Your Unpopular/Controversial Opinions on the X-Universe

[Outburstz]

[QUOTE=Mik;5709533]

My point is those aren't real world threats like imperialism was in Africa

everything I named is currently happening in today's society

That's not spoon-fed at all. That's called being direct. I don't need some kind of filter.

It is being spoon fed because most people don't want to see these issues addressed in such a direct manner in their fantasy/sci fi medium. No one wants to see Jewish people rounded up into concentration camps but with mutant it's ok.

Black people don't want to see black people being killed by police, but sentinels killing mutants is ok.


These instances gets the point across without beating you over the head with it.

Ok. How so?

There are plenty of storylines that touch on different subjects

the difficulties of being a leader and making choices that effect everyone and the burden that comes with it.

There are multiple stories about teaching and guiding kids

Difficulties of dating when you are not attractive

Romance drama between teammates

Domestic violence and how that effects a person

Difficulties of choosing what type of job/career you want to do for the rest of your life

Social awkwardness

You're still not getting what I'm saying at all, are you? Being White is not the reason they're being oppressed. A White woman, for instance, is marginalized because she's a woman, not because she's White. See what I mean?

Your skin color isn't the reason why people hate mutants. It's because they are mutants. Cyclops isn't oppressed for being a white male he is oppressed for being a mutant.

That depends on whether the X-Men are doing the right thing or not in the specific story. But I don't see the need to make the Avengers look uncaring just to justify continuing the X-victim complex

That's the whole enjoyment of the story. Are the X-men making the right choice for mutants. Are they going to far are they not going far enough etc

Yeah, those groups were minorities targeted by other White groups. They weren't considered White then. So no, the metaphor still doesn't work.

You mean how mutants are not considered humans by those that hate them?

And I do have a problem with mutant oppression being talked about, because it seems to be more important than any real oppression when it comes to mutants.

The oppression that the mutants face is real in canon. As for real life oppression those get talked about as well which I already gave examples of.

[Doom'nGloom]

I like the X-men yet this idea that it's this franchise that have tackled minority issues other franchises can't isn't simply true. Not when the most popular character, the leader of the team (Storm was also the leader for some time but when you say leader of the X-men people mostly think of Scott), the founder of the team and their main nemesis are all white. X-men's arguably the most iconic storyline is Jean basically losing her mind and going on a killing spree which plays with the trope power makes woman go crazy. If X-men was truly about minorities they would have done more with Jubilee, Bobby, Bishop, Ororo (she's eating good now but that wasn't always the case despite being the most popular x-woman) etc.

[Castle]

Black Panther was hardly a cinematic masterpiece, but that doesn't really matter because most popular films follow a pretty generic template. What mattered is that it really managed to resonate with a global audience to a degree that even Disney and Marvel probably didn't anticipate, something that they haven't been yet able to replicate with other "woke" projects like Captain Marvel, for example. Perhaps this was undeserved or unearned, but Black Panther managed to become a worldwide symbol of black empowerment, regardless of how delicately the movie itself broached the subject. .

Agreed for the most part, but where we seem to be disagreeing on on the notion that a film can resonate with audiences that they would not be able to look beyond one factor alone.

I remember growing up with Titanic 97. that movie did resonate with many people, most looking for love but as much as it did, However Titanic rewrote the magic of the art of cinema because let's face it, the plot of titanic is not the greatest, and rose and jack been deeply in love after 4 days is not that realistic either, but what elevates Titanic as a film, is the artistic mind of CAMERON. Sadly Black Panther is almost the opposite for this. since Black Panther belongs on a long stings of a chain of MCU films that are all made with the same formula. Black Panther is the exact opposite of how Camron made Titanic.

I was actually going bring up captain marvel but felt it was too far off there. However not that you mention it, both captain marvel and black panther benefited from the same advantages and Shang CHI, would have gotten the same advantages too if not for COVID pandemic. they had Disney promoting them, were part of the MCU and majority of most critics were never going to be harsh on those films.

I never saw Captain Marvel the movie itself as woke, I felt star wars last jedi was more ''woke'' than captain marvel and I don't give care greatly about Brie Larson's Politics. With the Woke stuff, I feel it is Brie that people find woke but these same people could not separate her from the character so in default the character is also woke.


The social activeness of X-MEN never took a back sit, since the reason X-MEN rose to prominence in the 70s was because Claremont and others re-wrote the rules of comic stories. xmen became more of a soap opera with many of these themes pushed forward as the central plot, perhaps the most infamous would be God Loves, Man Kills.

