The X-Men have one of the most storied and complex histories in comic books, and there’s no one main character. Because of the team’s ensemble nature, many mutants have had their time in the spotlight as the central hero of the group’s biggest events. Xavier, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Kitty Pryde, Magik, Cable – so many mutant heroes have become fan favorites because the comics gave each of them a chance to be the star, a fact you’d never pick up on from the X-Men movies.
Even though films like X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix went back and told the story of the Xavier Institute’s early days, it’s easy to see that those movies were the Wolverine show from day one. All three films in Bryan Singer’s original trilogy center Logan at the expense of the other X-Men being left underdeveloped on the sidelines (he even steals Kitty Pryde’s main character status in Days of Future Past), and he’s also the only member of the team to receive an entire spinoff trilogy. Now the upcoming video game Marvel’s Wolverine seems to be once again giving Wolverine an outsized role in the early days of the X-Men, and while it might work for the game, hopefully the MCU’s X-Men reboot steers in the other direction.
