Speaking exclusively to SciFiNow for the new issue about X-Men: Days Of Future Past, director Bryan Singer lashed-out at the constant online sniping about “Disney Marvel” and “Fox Marvel” from the fans.

“It’s not healthy for us,” says Singer. “I’ll tell you why: they’re both comic-books and at some point you can expand the universes, that’s where the comparison ends.

“The Marvel universes – particularly Avengers and Iron Man – are… and it sounds defensive, and it is defensive, but only because people make comparisons between [X-Men: Days Of Future Past] and The Avengers, which is ludicrous.

“The Avengers is a mash-up of massive single character franchises of incredibly familiar characters and Iron Man. And did I mention Iron Man? Oh, and by the way – Iron Man.

“They are huge, colossal franchises that are peppered with all these other characters that are, again, extremely famous and so yes, Fox will at some point synergise [the X-Men] characters and that process is slowly beginning, but it’s very different than taking movies that gross close to a billion dollars and then pushing them together into these giant broad movies.

“If you want to give me Robert Downey Jr in a metal suit and have him join the X-Men, then yes, let’s go head-to-head [with Marvel Studios].”

X-Men as an entity may have comparable cultural clout to any one of the mainline Marvel Studios characters, but their world is built differently and Wolverine is one of the exceptions in that he functions perfectly well – if not better – by himself, holding his own in a solo movie like James Mangold’s The Wolverine.

“It’s very different universes,” Singer agrees. “The appeal is different and to try and do the same thing… this in an ‘inbetweequel’, OK, of two ensemble films, Avengers and the Marvel movies are individual franchises based on major characters that’s why there are some Marvel characters in Avengers that don’t have their own movie, because I don’t know if they had their own movie anyone would be that interested.

“We’re the bastard stepchild of the comic-book universe, you can go to my mom and she knows who Captain America is but you try and explain to her who Deadpool is? She doesn’t even know the Hulk – ‘You know, the Hulk! Green! Big guy!’ – so Gambit?

“It’ll have to be a different process, it’s doable but it’s not any way comparable.”

X-Men: Days Of Future Past will be released on 22 May 2014. Read our massive behind the scenes special in the new issue of SciFiNow and find out more about the comics that inspired the film with our awesome new digital magazine Uncanny Comics.