X-Men Relaunch Wishlist: 7 Things We Want To See

Since mutants are a metaphor for oppressed minorities (they debuted the year before the Civil Rights Act), many writers have used them over the years as allegories for many issues we face in the real world. This has always presented problems for a couple of reasons. Anti-mutant hysteria is not comparable to, say, homophobia because while being afraid of gay people is illogical, fearing someone who can control your mind is perfectly justified. Face it, if you lived in a world where someone could randomly be born with Magneto’s powers, you’d probably be in favor of some sort of registration system (unless you were a mutant yourself, of course).

If the only plan of action we have for a man who can take down a building with his eyes is “Let’s just hope he doesn’t become a terrorist,” you probably won’t feel very safe. It’s one thing to trust the beloved characters you read about, but in the context of our non-fictional world, safeguarding ourselves against mutant threats is totally reasonable. It’s not about bigotry; it’s about safety.

Also, it never really made sense why mutants were so hated by the people of Earth 616. For some reason, genetically modified humans are more respectable than mutants, but why? So, She-Hulk is like seven feet tall with green skin and that’s fine, but Jean Grey is a horrible freak? If your daughter brings The Thing home for dinner there’s no problem, but if she brings home Rockslide, she’s disowned? On the one hand, it does comment on how irrational our bigotries can be, but as stated before being afraid of super powered beings is very rational. If the mutant gene only changed your appearance, like making Nightcrawler blue and fuzzy but with no teleportation powers, then they’d have a point.

At least for the beginning, Marvel should avoid these minority metaphors and concentrate on delivering solid superhero action. The X-Men don’t always need to be super serious and having depressing conversations about the future of their species. They don’t always have to be at the brink of total persecution by the government. Some of the best X-Men stories like, oh I don’t know, The Phoenix Saga (you may have heard of it) had nothing to do with human-mutant relations. All of the preachy messages are poison right now, especially in the hands of inelegant writers who lack nuance. The people of New York don’t have to throw the X-Men a parade or anything; they can still be considered second class citizens, it’s just not something that we need to dwell on. The X-Men need to feel fun again.