X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor (23 page)

Of the 19 characters who appear as members of the team between
The Uncanny X-Men #167
(Mar. 1983) and
The Uncanny X-Men #280
(Sept. 1991), 11 (67.9%) are male and 8 (42.1%) are female. These characters make 639 appearances in this period. Of these, 333 (52.2%) are by males and 306 (47.9%) are by females.

A few significant points stand out from this period. First, though the team has been completely dominated by male members for most of the series, in this period there are significantly more women on the team than men. Storm, Rogue, Dazzler, and Psylocke are the core of the team, with Wolverine, Longshot, or Havok rotating into team membership.

The villains were still almost three-quarters men, but the number became slightly more balanced than previous periods. There were 143 characters who appeared as villains in these issues. Of these, 102 (71.3%) were male, 33 (23.1%) were female, and 2 (1.4%) had no applicable gender. There were 514 appearances by villains in these issues. Of these, 359 (69.8%) were by male villains, 142 (27.6%) were by female villains, and 5 (1.0%) were by characters (mostly demons or aliens) with no applicable gender.

Although there were more male characters who guest starred than female characters, the female characters appeared more frequently. There were 108 characters in the supporting cast in this period. Of these, 62 (57.4%) were male and 46 (42.6%) were female. Of the 549 appearances by characters in the supporting cast, 264 (48.1%) were by males and 285 (51.9%) were by females.

Period 4

Once again, in terms of racial makeup, the majority of the characters to appear in
The Uncanny X-Men
were white. And again, the villains were more diverse than the members of the X-Men and the supporting cast. And, as has been common since the 1975 relaunch of the series, aliens were one of the most common groups besides white characters. In this period there is an increase in the number of characters who are introduced with relatively little official background information provided in either the comic books themselves or in official Marvel publications. There were more characters who appeared in
The Uncanny X-Men
in this period than any other that will be analyzed, and many of these new characters were depicted with mutations that remove any identifiable ethnic markers. Because of this, there are more characters who will be categorized as “unknown” in regards to ethnicity in this period.

Of the 27 characters to appear as members of the X-Men, 17 (63.0%) were white characters, 4 (14.8%) were black characters, 2 (7.4%) were Asian characters, 1 (3.7%) was a Jewish character, 1 (3.8%) was an Afro-Latina character, 1 (3.8%) was an American Indian character, and 1 (3.8%) was an Indian character. There were 779 appearances by members of the X-Men in this period. Of these, 583 (74.8%) were by white characters, 131 (16.8%) were by black characters, 36 (4.6%) were by Asian characters, 17 (2.2%) were by a Jewish character, 8 (1.0%) were by an American Indian character, 3 (0.4%) were by an Indian character, and 1 (0.13%) was by an Afro-Latina character.

Of the 180 villains to appear in these issues, 92 (51.1%) were white. The next most represented group, as has become standard for
The Uncanny X-Men
, are the groups of villains with fictional ethnicities, including 20 (11.1%) alien characters, 11 (6.1%) robot characters, and 5 (2.8%) demonic characters. Additionally, in this period there are 31 (17.2%) villains with no identified ethnicity. In descending order, the other ethnicities of the villains are 6 (3.3%) black characters, 5 (2.8%) Asian characters, 4 (2.2%) Middle Eastern characters, 3 (1.7%) American Indian characters, 1 (0.6%) Jewish character, 1 (0.6%) Latino character, and 1 (0.6%) Indian character.

There are 408 appearances by the villains in these issues. The majority of these appearances, 225 (55.1%), are by white characters. Fictional characters make significant appearances, including, 31 (7.6%) by alien characters, 25 (6.1%) by robotic villains, and 7 (1.7%) by demonic villains. There are 56 (13.7%) appearances by villains with no known ethnicity. In this period there are more appearances by Asian and Middle Eastern villains than other ethnicities. In descending order of number of appearances, the other ethnicities represented in the villains of this period include 11 (2.7%) appearances by Asian characters, 14 (3.4%) appearances by Middle Eastern characters, 15 (3.7%) appearances by black characters, 12 (2.9%) appearances by Jewish characters, 8 (2.0%) appearances by American Indian characters, 3 (0.7%) appearances by Indian villains, and 1 (0.2%) appearance by a Latino character.

The supporting cast in this period is less diverse than the heroes and villains. Of the 139 characters in the supporting cast to appear in this period, 94 (67.6%) are white. There are 10 characters in the supporting cast that have fictional ethnicities, 6 (4.3%) alien characters, and 6 (4.3%) robotic characters. In this period there are 2 (1.4%) characters in the supporting cast with no known race or ethnicity. There are 12 (8.6%) black characters in the supporting cast, 6 (4.3%) American Indian characters, 5 (3.6%) Latino characters, 5 (3.6%) Asian characters, and 3 (2.2%) Jewish characters.

