...should be the tagline for the Uncanny X-Men, and should've been years ago. Instead we've always had the "Feared and hated by a world they have sworn to protect..." tagline.
Which, honestly, was always pretty stupid.
Yeah, yeah, I know. The whole "mutant menace" angle was integral to the success of the title (comic book fans identifying with the idea of being misunderstood and abused outsiders? Go figger). It's set the X-Men apart from other "standard" superhero group books as the Avengers and JLA. I get it, really.
But I have to agree with Dave Cockrum, as quoted in an interview back in 1981, in which he says that he always hated the "mutant menace" shtick. As he correctly points out, why would the good people of the Marvel Universe flip out at the sight of the Beast but have no problem with the Thing? Why is it that joining the Avengers gave Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver a free pass on the whole "we hate mutants" thing? Couldn't any mutant who wanted to avoid the hassle just say, "Mutant? Good Lord, no! I, um, got bathed in chemicals in a lab accident at school."
As Cockrum said, it doesn't make any sense -- unless you apply the whole fear and suspicion thing to all superheroes, which isn't any fun.
Elmo covers this ground succinctly in his post today in which he says:
Between Didio's Infinite Crisis, McDuffie's Justice League Unlimited, and Busiek's Dark Age, we're getting a lot of norms-hate-and-fear-superheroes. Yeah, um: Yawn. They're superheroes. They selflessly save people. They go around stopping other people from using weird powers to subjugate humanity. So, y'know, hating and fearing them is irrational. It's not particularly fun to read about.
Amen, bro. I'll make a couple more observations in the comments section of Elmo's post, but I could not agree more. And at this point it's been done to freaking death.
Here's my new angle on all of this: Don't you think there's a weird kind of "Woe is me, we're all victims" reader identification thing at the root of this approach? That "realistic" in this case is really just code for "more appealing to me personally," and that it's appealing to some readers because there's a certain "I may have my vices but whatever I'm being criticized for is not my fault" responsibility dodge that they're identifying with? I mean, the theme of these "poor, hated, superheroes" stories seems to be that you can try really hard to be good but you'll be judged unfairly anyway. Wah. Poor babies.
Oh, it would certainly suck to live in such a world, and I know that's how things look to many, if not most, teenagers, but then you grow up. I dunno. I'm playing armchair psychologist here, but it feels to me that this take on superheroes comes from the same place as the whole "I can only identify with superhero characters who have significant personality flaws" thing. Okay, I've probably sufficiently stirred up that hornets nest for now. :-)
Going back to the X-Men for a second, I was old enough when I became a hardcore X-Men fan that I knew the whole "feared and hated thing" was never going to go away. Nevertheless, deep in my heart I always sort of hoped that there would be a story where the X-Men would save the world in full public view in a situation where the FF and Avengers had already failed, and then they really would be loved and respected by the world and that would be the end of that. Would that have been like a TV series where they play the "will they/won't they get together" card on the romantic leads, where once the two actually do get together reader interest falls off the map if they stay together?
Not for me, but maybe I'm a mutant that way.
--Chris M.
Posted by Chris M. at July 11, 2005 1:07 PM