The Initiative and Uncanny X-Men #499 (Spoilers)
Billy Bissette
Has it just gotten messier? And will the new status be reflected in
the main universe books, considering it includes a pretty big issue?
The spoilery section will be nearer the end, first background...
Scott (Cyclops) dodged the whole post-O*N*E/detention camp
status of mutants by telling Tony Stark that the X-Men had
disbanded. This argument made little sense, as it not only
seemed to cover the X-Men, but mutants in general.
Of course, it made less sense when Scott immediately set
about making a (highly identifiable) covert assassination squad
and also set out to find a new home base for the X-Men on the
west coast.
Okay, the covert squad is supposed to be secret. We'll just
ignore that SHIELD should have no trouble figuring out that
Wolverine and/or X-23 at least are involved, and that their
bodycount is definately going to draw attention. And the X-Men
could start up in secret, right?
Right?
Well, now we get to Uncanny X-Men #499. The issue ends with the
X-Men publically setting up operations in San Francisco, after
saving the city from hippy-dom. Furthermore, the last panel is a
newspaper headline with "MAYOR WELCOMES X-MEN TO CITY: SF REJECTS
INITIATIVE".
You'd think such a thing would be a major issue for the main
universe. A major city publically rejecting the Initiative and
publically accepting and supporting an officially illegal
superhero group?
badbad
This is just a cheap stunt to tie mutants to gay marriage. It has little
to do with SHRA because every Marvel title has little to do with SHRA.
Most people blame editorial influences for the haphazard application of
the SHRA storyline.
In any case, I do not think it is fully thought out but no worries,
mate, it will probably change in 3-4 issues anyway. After all,
everything in the x-universe changes whenever the wind blows or a
mosquito farts.
It is only noteworthy in that X-Men was formerly tied to a jewish
persecution theme and now it metastasizing into perceived homosexual
persecution. It all seems rather tortured but if the writers want to go
down that path - whatever.
\
badbad
YKW (ad hoc)
@nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com:
> It is only noteworthy in that X-Men was formerly tied to a jewish
> persecution theme and now it metastasizing into perceived homosexual
> persecution. It all seems rather tortured but if the writers want to
> go down that path - whatever.
It's been a pretty explicit homosexual metaphor since the introduction of
the Legacy virus, really. And the Jewish metaphor is a minor theme
(related mostly to Magneto's much-later-revealed personal experiences
rather than any more general themes); prior to the shift to a gay meme,
the X-Men were an overt civil-rights parable, peaceful-integrationism-
versus-radical-separatism and social-tolerance/acceptance being the
book's primary themes.
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<http://tinyurl.com/5rxsvp/#comment-665962>
badbad
> badbad <us...@example.net> wrote in news:HEw9k.29222$ZE5.6119
> @nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com:
>
>
>> It is only noteworthy in that X-Men was formerly tied to a jewish
>> persecution theme and now it metastasizing into perceived homosexual
>> persecution. It all seems rather tortured but if the writers want to
>> go down that path - whatever.
>
> It's been a pretty explicit homosexual metaphor since the introduction of
> the Legacy virus, really. And the Jewish metaphor is a minor theme
> (related mostly to Magneto's much-later-revealed personal experiences
> rather than any more general themes); prior to the shift to a gay meme,
> the X-Men were an overt civil-rights parable, peaceful-integrationism-
> versus-radical-separatism and social-tolerance/acceptance being the
> book's primary themes.
>
I would have to grant you the legacy virus because I have not read that
series. I would beg to differ regarding the overtness of the jewish
metaphor. I won't even bring up Days of Future Past, but we can just
look at recent comics as our guide. Whenever Bishop (or Cable) shows up
you have an inevitable flashback to concentration camps. The constant
literary convention in X-titles is that the future has mutantkind under
threat of being rounded up and put in concentration camps. Shaved heads
and tattos and the whole 9 yards.
Recent comics like Peter David's X-Factor (and X-Force) continue to show
that convention. If it were a metaphor of radical separatism it is
framed within a context of mid 20th century jewish persecution by Nazis.
