House of X #6 Featured Columns 

Mutantversity: X-Men and Religion Part 3

By | April 15th, 2020
Posted in Columns | % Comments

“X-Men” comics have challenged us politically, existentially, and more recently, spiritually. A lot of us have been talking about our religious upbringings and the theological implications of Jonathan Hickman’s “House of X,” “Powers of X,” and all of the “Dawn of X” books. In light of Passover, Easter, Mid-Sha’ban, and the other springtime holidays, we thought now would be a great time to talk about ways in which “X-Men” has made us consider our beliefs.

For more discussion on the issues discussed here, check out our regular coverage in Mutantversity!

Check out Part 1 of this discussion.

Check out Part 2 of this discussion.

Wet Hot Krakoan Summer

I grew up attending a socialist Jewish summer camp. I don’t know how that idea hits you, but it always seemed pretty normal to me. There’s a historical context you can trace from the Jews resisting the Nazis during World War II, to the Israeli Kibbutz movement, to the American folk music scene in the 1950s and 60s. Functionally, it was a lot like the movie Wet Hot American Summer but with less heroin and more spoken Hebrew. And I’m starting to suspect that this was the formative experience that got me to appreciate Krakoa.

In my early 20s, I was one of the older members of the staff and sometimes, my non-Jewish friends would come to visit. A lot of them got to see our version of the Jewish havdalah ritual, the ending of Shabbat. And that helped me see the ritual through new eyes. It was still very beautiful to me.

On Saturday at the beginning of sundown, every person at the summer camp would join hands in a big line that wove through the whole campsite until every had joined. Then we’d go to a scenic spot, usually up on a hill surrounded by the woods and mountains of upstate New York or the Poconos. The leader of the line would start to form a spiral, and the hundred or so people would gather around the middle, singing a Hebrew prayer in a sort of melancholy, minor key melody. There were verses for the three key components of havdalah- the wine (or actually grape juice), the spices (usually cinnamon from the kitchen), and the candle (a special braided one). Everyone would take a small sip of grape juice, everyone would sniff the spices, everyone would hold up their hands to feel the warmth of the candle flame.

And then everyone would lie back on someone else and look up at the stars while someone played a couple of more modern folk songs on a boom box. If you know anything about summer camps, you know that all the teens took this opportunity to hold hands, like you do. But there was no talking, just stargazing and the music, selected by one of the kids at camp.

I asked my girlfriend of ten years what she remembered of her first time seeing havdalah. She liked it. Specifically, she liked that it was peaceful. She conceded that the part where everyone got touchy-feely was totally out of her usual comfort zone, but it didn’t freak her out. It was just a thing that people were doing, those people were being welcoming and though she never grew to like that particular aspect of the ritual, she didn’t mind it. She really liked the music, the prayers in an unfamiliar language, the ritual of the wine and spices and the candle, the stargazing and the soft music. There was beauty to the ritual I had learned to take for granted, and something of spiritual fulfillment.

I wonder if I was feeling anything like she did when I first saw the Krakoan resurrection ritual?

Do I know you?

Krakoan resurrection was introduced in “House of X” #5. The first half of the issue is all about explaining the mechanics. The back half of the issue is devoted to presenting resurrection as a ritual. It’s weird and foreign. Human death rituals are about the finality of death, or saying goodbye. Human resurrection rituals are abstract. This is about literally bringing people back from the dead and restoring them into a duplicate of their old body. It will feel alien to every person who reads it, because it is science fiction.

Continued below

But the details of the ritual are also alienating by design. Those who are resurrected are presented to the community, naked. Public nudity is going to be uncomfortable to most readers. Storm speaks most of the words, though there is some call and response. In particular, there’s an element where Storm asks the resurrected ones to prove they are who they appear to be. This gets hairy because fictionally, we know something like this is being set up as a narrative twist down the line. But in-universe, this is achieved by saying something very specific to you. The resurrected ones recall a personal connection they have to the ones performing the ritual. It’s sentimental. “We fought, but we learned to respect each other,” or “I am a collection of all of my rebirths,” or, “Ew, don’t touch me.” Whatever it is, it’s about the bonds of community, of connection, of familiarity.

Finally, the ritual ends on a note of pride. The assembled mutants shout, “Mutant!” and raise their fists to the sky. This is a tough point for some people. Pride, as an act of defiance in the face of those who want you to feel lesser, is a powerful thing. It’s why Black Pride has been such an enduring movement, and why we have a Gay Pride parade. After years of being on the run, or in hiding, mutants have created a space where they are not only free from the oppression of mankind, but they are free to build a society that reflects their values and tradition. They are proud of what they have created.

So I get why Krakoan culture and ritual may not be appealing. The public nudity for one, is a tough sell. Having your identity questioned also seems uncomfortable. And a public display of unity from a group that you don’t belong to is always going to feel isolating, at least in the superficial sense. (None of my readers I imagine, have Mutant X Factor genes and thus aren’t literally a part of the mutant pride movement). But I see how each of those components are important to the ritual and most importantly, I see how my comfort is immaterial to those getting fulfillment from this strange practice.

The artwork of Pepe Larraz really sells it. The way everyone is bathed in light from on high, the laughter on Storm’s face as her friends are returned from death, the close ups on the raised fists. The mutants are getting something out of this. Does this make them a cult?

That’s a word that’s getting thrown around a lot in discussion of “X-Men.” I could throw some dictionary definitions out (“a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object” or how about “a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister”) but it’s easy to find a definition that supports your argument. I wanted to get at a deeper truth. I asked my girlfriend if she found any part of the havdalah ritual to be cult-like.

She paused before answering. “Everyone was extremely kind and welcoming. They told me that I was wonderful, and that made me feel good. We were far away from any place or anyone I knew.” But does that make it a cult? “That’s definitely a tactic cults could use, but I don’t know that it makes something a cult. It was nice to feel good. Sometimes you’re told that good feelings are bad.” (She was raised Catholic.)

But there’s definitely a suspicion that if something feels good, it must be bad for you. We can’t trust people experiencing pleasure because they are weak and only seeking out the thing because it is pleasurable. But that’s also the point of any ritual, to help you feel good. If something is a cult because it includes a ritual, we’re now dismissing all religion and a lot of civilized society. And you might be about that, but I am not, and neither are the X-Men.

Golden eggs, golden rules

There are lots of things that are disturbing about the nation of Krakoa. Xavier and Magneto run things with a paternalistic fist. Some of the existential implications of living forever are pretty scary. Irredeemable villains are given full pardons and blank checks. There are powerful covert military forces that aren’t accountable to anyone. I get questioning the X-Men right now.

Continued below

But one thing that is not a problem is the aesthetics of their rituals. It may not be your thing, you may not be all about the collective or racial pride, but those are things that are important to some people, that lift them up. And it seems silly to reject something out of hand because it brings beauty and peace. Those are good things!

Spirituality is meant to give comfort in the face of the unknown. There’s a lot of uncertainty in real life, and we don’t even have fractured living islands or golden eggs of resuscitation. So I don’t spite the X-Men for looking not for answers to impossible questions, but comfort. I like to hope that if I was visitor on their island, I would see the beauty in what they do.


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Jaina Hill

Jaina is from New York. She currently lives in Ohio. Ask her, and she'll swear she's one of those people who loves both Star Wars and Star Trek equally. Say hi to her on twitter @Rambling_Moose!

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