Also look at the fox movies, there were a mixed mess but the only fox films that critics and fans loved were the movies that primary focused on the social commentary in a manner that was above the stereotypical comic book movie. I cannot think of one xmen movie that critics liked because it was very funny and had lots of action and was generic. xmen was always different that the typical comic bookie stuff, in fact this is why I liked it so much growing up.

DPS and DOFP are classics, as we have classic movies from the 60s. the reality is comic books are here to stay forever, their story will go on, their characters will never get older so what we have is a never ending loop hole of more of the same.

however what I can only say is that x-men in their nearly 70 years out there has amassed enough of stories and substantial social commentary even beyond discrimination that it is now well deserving of the reputation it gets that xmen stand for something more than just generic comic books action and fighting bad guys because they have too and you sure need more than just white, black or Asian characters been just about their identities alone to achieve that.

[PwrdOn]

Agreed for the most part, but where we seem to disagreeing is in the notion that a film can resonate with audiences that the they would not be able to look beyond one factor alone.

I remember growing up with Titanic 97. that movie did resonate with many people, most looking for love but as much as it did, However Titanic rewrote the magic of the art of cinema because let's face it, the plot of titanic is not the greatest, and rose and jack been deeply in love after 4 days is not that realistic either, but what elevates Titanic as a film, is the artistic mind of CAMERON. Sadly Black Panther is almost the opposite for this. since Black Panther belongs on a long stings of a chain of MCU films that are all made with the same formula. Black Panther is the exact opposite of how Camron made Titanic.

I was actually going bring up captain marvel but felt it was too far off there. However not that you mention it, both captain marvel and black panther benefited from the same advantages and Shang CHI, would have gotten the same advantages too if not for COVID pandemic. they had Disney promoting them, were part of the MCU and majority of most critics were never going to be harsh on those films.

I never saw Captain Marvel the movie itself as woke, I felt star wars last jedi was more ''woke'' than captain marvel and I don't give care greatly about Brie Larson's Politics. With the Woke stuff, I feel it is Brie that people find woke but these same people could not separate her from the character so in default the character is also woke.


The social activeness of X-MEN never took a back sit, since the reason X-MEN rose to prominence in the 70s was because Claremont and others re-wrote the rules of comic stories. xmen became more of a soap opera with many of these themes pushed forward as the central plot, perhaps the most infamous would be God Loves, Man Kills.

Also look at the fox movies, there were a mixed mess but the only fox films that critics and fans loved were the movies that primary focused on the social commentary in a manner that was above the stereotypical comic book movie. I cannot think of one xmen movie that critics liked because it was very funny and had lots of action and was generic. xmen was always different that the typical comic bookie stuff, in fact this is why I liked it so much growing up.

DPS and DOFP are classics, as we have classic movies from the 60s. the reality is comic books are here to stay forever, their story will go on, their characters will never get older so what we have is a never ending loop hole of more of the same.

however what I can only say is that x-men in their nearly 70 years out there has amassed enough of stories and substantial social commentary even beyond discrimination that it is now well deserving of the reputation it gets that xmen stand for something more than just generic comic books action and fighting bad guys because they have too and you sure need more than just white, black or Asian characters been just about their identities alone to achieve that.

If you want to position your story as social commentary, then it needs to evolve to reflect changing times and standards. When it came out, Uncle Tom's Cabin was regarded as a powerful anti-slavery tract and the title character as a symbol of black nobility and dignity. Its reputation these days is obviously somewhat different.

[FFJamie94]

I feel that liking X-force And Excalibur at this point counts as a contriversial opinion.

Anyway, mine would be that X-men don't really work as a 1 on 1 representation of social issues, mostly because they can just be a representation that can explore those themes, but can't act as a 100% total metaphor.
I think what would be a better standpoint to use is homophobia, transphobia And racism within Mutant communities. Telling a story about how a gay Mutant is treated by homophobic Mutants can lead to a stronger metaphor.
The thing which works about the X-men is the core Message.

[Kingdom X]

Anyway, mine would be that X-men don't really work as a 1 on 1 representation of social issues, mostly because they can just be a representation that can explore those themes, but can't act as a 100% total metaphor.
I think what would be a better standpoint to use is homophobia, transphobia And racism within Mutant communities. Telling a story about how a gay Mutant is treated by homophobic Mutants can lead to a stronger metaphor.
The thing which works about the X-men is the core Message.

I agree. Great way to update the books without taking away franchise recognizability.

