I was wondering what people think of the parallel of mutation vs bigotry in the Marvel Universe as an allegory for racism, religion, LGBTQIA issues etc.
"Jay & Miles Explain the X-Men" points out mutation as allegory for civil rights in the 1960s, with Xavier & Magneto as stand-ins for MLK & Malcolm-X respectively (Stan Lee started writing while they were both politically active & in weekly headlines, before their assassinations.)
Later, when Claremont made the genius move of giving Magneto's origin as surviving genocide in the Nazi deathcamps, mutation became a much more layered allegory, which has extended more explicitly to LGBTQIA issues in the hands of more recent authors.
What are your opinions of mutation as a metaphor for social change, as adolescent struggle for identity, or something else I haven't mentioned?
Have you found strength from X-stories, reading into mutation your own challenges, struggles, and issues as allegory?
Have mutant issues helped you to connect with others in similar situations, for example, the fanfiction communities, cosplay etc?
(I know that Trek, Gate, Who, Firefly, LotR, Potter, GoT etc have united people as modern religions, but the X-stories involve so much soap-opera infighting, that I'm not sure they have the same power to unite philosophically, and might just add a new language for debate and disagreement.)