The Most Epic Fantasy and Sci-Fi Website

Is X-Men Marvel or DC? Origins & Cinematic Universe Explained


The X-Men are soon joining the MCU

Since the year 2000, 20th Century Fox has produced nine X-Men Films! Some of them have been amazing, some of them average, and some have been so bad that several X-Men films had to be made to ignore and undo the damage of it.

But thankfully it will not be named. Just to give you a hint, it rhymes with The Shhhmast Land.

Since Hugh Jackman's last time reprising Wolverine in Logan, he's about to return as Wolverine on the big screens once more. This time, he'll be joining the MCU alongside the regenerating degenerate in Deadpool 3.

Now, the question is, is X-Men originally from Marvel or DC?

X-Men's First Appearance

X-men Days of Future Past promotion
click to enlarge
+ 3
Credit: 20th Century Fox

The first issue of The X-men comics was published in 1963, created by Iconic comic book writers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

You read that right, Stan Lee, creator of Marvel, also wrote X-Men, which pretty much confirms what we need to know, but here's a little elaboration.

According to Stan, due to the success of The Fantastic Four comics, his publisher wanted him and Jack to come up with a new superhero group.

Due to the powers that were in The Fantastic Four, Lee was concerned that they might be overlapping.

So for any process of creation, he would always ask the same three questions: What powers do they have? What are their names? How did they get them?

Considering how similar some Marvel and DC heroes are, a little distinction would do the trick in setting the X-Men away from the franchise, too.

The easiest solution Stan could come up with was that the X-Men were simply born with powers, so he categorized them as The Mutants and took the idea to his publisher.

Later issues went on to show that all mutants in The Marvel Universe possessed an "X-gene", that when triggered through stress or puberty etc., would give the individuals superhuman abilities that were sometimes a gift or a curse.

However, there was an issue with the publisher, the same publisher that tried to turn down The Amazing Spider-Man comic.

Stan added that his publisher said that no one knew what mutants were and therefore Stan reverted to naming the comic and the team after its leader Professor Charles Xavier - Professor X for short.

READ MORE: Is Wolverine Marvel or DC?

X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Wolverine and Spider-Man rumored to join in Avengers: Secret Wars
click to enlarge
+ 3

After the epic collaboration and team-up that we saw towards the end of Avengers: Endgame, new fans wonder why they didn't see other members of The Marvel Universe (the X-Men) join the fight against Thanos.

Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel distributed their film rights to different studios for their characters to make it to the big screens and have their stories told.

The rights of X-Men and similar characters such as Deadpool were sold to 20th Century Fox which led to the first X-Men Film being shown in 2000.

However, fans have been extremely excited since August 2020 when Disney announced the acquisition of 20th Century Fox, due to Disney now having ownership over the rights to these characters.

The X-Men can officially enter into The Marvel Cinematic Universe, which we will be seeing on Deadpool 3!

In case you haven't noticed, what with the MCU continuing to expand the Multiverse saga, more mutants have joined in the big screens, and sometimes the small screens, too.

There had been mutants shown in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, and even Ms. Marvel's very own Kamala Khan, a confirmed mutant herself! Well, actually, Kamala is both human and a mutant possessing 'X-genes.'

X-Men in DC? The Amalgam Universe Explained

Deadpool and Wolverine coming to the MCU soon
click to enlarge
+ 3
Credit: Marvel

The X-Men were born and continue to live in The Marvel Universe, not DC. However, new fans have a right to be confused.

In 1996, DC Comics and Marvel Comics came together to create a publishing imprint, Amalgam Comics.

It was here that they merged some of their most loved characters into one so that we got to see a blend of DC and Marvel characters.

We saw Superman and Captain America merge to become Supersoldier. Deathstroke and Daredevil joined to become Slade Murdoch.

However, we also saw members of the X-Men amalgamate with the DC universe to create a brand-new character. This included Wonder Woman and Storm from the Xmen who became "Amazon".

The favorite character was Dark Claw who was a blend of Batman and Wolverine.

RELATED: Is Spider-Man Marvel or DC?

For more Marvel or DC content like this, be sure to check out our MCU-related or DCU-related news stories here on EpicStream!

For more articles like this, take a look at our Queries, Marvel, DC, and Geek Culture pages.