Modern Marvel in a Nutshell: Fans More Thrilled About Gay Superhero Couple Than an Actual Plot
It’s been a rough time for longtime X-Men fans.
Despite the 2019 soft reboot of the comic book franchise (the “House of X” and “Powers of X” arcs that introduced a new status quo for Marvel’s mutants) being wildly popular and well-received, a number of other creative decisions by Marvel have left some die-hard fans scratching their heads.
Take, for instance, the ongoing discourse over the first lesbian wedding in Marvel history.
‘X-Men: The Wedding Special’ celebrates Mystique and Destiny for ‘Marvel’s Voices: Pride!’ See the happy couple on @Janbazaldua67’s cover, coming this May: https://t.co/KsTKecgMVd pic.twitter.com/6HxTbjTp9h
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) February 21, 2024
Not even getting into whatever issues one may or may not have with lesbian weddings, the response to this story is a prime example of so much of what’s wrong with new-age comic book fandom.
Just look at the way in which comic book fans have reacted to a variant cover of the aforementioned wedding arc:
X-MEN: THE WEDDING SPECIAL variant cover, drawn/colored by me! The issue is this year’s Marvel’s Voices: Pride one-shot — out 5/29 ✨🌈 pic.twitter.com/t7LmmWcXcd
— Russell Dauterman (@rdauterman) February 21, 2024
Illustrated by Russell Dauterman (and to his credit, he is a remarkable artist), the alternate cover of the wedding cover depicts a number of LGBT Marvel characters.
Almost smack dab in the middle of that cover is the apparent gay couple of Hercules and the X-Men’s Iceman, and fans had a field day with it.
Out magazine even penned a whole feature on all of the “gay X-Men fans” who are “freaking out” over the gay couple (which presumably has nothing to do with the plot).
What are they “freaking out” about? The respective positions that Iceman and Hercules assume during intimate gay moments.
And that, in a nutshell, is the issue with identity politics — and only identity politics — taking front and center stage in entertainment these days.
Can any X-Men fan actually explain what’s going on in this ongoing story arc that is being promoted?
That’s obviously a facetious question, as avid X-Men fans can surely give you a detailed plot synopsis of modern arcs.
But the point remains that the only thing being promoted about this story arc is the LGBT “representation,” and that alone does not a story make.
So instead of people getting excited about whatever is happening in the X-Men universe, they’re excited about this tokenized instance of “representation” within the story.
All this excitement is about an LGBT story with X-Men themes, and decidedly not an X-Men story with LGBT themes.
And if you need any proof of which foot comes first, look no further than the way X-Men have treated their most catholic superhero, Nightcrawler.
Nightcrawler, who is canonically a Catholic priest, is apparently shirking his vows to officiate the aforementioned lesbian wedding, as part of this latest X-Men arc.
If this were truly an X-Men story (and not some token celebration), the real meat of the story could have been an in-depth look at Nightcrawler’s struggles squaring his faith with officiating a lesbian wedding for his two mother figures.
That struggle is genuinely and intrinsically more interesting than “Hey look, gay people.”
There are difficult, nuanced and uncomfortable conversations worth having about various socio-political issues afflicting modern society, and the comic book medium has historically been a wonderful arena for those talks.
But modern comic book fandom seems more interested in living in echo chambers with sunshine and puppies, rather than sparring in the arena with ideas they may disagree with.
Comic book stories, at their best, can have people asking existential questions and having philosophical epiphanies about the deepest topics, like justice and love.
(And please spare me the long-debunked notion that X-Men were always meant to be “woke.”)
Comic book stories at their worst? It’s little more than a glorified participation trophy — and every comic book fan of every ideological persuasion should be pushing back against this.
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