I saw this in the theater in Brooklyn, in the hood cinema (Court St!), so it was a hilarious experience of talk and response to the screen from the audience.Since then I've had numerous conversations about the flick, the role of black characters, and more--including a few on this forum. It's been fun because I get to do some X-Men history, including the always interesting role of race and comic book characters. Warning, a few spoilers below.
First up, as most know now, the early 1960s comic book X-Men was subtly talking about race--an amazing thing given the era. Stan Lee has admitted its inspiration was the Civil Rights movement of the day. And at the time, having *actual* black characters was not something mainstream comics were brave enough to do. Stan Lee himself had long been forced to use a moniker instead of his actual Jewish name (Stan Lieber) and the 1950s anti-comic paranoia (which gave us the self-regulating Comics Code Authority) was still censoring controversial topics. So the X-Men bizarrely discussed issues of race, without using any people of color. The original X-Men team (Cyclops, Beast, Marvel Girl, Iceman and Angel) didn't become diverse until 1975, when a second team was created after the original were thought to have perished at the hands of the living island--Krakoa.This team was international and racially diverse, giving us the most famous figures like Storm, Nightcrawler, Sunfire (Japanese), Thunderbird (Native American). It was part of the whole diversification of comics across the board, except that the X-men had actually been trying to deal with race (even if awkwardly) for over a decade.So this new movie, X-Men First Class, is actually a multicultural upgrade from the first. Anyone expecting to see top tier mutants of color like Storm or the like, is going to be heavily disappointed.
This new X-Men movie decided that using the original all-white team to deal with race wouldn't do, and threw in two characters to diversify the team---Darwin and Angel Salvadore.This should immediately let you know something, as in the X-Men popularity world they are darn near "special teams" (despite one of them having extreme power), at least compared to celebrity figures like Mystique, Havok, Banshee and Professor X. Darwin is actually black and latino; in the movie he's played by Kenyan actor Edi Gathegi. Angel Salvadore is played by multiracial actress Zoe Kravitz (daughter of Lenny Kravitz). One of the villains is Riptide, who is a Latino. Unfortunately no Arabs, Asians, East Indians or others appear to exist yet. Still, doing all of this they immediately rewrote X-Men origins history, stripping out key characters like Iceman, Angel and Marvel Girl and replacing them with some people of color.
Now to their roles In the comics- Darwin is actually introduced in a secret team *directly before* the diverse 1975 team, sent to save the original X-Men from Krakoa. Darwin's amazing ability is to adapt through rapid extreme evolution to any circumstance/threat. In the original comic book storyline, like in the movie, he dies in this initial appearance. Years later however, he returns--and the story is that in order to adapt, he turned himself into pure energy and its only Rachel Summers (the other Phoenix, daughter of Cyclops and Marvel girl from an alternate Earth) who helps him regain physical form. Darwin has returned to the X-world, where he may be one of the most powerful mutants to exist. In a recent X-Factor, he was pitted against the Norse goddess Hela and actually evolved into an immortal with the strength of a god to take her on. I was put off and surprised that Darwin died in this flick--but it *could* be that like his comic book incarnation, he's not gone, and will appear in another movie.
Yes, killing off Darwin was probably pretty cliche--even if there is a comic book precedent. The mostly black audience I saw it with erupted into anger at his death, with cries of "racist" and "that's bullsh*t!" and "the only brotha!?!?" It took another few minutes for the roars of the crowd to calm down. This of course came right after Sebastian Shaw says "enslaved" and the camera pans to Darwin. This was probably an attempt to inject the original issues of race into the storyline, but it was *very* poorly done with that reference--which the audience also groaned and asked WTF about. Personally I thought Darwin was a poor choice for the flick, as I was wondering how they were going to deal with his "off-the-scale" powers. It seems the decision was simply to be rid of him. Still, given his abilities, there's every possibility that he's far from done.
As for Angel Salvadore, she was never my favorite X-character. A sister with insect wings who spits venom and lays eggs (yes, eggs), was just too much IMHO. She was created during that phase when X-Men creators seemed to be trying to make characters that shocked you by their oddity, highlighting their "mutant-ness." In the original comic, she actually *does* join Magneto for a while--before returning to the X-Men fold, and being renamed Tempest. I've heard complaints of her character being a stripper. But there's a larger issue here, in that the whole movie featured women in sexual overtones. Angel Salvadore's character is probably quite toned down from Emma Frost, who walks around the entire time in white lingerie. This is something from her comic book incarnation, where she and the female members of the Hellfire Club seem incapable of finding costumes outside of Fredericks of Hollywood. I've never understood that, though admittedly my eyes don't mind it.
Not actually defending the movie, because I thought it was a C at most--but that was more because of the rewriting of characters personalities and powers. Turning Moira McTaggert into a CIA agent, rather than leaving her a genetic scientist was bizarre. And imagining that a powerful hell-dimension demon, Azazel, would work for Sebastian Shaw is like recasting Star Wars and imagining Darth Vader working for C-3PO. I was just relating to someone on here I don't mind them remaking the X-Universe every time they make these flicks (plucking a 60 year old Mystique from Eastern Europe where she should be having trysts with Sabretooth and recasting her as an identity-confused teen), but do they have to completely rewrite the characters powers and personalities too? At any rate, the creators of this recent incarnation deserve props for trying to diversify the original team. But the way they handled it, given the history of black characters in film, shows a lack of insight and perhaps poor judgment.
Comments