My X-Men TV Show Series Bible

[DrCosmic]

Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters

I like the X-Men, and there's so many characters, and so many rich stories, and so much ensemble action drama goodness that it's hard to not imagine them having their own TV show, where you don't have to have anemic characters like in the films so you can focus on one or two favorites, but everyone can be awesome in their own episode, and the whole team can really matter. Of course, as long as X-Men are with Fox, this isn't likely to happen at all, but it's nice to dream right?

So Here's the Basic Outline of the Thread
Pitch, Series Notes
Character Sketches and Arcs
Season 1 Outline, Episode Summaries
Season 2 Outline, Episode Summaries
Etc...

Pitch

Smallville meets Fringe in a tale about the dawn of a new species and how their arrival changes the world, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst. Five Tortured High Schoolers with dark secrets and incredible powers are recruited by Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr, two visionary mutants to become a special task force to deal with the mutant boom.

XIGY will be the title card, short for Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters, and pronounced 'Ziggy' for colloquialism. After the establishing pilot, each week the kids will encounter a new mutant problem or phenomenon which they will decipher the cause of and solution to using interpersonal skills, basic scientific abilities and judicious use of their superhuman abilities. Characters will be paired up in continually changing combinations, like any other procedural show, in order to further explore all of the supporting cast.

As the show progresses, each character's backstory will become important for various reasons as they grow from very typical high school archetypes into three dimensional characters. Meanwhile, the teachers will be involved in a growing idealistic chasm, which will be taken on in a new way, more closely mimicking Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr, in which our Malcolm X character often takes the antagonistic position in order to highlight Xavier's goodness. Xavier's own corruption and misuse of his powers will also keep that morality very grey between those two, and the students will be tossed back and forth with that for the first season.

Series Notes

Structure

Every episode will have a case that takes up the majority of the episode, all character development will spring out of the case at hand. Overarcing plans of enemies will manifest themselves in cases, some of which would be redherrings, some of which would be out of the ordinary, ie rescue missions. It would have a shock-crazy intro, a theme song/title card, introduction of the problems the cast is having, then relating that, bringing that to the case of the week, from there, they would try to solve it using their various talents and combinations thereof until whoever has the focus of the episode makes the breakthrough to solve the problem. At which point, they would all go into action in their various roles, solve it, and somewhere in there, the ovearcing season story would manifest itself.

Every season would be made up of arcs, usually 2, one pre-christmas, and one post. Some seasons could split into more. Each arc would deal with a major comic book villain. For instance, the first arc would be about the Friends of Humanity. The second arc, also in season 1, would deal with Magneto as a villain. The first arc in season 2 might deal with Sentinels, or the Brotherhood, and things would continue on like that. By season 5 the arc might deal with Dark Phoenix, or Bastion, or Mojo might have a three episode Arc, or Arcade might be a one-off arc. Arcs would be paced, so that there would be a heavy deep crazy arc, then a lighter one, then a more building cleansing arc, followed by a heavier one.

Direction

The core of the show will change each season, by increments. For instance, the core of the show during the first season will be entirely about Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, and that storyline will be utterly exhausted over the course of 20 episodes. Second season, it would, for instance, center around Charles Xavier and Scott Summers, as their father-son-like relationship and how that grows and gets tested, torn, bent, broken, healed, reversed, subverted, and played straight. When that is exhausted, season 3 might revolve around Scott/Jean/Wolverine, while season 4 might center on Wolverine and... though in every case, the season is about much more than that relationship, but it forms the core of the main story arc, and is called upon emotionally to fulfill the climax of the season.

Tone

The series will generally play straight drama role, with powers used in a spectacle and horror sense rather than a levity giving sense. The characters' powers are regarded as a curse for good reason. They are difficult and often scary to use. The levity should come from a random fun-per-season episode and a selected comedic character, a role that changes from story arc to story arc, depending on who is going through maximum angst.

Special Effects

Part of the reason powers will be scary/spectacular is because they are expensive. Of the core characters from season 1 we have: Telepathy, Mastery of Magnetism, Telekinesis, Ice Control, Superhuman Attributes, Optic Blasts and Wings! That's a lot to call on, even once, per episode. Generally, telekinesis/Mastery of Magnetism, Telepathy and Superman Attributes are cheap and easy. Stringing stuff up and CGI-ing it to float, and doing mindscape visions or echoing thought-sounds is cheap. Even superhuman attributes can be done with styrofoam props and/or a good stuntman.

Ice Control, limited to ice blasts that form ice objects is affordable, and perhaps some ice-armor prosthetics can be hooked up later if the show becomes more profitable and Iceman can evolve beyond 'snow man.' That snow form, by the way, is pretty affordable, no worries.

Optic Blasts are easy to do... it's just the effects that are hard. That much destruction just can't be done. For that reason, you *dramatically* limit Cyclops' use of his powers, as in, something he never, ever wants to do, and when he does, it's a climactic, show/story-ending moment. Because it's just that big a deal. Make it something scary, that when he even reaches for it, it's a heart stopper.

Wings... well, that's pretty much impossible. You can do moveable harness you can do a lot of folding things, you can string him up in the air, but at the end of the day, you just can't use Angel much, and that'll have to be reflected in the storyline relatively early. His feather wings won't make it past season 1 for instance.

Beyond that, the freaks of the week are pretty straghtforward, a teleporter here, a super strong guy there... all stuff done before, and often, on a show like Smallville.

The sets themselves would be enormously practical and largely on location. There would be a standing 'sub-basement' set for the danger/war/training/cerebro rooms and such, but beyond that... good times to be had by all.

[DrCosmic]

Character Summaries

Initial/Main/Core Cast
Season 1 Main Cast: Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel, Iceman, Candy Southern, Sheriff Cooper
Note: no representation is made that the actors cast are the best for the job

Charles Francis Xavier, "Professor X"



Background

Charles is a middle-aged traditionally educated English gentleman. He is an idealist, in a very real sense, and espouses the most noble of values, sentiments and goals. He is, by trade, a college professor, and has been called Professor X for many years. In the story, he is the speaker, the one who professes the unknown and unknowable, hence 'Professor X' rings true and has more meaning than an offhand nickname. His experience with his powers is great and vast, and he uses them imperceptibly at times, but his 3 laws of telepathy, when followed, keep him from being 'wrong' or 'evil.'