[Zelena]

Claremont changed the game in the comics and that carried on to many of the movies and cartoons. Claremont is like a Gene Rodenberry figure in comics, if anything is like Kylie Jenner, I would sadly say, that feels more like today marvel comics and today Marvel movies because they tend to be shallow , derivate and they now stick by kid friendly light nature stories, and that means you cannot really do much in tackling the subjects. This is a very big deal because the issue of discrimination is not a light subject.

Claremont wasn’t boring because he told stories about individuals, he didn’t told stories about groups. He had his opinions about politics but his opinions didn’t overcome the desire to talk about people’s life, history, experience. You could draw conclusions but it wasn’t necessary: he was enough a storyteller for his stories to be entertaining…

You can also be boring when you want to tackle serious subjects…

[Omega Alpha]

I like the X-men yet this idea that it's this franchise that have tackled minority issues other franchises can't isn't simply true. Not when the most popular character, the leader of the team (Storm was also the leader for some time but when you say leader of the X-men people mostly think of Scott), the founder of the team and their main nemesis are all white. X-men's arguably the most iconic storyline is Jean basically losing her mind and going on a killing spree which plays with the trope power makes woman go crazy. If X-men was truly about minorities they would have done more with Jubilee, Bobby, Bishop, Ororo (she's eating good now but that wasn't always the case despite being the most popular x-woman) etc.

Yeah, you're not the first person to present this view, and as always, it's extremely simplistic and misses the mark.

First of all, analogies and allegories for real life issues don't need to use people that face the same issues- if you want to do an allegory about, say, American presence in the Middle East, you don't need to make all the characters either American or Middle Eastern, because at some point you're not making analogies or metaphors, but just an reproduction of what happens, and usually a heavy handed one at that.

Second, X-men work best when they are a loose metaphor for struggles of the people who are in the sidelines of societies, the outcasts and oppressed. It doesn't have to be a precise one, and in fact trying to make a 1:1 for any specific situation only makes it worse.

Third, you're doing the typically American thing- and sorry, of course some non-Americans do it, but 99% of the time I see someone doing this, is an American- of assuming that the only minorities that exist are based on skin color and the only form of prejudice is racism. Magneto is a freakin' HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR and he doesn't know what oppression is? Or the guy in a wheelchair (well, most of the time) doesn't understand what's like being looked down upon? That's just non-sense.

.
Anyway, mine would be that X-men don't really work as a 1 on 1 representation of social issues, mostly because they can just be a representation that can explore those themes, but can't act as a 100% total metaphor.
I think what would be a better standpoint to use is homophobia, transphobia And racism within Mutant communities. Telling a story about how a gay Mutant is treated by homophobic Mutants can lead to a stronger metaphor.
The thing which works about the X-men is the core Message.

Exactly.

Claremont wasn’t boring because he told stories about individuals, he didn’t told stories about groups. He had his opinions about politics but his opinions didn’t overcome the desire to talk about people’s life, history, experience. You could draw conclusions but it wasn’t necessary: he was enough a storyteller for his stories to be entertaining…

You can also be boring when you want to tackle serious subjects…

Oh, yeah, quite often, or perhaps even more often than not, when writers want to write about serious issues they tend to be preachy and heavy-handed and/or just outright bad.

[CosmiComic]

I like the X-men yet this idea that it's this franchise that have tackled minority issues other franchises can't isn't simply true. Not when the most popular character, the leader of the team (Storm was also the leader for some time but when you say leader of the X-men people mostly think of Scott), the founder of the team and their main nemesis are all white. X-men's arguably the most iconic storyline is Jean basically losing her mind and going on a killing spree which plays with the trope power makes woman go crazy. If X-men was truly about minorities they would have done more with Jubilee, Bobby, Bishop, Ororo (she's eating good now but that wasn't always the case despite being the most popular x-woman) etc.

Exactly. This is part of the point I'm trying to make here

If you want to position your story as social commentary, then it needs to evolve to reflect changing times and standards. When it came out, Uncle Tom's Cabin was regarded as a powerful anti-slavery tract and the title character as a symbol of black nobility and dignity. Its reputation these days is obviously somewhat different.

True. Does it take into account how the discussion about bigotry has changed in the last few decades?

Yeah, you're not the first person to present this view, and as always, it's extremely simplistic and misses the mark.

First of all, analogies and allegories for real life issues don't need to use people that face the same issues- if you want to do an allegory about, say, American presence in the Middle East, you don't need to make all the characters either American or Middle Eastern, because at some point you're not making analogies or metaphors, but just an reproduction of what happens, and usually a heavy handed one at that.

