X - Men Research

Introduction

I believe it is safe to say that every grad student at some point gets asked a question along the lines of “Why are you studying that?” or “What are you going to do with that?” If you’re researching human memory, Greek philosophy, international politics, or Irish literature, odds are you’re going to spend a fair amount of time explaining what it is you study and why it’s worthwhile. Not surprisingly, this is also true if you’re researching comic book superheroes.

Since entering graduate school and focusing my research on X-Men comic books, first at Brigham Young University and then at Michigan State University, I’ve been asked these questions with some frequency. I believe people who are asking some form of “Why are you studying that?” are actually asking one of four questions. There is the broadest version of the question, inquiring about the validity of working in a field that is not a hard science and does not appear to have a direct exit from grad school into the private sector. They mean “Why study the humanities?” Some individuals who see the value of studying the canon of literature or classic art might narrow their question to “Why study popular culture?” And then those who accept the importance of understanding our entertainment culture may ask “Why study comic books?” Finally, there are those who are asking the most pointed question: “Why study the X-Men?” Each of these questions is worth answering.

It is undeniable that there is immense value in studying hard sciences. Technological innovations, medical advances, and other obvious benefits make hard sciences very important to our society. However, to insist that because hard sciences are beneficial the humanities are somehow frivolous is a false dichotomy. There is great value in understanding culture. There is a distinct advantage in mastering critical thinking. There is true societal importance in thinking deeply about complex issues of race, gender, sexuality, culture, or religion. Those are some of the benefits that can come from studying the humanities.

Even those who accept the value of studying the great canon of literature or the art that has been produced in cultures all over the world may question the validity of studying popular culture. But how many people watch television compared with how many read Shakespeare? How many people listen to pop songs on the radio compared with those settling down to read Robert Frost? Perhaps the ability to properly analyze the content of popular culture and the effects it has on consumers is something we need more people to master. This is not in any way suggesting that Shakespeare shouldn’t be studied (another false dichotomy); I enjoy Shakespeare immensely. Popular culture is an important part of American society. Entertainment is one of America’s largest exports; it is part of a shared communal culture that many lament is disappearing. Thinking critically about our entertainment culture should be encouraged, not maligned.

But surely, some may say, we can study Alfred Hitchock and Fritz Lang without having to resort to studying comic books. Film can be art; comic books are part of the disposable detritus of youth culture. Just as with any medium of storytelling, there can be wonderful stories, thought-provoking narratives, and insightful commentary found in comic books. There can also be found completely forgettable, poorly made stories with little internal logic. It is silly to dismiss an entire mode of storytelling because of a social prejudice.

Obviously more “reputable” graphic novels such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus or Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home or Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis are worth reading, but superhero comics? With mutants? The superhero genre has been greatly popularized in American culture, influencing every aspect of popular culture from video games to cartoons to blockbusters. But they were popularized in comic books. The serial storytelling in comic books allows for a fascinating opportunity to study a single narrative that spans decades. Regularly produced comic books mean a constantly evolving product that reflects changes in the society that produces and consumes the stories for entertainment. The need for a superhero implies something is broken in the system. With Superman it’s that there are threats too large for the system to handle. With Batman it’s that there is too much crime for the system to handle. With the X-Men, it’s that there is prejudice and hatred in the world because people are different. How those themes are explored by characters in bright costumes with crazy powers is worth examining. And how those themes are presented in a superhero narrative can lead to insights about our very culture.

Our entertainment, from comic books to television to movies, simultaneously reflects and influences our values, our prejudices, our sense of identity. I think understanding that process is important. I think it does matter. That’s why I study the X-Men.

Chapter One

Understanding the X-Men

It is important to establish parameters when undertaking a study of a subject with as much potential primary source material as the X-Men, or the project might never end. Because of the success of the X-Men franchise in comic books and other media, the breadth of potential material can be overwhelming. In light of the X-Men franchise’s humble beginnings as an unsuccessful comic book series, the vast amount of material produced featuring the X-Men in the last fifty years is surprising. The X-Men’s self-titled comic book series debuted in 1963 and limped along until 1970, at which point the series’ low sales resulted in Marvel ceasing publication of new adventures. Marvel reprinted the previously produced X-Men comics, but saw it as a losing investment to pay writers and artists to create original comic books featuring the team of mutant superheroes. In 1975, Marvel relaunched the series with mostly new characters and new creators behind the scenes. The result was much more successful than the original series.

Soon, spin-off titles began. Then miniseries and one-shots. And then media adaptations. Since that 1975 relaunch of the X-Men comic books series, there have been six blockbuster film adaptations, three successful animated series (as well as one produced pilot that failed to be picked up for a full series), and five X-Men video games. X-Men characters have also been used regularly in successful cartoon series such as Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends and The Super Hero Squad. In comic books, there have been nearly a hundred spin-off titles that were launched in the hopes they would become long-running continuous series (though most lasted much closer to twelve issues than The Uncanny X-Men’s almost six hundred issues), as well as hundreds of miniseries and one-shot comic books.

To examine all of the ancillary material that has been produced about the X-Men falls outside of the scope of this text. In this book, the first five hundred issues of The Uncanny X-Men series will be examined, with few of the myriad titles and adaptations that exist in the wider X-Men universe of comics being addressed in depth. The Uncanny X-Men will be used, as it is the primary X-Men title Marvel has published from 1963 until the present day (with occasional title changes, renumbering, and the already-noted reprint years notwithstanding).

This project will provide a close reading of the Uncanny X-Men comic book series with a particular focus on the portrayals of race and gender. In the course of the study, significant stories within the first five hundred issues of the series will be closely examined to ascertain what themes and messages concerning race and gender can be found. The X-Men series was chosen because it is one of the most prominent franchises in the comic book industry, and it has, at its core, what many identify as a “minority metaphor.” The X-Men are mutants, people who develop special powers because they were born different from normal humans. Besides the expected comic book supervillains, the X-Men battle prejudice and are hated and feared by normal humans in the Marvel comic book universe. The X-Men are considered one of the most socially relevant and diverse superhero comic book titles (Schedeen). An analysis of how this series actually employs that metaphor will be enlightening, especially because of the decades-long run the series has had. The use of the mutant metaphor has adapted through the years to remain relevant to the constantly changing social context of the producers and consumers of the series.

There is a popular perception among creators, fans, and academics that the X-Men is one of the most diverse franchises in the industry. This study does not look at the many other titles Marvel Comics has published in the X-Men franchise, but in looking at the number of characters that appear in The Uncanny X-Men it reveals that the series is dominated by white male characters on the heroic team and that the most racially and ethnically diverse group of characters in X-Men comic books are actually the villains the X-Men battle. Although the themes that are explored in the series consistently condemn prejudice and discrimination, the actual characters used often portray the heroism of white characters with the threat coming from minority characters. On the one hand, this situation is not surprising in an industry whose foundation rests on the enormous popularity of white male characters such as Superman, Batman, and Captain America. But it is surprising in light of the general perception of the X-Men franchise.

The X-Men was first published in 1963, during the reinvigoration of the superhero genre that occurred in the Silver Age of comics. The superhero genre had been a popular staple of comic book publishers since Superman’s first appearance in 1938’s Action Comics #1 until the late 1940s. Along with the solo adventures of superpowered characters, the early Golden Age superhero comic books soon introduced the concept of the superhero team in the form of the Justice Society of America. This team, which first appeared in All-Star Comics #3 from 1940, initially featured eight white male heroes: Doctor Fate, Hour-Man, the Spectre, the Sandman, Atom, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman. The membership of the Justice Society changed as new heroes were introduced. Also, readers were informed that if any characters had their own comic books, they could only serve as honorary members of the Justice Society and no longer were regularly featured in All-Star Comics.1 The superhero genre was extremely popular during World War II, but in the years following the war publishers found more success with crime, horror, and romance comics, and most superhero comic books stopped publication.

The superhero team was also key in launching the Silver Age, as DC Comics’ The Justice League was one of the successful superhero comic books that is rumored to have inspired Marvel Comics to return to superhero publishing. Stan Lee was the editor in chief of Marvel Comics at the time, as well as a writer of many of the comic books produced. Lee has said that when Marvel’s publisher, Martin Goodman, saw that DC Comics was having success revisiting the superhero genre, the publisher insisted that Marvel begin publishing its own superhero comic books again (Duncan 45–46). In the World War II heyday of the superhero, the company that would become Marvel Comics2 had its own superhero line, which included characters such as Captain America, Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and the Human Torch. But following the end of the war and the subsequent loss of interest in superheroes from consumers, Marvel had switched to publishing romance, monster, and sci-fi comic books.

Goodman’s request came just as Lee was considering quitting his job. Lee explains that:

I felt we were writing nonsense. Martin always felt that the books were only read by young kids or adults that weren’t that intelligent. So he didn’t like me to use words of more than two syllables in the dialogue, he didn’t want continued stories because the readers wouldn’t have brains enough to remember from month to month and things like that. I felt I was writing trash. (Stan Lee’s Mutants)

Lee’s wife suggested that if he wanted to write comic books for more mature readers and his publisher wanted new superhero comic books, why not combine the two. Lee worked with Jack Kirby, a talented and extremely proficient comic book artist, to create The Fantastic Four, and the Marvel age of superheroes began. The creative collaborations between Lee and Kirby would go on to reshape American popular culture.

Marvel began its superhero revolution in 19613 with the publication of Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961), written by Stan Lee with art by Jack Kirby. Lee and Kirby would collaborate on 102 consecutive issues of The Fantastic Four, which stood as an industry record for writer-artist collaboration until Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley collaborated on 111 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man between 2000 and 2007. Lee and Kirby also collaborated to create The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962) six months later. Lee collaborated with Steve Ditko to create Spider-Man, who first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962). Lee and Kirby again collaborated to introduce the Mighty Thor into the Marvel universe in Journey into Mystery #83 (Aug. 1962). Lee and Kirby created a scientist named Henry Pym in Tales to Astonish #27 (Jan. 1962), and later that year they gave him a superhero persona as the Astonishing Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #35 (Sept. 1962). Lee worked with his brother Larry Lieber and artist Don Heck to create Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #39 (Mar. 1963) and with Kirby on the war comic Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1 (May 1963). Lee and Kirby also collaborated on The Avengers #1 (Sept. 1963) and The X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963).

Why Lee invented what became known as “the Marvel method” of writing is understandable. This method involved the writer providing the artist with a plot outline rather than a full script describing each panel of a page. The artist was then free to tell the story how he or she saw fit, and the writer would then write the dialogue for the finished art pages. This method limited how much time Lee had to devote to writing out detailed scripts. The number of comics he wrote each month was incredible. Even if he only provided general outlines and then scripted the finished pages, Lee was still responsible for a very large output from Marvel. But, even more impressively, it is staggering how much art Kirby produced in this era. Today many artists struggle to draw twelve twenty-two-page issues in a year consistently. Kirby was the primary artist on the majority of Marvel’s superhero comic books in Marvel’s early transition into that genre.

Comic books are an extremely collaborative medium to work in. Any single issue of a comic book is likely to have a writer, artist (or penciler), inker, colorist, and editor. The significance of these roles may vary greatly from comic to comic. For example, the writer may provide a detailed script that tells the artist how many panels are on the page, what the writer envisions in each panel, and the dialogue that will be spoken. Or, in “the Marvel method” the writer is responsible for a general plot outline and final dialogue, whereas the artist is responsible for much of the narrative storytelling. The inker will take the artist’s penciled pages and use black ink to draw over the pencils every black line that is used by the printer in the final published product. The inker is sometimes referred to as the finisher or the embellisher, because he or she will sometimes take fairly rough pencils and create detailed images out of them. The colorist adds all of the color to the images for publication. The role of the editor will vary greatly depending on if the comic is a corporately owned product, such as the Marvel superheroes, or if the product is owned by the creators. If the comic books are corporately owned, the editors are also caretakers of the characters’ identities and more likely to become involved if they feel a creator’s work might tarnish the company’s intellectual property.

Because of all the roles necessary in creating a comic and the somewhat elastic nature of each job, it is at times problematic to assign credit for the various aspects of the final product.4 This difficulty is especially true of Marvel comic books of the 1960s and 1970s, when the Marvel method of comic book writing was used extensively. This method was pioneered by Stan Lee and used most often with artists Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. Comic book historian Mark Evanier explains that this “new means of collaboration . . . was born of necessity—Stan was overburdened with work—and to make use of Jack’s great skill with storylines. [. . .] Sometimes Stan would type up a written plot outline for the artist. Sometimes not” (112). Lee’s plot may have been a detailed write up or it may have been a vague description given in a conversation. The artist would then draw the story, but sometimes the artist would add as much or more to the plot than Lee had, and Lee would add dialogue to the finished product. In the 1970s artists were sometimes given credit as “co-plotters” when the Marvel method was used. The question of credit over who is the creator of a character or the plotter of a story has led to numerous professional feuds in the comic book industry.

Marvel’s most iconic titles had different themes that helped differentiate them from one another. The Fantastic Four had a family dynamic, the Hulk dealt with issues of rage, Spider-Man comic books were filled with adolescent angst, and the X-Men comic books would become identified with themes of prejudice and fear. Many superheroes received their powers due to scientific experiments, radioactive accidents, mystical objects, or alien encounters. In the narrative universe of Marvel Comics, mutants are individuals who were been born with a genetic variation that manifests in the form of a superpower. Because mutants are born different, they face prejudice from normal humans.

The themes of prejudice, social “others,” and seeking to belong permeate the X-Men comic books. It is not uncommon for superheroes or teams to have a phrase that defines them. Superman fights for “truth, justice, and the American way.” Spider-Man knows that “with great power comes great responsibility.” The X-Men “fight to protect a world that hates and fears them.”

Many comic book creators who have worked on the X-Men have acknowledged that they purposefully used the concept of “mutants” to explore how society treats “others,” be they racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual. Mike Carey, who wrote X-Men: Legacy, calls the idea of mutants an “informing metaphor” for the series. Carey positions the mutant metaphor as analogous to real-world issues:

Readers coming to the series recognize the echoes of real-world prejudice—racism, homophobia and so on—and that in turn makes the series seem just that little bit more grounded in reality, despite the fact that it’s essentially sci-fi. The difference between mutants and other heroes is that mutants are identifiably a human sub-species, marked by their possession of the X-gene. This provides a narrative rationale both for their solidarity and for the attacks made on them by groups and individuals with an agenda based on the psychology and politics of race hatred. (Carey)

For Carey, the world of superhero comic books can become more relevant to readers by having issues that mirror the world the reader lives in. Many other writers have also identified these elements and believe they are key to the success of the X-Men franchise.

Comic book writer Mark Millar believes much of the popularity the X-Men series is because it embraces the role of the minority:

The success [of the X-Men], I think, is for two reasons. The first is that, creatively, the book was close to perfect [in the 1970s and 1980s.. . .] But the other reason is that it was a book about being different in a culture where, for the first time in the West, being different wasn’t just accepted, but was also fashionable. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that gay rights, black rights, the empowerment of women and political correctness all happened over those twenty years and a book about outsiders trying to be accepted was almost the poster-boy for this era in American culture. (DeFalco 252)

However, being a minority is not the only reason one may gravitate to the X-Men. Feeling alienated by society is not the exclusive domain of any one group. Although racism, sexism, and homophobia are forms or prejudice that alienate groups of people, many people still feel alienated from society without being targets of those kinds of prejudice.

Fabian Nicieza, a writer of many X-Men comic books in the 1990s, does not subscribe to the idea that the mutant metaphor correlates to any specific group. The power of the metaphor is in the ability of any reader to find some way to relate to it:

“Mutants” does not equal one specific aspect of societal prejudices, mutants equal ALL prejudice. Be it race, creed, gender, culture, nationality, sexual orientation, the notion of being feared or despised simply because you are “different” is not owned by any one segment of the population, but rather, ironically, owned by all of us at one time or another in our lives, and that is why the X-books always flourished after their relaunch, because nearly all readers could empathize with their plight. Even if the “tragedy” you empathized with was because during your teen years you had a lot of acne, it didn’t diminish the fact that you still understood what it meant to feel “different.” Of course, people see things through their own eyes, their own experiences, their own pains, and therefore subscribe their own specific interpretations on their entertainment, usually angling it towards a position that speaks to their own needs, but if you take an aerial view rather than a ground level view, you have to realize the concept is an umbrella that covers everything, not just one specific societal group. (Nicieza)

As Nicieza points out, it does not take much to make a teenager feel like an isolated outsider. That may be one reason the concept of mutants appealed to young comic book readers. Within the X-Men comic book, mutant powers typically begin manifesting with the onset of puberty. One of the largest target audiences of comic book publishers are teenagers, and they may have found some form of association with the concept of characters who began to feel they were different from everyone else as they entered their teenage years.

Ron Richards, a comic book commentator and cofounder of the website iFanboy.com, believes that

the basic premise that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby came up, the idea of being like humans but slightly different as mutants was a direct allegory to the isolation that a regular teenager often feels. Things like “am I normal? Do I fit in? I feel different” etc., but manifested through developing super powers. This concept was one that many of us comic readers, especially who started reading in our teens (like I did) immediately connected with. (Richards)

Kurt Busiek, a prominent comic book writer, echoes these sentiments:

[A]dolescents feel like “the other,” so that sense of being alienated, not being understood, the fear that people won’t like you if they know your true self—and the sense of relief at finding others like yourself is also part of adolescence. So just like Harry Potter resonates strongly with young readers, with its sense of alienation relieved by access to a secret world where the fact that you’re “special” is a plus, not a minus, X-Men classically had the same kind of thrill of recognition to nerdy kids. It says, “Those other people don’t like you because they don’t understand you, but you’re secretly a hero.” It’s a very attractive message to an adolescent reader. [. . .] That teenage alienation can be used as a way to show the inequities of prejudice against anyone is the magic of the genre. Ideas become metaphors, symbols that can then be shown to fit other ideas, and through that we learn to identify with people who aren’t obviously like ourselves, because we know that inside, they are. (Busiek)

These interpretations of the concept of “mutant” remove some of the metaphor of institutionalized racism or sexism that have been identified with the X-Men series, instead favoring a more universal appeal to the idea of being different. However, they do not negate those themes; indeed, this broad inclusive interpretation of the mutant metaphor ensures that elements of racism, sexism, or homophobia can be read into the series.

At times, writers have discovered that the X-Men has attracted fans they never would have expected. Scott Lobdell, a writer of X-Men comics and creator of several mutant characters, shared the following experience.

One of the most astounding things that ever happened in my life was at a store signing in Florida at the height of the X-Mania (or my wild ride at the time). I was given an adorable eighteen-year-old handler to get me from the motel to the diner to the store and such. We were talking at one point and she was saying how much her brother and his friends love the X-Men and how my writing spoke to them as outsiders who stick together because of their outsider status. As [the writer] who outed Northstar [the first gay superhero in mainstream comics] years before, I assumed her brother and his friends were gay. I was surprised when she explained, no, they were skinheads—specifically white supremacists. What?! My first inclination was to explain that her brother and his friends had completely not gotten the ideals of inclusion and tolerance that the X-Men stood for. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I couldn’t really have my cake and eat it too. I couldn’t say the X-Men is about finding strength in being the other and then get upset because the other didn’t fit my definition of what I felt was acceptable otherness. Don’t get me wrong, when you look at the flip side of Xavier’s inclusionary viewpoint, you get Magneto’s almost Nazi-esque Master Race thesis. To the degree that this girl’s brother was not running around and gay bashing or involved in hate crimes, the notion that a sub-section of society felt they needed to come together because what made them them was threatened . . . or that they were looking to find strength in each other? That strikes me as valid as other others gravitating to the X-Men. (Lobdell)

This experience is evidence that there is no single interpretation for X-Men comic books. Some writers may write with specific points of view, but readers are under no obligation to share that point of view.

This is, of course, true of any narrative. Once it is removed from the creator’s head and released into the wild, consumers may have wildly different reactions than intended. Because of this, there are myriad valid avenues of interpretation available that may prove enlightening. This study will look primarily at the portrayal of race and gender in the comic book series, but there are many other potential readings of the series. Choosing to examine the roles of race and gender in the X-Men series highlights some ways the mutant metaphor is functioning, but in no way is meant to invalidate any of the many other interpretations that might enlighten understanding about the series itself, the creators, or the consumers of this entertainment.

A Brief History of the X-Men

The X-Men was not an instant success, but the concept of a team of outsiders was one that would become common in the superhero genre. The minority metaphor inherent in the comic book allows for exploration of issues not commonly associated with what is often considered a juvenile genre. Michael Chabon says, “The X-Men are the most consciously, deliberately, successfully metaphorical of any comic book superhero” (Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked). Perhaps it is for the deliberate metaphor that the X-Men would eventually become one of the most successful comic book franchises in history. Although the comic book initially struggled to find an audience, Marvel has nurtured the adventures of mutants into one of the largest and highest-selling areas of their publishing line.

When they first appeared, the X-Men were not as popular as Marvel’s other titles such as The Amazing Spider-Man or The Fantastic Four. After the first several issues were written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby, with moderate sales success, different creative teams were rotated in to try to increase interest as sales began to wane. After sixty-six issues of original stories, Marvel began to reprint the earlier issues and ceased production of new X-Men stories. Oddly, the decision was made to continue the issue numbering system with the reprints, so that although X-Men #66 (Mar. 1970) was the last new story, the first reprint occurred in X-Men #67 (Dec. 1970). Eventually, when Marvel again began to publish new X-Men comics, the series continued the numbering beginning with X-Men #94 (Aug. 1975). X-Men #67 through X-Men #93 are all reprints, whereas every other issue in the run is an original comic. This is not the standard practice in the industry, and The X-Men is unique as a long-running series with a significant number of issues consisting of reprinted issues.

In 1975 Marvel decided to relaunch the title, and it did so to great critical acclaim and financial success. New writers, artists, and characters were key to the success of this relaunch. The X-Men were reintroduced to the public with a one-shot comic book in 1975 entitled Giant-Size X-Men (the title referred to the extra number of pages in the issue, not any abnormally large stature of the X-Men themselves). When that issue sold well, the series was officially relaunched with Chris Claremont writing. Claremont would continue to write the title for sixteen consecutive years, leaving in 1991, but he has occasionally revisited the title since 2000. Bradford W. Wright explains some changes made in the relaunch:

Between 1977 and 1981 Claremont and artist John Byrne transformed it from a second-tier monthly title to the best selling in the industry. [Much of this success was because] Claremont created strong female characters who played more than the token supporting role traditionally allotted to women in comic books. [These strong women] helped to expand the title’s appeal across the gender barrier, and The X-Men became one of the very few superhero titles to win a significant female following. (263)

The series, newly christened The Uncanny X-Men, though continuing the original numbering, would quickly rank among the most popular titles. The title was so popular that Marvel would shortly publish spin-off series focusing on mutant characters. These included Dazzler, about a mutant disco singer/superhero, and The New Mutants, about the next generation of mutants being trained to protect the world. These spin-offs were just the beginnings of an avalanche of X-Men–related comic books. The single highest-selling issue in comic book history was X-Men #1, published in 1991. This new series was created to allow two teams of the core X-Men characters to have published adventures each month. The first issue was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Jim Lee and sold an unprecedented eight million copies. By comparison, the top-selling titles in 2013 are fortunate to sell three hundred thousand copies in the direct market.

Due to the popularity of the series since the 1975 relaunch, Marvel Comics has published many other titles that are closely tied to the X-Men franchise. Other books featuring teams of mutants and solo titles featuring popular X-Men characters in their own adventures are prominent on the comic book shelves. At some periods there have been almost twenty X-Men–related comic books published per month. With so many publications, the narrative continuity can become confusing, especially because so many titles are interconnected.

In some instances it is impossible to work out a logical connection between characters’ appearances in the shared Marvel universe, which ostensibly is meant to be telling one grand narrative. For example, in a single month in 2010 the character of Wolverine appeared in the monthly comics Wolverine, Wolverine: Weapon X, Dark Wolverine, The Uncanny X-Men, X-Men: Legacy, Astonishing X-Men, X-Force, and New Avengers, as well as appearing in limited series such as Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine. Additionally, Marvel publishes comic books that are not part of the core Marvel universe continuity. So they may publish a comic book aimed at younger readers featuring a version of Wolverine that is less savage, but the story and characters are not meant to connect to the character appearing in Uncanny X-Men. Or they may publish alternate reality versions of the character, such as Wolverine Noir, which reimagines the character as a film noir private eye, again with this version of the character having no relation to the core Marvel universe.

The sheer volume of comic books published by Marvel relating to the mutant characters is too broad and vast to be exhaustively analyzed in this project. To understand the amount of material published relating to the X-Men, a brief introduction to some of the terminology associated with comic book publishing is necessary. A single comic book today is likely to have twenty-two pages of content. Publishers produce one-shot stories that tell a complete story in one issue and are not part of a continuing series. There are also miniseries that tell a story over two to six issues, maxiseries that usually tell a story across twelve issues, and ongoing series that generally produce an issue on a monthly basis and are launched with the goal of never ceasing publication. Also, companies may publish graphic novels, which are longer self-contained stories, often with one hundred pages or more of content published in a single volume. Although ongoing series do have storylines that end, the series itself is meant to continue so long as it is profitable. Often there are subplots that continue while the main storyline wraps up after four to six issues. The beginning of the next plotline is often introduced in the same issue the previous storyline concludes. One-shots, miniseries, maxiseries, and graphic novels are likely to have the same creative team from beginning to end, whereas monthly ongoing series may have the creative team change at any point.

About This Study

This study focuses on the original and longest-running X-Men comic book, The Uncanny X-Men. Unfortunately, focusing on a single series will not eliminate all of the potential confusion of discussing the comic books, as this series itself has had several changes to its titles in the course of publication. In 1963 Marvel published the first issue of The X-Men. This was the series title on the cover as well as in the legal indicia within the comic book. With issue #50, the cover title switched to X-Men, though the legal indicia did not reflect the loss of the article until issue #94. The cover title was changed to The Uncanny X-Men with issue #114, though the legal indicia did not reflect this change until issue #142. And, the final title change (thus far) resulted in the cover title became simply Uncanny X-Men with issue #394, though the legal indicia did not change to Uncanny X-Men until issue #408. Throughout this book the title found on the cover and the cover date of the comic book will be used when citing an issue.

An additional aspect of comic books that has the potential to cause confusion is the somewhat fluid nature of comic book continuity. While the stories are published continually and can be read as one whole, some plot points are sometimes retroactively altered. Characters may be revealed to have been impersonated by shape-shifters or robots, deaths are undone, origins are reimagined, and entire storylines are retroactively inserted into previous issues by modern writers (sometimes altering a story that was published decades ago). When there is a change to the established continuity of a serialized story, it is often referred to as a “retcon,” which stands for retroactive continuity. Retcons have occurred in long-running TV series, sprawling narrative universes such as Star Trek, and very often in comic book narratives. For example, in The X-Men #42 (Mar. 1968) Professor Xavier suffers a fatal wound and dies. The writer, Roy Thomas, has said that his “original intention was that he would remain dead” (DeFalco 26). But two years later in The X-Men #65 (Feb. 1970) a new writer, Dennis O’Neil, revealed that Professor X had not died, but that a shape-shifter who had taken his place at the time had died and Professor X had been in hiding since that time.

This analysis of the X-Men will follow the comic book narrative in the chronological order it was published. For the purpose of this study, the first five hundred issues will be examined. I have divided the series into time periods that reflect significant publishing eras of the X-Men comic book series.

First, the period from 1963 to 1975 will be considered. This period represents the introduction of the X-Men, seven years of stories, and a five-year span in which Marvel published reprints of the first X-Men comic books. It includes the issues between The X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963) and X-Men #66 (Mar. 1970). The period between 1970 and 1975 when Marvel only published reprints will not be analyzed.

The second period, 1975–1983, begins with Marvel telling new stories with the X-Men and introducing a new team of mutants. This period made the X-Men one of the most successful comic book franchises in history. This period includes the issues between Giant-Size X-Men #1 and The Uncanny X-Men #166 (Feb. 1983).

The period 1983–1991 saw the expansion of the X-Men universe beyond a single X-Men title.5 This broadening of the franchise led to the introduction of many new mutant characters and more diversity in the title. The comics in this period include all the issues between The Uncanny X-Men #167 (Mar. 1983) and The Uncanny X-Men #280 (Sept. 1991). The years 1991–2001 saw the launch of the second core X-Men title and also the departure of Chris Claremont from writing duties for the first time in sixteen years. The issues in this period range from The Uncanny X-Men #281 (Oct. 1991) through The Uncanny X-Men #393 (June 2001).

The years 2001–2008 mark the final period, with Uncanny X-Men #500 (Sept. 2008) marking the last issue that will be considered in this study. In this era Joe Quesada, the editor in chief of Marvel Comics, felt that the proliferation of mutant characters and ancillary X-Men titles in the Marvel universe had significantly weakened the mutant metaphor that should be at the core of the X-Men comic books. To reestablish this metaphor, a pseudo-magical solution was used to depower 90 percent of all the mutant characters in the Marvel universe, reestablishing the minority metaphor that Quesada felt was integral to the series.

Each chapter will provide a brief overview of the creators who worked on the comics during the period, an overview of key stories and the general narrative of the comics in this period, and then a close reading of key stories focusing on the portrayals of race and gender.

Chapter 7 will examine the statistics of character representation through the series. This includes information about the number of appearances by individual characters, the racial and gender makeup of the team, the supporting cast, and the villains, and how these have shifted across the decades of publication.

While much of this project will be looking closely at the portrayals of gender in individual issues of the X-Men comic book series, one overarching aspect of the series should be addressed early on. The team name is explicitly masculine despite the team always having female members. Sometimes female team members have outnumbered the men on the X-Men. Despite the fact that for most of the published adventures of the X-Men the team has included prominent female characters, the team name has rarely been discussed as a gender issue within the published comics or by creators.

To better understand and analyze this concern, a few matters should be addressed. First, the X-Men was not the initial proposed name for the comic book or the superhero team. Stan Lee explains his initial plan:

Originally, I proposed naming the chronicle of our merry little misfits The Mutants. I thought it would make a great title. But I was outvoted by the powers-that-be in the front office. I was told, with much conviction, that nobody knew what a mutant was, therefore that couldn’t be the title of the magazine. I tried, in my stumbling, bumbling way, to say that some people knew the word, and those that didn’t would soon learn after the book was published. But, as you can tell by the present title, yours truly didn’t always emerge victorious! However, undaunted and unbowed, I returned with another name—The X-Men. I truly expected to be booted out of the office for that one. I mean, if people didn’t know what a mutant was, how in the world would they know what an X-Man was? But I guess I’ll never make my mark as a logician—everyone okayed the title. (“Our Merry”)

The Mutants would have been a gender-neutral title for a team of characters that, in the first issue at least, featured four active male heroes and one heroine, as well as the male leader of the team.

Second, the debate concerning sexist language has been going on for decades, but it had not yet begun in earnest when Marvel Comics first published The X-Men. One of the first and most famous articles drawing attention to the sexual bias of language was “De-Sexing the English Language,” which appeared in the first issue of the feminist publication Ms. Magazine. The article, written by Casey Miller and Kate Smith, argues against tendency of the English language to make the generic human male with words such as “mankind.”

Ms. Magazine began publication in 1972, a full nine years after the first issue of The X-Men was published. In 1963 the use of terms such as “men” or “brotherhood” to describe a group of both men and women was unlikely to have been considered much of a concern to the average American. Indeed, the practice is still common today, though more are aware of the connotations such word choices have.

X-Men has a similar function to the historic use of terms such as “mankind” or “men” in the English language, a gendered noun acting with nongendered inclusiveness. Even the villains in early issues employ similar male-dominant titles. The first team the X-Men battle is called the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, despite having a female member (only one, much like the earliest incarnation of the X-Men). In the letters column, though, readers did discuss the team name and the gender implications. In a letter published in The X-Men #28 (Jan. 1967) Dennis Clark wrote

Dear Stan, Roy, and Werner,

This is not a social letter. Neither is it a hate note. It’s just a few lines to emphasize an important point. For years loyal fans have read the X-Men with pleasure. The stories are great, the art magnificent, inking irresistible, and the lettering luscious. So, what’s my gripe? The name! It’s the name! For years people have read the X-Men without (I repeat—without) noticing one certain super-heroine—Marvel Girl! For years you have called the team the X-Men. Poor Jean—she’s being insulted. She’s a female, a poor innocent mutant who is called an X-Man! Maybe you could change the name to the X-People or something, but please do something. (667)

The official response to the letter, written in the Marvel’s standard informal and playful manner, was:

Your point is well taken, pungently presented, and daringly documented—but—somehow we question the fact that the X-People is the kind’a mag title that’ll knock anyone outta his tree! Mebbe we can change our name to The X-Men and Friend, or some such passionate phrase! (667)

In fact, in the very first issue the group was referred to as “the X-Men and Marvel Girl” in one line of dialogue, but other than that the term X-Men is used inclusively for Marvel Girl. Though a future writer, Tom DeFalco, does call a group of heroes “The X-People” in an alternate future timeline, it is doubtful Marvel ever seriously considered a name change.

A couple issues later, in The X-Men #31 (Apr. 1967), another letter writer addresses the team name, coming to the defense of using “The X-Men.” Jeff Zweig, using some of the same reasoning that would later be criticized in the Ms. Magazine article referenced above, wrote:

I must show one fan the error of his ways. He wrote to you to complain that the title “X-Men” excludes females. I would hasten to inform him that the term “mankind” refers to women as well as men, and if it’s a generic term I fail to see why “X-Men” shouldn’t be one, too. (736)

Zweig’s letter goes on to address recent events in the comic book series, and the editorial response to his letter answers those concerns and does not touch on his discussion of the team name. In any event, the gendered nature of the name has occasionally been raised by creators and fans, it does not seem to be a common concern.

Despite its gendered name, the X-Men has long been home to some of the interesting and independent female characters in superhero comic books. This study will highlight several of these positive portrayals, but also identify times when gender stereotypes are used carelessly. Race and gender issues in society are always evolving, and the context of the times is important in understanding some of the issues that will be explored in this book. Hopefully, this analysis proves enlightening and the insights gained can deepen our understanding of the relationship between popular culture and the society that produces and consumes it.

Notes

1. Superman and Batman were honorary members from the beginning, and Flash and Green Lantern would become honorary members when each proved popular enough to be spun off into their own titles. An exception was made for Wonder Woman; after she was created and spun off into her own comic book, she would still appear in Justice Society adventures, but only as the team secretary.

2. Both Marvel and DC Comics had multiple company names before settling on their current, more well-known names. For convenience and clarity, I will refer to both by their current names throughout the book.

3. Throughout this work, the cover date on comic book issues will be used to refer to when the comic book was released, though the cover date does not exactly match the month a comic book was published. According to Brian Cronin, in the early 1960s there was usually a four-month gap between the official cover date and the ship date. In the 1990s two months was made the official gap between cover date and ship date by Marvel and DC Comics. However, there have almost always been variations in the exact difference between the two dates, even within those general guidelines. Because of this difficulty, the cover date will be cited rather than a publication date.

4. Much as the cover title and cover date were used for simplicity and clarity, in this work the credit will be given to the writers and artists for the comic book. Rarely will the inkers, colorists, or editors be mentioned, though their contribution is key to the final product.

