X-Men: First Class

:For the comics series, see X-Men: First Class (comics).
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==
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==
X-Men: First Class's popularity drew from the pre-existing fandoms for the X-Men comics/franchise and X-Men live action movies. After First Class's release, the fandom continued to have a steady fanbase and resurgences in activity with several sequel movies in the same timeline of X-Men movies.
XMFC is one of the first Western media fandoms to form after Tumblr became an established fannish hub, following fandoms such as Inception. Thus, many fanworks made use of the site's graphic capabilities.
Shortly after the film was released, there were two versions of the kink meme on Livejournal. After three months, 1stclass_kink closed; the other, xmen_firstkink, remains open.
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.
Early on, there was also 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 created interest in some films not previously popular in fandom.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
===Shipping===
Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr is by far the most popular ship in the fandom.
Other popular slash pairings are Alex/Armando, Alex/Hank, and Azazel/Riptide.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 Popular het pairings are Hank/Raven, Erik/Raven, Azazel/Mystique, and Charles/Moira.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
===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 Fanworks==
===Charles/Erik===
* all the fears you left behind by londondrowning. Charles/Erik. Set during the film.
* Anarchy in the UK by Yahtzee (AU) (2013) - slash, Charles/Erik
* Boden's Mate by kaydeefalls (XMFC/Inception AU crossover) (2011) - slash, Charles/Erik
* Carpe Brewski by Gyzym. A College AU featuring Charles and Erik as members of a fraternity, extremely popular in 2011.
* The Courtship by d: A reincarnation and arranged marriage story, written as a prompt fill on the Xmen_firstkink kink meme under the title of The Courtship of Francine and Mr Lehmanbot
* A Curious Carriage of Crystal and Cold by by Etharei (AU) (2011) - slash, Charles/Erik
* A Deeper Season (X-Men: First Class fanfiction) by etirabys (AU) (2011) - slash, Charles/Erik
* Do You Love Me by cgf_kat (AU) (2011-2012) - slash, Charles/Erik
* Guilty by Association by Regann (AU) (2011-2012) - slash, Charles/Erik
* Humane Society by smilebackwards (2011) - slash, Charles/Erik
* Jaws (X-Men: First Class story) by qikiqtarjuaq (AU) (2011) - slash, Charles/Erik
* Little Birds by winterhill (AU) (2011) - slash, Charles/Erik
* 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.
* Nine Eleven Ten by Subtilior (AU) (2011 - WIP) - slash, Charles/Erik; gen
* Paralyzer by Yahtzee (AU) (2012) - slash, Charles/Erik
* 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.
* Taken By His Majesty by Pookaseraph (historical AU) (2011) - slash, Charles/Erik
* Undone and Enigma by Yahtzee: A pair of fix-it time travel stories in which Charles (in Undone) and Erik (in Enigma) wakes up in the past and changes the course of the film.
* X Marks the Spot by thehoyden (X-Men/Indiana Jones crossover) (2011) - slash, Charles/Erik
*You Told Me Again You Preferred Handsome Men, But For Me You Would Make an Exception by soda_and_capes. 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
===Fanart===
* Beast and Havok by Vylla Art
===Meta===
==Links & Resourcs ==
Communities
* X-Men: First Class Kink Meme
* Erik/Charles Community
* First Class Slash Community
* X-Men: First Kink Meme
'''
Tumblr Blogs'''
* X-Men: First Class
* Fuck Yeah McAvoy and Fassbender (defunct)
* Fuck Yeah McBender
* First Class Confessions
Other Resources
* The X-Men: First Class works on AO3
* A reclist from bea_recs at Dreamwidth
* First Class Fic on Delicious
* X-Men: First Class Resource Masterpost
==References==
Category:X-Men: First Class