(no subject)

[camwyn]

Random thought, inspired by... I dunno, the memory of a subject I studied in college or summat.

Those of us who've read X-men comic books and their many spawn know that Marvel periodically makes a nod in the general direction of reality. Sometimes the attempts to tie real-world institutions to the comic world (or vice versa) work; sometimes they don't. (I have some trouble, whatever J. Michael Straczynski said in the black-cover issue of Spiderman, believing that Herr Baron Doktor Victor von Doom would be particularly touched by the destruction of the Twin Towers.) I'm wondering about something that I don't know if they've ever touched on.

In the Marvel universe, specifically the X-branch with its mutants, what is the March of Dimes like? The fight to reduce birth defects and infant mortality rates can't possibly be anything like the same in a world where a kid can be born looking like- say- Blink, or Nightcrawler. Not all mutants hit their powers at puberty, so... has the March of Dimes been co-opted by the anti-mutant forces and turned into a pre-birth genocide advocacy organization, or do they stick to cleft palates and phocomelia*, or what? There's no possible way they can stay quiet on the mutant issue. NO ONE is allowed to stay quiet on the damned mutant issue in that world, except possibly the Red Cross, although I don't remember them being mentioned anywhere either. Do they consider mutancy in the same category as Down's syndrome, or do they consider it a broader spectrum of possibile outcomes that may not qualify as defects, or what?

Brought to you by the part of my brain responsible for crossovers.

*Lit. 'seal-limb', this is the deformity typically associated with Kevadon (brand name for thalidomide).

Comments

[dancing-moon.livejournal.com]

I've only glimpsed some of the Twin Towers issues in comics... While a few were touching some made me feel almost disgusted with their heavy, schmalzy patriocy and what we now later can see as an near "call to arms". It's just... comics can be serious, yes. But Marvel and DC's big suprehero things aren't. To me, it just seemed a way to... cash in on the deaths. Partly

[dancing-moon.livejournal.com]

But I'm an outsider, so what do I know?

[camwyn]

Eh. The Spiderman issue wasn't that bad, but it was (I think) the first. It was more shell-shocked in tone than anything else, and it called for sanity and mercy. I don't remember much of the rest of it, as I gave my copy to the Chapter I was working for.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

It seemed to me more of a way for JMS to work through his shock and disgust. And a call for sanity and mercy.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Some of the comic-company produced 9-11 things sent much of the profits to charity. A noble goal. And it certainly helped me work through some of me feelings surrounding the whole thing

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Did you hear that on National Public Radio yesterday, as part of a show on AIDs on Talk of the Nation, that they interviewed Green Arrow's current writer regarding the fact that he's written Speedy as testing positive for AIDs? Yes, I know it's DC Universe. But it's a healthy dose of realism, for a comic to show a character living with AIDs, and still being functional in society.

Your question is tres interesting. I think you should write Marvel and ask them. Seriously.

My own take on it is that the type of mutancy that the X-Men (and Women!) are born with give them enhanced powers, and that this is different from birth defects that can compromise physical health or functioning. Logan's ability to heal from wounds is different from being born with a club foot. So yeah, I wonder if the X-People think they are in the same category as people who are born with cleft palates. Both are subject to being perceived with discomfort by large segments of society.

[camwyn]

Well, that's the thing. Some mutants do get born with physical problems, or what would look like a physical problem to a sonogram technician. Supposing your typical New Jersey mum-to-be went in for a sonogram at the eighteenth week of pregnancy and got told 'um, it's a boy but he's got three fingers per hand and two toes per foot, and a tail, and ankle and craniofacial abnormalities'. Unless she's a Catholic in full communion with what the bishops say is doctrine, just how long do you think that pregnancy is going to last?

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Excellent point.

Wait, does Kurt have craniofacial abnormalities? I think he's teh hawt!

[camwyn]

I may have been remembering some artist's rendition of his eyes as strangely shaped and his face as longer and narrower than human normal. But even without that, the rest is kind of a deal killer for a lot of people, whether that's anything like humane or fair or not.

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

He's also got fangs and fur. Which is why he was abandoned after birth. Keep in mind that Nightcrawler is something of a bad example, being born in rural Eastern Europe during the 60s (I'm assuming that they've advanced the timeline to keep him in his 30s, since he was in his 20s/30s when he joined the X-men).

You do raise an interesting question, though. I'm surprised that it hasn't been mentioned. Probably because the Marvel and DC comics only really deal with the big media issues. They did World Hunger back in the 80s, and drug abuse (Arsenal, also known as Speedy, the aforementioned sidekick to Green Arrow, is something of a whipping boy for DC, having been a heroin junkie, and gotten the crap shot out of him recently in "The Outsiders" comic, and now the AIDS issue.), as well as 9/11. But they rarely deal with the everyday problems, like poverty (although Superman did have a story arc dealing with a homeless employee of the Daily Planet), single parenthood, abortion, etc. I think it's because it's easier not to deal with it. Comics, or at least those comics, are escapism. They can leave the meatier issues to the Vertigo and Marvel MAX titles.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Technically, Kurt was abandoned because his mom was a whackjob

[midnightlurker.livejournal.com]

Wrong Speedy. It's the new one, a girl, who has AIDS.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

There was a nice bit where Kurt entered a Scottish bar in full blue regalia. The lass at the bar took one look at him and complimented him on his fur. It was woobie.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

X-Factor had an issue or two on that. A doctor was close to discovering an in-utero test for the mutant gene. The story ended crappy, with the doc dead and the info destroyed. By, IIRC, someone punching throuhg the monitor. Silly mutant, that trick never works

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

The ending was due to editorial interference by Marvel.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Dear Marvel: Destroying the monitor doesn't destroy the information.

