9 Things From X-Men Comics That Must Happen In The Movies
3. Genosha
The island nation of Genosha, just off the southeastern coast of Africa and a whisper away from the Seychelles and Madagascar, was one of the richest and most prosperous in the world, with a high standard of living, a thriving economy, and a safe distance from the internal problems that beset other nations. It seemed like a paradise until you dug a little beneath the surface. Genosha, you see, was a secret police state, basing its affluence on slavery. Created in 1988 as an allegory for the apartheid of the South African state at the time, children with the genetic x-factor for mutant powers were identified at an early age, stolen from their families and forcibly brainwashed and physically converted into mutate slaves, psychically bonded to their oppressors, their bodies and abilities edited and modified to fit specific labour needs. No emigration was allowed: citizenship was for life, and anyone attempting to leave the island paradise was captured and killed by the Magistrates that were the island governments strong right arm. Naturally, the comics see the island falling foul of the X-Men when they get greedy, and begin human trafficking: kidnapping and processing free mutants from outside of their own borders. The islands police state is dissolved, the secret police disbanded (right in the face) and the capitol building brought to the ground, because the X-Men, unilateral regime-change merchants that they are, dont do anything by halves. In later years, Genosha (like South Africa after it) stands as an example of humans and mutants attempting to peacefully co-exist post-apartheid and slavery well, at least until its repeatedly wiped out, over and over, by lazy writers in need of a convenient place to stage a nation-destroying slugfest. Still, as a potent metaphor and allegory for all kinds of political, civil-rights-invoking storylines, Genosha is the perfect point for cinematic storylines to utilise.
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