Here’s the thing about comic book heroes. Despite all the noble talk about metaphors, idealism, truth and justice, they’re basically just bully-boy fantasies of limitless male aggression. The wimp who becomes a muscle-clad ass-kicker (Hulk, Captain America). The high-school nerd who beats up the crooks (Spider-Man). Or the lonely neurotic who avenges with impunity (Batman). All black and white morality, all creepy ideology, all dreams of fascism.
The X-Men, however, have always aspired to something different. Mostly uninterested in criminal masterminds and petty vengeance, they instead squabble among themselves, interrogate each other’s motives and truly agonise over the nature of