Popular Culture Review Vol. 11, No. 1, February 2000 | Page 138

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Popular Culture Review

unaware of the increasing number of black superheroes and subsequently their
culturally “other” personal communities. The current lineup of the X-Men seems
to support my hypothesis that a conscious move is afoot to bring more cultural
diversity to this particular comic. Gambit is a Cajun superhero, Wolverine is a
Canadian who lived in Japan for a long time and married a Japanese woman,
Psylocke is British, Nightcrawler is German and looks like a demon, and finally
the founder of the X-Men, Charles Xavier, has lost the use of his legs. Reynolds is
right in assuming that one black superhero probably just fills some quota or notion
of being politically correct. But when you have this many deviations from the
American norms, there appears to be a conscious intention to shift those norms.
Black superheroes work in tandem with other groups marginalized in comic
book and mainstream American culture, like the handicapped, immigrants, and the
poor, to create a forum in which the assumptions of the American mainstream are
overtly questioned. For example, Storm has an extended love affair with another
mutant called Forge, who is also a North American Indian. Crippled by the loss of
one hand and one leg in Vietnam, he provides a new lens for viewing contemporary
American society. It is this kind of idiosyncratic behavior that Cornel West believes
should infuse the “politics of representation” (212). The representation of blacks
according to West should not aim at simply presenting positive images of blacks,
or just contesting negative stereotypes, but should: “construct more multivalent
and multidimensional responses that articulate the complexity and diversity of
Black practices in the modern and postmodern world” (212). The sexual
involvement of Forge and Storm seems to at least partially represent the “complexity
and diversity of Black practices” in that it is neither expected nor a simple inversion
of readers’ expectations.

Superheroes and Class
If Superman is the archetypal superhero, as Reynolds claims, then the model
for superheroes is very middle-class. Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego, works as a
reporter for The Daily Planet. Fie reinforces cultural norms throughout his career.
Kent subscribes implicitly to the Protestant work ethic, has an irrational, irritable
boss, and always wears a jacket and tie. He grew up on a small, midwest, Mom and
Pop farm. In all ways, Kent is the very model of middle-class virtue. Storm, on the
other hand, is an orphan whom Xavier first meets as a wily street thief in Cairo.
The only “jobs” Storm has held are as thief, goddess, and superhero. I am not
arguing that Storm can or should be read as advocating a “classless” society, but
her lack of readily identifiable or acceptable means of support raises some questions.
In one particular issue of the X-Men, Storm goes on a shopping spree with her
female teammates. I wonder how she can afford to buy the exotic and presumably
expensive clothing. One possibility (although never fully articulated) is that Xavier
is independently wealthy and supplies his heroes with salaries.