Here's one measure of a good superhero movie - - does it get you thinking about what you’d like to see in a sequel? In spite of my early reluctance to go over all the back stories, I thoroughly enjoyed FIRST CLASS and walked out of the theater thinking about what other mutants could fit into this new series' vision of the 60s. There's actually a wealth of material from the earliest years of the title that's been left pretty ripe for the picking. Let's look at some possibilities....
FACTOR THREE
I didn’t realize this until I looked back on the earliest X-MEN issues, but Factor Three was most likely folded into the FIRST CLASS vision of the Hellfire Club. They were a third party of mutant outlaws who tried to instigate a war between the US and USSR so they could establish mutantkind as a new global superpower - - does that sound a bit familiar? Though they were independent of the Brotherhood, there was a bit of crossover in their memberships. Led by the Mutant Master (who later turned out to be an alien,) their ranks included a mind-controlled Banshee, the tech whiz Ogre, the awfully-dressed shapeshifter Changeling (who was reconceived as Morph many years later,) the teleporting master criminal Vanisher, the force-field-fortified Unus the Untouchable and then Brotherhood familiars like Blob and Mastermind (who’ve already shown-up, in retooled forms, in WOLVERINE and X2 respectively.)
== TEASER ==I read an interview with some of the screenwriters of FIRST CLASS where they admitted that seeing the Vanisher in the early comics inspired them to include Azazel in the movie. Debuting in X-MEN #2, the villain was the second foe the team ever fought and he introduced the concept of teleportation into their mythos years before Nightcrawler and decades before Azazel. He also happened to have one of the most garish costumes in all of comics, so I’m not going to fault anybody for opting to use a character with a cooler look and a potential back-story with Mystique instead. Although, oddly enough,you could actually construe Mystique’s involvement this early in the game as her subbing in for the Changeling, another super-villain with a uniquely ugly costume.
For as frequently as forcefields are used in the comics, no character’s really displayed that power yet in the movies. The ability is the sole ability of Unus the Untouchable, an arrogant Italian wrestler who immigrates to America to join forces with the Brotherhood and, later, Factor Three. He'd make an interesting addition to Magneto's nascent Brotherhood in any sequel - - although, truthfully, it might be more interesting to swap him with the similiarly-powered Armor.
THE MIMIC
The alternate reality counterpart’s from the Exiles has largely eclipsed the original, but Calvin Rankin's still a fascinating part of the X-Men’s early years. Not a mutant, but a science-enhanced human who had the ability to copy any mutant’s ability, this arrogant show-off expectantly stole the original team’s thunder by using all their powers at once. Interestingly, there was a rumor for a while that an actor had been cast in FIRST CLASS to play “Thomas,” a mutant with the ability to mimic other mutants’ abilities within range. Many figured that was Everett Thomas, otherwise known as Synch from Generation X, but the rumor proved to be unsubstantiated. Still, a mutant like the Mimic would certainly be a formidable threat to both Xavier and Magneto's teams -- maybe even a reason for them to ally together even years before the events of X2. Perhaps we saw enough power-stealing in WOLVERINE's vision of Deadpool, though.
MAGNETO’S CHILDREN
Though it would take years of revelations and retcons to clarify all the details, Magneto’s children have actually been a part of the X-Men’s business since their earliest years. Super-speedster Quicksilver and chance-manipulator Scarlet Witch were members of the first iteration of the Brotherhood, while the mistress of magnetism, Polaris, joined the X-Men almost immediately upon meeting them. Out of these three, Quicksilver's the only one to have appeared in the movies so far with a very brief cameo as an imprisoned youth in WOLVERINE. The young Magneto in FIRST CLASS is a suave globetrotter and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had dalliances during his various travels that produced children. They'd have to be very young teens at the oldest, though.
There are, of course, plenty of other mutants that could be fit into FIRST CLASS' new time-line. Sunfire, Mesmero, Thunderbird and then Sway, Petra and Vulcan, the other members of MacTaggert's back-up team which Darwin was also part of in DEADLY GENESIS. Which ones make the most sense to you maniacs? Who would you want to see appear in FIRST CLASS follow-up?