"X-Men: The Remediation"

A major trend in recent popular culture has been the remediation of several Marvel Comics Universe comic books and their superhero characters, into full-length, action packed, romantically inclined motion picture films. These films have resulted in big-time budgets and even bigger paychecks for the stars, directors, and production companies involved in their re-creation. In the last decade alone we have seen comics such as Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and more recently, Thor, Captain America and the X-men re-produced in film—many of which have been privileged with the honor of sequels or trilogies. I myself am partial to the X-Men movies and am dying to see the latest of the series, X-Men: First Class.

I don’t recalled being at all interested in action hero comics , as a matter of fact, the only comics I remember really caring to read were Garfield, Archie and the comic panels found in the Sunday paper. And although I cannot offer much commentary on the X-Men comic book series, except what is offered on wikipedia, my heart resonates and fills with joy with every addition to the X-Men film series. So far, there have been five films produced based on the comic book series: X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X3: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and X-Men: First Class and with each re-production there is more drama. One of the main characters is Wolverine, or Logan, played by actor Hugh Jackman; Wolverine is a “mutant, possessing animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, three retracting bone claws on each hand and a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any wound, disease or toxin at an accelerated rate. The healing factor also slows down his aging process, enabling him to live beyond a normal human lifespan. His powerful healing factor enabled the supersoldier program Weapon X to bond the near-indestructible metal alloy adamantium to his skeleton and claws without killing him.” He appears, in the films, to be the central character around which the story lines are crafted and continue to move forward; portrayed as a multi-leveled, complex character, Wolverine, in the first movie suffers from a serious case of identity crisis. As the storyline progresses through the continuation of the films, we learn that he was a soldier in a secret military group that pretty much ends up enhanced his mutant powers but he ends up losing his memory and has to go through the process of slowly tracing his steps to recover it. Other main characters include, Professor Xavier, Magneto, Storm, Rogue, Mystique, Jean/Phoenix, Beast, Cyclops, and Victor Creed/Sabretooth, who are cast by such superstars as Patrick Stewart/James McAvoy, Ian McKellen/Michael Fassbender, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn, Famke Janssen, James Marsden and Liev Schreiber. The X-Men film series is said to have grossed nearly a billion dollars in Box Office Revenue in the U.S. and over a billion dollars worldwide. So what is it about this movie that gets me all railed up? The basis of the movie surrounds the idea of discrimination and tolerance (or intolerance) coincidently in the U.S. In the first film, we see politicians and scientists working together to “cure” the mutants so that they can be “normal”, unwilling or unable to accept the fact that the majority of the mutants were happy just as they were.

With that being said, I guess this movie resonates with me from the vantage point of a super-minority (black, woman, upper-lower or lower-middle classed) and people always tend to get that “feel good” feeling when the underdog takes the reins and defeats the super villain(s)!

And by the way, the women in all versions of X-Men are SUPER BAD-ASS!!