X-Men Blue – Origins #1: Birthing Stories and Bury Your Gays

This was, honestly, a much better story than all of Spurrier’s previous work led me to expect — possibly because this reveal smacked of editorial dictum as opposed to authorial preference. Spurrier still made a point of painting both religion and faith in a bad light (seriously, why is he writing Nightcrawler?) but it wasn’t nearly as homophobic a story as I feared it would be. It was still homophobic, don’t get me wrong, and Spurrier’s usual virulent misogyny was in full swing. More on that in a minute.

Returning Nightcrawler’s origin story to the version initially proposed by Chris Claremont was a move that was long overdue. The method he used to eliminate Azazel (without disrupting canon) was sufficiently creative. 

It was good to see a trans/queer superhero story, particularly one that cements the history of two of the first queer Marvel characters. 

The fact that this story was written by a straight, cis man who has a history of deeply misogynistic, homophobic writing was disappointing, to say the least. Especially when there are queer and nonbinary writers in the X-Slack who would have done a better job of it. Who would not, for example, choose to redeem a queer villain by transforming her trauma into a means of propelling the story of a man.

I’ve written before about the fact that Spurrier seems to only see women as either helpmeets, mothers or, the third option, bad mothers. Women exist in his stories to either serve or frustrate his male characters. Nothing he’s written has ever passed the Bechdel Test (God knows this doesn’t) and that’s basically the narrative bare minimum. More usually, women exist in his world to either help a man (usually by sleeping with them) or else to be avatars of the Horrible Mother archetype. This story is no different. 

Every single queer character who has appeared in Spurrier’s books has existed to be tortured and then rescued by a straight man. This story is no different. 

In this story, we see both Destiny and Mystique being tortured for the sake of a man. In this story we see the fact of their queerness, the fact of their femininity (trans or otherwise) being used as a tool to dehumanize them while it pushes forward the narrative of a male character. We get twenty pages of a queer woman being tortured so that a male character can feel ok about himself. And that is disgusting. 

There was a way to make this (necessary, long overdue) reveal without reducing either Destiny or Mystique into walking, wailing wombs. There was a way to tell this story that wouldn’t reveal themselves as thirty pages of the Bury Your Gays trope. 

I am relieved that Marvel made this reveal, do not misunderstand. This should have happened before I was born. I am relieved that Nightcrawler is finally receiving the love he deserves in these books. The fact that it comes at the expense of Mystique’s personhood is absolutely in character for the writer who scripted it. 

As I said, Spurrier beats his long worn-out drum on the subject of the uselessness of Faith, and his perception of the evils of religion. And that’s annoying. It’s a relief to have read, in other books, that Kurt’s faith is as strong as ever. It’s also worth noting that Spurrier couldn’t resist inserting and centering his favorite overpowered Mary Sue character (Legion, natch) within a story that would have been far stronger without it. It’s clear whom Spurrier would prefer to be writing about. I honestly don’t know why this writer was chosen to head these series. I can think of few writers who are less qualified for the job. It’s a wonder that the story was as coherent as it was. It is a wonder that the book wasn’t more offensive.

Wilton Santos and Marcus To did a beautiful job with the art, packing panels full of details and Easter eggs, and doing a lot of the emotional heavy lifting that Spurrier’s words failed to manage. The book is visually stunning, and worth purchasing for that reason alone.