X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor (12 page)

Because of this perspective, the prejudice the mutants face in the Marvel universe becomes much more prevalent under Claremont’s writing than what the readers previously saw. The X-Men develop an us-versus-them mentality that is forged through constant evidence that
they
(normal humans) want nothing to do with
us
(mutants).

For example, the
X-Men #94
(Aug. 1975), the first of the new stories in the regular X-Men title following years of reprints, has a storyline that is an homage to
The X-Men #1
(Sep. 1963). The team must protect a military base that has been taken over by a villain bent on world domination. In
The X-Men #1
, the villain is Magneto; in
X-Men #93
, it is Count Nefaria and his Ani-men. One notable difference between the two stories, however, highlights greater prevalence of anti-mutant prejudice that will be a hallmark of Claremont’s tenure as writer. In the 1963 story, the military leader thanks the X-Men for their service and promises that “[b]efore this day is over the X-Men will be the most honored name in my command!” (31). In
X-Men #94
(Aug. 1975), the military commander hopefully asks if the Avengers have arrived when the X-Men’s jet flies to the army base. When Cyclops identifies the team as the X-Men, the general responds, “Figures, I mighta known you muties’d show up with Nefaria around” (62). Whereas the earlier issue featured a military leader who was an unprejudiced nondiscriminator, to use Robert Merton’s system, in this issue the military is led by a prejudiced nondiscriminatory. Soon the X-Men will regularly encounter prejudiced discriminators.

The two main female characters on the team during this time are Jean Grey, who changes her code name to Phoenix in
The X-Men #101
(Oct. 1976), and Storm, who appears in every issue during this period. Other significant female characters include Kitty Pryde and Mystique.

One notable aspect of this run is that Storm serves as the team leader for a significant period, the first female and the first African American to lead the a superhero team. While Wasp would be the first female to lead the Marvel superhero team the Avengers beginning in
The Avengers #217
(Mar. 1982) and Invisible Woman would lead the Fantastic Four beginning in
Fantastic Four #384
(Jan. 1994), Storm predates them as a female team leader, becoming the X-Men’s leader in
The Uncanny X-Men #131
(Nov. 1980). Storm is also the first black superheroine in mainstream comic books. As the leader of the X-Men, she is also the first black leader of a mainstream superhero team. Though a very strong character, Storm does have a weakness, her own personal kryptonite. Storm suffers from debilitating claustrophobia, which does cause her occasionally to pass out or become ineffective for the team.

Although Storm’s role as leader is important, this period does see an increase in the amount of skin displayed by comic book characters, both male and female. Storm’s costume is much more revealing that anything worn by Marvel Girl in the 1960s. Concerning Storm’s penchant for being depicted without clothes, though always with at least minimal covering by hair or wind gusts in the foreground, Claremont explained:

You have this strikingly beautiful woman, but she’s from a totally different cultural and ethnic background thrown into the heart of upper and middle class suburbia. And to use an extreme example, [her thinking] “Why do I have to wear a bathing suit?” and then everyone reacting to her. Part of her is thinking “This is really silly” and then part of her is thinking, “Well, I’m in Rome I must do as the Romans do, no matter how absurd it is.” Again, you think about why one wears clothes, the standard base rationales are as a defense against the weather, the environment. As a reflection of perceived societal rules and modesty. As an expression of character. In Storm’s case the environmental part of the equation isn’t there. It doesn’t matter whether it’s winter or summer, being in control of the weather means she can define what her local environment is. She’s comfortable whether it’s 105 degrees or 105 below zero. Therefore, that’s out of the equation so it’s then a matter of a moral choice or a fashion choice, and then what? Because you’re talking Northeast Africa versus suburban New York. How does that fit together? How does she feel wearing traditional Euro-American attire as opposed to traditional African attire. Again it’s something to play with, it’s a direction to go.

Claremont’s explanation offers a reason for Storm to choose to disrobe at times, but the frequency with which it is shown to readers seems to reflect more than just honoring her cultural norms.

