The Uncanny X-Men

I can think of a ton of examples of The Uncanny in popular culture, one weirder then the next. In my group I mentioned a really screwed up Anime series called "Chobits," which was about a world in which having female android partners was mainstream. The series was pretty perverse even for anime standards. While I would love to deconstruct the show, but I try to take every opportunity to talk about comic books I can get, and this one seems pretty golden. 

In the Marvel Comics universe every series is titled with some adjective, like The Amazing Spiderman, Fantastic Four, and The Mighty Thor. I always found it odd that the X-Men were titled "Uncanny", but in Freudian terms it actually makes sense. For those of you who aren't well versed in comics, the X-Men are a team of mutants. Mutants are considered to be the next stage in human evolution, and consequently have superhuman abilities. While other superheroes are looked upon as idols, most "people" in comics fear the X-Men, as they represent the extinction of humanity. The X-Men are Uncanny because while they may resemble humans and seem familiar, they are not human- in addition to their powers, Storm was born with white hair, Gambit has red eyes, Nightcrawler resembles a demon, and Wolverine has claws- and they would likely be located in the deep in the valley. The fact that they are an entirely different species arouses fear in their narrative and would likely do the same if they existed in the real world. The X-Men's superpowers could also represent childhood desires of people in their diegesis to have the ability to ignore the basic laws of physics, realty, etc, which have been long since repressed (in most people, at least. I still would like to walk through walls).

While this is all fun, what really interests me in the choice of the title The Uncanny X-Men is that the team was created to represent the civil rights movement (Professor X is MLK and Magneto is Malcolm X).

"As society hated and feared them for being innately different than everyone else, the X-Men are a metaphor for the ethnic "other" (African Americans, Asians, Latinos, Jews, Muslims and homosexuals, among others)," (Kaplan, 112).

 The team is more varied in race, religion, and gender than any other in mainstream comics. When she was created in 1975, Storm became the first black, female character in comics. " By titling the team Uncanny, was Marvel Comics consequently implying that "the other" is inhuman? Are "they" supposed as unsettling to be around as Olimpia? I hope not because that would be pretty problematic. I know we focus on gender and sexuality in this class, but this is where my mind went.

I tried to also apply the Medusa myth to X-Men but it works less well. The only way it's relevant is that One of the team members, Cyclops, can shoot lasers from his eyes, and consequently must always wear protective glasses to not blast anyone. Nobody has seen his eyes, but anyhow I'm just rambling at this point.