Development

Over the course of the show, we find out that not only has Xavier had indiscretions in the past using his powers, but he is often tempted to use his powers maliciously and manipulatively again. He fights this with pragmatism and a fear of potential consequences. As such, he actually is and becomes a very skilled long term planner and thinker, a true mastermind, which causes friction when other characters realize 'Xavier planned this all along.'

His sordid past is often explored, including telepathic victims, telepathic rivals, such as the Shadow King, spurned and lost lovers such as Moira McTaggert and Mystique, abandoned children such as Legion, and other loose ends he's dropped. It becomes clear that the X-Men are the first thing he's 'stuck with' in his life.

Powers

Xavier's powers play out like dreamscapes, with distorted colors in all black rooms that fade, like dreams into scenes from memories, where physical attacks here become mental attacks in the outside world. Xavier has mastered the Inception-like Matrix-like nature of this world, and generally can do as he pleases. Usually he is here in a Morpheus-tutoring type fashion for his protoge Jean Grey. Once this methodology is established, more telepathic conflicts can be viewed purely from an external perspective, and the difficulty can be implied, and shown only when it is plot relevant.

Relationships

Xavier's primary relationship at first is with Magneto better known as Eric Lensherr. They have a deep friendship and partnership, somewhat of a David and Johnathan type of not-really-gay-but-closer-than-married-couples type of friendship. A type of blood brothers bond. What becomes their disagreement initially begins as how well they compliment each other and make up for each other's weaknesses. Xavier tempers Magneto with caution, while Magneto drives Xavier with his passion. Xavier teach Magneto fine manipulation and control, Magneto teaches Xavier leverage and force. They have had conflicts in the past, over Moira specifically, but it isn't until midway through season 1 that they split dramatically, when it comes to life and death circumstances.

Xavier's secondary relationships are with his two main students, Scott and Jean. While Scott is a surrogate son, used to deal with his guilt about abandoning David, and to ensure that the students have a peer leader who adheres to Xavier's vision, Jean is his protoge, whom he teaches everything he knows about telepathy and education. These two relationships are tested over the course of the series, but his relationship with Scott undergoes the most premutations, as is true of any tumultuous father-son relationship.

Xavier's tertiary relationships with his other students and members of the community are usually focused on the development of those characters, though each of them challenges him in some way. Beast intellectually, Angel financially, Iceman emotionally. Every one of them has a special moment with Xavier at one point, to cement him as a great teacher, and have an emotional point to call on in case of betrayals, deaths and abandonments.

Summary

Charles Xavier is one of the principal characters, but he starts off as the Boring Leader type and grows in an Obi-Wan type as he passes the spotlight to other characters before coming back into the spotlight as a supporting character with his dark secrets. He provides stability for the series, he is the constant, he is the John Locke. He is the Pa Kent. He holds the line with his charisma, presence and favorite-teacher type persona.

As the series goes on, all of Xavier's relationships will be tested by his manipulations and rumors thereof. Eventually, he is cut off, and his position in the series changes. But to every mutant he encounters, he attempts to become a sort of father figure, with mixed results.

Eric Lensherr aka Max Eisenhardt, Magneto



Background

With the decrease in ages to accommodate television and an Xavier-Magneto origin story, set in the modern day, there's no longer any room for a WWII-born Magneto. We can still keep him Jewish, in fact, making him Israeli puts him in the midst of a very serious conflict, with a very Us vs Them mindset. And that much more controversial. Being raised in this environment he's used to horrors and terrorism and everything. He's not above it, either. He does, however, want mutants to be happy and healthy and safe, and to do that, things need to change.

So now, Eric is a middle-aged revolutionary, ex-special forces Israeli man, with a vision for mutant kind, and for mankind as well. He is radical, completely untraditional and an outside the box thinker. He develops his name after encountering an actual magneto, a real life device which uses alternating magnetic fields to produce electricity. This is when Magneto learns to produce his trademark electromagnetic forcefields, and Xavier calls him Magneto and it sticks.

Development

Magneto is, initially, the Wolverine of the team. The cool one. The rule breaker. The ladies man. Impulsive. Passionate. He's that guy. He begins as the combat instructor for the students, and you see how pragmatic and practical and traditional he can be. It turns out that he is the true idealist, with a grand hope for peace between human and mutant, though he doesn't see them as equals, at first, has no desire to exterminate humanity, until the turning point, when he comes to believe that humans require mutant justice in order for the world to be healthy, happy and safe. His past also comes back to haunt him from time to time, including Mossad contacts, and dealings with SHIELD.

Powers

Magneto's powers are a modified form of telekinesis. This means that from a practical perspective, we'll be lifting things up on monofilament wires and editing the wires out and CGI-ing metal objects, which is relatively simple. Finally, the trademark forcefield could be done in quick flashes when something crosses that boundary, that field lights up for a split second in bright blue as it repulses whatever it is. Alternately, you could have those small random spots of electricity in the air around Magneto to represent that this effect is active.

The series starts with him learning to do the electric 'magneto' effect, in some ways, a student of Xavier's in this respect. He has already mastered fine control, and can easily throw people around by grabbing their belt buckles, defeat people by ripping out their fillings, yank guns out of hands stops swords mid-swing and a host of other cool telekinetic-style effects. True shows of power are usually done via car stunts and pyrotechnics, but it is implied that Magneto is well capable of these things, though Xavier motivates him not to, in order to protect the students, and not draw the government to see how powerful and dangerous he is.

Relationships

Magneto's primary relationship is with Xavier. He considers himself Xavier's protector and pusher in a way. He feels like without him, Xavier's ideas would remain in his mind forever. Xavier's slowness and pacificism frustrate Magneto, but he sees their value when used in moderation.

Magneto has secondary relationships with all the students. He is the one that teaches Cyclops to be the practical and outside the box problem solver than Xavier needs. He is the one that teaches Jean to use her telekinesis creatively to solve problems. He is the only one who can keep Iceman in line, and challenges Beast and Angel, rather than the other way around. He is the favorite teacher, which is why when he leaves and changes it hurts so much, because each of the students have bonded with him, not just Xavier.

As the series goes on, more and more of his relationships become antagonistic for different reasons, an Magneto may examine this himself. He forms new friendships with his estranged children, with other disenfranchised mutants and with comic book supervillains as their goals align and he finds himself often on a dark path. Eventually the character will take hiatuses and return for special events, and, as in comics, to rejoin the team at some point.

