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X-Men Mutantversity: The Island Outside Your Window

By | July 6th, 2020
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Comics are coming back- slowly! As of the time of writing this, Marvel has started to publish new books again. Three of those books have been “X-Men” titles. I liked all three of them well enough, but there doesn’t feel like there’s enough substance there for a whole column. Once there was a time when two issues of “House of X” and “Powers of X” were enough to spend thousands of words analyzing but as much as I like the new “Excalibur,” it’s very much the middle chapter of a story.

More than that though, something feels off about Marvel comics right now. It’s nobody’s fault, but the shipping schedule was interrupted in the weirdest way. Monthly series have seen three month delays, right in the middle of their stories. And the world looks so different now, but for these characters only moments have passed. And I think that’s weird!

The World Outside Your Window

In December 2001, Marvel published a very special issue of “Spider-Man.” Some of you can probably guess the one I mean. “Amazing Spider-Man” #36 is technically called ‘Stand Tall,’ but most people call it ‘The Black Issue.’ I think of it as the 9/11 issue because that’s what it is. If you haven’t read it, it’s a very strange artifact. Almost dream-like, Spider-Man arrives as the towers fall on September 11th, and tries to process the tragedy.

The best thing I can say is that most of this issue is really well intentioned. I’m sure there was a conversation about whether or not having Daredevil, Thor, and Cyclops help the firefighters at ground zero was in good taste. And I’m sure there are folks who feel strongly that it is or isn’t. But it is generally agreed that most of the ham handedness is pretty cringe.

The most infamous scene is when the villains show up. The story briefly cuts to Magneto, Juggernaut, Kingpin, Doctor Octopus, and Doctor Doom just sort of standing there. The story focuses on Doom, who is moved to tears. The idea being… some things are so evil that even the guy who skinned his girlfriend and wore her like pajamas get bummed out.

It’s an interesting framing too. The comic seems to imply that there’s the kind of cartoonish villainy the fictional characters get up to, but when presented with the kind of evil that exists in the real world, they are sobered. It breaks the fourth wall in a very stupid way. At least Red Skull didn’t show up.

Let’s look at one more example (we’ll get back to “X-Men” in just a moment, thank you for taking this journey). In 2009, Marvel planned a story that was in part a scathing critique of the Bush administration. An old money businessman manipulated America into letting him take over its national security apparatus which he then used to his own ends. I’m talking about Norman Osborn in “Dark Reign.”

The thing is… George W. Bush was no longer president in 2009! Obama was. And for some reason, the writers at Marvel decided to use Obama in the story. After all, Marvel comics take place in a world very much like our own. Obama seemed uncomfortable with Osborn personally, but he did plenty to empower him. Osborn is only brought to justice after blowing up a packed Soldier Field in Chicago, killing everyone in attendance. This means that a) Da Bears play in a completely different arena in Marvel 616 and b) President Barack Obama enabled a false flag terrorism operation that led to the deaths of approximately 60,000 Americans. Yikes Marvel, this one really got away from you.

The thing is, both these stories were trying to help people process a tragedy. Well OK, the 9/11 one definitely was. I think the first one was supposed to be a metaphor for the “George Bush did 9/11” idea, but then flippantly recast the story with the current president. But neither story is well-remembered for being good at handling current events.

Island in the Sun

Let’s take this moment to dismiss the idea that comics were at any point in the past apolitical. I don’t think that’s an idea that is ever made thoughtfully and in good faith but- Marvel literally starts when a dude called Captain America punches Adolf Hitler in the jaw, nine months before the US entered the war. And “X-Men” was originally conceived as a very political book and by and large, it always has tried to be. Comics are political. Marvel is political (and by some measures, quite progressive). “X-Men” is extremely political. So how then should comics address the COVID-19 crisis?

Continued below

Because like, it’s such a paradigm shift for me that my suspension of disbelief has been damaged. When I see Marvel heroes without masks, without social distancing, I have to tell myself it’s a story from the before times. I know the 616 universe is distinct from our own- Wakanda and Latveria and Krakoa are all countries- but the rule is that it is supposed to follow world events unless the story dictates otherwise.

So should the X-Men battle COVID? There are a lot of ways to handle the story. It could be a brief moment, before jumping forward a few months or a year or whatever. Or it could become part of the setting. Krakoa could impose a quarantine. I’d be interested to see the council debates. Every time the Marauders bring in more refugees they risk spreading infection, but the work is really important. Does your calculation change when saving some lives endangers a whole lot more? Should Emma, Jean, and Xavier use their powers to get Americans to wear their goddamn masks?

Or maybe it’s simple. Maybe Krakoa is already buffered from the disease. Or the magical flower drugs just straight up kill COVID, and it never happens on Earth 616. But that’s no longer the world outside your window. That would make the Marvel universe one where the Olympics happened in Tokyo in 2020. In other words: an alternate reality.

How Topical

So what’s my recommendation? Should COVID come to the Marvel universe? Should “X-Men” take a swing at it? I wish my feelings were simple, but it is complicated. Because in my perfect world, my favorite comics would take a swing at real world issues. They would help us process the craziness of the world. That’s what stories are meant to do, right?

But the execution always seems to be lacking doesn’t it? It sure was in the 2000s. And before that. And often since. So it comes down to a simple question of optimism vs pessimism. Do you think Marvel can do better? Or do you think comics are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. I’d love to be the optimist here, but I don’t feel right making the prediction baselessly.

But I think I have a solution. Stories are out of touch when the creators are not sincerely connected to what they are writing about. The solution is simple then. Hire different kinds of people. Lots of kinds of people. As many kinds of people as you can. And it’s hard not to feel pessimistic about that with all that’s been going on in the comics biz in summer of 2020, but I actually do think there is a place to hope. There are more voices, diverse voices, in “X-Men” then there was last year, or the year before that. And people are saying the right things- there seems to be a desire to change.

Marvel comics have long boasted that the story takes place in “the world outside your window.” Appealing to college students, invoking current events, and basing characters on the kinds of people you might encounter in real life is sort of their game. But to do that effectively, they are going to have to continue the work they say they want to be doing. More voices equals better stories. ‘Nuff said.

I’m hoping that next month will bring more X-titles and that we can get more current. If not, well, expect something. Until that time I’ll see you all in Krakoa, party people.

This Months X-books:
Marauders #10
– This book has never disappointed me, and it didn’t start now.
New Mutants #10 – A shaky return to a book that really needed all the momentum it could get.
Excalibur #10 – Wow this is a complicated series, and getting interrupted by the pandemic hurts it a lot.


//TAGS | Mutantversity

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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