The X-Men and Teenage Pregnancy

I'm admittedly quite a bit behind when it comes to Marvel Comics, so this may seem like old news . . .

Angel Salvadore was introduced in New X-Men #118. In issue #141, she ends up having six kids. I have one huge problem with this. Angel was fourteen when she was introduced. And unless I missed something, she didn't have a birthday in that time (even if she did, she'd still only be fifteen).

I have yet to meet a fourteen year old who is emotionally mature enough to have sex, let alone raise a child. Raising a child is a full-time job. It requires maturity, patience and a willingness to put the baby's needs over your own. Teenagers - especially young teenagers - tend to be immature, have little to no patience, and tend to believe that their own needs and desires are the only things that matter. (Lord knows I was like that when I was 14.)

And yet none of the X-Men seemed to give a care that a fourteen year old girl had just had a bunch of babies. Excuse me? Is no one concerned about the fact that she has no way of supporting these babies? Or that there's no way in hell that she's emotionally mature enough to handle this? Or the fact that these newborns are already not only crawling but flying meaning they'll be exponentially more difficult to contain and care for than ordinary newborns? Not to mention there's six of them.

Someone should have cared that a fourteen year old child got pregnant while under the X-Men's care. But no one did. The issue never really even seemed to get addressed. (Also, if Beak was any older than she was, it was statutory rape.)

Nice to know that not only are the X-Men into child endangerment, but they don't give a damn about teenage pregnancy either.

Marvel, Sidekicks and Mutants . . . Oh, my!

I've read that one of the main reasons that Marvel doesn't tend to have teenage sidekicks is because of the influence of Stan Lee, who dislikes them.  However, the fact that Marvel Comics as a whole adopted this policy amuses me.

I can get them not liking the idea of child endangerment.  But, frankly, this approach is just silly.  The X-Men have had dozens of teenage members.  And their death rate is comparable to DC's sidekicks, maybe even worse given the mass "depowerment" of mutants that resulted in plenty of deaths.

And, really, you might as well call the teenage X-Men sidekicks.  That is, if the X-Men were actually treated like superheroes.  But most of the times, they don't even get to be considered superheroes, because we wouldn't want to mess with the status quo and show mutants gaining more acceptance.  (Because we all know that the civil rights movement did absolutely nothing.  We still have "white only" water fountains, Jim Crow laws are still in effect, and the idea of actually having a black president is just plain silly.)

But then again, the lack of mutant acceptance is likely due to them tending to cause widespread destruction with their powers and the fact that the "good" mutants are often huge assholes (see Cyclops, Emma Frost, etc.).  And which is worse?  Being a regular sidekick, or being a teenage X-Man (an unofficial sidekick with just as much danger and having half the universe hate you because they're bigots)?

Why the Mutant/Minority Metaphor Doesn't Work

I'm not a huge Marvel fan, but I do like the X-Men.  However, one of the things that always bugs me when I read X-Men books is that some authors seem to think that the treatment of mutants is a perfect metaphor for the unjust treatment of various minority groups.

Yeah. I know the reason that I hate minorities is because they're always blowing city blocks up with their eye beams and chalking up billions of dollars in property damage and injuring/killing civilians every time they fight each other with their super powers.

The "mutant = minority" metaphor is complete BS.

Comparing the fear and hatred that your average Joe in the Marvel Universe has for mutants to the fear and hatred that a real bigot has for a minority is downright offensive.  In real life, bigots have no real reason for their hatred and fear of others outside of stupid, superficial things like "they have more/less melanin than I have" or "their ancestors came from a different country than my ancestors." In the Marvel Universe, you would have to be insane not to be wary of mutants, if not downright terrified.


Mutants are perpetually in a state of war with each other.  Xavier's Academy was a recruiting station for a private mutant army masquerading as a school.  The "students" routinely fought a group of terrorist mutants, causing massive property damage, death and mayhem.  Not only that, but most of these battles are not explained to the general populace, so it would be easy to assume that both groups are nothing but super-powered gangs.  (And that's not getting into the many times that Xavier screwed around in people's heads in order to keep his private army a secret.)

Mutants - even the heroic ones - routinely ignore laws, and not just the anti-mutant legislation. They behave as if they are above the law, ignoring any law that isn't convenient and not bothering to explain their actions. If you're going a private war in the streets, it's going to hurt your PR if you don't bother explaining that you were attacking a terrorist, mass murderer or any of the other assorted psychopaths that the X-Men routinely deal with.
On top of all that, mutant powers manifest at puberty, which pretty much guarantees that the section of the population with the least amount of self control ends up with abilities that could result in plenty of accidental death and destruction.  You'd have to be insane not to be scared of emotionally immature, hormonely driven teenagers with no self control developing super powers.


Edit: Fixed typo.