5. The first spin-off of the X-Men franchise was technically Dazzler, which began publishing in 1981, but it was part of a corporate tie-in with Casablanca Records. The New Mutants, which began publishing in 1983, was the first natural narrative spin-off of the series. X-Factor, another comic book in the X-Men family, began publication in 1985.

Chapter Two

Intriguing Concept, Uneven Execution

The X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963) to X-Men #66 (Mar. 1970)

Creators

Marvel Comics was finding great success with the superhero genre in the early 1960s. Creativity and business were booming. In a short span, the company published comic books introducing the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man, Thor, Spider-Man, and Iron Man. Marvel’s first superhero comic book had featured a team, but after the Fantastic Four, the company had focused on creating individual heroes. In 1963, two new team books would be published that have each become franchises in their own rights, with spin-off titles, multimedia adaptations, toys, and other merchandise. The Avengers #1 and The X-Men #1 were released the same month, cover dated September 1963. In The Avengers, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby combined several of the previously introduced individual heroes into one team. Lee and Kirby used The X-Men #1 to introduce five brand-new superheroes and their wheelchair-bound leader, Professor X.

Although the X-Men franchise is one of the most successful in the history of the comic book industry, the initial run from The X-Men #1 (Nov. 1963) through The X-Men #66 (Mar. 1970) is of uneven quality. There are hints at the thematic depth and innovative storytelling that would make the series famous, but it is understandable why this was one of Marvel’s lower-selling titles of the 1960s. Most of these sixty-six issues contain mediocre stories with adequate but uninspired art, though some of the better stories are very good, whereas the lesser stories are completely forgettable. A few issues are only memorable because they are, in terms of art and narrative, terrible comic books. Many of the most iconic characters that the public identifies with the X-Men franchise, such as Wolverine and Storm, are not introduced until later eras. Similarly, many of the most famous storylines (several of which that have been mined for multimedia adaptations) come from subsequent eras of the The Uncanny X-Men or from spin-off franchises. In this first period of X-Men comic books, the seeds of many important thematic elements and characterizations are present, but for the most part they do not come to fruition until later.

This unevenness is not solely found in the varying quality of the stories from issue to issue: the very characters themselves shift dramatically. For example, in the first couple issues the Beast speaks in the same manner as his teammates, but with the third issue he suddenly uses a very heightened pseudo-academic vocabulary and is treated as the smartest of the X-Men. It would not be surprising to see shifts in tone, theme, and characterization as new writers pen the team’s adventures, but the shifts present in Lee’s early issues indicate that when the series began to be published Lee hadn’t yet fully established his goals and intentions for this series, much less the personalities of some main characters.

Even more problematic than these larger issues that would only become apparent to a reader of multiple issues, is that at times the internal logic of individual issues doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. In The X-Men #9 (Jan. 1965), Professor X confronts Lucifer, the man who cost him the use of his legs. The Professor uses a tank-like wheelchair to reach Lucifer’s underground lair. Lucifer traps Xavier, at which point Xavier pulls out a gun and fires it at Lucifer, crying out, “Did you think I would come to you unarmed, or unprepared??” (208). Lucifer avoids the shot and warns that if his heart stops a bomb will detonate. At the end of the issue, after Xavier has been freed and the X-Men have defeated Lucifer, the team allows their enemy to walk free. When Lucifer asks why he is being allowed to leave, Professor X explains, “Because we X-Men are pledged never to cause injury to a human being—no matter what the provocation!” (223). Xavier seems to have forgotten the gun he fired, clearly with the intent to injure, at the beginning of this same issue. Even more incongruous is a panel in The X-Men #17 (Feb. 1966) in which Professor Xavier warns the Beast telepathically that he cannot remove his mask in front of a doctor who is treating him, lest he gain any clues as to the X-Men’s true identities. He also telepathically warns the Beast not to give the doctor any indication that he knows the professor, as Professor Xavier does not want anyone to suspect he has a relationship with the X-Men, much less that he is the team’s leader. But in a speech balloon in the same panel he refers to the Beast using his real last name, McCoy, giving the doctor a clue both to the Beast’s true identity and revealing that he knows more about the X-Men than simply their code names.

There is similar difficulty in providing a clear and distinct identity for the X-Men’s most famous foe, Magneto. He appears the most frequently of all the X-Men’s enemies. In this early period, and also in subsequent eras, the creators are quite flexible concerning just what the power to control magnetic fields entails. In The X-Men #1 (Nov. 1963), Magneto leaves a threatening message suspended in the air that is “composed of the dust particles from the air itself, skillfully magnetized into a message by the unseen mutant” (21). In the same issues, Magneto traps several soldiers by “narrowing my magnetic waves,” something a soldier describes in a later panel as “like being encircled by an invisible fence” (23). Early on, there is evidence that Lee intended Magneto to have psychic powers, very similar to Professor X’s, in addition to his magnetic-based powers. In The X-Men #6 (July 1964), Magneto demonstrates an ability that would later be called astral projection, as he mentally sends forth a psychic version of himself to explore the ocean floor. As the caption explains, “Thus, the leader of the evil mutants, whose brain power is second only to that of Professor X, transforms all his vast mental energy into an illusory figure of himself . . . and sends it forth” (134). Though it is used throughout an extensive sequence in this issue, covering several pages, this mental projection is never demonstrated again by Magneto. In The X-Men #18 (Mar. 1966), Magneto seems to display a level of mental control more akin to hypnotism than astral projection, but it is referred to as “magnetic attraction,” giving it a closer link in name to his primary powers (417).

Adding to the mystery of Magneto, his bases of operations frequently change. In the first issues, he launches his attack from “a secret laboratory near Cape Citadel” (19). In his second appearance (The X-Men #4 (Mar. 1964)), Magneto uses “a lonely uncharted island in the Atlantic” (88), a massive freighter he has stolen, and a fictional South American country that he conquers as bases. In the very next issue (The X-Men #5 (May 1964)), Magneto now has a base on an asteroid orbiting the Earth, called Asteroid M, which he and his henchman travel to and from via magnetically powered rockets. In The X-Men #6 (July 1964), the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is again based from “an uncharted isle far out to sea” (132), though it is unclear if this is the same island base briefly seen in The X-Men #4 (Mar. 1964) because Kirby’s art does not depict the same structures on the islands in the two issues. In The X-Men #7 (Sept. 1964), Magneto is now using “a lonely ramshackle mansion” as his base (158). In the same issue, the X-Men are lured to a factory to battle Magneto and his evil mutants, and Magneto declares, “This factory belongs to me! I have kept it for just such a time as this!” (168). And, in what seems to have been intended to be Magneto’s last appearance for some time, in The X-Men #11 (May 1964), Magneto is using what is either a floor of an apartment building or an office building in the heart of New York City as his base (259). In fewer than a dozen issues, Magneto makes six appearances, with different bases (each well-equipped with computers and weapons) each time.

Despite the varied quality and lack of internal continuity of the issues from this period, this is the start of what has become a multimedia franchise that is extremely successful. Additionally, some of the deeper matters that are linked with the franchise are introduced at this time. The themes of fear and prejudice from normal humans toward mutants are explicitly introduced in some issues, setting these X-Men comic books apart from the other superhero comic books published by Marvel at this time.

The X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963) was written by Stan Lee and with art by Jack Kirby. Lee and Kirby collaborated on the first eleven issues. Lee would continue to write the series through issue #19. After fully penciling the first eleven issues, Kirby would provide layouts through issue #17 with Werner Roth1 providing the finished pencils. Following Lee as writer in this period were Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, and Arnold Drake. On art, Werner Roth began to provide full pencils with issue #18 and was followed by Ross Andru, Don Heck, Jim Steranko, and Neal Adams. Kirby, Steranko, and Adams are considered masters of the comic book medium. Linda Fite is the first female writer to work on The X-Men, writing the back-up story in The X-Men #57 (June 1969).

General Storyline

In X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963) readers are introduced to the wheelchair-bound Professor Xavier, who runs Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The students at the school, actually Professor Xavier’s mansion, are really the X-Men, and the school serves as both a cover to hide the X-Men’s identities and as the team’s base. As the issue begins, the four current students, Cyclops, Angel, the Beast, and Iceman, are told a fifth student, Marvel Girl, will be joining the school. The villain in this issue is Magneto, an “evil mutant” who the X-Men fight in their first public outing as superheroes (19). The team stops Magneto from taking over an American military base at Cape Citadel. In the next couple issues, the X-Men defeat new mutant menaces the Vanisher and the Blob. Magneto, now with a team of mutants he calls “The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants,” becomes a recurring foe in the first dozen issues.

These first eleven issues fall into a routine of the X-Men training in the first part of the issue, then battling a foe and nearly losing before being rescued by either Professor Xavier’s mental powers or some other outside force. The X-Men are not very competent as superheroes, even nearly falling before an attack by nonpowered circus folk in The X-Men #3 before Professor X uses his powers to make the Blob and his army of carnies forget why they’re attacking the X-Men and decide to walk away. In The X-Men #5, during a battle on Magneto’s floating asteroid base in which Professor X is not present, the fight ends because, as Magneto explains, “During the battle someone must have brushed up against some of the detonate buttons” (127). In subsequent issues, the guest star Namor thwarts Magneto’s plans (The X-Men #6), the Blob accidentally saves the X-Men from certain death (The X-Men #7), guest star Ka-Zar helps rescue the team (The X-Men #10), and an alien force captures Magneto and takes him to another planet (The X-Men #11). Constantly it is not the X-Men who save the day, but some outside influence.

The quality of the storytelling becomes noticeably higher with the X-Men’s first multipart stories. The X-Men #12 (July 1965) and #13 (Sept. 1965) introduce a new villain, the Juggernaut, who would become a regular member of the team’s rogues gallery. The X-Men #12 (July 1965) uses the pacing of the story to build tension more successfully than any previous issue. On the first page of the issue, Professor Xavier’s computer, called Cerebro, which can (sometimes) detect mutants (and occasionally other threats; its functionality is inconsistent in these early issues), sounds an alarm that a menace is approaching the team’s mansion. The remainder of the issue features intercut scenes of the X-Men preparing defenses, Professor Xavier sharing a tale of his childhood and his troubled relationship with his stepbrother, Cain Marko, and a shadowy figure approaching and battling past the X-Men. The final panel of the issue shows the figure in full color for the first time, having defeated the X-Men and now facing Xavier while taunting, “So dear brother! We meet again! Pity it is for the last time!” (295). Although some of the elements of the story are decidedly cheesy—Xavier’s recounting of his childhood is extremely melodramatic—the pacing of this issue, which builds to the final reveal, genuinely increases excitement. The storytelling through the art is a fine example of Jack Kirby’s mastery of the comic book art form. The following issue, in which the Human Torch aids the X-Men in defeating the Juggernaut, keeps the increased quality even as it too has moments of melodramatic silliness.

Immediately following this two-part story is the Sentinels Trilogy, spanning from The X-Men #14 to #16. The Sentinels Trilogy is the first story to fully engage with the idea of humanity fearing mutants and creating a genuine threat to the emerging class of powered individuals. A few earlier issues, #5 and #8, had shown normal humans fearing mutants, but this is the issue that most clearly cements fear, prejudice, and hatred as central themes of the X-Men. It is Lee’s best work as writer of the series. The Sentinels Trilogy is where Lee finds the uniqueness of this series about mutants, what would make it stand apart from the other superhero titles he was writing and publishing.

In the issues, an anthropologist, Bolivar Trask, stokes normal human’s fears by predicting that the superpowered mutants will enslave normal humans. Trask, funded by the government, builds a Master Mold that can build hundreds of Sentinels in quick succession. In the end, Trask sees that the Sentinels he helped create are a more dangerous threat to humanity and freedom than the mutants he feared, and he destroys the Master Mold, dying in the resultant explosion.

The following two-part storyline borrows heavily from elements of the stories that introduced the Juggernaut and the Sentinels, though it is not quite as successful. There is the same ominous pacing as the issue that introduced the Juggernaut, building to a final reveal of Magneto as the villain of the issue. And Magneto’s plan is similar to what we saw with the Master Mold, as he analyzes the DNA of Angel’s parents and builds a machine that will produce hundreds of identical mutants that will follow his orders before the X-Men thwart his plans.

Following Stan Lee’s departure from writing the title, the X-Men’s foes become less mutant-centric and more like other superhero comic books. Roy Thomas, the writer who took over from Lee, explained that “I actually preferred doing stories with regular supervillains. I just wasn’t that big into the whole mutant thing at the time” (DeFalco 23). This shift in foes lessens the mutant metaphor that began to be fully realized with the Sentinels Trilogy. The X-Men begin to fight villains who were already established in other Marvel comics or face villains whose motivations and powers are completely unrelated to mutants. In retrospect, Thomas recognized that this removed any “distinct flavor” from the X-Men (DeFalco 23). Although Thomas did create a few new characters, like the Banshee, he mostly relied on preexisting characters. Thomas has stated that he “hated the idea of creating many new characters for Marvel, because I knew I wouldn’t own them” (DeFalco 26). As a result, he recycled many characters for new appearances, even bringing back the Red Raven for an issue, a character from the Golden Age of Marvel comics, which the company still retained the rights to.

Eventually another villainous mutant group, Factor Three, becomes the focus of the X-Men’s adventures. Around the same time that the Factor Three storyline occurs, the comic books begin to have back-up stories that relate the origins of the members of the X-Men. Of all the X-Men stories published in this period, these back-up stories have the most overt themes about the evils of prejudice and bigotry.

Following the Factor Three storyline, in a battle with a subterranean creature, Professor X apparently dies, and the X-Men lose some of their focus as a team. Several issues alternately feature the adventures of individual members of the team, often still dealing with mutant threats. A threat to a newly discovered mutant has the team unite to face Magneto once again. The team decides to continue working together and meets several more mutants, some as allies and some as enemies. In the final issues before the series switched over to reprints, it is revealed that Professor X faked his death to be able to focus all of his time and abilities to preparing to repel an alien invasion. After defeating the alien threat, and having one final adventure with the Hulk, the series began to reprint earlier issues.

Members of the X-Men

The initial roster of X-Men included the founder and leader of the team, Professor Xavier, and five students who were being trained in the use of their mutant powers. Professor X, Cyclops, the Beast, Iceman, Angel, and Marvel Girl were all created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

All of the members of the X-Men in this period were white middle-to-upper-class Americans. In short, this was a very WASP-ish group to be struggling against prejudice in a minority metaphor. Further complicating the use of this particular group as representative of a racial metaphor is the fact that none of these mutants were in any way distinguishable from white Americans. Although later mutants would often have distinctive features that would set them apart from all of humanity, such as fur, horns, or different skin pigmentation, the original X-Men could “pass” as non-mutants whenever they wished. Even Angel, who had wings on his back, could use “restraining belts” to prevent “wings from bulging under [his] suit,” which allowed him to pass as a non-mutant (X-Men #1, 18). This team of mutants can “pass” as regular humans whenever the need arises. Werner Sollors defines passing as “[t]he crossing of any line that divides social groups” (247). Some examples of passing, identified by Everett Stonequist, include “Jews passing for Gentiles, Polish immigrants preferring to be German, Italians pretending to be Jewish, the Japanese Eta concealing their group identity to avoid discrimination, [or] the Anglo-Indians passing for British.” Despite these many instances where the term is applicable, it “is used most frequently as though it were short for ‘passing for white,’ in the sense of ‘crossing over’ the colored line in the United States from the black to the white side”(247). In the Marvel universe there are those mutants who can pass as normal humans and those who cannot because their mutation is too visible. In this period, almost all the mutants that are seen can pass as normal humans.

This is also true of the mutant villains the X-Men fight in this period. Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which include Mastermind, the Toad, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch, can all pass as normal humans when they choose. Similarly, the other mutants the X-Men face, including Unus the Untouchable, the Vanisher, Banshee, Warlock, Changeling, the Living Pharoah/the Living Monolith, Sauron, and Sunfire, can all “pass” as normal humans. Of the mutants presented in this run, only the Blob, who appears to be morbidly obese to the point that he works as a sideshow freak at a carnival, and Mesmero, who may have green skin (or it may be a mask and costume; it is not presented consistently in the comic books), stand out from normal humans due to their mutations. However, the Blob could still be normal, only obese, and Mesmero has the power to hypnotize people, so both could pass as normal humans if they chose.

Professor Xavier (Professor X)

Charles Xavier, sometimes called Professor X, is the world’s most powerful telepath and a champion of mutant rights in the Marvel narrative universe. When introduced to readers, he is bound to a wheelchair. Xavier is bald and clearly meant to be an older character, certainly much older than the teenagers he is training. Some of Xavier’s backstory is addressed in these issues. He lost the use of his legs during a battle with an alien villain called Lucifer. His stepbrother, the not subtly named Cain, is a supervillain named Juggernaut who hates Xavier because they feuded so much as children. In later periods of X-Men comic books, significant backstory about Xavier’s previous romantic life, son, and his work with Jews following World War II is added.

Scott Summers (Cyclops)

Scott Summers, code named Cyclops, can shoot energy beams from his eyes. His optic blasts cannot be switched on and off like Superman’s heat vision; if his eyes are open, they are emitting a powerful and destructive wave of energy. The only substance that can control them is “ruby quartz,” which absorbs the energy. He always wears either glasses or a visor to control his mutant power. Cyclops often feels his power is a burden because it is a constant threat to those around him. Cyclops is the most serious member of the team, and Professor X makes him the team leader when they are in the field. Cyclops is madly in love with Jean Grey, the only female on the team, but doesn’t act on his feelings during this period of X-Men comics.

Hank McCoy (Beast)

Hank McCoy is code named the Beast. He has larger hands and feet than a normal person and is extremely agile. Though later the character would sprout blue fur all over his body, in this period he has white skin and can easily pass for a normal human. The Beast is the most intellectual of the group. He has an interest in science and deliberately uses an advanced vocabulary, at times annoying his teammates with his word choices. If there is a word that has four syllables and means the same thing as a two-syllable word, the Beast will choose to use the four-syllable word. The Beast is an example of a character who defies the expected stereotype. The strongest and brawniest member of the team is really the most intellectual. In future issues, as the result of drinking a formula in Amazing Adventures #11 (Mar. 1972), the Beast sprouts blue fur all over his body, which further cements the dichotomy between his brutish physical appearance and scientific mind.

Bobby Drake (Iceman)

Bobby Drake, the Iceman, is the youngest member of the team. He can turn his body into snow, later ice, and he can decrease the temperature around him. He can also produce ice and snow projectiles by sapping moisture from the air around him. He is the prankster of the team and is often reprimanded for his immaturity.

Warren Worthington III (Angel)

Warren Worthington III has wings sprouting from his back and uses the code name Angel. He comes from a very wealthy family and has stereotypical upper-class tastes. Like Cyclops, he is attracted to Jean Grey, and for a time a love triangle between the three is used to generate some tension on the team, though Jean Grey only ever expresses an interest in Cyclops.

Jean Grey (Marvel Girl)

Jean Grey, originally code named Marvel Girl, has telekinesis. Grey’s defining characteristic, at least initially, is that she is a female for the boys on the team to fight over. She longs for Cyclops, but in this period their mutual attraction is not acted on. After the team graduates from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Jean is the only member that is shown going on to college.

Calvin Rankin (Mimic)

Calvin Rankin, or Mimic, is the first addition to the team, though it is only short-lived. Originally a villain created by Stan Lee and Werner Roth (The X-Men #19), Mimic has the mutant power to imitate the powers of other mutants around him. When near the X-Men, he sprouts wings like Angel, has optic blasts, can control ice and snow, and has telekinesis and increased dexterity. But when he is not near other mutants, he has no powers at all. After battling the X-Men, Calvin decides to attempt to reform his life and joins the team for three issues (The X-Men #27 through #29), though it is always a contentious relationship. After a few issues, he departs.

Lorna Dane (Polaris)

Lorna Dane was created by Arnold Drake and Don Heck and first appeared in X-Men #49 (Oct. 1968). She has the power to control magnetic waves. She adopts the code name Polaris. She is told she is Magneto’s daughter, but the truth of that statement is something that is debated for several decades in X-Men comic books. When she first appears, Iceman is instantly smitten with her, but she falls in love with Alex Summers after he is introduced several issues later.

Alex Summers (Havok)

Alex Summers is Scott Summers’s younger brother. Created by Arnold Drake and Don Heck, Alex first appeared in X-Men #54 (Mar. 1964). There had been no hint to Scott’s having any extended family up to this point. When first introduced, Alex does not possess any mutant powers, but in the course of his first storyline he develops the ability to generate “plasma blasts” from his body, though he has little control over them. It is later discovered that he and his brother are immune to each other’s mutant powers. Havok and Polaris each guest-starred in several issues before becoming members of the team for two issues near the end of this period.2

Close Readings

Early on, the X-Men featured an obvious metaphorical correlation between mutants and racial minorities. The issues of race relations and prejudice were worn on the proverbial sleeve of the series. Bryan Singer, director of X-Men and X2, says of the comic book, “This was Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s way of commenting on prejudice [. . .] This is the comic book version of The Crucible” (“Origin of the X-Men”). The X-Men were created at a time when race and prejudice were among the most pressing issues in America. The mutants who made up the X-Men were literally a separate race in this narrative, and the issue of prejudice has long been the prevalent theme in the series.

Many have noted this correlation between the X-Men narrative and American historical events, and some have even noted direct parallels between the leaders of the mutant race and civil rights leaders. Professor X, who preaches peace between the races, seeking equality above all else, is considered to have been inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. Conversely, Magneto, who sees mutants as superior to all other races and has a supremacist point of view, is often seen as reflective of Malcolm X and the black power movement. Ralph Winter, a producer of the first X-Men film, said Bryan Singer particularly emphasized this aspect of the X-Men mythology: “Bryan [Singer] embraces this Martin Luther King versus Malcolm X approach to the values that are being presented” (“Origin of the X-Men”). One of the final lines spoken by Magneto in the film features a quote lifted directly from Malcolm X. Malcolm X said, “We declare our right on this earth [. . .] to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.” The words spoken by Magneto in the first film are “The war is still coming, Charles, and I intend to fight it . . . by any means necessary.” Singer, by lifting one of the most famous lines from Malcolm X’s speech, is clearly embracing the interpretation that Magneto is meant as a parallel for Malcolm X.

Many others have seen this similarity. Michael Fassbender, who portrays Magneto in the film X-Men: First Class, compares Xavier to Martin Luther King Jr. and Magneto to Malcolm X. Fassbender, in preparing for his role, latched onto the concept of “two ideals, two intelligent guys but with different methods of achieving what they want. Erik doesn’t trust humans and thinks they need to be wiped away and I can kind of see his point” (“X-Men: First Class”). John Trushell argues in “American Dreams of Mutants” that because Professor X sought “accommodation with homo sapiens” while Magneto “resemble[d] increasingly radical elements” of the Civil Rights movement, finding “such parallels are not far-fetched.” It has become almost commonplace for fans or commentators to identify and accept this interpretation of the X-Men, though there are those who resist this reading.

In the essay “Lee, Kirby, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses: or How Not to Read the X-Men, and then How to Read Them,” Roberts is opposed to making one-to-one correlations between the fictional narrative and the real world. He calls such interpretations dumb, explaining:

Why is it dumb? Because (and excuse me for stating the obvious) Charles Xavier is not Martin Luther King Jr. He’s Charles Xavier. There is one way in which he resembles Dr. King—he has dedicated his life to the peaceful emancipation of his people. But there are myriad ways in which he does not resemble King: he is a bald-headed white cripple with tremendous telepathic powers who lives in an enormous mansion in New York state, is in charge of a school for gifted mutant supermen and is an occasional traveler into outer space. [. . .] Concentrating on the one thing these two people have in common to the exclusion of all these points of difference is plain myopic. (142)

Roberts makes a valid point. Arguing that a character represents an actual person becomes problematic when the character is written by many different writers in hundreds of different situations and with varying motivations. Obviously the parallels will not always work. Even more significant than the problems with the Xavier/Martin Luther King Jr. comparison are those with the assumption that the 1960s-era Magneto was meant as some sort of comparison with Malcolm X. The Magneto who appears in this period has little resemblance to the sympathetic concentration camp survivor who is concerned for the welfare of mutants that will be portrayed in later comic books. In the 1960s Marvel comic books, Magneto is a supervillain seeking world domination, not a protector of his people whose motivations you can understand while disagreeing with his methods. However, even while acknowledging flaws in the often cited comparison between Professor X and Martin Luther King Jr., it should be admitted that identifying specific stories that are clearly meant to reflect moments in world history can be enlightening and at times almost unavoidable.

For example, in The Uncanny X-Men #199 (Nov. 1985), Magneto reveals that he was a Jewish child kept in German concentration camps who saw his parents murdered for being Jews. He explains this while he is standing in the National Holocaust Museum, and he expresses his hopes that a similar fate does not befall mutantkind just before he is attacked by a group sponsored by the U.S. government to hunt down mutants. The allusions in the story are far from subtle and rather unavoidable for the reader. It is not “myopic” in this instance to identify the parallels between the treatment of mutants in the fictional narrative and the historical treatment of Jews in the real world.

Chris Claremont, who wrote the adventures of the X-Men for sixteen years, has said, “The X-Men are hated, feared and despised collectively by humanity for no other reason than that they are mutants. So what we have here, intended or not, is a book that is about racism, bigotry and prejudice” (Wright 117). Although it can, and perhaps should be, debated whether or not Professor X was meant to be a fictional stand-in for Martin Luther King Jr., it is clear that a dominant theme in X-Men comics is a condemnation of prejudice.

Because the series was created in the early 1960s, at one of the most intense periods of the Civil Rights movement, one might expect to encounter clear examples of this theme from the very first issue. However, for a series with such an obvious metaphor that includes racial prejudice in the United States, the writers seem to have forgotten to include race. Although there are certainly other minorities in America besides racial ones, in the 1960s the prevalent public concerns about prejudice regarded race, specifically prejudice toward African Americans. Eventually, Marvel would introduce the first black superhero, the Black Panther, but it would not be until 1966. The Falcon, the first African American superhero in mainstream comics, would not be introduced by Marvel until 1969. In 1963, with the X-Men’s initial roster, the team that many interpret as representing minorities was entirely white and middle class. The only exception to this was Angel, who was still white, but upper class.

Making the absence of race in The X-Men even more notable is that Stan Lee was not shying away from the issue of racial prejudice, including using racial minorities, in another series he was writing at the same time. Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs identified Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos as a notable example of Lee and Kirby’s collaborative creations containing a “brazen acknowledgment of ethnicity.” Amongst the Howling Commandos are a Jew, an Italian, and Gabe Jones, one of the few black characters to appear regularly in this era of comic books. Gabe Jones’s presence wasn’t an accurate reflection of the military. During World War II, when the Sgt. Fury comic book is set, the military had been completely segregated. Lee and Kirby even had to fight to ensure their vision was printed on the page. “When the color separators made Gabe look white, Stan wrote memos until they got it right. He and Kirby were doing more than selling comics, they were making a statement” (71). Lee and Kirby didn’t just include an African American in the group and pretend that would be accepted by all; they acknowledged the prejudice such a character may have encountered in the military in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #6 (Mar. 1964).

Pierre Comtois argues that Lee decided to use his war comic as an educational tool. At the same time that headlines were “dominated by the national struggle over civil rights then being waged by men like Martin Luther King and punctuated by such landmark court decisions as Brown vs Board of Education,” Lee was using The X-Men to address prejudice metaphorically and Sgt. Fury to address it explicitly (68). In Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #6 (Mar. 1964), Dino Manelli is injured and is replaced by George Stonewall, who refuses to sleep in the same barrack with Jones, the African American member of the group. Fury calls out Stonewall for his bigotry. Stonewall rescues Izzy in the heat of battle, and then Izzy saves a wounded Stonewall through a blood transfusion. However, in the end Stonewall doesn’t completely overcome his prejudiced attitudes. Comtois explains:

Unlike other writers who would’ve had Stonewell either be killed off for his sins or get over all of his earlier prejudices, Lee allows the character’s feelings to remain ambiguous with Fury delivering the final lines: “The seeds of prejudice, which take a lifetime to grow, can’t be stamped out overnight . . . but if we keep trying . . . keep fighting . . . perhaps a day will come when ‘love thy brother’ will be more than just an expression we hear in church!” (68)

Besides tackling civil rights issues so clearly in stories such as this one, Lee and Kirby also introduced the first African American superhero in mainstream comic books when the Black Panther appeared in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966). The Black Panther later joined the Avengers and would be the first minority character to appear in an X-Men comic book when he was featured in a single panel of X-Men #45, in which the X-Men and the Avengers had a brief crossover story.3

In 1971 Stan Lee gave an interview with Rolling Stone that touched on the themes he tried to present in his work. He comes off sounding a little exasperated in the piece:

You know I’m very square and preachy sometimes, but the more I realize that people are to some degree affected by what we write, the more I’m aware of the influence we have, the more I worry about what I write. [. . .] I think the only message I have tried to get across is for Christsake don’t be bigoted. Don’t be intolerant. If you’re a radical, don’t think that all of the conservatives have horns. Just like if you’re a John Bircher, don’t think that every radical wants to blow up the nation and rape your daughter. (Green 34)

Despite the lack of diversity in the roster of the X-Men, you can clearly see an anti-prejudice message in the series.

The idea of mutants being hated and feared is stated clearly in The X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963). Professor Charles Xavier tells a new recruit to the X-Men that,

When I was young, normal people feared me, distrusted me! I realized the human race is not yet ready to accept those with extra powers! So I decided to build a haven . . . a school for X-Men! Here we stay, unsuspected by normal humans, as we learn to use our powers for the benefit of mankind . . . to help those who would distrust us if they knew of our existence! (4)

However, despite this very clear distinction between normal humans and mutants (Angel refers to humans as Homo sapiens in this issue, and in the following issue we will find that mutants are called Homo superior) and the statement that people feared and distrusted Xavier, evidence of prejudice toward mutants only appears sporadically.

In 1949 Robert Merton offered one of the first analyses of prejudice and discrimination. In “Discrimination and the American Creed,” Merton explains that “[p]rejudicial attitudes need not coincide with discriminatory behavior” and further outlines the interrelationship of prejudice and discrimination by identifying four types of individuals:

The unprejudiced nondiscriminator—the all-weather liberal

The unprejudiced discriminator—the fair-weather liberal

The prejudiced nondiscriminator—the fair-weather bigot

The prejudiced discriminator—the all-weather bigot

Using this schema, and based on Xavier’s description of humans’ attitudes toward mutants, readers would expect to encounter either prejudiced nondiscriminators or prejudiced discriminators in the X-Men comic. Surprisingly, in the first several issues the normal humans are entirely unprejudiced nondescriminators.

At the conclusion of the first issue, a high-ranking military officer says, “You call yourselves the X-Men! I will not ask you to reveal your true identities, but I promise that before this day is over, the name X-Men will be the most honored in my command!” (31). This authority figure is behaving as one of Merton’s all-weather liberals and plans to use his authority to ensure the X-Men are respected and honored. This is hardly the reaction the reader would expect after they have been warned that humans will not trust mutants. Oddly, this trend of characters describing prejudice but not encountering any discrimination continues for several more issues.

In the second issue, we see several unexpected displays from normal humans, especially considering how often we were warned that normal humans will fear mutants. After a threat appears in the form of the villainous mutant the Vanisher, the X-Men are called by Professor X to gather for battle. The X-Men had been out in New York City, and Angel and Marvel Girl must fly to meet the rest of the team. The narration explains that Angel stopped briefly to rest his wings when he “suffers a temporary setback”4 (34). The setback is in the form of a mob of adoring women who, apparently unable to control themselves, throw themselves at him to get autographs and kisses. This behavior is as far from discriminatory as it is possible to get. A mob has formed not for the purpose of lynching a mutant, but because of loving him. A couple pages later, Cyclops is also stopped by a pair of construction workers he has saved from danger. One wants to shake Cyclops’s hand. He exclaims, “Say! You’re Cyclops aren’t you? One of the X-Men! I never thought you jokers were for real! Put it there, pal!” The other thanks Cyclops and asks how his powers work (36).

The most discriminatory behavior comes from the Vanisher toward normal humans. After publicity about his crime wave, perpetrated by using his ability to teleport from one location to another, has spread, “Every denizen of the underworld who isn’t in jail flocks to the side of the seemingly invincible Vanisher” (43). The criminals beg for the Vanisher to let them serve him, and he replies that “[i]t is only fitting that homo superior should be served by the inferior homo sapiens. Therefore I shall allow you to become my lackeys,” which prompts jubilant cheering from the just-insulted crowd (43).

The X-Men #5 (May 1964) features a fascinating moment, one that delves into many of the issues surrounding the perception of African American athletes from the white fan’s perspective. This is the first instance in the series where we see a mutant facing the same type of prejudice an African American in the United States may have faced. In the story, Magneto hopes to have the X-Men recruit the Toad, a member of his recently formed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. To draw the X-Men’s attention, the Toad enters a track meet where he uses his mutant powers, leaping ability and greater agility, to perform feats no normal human could. His ploy works, and as the X-Men watch the track meet on television they conlude that he must be a mutant. However, the people in the crowd also react to the feats of the Toad, and rather than cheering the great performance they’ve just witnessed, they begin to yell and boo. In the end, the crowd is surrounding the Toad and threatening to attack him when the X-Men arrive to rescue him (114–115).

What is particularly interesting about this episode is the analysis of the crowd’s reaction provided by one of the X-Men: “They’re calling him ‘fake!’ They feel it must be a trick of some sort—they want to believe that—it makes them feel less inferior!” This argument reflects many interpretations of how white society has reacted to the rise and dominance of African American athletes in many professional sports.

When African Americans began to succeeed in sports, white commentators would often excuse a white athlete’s loss by explaining that African Americans were born with more innate talent. Thus, if a white athlete won, it was an example of David beating Goliath, whereas if an African American athlete won, it meant he was the benefit of a quirk of nature. One example of this concept is the persistent urban legend that African Americans have an extra muscle in their legs that allows them to run faster and jump higher than white athletes. A Google search of “Do African Americans have an extra muscle in their legs” returns tens of thousands of links to online forums and question-and-answer sites where this question has, it can be assumed in most cases, been posed seriously.

In “Consuming Blackness,” Daniel Rosenweig analyzes a commercial that aired in 1990 that featured a white catcher watching tape of Rickey Henderson, an African American baseball player who was on the verge of setting the career record for stealing bases, repeatedly stealing bases. The catcher is alone in a darkened room, watching film of Henderson stealing bases over and over, seemingly putting in extra hours after the rest of the team has completed practice. As Rosenweig notes, “The catcher’s dilemma links two standard white dystopic narratives: white men cannot compete physically with black men and whites must work harder to earn what they have” (113). Flying in the face of much of the history of the United States, white men are the underdog in this interpretation of the racial dynamic. The analysis continues:

[T]he commercial generates a series of racially coded dyads underscoring the essentialism of American sports discourse. Its central set of antitheses, the catcher and the base-stealing outfielder, organizes a barely submerged belief system regarding the respective qualities of the races. The white catcher is cerebral, defensive, disciplined, protecting, fundamentally sound, and perhaps not very athletic by nature. Conversely the black outfielder is physical, offensive, reckless, stealing, flashy, and graced with an innate natural athleticism. (114)

It is interesting that the first instance of the general public reacting negatively toward a mutant in an X-Men comic book occurs at a sporting event. And the script makes a point that the majority wants to believe there is some cause other than talent that would allow a member of a minority to surpass them. The superiority of the majority cannot be questioned. Although in this instance there is in fact a distinct advantage—superpowers—that the Toad possesses, the logic of the angry crowd is the same type of thinking that allows tales of extra muscles in African Americans to be perpetuated through decades in locker rooms and now on online forums.

