No Way Home Foreshadows The Greatest Problem With The X-Men; ScreenRant, February 3, 2022

Thomas Bacon, ScreenRant; No Way Home Foreshadows The Greatest Problem With The X-Men

"Spider-Man is the only Avenger to date who has been a teenager in this shared universe. That's given his solo films a unique feel in the MCU, but it's also posed serious ethical questions about whether or not the Avengers should allow Spider-Man to join in with their superhero fights. It didn't take long for War Machine to pick up on this in Captain America: Civil War, with Tony Stark brushing the question of Spider-Man's age aside. "I don't know, I didn't carbon-date him," Iron Man defended himself. "He's on the young side." The question of Spider-Man's age surfaced again in Spider-Man: No Way Home, when Peter Parker's beloved Aunt May was accused of child endangerment because she had allowed him to act as a hero. "Child endangerment's a nasty rap," Agent Cleary accused her. "A boy was entrusted to you, and as his legal guardian - essentially his mother - you not only allowed him to endanger himself, but you actually encouraged it. Who does that?" It's true this was just a throwaway scene, and the ethical considerations weren't subsequently explored in greater depth - but the question is a chilling one nonetheless, and it has serious implications for the future of the MCU, particularly how it relates to the X-Men."

X-Men: The 10 Most Important Events in Dawn of X (So Far); Comic Book Resources, April 10, 2020

Brandon Zachary, Comic Book Resources; X-Men: The 10 Most Important Events in Dawn of X (So Far)

Take a look back at the most important things during the first phase of the current direction of the X-Men franchise, Dawn of X.

"9. Nightcrawler's Religious Ideas Become Pillars In X-Men

Discussing the ethics of the Crucible alongside Cyclops in X-Men #7, Nightcrawler reflects on the idea of the soul and what being a good mutant really means with resurrection available to them."

The Iceman Cometh Out; New York Times. February 19, 2018

Stephanie Burt, New York Times; The Iceman Cometh Out

"Superhero comics address, and empower, straight white nerdy boys. That’s been true of most comics, for most of their history. But is it the genre’s central truth? For some of us, it never was. As Ramzi Fawaz, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has pointed out, superhero comics are the only popular genre in which anomalous bodies are not just tolerated but celebrated: The same thing that makes you look weird means you can save the world. Moreover, comics — because they involve stories of human (and superhuman) conflict and change; because they show hand-drawn pictures, with stylized faces; because they often appeal to us first in childhood — invite identification: We read them in search of ourselves, or our future selves.

These facts about comics explain — in part — why the X-Men became the most successful superhero franchise of the 1980s. Mutation, the source of X-powers, could stand, well or badly, for stigmatized real-world identities, as well as for the outsider status most kids, at some point, feel. The best X-books integrated real-world diversity too. Under Chris Claremont (who wrote many of them from 1975 to 1991) the core cast included a few women of color, one of them a virtual god, along with very strong hints of queer sexuality. More than almost any other gaudy bang-pow-pop cultural property, X-books offered — then and since — an imaginative space where L.G.B.T. readers could feel at home."

Fox’s Gifted Stars Discuss the X-Men Show’s Social Relevancy; Comic Book Resources, August 1, 2017

Lauren Gallaway, Comic Book Resources; Fox’s Gifted Stars Discuss the X-Men Show’s Social Relevancy

"Speaking with the press, Teale, who plays Marco Ramirez (aka Eclipse), was asked about how the show will follow in its comic book inspiration’s footsteps and reflect modern society’s issues. “People keep asking why X-Men is still relevant and why it deals with social issues. I think the reason why is because of its conception. Magneto and Charles Xavier were made, that was Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. If that’s the way that this concept was conceived, then that’s going to emanate throughout the mythology later on.

“In this show, we have that same thing,” Teale continued. “These civil rights issues and these people who aren’t superheroes, who don’t don super suits or magic jets or save the world. They are human beings that are persecuted for doing nothing other than being themselves. They’ve been bestowed this X-gene that they did not ask for. We’re dealing with issues that exist on the planet already. That persecution of age, weight, gender, sexuality or disability is relevant on our show because they don’t have a choice. It’s human beings being persecuted for being nothing other than themselves and coming together and trying to fight for their rights as people. I think that’s quite relevant.”"

Exclusive: X-Men's Chris Claremont talks through five key storylines; Empire, 4/6/16

Dorian Lynskey, Empire; Exclusive: X-Men's Chris Claremont talks through five key storylines:

"A major theme of your X-Men stories was using mutants as a metaphor for other persecuted groups. Where did that idea come from?

I went to Israel for two months in 1970 and worked on a kibbutz. It affected me on levels that I hadn’t anticipated, working on a daily basis with people who were actual survivors of the Holocaust. You’d see military patrols going by every day. We would have armed volunteers walking around the property all night. It brought home international conflicts on a very personal level.

With the X-Men, were you thinking only of antisemitism or racism and homophobia as well?

It was blended in. There’s a lot of talk online now that Magneto stands in for Malcolm X and Xavier stands in for Martin Luther King, which is totally valid but for me, being an immigrant white (Claremont was born in England), to make that analogy felt incredibly presumptuous. An equivalent analogy could be made to [Israeli prime minister] Menachem Begin as Magneto, evolving through his life from a terrorist in 1947 to a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years later. That evolution was something I wanted to apply to the relationship between Xavier and Magneto. It’s an evolving 150-issue arc: Magneto’s resurrection as an angry, anti-human, pro-mutant terrorist. In #150 he lashes out and the person that gets hit is Kitty Pryde, a 13-year-old kid. His shattering realisation is: "What kind of monster have I become? Has what the Nazis did to me in the Shoah made me a Nazi?" Ultimately, my goal for the character was that he would come full circle and become Xavier’s heir, as headmaster of the school and leader of team. For me he was a much more fascinating character because of his flaws and there was always a risk that he might fall from grace...

Of course, you took the idea of mutants facing genocidal hatred to extremes with Days of Future Past (X-Men #141-142), where mutants are outlawed and murdered by the Sentinels…

The idea was to show our heroes why their fight is so necessary. There is a tragic cost to failure. The line we always used to describe these characters was ‘feared and hated by the world they are sworn to protect’. Their struggle is not simply to defeat the bad guys; it is to establish themselves as credible, honourable fellow citizens of the planet. The idea with Days Of Future Past was this is what’s lying in wait if you falter. If you ever needed a reason to try and try again, this is it."

Flashback: How Marvel's "House of M" Changed an Industry and a Universe; ComicBookResources.com, 8/29/15

Marc Buxton, ComicBookResources.com; Flashback: How Marvel's "House of M" Changed an Industry and a Universe:

""House of M" #1 centered on Scarlet Witch, a long time Avenger. In "Avengers Dissembled," Wanda Maximoff was responsible for the mass destruction that tore Earth's Mightiest Heroes apart. In "House of M," the Avengers and the X-Men gathered to discuss just what should be done about this dangerous mutant with the ability to alter reality on a whim. This situation presented Marvel with many firsts. It was the first in a long line of crossovers that would involve the clash between two groups of major heroes. "Civil War," "World War Hulk" and "Avengers vs. X-Men" would follow as Marvel found a new formula to grab fan attention -- have two factions of popular heroes find a fundamental, ethical difference and have said heroes battle it out in a massive event.

While "House of M" did not feature a battle royal between groups, Bendis infused the first issue with palpable tension as mutant and superhero argued over the fate of the Scarlet Witch. It was clear that if the sides threw down, it would be epic. Fan debates sprung up online arguing who was right. Should Wanda be destroyed or contained? And if she was contained, who should care for her -- mutant hero or human champion? This super heroic moral impasse would become a frequent trope used in event comics, but this particular war of ethics would not continue for long in "House of M." In the first issue, Magneto showed up to retrieve his daughter and the true drama began. "House of M" #1 was read, devoured and debated, but most of all, it was an instant smash with 233,000 copies sold. Those numbers indicated that the super hero crossover event was back in a big way."