'X-Men' entrenches itself in JFK assassination

Posted Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 4:47 PM Central

by John Couture

When X-Men: First Class spent a good chunk of its third act literally right in the middle of the Cuban missile crisis, you were left to wonder if any mutants were at other key moments in Kennedy's life, you know, like in Dallas on that fateful November afternoon. Well, with this weekend's observance of the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, it seemed that time was perfect for X-Men: Days of Future Past to launch a viral marketing campaign around this very idea.

With the release of The Bent Bullet, the faux conspiracy buffs at Fox have implicated Erik Lensherr, aka Magneto, as being there in Dealey Plaza and contributing to JFK's death. The very impressive web site is a work of art in and of itself as it does a good job of taking advantage of new web design to create a nice little smoking bullet for Magneto's involvement in the assassination.

The one thing that I have enjoyed with the X-Men films is how closely they mirror history and the real world in order to add a bit of doubt as to whether this is just a film or something that could actually happen. Naturally, mutants do not exist. Well, not that we know of and certainly not to the extreme of the characters in this film, but it does make you wonder.

Some people might decry this viral campaign as being parasitic and trying to capitalize on the big anniversary, but in fact, I think it plays into the world that they created with X-Men: First Class in the first place. Naturally, if the world, namely Kennedy and Khrushchev, got their first real look at mutants during this critical period, it would only make sense that they would be deciding when and if to go public with this information.

Tying it into the assassination makes perfect sense as far as I can tell and timing it with the anniversary is just marketing savvy. X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters on May 23.