X-Men In General

We can have Mutants who are queer.

What I'm saying is that Mutants are a Metaphor, but we don't need the Metaphor anymore. It's not 1980 and you can put actual queer characters in your story now.

Harkening back to what made X-Men great, with its character-centric storylines, villains you could root for, and greater place in the wider MCU seems better than just adding eyeballs to some guy's shoulders or whatever.

Except the problem is that the writers have been trying to do what 'made X-Men great'. But what was great then isn't great now. Even disregarding the metaphor, you can't deny that the whole 'hated and feared' shtick has gotten old. What X-Men needs to do is move things forward. Have mutants be more accepted by the population, show them making actual progress. Don't just do the same old thing. Or else we might as well just reprint the old comics again like the early 70's.

Yes! Yes! Even with all the racism and prejudice against different races, LGBT, etc, etc, there has been some progress in making things better (it may not feel that way, and sometimes it seems like we take twenty steps back for every half step forward, but it's there...I hope).

But with the X-Men, it just feels like things are constantly getting worse and worse: mutants are surviving one genocide after another, anti mutant hysteria is as strong as it was before, or even worse, and the X-Men seem like they've completely failed on every level. Hell, the stories before Xavier died constantly beat him over the head with how he's become completely irrelevant and his dream is dumb. I think a recording of him that Magneto listened to even had him say the latter was right.

Marvel...you need to FUCKING MOVE FORWARD. Make all the blood sweat and tears these people have sacrificed mean something. We need more mutants as part of other heroes Rogues Galleries, and as part of other hero teams and shit. We need normal humans protesting the treatment of mutants. We need SOME GOD DAMN PROGRESS!!!

...Lord knows the world currently feels like it's gone back to the 60's or 70's. The point of comics and superheroes is to show us how things can be better.

I'll again quote the inimitable SonOfSharknado (where has he disappeared to, anyway?): as of late it seems as though real life has a better moral compass than this escapist fantasy universe full of superheroes.

I'm assuming he had a appointment with a dude named Finn.

They've had five previous one's already, and this was the last one.

And yeah, considering the current shit going on in real life, the fact that nothing has changed for the X-Men and in fact worsened is very very frustrating and sad.

Sharknado first said that in regards to Secret Empire, pointing out that in real life people wanted Trump's head on a pike before he was even formally in office, while in this, again, escapist fantasy universe, Stevil's far worse regime is immediately accepted because "DURF HURF HE BROT BACK DUH FACTOREE JOBZ HURF DUEF."

Edited by HamburgerTime on Sep 1st 2018 at 2:12:53 PM

I kind of feel like real life always did have a better moral compass than superhero universes. If only because unaccountable vigilantism and private militias were a lot less tolerated. One guy's escapist universe is another person's nightmare scenario. Superheroes can be real pricks.

Edited by windleopard on Sep 1st 2018 at 12:35:55 PM

Isn't that basically the point of Watchmen? If superheroes existed, that they'd probably be dangerously unstable people?

That it is.

That's true.

And it's been pointed out that Marvel insisting on Pulling the Thread on that Necessary Weasel but not trying to actually answer the question has done more harm than good.

For the record, kkhohoho, Magneto's looking to be back to being a villain. The most recent issue of X-Men Blue ended with him killing some people in a lab, leaving behind a statue of himself to let people know he's back, and then reforming the Brotherhood on Asteroid M. So, he's back to his early '90s status quo, because of course he is. Marvel's going through a big '90s nostalgia phase.

And yet we still don't have the MLF back. Bring back Thumbelina, Marvel, you cowards!

Really, the idea that mutants are dangerous and should be locked away from society is much different from the LGBT or Civil Rights metaphors the comics preach. The metaphor for race fails in the modern day because we've long moved past the days of Grand Dragons and Grand Wizards lynching black people for looking at a white person funny (or lynching them just for the hell of it) and moved towards other forms of discrimination. Not to mention, mutants can come about from any race or ethnic group. If you want the racism metaphor, take a page from The Gifted and create job and housing discrimination for mutants who cannot pass off as human.

As for the LGBT metaphor, it's a step in the right direction since LGBT knows no race and gender and most mutants can pass for human, but the problem is that no one thinks a gay man is going to destroy a public park. At worst, people stereotype transgender people as pedophiles and sexual deviants.

Really, I think characters with neurological disorders are the best metaphors for the merry mutants because neurological disorders know no race, gender, or orientation and is hard to identify just by looking at any random person on the street. Let's not forget Insane Equals Violent is a thing because of our perception of criminal insanity. It's easier to apply this to mutants because every single time gun violence comes up in conversation, someone brings up how we should be looking to mental disorders. I can't see why mutant wouldn't work in their place.