The actual number of appearances by characters in the supporting cast is even less diverse. Of the 486 appearances, 337 (69.3%) are by white characters. There are 21 (4.3%) appearances by alien characters in the supporting cast and 9 (1.9%) by robotic characters. There are 3 (0.6%) appearances by characters with unknown race and ethnicity. There are 38 (7.8%) by black characters, 26 (5.3%) by Asian characters, 22 (4.5%) by Latino characters, 20 by American Indian characters, and 10 (2.1%) by Jewish characters.

In total, between
The Uncanny X-Men #281
(Oct. 1991) and
The Uncanny X-Men #393
(June 2001), the series is more diverse than the previous period, but almost 60% of the characters to appear are white and almost 70% of the appearances are by white characters. There were 346 characters who appeared in these 112 issues, and 203 (58.7%) were white characters. There were 26 (7.5%) alien characters, 17 (4.9%) robotic characters, and 5 (1.4%) demonic characters. Thirty-three (9.5%) characters appeared with no identifiable race or ethnicity. There were 22 (6.4%) black characters, 12 (3.5%) Asian characters, 10 (2.9%) American Indian characters, 6 (1.7%) Latino characters, 5 (1.4%) Jewish characters, 4 (1.2%) Middle Eastern characters, 2 (0.6%) Indian characters, and 1 (0.3%) Afro-Latina character.

In total, there were 1,673 appearances by characters in this period. Of these, 1,145 (68.4%) were by white characters. There were also 52 (3.1%) appearances by alien characters, 34 (2.0%) appearances by robotic characters, and 7 (0.4%) by demonic characters. There were 59 (3.5%) appearances by characters with no known identifiable race or ethnicity. There were 184 (11.0%) appearances by black characters, 73 (4.4%) appearances by Asian characters, 36 (2.2%) appearances by American Indian characters, 39 (2.3%) appearances by Jewish characters, 23 (1.4%) appearances by Latino characters, 14 (0.8%) appearances by Middle Eastern characters, 6 (0.4%) appearances by Indian characters, and 1 (0.1%) appearance by an Afro-Latina character.

The period from
The Uncanny X-Men #281
(Oct. 1991) to
The Uncanny X-Men #393
(June 2001) sees a reversal of several trends in terms of the representation of females in the series. In every previous period the percentage of female characters increased in the categories of X-Men team members, villains, and supporting cast. In this period, the percentage of male characters in the series increases in every category, in some cases dramatically.

Twenty-seven characters appeared as members of the X-Men in the 112 issues published in this period. Of these, 18 (66.7%) were male and 9 (33.3%) were female. There is very little difference in those percentages when looking at the total number of appearances in this period. There were 779 appearances by team members in these issues. Of these, 511 (65.5%) were by male characters and 268 (34.5%) were by female characters.

In terms of gender representation, the villains were the most imbalanced group in this period. Of the 180 villains the X-Men battled, 139 (77.2%) were male and 37 (20.6%) were female. Four (2.2%) had no applicable gender classification. The appearances were almost identically balanced. Of the 408 appearances by villains, 311 (76.2%) were male, 85 (20.8%) were female, and 12 (2.9%) were by characters without applicable gender classifications.

There were 126 characters in the supporting cast in this period. Of these, 84 (60.4%) were male and 55 (39.6%) were female. Of the 486 appearances by supporting cast between October 1991 and June 2001, 279 (57.4%) were by male characters and 207 (42.6%) were by female characters.

In total, 346 characters appeared in
The Uncanny X-Men
in this period. Of these, 241 (69.7%) were male and 101 (29.2%) were female. The percentages were a little more balanced in terms of total appearances, though the number still skews heavily toward the male characters. Of the 1,673 appearances by characters in these issues, 1,101 (65.8%) were male and 560 (33.5%) were female.

Period 5

The Uncanny X-Men #394
(Jul. 2001) through
The Uncanny X-Men #500
(Sept. 2008) is the least diverse group of X-Men for any period other than the original run, when the team was 100% white. This period also sees the most balance in terms of gender representation for the team members of any period in the history of
The Uncanny X-Men.
However, in terms of appearances, this is one of the most male-dominated periods in the history of the X-Men. In all, this is a rather significant regression in terms of gender and minority representation from what has been occurring in previous periods.

Of the 30 characters to appear on the X-Men, 23 (76.7%) were white, 2 (6.7%) were black, 2 (6.7%) were Asian, 1 (3.3%) was Jewish, 1 (3.3%) was an alien character, and 1 (3.3%) was American Indian. These 30 characters made 665 appearances, which are even less diverse than the number of characters. Of these, 575 (86.5%) were by white characters, 45 (6.8%) were by black characters, 16 (2.4%) were by Asian characters, 16 (2.4%) were by an American Indian character, 7 (1.1%) were by a Jewish character, and 6 (0.9%) were by an alien character.

