#but also it does the best job of explaining the implications of the mutant gene

[wittyno]

X-men: Evolution is the best X-men content. In this essay…

[thecorteztwins]

hexiva replied to your post “Eyyy I found my copy of X-Men Noir! I thought for sure I must have...”

X-Men Noir: What the fuck was that?

I remember you asking me that before and I don’t...really know? I assume you mean thematically rather than the actual story/murder mystery (although that gets a little confusing too). So uh, this gets long, and there’s a lot of mention of eugenics (in a WHOLLY CONDEMNING CONTEXT but still) under the cut, so warning for that:

The issue of eugenics just seems a bizarre topic for the story to start with. A 1930s noir murder mystery where everyone is human, okay, I’m listening. Like, the basic idea of Magnus and his Brotherhood as corrupt cops, ok. Xavier as training criminal teens to be better criminals, ok. I’m on-board. A debate about nature vs nurture, terrific. But then trying to work that in with the concept of “genetic hygiene” and the idea that “sociopaths are the next step of evolution!” (which is completely stupid for numerous reasons) is just...buh?  Now, for the record, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to address eugenics in an X-Men comic. In fact, I think it’s almost an elephant in the room at certain points. And this was the time period for it in America, something people really don’t want to talk about. But then the entire discussion/message is so...jumbled? Like I think ultimately it is aiming to say “it’s bad!” at the end---it’s something the bad people believe in (tho everyone is kinda a bad guy), the villain proclaiming herself merely this way by her nature is killed by the twin of the good guy in an attempt to prove that nurture triumphs over nature, and see it does because the good guy was adopted by a good family and his twin wasn’t so that’s why his twin is like this, and the story-within-a-story sci-fi tale ends with the “carefully bred and created from all the best genes” hero getting rid of the Breeders Council and now going to procreate with the supposedly genetically-inferior natural-bred people, yay! And yet...it doesn’t do a good job of arguing the point I think it’s trying to make. Bad Twin may have gone to a bad family, yet he still grows up trying to be good? He’s the one who stops the villain? And the villain seems to be telling the truth, she really was just born this way? So like, Dukes is right in the beginning when he says it’s really all down to nature. And likewise, in the pulp-style sci-fi story that serves a metaphor for the larger story, the reason that the Breeders Council turns out to be evil isn’t that they’re eugenicists selectively controlling human reproduction like show dogs, that’s explicitly stated not to be the issue ( “The Breeders Council planned not to just retain humanity’s best qualities and remove the bad, but they would also remove every part of us that is spontaneous and unpredictable!”) So like, eugenics are fine until free will is bred out, I guess? But it’s cool otherwise! And it doesn’t help that the coolness and superiority of the eugenically-bred hero BECAUSE of what specific genes were use for him--his super sense of directions from Bedouin nomads, voice from the most accomplished Neapolitan baritones, reflexes from three generations of Hessian sharpshooters---is constantly harped on and shown as working for exactly what it was intended for, whereas the “mongrel” population falls before him easily and is emphasized as hideous.  And like...the reason they’re going to start breeding with the “unfit” population...is it turns out they’re the ones with the “spontaneity genes”...so...that’s...still selective breeding for genetic reasons? Also, back to the elephant in the room...it’s trying to be about eugenics, it’s not shy about that, that word is literally used in the first few pages. Yet the racist and ableist aspects of eugenics never comes up. Not in the noir story itself, not in the sci-fi story-within-a-story. The noir story focuses specifically on the idea of criminal/evil tendencies innate vs inborn; the racist, ableist, xenophobic/anti-immigrant parts of eugenics are never even mentioned. And in the scifi story, it’s averted even harder, with the genetically “superior” people being specifically noted as bronze-skinned and having had their genetic traits picked from all over the world.  So like...they wanna debate eugenics, they wanna throw that right at the center of things straightaway...but not ever mention its really nasty parts? And set it in a time period where those parts are why it was popular? Like, I get wanting to focus on the issue of criminal traits in a crime story, and I get just not even wanting to debate these other parts in the story because there shouldn’t be a debate, but just avoiding the whole thing altogether seems...it just seems wrong. If you’re going to bring up something like that, BRING IT UP. Maybe they wanted to ask the question of “ok but would it be okay if it WASN’T prejudicial about race or disability?” but it seems more like it’s just trying to avoid/ignore that in general for the sake of the story...which I get because there’s a LOT there, but again, if you’re going to tackle something like this, tackle it. Don’t go halfway. Also, given that the anti-immigrant aspect of actual eugenics beliefs at the time means it makes no sense for Magnus, whose background as an immigrant is a plot point because of how it indebted him to Shaw, to believe in it. Which is also never addressed to my memory, not even to call him a hypocrite or even just explain how/why he believes it at all. And of course, making Magneto in any universe, even one set before WWII, a proponent of eugenics is GROSS AND A TERRIBLE CHOICE AND WHY WOULD YOU EVEN i guess because his 616 counterpart’s belief in mutant supremacy makes it seem like a good analogue but oh my god think for two seconds?! I genuinely do not think a malicious message was intended but due to the shitty handling, the moral I think they’re trying to deliver ends up mixed at best. I think they were trying to use the theme of mutants in a noir somehow without actually having mutants, and they got the idea of “well how about people who are genetically criminal” and then that leads itself naturally to a nature vs nurture debate, and it’s a cool idea to have some deeper questions like that within what would otherwise just be a straight murder story. But then I guess they connected the idea of “criminal by nature/born sociopaths” to “eugenics in general” which is admittedly not a huge leap, and it is easy to tie the idea of eugenics to a series whose characters are literally meant to be “homo superior” by virtue of their genes...except in this case they’re not homo superior, they’re a bunch of criminals, and only one seems to have been born that way. Like I feel like this theme would have worked a lot better in the 616 universe, not a human AU.  Basically, I think they were trying to do too much in one story, they didn’t want to tackle all the implications of their theme despite those implications being what it’s most known for, the theme frankly doesn’t even really work with the story or setting that well even though it seems like it should (time period, etc), they don’t seem to realize how to convey their message or even what that message really is (as said, I think it’s nature over nurture, but the story itself seems confused on that) and when you add all that to the convoluted, confusing plot (which is okay for a noir, but when it’s added to all this mess it’s just hard to follow) with the twist at the end, it’s just...what just happened? It’s just kind of a mess, and given the themes they decided to tackle, ends up a mess with some Unfortunate Implications...assuming you can even follow it that far. ALL THAT SAID...I enjoyed it? I know that sounds so terrible to say because of all the problematic shit I just described, but I genuinely liked exploring this world and what everyone was in it, and how their mutant powers in 616 were translated into mundane traits and skills, finding all the little references to stuff from 616, etc. I think they would have done a lot better to just focus on that, on translating the characters into these roles and how to keep them still those characters (instead of people who really just have their names) while in these roles, and just doing a straight noir story with that. I feel like trying to tackle deeper themes ended up just distracting from the story, and then ended up not even really tackling those themes anyway, so it just ended up a mess in both directions. But I think it was a good idea at its core! I really do! And I like what’s there of it! You know me, I fucking love a mess with good potential. Also, two other things--I understand noir means black, but the art is in so much shadow it’s often hard to tell what’s going on, or who is who. Lighten it up some and include some fun time-appropriate fashions. It would be easier to follow and better communicate the fashions, plus look cute as hell. And get another protagonist because why was the protagonist Tom Halloway?! He’s not an X-Men character! Why is he the lead?! LIKE THAT IS REALLY MY BIGGEST QUESTION