The Marvelous Age Of Missing Representation

Hated and feared, they are the marginalized minority group that has risen and fallen numerous times within the Marvel Universe. ‘They’ would be Marvel’s merry mutant society, of course.

Touted as a metaphor for the struggles of various marginalized groups of reality, the mutants of Marvel sure have been through a lot. Although, there seems to be a major issue with the whole representation of marginalization in the book.

Not qwhite sure what that issue might be. If I point a finger at it, I might come to the white answer. It’s white there on the tip of my tongue.

If you didn’t pick up on the sarcastic wordplay, a major issue, of course, is the overt whiteness of the X-Men as a whole. The problem extends well beyond that, though. There are massive gaps when it comes to race and ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and beyond.

The about-to-end Krakoa era saw quite a bit of shifting in that issue. More characters with skin colors, with higher levels of melanin in prominent spots than the so-called “normal.” Some swings with characters didn’t just default to heterosexual, though we’ll never forget, nor forgive, the Kate Pryde teases. Gender saw a bit less of an impact, but there was the huge swing of confirming Mystique and Destiny as the actual biological parents of Nightcrawler.

Overall, it still left things to be desired, while trending in a good direction.

With all of this progress, you might presume that the upcoming relaunch would carry that momentum.

Unfortunately, as of this moment, it’s not looking so hot.

Out of the eighteen characters featured on the promo materials for the three launching books, four can be confirmed as non-white. That’s 22 percent. Pretty dismal levels right there.

To be fair, some prominent figures such as Storm, aren’t on this promo feature. That’s probably because there are many more books left to be fully revealed beyond the 90s-tastic retread logos we’ve already seen. There’s plenty of potential that a few of them might be somewhere, waiting to be revealed. There are even hints that at least one of the announced books has some unrevealed cast members.

Even so, announcing a new line by choosing the whitest of lineups on the page is certainly a choice.

Let’s be fair, though. This is not just an X-Men problem. It’s a Marvel problem, as a whole.

A cursory glance at Marvel’s current title offerings doesn’t restore much faith. A sea of books feature prominent white, heterosexual, cisgender characters. Those white dude characters often have multitudes of books to their name just featuring past, present, or alternative varieties.

I wrote a whole piece last year about Marvel essentially casting aside Sam Wilson as Captain America after his recent book ended.

Sure, he’s still in Avengers, but when Steve Rogers got a new solo right away, that story took the definitive Captain America mantle back. In the almost year since Sam lost his book, we’ve heard nothing about his future. Seems just like the last time he was Captain America, and they cast him back to being Falcon before character Limbo claimed him.

From the creative side, far too large of a swath of writers are still white guys, though some of them fall outside of the heterosexual box-checking. Not a lot of women or people of color get to handle the writing of these iconic characters.

Gail Simone is making Marvel history in 2024 for being the first woman to solo write the flagship branded Uncanny X-Men title. A distinction that comes from the fact that Kelly Thompsons’ time on the title came as a co-writer alongside two men.

It’s a sad fact that this is one of many titles that either never has, or only just recently has, let anyone but a typical white guy write it. Not to take away from some of the amazing runs by these white guys, but it’s kind of bullshit.

Artistically, those who fall under the marginalized banner seem to get way more opportunities. A glance at any creative team lineup with headshots will show how much more representation there is when it comes to picking up the artist/inker/colorist/letterer pen than the writer pen.

Somewhere, somehow, some angry internet dude is screaming at this article “RACE/GENDER/SEXUALITY SHOULDN’T MATTER, JUST HIRE THE BEST PEOPLE.” All I have to say to that mindset (a way too common one) is that it’s so wild that the only “best” or “right” people for the job always tend to be white heterosexual cisgender men.

Funny how that seems to just be the definitive truth of reality apparently.

Currently, Marvel’s comics division leader is a man who broke the rules to be a writer by cosplaying as a Japanese writer, when he’s a through-and-through white guy. How fucked up is that?

Wild, then, how his tenure has seen the swaths of progress we were witnessing in the 2010s just crumble away, turning half the publishing line into glory nostalgia books bringing back writers to pick up and write continuations of stories that were over decades ago.

We just got a book that took place in the time that Daredevil wore black armor, but can’t have a Black Captain America book. Think about that for a moment.

Ms. Marvel was the breakout character of the 2010s, hitting levels for a young character not really seen since Spider-Man. Yet, in the last few years she’s been relegated to mini-series, event tie-ins, and one-shots. While latest toy Spider-Boy, who came out of nowhere to be revealed as the missing sidekick of Spider-Man, has an ongoing and is appearing all over the place.

Miles Morales was originated by a white man, who wrote him for most of his existence, as did other white guys in other books. Finally, just recently, we saw some non-white people write him, and finally some Black writers.

New X-Men editor Tom Brevoort remarked in one of his newsletters on the lack of “viable” Black male characters in the X-Men, only to showcase them using not a single one in the flagship books of his new relaunch. Even though Bishop is right there, who is, incidentally, perfect for the clear X-Men ’97 brand synergy they are aiming for. So is Synch, a character elevated in the Krakoa era to be the actual leader of the X-Men.

I guess neither of those is viable enough.

Sure, he also spoke about plans to “correct” the issues of representation, stating that it would “take time.” Sorry if I’m skeptical about an older white male, who is the epitome of a corporate guy, being the one that will “fix” the issue. Especially since his brand-new launch couldn’t even be bothered to hit anything other than an F level of representation on the initial teams.

Let us also never forget the most diverse X-Men team of recent times was unceremoniously offed two seconds after they became a team (sure they have a mini now but meh).

Look, I love Marvel comics, warts and all. I’m crossing my fingers every day that it gets better while it gets worse before my eyes.

Maybe I should realize that the relationship isn’t getting better, but I can’t seem to break myself away. Because I know what can be. We saw things trending that way before the leadership change occurred.

At this point, I would take them reaching a mid-range D grade in representation, on and off the page, because at least it would show progress and intentionality.

Everyone involved deserves better.