Second, X-men work best when they are a loose metaphor for struggles of the people who are in the sidelines of societies, the outcasts and oppressed. It doesn't have to be a precise one, and in fact trying to make a 1:1 for any specific situation only makes it worse.

Third, you're doing the typically American thing- and sorry, of course some non-Americans do it, but 99% of the time I see someone doing this, is an American- of assuming that the only minorities that exist are based on skin color and the only form of prejudice is racism. Magneto is a freakin' HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR and he doesn't know what oppression is? Or the guy in a wheelchair (well, most of the time) doesn't understand what's like being looked down upon? That's just non-sense.

Not everyone has complained about it just being about race. Where did you get that?

And do you not see the problem of using a majority hero to represent minorities? Not at all?

Exactly.


Oh, yeah, quite often, or perhaps even more often than not, when writers want to write about serious issues they tend to be preachy and heavy-handed and/or just outright bad.

Why do defenders of this metaphor immediately jump to "it's preachy! It's heavy handed!"? It doesn't have to be. It can be done well but you assume it'll be bad if it's real. That's not fair

[marhawkman]

The idea of humans hating all mutants just because is sort of based on this very facile understanding of prejudice as coming from these ignorant and intractable bigots who just hate others for being different, and that's just not how it works. Bigotry in real life largely stems from people advancing their own material interests, which often depend on exploiting other groups and therefore requires inventing tortured justifications as to why they need to be kept down. It has never been made clear in the X-Men comics how exactly humanity benefits from oppressing mutants, aside from the angle of mutants being destined to replace humans evolutionarily, in which case it would absolutely be perfectly rational and justified for humans to exterminate mutants by any means necessary, because their survival as a species would depend on it. But given that this "great replacement" idea is kind of based on an extremely faulty understanding of how evolution and cross-species interaction actually work, and veers dangerously close to real world fascist ideas about a future race war, it's probably best to just leave it by the wayside.

Yeah, it's been mentioned a few times but ends up being back-burnered, but some of the stories with anti-Mutant groups actually point out that the bad guys are really just power-hungry jerks. The dark future where Ruby Summers existed wasn't a bleak dystopia because of Mutant wars... no it was a totalitarian police state that used "dangerous Mutants" as an excuse to rule everyone with an iron fist.... attached to a Sentinel.

The origin is that Celestials went to different worlds and experimented on that planets dominate sentient species. Which to me in my opinion makes mutants no different from mutates cause both are the results of experimentation or those born with powers that are non mutants such as natural born magic users.

Well that's one of the things that from a RW perspective makes sense. But in-universe the explanation says no. Like why aren't the creations of the High Evolutionary Mutants? Well... some are.... but only those with "Mutant" DNA.

It's like the old thing with Spider-Man. He is NOT a Mutant. They even had a Sentinel scan Mary-Jane while she was pregnant with May, and the Sentinel says the child is "beyond the range of normality"... but doesn't identify May as a Mutant.

This makes no sense by real world definitions, and is why I keep spelling Mutant with a capital M. It's some weird fictional jargon for something that doesn't exist IRL.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think you would look at it like I do in that there would be some people, either individually or collectively, that would hate mutants based such reasons, whether it was motivated by greed (mutants are a competitor) or revenge (a mutant battle wiped out my village) or ideals (a religious view that mutants are blasphemous) but there would not be one overall prevailing attitude of hate. This is sort of the way I saw how the X-Men existed in the MU for many, many years with them often encountering 'common people' of all views in every day life, sometimes those people being used to portray maybe the efforts of some antagonist to create fear and sometimes to reflect the fallout from the X-Men's own actions.

It used to be that this is why the "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" existed. Magneto, Wanda, and their cohorts gave the public a REASON to fear Mutants. the current status quo... has absorbed all of the Mutant bad guys into the Xmen.... Which will definitely, definitely not end badly... definitely.....

Mutants can still have stories without having to involve social commentary. Claremont did his take with that and it was useful but know it’s gotten to appoint with an us vs them mentality that’s not healthy for any social group, race, ethnicity, etc. to have. Keeping two teams mad at each other doesn’t make for good story telling it just makes for unnecessary bs between fans that Marvel likes to keep going with.

