Subject: There is no spoon.

Posted by: Shadowcrab at 02/15/00 17:58

There's no "dream" either.

While the writers again cry wolf with another character's "death"--poor Cyclops this time, though I suppose it was his turn to flip a quarter at the ferryman--the mourners, real and cartoon, pull out the stock phrases: "a dream of peaceful co-existence," "Xavier's dream," "any dream worth having is worth dying for" (or is it the converse? I forget.).

Question: Have the X-Men ever--EVER--enjoyed any kind of lasting victory, however teensy-weensy, in their pursuit of their "dream"?

I don't think they have. All hatred, all tension, all bitter reversions and backfires, all the time. The dramatic universe in which they live is flawed at its root level: the Marvel writer's handbook obviously dictates that they never, ever win, because constant ugly struggle makes for good drama. Wrong. It's tedious and unrealistic, and the X-people have no "choice" but to come off looking like Sisyphean fools.

I've posted before that I have little faith in the legal system; I said that because the care with which the system buffs and polishes the backside of every slimy monster it processes sometimes sickens me. But I know that if a man who, for an ugly example, sexually abuses his granddaughter will get the gentlest of treatment--representation, a fair trial, the right to appeal ad infinitum--the X-Men, if they existed, would get that treatment, too. Don't tell me that theirs is not the "real" world but a reasonable facsimile: to be thus reasonable, their world would have to have a justice system similar to ours. (If nothing else is true, this is: Lawyers will represent anyone. Anyone.) Bluntly, they would have legal rights. Right now, they don't. This is stupid.

Of course, I'm thinking of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, and I'll gladly mix a metaphor: The X-Men will be forever chased to the back of the bus by the mob with torches, and they'll sit there cowering oh-so-nobly, because Editorial-By-Committee at Marvel isn't dramatically gifted enough to let them stage at least one effective sit-in: one that doesn't end with rogue Sentinels, or assassinations, or stupid huge explosions that get blamed on our mutant whipping-boys.

Or is this just a little taste of hell? Having a dream is one thing. Having it for four decades (yes, "our" time, not "theirs) without making any progress whatsoever toward fulfilling it--while people like the fellow who prompted the enactment of "Megan's Law" in New Jersey (look it up; it's better than Brian Michael Bendis's "Torso") get the most loving treatment our courts can provide--seems to indicate that one is sadly ignorant of the concept of suicide.

We live civilly on this planet with all manner of human slime. For Marvel to have people playing the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" pod-person pointing game every time someone spots a mutant--thinking of ellipsis' very funny post about how people in a real office would have reacted to seeing Mystique--is just plain dumb. Period.

Time to duck and cover....

Shadowcrab