And then my final point has nothing to do with metaphors. DIAL BACK ON YOUR DARKNESS ALREADY!

Seriously, between 2005 and 2018, we've had multiple extinction and genocide plot threads. Let. Them. Die. Already. It makes us, the reader, feel like we need to reach for a bottle of wine. That's not getting into the stupid Bad Future plots that keep coming up. Seriously, Days of Future Past was two issues long. Stop trying to do more of these. I've personally had it with Here Comes Tomorrow, All-New X-Men, Age of Apocalypse technically, and Old Man Logan. At least when Thanos does it, we see it as a villain protagonist, so at least it's creative.

If someone told me that Gabby Kinney posting negatively about Fluttershy could create a Bad Future where bronies take over the world and lock up the mutants, then I'd probably believe it. Can we have a good future plot more often?

Edited by Dr.XXX on Sep 1st 2018 at 6:18:04 AM

That sucks about Mags going back to full villain but even before the Fox acquisition was final, everything seemed to be going back to the recognizable status quo (Jubilee getting her powers back, Jean Grey coming back from the dead, Wolverine's on his way back, Rogue and Gambit are together again, etc).

I'm not going to go on and on about the mutant metaphor, I'll just say what I always say in that the metaphor doesn't quite fit but it was written back in the 60s-70s when it did and Marvel needs to evolve it by attacking more institutional forms of prejudice mutants alongside the crazy stuff the X-Men normally do.

But then again, Lindsay Ellis point out that corporate-controlled mainstream media are always going to have watered down political allegories/metaphors so maybe it's just a symptom of that.

x2 Whoa, whoa, whoa. That future is too unrealistic for two reasons:

1) Gabby will NEVER bad mouth Fluttershy seeing how that’s her sister (points to the pathetic nerd other than me who got that reference).

2) If she made a positive comment about Starlight Glimmer as a character, THAN I can see the bad future where mutants are impriosioned and killed by bronies seeing how majority of the fanbase dislike towards post season 5 Starlight.

. . . But yeah X-Men’s whole Bad Future Boners really enforced the audience apathy towards these stories.

Also sometimes I think the group would work better as a metaphor for people with disabilities or deformities than race or sexuality as that seems more universal as, unfortunately, its more believable that people with such defects would be ostricized in some ways. Though than again Doom Patrol, aka Proto X-Men, already called dibs on that metaphor.

And on Magneto being a villain (again), alright then let’s see how long before he becomes a hero again because let’s face it the guy NEVER stays a hero or villain (or rather anti hero or anti villain). Seriously, the guy himself could be a living Political Chart where each side of the spectrum is basically what version of him is being written.

Congratulations, you took my X-Men Evolution reference bait.

Magneto's personality changes so much that I'm sure we have multiple Magnetos running around.

Magneto probably has a few robots of himself running around, not unlike Doom.

They must really work on keeping them in their box. And on quality control.

Edited by Blueace on Sep 2nd 2018 at 5:47:16 AM

My headcanon is that the Marvel cosmic villain, The Stranger, have actually cloned the Magneto from the original Uncanny X-Men comics and basically gave each and every one of them different origins (via memory alterations), personality and even extent of magnetic powers. He then allow for all the Magnetos to break out of his lab as means of a test to see which Magneto is the most successful in their goals for saving mutants.

Why he does all this? I don’t fucking know! Its the Stranger. Out of all the eccentric cosmic beings in the Marvel universe with a The Descriptor name (like The Collector, The Grandmaster, The Watcher, etc), he is the one I never fully understand.

Huh, Elixir joined Magneto too. Meeeeeeeeh. Writers just seem to love being mean to him.

...though his original creators have said that he'd have turned evil under them if they'd stayed longer, so I guess there's precedent.

I miss Wallflower.

Wallflower and many of her fellow colleagues shouldn't have gotten the bridge tossed on them.

If Reptil was ressurected, I'm still holding out hope for Wallflower.

I'd object to Marrow joining Magneto, but nah, "wanna fuck up some humans" is definitely a sales pitch that would work on her.

Related: Marrow is awesome and anyone who disagrees is wrong. She's best when she looks freaky and monstrous, and it pisses me off that creators kept trying to make her hot, because no, freaky monster girl is so great.

Also, if Marvel isn't in talks with Faith Erin Hicks to do a Marrow one-shot, what are they even doing?

I give it a year before Magneto uses nukes thus completely reverting his character back to the 70's. Marvel you don't need to reverse everything!

I don't care what direction they choose for Magneto. Just pick one and stick with it!

I mean, his direction since Claremont has been "will do anything to protect mutants." He sometimes tries a mellower route, but he's still ruthless and willing to do what it takes, and his cynicism means he always goes back to believing peace can only be achieved through force.