One of the clearest analogies for an incident occurring in our world appears in X-Men, a comic that has been analysed in terms of its subtext perhaps more than any other. The outbreak of an AIDS-like virus strikes Mutant-kind in the form of the deadly Legacy Virus leaving a string of second tier victims and survivors in its wake. Legacy reflects the effects of AIDS on the human immune system by targeting the X-Factor within a hosts genetic coding. In humans the virus is harmless as there is no X-Factor to detect but in Mutants the effects are deadly, eventually rendering the body incapable of generating healthy cells. The parallels to AIDS are obvious, but as the X-Men have long been read as emblematic of marginalised groups within society it is worth considering that Legacy offers an extension of reading the X-Men as an analogy for the impact the outbreak of AIDS had upon the gay community in the 80s and early 90s.