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X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor: Race and Gender in the Comic Books
First appearing in 1963, The Uncanny X-Men had a rough start, lasting until 1970 when the comic book was canceled due to low sales. Following a relaunch in 1975, however, it found new popularity thanks to intricate scripting by Chris Claremont and the artwork of John Byrne. Within a few years, The Uncanny X-Men was one of Marvel Comics’ best-selling series and over the decades it became one of the most successful and popular franchises in comic book history. Spin-off titles, mini-series, multimedia adaptations, and a massively expanded cast of characters followed. One of the reasons for the success of X-Men is its powerful “mutant metaphor,” which enhances the stories with cultural significance and the exploration of themes such as societal prejudice and discrimination.
In X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor: Race and Gender in the Comic Books, Joseph J. Darowski thoroughly analyzes The Uncanny X-Men, providing its historical background and dividing the long-running series into distinct eras. Each chapter examines the creators and general plot lines, followed by a closer analysis of the principal characters and key stories. The final chapter explores the literal use of race and gender rather than the metaphorical or thematic ways such issues have been addressed. This analysis includes insights gained from interviews with several comic book creators, and dozens of illustrations from the comic book series. Of particular significance are statistics that track the race and gender of every X-Men hero, villain, and supporting character. By delving into the historical background of the series and closely examining characters and stories, X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor illuminates an important popular culture phenomenon.
In X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor: Race and Gender in the Comic Books, Joseph J. Darowski thoroughly analyzes The Uncanny X-Men, providing its historical background and dividing the long-running series into distinct eras. Each chapter examines the creators and general plot lines, followed by a closer analysis of the principal characters and key stories. The final chapter explores the literal use of race and gender rather than the metaphorical or thematic ways such issues have been addressed. This analysis includes insights gained from interviews with several comic book creators, and dozens of illustrations from the comic book series. Of particular significance are statistics that track the race and gender of every X-Men hero, villain, and supporting character. By delving into the historical background of the series and closely examining characters and stories, X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor illuminates an important popular culture phenomenon.
- GenresComicsNonfiction
242 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 30, 2017
The idea that Marvel's mutants serve as a vehicle for a metaphor about outsiderhood, otherness, and/or minority status is an old one. Comics commentator Peter Sanderson wrote in his introduction to a collection of interviews with X-Men creators published in 1981:
But this does not mean that the metaphor is simple, or that it is automatically progressive in itself.
This book, however, works from the assumption that the series is at heart about persecution and otherness from the outset, which is particularly problematic in the first analytical chapter. Darowski explicitly writes that these themes are not present in the early run, and somehow, curiously, manages to fault it for that. When the roster is introduced, Darowski writes about their white middle-classness, and describes it as "a very WASP-ish group to be struggling against prejudice in a minority metaphor" (26). This is, to say the least, a problematic way of looking at X-Men comics: it regards all of Uncanny X-Men as working towards a set goal, as always having been about what it is about now. By doing this, the book misses something that both Julian Darius of Sequart and I (Rethinking the Jewish-Comics Connection) have addressed elsewhere: the Cold War origins of the series. Back in its early days, the series was not a “minority metaphor.” These aspects are pretty hard to miss in the early stories, so the lack of even an acknowledgment of them is a pretty glaring omission.
There are also problems with the details and in methodology. For example, Darowski reproduces the comparison between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X that is often applied to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Xavier and Magneto. Rather than looking at the comics supposedly being analyzed for support, he references Bryan Singer's 2000 X-Men film and others who worked on the later X-films, this under the rubric "Close Reading" (30). After adding a few more examples, all of which are taken from outside the actual comics supposedly in focus, Darowski concludes that "it is clear that a dominant theme in X-Men comics is a condemnation of prejudice" (32). It is, yes; except for when it isn’t. The early years of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Roy Thomas were not (indeed, several storylines were, if anything, harshly opposed to minority demands), whereas Chris Claremont’s tenure stands out as a particularly engaged era. More important, they are widely different. You cannot project developments from decades later onto something from half a century earlier and then claim to have proven something about the earlier era. That's not how history works.