Storm’s role on the team is unlike many other females in superhero team comics. As noted previously, she acts as team leader following Cyclops’s departure, giving orders to men, which was quite atypical. Whereas Cyclops struggles to control Wolverine, Storm does so easily. Madrid notes that “[i]n an early adventure, she stops [Wolverine] from attacking team leader Cyclops with a touch of her hand and a simple command” (170). Storm tells Wolverine, “You will do nothing, Wolverine . . . not now. Not ever . . . or you will answer to me.” Additionally, she is not a figure in a romantic love triangle, which was a common feature in the soap opera-esque comic book storylines. Eventually, in a story published in 2006, Storm marries Black Panther, who was introduced in 1966 as the first black superhero in mainstream comic books.

Jean Grey, in a prolonged storyline, undergoes a character transformation. Grey becomes more assertive in her personal life, more powerful in her mutant abilities, and changes her code name from Marvel Girl to Phoenix. Eventually, she turns evil, takes the name Dark Phoenix, and becomes a threat to the entire galaxy. This story reveals that her turn toward evil is a result of her body being bonded with an intergalactic entity referred to as the Phoenix Force. Several years later, a retcon reveals that it was not Jean Grey who turned evil and becomes a galactic threat, but simply the Phoenix Force impersonating her form. However, it is clear that while creating this story Claremont, Byrne, and the editors intended it to be Jean Grey who becomes evil and not an impersonation of her by an interstellar force. For this analysis, it will be treated as though Jean Grey is the featured character in the storyline.

A meta-reference in the comic books acknowledges a significant change from the previous status quo. Recognizing that Jean Grey and Scott Summers had openly pined for each other for the duration of the original run on the series but had never acted on those feelings, the series gives a wink to the readers.
X-Men #98
(Apr. 1976) has a two-panel appearance by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Kirby and Lee walk past Scott Summers and Jean Grey, who have just shared their first kiss, and Kirby remarks, “Hey Stan, you know who they were? I tell ya, they never used to do that when we had the book.” Lee responds, “Ah Jack, you know these young kids—they got no respect” (129). Notably, this kiss was instigated by Jean Grey, who told Scott he needed to stop worrying about everything and just kiss her. She is a far cry from the reserved character who longed for Scott from a distance.

The changes in Jean Grey’s personality are on several fronts. First, she was originally in constant need of being rescued. Often, she was shown not knowing how to use her powers and needing the guidance of a male leader to be of use to the team. Early on in Claremont’s run, this narrative trend is boldly overturned. In
The Uncanny X-Men #100
, Marvel Girl takes control of a deadly situation and saves the entire team. She not only acts independently in doing so, but she also knocks out Cyclops, the team leader, who would have prevented her from risking her own life. The X-Men are aboard a shuttle heading back to Earth, and she orders the rest of the team and the pilot into a shielded cargo hold. She stays in the cockpit, which has had its shielding damaged, and uses her powers to read the pilot’s mind to know how to guide the shuttle home safely even as she uses her telekinesis to block as many radioactive particles as she can. To rescue the team, she acts boldly and independently of the orders Cyclops had given her.

Even as her personality is becoming bolder, her powers seem to be increasing. In the following issue, she rises from the wreckage of the shuttle and claims now to be Phoenix instead of Marvel Girl, and much of her later power increase is linked to the Phoenix Force, a cosmic entity that bonded with her during the shuttle crash. But even before being joined to the Phoenix Force, she had been showing more strength in her telekinesis and more psychic ability. Not only does she save the entire team in
The X-Men #100
, but she also is responsible for saving the entire universe. Phoenix uses her new powers to save the entire universe inside of a structure called the M’Kraan crystal, which, if it had collapsed, would have started a tidal wave of destruction ending all creation.

At the beginning of a storyline called “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” which spans eight issues, Jean Grey also becomes much more forward with Scott Summers, instigating what is implied to be their first sexual encounter. This act occurs early on in Jean Grey’s descent toward evil, implying that Jean Grey’s sexual awakening is tied to her turn toward evil. The sexualization of the character continues when, due to the manipulations of Mastermind, Jean Grey becomes a member of the Hellfire Club and dons a fetishistic outfit for several issues. Under the manipulations of Mastermind, Jean Grey becomes the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. The Hellfire Club rulers adopt titles based on chess pieces, and the White Queen and the Black Queen are the most powerful women in the organization. Whereas the men wear anachronistic Victorian clothing, with ruffled shirts and cravats, the women dress in, essentially, lingerie.

