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What About Us?: An Essay on Marvel’s X-Men and Their Unending Search for Social Justice

The recent revelation that Inhuman Terrigen mist is lethal to mutants, reeks of an editorial mandate and adds further fuel to the fire regarding Marvel’s recent distaste for the X-Men franchise. This act of segregation, due to the fact that the world is now (literally) deadly to mutants not only is a blatant attempt to sequester the franchise and put it into an isolated corner of the Marvel Universe, but it also spits in the face of everything the franchise is supposed to stand for. Very few comic books have ever managed to reflect our culture, or make such poignant social commentary as the X-Men franchise has. After all, the ethos of the franchise is that of change and acceptance. For decades, mutants were used as a sort of universal metaphor for anyone or any group of people who were abused, discriminated against, or persecuted by society. With this recent wave of social justice movements sweeping through our society at such a torrid pace, it’s clear that the X-Men are just as relevant and necessary as they’ve ever been. But instead of continuing the fight for justice and equality, Marvel would rather have the X-Men cut their losses and throw in the towel. It just goes to show that art doesn’t always imitate real life…even when it should.

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