Forget Legion & Hellfire, Where Are These X-Men TV Shows?

Marvel and Fox are bringing the mutants to TV—but these are the shows that would excite viewers

The X-Men are coming to TV! Well, not really. Tangentially related X-Men characters are coming to TV! Marvel and Fox announced two new shows are in the works, one on FX about Legion, the schizophrenic mutant son of Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart in the flicks), and Hellfire on Fox, a drama about a secret agent investigating the Hellfire Club, a secret mutant-run organization with the rich and powerful who also like to dress up in 18th Century garb. Yup.

As an X-Men fan—been reading since I could read in 1991—it's hard to be enthused about these shows. The X-Men world is so rich and vast—with interesting characters just waiting for their chance to shine. Do we need another secret agent Marvel TV show? No offense Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And these shows may actually be great, but at first glance it's hard to get behind these. However, these are five other X-Men shows that would seriously excite viewers. You're welcome, Fox!

X-Factor—Jamie Madrox is BEGGING to be on TV. The Peter David series about Multiple Man and his team of fellow mutants working out of a private investigation agency was wildly entertaining. The cast, which sprawled at times, included Strong Guy, Wolfsbane, Siryn, M, Layla Miller, Darwin, Shatterstar, Longshot and Rictor. You don't need that many characters for a TV show, pare the cast down to powers that would work for TV show (Wolfsbane would be so cool to see on screen!) and get to work.

Cecilia Reyes—Hear me out: Her powerset—force fields—is easy enough to adapt to TV and she's a doctor. Boom. Superhero medical drama. We don't have those yet!

Dazzler—Musicals and TV still go hand in hand. Camp the crap out of this and give us Alison Blaire doing what she does best: Dazzling viewers with her songs and ability to convert sound into light and energy beams. Add in Beast for some more superheroic stuff and I've already added a season pass.

New Mutants/Generation X—Yes, this was already attempted once. And yes it was horrible. And yeah, there's a New Mutants movie in the work, but a teen drama with super powers is the way to do this. But not OVERLY heavy with the teen dramatics.  Think of the diverse cast that can be assembled—Dani Moonstar, Jubliee, Karma, Sunspot, M, Chamber, Husk, etc.

X-23—TV loves a good bloody action drama these days. X-23, a (sort of) clone of Wolverine, is a fascinating character with a tortured past. You know what that means? Flashbacks! She kicks butt, has plenty of demons and is suited for weekly adventures.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some comics to read.