Was Magneto right?
To me, my X-Men!
UNCANNY X-MEN # 299 was the first comic book I owned that did not feature nunchuck-wielding reptiles or red-headed lotharios caught in a neverending love triangle.
My dad, noting my interest in the recently premiered Fox Kids cartoon, picked up the issue during a business trip and brought it home to me as a gift. While I had watched the first few episodes of the Saturday morning cartoon, I knew very little about Marvel’s mutant superhero team. The comic (written by Scott Lobdell) was impenetrably dense. Even though I could not understand who half the characters were, something clicked in my brain while flipping through the comic’s pages. I asked my parents to buy me a Wolverine-themed Trapper Keeper the following week. Within a month, I owned a Sauron action figure. By the end of the year, I could name all the members of X-Factor and spell En Sabah Nur.
Like many ‘90s kids, Marvel’s X-MEN cartoon and comics were my gateway into superheroes. The ‘90s were a terrible time for superhero movies but a great time for comic book fans. You could buy the latest issues at Walmart, every kid in class had at least ten superhero trading cards in their pocket they were willing to part with for the right offer, and the characters themselves were designed to elicit maximum excitement from pre-pubescent boys. Flowing capes, claws, shoulder pads, pouches, and the biggest guns you’ve ever seen - comic books just looked cool.
Despite being a Latino kid, it would be decades before I understood Marvel’s mutants as a metaphor for minorities. I hate to admit it, but Bryan Singer’s retrospectively embarrassing 2000 live-action adaptation was what finally made me see the sub-text beyond the cool costumes and colorful villains. X-MEN comics had always been a candy-colored endorphin hit - beautiful Joe Madureira artwork nestled between impossibly confusing plots about alternate reality futures, clones, repressed memories, and adamantium skeletons - but now my eyes were opened!
Whether it’s because I’ve been an adult with a fully functioning, “immune to Kool Artwork” brain™ or because writers have been doing a better job leaning into the socio-political meat in the mutant concept, but it seems like X-MEN comics from the last twenty years have elevated the sub-text to just plain text. And this is a good thing! I appreciate how the comics seem richer and more nuanced now than when I was a kid - even if they still orbit around the adventures of a Canadian meathead prone to berserker rages.
Historically, the X-Men’s mission has been to protect a world that fears and protects them. Magneto, the team’s primary adversary, believes there is no peace to be had and that it is the mutant’s destiny to rule their weaker human race. But what happens when today’s readers no longer see peace as an option for their own real-world politics? Whether it’s the Israeli/Palestinian conflict or our domestic political landscape, it seems the divide between what is Right and what is Wrong has never been more pronounced. Society has been cast into a world of black and grey, and you’re either a good guy or a bad guy, and there’s no room for negotiation. Maybe in the ‘90s, the X-Men could show a racist senator the error of his ways and convince him to give Mutants a chance - but in the world we live in today, this is seen as cowardly kowtowing to the oppressor.
I do not envy the folks who write X-MEN comics today. Are comics escapism? Yes, but they should also reflect the society around us. Professor Xavier’s dream feels like a relic of the past, and Magneto’s previous villainy seems more reasonable with each passing day. There’s a reason why Magneto has been a member of the X-Men in the comic books for over a decade. Today’s X-MEN writers must navigate that tricky political landscape, all while telling entertaining stories full of fist fights and superpowers. One of the only things people are more passionate about than their comic books is politics.
This weekend, we will see the release of DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE. I do not expect a lot of deep-diving into the “Mutants as an oppressed minority” metaphor - not when there are dick jokes to be made. I’m excited about DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE, but I’m even more excited about what a modern X-MEN movie will look like. It’s no secret that the mutant heroes will be rebooted for the Marvel Cinematic Universe within the next few years. Even though he is seemingly an awful human being, Bryan Singer brought a lot of depth to the X-MEN films he directed and produced. Hopefully, the next filmmaker to take the helm of the X-MEN franchise will be given permission to dig even deeper. Will the mutants’ philosophy towards a co-existence with humanity reflect Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original vision (peace, love, and optic blasts), or will they reflect the post-Black Lives Matter world we live in?
I, for one, can’t wait to find out.
There is no new WHERE WOLF news to share this week, but you can request a copy of WHERE WOLF from your local library or buy a personal copy directly from the publisher, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Ghoulish Books in San Antonio, or Whose Books in Dallas. If you've read WHERE WOLF, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon, Goodreads, The StoryGraph, or wherever you discover new books.
A few random television-related thoughts:
I finally finished the third season of THE BEAR. I think it was incredible television, but an unsatisfying season of television. Does that make sense? Each episode was a showcase of great acting and writing, but most of the cast didn’t seem to have any real character arcs. Every episode was structured like a short film - and they were all great short films - but this season could be erased, and we’d be back where the characters were at the end of season two for the most part. In the end, though, it’s hard to be too bummed about a lack of forward character development when THE BEAR is as consistently as well-made as it is.
The latest season of THE BOYS was fantastic. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg seem to have a magic touch when adapting Garth Ennis’ comics. They keep just enough of the silly schoolboy tittering but really elevate the material where it needs to be elevated. Anthony Starr is incredible in THE BOYS, but I wonder if this role will define the rest of his career. It’s such a vivid, rich performance that it has to inform the type of roles he gets offered from here on out. Call it the Giancarlo Esposito effect. I’m a big fan of the new season of THE BOYS, even as some of the show’s political drama gets uncomfortably close to reality. I can’t wait to see what Eric Kripke does next. The fourteen-year-old boy in me hopes it involves more gore-drenched explosions.
I revisited Gregory Mcdonald's FLYNN this week—tremendous fun from the writer of Fletch. I've always liked Inspector Flynn, an international spy working undercover as a Boston cop. He has a giant family, smokes a pipe, and lets his kid infiltrate a sex cult. Good stuff! I wish somebody would try adapting the FLYNN novels for the big screen. It's a role Paul Giamatti was born to play.
DÌDI (弟弟) begins a national platform release this weekend. When this movie comes to your city (and it may be a few weeks), you absolutely need to see it. Izaac Wang stars as a 13-year-old Taiwanese-American who spends a summer trying to impress older kids, watching YouTube videos to learn how to kiss, and trying his best not to disappoint his mother. Sean Wang's tender coming-of-age drama is a pitch-perfect encapsulation of early '00s teenage insecurity. I love this movie!