Interesting point. And I see that. It brings into question the idea of Equality, which is an impossible state to attain. And it degenerates into Us vs Them so easily. Equality is a never-ending sliding scale. So you end up in a war that cannot be won.
The real world is bad enough with everyone striving for this utopian vision of equality. And that's not even getting into the concept of equity. If you use aliens for your standins, I get the allegory. But with mutants it just doesn't work. It literally doesn't. For one, even before the Morrison retcons, they were still poweful enough and got their powers at puberty, meaning little Johnny could go jerk off then blow up his block. How the Hell are the people that want a cure for such things bigots/racists/monsters? Then you get into the Morrison retcons where you have people that turn 15 and suddenly they have an arsehole in their forehead. In what way is that ideal? There are mutants whose "power" is to be a literal gas or they lose their heads and get eyes and a mouth in their chest (Astonishing X-Men). At that point any idea of "muh next step" goes out of the way. Then it was decided that the Mutant Cure was akin to Conversion Therapy and all I can say is... what.the.****. Literally. How the Hell are these comperable? Regardless of mine or anyone's views on what was then homosexuality and has now spiralled to who knows what, it's not comperable at all to a girl waking up on her sweet 16th Birthday Party and finding out she's now an anthropomorphic cockroach. Morrison turned the X-Men into the Inhumans, tacked on an even more insane "allegory" and we're still dealing with his lore changes.
The thing is that Claremont began this whole mess, and it didn't make sense back then. "Minorities", by the general use of the word in the West, aren't actual minorities, they're minorities by US standards. Globally, Africans or Asians, aren't a minority. Mutants are a Global Minority, which is why in the 90s with the Legacy/AIDS analogue they started leaning to a sexual orientation analogy. But again, it doesn't work. Regardless of anyone's views towards anyone, the fact is that there is no group that can shoot laserbeams out of their arse, or blow up galaxies with their sneeze. When you've got such actual problems in society, it becomes a matter of logic not any sort of -ism. The truth is, the X-Men were an easy way for Stan & Jack to come up with tons of powers quick and churn out easy plots. It never went anywhere, and the foundation that was laid wasn't about racism. It was about the Atomic/Nuclear Age of the 50s and on, that had people obsessed with that kind of stuff. In a way they were ahead of the curve, and Claremont's retcons ruined the core. Yes, he also brought pathos and made it a big hit, but that was moreso because it was a funnybook dealing with some mature themes, and so everyone tripped over themselves to praise it. That and Claremont's imagination and horniness.
That said, I do believe there is some very interesting meat in Transhumanism. Man merging with Machine fascinates me, and is very topical, or should be, to a generation of cyborgs that can't put their cellphones down.
Transhumanism is one of the themes that has a ton of potential and as tech evolves, the one that will have the more merit. The problem though is that we're nowhere near the level people thought we'd be at. The logistics of a metal arm that can spin and turn into a gun are to fantastical to be true, at least currently. Gene Editing is what's becoming increasingly advanced. But still, stories that explore such concepts, even in fantastical settings, are interesting. That's what X-Men should be. Yes, it's still a capebook for kids and teens, but I stand firmly on the ground that it could've been a much better book/IP if the so-called "Children Of The Atom" were more focused on the evolutionary aspect, and could back it up, than flimsy allegories that don't hold up under scrutiny. If you want me to get invested in the story, you have to make the Mutants defacto superior to baseline humans. Dangerous yes, but you have to have an internal rule that makes them all live lnger, be stronger, more agile as a baseline, and then manifest a couple of destructive but wondrous gifts. When 90% of mutants are Glob tier, 9% of them are either aesthetically pleasing or just have a cool gimmick, and that 1% is compromised of literal mad gods, then the worldbuilding sucks, nothing makes sense and my solution would be a Eugenics Program to cultivate the useful powers, and a widely distributed Cure for all the poor Beaks of the world. There, done.
