12 Easy Solutions To Save The X-Men Franchise

More than anything, we need to be reminded that the X-Men are a family. Not the kind of tight family unit that the Fantastic Four represent, but the kind you select for yourself later on in life when you’re left to choose who you want to be and what you want to stand for.

There’s a tribalistic element to it, sure. But throughout decades of comic books, the core X-Men have always been a group of people who stay together, not just because they’re the same, or to survive, or out of some kind of superheroic sense of obligation to society... but because they’re a team. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. They live together, train together, learn how each others’ powers work and what makes each other tick.

These are people who’ve taken on codenames, not to protect their true identities, but to adopt new ones that express who they are as mutants. It’s literally an empowerment issue… but they’ll still call each other by their given names half the time, bicker like siblings, pair off like excited kids at summer camp, and occasionally vow never to speak to one another again - and even mean it for a few years.

Other superheroes can have their Civil War, come to blows and even bloodshed over misunderstandings and politics. The X-Men will fight, sure - but the same way you fought with your brother when you were kids, with an anger that’s soon forgotten.

The X-Men in these movies have never been a family, and that - aside from the inconsistent and questionable characterisation that’s often haunted these films - is one of the main reasons they’re just not as compelling as they should be. These are gaps that a new X-Men script needs to fill.