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Well, here we are, another X-Men movie is out and once again I am inspired
to draw a few things I'd like to see in the sequel. Last time, I only
thought about the heroes themselves. I thought they might allow more time to
pass between the events of the first and second movies. I thought maybe
Iceman would move up into the ranks of the offical X-Men, but that's not how
it worked out. That's okay, I was very happy with X2. One of the best
sequels I've ever seen. It built on the foundation laid in the first movie
and surpassed it.
Another thing I liked was how the secondary character, Iceman, Rogue and
Pyro really helped move the story along. They weren't just along for the
ride, they weren't just baggage or potential hostages for the villains to
use against the "real" heroes. Another nice thing were the cameos, Kitty
Pryde running through walls, again, and Siryn waking the whole mansion, when
they were under attack and Colossus armoring-up and walking into the line of
fire.
Then there were the nifty little things showing up in the background:
On Stryker's computer the following files are listed:
Guthrie, Paige (Husk)
Guthrie, Samuel (Cannonball)
Harada, Keniucho (known as The Silver Samurai)
Kane, Garrison (Weapon X)
LeBeau, Remy (Gambit)
Lensherr, Eric M (Magneto)
Maddicks, Artie (Artie)
Madrox, Jamie (Multiple Man)
Mahn, Xi'an Coy (Karma)
Maximoff (2) (Wanda and Pietro, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Names weren't specified)
McTaggart, Kevin (Proteus)
Moonstar, Danielle (Moonstar)
Munroe, Ororo (Storm)
On another screen there were a series of folders on the computer's desktop.
These folders listed some well-known individuals or places from the X-Men
universe, including:
Omega Red (Russian mutant super soldier)
Muir Island (Scottish mutant research facility)
Project Wideawake (Codename for Sentinel project)
Franklin Richards (Son of Fantastic Four's Reed Richards and Sue Storm, born a mutant)
Cerebro (Mutant tracking device created by Professor Xavier and Magneto)
And, in a televised debate, Dr. Henry McCoy (the Beast) is facing off
against a "Dr." Sebastian Shaw (Black King of the Hellfire Club).
There was plenty for the comic fans to enjoy about X2, but here are a few
things I would have liked to see:
Storm really flying...
Bobby Drake frosting up to become Iceman.
Rogue punch Magneto in the face.
More Colossus!
And, on that note . . .
They did an excellent job with Colossus, the casting was spot-on, and the
only thing missing was the Russki accent. Big as he is, he should easily
make it to the team, by the next film (I have my fingers crossed, anyway!)
and so I thought he might dress something like this:
Sticking with the established X-uniforms, I figure Peter would go without
the leather jacket. I mean, he's gonna tear up clothes like mad, in any
decent fight, so why not save a few bucks and leave the jacket back in the
plane. I couln't resist modelling the belt on Colussus' original belt and
giving him boots similar to the ones he first wore as an X-Man, way back
when.
If I have one complaint about the X-Men uniforms in these movies, it's that
none of the guys get cool boots. So I thought I'd change that, with
Colossus.
At the end of the movie, we get to see Iceman and Rogue in their uniforms,
so I don't need to worry about them, but there's a character we don't get to
follow, there at the end. John Allerdyce, "Pyro", goes off with Magneto to
begin his life of crime. Magneto's people tend to dress in styles far
outside the norm, so it's not too far-fetched to think that John might adopt
a distinctive costume, to go along with his "real name" (as Magneto put it).
I borrowed from the lines of his original comic-book costume, and tried to
work it into a red and orange "racing suit" style outfit.
In addition to the suit, there's the fuel tank and flamethrower
wrist-units, because he can't create the fire, as he explains to Magneto,
only control it. And, in place of the mask, gold lens shades.
I'm sure they could work with the colors a bit and make it fit the
aesthetic of the movies. I'd sure like to see him throwing around flame
creatures and such, next time.
Something on the screen in Stryker's office jumped out at me, (and most of
you who've seen the movie, I imagine) the file on the computer for Project
Wideawake.
