Your Unpopular/Controversial Opinions on the X-Universe

[Ra-El]

So, you're saying people should change who they are, genetically even, because other people are racist, stupid or evil?

Hell, maybe the people in Nazi Germany that rather than just follow orders and say Hail Hitler! decided to rebel were stupid? I mean, if they weren't someone that was obviously a part of a persecuted group, they could just take the easy way out, like you said. Likewise, all the people that decided and still decide to fight oppressive regimes even risking their lives to do so are obviously very dumb.

And how about people from persecuted religions? Maybe the Jewish could avoid millennia of persecution by simply converting to other religions and let their culture die. Christians in Rome would be better off forgetting about that Jesus fellow as well.



I guess you missed the part about mutantkind suffering an Holocaust (hell, two with M-Day killing more than a million) and only narrowly avoiding many others, exactly because of the actions of the X-men. I'm pretty sure a lot of people that suffered persecution in many oppressive regimes were quite good looking too. Plus, there are many mutants that clearly don't look like models, like the Morlocks, some of them in the team as well- like Beast, Nightcrawler, Chamber, etc.

What I mean, is that the X-Men should never be used as analogues to the real world persecuted minorities, the Professor X as MLK and Magneto as Malcolm X for example is best forgotten. It is offensive, imo, that the X-Men are used as a analogy to racism for example, when 90% of the characters are white and Sunspot is whitewhased.

Now Cyclops is my favorite Marvel character, and I loved his Utopia years, so I not against the X-Men suffering discrimination, but if any writers want to write about racism they should use Luke Cage, Sam Wilsom, Misty Knight or if they want to use X-Men they should go with Storm, Sunspot and Bishop. Not using Kate Pryde or Scott Summers to make a allegory, or casting two white dudes as black icons.

[Zelena]

In fact, a lot of traits commonly attributed to human ethnicities ("all black people are great dancers", "East Asians all know martial arts", "gay men are so stylish") are complete bollocks, and can actually be pretty harmful, because it's basically mainstream society imposing a niche on people in that group.

I don’t see how you can compare something that is real (in the MU), the terrifying super-powers some mutants possess and the prejudices minorities are facing in our real world.

[Devaishwarya]

What I mean, is that the X-Men should never be used as analogues to the real world persecuted minorities, the Professor X as MLK and Magneto as Malcolm X for example is best forgotten. It is offensive, imo, that the X-Men are used as a analogy to racism for example, when 90% of the characters are white and Sunspot is whitewhased.

Now Cyclops is my favorite Marvel character, and I loved his Utopia years, so I not against the X-Men suffering discrimination, but if any writers want to write about racism they should use Luke Cage, Sam Wilsom, Misty Knight or if they want to use X-Men they should go with Storm, Sunspot and Bishop. Not using Kate Pryde or Scott Summers to make a allegory, or casting two white dudes as black icons.

You are speaking in extremes and you cannot apply extremism to the long and varied written history of the X-Men under many different eras, writers and editors.
1: Has Sunspot been whitewashed...yes. But not always and in fewer instances and certainly not in his significant appearances.
2: Are a majority of the starring mutants attractive? Yes. They are superheroes...a premier tenet of the superhero world is that the superheroes be the idealised versions of how we see ourselves. And as was pointed out...attractive people are victimised and persecuted for being Black, Women, Gay, Trans etc. So...
3: Using the Black characters to write about racism is all well and good...and some authors have touched on that over the many decades but racism in comics is just a "subset" of overall discrimination of any/all minorities that the X-Men throughout their published history have represented.

You being offended by the material you are reading has nothing to do really with the material in front of you but rather the (mis)understanding of the message its trying to portray.
And let's be clear...you being offended, while perfectly valid, to you, does not make the material wrong or any less valid.

[Alan2099]

There's something amusingly ironic about saying "You can't use this race to talk about racism."

[Devaishwarya]

Yes. It would be very ironic, indeed, if someone did say that.

[nandes]

One thing is acknowledging that the mutant metaphor is flawed and has been stopped from evolving by writers and editors who refuse to add adequate PoC, LGBTI+ & disability representation to a franchise that's based in their daily struggles, and also from fans who hate change and only care about nostalgia-based content featuring the same 10 white, straight, abled characters that the X-Men have been about since the 80's.

Another completely different thing is thinking "if you're oppresed, try not being oppressed!" is a good message to send to people.

[chief12d]

The minority metaphor is offensive, when the people show on page as persecuted all look like super models and are almost exclusively white. That japanese guy from Warren Ellis run, was on some level right, the X-Men are basically a bunch of super hot people with superpowers complaining that the world fear them.

Personally I don’t find it offensive so much as it is poorly executed and exaggerated. But pretty much every A-list X-Men being white and the constant attempts to relate their struggle to racism is ironically funny. It’s comics and predominantly white writers trying and failing to explore discrimination is nothing new. I take it for what it is and try my best to enjoy parts of the X-Men that are actually well done (the sci-fi, the art, and the character arcs).