Summary

Magneto is our season 1 villain, but he doesn't start out that way. Everyone knows he's the villain, so the goal is to show what a great guy he is, and how his villainy is an outworking of that. He's not a terrorist, he's not tortured, he simply doesn't see any other way for things to work out, and has credible arguments for his seemingly radical position. Throughout the series, he remains a member of the team, even when he fights them, he's still teaching. When he tries to discredit them, he's still trying to make Xavier's dream look good, and to motivate his old friend.

Scott Avery Summers, Cyclops



Background

Scott is an orphan, and a very abused, reserved individual with some deep personal scars. Dead parents, abandonment in orphanages, abused in the foster system. He's generally a very depressed guy. His power doesn't help at all, but only gives him reason to feel guilty and blame himself for everything and hold himself responsible for everything. Which is why he makes such a great leader.

Scott's history is public knowledge, and on record. The other kids know why he is the way that he is. Why he's horrible in dealing with people and why he is so to the point, and comes off cold. He is the stoic of the group, with deep emotions rumbling down inside there. He gets his name from the monster of Greek myth, mostly because his first sunglasses visor is meant to function as both, so it's just one long lens, and Cyclops becomes an insult via Bobby Drake that Scott keeps, and eventually transforms into something cool.

Development

Scott starts out as the useless background guy, who turns out to be a bit of a dues ex machina, with a lot of emotional reasons why he shouldn't, which are only backed up by the further chaos and injury he causes in the pilot. He does speak so clearly and decisively about how to solve problems because of his emotional distance, that others begin to turn to him for direction, and eventually he usurps the team leader.

Scott continues to have his emotions plumbed by various individuals at various levels, always leading to strife. Overtime, he masters small red-beam type uses of his powers for utility, and eventually works his way up to being able to consistently release small projectiles, but his power is always portrayed as dangerous, unstable and uncontrollable. Over time though, he makes up for this in tenacity, skills and determination, an attribute that is occasionally highlighted to show how badass and tough he can be, like when someone gets separated and survives on Walking Dead for instance.

Powers

Scott's powers are always written to be used sparingly. Generally, he takes off his glasses, the screen goes red and then we cut to the same set, but decimated. The problem of course is that the kinetic force aspect of his power can be a bit cheesy, especially without a movie budget to give the blasts character, I would honestly downgrade Scott's power to being light-based, that is he focuses and channels light through his eyes, rather than calling on some extradimensional energy source.

As before, small lasers for quick ranged cuts and grabbing attention could be cool, as well as quick projectiles of red bolts of energy as time progresses, and more budget is free to make the core characters cool. But initially, to save money and build drama, his powers would be incredibly powerful, and thus only used sparingly, though there would often be dramatic moments of will he or won't he use his powers.

Of important note, Scott would be justified in this belief in this adaptation. That is, because of the nature of the power and refraction, someone actually does always get hurt when he uses his power, and so he only uses it when things are truly desperate, and he has nightmares of the people who are killed when he uses it.

Relationships

Scott's primary relationships are with Xavier, Magneto and Jean. With Xavier he has a father son relationship, where at first he looks up to Xavier wide-eyed but soon finds/realizes that Xavier is not perfect, and has a bit of a rebellious stage as they face off and Xavier becomes manipulative instead of deliberate. Scott intrinsically doesn't trust Magneto, but they develop a tense teacher-student relationship anyway, as Magneto has a lot to teach Scott, especially about accepting his mutant power and what it's for. With Jean, he is instantly taken with her, though he rarely shows it, and events conspire to actually bring them to face that attraction. Scott is the too-nice guy at first, but he learns his lesson before it's too late.

Scott's secondary relationships are with his other teammates, each of which he develops a personal friendship with on some level. There is some antagonism on every part. He and Beast disagree over leadership. He and Angel contest of Jean. Iceman refuses to follow orders. Those conflicts stretch out and develop in different ways.

As the series goes on, Scott becomes more distant to newer teammates and mutants, and relates to them primarily through others. There are a couple of people who get through to him, usually telepathic women.

Summary

Scott is the dark horse character. The goal is to remove him from the stuck up leader position and make him a kid, who is struggling, and manages to eke out a victory anyway. He's a bit of an everyman for the downtrodden and the emo. He's the dark brooding guy here. He always has that dichotomy, the really powerful leader, who's really not a great or strong guy underneath. You may hate him, but no one can argue that he knows how to do his job.

Jeannette Elaine Grey, Marvel Girl



Background

Jean Grey is a typical high school overachiever wunderkind. She works hard, studies hard, takes AP courses, is set to graduate a year early, is meticulous, a bit OCD, and very deliberate and responsible. She is sheltered and a bit naive at times. She's a nice girl, but she can be cold when it comes to getting things done. Her parents push her, which causes her a bit of crisis as she tries to keep things from them about her mutantcy.

Her childhood accident that kickstarted her powers and introduced her to Charles Xavier happened at the age of 10, during a summer, and her friend Annie was killed. This did cause some childhood trauma, and links to her deep desire to act out, YOLO style, but she doesn't partly because Xavier suppressed that memory at her parents' request, but she doesn't want to let down her parents.

Development

Jean Grey is a character that experiences a lot of internal conflicts. Conflicts between her mutant destiny and her parents' expectations, conflicts between Xavier's teachings and Magneto's teachings, conflicts between Scott and Angel, conflicts between Scott and Logan, conflicts between her desires and those of the Phoenix, and initially, conflicts between her desire to be seen as miss perfect, and her desire to act out now that she has some freedom. In time, she does reveal herself to be a very YOLO girl, capable of lots of crazy stuff, like getting with Wolverine, like taking on a cosmic entity, like doing new stuff with Cerebro.

Jean Grey becomes Marvel Girl based on an old cartoon that she liked. Her original green skirt and yellow mask X-Men suit is that cartoon character's uniform. Marve Girl was a princess who must constantly decide between her kingdom and her adventures, and that resonated and still resonates with Jean. Plus, Marvel Girl was Annie's favorite character. Her powers start out with weak telepathy that Xavier slowly opens up and even weaker telekinesis that Magneto helps her maximize. They develop into something really impressive.

Powers

Jean Grey's powers, from a SFX perspective, are a combination of Xavier's and Magneto's. She, due to her weakness, uses them even more sparingly. If faced with a gun, Jean doesn't have the skill to yank it, but can hold the hammer in place so it won't fire. She is much more like Sylar, with precise control for devastating effect, than a green lantern, throwing huge things around. She's known for levitating herself and others ever so slightly, but it's not something she's good at, or is reliable. Her telepathy is, at first, uncontrollable, that is, she hears things often even when she doesn't want to.

