Astonishing X-men: Xenophobia?

[angelophile]

Four scans under the cut from Astonishing X-men: Xenogenesis, by Warren Ellis and Kaare Andrews, in which Wolverine talks about African politics, which I suspect will provoke much discussion.











X-men: Xenogenesis is a... curious beast. On one hand you have this scene and others, in which broad xenophobia and outright racism is given voice through Wolverine. On the other, you then have scenes earlier in the book where Beast calls Scott on referring to Africa as if it was a single country instead of a continent composed of multiple different countries and cultures which, for comics, could be considered vaguely progressive given the mash of stereotypes usually delivered during any story set on the continent.

Although it feels like some kind of bizarro world where Wolverine is calling out Mandella for using violence against a racist regime that oppressed millions based upon genetic heritage. Um, hello?

That said, I can actually see Wolverine being this ignorant and making these sorts of generalizations, but the other X-men apparently supporting him in doing so makes me feel like it's more Ellis' worldview being given voice through Wolverine. If Storm had turned to him and said "What a crock of horseshit", I suspect I'd be giving Ellis the benefit of the doubt, but as it is, in my mind this scene needed someone coming more strongly from the other direction to balance Wolverine's view.

Comments

[angelophile]

He's also in a very tenuous position when it comes to calling people out for using violence against oppressors, seeing as last time we saw him he was coldly gutting an unarmed member of the Friends of Humanity, isn't he?

[thandrak]

What's your point? Logan's being hypocritical? That only matters if you care about not being hypocritical. Logan's beyond that. For he is jaaaaded, baby.

[angelophile]

My point is that it's hard to take real-world socio-politics seriously when it's being delivered through the mouth of a character who's essentially a poster child for terrorism and mass murderer in the Marvel universe. To me, at least, because of the delivery, the hypocrisy and over-simplification it comes across as being trite and offensive.

[okkult3000]

Hypocrisy is one way to look at Wolverine's general "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude, but what it ignores is the fact that Wolverine really kind of hates himself. Back in the old days, his killing sprees were due to mental illness; he legitimately couldn't control himself. That's where all the Frank Miller/samurai stuff came from in the '80s; Logan has to look at himself from a particular angle just to get out of bed in the morning. He sees what he does as necessary, but also ugly and wrong. He doesn't want others to follow his example.

[thandrak]

I felt it was sort of supposed to.

[sherkahn]

Logan's tone respecting Mandela shows that he can respect a guy who doesn't deny linking himself directly to the pain and death to innocents who were caught up in something out of their control. He does not rise up above the blame. Mandela was caught and paid a price (debatable) for his actions. Ain't no saints who lead in the continent of Africa, based on Logan's experience, and he isn't one either.

[vitruvian23]

Well, it's not as though he at any point claims the X-Men aren't terrorists, too. He's not being hypocritical unless he claims he's somehow better than Nelson Mandela, despite doing the same sorts of things himself. Pointing out that *nobody's* hands are clean is another thing altogether.

[dragcub]

which might have been more clear and less potentially offensive if he'd said "ain't no saints" instead of "...in Africa".