[chief12d]

Unpopular opinion: if you’re a mutant and you don’t want to be persecuted, then take any one of the numerous cures that have appeared over the years. You can argue that they shouldn’t have to all you want but if being a mutant is such a problem and there’s a cure for it, then what you’re really saying is that being a mutant is worth all the problems that come with it. Obviously I’m talking pre-Hick here.

The only justifiable reason for not taking some of these cures is because all too often they’re offered by shady organizations or businesses seeking to exploit mutants. Even if I got turned into a hideous freak like Glob or Beast I’d think twice before taking an X-gene suppressing drug from the US government. Other than that though I think you’re spot on. In many cases a mutation is a curse, and I don’t see anything wrong with encouraging people who have that issue getting it fixed. If you have a reasonably safe cure for your mutation available and refuse to take it then you’re only opening yourself up to further oppression. And setting your kids up for the same.

[Wiccan]

Of course that the metaphor isn't perfect. But that's why it's, well, a metaphor. Metaphors are basically analogies. If you can connect the feeling of one thing to another, that's a metaphor already. It doesn't have to be flawless to be valid. There's also the fact that different mutations work best with certain minorities.

If you don't connect with it, fine. But a lot of people do. You can't say it's objectively bad and especially not "offensive".

[SpiderClops]

I don't find the metaphor offensive per say, but I think we fans and writers need to acknowledge that it's never going to work as a 1:1 analogy, or even close to it.

[Will Evans]

I don't find the metaphor offensive per say, but I think we fans and writers need to acknowledge that it's never going to work as a 1:1 analogy, or even close to it.

Agreed.

Though I also say after M-Day, different minority analogies s were used. Specifically ones facing extinction.

[Havok83]

Unpopular opinion: if you’re a mutant and you don’t want to be persecuted, then take any one of the numerous cures that have appeared over the years. You can argue that they shouldn’t have to all you want but if being a mutant is such a problem and there’s a cure for it, then what you’re really saying is that being a mutant is worth all the problems that come with it. Obviously I’m talking pre-Hick here.

Thats asbolutely terrible and sends a poor message. As a black man, I would never take a pill that would make me wake up as white regardless of the discrimination and racism that I face on a regular basis. You are literally stripping away your identity at that point. The problem isnt the person that's different; its with those that hate them for being different. A person should not have to change who they are in order to not be persecuted. Thats highly offensive.

[Zelena]

Thats asbolutely terrible and sends a poor message. As a black man, I would never take a pill that would make me wake up as white regardless of the discrimination and racism that I face on a regular basis. You are literally stripping away your identity at that point. The problem isnt the person that's different; its with those that hate them for being different. A person should not have to change who they are in order to not be persecuted. Thats highly offensive.

I wonder if you would be upset to have to change your religion to be able to marry. Some people do it. Eventually it’s a personal choice… Losing something to gain something.

The fact is, lately, the mutants are identifying themselves to their powers. The “older” mutants had other talents. Nightcrawler was a gymnast and a swordsman, Logan knew Japanese culture… Having a power was an addition and not everything like for Quicksilver that was completely lost without his super-speed.

[Ra-El]

You are speaking in extremes and you cannot apply extremism to the long and varied written history of the X-Men under many different eras, writers and editors.
1: Has Sunspot been whitewashed...yes. But not always and in fewer instances and certainly not in his significant appearances.
2: Are a majority of the starring mutants attractive? Yes. They are superheroes...a premier tenet of the superhero world is that the superheroes be the idealised versions of how we see ourselves. And as was pointed out...attractive people are victimised and persecuted for being Black, Women, Gay, Trans etc. So...
3: Using the Black characters to write about racism is all well and good...and some authors have touched on that over the many decades but racism in comics is just a "subset" of overall discrimination of any/all minorities that the X-Men throughout their published history have represented.

You being offended by the material you are reading has nothing to do really with the material in front of you but rather the (mis)understanding of the message its trying to portray.
And let's be clear...you being offended, while perfectly valid, to you, does not make the material wrong or any less valid.

I'm exaggerate when I said it was offensive, because I was never offended by it. The truth is, I just think it is intelectually dishonest most of the times, and frankly, kind of ridiculous everytime writers choose to use white X-Men to talk about racism.

[Alan2099]

The problem I always have with people asking why mutants would want to change or getting offended when people ask why there even have to be mutants is that most mutants aren't born mutants. They're not raised as mutants. For all intents and purposes, they're human up until they hit their teens.

The fact that people are perfectly fine with NOT being mutants until they hit highschool and then completely redefine their lives as being mutants makes them a bit harder to take seriously.

And yes, I know that scientifically un-powered mutants are still mutants, but if nobody knows they're mutants and they don't look like or have powers of mutants they might as well not be mutants. I also understand some of them show signs of being mutants since birth, such as Nightcrawler.

That also makes me wonder, have we ever seen a group of mutants that were proud of themselves for being "Mutants Since Birth", possibly even looking down on other mutants that "grew up human"? I know there's the Morlocks who (in some stories) where proud of being "ugly" but that's not quite what I'm thinking of.