Congrats to X-Men Red: Gizmodo/io9 Feature

[nx01a]

If I were gay I'd just want to live my life like the next person and be respected, not parade around the streets clamoring for attention and wanting people to put me on a pedestal.

Do you think the fight for equality is over? No matter what the fight is, whether it's for LGBT or women or non-whites or non-Christians, those fights are continuing because there is still bigotry, oppression, and real threats of violence and death. If all you see are The Gays out having a parade, you're [intentionally] missing the point of visibility in addition to trying to effect social and legal change.
Also... The X-books might not be for you. Try the Avengers or the Justice League.

[DDM]

As a gay man If I do live my life like the next person and am respected. I prefer to parade around the bar clamoring for attention and when it works people put me on a sling in the back room.

[Filthy Mutie]

I don't know, I get the X-Men theme, have since I was a young boy but there's a line and when it's crossed it becomes silly. Iceman is prime example. Instead of letting something happen naturally they completely alter a characterization to suit a progressive agenda. If I were gay I'd just want to live my life like the next person and be respected, not parade around the streets clamoring for attention and wanting people to put me on a pedestal.

I think the X-Men should be just naturally diverse and fighting for Xavier's dream, not serving as an echo chamber for the alt-left. There's a line.

Iceman was always gay. It's been in the subtext for decades. Bendis didn't pull that out of his ass to suit an agenda - he just wrote a story about an inexperienced teenaged Jean Grey outing him - also as an inexperienced teenager.

[AcesX1X]

In an effort to not ruin our mods' Friday afternoon I'm just going to agree that more X-Men is better. Congrats to the team for the article.

well, just to your earlier point i think it's good that x-men are trying to be topical. there's a lot happening in the world today

[MyriVerse]

oh? i didn't know that people felt this way. thought everyone really liked x-men: red ..

Wouldn't call it trash, but it's generally pretty silly and contrived... not very original in anything either. It's not handling racism in any way that hasn't been done before.

[AcesX1X]

Wouldn't call it trash, but it's generally pretty silly and contrived... not very original in anything either. It's not handling racism in any way that hasn't been done before.

when was this done before?

[nx01a]

As a gay man If I do live my life like the next person and am respected. I prefer to parade around the bar clamoring for attention and when it works people put me on a sling in the back room.

Sounds like a fun Tuesday night at The Eagle.

[yogaflame]

There's a line.

I'd say it's more of a spectrum. A gradient, if you will.

X-Men have gone through many waves over the years, reflective of their times. The 05 wanted to be normal in the 60's; they made fun of beatniks and hippies, were very conservative, and hid their powers and their true nature from many people, including their parents in some regards. They wished they weren't mutants at all. Professor X was a drill sargent and held close ties to the US military and FBI. The X-Men worked to preserve the status quo.



The Wein/Cockrum/Claremont X-Men were intentionally different. They were diverse, from all over the globe. They had individual interests and languages, but they could come together as a found family of outcasts. There was still a protection of a status quo, but there was also a beginning of questioning the status quo, and the introduction of more governmental forces hostile to mutants, with Apartheid slave state Genosha the epitome of that. And the X-Men toppled that state. They defied governments from this planet and others!

The 90's brings X-Men 90210(or better yet, the Real World:Westchester), the Legacy Virus(HIV/AIDS), Genosha in a civil war, and then granted to Magneto by the UN as a mutant homeland(Israel), the rise of Generation X(90's angst personified), while the disenfranchised New Mutants become the militant X-Force, fighting the radicalized MLF. Gene Nation defied their Morlock predecessors. They were here, mutants, and you had to deal with it!

Now you have post-modern X-Men; the franchise feeding upon itself, satirical and self-aware. It's snarky and sardonic(Emma and Quentin encapsulate this perfectly). It's decompression and vapid stories, propped up with extreme violence and digital art. Failed revolutions and ethnic cleansing. Internet and memes.

As for comics not being a mouthpiece for any particular political messaging, I'll kindly have you remember Captain America(and thus Marvel at large) was just a pro-war propaganda piece commissioned by the US military in the first place, so....

[Disciple of Redd]

Racism is bad, we get it!!! I've never been the slightest bit racist or homophobic but BEATING us over the head with it is NOT going to change the world, it actually feeds intolerance and becomes its own worst enemy.

Only racists say stuff like this.

Who's your favorite X-Man?

[Wiccan]

"I am NOT racist or homophobic, but I hate seeing that racism and homophobia is bad!!!"

[Grey]

In regards to gay people “parading around”

Does that mean straight people who talk about their spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, dates, sex life, etc is parading around heterosexuality?

[Samurai32]

I'd say it's more of a spectrum. A gradient, if you will.