Over time, she develops even finer control and becomes a bit of a dues ex machina, but by that time, she actually would have the Phoenix, and be meant to be such a character, and would be removed from the regular cast accordingly, or perhaps she stops using her powers, having to block them off to keep the Phoenix from getting out.

Relationships

Jean's primary relationships are with Xavier, Scott and later Wolverine. Xavier is her mentor, and she does try to be like him in every way that she can, though she is never as good at playing the long mastermind game, she does eventually learn to do it well. Scott is her first will they/won't they type of relationship, and her use of telepathy on him has a lot to do with how she finds out he's interested in the first place. Wolverine is a lot more forward, and a lot more dangerous, emotionally, for Jean. That is how she learns to let go of people, when she realizes that her relationship with Wolverine is killing her because of what he is... cue Wolvie-angst!

Jean, as a student, also has deep personal friendships wit each of the other students. Beast is her older-brother type advisor and confidant. Her first friend, really. Angel is another suitor, who she enjoys as a friend, and enjoys the attention, but doesn't actually pursue. Bobby and Jean have a more antagonistic brother-sister relationship because they have opposite values and needs. As the series progresses, Jean becomes a bit of a den mother - a doting obsessive one - to other characters, which is why it's so heartbreaking when she goes crazy and dies in a big bird-shaped fireball.

[DrCosmic]

Henry James McCoy, Beast



Background

Hank is a good natured athletic and incredibly gifted black kid. He's getting a racelift because it doesn't change the look of the character much (he's going to end up blue) and because it's 2012, either the X-Men have non-whites or they're irrelevant, especially as a metaphor for prejudice. That said, otherwise, Beast is Beast. He's really smart, but he hides that behind his hefty athletic exterior, which makes him confident, but unhappy when all that is ripped away when he is outed as a mutant.

Hank's name comes from him being 'a beast' in the urban slang term, and his actual football nickname is Hank "Beast" Mccoy. His parents are very myopic and reject him outright, even though they need him, economically and emotionally, leaving him with not really a lot of places to go, and not many reasons to be happy to be there.

Development

Because he is the most balanced of the team, Hank starts off as the leader, and a capable one. He quickly discovers that his intellect and scientific skills are going to waste, and, with encouragement from Xavier, puts them to use as a chemist, then forensic specialist then geneticist. When Scott usurps him, and he finds out his traditional urban way of operating doesn't work here, that's when Hank has to reinvent himself, and he starts off that path to being the big blue Beast.

Because of that, we use his disfigurement as a metaphor for prejudice a lot. He's really a very nice guy, but because he looks like a blue monster, people reject him outright, and he often rejects himself, or hates his own appearance. This idea is brought home even further because the actor is black.

Eventually, as in the comics, Beast joins the Avengers, and crosses over into the MCU, as much as possible, even to the point of possibly appearing as supporting cast in an Avengers movie, or having Sam Jackson guest star on the show.

Powers

Because Beast is simply superhuman, his powers aren't very expensive at all. His prosthetics will probably take a couple hours to put on every morning, like with Worf on Star Trek or whatever, but beyond that, he just needs a stuntman for acrobatics, some styrofoam props to show how strong he is, a crane to move real life objects as though he is lifting them and a lab with some bright colors to explode... and some cheap CGI for his computational diagrams and such. Super senses can be done with just acting and cool camera zooms. He's just a very affordable character to bring to life.

Relationships

Beast's primary relationships are with Iceman and Angel. They form a bit of a three musketeers group as they get into shenanigans together while the other cast is usually being dramatic. Beast is the serious responsible one, Iceman is the spastic radical one, and Angel is the oblivious superficial one. Beast anchors the group with some leadership and caution. They rely on him for that, though he's often the first to get upset when the other two are doing ridiculous things, and there is comedy to be found in how and how often he points that out.

Beast's secondary relationships with the core cast vary. With Scott they start off as leadership rivals and then develop a very friendly, but very competitive rivalry, and they could even be described as best friends at one point. With Jean, Beast tends to be a bit protective, though he gives her space, and understands her desire to act out better than anyone, he is the first to tell her about herself when everyone else goes easy on her, testing, and then strengthening their friendship. With Xavier, Beast is a reluctant student, and with Magneto, he's an outright rebellious student, vocalizing the most obvious critiques of Magneto's works, lessons and actions. This is why Magneto is extra hard on Beast, though it later is revealed that Magneto takes on the most obvious critiques of Beast in order to encourage Beast to reject them, making him a stronger person overall.

As the series goes on, Beast becomes a bit of an older-brother/den father type of character. He's the team's doctor and so his bedside manner begins to extend to everyone, to all mutants.

Summary

Beast is our 'black guy' and so to a degree we play it safe. We don't make him a gunrunning drug dealing pot-smoking rap mogul gangsta. We make sure his faults are based out of insecurity, in the face of innumberable talents, cementing the metaphor well. We let him be 'all black people' in a way, representing the best and the worst. He could be Barack Obama, but he's used to being Michael Vick.

Warren Wilshire Worthington The Third, Angel



Background

Angel is a wealthy, well traveled, cosmopolitan, WASPy kid. He's the epitome of what everyone wants to be. He loves his power, and even has used it to become a self styled superhero "Avenging Angel" from which his codename is derived. Warren, because of his background is a bit cocky, and because of his background, could care less about his parents' rejection of him and his mutancy. He's extremely vapid, extremely superficial, extremely hedonistic and totally unapologetic.

As a wealthy self styled superhero, Warren actually has some skills in martial arts and espionage which he has learned.

Development

Warren starts out very vapid and self centered, but the Angel motif becomes very prevalent in his life, and it begins to be clear that he has a higher purpose. He slowly grows into a very spiritual person, who is in love with nature and has a very metaphysical angle and approach to the crises that the team faces, at first he's very flippant about it, but he grows into a bit of a guru.

At some point, he will lose his wings, giving him a further crisis and cementing him as a meditative type who can overcome anything with enough reflection, only for it to bite him in the tail when accepts the coming Apocalypse. Because of the nature and expense of his power, he often goes without being seen.

Alternately: If the show takes a hand-held camera format, like Chronicle, Angel would be the cameraman for the team, since he has no useful power, he would be the one catching all the action, and he'd have a power useful for just that.

