712 X-MEN
Luther King to Magneto’s Malcolm X; joined by the recognition that they are victims of
human violence and exclusion, but divided by the manner in which they seek to respond.
Further complicating the moral compass of the series are characters like the immensely
popular Wolverine who, despite ultimately accepting Xavier’s liberal humanism, takes
very diff erent and sometimes questionable paths to the same ends.
Xavier’s original X-Men team went through a number of lineup changes and, in
the process, spawned a variety of closely related titles. Th e primary team was docu-
mented in Uncanny X-Men and later in X-Men , while younger mutants who trained
and fought with the X-Men joined teams like the government sponsored X-Factor,
the British Excalibur, and the rebel group X-Force, each of which had their own
titles for many years. Continuity was maintained across all of the X-books and major
events were increasingly marked in the 1990s and 2000s by crossovers implicating
mutants across the various titles.
Among the most important of these crossovers was the “X-Cutioner’s Song” which
was published across four months in 1992. In this story, a character named Stryfe re-
turns from a dystopic future seek-
ing vengeance against those whose
failures led to his nightmarish
existence. As part of his plan, he
attempts to assassinate Profes-
sor Xavier by infecting him with
a techno-organic virus. Th e pro-
fessor survives, but so does the
virus; in fact, Stryfe’s Legacy Virus
became an ever-present factor in
the lives of mutants for long after;
it was a terminal disease, thought
at fi rst to only strike mutants but
later infecting non-mutants too.
Th e virus was, naturally, meant
to parallel the rise of HIV and
this was one of many instances
where mutants seemed to explicitly
represent victimized minorities in
American society. In particular, the
treatment of mutants often served
as a venue for the exploration of
attitudes towards homophobia and
racism. Xavier is the consummate
liberal, inspiring his students to
follow and fi ght for his dream of
peaceful coexistence in the face of
intolerance, hatred and violenceThe Uncanny X-men , issue #135, published July 1980. Marvel
Comics Group/Photofest