This is part of what made the friction between the Acolytes and X-Men interesting. There's an entire list of characters that have been on BOTH teams.... while they were fighting each other. Piotr Rasputin, Sally Blevins, Rusty Collins, are examples of characters who had close ties to both sides of the conflict. Heck, after Avalon got destroyed Sarah Ryall wanted to join the Xmen.

I already gave example of white groups that were oppressed and discriminated against. Again if you want more POC characters we are not disagreeing but these white characters should be allowed to be a part of the conversation because they are mutants as well. Not thrown out

Heh, like the starting point? Magneto lived through the Holocaust.... as a Jew. this is part of what defined his world view.

I've been saying for a while that Val should get these powers.

Yeah, in theory, it's functionally the same character. Why is one super and the other not?

Claremont wasn’t boring because he told stories about individuals, he didn’t told stories about groups. He had his opinions about politics but his opinions didn’t overcome the desire to talk about people’s life, history, experience. You could draw conclusions but it wasn’t necessary: he was enough a storyteller for his stories to be entertaining…

You can also be boring when you want to tackle serious subjects…

Which is what made the philosophical debates waged between the X-Men and Acolytes so interesting.... they were people discussing shared interests..... very, very energetically discussing shared interests.

I have also had a thought on this for a while that they should show that Suzy is a Pink Kree/Human Mutant hybrid that was created in a breeding program by Pink Kree who wanted to accelerate the arrival of their savior. Basically since the early 20th Century the PK have been abducting human mutants and cross breeding them with PK.

Yeah, there's that idea that the Kree hit a genetic roadblock and need to fundamentally change to progress as a species... or something. Such as hybridizing with Humans. I really wish they'd explore her backstory more.

I can't give a total solution, but here's one: marvel can stop dragging out the persecution complex and try to make the world a nicer place for mutants. And instead of a metaphor, deal with the actual bigotry faced by the numerous minority heroes in X-Men, probably the most diverse comic book.

And I can sympathize with any fictional minority. But it has to be believable. And the mutant one isn't entirely believable.

Yeah, the persecution narrative is insane. How many political groups have reason to want to support Mutants? Yet somehow there's a govt agency designed to persecute them? Specifically Mutants.... not superpowered people in general, JUST Mutants.

Oh and other govt agencies are fine actually with Mutants working for them... WHISKEY...... TANGO..... FOXTROT....?!!?!?!?!?!

[Doom'nGloom]

Yeah, you're not the first person to present this view, and as always, it's extremely simplistic and misses the mark.

First of all, analogies and allegories for real life issues don't need to use people that face the same issues- if you want to do an allegory about, say, American presence in the Middle East, you don't need to make all the characters either American or Middle Eastern, because at some point you're not making analogies or metaphors, but just an reproduction of what happens, and usually a heavy handed one at that.

Second, X-men work best when they are a loose metaphor for struggles of the people who are in the sidelines of societies, the outcasts and oppressed. It doesn't have to be a precise one, and in fact trying to make a 1:1 for any specific situation only makes it worse.

Third, you're doing the typically American thing- and sorry, of course some non-Americans do it, but 99% of the time I see someone doing this, is an American- of assuming that the only minorities that exist are based on skin color and the only form of prejudice is racism. Magneto is a freakin' HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR and he doesn't know what oppression is? Or the guy in a wheelchair (well, most of the time) doesn't understand what's like being looked down upon? That's just non-sense.



Exactly.




Oh, yeah, quite often, or perhaps even more often than not, when writers want to write about serious issues they tend to be preachy and heavy-handed and/or just outright bad.

I'm from Middle East. Yes Charles had a physical disability. He also had a relatively stable childhood (his mother tragically died and his step-brother was a jerk but it was far from the worst), his powers allowed him to excel in whatever academic activity he partake in so basically he cheated and on top of that he's rich. As for Magneto yes he's a minority because of his jewish identity and I never claimed he isn't. What I'm saying is for a franchise proud of it's handling of minorities X-men is doing a poor job with PoC and Queer folk.

[CosmiComic]

Yeah, the persecution narrative is insane. How many political groups have reason to want to support Mutants? Yet somehow there's a govt agency designed to persecute them? Specifically Mutants.... not superpowered people in general, JUST Mutants.

Oh and other govt agencies are fine actually with Mutants working for them... WHISKEY...... TANGO..... FOXTROT....?!!?!?!?!?!