Powers

Warren has wings, which present a host of practical problems. There are a few solutions, each to be employed as needed. Most often, his wings will simply be folded away under his clothing, when in public. At the mansion, however, there's no story reason for him to hide, so a very light wing harness would need to be created that will look natural and flex slightly with movements, and a wingspan that can be pulled with strings as needed. That would be second most often. Thirdly, a motorized wing stand would exist that he could be strapped to (though the stand would be off camera) that can stretch wings and do other simple movements, useful for closeup shots. At range however, CGI is needed. Another cool trick is to give him a very rapid takeoff, that way he can be CGI lifted out of the way and then all we need for him to land is a crane for him to come in on the landing with. Still expensive, but doable.

You may also want to upgrade Angel's powers with a healing factor, that would/could be very, very cool.

Summary

Angel is a great character, and a founding X-Man. His powers seem useless, but it should become clear that he's not there for his powers, he's there for his money, and for his influence. Personally, he's there for the thrill, and for the girls. Making the wings cool and tough and an extension of the man is one step, the other step is pulling out a performance that's fun and smarmy and a bit arrogant. The show needs that character, the comics have that character, so Angel is in.

Robert Louis Drake, Iceman



Background

Bobby is a juvenile delinquent. The youngest of the team at an even 14 years old to their 16s and 17s. He's had a hard time in school, at home, and generally just not being cared for, so he tries to get attention and approval with his antics, pranks, rebelliousness and occasional violence. He's a graffiti artist, he's a practical joker. He's obnoxious whenever possible.

Bobby's Iceman name comes very naturally from him wanting to be a superhero deep down. He clashes with everyone, often on purpose. He's also the most lost, and most in need of direction and discipline. His erratic impulsive hot headed behavior is often best tempered by Magneto, who has 'been there' so to speak.

Development

Bobby starts of impetuous and relatively uncontrollable, and learns everything, and we mean everything, the hard way. He joins the brotherhood, he uses his powers to impress girls, he lies and cheats his teammates, he starts and escalates fights. He learns the hard way, in all of his focus episodes, how to behave in a world where your actions have consequences. And while he starts out as the very snarky comic relief, eventually he becomes the more jovial type we know from comics. Of course, by that time, he's pretty much a powerhouse.

Powers

Bobby's power is also very difficult and particularly expensive. You can't just put CGI ice up everywhere on a TV budget. One thing I think X3 did well was the idea of a jet stream of cold. That's something that can be done with a hidden tube at any time, really. the cumulative effect is a 'cold blast' that can be used for various attacks as well as to hide the creation of 'constructs' something Bobby can learn to do slowly at first, and would be a simple fact of creating resin or actual ice sculptures and placing them in the cold blast to be 'created.' In this way, he can make walls, even throw ice shards and such without breaking the budget.

Very quickly he'll learn the snow form and he'll try it at times, only to find that snow isn't really protective at all, so that'll be a bit of a gag and a throwback to the orignial Iceman. In time, though, he'll learn Ice Armor and eventually he'll learn an Iceform, though that will be an event-based transformation, since it would be a CGI fest. Still, doable.

Candace Renee Southern



Background

Candy Southern is a relatively normal country rich girl living in Westchester County near Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters. She hangs out at the ice cream shop and meets the trio, Hank, Warren and Bobby, they all develop a crush on her, and the circle goes around and around. She is slowly brought into the world of mutancy, first as a lied to girlfriend, then as a victim, later as a supporter and eventually as an ally.

Development

Candy is there to help provide a human element and a starting point for those not familiar with all the characters yet, someone to introduce to all of them. She is the grounding for the show in that way. She grows from a very timid, generally scared and naive, but adventurous girl into a very cunning and daring scrappy little country badass, in her own cute diminutive way.

Powers

Nah. Obviously, she's very inexpensive to have in scenes and use to explore other charcters.

Relationships

Candy is mostly in awe of the mutants at first. Her primary relationships are with the trio, Beast, Angel and Iceman. They all pursue her and through their differences she explores the mutant phenomenon and how a human can deal with that.

She has a secondary relationship with Jean Grey. They're 'the girls' and because of her ritziness and her down-homeness they often come into conflict as frienemies in a way.

Sheriff Valerie Seville Cooper



Background

The local sheriff who takes care of local problems that the X-Men have and get into is Valerie Cooper, a contemporary of Xavier and Magneto. She's a lifelong cop, also ex-speical forces before she settled down to start a family. She comes calling on Xavier and his students when their powers and effects cause problems locally, as they often do. She develops a sort of friendship with Xavier, one which the government eventually uses to elevate her so that she can deal with the X-Men as a friend since the more aggressive track taken by Trask and the like rarely works.

Development

Val Cooper is a character from the comics, a human, government agent, and mutant sympathizer, so this is her origin in many ways. She is trying to live a simple life and is caught up in the madness of mutantdom, and it pushes her to react in severe ways. In some ways, she fills in the Magneto role for Xavier after Magneto leaves, pushing Xavier and restricting him in a way which pushes him to act.

When she loses her family, or at least her husband, she becomes available as a romantic entanglement for the older characters, and it turns her into a much more severe, deliberate and mutant-focused characters, as well as opening up that revenge storyline which actually culminates in forgiveness. She's actually a really strong character who ends up getting backgrounded as more and more young mutants join up.

Powers

Nah.

Relationships

Valerie's basic relationship is with Xavier and Magneto, sort of patrolling them in a way, and even acting as a peacemaker, though unknowingly, between them at times, breaking deadlocks in their disagreements and likewise. A childhood friendship with Magneto, having grown up in Westchester County, is also possible, and can result in some interesting dynamics, while her military background allows her to empathize with Magneto's position.

Her secondary relationship is actually with Candy Southern, whom she feels protective over since she's known the girl for years before the other kids moved here. She has relationships with the other students as well, but those are much less personal.

Summary

A good and necessary authority figure character, and because she's from the comics, she can grow with the show from very local to very much global in scale.

Overall

There are a lot of strong characters in the X-Men, this the actual founding team, and instead of using other non-founding characters, you can follow the comics storylines, and let the audience in on the very ground floor in a way they haven't quite been before, instead of getting a later more cosmopolitan team and then doing prequels and flashbacks galore for previous characters.

Plus, the team is pretty awesome, and with some supporting humans, it really gives you a lot of Fringe Smallville vibes that you can work with. Of course, in the second season we see people like Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Shadowcat that join the team.