I still keep up with the HiX-Men because I like the steps he's taking towards the stuff that interest me, but the lore is still too broken by what came before. I'm also treating it as my "final go" so to speak. Once it's done I drop keeping up with comics entirely. I don't pull any other Big 2 stuff already, and this would be my "closing chapter". It's interesting, though I can't help but think how much better it would've been with a few tweaks here and there as its own thing. Like I said I've always liked the FF & X-Men moreso because of the concept and less because of the actual execution. In the FF's case the first Stan/Jack run influenced the entire MU. The problem is that the characters are just too boring. Yes, a family of superheroes is fine and all, but when I read a space exploration book, I want that. The FF are literally like a never-ending American Sitcom that cycles through the same plots every season. All capes do that, but at least you have characters coming and going, big casts and so on. The FF are stuck as those four people, with the ocassional fill-in member like She-Hulk. Reed's the nly interesting character and the others are just supporting cast-tier members. I like them enough to buy the HT dollies if the casting's good, but it's always been a book I "liked" on principle but not in reality. The X-Men infuriate me, but it's much more actually enjoyable. The sad thing is, the FF could've been absolutely engaging and constantly innovative, but the status quo coupled with the average comic fan's "REEEEEE not muh" and the average cape writer's subpar writing and obsession with cheap drama, makes them just boring relics instead of timeless icons.
I've said it before, but were it not for Doom I wouldn't have cared enough to read the FF. And I've always thought Doom would've worked better as an antagonist to Iron Man or the X-Men. The genre of the FF clashes far too much with the character of Doom and I've never found any of their interactions believeable or organic. His rivalry with Reed is superficial and it works just because it's "No.1 Vs. No.2". With Stark it works far better. You have the New World (US) vs. the Old (Europe). You have the "futurist" always upgrading and changing his look and moving forward, and then you have the guy who makes upgrades but never changes his look. You have this belief in tech, the hope of a Star Trek Utopia, versus Doom's nostalgia for an older time, tradition and aesthetics over practicallity. It's a far more well-rounded analogy and it's the reason why Doom & Stark have been having fun interactions since the 80s, while every Doom/Reed story is the exact same thing. At the end of the day, Doom's too cool for the F4. Doom's got a timeless quality. The FF are constantly moving, but unlike Stark's who's constantly evolving, they're also retro and forever stuck in the era of their creation. Doom vs. the X-Men would've basically been the supposed pinnacle of humanity vs. the "next step". Thematically, it again fits much more. The X-Men barely have any human antagonists that aren't strawmen, so the idea of having someone who spearheads this supposed "race war" between humans and mutants, based on ideological grounds beyond mere strawmanning, would've been far more interesting than the typical rivalry of Doom and the F4. Again, Doom's risen up to be an MU villain for a reason. The F4 are too limited by the status quo, so Doom works better with characters and concepts that he's related to. Political Wars with Kings like Namor and the Black Panther. Tech Wars with Stark and Magic Wars with Strange. If I went back in time and instead of Reed I made Pym the smartest man and moved Doom's grudge there, nothing would've changed. It still would've been the same banal rivalry. It is possible to make a Doom/FF rivalry work. But you need to shake things up on a fundemental level and that's just not possible. The FF will always be the corny 50s pulp sci-fi.
Anyway, I'm rambling again. Point is, the X-Men were always a great idea on paper, and while they've found success, the IP could've been much grander.
Reminds me of General Ross in Civil War when he asks them where Thor and Hulk are. Storm/Cyclops/Magneto/Rogue/Prof X/Jean are all nukes amongst many.
There are nukes like Thor and Hulk, and there are Starkiller Bases like Magneto, Legion and the such. Magneto literally controls the ElectroMagnetic forces. Legion is a reality warper. And don't get me started on Franklin "I can create universes" Richards. Mutants are too loosely defined yet too affected by power creep for any sort of actual analogy to work with them, or any story to function in a set setting.
I'm stuck in the 90s when it comes to X Men. That's all I know and the iconography that means something to me. I thought it was weird when the X Men wore black leather in the comics in the early 2000's.
As for Michael Jackson, I know one thing, his favorite X Men was Morph, which isn't a huge surprise that he connected with shapeshifter. But yeah, I was surprised how familiar he was with the X Men and Marvel characters. He also liked Batman, but everyone likes Batman.
I've done X-Readathons, so I'm familiar of sorts with all eras. In the past I was a bigger fan of the 90s looks. Then I got older and latched onto the streamlined, militarized look of the leather suits from New & Ultimate X-Men. These days I pick and choose the best costumes from across the eras. And apparently Hickman thought the same. Now there's not set "look". Mutants change their costumes depending on the ocassion, as they're more like clothes. Granted, nobody's really been drawn with a lot of different stuff thus far, but that's more on the artists. I like this development, as now they're a Nation and they need to build a set "culture". So having their extravagant costumes be their daily clothes is a nice first step.
As for MJ, he wanted to play Professor X IIRC, and he even sent auditions. I don't know how well he would've managed a company, but at least he had a passion for them and that's more than the average fanfic tumblr writer that pens them these days has.
