Originally Posted by
Rivka
Okay, so these are JDW's opinions, and he said he does not impose his opinions on his creative teams. And I thought his responses regarding Emma and Magneto were less reactionary than a year ago. He did not use the word "villain." He did not use the word "antagonist." He said he thought Emma makes a great PROTAGONIST, like the lead in any story, the main character, just not as a member of the X-Men. Now I disagree with that. JDW said he sees the X-Men as "heroic" and anti-heroes and protagonists who aren't pure angels need not apply; with that I wholeheartedly disagree as well. We can list the crimes and moral turpitude of several X-Men characters who JDW considers "heroes" and full-fledged X-Men. But I was impressed that he did not call Magneto and Emma "villains" and said they make good protagonists!
In my opinion, Magneto does not belong on the X-Men as a member of the team but that doesn't make him a "villain." So I agree with JDW there, and like I said, that is a much more open-minded attitude toward Magneto than JDW had a year ago.
But Emma Frost has been a member of the X-Men for 20 years. If "complicated" characters can't be members of an X-Men team, then we don't have any more X-Men as a concept. They are not the same as the Avengers. Anti-heroes, characters with dark deeds in their pasts, they made up the X-Men. In fact, for the last 40 years the X-Men and Xavier in particular have made it a practice of letting people join who are on redemption arcs, or who Xavier thinks can redeem themselves. There has NEVER been a purity test to join the X-Men.
JDW will say I'm taking his opinions out of context again. Maybe so. But since he's the Editor of all the X-Books, I hope he doesn't take it personally if fans disagree with some of his assessments and expect the books to stay faithful to a basic premise of the franchise.