Thread Drift: Mutant "Blackness"

[Agent Z]

Didn't Claremont write that?

I used to really resent her blue eyes and white hair, but Wolverine had an afro and a natural aptitude for basketball, so it's even.

When did Wolverine have an afro?

[Kuwagaton]

In the '90s that was the only way I could try to understand what was supposed to be on his head.

[PwrdOn]

Didn't Claremont write that?

I used to really resent her blue eyes and white hair, but Wolverine had an afro and a natural aptitude for basketball, so it's even.

I'm not sure where I saw this, but Claremont's intent with Storm was always to make her sort of this pan-racial exotic beauty. You can see it in one of the panels during the Dark Phoenix Saga, where Jean is having this hallucination that she's on a plantation and sees Storm as one of her slaves, who has a completely different face from her normal one, which Byrne typically just drew as a palette swap of Jean. I don't think many other writers took that same tack, but she's never really been portrayed in an authentic or believable way.

[Kuwagaton]

I'm not sure where I saw this, but Claremont's intent with Storm was always to make her sort of this pan-racial exotic beauty. You can see it in one of the panels during the Dark Phoenix Saga, where Jean is having this hallucination that she's on a plantation and sees Storm as one of her slaves, who has a completely different face from her normal one, which Byrne typically just drew as a palette swap of Jean. I don't think many other writers took that same tack, but she's never really been portrayed in an authentic or believable way.

If Claremont says it, to me that's as official as it gets. And I have no problem with that idea aside from the unfortunate irony that she happens to be the most prominent hero of African descent. Although it's not like a "pure bloodline" is something people actually demand.

And I kinda get what you're saying, except for that what Jean had in mind was more a crude approximation than how African Americans would typically look. Compare Byrne's Storm to Misty Knight, for example.

This plot idea irks me mainly because the X-Men are about diversity and there's nothing more stagnant than a herded population on the moon.

[Anthony Shaw]

I'm not trying to push anyone as being anything. I simply don't understand your point.
In what way is Bobby not black enough?
I brought him up because you asked for black, heterosexual, male mutants.

And now Storm can't be classified as a black woman either?
What exactly are your criteria for being black?

It is not a simple thing to simply say that Bobby is simply black. Brazilians are beautiful, walking melting pots.

Also, how often has Bobby been featured as a major player in the X-Men mythos compared to his best friend Sam?

Bobby shined pretty bright as an Avenger.

Black men simply are not key components to the X-Men experience despite drawing from the black experience in real life.

The Storm comment was a joke as some panels have suggested that Storm is a composite of all races (despite having a Kenyan mother & an American born black father).




This whole exchange came from you trying to dictate some point unto me.

But hey, X-Men are representing the LGBT experience.

[Username taken]

Actually Storm is not considered Black according to the X-Office. In a X-men issue 2 doctors have a conversation stating Storm is not Black, she is said to have the racial attributes of all races. Why Marvel decided to do this is anyones guess.

We've had some discussions about that panel here and it's one of the many issues I've had with the X-office over the years.

This plus the complete destruction of Lucas Bishop make me wonder just how committed the X-books were when promoting non-white characters. As of today, there are no prominent black males on the X-men and if Storm (according to Claremont's nonsense) isn't really black.........there isn't much more to say is there.

Just wanted to put that out without derailing the thread.

[Darth Phoenix]

We've had some discussions about that panel here and it's one of the many issues I've had with the X-office over the years.

This plus the complete destruction of Lucas Bishop make me wonder just how committed the X-books were when promoting non-white characters. As of today, there are no prominent black males on the X-men and if Storm (according to Claremont's nonsense) isn't really black.........there isn't much more to say is there.

Just wanted to put that out without derailing the thread.

Wasn't bishop only Half or Something?

Marvel used to have one very kick ass black american mutant who was smart, cute,friendly, a good leader and relateable to many who were not black but Marvel blew him up.

synch5.jpg

[Habis]

Wasn't bishop only Half or Something?synch5.jpg

Bishop was Aboriginal Australian, not African or Afro-American, I think.

[Tazpocalapse]

Bishop was Aboriginal Australian, not African or Afro-American, I think.

He is Aborigine, but he was raised in a Mutant concentration camp in Brooklyn.

[NexusTenebrare]

This whole exchange came from you trying to dictate some point unto me.

Wrong.
This whole exchange started with you asking a question and me answering it and then you deciding you didn't like the answer. I didn't dictate anything on you.
You don't like Sunspot as an example of a black heterosexual man? You don't consider him black? You refuse to explain why? Fine, no skin off my back. But don't go pretending like I'm forcing anything on you. Next time if you don't want an answer, don't ask a question.

But hey, X-Men are representing the LGBT experience.

Yeah, you keep writing that in a very passive-aggressive way. Frankly, it tells me all I need to know about you and with that I'm done with this conversation.

[Kuwagaton]

lol, nobody sees Sunspot like that. The people demand Synch! Maybe he's already waiting on the moon for them.

[Habis]

He is Aborigine, but he was raised in a Mutant concentration camp in Brooklyn.

That would still not make him Afro-American, since he doesn't have African ancestors. He would be an Australian Aborigine-American, or something similar (I dunno, English isn't my maternal language).

[Tazpocalapse]

That would still not make him Afro-American, since he doesn't have African ancestors. He would be an Australian Aborigine-American, or something similar (I dunno, English isn't my maternal language).

Technically we all have African ancestors. Aboriginals have African Ancestors.

[Habis]

Technically we all have African ancestors. Aboriginals have African Ancestors.

Well, the ancestors of the Europeans and Asians and Native Americans left Africa thousands of years after the ancestors of the Aboriginals did, so, if Australian Aboriginal-American are Afro-Americans, Native Americans, Asians and Caucasians would be too...

[emac1790]

We've had some discussions about that panel here and it's one of the many issues I've had with the X-office over the years.

This plus the complete destruction of Lucas Bishop make me wonder just how committed the X-books were when promoting non-white characters. As of today, there are no prominent black males on the X-men and if Storm (according to Claremont's nonsense) isn't really black.........there isn't much more to say is there.

Just wanted to put that out without derailing the thread.

I read that issue when it came out and my thought was "WTF?"

Now that I look back on it, it was the near the beginning of Claremont's decline.