In The X-Men #8 (Nov. 64), published more than a year after the X-Men first appeared,5 we see a crowd of normal humans reacting with fear and hatred to a mutant. The crowd that had threatened the Toad in The X-Men #5 (May 1964) had no direct knowledge he was a mutant. The dialogue makes it clear that at the track meet the group believes they are watching a fraud, not neccesarily a mutant. The incident in The X-Men #8 (Nov. 1964) begins when the Beast climbs the side of a building to save a young boy. The crowd below identifies him as a mutant and immediately begins to react as Merton’s “prejudiced discriminators.” Not only do the members of the crowd question the humanity of the Beast, pointing out that he ran up the building “like a gorilla,” but they begin to voice conspiracies about mutantkind. Mutants are “waiting to take over the world,” and the Beast “just saved that kid to throw us off guard . . . to make us think mutants aren’t dangerous!” And then a threat is uttered, as the panel focuses on the clenched fist of a man; a voice bubble reads, “Let’s get ’im, before he loses himself in the crowd.”

In the intervening issues—between #2, when a crowd of women adore the Angel, and #8, when a crowd threatens the Beast—there is no narrative explanation given for the change in attitudes toward mutants. Despite his code name, the Beast did not look terribly different from normal humans, only having larger hands and feet. By contrast, the Angel had wings sprouting from his back, thus marking him more clearly as a mutant. So why is there such a dramatic shift in tone?

It is entirely possible that the heightened debates and tensions in the country surounding the Civil Rights movement influenced Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was proposed in June 1963. This is approximately the time when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby may have worked on the first issue of X-Men, which had a cover date of September 1963. The public debate about prejudice and discrimination may have lead to the inclusion of Professor X’s statements in the first issue of the X-Men warning of potential discrimination. The Civil Rights Act was passed in July of 1964. In the time leading up to its passage, and at the time of its passage, news outlets covered horrific acts of discrimination and blatant hatred, such as a hotel manager pouring acid into a swimming pool because African Americans and whites were swimming in it together.

Although the idea of using prejudice as a central theme was present in the dialogue of X-Men comics from the first issue, the representations of prejudice did not come until over a year later. The public debate, the news coverage concerning discrimination, and the political movement of the times likely galvanized what was an idea in the creators’ minds into the central theme of the series. Or at least, it is the central theme while Lee is writing the series, as there is a distinct tonal shift when Roy Thomas comes on as writer. It may have taken a year to discover how to wed the ideas of mutants and prejudice together, but it was an idea Lee would continue to explore while writing the series and one that would become the primary focus of the series after the 1975 relaunch. This is not surprising, as other aspects of the series, such as the Beast’s scientific bent and pseudo-intellectual dialogue, were not introduced for a few issues either. The X-Men evolved as the series progressed in tone, characterization, and theme.

Lee and Kirby, who had Werner Roth finish the pencils on these issues, had one last tale with prejudice as the central theme before Kirby would move on to other projects. A three-part story would introduce one of the most iconic villains in X-Men comic books: the Sentinels. The Sentinels are giant robots built by Dr. Bolivar Trask with the purpose of protecting mankind from the threat of mutants. The Sentinels, however, will not simply wait for mutants to become threatening; they will actively hunt mutants. The first part of the story, “Among Us Stalk . . . The Sentinels!” was published in The X-Men #14 (Nov. 1965) and featured a televised debate between Professor Xavier and Dr. Trask. Professor Xavier argues that “[b]efore giving way to groundless fears, we must first consider—What is a mutant? He is not a monster! He is not neccesarily a menace! He is merely a person who was born with different power or ability than the average human!” (328). Pierre Comtois argues that in this issue “Lee has spelled out the series’ racist subtext, that the hatred and distrust of mutants is nothing but a thinly veiled metaphor for the real world’s prejudices” (107). But the reactions from the crowd do not reflect racist bigotry; they express prejudices against intellectual elites (“What would an egg-headed old stuffed-shirt like him know?”) and political ideologies (“I’ll bet he’s a Communist!” and “He looks more like one of them right-wingers to me!”), but not against mutants (107). The storyline itself features overt actions taken against mutants because they are born different from the majority of humanity, making the racial element a metaphorical theme.

The most interesting character arc in the Sentinels story belongs to Trask, the creator of the mutant-hunting robots. Trask begins the story as a clear bigot, claiming that mankind will be enslaved by mutants. His fear and hatred of mutants drove him to construct the Sentinels as “guardians of the human race” (329). To Trask’s surprise, the Sentinels do not obey his orders, instead revealing that because their decisions are logical and not influenced by human emotions and frailties, it is in the best interest of the humans to take orders from the Sentinels. In The X-Men #15 (Dec. 1965), the Sentinels tell Trask, “We can only guard the human race by becoming its master! Humans are too weak, too foolish to govern themselves. Henceforth, we shall rule!!” (351). Not only does Trask see his creations spin out of his control, he sees that the X-Men fight for themselves but are also willing to sacrifice themselves to protect a city of normal humans. In the following issue, just before sacrificing his own life to prevent an army of Sentinels from being created, Trask realizes that “[i]n my ignorance, in my fear, I created an evil far greater than the menace it was built to destroy!” (383). The finale reveals that the true evil was fear and ignorance, and that, just as significantly, fear and ignorance can be overcome. Lee and Kirby had toyed with reluctant villains before in the X-Men—Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver only served Magneto because he had previously saved their lives—but Trask is the first villain to fully reform in the series.

Following Stan Lee as writer was Roy Thomas. Although Lee and Kirby had launched many very successful superhero comics for Marvel, The X-Men was struggling for sales. Perhaps it was for this reason that Thomas introduced a different tone to the series. The first set of Thomas issues have the X-Men fighting past villains, such as the Blob. These issues had been plotted before he became the writer, with Thomas only adding dialogue. As Thomas explains of his first issue, The X-Men #20 (May 1966), “The book had already been plotted and even drawn by Werner Roth when I was given it to script. Stan didn’t take any plotting credit in the printed book. For all I know Werner may have plotted the book himself” (DeFalco 21). When Thomas began giving the series his own twists, he made the book more similar to the other titles Marvel was publishing. The X-Men ceased fighting evil mutants or threats such as the Sentinels and began fighting supervillains who had already appeared in other Marvel comic books. Eventually Thomas would return the X-Men to the themes that Lee and Kirby established. The end of Thomas’s run on the series includes some very overt condemnations of prejudice.

Although making the X-Men more like Marvel’s other titles may have been logical from a certain business perspective, it did take away some of the unique qualities of the series. Rather than being a series that was tackling a relevant issue, the title became a fight-of-the-month series. In X-Men #22 (July 1966), the X-Men fought a group of supervillains that included such uninspired characters as Unicorn, Plantman, the Scarecrow, Porcupine, and the Eel. In The X-Men #24 (Sept. 24), “The Plague of Locusts,” a conveniently named Dr. Hopper attacks the world with a plague of giant grasshoppers in what seems like the plot from a science fiction B movie from the 1950s. Soon the X-Men would fight villains more traditionally associated with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. At least some fans took note of the change in tone. Many Marvel comic books feature a letters column, in which letters from fans are published and the editor of the comic book responds to the questions or complaints or praises the fan voices. The letters column is obviously a very mediated forum—the editor carefully selects what letters to publish—but it was used as a tool for Marvel to create a sense of belonging amongst their fans. In the first letters column, appearing in The X-Men #5 (May 1964), Kenny Crowe wrote in saying, “I like the Homo Superior and Homo Sapiens bit in The X-Men. It tends to give the magazine something besides just ‘good guys vs. bad guys’” (129). But it was not uncommon to see letters that were critical of the creative direction of the series published in the column. For example, the letters page of The X-Men #29 (Feb. 1967) includes a letter by Ronald Ford which reads:

Awright! Enough is enough! It used to be that I liked the X-Men better than any of your titles. They were mutants, feared, not trusted, always on the side of humanity fighting evil mutants. So what happens? You turn these evil-mutant fighters into crummy super-villain combaters. You’ve turned an instant hit into a flop. So bring back evil mutants—singly or in a group—in the sensational tradition of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Their purpose is supposed to be fighting mutants such as these. Leave the super-villains to your other costumed do-gooders. C’Mon, give it some thought! (690)

Marvel’s lighthearted response to Ford’s letter was to point out that they had previously received many letters complaining about using Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants too often in their stories.

Though the use of mutants as a metaphor for minorities was lessened in this time, the diversity of the title actually increased. Of course, with a previously all-white cast, the likelihood of diversifying was pretty good. However, increasing the diversity of a comic book cast does not inherently include a sensitive portrayal of other cultures. The X-Men #25 (Oct. 1966) features the first significant characters to appear who are not white Americans. The main villain of the issue, El Tigre, and his two henchmen come from the fictional Central American nation of San Rico. The three villains contain many stereotypes of Latin American culture. One henchman dresses in a mariachi outfit, and the other dresses in a poncho. They wield bolos, a machete, and poisoned darts. In a comic book universe that frequently features heavy sci-fi elements for American protagonists, Central America has not yet discovered guns, much less lasers.

Thomas would also introduce two mutants who would later become part of a more international team of X-Men. The Banshee is an Irish mutant who first appears as a villain, later becomes a sometimes ally of the X-Men, and becomes a full-fledged member of the team in the 1975 relaunch. As X-Men was nearing the end of its initial run of original issues, Thomas also introduced the Japanese mutant, Sunfire, as a villain. Banshee and Sunfire never became members of the X-Men during this period, but Havok and Polaris, two white mutants, did join the team. Appearances of minority mutants increased, but the team remained composed of entirely white American members.

In addition to diversifying the characters appearing in the series, the back-up stories Marvel began publishing, which revealed the origins of the individual X-Men characters, had a much stronger anti-prejudice bent than the main stories did. Thomas was the writer for the majority of these back-up stories. One of the first instances of Cyclops using his powers in public is related. Cyclops uses his optic blasts to disintegrate a crate that was falling from a construction site and would have killed the crowd below. With a rather illogical reaction, the crowd immediately wants to attack Cyclops. One member of the crowd yells, “He must’a been some kind of mutant . . . a monster with deadly powers!” To which a man in a bow tie and bowler hat replies, “Then . . . he’s more dangerous than a falling crate . . . by far!” Irrational fear and hatred of mutants has returned to the title, at least in the back-up stories.

Following the series of back-up stories that established Cylops’s origin, Iceman was the next member of the X-Men to have his past revealed beginning in back-up stories in The X-Men #44 (May 1968). When an encounter with a bully ends with Iceman revealing his mutant powers, the small town quickly turns against him.

A couple issues later, with Gary Friedrich taking over as writer for this chapter, the imagery of the story takes an unmistakable turn toward the lynch mobs that took many African American lives. The townspeople attack the sheriff to prevent him from protecting Iceman and Cyclops and prepare to hang them both. Unlike some artifacts of American entertainment, such as the silent film Birth of a Nation, the lynch mob that takes justice into its own hands is clearly the villain of this piece.

X-Men #65 (Feb. 1970) tells the final chapter of an attempted alien invasion of Earth. Written by Dennis O’Neal with art by Neal Adams, the story takes a new and important angle in the themes of diversity and understanding. Up to this point, the X-Men comic books have largely dealt with the evils of hatred. The focus has been on condemning those who have prejudicial attitudes. This issue takes the important step of featuring racial minorities in positive roles. In all previous sixty-four issues of X-Men comic books to this point there had been only two panels that showed a black character. The Black Panther appeared in the final panel of The X-Men #45 (June 1968), and one African American policeman shows up in X-Men #57 (June 1969).6

In the storyline, Professor X uses his incredible telepathy to search the Earth, “probing, searching, questioning, demanding—seeking kindred spirits—men and women of good will!—Human beings who have in good measure the single trait he desperately needs—compassion! For it is the only thing that will best the enemy!” Professor Xavier intends to use compassion and love to repel the alien Z’Nox. As Xavier finds the souls of humanity who are good enough, a montage of images accompanies the narration. Included in the montage are, based on appearances and dress, an American child, an African woman, a Middle Eastern man, an American Indian man, another American child, an American couple, a Russian man and woman, and an African man. This shift from considering the evil that prejudiced men and women can do to the good that everyone can add to the world would be continued when Marvel began to print new stories in 1975.

Throughout all sixty-six issues of this run, the entire team is composed of white mutants. Despite the at times obvious metaphor of mutants being feared and hated in a manner similar to racial minorities in the United States, almost all of the minorities who appear are villains, often with stereotypes representing their ethnicities. The only new members of the team are white mutants, whereas all the minority mutants are the villains. This is one of the disconnects between the larger theme readers are told about and the actual content of the stories.

In this initial run of The X-Men, female characters are in the minority. By far the most prominent female is Jean Grey, who uses the code name Marvel Girl. Another mutant, Lorna Dane, who is code named Polaris, will guest star in a few issues and act as a member of the team in the final storyline of this period. Eventually, the Beast, Iceman, and Angel begin dating women who appear semiregularly in the strip, but only as romantic interests for the men, not as fully fleshed-out characters. In this period, the team only faces one female villain, the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff, who is a reluctant member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Jean Grey—Marvel Girl—is the only female team member for most of the first sixty-six-issue run of The X-Men. Marvel Girl’s contributions as a superhero are frequently minimized. While many of these moments can be dismissed, the cumulative effect of seeing Jean Grey treated as simply an object of affection, captured by the villains and in need of rescue, and being the sole member of the team to be assigned domestic duties diminishes her significance on the team. In her essay “Oppression,” Margaret Frye compares the moments of everyday life in which women, even unintentionally, are treated in some manner as subordinate to men to the wires of a birdcage. Each instance can be dismissed as insignificant, and if a fuss is made the objector may be labeled as overly sensitive to gender issues. But the frequency of these events has the same effect as the wires of a birdcage, which, when considered individually seem insignificant, but taken together create an impenetrable barrier. Women are trapped, or at least inhibited, by seemingly trivial attitudes and actions that come together to create a system of containment (177). Similarly, many of the moments in which Marvel Girl is submissive or the sole domestic presence in the series can be dismissed, and readers could instead point to the instances in which her powers help save the day. But the accumulation of these moments make Marvel Girl one of the weakest members of a team dominated by patriarchal and fraternal attitudes.

Initially, she is treated as an object of love for the male members of the team and has many domestic traits associated with the housewife ideal of the post–World War II America—the conception of the American female that would be criticized in Betty Friedan’s landmark work The Feminine Mystique. Despite being objectified by many of the men in her life, Marvel Girl dresses quite conservatively with a costume that almost completely covers her body, at least in the beginning. A costume change that involves an extremely mini green miniskirt in the latter portion of the run is much more revealing. Most of her inner thoughts, revealed through the comic book convention of thought balloons, concern a potential relationship with Cyclops. Despite her costume change to reflect the Cosmo-Girl ideal of beauty espoused in Cosmopolitan magazine, her personality largely remains that of a domestic girl hoping to find meaning in a romantic relationship with Cyclops.

Among the domestic duties Marvel Girl undertakes in this period are cook, seamstress, and nurse. None of the male members of the team are shown undertaking these kinds of roles. Despite instances where she is a very strong and independent woman, there are frequent moments that place her in a more subservient role than that of the male members of the team. This most likely unintended pattern of subordination undermines many of the positive attributes Marvel Girl displays, containing her in a subordinate position in comparison with the male members of a patriarchal team.

In the initial roster of X-Men, the code names generally are related to a specific aspect of the mutant power each member has. Cyclops wears a visor that makes him appear to have one eye, Angel has feathered wings, Iceman turns to ice, and the Beast has inhumanly large hands and feet. Marvel Girl’s code name is much more generic and could be applied to any character with superpowers. Indeed, Marvel comics also feature the adventures of Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, and Marvel Boy. It should also be noted that Marvel Girl’s code name does not identify her as woman, but uses the younger, adolescent gender marker girl. This is contrasted by Iceman, who is not Iceboy. Making the inconsistency even more pronounced is the fact that in the first issue Iceman is identified as “a couple years younger” than the rest of the team. Marvel Girl’s code name marks her as the youngest, most innocent, and perhaps weakest of the group, even though she is not in fact the youngest and her powers make her quite formidable (depending on the writer). In several of the adventures the X-Men have, though, she is shown to be the frailest member and to need the most care and protection.

Marvel Girl’s powers, at this point, consist of telekinesis, the ability to move objects with her mind. The strength of her powers seems to vary from issue to issue. In the first issue, Marvel Girl lifts the Beast in the air and later a large group of soldiers with apparent ease. But in later issues, she is warned not to use her powers to lift objects heavier than what she could lift using her muscles. She also develops a tendency to become lightheaded and at times faint when straining with her powers.

In the first issue of the series, Marvel Girl is introduced as a new student at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. While having a new character enter into an established setting is a classic narrative device to allow readers to be introduced to the world, Marvel Girl does not end up as the eyes into this new world of mutants. Rather, Marvel Girl is quickly objectified by the four male members of the team. The reader, to a certain degree, is directed to gaze at Marvel Girl, rather than look with shared wonder at the new world she is discovering.

As Marvel Girl is approaching the school in The X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963), Professor Xavier calmly notes that she is a “most attractive young lady” (15) while preparing the other students to meet her. The men on the team, with the exception of Iceman, crowd around a window to fawn over Marvel Girl as she approaches the school. Iceman insists the other men are acting like “wolves” by rubbernecking at a girl, though very quickly he develops a similar keen interest in girls.

Although the boys are clearly objectifying Jean Grey, she does not stand idly by acting as a piece of art for them to gaze upon. When Cyclops offers her a chair, explaining that he would “bring her the whole room of furniture if she asked,” Jean surprises Cyclops by using her telekinesis to pull the chair from his hands across the room, deliberately making the Beast, who had been fawning over her, leap out of the way of the chair (17). Additionally, when the Beast is very forward and leans in for a kiss, Jean lifts him in the air in retaliation, saying, “I’m not exactly helpless, as you can see” (18). She goes on to spin him until he’s dizzy before dropping him to the floor. This display does not stop the team from ogling Jean, however. After Angel wonders “Where did the new doll go?” they peak around a corner to see her just changed into her uniform. Iceman, who earlier protested his lack of interest in women, says, “Wowee! Looks like she was poured into that uniform!” (24).

This treatment from the other members of the team doesn’t stop with the first issue. In the second issue, Marvel Girl is called “fair damsel” (35), “gorgeous” (38), and “little lady” (44). The third issue has a particularly troubling panel in which Professor Xavier professes his own love for Marvel Girl in a thought balloon, thus alerting readers to his affections but not the other characters. Although his age has not been revealed at this point, it is clear that he is at the very least middle-aged, though his bald head might indicate an even older gentleman. All of the students at his school are teenagers, and though no official age is given for the characters, she cannot be older than eighteen at the time she first entered Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. After graduating from Xavier’s school, she enters college, so the school is the equivalent of a high school. Even though the revelation of Professor X’s love for Jean Grey was included in the third issue, it seems likely that Lee and Kirby decided that the idea of Professor Xavier pursuing Marvel Girl was too problematic, as it was not brought up again during their run and has hardly ever been addressed by other writers.

A full catalogue of all the ways in which Marvel Girl is objectified is not necessary, but a few examples from future issues will help illustrate the point that this continues during much of this run. In The X-Men #4 (Mar. 1964), in the heat of battle, Marvel Girl is called “little friend” (99) and “gorgeous” (100). In The X-Men #8 (Nov. 1964), Cyclops wishes he “could tell her the words I really want to say! How gorgeous her lips are . . . how silken her hair is . . . how I love her! But I dare not” (182). Within a few issues, Marvel Girl is as smitten with Cyclops as all the men are with her, though she never admits it to him directly in this period. Instead the reader is treated to many lovelorn thought balloons as each secretly pines for the other unrequitedly for the initial sixty-six-issue run of The X-Men. Even though most of the men on the team profess at least attraction to, if not outright love for, Marvel Girl, none mentions any aspect of her that they find attractive other than her looks. Not even her superpowers are a source of interest for them.

This may be because the manner in which her powers are employed is not terribly impressive early on. The X-Men have a training facility, called the Danger Room, where they hone their powers and practice fighting. While the rest of the team is often shown fighting one another or escaping death traps, Marvel Girl is more likely to spend her training time passing a wooden block through a series of hoops that resemble a children’s toy, as seen in The X-Men #3 (Jan. 1964), or opening a box and lifting out a cake as she does in The X-Men #4 (Mar. 1964), or threading yarn through a punch board, as shown in The X-Men #8 (Nov. 1964).

She repeatedly calls for help because she is too weak to continue on with the task at hand. In The X-Men #2 (Nov. 1963), Angel must carry her back to the mansion because she “feels faint” after using her powers (35). And during a training session, Marvel Girl is tasked with lifting a gigantic ball above her head, but quickly she begins to call out, “Growing tired . . . can’t hold the weight much longer . . . too large to hurl away . . . Wh—what can I do?” (44). Cyclops not only uses his optic blasts to send the ball to the other side of the room, but he also picks her up as he does so, marking the second time in the issue a man has carried her after she has exhausted herself using her powers. In the same issue, Marvel Girl is “tricked” by the Vanisher and is the only member of the team to be incapacitated in battle, when she is hit by sleeping gas and needs to be rescued by Iceman, and then supported by both Cyclops and the Beast. The X-Men #3 (Jan. 1964) has Marvel Girl crying out, “Cyclops!! Do something! It’s too big for me to handle!” as an elephant charges the team (72).

In the same issue, the entire team is captured, tied up, and blindfolded. Professor Xavier, who is at a remote location but through his psychic powers is aware of the X-Men’s predicament, must guide Marvel Girl in using her powers to free the team. Professor Xavier psychically communicates with Jean, telling her, “Marvel Girl, I am sending my thoughts to you! You are not as helpless as you think! Do exactly as I say” (76). Professor Xavier then must guide Marvel Girl through the most basic use of her powers to perform rather obvious tasks. He tells her, “You have the telekinetic power to mentally move an object. Use that power to remove your blindfold!” (77). Professor X then further guides her, explaining, “Look around you quickly! [. . .] I can ‘see’ what you see by probing your mind! Ahh! That is what we need!” Jean has seen a knife-thrower’s wagon, and Professor Xavier guides her in opening a window and summoning a knife; only then does he say, “Now the rest is up to you!” (77). All along, Marvel Girl had the power to free the team, but the implication is that she is not clever or intelligent enough to use her powers appropriately. The male patriarchal figure had to walk her step by step, and only when the knife is actually in her possession and all she must do is cut the ropes binding her is she trusted to be able to complete the task and then free the team.

Though she may have superpowers and wear the costume of the X-Men, Marvel Girl’s role on the team is often that of the damsel in distress, especially during the first years of publication. The X-Men #4 (Mar. 1964) sees the entire team threatened by a wall of fire, and even though she is not injured, Cyclops picks her up and carries her to safety while the rest of the team runs away on their own (100). In The X-Men #6 (July 1964), Marvel Girl collapses from the strain of trying to slow the the Beast’s fall, and Iceman must prevent the Beast from crushing her (138). In The X-Men #7 (Sept. 1964), Marvel Girl collapses from attempting to use her powers to lift a villain called the Blob and is reprimanded by Cyclops, “You shouldn’t have strained yourself against impossible odds like that! Leave him to me now!! Only my power beam can beat him!” (171). In the same issue when an explosion occurs near the team, all the members protect themselves, except Marvel Girl, who is shielded by Angel. Marvel Girl is captured in X-Men #10 (Mar. 1965), and the rest of the team must go to rescue her. Angel is also captured, but when he sees that Marvel Girl is “numb with fear” and unable to act, it is his quick thinking that allows them to escape. In the process of escaping, Angel must tell Marvel Girl exactly how to use her powers, because she is too incapacitated to think for herself (241). Though Marvel Girl’s powers are an asset, she frequently is too physically weak to use them or a man must direct her because she is too emotionally frail.

Interestingly, much as there was a sudden and somewhat unexplained change in how the minority metaphor was used in The X-Men, which came to a head with the Sentinel Trilogy, Marvel Girl’s role on the team sees a significant change in those same issues. In The X-Men #15 (Dec. 1965), Jean makes a notable jump in confidence and ability. She even directly tells the Beast that “I’m hardly a damsel in distress” as she levitates herself through the air (347). Her words ring true, at least in this adventure, as it is the Beast and Iceman who are captured and need to be rescued by the team. And instead of falling into traps, it is Marvel Girl who calls out “Boys! Look out!” when Cyclops and Angel fail to see an enemy (356). And, as Marvel Girl is straining with her powers as she has so often before, instead of fainting as the reader may expect her to, she calls out a triumphant “I did it!” as she mentally pushes a giant robot Sentinel to the ground (359). Marvel Girl’s newfound confidence carries into the next issue. Again, Marvel Girl is straining to topple a Sentinel when the team sees she is struggling, and one member calls out, “Hey! Jeanie needs help! Let’s move!” but before the men can arrive to save her, she succeeds and calls out “Too late! I downed him myself!” (378). And in the final escape Jean carries Angel to safety, reversing the role they’ve had so many times before. Even as they’re finally escaping from a high wall, Cyclops falls back on the established routine for the team and worries about who will carry Marvel Girl to safety before she tells him not to worry because she can levitate herself to the ground (386).

Why are there such drastic changes in the role of Marvel Girl in these issues? It is hard to say for certain, but much as the Civil Rights movement was drawing attention to many of the prejudices racial minorities faced, the feminist movement was highlighting many gender issues during the time period Lee and Kirby were producing these X-Men comic books. The year 1963 saw not only the first issue of The X-Men hit the stands, but also Betty Friedan’s bestseller The Feminine Mystique published. Friedan identified what she called a repressive image of women that had become common in society. Women, in post–World War II society, had been told to “seek fulfillment as wives and mothers” (57) and find contentment in cooking, sewing, raising children, and doing their husbands’ laundry. Experts informed women that “they could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity,” even as society set about creating narrow parameters for what defined femininity (58). Although domestic roles are not inherently repressive to women, society was dictating that domesticity was the only place where women could be happy. Many women can find happiness in domestic roles, but few other options were available at the time, and The Feminine Mystique and the feminist movement raised awareness of this problematic social expectation.

Lee and Kirby were creating a comic book at a time when many social changes were occurring, and those changes affected the stories being told. Jean Grey will evolve as a character and develop many different character traits, but originally, Marvel Girl had many traditional domestic roles that society expected of women. Lee and Kirby were products of the age The Feminine Mystique criticizes, when women were expected to find fulfillment and satisfaction only in their roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers.

Marvel Girl matches many of the roles of femininity that Friedan criticizes. First, her identity is closely linked to the advances of the male members of the team and her own secret longing for Cyclops. In postwar America, much of the idealized concept of womanhood was not as an individual, but as part of a heterosexual pair. This was not the only image of femininity promoted in American culture, but it was one of the most dominant. Conversely, men were allowed their own independent identity as well as the option of finding fulfillment as part of a heterosexual couple. Clearly the men on the team are also very concerned with romantic relationships, but there are other defining characteristics for each of them. While Cyclops is shown worrying about being the field leader of the X-Men and the larger issues facing mutants even as he longs for Jean Grey, the only insights reader gain from reading Marvel Girl’s thoughts are that she wishes Cyclops loved her. Her identity is linked exclusively to her romantic feelings, and she is shown as being incomplete without Cyclops’s affection.

Marvel Girl also adopts a domestic role on the team. The X-Men #6 (July 1964) begins with a full-page panel showing Professor X, Angel, Cyclops, the Beast, and Iceman seated around the dining room table, whereas Marvel Girl is sticking her head around a doorway in the upper left hand corner of the image. The men are all in the foreground, whereas Marvel Girl is in the background. Professor X says, “It was a delicious meal, Jean! Thank you for helping out on the cook’s day off!” to which Jean replies, “I was glad to do it Professor!” (131). From the image, it is unclear if Jean partook of any of the meal herself or simply waited quietly in the kitchen while the men ate.

After the X-Men battle the Juggernaut, who also happens to be Professor Xavier’s half-brother, in The X-Men #13 (Sept. 1965), all the men are injured, and Marvel Girl is shown caring for them while wearing a nurse’s uniform. Cyclops laments that they’ve never had so many injured before, to which Iceman replies that “With a nurse like Jean, it’s a pleasure!” When the Beast mentions that his mother would kiss him to aid his healing, Jean notes that she is not his mother, and Angel offers a wry “That’s for sure!” in reply (318).

A stronger Marvel Girl who appears in The X-Men #14 (Nov. 1965) and #15 (Dec. 1965) seems to offer some level of recognition that she had been more or less a token female member of a boy’s club up to that point. However, although Marvel Girl remained more confident of her powers from this point forward, many of the domestic markers that defined her role as the female on the team were not abandoned. For example, the last panel of The X-Men #18 (Mar. 1966) shows Jean wearing an apron and carrying a tray of food out to the table where all the men eagerly await the meal (433). And she is the damsel in distress again in The X-Men #19 (Apr. 1966), though a point is made when the team is escaping from a collapsing mine that Marvel Girl does not need to be told what to do and can easily keep up with the boys. And in The X-Men #35 (Aug. 1967), Cyclops orders Marvel Girl to stay behind because the threat they are facing is so dangerous, and he does not want Marvel Girl to be injured. So in some ways readers encounter a strange mix of the old damsel in distress and the new confident Marvel Girl.

Marvel Girl has acted as a cook and nurse, but she will adopt another role traditionally associated with housewives: seamstress. When the team has their uniforms redesigned, twice in this era, Marvel Girl designs and produces the outfits. Originally the team wears uniforms with the same blue and yellow color scheme and basic design, with the exception of Iceman, whose powers simply make him look like a snowman at first and like he is carved out of ice after artists change how he is drawn.

In The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, and the History of Comic Book Heroines, Mike Madrid criticizes the roles and costumes of early Marvel superheroines, such as Marvel Girl. Madrid argues that these female characters “take on traditional female roles within the group as mothers and handmaidens: sewing uniforms, making coffee, and doing secretarial work. All the while, they conceal their femininity beneath unisex costumes that match those of their male counterparts” (109). The roles the superheroines had in the early 1960s Marvel comic books reflect the domestic ideals of the 1950s, and the costumes are certainly representative of the conception of femininity before Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, helped subvert patriarchal norms by creating the “Cosmo Girl” beginning in 1965. Brown promoted this sexually liberated interpretation of womanhood on the magazine’s cover with images of models featuring “exposed cleavage, teased hair, heavy make-up, and flamboyant and suggestive costumes” (Oullette 123).

While a regular criticism of comic books has been the unrealistic and overly sexualized portrayal of women’s bodies in extremely revealing outfits, it is worth noting that Jean Grey is shown with normal proportions and modest clothing in these early issues. Although many artists draw what is often referred to as “eye candy” for male readers, Jack Kirby and Werner Roth generally draw Marvel Girl in a manner that is not outlandish for a sixteen- to eighteen-year-old girl. Her curves are realistic, her breasts are not exaggerated in size or shape, and her costume covers her from head to toe with the only skin being revealed around her mouth. This will not always be the case in costume design and artist portrayal of Jean Grey.

The first redesign of the team uniforms is very minor. Some of the patterns of blue and yellow are shifted minimally and red belts are added. One seemingly minor change in Marvel Girl’s costume is that her neckline is now V-shaped, rather than a circular shape that closely hugs her neck. This change resulted in something of a migratory length, with the V-neck of her costume sometimes being shown to plunge downward. For the first time, in The X-Men #33 (June 1967) with art by Werner Roth, the reader sees an uncovered cleavage line in an X-Men comic book. The art is angular and the actual line of cleavage shown makes little anatomical sense, so it is not a terribly cheesecake-style image, but it will be far from the last time cleavage is shown in The X-Men. As with many comic books, the breasts and butts of female characters will become very exaggerated and focused on in future issues, while the muscles of male characters will see their own exaggeration.

Possibly in response to numerous letters written in by fans asking for the characters to have more individual looks, Marvel gave the team a much more drastic set of costume changes in The X-Men #39 (Dec. 1967). Again, Jean Grey is responsible for designing and making the team’s new costumes. Jean explains that “[j]ust before the episode with the Juggernaut, I had been hard at work on a pet project of mine—with the Professor’s permission! Here’s a pack for each of you! In it, you’ll find—a new costume!” (16) Marvel Girl’s costume is a single piece of green fabric that has a V-neckline and ends in a very short miniskirt. In some panels, the top of the costume is drawn completely off the shoulders, essentially wrapping Marvel Girl’s torso and arms and nothing else. The men on the team remain fully covered by their costumes, though the Beast’s hands and feet are bare to allow him greater dexterity. Marvel Girl’s costume offers little protection in the field of battle.

Marvel Girl’s costume reflects the image promoted in some women’s magazines. Her outfit is more suggestive and less conservative. However, although it may reflect some aspects of the second wave of feminism, it may also serve as a more suggestive look to attract the predominantly male readers of comic books. Although her outfit has become more revealing and her bare legs are often drawn longer than is realistically possible, the rest of her anatomy is drawn with relative restraint.

In The X-Men #48 (Sept. 1968), Jean Grey will begin to wear even skimpier outfits in her new, short-term role as a fashion model. The team has temporarily disbanded and are assuming cover roles. Jean Grey becomes a swimsuit model, while Scott Summers becomes a radio technician. Jean takes a job that requires beauty but no brains, while Scott takes on a role that requires brains but looks are irrelevant. The comments from the men on the set of the photoshoot echo Marvel Girl’s teammates’ first comments about her looks from The X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963). The boss, a woman, in the scene says, “Carlo, you ordered four models for the beachwear job—and you’ve just used only the new one, Jean Grey! What’s so special about her?” And the photographer replies, “She’s fresh, boss lady! Like an easter bunny or an oven hot biscuit! And that’s the name of our game!” Another male in a suit adds, “He’s got a point there, Candy! That’s the tastiest package of goodies we’ve opened around here in months!” (1). While most of Jean is in profile in this scene, she is depicted as twisting in such a way that her swimsuit-clad breasts are clearly depicted for the reader.

However, though Marvel Girl’s costume becomes progressively more revealing and she takes a job as a swimsuit model, she is the lone member of the X-Men to go on to college when the team graduates from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Of course, her college career largely serves to introduce a potential new love interest and new threats to the team, whereas her studies are rarely shown. For example, her professor happens to be insane and launches a deadly plague of gigantic locusts against humanity, and a boy who has flirted with her has a brother who becomes a supervillain. And as the stories go on, Marvel Girl spends more time with the team and less time at college, and in the ends she simply seems to cease attending college, never finishing her studies.

In the back-up stories published in The X-Men, stories are told of how many of the team members discovered their powers and the reactions of their friends and families. In flashbacks in the main stories and in the back-up stories, we learn the origins of Professor X, Cyclops, the Beast, Angel, and Iceman. In The X-Men #57 (June 1959), there is a back-up feature on Marvel Girl, but it is unlike the previous back-up stories in that this one is not a narrative about Marvel Girl’s origins. In this back-up story, Marvel Girl directly addresses the reader and describes her powers. This is the first part of any X-Men comic written by a female writer. The back-up feature has an announcement from the editors:

Ye olde bullpen thought it’d be glitzy if, just for a change, this featurette on the mesmerizing Marvel Girl were written by a member of the supposedly weaker sex! So, make room for lovable Linda Fite, ex-Marvel staffer and X-Men fan supreme! (16)

Fite’s description of Marvel Girl follows the pattern of many previous displays of Marvel Girl’s powers, using them to complete domestic tasks.

