What are the most emotional and powerful moments in X-Men's history?

[ARkadelphia]

Yes. A classic. I'll post a larger version.

Sounds like ALEX in Uncanny Avengers

[From The Shadows]

Sounds like ALEX in Uncanny Avengers

Is that a good or bad thing to you? Just wondering. I remember Cecilia saying similar things and not wanting being a mutant defining who she is. She wasn't too subtle about it.

[From The Shadows]

Kurt and Ororo seeing each other in the flesh since the Mutant Massacre.



Another Kuroro moment.

[Steel Inquisitor]

Is that a good or bad thing to you? Just wondering. I remember Cecilia saying similar things and not wanting being a mutant defining who she is. She wasn't too subtle about it.

Alex made a cringeworthy speech in UA. Cecilia's story arc was her accepting being a mutant and how it was written was sympathetic as it was raw going into how her life was being destroyed and she simply wanted to go back to her old life helping people.

[Drexelhand]

Sounds like ALEX in Uncanny Avengers

Sounds like the point he was making done right, she doesn't exactly come off as Alex "Black Republican" Summers.

[CoCoBandz]

Even Kitty was disgusted by Mr "Call me Alex".

The amount of boot he had on his tongue after that speech could fund a footlocker.

Thank god she grew out of that assimilation phase.

[Veitha]

Even Kitty was disgusted by Mr "Call me Alex".

The amount of boot he had on his tongue after that speech could fund a footlocker.

Thank god she grew out of that assimilation phase.

[sunofdarkchild]

Right before her speech Kitty thought to herself that she'd phase through the floor and reveal she was a mutant to the crowd if she wasn't worried about outing the entire Xavier school. Her speech was given in a different time when the Morlocks were pretty much the only mutant culture and no one was supposed to know Xaviers was a school for mutants. Even so, she tried to tell how Larry Bondine's power was a wonderful thing and how terrible it was that he was forced to hide who he truly was and the beautiful things he could do. The context and content is totally different from Alex's speech, in a post-Genosha and post-Utopia world where mutants have had their own nations and where the world knows he's a mutant. Kitty was 14, pleading alone to a group of fellow teenagers not to judge people based on what they can do or look like. Alex was an adult being flanked and supported by Captain America and Thor. What they say and do before 'I'm Katherine Pryde' and 'how about Alex' frames what they mean when they get to that point.

[Ricochet Rita]

Another Kuroro moment.

My, I LOVE these panels, just because Ororo is usually so restrained and imperturbable, and here she's having a moment of weakness and she's like "I'm going to be so embarrassed later, but I can't help it and I must cuddle someone because I feel so stupidly emotional" That's the kind of thing why I forgive CC every other fail.

This reminds me of still another Kuroro moment, not so happy.



I think someone already notice the exquisite detail of Rogue choking back her tears in silence. I adore JRJR.

[Will Evans]

No offense to Alex, but Captain America choosing the most blonde haired blue eyed mutant to represent on the Unity Team was such crooked move. Yes, he’s Cyclops bother to spite him, and he led a government run super team before, but he couldn’t get “mutant looking” folks to help promote unity with the clean cut Avengers?

[Devaishwarya]

Right before her speech Kitty thought to herself that she'd phase through the floor and reveal she was a mutant to the crowd if she wasn't worried about outing the entire Xavier school. Her speech was given in a different time when the Morlocks were pretty much the only mutant culture and no one was supposed to know Xaviers was a school for mutants. Even so, she tried to tell how Larry Bondine's power was a wonderful thing and how terrible it was that he was forced to hide who he truly was and the beautiful things he could do. The context and content is totally different from Alex's speech, in a post-Genosha and post-Utopia world where mutants have had their own nations and where the world knows he's a mutant. Kitty was 14, pleading alone to a group of fellow teenagers not to judge people based on what they can do or look like. Alex was an adult being flanked and supported by Captain America and Thor. What they say and do before 'I'm Katherine Pryde' and 'how about Alex' frames what they mean when they get to that point.

Thank you, for this response.

[houndsofluv]

Right before her speech Kitty thought to herself that she'd phase through the floor and reveal she was a mutant to the crowd if she wasn't worried about outing the entire Xavier school. Her speech was given in a different time when the Morlocks were pretty much the only mutant culture and no one was supposed to know Xaviers was a school for mutants. Even so, she tried to tell how Larry Bondine's power was a wonderful thing and how terrible it was that he was forced to hide who he truly was and the beautiful things he could do. The context and content is totally different from Alex's speech, in a post-Genosha and post-Utopia world where mutants have had their own nations and where the world knows he's a mutant. Kitty was 14, pleading alone to a group of fellow teenagers not to judge people based on what they can do or look like. Alex was an adult being flanked and supported by Captain America and Thor. What they say and do before 'I'm Katherine Pryde' and 'how about Alex' frames what they mean when they get to that point.

nothing to add to this except YES. say that.

No offense to Alex, but Captain America choosing the most blonde haired blue eyed mutant to represent on the Unity Team was such crooked move. Yes, he’s Cyclops bother to spite him, and he led a government run super team before, but he couldn’t get “mutant looking” folks to help promote unity with the clean cut Avengers?

lol right and we see this irl.... gays can have a platform as long as they're clean-cut, white, usually male, don't talk about it too much. always a footnote . UA could've been biting social satire if there was a lil more awareness .. but that's probably for another thread

[From The Shadows]

My, I LOVE these panels, just because Ororo is usually so restrained and imperturbable, and here she's having a moment of weakness and she's like "I'm going to be so embarrassed later, but I can't help it and I must cuddle someone because I feel so stupidly emotional" That's the kind of thing why I forgive CC every other fail.

