The MCU's post-Doomsday X-Men should take notes from Marvel's Wolverine, just like Brand New Day did with Spider-Man

PlayStation exclusive games like Marvel's Wolverine and Marvel's Spider-Man aren't Sony's only connection to superhero media. Sony Pictures also produces the Tom Holland-starring Spider-Man movies (and, of course, the likes of Madame Webb). That's created some creative opportunities, as Tom Holland himself has admitted that some of Brand New Day's terrific stunts and fight scenes were inspired by the trilogy of games. Considering the Spider-Man flicks are part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios could do worse than taking some similar notes from Marvel's Wolverine.

While the action in Marvel's Wolverine on PS5 is certainly bombastic – expect lashings of blood and gore as Logan pops his adamantium claws to de-limb cybernetic reavers and pounce on ninja hidden in trees before ripping their chests out – high-octane action isn't unusual for the angry superhero. No, I think the most impressive aspect of Marvel's Wolverine, playing it as a long-time comic and movie fan, is how unbothered it is by the long shadow of Fox's iconic X-Men saga, many instalments of which put Wolverine himself front and center.

With 10 core movies spanning 2000–2017 (discounting spin-offs like Deadpool), the landmark X-Men films truly define a generation of superhero cinema. Its original two films, alongside Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies, helped to put the comic book movie on the map and turned them into the audience-pleasers they are today.

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Even since Marvel Studios got the mutant rights back from Fox in 2019 with Disney's acquisition of the company, they've so far been unable to resist the allure of playing with pre-existing toys. The past eight years have seen variant timeline heroes such as Professor Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and Wolverine in Deadpool and Wolverine being reprised by original actors Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman respectively. A core meta red herring twist in Wandavision even revolves around the idea that Evan Peters may be reprising his role as Quicksilver. Following Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel has finally announced a proper X-Men film is on the way in 2028, starring an all-new cast – and it's vital Marvel gets it right in a post Avengers: Doomsday world.

During all this to-ing and fro-ing, Insomniac Games' own Marvel universe on PlayStation has been in its lane, thriving. The Marvel's Spider-Man games kicked off with Peter Parker already active as the web-slinger, reinventing his history with a suite of villains while also coming up with fresh origins for familiar faces to create a world for Peter Parker to inhabit that's both familiar and fresh.

Marvel's Wolverine takes this approach even further. This is also no Wolverine origin story – only a small flash of memory points towards his Weapon X backstory that saw his bones fused with adamantium metal – but this is a universe in which the X-Men don't yet exist as an institution. In fact, the game opens up with Logan effectively coming out of retirement to assist his old crew, Team X, with rescuing their founder Nathaniel Essex from Bolivar Trask's illegal mutant blacksite facility, ending up on the trail of a grander scheme that imperils mutantkind in the process.

Logan is old, but due to suffering amnesia after going feral, he can only remember the last thirty years of his life, even if his skills before then return naturally – like being able to speak several languages fluently. Even while not being an origin story, this still manages to be a tale that juggles Wolverine finding himself and defining his future rather than his past, all while a parallel journey is happening for a dispersed and diminished mutantkind being hunted down by prejudiced forces. A better future is worth fighting for.

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