Oddly, one of the first things Marvel Girl tells the reader is “I’m not the domestic type” (17). But this back-up feature explaining who Marvel Girl is to readers has Marvel Girl display her powers by telekinetically picking an apple, peeling it, baking an apple pie, and doing housework such as dusting. Additionally, in a page in which she is showing how her powers can help fight villains, she mentions that she can “never turn down a date on the pretext that I’m all tied up” as she demonstrates pulling a pair of scissors out of a drawer to cut a rope she is bound with. While showing how she can use her powers, Marvel Girl deflects a mace thrown at her, uses scissors to free herself when tied up, shows how she can unlock a door if “she ever finds herself prisoner,” and lifts herself over a wall. One example is defensive, while the rest involve escaping after capture; she does not show a single offensive use of her powers until near the end of the feature. In two of the final panels, she incapacitates a man with her thoughts, a type of telepathy she does not use often in the actual comics at this time. She explains that Professor X trained her to “will a person to be defeated without ever using physical force” (20).

Jean Grey will become a more complex character in future issues, but in these first sixty-six issues she more often fulfills stereotypical roles as a damsel in distress, a domestic presence in a boy’s club, a nurse, and a love interest rather than a fully fleshed-out character. Although her costume change reflects the emergence of the Cosmo-Girl ideal in society, she remains a conservative and domestic figure in her personality and role on the team.

Scarlet Witch and Polaris are the next most prominent female characters in this era. Scarlet Witch, who was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in The X-Men #4 (Mar. 1964), has several similarities with Marvel Girl. Much like Marvel Girl, the Scarlet Witch is the lone female on a team with a masculine name. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is led by Magneto and consists of Toad, Mastermind, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch. The Scarlet Witch also must deal with forward men making advances. In the first scene we see Scarlet Witch in, Mastermind tells her, “You are spunky, my little witch! I like that in a female! Someday I may even decide that you would be a worthy mate for Mastermind!” (85). Of course, the heroes are not much more reserved in their appraisals of Scarlet Witch. When Angel sees her in the course of battle, he thinks to himself, “Wow! What a dish!! If she’s an evil mutant I want an application” (96).

In another similarity with Marvel Girl, Scarlet Witch has an oddly generic name on a team whose other members have code names closely related with their powers. Magneto can control magnetism, Toad has slightly grotesque features and leaps in a toad-like manner, Quicksilver can move with super speed, and Mastermind can create illusions in other people’s minds. Scarlet Witch generally creates bad luck. She causes accidents in ways she can’t control. If she points at a person, water may spill on them or the wall behind them may collapse. Her powers are erratic and generally uncontrollable. Marvel Girl is often shown as dependent on Professor X or Cyclops, while Scarlet Witch is completely dependent on her brother, Quicksilver. Quicksilver always comes to her aid when she is in trouble, and she frequently calls out to him.

Polaris, who first appears in The X-Men #49 (Oct. 1968), is a very different character than Marvel Girl or Scarlet Witch. Though she is immediately seen as a potential love interest by Iceman, she is not simply waiting for a man to show interest in her as Marvel Girl does. In The X-Men #60 (Oct. 1969), Polaris has a conversation with Jean on the subject of a relationship with Iceman and says, “Bobby [Iceman] may be fun Jean, but I’m nobody’s girl!” and she later tells Iceman explicitly that she is nobody’s property.

Marvel Girl and Scarlet Witch, each created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, reflect the stereotypical domestic ideal of the 1950s and early 1960s. Their worth is determined by the men in their lives, their father figures, siblings, and love interests. Polaris, who was created by Arnold Drake, Don Heck, and Werner Roth in 1968, is a more liberated woman, refusing to be defined by her father, Magneto, or the romantic advances by Iceman. Her personality is indicative of changes in the feminist movement. Although Jean Grey has external shifts, her character remains the same.

Notes

1. Werner Roth initially used the pen name Jay Gavin when he began working for Marvel. It is assumed this is because he was still also employed at DC Comics and did not want to upset his bosses at DC by working directly for the competition (Ro 92). Roth had two sons named Jay and Gavin, the likely source of his pen name.

2. It is not always clear in the issues whether characters such as Havok are members of the team or guest stars. Where there is confusion, The Official Index to the Marvel Universe: The Uncanny X-Men is used. This official reference book from Marvel includes a synopsis and team roster for the first 514 issues of The X-Men comic book series.

3. The two-part story began in X-Men #44 and concluded in The Avengers #53. The Black Panther was featured much more prominently in The Avengers #53.

4. Comic books do not follow traditional formatting for the text in dialogue balloons and text boxes. Every letter is capitalized and different words are bolded, sometimes to add a semblance of voice-inflected emphasis to the dialogue. When quoting directly from comic books, I will use standard formatting for the ease of reading comprehension, though it does not exactly mirror the content of the page.

5. The X-Men has been published monthly and at times biweekly for most of the title’s existence, but until issue #18 it was published bimonthly. Due to legal contracts with distributors at the time, Marvel could only publish eight comic books per month, so various titles alternated by month in the publication schedule.

6. Neal Adams drew X-Men #57 (June 1969) with the African American cop and X-Men #65 (Feb. 1970) with African Americans shown among the most noble minds on Earth. He also drew Green Lantern #76 (Feb. 1970), which features a famous scene in which an African American approaches Green Lantern, who has many outer space adventures, and asks him, “I been readin’ about you . . . How you work for the blue skins . . . And how on a planet someplace you helped out the orange skins . . . And you done considerable for the purple skins! Only there’s skins you never bothered with—! The black skins! I want to know . . . How come?! Answer me that, Mr. Green Lantern!”



Chapter Three

Relaunching and Reimagining

Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975) to The Uncanny X-Men #166 (Feb. 1983)

Creators and General Story

Between 1970 and 1975, Marvel did not publish any new issues of The X-Men, but the characters did not completely disappear from the Marvel universe. The X-Men still guest-starred in other Marvel comics or appeared in an anthology titles such as Marvel Team-Up, which featured a rotating cast of Marvel characters. The X-Men comic book would be relaunched in 1975, first with a special issue, Giant-Size X-Men #1, and subsequently with a bimonthly regular series. As the series gained in popularity, and with the arrival of John Byrne as regular artist, the series shifted to a monthly schedule. Beginning in 1981, Dazzler, the first spin-off series, marked the beginnings of the X-Men as a franchise and not just a comic book series. In 1983 the New Mutants, a new monthly comic book following a new class of teenagers Xavier is training, began publication. The analysis in this chapter will consider the X-Men comic books published between May 1975 and February 1983. These include Giant-Size X-Men #1, The X-Men #94 through #113, and The Uncanny X-Men #114 through #166.

According to Roy Thomas, one of the initial ideas for the relaunched X-Men title was to have “a couple of the original members, like Cyclops, [. . .] go looking around the world gathering mutants from other countries” (DeFalco “Thomas” 33), but this idea did not come to fruition. Professor X and Cyclops do remain on the team while the rest of the original characters choose to go their own ways, but after Giant-Size X-Men #1 the team did not travel to foreign countries searching for mutants. After establishing a new roster in that first issue, the only other mutants sought out by the team in this period are two American women, Alison Blaire and Katherine Pryde. The team’s travel in this period is both intergalactic and international, with numerous adventures taking them to outer space, the moon, and other galaxies.

This period of X-Men comics includes the entirety of the Byrne-Claremont run on the The Uncanny X-Men, which is considered one of the classic pairings of creators in superhero comic books. The run of stories from the Phoenix Saga through the Days of Future Past is one of the best runs in any X-Men comic, perhaps in any ongoing comic book series. The website Comicbookresources.com conducted a poll of fans to determine the hundred best runs by any creators on a comic book series, and the Claremont-Byrne collaboration finished in second place behind Neil Gaiman’s run on the Sandman comic book series (Cronin, “Top 100”).

The Claremont-Byrne years are notable for a better and more nuanced use of the mutant metaphor to address social issues, a greater individualization of character voices, and more complex story structure. Claremont’s writing style has been called soap operatic because of its reliance on fluctuating romantic pairings, interpersonal tension between team members, and subplots. Often, there would be an A-story that would be the primary plot for several issues, with a new storyline being introduced in a B-story that received significantly fewer panels. As the A-story concludes, the previous B-story would be elevated to the new A-story for the next story arc. This pattern would continue for most of Claremont’s tenure as writer, though occasionally C- and even D-stories would be introduced and occasionally forgotten completely. Entire websites have been devoted to unresolved X-Men subplots, many of which were introduced during Claremont’s time writing the series.1

Claremont and his collaborators reused many villains from the earlier period of X-Men comics, including the Sentinels, Magneto, Juggernaut, and even Mesmero, but also created new foes who have become staples of the X-Men’s rogues’ gallery. The Shadow King, Black Tom Cassidy, the Shi’ar Empire (sometimes friend, sometimes foe), the Hellfire Club, and the Brood were all introduced in X-Men comics from this era. Additionally, Claremont often brought characters from other series he’d written into the X-Men series, and those characters have become more closely linked with the X-Men franchise. Arcade, Sabretooth, and Mystique, for example, were all created by Claremont and his collaborators in other series before becoming X-Men villains.

Giant-Size X-Men #1 was written by Len Wein and drawn by Dave Cockrum. Following this special issue, the new adventures of the team resumed in a bimonthly comic book with The X-Men #94 (Aug. 1975). Roy Thomas stepped down as editor in chief of Marvel, and Wein was promoted to the position, which limited the number of titles he could write. Chris Claremont, who was Len Wein’s assistant, was given the job of writing the title when Wein decided his schedule was too busy to continue with the series. Claremont would write the title for the next sixteen years, writing what are considered some of the most iconic X-Men stories. During this period, Claremont wrote every script, though Bill Mantlo was given credit for co-plotting one issue, and John Byrne is credited with co-plotting thirty-four issues during his time as artist. Artists who worked on the title in this period included Dave Cockrum, Bob Brown, John Byrne, Tony DeZuniga, Bob McCloud, Bill Sienkiewicz, Brent Anderson, and Paul Smith. Occasionally two artists worked on the same issues.

For the majority of the issues in this run, the team consists of Professor X, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine. Other characters who serve on the team for multiple issues include Banshee, Sunfire, Thunderbird, Marvel Girl (or Phoenix, after a change in code name), Havok, Polaris, Angel, and Sprite (Kitty Pryde, who will have several code names before settling on Shadowcat). The Beast and Iceman make occasional guest appearances, as do other heroes from the Marvel universe, but not as official members of the team.

Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), reflective of what Thomas identified as the original premise for the new series, begins with Professor X travelling the world to recruit mutants to help rescue the original team of X-Men. Professor X visits Germany, Canada, Kenya, Japan, Siberia, and an Indian reservation in Arizona to recruit the new X-Men. It is revealed that the original team, including Havok and Polaris, were all captured on an island, and only Cyclops escaped. Cyclops leads the new team and rescues the captured X-Men. Sunfire declines an offer to join the team, and the original X-Men, save Cyclops, all decide to retire as X-Men and go lead their own lives. Havok and Polaris also leave, so the new team that will be featured in the X-Men comics consists of Professor X, Cyclops, Storm, Banshee, Thunderbird, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine.

This team lineup is short-lived, however, as Thunderbird dies on their first mission while battling Count Nefaria. Moira MacTaggert, a former lover of Xavier’s, is introduced as the team’s doctor and housekeeper. The new team soon faces demons, an alien threat, and a new version of the mutant-hunting robots called the Sentinels. Marvel Girl rejoins the team during the battle with the Sentinels, which takes them to outer space. While returning to Earth, the damaged space shuttle must pass through a solar flare full of radiation. Knowing that nobody can survive the radiation from the hangar of the shuttle, Marvel Girl locks the rest of the team in a radiation-proof hold to pilot the shuttle herself. She hopes to use her telekinesis to shield herself from as much radiation as possible, but accepts that she will die saving the others. After the shuttle crashes into a bay, the team reaches shore and mourns Jean Grey, when she suddenly rises out of the water in a new costume proclaiming herself to be Phoenix. Phoenix then collapses, but will eventually make a full recovery.

While Jean recovers, Professor X is receiving psychic contact with an alien empress, Lilandra, who requests the X-Men’s help in defending her empire. The team also visits Ireland, where Banshee has inherited a castle (where, of course, leprechauns live). Banshee’s cousin, Black Tom Cassidy, and the Juggernaut have set a trap for the X-Men. After defeating the villains, the X-Men return home and are caught up in the intergalactic battle about which Lilandra contacted Professor X.

The X-Men are transported to another galaxy and battle the Imperial Guard, a group of superpowered aliens loyal to whoever is emperor of the Shi’ar. Eventually the X-Men restore Lilandra to her throne, and she is again the empress of the Shi’ar Empire. In this adventure, they meet the Starjammers, a group of rogue intergalactic pirates who are led by Corsair. In a soap-opera-style twist, Corsair is Cyclops’s father, who was kidnapped from Earth when Cyclops and Havok were small children. Corsair recognizes Cyclops, but does not reveal that he is his father. This outer space storyline was referred to as the Phoenix Saga, as Jean Grey played a key role, displaying previously unrevealed levels of power to save the universe.

After a few minor threats, the X-Men face Magneto (who since they last battled had been turned into an infant, then re-aged to a young adult). Subsequently the X-Men have an adventure in the Savage Land and save Japan from destruction. They also meet a Canadian superhero team called Alpha Flight who has a history with Wolverine. In a famous story, the X-Men are forced to kill a mutant named Proteus who is Moira MacTaggert’s son. His mutant powers to warp reality are out of control and have driven him insane.

When the X-Men return to New York, their computer, Cerebro, has detected two new mutants. Professor X, who has returned from outer space, splits the team into two to contact each mutant. Unbeknownst to the X-Men, a villainous group of mutants called the Hellfire Club is also interested in contacting the two new mutants. Mastermind, a former member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, is part of the Hellfire Club and manipulates Phoenix, giving her false visions of a past life in eighteenth-century America. In a storyline called the Dark Phoenix Saga, the X-Men battle the Hellfire Club, but Mastermind’s illusions unsettle Phoenix. This, coupled with her expanding powers, drives her insane. She joins the Hellfire Club briefly, as their Black Queen (the inner circle of the Hellfire Club all had titles based on chess pieces, the most powerful being the Black King and Queen and the White King and Queen).

Phoenix breaks free of Mastermind’s illusions and drives him mad by forcing his mind to comprehend the immensity of the universe. Though free of Mastermind’s illusions, Jean Grey is still unstable. As the X-Men flee, Phoenix’s dark side bursts forth, complete with a darker-themed costume. Dark Phoenix flies into outer space and travels to another galaxy, home of the Shi’ar Empire. There, hungered because of her travels, she consumes the sun of a solar system that had an inhabited planet, killing billions of the alien D’Bari. Dark Phoenix battles Shi’ar spaceships and then returns home. On Earth Jean Grey battles the Dark Phoenix Force, recognizing that when she gained her Phoenix powers, an alien entity entered her mind. Professor X helps Jean lock away the Phoenix Force in her subconscious, and Cyclops proposes to Jean, but the X-Men are immediately transported away by the Shi’ar. Lilandra orders Jean Grey to be executed for the crimes committed by the Dark Phoenix, and the X-Men battle to save her. In the end, Jean Grey, fearing she would someday lose control of herself again, sacrifices herself, ending the battle between the X-Men and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. Following these events, Cyclops takes a leave of absence from the X-Men. Angel rejoins the team, and Kitty Pryde, one of the two mutants the X-Men detected before battling the Hellfire Club, comes to the X-Men for training. She has the ability to become immaterial and pass through solid objects.

A storyline called Days of Future Past begins several decades in the future (2013) with an adult Kitty Pryde avoiding Sentinels in a dystopian future. The surviving members of the X-Men use psychic powers to send her adult mind back through time to her teenage body to help the X-Men prevent this future in which mutants are hunted down and either killed or put in concentration camps. In the present day, Kitty reveals that a newly formed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants will assassinate Senator Kelly, who is running for president on an anti-mutant platform. The X-Men save Senator Kelly, and Kitty Pryde’s adult mind returns to her time period.

In subsequent issues, Kitty Pryde single-handedly defeats a demon and eventually adopts the code name Sprite, Scott Summers is hired on as a hand on a boat captained by a woman named Lee Forrester, and the X-Men defeat Dr. Doom and Arcade, who had teamed up. Cyclops and Lee end up on a deserted island in the Bermuda Triangle, but discover that it is Magneto’s new base. Magneto threatens to destroy the world unless all nations recognize him as their leader, and the X-Men attack him at his new base. In the course of battle, Magneto nearly kills Sprite, but then realizes she is only a child (fourteen years old) and sees that his hatred of humanity has made him into a monster. He abandons his base, leaving behind the X-Men, whom he had nearly defeated.

Cyclops’s father returns to Earth to recruit the X-Men’s help. A terrorist faction has kidnapped Lilandra and left clues leading the Shi’ar Empire to suspect Earth was responsible. The Shi’ar Empire will shortly attack Earth if Lilandra is not recovered. Cyclops learns that Corsair is his father in this meeting. The X-Men return to outer space and battle the Shi’ar and a new alien species, the reptilian Brood (who bear more than a passing resemblance and modus operandi to the aliens in James Cameron’s Alien films). They rescue Lilandra, and peace is reestablished with the Shi’ar. The X-Men return to Earth, where Storm is bitten by Dracula, but eventually is freed from his powers. The final storyline of this era has the X-Men returning to outer space and battling the alien Brood. It is discovered that the Brood implanted several of the X-Men with eggs, which will kill the X-Men when hatched. In the end, the X-Men kill the eggs, but are warned that on Earth Professor X is also carrying an egg of a Brood queen.

New Members of the X-Men

Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler)

Created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, Nightcrawler is the first character in the X-Men who is obviously and unavoidably a mutant. In this new group of X-Men, the majority of characters look like normal humans when not using their powers. Nightcrawler can never look normal, at least not until he is provided with an “image inducer,” which allows him to project a hologram giving him the appearance of a normal human.

Although most mutants have their powers develop with the onset of puberty, Kurt Wagner was born with blue fur, yellow eyes, a tail, fangs, and only three fingers and two toes. His mutant powers, besides his appearance, are to teleport short distances and to disappear when in shadows.

Nightcrawler’s appearances is often described as demonic. Claremont explains that:

The original concept of [Nightcrawler] was that he was an angry, bitter, tormented, soul. You know, “I’m trapped in the body of a monster.” Well, Dave [Cockrum] and I both felt we’d seen that movie before. It’s exactly what a reader would expect seeing someone who is blue and furry, has two toes, three fingers, fangs and a tail. But what if he wasn’t? What if he turns out to be the most rational person on the team. What if, more than that, he turns out to be the most traditionally religious person on the team. Why isn’t he bothered by the way he looks? Because “I am a child of God, and if God made me look like this it is serving a purpose. But to complain about how I look is to say that God made a mistake. Does God make mistakes? I don’t think so because I don’t think I’m a wrong person. I’m a good person. I try to live my life according to the precepts of the Lord.” This is Nightcrawler’s way of looking at things and from that perspective, what’s the problem? And once you cross that line and say, “It’s not my problem. It’s how you choose to look at me, not how I am. This is who I am. Accept it or not, but it’s not my fault.” That gives you, as a writer, a tremendous amount of freedom to comment on how people perceive other people and [. . .] to have a little fun along the way. (Claremont interview)

As a mutant who cannot pass for a normal human, Nightcawler introduces a new dimension to the series. A mutant who is identified at sight allows the mutant metaphor to be more closely aligned with a racial metaphor.

However, despite Claremont’s description above, Nightcrawler doesn’t always make his appearance someone else’s issue. This being a comic book with many advanced sci-fi gadgets, Nightcrawler often uses a “holographic image inducer,” which allows him to have any appearance he wants. In the narrative universe the X-Men reside in, the existence of mutants, aliens, and superpowered beings is common knowledge. Being startled by Nightcrawler’s demonic appearance would be a natural reaction, but other monstrous-looking characters are on teams who are accepted and loved by the normal humans of the Marvel universe. For example, the Thing of the Fantastic Four has an orange, rock-like body, and Tigra of the Avengers has fur and cat-like features. The general public is willing to overlook the nonhuman appearance of other heroes in the Marvel Universe, so the use of the image inducer marks a lack of willingness by Nightcrawler to accept his own minority identity.

Nightcrawler’s German heritage is most clearly shown through his use of German words. When surprised or excited, Nightcrawler is likely to exclaim in his native tongue. This is a trait, under Claremont’s scripting, that most foreign characters on the X-Men share. For many of the characters, the use of their native tongue is the defining representation of their ethnicity. It should be noted that the use of foreign words is not always correct. For example, Nightcrawler often calls Kitty Pryde “liebchen,” a term of endearment or care in German, but it is sometimes printed “leibchen,” which means “undergarment” or “bodice.”

Sean Cassidy (Banshee)

Sean Cassidy was originally created as a villain by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth in The X-Men #28 (Jan. 68), but reformed in that period as well.2 He has a sonic scream, and he can ride the sound waves his scream produces so that he flies. He, like Sunfire and Wolverine, was a preexisting character brought in during the relaunch of the X-Men comic book. Banshee has many identifiably Irish characteristics. He has red hair, dresses in green, speaks with a thick brogue (depicted in comic books through expressions such as calling everyone “lad,” using “yer” and “ye” in lieu of “your” and “you,” or saying things such as “a foine broth of a boy”). Banshee inherits an Irish castle, which is infested with leprechauns, and his powers and name are derived from an Irish myth.

There is a difficult balance between recognizing a character’s ethnicity and embracing stereotypes. One problem for Banshee is that for much of this run his defining characteristics are entirely those Irish stereotypes. Initially there is not much more to the character other than a thick Irish accent. Banshee does become more interesting when, in the course of battle, his vocal chords are damaged and he is unable to use his mutant power for a time. His budding relationship with Moira MacTaggert and the family dynamics that develop when he learns he has a daughter add depth to a character who, for a time, was a caricature of Irish culture.

Ororo Munroe (Storm)

Ororo Munroe has become one of the most recognizable and iconic of the X-Men. She has appeared in most adaptations of the X-Men and appears in The Uncanny X-Men more than any character other than Wolverine. Importantly, she assumes the role of field leader for the X-Men when Cyclops departs, making her the first black team leader in Marvel comic books and one of the few female leaders of Marvel’s superhero teams.

Storm was created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum and first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1. She has the power to control weather and is first introduced being worshipped by a group of indigenous Kenyans as a goddess. Storm does not know she is a mutant and accepts her role as a goddess until Professor Xavier comes and explains to her a reality that replaces her traditional beliefs. This aspect of the story is uncomfortably close to classic imperialism, depicting the natives as an ignorant and naïve group with no conception of the modern world. Rather than the scientific explanation of Storm’s powers that exists in the narrative universe, the African tribe embraces a superstitious one. A white man must come in and teach Storm about the world and her place in it.

Storm undergoes many changes in her character, but in this period she mostly functions as an extremely confident team leader. In a series that often revolves around the romantic pairings of characters, she is not one of the cogs in the relationship wheel. Although the male members of the team do sometimes flirt with her, she rarely flirts back, and in this period she does not form any romantic relationships. Despite this, she is often sexualized for the reader, frequently appearing topless with only her hair or wind lines obscuring her nipples. Claremont argues that this is to honor her African heritage, which has different sets of modesty, but it also was likely used to entice adolescent male readers (Claremont interview).

Unlike Nightcrawler, Banshee, and Colossus, Storm’s dialogue is not written with a heavy accent. If anything, she speaks with a heightened formal English dialect, perhaps reflective of her status as a goddess when she was recruited into the X-Men.

Although Storm is the lone female character in the new members of the X-Men, she is far from the token presence Marvel Girl had in the original run of the series. Her character is not defined by romantically pining for any members of the team nor as being the object of affection for the men around her. Also, although the only black character on the team, she avoids many stereotypes that were common for black comic book characters at the time. Mike Madrid notes:

Ororo was codenamed Storm, one of the first heroines to bear a modern nam de gurre that didn’t use “girl,” “woman,” or “lady. [. . .] Tall, stately and elegant, with a mane of long white hair, angular exotic features, and blue eyes, Storm eschewed the blaxpoitation aesthetic of the times by foregoing hot pants and giant afros. (170)

Madrid goes on to argue that she was not overly sexualized, but her body-baring costume and penchant for disrobing do invite the reader to objectify her body and distract from the more progressive aspects of her character.

Shiro Yoshida (Sunfire)

Shiro Yoshida first appeared as a villain attacking the United States capitol in The X-Men #64 (Jan. 1970), written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Don Heck. He can fly and generate and control a hot flame-like plasma. Unlike many of the new characters introduced, Sunfire immediately has a personality beyond a sterotypical accent. Sunfire is shown to be prideful, angry toward the other members of the team, and fiercely loyal to his homeland of Japan. He helps the X-Men for one mission, but then quits the team.

When the X-Men find themselves in Japan on a later adventure, he refuses their help until the emperor orders him to accept their aid. His loyalty is strictly to his emperor and country, not to mutant-kind or Professor Xavier’s dream. Sunfire’s frequent references to his empire and his emperor can be read as references to the stereotypical fear of the “yellow peril” that was common in American popular culture in the early twentieth century and made more prevalent throughout World War II.

Piotr Rasputin (Colossus)

Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin, who often simply goes by Peter, has the power to turn his body into “organic steel,” which makes him almost impervious to harm and also grants him super strength. When Professor Xavier recruits Colossus in Giant-Size X-Men #1, written by Len Wein and drawn by Dave Cockrum, he is working on a Communist collective farm. Piotr is sometimes described in the comic books as a simple Russian farm boy.

Colossus and his family fit several Russian stereotypes that are commonly seen in popular culture. The workers on the farm are all dressed like poor peasants. Colossus, in his powers and personality, is a stoic, strong man. Russian men have often been portrayed as quiet, hard men, with the implication that they have been made so by the Russian winter. Other examples of this type of character include Ivan Drago from Rocky IV or, more recently, Mikhail from the television show Lost. Much like Nightcrawler, Colossus frequently makes exclamations in his native tongue that are not translated for American readers.

From the earliest X-Men issues there have been characters who function as contradictions. The Beast is a hulking physical specimen but the most verbose of the group, the founder of the team is in a wheelchair, and the field leader is plagued with self-doubt. This contradictory nature is continued in this run, where the mutant with the demon appearance is the most overtly religious character, and Colossus, the most brute-like and strongest of the characters, is the most sensitive. Colossus is the most introspective and thoughtful member of the team and is also an artist, traits that are not stereotypically associated with the “jock” appearance of Colossus’s character.

John Proudstar (Thunderbird)

John Proudstar was one of the first American Indians to be featured as a superhero in mainstream comic books. Created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum for Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), Proudstar is an Apache and depicted as an angry man, bitter not only because of the unjust treatment his people had received at the hands of colonizing Europeans and Americans, but also because he believes the current leadership of his tribe to be complacent and lazy. Thunderbird has super speed and strength and heightened senses. When readers are first introduced to the character, Thunderbird is hunting a bison by running alongside it as it gallops at full speed. He then grabs it by the horns and kills it by throwing it into the ground.

When approached by Professor X, Proudstar refers to him as “cripple” and “white-eyes” and says that it’s too bad “the white man” needs his help. He is easily manipulated by Professor X, who gets Proudstar to help him by simply saying, “I offer you a chance to help the world and you turn your back on me? Then perhaps what they say is true. Perhaps the Apache are all frightened selfish children” (Giant-Size X-Men #1 23).

Thunderbird’s costume includes a headband with feathers stuck in it, which was not commonly worn by Apaches. Feathered war bonnets were worn by the Sioux, Crow, Blackfeet, and other tribes from the Great Plains region. Thunderbird’s costume also has a large fringe around the armbands. Apache men would wear buckskin shirts with fringes on the shoulders, so this aspect of the costume does reflect Thunderbird’s tribal heritage, whereas the feathers seem to reflect a general stereotype about American Indian apparel. The bright red and blue colors are a nod to the primary colors favored in superhero costumes.

In X-Men # 94 (Aug. 1975), Thunderbird’s third appearance ever, the team is battling Count Nefaria when the villain escapes via a jet. Thunderbird leaps onto the jet as it takes off and clings to it as it flies away. Banshee, who can fly, travels alongside the plane as Thunderbird tears at the jet’s fuselage and engine. Banshee tells Thunderbird to jump off the plane so that he can carry him to safety, but Thunderbird continues his attack until the jet explodes, killing both Count Nefaria and himself.

Thunderbird is the first permanent death in the X-Men comic books series.3 Professor X “died” in the first period of X-Men comic books, but quickly returned. And whereas many other characters since have died, almost as many have been resurrected, but Thunderbird has remained deceased. Count Nefaria, however, was revealed only to have been injured in the explosion and has since returned as a recurring villain of Iron Man and the Avengers.

An upset fan wrote in to Marvel to complain about the short time Thunderbird was featured as a member of the X-Men and the fact that he was killed. Tom Runningmouth’s letter was published in The X-Men #97 (Feb. 1976). He comments on Thunderbird being “oppressed,” likely a reference to Cyclops yelling at Thunderbird and telling him to follow orders and be a team player. The letter reads:

After reading GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1 I was proud to see one of my people, an American Indian—America’s First Citizens—become a member. But to my dissatisfaction, in X-MEN #94 you started to oppress him. The story and art were good, but I was angry to see Thunderbird treated harshly. But the clincher was in X-MEN #95. You killed him. Why was he chosen? Why Thunderbird? (125)

The published response reads:

A serious question, Tom; and one which deserves a serious answer. [. . .] Why Thunderbird? Because he was the weakest potential character in the X-Men. He had no powers which weren’t duplicated by other members of the team—by Colossus, or Nightcrawler, or Wolverine—and, harsh as it sounds, duplicated better. But worst off all, his character—as a character—had nowhere to go. All he was, all he really ever could be, was a wise-cracking, younger, not-as-interesting copy of Hawkeye the Marksman in the Avengers [. . .] Proudstar deserved a better deal than that, and he could never get it, which is why he had to die. Because, when you think about it, it was better that he die with honor rather than spend the rest of his comic-book life trying to force himself into a person he wasn’t. We’re sorry Thunderbird had to die too, Tom, but we also think it was for the best. (125)

To be blunt, many parts of this explanation make little sense. Certainly the writer may have felt that Thunderbird was the weakest potential character, and Wein and Claremont’s opinions as writers were what led to the story of Thunderbird’s death. And his powers were similar to Colossus, who has super strength, and Wolverine, who has heightened senses. But there are no similarities with Nightcrawler’s powers, so it is odd that Nightcrawler was included in the list of characters Thunderbird too closely resembled. The comparison to Hawkeye, a member of the Avengers, another popular superhero team comic book published by Marvel, is odd. Hawkeye is a white expert archer who has no superpowers. He often fights with his teammates, which is similar to how Thunderbird is shown in his three appearances, but that is the extent of their similarities.

Also, to imply that there was nothing the writers could do other than kill the character is disingenuous at best. The writers and editors can do whatever they wish with the characters. There are myriad examples of characters undergoing radical personality changes, some with narrative impetus, some without. The writers were under no obligation to prevent Thunderbird from evolving as a character. Whatever the reason chosen to kill Thunderbird, be it to show the heightened stakes the team now operated under or because the Claremont wasn’t a fan of the character, the idea that “it was better” that a fictional character who had been published in only three comic books “die with honor rather than spend the rest of his comic-book life trying to force himself into a person he wasn’t” rings false.

Logan (Wolverine)

In terms of popularity in comic books and media adaptations, Wolverine has by far been the most successful character added to the X-Men’s roster. Wolverine first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #180 (Oct. 1980), which was written by Len Wein and drawn by Herb Trimpe, though John Romita Sr. is credited with designing the character’s costume. Wolverine has headlined several monthly comic books and many miniseries, and he appeared on several other teams in addition to the X-Men. Two feature films have been made about the character, and Wolverine has been the focus character of several cartoon series adaptations of the X-Men. He appears in more issues of The Uncanny X-Men than any other member of the team.

Wolverine, who simply uses the name Logan for his real identity, is a short, muscular Canadian mutant.4 He has enhanced senses and a healing factor that quickly heals any wounds. He also has three claws that can extend from each hand. Though not one of his mutant powers, Wolverine’s skeleton has been coated with a nearly indestructible fictional metal called adamantium.

Wolverine is something of an outsider on the team, often butting heads with the team leader and preferring to do battle his own way. He is, at this point, one of the only X-Men willing to kill in battle. Interestingly, Logan adopts many of the classic markers of the cowboy. When not in costume, he often wears a cowboy hat and western-themed bolos and belt buckles. In the other comic book titles in which Logan appears, he is often shown as a lonely figure riding into a sunset on a motorcycle, a modern version of the cowboy’s horse.

Even on the team of societal outsiders, Logan is an outsider. His adoption of the cowboy persona has little to do with his heritage, but may be one reason for his popularity. The cowboy is one of the most significant and enduring figures in American popular culture, and Wolverine is a superhero version of this classic figure. An outsider hero, he does the job others don’t want to do to protect society, even though he never truly fits into that society.

Kitty Pryde (Sprite/Ariel/Shadowcat)

Beginning with The Uncanny X-Men #139 (Nov. 1980), Kitty Pryde becomes an official member of the X-Men. She was introduced in The Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan. 1980) as a thirteen-year-old girl who is very intelligent. Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Kitty Pryde has the ability to “phase,” or pass through solid objects. She was much younger than the other members of the X-Men when she joined the team, but quickly developed a crush on Colossus, which would be reciprocated. Though his age is not made clear at the time, it is implied he is almost twenty.5 She will use several code names on the team, including Sprite and Ariel, before she settles on Shadowcat.

It is very clear that Claremont and Byrne wanted Pryde to be a strong female character in the mold of Ripley from Alien. In fact, one of her stories lifts very heavily from Alien. Kitty is alone in the X-Mansion when a demon attacks. With no training in fighting, Kitty lures the demon to the hangar where the X-Men’s jet is stored. She kills the demon by burning it with the afterburners of the jet. Byrne has said:

We wanted to do an homage to the movie Alien, and I don’t know whether I was demented or what in those days, but I honestly thought when I was drawing it that people wouldn’t instantly realize where we got it from. I thought I was being really clever, how I was making little twists and turns to change it. Only the ending where she used the Blackbird [jet] to blast the N’Garai to death was the same. And then Chris kind of wrote [the script] even more like the movie. By the time I actually read it, it was like, “Oh well, wait till the lawsuits come . . .” But they never did. (DeFalco “Byrne” 113)

Whatever else was lifted from Alien, the strong independent portrayal of a female lead certainly is reflected in Kitty Pryde.

Unlike many female characters in comic books who have hypersexualized and exaggerated body features, Pryde is drawn to resemble a very young teenage girl. Much like Marvel Girl in the 1960s, Pryde is drawn with a very modest costume and with a body type that does not accentuate her breasts or butt. At least one reader took note of this portrayal of Kitty Pryde. Julie St. Germaine’s letter was published in The X-Men #136 (Aug. 1980) and read, in part:

I’m even more thrilled about Kitty Pryde, however. She’s young, unsure of how to handle her power, and most amazing of all: she’s not pretty! I like that skinny, flat-chested kid. I like her suburban corniness and her resourcefulness [. . .] One request: please don’t call her “Cute Kitty Pryde” again—her lack of beauty is good; don’t ruin it by giving her the cutes.

