Jack of Harts

I still remember in 2000 when this new film came out. It was a superhero film, but done straight. I grew up with Adam West’s Batman, and Christopher Reeves’ Superman. And I enjoyed the Batman series of movies that hit big all over. But all of those had a certain “larger than life” feel to them. They were fantastic and out of this world, and it was part of the charm of them. But X-Men came out in 2000, and for the first time I saw superheroes in a world that might actually exist in our own. Grounded in reality, with just enough amazing to make it entertaining to watch.

And of course, we were introduced to Rogue first of all. A girl hiding from her powers because all she could do was suck the life out of others. We’ve seen her use those powers for good in four different movies now, but we’ve never seen her gain her full powers in those movies. She’s managed to temporarily use the powers of others from time to time and to very good use, but she’s never flown or had super strength the way she does in the comics.

The reason is simple. There was never anyone with those powers in the X-Men films for her to take them from. The X-Men films stayed away from the “single Superman” style characters and held mostly to characters that could do one thing really well. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has done much of the same thing until now in order to keep their stories as grounded as the X-Men films have done.

But now the times they are a changing. Disney owns both Marvel Studios and Sony, giving them control of nearly all of the film properties associated with Marvel Comics. And they recently introduced a new Superman/Captain Marvel/Green Lantern style of superpowered uberhero that can fly, super punch, and many of the other fun things that the flying brick style heroes can do. Search for that term on a certain trope site if you dare. Do not curse me if you do, because I didn’t link to it. You’ll have to work to get sucked in there.

So with Disney ownership of movie rights for both X-Men mutants and the Iron Man non-mutant side of the Marvel universe, we can finally see a crossover of the two in film. Imagine Rogue showing up and draining the powers of a flying brick hero like she did in the comics and cartoons of the past. There’s a movie in theaters right now showing the origin story of Carol Danvers (AKA Marvel’s Captain Marvel), who Rogue absorbed on her quest to become one of the most popular superheroes in comics and on any screen. And the MCU is rapidly approaching the end of its current phase of existence.

The snap of Thanos has changed everything, the Avengers will probably have to change much more to reverse the damage he did. Imagine a whole new universe of possibilities on film. Imagine that the sudden introduction of Carol Danvers and her copyright-troubled moniker in the last two films is all buildup for introducing another far more famous character. Imagine the X-Men joining the MCU with a bang.

Now I would pay good money to see more of Anna Paquin. Oh, I understand if they feel the need to recast their heroes. It has been twenty years after all, and they’ve done it already with many of the X-Men. But to me and a generation of moviegoers, Anna Paquin has always been Rogue. She’s been the only Rogue. And I would just love to see more of her.

So…Imagine the X-Men coming to a new and grander MCU.

Imagine Rogue.