The latest batch of spy photos from the X-MEN: FIRST CLASS set seem to reveal that… *GASP* …the X-Men might be flying the Blackbird in the movie! Which I suppose is a spoiler on level with revealing that they’ll be hanging around in a mansion, too. In other words, it was pretty much a given, wasn't it? I’ve never quite understood the mystique the jet has had, but some curiosities have nevertheless been aroused over whether such a high tech jet would be anachronistic in the 60s. Considering that the ship debuted in the 70s (in X-MEN #104 natch!) I don’t think its inclusion should spur any time-keepers to blow their whistles. Still, the discussion does bring up the subject that this reboot's plot might actually concern time-travel...
I keep thinking about the statements Matthew Vaughn made early in the year wherein he said this flick would be a lot like the latest STAR TREK movie. The comparison easily could’ve been drawn on the basis of both being reboots but, if that were the case, it’d seem more appropriate to use BATMAN BEGINS as an example, wouldn't it? But time-travel? It's obviously a huge part of the former. It let the new Spock to meet the old Spock! And it let both continuities kept existing simultaneously. My mind was already on this track when I was reading this further statement Vaughn had about the script… == TEASER ==
"The story that Bryan Singer came up with is very, very smart… It's very clever when you see how he has integrated the characters into the time period where the film is set. I'll put it that way. I just don't want to give it away. ... It's a very clever way of getting these characters involved in recent history, in recent world events."
So we’re definitely talking about the past meeting the present. Whether it's metaphorically or literally remains to be seen. If it's the latter,then it might actually might long due because, if you think about it, time-travel’s a significant part of the X-Mythos (maybe even as integral as it is to Inferiorego’s beloved DR. WHO.) Bishop, Cable and Rachel & Hope Summers are all major mutants and they’re all time-travelers. Recent storylines (SECOND COMING, MESSIAH WAR) and classic ones (DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, AGE OF APOCALYPSE, LEGION QUEST) all revolve around time-travel. The fan who’s in too deep probably won’t notice - - he'll probably chalk all of that up as breaks from the norm - - but the outside observer would look at these comics and notice that many of them have to do with somebody going from the future to the past, or vice versa.
The mutant movies so far have addressed most of the major pillars of the X-Mythos. You got evil mutants and racial allegories in X-MEN, human anti-mutant efforts and sub-culture allegories in X2, negated mutations and the Phoenix force in THE LAST STAND and then mutant history and Weapon X in WOLVERINE. The only major parts left to address are the Sentinels, the Shi’Ar… and time travel.
I always figured that the X-Men hauling it to farthest-flung principalities of Majestrix Lillandra would be way, way, way too outlandish to jibe with the kind of grounded verisimilitude Singer insisted on for the series. However, remember that other comment Vaughn had about about superhero movies probably being on the way out? The attitude might be that if millions of mainstream viewers have been steadily acclimated to believing in mutants over the past decade, then maybe they’re ready for the really crazy stuff in this last hurrah. You’ve already got a sign of that in the movie’s setting. A period piece superhero movie? That definitely wouldn’t have flown in 2000.
If my borderline-conspiracy theory were true, it would explain a lot of things you maniacs have been confused about it with the casting. Latter-day mutants like AngeI Il, Havok, Banshee, Darwin and Azazel being around for the first iteration of the X-Men isn’t as perplexing if the rivers of time are flowing together. Oliver Platt’s mysterious, non-mutant “Man in Black” character could very well be one of the many time-traveling nemeses in the rogue’s gallery like Nimrod, Bastion, Fitzroy, Stryfe or even a heavily-reworked version of Apocalypse.
Do any of any you maniacs see what I'm seeing here? Or am I way off the mark? Have I been starring into the abyss for too long (not the Horseman of Apocalypse one) that the abyss is finally starring back at me? Even if I'm wrong about this, I've still got a strong hunch that these guys have more up their sleeves for this movie than just a brawl with the Hellfire Club.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon here & here . Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk