X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor (19 page)

Japheth (Maggott)

Japheth was a black South African character and first appeared in
Uncanny X-Men #345
(June 1997), which was written by Scott Lobdell and Ben Raab with art by Joe Madureira and Melvin Rubi. Maggott did not last long on the
team in
The Uncanny X-Men
. His mutant powers were telepathic control over two large slug-like maggots named Eeny and Meeny, who also served as his digestive system. These maggots can digest anything and, after returning to Maggott’s abdomen, give him superior strength and energy from the nourishment they carry.

Initially little is known about Maggott, but it is later revealed that as a child in South Africa during apartheid his mutation was misunderstood by all around him. Magneto finds Japheth and helps him learn to control the maggots that serve as his digestive system. When Japheth witnesses Magneto murder several white Afrikaner soldiers who had been murdering black South Africans, he rejects Magneto’s solution to the prejudice in his country and runs away from his benefactor. Although this character history does help broaden the scope of the prejudice metaphor in X-Men comic books beyond race relations in the United States, it is rarely touched on by the character or the themes in stories after it is revealed.

Clearly, the backstory about South Africa was not intended when Maggott first appeared, because early on “you will see Australian dialect in his speech” because the character’s creator, Scott Lobdell, “intended Maggott to be Australian, not South African” (“Maggott”). After the South African backstory is decided, the character frequently uses Afrikaans slang rather than Australian dialect.

After his maggots return to his body to feed him, his skin turns blue for a time. However, it will return to his normal skin tone shortly. Because of this, Maggott, like Colossus, can appear as a mutant or he can pass as a normal human depending on if his powers are in use. Unlike Colossus, Maggott can still be visually identified as part of a minority group in both his home country and the United States when using his mutant powers or appearing as a normal human.

Sarah (Marrow)

Marrow first appeared as a child in
Cable #15
(Sept. 1994), so that issue’s writer and artist, Jeph Loeb and David Brewer, created the character. However, most of Marrow’s adult personality and mutant powers were determined by Scott Lobdell in various X-Men comic books he wrote, and her initial adult appearance was created by Joe Maduriera. In her first appearances, Marrow is a supervillain, leading the anti-human/pro-mutant terrorist group called Gene Nation before reforming and joining the X-Men.

After Nightcrawler, Marrow is one of the first members of the X-Men who is always clearly identified as a mutant. Because her mutant powers cause bones to protrude from all over her body, she cannot pass for a normal human, as most of the X-Men can. In her appearances as a villain, Marrow is very grotesque, but under the tutelage of the X-Men she gains greater control of her powers and becomes more classically attractive. Eventually, Marrow uses technological and genetic augmentation to increase control of her powers, which allows her to retract all of her mutant bone growths into her skin so that she can “pass” as a normal human. Much of Marrow’s character arc is built around her feelings of inadequacy due to her physical appearance. She feels monstrous because of the bones that grow at odd angles and protrude from her skin. Her quest for normalcy is based as much on obtaining a more standard outer appearance as it is on her personality reformation from terrorist villain to hero.

Nathan Summers (Cable)

The infant Nathan Summers first appeared in
Uncanny X-Men #201
(Jan. 1986), which was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Rick Leonardi. The adult Cable first appeared in
New Mutants #87
(Mar. 1990), written by Louise Simonson and drawn by Rob Liefeld. The adult
Cable is Nathan Summers, the child of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor who was taken into the future and raised there, only to return to the present day as a soldier determined to destroy the threat of a villain named Apocalypse. Cable appeared regularly in
X-Force
as the leader of that team as well as in his own long-running series,
Cable
. Cable’s stay on the X-Men often highlighted the tension in his relationship with his father, Scott Summers, and his pseudo-mother, Jean Grey.

