The Mutant Problem: X-Men, Confirmation Bias, and the Methodology of Comics and Identity

Abstract

The X-Men, created by Jewish American comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, is a team of mutants, a class of human being first introduced as people that "possess an extrapower…one which ordinary humans do not!!" (EUX1 #1: 8 ii). Especially after the introduction of the mutant-hunting robot Sentinels in X-Men #14 (Nov. 1965, EUX1), Marvel Comics' mutants have been increasingly inscribed with allegorical Otherness. They have been subject to many of the prejudices that have historically plagued marginalized minorities, including, among other things, forced and voluntary segregation, slurs, persecution, and genocidal campaigns, and , conspiracy theories about their aims as a group. Because Otherness and persecution have become central to the series, the idea that X-Men is an allegory of racial tolerance has been "resoundingly universally accepted," writes comics critic and advocate Julian Darius; through repetition, "it's become an article of faith" (Darius). Although the claim is overstated in its focus, Darius makes an important point. Analysis has focused almost exclusively on identity, alternatively claiming disability politics (Ilea; Chemers), sexuality (DiPaolo chap. 8; Dussere), race (Pierce), and ethnicity, commonly read as Jewishness (e. g. Weinstein chap. 8; Fingeroth chap. 8; A. Kaplan chap. 16; Malcolm), as the "most forceful" or "primary" metaphor. This article will confront some common claims in X-Men commentary to suggest that writing on comics and identity is vulnerable to strong confirmation bias, "a type of cognitive bias in which one tends to look only for evidence that confirms one's beliefs and to ignore or pay less attention to evidence that contradicts one's beliefs" (Sullivan 100). The literature, which includes both popular and academic writing, is open to criticism on several levels: essentialist perspectives are often applied to both characters and their creators; fallacious comparisons sometimes elide important historical and contextual The Mutant Problem: X-Men, Confirmation Bias, and the Methodology of Comics a...

Genetics in the X-Men film franchise: mutants as allegories of difference

“…The X-Men comics and films have attracted substantial scholarly and critical interest. Many academic critics have dedicated their efforts to the original medium of the Marvel comics, with topics of robust discussion including identity formation (Kellner, 1992;Zingsheim, 2011a;Zingsheim, 2011b;Lund, 2015), superheroes as reflecting the "American dream" (Trushell, 2004), issues of ethics (Gerde and Foster, 2008), the Holocaust and its trauma (Weinstein, 2006;Malcolm, 2010;Wenger, 2010;Royal, 2011;Smith, 2017),…”

“…The X-Men comics and films have attracted substantial scholarly and critical interest. Many academic critics have dedicated their efforts to the original medium of the Marvel comics, with topics of robust discussion including identity formation ( Kellner, 1992 ; Zingsheim, 2011a ; Zingsheim, 2011b ; Lund, 2015 ), superheroes as reflecting the “American dream” ( Trushell, 2004 ), issues of ethics ( Gerde and Foster, 2008 ), the Holocaust and its trauma ( Weinstein, 2006 ; Malcolm, 2010 ; Wenger, 2010 ; Royal, 2011 ; Smith, 2017 ), LGBTQ+ sexuality ( Alexander, 2018 ; Doran, 2020 ; Bikowski, 2021 ), closetedness ( Johnson, 2020 ), and issues of race and gender ( Pierce, 2009 ; Nama, 2011 ; Darowski, 2014 ; Evans, 2019 ). In a special issue of American Literature titled “Queer about Comics,” editors Darieck Scott and Ramzi Fawaz emphasize what they see as the fundamental queerness of the medium of superhero comics (2018).…”