X-Men Villain Officially Confirmed For Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Setting Up Marvel’s Mutant Saga
Spider-Man: Brand New Day officially includes one surprising X-Men villain, making it key setup for the MCU’s Mutant Saga. Mutants have been part of the MCU for years now, with Ms. Marvel even riffing on the classic X-Men theme tune when Marvel dropped the word in her show. But they’re about to become more important than ever before, with the Multiverse Saga confirmed to set up Marvel’s X-Men relaunch. All the evidence suggests Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a key step in that direction, with most believing Sadie Sink is Earth-616’s Jean Grey.
Captions on the new Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer confirm the movie features The Severance‘s Tramell Tillman as William “Bill” Metzger, a relatively Z-list X-Men villain noted for leading an anti-mutant group known as the Anti-Mutant Militia. In the comics, Metzger seemed to have strong political ties, and was linked to developments in Bolivar Trask’s Sentinel program; he only appeared in a handful of issues, before he was killed by Magneto. The MCU’s Metzger appears to have taken charge of the Department of Damage Control, responsible for policing superhumans – and, by extension, mutants.
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Damage Control Is Key to the MCU’s Mutant Saga
The Department of Damage Control made its official debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming, a partnership between the Federal government and Stark Industries initially responsible for clearing up superhero messes. Over the years, Damage Control has evolved into a major force to be reckoned with in the MCU; they now act as a sort of superhuman police force, investigating Peter Parker for abusing advanced technology and running Supermax prisons where powerful metahumans and the most dangerous terrorists are imprisoned. They’ve appeared in Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Wonder Man, and are increasingly antagonistic.
Wonder Man introduced a new wrinkle, confirming Damage Control doesn’t just police metahumans; it also recruits them, presumably using these “assets” to deal with other super-powered individuals. The Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer reveals Spider-Man is working with Damage Control against an unknown mystery villain, one who only the wall-crawler can sense. The trailer is certainly trying to imply this is Sadie Sink’s mystery character, but it’s too soon to say whether or not that’s misdirection. Whatever the truth may be, there’s obviously a reason Tillman has been cast as an X-Men bad guy – especially given reports he’s signed a multi-picture deal with Marvel.
Given Damage Control’s remit, the organization will naturally become increasingly important in the MCU as mutants emerge; random individuals spontaneously developing super-powers, with Damage Control working to police them. There’s already been speculation Damage Control’s captured Stark drones from Spider-Man: No Way Home could be repurposed, with the technology serving as the basis for the MCU’s version of the Sentinel program. Metzger certainly seems to fit with this, indicating we’re headed in a fairly traditional direction for the X-Men – with Marvel’s mutant superhero team fighting to protect a world that hates and fears them.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens in theaters on July 31.
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