X-Men: First Class
See also X-Men, X-Men Movieverse.
| Fandom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name: | X-Men: First Class | |
| Abbreviation(s): | XMFC | |
| Creator: | Matthew Vaughn (director), Bryan Singer (producer), with the Donners' Company. | |
| Date(s): | 2011 | |
| Medium: | Film | |
| Country of Origin: | USA | |
| External Links: | official website on IMDb.com | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | ||
| ||
X-Men: First Class is a prequel to the X-Men Movieverse films that was released June 3, 2011 and immediately spawned its own fandom.
Canon Overview
The film is set in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and tells the backstory for Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy), Erik Lehnsherr (played by Michael Fassbender), Raven/Mystique (played by Jennifer Lawrence), Hank McCoy, Alex Summers and other characters familiar to both movieverse and comicsverse fans. Wolverine has a brief cameo in the film.
Fandom Overview
Soon after the film opened in North America, there were two versions of the kink meme on Livejournal. After three months, 1stclass_kink closed; the other, xmen_firstkink, remains open.
As with Inception fandom, X-Men: First Class fandom is making use of Tumblr and its graphic capabilities. XMFC is one of the first Western media fandoms to form after Tumblr became an established fannish hub, so there was fannish activity there from day one.
X-Men: First Class RPF fandom appeared at the same time as the FPF fandom. Due to their chemistry in the promotional interviews, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are the main pairing, mirroring the main slash pairing in the film fandom.
There is also fannish interest in same-actor crossovers focusing on previous roles McAvoy and Fassbender have played. Constructed reality vids drawing on these sources and fannish discussion of the films have created interest in some previously unpopular films. [1]
Fanfiction
The most popular slash pairings are (in order) Charles/Erik, Alex/Armando, Alex/Hank, and Azazel/Riptide[2]. Popular het pairings are Hank/Raven, Erik/Raven, Azazel/Mystique, and Charles/Moira[3].
Popular Tropes
- Gay Mutant Road Trip fics are common, showing Charles & Erik getting together during the montage scene where they are traveling the country recruiting mutants.
- Fix-it fic is a popular genre in the fandom, giving the film a happier (shippier) ending.
- Mundane AUs, in which the characters don't have powers, are also common.
- Non-Human AUs are also common; Erik & Charles have been portrayed as crabs, penguins, teacups, and trolls.
Example Works
Charles/Erik
- all the fears you left behind by londondrowning. Charles/Erik. Set during the film.
- Gyzym is already at the head of the pack with her Carpe Brewski College AU WIP, in which Erik and Charles are the beleaguered and hard-partying heads of a fraternity, with many other personalities from the X-Men universe as secondary and tertiary characters. The fic has already spawned fanart[1] (mostly on Tumblr, perhaps owing to the brief period in July 2011 when Livejournal was down as a result of another DDoS attack). As of June 2012 Carpe Brewski is on indefinite hiatus.
- A Curious Carriage of Crystal and Cold by Etharei. Charles/Erik. An AU sci-fi fairytale written for the X-Men Big Bang 2011.
- Not So Much the Teacup by thehoyden: A non-powered modern AU in which Charles is a wedding planner.
- Our House, In The Middle Of Our Street by Clocks: A non-powered modern AU in which Charles is a social worker who fosters troubled kids and Erik is an ex-convict who helps him.
- Some Assembly Required by manic_intent: A powered modern AU in which Charles is Hank's guardian and Erik is Alex's guardian and they meet because their wards are fighting at school.
- Undone and Enigma by Yahtzee: A pair of fix-it stories in which Charles (in Undone) and Erik (in Enigma) wakes up in the past and changes the course of the film.
- You Told Me Again You Preferred Handsome Men, But For Me You Would Make an Exception by soda_and_capes. Charles/Erik. Set during the film.
Other Pairings
- If You Liked the Book, You'll Hate the Movie by paperclipbitch: A high school AU featuring Alex/Hank, Charles/Erik, Raven/Sean, Emma/Sebastian, and Angel/Armando.
- untie the balloons around my neck and ground me by electrumqueen: A canon AU focused on Alex/Armando, with Charles/Erik and Hank/Raven in the background.
- No Matter What by Cesare and helens78: A soulbond AU focusing on Alex/Armando. Part of the Bound and Determined universe.
Fanvids
- XMFC vid tags on Pinboard
- There! Right There! - crackvid in which everyone tries to figure out whether Erik is gay or European
Meta
Communities
- X-Men: First Class Kink Meme
- Erik/Charles Community
- First Class Slash Community
- X-Men: First Kink Meme
Tumblrs
- X-Men: First Class
- Fuck Yeah McAvoy and Fassbender (defunct)
- Fuck Yeah McBender
- First Class Confessions
Other Resources
- X-Men: First Class page on Wikipedia (canon resource)
- The XMFC tag on AO3
- A reclist from bea_recs at Dreamwidth
- First Class Fic on Delicious
- X-Men: First Class Resource Masterpost
References
- ↑ Suddenly by Anna is a vid that uses multiple sources as well as X-Men: First Class footage to tell a story of an AU version of Charles and Erik
- ↑ Of the 1067 stories listed at First Class Fic's Delicious on July 31, 2011, 955 are Erik/Charles, 83 are Alex/Hank, 28 are Azazel/Riptide, 28 are Havok/Darwin, 28 are Alex/Sean, and 8 are Angel/Raven
- ↑ Of the 1067 fic listed at First Class Fic's Delicious on July 31, 2011, 24 are Hank/Raven, 21 are Erik/Raven, 14 are Azazel/Mystique, and ten are Charles/Moira