Kitty Pryde is one of the few female characters that has, in almost every iteration, worn a costume that was not overtly revealing of her body and consistently been drawn without an exaggerated body type.

Close Reading

Although the first period of X-Men comic books generally lacked racial or ethnic minorities, this period is much more inclusive of nonwhite characters. The portrayal of these characters in one of the most popular comic book series is significant—and not simply for the sake of inclusion. Michael Omi and Howard Winant explain that “[t]he power of the media lies not only in their ability to reflect the dominant social ideology, but in their capacity to shape that ideology in the first place” (16). A comic book series likely to be read by adolescents who are still forming their understanding of social structures has the opportunity to shift thinking away from old, damaging stereotypes. Conversely, entertainment can certainly reinforce and strengthen stereotypes if those tropes are presented uncritically and unquestioningly. Omi and Winant identify the need of storytellers to convey as much information about characters as quickly as possible as one reason stereotypes are so commonly found in narrative entertainment. Caricatures of minority characters “serve as shorthand” for storytellers, and too often these stereotypes are used lazily. The relaunch and reimagine period of X-Men comic books uses some stereotypes as shorthand, but also challenges others. It’s something of a mixed bag in terms of how it uses minority characters.

Despite the fact that some stereotypes are embraced, it is clear that the overall theme of this period is a condemnation of prejudice. The first page of the Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) opens with an establishing shot of Wietzendorf, Germany, then shows a mob with torches, with one villager calling out, “This way, men! The monster went this way!” The next panel reveals Nightcrawler, a creature with blue skin, yellow large eyes with no pupils, three large fingers and two toes, a pointed tail, and pointy ears. His thoughts condemn the villagers actions: “Monster is it? The fools! It is they who are monsters—with their mindless prejudice!” (12). The townspeople risk burning their entire city to capture Nightcrawler.When they do, they hold him down, prepared to drive a stake into his heart, but suddenly everyone except Nightcrawler becomes frozen in place. Professor X has used his psychic powers to stop their minds. Professor X invites Nightcrawler, whose name is Kurt Wagner, to come to his school. Kurt asks, “Can you help me to be normal?” to which Professor X replies, “After tonight’s misfortune, would you truly want to be?” Kurt’s reply signals an early acceptance of his mutant nature: “Perhaps not. I want only to be a whole Kurt Wagner! If you can make me that, teacher . . . I will go with you” (14).

The gathering of a new team of X-Men ushered in a new era of much greater diversity. But how was this diversity used in the comic book? Chris Claremont, who has had the most significant role in producing the X-Men adventures for the longest tenure of any creator, explains:

The intent when Roy Thomas and Len Wein and Dave Cockrum got together in ’74 to relaunch the series [. . . was to] restructure things with a new group of characters and a more varied and international team. [A team that was] broader in terms of visual presentation, in terms of racial presentation, in terms of gender presentation. It would not be five upper-middle class white kids. It would be a mix of ethnographic and regional characters from around the world. (Claremont interview)

Nonetheless, simply having a diverse cast, though a welcome change from the status quo of superhero comics, did not ensure progressive portrayals of minorities. And, despite the diversity of the initial group, that diversity is short-lived.

Giant-Size X-Men #1 features a Japanese hero and an American Indian hero, but both are gone within two issues of the bimonthly comic book. Sunfire refuses to join the team, and Thunderbird is killed during the team’s next adventure. This leaves a team that, with the exception of Storm, looks just as white as the original X-Men. Even Nightcrawler, who looks like a demon, uses his image inducer to appear as a white male (most often as Errol Flynn).

Similarly, Chris Claremont explains that “[y]ou take each character as they are, you shuffle them together, you see what works for them [. . .] and also gives the other characters to react to, to relate to, to deal with. At that point you’re off and running to building a story or building and resolving a conflict” (Claremont interview).

But when exploring a character’s background, it can be difficult to balance honoring a cultural tradition and using stereotypes as a shorthand explanation of the character’s motivations. Claremont also addressed this concern, expressing his belief that “[i]deally you avoid stereotyping the character by dealing with each person as an individual. What makes them who they are” (Claremont interview). Some of that may be elements of their culture that some may interpret as stereotypical, but there must be more to the character than simply those elements.

One interesting aspect of the group dynamic in the X-Men is that initially the new members of the team do not get along, and much of their problems have to do with their own prejudices. Though they seem united against the prejudice they experience from normal humans, they use pejorative terms based on nationalities. Thunderbird, an Apache Indian, calls Professor X “white eyes” when he first meets him, and when Professor X asks for help he replies, “The white man needs me? That’s tough! I owe him nothing but the grief he’s given my people!” (23). Cyclops refers to Thunderbird as “Geronimo” (30), Thunderbird calls Sunfire “the Jap!” (30), Storm “the Chick,” and Colossus “the Ruskie” (32). Banshee is referred to as “Irish” by Wolverine (35) and as “Shamrock” by Thunderbird (55).

Claremont wanted to include flawed individuals who find a way to struggle through life in an adopted family. These early prejudices are part of the rough edges the characters had but that are softened through their bonding. Claremont has said:

[A]t its core [The X-Men is] a book about outcasts, people who are so screwed over in their lives that they have no family but the one that they built for themselves. It’s a quest for family. It’s a quest for a place to belong, a place where you are welcome among people who believe deep down inside that they would never be welcomed anywhere else. To me, The X-Men works best when it says to the reader “You are welcome here. We are your guides. You’re an outcast, we’re outcasts—Let’s bond!” (Claremont interview)

Because of this perspective, the prejudice the mutants face in the Marvel universe becomes much more prevalent under Claremont’s writing than what the readers previously saw. The X-Men develop an us-versus-them mentality that is forged through constant evidence that they (normal humans) want nothing to do with us (mutants).

For example, the X-Men #94 (Aug. 1975), the first of the new stories in the regular X-Men title following years of reprints, has a storyline that is an homage to The X-Men #1 (Sep. 1963). The team must protect a military base that has been taken over by a villain bent on world domination. In The X-Men #1, the villain is Magneto; in X-Men #93, it is Count Nefaria and his Ani-men. One notable difference between the two stories, however, highlights greater prevalence of anti-mutant prejudice that will be a hallmark of Claremont’s tenure as writer. In the 1963 story, the military leader thanks the X-Men for their service and promises that “[b]efore this day is over the X-Men will be the most honored name in my command!” (31). In X-Men #94 (Aug. 1975), the military commander hopefully asks if the Avengers have arrived when the X-Men’s jet flies to the army base. When Cyclops identifies the team as the X-Men, the general responds, “Figures, I mighta known you muties’d show up with Nefaria around” (62). Whereas the earlier issue featured a military leader who was an unprejudiced nondiscriminator, to use Robert Merton’s system, in this issue the military is led by a prejudiced nondiscriminatory. Soon the X-Men will regularly encounter prejudiced discriminators.

The two main female characters on the team during this time are Jean Grey, who changes her code name to Phoenix in The X-Men #101 (Oct. 1976), and Storm, who appears in every issue during this period. Other significant female characters include Kitty Pryde and Mystique.

One notable aspect of this run is that Storm serves as the team leader for a significant period, the first female and the first African American to lead the a superhero team. While Wasp would be the first female to lead the Marvel superhero team the Avengers beginning in The Avengers #217 (Mar. 1982) and Invisible Woman would lead the Fantastic Four beginning in Fantastic Four #384 (Jan. 1994), Storm predates them as a female team leader, becoming the X-Men’s leader in The Uncanny X-Men #131 (Nov. 1980). Storm is also the first black superheroine in mainstream comic books. As the leader of the X-Men, she is also the first black leader of a mainstream superhero team. Though a very strong character, Storm does have a weakness, her own personal kryptonite. Storm suffers from debilitating claustrophobia, which does cause her occasionally to pass out or become ineffective for the team.

Although Storm’s role as leader is important, this period does see an increase in the amount of skin displayed by comic book characters, both male and female. Storm’s costume is much more revealing that anything worn by Marvel Girl in the 1960s. Concerning Storm’s penchant for being depicted without clothes, though always with at least minimal covering by hair or wind gusts in the foreground, Claremont explained:

You have this strikingly beautiful woman, but she’s from a totally different cultural and ethnic background thrown into the heart of upper and middle class suburbia. And to use an extreme example, [her thinking] “Why do I have to wear a bathing suit?” and then everyone reacting to her. Part of her is thinking “This is really silly” and then part of her is thinking, “Well, I’m in Rome I must do as the Romans do, no matter how absurd it is.” Again, you think about why one wears clothes, the standard base rationales are as a defense against the weather, the environment. As a reflection of perceived societal rules and modesty. As an expression of character. In Storm’s case the environmental part of the equation isn’t there. It doesn’t matter whether it’s winter or summer, being in control of the weather means she can define what her local environment is. She’s comfortable whether it’s 105 degrees or 105 below zero. Therefore, that’s out of the equation so it’s then a matter of a moral choice or a fashion choice, and then what? Because you’re talking Northeast Africa versus suburban New York. How does that fit together? How does she feel wearing traditional Euro-American attire as opposed to traditional African attire. Again it’s something to play with, it’s a direction to go.

Claremont’s explanation offers a reason for Storm to choose to disrobe at times, but the frequency with which it is shown to readers seems to reflect more than just honoring her cultural norms.

Storm’s role on the team is unlike many other females in superhero team comics. As noted previously, she acts as team leader following Cyclops’s departure, giving orders to men, which was quite atypical. Whereas Cyclops struggles to control Wolverine, Storm does so easily. Madrid notes that “[i]n an early adventure, she stops [Wolverine] from attacking team leader Cyclops with a touch of her hand and a simple command” (170). Storm tells Wolverine, “You will do nothing, Wolverine . . . not now. Not ever . . . or you will answer to me.” Additionally, she is not a figure in a romantic love triangle, which was a common feature in the soap opera-esque comic book storylines. Eventually, in a story published in 2006, Storm marries Black Panther, who was introduced in 1966 as the first black superhero in mainstream comic books.

Jean Grey, in a prolonged storyline, undergoes a character transformation. Grey becomes more assertive in her personal life, more powerful in her mutant abilities, and changes her code name from Marvel Girl to Phoenix. Eventually, she turns evil, takes the name Dark Phoenix, and becomes a threat to the entire galaxy. This story reveals that her turn toward evil is a result of her body being bonded with an intergalactic entity referred to as the Phoenix Force. Several years later, a retcon reveals that it was not Jean Grey who turned evil and becomes a galactic threat, but simply the Phoenix Force impersonating her form. However, it is clear that while creating this story Claremont, Byrne, and the editors intended it to be Jean Grey who becomes evil and not an impersonation of her by an interstellar force. For this analysis, it will be treated as though Jean Grey is the featured character in the storyline.

A meta-reference in the comic books acknowledges a significant change from the previous status quo. Recognizing that Jean Grey and Scott Summers had openly pined for each other for the duration of the original run on the series but had never acted on those feelings, the series gives a wink to the readers. X-Men #98 (Apr. 1976) has a two-panel appearance by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Kirby and Lee walk past Scott Summers and Jean Grey, who have just shared their first kiss, and Kirby remarks, “Hey Stan, you know who they were? I tell ya, they never used to do that when we had the book.” Lee responds, “Ah Jack, you know these young kids—they got no respect” (129). Notably, this kiss was instigated by Jean Grey, who told Scott he needed to stop worrying about everything and just kiss her. She is a far cry from the reserved character who longed for Scott from a distance.

The changes in Jean Grey’s personality are on several fronts. First, she was originally in constant need of being rescued. Often, she was shown not knowing how to use her powers and needing the guidance of a male leader to be of use to the team. Early on in Claremont’s run, this narrative trend is boldly overturned. In The Uncanny X-Men #100, Marvel Girl takes control of a deadly situation and saves the entire team. She not only acts independently in doing so, but she also knocks out Cyclops, the team leader, who would have prevented her from risking her own life. The X-Men are aboard a shuttle heading back to Earth, and she orders the rest of the team and the pilot into a shielded cargo hold. She stays in the cockpit, which has had its shielding damaged, and uses her powers to read the pilot’s mind to know how to guide the shuttle home safely even as she uses her telekinesis to block as many radioactive particles as she can. To rescue the team, she acts boldly and independently of the orders Cyclops had given her.

Even as her personality is becoming bolder, her powers seem to be increasing. In the following issue, she rises from the wreckage of the shuttle and claims now to be Phoenix instead of Marvel Girl, and much of her later power increase is linked to the Phoenix Force, a cosmic entity that bonded with her during the shuttle crash. But even before being joined to the Phoenix Force, she had been showing more strength in her telekinesis and more psychic ability. Not only does she save the entire team in The X-Men #100, but she also is responsible for saving the entire universe. Phoenix uses her new powers to save the entire universe inside of a structure called the M’Kraan crystal, which, if it had collapsed, would have started a tidal wave of destruction ending all creation.

At the beginning of a storyline called “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” which spans eight issues, Jean Grey also becomes much more forward with Scott Summers, instigating what is implied to be their first sexual encounter. This act occurs early on in Jean Grey’s descent toward evil, implying that Jean Grey’s sexual awakening is tied to her turn toward evil. The sexualization of the character continues when, due to the manipulations of Mastermind, Jean Grey becomes a member of the Hellfire Club and dons a fetishistic outfit for several issues. Under the manipulations of Mastermind, Jean Grey becomes the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. The Hellfire Club rulers adopt titles based on chess pieces, and the White Queen and the Black Queen are the most powerful women in the organization. Whereas the men wear anachronistic Victorian clothing, with ruffled shirts and cravats, the women dress in, essentially, lingerie.

As she becomes sexually aggressive in her behavior and her dress, she becomes more evil. When joining the Hellfire Club, Jean takes on the name the Black Queen. However, when she sees through Mastermind’s deceptions, she drives him insane and leaves the Hellfire Club. Wearing a darker version of her Phoenix costume, with maroon in place of the green, she calls herself the Dark Phoenix.

The peak of her villainy comes when she consumes a star at the center of a solar system that has an inhabited planet. The language in the narration implies a sexual pleasure being derived from the destruction of the star:

And in the center of the super-nova she created, Dark Phoenix thrills to the absolute power that is hers. She is in ecstasy. Yet she knows that this is only the beginning—that what she feels now is nothing compared to what she experienced within the great M’Kraan Crystal. She craves that ultimate sensation. (The Uncanny X-Men #135)

The M’Kraan Crystal references an earlier adventure, the first time Phoenix used the full extent of her new powers. Thus, a search for the sensations from her first experience with her powers has driven Phoenix mad and now threatens all life. This narration, combined with the earlier sexual awakening of Jean Grey coinciding with her descent into evil, implies that her sexual yearning is driving her to commit heinous acts. Jean Grey has gone from the conservative Marvel Girl, to the sexually aggressive Phoenix, to the villainous and cosmically lustful Dark Phoenix. In The Uncanny X-Men #136, Jean Grey confesses to Scott Summers that “I hunger, Scott . . . for a joy, a rapture, beyond all comprehension. That is part of me, too. It . . . consumes me.”

Mike Madrid explains this transformation as a condemnation of the sexual revolution that occurred in America. He writes:

The sexual revolution of the 70’s cast a new light on women’s intimate needs, and specifically, the quest for the orgasm. 1976’s Hite Report on Female Sexuality found that only 30% of women had experienced orgasm. Every month Cosmopolitan magazine, with its cleavage baring cover models, promised new secrets to achieving the elusive orgasm. [. . .] Dark Phoenix’s struggles were a parable for the late 70’s, where the hedonistic search for pleasure and gratification led to addiction and ultimately death. The glamour of Studio 54 and the wild delights of the nightlife were dimmed in the early 80’s, when the first reports of the “gay cancer” that would become AIDS began to surface. Many felt that it was atonement for the bacchanalia of the 70’s. Phoenix too had to atone for the genocide she had committed in her quest for pleasure. (174–176)

Dark Phoenix’s punishment is her death. The Shi’ar Empire, who the X-Men had aided in previous adventures, come to Earth to make Dark Phoenix stand trial. In the subsequent battle between the Shi’ar Imperial Guard and the X-Men, Jean Grey, who has taken control of the Phoenix Force that corrupted her, sacrifices herself rather than see her fellow X-Men fall in battle. Her death ends the battle, and in the aftermath a grieving Cyclops quits the X-Men.

A retcon by later writers changes the character of Phoenix and Dark Phoenix from Jean Grey to a cosmic force that took on her form, but to the reader at the time the Dark Phoenix was a morality tale involving one of Marvel’s first superheroine’s fall from grace. The “good girl” readers knew from the earliest issues of the X-Men that Jean experienced a sexual awakening with her boyfriend, Cyclops. As a result, she falls in with a new group of friends, the Hellfire Club, who introduce her to further evils. Though she tries to reject this group of friends and return to her earlier life, the new carnal desires are irrepressible and drive her to hurt those closest to her in her quest to satisfy her urges. She doesn’t care who she hurts, in this case reaching the extreme of committing the genocide of an entire race of aliens in pursuit of satisfying her cravings. In the end, the only way to correct all the problems she has wrought is through self-sacrifice, in this case atoning by giving her own life in defense of her original friends. Claremont and Byrne have said that this storyline was originally intended to introduce a progressive cosmic-powered superheroine, but the moral of the story was much more conservative.

To a certain degree, the change was mandated by the editor of Marvel Comics at the time, Jim Shooter. Shooter insisted that Phoenix needed to die as a punishment for the genocide she committed, whereas Claremont and Byrne simply wanted her to be depowered. But depowering Jean Grey would have still carried a similarly conservative message, with implications that sexual awakening in women has dire consequences unless removed. Cyclops, who was obviously a participant in Phoenix’s sexual experience, has no such repercussions. In fact, he will go on to be romantically attached to several women before Jean Grey returns.

In a drastic change from the first period, several strong female characters are among the villains the X-Men face. A new version of the villainous team the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants appears during this run, but this time the team is led by a female, Mystique. Mystique has the ability to change her form into any appearance she desires, but her natural state is with blue skin, yellow eyes, and red hair. Another group the X-Men battles is the Hellfire Club, which has a group of four in charge of the organization. Included in this group is Emma Frost, the White Queen, and, albeit briefly, Jean Grey as the Black Queen. Another female leader in this period is Callisto, who serves as leader of the Morlocks, a group of mutants whose deformities have caused them to live in the New York sewers to avoid persecution. With Storm leading the X-Men, Mystique leading the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the White Queen as one of the leaders of the Hellfire Club, and Callisto leading the Morlocks, the number of women in roles as leaders is remarkable in this period.

In all, this period is at times progressive and at times problematic in the treatment of minority and female characters. Storm is a leader on the team, but often sexualized in how she is portrayed visually. Jean increases in power, but her sexual appetites are linked to her turn toward genocide. The X-Men are more diverse, but still a team largely comprised of white males. The team is certainly more diverse than the previous period, but the portrayal of the minority and female characters is not without stereotypical problems.

Notes

1. A Google search of “unresolved X-Men subplots” conducted on August 2, 2013, provided nearly 1 million results.

2. His cooperation with Factor 3 was revealed to be a result of a threat on his life from that group. When that threat was removed, he helped the X-Men.

3. To this point Thunderbird has not been resurrected (though his corpse was animated for one storyline). It is always possible in the continuing saga of X-Men comic books that a future writer will resurrect Thunderbird. There was a longtime maxim at Marvel Comics that only Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben and Captain America’s World War II sidekick Bucky stay dead. But then in a 2005 storyline Bucky was brought back from the dead, so any dead character can be revived.

4. It is later revealed that his real name is James Howlet, not Logan, but he can’t remember his original name.

5. Later, Jim Shooter (then the editor in chief for Marvel) will mandate that the relationship between Colossus and Kitty Pryde will end when he discovers she is only a young teenager. In the 1984 miniseries Secret Wars, Colossus finds a new love interest and later dumps Pryde. Subsequent writers, after Pryde has aged an indeterminate amount, resume the relationship between Colossus and Shadowcat.



Chapter Four

Adding Depth and Exploring Prejudice

The Uncanny X-Men #167 (Mar. 1983) to The Uncanny X-Men #280 (Sept. 1991)

Creators and General Story

Between 1983 and 1991, Claremont continued to write every issue and seemed to have significant freedom to write the series as he saw fit, at least initially. The cast of the book changed dramatically throughout this period, and the stories included many of his frequent fantastic and magical elements. By the end of this period, though, creator tension and editorial mandates concerning the direction of stories would cause Claremont to leave the X-Men books. Chris Claremont ended his sixteen-year run as the writer of the series with The Uncanny X-Men #279 (Aug. 1991); the subsequent issue was written by Fabian Nicieza. Claremont wrote every issue of the series between X-Men #94 (Aug. 1975) and The Uncanny X-Men #279 (Aug. 1991). These 185 issues are considered one of the most successful runs by a creator of any comic book series in terms of both financial success and quality creative output.1

After a very long and successful run as writer for The Uncanny X-Men, as well as several miniseries and spin-off titles closely associated with the mutant corner of the Marvel universe, Claremont’s departure was not entirely smooth. Both Claremont and Bob Harras, the editor of the X-Men books at the time Claremont left, admit that behind-the-scenes tensions about the direction of the books resulted in the end of the Claremont era. A very popular and talented new artist, Jim Lee, had been assigned to the X-Men books and wanted to co-plot the series, but in a direction that Claremont felt retread on stories he had already told. In Claremont’s own words:

Working with Jim was a lot of fun, but the institutional strains were starting to kick in. The problem was that Jim was just as strong-willed as I was. Jim wanted to do stuff that reminded him of the things that made him get into comics in the first place. He wanted to bring back Magneto and do the Sentinels and all that sort of stuff. My problem was I’d already done those things . . . at least twice. I wanted to try and find some new stuff to do. (DeFalco 75)

Claremont felt that whenever a disagreement on the direction of the series arose, Harras would side with Lee.

Looking back at it from the vantage point of the here-and-now, I can see no one had either the perspective or the incentive to find a way out. There was just no comfort zone. There was all this butting of heads and we all got boxed into corners. Bob and Jim wanted to do what they wanted to do and the feeling was I could not or would not go along, and they were going to do it anyway. I thought, I’ve worked too hard. The time has come maybe to see if I can survive without the X-Men. So I quit X-Men and left Marvel. (DeFalco 75)

Claremont would describe the feeling of leaving the series and the characters, many of whom he had created, by saying, “[I]t was wrenching, I felt like I had abandoned my kids” (DeFalco 79).

Harras admitted that there was a lot of tension between himself, Claremont, and Lee, but he felt that it was a creatively fruitful tension. “It was unpleasant, but the tension was being transformed into really dynamic comics that people were reacting to. I thought, ‘If we can just ride this out a little longer, everything is going to settle down.’ But that didn’t happen” (DeFalco “Harras” 178). Harras also explained that he and Claremont fundamentally disagreed on what the X-Men comics should be about. Harras believed the aliens and the magical dimensions that had become common in Claremont’s writing departed too significantly from the core of the X-Men:

I felt like we had to go back to what X-Men was all about, and to me X-Men was Xavier and Scott and Jean and all the other classic characters. But Chris didn’t want to do that kind of stuff anymore. He felt he had done it already. My point was “Sure, but that’s the X-Men!” It was getting so we were speaking the same language, but we couldn’t understand each other. (DeFalco “Harras” 178)

Thus editorial interference and creative tensions drove Claremont from the series he had helped nurture into immense popularity and profitability for Marvel. It is important to note that many of the most critically acclaimed stories in Claremont’s run came during his collaboration with John Byrne. Claremont’s departure from the series in 1991 was over a decade after Claremont-Byrne had ended. Few of the stories in the subsequent decade capture the same timeless appeal that Claremont and Byrne produced when they worked together.

Harras’s insistence that the X-Men was about Xavier and Scott and Jean and not magic and sci-fi is at odds with the X-Men comics that Marvel had been publishing since the mid-1970s. Uncanny X-Men #96 (Dec. 1975) was the first issue Claremont plotted and wrote on his own, and it includes mystical demons and sets up plots that would shortly carry the X-Men to outer space. The magical and sci-fi aspects of the series would only rise in prominence and frequency from there. Any attempt to remove those elements would significantly alter the tone of the series, which may have been why Claremont resisted these editorial requests. Additionally, if Harras’s vision of the X-Men included a roster of Professor X, Cyclops, and Marvel Girl/Phoenix, his disenchantment with Claremont’s writing is understandable. In this 1983–1991 period, whereas Xavier appears in twenty-five issues, Cyclops appears in only seven issues as a member of the team, and no other original member of the series is featured as a member of the X-Men at all. Rather, this period of The Uncanny X-Men saw the introduction of many new characters to the team and many changes in personality to those appearing. For example, Magneto, the longtime arch nemesis of the X-Men, becomes a member of the X-Men for a number of issues. Although the entire run of the X-Men has been compared to a soap opera, this period becomes particularly complex and convoluted in terms of narrative continuity. Interpersonal relationships shift and change, the membership of the team is particularly fluid, and characters undergo radical alterations including de-aging, changes in race, possession by demons, and more. This is the most dynamic period of X-Men comics for all these reasons, but because of that it is also a period with less focus. Harras and Lee seemed to want to refocus the series on a core group and core theme. Claremont felt he’d already told those stories and wanted to continue exploring new terrain.

Besides Jim Lee, Claremont worked with a number of artists in this period. Following The Uncanny X-Men #249 (Early Oct. 1989), the comic book was published twice a month. Because most artists could not maintain such a quick pace of production, guest artists frequently did single issues as fill-ins while the regular artist worked on the next storyline. The compressed publication schedule seems to have required the willing hands of many artists to meet deadlines. For example, #273 (Feb. 1991) has eight credited artists. The artists to work on the title in this period included Paul Smith, Walt Simonson, John Romita Jr., Barry Windsor-Smith, Rick Leonardi, June Brigman, Alan Davis, Jackson Guice, Marc Silvestri, Bret Blevins, Karry Gammill, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Kieron Dwyer, Bill Jaaska, Mike Collins, Art Adams, Whilce Portacio, Klaus Janson, John Byrne, Michael Golden, Larry Stroman, Andy Kubert, and Steven Butler.

As this era begins, a new body is cloned for Professor Xavier because he was infected with the egg of an alien Brood queen. His mind is transferred to this new body, and he regains the ability to walk. He begins to train a new class of students, a team featured in the spin-off series New Mutants. Although the cast and series of the New Mutants will not be considered in depth, it is worth noting that the initial roster of the team is much more diverse than the stereotypical superhero team. The New Mutants include Cannonball, an American male; Karma, a Vietnamese female; Psyche, a Cheyenne female; Sunspot, a Brazilian male; and Wolfsbane, a Scottish female. The team has three females and two males and only one American.

The Uncanny X-Men features an important group of mutants—the Morlocks. The group’s name is a reference to the underground race in H. G. Wells’s novel The Time Machine. The Morlocks are mutants whose mutations are so different from the appearances of normal humans that they feel they cannot dwell among them. Facing hatred and prejudice because of their appearance, they have retreated to underground tunnels beneath New York City. The Morlocks kidnap Angel, and when the X-Men must travel into the sewers to rescue him Storm challenges the leader of the Morlocks to a battle. Winning the fight, Storm becomes the new leader of the Morlocks, though she largely allows them to continue on as they had been living while she leaves with the X-Men.

Rogue, who had previously fought against the X-Men as a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, quits that team and asks to join the X-Men as she attempts to reform her life. Mystique, the leader of the Brotherhood, is particularly hurt by this as Rogue is her adopted daughter. Though some are hesitant to accept Rogue, she proves herself to the X-Men on an adventure when the team travels to Japan for Wolverine’s wedding. Wolverine, who had left the team for a time, returned to invite them to his wedding where, of course, various fights ensued. Despite the X-Men’s victories in battle, Wolverine’s fiancé, Mariko Yoshida, calls off the wedding at the last minute.

Cyclops decides to end his relationship with Lee Forester and quickly meets a woman named Madelyne Pryor, who looks exactly like Jean Grey. Madelyne has no memory of her past, and Scott, at times, suspects she may be Jean. Scott and Madelyne marry, and Scott retires from the X-Men.

Colossus and Kitty Pryde had been dating, but Colossus breaks up with her. Shortly thereafter the Morlock Caliban kidnaps Kitty and intends to marry her. Storm uses her influence as leader of the Morlocks (though she rarely interacts with them) to free Kitty. Rachel, a mutant from the future who previously appeared in the Days of Future Past storyline, arrives in the present time and soon joins the X-Men. Though it is not yet revealed, in her timeline she is the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey.

A mutant inventor named Forge has created a weapon that will depower a mutant. The US government wants to use the weapon on Rogue, who has been framed for murder, but Storm is accidentally shot instead. Forge, guilty over his role in Storm’s power loss, invites her to his home as he tries to reactivate her powers. They have a brief romance until Storm discovers that he was the inventor of the weapon that took her powers. Storm returns to Africa to try to explore her new powerless identity. Meanwhile, Cyclops’s former girlfriend, Lee Forester, discovers Magneto’s body floating in the ocean and rescues him.

A sorcerer named Kulan Gath transforms all of New York City into medieval times until the X-Men and other Marvel superheroes are able to undo the spell. After the city is returned to normal, Professor Xavier is attacked by a group of college students who believe he is a mutant. Magneto, meanwhile, is making an effort to reform. While at a gathering of Holocaust survivors, he is attacked and captured by the mutant team formerly called the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which now goes by the name Freedom Force. Freedom Force works for the US government in exchange for full pardons for their criminal acts. Magneto is put on trial in France for crimes against humanity. However, due to his de-aging to an infant and re-aging to adulthood, all crimes prior to his rebirth are stricken. (The legal precedents surrounding these sorts of events in the Marvel universe must be headache inducing.) Professor X goes to recuperate from an attack he suffered from anti-mutant students with his love, the alien Lilandra. He asks Magneto to help the X-Men and train the New Mutants, a role that Magneto accepts.

Cyclops returns with his wife, Madelyne Pryor, and their infant son named Nathan. Missing his old adventures, Cyclops asks to lead the team again. Storm has returned and also wishes to lead the team, and the two have a sparring session to determine who will lead. Storm wins despite still having no mutant powers. Cyclops receives a phone call that his old love, Jean Grey, has been discovered alive at the bottom of the bay where the space shuttle crashed (over a hundred issues ago). A retcon reveals that an interstellar entity called the Phoenix Force bonded with Jean Grey during the shuttle crash. It took her form, memories, and personality and left Jean Grey’s injured body in a cocoon to recuperate. Cyclops, in a rather indefensible move, abandons his wife and newborn son to reunite with Jean Grey. Cyclops and the other original members of the X-Men have their adventures published in a spin-off series call X-Factor.2

The X-Men and the Hellfire Club are forced to unite to defeat Nimrod, a sentinel from the same future timeline as Rachel Summers. Meanwhile, members of the Morlocks, including children, are being murdered by a new villainous team, the Marauders. In a fight that is more violent than had usually been depicted up to this point, the Marauders severely injure several X-Men, and Colossus kills one of the Marauders. This storyline, called the Mutant Massacre, also begins the long-running feud between Wolverine and a villain named Sabretooth. Kitty Pryde, Colossus, and Nightcrawler are sent to Muir Island to convalesce from their serious injuries.

The X-Men’s roster undergoes several changes at this time. Betsy Braddock, a telepathic mutant code named Psylocke, joins the team. Dazzler, a mutant with the power to convert sound waves into light and energy beams who was introduced in the X-Men comics before being spun-off into her own series, joins the team for the first time. Havok rejoins the X-Men, while Polaris, possessed by a force called Malice, joins the Marauders.

After Cyclops leaves his wife and son upon hearing that his first love, Jean Grey, is alive, Madelyne Pryor is attacked by the Marauders and her baby son, Nathan, is kidnapped. The child is taken to the Marauder’s leader, Mr. Sinister, who has been manipulating Scott Summers’s life for years. The X-Men take Madelyne Pryor in for her protection. The new group of X-Men battle Juggernaut and bond in the process. Storm seeks out Forge, and following a mystical journey and battle, regains her mutant powers. The X-Men, joined by Storm and Forge, have a battle in Dallas that results in their deaths. Their deaths are broadcast to the world. However, the team is immediately resurrected by a goddess, Roma. They allow the world to continue believing they died in Dallas and set up a new base of operations in Australia, where they battle a group of cybernetic soldiers called the Reavers and defeat a small colony of the alien Brood.

The island nation of Genosha, located off the east coast of Africa, is introduced as a country with a thriving economy and very modern standard of living. However, the nation’s economy is secretly based off of the slave labor of mutants. The Genengineer, a genetic scientist, has manipulated the minds and wills of mutants. Besides ensuring their enslavement, the Genengineer attempts to breed mutants with specific powers to fill specific labor needs. The Genoshan police force, called Magistrates, capture several X-Men. They are eventually freed, and some of the foundations of Genoshan society are shaken.

Alex Summers, grieving because his girlfriend, Polaris, has joined the Marauders, begins a tentative romance with his brother’s ex-wife, Madelyne Pryor. However, when Pryor sees Scott on television with Jean Grey, she becomes enraged. A demon offers her the power to make Scott suffer, which she accepts.

In a storyline called “Inferno,” Madelyne Pryor is endowed with demonic powers and becomes the Goblin Queen. She turns New York into a demon-infested hell. The story crosses over with issues of X-Factor and New Mutants, and many other Marvel comic books set in New York City feature stories in which the heroes battle demonic enemies. The mutant teams defeat the demonic forces, and much of New York is returned to normal, though the Goblin Queen’s lair remains. There, Mr. Sinister reveals that Madelyne Pryor is a clone of Jean Grey that he created. He had manipulated Scott’s life so that his DNA and Jean Grey’s DNA could be combined to create a powerful mutant, but Jean Grey’s “death” had thwarted his plans. After these revelations, the Goblin Queen dies in a battle with Jean Grey. The Goblin Queen’s son, Nathan, is infected with a disease that modern science cannot cure, so the X-Men send him to the future where he is cured.3

A young Asian American mutant named Jubilee follows the X-Men through a portal back to their base in Australia. When the Reavers attack the X-Men, several members of the X-Men team step through a portal called the Siege Perilous, which transports them to random locations around the globe. Those who go through the Siege Perilous have amnesia, and some have been physically altered by their journey. Wolverine, who remains behind, loses his battle with the Reavers and is left for dead. Jubilee, who was in hiding, rescues Wolverine and helps him heal.

In the absence of the X-Men, who are scattered across the globe with amnesia, a new team of X-Men is formed and based on Muir Island for a brief time. The storyline shifts to the efforts of Forge and this pseudo-team of X-Men in their efforts to gather the X-Men who passed through the Siege Perilous and help them regain their memories.

After some success in finding the lost X-Men, a large crossover story called the X-Tinction Agenda takes place in all the comic books Marvel publishes related to the X-Men. Taking place on Genosha, the teams must battle Cameron Hodge, a cyborg with an insane hatred of mutants. Following this, the X-Men return to outer space to aid Professor X and his wife, Lilandra, in a battle against shape-shifting aliens called Skrulls. And in the last storyline of this period, the team must battle Professor Xavier’s insane son. In the course of the battle, Xavier’s spine is damaged, and he is again confined to a wheelchair.

