We’re back again, ready to yell at people who are being weird about the X-Men. Each new installment includes people just completely ignoring the origins of the team or what they have always represented in order to push some weird political agenda. Maybe don’t use the X-Men for that?
The publication Giant Freakin Robot took to X (formerly known as Twitter) this weekend to share their thoughts on people looking at X-Men ’97 at a deeper level. I guess whoever was behind these tweets just put the show on in the background and never once heard a single thing it was trying to say to them because this surely is … a take.
The first in a series of tweets from the publication reads, “People trying to claim X-Men ‘97 is a secret parable for their personal pet cause is really taking the fun out of it. No it isn’t. That’s all you. Leave it alone”—you know, the X-Men which has been connected to the Civil Rights Movement and the AIDS crisis. This line of thinking is often connected right-wing talking points or people who refuse to recognize that the X-Men have always had a deeper meaning.
As our Julia Glassman wrote, “If people don’t get the point of X-Men now, they never will.”
GFR went on to talk some more nonsense, saying that “Aside from being annoying this way of thinking is just so incredibly boring. If everything you watch is always about the same thing, I can’t imagine anything more lame. Really, get some imagination.”
Even when they are proven wrong, the hits just keep coming
After GFR’s first two tweets, people rightfully pointed out how this line of thinking doesn’t really work with a show like X-Men ’97. Instead of recognizing that maybe their view of the series was misguided, GFR continued to just double down.
Most of the responses were just pointing out that if you couldn’t recognize what the series (and X-Men: The Animated Series) has always done with social commentary, then you don’t understand the X-Men as a team or a comic series.
What this shows is simply that those who never understood the X-Men are never going to get it. You can say it is just a cool team of mutants all fighting together, but then you’re missing half of what makes their journey so powerful.
Do you think the targeted hatred of mutants is just for fun? Or what exactly do people like this think properties like the X-Men are saying in this medium? This kind of deeper meaning isn’t new; the people making these complaints were just blissfully ignorant before. It’s the whole point of superheroes and always has been. Superman was created as a hope and a vision for the future by two Jewish creatives on the brink of World War II. You cannot say that Superman is just a guy who flies around saving people without acknowledging why he was created and the symbol of hope he is.
So sorry, if you think that X-Men ’97 is just a show without any deeper meaning behind it, you don’t get the X-Men.
(featured image: Disney+)