Moreover, just setting out to prove the thesis that X-Men comics address prejudice is not interesting, especially not since the introductory chapter has already made this claim; you must also ask what that representation entails. Sadly, Darowski never asks critical questions. Instead, he treads a path of almost pure description. Each chapter begins with a brief and partial discussion of the context in which the comics were produced and the people who produced them. Then comes a capsule presentation of the storylines from the period, followed by thumbnail sketches of new characters, which are often lacking in substance: worst, perhaps, for a book about minority representation, are omissions like any mention of Kitty Pryde's Jewishness or the characterization of Bishop as African American, despite his character biography being clear about his Australian genealogy. Finally, we are given what are labeled "close readings," but are in essence rambling collections of select examples of ethnoracial and gendered representation that rarely hit their mark. The book ends with a chapter of statistics that is supposed to give hard and fast proof for ethnoracial and gendered representation in X-Men and to point to how these are skewed toward a white, male norm. But it is hard to take these numbers seriously when, for example, they include references to the X-Men in their first sixty-six issues fighting a Jewish villain; I assume this is supposed to reference Magneto, but his later recreation as a Jewish character was then still many decades off.
When the one-and-almost-a-half-page conclusion chapter begins, it is difficult to not see the opening question as rhetorical: "So what does this analysis add to our understanding of the X-Men?" Darowski's response is: "The series does clearly and frequently use the concept of 'mutants' to explore issues of prejudice. But, in the end, it frequently uses white male heroes supported by female character to battle racial and ethnic minorities while employing that metaphor." This is not news. In fact, a guy named Neil Shyminsky published an article about the X-Men almost a decade ago that addressed these issues, and problematizes the use of mutantcy as a metaphor to boot. Add to this the lack of any serious engagement with other scholarly writing on the X-Men, and a tone that is talky, repetitive, and fannish, and the end result is a book that seems, at best, half-finished, and that adds nothing of substance to our understanding of the X-Men.
They live apart from the rest of society in their mansion; their contacts with the rest of society seem limited; their powers serve as constant reminders that they are different […] From one point of view, the Beast and Nightcrawler can be said to suffer from deformities. A number of the X-Men are foreigners who now find themselves living in the United States, an alien land. […] Note the explicit parallel drawn between mutants and persecuted minorities in X-Men #150, wherein it is revealed that Magneto, as a child, was an inmate at Auschwitz, and that over the years, as far as he knows, his entire family has been destroyed. All of these distinctions reinforce the impression created by the X-Men’s identity as mutants. The word “mutant” can symbolize for the reader any reason for feeling alienated from society, whether it be sex, race, creed, physical appearance, special talents that are misunderstood or provoke jealousy, or any more personal reason. The power of the mutant concept makes The X-Men unique.
But this does not mean that the metaphor is simple, or that it is automatically progressive in itself.
This book, however, works from the assumption that the series is at heart about persecution and otherness from the outset, which is particularly problematic in the first analytical chapter. Darowski explicitly writes that these themes are not present in the early run, and somehow, curiously, manages to fault it for that. When the roster is introduced, Darowski writes about their white middle-classness, and describes it as "a very WASP-ish group to be struggling against prejudice in a minority metaphor" (26). This is, to say the least, a problematic way of looking at X-Men comics: it regards all of Uncanny X-Men as working towards a set goal, as always having been about what it is about now. By doing this, the book misses something that both Julian Darius of Sequart and I (Rethinking the Jewish-Comics Connection) have addressed elsewhere: the Cold War origins of the series. Back in its early days, the series was not a “minority metaphor.” These aspects are pretty hard to miss in the early stories, so the lack of even an acknowledgment of them is a pretty glaring omission.
