X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor (20 page)

This story is so bad that it deserves to be immortalized in derision for years to come. Even as a hardcore atheist, I have little sympathy for Austen’s bizarrely twisted idea of the Catholic Church, which seems to revolve exclusively around the twin concepts of sexual abuse and bigotry. Granted that those may be the Church’s most prominent flaws, in Austen’s stories they seem to be the Church’s only features.

The idea of a plan to install Nightcrawler as Pope—never previously mentioned prior to this issue—is comically over the top. The idea that the world’s Catholics are going to react to a simulated Rapture in anything like the manner described is little short of ludicrous and suggests that Austen still thinks ordinary Catholics are little more than dogmatic slaves of their church. I rather suspect the average Catholic in the street would continue their existing policy of generally acting much like everyone else. (“X-Men, how far you have fallen”)

The storyline also retcons Nightcrawler’s ordination to the priesthood, revealing that it never happened and that it was all a hallucination induced by the Church of Humanity.

The next storyline involves Nightcrawler meeting his father, Azrael. Azrael is an ancient mutant who has been trapped in a hell dimension, but has periodically escaped and sired children on Earth. After returning from this hell dimension, where the X-Men thwart Azrael’s plans to return permanently to Earth to conquer it, they go to Kentucky to where a family with multiple mutant children is experience a Romeo and Juliet situation when their son begins dating the daughter of an anti-mutant bigot.

The X-Men have adventures in England and the Savage Land, adventures that see the lineup of the team change considerably. The story with the largest impact on the X-Men franchise in this period is
House of M
, most of which takes place in a separate miniseries. The ramifications of
House of M
, which removed most mutants’ powers and cut down the total number of empowered mutants in the Marvel universe to 198, had effects on all the X-Men family of comic books Marvel published. Following
House of M
, the X-Men’s mansion becomes a refugee camp for all surviving mutants. Rachel Summers, who grew up in the dystopian future depicted in “The Days of Future Past,” finds the refugee camp uncomfortably similar to the world she grew up in and decides to try to connect with the relations she may have in this timeline. Recently, in
New X-Men
, Jean Grey was killed, and Rachel Summers visits the Grey household as they are still in mourning.

While Rachel is visiting the Grey family, a Shi’ar death squad attacks. The Shi’ar have determined that because of the Grey’s close links to the Phoenix Force, anyone carrying Grey DNA cannot live. The Grey genome is declared a threat to the universe and is to be exterminated. Rachel survives the attack, but every other member of the Grey family is murdered in front of her eyes.

This sets the series off into a more interstellar tone, after being more Earth-centric for many years. One of the last storylines in this period is a twelve-issue epic entitled “The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire,” in which a third Summers brother, who Cyclops and Havok had never known, rises to power as a villain and after many issues of intrigue becomes the new emperor of the Shi’ar Empire. Following this storyline the X-Men return to Earth and, nearing the five-hundredth-issue milestone, relocate from New York to San Francisco, which is a city they feel has always embraced minorities.

New Members of the X-Men

There is only one wholly original character introduced to the team in this period. Eight other characters become members of the X-Men for the first time, but they had all been introduced in other X-Men-related titles, as villains in the series, or as guest stars.

Miranda Leevald (Stacy X)

The new character who is introduced is a female mutant named Miranda Leevald, who goes by the code name Stacy X. Stacy X was created by Joe Casey and Tom Raney and first appeared in
Uncanny X-Men #399
(Nov. 2001). Stacy X has somewhat scaly or reptilian skin and also has the ability to produce pheromones that can alter the emotions of those around her. She used her pheromone powers working as a prostitute at the X-Ranch, a brothel where the prostitutes were exclusively mutants. The brothel was attacked and destroyed, with many of the mutants murdered by the Church of Humanity.