[hegemony]

No "bad guy of the week" stuff, just long story arcs like Lost or Game of Thrones.

[Spike014]

Not bad but your picks for Magneto (Don't know the actor) But he played an awful Bison in that Street Fighter Chun Li film a few years back.

[jaymes_e06]

The casting is rather blah but I like the idea and have done it before.

[DrCosmic]

Supporting Cast

The World of the X-Men is full of incredible individuals, all of whom play different roles and have different experiences, many of which have incredible abilities. These are characters who may become main cast members if well liked enough, or may most likely be killed off in order to add drama to the show.

Raven Darkholme, Mystique

Background and Powers

Mystique is a legendary shapeshifter. Here she appears as a teenager, the same age as the initial students, and joins the school as Magneto's personal choice, despite Xavier's vehement opposition, becoming the sixth student. Her shapeshifting power is usually done in a cut, obscured or silhouette change. It would be shown in full rarely, such as in her debut, and in her focus episodes or season finales. We would keep the movie 'textured skin' look so this is another actor who would have to go in the morning early for prosthetics.

Character Notes

Obviously Mystique is a fan favorite because she's more Rebecca Romjin Stamos and less Jeniffer Lawrence. Mystique's story would be one of the more controversial and twisted. She would, in truth, be an adult, and have history with Xavier as a romantic partner, and potential assassin before she is neutralized and mindwiped back into youth by the then-young Telepath. The Many Lives of Raven Darkholme would be her focus episode for instance. She would cause trouble for the team initially hiding in the mansion as one of them, causing all manner of interpersonal conflict and drama, escalating relationships and upsetting others. There would also be a romantic relationship with Beast, despite this having 'been done' in First Class, it makes a lot of sense for his blueness to come from her DNA in a way.

Pietro Maximoff, Quicksilver

Background and Powers

Pietro would be what he often is, a hotheaded and impetuous literal bastard. All of his wishing to impress his father desires would be intact, though with the added twist that he hates and hopes to usurp his father, which eventually turns him into a force that will not allow his father to recant or see reason, for fear of letting down his son. His powers are cheap and easy, with speed away effects, and the occasional slow mo bullet time fun to be had in his focus episodes.

Character Notes

Pietro is the easiest to make a one dimensional character, so it's important to twist his relationship with his father. He'd be that cocky hothead that is justified in being so. He'd be untouchable, partly to make him a credible threat to half the X-Men by himself, but to make even Magneto have to take pause at him. He'd be removed from the series by being knee-capped at some point.

Wanda Maximoff, The Scarlet Witch

Background and Powers

Wanda would be Pietro's brother of course, and she'd be very much 'too powerful' in her storyline. She'd have some simple and apparently weak probability manipulating power, a simple Jedi-like handwave thing would change things to her favor. In fact, Jedi-like would be the best way to describe her use of her probability powers, in mindtricks and minor TK. Part of the ongoing storyline would be discovering that she is affecting things on a large scale probability wise, which is why things tend to work out in her favor, and eventually, she has to be stopped like the Magician Ultimate X-Men character, who simply changed reality on accident, in a send up of House of M.

Character Notes

Because she's such a plot device, it's hard to pin down Wanda's personality. In this case, she'd be an soft spoken naturalist shrinking violet type, slow to speak, quick to listen, loves nature and walking barefoot and stuff. A bit River Tam-ish if you've seen Firefly. She'd open up around certain people, so we could see that she's really a nice quirky cool girl, who's simply trying to protect her brother and father. Of course, when they get hurt, that's when her naivete becomes resentment and she says more villainous things like 'how dare you?' She's very much that good princess from a bad kingdom character.

Graydon Creed, President of Friends of Humanity

Background

Graydon Creed was given up for adoption as a baby. He ended up growing up in the Pennsylvania countryside, and joining a militia at 18. He was bright though, much brighter than any of his peers, so when a dozen of his friends, militia men, were killed by a mutant they were accosting, Graydon didn't just get angry, he had an epiphany. That's how the Friends of Humanity movement got started, publishing the truth that mutants exist, despite government cover-ups, and mobilizing, and arming, men and women to fight for humanity's safety and existence. He is a true believer, and what makes him so dangerous, despite his charismatic abilities, is that he's right most of the time.

Character Notes

This is the primary villain for the first arc of season 1, so he has to be good, and a bit scary, so making him sympathetic in his experience and fear, and then giving him a powerful voice to speak with his probably a strong way to go. Of course, eventually this all comes to a head, and Magneto is directly responsible for Creed's execution style-death, which in turn becomes the wedge that begins to truly drive Xavier and Magneto apart.

New York Senator Robert Kelly

Background

Robert Kelly is actually from Westchester County, and has a home there, bringing him into contact with the main cast surprisingly often. He is a firm, but balanced, advocate of mutant control. He sees mutants as human, but dangerous, and should be treated as such. He's right even more often than Creed, and they have a tense relationship. Robert's dark secret is that his daughter is a mutant, which is where his balance comes from.

Character Notes

This character will be the President by the end of Season 1, and he has a very David Palmer (from 24)-like importance in the story. Even his family becomes relevant when his daughter is kidnapped by the Brotherhood at one point, and his wife turns out to have some connections. His relationship with the mutants, at times personal, continues to come into play as the character deals with various mutant legislature, which will be a continuing background story, and part of the world building of the show. Eventually, this character will be assassinated, which will result in Operation Zero Tolerance.

Henry Peter Gyrick

Background

Gyrick here is a businessman, as usual. What makes him unique is that he sees opportunity in mutancy, not just for money, but for power and prestige. He first made a living as a pimp, where he had a mutant girl with extra-special talents in his employ, upon realizing what was really going on, he acquired more. Eventually, his 'expertise' made him the go-to guy for mutantcy in Chicago, where he began to sell anti-mutant tech. When the mutant thing blows up, he's wheeling and dealing, linking one person to another, trying to be the middleman between any possible deal. Between a Senator and a Militia Man, between a Preacher and a Scientist. He's working hard, and he is utterly unscrupulous.

Character Notes

This is a love to hate character that's going to have some longevity. He got about 2 seconds in the X-Men movies, but here, he's a real key player, and adds reality and credibility to the way things develop on the anti-mutant side. With him, and sometimes through him, we can see how people really would react with skepticism, intolerance, and violence.

