1) I
am a white male, thus I am mostly lacking in the minority department.
2) I
am straight and young, and thus very much enjoy seeing women in tight clothing.
Right, now, let us begin. Ever
since their creation, the X-Men and the so-called ‘mutant problem’ has been
metaphorical gold for writers writing about inequality. They were used as a
metaphor for those of other races, including African-Americans and Latinos, and
how the world at large maltreated them. It was a story about the evils of
injustice and intolerance and about the few men who could rise above other’s
hatred to become heroes. In recent years, thanks in part to Bryan Singer’s film
adaptation and increasing tolerance, has seen the X-Men become metaphors for
the gay community – the scene in Bobby Drake’s house and the line, “have you
tried not being a mutant?,” is one of my absolute favorites in any version of
the X-Men and epitomizes everything I’m talking about. It’s also home to
several dozen other characters that were important firsts to the rising
diversity of comic books, including Storm, a black woman, and Northstar, an
openly gay man.
So, why in the Marvel NOW! reboot
(Ha!) of a book that has been a beacon of progressive thought and tolerance, do
I get this infuriating leap backwards?
 |
| Seriously, can anyone one tell me what comic book characters are looking at when they pose like this?
Firstly, why has Storm reverted
back to the 1980s? Secondly, GODDAMMIT MARVEL!! Now, there’s gonna be about
twelve million feminists out who scream foul, but an all-female X-Men team is
the stupidest thing that has happened to the X-Men since Deadpool in that
crappy Wolverine solo movie. In the comments section of the page I read about
this on, about three dozen feminist posters were all singing the praises of
this book, but do not think for a second that this is a big move forward for
the feminist movement because it ISN’T; this is simply a fanboy’s wet dream in
ink-and-paper form.
|
Don’t believe me? Let’s examine
Storm for a second. We’re gonna hear people say that Storm’s doing great things
for the cause because she’s a woman leading the X-Men and let me be the first
to say that is something that should have happened. If you remember, Cyclops
did his whole go-crazy-and-kill-Professor-X thing in Avengers versus X-Men,
which makes Storm really the most viable and experienced leader in the whole
franchise now. (Don’t say Wolverine; he’s barely qualified to be on a team, yet
alone lead one.) She should absolutely be in charge, but she isn’t leading the
X-Men, she’s leading the all-female all-gimmick X-Men. C’mon ladies, which is
more feminist? A strong female character leading a team of men and women alike
because she’s the most qualified and capable of all of them or a strong female
character leading the superpowered version of Totally Bloody Spies? All this
book implies is that Storm, despite being the best leader the X-Men has right
now, is incapable or unworthy of leading anyone with a penis – despite the fact
that she clearly is.
 |
| In this diagram, the big green guy is Marvel Comics and the woman is... well, a woman. |
In the announcement, we were also
told that Jubilee would be the focus of the book, but again, I ask why is an
all-female team necessary for such a book? Is Jubilee not good enough to be the
central character when there are blokes around? What was the conversation at
Marvel?
IDIOT EXECUTIVE
ONE: Let’s do a book focused around Jubilee.
IDIOT EXECUTIVE
TWO: That’s a great idea. What would it be about?
IDIOT EXECUTIVE ONE: Well, we
could do a coming-of-age story, a finding-my-place-in-the-world story… Maybe
focus on her strained relationship with her family, or her Asian heritage, her
struggle with vampirism (Is she still a vampire? I’m not sure.)… Maybe
regaining her powers after the events of AvX? What about her feelings of
betrayal about Cyclops or her father-daughter relationship with Wolverine?
IDIOT EXECUTIVE TWO: Oooh… I’m not
sure about those last two. We shouldn’t put men anywhere near Jubilee.
IDIOT EXECUTIVE ONE: You’re right.
The mostly-male demographic of comic book readers would be completely
distracted from the cute Asian-American protoganist with a lot of room for
development and story, if there was a burly male who appears in half a dozen
other books currently being printed in the near vicinity.
Also, regular women don’t stand like that. Scroll back to that cover real quick. Take it in. Go on, I'll wait. Right, now notice that my beloved Kitty
(fun fact: I have a small crush on the fictional Kitty Pryde, just ignore it)
is eschered slightly for viewing purposes and both her and Rachel seem to be
pulling Captain Morgan poses because otherwise you couldn’t see their boobs
and/or legs (and what’s the point of a woman without those, right Marvel?); and
Psylocke just spreads apart her thighs, then points a penis… I mean, phallic
symbol… I mean, sword right down in front of them. And I guarantee you there
are two idiot executives at Marvel thinking that they’ve made the world a
better place with their epicly progressive version of the X-Men. (Insert
aggravated scream here.)
 |
| This is not me. Just clarifying. |
Of course, this whole book
becomes even less feminist when we look at the creative team behind it. I don’t
have anything personal against them: I’ve heard wonderful things about Brian
Wood’s work (though I admittedly have not read any) – we even recommended his
work on the Star Wars book to you in a recent article here at Club of Heroes –
and Olivier Coipel’s artwork is absolutely stunning, but shouldn’t a book
proclaimed as a bold step forward by so many idiot commenters on the Internet
be written and/or drawn by a woman?! Part of the reason that the Birds of Prey
were able to overcome the schtick of a gimmicky all-female superteam and become
a high quality book was that Gail Simone (one of my favorite writers in
superhero comics books by the way; her run on Batgirl is one of the highlights
of the New 52 for me) was writing it. Even the recently cancelled Blue Beetle
had Ig Guara – a Puerto Rican – to inform the Latino aspects that were often
key to the misadventures of Jaime Reyes. This whole book just seems to reek of
massive faux pas (what’s the plural for faux pas? Is it faux pas? I want the
plural here.). Aren’t comics supposed to have moved on from the bad old days of
racism, sexism, and any other bad ‘isms’ you can think of?
 |
| Although admittedly, we have advanced quite a lot. |
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying there shouldn’t be female
characters in comic books at all or that they shouldn’t be drawn to be sexy. I
just wish I’d gotten to see another step forward in the issues of our times
addressed in the covers of the X-Men, rather than what I consider to be a step
backward. Give me a book with several females, even mostly females, and you’ve
got a book that can be progressive and makes for some great storytelling when
the right creators are involved (and some terrible results if they are not. See
harem anime). Make them all female: then that’s a gimmick, and nowhere near the
idea of true equality that our society is about (or should be about) and that
the stories we tell should be reflecting.
Oh,
well. Rants end and life goes on. Thanks to Marvel.com, smosh.com and
blogspot.com for the images… and until next time, may your life be not so
sexist and unequal as the Marvel Universe. Ta-ra for now.
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