The Political Themes in X-Men

     The reemergence of the superhero genre of movies has been led by Marvel and its legion of mutants known as the X-men. Years before Spider-man swung into theaters or Batman bat-swept his way into audiences’ hearts, America watched heroes like Wolverine, Storm, and Cyclops fight it out on top of the Statue of Liberty against villains with names like Toad, Beast, and Magneto. DC comics scrambled to follow suite, and Marvel partnered with studios to bring other heroes to the big screen.

     But the X-Men didn’t just lead the way for a new era in cinema, one filled every summer with new super-powered vigilantes. Like a hipster, the X-Men comics and cartoons told stories of racial suppression and division, before it was cool to talk about civil rights and gay marriage. The recent front page comic book marriage of Nighthawk and his boyfriend is only the most recent example. The storylines offered by the series have historically been as diverse as their cast: the X-Men feature and have featured heroes that are Black, Hispanic, Jewish, and Gay. Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-Men, is even bound to a wheelchair—representing a handicapped minority that is rarely portrayed in superhero movies. The X-Men led the entertainment industry in advocating racial and minority equality long before their movies hit the big screen. And those political themes carried into theatres.

     However, the movies delve into other topics along their exploration of civil rights. McCarthyism and the paranoia present during the second Red Scare are mirrored in the first movie. In this two part dialogue between myself & I, we’ll examine a unique take on this piece of American history first, before addressing the most interesting facet of the films; how the characters of Xavier and Magneto are commentaries on the rhetoric and actions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X, respectively.

McCarthyism & The Red Scare

     McCarthy’s rise and fall left a scar in the memory of the American people. As a Senator, McCarthy proved to be one of our worst, his name synonymous with both the terms censure and McCarthyism. However, McCarthy did not rise to power in a political vacuum. Rather, this man was enabled by the fears and paranoia of the nation during his brief stint in office. Like a person who cuts their own arms, McCarthy was the self-inflicted wound of a nation caught in hysteria.

    1950’s America was caught in a second “red scare”, ushered in by communist infiltration. The Rosenbergs had successfully leaked details of the Manhattan project to the Soviets. Other spies bragged about their feats of espionage. The ashes of WWII had given rise to a new menace, one that didn’t paint Swastikas on the side of airplanes or patch symbols of oppression on shoulders. Communism’s insidiousness in the minds of Americans laid in its innocuousness.  Anybody could be a communist. As a PSA short filmed during the period grimly noted, “…there are…communists who don’t show their real faces. Who work more…silently.”  

     McCarthy was hardly keen enough to tap into this paranoia. Rather, he discovered it quite on accident. During a February 9th, 1950 speech to a woman’s republican club in West Virginia, Joe mentioned he had a list of over 200 communist sympathizers in the State Department. Joe was unprepared for the media attention the speech received, but the Junior Senator from Wisconsin quickly acted on it. Less than a month later the Tydings committee delved into McCarthy’s allegations against the State Department and found all 81 of his targets innocent of all charges. Despite the recklessness he had demonstrated during the hearings, McCarthy went on to manipulate and use communism as a smear and a means of political leverage during the next four years.

     The first X-men movie is driven by a plot clearly intended to evoke our nation’s memory of McCarthyism and the Red Scare. The setting of the first movie is clearly depicted in it's opening scenes: due to the hysteria caused by the rise of individuals with “unique abilities,” America is caught in panic. Playing on the fears of the populace, Senator Kelly proposes mandatory registration for those with mutant abilities. In a scene mirroring McCarthy’s speech in West Virginia, Senator Kelly stands up in a hearing and loudly proclaims, “I have here a list of identified mutants living right here in the United States…...and there are even rumors, Miss Grey, of mutants so powerful that they can enter our minds and control our thoughts, taking away our God-given free will. Now I think the American people deserve the right to decide if they want their children to be in school with mutants. To be taught by mutants! Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is that mutants are very real, and that they are among us. We must know who they are, and above all, what they can do!” 

     Just as McCarthy was empowered by the paranoia of the American population, Kelly’s Mutant Registration Act is enabled by the fear and prejudice of the citizenry. To the dismay of Jean Grey and Charles Xavier, his rhetoric is met with applause in the Senate Chamber. And outside the Capitol, we witness firsthand the persecution that those with mutant abilities are faced with. A rally for Senator Kelly shows protestors holding up signs with labels like “send the mutants to the moon” and “protect the children.” Wolverine has a shotgun pointed at the back of his head once a bartender and brawler discover what he is. Mutants, like communists and ex-communists during the Red Scare, have become outcasts in society. Senator Kelly goes so far as to note that if were up to him he’d, “…lock them all away. It’s a war. It’s the reason people like me exist.”

     Senator Kelly’s short-lived campaign against the mutants eventually attracts the attention of Magneto, who uses a machine to turn the politician into physical representation of his career: a slimy, shape shifting mutant capable of slipping in between the bars that hold him prisoner in Magneto’s lair. The poetic justice dealt to Kelly reflects the real life fate of Senator McCarthy. The Junior Senator from Wisconsin’s campaign against communism won him short lived popularity, but he made enemies in the process that would destroy him and his reputation, turning the same smear tactics he used against others on him.

     For years, Senator McCarthy investigated government agencies and even Hollywood. In the process, he stepped on the toes of giants. He eventually decided to investigate the Army, but was met with stiff resistance. Individuals he called to testify before his Senate Subcommittee on Investigations used the Fifth Amendment to shield themselves from questioning. McCarthy’s ill-fated inquiry again yielded no closet communists, but angered veterans, the military, and most dangerously, the President of the United States. Previously unwilling to directly engage the Senator, Eisenhower decided he had had enough and conspired with the Army to smear McCarthy in front of the nation. Playing on the homophobic tendencies of the populace during this time, the Army accused McCarthy and his advisor of giving preferential treatment to David Schine. McCarthy countercharged, correctly, that the charge was made in bad faith as a response to his previous investigation of the Army. The hearings are documented in the 1964 movie Point of Order!

     For six weeks the hearings raged before the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations. Allegations on both sides were televised live “gavel-for-gavel” in front of 80 million Americans. In the end, McCarthy found himself facing the same smear tactic he had used against politicians and organizations he found distasteful for years. Senator Symington wanted McCarthy to sign a statement that he would investigate members of his own staff that had ties to former communist organizations. Recognizing the stigma that such an investigation would have on his staff, McCarthy refused. And like an animal that finds itself cornered, McCarthy lashed back with everything he had, claiming that Symington couldn’t fool the American people with an investigation made in such bad faith. Symington and other members of the hearing were unimpressed. As the Missouri Senator stated in the face of McCarthy’s rage near the end of the hearings, “"Senator, the American people have had a look at you now for six weeks; you're not fooling anyone, either." Shortly afterwards, Symington simply packed up and walked away from the Senate Chamber despite McCarthy’s vocal protests.

     Before the end of the year McCarthy found himself censured in the Senate. Three years later he died a bitter man, his reputation and career forever ruined. Officially, he died of acute hepatitis. However, it is widely believed that the Senator drank himself to death. Recognizing his ruined state after his forced mutation, the fictional Senator Kelly refuses to seek treatment at a hospital for fear of being treated like a mutant. Despite the best efforts of the X-Men and Xavier, Senator Kelly liquefies in front of Storm and drains onto the floor. Senator McCarthy died from drinking.

Senator Kelly turned into a drink.
In our next post, we'll explore how the figures of MLK and Malcom X are represented in the movies. Cya next week folks!