X-Men Characters That Can't Quite Make The Leap Out Of The Comics
After three live action movies and at least four animated renditions you would think bringing a X-Men character "to life" would be simple. Sadly with each incarnation some characters end up being shells of their comics book selves. Besides, it's just so much easier (and cooler) to just animate Wolverine popping his claws in someone's face.
Here's one humble man's critique on X-Men characters the shows (and movies) still screw up on:
STORM
I wanted to start with Ororo Munroe because I wanted to set the tone here. I don't think I have to go into Hallie Berry's forgettable, uninspired performance or the fact that I think there are others way more qualified for a live action rendition. But I will say that where the movies screwed up the most was transforming Storm from an objective weather witch into a slightly human-hating mutant who couldn't beat D.C. Comic's Weather Wizard in a Battle of Climates.
(For those thinking, "human-hating?" recall Storm's conversation with but a mutated Sen. Kelly in "X-Men" and a recovering Nightcrawler in "X2." With Kelly, Storm pretty much admitted she hated humanity out of fear, and with Nightcrawler she argue that anger can trump faith any day.)
Thankfully, animated Storm has been more mentally stable. Unfortunately, the writers for the past three shows must have come to the same conclusion: having a person who can control the weather with little difficulty kinda puts a damper on the "X-Men are constantly in danger" theme. So for "X-Men" they simply take her out of some episodes (she's basically a bystander during the Phoenix Saga story), for "X-Men: Evolution" they regulated her to school nanny, and for "Wolverine and the X-Men" she's basically "the black girl who can fly and shoot lighting." The fact that with every show her leadership abilities get more watered down hasn't gone unnoticed either.
The alternative is to just make her a reserve member, someone to call when things get too hot for the core group, but that will never happen for fear of "Marvel's not letting the black people in their little X-club!" protests. But to be honest, it's better than having to watch Wolverine ask Storm to make water for cement.
And yes, I know Storm's actually from Africa.
ICEMAN
In the comics Bobby Drake is the youngest of the Original Five; the class clown with potential to be greater yet hampered by a combination of immaturity and slightly racist parents (OK, a full-blown racist dad and a nonchalant mom; that averages out to "slightly racist"). The movie touches on this a little, which is surprising considering that the movies were all about Wolverine.
In "X-Men" Iceman was a troublesome goof-off that even Prof. X didn't want to be bothered with and only appeared in on episode (way to show a founding member love, guys). In "Evolution" he was just "the kid who froze stuff;" although they did do a nice homage of the Original Five in one of the later season's episodes. In "W&X" he's more of a slacker that occasionally flirts with Shadowcat (Lord knows why), but he did freeze 1/180th of the Atlantic Ocean (before passing out) to stop a human time bomb.
Of course, none of these incarnations has gone too deep into Iceman's full potential. There are stories where the guy's frozen armies, dropped Titanic-sinking Icebergs on human-hating mutants (not Storm), and even used his powers to become virtually unkillable (OK, it was Emma Frost using his body, but it was still his powers). In a way he has Storm's problem: there are too many ways where he could win a fight all by himself, so it's easier to give him crippling personality flaws.
GAMBIT
Here we get into one of the more interesting characters, which basically means an X-Man who wasn't raised under Xavier's tutolege yet for some reason still wants to fight the good fight. In Remy Lebeau's case, he's a thief with a heart of gold (think Sawyer from LOST but with superpowers). In "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" Gambit is not only not portrayed by Josh Holloway, but (in addition to his ability to charge objects with kinetic energy) can apparently climb walls and pilot really crappy airplanes. Oh and even though he's in his late 20's, this is still a prequel movie so he's like 40-something by the time Rogue runs into Logan in "X-Men."
The temptation to put Gambit in fight scenes, draw him in awesome poses and give him cool one-liners was always present in the comics, but in the animated world the creators has the added bonus of making it happen with Gambit really adding anything of significance to the storyline (go back to X-Men and count the times Gambit just does things without saying a damn word). In Evolution he was basically Magneto's lackey and to be honest, I almost forgot he was in this series. In W&X, he's more of an independent contractor, but he's definitely more resourceful.
So what's been missing? Maybe the conflict between being a petty criminal and a hero. Like I said two paragraphs ago, Sawyer is basically a live action Gambit. How much more material do the animators need to go on? Just watch the first two and a half seasons of LOST, copy all of Holloway's lines, hammer in some Cajun slang and there you go!
KITTY PRYDE
I kinda hate putting "Everyone's Girlfriend" on this list because next to Wolverine, she has to be the most overexposed X-character right now (after the God-awful "Kitty Pryde and the X-Men," her character could only be found in the comics until the second X-Men movie). But the problem with a girl who's pretty much been everything from a ballerina to an international spy is that it's hard to find anything definitive about her (hence why in "X-Men Evolution" the writers just basically made her a quasi-Jewish valley girl).
