If you know me, you know that I love The X-Men. I love the X-Men more than, well, most everything in my life. It was a hugely important part of my formative years, and remains a hugely important part of my life now. I’ve been committing myself to rereading every X-Men trade I can get my hands on, and rereading Morrison’s New X-Men, I found this quote in the Morrison Manifesto in Vol. 3 that spoke to me:
“The X-Men are every rebel teenager wanting to change the world and make it better. Humanity is every adult, clinging to the past, trying to destroy the future even as [it] places all [its] hopes there. The superhero aspect should be seen as only a small element…”
-Grant Morrison
This. This times a million.
The X-Men are every young person who sees an open road in front of them, and chooses to DO something about it. It’s every young person who cares about the environment, about the deficit, about human rights and social justice, who cares about the future generations of the country, of the world. Who wants to leave the world a better place than they found it, with the realization that it was the generations before them, their elders, their fathers and mothers, humanity that just continually messed up, time and time again.
They are the symbols of change, of progress, of HOPE. They are the Obama generation, but with the actual power to DO something about it. Literally, the power to protect, to fend off evil, to stop those who seek to either continue the status quo of a downward sloping world, or to those who seek to punish humanity for their mistakes.
As a young person who believed that the world could be changed, as an adult who still believes that you can change the world, through yes politics (as broken a system as it is), through the minds of people you encounter, through fighting for what you believe in and never relenting, the X-Men were not only the wish fulfillment, but the hope and fire to continue to believing in that.
The X-Men are this important to me. And that Morrison quote that I must’ve read a bunch of times before hit me pretty hard, and made me thankful I’ve had them as a huge part of my life since I was about 8 years old.
Mistakes are made, teammates die, love fades, evil keeps coming, and they still FIGHT. Because they still believe in this dream.
How could you not get a little worked up?
![If you know me, you know that I love The X-Men. I love the X-Men more than, well, most everything in my life. It was a hugely important part of my formative years, and remains a hugely important part of my life now. I’ve been committing myself to rereading every X-Men trade I can get my hands on, and rereading Morrison’s New X-Men, I found this quote in the Morrison Manifesto in Vol. 3 that spoke to me:
“The X-Men are every rebel teenager wanting to change the world and make it better. Humanity is every adult, clinging to the past, trying to destroy the future even as [it] places all [its] hopes there. The superhero aspect should be seen as only a small element…” -Grant Morrison
This. This times a million.
The X-Men are every young person who sees an open road in front of them, and chooses to DO something about it. It’s every young person who cares about the environment, about the deficit, about human rights and social justice, who cares about the future generations of the country, of the world. Who wants to leave the world a better place than they found it, with the realization that it was the generations before them, their elders, their fathers and mothers, humanity that just continually messed up, time and time again.
They are the symbols of change, of progress, of HOPE. They are the Obama generation, but with the actual power to DO something about it. Literally, the power to protect, to fend off evil, to stop those who seek to either continue the status quo of a downward sloping world, or to those who seek to punish humanity for their mistakes.
As a young person who believed that the world could be changed, as an adult who still believes that you can change the world, through yes politics (as broken a system as it is), through the minds of people you encounter, through fighting for what you believe in and never relenting, the X-Men were not only the wish fulfillment, but the hope and fire to continue to believing in that.
The X-Men are this important to me. And that Morrison quote that I must’ve read a bunch of times before hit me pretty hard, and made me thankful I’ve had them as a huge part of my life since I was about 8 years old.
Mistakes are made, teammates die, love fades, evil keeps coming, and they still FIGHT. Because they still believe in this dream.
How could you not get a little worked up?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/e6846081185c508d5cd3e8c9d87deb46/tumblr_micoal2csd1qcyg7to1_500.jpg)
