• psmgx@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    137
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    9 months ago

    Nah. It was more about disability. Prof X is in a wheelchair, Cyclops is blind, Beast or Nightcrawler disfigured, Wolverine is Canadian, etc.

      • frezik@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        9 months ago

        X-Men comics are. X-Men movies are coded to sexual minorities in particular. Like the way they come out to their parents. Including parents who are politicians who are vehemently anti-mutant.

        Bi/pansexuals are often accused of skirting around the problems other LGBTQ+ folk have. They can live an outwardly heteronormative life and not have to deal with social stigma. I fit in this category. This critique is sometimes unfair, but not always.

        Storm is taking up this position in OP. Rogue might be analogous to a very obviously trans person who gets a lot of looks in public, if not worse. You could see why someone in that position might want a shot that makes all their problems go away.

        • SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          9 months ago

          That’s because the whole point is responding to the issues of the day. The comics first came out in the 60s, and the main players are clear allegories for MLK, Malcom X, and the KKK. 2000s movies play off 2000s issues.

      • daltotron@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        9 months ago

        yeah this is basically true, but the X-Men also surpass their allegory, often, to real life problems, by both actually treating their mutants as though they have mutant powers, and as though they have problems that go along with, say, randomly being able to explode anything you touch, right. but they also surpass their allegory by just having real world problems just exist for their characters. prof. x used to be a football star or whatever before he got wheelchaired, he’s not innately wheelchaired as a result of his psychicness or mutantcy or whatever. cyclops isn’t even blind, he just has laser vision. if you look at the origins of the team in giant-size x-men, they’re all more, like, multiracial. you get the introduction of storm, thunderbird, colossus, nightcrawler, and none of those new characters are american, the two that would be white otherwise are basically weird monsters, and they all have to deal with shitty racism. X-Men, new and old, has kind of infamously just straight up had gay characters, and I think more recently you’ve had some trans characters too but idk much, maybe an area for improvement. there’s no reason for their mutant powers to serve as allegory when they already portray those issues in the comic.

        the distinguishing factor of X-Men in my mind is that it’s a fantastical commentary on race, sexuality, gender, whatever, but it’s not using the mutant powers for allegories for that. the mutant powers are just the element that makes it fantastical, and they’re kind of an exploration of the concept of random mutant powers more in earnest, than just like sort of, as a vehicle for something else.

    • Zanderlus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      9 months ago

      Nah. It’s more of a general allegory encompassing all forms of minority groups and social outcasts. Different writers and editors choose which ones to highlight. For example, while the original Lee, Kirby 60s run–and Chris Claremont during the 70s–might have emphasized disabilities, through numerous stories like Days of Future Past, God Loves Man Kills, and New Mutants #45, Claremont during the 80s prioritized race and sexual orientation.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        Isn’t Wolverine like 500 years old or something? I’m sure there’s some movie (possibly Logan) in which he fights in the American civil war.

        So I suppose maybe he just moves countries every 50 years or so, so people don’t notice he never dies or ages.

    • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      9 months ago

      I remember the one Wolverine issue where he had to kill some teen whose specific mutation caused everyone around him to die. And Wolverine had to kill him and cover it up so that mutants wouldn’t be hunted down.