Tuesday, July 14, 2009
X-men, failed or misplaced metaphor
I love X-men comics, don’t get me wrong. However, the comic has some huge flaws in their message about minority struggles. The X-men try to work at building harmony between humans and mutants while living in a world that hates and fears them. Okay, heard that a million times. Only, the x-men are doing it from a mansion, with top of the line technology and all while having powers that set them far above the common man. This isn’t really what I think about when I hear the term, “Minority Struggle.”
Unless the X-men are actually a metaphor for the wealthy elite, trying to keep society from self-destructing through the intervention of tech and power. Rich people are also a minority after all. The humans, who outnumber the mutants considerably, show a lot of similarities to peasants who’ve famously formed mobs throughout history to kill the elite. The humans are also less intelligent and tend to make a lot of rash decisions that end up biting them in the ass. The Sentinels attacked humans, the legacy virus infects humans (though this was a Mutant creation in most canon), and the weapon programs (i.e. Weapon X or Wolverine) tend to kill more humans than mutants in the end. It seems trying to destroy the mutant population always turns out worse for humanity (unless Mutants do it) and without the mutants, we’d all be doomed (how many times have the x-men saved the planet?).
Then there’s the Phoenix, a mutant that’s pretty much a god. Yea…
It also doesn’t help that the marvel universe is literally bursting with super humans. The mutant metaphor doesn’t really work that well when the billion other super humans that are indistinguishable from mutants tend to get along just fine despite mutants being hounded constantly for their powers. Not to mention the Avengers also live in a mansion, have super powers, the latest technology, and are pretty much the X-men relabeled as super heroes instead of struggling minorities, aside for the mutants who also happen to be in the Avengers.
It’d make a lot more sense if someone like Spider-Man was a mutant. He actually struggles in his day-to-day live and the media hates him. Spider-Man is also always out of money and is paid by the very man who exploits him.
Should the X-men be rewritten? Nah. But the writers should be a little more aware of this as they make new comics.
Unless the X-men are actually a metaphor for the wealthy elite, trying to keep society from self-destructing through the intervention of tech and power. Rich people are also a minority after all. The humans, who outnumber the mutants considerably, show a lot of similarities to peasants who’ve famously formed mobs throughout history to kill the elite. The humans are also less intelligent and tend to make a lot of rash decisions that end up biting them in the ass. The Sentinels attacked humans, the legacy virus infects humans (though this was a Mutant creation in most canon), and the weapon programs (i.e. Weapon X or Wolverine) tend to kill more humans than mutants in the end. It seems trying to destroy the mutant population always turns out worse for humanity (unless Mutants do it) and without the mutants, we’d all be doomed (how many times have the x-men saved the planet?).
Then there’s the Phoenix, a mutant that’s pretty much a god. Yea…
It also doesn’t help that the marvel universe is literally bursting with super humans. The mutant metaphor doesn’t really work that well when the billion other super humans that are indistinguishable from mutants tend to get along just fine despite mutants being hounded constantly for their powers. Not to mention the Avengers also live in a mansion, have super powers, the latest technology, and are pretty much the X-men relabeled as super heroes instead of struggling minorities, aside for the mutants who also happen to be in the Avengers.
It’d make a lot more sense if someone like Spider-Man was a mutant. He actually struggles in his day-to-day live and the media hates him. Spider-Man is also always out of money and is paid by the very man who exploits him.
Should the X-men be rewritten? Nah. But the writers should be a little more aware of this as they make new comics.
# posted by MaximumTacolord @ 8:56 PM 
