"Astonishing X-Men: Gifted" brings together the first half of the twelve issue mini-series scripted by Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire," "Angel," and "Firefly." I have been reading this series because Whedon wrote it and except for the "Ultimate X-Men" this is my first time reading one of the titles about Marvel's Merry Mutants in many years (when we got to the "New Mutants" the whole proliferation became too much for me). So when Kitty Pryde returns to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and walks through a wall to find Emma Frost addressing the student body, I knew that I was going to have a bit of trouble catching up with what had happened to that old gang of mutants. However, Whedon's storyline is grounded what has been the backbone of the "X-Men" storyline since the beginning: that humans will always hate mutants. Professor Xavier's approach has been to exercise control and non-violence to prove that mutants are a peaceful people. But the interpersonal problems of the X-Men (Scott and Logan are still coming to blows over Jean) quickly take a back seat when the renowned geneticist Dr. Kavita Rao tells the world that mutants are neither angels nor devils, they just people...with a disease. Therefore, mutants are not the next step in evolution or the end of humankind, they are simply the victims of a corruption of healthy cellular activity and Dr. Rao announces that she has found a cure.
What made the X-Men the most interesting of Marvel's super groups for me, more than the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, or any of the other groups created over the years, was that they were considered outcasts because they were mutants. As such, the X-Men were the counter-part to Spider-Man, as superheroes who were more commonly treated as villains by the public at large. The sub-text was always the oppression of the minority by the majority, which I always found to be un-American (specifically in the sense embodied by the ideals of Jeffersonian democracy, which is characterized by a respect for the rights of the minority by the majority). As a minority mutants have represented the "other," so that it was never a specific minority group. But when we talk about curing the disease of the mutant gene it seems to be that the subtext is now much more specific because there is only one minority in modern society that is defined by some as needed to be cured of their disease (although it is explicitly stated that homosexuality does not represent a threat to human existence, a point that clearly would be debated in the current political climate.
Meanwhile, the X-Men have become a group of superheroes again, just trying to use their powers to help the community at large. When they learn that mutation can be reversed Frost votes for killing her and Scott does not know what to do. But it is the Beast who goes to see Dr. Rao, not to discuss the ethics of her "mutant cure" or to destroy it, but just to know if it works. The next day there are over sixteen hundred mutants lined up outside Benetech labs demanding the "cure." Hank McCoy is the perfect choice to have be tempted by the cure because he is in a secondary stage of his mutation and he may well be devolving.
Of course there is more going on. Ord of the Breakworld, an alien, is after the X-Men because they are a threat to his planet, and Kitty discovers that somebody they thought was dead is very much alive and kept in a cell at Benetech. There are no coincidences in the "Astonishing X-Men," and by the end of the six issues making up "Gifted" we know most of what is going on, but the fun is just beginning. I have some suspicions as to what we will find out in "Dangerous," the second-half of the series, but I am sure there will still be some surprises.
Those familiar with Whedon's television shows will find the familiar quick quips thrown into the dialogue mix (even Scott makes a joke), and it is not surprising that his focal character is going to be Kitty Pryde. The "Gifted" storyline is character driven, which is what you would expect with Whedon and focusing on Beast, Kitty and the resurrected character allows him more liberty than emphasizing Logan and Scott, not that the supporting characters do not have their moments.
The idea of "curing" mutants is certainly a different approach to the efforts of humanity in general and the U.S. government in particular to solve the mutant problem. The key idea is that this cure is something mutants might actually embrace, especially when the alternative is the Sentinels or something equally cheerful. John Cassady's artwork has an interesting quality: I keep wanting to say they look like free frames where motion is always captured but without the sense of dynamism you usually expect. "Gifted" is a twist on the basic humans hate mutant storyline and while I am in no position to judge its freshness relative to what has been happening in the "X-Men" comics the last decade it strike me as being interesting enough. Besides, this is only the first half.
