Beyond The Panels #14: The X-Men- Important Marvel Characters Or The Most Important Marvel Characters?
I'm not a huge fan of Stan Lee.
Like, yes, without him, we wouldn't have comics like we have right now, but when it comes down to it, without a worthy collaborator, Lee just wasn't very good. When teamed with people like Jack "King" Kirby or Steve Ditko, you get something amazing. When not..... well, when not, you get Ravage 2099. No one wants that.
One thing I can say about Stan that's for the good is that he has always had a social consciousness. He's always cared about racism and equality (well.... like, unless you count women, because let's be real- Stan Lee's women were stereotypical and horribly written). So, that's where we get to the X-Men.
The X-Men are Marvel's civil rights allegory. Any marginalized people can look at the X-Men and see something in there that they can get behind. They can see themselves in the characters and the situations. For me, as a nerdy kid who people made fun, I saw the X-Men as people like me- the mistreated and hated just because they weren't like everyone else. That's a powerful thing. Even though I'm a white, straight, cis male, I still felt ostracized as a young person and the X-Men gave me strength. They made me see that, yeah, I wasn't like everyone (a kid with a high IQ who liked nerdy shit), but I was still pretty cool. Just like them.
The thing about the X-Men is that they were doing the diversity thing since the late 70s. The X-Men were where you went when you wanted characters that weren't the same old, same old. You got characters like Storm, Forge, Jubilee, Bishop, Sunfire, Karma, Dani Moonstone, and plenty of others. The team had women in places of importance. The X-Men were a place of equal opportunity for all, because the mutants were already marginalized.
If you look at the Marvel Universe as if it's real, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four have always been the A-listers, the celebrities who everyone loved. Sure, they're cool, but beyond being heroes, what do they represent? Both the Avengers and the FF have always been part of the official apparatus of power in the Marvel's U America. They save lives and cities, make the big discoveries, but they are tools of the status quo.
The X-Men aren't. The X-Men are in the dark corners, the people hiding from the status quo. They save the world, but no one praises them for it- they just send Sentinels after them. The Avengers and FF lived with years of adulation and celebration for their deeds. The X-Men didn't and still don't. That makes them greater heroes than really anyone else in Marvel. It makes them infinitely more important.
Most heroes are quite altruistic- they are in it to help people. However, the adulation helps. I'm sure Cap likes that people look up to him. Stark needs public celebration. Richards likes people to know he's the smartest. The X-Men don't get that. Sure, a small minority of baseline humans love them (as we saw in Morrison's run, where humans began appropriating mutant culture), but for the most part, people clutch their children when they walk by. When the X-Men save your town, most of the town wants them out as soon as possible. No one throws a parade for the X-Men.
Yet the X-Men still do it. They fight to protect the people who hate and fear them knowing no one will love them. That makes them so much better than the other heroes- they're fighting not just to protect people but to show people they aren't something to be feared. That's pretty powerful.
There's a reason we got so angry that Marvel tried to make the Inhumans the new mutants is because in the end, the Inhumans are the opposite of mutants completely- a eugenics based monarchy of slave owners (FREE THE ALPHA PRIMITIVES!!!). Said monarchy has a place at the table of world governments. You can't take that and replace your civil rights analogue with it. That is tone deaf and dumb. It was a huge mistake from the get-go. The Inhumans can be very cool, but using them like mutants? Fucking ridiculous. They aren't mutants, you can't use them that way.
I'm going to get a little inside baseball for a second with the Marvel U and why the whole thing was dumb. So, be ready. Time to drop some knowledge.
So, the Inhumans were created by the Kree for use in their battles with the Skrulls. Their genetic structure was made so that it reacted with Terrigen, giving the subject powers. However, here's the thing- the Inhumans could never really live in the outside world, because of the pollution. They always had to live under a dome or on the moon or something. So, how did Inhuman DNA get into the outside in such large concentrations that new Inhumans could gain their powers from the Terrigen Clouds?
Remember continuity? Marvel editorial doesn't.
In the title, I posited the question are the X-Men the most important Marvel characters and my answer is yes. There will always be outcasts for a number of reasons and they need someone to look up to and that's what the X-Men are. The X-Men also represent the future and society's fear of it. They represent the uncertainty of the human race and it's place in the world. They represent change. They are the Children of the Atom. They are us, all of us. Most of us will never be Avengers- our deeds won't be celebrated. We won't be the Fantastic Four- we aren't going to discover new things. However, all of us are laboring in the shadows, doing what we have to do, helping the world got to another day. Some of us are fighting for equality. We're all X-Men.
That's important. Anyone can look at the X-Men and see a part of themselves. That's what the world needs right now. Now, that said, are the current X-Men books perfect? No, not at all, but they're getting better and that's important. I would say if you want to read an X-Men book that's tailored to today's world, go get the new Generation X book. A diverse team of mutant with weird powers, hanging out. They're the mutants who are never going to be X-Men, but they still need to learn how to use their powers. Its cool as fuck, you guys. Beyond that, if you want to read the best X-Men stuff, you can get pretty much read anything from the Claremont years, any of the Grant Morrison run of New X-Men, Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men, and Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men. You get a feel for the X-Men and their whole thing in those books. I'm partial to 90s X-Men, but it's continuity heavy and you have to have a lot of X-Men knowledge.
Personally, I see the X-Men as the best thing Marvel has to offer. They're more than just superheroes- they're cultural warriors. They are literal social justice warriors. They're the future. They're us.
Next Issue- So, I've talked about Grant Morrison in this blog a lot, so next time, I'm going to talk about why he's my favorite writer. Find out why, next time on...
