Muties #1

[cyberghostface]

Comments

[lissa_quon]

Welp - not digging this so far. Also baffled how a kid shooting someone can be called "brave" unless they are referring to him shooting a mutant. But yea - not digging the angle this seems to be going.

[cyberghostface]

That's basically it, they assumed he knew the kid was a mutant.

This is the whole story fwiw, 'Muties' was an anthology title.

[lissa_quon]

Welp - in that case - yea not digging it. This may have been done a while back but the narrative of "sad kid can't get the girl and shoots someone" sort of turns my stomach right about now.

The art is nice though.

[beyondthefringe]

Terrifyingly ahead of its time. You can bet this issue would never have been published in today's climate.

This was a weird series. Marvel was definitely going through some strange times with the stuff it was publishing in the X-corner of the universe.

[filthysize]

I think the opposite. I'm surprised they haven't tried again to do these types of projects with mutants. I feel like it would be an easier sell nowadays.

This mini, NYX, and District X were all part of what I thought was a pretty cool directive in that era of Marvel to start exploring the idea of mutants as an everyday social class, after the whole decade of the 90s where they dominated the Marvel universe as these larger than life colorful figures. After all the mutants and inhumans oversaturation of the last few years, a more grounded and mostly thematic take might be welcome again.

[liliaeth]

I don't think we're supposed to be on his side in this one though.

[lissa_quon]

I'm not sure - but we do see more into his head than anyone else's so that feels more like we are supposed to "understand" him. And the fact we see him be bullied and attacked adds to it.

[angelophile]

I think it's less that we're meant to sympathise with him and more that we're supposed to see how delusional he is within his own head. He's framing himself as the hero of his own story. It's been a few years since I read the full unedited story, but it's pretty chilling read in full, if I remember rightly. A killer justifying his petty revenge as some kind of glorious heroic act.

[liliaeth]

yeah, he came out as the bad guy to me, when we see his reaction to the girl not returning his interest.

[miramira]

Except that the other kids seem to be validating his actions in that one panel. Is he just hearing things selectively?

[angelophile]

Or hearing things in his own head that aren't actually being said. It's ambiguous, but that's the way I read it.

[cyberghostface]

The kids don't know he was just shooting the guy for his own petty reasons, they see him shooting at what they think is a monster. The story isn't validating his actions.

[miramira]

That wasn't the question: it was whether or not he was delusional to think anyone regarded him as a hero. If the kids are in fact saying that, then he's not.

[donnblake]

Well, we could reframe the question to say "Is he delusional to think that he is a hero," in which case, whether others share the delusion isn't particularly relevant to the answer.

[shadowpsykie]

yeah but what I read while reading it was that his thinking was "wrong" we might understand him... by that his motivations, but his motivations are "off"

[lissa_quon]

Yea - sorry if I'm coming across as the weirdo on this one. I'm from Houston where we currently dealing with the narrative of a recent shooting as "Oh he was such a nice boy but he was bullied!" and saying a girl who he'd been actively pursuing/harassing for months "humiliated him" by making a point to openly, publicly turning him down.

So I'm a wee bit twitchy about this subject and how it's framed right now.

[shadowpsykie]

your view is perfectly understandable. though I don't think it is the intent of the author to do this. to me it reads as this kid, yeah, he was bullied, and yeah maybe if he wasn't bullied he wouldn't have done it. and we are meant to sympathize with THAT I think. His THOUGHTS on the other hand, I feel like we are NOT meant to sympathize with those. they are juxtaposed with the actions going on around him. His thoughts are thoughts of entitlement and the frame where he shoots is clearly (imo) frames him similar to Doctor Octopus and "anime glasses villains".

Maybe I am giving them too much credit, but that's what I am seeing. I think one can sympathize with certain aspects of an individual while at the same time condemning their actions. I can say, bullying is bad, bullying didn't help, but the fault is still his/theirs.

[every_spiegel]

Err, eh, she seems incredibly stupid for a "genius". And that was before she started shooting.

[thezmage]

He’s a boy. His name is Jared, he’s in the boy’s locker room, and he’s referred to as ‘im in one of the speech balloons on the last page.

[every_spiegel]

Oh. Okay. Doesn't really matter.

[theflames]

Very creepy story, obviously we're not supposed to root for the main character, and this does a good job of highlighting how people's morals go out of the window when oppressed social classes are on the receiving end of violence. If that boy didn't turn out to be a mutant (or a black kid, or a gay kid) people would have had a lot more sympathy for him, instead, the shooter is seen in a favourable light.

The art is especially good when the kid reveals his mutant abilities, very harrowing/off putting, with a sense of desperation, not a sight of heroism/expertise that we're used to.

I've always wanted more X-men stories like this, that actually speak to the mutants supposed metaphor.

[shadowpsykie]

yes. this.