It would honestly make more sense if the mutants were more frequently utilized by shady governments, a la Weapon X. Or if they were the bigots denouncing non-mutants as weak and inferior. But the politics of anti-mutant hate don't match up to those of real-world hate groups in political power using bigotry to gain something from marginalized groups. Governments in the MU can already do that with mutants without political speeches and rallies

I'm from Middle East. Yes Charles had a physical disability. He also had a relatively stable childhood (his mother tragically died and his step-brother was a jerk but it was far from the worst), his powers allowed him to excel in whatever academic activity he partake in so basically he cheated and on top of that he's rich. As for Magneto yes he's a minority because of his jewish identity and I never claimed he isn't. What I'm saying is for a franchise proud of it's handling of minorities X-men is doing a poor job with PoC and Queer folk.

Plus, Magneto is a villain, which isn't the best look for someone fight for minority rights

[Castle]

If you want to position your story as social commentary, then it needs to evolve to reflect changing times and standards. When it came out, Uncle Tom's Cabin was regarded as a powerful anti-slavery tract and the title character as a symbol of black nobility and dignity. Its reputation these days is obviously somewhat different.

In X-MEN universe, the brotherhood and some of their other villians have sometimes referred to the x-men as uncle toms. So there you have the evolved narrative.

comparing xmen stories to uncle tome is far fetched and so far off. uncle tom is now seen as a black character who makes many racist people feel good about bigotry.

The goal post usually gets moved, but this goal post move is now to outter space. Also you do know X-MEN was meant to cover all grounds of discrimination, not only racism, in the 90s, they shifted more to LGBT topics and it got balanced again around the 2000s as more characters came in, especially with Grant Morrison New X-MEN were many of the students were not just white.

I just remembered none all my comments were even never talked about. LOL.

Claremont wasn’t boring because he told stories about individuals, he didn’t told stories about groups. He had his opinions about politics but his opinions didn’t overcome the desire to talk about people’s life, history, experience. You could draw conclusions but it wasn’t necessary: he was enough a storyteller for his stories to be entertaining…

You can also be boring when you want to tackle serious subjects…

I agree with everything you said about Claremont, but one thing Claremont had at his topsoil was that he knew also how to write very compelling stories with realism and he understood many social issues. Claremont was even one of the few male feminist writers out there at a time when feminism was not even a big thing.

There was no subject, he could not spark a good conversation on.

The issue here now is, how many writers in 2021 have the talent Claremont had? Do comics even still care about good writing or writers or are comics just another advert tool for movies?

[Agent Z]

Yeah, you're not the first person to present this view, and as always, it's extremely simplistic and misses the mark.

First of all, analogies and allegories for real life issues don't need to use people that face the same issues- if you want to do an allegory about, say, American presence in the Middle East, you don't need to make all the characters either American or Middle Eastern, because at some point you're not making analogies or metaphors, but just an reproduction of what happens, and usually a heavy handed one at that.

Allegories don't have to be one-to-one. However, they do have to be analogous. The X-Men, at least as they are often written, are only that in the most superficial sense at best.

As for being heavy-handed, the X-Men are this to a T. They just do this while also often being very tone deaf.

Third, you're doing the typically American thing- and sorry, of course some non-Americans do it, but 99% of the time I see someone doing this, is an American- of assuming that the only minorities that exist are based on skin color and the only form of prejudice is racism. Magneto is a freakin' HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR and he doesn't know what oppression is? Or the guy in a wheelchair (well, most of the time) doesn't understand what's like being looked down upon? That's just non-sense.

Oh, yeah, quite often, or perhaps even more often than not, when writers want to write about serious issues they tend to be preachy and heavy-handed and/or just outright bad.

Remember that time when Wolverine told Luke Cage, a black man who had been wrongfully incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit and was experimented on while in prison, that Luke knew nothing of what it felt like to be oppressed? How about when Kitty Pryde, under the pen of the vaunted Mr. Claremont, compared being called a mutie to being called the n-word? Or the fact that Xavier and Magneto are frequently compared to Dr. King and Malcolm X, despite them only matching the superficial images of what people think the two men were like?

Little surprise that people focus on skin color when the X-Men's metaphor primarily appropriates the experiences of people of color who face prejudice.

[Omega Alpha]

I'm from Middle East. Yes Charles had a physical disability. He also had a relatively stable childhood (his mother tragically died and his step-brother was a jerk but it was far from the worst), his powers allowed him to excel in whatever academic activity he partake in so basically he cheated and on top of that he's rich. As for Magneto yes he's a minority because of his jewish identity and I never claimed he isn't. What I'm saying is for a franchise proud of it's handling of minorities X-men is doing a poor job with PoC and Queer folk.

On the part in bold, I agree entirely.