My Uncanny Relationship With The X-Men

I am writing this several thousand feet in the air, on what my father would have called a "business trip," while working on a presentation that I have to help present in a few days for a big work conference I am helping produce and participating in.  In other words, if I were to explain this to my ten year old self, I am doing "grown up" stuff. 

When the staff was encouraged to discuss X-Men this week, I tried to figure out why, as a kid, I never really read the X-Men. Then it struck me: it was a "grown up" book.  Now, I don't know where this idea came from. I had no idea why the X-Men were less kid friendly than Daredevil or Batman. In retrospect, I realize that I had just gotten it into my head that the X-Men comic was for older kids and adults—I never picked it up, I never really flipped through it…it was just off limits.

There are some ideas and concepts that you are told when you are young and they just kind of "stick" until something happens. I feel comfortable enough to admit to you that until somewhat recently, I thought marshmallows came from the spongy tops of those stalk things that stick out from swamps. Like, okay–once I realized that they did not come from that at all, of course I "got" it…but never really thought about it since I was a little kid, so that's what was in that particular sector of my memory.

This is just a long way of saying that my relationship with the X-Men has always felt like my looking across the school yard, watching the cool kids hang out. They were cool, I was not , and that was that. Oh, I knew about the X-Men:

– Cyclops – Serious guy. Needs to wear glasses. Uptight, dates that girl who is more powerful than him and is really out of his league, when you got right down to it.  Kind of boring, probably not the kind of guy you'd have a lot to talk about with if he was sitting next to you on the bus

– Wolverine – Guy with claws. Kills people. Really likes Cyclops' girlfriend.

– Phoenix – She's that dead one that everyone liked.

– Colossus – He's made of metal.  He's not Cyclops, and it's really weird you keep confusing the two.

– Storm – Controls the weather, looked good with the mohawk.

– Professor X – wheelchair. Bald, like the chick in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The only time I really tried the X-Men, it was when the X-Men were going to an alien planet and it was all really hectic and it ended with Wolverine basically on his own, turning into one of the aliens. Not a good jumping on point and since a single comic book was kind of a serious purchase at the time, did not result in my buying another issue.

So, I've always been an outsider when it comes to the X-Men. I've done some due diligence, of course, reading The Dark Phoenix Saga a few years ago when I just got tired of hearing about it so often. And while I have been reading the ongoing X-Men comics these days, I will tell you, honestly, that not unlike The Avengers, I just think there are far too many books. I like the adjectiveless-classic-logo version of X-Men but the only X-Book that I have really taken to so far is Uncanny X-Force, which reminds me, in a way, of Stargate Universe, in that it's a nice contained group of characters within a much larger context that I really know nothing about (I never saw any of the other Stargate properties, including the original film).  I was a big fan of Astonishing X-Men, dutifully collecting the issues when they came out, and felt some degree of satisfaction, when it finally ended, that I had read the entire series. And while it was a good series and there were aspects of it I know I enjoyed, I am not sure I would consider it one of my favorite books. Maybe if I read the hardcover trade again–I still haven't read it, of couse–I might feel differently, but I think it's notable, honestly, that I've never made the time.

Which is fine, you know? Because, in a way, I realize that I will never have that close of a connection with the this ragged team of mutants. To take the school analogy a little further, as I get older and read more books, I feel like the team are people who went to the same college or high school as I did–they just graduated a few years earlier. We know each other, we're cordial…we're just not all that close.

I am quite honestly surprised whenever I find that people I know are legitimately excited about the upcoming film. I honestly was not really considering going to see it.  To me…I would just rather watch another X-Men film that took place in the "present"–I don't care about the origin story at all, which is interesting because this is one of the few comic book movies that have come out in recent memory for which I feel no "responsibility" to see…which is great. It's great because there are so many fun movies coming out that one does not need to feel an obligation to see every single one, lest "they" stop making those kinds of movies.

I am really curious to see how audiences embrace the re-telling of how the X-Men came to be. I just wonder…will people care? Are there so many fans of the movies that they just can't wait to see how it all began?  Is this movie designed for fans of the books or fans of the movies? I just don't know how strong the X-Men "brand" is with this current generation of moviegoers. Maybe–maybe this film is meant for the old school fans, the ones who are used the purple and yellow costumes, who have always wanted to see the team being made.  These are the people with the X-Men branded childhoods, with the sheets and lunchboxes—of which there are quite a few, to be sure.  I am just curious…who is this movie for?

Look–I get it, I know that the X-Men were for many people what Spider-Man was for me: a character that I could relate to.  The X-Men were persecuted for being different, who were look down upon and feared because of who they were, that they lived with his persecution even though they possessed abilities that made them more powerful than normal people, and used those powers to save those same people that scorned them so. It's a powerful, beautiful quandary, and these themes, these fears…well, they still resonate, right? Even though you could argue that society is more open to those who are "different" than before, these fears and frustrations are still a part of life.

I just wonder now–and I am curious to hear from readers in their 20s and younger–if the themes and struggles that the X-Men face (the perils of being different) ring as loudly these days. To grossly over simplify, when you have shows like Glee that tell a similar kind of story on television, does being "different" necessarily "need" to be a mutation? No, of course not. We are living in a time when we have an absolute, unqualified hit television show that features, as one of many stories, the struggles of a gay student in high school. I just have to ask–it always seemed to me that one of the reasons that the X-Men stories were so popular, so cathartic, was it allowed writers to tell stories about being different (whatever that might mean) in comic book trappings. But now, it seems that you can just tell the story that needs to be told, without all the powers and the costumes. The flipside, of course, that it's just a lot more fun with powers and costumes, but still.

Taking a step back, I realize that when I think about the X-Men now, the thing that I enjoy most of about the stories is how they work together as a team. I love how Cyclops will figure out who needs to do what and the crew just works together to solve the problem Scott wants them to figure out. I don't care too much about the relationships as much (they'll just change anyway), I just enjoy the interactions between teammates and the coordination between efforts. Perhaps that's why I enjoy Uncanny X-Force–it's a straight-ahead team book, focused on fixing problems. Maybe that's where I am in my life right now, where I am so busy trying to solve problems and make things happens that I can appreciate someone else's struggle to do the same.

Hmm. I enjoy the book because it's about a group of people struggling to do something, to be something, that I can identify with. Sounds kind of familiar.

And maybe that's the genius of the X-Men. That the characters have been around so long, that there is such a long history, both in terms of character's personal histories combined with the book's overall legacy and epic storylines, that no matter what point in your life you encounter the X-Men, you find something you can relate to.  Maybe the opening of X-Men:First Class will be the touchstone, the beginning, of another generation's lifelong relationship with the X-Men.

 

We'll just have to see.

 

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Mike Romo is an actor in LA who still hasn't figured out what his mutant ability should be. Email/twitter/facebook.