X-Men: New Class
is a fanfic set in the Earth-10005 universe, and is written in the form of a weekly television series. Many of the elements of the series are written as a film-verse adaption of Christopher Yost's and Craig Kyle's run on New X-Men, from which many of the characters and plots are drawn. Series author Ambaryerno describes it as his interpretation of how a television series could be used to expand the film's universe, with inspiration for the concept coming from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The series falls somewhere in the new timeline created by X-Men: Days of Future Past, with many of the changes created by this film evident (Cyclops and Jean being alive, for example), and assumes that events of the original film trilogy do happen again in Broad Strokes (for example, Magneto's plot in X-Men and Stryker's attack on the school in X2: X-Men United are both mentioned by characters as part of their backstory).
Each chapter is released as if it were an individual episode of the series, and the storyline is planned to be broken up into individual seasons.
New Class is set in the present day at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, and centers around a particular group of students at the school: Julian Keller, his girlfriend Sofia Mantega, and his best friends Cessily Kincaid, Santo Vaccarro and Victor Borkowski, their mutual friends Sooraya Qadir, Kevin Ford, Mark Sheppard, Josh Foley, Laurie Collins, and Jay Guthrie, and Noriko Ashida and her boyfriend, David Alleyne. In the first episode a guest appearance by Wolverine leads to the introduction of a new student to the class: Laura Kinney. Although the episodes primarily focus on the lives of the students, the main plot arc is centered around Reverend William Stryker, who survived the incident at Alkali Lake and was quietly retired by the military to cover up his actions, and his preparations for a new war against mutants.
X-Men: New Class contains examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: In the pilot episode Logan is shown to have his adamantium skeleton — claws included — as part of the series's Broad Strokes approach to the new timeline.
- Actor Allusion: An unintentional example: In "Downtime," Julian, Santo and Victor get into a fight in Salem Center with a bunch of kids from the real DeWitt Clinton High School who are in Salem for a football game against North Salem. DeWitt Clinton is the real-life alma mater of X-Men creator Stan Lee, who "cameos" in the episode as the the owner of the arcade where the fight starts (the character is described in Julian's private thoughts as looking like Stan Lee). Ambaryerno hinted in his
author's note on the episode he had no idea of the connection at the time he selected DeWitt as the antagonists' school. - Alternate Timeline: The series is set in the new timeline created at the end of Days of Future Past, and is indicated in dialogue to be set roughly ten years after the end of X2 and c2014 based on Quentin Quire's reference to the Michael Brown shooting.
- Ascended Extra: In the films, Jubilee is at best walking set dressing, and the biggest part she had in any of the films was as one of the students kidnapped by Stryker in X2. She plays a much bigger role in the series as the school's student counselor/advisor.
- Melody Guthrie, the younger sister of Cannonball, Husk and Icarus, who in the comics was merely one of the many mutants depowered during M-Day, plays a supporting role in the story, being friends with Ilyana Rasputin, Fabio Medina, Maxwell Jordan and Megan Gwynn.
- Asleep in Class: Julian and Santo, frequently. Either out of boredom or because they stayed up way too late the night before.
- Boarding School: True to the comics, the Xavier School is presented as this, with both students and staff living on-campus. Many of them because their families rejected them.
- Bonus Episode: Three of them: There are two "minisodes." which are brief one-act vignettes — one featuring a conversation between Melody Guthrie and Sofia Mantega while exercising their powers, and the other a contest between Santo and Julian over a Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper, which ends with Laura making fools of them both — and the third is the script version of the first episode, which is the form in which it was originally written.
- Broad Strokes: With very little information on exactly what changed in the new timeline created by Days of Future Past, New Class approaches it from the perspective that many events of the original timeline do still play out in some form. For example, Wolverine is shown to have received his adamantium skeleton (presumably from Stryker), Rogue still received her skunk stripe from Magneto's machine and gets a bit of teasing from Jubilee over blowing up the Statue of Liberty's torch, and Jubilee herself recalls being kidnapped by Stryker, which she cites as a reason for returning to California after graduating, rather than remaining at the school.
- Celebrity Paradox:
- The owner of the arcade featured in "Downtime" is described as looking like Stan Lee, doubling as a Mythology Gag in reference to Lee's cameos in many Marvel-based films.
- Jay sees a photograph of several soldiers in Stryker's office, and one of the people in it is described as a "fuzzier and meaner Liev Schreiber." It's strongly implied that this is indeed Sabretooth (see Continuity Nod below).
