Enter the Mutants

This is Asteroid G’s regular column documenting the rise of superhero films in Hollywood. For the complete story, make sure to read the previous parts:

• Part 1: Batman '66
• Part 2: Superman '78
• Part 3: Wonder Woman '75 and the Incredible Hulk '78
• Part 4: Batman '89
• Part 5: Batman & Robin
• Part 6: Blade

When I note that it was Blade that specifically launched the modern superhero genre, this is based on a couple of specific criteria. First, the film was a solid success that proved Marvel heroes could bring audiences to the Box Office. Gone were the days of budget Captain America films or Roger Corman Fantastic Four movies that couldn’t even get a real release and only existed to keep licenses secured. Instead, Marvel heroes were given a chance to really shine, and they did, with multiple heroes finding their way to the Silver Screen. Not all of those films was smash successes (Fantastic Four, we’re sorry), but Marvel saw plenty of hits… even if they didn’t get to reap most of the money from those Box Office juggernauts (which we will get to soon enough).

But the other thing that it showed to studios was that the films didn’t have to stick to the specific aesthetics of the original comics. That, if they had the right look, and the right vibe, they could deviate far from the source material on subject, costume, and tone, so long as the story was really good. In the comics, Blade the Vampire Hunter was a garishly dressed with a cocky attitude who worked with teams of other vampire hunters to track and fight Dracula. All of that is absent from his first film, recasting him into a stoic, leather-clad, half-vampire on a personal mission to kill all vampire kind. If you went from the movie to the comics you’d find yourself reading a very different story, which is why Marvel went along and reinvented the character in the comics to match his movie counterpart. Marvel learned that what audiences see, and respond well to, is what really matters. Because of Blade, Marvel let their own comics, and their ambitions as well, get reinvented alongside cinematic superheroes.

Getting Fox-y

The first studio to take what Blade set out and put it into practical use for a more mainstream team of heroes (because, let’s be clear, as awesome as Blade is, it’s an R-rated, gory vampire movie that wasn’t for everyone) was Fox. When Marvel had their firesale, selling off the film rights to various superheroes so they could keep their lights on, Fox snatched up the X-Men and their cadre of related mutants. A script had been in development for the studio as far back as 1994, when James Cameron and Katheryn Bigelow were attached to produce and direct, respectively. But it wasn’t specifically until Blade that the studio recognized the time was right to let the Marvel heroes take the spotlight, and they pushed the film into production.

Made on a budget of $75 Mil ($30 Mil more than New Line spent on Blade, but still cheap in comparison to the bloated budgets of today’s superhero films), X-Men focused on a core cast of characters with no real origin stories or cruft to get in the way, just a mission to follow, a villain to find, and a plan for world ruination to foil. It’s not that Blade and X-Men are the same film, but you can see a number of parallels between the production that make you think the higher ups at Fox wanted to get their own Blade specifically.

The first any fan will notice, naturally, are the costumes. In the comics (like with Blade the Vampire Hunter), the X-Men wear bright, colorful costumes, such as Wolverine’s yellow spandex, Cyclops’s blue full bodysuit, or Jean Grey’s little green number. None of that is in the movie, with all the heroes dressed in some version of black leather. You know, like a certain vampire hunter on the big screen. The closest the movie gets to mirroring the comics costumes is letting Storm have a cape with silver on the inside. That’s not really the same as her all white costume from the comics, though.

Clearly the studios felt that audiences liked the black leather and were actively rejecting the traditional costumes from the comics. Similarly, they felt that a stoic, sarcastic, troubled here was the guy that should lead a superhero movie, so while the character was just one member of the team (a popular member, sure) who wasn’t even a part of the core team until much later, Wolverine was promoted to, effectively, the film’s lead character. Much of the plot is about him, his backstory is a key component of this film (and, later, its sequel), and many of the best action set pieces revolve around him.