Cable has a glowing cybernetic eye and a cybernetic arm. He is telepathic, telekinetic, and a master soldier and trained tactician. His backstory is one of the more convoluted of any character. He is the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, but was raised in a dystopic future. In another odd twist, Rachel Summers (the daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey from an alternate future timeline) is responsible for bringing her half-brother Nathan to the future timeline (a different future timeline than the one she grew up in) so he can be raised there. She also imports Scott and Jean Grey’s minds into bodies in this future timeline so that they can help raise Nathan (even though Jean Grey is not his mother). The Summers family has a rather twisted family tree.

Neal Sharra (Thunderbird)

Neal Sharra was a new mutant introduced during Chris Claremont’s brief return to the X-Men titles. The character had no relation to the original Thunderbird from
Giant-Size X-Men #1
. Although India has a very diverse set of ethnicities and cultural groups, we are not told much about the character’s heritage other than that he is Indian and his family lives in Calcutta. While he takes the code name Thunderbird, his powers are almost identical to Sunfire, another character who was part of the team that relaunched the X-Men franchise in 1975.

Close Reading

In previous periods the storylines “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Inferno” have been analyzed. In both instances a female associated with the X-Men gained new powers, succumbed to an outside influence, and threatened all of existence. A storyline with similar plot points from this period is “Onslaught.” Professor Xavier, influenced by a seed of evil from Magneto’s mind, creates a new psychic entity called Onslaught. Eventually this psychic entity takes on physical form, leaves Xavier’s mind and body, and threatens all life on Earth.

One of the key differences in these storylines is the gender of the protagonist/antagonist, and how their gender is an aspect of their displays of evil. While Jean Grey, joining with the Phoenix Force, became the Dark Phoenix and Madelyne Pryor, receiving demonic powers from S’ym, became the Goblin Queen, Professor Xavier, coupled with aspects of Magneto’s mind, gave birth to Onslaught. Marvel’s official explanation of Onslaught’s origin is that,

When Charles Xavier telepathically rendered Magneto catatonic, he unknowingly absorbed Magneto’s dark ego. Magneto’s negative emotions merged with Xavier’s suppressed urges, forming a powerful, dormant psionic entity—the self-dubbed Onslaught. [. . .] Soon after, Xavier encountered X-Man (Nate Grey) on the astral plane, who pulled Xavier’s astral form into the physical world. Onslaught thus escaped Xavier’s mind, but was still “tethered” to Xavier. (“Onslaught”)

Each of these three heroes-turned-villains had different motivations. Dark Phoenix was the devourer and consumed an entire star and threatened to consume all of creation. The Goblin Queen opened a portal to a hell dimension and threatened to have demons destroy this plane of existence. Originally, Onslaught sought to ensure peaceful coexistence between humanity and mutants by fascistic force, but in the end he decides that the destruction of both groups is the only way to guarantee peace.

Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor become more sexual in both their paths to villainy and in their roles as villains. Professor Xavier, conversely, becomes a hyper-masculine being. Both Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor had sexual encounters signal their descent into evil. The first warning the X-Men have of the coming of Onslaught is the defeat of their longtime foe and Professor Xavier’s half-brother, the Juggernaut. The women are sexualized in their villainy; Professor Xavier is marked as more strong and violent, single-handedly defeating a foe who had troubled the entire team of X-Men numerous times before.

Also significant is the way these characters’ evil forms are shown. In Jean Grey’s path to becoming the Dark Phoenix, she became the Black Queen and wore black lingerie as her costume. The Goblin Queen wore what were essentially tattered rags that barely covered her. Onslaught is a massively armored being. His size and armor are signs of his power, whereas the sexuality of the Black Queen and Goblin Queen were highlighted. A (weak) defense of the frequent objectification of women in comic book art through the exaggerated size of their breasts and butts and skimpy or form-hugging costumes is that the men are also drawn with exaggerated body types. The stereotypical exaggerated body types are on clear display with these three villains. Dark Phoenix and the Goblin Queen have more sexualized forms than their heroic counterparts, while Onslaught is improbably more muscular than Professor X (or any man in history) has ever been.

