The Yellow Flick Road

If I was a conspiracy theorist (and I’m not, because that’s what they want us to believe), I would say that 20-Century Fox has it in for any positive black male role model, and that is why they never survive in an X-Men film. In contrast, The MCU has cultivated several black men as heroes – James Rhodes or Rhodey, Sam Wilson aka Falcon, and T’Challa the Black Panther, and the DCCU has several as well, albeit not as pristine – Victor (Cyborg) Stonex, Deadshot, they even kept Black Manta ALIVE – the XCU goes out of its way to discard the smattering of black men they have loitering about. Korath the Persuer, by the way. Djimon Honsou? Amistad? (I forgot about Heimdall in the video. Sorry Idris Elba).

It’s blatant misappropriation, that rivals the incredulity I felt when Chris Claremont introduced Thunderbird – the only Native American character at the time - as one of the new X-Men when Marvel comics rebooted the series, only to promptly kill him off one issue into the run. It would’ve been better to not introduce them in the first place than to give me false hope from their legacy.

When X-Men was released in 2000xix, I was like any other fanboy: elated and pleasantly surprised by how good it was. We knew that none of the protagonists were in danger, although the changes from the comic book canon were staggering. Bryan Singer had did a good job of translating this band of misfits quietly living in upstate New York and occasionally heading to the city in a military grade stealth bomber to combat other mutants from the flat page to the cinema stage. I forgave the Tyler Bates’ Sabertooth because of Ray Park. I forgave Hugh Jackman’s physical height for his emotional weight. I even forgave Halle Berry. She made Swordfish, Monster’s Ball and Gothika after this… the forgiveness is justified.

Looking at the team, it was reminiscent of the first team introduced by Stan Lee in the 1960s (right. Put the woman all the way in the back) – Scott Summers and Jean Grey, two thirds of the original squad, plus the addition of Storm - comprised the entire roster. Compared to today, that seems rather light, but we were also introduced to Rogue and Logan, as well as cameos from Kitty Pryde (no this one) and Bobby Drake, who play more prominent roles in later films. Diversity is not explored in this first film of its kind. If we wanted diversity in our ethnicity, we’d need to reach back quite a few years to the Blade trilogy and Colt 45’s Harvey Dent (I would’ve loved to have seen Billy Dee Williams’ take on Two-Face… what? They did? Everything is awesome.). And Berry doesn’t count.They didn’t explore Storm’s background at all (or even give her much of a personality) and Berry herself is half white and as Storm her hair is all white. No black men to kill in this film.xliii But if it is any consolation, all of the non-human looking mutants in this film are either killed, or presumed dead. Mystique survived because she can look human.

X2: X-Men United, released in 2003 is arguably the best film in the first trilogy and maybe the third best of all of the X-films. The diversity increases; you now have very tall characters and another blue person. The introduction of Nightcrawler and the kid with the lizard tongue on hero side and Kelly Hu as Logan’s foil doesn’t even open the diversity envelope. Rest assured – Hu’s Lady Deathstrike dies horribly and definitively. No black men were killed in the making of this film.

X3: The Final Stand is overall a disappointment, and has no place in this article, even with the appearance of liDania Ramirez. Or Bill Duke as Trask, for that matter.

The trilogy aside, let’s examine how the next set of X-Men movies discount black men in the XCU.

X-Men: First Class is the second best film in the series and truer to the source material. The recasting of Charles Xavier, Eric Lensherr and Hank McCoy breathe new life into the series without diminishing the performances of Patrick Stewart, lviiIan McKellen and even Kelsey Grammer, late to the party as it were. (I know, Kelsey was in Last Stand. I of course mean Nicholas Hoult). First Class introduced both Darwin, the first black male character, played by Edi Gathegi (star of Briarpatch, recurring roles on House, Life on Mars CSI: Miami, Veronica Mars, Nikita, and Into the Badlands and solid performances in Gone Baby Gone, The Blacklist:Redemption and the Twilight Saga) and Angel also brown played by Zoe Kravitz. Given that up to this point, the only skin color prominently displayed other than pink was blue, this was a step in the right direction.

My objection to killing Darwin is not because he’s black.lxix My objection to killing Darwin is that it’s DARWIN, whose mutant power is not dying. Did scriptwriters Jane Goldman, Ashley Edward Miller, Matthew Vaughn, and Zack Stentz all not know this? OR did killing Darwin clean up the major concern: Darwin is the most powerful mutant in the film. We cannot have that, now, can we? After establishing how powerful Eric is, and how powerful Sebastian Shaw appears, it would really muddy the waters to showcase an additional powerhouse. The argument can be made that lxxxDarwin was simply too inexperienced to avoid being killed by Shaw, if they didn’t also play loosey-goosey with Shaw’s power set as well. It appears as if Shaw absorbs all kinds of energy, and not just kinetic energy (as he does in the comic books). Actually, in the comics, all Shaw can do with the kinetic energy he absorbs is increase his strength. Which is fine. Our writers could’ve worked with that.

And this is the inequity. By making Shaw stronger and making Darwin weaker, we have an antagonist who is in no way threatened by anyone. Certainly, that adds to the sweetness of his defeat at the end, but Dr. Leonard McCoy wouldn’t have approved.(dammit, man you could at least ACTED like it was a hard decision!)

By X-Men: Days of Future xciPast the baby has been thrown out with the bathwater.xcii Our brave scriptwriters – Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn again – have decided to trim the fat and kill off any characters that don’t profit the film, like the entire brotherhood, and bench Havok, whose powers in this movie would be a game changer. We do have the benefit being introduced to Bishop, which was immediately exciting, especially how he was initially used as a time conduit. Perfect for this film, and a brave move, if the writers had decided that Bishop was who we needed to go back in time. Omar Sy, a popular French actor with credits such as The Intouchables and Jurassic World would be a fun watch as he convinces a young Charles and a young Eric to work together to save the future.

That is not what we got. Instead, we see him die at the hands of the Sentinels. An implausible death, as Bishop, a mutant with the ability to absorb energy just like Sebastian Shaw, is killed ABSORBING ENERGY. This is like Storm getting struck by lightning. Bishop literally blows up, and that spits in everyone’s face.

What a literal waste of a good character.When Deadpool 2 decided to kill Wade’s entire team, it didn’t feel like they were targeting Terry Crews; it was played for laughs. But in DoFP, killing Storm and Bishop back to back made me want to protest.

And the last two movies – Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix – don’t count.We will put them right next to The Last Stand, on the part of the shelf that is hard to reach.

I feel obliged to mention X-Men Origins: Wolverine simply because it does contain another underused and killed off black character: cxivWraith played by Will.I.Am. cxvWraith has the ability to teleport, a popular mutant ability used by a few characters in the XCU. In a poorly written scene, Wraith is fighting Victor Creed, who gains the upper hand by predicting where Wraith will teleport next. Why didn’t Wraith simply Azazel?

With any luck, all of this needless killing of black men will cease, now that Disney has acquired the Fox from Marvel the intellectual property known as the X-Men. Say it Loud: Mutant and Proud.

Black Lives Matter.