Other than her religion (which was never as big a component of her character as, say Nightcrawler), her attraction to Colossus and the fact every young heterosexual X-fan loved her, who the hell Kitty Pryde? You could say she's smart, but she's no where near Beast or Forge let alone the accredited Marvel geniuses (Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner); hell, she's probably a notch under Peter Parker (if that). You could say she's nice, but Jean Grey's had the "good girl perfect princess" title locked up years before Pryde came on the scene. Storm's a better leader; Psylocke's a better fighter; Jubilee's sassier; Rogue has more depth.
In reality, Kitty's more or less a blank slate character that can reflect whatever generation we're in; which means more often than not someone will screw her up.
FORGE
Jesus; where do I begin? You would think an engineering genius with a Native American background would make for an intriguing character. You would think. As far as I can tell, Forge has yet to make it in the movies (though with all the subtle cameos, who the hell knows?) so there's still hope on that front.
The cartoons? Another story. I mean, talk about taking liberty with a character. In "X-Men" he's a stoic government worker bee-turned high-tech freedom fighter. In "Evolution" he's a cross between a Borg and Fez from "That's 70's Show." As for the newest show, Forge is basically a Tom Green lookalike who moonlights as the team's mechanic.
Keep in mind we're talking about a guy who, in the comics, has fended off ancient demons, supplied the government with weapons that would make Tony Stark jealous and wooed women like Storm and Mystique. Just fucking sad.
PSYLOCKE
I could literally go on forever here, but let's wrap this up with everyone's favorite female X-ninja. Of course, if you've only watched the movie you probably think Elizabeth Braddock's power is to walk around through shadows so she can save money on cab fare. You'd also probably assumed that she was always Asian.
Don't fret; the cartoons did her even less justice. "X-Men" made her a McGuffin (Apocalypse needed telepaths to destroy the time-space continum so he could remake the universe in his image). There was a character that looked a lot like a young Betsy in "Evolution," but it turned out that she was Mystique in disguise. She did have a nice appearance in "W&X," if you exclude the fact that she wasn't a ninja, didn't have her British accent and had about 1/4th of her telepathic gifts (Emma Frost kicked her ass with little effort).
So yeah: Psylocke is a telepathic ninja who was British but became Japanese, but you'll never know that unless you've read the comics. Of course her being a bikini-wearing, sex-starved horn dog (she was mackin' on Cyclops years before the writers decided to have him hook up with Emma, and she totally banged Angel) might explain why there have been some re-writes.
Here's one humble man's critique on X-Men characters the shows (and movies) still screw up on:
STORM
I wanted to start with Ororo Munroe because I wanted to set the tone here. I don't think I have to go into Hallie Berry's forgettable, uninspired performance or the fact that I think there are others way more qualified for a live action rendition. But I will say that where the movies screwed up the most was transforming Storm from an objective weather witch into a slightly human-hating mutant who couldn't beat D.C. Comic's Weather Wizard in a Battle of Climates.
(For those thinking, "human-hating?" recall Storm's conversation with but a mutated Sen. Kelly in "X-Men" and a recovering Nightcrawler in "X2." With Kelly, Storm pretty much admitted she hated humanity out of fear, and with Nightcrawler she argue that anger can trump faith any day.)
Thankfully, animated Storm has been more mentally stable. Unfortunately, the writers for the past three shows must have come to the same conclusion: having a person who can control the weather with little difficulty kinda puts a damper on the "X-Men are constantly in danger" theme. So for "X-Men" they simply take her out of some episodes (she's basically a bystander during the Phoenix Saga story), for "X-Men: Evolution" they regulated her to school nanny, and for "Wolverine and the X-Men" she's basically "the black girl who can fly and shoot lighting." The fact that with every show her leadership abilities get more watered down hasn't gone unnoticed either.
The alternative is to just make her a reserve member, someone to call when things get too hot for the core group, but that will never happen for fear of "Marvel's not letting the black people in their little X-club!" protests. But to be honest, it's better than having to watch Wolverine ask Storm to make water for cement.
And yes, I know Storm's actually from Africa.
ICEMAN
In the comics Bobby Drake is the youngest of the Original Five; the class clown with potential to be greater yet hampered by a combination of immaturity and slightly racist parents (OK, a full-blown racist dad and a nonchalant mom; that averages out to "slightly racist"). The movie touches on this a little, which is surprising considering that the movies were all about Wolverine.
In "X-Men" Iceman was a troublesome goof-off that even Prof. X didn't want to be bothered with and only appeared in on episode (way to show a founding member love, guys). In "Evolution" he was just "the kid who froze stuff;" although they did do a nice homage of the Original Five in one of the later season's episodes. In "W&X" he's more of a slacker that occasionally flirts with Shadowcat (Lord knows why), but he did freeze 1/180th of the Atlantic Ocean (before passing out) to stop a human time bomb.