An important distinction between objectification and idealization needs to be made. While writing about video games, which have had the same debate raging for years about the portrayals of male characters versus female characters, Jim Sterling countered the claim that men are just as objectified as women by saying, “[E]xactly who is this hypothetical male objectification being done for?” Going on to dismiss the claims that it is eye candy for women or gay men, Sterling concludes that in video games “[w]omen are objectified; they are supposed to be things men want. Men are idealized; they are heroes men are supposed to want to be.” This seems to be the same distinction that can be found in comic books. The hyper-muscular men are not portrayed as sexual objects, whereas the scantily clad females are. Sexuality was a key component of Dark Phoenix and Goblin Queen’s characters—not so with Onslaught.

The consequences that these heroes face for their turn toward evil are also different. The Dark Phoenix and the Goblin Queen were both killed to balance the scales of justice. Professor Xavier is simply arrested following the events of Onslaught. The women, who threatened mankind with their power and sexuality, must be exterminated. The man, who also threatened the entire world, is incarcerated and fairly quickly released.

Another notable storyline from this period is the crossover “X-Cutioner’s Song.” Although this story does not have many elements that deal with prejudice toward racial minority, it does have a story element that offers a new interpretation for the mutant metaphor. Though many have cited other interpretations, including the social anxiety and feelings of being an “outsider” that so-called “geeks” experience in high school, the prevalent interpretation for mutants had been an allegory for racial minorities. The conclusion of “X-Cutioner’s Song” introduces a new element that invites the readers to interpret mutants also as a metaphor for the alienation homosexuals experience in society.

The villain of the story, Stryfe, releases a disease called the Legacy Virus, which will only infect mutants. At first, normal humans are relatively unconcerned with this new disease that will not threaten them. However, eventually the Legacy Virus makes the jump from infecting only mutants to also infecting humans. Moira MacTaggert, a longtime character in the X-Men series, was the first human to die because of being infected by the Legacy Virus. This storyline was introduced in the early 1990s, when the AIDS scare was quite prominent in the media.

Fabian Nicieza, one of the writers of the “X-Cutioner’s Song” storyline, has said that as a group, the writers hoped to create a greater separation between the X-Men and the rest of the Marvel universe by introducing the Legacy Virus.

We specifically discussed ways to alienate mutants even further from mainstream superheroes, since by then the thematic tone of prejudice was cemented into the book’s structure. One thing the “new wave” of writers discussed was “why are mutants railed against but people are okay with the Fantastic Four or Thor?” The presentation of our theme was complicated by the inconsistency shown by the fictional population of the universe. HIV/AIDS was a very prevalent topic at the time and absolutely as creators, having gone through our 20’s in the 80’s, we were well informed by the thematic underpinnings of prejudice against gays as a result of the virus outbreak.

But Nicieza also wants it to be made clear that this does not mean that suddenly all readers should equate mutants with homosexuals. Rather, this introduced a new layer to the metaphor, one which remained open to interpretation by both creators and readers.

The “Operation: Zero Tolerance” storyline does have some elements that line up with historical precedents from the history of the United States. And it is one of the more overt attempts to bring the looming threat from the future timelines the X-Men have seen, mutants being rounded up into concentration camps, into the present day. However, the story does not align strongly with contemporary concerns from the period when it was published. The threat of the government rounding up a group of people and placing them in concentration camps because of an aspect of their genetic code did not sound as threatening as it would have shortly after Japanese Americans were rounded up, or even as it would had Guatanomo Bay still been functioning as a base for untried enemies of the state. This does not negate the impact of the story. It is unfortunate that multiple historical allegories, from Indian reservations to Japanese American camps, can be identified as relevant to this story.

Chapter Six

Reestablishing the Metaphor

The Uncanny X-Men #394
(July 2001) to
The Uncanny X-Men #500
(Sept. 2008)

The Creators and General Storyline

The comic book industry had experienced incredible success in the early 1990s, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s the industry suffered a crash that left publishers with dwindling readerships. Although the X-Men had been one of the premiere superhero franchises throughout Claremont’s run and into the 1990s, it was not immune to the market downturn. The X-Men titles saw their sales drop, and soon the series was no longer the top-selling title in the industry.