There were 129 characters who appeared as villains in this period of the
Uncanny X-Men
. Of these, 63 (48.8%) were white. In descending order, the other characters’ races and ethnicity were as follows: 28 (21.7%) were alien, 7 (5.4%) were robotic, 7 (5.4%) had no known racial or ethnic identities, 7 (5.4%) had no applicable racial or ethnic identities, 5 (3.9%) were from a fictional group called the Neyaphem, 4 (3.1%) were black, 3 (2.3%) were Asian, 2 (1.6%) were Indian, 2 (1.6%) were Middle Eastern, and 1 (0.8%) was Jewish.

Of the 359 appearances by villains, 225 (54.3%) were by white characters, 89 (24.8%) were by alien characters, 25 (3.9%) were by characters from a fictional race called the Neyaphem, 17 (4.7%) were by characters with unknown race or ethnicity, 17 (4.7%) were by characters without any applicable race or ethnicity, 14 (3.9%) were by robotic characters, 9 (2.5%) were by black characters, 8 (2.2%) were by Asian characters, 4 (1.1%) were by Jewish characters, 3 (0.8%) were by Indian characters, and 3 (0.8%) were by Middle Eastern characters.

There were 122 supporting characters in the
Uncanny X-Men
in this period. Of these, 68 (55.7%) were white, 26 (21.3%) were alien, 7 (5.7%) were black, 4 (3.3%) were Latino, 5 (4.1%) were Asian, 3 (2.5%) were American Indian, 3 (2.5%) had no known race or ethnicity, 2 (1.6%) were Indian, 1 (0.8%) was robotic, 1 (0.8%) was Middle Eastern, 1 (0.8%) was Afro-Latino, and 1 (0.8%) was Polynesian. The supporting characters made 402 appearances in this period. Of these, 252 (62.7%) were by white characters, 50 (12.4%) were by alien characters, 29 (7.2%) were by black characters, 21 (5.2%) were by Asian characters, 18 (4.5%) were by characters with unknown race and gender, 8 (2.0%) were by American Indian characters, 7 (1.7%) were by Latino characters, 4 were by Indian characters, and 2 (0.5%) were by robotic characters.

In total there were 281 characters who made 1,426 appearances in this era. One hundred fifty-four (54.8%) of the characters were white who made 997 (69.9%) appearances. Thirteen (4.6%) of the characters were black who made 83 (5.8%) appearances. Fifty-five (19.6%) were alien who made 145 (10.2%) appearances. Ten (3.6%) of the characters were Asian who made 45 (3.2%) appearances. Ten (3.6%) were characters with no known race or ethnicity who made 35 (2.5%) appearances. Eight (2.8%) were robotic and made 16 (1.1%) appearances. Seven (2.5%) were characters with no applicable race or ethnicity who made 17 (1.2%) appearances. Five (1.8%) were characters from a fictional racial group called the Neyaphem who made 25 (1.8%) appearances. Four (1.4%) were American Indians who made 24 (1.7%) appearances. Four (1.4%) were Indian who made 24 (1.7%) appearances. Four (1.4%) were Latino and made 7 (0.5%) appearances. Three (1.1%) were Middle Eastern who made 5 (0.4%) appearances. Two (0.7%) were Jewish who made 11 (0.8%) appearances. One (0.4%) was Afro Latino who made 8 (0.6%) appearances. One (0.4%) was Polynesian who made 1 (0.1%) appearance.

There were 30 characters who appeared as members of the X-Men in this period. Sixteen (53.3%) were male, and 14 (46.7%) were female. But in terms of appearances, of 650 appearances by team members in these 106 issues, 463 (71.2%) were by men while only 187 (28.8%) were by women. The team was almost even in terms of the number of male characters and female characters who appeared as X-Men, but the number of appearances shifted to make the team significantly more male.

There were 129 villains who appeared in this period. Of these, 99 (76.7%) were male, 27 (20.9%), and 3 (2.3%) had no applicable gender. There were 402 appearances by villains; of these, 263 (73.3%) were by male characters, 90 (25.1%) were by female characters, and 6 (1.7%) were by characters with no applicable gender.

As has been the general trend for the supporting cast, there were more males than females, but the number of appearances were much more balanced, the most balanced of any group in this era. There were 122 characters in the supporting cast, and of these, 73 (59.8%) were male and 40 (40.2%) were female. The supporting cast made 402 appearances. Of these, 223 (55.5%) were male, and 179 (44.5%) were female.