As she becomes sexually aggressive in her behavior and her dress, she becomes more evil. When joining the Hellfire Club, Jean takes on the name the Black Queen. However, when she sees through Mastermind’s deceptions, she drives him insane and leaves the Hellfire Club. Wearing a darker version of her Phoenix costume, with maroon in place of the green, she calls herself the Dark Phoenix.

The peak of her villainy comes when she consumes a star at the center of a solar system that has an inhabited planet. The language in the narration implies a sexual pleasure being derived from the destruction of the star:

And in the center of the super-nova she created, Dark Phoenix thrills to the absolute power that is hers. She is in ecstasy. Yet she knows that this is only the beginning—that what she feels now is nothing compared to what she experienced within the great M’Kraan Crystal. She craves that ultimate sensation. (
The Uncanny X-Men #135
)

The M’Kraan Crystal references an earlier adventure, the first time Phoenix used the full extent of her new powers. Thus, a search for the sensations from her first experience with her powers has driven Phoenix mad and now threatens all life. This narration, combined with the earlier sexual awakening of Jean Grey coinciding with her descent into evil, implies that her sexual yearning is driving her to commit heinous acts. Jean Grey has gone from the conservative Marvel Girl, to the sexually aggressive Phoenix, to the villainous and cosmically lustful Dark Phoenix. In
The Uncanny X-Men #136
,
Jean Grey confesses to Scott Summers that “I hunger, Scott . . . for a joy, a rapture, beyond all comprehension. That is part of me, too. It . . . consumes me.”

Mike Madrid explains this transformation as a condemnation of the sexual revolution that occurred in America. He writes:

The sexual revolution of the 70’s cast a new light on women’s intimate needs, and specifically, the quest for the orgasm. 1976’s
Hite Report on Female Sexuality
found that only 30% of women had experienced orgasm. Every month
Cosmopolitan
magazine, with its cleavage baring cover models, promised new secrets to achieving the elusive orgasm. [. . .] Dark Phoenix’s struggles were a parable for the late 70’s, where the hedonistic search for pleasure and gratification led to addiction and ultimately death. The glamour of Studio 54 and the wild delights of the nightlife were dimmed in the early 80’s, when the first reports of the “gay cancer” that would become AIDS began to surface. Many felt that it was atonement for the bacchanalia of the 70’s. Phoenix too had to atone for the genocide she had committed in her quest for pleasure. (174–176)

Dark Phoenix’s punishment is her death. The Shi’ar Empire, who the X-Men had aided in previous adventures, come to Earth to make Dark Phoenix stand trial. In the subsequent battle between the Shi’ar Imperial Guard and the X-Men, Jean Grey, who has taken control of the Phoenix Force that corrupted her, sacrifices herself rather than see her fellow X-Men fall in battle. Her death ends the battle, and in the aftermath a grieving Cyclops quits the X-Men.

A retcon by later writers changes the character of Phoenix and Dark Phoenix from Jean Grey to a cosmic force that took on her form, but to the reader at the time the Dark Phoenix was a morality tale involving one of Marvel’s first superheroine’s fall from grace. The “good girl” readers knew from the earliest issues of the X-Men that Jean experienced a sexual awakening with her boyfriend, Cyclops. As a result, she falls in with a new group of friends, the Hellfire Club, who introduce her to further evils. Though she tries to reject this group of friends and return to her earlier life, the new carnal desires are irrepressible and drive her to hurt those closest to her in her quest to satisfy her urges. She doesn’t care who she hurts, in this case reaching the extreme of committing the genocide of an entire race of aliens in pursuit of satisfying her cravings. In the end, the only way to correct all the problems she has wrought is through self-sacrifice, in this case atoning by giving her own life in defense of her original friends. Claremont and Byrne have said that this storyline was originally intended to introduce a progressive cosmic-powered superheroine, but the moral of the story was much more conservative.