Credit: 20th Century Fox PicturesTo say Marvel Studios is facing some choppy waters would be a grand and glorious understatement. As many of the MCU’s bigger projects like Blade, The Kang Dynasty, and more have been put on hold, many fans are finally catching their breath after a season of superhero fatigue. That doesn’t mean some still don’t want more.
It was recently announced that Hugh Jackman would don the muttonchops and claws again as Wolverine for the upcoming Deadpool 3, but the sequel is also slated to be an official part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, meaning that this could be a way of canonically welcoming in the X-Men. However, it also opens the door for something bigger.
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills
The next Deadpool movie is said to be a hard R for the MCU, as it logically should. However, its success also opens the door for the chance to adapt one of the most graphic and poignant storylines in the entirety of the Marvel canon.
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God Loves, Man Kills is an X-Men graphic novel by the legendary Chris Claremont that takes the message of the civil rights movement that inspired the team to the fullest by incorporating violent religious leaders and political despots as the primary villains instead of Magneto or Mystique. The lines between fiction and reality become hauntingly blurred as the X-Men battle a fundamentalist zealot bent on wiping out all mutants.
The work is often considered one of the greatest X-Men stories, but many consider it unadaptable for a movie. While X2 used bits and pieces of the core storyline, such as William Stryker being the primary antagonist who uses Cerebro as a weapon, it doesn’t hold a candle to the graphic nature of the original novel.
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If Marvel Studios are willing to go hard R with the gratuitous violence in Deadpool’s movies, what’s to stop them from adapting something as shocking as this X-Men saga? Although it’s not the most violent story in the canon, themes of genocide, child murder, and racial hatred absolutely drip from the panels.
Described by Comics Explained on YouTube as “God’s war on the X-Men,” themes of corrupt religious and political powers are what drives the conflict. Given some of the news reports and incidents from our current social culture, it could be written as a perfect example of art imitating life.
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Due to the story’s content, it’s doubtful that Disney would allow this adaptation to come to life any time soon, at least not without a PG-13 rating. However, that’s not to say it wouldn’t be a tremendous success. Given the right direction, it could be the major win Marvel Studios needs.
Would you want to see an R-rated X-Men movie? Tell us in the comments below!