Astonishing X-men: Xenophobia?
May. 17th, 2010 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophile posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyFour 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 12:32 am (UTC)Let me rephrase that. The USA plays the isolationist card until our interests are in question.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 12:36 am (UTC)In fact I'd go one further and state that the USA and the present-day Russian Federation benefit from selective ignorance as to what the nature of Imperialism really is as regards their past. The United States legally belongs to the 500+ recognized and unrecognized Indigenous tribes.
Americans tend to ignore that the only difference between the Manifest Destiny United States led by James K. Polk and the expansionist Germany led by Adolf Hitler was that the 1840s USA was not fully industrialized and so could not create the elaborate genocidal architecture.