It seems like the most straightforward and subversive metaphor in superhero comics. A quirk of genetics leads a subsection of humanity to develop superpowers. Those without powers, accustomed to viewing the world as their birthright, hate and fear these mutants – and, more urgently, dehumanize, persecute, and oppress them. The story of this conflict is presented from the perspective of the marginalized. Welcome to the X-Men.
Yet nothing about mutantkind is straightforward. Across 55 years of serialized storytelling, the adventures of the X-Men have twisted time, space and reality into intimidating and often impenetrable mazes.
For example: the X-Men’s general, Scott “Cyclops” Summers, has a son who’s decades older than he is. As a baby, Nathan Summers contracted an illness that required raising him in a distant, dystopian future amongst a cult led by Scott’s daughter from a different alternative future. Nathan returned to the present day as a senior citizen, leading a…