This reminds me of still another Kuroro moment, not so happy.



I think someone already notice the exquisite detail of Rogue choking back her tears in silence. I adore JRJR.

Yeah the one I posted a few pages back was newsprint this is much brighter version. Is it from a trade or HC?
Love that one. :-)

I was able to find this one on the net but the last panel was chopped off for some reason but that's Callisto talking.

[Steel Inquisitor]

lol right and we see this irl.... gays can have a platform as long as they're clean-cut, white, usually male, don't talk about it too much. always a footnote . UA could've been biting social satire if there was a lil more awareness .. but that's probably for another thread

Except mutants have a wider genetic diversity than LGBT do in our world, there's millions of mutants who look like Alex and there are millions who look like Beak. That's why I'm confused by this "mutant looking" description - in comics regular mutants look like this:



Since this is comic books most look like super-models and a tiny fraction don't (like Beast and Nightcrawler). Putting either of them up would be far riskier at creating backlash or apathy rather than get people sympathetic.

Whoever he picked wasn't going to please people but I agree - he shouldn't have picked the stereotypical boy scout looking male one. What about Rogue?

[houndsofluv]

I don't wanna derail the thread so I'll try to keep it brief. I guess this is what I get for being rambly...consider the can of worms officially opened

this is where the concept of passing privilege comes in, which is very complicated and nuanced and rears its head very differently under different circumstances: I originally mentioned LGBTQ+ people who hold their queer identity close to their chest to the point where there is little separating them from a straight audience and thus whatever they're peddling can be consumed "safely" by a straight audience. This is just one case of passing privilege at work, and it is interesting in that it is a case where one has the choice of passing or not because it is related to an identity that no one can see, it isn't tangible. There are things that people are marginalized for that they cannot control, such as the colour of their skin or biological attributes that heighten feelings of gender dysphoric , and in these cases this "choice" of passing becomes much muddier: the eye of the beholder can make this "choice" while subconsciously categorizing the individual, and if this individual has "passed" they can then decide whether they will reveal their marginalized identity or not. Its really strange, for me at least, to think of this process in such coldly logical terms because in reality its something very emotional charged but I hope it makes sense

So, as a distinct marginalized group, mutant passing privilege is distinct from those of other groups. Here it could be argued that its all fictional and it isn't that deep which I'm inclined to agree but I'm already this far along in the post and im gonna see it thru dammit lol. So mutants are an especially interesting case because they can fall into either category I outlined above: those who can pass because their marginalized identity is intangible and those whose passing is made (for lack of a better word, because passing is not and honestly should not be the ultimate goal of a marginalized individual) difficult by the tangibility of their mutation. There're Kittys whose mutation need never be known if she so desires, Kurts who cannot ever pass and Warrens who could pass with sustained effort and maintenance of personal distance (like, having a romantic partner would make it difficult to remain non-mutant-passing). So tl;dr passing privilege for mutants is more complex from the examples of passing privilege we see in our real lives but it is comprised of the same elements - and thus, the comparison I made is fair

So, the Unity Squad Conundrum. It is noteworthy that Cap selected mutants who fall into the Kitty and Warren categories - Alex can pass no problem and Rogue can pass with sustained efforts. They're also both traditionally attractive but that's pretty much a moot point - almost all protagonists in comics subscribe to North American eurocentric beauty standards and, while characters that do not certainly exist they mostly occupy supporting roles . Even if Kurt had been selected it could still be said that the team only extended invites to traditionally attractive mutants . What is striking to me about Alex's appointment as mutant liaison or whatever his title was is that he fits the "kitty passing" bill to an almost stereotypical degree: he's ruggedly handsome as only a Summers man could be, blonde haired and blue eyes, complete with a corn-fed Boy Scout disposition and most importantly self-effacing about his mutant identity. Call him Alex, don't call him mutant - because he's just like you. Its like he was designed in a lab to be Cap's little mutant soldier, appealing to middle Americans unsure about accepting those pesky muties - I hope it makes sense now how I compared him to the gay man who downplays his queerness to the nth degree in order to avoid alienating a primarily straight populace that just "isn't quite sure about him" and want to be comforted, to know that he's just like them aside from what he does out of their sight.

The problem with Uncanny AVengers' messaging is that this is never played for satire - we're supposed to see Alex as taking a more thoughtful stance than his crazed, radicalized brother. Rogue wasn't appointed mutant spokesperson and she is consistently portrayed as more rah rah Pro-Mutant than Alex, skewering the decimator herself miss Maximoff. Mutants in other books criticize Alex, notably Kitty herself who refuses to water-down her mutant identity, but she ultimately sides with Cyclops who is still being semi-subtly villainized. Whether this was intentional or not, the assimilators are given the Good Guy treatment. And I get it, identity politics are hard enough in real life, let alone writing about muddily-conceived fictional identity politics. And comics aren't exactly known as the medium of nuance , they're more onomatopaeic. Im not putting any blame on the shoulders of the creators or trying to vilify anyone, But this narrative was still woven in and why not talk about it, dissect it and get to the bottom of why ?

One last tidbit that I think is interesting is that Rogue and Havok are both a little infamous for the their villainous turns of yore. They've made up for it with heroics and whatnot, but bear in mind that the X-Men are a primarily secret operation - The GP is probably more familiar with Rogue as the girl who put Captain Marvel out of commission way back when. But these are still the people who were chosen as the best representatives of the mutants. The endlessly charming Nightcrawler didn't make the cut, without a spot of ill-will on his record. Is the human-passing element thus the most important aspect of public perception?

So there's my thinking laid bare. I definitely didn't keep it brief as promised but I'll make up for it by putting a pin in it, at least in the confines of this thread. I hope my initial post makes more sense, SteelInquisitor