Stan Lee set the record straight for the X-Men in such a manner that fans worried about being woke might just not understand it to begin with.

To say that the X-Men “should not be woke” is actually missing the point entirely. Take it from the creator of the characters, Stan Lee himself. The comics legend was responsible for some of the best stories to come out of Marvel, be it Spider-Man, Daredevil, or the X-Men.

X-Men || Credit: Marvel Comics

As per the creator of these characters himself, the X-Men were always supposed to be a metaphor for bigotry, representing a section of society that has been kept down by those who have the power. While there are some who have read this and come out thinking that the X-Men were not ‘woke’, that is actually something that could not be further from the truth.

Even the villains in X-Men had a point

Erik Lehnsherr in the comics. | Credit: Marvel Comics.

When speaking about how he conceived the X-Men, Stan Lee revealed a lot of things about his writing process. However, what he also did was make it clear that the X-Men were always about the downtrodden. He said:

Whereas Professor Xavier said, we’ve gotta all learn to live together, no matter how different we are. And I felt that represented some schools of thought that exist among the human race now. And it was fun to toy with that concept. And basically, the main idea was to show that bigotry is really a terrible thing, and we should all get along with each other no matter how different we are. That was the main objective. If you needed an objective for a superhero story.

While Stan Lee was clear in the fact that there would be good and bad mutants in his X-Men stories, he wanted the bad mutants to have a point. They were not evil for evil’s sake. They were similarly pressed like Charles and his mutants were, but Magneto’s brotherhood had just decided to take a path that made him no different than his oppressors.

X-Men joining the MCU might just be the thing it needs

The X-Men coming into the MCU might finally give the franchise the lease on life that it so desperately needs. While the signs have not been good, given that even a cameo that the X-Men have had in the MCU has led to some negative discourse around the franchise, the first feature-length X-Men film in the MCU, Deadpool & Wolverine, managed to win the IP a lot of favors.

While it remains to be seen how fans and audiences react to the MCU’s version of the X-Men, what the creators need to keep in mind is to make sure that the version of the characters does not end up compromising on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s initial vision for the characters. Given that Wolverine and Deadpool have already managed to create a gateway into the MCU for Mutants, there might be better days for the franchise ahead.