I have an admission: I’m a nerd. I am at least nerdy enough to be aware that Marvel is rebooting the X-Men animated series soon with the show X-Men ’97 on Disney’s digital content platform. This new series is supposed to be season 6 of the original series, picking up where the show left off in 1996. The original series aired when I was 7 years old, so I was the perfect age to be enthralled by the animated stories of superheroes on Saturday mornings. In anticipation of the new show, I decided to take time to rewatch the original series. There is certainly a sense of nostalgia I identify with in reviewing. As an adult, I’m picking up on the underlying themes more thoughtfully than the younger version of me could have. What I find interesting about it now is how much these characters are relatable to people with disabilities.
I won’t lie, sometimes the show makes me laugh at how silly it is. Picking up a building from the corner and setting it down without destroying it made me chuckle out loud. It is a cartoon, after all. But the stories of the comic have always had very serious subtext. My understanding is that the co-creators of the X-men Jack Kirby and Stan Lee used the X-men as an allegory for the civil rights movement. If you’re not familiar with the comic, the basic premise is that some people are born with super-human powers, attributed to mutations of their DNA. These people are referred to as mutants. Some mutants have fantastic powers like accelerated healing or shooting lasers from their eyes, while others are more muted like just looking very different. Within these stories, the general theme is discrimination against these people because they are different. A lot of the prejudice is rooted in fear, fear of those who are different. You can see how these themes parallel the civil rights era of violence and segregation based on race and ethnicity.
As I watch the show, I am amazed at how easily a person with a disability can relate to these characters. These people are marginalized because they are different. They have their unique struggles that not many people can relate to, even within their community. Many suffer in silence. Some of their abilities are obvious, some are invisible. These are all situations where I can see young people with disabilities seeing parts of themselves. I didn’t have the awareness when I was young, but this might be part of what drew me into these stories.
The leader of the X-men is a character named Charles Xavier. He is an idealist who believes that all people can learn to live in harmony with each other, that integration is the key to prosperity in society. The Civil Rights Act and ADA share this ideation. The character of Charles Xavier has telepathic powers and is considered one of the strongest mutants in this fantasy world. He is extremely intelligent and compassionate. He is also a wheelchair user. Making a revered leader of a superhero team a person with a disability was a very powerful decision from Kirby and Lee. The first edition of the X-men comic book came out in 1963, nearly 30 years before civil rights for the disabled were signed into law. While I was not around back then, I do know that the built environment was ubiquitously inaccessible to wheelchair users at that time.
The X-men comic resonates with people who are different and sends a message of hope for a better society in the future. The representation in the characters was as valid in the 1960’s as it is today. The modern movies gloss over this aspect of the narrative in favor of action-packed adventure, but the slower pace of storytelling in the comics and animated series lend itself to filling young minds with progressive ideas about civic equity intertwined with the action. I had not consciously recognized the positive messages embedded into the adventures of the X-men, but I think it’s a very powerful social commentary that encourages positivity towards marginalized populations. I’m happy it exists and that I was exposed to it at a formative age. The story of the X-men underscores how impactful media is on society and how important representation in media remains.