Cameron Hodge

Background

Cameron is a young fresh militia kid, who joins Friends of Humanity when he gets dishonorably discharged from the marines. He believes in Graydon's rhetoric vehemently, and

John St. Allerdyce, Pyro

Background and Powers

Pyro is a pretty straightforward pyromaniac, not the sympathetic character from the films. He's actually certifiable, barely controlled. He does have philosophy which he speaks in his rants, and at some point, feels that fire should burn different ways, and turns on his people, twisting expectations that the nutcase is one dimensional. For SFX, he's a guy, or stuntman, standing in front of a flamethrower. Fun times.

Character Notes

Pyro enters the series as the problem in an arson case that the team investigates. His genuine pyromania causes problems for the community in question when buildings begin to collapse, and fires rise too fast for the fire department to arrive to save people. Eventually, the team tracks him, and faces him, and Iceman is able to counter him by applying the lessons he hasn't been learning very well. They give him to Agent Coulson to put in the Vault.

Dominic Petros, Avalanche

Background

Dominic is a very brusque and cold character. His power is pretty direct, an area effect vibration, which means shaking screens, wave distortion effects and falling people, and when he's left too long, environmental destruction, cracks begin to form and things like that. It turns out he's a bit of fun when he gets drunk, but that doesn't happen much.

Character Notes

Dominic is a hit man when we first meet him, and the police don't know how to solve the murder spree that's going on, as someone's hired him to take out all the competition. The X-Men figure it out eventually, and are apparently defeated, with Cyclops apparently mortally wounded, leading to Jean drama. Angel then gets to show how he's useful due to his bone structure, and ability to fly out of harms way.

Irene Adler, Destiny

Background and Powers

Destiny is going to be left intentionally a bit of a mystery. She'd be clearly British, but remain masked and mostly quiet. Her ability to sense the future wouldn't be shown, she'd simply write and then later it would happen, leaving audiences to deduce what's happening.

Character Notes

Destiny wouldn't actually be seen first hand save for once by the X-Men. One of her books would fall into the wrong hands, and this eccentric person would use that knowledge to win at life, and then use their advantages to destroy other people's lives, both intentionally and unintentionally. One of the X-Men would get caught up in this while visiting home, and others would try and help.

[DrCosmic]

...Supporting Cast (Continued)

Fred Dukes, The Blob

Background and Powers

Freddie Dukes would still be a guy in a fat suit, a circus freak, and a generally disgusting guy who hates himself and everyone around him. There would be a bit of a special sound effect when he tosses people with his prosthetic stomach, alluding to his gravity powers. In truth

Character Notes

Blob would start as a relatively sympathetic outcast, whose personal faults, from bad hygeine to prejudice and sexism, would annoy the students. He'd be at the mansion perhaps for a short time, before being kicked out for misconduct of several stripes.

Victor Creed, Sabertooth

Background and Powers

Yes, before we see Wolverine, we see Sabertooth. A career mercenary and assassin, extremely intelligent here, less snarling and more vampire-like in his ability to go from debonair to animalistic. He gives signs of being Canadian at times, passing references to seeing Maple Leaves play, for instance. He's a person Magneto recruits out of the raft pretty early on.

Character Notes

A clear sign that Magneto has lost it is when he frees and recruits a random mutant from the Vault/Raft that he didn't help put away. "Before you release me, I should warn you. I am a ravenous sadistic murdering psychopath." Mags' response is to open the door. "As long as you enjoy revenge more than betrayal." He pretty much a dark wolverine here, he elevates the stakes, and creates a desire for the ol canuck as if it wasn't already there.

John Proudstar, Thunderbird

Background and Powers

He's a bit younger than the rest, closer to Bobby's age, but very strong, stronger than Beast, or anything we've seen so far. This is relatively easy to show as long as you have a crane to actually lift the thing, and a styrofoam or CGI version of whatever it is to throw around. He is fresh off the reservation and just loves life, a bit more like Starfire or one of those fish out of water types than a mystical all knowing type of sage.

Character Notes

Here's our first martyr. The goal with Proudstar is to get the audience attached to him early on, ingratiate him so that when he heroically sacrifices himself on his first outing with the X-Men, not only does he cement the feud between Xavier and Magneto, but he ups the stakes for the whole show, setting the scene for many deaths to come.

Moira McTaggert

Background and Powers

Moira is Xavier's ex-wife, they had a bad split once she found out that he was manipulating her subtly in order to keep her safe. While she may have forgiven him, she doesn't trust him. But her passion for mutants hasn't changed, so her Muir Island research facility houses some of the troubled ones. She is a bleeding heart, and what troubles her most is her and Xavier's son, David.

Character Notes

This is the original Irish brogue version of the character. Very serious about her work, and knows Xavier very well. She works hard and on her own, so it makes her tough, and exacting, and there's not a lot anyone can do to stop her. It is also revealed that she was with Erik before she got with Xavier, giving her insight into the man Magneto used to be. She's unflappable, and for good reason.

Danielle Moonstar, Mirage

Background and Powers

Dani is a smaller kid, like, fresh into puberty. She's a bit of a set up for the New Mutants and where the fit in the school, as the first non-combatant students, really. She comes in from the same community as Proudstar, so they are initially close, though she becomes the cool little sister to the entirety of the team. She actually is a bit of an old soul, and was actually sent to help watch Proudstar, not the other way around. Of course that doesn't work out so much.

Character Notes

Dani's power of illusion is untrained, so it becomes a bit of a mystery within the mansion what exactly is going on, is it shapeshifters, is it telepaths? All that good stuff. The girl herself is meant to be a sweetheart, and keep a bit of innocence in the show as the characters are pushed to cross lines and grow up quickly. As a child actor, she'd have few scenes, really.

Clarice Ferguson, Blink

Background and Powers

This little pink girl can teleport, a flash of pink is the typical thing but there are pink portals that appear. She is a street kid, abandoned on the stoop, raised in the system, and now running free. She is scared, enigmatic, doesn't talk much, at that. When the X-Men do finally manage to catch her and gain her trust, there's not a lot they can do to help her, with her out of control power triggered by her emotions.

Character Notes

Blink is that powered thief character, and in keeping with her comics roots, it ends tragically, with a victory for the Friends of Humanity, another shot to the innocence of the X-Men. This, like a few other characters, is what brings so much punch back when she shows up many years later in the Age of Apocalypse storylines.