New Members of the X-Men

Anna Marie Raven (Rogue)

Rogue, whose real name (Anna Marie Raven) is not revealed until 2004, is not the first nor the last reformed villain who will join the X-Men. She first appeared in Avengers Annual #10 (1981), written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Michael Golden. The first reformed villain to join the team was Mimic, and Banshee and Sunfire were also villains in their first appearances. Rogue’s mutant power is to absorb the memories and the special abilities of anyone else through skin-to-skin contact. Normally, the absorption of the memories and powers is only temporary, but with prolonged contact Rogue may permanently retain the powers and memories. One of the first characters Rogue maintained contact with for too long was a superhero named Ms. Marvel, and Rogue gained Ms. Marvel’s super-strength, power of flight, and near invulnerability. Additionally, Ms. Marvel’s memories and personality, which are now a part of her mind, haunt Rogue.

Rogue discovered her mutant power the first time she kissed a boy, and the experience traumatized her. As Michael Mallory says of Rogue,

The knowledge that the mere touch of her bare skin can be dangerous to anyone, mutant or otherwise, not only affects her dress—she must remain covered head-to-toe at all times—but it leaves her with a level of sexual angst with which few, if any, can really empathize. (86)

Despite Mallory’s assertion, Rogue often appears in varying states of undress in the X-Men comic books. The Uncanny X-Men #236 (Late Oct. 1988) opens with Rogue in a battle while completely nude, with shadows and objects in the foreground barely preventing full exposure. Though her power set, in a sense, desexualizes her, that forbidden touch is still used as a source of titillation in how she is presented to the readers.

Rachel Summers (Phoenix)

As the X-Men comic books and associated spin-offs continued year after year, the continuity became more convoluted. Rachel Summers is one of the first of several X-Men characters whose origins will involve time travel and/or alternate timelines. Chris Claremont and John Byrne created Rachel Summers, and she first appears in The Uncanny X-Men #141 (Jan. 1981) in the classic story Days of Future Past. She is a part of a potential future timeline. The storyline involves X-Men from a dystopian future attempting to alter the past to change their timeline. Though the X-Men in the present day do prevent the inciting incident that would lead to Rachel’s dystopia, her timeline continues to exist. She travels back to the present day and becomes a member of the X-Men.

In Rachel’s timeline, she is the daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey, and she takes her mother’s code name as a member of the X-Men. She possesses powerful psychic abilities and telekinesis, much like her mother.

Betsy Braddock (Psylocke)

Psylocke, created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, has an interesting narrative history. In this period, she is a white British woman with telepathic powers. She was introduced in another series, Captain Britain, and is the sister of that series’ namesake. Readers who began to read The Uncanny X-Men in the 1990s would be hard-pressed to recognize the 1980s version of Psylocke. This version, an upper-class white British woman, is very conservative in dress and social interactions.

Her character will undergo a radical transformation that will result in her mind being in an Asian body, a different set of mutant powers, ninja training, a much more seductive personality, and a significantly skimpier costume. Mike Madrid explains:

Gone was the lovely English rose; in her place a statuesque gold skinned Asian beauty. Psylocke’s sculpted body was wrapped in a skintight costume that showed off every curve and muscle. Her impossibly long legs were crisscrossed with straps that enhanced her muscular thighs. Psylocke’s back arched to present her chest for all to admire. A revealing thong showcased her rock hard buttocks. [. . .] The old Caucasian Psylocke had been a formidable telepathic fighter. The new Asian Psylocke was a killer, possessing ninja martial arts skills and a ruthless love of battle. [. . .] Her new body finally gave Betsy the fighting skills and endurance of her dreams. She was the object of both fear and desire. Betsy Braddock might have been a lady, but as Psylocke, she was a babe. (270)

The Asian version of Psylocke, with one of the most revealing costumes any female of the X-Men will wear regularly, is generally drawn without any semblance of realistic body proportions. Moreso than any previous female character, this version of Psylocke is drawn with nearly pure cheesecake portrayals from most artists. Entering the 1990s, artists increasingly draw a pose that has become known as the “brokeback” pose. A female character in the brokeback pose has her body contorted in such a way that her butt and breasts are simultaneously visible for ogling. To achieve this position in real life, a woman’s back would have to be broken from the twisting, resulting in the name. It is a ridiculous trend, but one which would become very prominent in 1990s comic books. The Asian version of Psylocke is one of the characters that most frequently appears in a brokeback pose.

Alison Blaire (Dazzler)

Alison Blaire appeared in the same issue that Kitty Pryde first appeared in. However, Claremont and Byrne, who wrote and drew that issue, did not create Dazzler. Dazzler was intended to be a cross-promotional character between Casablanca Records and Marvel Comics, and a committee was used to design her look and powers, though Tom DeFalco and John Romita Jr. are most often credited with creating the character. Because of the tie-in with Casablanca Records, disco music and culture are prominent in Dazzler’s initial appearance. Marvel Comics would help to create the name, look, and personality of a singer superhero, and Casablanca would release a record of a singer they found to adopt that persona. There were also rumors of a potential film project featuring the new character. After Marvel promoted the new character, even having her first appear in one of their top-selling comic books, Casablanca Records dropped out of the agreement. Marvel, having pushed Dazzler more than most new creations, decided to give her a monthly comic book title to try to justify the promotion the character had received, though the series only ran for thirty-five issues.

Dazzler has the power to transform sound waves into light/laser energy. As a singer, she used her power to provide a spectacle to her performances. After her series was canceled, she was brought back into the X-Men where she had first appeared.

Longshot

Ann Nocenti and Art Adams created Longshot, who is the first member of the team who is not a mutant. Longshot appears to be a white human male, though with only three fingers and a thumb on each hand. He is, in reality, an artificially created humanoid from another dimension. He has the ability to alter the probability of random events around him so that they turn out in his favor. In the dimension where he was created, Longshot competed in gladiatorial combat for a population that was obsessed with televised events and violence. The X-Men have been captured and forced to compete for the entertainment of this dimension’s audience several times.

Jubilation Lee (Jubilee)

Jubilee, created by Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri, is a young Chinese-American mutant who can generate bright explosive “plasmoids,” which look like fireworks. After her parents were murdered and she was orphaned, Jubilation Lee began to live at the Hollywood Mall, surviving by petty theft and money she gained by entertaining shoppers with her mutant powers. At the mall, Jubilee sees several members of the X-Men use a portal to transport to their Australian base, and she follows them through. She hides out in the base, stealing food to survive. When Wolverine is attacked and no other members of the team are around, she saves his life, and they form a close bond, with Wolverine acting as a father figure to Jubilee.

Forge

In comic books American Indian characters conform to several stereotypes. Their costumes often include feathers or a buckskin-type fringe. They go on journeys of spiritual awakening. And their powers are very frequently closely related to nature and spiritualism. In some ways Forge departs significantly from these stereotypes, in others he embraces them. His character is shown as being divided between his technological side and his spiritual side.

Created by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr., Forge has not, as of yet, had his real name revealed. His code name is a reference to his mutant power. Forge has the ability to understand how any machine is constructed instantly, and he also has the ability to understand how a machine could be constructed to meet any need he has. In essence, he has the power of invention. He lives in one of the most high-tech buildings in the Marvel universe. This is a far cry from other American Indian characters such as Thunderbird, or later Warpath, who come from reservations that are depicted more as camping grounds than as cities with any sign of modernity. Both Thunderbird and Warpath have sets of powers that increase their natural abilities. They have heightened strength, sight, and hearing. Conversely, Forge’s power places him beyond the cutting edge of modern technology. Forge has even replaced an injured part of his leg with a cybernetic portion.

However, although his mutant power departs from the superheroic stereotypes of American Indian characters, many of the storylines he is placed in, at least initially, conform to those very stereotypes. The result is an odd dichotomy of unique character traits and old stereotypes. Forge takes Storm on journeys of spiritual awakening, and a former friend of Forge’s chastises him for turning his back on his mystical heritage in favor of technology.

Remy LeBeau (Gambit)

Chris Claremont and Jim Lee created Remy LeBeau as an American mutant with the power to charge objects with energy that causes them to explode when suddenly hit or impacted against other objects. Gambit was born and raised in New Orleans and belongs to a group called the Thieves Guild. Before joining the X-Men, Gambit was a master thief. Much like Nightcrawler, Colossus, or Banshee, Gambit’s dialogue is often written with a thick phonetic accent, in this case a Cajun dialect.

Close Readings

A storyline involving Professor Xavier serves to make the metaphorical connection between mutants and racial and ethnic minorities unavoidable. In the story, bigoted students attack Professor Xavier, a clear hate crime, and an example of hate speech toward mutants is linked to hate speech that exists in the real world.

In The Uncanny X-Men #192 (Apr. 1985), Professor Xavier has begun working as an adjunct professor at Columbia University where, though he has not revealed himself to be a mutant to the world, he does touch on the plight of mutants in his class. He is attempting to draw his students’ attention to the threat mutants face in an increasingly hostile world. As he explains to Storm,

The “mutant menace” has suddenly become a prime target for television and tabloid exposes, and the view most often presented is so hostile I fear they’ll do lasting—possibly irreparable—harm. More mutants are born every day, Ororo. What hope have they—or humanity—in a world where they’re condemned outright as evil? (10)

After one of his evening classes, as Professor Xavier passes in front of a building with graffiti reading “MUTIE DIE!” across its side, a voice calls out “Mutie Lover!!” A group of students block his path, and when Xavier says, “Let me pass, please. I want no trouble,” one of the students replies, “Tough—we don’t want your kind at our school” (30). Because Xavier is first called a “mutie lover” and, at this point, the students have no way of knowing he is a mutant, their hatred is clearly toward someone they perceive as being sympathetic to mutants, not a mutant himself. The hatred toward mutants has spread to any who would associate with or defend them.

Professor Xavier uses his mental powers to paralyze the limbs of his attackers, but as is explained in the thought balloons, “more lurk in the shadows [. . .] there are so many—their thoughts so chaotic—hard to keep track—did I spot them all, have I frozen” (30). At this point a brick thrown by an assailant Professor Xavier had not seen strikes him in the head, and all those who had been frozen are now free to move. They quickly conclude that “[h]e must be one of ’em. The Prof’s a mutie!” and with a cry of “Waste him” they all attack. As they leave his unconscious and bloody body on the sidewalk, the gang talks among themselves saying, “The nerve o’ the sum-belly, passing himself off as a real human being,” “Hey man, he won’t be trying that again,” “He got what he deserved,” and “I dunno ’bout you all but this’s given me a thirst, how’s about we grab some brews” (30).

In subsequent issues Xavier returns to teaching after recovering from his injuries, but the students who attacked now plant a bomb in his office, which when triggered fails to kill anyone. In The Uncanny X-Men #196 (Aug. 1985), Kitty Pryde comes upon the group of students who planted the bomb, and Phil, one of the students, says to her, “I hadn’t thought of this till now, brat, but you attend Charles Xavier’s private school upstate. You a mutie then, Pryde, like him?!” Pryde responds to Phil, who is African American, by saying, “Gee I dunno, Phill—are you a nigger?” When Phil tells her to watch her mouth, Pryde responds, “Watch yours! Especially when you use words like that and try to be intentionally hurtful” (14).

It is in this period that the first use of hate speech, complete with slang and derogatory terms for mutants, becomes common when portraying the prejudice the X-Men face. In this instance, the hate speech is drawn as an unavoidable comparison to the language directed at African Americans, though in later years it will also be used as a metaphor for hate speech directed at homosexuals.

In The Uncanny X-Men #235 (Early Oct. 1988), Claremont and artist Rick Leonardi introduce readers to Genosha, a fictional African nation that serves as an analogue for South Africa and the issues of apartheid. In Genosha, mutants (or mutates, as they’re called after the villainous Genengineer4 has removed their personalities and wills) are used to complete all the menial and lower-class jobs. The entire economy of Genosha is built around the pseudo-slave labor of the mutates, which props up the upper-class lifestyle of “normal” humans. However, in making the analogue so close to the real-world issues South Africa was facing, the X-Men comics ran into something similar to the “Superman problem” comic book creators faced during World War II.

During World War II, Superman comic book creators struggled with how to deal with the real-world threat in their comic books. As powerful as Superman was, it was likely he could end the war in a single issue, but readers would know World War II was still happening in real life. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman’s creators, had created “a hero powerful enough to intervene and righteous enough to recognize that the Allies were the good guys” (Tye 59). They had to find a narrative reason to keep Superman out of the war. Larry Tye explains the method they settled on: “Clark Kent tried to enlist in the Army in 1941, but during his eye exam he inadvertently read a chart in the adjoining room with his X-Ray vision” (59). The army then turned down Kent, and readers understood why he remained a reporter and not a soldier. Similarly, it was difficult to fabricate a satisfactory solution to Genosha, which was clearly reflective of real-world issues. Although the X-Men saw the injustices in front of them, they couldn’t overthrow the government and install themselves as heads of state. They showed no interest in inciting a rebellion within the lower classes. How would superheroes deal with socially, culturally, and governmentally enforced prejudice? In the end, they walked away.

Jean Baker Miller discusses some of the issues with a societally enforced dominant/subordinate relationship between groups. Particularly damaging is a process of ascription where “race, sex, nationality, religion, or other characteristics ascribed at birth” assign an individual to either the dominant or subordinate class (112). The dominant class will usually define what roles are acceptable for the subordinate class, and these roles are typically in service of the dominant class in some way. This was the case for nonwhite groups in South Africa during apartheid, and the case is allegorically presented for mutants in the Genoshan storyline. However, although superheroes can fight supervillains, it is much more difficult to fight institutionalized prejudice.

The final page of The Uncanny X-Men #238 (Late Nov. 1988), the conclusion of the Genoshan story drawn by Marc Silvestri, features a debate about what the X-Men can do to resolve the obvious problems in Genosha. Wolverine suggests that they “[t]ear this slimeball concentration camp o’ theirs down to the bare rock an’ build somethin’ decent from the ashes.” However, Phillip Moreau, the son of the Genengineer who has been exposed to all that the ruling class does to mutates to keep them subordinate, insists that “[w]e have to give the people a chance to set things right. Tell them what I’ve seen and learned, they’ll be as revolted as I was. They’ll do what you want without having to be coerced.” Storm decides to give Phillip Moreau’s method a chance and tells the assembled leaders of Genosha, “Listen to the boy! He is one future, we are the other.” Then Storm has Havok destroy a government building as a sign of how much power the X-Men possess. Then, Storm tells Phillip that he “had best accompany us. The Genoshan government will quite likely not deal kindly with you—or your mutant rights movement—should it get its hands on you. Your case is initially best made overseas.” The X-Men and Phillip Moreau then teleport off of the island. The X-Men reject the idea of destroying the evil and oppressive government in favor of allowing the people to try to enact change from within, but then remove the one person in a position to begin that movement from the country and leave the Genoshan government, with all of its resources and systems of subordination, in complete control of the island. It is an odd ending to the story, but perhaps one of the only ones that could be written in light of the “Superman problem.” This was clearly an analogue of South Africa’s apartheid system, and to have superheroes go in and fix that problem in three issues would have been insensitive to the complexities of massive social revolutions, not to mention the real-world revolutionaries struggling to change that system.

One of the most significant stories involving gender roles is “Inferno.” Written by Chris Claremont, “Inferno” bears several thematic similarities to “The Dark Phoenix Saga.” Both stories involve a female character discovering new powers, being driven mad, threatening all of creation while adopting an evil persona, and finally dying to end the threat. In this case, Madelyne Pryor becomes the Goblin Queen and threatens to open a portal between hell and Earth. Madelyne Pryor is a clone of Jean Grey, so the similarities to “The Dark Phoenix Saga” include the physical appearance of the antagonist, not simply the themes of the story.

Pryor’s story is very convoluted. She was introduced shortly after Jean Grey’s apparent death in “The Dark Phoenix Saga.” Cyclops meets Pryor in Alaska, when he is visiting his grandparents after he has quit the X-Men to grieve for his loss of Jean Grey. Pryor could remember very little of her life before a plane crash, of which she was the sole survivor. She has the exact same appearance as Jean Grey, and Cyclops is immediately attracted to her. After a rapid courtship, Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor marry, and Cyclops retires from his superhero life. Together Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor have a child named Nathan Summers.

This idyllic life was to be short-lived because when Cyclops received a phone call that Jean Grey was alive, he immediately abandoned his wife and child. This action by Cyclops appears out of character, and it seems to have been driven simply by an editorial decision. The publisher wanted to reunite all of the original X-Men as a team in the pages of X-Factor, which is why the decision to resurrect Jean Grey and retcon the Phoenix storyline occurred. This also meant that Cyclops had to become a superhero again and be disentangled from the home life he had established. It seems that rather than take time to do this, the decision was made to separate Cyclops from Madelyne and Nathan as quickly as possible.

Understandably, Madelyne is upset at this turn of events. Because of her former association with Cyclops, Madelyne’s life is occasionally threatened by enemies of the X-Men, and the X-Men take Madelyne into their care to protect her. A demon, sensing Pryor’s anger, begins to manipulate her and gives her access to demonic powers. This, coupled with the revelation that she is a clone of Jean Grey, drives her fully insane, and she manifests incredible power and takes on the title of the Goblin Queen.

Much as Jean Grey’s descent into madness was accompanied by increased sexuality in terms of her actions and significantly skimpier outfits, Madelyne Pryor’s change includes both those character transformations. In The Uncanny X-Men #239 (Dec. 1988), the issue immediately prior to the beginning of Inferno and Pryor’s adoption of the Goblin Queen persona, she sleeps with Cyclops’s brother, Havok. Just as Jean Grey approached Scott Summers early in the Dark Phoenix storyline, Pryor is the instigator of this sexual encounter. Pryor goes to Havok to seduce him, but he protests, “You’re my brother’s wife!” (21). Pryor responds, “News to him, these days. Alex, I didn’t walk out on him—I didn’t abandon our baby—I didn’t toss this commitment down the dumpster. If the marriage is over, it’s none of my doing” (22). Then, while Havok sleeps following their implied intercourse, Pryor goes to make a deal with a demon, which results in her fully becoming the Goblin Queen. And, as with Jean Grey when she was the Black Queen, the Goblin Queen’s outfit is ridiculously revealing.

Although a character such as Storm, who remains a very strong character even when losing her powers, is a progressive female portrayal in superhero comic books, some of the most famous storylines in X-Men comic books deal with a female character becoming more sexually active, gaining new powers, going mad, and becoming evil. There is a close intertwining of female sexuality and transformations into evil supervillains, which is not as apparent with male characters. Cyclops abandons his family because an old lover returns, but becomes the team leader of another group of heroes. The woman he abandons becomes a demonic supervillain that opens a portal between hell and Earth.

Notes

1. Other significant runs by writers on superhero comic books include Stan Lee’s decade as writer of The Fantastic Four (Jack Kirby was the artist on almost all these issues), Peter David’s time as writer of The Incredible Hulk, and Brian Michael Bendis’s tenure as writer of Ultimate Spider-Man. Certainly many other high-quality runs by writers have been omitted from this list, but these three are notable for how closely the writer and the property became associated in fans’ minds and for how favorably these runs are looked upon by fans, critics, and scholars.

2. According to Bob Layton, who wrote X-Factor #1, the original plan was not to have a resurrected Jean Grey on the team, but to have the four surviving original members of the X-Men as well as Dazzler. When discussions about reuiniting the X-Men circulated in the Marvel offices, John Byrne offered to resurrect Jean Grey in The Fantastic Four comic he was writing and drawing (the idea for how to resurrect Jean Grey originated with Kurt Busiek, a comic book fan who would later have a successful career as a writer). This late switch likely changed Cyclops’s motivations in joining X-Factor, but it made the character act incredibly callous toward his wife and son (Cronin, “Comic Book Urban Legends”).

3. In the future, Nathan Summers is raised as a soldier. He will eventually return to the X-Men’s present day as a fully grown man and become a leader of a team of mutants called X-Force and then later join the X-Men alongside his father, Jean Grey (who is not his mother, but the original source of genetic material used to clone his mother), and sometimes Rachel Summers, his sort of half-sister from a future alternate timeline.

4. The Genengineer’s name is David Moreau, likely a reference to H. G. Wells’s novel The Island of Dr. Moreau.



Chapter Five

Broadening the Mutant Metaphor

The Uncanny X-Men #281 (Oct. 1991) to The Uncanny X-Men #393 (June 2001)

Creators and General Storyline

This period represents a significant change in the publication practices of Marvel concerning the X-Men franchise. Although several previous spin-off titles had been associated with the X-Men franchise, including Dazzler, New Mutants, X-Factor, Wolverine, and Excalibur, those series had different focuses than did The Uncanny X-Men. Dazzler and Wolverine featured the adventures of a single protagonist, New Mutants was about a young new generation of mutants being trained in their powers, and X-Factor was initially envisioned as a chance to reunite the original X-Men. Excalibur featured a team of mutants based in Britain and employed several of Marvel’s British characters as well as popular members of The Uncanny X-Men who were being written out of that series. These titles were kept largely separate from one another. The team title that interacted with The Uncanny X-Men most often was New Mutants because both groups were based out of Xavier’s mansion.

In 1991 Marvel published X-Men #1 (Oct. 1991), which was the highest-selling comic book in history. This new series was to be a second “core” X-Men title. All the previous titles had been ancillary to the adventures of the core team called the X-Men, but X-Men and The Uncanny X-Men would feature two teams of X-Men that used the same base of operations. The “Gold Team” would be in X-Men, and the “Blue Team” would be in The Uncanny X-Men. Originally, the plan was that the two teams would be completely separate, but quickly crossovers and guest stars were shared between the two titles. At this same time, New Mutants changed its name to X-Force to more closely be associated with the other X-titles and also to recognize the new direction that title was taking. No longer would that team be students; they were now soldiers led by a mysterious mutant from the future named Cable.

As previously addressed, Chris Claremont ceased writing The Uncanny X-Men due to creative and editorial conflicts. Jim Lee, a popular artist, wanted to take the X-Men in a direction Chris Claremont did not want to explore, and the editor gave preference to Lee. Following Claremont’s departure, Marvel brought John Byrne in to script Jim Lee’s plot outlines in hopes of connecting with the fan base that saw the Claremont-Byrne era as the height of X-Men success. Byrne would last only a few issues before frustrations caused him to quit. Unfortunately for Marvel, after a little more than a year Lee left Marvel Comics to found a new comic book company with six of the most popular artists of the time. Marvel alienated Claremont to appease Lee, who left shortly thereafter

Scott Lobdell replaced Byrne as the writer, and he had a long tenure before being replaced by Steven Seagle, then Terry Kavanagh, and eventually Chris Claremont. Almost a decade after leaving the title, and exactly one hundred issues after he left, Claremont would return to The Uncanny X-Men for a nine-issue run. Changes in editors and publishers at Marvel had made his return, which seemed unlikely when he first left, possible.

Artists from this period included Whilce Portacio, John Romita Jr., Andy Kubert, Tom Raney, Brandon Peterson, Joe Madureira, Chris Bachalo, Leinil Francis Yu, Adam Kubert, and Salvador LaRocca, with many other artists filling in briefly for single issues. Jim Lee did not provide art for The Uncanny X-Men in this period because he was drawing the second X-Men title that had recently launched, though he did co-plot the stories in The Uncanny X-Men while he remained at Marvel.

This period of X-Men comics begins with the X-Men having split into the Gold and Blue teams, so many of the most popular X-Men are now split between The Uncanny X-Men and X-Men. Because of this, characters such as Wolverine, Shadowcat, and Colossus appear less frequently in The Uncanny X-Men, though they were still appearing in other X-Men-related comic books.

General Plot Summary

One of the first storylines from this period involves Bishop, a mutant law enforcer from the future traveling back through time to the present day in pursuit of time-travelling criminals. Bishop is an African American mutant with the power to absorb energy and redirect it back out of his body in laser-like blasts. He becomes trapped in the present day, and after the X-Men help capture the criminals he was hunting, he joins the team.

The next storyline is called “X-Cutioner’s Song,” a crossover that included The Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Factor, and X-Force. This was a twelve-part story that featured one chapter in each X-title for three consecutive months. At a concert organized by a mutant pop star to promote diversity, Professor Xavier is giving a speech when he is shot by a man who looks just like the mysterious leader of X-Force, Cable. It is revealed in the course of this storyline that Cable is Nathan Summers, the child Cyclops had with Madelyne Pryor. Nathan had been infected with a disease and sent to the future for advanced medical aid. Cable, now older than Cyclops, has travelled back in time to the present. The man who shot Professor Xavier was a clone of Cable who was the child of a clone of Jean Grey—after more than thirty years, X-Men continuity was getting messily convoluted.

At this time, a new recurring threat to mutants is introduced, the Legacy Virus. The Legacy Virus is a disease that, initially, is confined to the mutant population but eventually begins to affect normal humans as well. The first victim of the Legacy Virus is Illyana Rasputin, the younger sister of Colossus. Upset over the death of his sister and the prejudice he sees all around, Colossus leaves the X-Men to join Magneto, believing that a more aggressive strategy is needed to protect mutants.

In another crossover with the other X-Men titles, this one called “Fatal Attractions,” Magneto rips the adamantium off of Wolverine’s bones and through his flesh. In reaction, Professor Xavier performs a “mindwipe” of Magneto, which leaves him in a coma. The mindwipe will later be revealed to have left a portion of Magneto’s psyche in Professor Xavier’s mind and will result in Professor Xavier going insane and becoming a supervillain, following in the footsteps of Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor.

Jean Grey and Scott Summers are married, and Cyclops and Cable begin to establish a relationship as father and son. Banshee and a reformed Emma Frost, formerly the villainous White Queen, decide to team up to train a new class of young mutants. Introduced in the pages of X-Men and The Uncanny X-Men, this new team is spun-off into its own comic book, Generation X.

Professor Xavier’s insane son, going by the code name Legion, travels back in time twenty years to kill Magneto, believing that this will shape the world in a manner pleasing to his father. Instead, an alternate dystopic timeline called “The Age of Apocalypse” results. Eventually the normal timeline is restored. During this storyline, all of Marvel’s X-titles ceased publication for four months and were replaced by new titles set in the Age of Apocalypse. This study will not include this four-month replacement title in the analysis of The Uncanny X-Men.

After their regular timeline is restored, the X-Men are warned of an oncoming threat called Onslaught. Magneto’s base is destroyed, and out of the wreckage an amnesiac man who looks like Magneto emerges and takes the name Joseph. In a crossover that affects all the major superhero titles Marvel publishes, Onslaught attacks. It is learned that Onslaught is Professor Xavier, or rather a psychic entity created in Professor Xavier’s mind after he mindwiped Magneto. The combined efforts of Marvel’s heroes defeat Onslaught, and Professor Xavier is then taken into custody.

There are several groups organized to defend normal humans from the perceived threats of mutants at this time. One is called the Friends of Humanity, and while they have political goals, they often resemble white supremacist groups that will attack those they do not like. The Friends of Humanity beat up mutants and those related to mutants. Building on the theme of political opposition to mutant rights is the crossover event “Operation: Zero Tolerance” in which the US government, in coordination with international governments, hunts down all known mutants to try to capture or kill them. When the Prime Sentinels employed by Operation: Zero Tolerance are deemed to be out of control, the government rescinds Operation: Zero Tolerance’s authorization to act on US soil.

Dr. Cecilia Reyes joins the X-Men and is the first member of the X-Men with Latino/a heritage in The Uncanny X-Men, though Latino/a mutants had appeared in other mutant titles published by Marvel. The X-Men, after surviving attacks by the Shadow King, Sauron, and Alpha Flight, search for Professor Xavier, who has been in custody since Onslaught was defeated. They recover Xavier and are able to restore his powers, which had not worked since the Onslaught incident.

Magneto returns, and it is discovered that Joseph, who emerged from the wreckage of Magneto’s base, was only a clone. Joseph dies in battle. Subsequently, in a battle with Apocalypse, Cyclops seemingly sacrifices himself, though in a storyline called “The Search for Cyclops” he is rescued and returns to the team.

New Members of the X-Men

Lucas Bishop (Bishop)

Lucas Bishop, time-traveling mutant from the future, was created by John Byrne, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portacio. Although Storm was the first black member of the X-Men, Bishop is the first African American member of the team. He has the power to absorb energy and redirect it out as plasma blasts. He comes to the present day in pursuit of renegade mutants from the future, but after they are defeated he is unable to return to his time period, and he joins the X-Men. In his time the X-Men are legendary, but as a result of his time travel his memories of what he learned about the X-Men are jumbled and fleeting.

Bishop has been trained as a soldier his entire life, and in his timeline the war between mutants and humans has been much more open and devastating than what is seen in the X-Men’s present day. Bishop’s soldier-like attitude to the X-Men’s missions sometimes puts him at odds with the team, which though a fighting unit, is much more individualistic than a military unit. Adding to the tension he feels with the team, Bishop is very disciplined and organized, but sometimes struggles to take orders from the team leader when he believes he has seen a better course of action. Because of this, many find him to be arrogant and abrasive.

Emma Frost (White Queen)

Chris Claremont and John Byrne originally created the White Queen as a supervillain, but in this period she becomes yet another reformed villain who joins the X-Men, joining the likes of Banshee, Sunfire, and Rogue. In subsequent periods White Queen is a regular member of the team, but at this time she is only briefly a member of the X-Men. After one adventure with the team, she then goes with Banshee to train the next generation of mutants in a series called Generation X. The White Queen has psychic powers on the level of Jean Grey. Some of her most defining characteristics are her arrogance, her extremely elitist and aristocratic attitudes, and her penchant for wearing revealing outfits at all times. The White Queen was one of the first female characters in the X-Men to wear a costume that was clearly meant for seduction, and it has generally remained the most revealing costume among the X-Men. Her arrogance and independence, while grating on the other team members at times, prevent her from being any sort of wilting flower female.

Samuel Guthrie (Cannonball)

Created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeoud, Samuel Guthrie was one of the first young mutants to be trained in the series The New Mutants, which premiered in 1981. Joining the X-Men represented his graduation from adolescent student to full-fledged X-Man, which had been his life’s dream. He has the power to generate concussive blasts that propel him in flight at great speeds. As he is flying his body produces a protective field so that he cannot be harmed, so he can slam into objects or foes without fear of personal injury. Guthrie is from rural Kentucky and is often treated and portrayed as simpler or more naïve than his teammates. Writers often give him a more stereotypically redneck speech pattern to denote his rural upbringing.

Joseph

Joseph is the name taken by a man who identically resembles Magneto. First appearing in The Uncanny X-Men #327 (Dec. 1995), Joseph was created by Scott Lobdell and Roger Cruz. Because he stumbles out of the wreckage of Magneto’s old base, it is assumed that he is an amnesiac Magneto. However, it is revealed that he is a clone of Magneto, who was created by Sabra for the sole purpose of killing Magneto. Joseph’s storyline and identity is at times confusing, and it seems likely that he was originally intended to be Magneto, but later writers made the decision to have him be a clone.

Cecilia Reyes

Cecilia Reyes is a Puerto Rican doctor who reluctantly joins the X-Men after several offers. She first appeared in X-Men Vol. 2 #65 (June 1997), which was written by Scott Lobdell and drawn by Carlos Pacheco. Marvel Comics has identified her as Afro-Latin American, and she is the first Latina to join an X-Men team. Cecilia Reyes initially chose not to join the X-Men because she wished to focus on her work in medicine and had no interest in becoming a superhero. She has the mutant ability to project a force field around her body, though the power has been expanded into a more aggressive use in some stories. The majority of the stories featuring Cecilia Reyes did not occur in The Uncanny X-Men, but in the other mutant titles published by Marvel. Reyes, who is a confident character and very accomplished in the field of medicine, initially avoids most of the negative stereotypes that are sometimes used in popular culture when depicting African Americans or Latinos but develops an addiction to an illegal drug in one of the few storylines in which she is featured. Professor Xavier helps her break this addiction.

Japheth (Maggott)

Japheth was a black South African character and first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #345 (June 1997), which was written by Scott Lobdell and Ben Raab with art by Joe Madureira and Melvin Rubi. Maggott did not last long on the team in The Uncanny X-Men. His mutant powers were telepathic control over two large slug-like maggots named Eeny and Meeny, who also served as his digestive system. These maggots can digest anything and, after returning to Maggott’s abdomen, give him superior strength and energy from the nourishment they carry.

Initially little is known about Maggott, but it is later revealed that as a child in South Africa during apartheid his mutation was misunderstood by all around him. Magneto finds Japheth and helps him learn to control the maggots that serve as his digestive system. When Japheth witnesses Magneto murder several white Afrikaner soldiers who had been murdering black South Africans, he rejects Magneto’s solution to the prejudice in his country and runs away from his benefactor. Although this character history does help broaden the scope of the prejudice metaphor in X-Men comic books beyond race relations in the United States, it is rarely touched on by the character or the themes in stories after it is revealed.

Clearly, the backstory about South Africa was not intended when Maggott first appeared, because early on “you will see Australian dialect in his speech” because the character’s creator, Scott Lobdell, “intended Maggott to be Australian, not South African” (“Maggott”). After the South African backstory is decided, the character frequently uses Afrikaans slang rather than Australian dialect.

After his maggots return to his body to feed him, his skin turns blue for a time. However, it will return to his normal skin tone shortly. Because of this, Maggott, like Colossus, can appear as a mutant or he can pass as a normal human depending on if his powers are in use. Unlike Colossus, Maggott can still be visually identified as part of a minority group in both his home country and the United States when using his mutant powers or appearing as a normal human.

Sarah (Marrow)

Marrow first appeared as a child in Cable #15 (Sept. 1994), so that issue’s writer and artist, Jeph Loeb and David Brewer, created the character. However, most of Marrow’s adult personality and mutant powers were determined by Scott Lobdell in various X-Men comic books he wrote, and her initial adult appearance was created by Joe Maduriera. In her first appearances, Marrow is a supervillain, leading the anti-human/pro-mutant terrorist group called Gene Nation before reforming and joining the X-Men.

After Nightcrawler, Marrow is one of the first members of the X-Men who is always clearly identified as a mutant. Because her mutant powers cause bones to protrude from all over her body, she cannot pass for a normal human, as most of the X-Men can. In her appearances as a villain, Marrow is very grotesque, but under the tutelage of the X-Men she gains greater control of her powers and becomes more classically attractive. Eventually, Marrow uses technological and genetic augmentation to increase control of her powers, which allows her to retract all of her mutant bone growths into her skin so that she can “pass” as a normal human. Much of Marrow’s character arc is built around her feelings of inadequacy due to her physical appearance. She feels monstrous because of the bones that grow at odd angles and protrude from her skin. Her quest for normalcy is based as much on obtaining a more standard outer appearance as it is on her personality reformation from terrorist villain to hero.

Nathan Summers (Cable)

The infant Nathan Summers first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #201 (Jan. 1986), which was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Rick Leonardi. The adult Cable first appeared in New Mutants #87 (Mar. 1990), written by Louise Simonson and drawn by Rob Liefeld. The adult Cable is Nathan Summers, the child of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor who was taken into the future and raised there, only to return to the present day as a soldier determined to destroy the threat of a villain named Apocalypse. Cable appeared regularly in X-Force as the leader of that team as well as in his own long-running series, Cable. Cable’s stay on the X-Men often highlighted the tension in his relationship with his father, Scott Summers, and his pseudo-mother, Jean Grey.