Even Magneto and Genosha could be argued as a metaphor for a homeland
for jews - that is to say, mutantkind)
\
badbad
Fallen
It's always been all of them, jews, blacks, gays, anything that stands
in for persecution. We had field workes in Genosha, concentration camps
in numerous storylines and now San Francisco 'accepting' them. It's
always been that heavy handed.
Fallen.
badbad
You probably are more right than I am.
\
badbad
Paul O'Brien
<bai...@coastalnet.com> writes
>A major city publically rejecting the Initiative and
>publically accepting and supporting an officially illegal
>superhero group?
But they're not illegal. The X-Men are all duly registered superheroes,
and it's fairly clear that Iron Man doesn't actually WANT to shut them
down if he can get away with it. Support from local government arguably
solves that concern.
Besides, I'm sure Matt Fraction has plans to follow through on this.
After all, the local Initiative squad is the Order, which he wrote.
--
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - http://www.thexaxis.com
IF DESTROYED - http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com
NINTH ART - http://www.ninthart.com
Billy Bissette
news:9bW4RbBi...@esoterica.demon.co.uk:
> In message <Xns9ACB9D21FDF...@216.168.3.70>, Billy
Bissette
> <bai...@coastalnet.com> writes
>>A major city publically rejecting the Initiative and
>>publically accepting and supporting an officially illegal
>>superhero group?
>
> But they're not illegal. The X-Men are all duly registered
> superheroes, and it's fairly clear that Iron Man doesn't actually
> WANT to shut them down if he can get away with it. Support from
> local government arguably solves that concern.
They aren't really legal, though. The status of mutants under the
SHRA was always a bit iffy. They had no choice in registering, not
even the "join up or be jailed/depowered" sense. The rules for them
were always different. Heck, they pretty much were under "be joined
up *and* be jailed."
Scott sidestepped the whole post-O*N*E status of mutants when he told
Stark that the X-Men had disbanded. With the extra note that if Stark
disagreed, they'd all already left anyway. (And I'm still not sure how
the X-Men disbanding was supposed to translate into mutants in general
being a non-issue, versus weeks earlier when most known mutants were
being held in a camp "for their own safety".)
Now it should be clear to Stark that Scott lied to him about the
status and plans of the X-Men. That alone should cause problems.
And should support of local government solve things? San
Francisco may support them as a local superhero team, but they have
not been approved by Stark/SHIELD/whatever.
Indeed, the newspaper headline even makes an issue of their
status versus Stark's whole organization, by referring to their
acknowledgement as a rejection of the Initiative.
The status of the X-Men at best is highly questionable. At best,
Stark and/or others in government should be concerned.
jpha...@yahoo.com
> This is just a cheap stunt to tie mutants to gay marriage. It has little
> to do with SHRA because every Marvel title has little to do with SHRA.
> Most people blame editorial influences for the haphazard application of
> the SHRA storyline.
More likely this is Ed Brubaker paying homage to San Francisco
authorities defying Freedom Force's attempt to arrest the X-Men after
defeating them.
Mathew Krull
probably deal (or, at lest begin to deal) with the ramifications.
~consul
> X-Men publically setting up operations in San Francisco, after
> saving the city from hippy-dom. Furthermore, the last panel is a
> newspaper headline with "MAYOR WELCOMES X-MEN TO CITY: SF REJECTS
> INITIATIVE".
> You'd think such a thing would be a major issue for the main
> universe. A major city publically rejecting the Initiative and
> publically accepting and supporting an officially illegal
> superhero group?
It's San Fransisco, which is an avowed "Sanctuary City" for illegal immigration http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=15&num=76396
And they just got recently tagged by the press and feds for shipping their underage drug runners back to their home nations.
It's actually kind of current. Mayor Newsom is in some possible hot water for using state funds to fly them back.
I wonder what the Marvel mayor will be doing to facilitate the presence of the xfolks there. There's going to be a lot of collateral damage. :)
Would she use public funds, like some cities do to get an NFL franchise? In Los Angeles, and in other cities, folks always protest the use of public funds to fund essentially private business with very little payback to the parent city.
--
"... respect, all good works are not done by only good folk. For here, at the end of all things, we shall do what needs to be done."
--till next time, consul -x- <<poetry.dolphins-cove.com>>