Of course, none of these incarnations has gone too deep into Iceman's full potential. There are stories where the guy's frozen armies, dropped Titanic-sinking Icebergs on human-hating mutants (not Storm), and even used his powers to become virtually unkillable (OK, it was Emma Frost using his body, but it was still his powers). In a way he has Storm's problem: there are too many ways where he could win a fight all by himself, so it's easier to give him crippling personality flaws.
GAMBIT
Here we get into one of the more interesting characters, which basically means an X-Man who wasn't raised under Xavier's tutolege yet for some reason still wants to fight the good fight. In Remy Lebeau's case, he's a thief with a heart of gold (think Sawyer from LOST but with superpowers). In "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" Gambit is not only not portrayed by Josh Holloway, but (in addition to his ability to charge objects with kinetic energy) can apparently climb walls and pilot really crappy airplanes. Oh and even though he's in his late 20's, this is still a prequel movie so he's like 40-something by the time Rogue runs into Logan in "X-Men."
The temptation to put Gambit in fight scenes, draw him in awesome poses and give him cool one-liners was always present in the comics, but in the animated world the creators has the added bonus of making it happen with Gambit really adding anything of significance to the storyline (go back to X-Men and count the times Gambit just does things without saying a damn word). In Evolution he was basically Magneto's lackey and to be honest, I almost forgot he was in this series. In W&X, he's more of an independent contractor, but he's definitely more resourceful.
So what's been missing? Maybe the conflict between being a petty criminal and a hero. Like I said two paragraphs ago, Sawyer is basically a live action Gambit. How much more material do the animators need to go on? Just watch the first two and a half seasons of LOST, copy all of Holloway's lines, hammer in some Cajun slang and there you go!
KITTY PRYDE
I kinda hate putting "Everyone's Girlfriend" on this list because next to Wolverine, she has to be the most overexposed X-character right now (after the God-awful "Kitty Pryde and the X-Men," her character could only be found in the comics until the second X-Men movie). But the problem with a girl who's pretty much been everything from a ballerina to an international spy is that it's hard to find anything definitive about her (hence why in "X-Men Evolution" the writers just basically made her a quasi-Jewish valley girl).
Other than her religion (which was never as big a component of her character as, say Nightcrawler), her attraction to Colossus and the fact every young heterosexual X-fan loved her, who the hell Kitty Pryde? You could say she's smart, but she's no where near Beast or Forge let alone the accredited Marvel geniuses (Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner); hell, she's probably a notch under Peter Parker (if that). You could say she's nice, but Jean Grey's had the "good girl perfect princess" title locked up years before Pryde came on the scene. Storm's a better leader; Psylocke's a better fighter; Jubilee's sassier; Rogue has more depth.
In reality, Kitty's more or less a blank slate character that can reflect whatever generation we're in; which means more often than not someone will screw her up.
FORGE
Jesus; where do I begin? You would think an engineering genius with a Native American background would make for an intriguing character. You would think. As far as I can tell, Forge has yet to make it in the movies (though with all the subtle cameos, who the hell knows?) so there's still hope on that front.
The cartoons? Another story. I mean, talk about taking liberty with a character. In "X-Men" he's a stoic government worker bee-turned high-tech freedom fighter. In "Evolution" he's a cross between a Borg and Fez from "That's 70's Show." As for the newest show, Forge is basically a Tom Green lookalike who moonlights as the team's mechanic.
Keep in mind we're talking about a guy who, in the comics, has fended off ancient demons, supplied the government with weapons that would make Tony Stark jealous and wooed women like Storm and Mystique. Just fucking sad.
PSYLOCKE
I could literally go on forever here, but let's wrap this up with everyone's favorite female X-ninja. Of course, if you've only watched the movie you probably think Elizabeth Braddock's power is to walk around through shadows so she can save money on cab fare. You'd also probably assumed that she was always Asian.
Don't fret; the cartoons did her even less justice. "X-Men" made her a McGuffin (Apocalypse needed telepaths to destroy the time-space continum so he could remake the universe in his image). There was a character that looked a lot like a young Betsy in "Evolution," but it turned out that she was Mystique in disguise. She did have a nice appearance in "W&X," if you exclude the fact that she wasn't a ninja, didn't have her British accent and had about 1/4th of her telepathic gifts (Emma Frost kicked her ass with little effort).
So yeah: Psylocke is a telepathic ninja who was British but became Japanese, but you'll never know that unless you've read the comics. Of course her being a bikini-wearing, sex-starved horn dog (she was mackin' on Cyclops years before the writers decided to have him hook up with Emma, and she totally banged Angel) might explain why there have been some re-writes.
Comments