Photo by Frederick Wallace from Unsplash
While the first X-Men film opens with the antagonist Magneto entering Auschwitz during the Holocaust this scene was the only reference to Magneto belonging to another minority group, in addition to being a mutant.
In the comics, his mutant identity is the crux of Magneto’s character. All he wants is peace. He is trying to bring about systemic change through violence.
Of course, Professor X also wants peace. He believes structural changes from democracy will improve the treatment of mutants. Hope is what separates them.
Comic Creators
The X-Men were co created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, both Jewish Americans. Jack Kirby is an alias for Jacob Kurtzberg. Jacob “wanted to break out of the Ghetto, and his talent as an illustrator enabled him to achieve his goal.” (Baron, p. 45)
In the comics, Professor X and Magneto met in Israel. Magneto was motivated by anxiety that history would repeat itself and he would not be a bystander the next time.
The explicit representation of Jewish people is positive.
Exploring Magneto’s motivation reminds readers of his intersectionality.
The films are less clear in portraying intersectionality, possibly to make it more widely applicable.
Disability representation is easily connected. The mutants don’t get to choose if they have power or what power they have.
The character of Rogue cannot make physical contact with anyone because she steals their powers or life force if they are human.
She is terrified when her power manifests for the first time.
“Like real disabled persons, as a group, they are divided by disparate loyalties, backgrounds, philosophical outlooks, and opinions about the best path forward.
Like real disabled persons, they feel alienated from the mainstream.“ (Disability Studies Quarterly)
These similarities help disabled people to recognize themselves on screen.
There is a scene of a young boy Bobby coming out as a mutant to his father.
Bobby is met with the sentence, “Have you tried not being a mutant?”
To me, this reads as an LGBTQ+ reference. It can also apply to people with invisible disabilities.
Other people may think they are faking or can control their disability.
The film “raising the possibility, as this scene does,
that disability might be a “gift” seems too many non-disabled persons to be a celebration of disease.“ (Disabled Studies Quarterly)
It directly subverts the trope of a disability as a punishment and evil.
Another disability trope that the film addresses is someone bitter about their disability and feeling the need to overcome their disability.
Rogue is portrayed as conflicted and needing to overcome her disability and accept herself in the first film.
Still, her disability is neither cured nor condemned for causing her behavior. Villains with disabilities usually resent non-disabled people.
Magneto’s Perspective
Magneto, while a mutant, is driven more by his intersectionality of being Jewish and a mutant.
He “harbors an unspoken fear of the story repeating itself”. (Baron, p.46)
Professor X is Jewish and intentionally embodies the trope that Jews are clever but physically weak.
Nonetheless, he is a leader, his powers aren’t connected to his wheelchair, and he has hope that humans will change despite history.
Source List
Baron, L. (2003). “X-Men” as J Men: The Jewish Subtext of a Comic Book Movie. Shofar, 22(1), 44-52. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42944606#metadata_info_tab_contents
Disabled Studies Quarterly. (2004). MUTATIS MUTANDIS: An Emergent Disability Aesthetic in “X-2: X-Men United”. Disabled Studies Quarterly, 24(1). https://dsq-sds.org