2000’s X-Men has an excellent claim to have birthed the modern superhero movie. It faithfully adapted the characters and themes for the big screen, a tactic that was a breath of fresh air for comic book fans after so many botched superhero adaptations throughout the 1990s. It also birthed a cinematic universe that still has a faint pulse, with Hugh Jackman set to once again pop the claws as Wolverine in Deadpool 3.
But fans have just noted with surprise that X-Men introduces something to the Marvel universe that’s so obvious many assumed it’d been there all along: Magneto’s helmet blocking Xavier’s psychic abilities:
There are many skeptics in the comments claiming that Magneto’s helmet has this property in both X-Men: The Animated Series and in the comics, though other fans have brought receipts showing that they’re mistaken. Others are just astonished that it took until 2000 for a writer to come up with this:
Another notes that the Ultimate universe instantly incorporated this into their story as if it had been there all along, but the core 616 universe Magneto is so powerful he can simply naturally resist Xavier’s psychic intrusions and doesn’t need a special helmet. It’s also pointed out that Juggernaut’s helmet has always had this property, so X-Men writer David Hayter may have spotted that and realized it’d make sense for the cinematic Magneto’s helmet to do the same thing.
Like many fans, we’re shocked that this wasn’t a part of the comics all along, although it seems there Magneto has other ways of keeping his former friend Charles out of his brain. Whenever the MCU version of the pair arrives, we’re sure they’ll continue this plot point, as it just makes too much sense to be abandoned.