If we continue the comparison of the X-Men to outsiders fighting for the equality of all people in our real world – for even the machine called Master Mold in the X-Men universe famously states in response to being told, in his rejection of his primary function, that he was designed to protect humanity from mutants, “That is not logical. Mutants are humans” – even beyond the publicly noted portrayal of Professor Xavier and Magneto as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, respectively, there are many other X-Men that have lived among us.
Even Jimi Hendrix used the gifts that brought him fame to try to make us aware of how absurd we were to refuse to accept one another because of our subtle differences – although, admittedly, it can sometimes seem difficult to wade through his spacey manner of speaking. Henry David Thoreau was an X-Man, too.
To bring it up-to-date, does Barack Obama not represent a great leader and a leap forward in the attempt to reconcile racial conflict, and even the broader conflict of war in general, or for the acceptance of all races together in one country, for the freedom to marry whomever we choose? Conversely, was not Adolf Hitler an extremely talented individual bent on the eradication of certain forms of humanity in order to allow the supremacy of another?
There are superheroes and supervillains in this world, just as great and just as special as those in the comic book universe. Chances are that you’re one of them. The only question that really matters is which side are you on? Is it a debate of supremacy or equality, revenge or understanding? Or, to delve even deeper, are you one of the many mutants so terrified of yourself and of your own responsibility that you only wish to be “normal,” to appear and act as if there was nothing to distinguish you from the rest of humanity?
We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines, like I will admit I have done for some time now, rejecting the issues of our world, if we ever expect it to be right. Whether this is a fool’s dream or not, at least it is a dream. For if we succeed in never causing a ripple, or promoting an ideal, all we’ve accomplished is the rejection of ourselves and cemented that self in the failure to be what we really wish to be. No invisible man has ever left a mark. No invisible man has a legend. And no invisible man has ever been a hero.