In 2000 Bill Jemas was hired as president of publishing for Marvel. He soon fired the company’s editor in chief, Bob Harras, and brought Joe Quesada into that position. These two men were put in charge of changing the sales trends Marvel found its comic book titles producing. According to Dirk Deppey in an article for
The Comics Journal
:

Jemas and Quesada wasted no time in transforming Marvel’s publishing philosophy from a conservative, formulaic reliance on established superhero tropes to a more adventurous, whatever-sticks-to-the-walls approach, but from the beginning their experiments were conducted in the shadow of ironclad market reality. Both men made clear in interviews that they clearly understood that growth in Marvel’s publishing division meant walking a fine line between two seemingly incompatible constituencies—on the one hand, the company needed to maintain its existing base of lifelong superhero fans, while on the other, it also needed to experiment with new genres and storytelling techniques, in order to appeal to potential readers who might not be interested in what the existing fan base craved. (“X-Men . . . Retreat!”)

One successful part of Jemas and Quesada’s efforts was what became known as the “Ultimate” line of comics. Titles such as
Ultimate Spider-Man
and
Ultimate X-Men
were launched in a new narrative universe so that the characters could be introduced to new readers without thirty years of intimidating continuity. Each title started out as though the series was launching for the first time in 2000, with modern art, themes, and dialogue, but characters that were analogs of the existing versions in the mainstream Marvel universe.

Although all of Marvel’s comic book series were struggling in the changing marketplace, the X-Men, which had been so consistently a high seller, were of particular concern. Marvel had two significant plans to revitalize the X-Men franchises in the new millennium. One was to bring in Grant Morrison, a popular writer, to boldly revision the X-Men. The second, which would take longer to implement, was to make the minority metaphor a higher concern for the series by reducing the number of mutants in the Marvel universe.

Morrison wrote a manifesto detailing his vision for the X-Men series. Among the points in “Morrison’s Manifesto,” as Marvel termed it when it was reprinted in a collection of X-Men comics, was the following:

In the last decade or so, the tendency at Marvel has been intensely conservative; comics like the X-MEN have gone from freewheeling, overdriven pop to cautious, dodgy retro. What was dynamic becomes static—dead characters always return, nothing that happens really matters ultimately. The stage is never cleared for new creations to develop and grow. The comic has turned inwards and gone septic like a toenail. The only people reading are fan boys who don’t count. The X-MEN, for all it was still Marvel’s bestseller, had become a watchword for undiluted geekery before the movie gave us another electroshock jolt. And in the last decade, sales fell from millions to hundreds of thousands. (Deppey)

In the end, Morrison was assigned to write the
X-Men
, not
Uncanny X-Men
. To signify the new direction the franchise was taking,
X-Men
was renamed
New X-Men
for all the issues when Morrison was writer, but was renamed
X-Men
after his departure.

Whereas Morrison was receiving praise from fans and the media for his work on
New X-Men
, Joe Casey and Chuck Austen were writing
Uncanny X-Men
to mixed reviews. Austen’s run is one of the most controversial in the history of the series. While Morrison’s
New X-Men
was revitalizing the franchise, many fans and reviewers felt Austen was damaging the property with poor storytelling and offensive plotlines. Austen’s stories have been called both misogynistic and anti-religious, though he denies both charges. The frequent criticisms online from fans and reviewers resulted in Austen giving several interviews in which he openly criticized the online community and fans of X-Men comic books. Though sales did not diminish during his tenure as writer, it remains one of the more debated runs on the series in online circles to this day.

In one interview, titled “Chuck Austen, The Last Interview” because he soon stopped giving interviews, Austen was asked, “When you see so much bile and hatred thrown in your direction, do you ever want to just stop making comics or get out of the industry?”
His response recognized that his work was receiving more-than-average criticism:

It’s reaching legendary status, isn’t it? [. . .]
Everyone’s
amazed by it. By the level and frequency and ferocity. [. . .] I’ve never seen you or anyone else
ever
ask any other creator this question. What the hell is going on? [. . .] I mean, this is unprecedented, isn’t it? I’ve never seen so much anger directed toward a single creator, anywhere, in my life. For someone who supposedly writes “unoriginal, unimaginative, rehash stories” I sure generate a lot of intense emotions, don’t I? So much so that it seems to be the buzz of the industry, at the moment. I’m the most hated man in comics, to hear it from some. But sales are up? How is this inequity possible? Maybe because the trolls are in the
minority
? A loud and angry, but still small minority? [. . .] So, the answer is, “yes” sometimes it affects me. I’m human, after all. So I stay offline and avoid it as much as possible, and since the rest of the world doesn’t revolve around comics, it’s somewhat easy to avoid. But most of the time, it’s honestly amusing, now that I really understand that these people are truly in the minority, and generally unhinged. (“Chuck Austen, The Last Interview,” emphasis in original)

Though he claims to find the criticism amusing, those were excerpts from an almost seven-thousand-word response to questions about fan criticism of his work. In his answer, Austen criticized retailers, other professionals, and fans in a rambling fashion. The criticism of Austen’s work, as noted, reached unprecedented heights even for notoriously fickle online fans. Undoubtedly not all of this criticism was valid, and Austen became an easy target of the “trolls” he identified in the interview. But some of the criticism, especially claims that his stories have a very prominent anti-religious theme, can be verified from even a simple plot description.

Whereas the quality of Austen’s work is debated by his fans and detractors, it is clear that the subsequent writers were not as controversial. Certainly they did not receive universal praise, but the response from fans and critics was not as heated as what was seen during Austen’s run. Austen was immediately followed by Claremont, in what was perhaps a move by Marvel editorial to appease upset fans by bringing back the classic X-Men writer. Dirk Deppey of
The Comics Journal
felt this was a move by Marvel to give old fans of the X-Men what they wanted:

The end of Grant Morrison’s run on
New X-Men
marked the final stage of an experiment first begun at the behest of Marvel executives Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada some four years ago, an attempt to make the company’s flagship line more attractive to newer readers. Morrison in particular performed some amazing transformations upon the X-Men: abandoning the traditional Spandex superhero costumes, outing Professor Xavier as mentor of X-Men (and his school as their headquarters), providing said school with a full 200+ member student body, and generally giving the series a new, more science-fiction-oriented emphasis.

Alas, [. . .] the new market for X-Men comics and graphic novels apparently never arrived, which means it’s time to hit the reboot button and return things to the way they were. [. . .] Nostalgia is the name of the game, here: The primary Direct Market readership is between 25 and 35 years of age, and is looking for the same junkie thrill they first experienced as teenagers reading comics. (“X-Men Reload”)

Claremont’s return was widely reported, but did not generate any of the type of fondly remembered storylines his original run had produced.

It was during Claremont’s run that the second goal of Quesada and Jemas for the X-Men franchise was implemented. Quesada felt that the minority metaphor was what drove the X-Men, but creators had added so many mutants to the Marvel Universe that the metaphor no long functioned properly. In a miniseries called
House of M
, which was written by Brian Michael Bendis but crossed over with the X-Men titles, Magneto’s daughter, Scarlet Witch, creates an alternate reality using her rather undefined powers in which her father’s dreams of mutant dominance are a reality. As the heroes who have discovered that this new reality is false confront the Scarlet Witch, she uses her powers to reset the universe to its proper order. But as she resets the Marvel universe back to normal, she is more convinced than ever that the battle between humans and mutants will never cease. In
House of M #8
(Nov. 2005), the final issue of the miniseries, she whispers, “No more mutants” just as reality is being restored. As a result, over 90 percent of the mutants in the Marvel universe lose their mutations, leaving only 198 identified mutants in the world. Mutantkind is closer to extinction than ever before, and the remaining X-Men will serve as their protectors.

Claremont’s run is followed by Tony Bedard for two issues and then Ed Brubaker for a much longer run. In this period, the artists on the title tended to work for much shorter periods than the writers. Often artists would alternate storylines, with an artist completing a three-issue storyline, then having another artist drawing five or six issues, and then the earlier artist returning for another set of issues. The artists with the most issues include Phillip Tan, Salvador Larroca, Alan Davis, and Billy Tan.

General Storyline

This period begins with a storyline in which a singing pop star dates Chamber, a severely disfigured mutant. The singer is only dating Chamber because he is a mutant, and that gives her “street cred” and helps her shed her good-girl image with the public. The X-Men also battle a group called the Church of Humanity, an organization committing genocide against mutants in the name of God. The X-Men rescue a mutant woman named Stacy X from a mutant brothel, and she joins the team. The religiously themed villains in the Church of Humanity and the hyper-sexuality brought to the series by adding a prostitute to the team were introduced during Joe Casey’s run, but both themes were magnified when Austen became the main writer of the series.

The story continues with the X-Men discovering a Catholic church serving as a drug house, with the cardinal being an addict as well. The drugs are being made and peddled by mutants, so the Church of Humanity attacks the church and kills those within, including the cardinal. Nightcrawler, who had always been a deeply religious character and was even ordained as a Catholic priest, begins to struggle with his faith.

The team’s roster is adjusted as Juggernaut asks for the X-Men’s help and then accepts Professor Xavier’s offer to stay at the mansion. Havok, who had been in an alternate dimension for some time, is found in a coma being cared for by a nurse named Annie, who has fallen in love with him as she cares for him. Northstar, the first homosexual character in mainstream superhero comics, is added to the X-Men’s roster. He had previously been a member of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight.

During Austen’s run, the soap opera elements of the book become more of a focus. The interrelationships of characters are what led some to criticize Austen as misogynistic, as the women on the team are often portrayed as either seductresses who cannot restrain their impulses or as literally insane due to their raging emotions (especially if they are in the throes of unrequited love). One of the creepier relationships that is explored is between Angel, who was one of the first members of the X-Men and clearly well into adulthood at this stage (even with the immensely slow aging of comic book superheroes), and the teenaged mutant who goes by the code name Husk, who is eighteen in these issues. She had previously been a member of Generation X, the team of underaged mutants being trained in their powers, though it is mentioned in the series that she is now of legal age.

Havok awakes from his coma, and he and Polaris renew their relationship as Havok’s nurse, Annie, wonders about her feelings for him. A storyline called “Holy War” followed, which is perhaps the most controversial of Austen’s run. The X-Men are again battling the Church of Humanity, which has crucified mutants and left them on the lawn of the X-Men’s mansion as a warning at the beginning of the story. What follows is a bizarre and convoluted story that, frankly, makes little sense. In their battle and subsequent interrogation of the leader of the Church of Humanity (who in his only previous appearance was a male, but is here, inexplicably, now a female), it is revealed that she was a nun who was sexually abused by a priest. Now, she has a goal of either taking over the Catholic Church or destroying it, depending on which line of dialogue has been spoken most recently. To do so, the Church of Humanity plans to install Nightcrawler as pope (there is no explanation of how this will be accomplished) while he is using an image transducer to appear to be a normal human. Then, once he is the pope, they will turn off the image transducer, and due to his mutant appearance it will appear as if a demonic Antichrist is leading the Catholic Church. Simultaneously, the Church of Humanity will activate a poison they have been lacing communion wafers with that will cause those who have consumed them to disintegrate, thus simulating the rapture. It is unclear what the simulation of the rapture is meant to accomplish, especially since this is not a Catholic belief, but a tenant Protestant theology. In a review of this issue Paul O’Brien writes: