I’m a huge fan of Marvel’s X-Men, who have been having a rough time of it lately. The mutant corner of the Marvel comics universe has been consistently pared down as Xavier’s students, allies and enemies have been consistently brought to the brink of extinction. Supposedly, the new status-quo will be starting up in a few months, allowing the X-Men a bit of time to settle and get back into the hero game again. It’s about time, I say!
Anywho, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I would do if I were writing the X-Men, rebuilding them from scratch for a modern-day audience. I can’t guarantee that I’d do any better than, say, Brian Michael Bendis or Jeff Lemire, but the more I thought about it, the more excited I got about the possibilities of prospect of telling the story of Xavier’s first class from the ground floor.
So, I’m thinking that writing a snippet of comic every week would be a good exercise for a little while. I’ve been a little obsessed about tracing out arcs and pacing stories for a weekly, serialized distribution model — obviously, because of the Jackalope Serial Company. I dig the idea of treating each of these snippets as a “digital comic” that is then collected every month into a print issue. And comic stories can last anywhere from 1 issue to…well, 12 or so. Marvel’s been really big about treating each year or so of comics as a “season” for a title, but I digress.
This is just an experiment to feel my way around how to structure stories towards a steady release schedule. Hope you enjoy!
Charles Xavier hated to speak in public, but not for the usual reasons. It didn’t make him nervous to have a whole room of people staring at him, and he never had to imagine his audience naked. He hated public speaking not because he had no idea whether or not the people listening were hostile; he knew all too well what they were thinking. Trying to organize your own thoughts while reading the thoughts of everyone else around you was an enormous challenge, even with years of practice.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath while Dr. Kavita Rao introduced him, mentioning his qualifications. Instead of paying attention to the never-ending stream of consciousness that flowed through his mind, he imagined it as white noise. The distinct internal voices faded to a background chatter, words becoming unintelligible, images nothing but static. Beneath that, he listened for his own heartbeat and timed his breath to it. His pulse slowed. A sense of calm settled around his shoulders like a cloak. He could do this.
There was a lot riding on this speech. Mutants — ordinary humans with extraordinary abilities — were just starting to make the news often enough to enter the public consciousness, and nobody was quite sure what to make of them yet. This was a civilization that had only now become used to superheroes; the complication of regular folks having these powers wasn’t something it was prepared to face. But it had to. And Charles had to help make that happen. If they didn’t get out in front of this, who knows what could happen? People like himself could be hunted down, rounded up and thrown into a hole they would never escape from — or worse. Humanity had a long history of fearing what was different, and fear lead people to do terrible things.
His name was called, and applause drew him out onto the stage. He walked with confidence and shook Dr. Rao’s hand with the biggest smile.
The room went quiet, and he settled in at the podium. Charles resisted the urge to lightly scan the surface of the audience; he couldn’t be thrown now. Instead, he paused, and began speaking.
“We used to think that our ancient forebears, Homo erectus, fought a bitter war for survival with our ancestral uncles, the Neanderthals. The idea was that the species that eventually became us, Homo sapiens, wiped out all competition in a bid for dominance that we can all agree was a tremendous success. Humanity is now the most successful species in the history of the Earth. We have molded Nature to suit our needs; we have spread to every environment on the planet; we have learned much about our past and begun the important work of shaping our future.
“However, our understanding of history is being adjusted. Recent studies indicate the possibility that Homo erectus interbred with Neanderthals and other closely-related human species. Ancient humans may have even cooperated with other tribes to their mutual benefit. These findings introduce the possibility of a fundamental shift in our idea of what it means to be human. Instead of seeing ourselves as an aggressive and territorial race from our earliest days, we might learn to see ourselves as adaptable, cooperative, even naturally sociable people. This reconstruction of our earliest recognizable human traits could prove to be incredibly important as we face complicated, unprecedented questions about our future.
“Recently we have made peace with the fact that supermen walk among us. Captain Steve Rogers is able to do things beyond the capability of most of us through genetic enhancement and indomitable will. Tony Stark has built a billion-dollar suit of armor to join the ranks of the superhero; we have Thor, the Hulk, and Captain Marvel. The King of Wakanda is known to us not as T’Challa, but the Black Panther. We have come to think of these people as extraordinary figures in extraordinary times, far removed from our everyday lives. We’re going to have to reconstruct our assumptions about this.
“We have recently become aware of a new species of humanity. Mostly, they look like you and me. They ARE people like you and me, with one exception; the presence of a specific gene that endows them with superheroic abilities. This “x-gene”, as it has come to be called, is inert through the early stages of development of life but becomes ‘activated’ during the complex and difficult set of chemical changes during puberty. Most members of these new species have no idea they’re a part of it until then. Because this gene has only been discovered recently, through the study of those few people who have undergone these changes, we currently have no idea how many individuals make up this population of new humans. Our best theories state that the x-gene is present in as few as 1 in every 1,000 individuals, and as many as 1 in every 20. Globally, that would mean anywhere from 700,000 to 3.5 million people are carrying the x-gene.
“There are obvious concerns about this, but there is also reason for optimism and wonder. This is quite possibly the most important scientific discovery in the history of biology and genetics; by studying the x-gene and investigating the factors that may have had a hand in its development, we can learn valuable information about the evolutionary process and how our modern society may be guiding humanity towards its next stage. And by remembering our more nuanced understanding of evolutionary history, we can learn to collaborate with this new species for our mutual benefit. Men and x-men working together to cultivate our abilities to the betterment of all is not just a dream; it is a necessity if we hope to manage this transition and chart the course of our own future.
Charles stared out into the sea of faces staring back at him, pointedly not attempting to read their thoughts. “I would like to leave a lot of time for questions from the audience. If you have any you would like to ask, please form a line in the center aisle behind the microphone stand.”
He was surprised to see half the seats emptying, a murmuring roar rising up in the crowd. This…might be a longer engagement than he thought.
From the Desk of Jakebe T. Rabbit 
I hate for my feedback to be merely nitpicking, but maybe it’ll help if you think of it as copy editing. I think you mean “one in 10,000” and “one in 2,000” if you want the number of mutants to be between 700,000 and 3.5 million.
Thanks! I’ll be sure to clean that up in my editing pass. 🙂