"X-Men is an offshoot of Marvel" -- Is this a strictly modern view?
I pointed this out in the mutant racism thread, and I really wonder about it. Do the people who speak of X-Men as though it were an offshoot of the Marvel brand, rather than a true part of it, realize just how badly premised that is? It seems the people who didn't want the X-Men to be part of the MCU, or want them to be in their own separate universe, justify this by saying they exist in their own void as a self-contained thing. For the MCU's case, they'll say something like "If it's true to the comics, none of the X-Men will ever appear outside the X-movies anyways."
I groan whenever I hear this, as this argument is so riddled with holes that it's practically Swiss cheese. To begin, they don't know that for most of their history the Avengers were NOT the core of Marvel. The X-Men were far more popular than the Avengers collectively, and especially individuals like Iron Man, Hawkeye, Black Panther and so on. If you were to divide Marvel into several pillars, say X-Men, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Avengers, then the Avengers were least popular among them.
I also think the idea that the X-Men never crossed over to the wider universe to only be a half-truth, and again, badly premised, for two reasons:
[LIST=1][*]The X-Men [I]did[/I] cross over with the wider universe. Secret Wars portrayed them as prominently as the others, they've had adventures alongside the Fantastic Four, Avengers, Spider-Man, the Power Pack, among others. Several events considered "X-Overs" actually did feature characters outside the brand, such as Mutant Massacre crossing over the X-Men, New Mutants and X-Factor while also featuring appearances from Thor, Daredevil and Power Pack. It just didn't happen every single issue, nor did every storyline have to have outside elements, with the reason being that the X-Men brand was fascinating enough that it could stand on its own. Kinda like Spider-Man in that regard. Compare this to Iron Man, where his best stories often do feature outside elements, because his core mythos doesn't hold up without them. Overall, throughout history I'd say there's still enough crossover that putting them in the MCU should be easy.[*]The X-Men were far and away the most popular franchise in Marvel, with more minis, spin-offs, events that were considered important compared to the Avengers. Only Spider-Man could rival them during this time. The Avengers were a dumping ground for various heroes that couldn't hold a title, seen as a place for lessers to build a fanbase. As the X-Men were the top dogs, it was in their best interests to keep the Avengers away from them, and in the times they crossed over, the Avengers were second-stringers to the X-Men. Example, the Avengers #300 was just a tie-in to the X-centric Inferno event. Can you imagine a milestone for the Avengers today taking a backseat just to promote an X-Men event?[/LIST]
Remember, the terrible Heroes Reborn reboot is the closest thing to this -- only the [I]Avengers[/I] were jettisoned to their own universe, not the other way around. It's also why I'm completely against the idea of separating X-Men from Marvel and just having them "be their own thing". The fact is, Marvel works best as a unit with everyone in the same world.
This brings me to my big question:
Would you say this idea that the mutant and non-mutant sides of the Marvel Universe are "two universes smushed together" is a strictly modern perspective, born out of Fox owning the X-Men film rights for twenty years, and Marvel running the massively successful MCU without them? Will it disappear when everyone gets used to seeing the X-Men in the MCU?
I sure hope so.