Wideawake is the code-name for the government sponsored Sentinel project
introduced in the same storyline that gave us Senator Robert Kelly, Mystique
and Pyro, as well as one of the more intriguiging bits of future history in
comics. In the story, 20 years in the future (or so), Katherine Pryde, with
the aid of Rachel Summers (daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, of
course) mentally switches places with her younger self to try to prevent
history from following the path that led to her world, where the United
States is under the absolute control of the Sentinels. Where traffic moves
on Manhattan streets drawn by horses, where mutants and other super-normals
are herded into internment camps and exterminated. Wolverine is part of an
underground resistance attempting to overthrow the Sentinels before they
decide to spread their dominion to the rest of the world, something which
would very likely lead to nuclear war.
Kate/Kitty is the source of information that leads the X-Men into conflict
with the newly formed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (new, in the sense that
this is the first time these X-Men have seen a Brotherhood). In the end,
some changes are made, Senator Kelly is not killed by the Brotherhood, but
the Sentinels are still approved for construction by the US President
(would've been Jimmy Carter, at that point, if you're interested) in a scene
with Sebastian Shaw.
So, here we have all the elements introduced in X2...Sebastian Shaw, plans
for Wideawake in the government computers and something else that occurred
to me.
At one point in their conflict with the Hellfire Club, Wolverine carved up
a number of Hellfire Club goons like Thanksgiving turkeys. At the time, we
all thought he'd killed them, but based on an edict from the Editor-in-Chief
at the time, Jim Shooter, we later learned that they hadn't been killed,
after all. Shooter didn't like the idea of heroes killing, so he simply
decreed that the change be made. Okay, fine. So, what happened to those
guys?
Well, they showed up in the New Mutants and we learned they had been made
over into cyborgs. They also had a pathological fear of Wolverine, which is
only to be expected, I suppose.
So, I says to myself, what do I REALLY want to see in X3?
Well, Phoenix, obviously, but also, I want to see SENTINELS.
When the Sentinels first appeared, they weren't the towering monstrosities
they later became. In those early stories, they weren't much more than 10 or
12 feet tall. Big, but not gigantic. They were goofy-looking, but spooky, in
their way. If you doubt it, go back and look at Alex Ross' version of the
early Sentinels in Marvels. I like the smaller Sentinels for practical
reasons. The mass of a 50-foot robot would be enormous, it's power
requirements would be horrendous and, most importantly, there's simply no
point in building a humanoid robot that large. Especially for combat
missions.
But, 8 feet would make a good size for a mutant-hunting robot. But, why a
humanoid robot? No reason, it doesn't make any sense, it's inefficient, but,
a cyborg? Why not? So, I merged the ideas, soldiers mortally wounded by
Wolverine might have been ressurected as cyborg mutant hunters, Sentinels.
Armored to protect against mutant powers, armed with technology from
Stryker's project to negate the powers of mutants and capture them. I
borrowed heavily from Japanese animation, primarily Macross for parts of the
design, as well as the 1980s cyborg Robo-Cop. I tried to update the look of
the Sentinel's head, but still keep enough of the design to make them
recognizable. Human brains and instincts would work best in a humanoid form,
so it makes some kind of sense for my Sentinels to be humanoid. Another idea
I had, once, was to have manned Sentinels as squad leaders for a groups of
robot Sentinels. It could also work in this version.
Sentinels always had this one strange quirk, for big, powerful robots. They
were way too chatty. But, that's easily accounted for, if they're cyborgs.
People tend to be chatty, so it would make some kind of sense for a cyborg
Sentinel to shout, "Silence, Mutant" while attempting to capture
Nightcrawler or Shadowcat. Another thing, cyborgs could be deputized to
arrest and detain suspected mutants, where robots could not, legally, be
delegated that authority. We might also expect to see some anger and hatred
toward mutants, from some of these guys. Being carved up by a homicidal
maniac with knives sticking out of his hands will have that effect on you.
Maybe add a little brainwashing to the mix . . .
While I'd love to see what modern FX could do with giant Sentinels, they
don't exactly fit into the pseudo-realistic world of the X-Men movies.
Just for fun, I played around with what they might do with movie style
versions of Phoenix.
And Dark Phoenix . . .
So, how long do we gotta wait for the next one?
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