Beyond The Panels!!!!
Like, yes, without him, we wouldn't have comics like we have right now, but when it comes down to it, without a worthy collaborator, Lee just wasn't very good. When teamed with people like Jack "King" Kirby or Steve Ditko, you get something amazing. When not..... well, when not, you get Ravage 2099. No one wants that.
One thing I can say about Stan that's for the good is that he has always had a social consciousness. He's always cared about racism and equality (well.... like, unless you count women, because let's be real- Stan Lee's women were stereotypical and horribly written). So, that's where we get to the X-Men.
The X-Men are Marvel's civil rights allegory. Any marginalized people can look at the X-Men and see something in there that they can get behind. They can see themselves in the characters and the situations. For me, as a nerdy kid who people made fun, I saw the X-Men as people like me- the mistreated and hated just because they weren't like everyone else. That's a powerful thing. Even though I'm a white, straight, cis male, I still felt ostracized as a young person and the X-Men gave me strength. They made me see that, yeah, I wasn't like everyone (a kid with a high IQ who liked nerdy shit), but I was still pretty cool. Just like them.
The thing about the X-Men is that they were doing the diversity thing since the late 70s. The X-Men were where you went when you wanted characters that weren't the same old, same old. You got characters like Storm, Forge, Jubilee, Bishop, Sunfire, Karma, Dani Moonstone, and plenty of others. The team had women in places of importance. The X-Men were a place of equal opportunity for all, because the mutants were already marginalized.
If you look at the Marvel Universe as if it's real, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four have always been the A-listers, the celebrities who everyone loved. Sure, they're cool, but beyond being heroes, what do they represent? Both the Avengers and the FF have always been part of the official apparatus of power in the Marvel's U America. They save lives and cities, make the big discoveries, but they are tools of the status quo.
The X-Men aren't. The X-Men are in the dark corners, the people hiding from the status quo. They save the world, but no one praises them for it- they just send Sentinels after them. The Avengers and FF lived with years of adulation and celebration for their deeds. The X-Men didn't and still don't. That makes them greater heroes than really anyone else in Marvel. It makes them infinitely more important.
Most heroes are quite altruistic- they are in it to help people. However, the adulation helps. I'm sure Cap likes that people look up to him. Stark needs public celebration. Richards likes people to know he's the smartest. The X-Men don't get that. Sure, a small minority of baseline humans love them (as we saw in Morrison's run, where humans began appropriating mutant culture), but for the most part, people clutch their children when they walk by. When the X-Men save your town, most of the town wants them out as soon as possible. No one throws a parade for the X-Men.
Yet the X-Men still do it. They fight to protect the people who hate and fear them knowing no one will love them. That makes them so much better than the other heroes- they're fighting not just to protect people but to show people they aren't something to be feared. That's pretty powerful.
There's a reason we got so angry that Marvel tried to make the Inhumans the new mutants is because in the end, the Inhumans are the opposite of mutants completely- a eugenics based monarchy of slave owners (FREE THE ALPHA PRIMITIVES!!!). Said monarchy has a place at the table of world governments. You can't take that and replace your civil rights analogue with it. That is tone deaf and dumb. It was a huge mistake from the get-go. The Inhumans can be very cool, but using them like mutants? Fucking ridiculous. They aren't mutants, you can't use them that way.
I'm going to get a little inside baseball for a second with the Marvel U and why the whole thing was dumb. So, be ready. Time to drop some knowledge.
So, the Inhumans were created by the Kree for use in their battles with the Skrulls. Their genetic structure was made so that it reacted with Terrigen, giving the subject powers. However, here's the thing- the Inhumans could never really live in the outside world, because of the pollution. They always had to live under a dome or on the moon or something. So, how did Inhuman DNA get into the outside in such large concentrations that new Inhumans could gain their powers from the Terrigen Clouds?
Remember continuity? Marvel editorial doesn't.
In the title, I posited the question are the X-Men the most important Marvel characters and my answer is yes. There will always be outcasts for a number of reasons and they need someone to look up to and that's what the X-Men are. The X-Men also represent the future and society's fear of it. They represent the uncertainty of the human race and it's place in the world. They represent change. They are the Children of the Atom. They are us, all of us. Most of us will never be Avengers- our deeds won't be celebrated. We won't be the Fantastic Four- we aren't going to discover new things. However, all of us are laboring in the shadows, doing what we have to do, helping the world got to another day. Some of us are fighting for equality. We're all X-Men.
That's important. Anyone can look at the X-Men and see a part of themselves. That's what the world needs right now. Now, that said, are the current X-Men books perfect? No, not at all, but they're getting better and that's important. I would say if you want to read an X-Men book that's tailored to today's world, go get the new Generation X book. A diverse team of mutant with weird powers, hanging out. They're the mutants who are never going to be X-Men, but they still need to learn how to use their powers. Its cool as fuck, you guys. Beyond that, if you want to read the best X-Men stuff, you can get pretty much read anything from the Claremont years, any of the Grant Morrison run of New X-Men, Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men, and Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men. You get a feel for the X-Men and their whole thing in those books. I'm partial to 90s X-Men, but it's continuity heavy and you have to have a lot of X-Men knowledge.
Personally, I see the X-Men as the best thing Marvel has to offer. They're more than just superheroes- they're cultural warriors. They are literal social justice warriors. They're the future. They're us.
Next Issue- So, I've talked about Grant Morrison in this blog a lot, so next time, I'm going to talk about why he's my favorite writer. Find out why, next time on...
Beyond The Panels!!!!
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