If it wasn't taboo in the 60's...

[Julio Alejandro]

I believe Stan Lee & Jack Kirby would've created Professor X and maybe even Magneto as black men. After all, their POVs were supposed to represent that of MLK & Malcolm X in a way. Does anybody else agree?

 

[THANOSRULES]

not really.

Magneto was a stereotypical villian for much of the early years, pretty much the same character as all the big villians really...later he shared more in common with the jewish or gypsy perspective being in a concentration camp.

Prof X was handicapped..

The whole mutant thing was an obvious metaphor for a number of "different"/ minority sects...

In fact making both characters as white actually increases the effectiveness of the initial metaphor...

I'm sure some of the original X-characters would have been black, given todays world. But X and Magneto were really already minorities within minorities.

 

[Julio Alejandro]

Good insight.

By the way, I hate Rob Liefeld.

 

[Manic]

I'm not sure it had to do with being taboo. I honestly believe the reason 95+% of all superheroes created prior to the 1970s were white is because nobody really thought to create black superheroes. All comic creators in those days were white. I wouldn't be surprised if those occasional black supporting characters like Robbie Robertson were the results of the few times Lee, JRSr, ect. actually thought of including black people. I mean, these were the people running Marvel. No one was stopping them from creating prominent black characters. It just never crossed their minds.

 

[Julio Alejandro]

Obviously Stan Lee had black civil rights leaders in mind when he wrote some of the civil rights dialogue regarding the mutants.

 

[iloveclones]

I'll be honest, I never heard the MLK/Malcom X comparisons until much later. It's a good one, and I like the analogy, but I don't think Stan Lee had that in mind when he came up with Magneto. If you read those early issues, he comes off more as a generic villain, as Thanos said.

Now, I think the whole mutants idea was a metaphor for (primarily) race, but considering the background of many of the writers, artists, publishers at the time, he easily could have been writing about the persecution of Jews.

 

[batnkevlar]

If blacks weren't taboo, there wouldn't have been a "MLK" and "Malcom X", thus defeating the reference to similarities...

 

[fifthfiend]

By the way, I hate Rob Liefeld.

And I commend you for it.

 

[Julio Alejandro]

If blacks weren't taboo, there wouldn't have been a "MLK" and "Malcom X", thus defeating the reference to similarities...

With all due respect, what the hell are you talking about?

 

[Julio Alejandro]

And I commend you for it.

Only good thing that ever came out of him was Cable (Who was already kinda in the Universe anyway), and Deadpool.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Maybe they didn't create them as black characters because there was still a fair bit of racism, but not in the way you're thinking. Magneto they could've gotten away with, probably, but if Xavier were black, that would be an issue itself in the '60s. Xavier was part of many elite circles and rubbed elbows with all sorts of government-types and bigwigs. That would be kind of odd in the '60s if he were black. Plus, Lee and Kirby already had their racial divider--mutation--so making the leaders of the mutant community black on top of that might've overcomplicated the issue by supplanting metaphorical racism with uncomfortably real racism. They were already dealing with many of the issues the Civil Rights Movement brought up through the metaphor of mutation: the only reason he was allowed in those elite social circles, for example, was because he hid his mutation from the world in the early X-Men comics. He only "came out," so to speak, much later.

 

[Julio Alejandro]

End thread. You just murdered my issue.

You're right, making them black would've just made things even more complicated.

 

[iloveclones]

You can't just end the thread like that. Now we have to make fun of you a little

 

[Julio Alejandro]

C'mon, have mercy.

 

[Manic]

Never!

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Now I'm waiting for an Uncle Jesse joke...

 

[Darthphere]

I believe Stan Lee & Jack Kirby would've created Professor X and maybe even Magneto as black men. After all, their POVs were supposed to represent that of MLK & Malcolm X in a way. Does anybody else agree?

No, because this is quite possibly, the most ******ed thing I've ever read on here.

 

[iloveclones]

No, because this is quite possibly, the most ******ed thing I've ever read on here.

Well, considering there have been much more ******ed things said here, now that is the most ******ed thing I've ever read here.

 

[Darthphere]

Well, considering there have been much more ******ed things said here, now that is the most ******ed thing I've ever read here.

No dude, this beats out Renaudman, Whirlysplat, and all those others.

 

[iloveclones]

Wait, do you mean this Uncle Jesse:

Or this one:

just kidding, any fan of lame tv knows the answer

 

[Julio Alejandro]

Well, considering there have been much more ******ed things said here, now that is the most ******ed thing I've ever read here.

Thanks. It's not like it's so far-fetched. I just admit that Corpulent's response killed my theory.

 

[Darthphere]

It was ******ed to begin with.

 

[Sloth7d]

Hello Julio Alejandro. That is Darthphere... You'll get used to it.

 

[Julio Alejandro]

Hello Julio Alejandro. That is Darthphere... You'll get used to it.

Thanks for warning me late. I'll make sure to ignore him from here on. Much appreciated, late or not.

 

[iloveclones]

Overrated experience dude.

Corp, reprimand the young chap please.

That's hilarious. You come in acting like a complete and utter jackass, and then run behind Corpy's skirt. Priceless.