- Continuity Nod: Frequently:
- Rogue and Jubilee mention Magneto using the former to power his machine during at Liberty Island as depicted in X-Men, while Wolverine and Cyclops discuss the same incident when Logan drops Laura off at the school. Jubilee is also shown to still be affected by her time as Stryker's captive during the events of X2: X-Men United.
- When Nori loses control over her powers in "Haywire," Beast uses the serum he created in X-Men: Days of Future Past to temporarily block them to keep them from overloading her mind while he repairs her gauntlets. A flashback in the same episode shows that he also used it to keep them under control when she's first brought to the school for help. Xavier alludes to his own addiction to the serum when Nori asks if he can just give her enough to get by on and send her home. Days is also referenced when Stryker is unloading a shipment of weapons and equipment specifically procured for use against mutants, and he remarks to one of his lieutenants that it is an advancement on Trask's work.
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine receives a couple nods, including one when Jay notices a photo of what is implied to be Stryker's team from the beginning of the film.
- The series begins with a flashback of Stryker's death in X2, which cut away before he was actually killed and is used as a device to insert an explanation for how he managed to actually survive.
- Comic Book TV Shows Don't Use Code Names: Zigzagged. None of the kids use their codenames, although Jay Guthrie does note that his band was called Icarus because of his wings, and tells Stryker some of their fans took to using it for him specifically. However Cyclops's name is used, and most of the kids outright refer to Logan as "The Wolverine".
- They do come up with their canon code-names when they're being finally trained to be X-Men.
- Day in the Life: Most of the first half of season one has been presented in this format.
- Ensemble Cast: The story has a Switching P.O.V., giving the characters the spotlight at least once. Even Sacrificial Lion Mark Sheppard has a few scenes before his death.
- Extranormal Institute: The Xavier School, naturally.
- Gay Bravado: Santo does this to Victor specifically because Victor is gay. Victor doesn't like it, but Santo is either too dumb to notice, or just doesn't care.
- Girl Posse: Nori has one in the form of the fic's version of Rahne Sinclair and Danni Moonstar.
- The Gloves Come Off: Jubilee shows exactly how powerful her abilities actually are by disintegrating several of Stryker's men with her "fireworks".
- High School: The Xavier School, again, is depicted as primarily as a high school.
- Hot Pursuit: One occurs in "Downtime." After a fight between Julian, Santo, and Victor against some football fans from a neighboring school nearly escalates into a full-blown riot, they're rescued by Laura, Sooraya, Mark and Cessily, who have stolen a pickup, and wind up in a high speed chase to escape the police responding to the disturbance. It ends when Laura has Julian use his powers to levitate them (truck and all) across the Titicus Reservoir, as it would take too long for their pursuers to follow them, and allow them to ditch the vehicle.
- Local Hangout: Salem Center in general and the Grind Stone Café in particular is this for the students.
- Mythology Gag: Sometime after the films, Jubilee spent time working with homeless youths in California, which was used as a distant nod to the period in the books in which she helped operate a shelter for depowered mutants after M-Day.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The series draws most of its inspiration from Kyle and Yost's New X-Men, but with changes to fit the series into the universe established by the films. For example, as there has been no Decimation Event in the film verse, it allows for some characters to interact that didn't get much of a chance to in the actual books (such as Mark and Laura).
- Sexy Secretary: Stryker's secretary Betsy Braddock, who is much more than it first appears.
- Skipping School: In "The Purifiers," Jay ends up skipping an entire day of school after he spends the entire night and much of the morning talking with Stryker. It earns him a visit from school counselor Jubilee.
- Spin-Off: The entire concept of the series is a television spinoff of the X-Films, set in the same continuity, featuring occasional appearances by characters from the films, but largely focused on a new core of characters with the intent of developing them for eventual "graduation" to the films.
- The Team Benefactor: Stryker's organization is being supplied with weapons and technology by an unknown benefactor, who has requested Stryker send him live specimens (IE captured mutants) for experimentation as part of the payment.
- We Have Become Complacent: As pointed out by Psylocke, the X-Men grew complacent in the decade of peace since the Incident at Alkali Lake, leaving themselves completely unprepared for Stryker's attack by his Purifiers.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Much of "Haywire" is told in the form of a flashback, showing how Nori's power manifested and she eventually came to the school.
