Among this oppressed race, comes into influence, two groups with polar opposite points of social views. One group "dreams" and chants for the opportunity to bring forth a peaceful co-existence. While their antipathists want nothing more than to rise up and defend themselves against those who hate and fear them, shaking off the chains of oppression and marginalization "by any means necessary".
The race I'm referring to is the mutant race...
In the 1960's amid the civil rights movement, comic book icons Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a comic series about a league of mutant super heroes known as the X-Men who embodied so many aspects of the struggle that African-Americans faced for inclusion and equality it's uncanny.
Art does indeed imitate life because the Marvel universe spawned two key fictional characters, one of which embodied the nonviolent philosophy incorporated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while the other managed a brotherhood which bare some similarities to the preachings and teachings of Malcolm X.
During an interview in 2000 in the United Kingdom, Stan Lee talked about his inspiration for creating the X-Men;
"I couldn't have everybody bitten by a radioactive spider or zapped with gamma rays, and it occurred to me that if I just said that they were mutants, it would make it easy. Then it occurred to me that instead of them just being heroes that everybody admired, what if I made other people fear and suspect and actually hate them because they were different? I loved that idea; it not only made them different, but it was a good metaphor for what was happening with the civil rights movement in the country at that time."
In honor of Black History month here are some of my Afro-centric renditions of super heroes, check 'em out!