Cable has a glowing cybernetic eye and a cybernetic arm. He is telepathic, telekinetic, and a master soldier and trained tactician. His backstory is one of the more convoluted of any character. He is the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, but was raised in a dystopic future. In another odd twist, Rachel Summers (the daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey from an alternate future timeline) is responsible for bringing her half-brother Nathan to the future timeline (a different future timeline than the one she grew up in) so he can be raised there. She also imports Scott and Jean Grey’s minds into bodies in this future timeline so that they can help raise Nathan (even though Jean Grey is not his mother). The Summers family has a rather twisted family tree.

Neal Sharra (Thunderbird)

Neal Sharra was a new mutant introduced during Chris Claremont’s brief return to the X-Men titles. The character had no relation to the original Thunderbird from Giant-Size X-Men #1. Although India has a very diverse set of ethnicities and cultural groups, we are not told much about the character’s heritage other than that he is Indian and his family lives in Calcutta. While he takes the code name Thunderbird, his powers are almost identical to Sunfire, another character who was part of the team that relaunched the X-Men franchise in 1975.

Close Reading

In previous periods the storylines “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Inferno” have been analyzed. In both instances a female associated with the X-Men gained new powers, succumbed to an outside influence, and threatened all of existence. A storyline with similar plot points from this period is “Onslaught.” Professor Xavier, influenced by a seed of evil from Magneto’s mind, creates a new psychic entity called Onslaught. Eventually this psychic entity takes on physical form, leaves Xavier’s mind and body, and threatens all life on Earth.

One of the key differences in these storylines is the gender of the protagonist/antagonist, and how their gender is an aspect of their displays of evil. While Jean Grey, joining with the Phoenix Force, became the Dark Phoenix and Madelyne Pryor, receiving demonic powers from S’ym, became the Goblin Queen, Professor Xavier, coupled with aspects of Magneto’s mind, gave birth to Onslaught. Marvel’s official explanation of Onslaught’s origin is that,

When Charles Xavier telepathically rendered Magneto catatonic, he unknowingly absorbed Magneto’s dark ego. Magneto’s negative emotions merged with Xavier’s suppressed urges, forming a powerful, dormant psionic entity—the self-dubbed Onslaught. [. . .] Soon after, Xavier encountered X-Man (Nate Grey) on the astral plane, who pulled Xavier’s astral form into the physical world. Onslaught thus escaped Xavier’s mind, but was still “tethered” to Xavier. (“Onslaught”)

Each of these three heroes-turned-villains had different motivations. Dark Phoenix was the devourer and consumed an entire star and threatened to consume all of creation. The Goblin Queen opened a portal to a hell dimension and threatened to have demons destroy this plane of existence. Originally, Onslaught sought to ensure peaceful coexistence between humanity and mutants by fascistic force, but in the end he decides that the destruction of both groups is the only way to guarantee peace.

Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor become more sexual in both their paths to villainy and in their roles as villains. Professor Xavier, conversely, becomes a hyper-masculine being. Both Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor had sexual encounters signal their descent into evil. The first warning the X-Men have of the coming of Onslaught is the defeat of their longtime foe and Professor Xavier’s half-brother, the Juggernaut. The women are sexualized in their villainy; Professor Xavier is marked as more strong and violent, single-handedly defeating a foe who had troubled the entire team of X-Men numerous times before.

Also significant is the way these characters’ evil forms are shown. In Jean Grey’s path to becoming the Dark Phoenix, she became the Black Queen and wore black lingerie as her costume. The Goblin Queen wore what were essentially tattered rags that barely covered her. Onslaught is a massively armored being. His size and armor are signs of his power, whereas the sexuality of the Black Queen and Goblin Queen were highlighted. A (weak) defense of the frequent objectification of women in comic book art through the exaggerated size of their breasts and butts and skimpy or form-hugging costumes is that the men are also drawn with exaggerated body types. The stereotypical exaggerated body types are on clear display with these three villains. Dark Phoenix and the Goblin Queen have more sexualized forms than their heroic counterparts, while Onslaught is improbably more muscular than Professor X (or any man in history) has ever been.

An important distinction between objectification and idealization needs to be made. While writing about video games, which have had the same debate raging for years about the portrayals of male characters versus female characters, Jim Sterling countered the claim that men are just as objectified as women by saying, “[E]xactly who is this hypothetical male objectification being done for?” Going on to dismiss the claims that it is eye candy for women or gay men, Sterling concludes that in video games “[w]omen are objectified; they are supposed to be things men want. Men are idealized; they are heroes men are supposed to want to be.” This seems to be the same distinction that can be found in comic books. The hyper-muscular men are not portrayed as sexual objects, whereas the scantily clad females are. Sexuality was a key component of Dark Phoenix and Goblin Queen’s characters—not so with Onslaught.

The consequences that these heroes face for their turn toward evil are also different. The Dark Phoenix and the Goblin Queen were both killed to balance the scales of justice. Professor Xavier is simply arrested following the events of Onslaught. The women, who threatened mankind with their power and sexuality, must be exterminated. The man, who also threatened the entire world, is incarcerated and fairly quickly released.

Another notable storyline from this period is the crossover “X-Cutioner’s Song.” Although this story does not have many elements that deal with prejudice toward racial minority, it does have a story element that offers a new interpretation for the mutant metaphor. Though many have cited other interpretations, including the social anxiety and feelings of being an “outsider” that so-called “geeks” experience in high school, the prevalent interpretation for mutants had been an allegory for racial minorities. The conclusion of “X-Cutioner’s Song” introduces a new element that invites the readers to interpret mutants also as a metaphor for the alienation homosexuals experience in society.

The villain of the story, Stryfe, releases a disease called the Legacy Virus, which will only infect mutants. At first, normal humans are relatively unconcerned with this new disease that will not threaten them. However, eventually the Legacy Virus makes the jump from infecting only mutants to also infecting humans. Moira MacTaggert, a longtime character in the X-Men series, was the first human to die because of being infected by the Legacy Virus. This storyline was introduced in the early 1990s, when the AIDS scare was quite prominent in the media.

Fabian Nicieza, one of the writers of the “X-Cutioner’s Song” storyline, has said that as a group, the writers hoped to create a greater separation between the X-Men and the rest of the Marvel universe by introducing the Legacy Virus.

We specifically discussed ways to alienate mutants even further from mainstream superheroes, since by then the thematic tone of prejudice was cemented into the book’s structure. One thing the “new wave” of writers discussed was “why are mutants railed against but people are okay with the Fantastic Four or Thor?” The presentation of our theme was complicated by the inconsistency shown by the fictional population of the universe. HIV/AIDS was a very prevalent topic at the time and absolutely as creators, having gone through our 20’s in the 80’s, we were well informed by the thematic underpinnings of prejudice against gays as a result of the virus outbreak.

But Nicieza also wants it to be made clear that this does not mean that suddenly all readers should equate mutants with homosexuals. Rather, this introduced a new layer to the metaphor, one which remained open to interpretation by both creators and readers.

The “Operation: Zero Tolerance” storyline does have some elements that line up with historical precedents from the history of the United States. And it is one of the more overt attempts to bring the looming threat from the future timelines the X-Men have seen, mutants being rounded up into concentration camps, into the present day. However, the story does not align strongly with contemporary concerns from the period when it was published. The threat of the government rounding up a group of people and placing them in concentration camps because of an aspect of their genetic code did not sound as threatening as it would have shortly after Japanese Americans were rounded up, or even as it would had Guatanomo Bay still been functioning as a base for untried enemies of the state. This does not negate the impact of the story. It is unfortunate that multiple historical allegories, from Indian reservations to Japanese American camps, can be identified as relevant to this story.



Chapter Six

Reestablishing the Metaphor

The Uncanny X-Men #394 (July 2001) to The Uncanny X-Men #500 (Sept. 2008)

The Creators and General Storyline

The comic book industry had experienced incredible success in the early 1990s, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s the industry suffered a crash that left publishers with dwindling readerships. Although the X-Men had been one of the premiere superhero franchises throughout Claremont’s run and into the 1990s, it was not immune to the market downturn. The X-Men titles saw their sales drop, and soon the series was no longer the top-selling title in the industry.

In 2000 Bill Jemas was hired as president of publishing for Marvel. He soon fired the company’s editor in chief, Bob Harras, and brought Joe Quesada into that position. These two men were put in charge of changing the sales trends Marvel found its comic book titles producing. According to Dirk Deppey in an article for The Comics Journal:

Jemas and Quesada wasted no time in transforming Marvel’s publishing philosophy from a conservative, formulaic reliance on established superhero tropes to a more adventurous, whatever-sticks-to-the-walls approach, but from the beginning their experiments were conducted in the shadow of ironclad market reality. Both men made clear in interviews that they clearly understood that growth in Marvel’s publishing division meant walking a fine line between two seemingly incompatible constituencies—on the one hand, the company needed to maintain its existing base of lifelong superhero fans, while on the other, it also needed to experiment with new genres and storytelling techniques, in order to appeal to potential readers who might not be interested in what the existing fan base craved. (“X-Men . . . Retreat!”)

One successful part of Jemas and Quesada’s efforts was what became known as the “Ultimate” line of comics. Titles such as Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men were launched in a new narrative universe so that the characters could be introduced to new readers without thirty years of intimidating continuity. Each title started out as though the series was launching for the first time in 2000, with modern art, themes, and dialogue, but characters that were analogs of the existing versions in the mainstream Marvel universe.

Although all of Marvel’s comic book series were struggling in the changing marketplace, the X-Men, which had been so consistently a high seller, were of particular concern. Marvel had two significant plans to revitalize the X-Men franchises in the new millennium. One was to bring in Grant Morrison, a popular writer, to boldly revision the X-Men. The second, which would take longer to implement, was to make the minority metaphor a higher concern for the series by reducing the number of mutants in the Marvel universe.

Morrison wrote a manifesto detailing his vision for the X-Men series. Among the points in “Morrison’s Manifesto,” as Marvel termed it when it was reprinted in a collection of X-Men comics, was the following:

In the last decade or so, the tendency at Marvel has been intensely conservative; comics like the X-MEN have gone from freewheeling, overdriven pop to cautious, dodgy retro. What was dynamic becomes static—dead characters always return, nothing that happens really matters ultimately. The stage is never cleared for new creations to develop and grow. The comic has turned inwards and gone septic like a toenail. The only people reading are fan boys who don’t count. The X-MEN, for all it was still Marvel’s bestseller, had become a watchword for undiluted geekery before the movie gave us another electroshock jolt. And in the last decade, sales fell from millions to hundreds of thousands. (Deppey)

In the end, Morrison was assigned to write the X-Men, not Uncanny X-Men. To signify the new direction the franchise was taking, X-Men was renamed New X-Men for all the issues when Morrison was writer, but was renamed X-Men after his departure.

Whereas Morrison was receiving praise from fans and the media for his work on New X-Men, Joe Casey and Chuck Austen were writing Uncanny X-Men to mixed reviews. Austen’s run is one of the most controversial in the history of the series. While Morrison’s New X-Men was revitalizing the franchise, many fans and reviewers felt Austen was damaging the property with poor storytelling and offensive plotlines. Austen’s stories have been called both misogynistic and anti-religious, though he denies both charges. The frequent criticisms online from fans and reviewers resulted in Austen giving several interviews in which he openly criticized the online community and fans of X-Men comic books. Though sales did not diminish during his tenure as writer, it remains one of the more debated runs on the series in online circles to this day.

In one interview, titled “Chuck Austen, The Last Interview” because he soon stopped giving interviews, Austen was asked, “When you see so much bile and hatred thrown in your direction, do you ever want to just stop making comics or get out of the industry?” His response recognized that his work was receiving more-than-average criticism:

It’s reaching legendary status, isn’t it? [. . .] Everyone’s amazed by it. By the level and frequency and ferocity. [. . .] I’ve never seen you or anyone else ever ask any other creator this question. What the hell is going on? [. . .] I mean, this is unprecedented, isn’t it? I’ve never seen so much anger directed toward a single creator, anywhere, in my life. For someone who supposedly writes “unoriginal, unimaginative, rehash stories” I sure generate a lot of intense emotions, don’t I? So much so that it seems to be the buzz of the industry, at the moment. I’m the most hated man in comics, to hear it from some. But sales are up? How is this inequity possible? Maybe because the trolls are in the minority? A loud and angry, but still small minority? [. . .] So, the answer is, “yes” sometimes it affects me. I’m human, after all. So I stay offline and avoid it as much as possible, and since the rest of the world doesn’t revolve around comics, it’s somewhat easy to avoid. But most of the time, it’s honestly amusing, now that I really understand that these people are truly in the minority, and generally unhinged. (“Chuck Austen, The Last Interview,” emphasis in original)

Though he claims to find the criticism amusing, those were excerpts from an almost seven-thousand-word response to questions about fan criticism of his work. In his answer, Austen criticized retailers, other professionals, and fans in a rambling fashion. The criticism of Austen’s work, as noted, reached unprecedented heights even for notoriously fickle online fans. Undoubtedly not all of this criticism was valid, and Austen became an easy target of the “trolls” he identified in the interview. But some of the criticism, especially claims that his stories have a very prominent anti-religious theme, can be verified from even a simple plot description.

Whereas the quality of Austen’s work is debated by his fans and detractors, it is clear that the subsequent writers were not as controversial. Certainly they did not receive universal praise, but the response from fans and critics was not as heated as what was seen during Austen’s run. Austen was immediately followed by Claremont, in what was perhaps a move by Marvel editorial to appease upset fans by bringing back the classic X-Men writer. Dirk Deppey of The Comics Journal felt this was a move by Marvel to give old fans of the X-Men what they wanted:

The end of Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men marked the final stage of an experiment first begun at the behest of Marvel executives Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada some four years ago, an attempt to make the company’s flagship line more attractive to newer readers. Morrison in particular performed some amazing transformations upon the X-Men: abandoning the traditional Spandex superhero costumes, outing Professor Xavier as mentor of X-Men (and his school as their headquarters), providing said school with a full 200+ member student body, and generally giving the series a new, more science-fiction-oriented emphasis.

Alas, [. . .] the new market for X-Men comics and graphic novels apparently never arrived, which means it’s time to hit the reboot button and return things to the way they were. [. . .] Nostalgia is the name of the game, here: The primary Direct Market readership is between 25 and 35 years of age, and is looking for the same junkie thrill they first experienced as teenagers reading comics. (“X-Men Reload”)

Claremont’s return was widely reported, but did not generate any of the type of fondly remembered storylines his original run had produced.

It was during Claremont’s run that the second goal of Quesada and Jemas for the X-Men franchise was implemented. Quesada felt that the minority metaphor was what drove the X-Men, but creators had added so many mutants to the Marvel Universe that the metaphor no long functioned properly. In a miniseries called House of M, which was written by Brian Michael Bendis but crossed over with the X-Men titles, Magneto’s daughter, Scarlet Witch, creates an alternate reality using her rather undefined powers in which her father’s dreams of mutant dominance are a reality. As the heroes who have discovered that this new reality is false confront the Scarlet Witch, she uses her powers to reset the universe to its proper order. But as she resets the Marvel universe back to normal, she is more convinced than ever that the battle between humans and mutants will never cease. In House of M #8 (Nov. 2005), the final issue of the miniseries, she whispers, “No more mutants” just as reality is being restored. As a result, over 90 percent of the mutants in the Marvel universe lose their mutations, leaving only 198 identified mutants in the world. Mutantkind is closer to extinction than ever before, and the remaining X-Men will serve as their protectors.

Claremont’s run is followed by Tony Bedard for two issues and then Ed Brubaker for a much longer run. In this period, the artists on the title tended to work for much shorter periods than the writers. Often artists would alternate storylines, with an artist completing a three-issue storyline, then having another artist drawing five or six issues, and then the earlier artist returning for another set of issues. The artists with the most issues include Phillip Tan, Salvador Larroca, Alan Davis, and Billy Tan.

General Storyline

This period begins with a storyline in which a singing pop star dates Chamber, a severely disfigured mutant. The singer is only dating Chamber because he is a mutant, and that gives her “street cred” and helps her shed her good-girl image with the public. The X-Men also battle a group called the Church of Humanity, an organization committing genocide against mutants in the name of God. The X-Men rescue a mutant woman named Stacy X from a mutant brothel, and she joins the team. The religiously themed villains in the Church of Humanity and the hyper-sexuality brought to the series by adding a prostitute to the team were introduced during Joe Casey’s run, but both themes were magnified when Austen became the main writer of the series.

The story continues with the X-Men discovering a Catholic church serving as a drug house, with the cardinal being an addict as well. The drugs are being made and peddled by mutants, so the Church of Humanity attacks the church and kills those within, including the cardinal. Nightcrawler, who had always been a deeply religious character and was even ordained as a Catholic priest, begins to struggle with his faith.

The team’s roster is adjusted as Juggernaut asks for the X-Men’s help and then accepts Professor Xavier’s offer to stay at the mansion. Havok, who had been in an alternate dimension for some time, is found in a coma being cared for by a nurse named Annie, who has fallen in love with him as she cares for him. Northstar, the first homosexual character in mainstream superhero comics, is added to the X-Men’s roster. He had previously been a member of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight.

During Austen’s run, the soap opera elements of the book become more of a focus. The interrelationships of characters are what led some to criticize Austen as misogynistic, as the women on the team are often portrayed as either seductresses who cannot restrain their impulses or as literally insane due to their raging emotions (especially if they are in the throes of unrequited love). One of the creepier relationships that is explored is between Angel, who was one of the first members of the X-Men and clearly well into adulthood at this stage (even with the immensely slow aging of comic book superheroes), and the teenaged mutant who goes by the code name Husk, who is eighteen in these issues. She had previously been a member of Generation X, the team of underaged mutants being trained in their powers, though it is mentioned in the series that she is now of legal age.

Havok awakes from his coma, and he and Polaris renew their relationship as Havok’s nurse, Annie, wonders about her feelings for him. A storyline called “Holy War” followed, which is perhaps the most controversial of Austen’s run. The X-Men are again battling the Church of Humanity, which has crucified mutants and left them on the lawn of the X-Men’s mansion as a warning at the beginning of the story. What follows is a bizarre and convoluted story that, frankly, makes little sense. In their battle and subsequent interrogation of the leader of the Church of Humanity (who in his only previous appearance was a male, but is here, inexplicably, now a female), it is revealed that she was a nun who was sexually abused by a priest. Now, she has a goal of either taking over the Catholic Church or destroying it, depending on which line of dialogue has been spoken most recently. To do so, the Church of Humanity plans to install Nightcrawler as pope (there is no explanation of how this will be accomplished) while he is using an image transducer to appear to be a normal human. Then, once he is the pope, they will turn off the image transducer, and due to his mutant appearance it will appear as if a demonic Antichrist is leading the Catholic Church. Simultaneously, the Church of Humanity will activate a poison they have been lacing communion wafers with that will cause those who have consumed them to disintegrate, thus simulating the rapture. It is unclear what the simulation of the rapture is meant to accomplish, especially since this is not a Catholic belief, but a tenant Protestant theology. In a review of this issue Paul O’Brien writes:

This story is so bad that it deserves to be immortalized in derision for years to come. Even as a hardcore atheist, I have little sympathy for Austen’s bizarrely twisted idea of the Catholic Church, which seems to revolve exclusively around the twin concepts of sexual abuse and bigotry. Granted that those may be the Church’s most prominent flaws, in Austen’s stories they seem to be the Church’s only features.

The idea of a plan to install Nightcrawler as Pope—never previously mentioned prior to this issue—is comically over the top. The idea that the world’s Catholics are going to react to a simulated Rapture in anything like the manner described is little short of ludicrous and suggests that Austen still thinks ordinary Catholics are little more than dogmatic slaves of their church. I rather suspect the average Catholic in the street would continue their existing policy of generally acting much like everyone else. (“X-Men, how far you have fallen”)

The storyline also retcons Nightcrawler’s ordination to the priesthood, revealing that it never happened and that it was all a hallucination induced by the Church of Humanity.

The next storyline involves Nightcrawler meeting his father, Azrael. Azrael is an ancient mutant who has been trapped in a hell dimension, but has periodically escaped and sired children on Earth. After returning from this hell dimension, where the X-Men thwart Azrael’s plans to return permanently to Earth to conquer it, they go to Kentucky to where a family with multiple mutant children is experience a Romeo and Juliet situation when their son begins dating the daughter of an anti-mutant bigot.

The X-Men have adventures in England and the Savage Land, adventures that see the lineup of the team change considerably. The story with the largest impact on the X-Men franchise in this period is House of M, most of which takes place in a separate miniseries. The ramifications of House of M, which removed most mutants’ powers and cut down the total number of empowered mutants in the Marvel universe to 198, had effects on all the X-Men family of comic books Marvel published. Following House of M, the X-Men’s mansion becomes a refugee camp for all surviving mutants. Rachel Summers, who grew up in the dystopian future depicted in “The Days of Future Past,” finds the refugee camp uncomfortably similar to the world she grew up in and decides to try to connect with the relations she may have in this timeline. Recently, in New X-Men, Jean Grey was killed, and Rachel Summers visits the Grey household as they are still in mourning.

While Rachel is visiting the Grey family, a Shi’ar death squad attacks. The Shi’ar have determined that because of the Grey’s close links to the Phoenix Force, anyone carrying Grey DNA cannot live. The Grey genome is declared a threat to the universe and is to be exterminated. Rachel survives the attack, but every other member of the Grey family is murdered in front of her eyes.

This sets the series off into a more interstellar tone, after being more Earth-centric for many years. One of the last storylines in this period is a twelve-issue epic entitled “The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire,” in which a third Summers brother, who Cyclops and Havok had never known, rises to power as a villain and after many issues of intrigue becomes the new emperor of the Shi’ar Empire. Following this storyline the X-Men return to Earth and, nearing the five-hundredth-issue milestone, relocate from New York to San Francisco, which is a city they feel has always embraced minorities.

New Members of the X-Men

There is only one wholly original character introduced to the team in this period. Eight other characters become members of the X-Men for the first time, but they had all been introduced in other X-Men-related titles, as villains in the series, or as guest stars.

Miranda Leevald (Stacy X)

The new character who is introduced is a female mutant named Miranda Leevald, who goes by the code name Stacy X. Stacy X was created by Joe Casey and Tom Raney and first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #399 (Nov. 2001). Stacy X has somewhat scaly or reptilian skin and also has the ability to produce pheromones that can alter the emotions of those around her. She used her pheromone powers working as a prostitute at the X-Ranch, a brothel where the prostitutes were exclusively mutants. The brothel was attacked and destroyed, with many of the mutants murdered by the Church of Humanity.

Stacy X’s tenure as a member of the X-Men is short. She causes a great deal of friction among the member of the team and in the end leaves because she knows her attempts to seduce other X-Men are not being well-received. In her short time, she attempts to seduce Wolverine, Angel, and Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is a priest at the time, so her advances are particularly unwelcome in that case. There is not much that is added to the character beyond her overt sexuality. Her mutant ability is to give men pleasure, she worked as a prostitute, and in her time with the team she is most noted for her attempts to seduce the men. Her final act before leaving is to make a video recording of herself jump-roping nude to leave for Angel, even though she knows he is not interested in a relationship with her. Stacy X is one of the characters that serves most clearly as a solely sexual object.

Jonothon Starsmore (Chamber)

Created by Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo, Chamber is part of the young group of mutants that first appeared in Generation X #1 (Nov. 1994). Jonothon Starsmore is a British mutant who blew a massive cavity into his chest and lower face when his mutant powers first manifested. He goes by the code name Chamber and has a constant furnace of energy burning in the cavity where his chest once was. He wears a turtleneck that wraps around the lower part of his face to cover up his mutation. He often claims to have been a burn victim to deflect curiosity and allow himself to pass as a normal human.

Paige Guthrie (Husk)

Paige Guthrie is the younger sister of Cannonball and first appeared in Rom Annual #3 (Nov. 1984), which was written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by William Johnson. However, Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo established much of her power and personality in Generation X, where she was a teammate of Chamber’s. Her mutant power is to shed the outer layer of her skin and reveal a body made of a new material underneath. Most often she would use her powers to create a new layer of stone or metal, which would be stronger in battle. Husk’s time with the X-Men is mostly marked by her attraction to the older Angel and the subsequent consummation of that relationship.

Cain Marko (Juggernaut)

A longtime foe of the X-Men originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Juggernaut is shown to have genuine hope for reform after years of being unhappy as a villain. Juggernaut is Professor Xavier’s stepbrother and comes to the X-Men for help in improving his life. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young mutant named Sammy the Squid-Boy, who helps him stay on the straight and narrow path.

Raven Darkholme (Mystique)

Raven Darkholme, or Mystique, is a shape-shifting mutant who can take on any appearance. Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum created Mystique, and she first appeared in Ms. Marvel #16 (May 1978). She has blue skin and yellow eyes, but due to her mutation, she can easily pass as a normal human. Though she could have any appearance she wanted, she chooses to appear with blue skin most often.

Jean-Paul Beaubier (Northstar)

Jean-Paul Beaubier, or Northstar, is a French-Canadian mutant who possesses super speed. He first appeared during Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run on The Uncanny X-Men in issue #120 (Apr. 1979). He is the first character in mainstream superhero comics who was openly identified as homosexual, though other characters had been hinted to be homosexual previously. He was a member of Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight prior to joining the X-Men.

Tessa (Sage)

Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Tessa has a computer-like mind that processes and stores information with superhuman speed and accuracy. She also has telepathy. Sage was used by Professor Xavier as a spy in the Hellfire Club. In a story that presented a retcon to both Xavier’s and Sage’s past, when forming the original X-Men Xavier also met Sage, and instead of bringing her to the school had her enter the Hellfire Club.

James Proudstar (Warpath)

James Proudstar is the younger brother of Thunderbird, the first X-Man to die on a mission. Proudstar takes the name Warpath and is another reformed villain. Originally created by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema in New Mutants #16 (Jun. 1984), Warpath joined the villainous group of young mutants called the Hellions to take his revenge on the X-Men, who he blamed for his brother’s death. He eventually reformed and joined X-Force and then the X-Men. During “The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire” he begins to date Hepzibah.

Hepzibah

Hepzibah is not a mutant, but a feline alien. Hepzibah was a member of the interstellar pirate group called the Starjammers, who frequently aided the X-Men. Created by Dave Cockrum, she first appeared in X-Men #107 (Oct. 1977), which was written by Chris Claremont with art by Cockrum. When the leader of the Starjammers, Cyclops and Havok’s father, Corsair, is killed in battle, Hepzibah decides to explore a different path in her life and returns to Earth with the X-Men.

Close Reading

After a significant period when the gender representation on the team has been almost equal between men and women, Uncanny X-Men #394 (July 2001) begins a run of almost thirty issues when the core team appearing in the series is either entirely male or all men except for Stacy X, a former prostitute who spends much of her time attempting to seduce the various men on the team. Not only has Stacy X been working as a prostitute, her superpower is literally to manipulate men’s emotions. The previous times the X-Men have only had one female member included when Marvel Girl was a token female early in the series and when Storm was a strong leader of the team.

There have been many online criticisms of the portrayal of women during Chuck Austen’s run on the series. The criticism primarily focus on his use of an original character, Nurse Annie, who is taking care of the comatose Havok and develops a strong attraction to him, on Austen’s portrayal of Polaris, and on the relationship between Husk and Angel. Annie falls in love with a man she has never known other than as a comatose patient. Polaris literally goes insane with jealousy when she finds out Annie is in love with Havok. And Husk, who had previously been shown as a shy and reserved girl when it came to relationships and sexuality, openly pursues the much older Angel. It is even implied, when Angel finally admits he is also attracted to her, that she has sex with Angel in the sky with the knowledge that her teammates and family are on the ground directly below them. After Angel hugs Husk and flies her into the air, Husk’s clothing slowly fall to the ground as her mother walks away muttering, “I do not want to see this . . .”

Although these three women are shown to be very emotionally needy, there is little in his writing that displays a hatred of women. This criticism was so prevalent that he was asked about it directly in an interview. In a 2006 interview with Comic Book Resources, the following exchange occurred:

CBR: But more seriously, some people think you’re a misogynist, you hate women, you’re obsessed with sex. . .

Austen: Aren’t we all obsessed with sex? And misogynist? Who says that? Some guy trying to pick up on a feminist? “Hey, baby. Wanna go out with me? I can use the word misogynist in a sentence.” [. . .] Why do people say that? What makes them think I have an issue with women?

CBR: Maybe . . . I know a lot of it came out of the soap opera feel of your work, the whole thing with Nurse Annie in “Uncanny X-Men” and the claim that your women are too needy for men.

Austen: But I also write men who need women. And men who need men. [laughs] I’m writing for Marvel Comics: these guys made their reputation on soap operas. [. . .] People are always picking on Annie. I asked for a woman with small breasts, who was funny and independent, raised a child on her own, with no powers who stands up to a super heroine for her son’s life, and because she—I mean, you’re a soap opera fan, right? Can you write a soap opera without men and women wanting each other? [. . .] I’ve only known one woman in my life who didn’t want a relationship, who was very involved with her work and wanted to get her career going. We just went to dinner with her a few months ago and she asked if we knew any good men. Everyone wants a relationship. I don’t see how you can write characters who don’t have one or want one. And why is it “hating women” to write a character that wants love? It wasn’t the be all and end all for Annie. She walked away from Havok at the end of my run because she was concerned more about her son and she felt she didn’t need the X-Men or Havok in her life. She very happily walked away from the whole thing. (“In Depth With Chuck Austen”)

Although Austen’s run was problematic and controversial, many of the criticisms seemed to snowball together, as often happens online. The more extreme accusations of misogyny are difficult to find in the stories. When the readers did not like the way the women were acting, they leapt to the accusation of misogyny, when more likely they simply did not like the stories being told. A dislike of a story does not mean misogyny on the part of the creator. It is clear that his women in these stories are portrayed as emotionally needy, completely dependent on heterosexual pairings for meaning in their lives, and anything but independent. But that could just be poor, stereotypical writing and not misogyny. That may be a faint defense, but it is important to identify and criticize misogyny and its presence in stories properly for the word to have meaning. Simply not having a positive portrayal of female characters does not inherently make a story misogynistic.

One of the most important stories in terms of the direction of the series as a whole was the miniseries House of M. Marvel’s editor in chief at the time, Joe Quesada, has been upfront in admitting that when he came into his job, one of his goals was to make the minority metaphor matter in the X-Men again. The solution that Marvel found, and that came about in House of M, was to remove the majority of the mutants from the Marvel universe.

In the story, Scarlet Witch, the second female mutant to appear in Marvel Comics, goes insane and demonstrates new unheard levels of power that threaten all creation. This is similar to previous events in which a formerly good character becomes evil and loses control of her powers, including “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” “Inferno,” and “Onslaught.” Scarlet Witch re-creates the world into a reality in which mutants are the majority and normal humans the minority. Her father, Magneto, is one of the most powerful men on the planet, the leader of the so-called House of M. When the Marvel universe is put back to “normal,” she causes almost all the mutants to lose their powers. The mutants are not killed, but their DNA is changed so that they no longer have powers. Concerning the storyline, Quesada has said:

Part of what is inherently important about the metaphor of the X-Men is that they are a minority. The reason in the past that fans have been able to relate to these characters is that we all see a part of ourselves within them, whether it be that you were the lonely kid in school, the gay kid in school . . . or the kid who got beaten up in school because you were different. Whatever it is, we all have that. Part of it is that there aren’t supposed to be a lot of these guys . . . they never really should’ve been in the forefront. That kind of message got lost over the years, to the point where we ended up with a mutant island where there were over six million of them, and every time you’d turn a page, you’d see a mutant on every corner. We even had “Mutant Town.” So, one of the things that we wanted to do was put the genie back in the bottle. (“Stuff”)

In the years since the X-Men were created, the number of mutants increased dramatically. Even after the 1975 relaunch it was the start of a major storyline when two new mutants were detected, but as Quesada noted, by 2005 there was an entire mutant nation, and New York City had its own region call Mutant Town. Quesada felt that the prevalence of mutants in the Marvel universe diluted what made the X-Men special.

The decision to make the X-Men special again by removing the majority of mutants has not gone without criticism. Andrew Wheeler writes a column about social issues in superhero comic books called “No More Mutants,” quoting the phrase used by Scarlet Witch at the conclusion of House of M. In his first article, Wheeler wrote:

Faced with a problem minority, Marvel’s response was a fictional genocide. In the story House of M it was presented as the Scarlet Witch’s way to undo the miseries of her life, which included a failed marriage, a monstrous father, two dead children, a nervous breakdown and a spiral into villainy. Faced with those problems, wiping out an entire race seems like a baffling and inelegant solution. Seen as a solution to editorial concerns that mutants were overrunning the Marvel universe, it makes a lot more sense. (It certainly wouldn’t be the first or last time that a character behaved strangely in order to serve an editorial agenda.) (Wheeler)

Wheeler goes on to criticize Quesada’s expressed reasoning behind the decision to decimate the mutant population of the Marvel universe. Quesada argued that the result of the House of M would make mutants unique and, indeed, a minority again. Wheeler countered:

Such rhetoric suggests a misunderstanding of the challenges faced by real minorities. The invention of a mutant nation and a mutant neighbourhood really enhanced the metaphor, rather than undermined it. After all, the existence of almost four billion Asians in the world doesn’t make life easier for one Asian kid in a town in rural America. The existence of gay neighbourhoods in almost every major city in the Western world has not made coming out to one’s parents any easier. More than half the world is female, but women still don’t have full equality in the first world, let alone in the developing world. The claim that “there aren’t supposed to be a lot of these guys” is not likely to be well received by anyone who has ever been a victim of prejudice. (Wheeler)

Following House of M, Marvel moved the X-Men to San Francisco, identifying that city as one that embraces social minorities.

It is a bit disappointing that this final period has some of the most problematic portrayals of females and that the goal of heightening the impact of the mutant metaphor in the Marvel universe resulted in narrative genocide. The early 1960s Marvel stories contained stories of mostly men and one overly domesticated female who was the object of affection. These stories from the 2000s tend to be about a team of mostly men and overly sexualized females who are objectified or, in the case of Stacy X, who choose to present themselves as objects (there’s really little other potential interpretation of the video she left for Angel). The difference between the stories in these fifty years is not as great as one would have expected or hoped to see.


Chapter Seven

By the Numbers

Having done close readings of stories and characters to examine the portrayal of race and gender, how do the literal numbers reflect the themes found in the stories? That is, how are the characters actually used across nearly five decades of comics?

To determine this, The Official Index to the Marvel Universe: The Uncanny X-Men was used to identify every character who has appeared in the series. The characters were coded into one of three categories: X-Men, villains, or supporting cast. The Official Index includes a plot summary and cast list for every issue of the series. As often as possible, official Marvel publications were used to verify a character’s gender and race and ethnicity, and these were coded as well. The resulting statistics tell the literal story of how race and gender are used in The Uncanny X-Men.

The Official Index divided characters into feature characters (usually members of the team), supporting cast (established characters in the Marvel universe making a brief appearance in this series), supporting characters (regularly appearing characters who are not part of the team), villains (anyone the team fights), and other characters (background characters in a story who are not recurring and have little prominence in the issue). For the purposes of this study, guest star and supporting character categories were combined into the single category of supporting cast. There were occasions in which a group was listed (usually as a villain), without any individualization of the members of the group. For example, it may say that “Hand ninjas” may be listed, but none of the members of the group identified. In these instances, the groups were noted, but not added to the statistics regarding race and ethnicity or gender. A discussion of how the numbers worked out for each period follows.

