How To Introduce Mutants Into The MCU: Infinity Stones

An easy way to introduce the X-Men into the MCU would be to simply tie them to the Infinity Stones.

Every time the stones were interacted with, we can say they gave out benign gamma rays, and those activated the X gene in developing babies, and so mutants were born. The first significant use of several Infinity Stones was in the Avengers (Space Stone, Mind Stone, technically Time Stone in a way) and that happened in the MCU in 2012 and the current time period is around 2024. Mutant powers usually emerge around the time they hit puberty, and the Avengers was 12 years ago.

It lines up!

We can go further. The Space Stone was first properly interacted with in the 1940s, so there can be a few mutants born in the baby boom after the war, or thereabouts. And their children may inherit the mutant gene too, so we could have a few dozen rare older mutants about. You could also argue the Time Stone may have been used a few times at any prior point in history, so there can be some very rare instances of ancient mutants and their descendants

Then, there were experiments on the Space Stone around the 70s, as seen in Endgame, so any interaction with that then may cause a handful of new mutants to be born. Then we have the Avengers in 2012, causing a significant population boom of mutants (though their powers won't emerge until around puberty, which is around now). After that, there's the Reality Stone appearing in Greenwich in 2013, so more influence, then the Mind Stone in Age of Ultron in 2015 and onwards thanks to Vision, the Time Stone is used in Doctor Strange around 2016 and onwards, and then we have all six Infinity Stones used in 2018 and 2023 by Thanos and Hulk, respectively, which would produce mass benign gamma rays and activate a bunch more mutants.

You can see how this can all work out. We have a rare set of older mutants about, these can be mentors and such. Then we have a significant population boom in 2012, and by the time the X-Men stories come out, they'd be around their early teens, so a bunch of new mutants will be needing mentors, and these can be our main characters with a young Cyclops and Jean Grey and so on. And as time goes on, newer young mutants will appear, expanding the ensemble naturally.

Also, given that these new mutants would have been born due to multiple uses of multiple Infinity Stones, it could make sense that their X genes were given more juice and so their powers were more powerful or extraordinary than the prior mutants (or at least they have more power early on, whereas figures like Xavier have had decades to develop his powers to their maximum potential). This would further explain why prior mutants weren't superheroes or big deals or could hide in normal society, their powers weren't super-powerful or very visible, they could blend in. But now these youngsters are very powerful, and so they can be superheroes, and now, with more-powerful mutants appearing in a population boom, mutants can no longer be hidden from the world.

This works perfectly with the MCU, both explaining why there were no visible mutants before now, and why there are now a growing list of visible mutants becoming known to the world. This leads to mutants banding together, and so superhero and supervillain teams become inevitable.

And when it comes to Xavier and Magneto, they were older mutants born around the 50s or 60s with basic powers that they have developed over the decades. They were the first ones to find each other around the 80s or 90s, and their past stories can be expanded upon later.

Eventually, they both parted ways, becoming who they are now, with Xavier starting a small school for the rare mutants to be protected, cared for, and given an education and helped to either assimilate into society or find ways to live as their mutant selves, supported by Xavier.

Magneto on the other hand, his origins would need to be different. We can't have his origins be in the holocaust as we'd need a 90-year-old to play him and that's risky in several ways. We need to do what they did with Iron Man (origins in Vietnam, then Iraq War) and update the MCU's Magneto. Luckily, there's a pretty good way to handle this. Have this old Magneto be born in 1950s America, and have him be a black man. He experiences the civil rights movement and the backlash to it firsthand, and that is enough to radicalize him. Furthermore, we need more intersectional characters, so have him be a black, Jewish, gay man. This maintains his Jewish heritage, so that isn't erased, and it adds to his perspective on oppression. He has seen injustice, ignorance, oppression, and prejudice from three different real-world lenses; race, religion, and sexuality. And now he has a fourth lens; mutation. That's a pretty significant perspective.

And it would help to explain how he's comfortable fighting against other mutants. As a black man, he may have faced racism from queer communities and Jewish communities. As a gay man, he may have faced homophobia from black communities and Jewish communities. And as a Jew, he may have faced anti-Semitism from queer communities and black communities. And as a mutant, he may have faced a whole new kind of bigotry from all the aforementioned communities. He understands what it is like to have your own kind turn against you, to harm their own chances at liberation because of their close-mindedness, and so he has no problem with battling the X-Men to achieve mutant liberation.

The rest of the MCU could also help inform these characters and their decisions. Magneto can have the idea of Genosha based on New Asgard. Anti-mutant hatred can be made worse by the consequences of the President declaring war on all aliens in Secret Invasion.

The groundwork is all there to introduce the mutants into the MCU.

And yes, it does unfortunately limit some of the stories they can have. It would harder to have ancient mutants like Apocalypse, or centuries-old mutants like Wolverine (that being said, I think replacing Hugh Jackman would be a really tough sell, so I think it would make much more sense to introduce Laura as the MCU Wolverine instead, with X-23 being the result of experiments into these new young mutant kids). However, despite that, there are still so many other stories that can be covered without mutants having been around for centuries. So, I see this as an absolute win.

Okay, essay over, let me know your thoughts.