X-MEN IN THE MCU: Black Widow Actor Claims To Be the First X-Men Character In the MCU

The past week saw the much awaited release of Marvel’s Black Widow, which was supposed to be released last year itself. But due to the covid situation, the release was pushed back to this year. The film was released on July 7th on Disney+Hotstar, available to be streamed. Set between the events of Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, the movie sees Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow confront the darker parts of her ledger and battle a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha has to deal with her dark past and revisit relationships broken long before she became an Avenger. The film also features Florence Pugh as Yelena Beleova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov or the red Guardian and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff. These characters are part of Natasha’s “family” with ties to the Red Room that is responsible for the creation of other “widows” like Natasha and Yelena.

While it may look like the introduction of these characters is nothing of significant consequence; it is worthwhile to note that Yelena will now most probably take on the mantle of Black Widow, with Natasha dying in Avengers: Endgame. This was more or less made official when her appearance was confirmed in the Hawkeye series. One other character that peaks our interest is the Red Guardian. The Red Guardian is a part of The Winter Guard. For those familiar with the Marvel comics, it would be no surprise that the Winter Guard is nothing but Russia’s version of the Avengers. However, this is not what we are interested in. What we are actually interested in is one of the Red Guardian’s teammates, a mutant by the name of Ursa Major.

URSA MAJOR

The mention of this particular character might just be a huge deal. Ursa Major happens to be a mutant bear man. In a prison scene in Black Widow, we see the Red Guardian arm wrestling a giant muscular man named Ursa; a clear reference to Ursa Major from the comics. Why is this such a big deal? For one, this might be the first appearance of a mutant in the MCU. And if it indeed is, that can only mean one thing. The X-Men. However, Ursa Major is in no way a part of the group. Nor is he associated with it, other than the fact that they are all mutants.

In the comics, Mikhail Uriokovitch is one of the first known mutants born in the Soviet Union in the 20th Century to survive past childhood. Up until then, the government had killed off all mutants at the first manifestation of their mutant powers. Due to the efforts of scientist Piotr Phobos, the government was made to see the potential value of superhumans serving the state and Phobos soon opened a private school to train mutants. Mikhail Ursus being among the first of the many mutants trained by the Professor. However, it turned out that Phobos was using them to gain power for himself. Ursa Major along with Darkstar and Vanguard became the Soviet Super-Soldiers. They investigated a radioactive area along with the Hulk and discovered that Phobos was attempting to irradiate the USSR to provide more mutants for himself. They manage to stop the Professor with the help of the Hulk.

While the Soviet Super Soldiers agree not to disband the team, they take an oath that they would never work for the government unquestioningly. Up until this point there is no mention of the X-Men in the Ursa Major’s story.

However, while undertaking missions at a later point, Ursa Major, along with the Super Soldiers is dispatched to capture Magneto, and battles the X-Men and the Avengers. This is probably the only instance where Ursa Major and the X-Men have crossed paths. But it might mean good things, as stated by Daniel Richters, the actor who plays Ursa in the Black Widow movie. According to Richters, Ursa is the first X-Men character to appear in the MCU. Taking to instagram, the actor posted pictures of the character along with the caption,

"Marvel Black Widow is out! After two years I can finally tell who my character is: Ursa Major... the first mutant (X-Men) to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ... Ursa is part of the Winter Guard, noted for being "Russia's answer to the Avengers''. His power transforms him into an incredible bear, transcending The Hulk in size. Ursa appears many times in the comics fighting Wolverine and The Hulk. When production on set told me who I really was in Black Widow I let some tears in my hotel room, because my movie dream became true: being an official comic super Hero. I can only hope Marvel will bring back Ursa in full form..."

Whether or not Richter’s prediction turns out to be true can only be said with time.