There are also problems with the details and in methodology. For example, Darowski reproduces the comparison between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X that is often applied to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Xavier and Magneto. Rather than looking at the comics supposedly being analyzed for support, he references Bryan Singer's 2000 X-Men film and others who worked on the later X-films, this under the rubric "Close Reading" (30). After adding a few more examples, all of which are taken from outside the actual comics supposedly in focus, Darowski concludes that "it is clear that a dominant theme in X-Men comics is a condemnation of prejudice" (32). It is, yes; except for when it isn’t. The early years of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Roy Thomas were not (indeed, several storylines were, if anything, harshly opposed to minority demands), whereas Chris Claremont’s tenure stands out as a particularly engaged era. More important, they are widely different. You cannot project developments from decades later onto something from half a century earlier and then claim to have proven something about the earlier era. That's not how history works.
Moreover, just setting out to prove the thesis that X-Men comics address prejudice is not interesting, especially not since the introductory chapter has already made this claim; you must also ask what that representation entails. Sadly, Darowski never asks critical questions. Instead, he treads a path of almost pure description. Each chapter begins with a brief and partial discussion of the context in which the comics were produced and the people who produced them. Then comes a capsule presentation of the storylines from the period, followed by thumbnail sketches of new characters, which are often lacking in substance: worst, perhaps, for a book about minority representation, are omissions like any mention of Kitty Pryde's Jewishness or the characterization of Bishop as African American, despite his character biography being clear about his Australian genealogy. Finally, we are given what are labeled "close readings," but are in essence rambling collections of select examples of ethnoracial and gendered representation that rarely hit their mark. The book ends with a chapter of statistics that is supposed to give hard and fast proof for ethnoracial and gendered representation in X-Men and to point to how these are skewed toward a white, male norm. But it is hard to take these numbers seriously when, for example, they include references to the X-Men in their first sixty-six issues fighting a Jewish villain; I assume this is supposed to reference Magneto, but his later recreation as a Jewish character was then still many decades off.
When the one-and-almost-a-half-page conclusion chapter begins, it is difficult to not see the opening question as rhetorical: "So what does this analysis add to our understanding of the X-Men?" Darowski's response is: "The series does clearly and frequently use the concept of 'mutants' to explore issues of prejudice. But, in the end, it frequently uses white male heroes supported by female character to battle racial and ethnic minorities while employing that metaphor." This is not news. In fact, a guy named Neil Shyminsky published an article about the X-Men almost a decade ago that addressed these issues, and problematizes the use of mutantcy as a metaphor to boot. Add to this the lack of any serious engagement with other scholarly writing on the X-Men, and a tone that is talky, repetitive, and fannish, and the end result is a book that seems, at best, half-finished, and that adds nothing of substance to our understanding of the X-Men.
April 14, 2015
Far too obviously a thesis, rather than a book, the text needs serious copyediting, and content editing. It is frustratingly repetitious to read.
A useful 'dip-in' overview for those without an encyclopedic memory of the X-Men comics across the years. The bibliography is full of relevant sources, but nothing earth-shatteringly new is revealed.
The insights are justified, and often well-supported from the source material, but again - are simplistic and obvious. Often the text becomes hopelessly muddied - why reference Magneto's Jewishness, in a discussion of parallels to Malcolm X and MLK, if the author is not going to explore an intersection of civil rights discourses??
Just an underwhelming effort over-all.
A useful 'dip-in' overview for those without an encyclopedic memory of the X-Men comics across the years. The bibliography is full of relevant sources, but nothing earth-shatteringly new is revealed.
The insights are justified, and often well-supported from the source material, but again - are simplistic and obvious. Often the text becomes hopelessly muddied - why reference Magneto's Jewishness, in a discussion of parallels to Malcolm X and MLK, if the author is not going to explore an intersection of civil rights discourses??
Just an underwhelming effort over-all.
August 19, 2015
The book is more a breakdown of the different eras in X-Men comics and lists the characters and major story lines. There isn't much analysis of the mutant metaphor as the title proposes. I would have liked to see more of a connection to real world events and the discrimination that minority groups faced
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews