One of the greatest things about the X-men(and superheroes comic in general) is that they have the ability to tell stories in a bunch of genres. So one of the most clear thing to understand at least from me is I don't think X-men should purely be any one genre. But I do have a certain level of curiosity of how would the X-men would look if the franchise strictly avoid somethings. For example the set up at Fox made X-men what I am going to call low sci fi by the sheer nature of not being in shared universe with other marvel concepts. Some of those concepts being around would lead to more high sci fi and fantasy stories. They are some people who love the strip down focus of the X-men at Fox and you can make argument for in some ways with out shared stuff around the X-men work a little better.
The current run with X of Swords which is heavily based in magic and fantasy has gotten to me to think what if the X-men was solely based in Magic. How do you think the franchise would do? I generally think it wouldn't be that hard of a transition something like Harry Potter or Motherland Fort Salem shows that the hate and fear dynamic would work well as primary setting with magic. I do think as magic based as opposed to science/genetics based that X-men would focus more on being outcast narrative than a racial or minority narrative which could be good for the franchise. Anyways How much is magic baked in to X-men
X-men who have magic connection
Magik
Pixie
Moonstar
Nightcrawler
Wolverine
Forge
Storm
Enemies who are already Magic based
The Adversary
Azazel
Belacaso
S'ym
N'astirh
Dracula
Demon Bear
Selene
Zaladane
Goblin Queen
Wendigo
Otherworld/Saturne
Just for fun
Enemies/concepts who aren't magic based or slightly Magic based that would make a good transition to being pure Magic
Apocalypse and the 4 horseman
Externals
Church of Humanity
The Brotherhood/Acolytes
The Shadow King
Hellfire Club
Phoenix
Of course lastly some questions for discussion
1. What do you think about the use of magic in the X-men franchise? Do think it should happen or X-men should avoid it as much as possible? Do you like to see X-men crossing into fantasy stuff? Does a story like X of swords or even Excalibur turn you off from reading?
2. How do you think the X-men would do as magic focused franchise? Do you think there something that would be lost from the dna of X-men story that couldn't be told as magic based story?
3. What genre do you think the X-men is at its best in?