Sincerely, a fanboy

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

It went beyond just punching the monitor - Marvel fought against the storyline the entire way through.

[aberrantangels]

I think I'd go for the "broader spectrum of possible outcomes" concept as the official policy, with the FoH types going off on their own. But there are plenty of ways to go with it. For instance, in his Cyclops-goes-into-politics fic "Change the World", stolisomancer feigned that

Since mutants started being born at a good rate in the mid-sixties, a lot of people have foregone having children for fear that little Jimmy or Jenny would be homo superior. (Magneto makes a pretty spectacular argument for birth control, doesn't he?)

[hangingfire.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the current Joss Whedon "Astonishing X-Men"? It doesn't address the March of Dimes specifically, but the first story arc has a plot about "treating the mutant gene", and a doctor who's "healed" a girl of her mutant powers.

Re the Twin Towers stuff... my first contribution to Bookslut.com was a bit of a rant about all the "in memoriam" comic books being published on the subject, although I didn't manage to include the Spider-man story. I'm working on trying to write some kind of column on Comics After 9/11/2001, and the attempts of superhero comics to deal with the "real world" ... it's taking a while to pull it all together. One of the more successful and explicit treatments of the subject is Christopher Priest's "Captain American and the Falcon", which introduces a second Captain America for the age of the War on Terror. Interesting stuff.

[camwyn]

Haven't actually had the chance, no. I don't think I've actually read an X-book since Judd Winick left Exiles. It just sort of came to mind.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Just remembered. Far after the Spider-Man 9-11 issue, we get a background glimpse of Ground Zero, as it was at the time the issue came out. Interesting.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

a doctor who's "healed" a girl of her mutant powers

Thus continuing to extend the longstanding 'mutancy is a metaphor for gayness' (or 'for race' or whatever) trope. I approve.

[mephron]

I am the opposite of you with regards to Doom.

Classic Doom, not the "I'll skin a girl I loved and make armor out of her flesh" one running around, would shed a tear at what happened on 9/11. Yes, he's a megalomaniac, but the Classic Doom, in a few plots, carefully planned for his attacks on The Hated Richards to not harm anyone else. After all, it's hard to love your ruler if he sqashed your brother-in-law. I liked how he was portrayed in the early 80s - he literally couldn't understand why anyone in Latveria would fear him... Ignoring his robot soldiers everywhere, his draconian methods that, in his eyes, were all for the best.

Doom, to me, is the essence of the narcisist - it's beyond him to see the errors in his plans. He can't empathize with a man on the street, no, but he can empathize with a nation.

[camwyn]

Ah. See, didn't know about that.

[impactbomb.livejournal.com]

Considering Marvel's general approach to such things, I'd bet the MoD turned into anti-mutant hate crime central long ago.

But Marvel's general modus operandi is not always the way a writer would handle it. I can say that however mutancy is viewed in Marvel (and sometimes it is called a defect), it is NOT viewed as a "defect" in the sense of Down's Syndrome or cleft palate, despite the fact that AFAIK that's exactly the sense Stan Lee meant it in when he coined the concept.

[camwyn]

Yeah. The Marvel universe, at least the X part of it, seems to be predicated on the idea that 'if someone can hate you, they probably will'.

[rianax.livejournal.com]

I have always wondered of they can isolate the x-gene close enough to make collars to block the effects of it on its bearers and create tracking systems for giant robots, why can't they screen for it at birth?

Selective abortion is already in high use in countries were baby boys are valued above all else, creating some serious imbalances between the genders in China and India. Why wouldn't it be used for mutuant pregancies?

I mean it is a /mutantion/ and for every Jean Grey or Storm you have hundreds of people with small powers or mutantions that are harmful to them. What if you gave birth to a water breather and the the child could breathe once he was born?

[lots42.livejournal.com]

First off, I think the Doom bit of the Towers tribute issue was pointless and dum. Everything else about that issue rocked.

Anywho, I think Doom would have been affected. But not to the extent that was shown. He'd say something like 'This would not have happened if I was to rule' and 'The perpertrators are honorless cowards. Doom would not strike at the defensless, hiding behind women and children'.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

This is all making me think of what the furry phenom is like in the Marvel universe. When you have Tigra and Wolfsbane and Feral and Thornn on the news....rrrow.

Anyway, I think the Marche Of Dimes would tell people 'Screw off, we're trying to solve birth defects, not if someone was born with a tail'. The Dimes people would be more likely to understand that just because someone has fur or a tail or red eyes, that doesn't make them any less human.