X-Men have gone through many waves over the years, reflective of their times. The 05 wanted to be normal in the 60's; they made fun of beatniks and hippies, were very conservative, and hid their powers and their true nature from many people, including their parents in some regards. They wished they weren't mutants at all. Professor X was a drill sargent and held close ties to the US military and FBI. The X-Men worked to preserve the status quo.



The Wein/Cockrum/Claremont X-Men were intentionally different. They were diverse, from all over the globe. They had individual interests and languages, but they could come together as a found family of outcasts. There was still a protection of a status quo, but there was also a beginning of questioning the status quo, and the introduction of more governmental forces hostile to mutants, with Apartheid slave state Genosha the epitome of that. And the X-Men toppled that state. They defied governments from this planet and others!

The 90's brings X-Men 90210(or better yet, the Real World:Westchester), the Legacy Virus(HIV/AIDS), Genosha in a civil war, and then granted to Magneto by the UN as a mutant homeland(Israel), the rise of Generation X(90's angst personified), while the disenfranchised New Mutants become the militant X-Force, fighting the radicalized MLF. Gene Nation defied their Morlock predecessors. They were here, mutants, and you had to deal with it!

Now you have post-modern X-Men; the franchise feeding upon itself, satirical and self-aware. It's snarky and sardonic(Emma and Quentin encapsulate this perfectly). It's decompression and vapid stories, propped up with extreme violence and digital art. Failed revolutions and ethnic cleansing. Internet and memes.

As for comics not being a mouthpiece for any particular political messaging, I'll kindly have you remember Captain America(and thus Marvel at large) was just a pro-war propaganda piece commissioned by the US military in the first place, so....

Well said.

[TheCape]

I'd say it's more of a spectrum. A gradient, if you will.

X-Men have gone through many waves over the years, reflective of their times. The 05 wanted to be normal in the 60's; they made fun of beatniks and hippies, were very conservative, and hid their powers and their true nature from many people, including their parents in some regards. They wished they weren't mutants at all. Professor X was a drill sargent and held close ties to the US military and FBI. The X-Men worked to preserve the status quo.



The Wein/Cockrum/Claremont X-Men were intentionally different. They were diverse, from all over the globe. They had individual interests and languages, but they could come together as a found family of outcasts. There was still a protection of a status quo, but there was also a beginning of questioning the status quo, and the introduction of more governmental forces hostile to mutants, with Apartheid slave state Genosha the epitome of that. And the X-Men toppled that state. They defied governments from this planet and others!

The 90's brings X-Men 90210(or better yet, the Real World:Westchester), the Legacy Virus(HIV/AIDS), Genosha in a civil war, and then granted to Magneto by the UN as a mutant homeland(Israel), the rise of Generation X(90's angst personified), while the disenfranchised New Mutants become the militant X-Force, fighting the radicalized MLF. Gene Nation defied their Morlock predecessors. They were here, mutants, and you had to deal with it!

Now you have post-modern X-Men; the franchise feeding upon itself, satirical and self-aware. It's snarky and sardonic(Emma and Quentin encapsulate this perfectly). It's decompression and vapid stories, propped up with extreme violence and digital art. Failed revolutions and ethnic cleansing. Internet and memes.

As for comics not being a mouthpiece for any particular political messaging, I'll kindly have you remember Captain America(and thus Marvel at large) was just a pro-war propaganda piece commissioned by the US military in the first place, so....

Wait, The Legacy Virus was an allegory for AIDS? (nothing against your argument, just want to know if that part is true).

[Filthy Mutie]

Wait, The Legacy Virus was an allegory for AIDS? (nothing against your argument, just want to know if that part is true).

Yes. 10101010

[butterflykyss]

While it's tempting to blame technology and media for the current state of the real world, ultimately it comes down to regular folks and their own insecurities(which are in no way a purely modern phenomena). While Red is markedly better than Gold/Blue and most modern X-comics in general(in large part due to the slick art), using Cassandra Nova and her Sentinites as the big bad, and the source of mutant hatred in the world, is a cop out. I'm sure Taylor thinks he's being very clever, but it just isn't that easy, or clean cut. I look forward to a day when a person of color(andfemale and/or LGBTQ would be even better, for intersectionality) writer gets to write the main X-Book and really delve into the themes [the franchise has been built on *coughappropriatedcough] from an actual place of marginalization.

thank you! I was just talking to someone about this. I find it frustrating that this writer gets praise for using mutant hatred as a metaphor for racism but when a writer does touch upon actual real life issues related to racism, such as gentrification, is criticized as racist. I also look forward to the these books to tackle actual issues related to marginalization versus constantly using mutants as a basis or reference for injustice.