Posted on 05/11/2014 6:11:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As part of X-Men: Days of Future Past's target demographic — straight, white, male nerds, each with $10 to dispose of — I have about as much firsthand experience with oppression as I do fighting crime with big red lasers that shoot out of my fking eyeballs.
But for years, oppression has been central to the way fans read — and watch — X-Men. Particularly during the '70s and '80s Chris Claremont-penned era of X-Men comics, the adventures of James "Logan" Howlett and co. were seen as analogous to the saga of those discriminated in the real world. Whole debates have been had about the historical figures and philosophies upon which characters like Professor X and Magneto are based (Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, respectively).
None of this is surprising, exactly. X-Men are "mutants," of course, born with powers that make them too strange for prejudiced ordinary humans to wrap their heads around, and the mainstream society of Marvel lore marginalizes them more than any of their spandex-wearing brethren. The ensuing films have only served to highlight the parallels. "Mutants who have come forth and revealed themselves to the public have been met with fear, hostility, even violence," Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) reports to the Senate in the beginning of 2000's franchising-launching X-Men. Kind of like Arab Americans who suddenly found themselves surrounded by bigots in the wake of 9/11. Later in the same film, an angry mob brandishes cardboard signs beseeching the government to "protect our children," from the supposed mutant menace. Kind of like gay marriage protestors. In Days of Future Past, out later this month, a scientist played by Peter Dinklage invents The Sentinels, giant robots intended as an "anti-mutant defense system."
Unless Days completely ignores its source material,
(Excerpt) Read more at esquire.com ...
Considering many of the writers and artists who wrote and drew the comic said they were that exactly, how does one explain the denials?
I don’t care. I’ve enjoyed the movies so far.
Originally, the X-men were representative of those whose genes were changed due to the nuclear testing that was happening during the Cold War.
It simply changed as the Cold War became yesterday’s news. It eventually became symbolic of those who society in general feared and oppressed.
Enjoyed the article, but it’s all over the place. The X-Men were ALWAYS outcasts, that’s what made them so appealing to generations of readers (and I go all the way back to Jack Kirby, though what sticks out in my mind most are the incredible Neal Adams days, shortly before Marvel declared “This is the last issue of The X-Men” in a little yellow box that shocked my teenage self to read. Thankfully, that was not the case.) The theme was, and is, misfits can triumph. But I wholeheartedly support one of the threads of the article: It’s a freaking movie. Enjoy it.
That was an early 1990s show that featured a man and a woman from the FBI who explored paranormal stuff. There was also an undercurrent of sexual tension between them but I do not think they ever acted upon it - at least not in the episodes that I saw.
Hard to believe it was so long ago.
It’s on Netflix. To this day I still have the hots for Scully (Gillian Anderson.)
Interesting article on the inherent conservatism in the X-Files here:
http://takimag.com/article/the_truth_about_the_x-files/print#axzz2eWt0voqG
Link to list of EX MEN videos by Pete Holmes and Crew
And here is : Batman vs. Superman
I still think Mystique could be the perfect girl friend.
At least until she says, “Why don’t you ever love me for my blue scaly self?” And then it would be over.
Those were very funny.
I’d love to see him go through every X-men.
nope . Zombies are the metaphor for the urban uprising
It is if the people making it say it is
‘Not thinking about it at all.
That depends on the definition of “is”...or so I hear ;)
considering the director is an accused molester and it is so toxic that Disney pulled him off the pr tour, I am fairly certain they will ignore any semblance to source material.
While growing up I kind of enjoyed the comics and read X-Men as well as The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Spiderman, etc. While I did like reading X-Men, I never quite understood the prejudice part in the comics. Oh, I understood it was suppose to be related to race relations - I got that part. What I found confusing in the comics was that people protested against mutants but did not protest the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, or any of the other mainstream heroes. What made them different from the born mutants? It was as if I did some procedure to make me black. Since I use to be white, people would not protest against me but would still protest against those born black. It seems that those who wrote comics as the time never thought that out.
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