Calvin Rankin, Mimic

Background and Powers

Calvin is the first X-Men fan, he follows their every move via different viral and fringe websites, and runs one himself. It is an odd coincidence that he should gain the ability to mimic powers, one the first allusions to powers coming from deep desires.Calvin seeks out the X-Men himself, and even seeks to join them when he discovers he has the same exact power as his favorite hero, Cyclops, and he can control it! Naturally, as he gains all their powers, he believes he can replace the X-Men.

Character Notes

Calvin is the fanboy send up, and also used to highlight the deconstruction of superheroism that the series experiences. It is not always cool and fun to be a hero, and in fact, Rankin experiences all the drawbacks that the other heroes suffer, and he does not like it one bit! This is what sends him into a violent panic attack, where he is uncontrollable. He has a great deal of genre savvy, and so that's fun to play with. He understands that he's the fanboy who is being used to deconstruct the superhero genre. It makes him that much more dangerous... and pitiable.

Mortimer Toynbee, Toad

Background and Powers

Morty is actually a clean looking dude, he just has some very serious inferiority complex issues. He takes this out on others naturally, a bit like some of the X-Men students. He actually can be a bit of a charmer, and that's what comes out. The tongue thing, due to unwieldly special fx, and a bit of the illogic of fitting all that in his mouth, would be downplayed, in favor of simply a slightly longer prosthetic tongue at times, and that kind of goo-spit thing.

Character Notes

Toad is a fun character to play with because he's a bit away from the comics, and changes the dynamics a lot. He becomes a bit of an anti-cyclops under Magneto. Eventually, he gets experimented on and becomes the green grotesque guy we all know and loathe, the contrast drives home how disturbing his new form is.

Sean Cassidy, Banshee

Background and Powers

Banshee is an mutant MI6 Agent, assigned to deal with Mutant issues. When the X-Men find themselves overseas, they come in contact with this very rough, experienced and brutal agent, a contemporary of Xavier. He has his sound abilities and uses them innovatively, shrieking to shatter eardrums, knocking people back with sonic booms and things like that.

Character Notes

Banshee is now a contemporary of Xavier and Magneto, and has been working in the mutant world almost as long, but perhaps not from the same angle. It is understood that he and Xavier have met before, though the details are saved for a focus episode. This guy goes back to the Charles and Moira days, and his experience with them is actually what got him into the once hidden world of mutants anyway.

Elizabeth Braddock, Psylocke

Background and Powers

Betsy is Sean Cassidy's partner, also from MI6. She is a white haired woman with purple dyed hair. She is also a powerful psionic, with telepathic skills, telekinetic ability and the ability to manifest raw psionic power in energy form. She is the more rebellious, adventurous, tongue-in-cheek of the partnership.

Character Notes

Did you sense another death coming? Yes, though she'll be back in Asian form in season 2, Betsy has got to die, dramatically in action, saving the students from whatever is causing the problem. Her relations to the Braddocks, Captain Britain specifically, will be mentioned, though it will not be expressed that Captain Britain is a superhero, he will be a national figure. Later he'll be shown to be a television character who actually acquires the sword and becomes Captain Britain of Earth-199999

Other Supporting Cast Added As Needed

As you can see, there are quite a few minor characters in the series, and each has their own place and perspective and depth and purpose. They are not simply easter eggs, but real full characters. You may also notice that the first season doesn't get into a lot of favorite X-Men very rapidly. The idea and goal is to immerse the audience in these five starting characters, and then, as their stories are completed, bring in new X-Men characters. Characters can certainly be brought back, for instance, Angel may be raised by Apocalypse, or Blink may appear in the Age of Apocalypse, things like that. But the departing of these characters will generally not be taken lightly. The world wouldn't be built so that there are some indefinite number of ex-X-Men just out there roaming around doing nothing important. Once you're in, you're pretty much in.

[DrCosmic]

Responses

Thanks for the input guys! I really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by hegemony

No "bad guy of the week" stuff, just long story arcs like Lost or Game of Thrones.

Haven't seen game of thrones yet, but I think it's a bit different with young X-Men, as a lot of their personal story is high school drama, which is a bit silly and melodramatic when drug out. So the long story arcs would generally express themselves as weekly problems, and indeed, even in shows that are very serial (what you're talking about) there is usually a weekly challenge that is resolved, even if its not a bad guy, or resolved at the same time each week. Every once in a while they'll have an episode of pure building and no payoff, or play with that balance, which I could easily see this show doing once it gets its footing. But even lost started with weekly problems before it became completely serial, and it's non-payoff episodes continue to be controversial and divisive.

Originally Posted by Spike014

Not bad but your picks for Magneto (Don't know the actor) But he played an awful Bison in that Street Fighter Chun Li film a few years back.

That's a good point. I tend to like Neal McDonough, but you're right, that was horrible, and while he has a bit of the look, he's not quite versatile enough. Let me see what I else I can find.

Originally Posted by jaymes_e06

The casting is rather blah but I like the idea and have done it before.

Really? I'd love to see yours. The casting is more along the lines of 'likely TV casting' rather than 'best person for the job.' At least, that's the idea. So I can't defend it by saying anything other than it's supposed to be mediocre.

Next: Season 1 Episode Guide

[Nave 'Torment']

Just went through this and I have to say I want to start watching this right away! I think the relationship between Erik and Xavier is the strongest point of note, as well that of Xavier and Jean. The whole idea of the "dreamscape" is sheer genius, as well as the darker aspects of Charles. In that aspect I think Marsters is the perfect guy for the job. I'm not a big fan of his work in general, but casting a traditional bad-guy as your series mentor? That's pretty good.

Would've loved to see some of the dynamics that you brought on here in First Class. Good work!

[CJ]

First off, I didn't read the whole thing. (It's a lot of text) But what I read, I liked.

The X-Men would benefit from a live-action TV series. There's so many characters in the movies, (which only last 2 hours) so there's not enough time for all the characters to shine. But a TV show would give all of the characters that opportunity. And making it live-action would attract a bigger audience than another cartoon series.

Arcs with season finale twists would really keep viewers glued to this show.

However, I think it would be very expensive to make an live-action X-Men TV series. A lot of special effects would be needed to showcase all of the mutants powers. And being based on a comic-book, some big action sequences would also be necessary. I can't see something like the Phoenix saga or Sentinels being financially possible in a TV series.

I liked the stuff you wrote about Xavier using his powers becoming a moral issue. His past adds depth and complexity to his character.