What Makes Those X Men So Darn Great Essay
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Why Does Zach Like Those
So Much?
Zach Dotsey
English 101 Section 30
12 December, 1996
Third and Final Draft
When many people hear about the X-Men, they think of a silly kid s comic book,
but that is not so. X-Men, actually most comic books in general, are a unique blend of
two classic art forms; drawings, sometimes even paintings, and storytelling. A comic artist
must be able to convey the right mood and feeling for his or her art. They must also be
able to fluidly tell a story and fit it all in the allotted number of pages. The stories often
probe deep into the human psyche, questioning what is right and what is wrong or
showing human frailty. That is not all. In a series like the X-Men, where there are at least
a few hundred characters, past and present, leading and supporting, even dead and alive,
the writer must keep track of a character s experiences and their personality. They must
also keep track of continuity, making sure they don t contradict past events. This last rule
is only loosely followed sometimes.
All in all, a long, ongoing story can be like a soap opera. My favorite example of
this is The Summers Family, Which goes a little something like this: There are two
brothers, Scott and Alex Summers, who were orphaned as children when they were
pushed from a plane being attacked by an advanced alien race. Their mother died but their
father went on to become a space pirate.
Later, Scott falls in love with Jean Grey, who becomes an omnipotent primal force,
the Phoenix, who commits suicide to save the universe from herself. Meanwhile, a bad
guy has made a clone of Jean named Maddie, who marries Scott. They have a baby,
Nathan. Jean returns from the dead, not actually having been the Phoenix, but actually a
body template. Scott leaves his family and joins a team of super heroes with Jean and
some other old friends.
Well, Maddie becomes a bad guy and apparently dies. Later, the baby, Nate, is
infected by another bad guy with an incurable virus, so he s sent 2000 years into the future
where he grows up then comes back to help fight the good fight. Nate was brought into
the future by a group of people pulled together by his older sister.
His older sister is Rachel, who was born in an alternate timeline where almost all
the good guys were dead. Her parents were Scott and the real Jean. She came back to
prevent her time from ever happening and ended up about 2000 years in the future
because a friend was stuck traveling about in the time stream.
Meanwhile Alex feels that he cannot live up to Scott s standards so he constantly
tries to escape his shadow. He gets brainwashed into being a bad guy, recovers to lead a
group of good guys, and gets brainwashed again.
Great family history, no? Oh yes, there may be another brother around
somewhere.
The X-Men are all mutants, Homo Sapien Superior, the next evolutionary step for
human beings, a minority group of people with a genetic quirk, an X-Factor that grants
them extraordinary powers. Some are blessings, like the ability to control the weather or
to fly. Some are curses, such as the ability to blast uncontrollably strong beams of force
from the eyes. Blessed or cursed, mutants are a group of people who are feared for their
differences. Some mutants strike back against humanity in a harmful manner. One group
who attacks regular humans is the Acolytes, formerly lead by the X-Men s oldest enemy,
Magneto. They have attacked hospitals and orphanages just to cleanse the genepool.
Some strive to bridge the gap between mutant and human. These are the X-Men, a group
of mutants, formed by Professor Charles Xavier, the world s strongest telepath, sworn to
protect a world that fears and hates them. The X-Men comics are not just about
prejudice either. They tackle many social issues, such as abortion and AIDS.
The original team of X-Men consisted of five teen-agers and Xavier (Professor
X). These were not as popular as other titles of the times such as Superman, Batman,
Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, and The Avengers. The early stories were basically about
a supergroup that went around facing super bad guys and some prejudice now and then.
After sixty-odd issues, X-Men started just reprinting old stories. This went on for about
thirty issues when the book was going to be canceled. The X-Men were saved by the
creative team of Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, and Terry Austin with Giant Sized X-Men
#1.
Giant Sized X-Men #1 introduced an all-new, all-different X-Men. This boasted
in a new team of mutants. The new team of X-Men was multi-racial and multi-national,
whereas the original team was a bunch of white American kids. It was also a very radical
team, considering the time period (the late seventies). Since the book was scheduled to be
canceled, the creators decided to be a little bit radical in their approach to this dying comic
book.
The person who took over field command was Storm, an African native. Think of
that, a black woman leading a superhero comic book team, a role she usurped from a
young white male (Cyclops). It was quite a change from the norm. There was also a
young Russian, Colossus, during a time when Russians were taboo in America.
The others in the team were Wolverine, a Canadian, whose violent nature was very
different from the boy scout types like Superman. There were also Sunfire from Japan,
Banshee from Ireland, Nightcrawler (no, he is not a worm) from Germany, and
Thunderbird, an Apache Indian. One thing that made this group of X-Men stand out was
that on the first mission for the new team, issue #95, they killed off Thunderbird, an
extremely new and radical thing. About 40 issues later they killed off one of the large
mainstay characters, Jean Grey, who was a founding member. Of course, as I explained
earlier, she came back a few years later, but it was a really big thing at the time.
That X-Men team went on many adventures, saved galaxies and all reality, and
built up a huge supporting cast, paving the way for spin-off books. A current list of
X-Men books includes the following titles; Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force
(originally New Mutants), Excalibur, Generation X, X-Man, Wolverine, Cable, and
Deadpool, not to mention a lot of four issue limited series titles.
So, you may be asking, where does all the social stuff come in? Well, it started
coming into play early on, with the first group of X-Men. People began to realize what it
could mean to have people being born with great super powers. They began to feel afraid
and obsolete. One man, Dr. Bolivar Trask, played on these fears and built giant robots to
capture and control mutants. I believe this was around issue #15. They were called
Sentinels and have been a recurring problem for they X-Men. This parallels to the United
States government taking action against other groups of people they did not understand,
such as the Indians forced onto reservations, or the blacks that were oppressed with laws
until very recently.
Another government action was the Mutant Registration Act, which required
mutants to check in with the government to the government could keep tabs on them.
One storyline dealing with racism is called Days of Future Past (which I recently
bought for a total of $21, one issue is even autographed by the artist). This story
illustrates a consequence of racism out of control. In it, the Sentinels are programmed to
protect humans from all mutants. The Sentinels figure that the best way to do that is by
taking over the humans. In the end, all the heroes are dead and the Sentinels prepare to
...
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