Eighties X-Men

I loved the X-Men during Claremont’s run, but haven’t really gotten into them so much in recent years. It’s always felt like something was missing, and I think I’ve finally put my mind around it.

I’m going to put it together in an analogy. It involves a cat, a burning building, and you, the reader. See, here’s the deal. That burning building? You’re in it. Running for your life, you pass a cat. Unlike you, the cat’s not trying to get out, because it’s a cat, and not fully aware of the danger. You do the right thing, scoop the cat up, and run.

Now, if you’re anyone else in the Marvel Universe, things are pretty ok. If you’re an Avenger, for example, the cat holds tight as you both dash to freedom. It licks you playfully, and you both stop for a photo op. Then it, I don’t know, goes on a date with Tigra. Everyone’s happy, and you’re a hero.

But if you’re a member of the eighties X-Men, things are much different. You stoop down to grab that cat, and it scratches at you. You try to pick it up, and I swear to God, that cats tries to kill you. And the smart thing to do is just leave the cat to its own fate, and save yourself. You don’t because you’re an X-Man. Despite the cat trying its best to kill you, you take it with you as you get out of the building. And once you put it down, that cat just goes right back into the fire. And you go back in after it and save it again.

The cat is a thinly veiled analogy for humanity, in case you’re not following. And in the eighties, everything the X-Men dealt with was a thinly veiled analogy for racism.

See, to me that’s what’s missing. The X-Men constantly saved a world that didn’t want them. I know that’s still kinda the catch phrase, but back in the day you felt it. It was in everything the X-Men did. Heck it was even in the ads between pages of the comic.



Exhibit A

And you know what? The X-Men would still save everyone. That was what made it so great. The X-Men were hated, but they’d still save everyone. They didn’t deal with the same brightly colored spandex enemies, because they were too busy dealing with the fact that humanity hated them.

The absolute culmination of this, btw, was the Days of Futures Past storyline: possibly the best thing ever out of Claremont’s pen. It was a story of a future where sentinels had decided that the only way to fufill their prime directive of destroying all mutants was to take over the whole of the USA, and kill or imprison all mutants. There were concentration camps, and (suggested) sterilisations, and open death in the streets. It was hell.

It was also what cemented the direction the X-Men would go for the next ten years. Mutant registration was the big enemy. Not Magneto, not Juggernaught, not, well any one person. The enemy was a concept. An opposition to Xavier’s big dream.

And somehow, the idea that a concept could be scary became lost over the years. The idea that humanity could be horrible was replaced with bigger and bigger brightly colored spandex villains. In short, the X-Men just became another hero book.

The one that really got me was during a revisit to Days of Future Past, Marvel introduced Ahab. It wasn’t enough that humans were forcing mutants to hunt mutants in their dystopian future (Rachel Summers, Hounds, ect). They had to add a big cyborg guy with pouches and guns and a harpoon that could kill anyone it touched, or else I guess no one would understand what the X-Men were afraid of? The subtlety had been lost, replaced by a splash page.

During the Civil War, Tony Stark argues that the X-Men should back his hero registration because the 198 remaining mutants were already registered. Just like that. Mutant registration, the big fear happened off panel. Ignore the fact that at the time Xavier mansion was surrounded by sentinels (well intentioned sentinels, but still) and had become a camp for all the remaining mutants. Concentrated in one spot. You get the picture.

Either way, the X-Men didn’t flinch. Heck, there are two separate times where female members of the team run a burlesque show for the sentinels. No, I’m dead serious. I should mention that the sentinels have pilots at this point, or else this whole paragraph sounds off.

And, since there are humans in the sentinels, I question why they are using them. I mean, what exactly are giant robots going to do that a camp ground of mutants can’t do for themselves. You are aware that the X-Men live here, right? Surrounding the mansion with sentinels is a dick move, no matter how hard you work to make them look like Gundams.

Anyways, the whole of Decimation got me excited at the time. I thought maybe we’d see a jump back to a world where mutants were openly hated, and you know, punk X-Men. No such luck. Mind you, Peter David did touch on it a bit with X-Factor. Damn that was a fine series. You should all read it.

Anyways, not griping. Just sharing what the X-Men used to be whilst I read my old books. It was a hell of a time.