Overall Numbers

As has been seen in the close readings, the X-Men do explore the mutant metaphor overtly within the series. The X-Men, as a franchise, is one of the most diverse in all of superhero comics. Also, the number of heroic female characters who have appeared in the series is significant in a genre and industry that is dominated by male characters. This willingness to embrace a socially relevant metaphor actively is significant especially within the comic book industry. As Andrew Wheeler explains:

Minorities in general do not have the best time of things in comics’ superhero mainstream. The superhero genre is dominated by the straight, white, male majority, and so is the creative community. Convention has it that this is true of the audience is as well, but there are plenty of readers who don’t fit that model, and these readers are used to the idea that they won’t see themselves reflected in the media they consume. That’s not something that we should be complacent about, in comics or in any other medium. (Wheeler)

However, despite actively embracing the mutant metaphor, as will be demonstrated in the numbers analysis, the X-Men is a team that has been dominated by white male characters. White characters are the most common of any race or ethnicity in the X-Men, the villains, and the supporting cast in every era. Similarly, there are more male characters than female in every category in every era. Even while the white male characters dominate the numbers, problematically the most diverse group of characters are the villains, whereas the group that is most balanced in terms of gender representation is the supporting cast. So, despite the thematic importance about tolerance and rejecting prejudice, the series is frequently about a group of white male heroes battling minority villains with a supporting cast of females.

Charts 1–4 examine the number of male characters who appeared as X-Men, villains, and supporting characters.

The proportion of male characters for each issue was calculated and then averaged across the different time periods. These averages are provided as a total and by character type: hero, villain, and supporting character. Done this way, one can easily assess both male and female inclusion in any given time period. For example, looking at Chart 1, the proportion of male villain characters for the time period 1–66 was 0.89. This indicates that in the average issue of this time period, 89% of the villains were males and 11% were females.

Chart 1

As can be seen, the percentage of male characters was very high in all the categories in the first period and fell below that level thereafter. In every category the percentage of male characters dipped down in the second and third periods of comic books and then increased in the fourth and fifth periods. In each period the villains either have the highest percentage of males of any group, or they are tied for the highest percentage males. The supporting cast has the smallest percentage of male characters of any category in all five periods. The supporting cast is also the only group ever to have less than 50% male representation in any period, with periods two and three having more females on average than males guest starring. The heroes begin the series with over 80% male representation but drop to almost 50% by the third time period before spiking in the fourth and fifth time periods to almost 70% male representation.

Because white characters represented the majority of every category in every time period, the following chart represents the percentage of white characters through all the time periods. The heroes have the highest percentage of white characters of any group in every time period, whereas the villains have the lowest percentage of white characters in every single time period.

The proportion of white characters for each issue was calculated and then averaged across the different time periods. These averages are provided as a total and by character type: hero, villain, and supporting character. Done this way, one can easily assess both white and other race inclusion in any given time period. For example, looking at Chart 2, the proportion of white villain characters for the time period 394–500 was 0.54. This indicates that in the average issue of this time period, 54% of the villains were white and 46% were other races.

Chart 2

Charts 3 and 4 illustrate how each gender is broken down amongst the three groups, heroes, villains, and supporting characters. “Gender and Character Type by Number of Characters” reflects the proportion of female or male characters who took the role of hero, villain, or supporting character. In terms of number of characters, most male characters are villains and most female characters are supporting characters.

Chart 3

Chart 4

“Gender and Character Type by Appearance” breaks down the roles each male character and each female character had by total number of appearances. While a character is only counted once toward the total number of characters, the character may have appeared fifty times across all of the issues. In terms of appearances, the most male characters appear as X-Men, and the most female character appearances are also as X-Men.

What these numbers reveal is that although the X-Men does deal openly and often with the issues of prejudice and discrimination in the storylines, the characters who appear most frequently are white men. Following this, fictional groups such as aliens make the most appearances. Thus, whereas on the one hand the series does deal with issues facing real-world minorities, on the other it remains a series dominated by social majorities and fictional minorities. However, because so much of the prejudice is rooted in the idea of being a mutant, the metaphor inherently allows interpretation by the reader that does not limit the meaning to the race and gender of the characters on the page.

As was pointed out by writers such as Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza, everyone at some point can associate with the alienation the X‐Men endure, even if the source of their alienation has nothing to do with the larger social concerns of race and gender.

Period 1

Nine characters appear as members of the X-Men in these sixty-six issues. All nine are white. Beyond simply looking at the number of characters who appear, this analysis will consider the number of appearances each character made. So if, for example, Iceman had an appearance in all sixty-six issues, even if only for a single panel in an issue, that would count as sixty-six appearances. In total, there are 378 appearances by members of the X-Men in these sixty-six issues, and all 378 appearances are by white characters.

The villains the X-Men fought were a slightly more diverse group, though fictional identifications such as aliens, demons, and robots played a larger role in diversifying the X-Men’s enemies than minority representation. The X-Men fought 123 different villains in this period. Of these, 54 (43.9%) were white, 49 (39.8%) were robots, 4 (3.3%) were Latino, 4 (3.3%) were aliens, 4 (3.3%) were Middle Eastern, 3 (2.4%) had unknown race or ethnicity, 2 (1.6%) were Asian, 1 (0.8%) was Jewish, 1 (0.8%) was a demon, 1 (1.6%) was Irish, and 1 (0.8%) was a subterranean being.

The numbers are slightly different when considering the number of appearances these villains had versus simply the number of villains. In total, there were 263 appearances by villains. Of these, 139 (52.9%) were by white characters, 77 (29.3%) were robotic characters, 13 (4.9%) were by a Jewish character, 9 (3.4%) were by Middle Eastern characters, 8 (3.0%) were by alien characters, 8 (3.0%) were by Latino characters, 4 (1.5%) were by characters with unknown race or ethnicity, 2 (0.8%) were by a subterranean character, 2 (0.8%) were by an Asian character, 1 (0.4%) was by a demonic character, and 1 (0.6 percent) was by an Irish character.

There were 23 characters in the supporting cast in these issues, and of these 36 (92.3%) were white and 1 (2.6%) was black. The lone nonwhite guest star was the Black Panther, the king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda in the Marvel universe. There were 114 appearances by characters in the supporting cast: 113 (99.1%) were by white characters, and 1 (0.9%) was by a black character.

From these numbers it is clear that during this period the vast majority of characters were white, but the most diverse group was the villains the X-Men fought. The X-Men were 100% white and the characters in the supporting cast 99.1% white, but the villains were only 43.9% white. There were 168 total characters who appeared, and 99 (58.9%) of them were white. In the first sixty-six issues, there were 753 appearances by characters in The X-Men, and 630 (83.7%) of them were by white characters.

In terms of gender representation, the numbers skew heavily male. If we consider each issue a character appears in as one appearance and add up each character’s total number of appearances, team members appear for a cumulative total of 378 times in the first sixty-six issues of The X-Men. Of 378 appearances by members of the X-Men, 311 appearances represent male team members and 67 represent female team members. From 1965–1970, 82.3% of the team member appearances in individual issues are male, whereas 17.7% are female. This number will shift dramatically in later periods as the team becomes much more balanced in terms of gender representation.

In total, the X-Men battled 122 different villains in this period. Seventy-six (62.3%) were men, 44 (36.1%) had no applicable gender (most were robotic foes), and 2 (1.6%) were women (Scarlet Witch and a Savage Land “mutate” named Lorelei). There were 186 appearances by villains in these issues. One hundred eighty-six (71.0%) of those appearances were by men, 70 were by villains with no applicable gender, and 6 (2.3 percent) were by women.

One potential reason for so few female villains is Stan Lee’s belief that male villains were more popular. Even after he stopped writing the series, Lee was Marvel’s editor in chief and had a significant say in what was published. Roy Thomas explains:

[D]rawing on myth and legend, I devised a beautiful female Irish mutant called Banshee. Stan, though, informed me that super-villains were more popular than super-villanesses, so I had to make the Banshee a male. I got a few letters decrying my ignorance of the sex of banshees, but I was still fairly proud of our creation, especially the catchy green costume Werner designed. Still, when Marvel introduced the Banshee’s daughter Siryn years later, wearing her dad’s old costume, I sighed; that’s what the Banshee should have looked like, from the start! (507)

The only two female supervillains to appear are members of teams that are dominated in number and personality by men.

There were 39 characters in the supporting cast in this period. Twenty-nine (74.4%) were men and 10 (25.6%) were women. The characters in the supporting cast made 116 total appearances. Seventy-one (61.2%) appearances were by men, while 45 (38.8%) were by women.

Totaling the total number of X-Men, villains, and supporting cast in X-Men comics from the 1960s reveals that there were 170 distinct characters who appeared. Of these, 112 (65.9%) were men, 44 (25.9%) had no applicable gender, and 14 (8.2%) were women. There were 750 appearances by characters in these sixty-six issues. Of these, 568 (75.1%) were by men, 118 (15.6%) were by women, and 70 (9.3%) were by characters with no applicable gender.

In this period of The X-Men, the greatest proportion of characters are white and male. The females tend to be shown in passive or domestic roles and are the most likely team members to be captured or in need of rescue. The most diverse characters are the villains.

Period 2

In terms of racial representation, there is a trend toward greater diversity in terms of heroes, villains, and supporting cast when compared with the X-Men comic books from the 1960s. There are 17 characters who appear on the team in this period; of these, 13 (76.5%) are white, 1 (5.9%) is black, 1 (5.9%) is Jewish, 1 (5.9%) is Asian, and 1 (5.9%) is American Indian. Because Sunfire, who is Asian, quits the team in his second appearance, Thunderbird, who is American Indian, dies after three issues, and Kitty Pryde, who is Jewish, joins the team late in this period, the team is still heavily white during this time. There were 513 appearances by members of the X-Men in these seventy-four issues. Of these, 409 (79.73%) were by white characters, 74 (14.42%) were by a black character, 26 (5.07%) were by a Jewish character, 3 (0.58%) were by an American Indian character, and 1 (0.19%) was by an Asian character.

What these numbers seem to indicate is that while the team did diversify from its previous incarnation, when the team was 100% white, in terms of ethnic identity the X-Men remained overwhelmingly white. The team became much more international with respect to its membership, but in terms of what a comic book audience would see on the page the team remained mostly white and male.

As with the earlier period, the villains are much more diverse than the heroes. Of the 119 villains to appear, 52 (43.7%) were white, 8 (6.7%) had unknown race and ethnicity, 2 (1.7%) were black, 2 (1.7%) were Asian, 1 (0.8%) was Jewish, 1 (0.8%) was American Indian, and 1 (0.8%) was Middle Eastern. Additionally, 24 (20.2%) were aliens, 5 (4.2%) were demons, 22 (30%) were robots, and 1 (0.8%) was a living island. While the X-Men battled aliens in the 1960s, this period really cemented the interstellar aspect of the X-Men, with stories that alluded to popular films such as Alien and Star Wars.

In terms of appearances, there were 244 by villains. Almost all of these appearances were by white characters or aliens. White villains appeared 141 (57.8%) times, and aliens 43 (17.6%) times. The next most common villains were Jews with 8 (3.3%) appearances, robots with 30 (12.3%) appearances, demons with 5 (2.0%) appearances, black characters with 3 (1.2%) appearances, and American Indians with 2 (0.8%) appearances, and there was 1 (0.4%) appearance each by a Middle Eastern villain and a living island.

The supporting cast also was most often either white or alien. There were 74 characters in the supporting cast in this second era of X-Men comic books. Of these, 38 (51.4%) were white, 24 (32.4%) were alien, 4 (5.4%) were black, 3 (4.1%) were Asian, 2 (2.7%) were robotic, 1 (1.4%) was Jewish, 1 (1.4%) was American Indian, and 1 (1.4%) was demonic. Of the 326 guest appearances in these issues 178 (54.6%) were by white characters, 89 (27.3%) were by alien characters, 20 (6.1%) were by black characters, 17 (5.2%) were by Asian characters, 15 (4.6%) were by robotic characters, 4 (1.2%) were by a Jewish character, 2 (0.6%) were by an American Indian character, and 1 (0.3%) was by a demonic character.

Combing these numbers for the total, the numbers still bear out a comic book series heavily dominated by white characters that is still functioning as a metaphor about prejudice. There were 210 characters in these issues, and 103 (49.0%) of them were white. The next most common category was alien, with 48 (22.9%) characters. There were also 24 (11.4%) robotic characters, 8 (3.8%) characters with unknown race and ethnicity, 7 (3.3%) black characters, 6 (2.9%) demonic characters, 6 (2.9%) Asian characters, 3 (1.4%) Jewish characters, 3 (1.4%) American Indian characters, 1 (0.1%) Middle Eastern character, and 1 (0.1%) living island.

The actual appearances are even more dominated by white characters. Of 1,109 appearances, 755 (68.1%) were by white characters, 135 (12.2%) were by aliens, 97 (8.7%) were by black characters, 38 (3.4%) were by Jewish characters, 40 (3.6%) were by robotic characters, 21 (1.9%) were by Asian characters, 8 (0.7%) were by characters of unknown race and ethnicity, 7 (0.6%) were by American Indian characters, 6 (0.5%) were by demonic characters, 1 (0.1%) was by a Middle Eastern character, and 1 (0.1%) was by a living island. Notably, while Latinos had a few appearances as villains in the first period of X-Men comics, there were no appearances by Latinos at all in this period.

One aspect that should be considered when looking at these numbers is the problem presented by characters such as Nightcrawler, who is categorized as white, but who bears no resemblance to a white man because his mutant power has left him with blue fur. He does have an image inducer that hides his true appearance under a hologram when he goes out in public and wishes to pass as a human. When using this device, he chooses a white complexion (usually using Errol Flynn’s face). Nightcrawler is the only member of the X-Men in these issues who has no clear visible ethnic markers. His speech patterns do easily identify him as German.

With 68.4% of the appearances in the comic books from this period coming from white characters, the title looks more diverse than the comic books from the 1960s when 91.2% of the appearances were by white characters, but it is still not as diverse as one would expect from a comic book series dealing with the themes for which the X-Men are famous.

In terms of gender representation, this period of X-Men comics is much more balanced in some ways, but still very heavily male-oriented in others. The percentage of female representation on the team remains largely the same as in the 1960s, but the villains and especially the supporting cast are more evenly distributed between males and females.

Seventeen different characters appear as members of the X-Men in the seventy-four issues published in this period. Of these, 12 (70.6%) are male and 5 (29.4%) are female. This is a very slight increase percentagewise over the first period of X-Men comic books, when a smaller number of characters appearing on the team were 77.8% male and 22.2% female. Giant Size X-Men #1 through The Uncanny X-Men #166 did see a much greater turnover in team membership than the previous era. Whereas the core team of the X-Men appeared in almost all the first sixty-six issues of the series, in this second period Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine appear in all seventy-four issues, and the other twelve team members come and go, with some only appearing in two or three issues before leaving the team.

In terms of the number of appearances made by characters, the male members of the X-Men made 389 appearances while the female members of the team made 124. In total, 75.8% of appearances of team members in this period were by men, while 24.2% were by women. This represents a slightly higher percentage of appearances by women when compared with the 1960s X-Men comics, when 82.1% of the appearances by team members were by men and 17.9% by women.

In the first period of X-Men comic books, almost all of the villains they faced were men. They battled only two women. In this second period of X-Men comics the team faces more female villains who make more appearances. Of the 119 villains the X-Men battled, 85 (71.4%) were male, 19 (16.0%) were female, and 15 (12.5%) had no applicable gender, either because they were formless demons, aliens with no clear gender, or electronic villains. There were 244 appearances by villains in these issues, with 182 (74.6%) of those by men, 39 (16.0%) by women, and 23 (9.4%) by villains with no applicable gender.

The greatest change in gender representation occurs with the supporting cast. Several regular female supporting cast were introduced, including Moira MacTaggert and Lilandra. While both of these women serve as love interests for members of the team, Banshee and Professor Xavier, respectively, they are defined by much more than being simply the love interests for male characters. Moira MacTaggert fends of enemies by wielding machine guns in her first appearance and is one of the leading scientists on the mutant phenomenon on the planet. Lilandra is the empress of an entire alien empire. Although the female supporting cast in the 1960s were almost always simply defined as love interests, the female supporting cast in this period represent much greater character development.

Seventy-four characters guest starred in X-Men comic books in this period. Of these, 48 (64.9%) were male and 26 (35.1%) were female. In terms of appearances, however, the representation was much more balanced. Of 352 appearances by characters in the supporting cast, 179 (50.9%) were by men and 173 (49.1%) were by women.

In total, there were 210 characters who appeared between Giant-Size X-Men #1 and The Uncanny X-Men #166. Of these 145 (69.0%) were male, 50 (23.8%) were female, and 15 (7.1%) had no identifiable gender. There were 1,109 appearances by characters in these issues. Of these 750 (67.6%) were by men, 336 (30.3%) were by women, and 23 (2.1%) were by characters with no identifiable gender. This represents a significant increase in female representation from the first period of X-Men comic books.

Period 3

In this third period there is a slight increase in diversity on the team, though overall the series becomes more dominated by white characters than it had been in the previous period of X-Men comics. This period is the most balanced of all in terms of gender representation.

Although the diversity of the X-Men increases overall in this period, the diversity of the overall cast of characters decreases, as a higher total percentage of characters and appearances in this period are by white characters when compared with the period between Giant-Size X-Men #1 and The Uncanny X-Men #166. The series is still more diverse, statistically speaking, when compared with the issues published in the 1960s.

Of the 19 characters to appear on the X-Men, 13 (68.4%) are white, 2 (10.5%) are Jewish, 2 (10.5%) are Asian, 1 (5.3%) is American Indian, and 1 (5.3%) is black. Strictly speaking, only 18 characters appeared as X-Men, but because Psylocke appeared in two different bodies with different ethnicities, each version of the character is counted as distinct for the purposes of this analysis. There were 639 appearances by characters on the X-Men in this period. Of these, 471 (73.7%) were by white characters, 83 (12.9%) were by a black character, 42 (6.6%) were by Jewish characters, 28 (4.0%) were by Asian characters, and 19 (3.7%) were by an American Indian character.

As has been the case in every period analyzed so far, the villains are more diverse than the heroes. Of the 143 villains to appear, 96 (67.1%) were white characters, 14 (9.8%) were alien characters, 8 (5.6%) were Asian characters, 7 (4.9%) had no known race or ethnicity, 4 (2,8%) were robotic characters, 5 (3.5%) were black characters, 4 (2.8%) were American Indian characters, 4 (2.8%) were demonic characters, 2 (1.4%) were of unknown ethnicity, and 1 (0.7%) was a Middle Eastern character. Of the 514 appearances by villains, 347 (67.5%) were by white characters, 26 (5.1%) were by alien characters, 36 (7.0%) were by Asian characters, 21 (4.1%) were by robotic characters, 19 (3.7%) were by American Indian characters, 18 (3.5%) were by black characters, 17 (3.3%) were by characters with no known racial or ethnic identity, 17 (3.3%) were by demonic characters, 13 (2.5%) were by characters with unknown ethnic origin, and 13 (2.5%) were by a Middle Eastern character.

Of the 19 characters who appear as members of the team between The Uncanny X-Men #167 (Mar. 1983) and The Uncanny X-Men #280 (Sept. 1991), 11 (67.9%) are male and 8 (42.1%) are female. These characters make 639 appearances in this period. Of these, 333 (52.2%) are by males and 306 (47.9%) are by females.

A few significant points stand out from this period. First, though the team has been completely dominated by male members for most of the series, in this period there are significantly more women on the team than men. Storm, Rogue, Dazzler, and Psylocke are the core of the team, with Wolverine, Longshot, or Havok rotating into team membership.

The villains were still almost three-quarters men, but the number became slightly more balanced than previous periods. There were 143 characters who appeared as villains in these issues. Of these, 102 (71.3%) were male, 33 (23.1%) were female, and 2 (1.4%) had no applicable gender. There were 514 appearances by villains in these issues. Of these, 359 (69.8%) were by male villains, 142 (27.6%) were by female villains, and 5 (1.0%) were by characters (mostly demons or aliens) with no applicable gender.

Although there were more male characters who guest starred than female characters, the female characters appeared more frequently. There were 108 characters in the supporting cast in this period. Of these, 62 (57.4%) were male and 46 (42.6%) were female. Of the 549 appearances by characters in the supporting cast, 264 (48.1%) were by males and 285 (51.9%) were by females.

Period 4

Once again, in terms of racial makeup, the majority of the characters to appear in The Uncanny X-Men were white. And again, the villains were more diverse than the members of the X-Men and the supporting cast. And, as has been common since the 1975 relaunch of the series, aliens were one of the most common groups besides white characters. In this period there is an increase in the number of characters who are introduced with relatively little official background information provided in either the comic books themselves or in official Marvel publications. There were more characters who appeared in The Uncanny X-Men in this period than any other that will be analyzed, and many of these new characters were depicted with mutations that remove any identifiable ethnic markers. Because of this, there are more characters who will be categorized as “unknown” in regards to ethnicity in this period.

Of the 27 characters to appear as members of the X-Men, 17 (63.0%) were white characters, 4 (14.8%) were black characters, 2 (7.4%) were Asian characters, 1 (3.7%) was a Jewish character, 1 (3.8%) was an Afro-Latina character, 1 (3.8%) was an American Indian character, and 1 (3.8%) was an Indian character. There were 779 appearances by members of the X-Men in this period. Of these, 583 (74.8%) were by white characters, 131 (16.8%) were by black characters, 36 (4.6%) were by Asian characters, 17 (2.2%) were by a Jewish character, 8 (1.0%) were by an American Indian character, 3 (0.4%) were by an Indian character, and 1 (0.13%) was by an Afro-Latina character.

Of the 180 villains to appear in these issues, 92 (51.1%) were white. The next most represented group, as has become standard for The Uncanny X-Men, are the groups of villains with fictional ethnicities, including 20 (11.1%) alien characters, 11 (6.1%) robot characters, and 5 (2.8%) demonic characters. Additionally, in this period there are 31 (17.2%) villains with no identified ethnicity. In descending order, the other ethnicities of the villains are 6 (3.3%) black characters, 5 (2.8%) Asian characters, 4 (2.2%) Middle Eastern characters, 3 (1.7%) American Indian characters, 1 (0.6%) Jewish character, 1 (0.6%) Latino character, and 1 (0.6%) Indian character.

There are 408 appearances by the villains in these issues. The majority of these appearances, 225 (55.1%), are by white characters. Fictional characters make significant appearances, including, 31 (7.6%) by alien characters, 25 (6.1%) by robotic villains, and 7 (1.7%) by demonic villains. There are 56 (13.7%) appearances by villains with no known ethnicity. In this period there are more appearances by Asian and Middle Eastern villains than other ethnicities. In descending order of number of appearances, the other ethnicities represented in the villains of this period include 11 (2.7%) appearances by Asian characters, 14 (3.4%) appearances by Middle Eastern characters, 15 (3.7%) appearances by black characters, 12 (2.9%) appearances by Jewish characters, 8 (2.0%) appearances by American Indian characters, 3 (0.7%) appearances by Indian villains, and 1 (0.2%) appearance by a Latino character.

The supporting cast in this period is less diverse than the heroes and villains. Of the 139 characters in the supporting cast to appear in this period, 94 (67.6%) are white. There are 10 characters in the supporting cast that have fictional ethnicities, 6 (4.3%) alien characters, and 6 (4.3%) robotic characters. In this period there are 2 (1.4%) characters in the supporting cast with no known race or ethnicity. There are 12 (8.6%) black characters in the supporting cast, 6 (4.3%) American Indian characters, 5 (3.6%) Latino characters, 5 (3.6%) Asian characters, and 3 (2.2%) Jewish characters.

The actual number of appearances by characters in the supporting cast is even less diverse. Of the 486 appearances, 337 (69.3%) are by white characters. There are 21 (4.3%) appearances by alien characters in the supporting cast and 9 (1.9%) by robotic characters. There are 3 (0.6%) appearances by characters with unknown race and ethnicity. There are 38 (7.8%) by black characters, 26 (5.3%) by Asian characters, 22 (4.5%) by Latino characters, 20 by American Indian characters, and 10 (2.1%) by Jewish characters.

In total, between The Uncanny X-Men #281 (Oct. 1991) and The Uncanny X-Men #393 (June 2001), the series is more diverse than the previous period, but almost 60% of the characters to appear are white and almost 70% of the appearances are by white characters. There were 346 characters who appeared in these 112 issues, and 203 (58.7%) were white characters. There were 26 (7.5%) alien characters, 17 (4.9%) robotic characters, and 5 (1.4%) demonic characters. Thirty-three (9.5%) characters appeared with no identifiable race or ethnicity. There were 22 (6.4%) black characters, 12 (3.5%) Asian characters, 10 (2.9%) American Indian characters, 6 (1.7%) Latino characters, 5 (1.4%) Jewish characters, 4 (1.2%) Middle Eastern characters, 2 (0.6%) Indian characters, and 1 (0.3%) Afro-Latina character.

In total, there were 1,673 appearances by characters in this period. Of these, 1,145 (68.4%) were by white characters. There were also 52 (3.1%) appearances by alien characters, 34 (2.0%) appearances by robotic characters, and 7 (0.4%) by demonic characters. There were 59 (3.5%) appearances by characters with no known identifiable race or ethnicity. There were 184 (11.0%) appearances by black characters, 73 (4.4%) appearances by Asian characters, 36 (2.2%) appearances by American Indian characters, 39 (2.3%) appearances by Jewish characters, 23 (1.4%) appearances by Latino characters, 14 (0.8%) appearances by Middle Eastern characters, 6 (0.4%) appearances by Indian characters, and 1 (0.1%) appearance by an Afro-Latina character.

The period from The Uncanny X-Men #281 (Oct. 1991) to The Uncanny X-Men #393 (June 2001) sees a reversal of several trends in terms of the representation of females in the series. In every previous period the percentage of female characters increased in the categories of X-Men team members, villains, and supporting cast. In this period, the percentage of male characters in the series increases in every category, in some cases dramatically.

Twenty-seven characters appeared as members of the X-Men in the 112 issues published in this period. Of these, 18 (66.7%) were male and 9 (33.3%) were female. There is very little difference in those percentages when looking at the total number of appearances in this period. There were 779 appearances by team members in these issues. Of these, 511 (65.5%) were by male characters and 268 (34.5%) were by female characters.

In terms of gender representation, the villains were the most imbalanced group in this period. Of the 180 villains the X-Men battled, 139 (77.2%) were male and 37 (20.6%) were female. Four (2.2%) had no applicable gender classification. The appearances were almost identically balanced. Of the 408 appearances by villains, 311 (76.2%) were male, 85 (20.8%) were female, and 12 (2.9%) were by characters without applicable gender classifications.

There were 126 characters in the supporting cast in this period. Of these, 84 (60.4%) were male and 55 (39.6%) were female. Of the 486 appearances by supporting cast between October 1991 and June 2001, 279 (57.4%) were by male characters and 207 (42.6%) were by female characters.

In total, 346 characters appeared in The Uncanny X-Men in this period. Of these, 241 (69.7%) were male and 101 (29.2%) were female. The percentages were a little more balanced in terms of total appearances, though the number still skews heavily toward the male characters. Of the 1,673 appearances by characters in these issues, 1,101 (65.8%) were male and 560 (33.5%) were female.

Period 5

The Uncanny X-Men #394 (Jul. 2001) through The Uncanny X-Men #500 (Sept. 2008) is the least diverse group of X-Men for any period other than the original run, when the team was 100% white. This period also sees the most balance in terms of gender representation for the team members of any period in the history of The Uncanny X-Men. However, in terms of appearances, this is one of the most male-dominated periods in the history of the X-Men. In all, this is a rather significant regression in terms of gender and minority representation from what has been occurring in previous periods.

Of the 30 characters to appear on the X-Men, 23 (76.7%) were white, 2 (6.7%) were black, 2 (6.7%) were Asian, 1 (3.3%) was Jewish, 1 (3.3%) was an alien character, and 1 (3.3%) was American Indian. These 30 characters made 665 appearances, which are even less diverse than the number of characters. Of these, 575 (86.5%) were by white characters, 45 (6.8%) were by black characters, 16 (2.4%) were by Asian characters, 16 (2.4%) were by an American Indian character, 7 (1.1%) were by a Jewish character, and 6 (0.9%) were by an alien character.

There were 129 characters who appeared as villains in this period of the Uncanny X-Men. Of these, 63 (48.8%) were white. In descending order, the other characters’ races and ethnicity were as follows: 28 (21.7%) were alien, 7 (5.4%) were robotic, 7 (5.4%) had no known racial or ethnic identities, 7 (5.4%) had no applicable racial or ethnic identities, 5 (3.9%) were from a fictional group called the Neyaphem, 4 (3.1%) were black, 3 (2.3%) were Asian, 2 (1.6%) were Indian, 2 (1.6%) were Middle Eastern, and 1 (0.8%) was Jewish.

Of the 359 appearances by villains, 225 (54.3%) were by white characters, 89 (24.8%) were by alien characters, 25 (3.9%) were by characters from a fictional race called the Neyaphem, 17 (4.7%) were by characters with unknown race or ethnicity, 17 (4.7%) were by characters without any applicable race or ethnicity, 14 (3.9%) were by robotic characters, 9 (2.5%) were by black characters, 8 (2.2%) were by Asian characters, 4 (1.1%) were by Jewish characters, 3 (0.8%) were by Indian characters, and 3 (0.8%) were by Middle Eastern characters.

There were 122 supporting characters in the Uncanny X-Men in this period. Of these, 68 (55.7%) were white, 26 (21.3%) were alien, 7 (5.7%) were black, 4 (3.3%) were Latino, 5 (4.1%) were Asian, 3 (2.5%) were American Indian, 3 (2.5%) had no known race or ethnicity, 2 (1.6%) were Indian, 1 (0.8%) was robotic, 1 (0.8%) was Middle Eastern, 1 (0.8%) was Afro-Latino, and 1 (0.8%) was Polynesian. The supporting characters made 402 appearances in this period. Of these, 252 (62.7%) were by white characters, 50 (12.4%) were by alien characters, 29 (7.2%) were by black characters, 21 (5.2%) were by Asian characters, 18 (4.5%) were by characters with unknown race and gender, 8 (2.0%) were by American Indian characters, 7 (1.7%) were by Latino characters, 4 were by Indian characters, and 2 (0.5%) were by robotic characters.

In total there were 281 characters who made 1,426 appearances in this era. One hundred fifty-four (54.8%) of the characters were white who made 997 (69.9%) appearances. Thirteen (4.6%) of the characters were black who made 83 (5.8%) appearances. Fifty-five (19.6%) were alien who made 145 (10.2%) appearances. Ten (3.6%) of the characters were Asian who made 45 (3.2%) appearances. Ten (3.6%) were characters with no known race or ethnicity who made 35 (2.5%) appearances. Eight (2.8%) were robotic and made 16 (1.1%) appearances. Seven (2.5%) were characters with no applicable race or ethnicity who made 17 (1.2%) appearances. Five (1.8%) were characters from a fictional racial group called the Neyaphem who made 25 (1.8%) appearances. Four (1.4%) were American Indians who made 24 (1.7%) appearances. Four (1.4%) were Indian who made 24 (1.7%) appearances. Four (1.4%) were Latino and made 7 (0.5%) appearances. Three (1.1%) were Middle Eastern who made 5 (0.4%) appearances. Two (0.7%) were Jewish who made 11 (0.8%) appearances. One (0.4%) was Afro Latino who made 8 (0.6%) appearances. One (0.4%) was Polynesian who made 1 (0.1%) appearance.

There were 30 characters who appeared as members of the X-Men in this period. Sixteen (53.3%) were male, and 14 (46.7%) were female. But in terms of appearances, of 650 appearances by team members in these 106 issues, 463 (71.2%) were by men while only 187 (28.8%) were by women. The team was almost even in terms of the number of male characters and female characters who appeared as X-Men, but the number of appearances shifted to make the team significantly more male.

There were 129 villains who appeared in this period. Of these, 99 (76.7%) were male, 27 (20.9%), and 3 (2.3%) had no applicable gender. There were 402 appearances by villains; of these, 263 (73.3%) were by male characters, 90 (25.1%) were by female characters, and 6 (1.7%) were by characters with no applicable gender.

As has been the general trend for the supporting cast, there were more males than females, but the number of appearances were much more balanced, the most balanced of any group in this era. There were 122 characters in the supporting cast, and of these, 73 (59.8%) were male and 40 (40.2%) were female. The supporting cast made 402 appearances. Of these, 223 (55.5%) were male, and 179 (44.5%) were female.

In total, there were 281 characters who appeared in the series between The Uncanny X-Men #394 and The Uncanny X-Men #500. Of these, 188 (66.9%) were male characters, 90 (32.0%) were female, and 3 (1.1%) had no applicable gender. Characters made 1,426 appearances. Of these, 959 (67.3%) were male, 461 (32.3%) were female, and 6 (0.4%) had no applicable gender.


Conclusion

So what does this analysis add to our understanding of the X-Men? The series does clearly and frequently use the concept of “mutants” to explore issues of prejudice. But, in the end, it frequently uses white male heroes supported by female characters to battle racial and ethnic minorities while employing that metaphor. This doesn’t necessarily limit the power of the metaphor, as the interpretation and application of the characters, the themes, and the metaphor are all open to the reader. But it does mean that the literal use of female and minority characters is uncomfortably aligned with old stereotypes.

The numbers would look much worse if not for the enduring use of Storm, the character with the second-most appearances as an X-Man in the series (just a few appearances short of Wolverine’s high number). She has by far the most appearances of any female character and any minority character. The other characters with the most frequent appearances, Wolverine, Professor X, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Angel, and Iceman, are all white males. Besides appearing frequently, Storm stands out as an independent character, a team leader, and a powerful addition to the team.

Particularly unexpected in this analysis was the regression that was seen after Claremont left the series. The series had become more balanced in both gender and racial representation, and both of those trends reversed in the two periods following his departure as writer. Some of this may be related to the issues that finally forced Claremont’s departure—creators wanted to revisit the earlier characters and scenarios that they had enjoyed when they were young readers, and this recycling of old cast inserted more white male characters into the mix and phased out the newer more diverse cast. Fortunately, because the X-Men franchise is ongoing, the trends can be reversed. In 2013, for example, Marvel relaunched the title X-Men with an entirely female team. Because of the expansive cast of characters in the X-Men universe, this all-female team is made up of long-established, popular, and nuanced characters with unique personalities and powers. It does not feel like any member of the group is a token addition to promote a feminist agenda. This demonstrates the success the X-Men franchise has had in creating enduring characters that break outside of the superhero genre’s mold of white male leads. But, clearly, more use of these characters is necessary to balance the history of the franchise that still carries too many markers of the genre it came from and the period when it was created.


About the Author

Joseph J. Darowski received his PhD in American Studies from Michigan State University and is currently a member of the English department at Brigham Young University–Idaho. He has published research on popular culture, television, and comic books. He is the editor of a series of essay collections entitled “The Ages of Superheroes,” which has published volumes on Superman and Wonder Woman and which will soon be publishing volumes on the X-Men, the Avengers, and Iron Man.