Superhero films have been a point of contention between J and me in recent months. For example, although I completely agreed with Okwudili’s review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, J was less than thrilled with the film. And while I really enjoyed X-Men: Days of Future Past, J claims that it represents everything that’s wrong with these franchises. Recently, J and I sat down to hash out our differences.

Our discussion was so long, and so in-depth, that we decided to split it up into three segments. The series, entitled “Superhero Madness,” begins with the X-Men. Specifically, J and I discuss the history of the franchise: what it got right, what it got wrong, and where it can go from here. Is there room for these movies to delve into Civil Rights, just as the comics do? How about sexuality? Gender? Religion?

~ Søren

Please be aware the spoilers for the X-Men franchise abound. You can listen to this podcast online or by downloading it here.

What do you think of the X-Men films? Do they have potential moving forward? Or would you prefer that the rights revert back to Marvel? Let us know in the comments!

And stay tuned in the coming days for the next iteration of “Superhero Madness,” where we’ll be talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This podcast uses clips from the song “Movie Star * (The Making Of X)” by Loveshadow / CC BY-NC 3.0.