And there’s the villain’s mad plan. EVen if it is loosely based on a story from the comics, there’s no denying that Magneto’s plan to have a machine turn all the people attending a UN summit into mutants (and, thus, committing them to a slow and painful death in the process) really boils down to a bunch of silly, CGI slop. Just like the final battle in Blade as well. It’s not a one-to-one comparison, of course, but it’s still weird that for all the ways the heroes could have battled the villains, all the cool things they could have done, silly CGI won the day.

This isn’t to say that X-Men is a bad movie. Far from it. The film, released in 2000 to fan acclaim and solid Box Office numbers (making $296.3 Mil), is really solid and quite enjoyable. It’s not without its flaws, from a rushed story to a rather tight and constrained feel to the whole production, but overall it’s a solid superhero film and a great introduction for many to the X-MenLaunched in 1963 and written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-Men featured heroes distinctly different from those featured in the pages of DC Comics. Mutants who didn't ask for their powers (and very often didn't want them), these heroes, who constantly fought against humans who didn't want "muties" around, served as metaphors for oppression and racism. Their powerful stories would form this group into one of the most recognizable superhero teams in comics (and a successful series of movies as well).. The film took the lessons of Blade and learned it well, giving audiences a film that neatly tucked into their expectations and leaned into what fans wanted, all while providing a good time. But you just know some studio suit was taking notes and forcing the production to go certain ways all so they could have their own Blade. It just seems so obvious when you’re looking at it.

But How Did It Redefine Superheroes?

In the case of X-Men, this impact is smaller than what we’ve seen before. Primarily what it proved was that Fox had a hot property on their hands and they could milk it for all it was worth. Over the course of 20 years, from X-Men in 2000 to The New Mutants in 2020, Fox released 13 films comprising seven mainline titles, three Wolverine-based films, two Deadpool films, and a spin-off. More films were also in production, although various hitches and setbacks due to some releases (like the absolutely hated X-Men Origins: Wolverine) forced Fox to slow their roll at times.

Of course, a lesson could have been learned here, like that studios should pay attention to what fans actually want and create good stories that focus on characters fans care about (even that hated Wolverine film at least made money) to launch further adventures in their connected universe. Sony, clearly, hasn’t learned that lesson with their connected Spider-man without Spider-man series of films, taking all the worst C- and D-list villains and trying to spin them into films no one wants to watch. Fox at least could use their main heroes and, even then, still managed to fuck it up pretty often.

But more than anything, X-Men and its sequels proved that the studios could forge a path for themselves, making films that felt good even if they weren’t beholden to the comics. Very rarely had comic book films stuck true to the source material (looking at you Superman: The Movie and Batman), but X-Men made changes that fans could live with, and the spirit of the characters lived on. That was vital, a lesson learned from Blade that would be passed on down the line to other superhero productions.

It’s Influence on the Future

Of course, more than anything this film gave us Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and everyone loves his performance of this character. Yes, it’s true that Jackman is easily a foot too tall and far too handsome (and, really, far to Australian) to play the ugly, short, hairy Canadian from the comics, but his performance was a fan favorite and he became the core character that connected so many of these films together. When he retired from the role after Logan, fans were genuinely upset.

Of course, once Disney got their hands on the X-Men property, they did what they could to lure him back, letting him play a variant of Wolverine, acting opposite his good friend Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine. That film ended up being a smash success, ranking among the top ten highest grossing films in the MCU. All because fans love his character (and Reynolds as Deadpool) and they welcomed him back with open arms. Even now, the Fox X-Men series just cannot die.

Thankfully, soon after this the outfits characters got to wear in superhero films (outside of the Fox series, for a time) did quickly go back to bright colors, away from all black leather. So that, at least, was one thing not all studios felt compelled to embrace.

Next Time On…

Fox took their shot, and now it’s Sony’s turn to make their licensed superhero property into a successful film franchise. That studio would bring in Sam Raimi to make the legendary Spider-man, still considered one of the greatest superhero films of all time. We’ll cover that next week…