X marks a spot!

 

X-Men - Definition

When googling around I discovered some facts which just so happened to fit in with my ABC Wednesday project. This little idea of mine is now in its 4th year soon to be entering Round 8!
X is always a challenge, yet I know people will embrace it with imagination and resourcefulness.

 

The cover of Astonishing X-Men #7 by John Cassaday, featuring (from left to right) Wolverine, Emma Frost, Cyclops, Lockheed, Shadowcat and Beast

The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, they first appeared in X-Men #1 (September 1963).
The team’s original incarnation failed to find a large audience. However, after a 1975 reformation, the X-Men grew to become one of the most hugely popular franchises in the comic book industry, producing dozens of spin-off series and turning many of the writers and artists involved in the series into industry stars.
Since the early 1990s, the X-Men have been adapted into many other media, most notably two animated television series and a string of blockbuster Hollywood movies.
The X-Men are mutants, human beings who, due to a quantum leap in evolution, are born with superhuman abilities. Mutants are often hated by regular humans both because of ordinary bigotry and because humans fear that mutants are destined to replace them. This fact is worsened by a number of mutants, most notably the team's arch-nemesis Magneto, who use their powers to try to disrupt and dominate human society. The X-Men were gathered by the benevolent Professor X to protect a world that hates and fears them from Magneto and other threats.
Herein lies the sociopolitical undercurrent of the franchise. Mutants are often seen as a metaphor for racial, religious and other minorities that face oppression. Professor X has been compared to African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Magneto to the more militant Malcolm X.
Another civil rights metaphor the X-Men have is gay rights. Comparisons have been made between the mutants' situation, including the concealment of their powers and the age they realise these powers, and homosexuality, as was illustrated in a scene of the X-Men film X2 that had Bobby Drake "come out" as a mutant to his parents.
The X-Men series itself is known for containing a richly diverse cast of characters and is perhaps the most multicultural book in comics. So appropriate today when I know Xenophobia will feature in ABC Wednesday.

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