Stacy X’s tenure as a member of the X-Men is short. She causes a great deal of friction among the member of the team and in the end leaves because she knows her attempts to seduce other X-Men are not being well-received. In her short time, she attempts to seduce Wolverine, Angel, and Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is a priest at the time, so her advances are particularly unwelcome in that case. There is not much that is added to the character beyond her overt sexuality. Her mutant ability is to give men pleasure, she worked as a prostitute, and in her time with the team she is most noted for her attempts to seduce the men. Her final act before leaving is to make a video recording of herself jump-roping nude to leave for Angel, even though she knows he is not interested in a relationship with her. Stacy X is one of the characters that serves most clearly as a solely sexual object.

Jonothon Starsmore (Chamber)

Created by Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo, Chamber is part of the young group of mutants that first appeared in
Generation X #1
(Nov. 1994). Jonothon Starsmore is a British mutant who blew a massive cavity into his chest and lower face when his mutant powers first manifested. He goes by the code name Chamber and has a constant furnace of energy burning in the cavity where his chest once was. He wears a turtleneck that wraps around the lower part of his face to cover up his mutation. He often claims to have been a burn victim to deflect curiosity and allow himself to pass as a normal human.

Paige Guthrie (Husk)

Paige Guthrie is the younger sister of Cannonball and first appeared in
Rom Annual #3
(Nov. 1984), which was written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by William Johnson. However, Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo established much of her power and personality in
Generation X
, where she was a teammate of Chamber’s. Her mutant power is to shed the outer layer of her skin and reveal a body made of a new material underneath. Most often she would use her powers to create a new layer of stone or metal, which would be stronger in battle. Husk’s time with the X-Men is mostly marked by her attraction to the older Angel and the subsequent consummation of that relationship.

Cain Marko (Juggernaut)

A longtime foe of the X-Men originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Juggernaut is shown to have genuine hope for reform after years of being unhappy as a villain. Juggernaut is Professor Xavier’s stepbrother and comes to the X-Men for help in improving his life. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young mutant named Sammy the Squid-Boy, who helps him stay on the straight and narrow path.

Raven Darkholme (Mystique)

Raven Darkholme, or Mystique, is a shape-shifting mutant who can take on any appearance. Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum created Mystique, and she first appeared in
Ms. Marvel #16
(May 1978). She has blue skin and yellow eyes, but due to her mutation, she can easily pass as a normal human. Though she could have any appearance she wanted, she chooses to appear with blue skin most often.

Jean-Paul Beaubier (Northstar)

Jean-Paul Beaubier, or Northstar, is a French-Canadian mutant who possesses super speed. He first appeared during Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run on
The Uncanny X-Men
in issue
#120
(Apr. 1979). He is the first character in mainstream superhero comics who was openly identified as homosexual, though other characters had been hinted to be homosexual previously. He was a member of Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight prior to joining the X-Men.

Tessa (Sage)

Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne,
Tessa has a computer-like mind that processes and stores information with superhuman speed and accuracy. She also has telepathy. Sage was used by Professor Xavier as a spy in the Hellfire Club. In a story that presented a retcon to both Xavier’s and Sage’s past, when forming the original X-Men Xavier also met Sage, and instead of bringing her to the school had her enter the Hellfire Club.

James Proudstar (Warpath)

James Proudstar is the younger brother of Thunderbird, the first X-Man to die on a mission. Proudstar takes the name Warpath and is another reformed villain. Originally created by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema in
New Mutants #16
(Jun. 1984), Warpath joined the villainous group of young mutants called the Hellions to take his revenge on the X-Men, who he blamed for his brother’s death. He eventually reformed and joined X-Force and then the X-Men. During “The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire” he begins to date Hepzibah.

Hepzibah

Hepzibah is not a mutant, but a feline alien. Hepzibah was a member of the interstellar pirate group called the Starjammers, who frequently aided the X-Men. Created by Dave Cockrum, she first appeared in
X-Men #107
(Oct. 1977), which was written by Chris Claremont with art by Cockrum. When the leader of the Starjammers, Cyclops and Havok’s father, Corsair, is killed in battle, Hepzibah decides to explore a different path in her life and returns to Earth with the X-Men.

Close Reading

After a significant period when the gender representation on the team has been almost equal between men and women,
Uncanny X-Men #394
(July 2001) begins a run of almost thirty issues when the core team appearing in the series is either entirely male or all men except for Stacy X, a former prostitute who spends much of her time attempting to seduce the various men on the team. Not only has Stacy X been working as a prostitute, her superpower is literally to manipulate men’s emotions. The previous times the X-Men have only had one female member included when Marvel Girl was a token female early in the series and when Storm was a strong leader of the team.

There have been many online criticisms of the portrayal of women during Chuck Austen’s run on the series. The criticism primarily focus on his use of an original character, Nurse Annie, who is taking care of the comatose Havok and develops a strong attraction to him, on Austen’s portrayal of Polaris, and on the relationship between Husk and Angel. Annie falls in love with a man she has never known other than as a comatose patient. Polaris literally goes insane with jealousy when she finds out Annie is in love with Havok. And Husk, who had previously been shown as a shy and reserved girl when it came to relationships and sexuality, openly pursues the much older Angel. It is even implied, when Angel finally admits he is also attracted to her, that she has sex with Angel in the sky with the knowledge that her teammates and family are on the ground directly below them. After Angel hugs Husk and flies her into the air, Husk’s clothing slowly fall to the ground as her mother walks away muttering, “I do not want to see this . . .”

Although these three women are shown to be very emotionally needy, there is little in his writing that displays a hatred of women. This criticism was so prevalent that he was asked about it directly in an interview. In a 2006 interview with Comic Book Resources, the following exchange occurred:

CBR:
But more seriously, some people think you’re a misogynist, you hate women, you’re obsessed with sex. . .

Austen:
Aren’t we all obsessed with sex? And misogynist? Who says that? Some guy trying to pick up on a feminist? “Hey, baby. Wanna go out with me? I can use the word misogynist in a sentence.” [. . .] Why do people say that? What makes them think I have an issue with women?

CBR:
Maybe . . . I know a lot of it came out of the soap opera feel of your work, the whole thing with Nurse Annie in “Uncanny X-Men” and the claim that your women are too needy for men.

Austen:
But I also write men who need women. And men who need men. [laughs] I’m writing for Marvel Comics: these guys made their reputation on soap operas. [. . .] People are always picking on Annie. I asked for a woman with small breasts, who was funny and independent, raised a child on her own, with no powers who stands up to a super heroine for her son’s life, and because she—I mean, you’re a soap opera fan, right? Can you write a soap opera without men and women wanting each other? [. . .] I’ve only known one woman in my life who didn’t want a relationship, who was very involved with her work and wanted to get her career going. We just went to dinner with her a few months ago and she asked if we knew any good men. Everyone wants a relationship. I don’t see how you can write characters who don’t have one or want one. And why is it “hating women” to write a character that wants love? It wasn’t the be all and end all for Annie. She walked away from Havok at the end of my run because she was concerned more about her son and she felt she didn’t need the X-Men or Havok in her life. She very happily walked away from the whole thing. (“In Depth With Chuck Austen”)

Although Austen’s run was problematic and controversial, many of the criticisms seemed to snowball together, as often happens online. The more extreme accusations of misogyny are difficult to find in the stories. When the readers did not like the way the women were acting, they leapt to the accusation of misogyny, when more likely they simply did not like the stories being told. A dislike of a story does not mean misogyny on the part of the creator. It is clear that his women in these stories are portrayed as emotionally needy, completely dependent on heterosexual pairings for meaning in their lives, and anything but independent. But that could just be poor, stereotypical writing and not misogyny. That may be a faint defense, but it is important to identify and criticize misogyny and its presence in stories properly for the word to have meaning. Simply not having a positive portrayal of female characters does not inherently make a story misogynistic.

One of the most important stories in terms of the direction of the series as a whole was the miniseries
House of M
. Marvel’s editor in chief at the time, Joe Quesada, has been upfront in admitting that when he came into his job, one of his goals was to make the minority metaphor matter in the X-Men again. The solution that Marvel found, and that came about in
House of M
, was to remove the majority of the mutants from the Marvel universe.