we’d enjoy in 2020! I mean, at the very least, Trump’s gonna be gone… right?

#top ten #2020 #film #tv #disney #hamilton #mandalorian #games #xbox #halo #series x

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Is New Mutants an Ending for the Fox X-Men Universe?

https://ift.tt/2GsaFSZ

Ever since the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’ve been absolutely fascinated by any and all attempts for studios to create and navigate an expanded universe. Whether it’s based on superheroes or the supernatural, we’ve seen more Goofuses than Galants. Whatever your opinion of the Marvel movies, you have to at least admit that it worked out fantastically for Disney. They figured out a formula and it was a success.

Meanwhile, Amazing Spider-Man 2 got rewritten into oblivion, failed, and Sony buried their expansion plans until Venom became a surprise hit. Warner Bros. and DC rushed into their own shared cinematic universe with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, stumbled, recovered, and now seem confused about their future. The Wizarding World took a perfectly fine and self-contained spinoff, then gave it a sequel that went overboard in needless Harry Potter prequel reveals. Then Universal Dark Universe…was…yeah, that didn’t really even happen.

But Fox’s X-Men? That movie franchise came before all those others and it’s possibly the most bizarre and interesting as a whole. Even with everything surrounding the Justice League “Snyder Cut.” It’s a superhero series with 20 years, 13 movies, and no more future now that Disney owns what is now known as 20th Century Studios.

The legacy of the X-Men movie franchise is a wild ride. There were two beloved movies to kick things off with a third that, at best, can be considered awkward. They attempted a prequel based on their most popular character with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which backfired) but they got their footing thanks to a different prequel based on the team itself. With a somewhat forgettable Wolverine sequel in the can, they then did the closest thing the X-Men series had to an Avengers-style crossover event movie.

After that, we finally got the Deadpool spinoff movie that Fox was so reluctant to do, yet not only made them huge bank, but made them realize they could branch out. We got another main X-Men movie, a super-violent Wolverine finale, a Deadpool sequel, and production of two more movies that were muddily mixed with Disney’s purchase of Fox.

Throughout all of that, the movies weren’t totally coherent as a single narrative. Even if you ignore the general meta-ness of the Deadpool movies, the X-Men Cinematic Universe kept trying to apply Band-Aids when their continuity could never even hope for an open-casket funeral.

Dark Phoenix and New Mutants were filmed around the same time. The intent was for New Mutants to come out first, but it’s long become infamous for being the Duke Nukem Forever of mutant movies, getting pushed back repeatedly for a variety of reasons. That left Dark Phoenix as the “finale” for the X-Men Cinematic Universe.

But Dark Phoenix brought the franchise out with a whimper. Much of it had to do with Simon Kinberg trying to tell the same story that he did in X-Men: The Last Stand and not doing much better, if at all. Despite featuring big Hollywood names, almost everyone involved seemed to have checked out and Mystique’s death was telegraphed from the very first trailer.

The movie did scrap its downer ending of Xavier surveying the empty wreckage of his school for something more optimistic and fitting for a finale. Fitting enough, at least. Xavier left the school in Beast’s hands (or was kicked out) and went on to have a peaceful chess game with Magneto. All the while, we could see the Phoenix in the day sky with Jean doing a monologue.

As if referencing the X-Men’s new cinematic future underneath the Disney banner, Jean left us with, “This is not the end of me or the X-Men. This is a new beginning.” There would be no post-credits scene.

It felt defeated and accepting that it was the end of the line, but also felt flat. It was an ending, but it was an ending that felt anything but fresh.

Now, New Mutants was supposed to be the beginning of a trilogy, but watching it as the final X-Men film…it felt like the cusp of something more.

Despite being a new property, New Mutants immediately ties into the greater X-Men Cinematic Universe. An older version of Sunspot was featured briefly in X-Men: Days of Future Past and Illyana Rasputin – while not mentioned – is Colossus’ sister. Now, after all the delays and the realization that Disney was still going to release this baby in theaters during the pandemic, there was an outside chance that they could have made this some kind of introduction to mutants in the MCU via clever editing and reshoots.

Except they didn’t do that.

Direct allusions to Charles Xavier and the X-Men show up about a third into the movie. This was definitely part of Fox’s reality. But it also seemed like it was latching onto the various properties. We already had a connection to X-Men’s big “event” movie and that family connection, but the unseen greater evil of New Mutants is something we’ve seen not only in other X-movies, but in the very different X-movie properties, including the ones that haven’t been fully confirmed as canon to each other.

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A funny thing about New Mutants is that despite being based on a specific X-Men offshoot team from the comics, the basic plot is more reminiscent of the comic series Avengers Academy. We’re supposed to think that all these youngsters are ultimately training to be X-Men with potential to be great heroes. Instead, the big twist is that they aren’t being prepared for Charles Xavier’s school. Instead, they’re being prepared as dangerous supervillains with a future as minions for the Essex Corporation.

That’s Essex as in Nathaniel Essex. As in Mr. Sinister.

After 20 years, the overdressed mutant mastermind is the most prominent villain not to show up in any of these movies. Rumors claim that we were supposed to get John Hamm to play him in at least a teaser, but there are conflicting reports on that. It’s also been said that he was going to be a major player in the Gambit movie that never got off the ground.

Even though Sinister is nowhere to be found in the film, his fingerprints are all over the X-Men Cinematic Universe of the past several years. X-Men: Apocalypse had a post-credits scene showing the cleanup of a Weapon X site where Wolverine went on a rampage. One man takes a few vials of blood and puts them in a briefcase with “ESSEX CORP.” inscribed on it.

The only Wolverine-related movie to follow that was Logan, which sometimes suggested that it possibly wasn’t in the same reality as the other X-Men movies. Outside of the first movie’s climax being referenced and a deleted scene shout out to Sabretooth, the X-Men were depicted as more fiction than fact when it came to their colorful flashiness. It was still a world of fantastic elements, like cloning, cyborgs, and kids with special powers.

In this dystopia, we saw a group of biologically-engineered mutant children being trained as weapons in some shady facility. New Mutants connected the dots. With her own version of telepathy, Dani Moonstar had flashes of moments from Logan – straight-up reused footage, even – that made it very apparent that the place that created X-23 was none other than part of the Essex Corporation. Or that the place that would one day create X-23. The timeline situation is iffy as is.

Essex also had his finger in the delicious pie that is Deadpool 2. The movie’s plot revolves around Deadpool’s attempt to save the soul of Russel Collins, AKA Firefist. They didn’t make a big deal out of the place’s name, but Russel was brought up in the Essex House for Mutant Rehabilitation. Once again, another corrupt place that tried to experiment on and control young mutants with the Essex seal of approval. In the end, that place was destroyed and all of the students were brought to the X-Mansion.

New Mutants ends with the five protagonists free from imprisonment, with an uncertain future ahead of them. It’s a better ending than Dark Phoenix, in my opinion. It’s an ending that suggests that this disjointed mutant reality filled with retcon after retcon after retcon was actually building towards something truly climactic.

Mainline X-Men. Deadpool and X-Force. The New Mutants. The dystopian future of Logan. Four very different pieces that could have potentially come together in one adventure with the sinister smile of an ominous supervillain opposing them. X-Men: Endgame, essentially. A major finale is off on the horizon, never to be fully realized, but one where all the aspects of the Fox X-Men collective could have saved the future for a third time.

Who knows? Maybe we’ll get it in comic form one day.

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