
Alpha Flight #106: The X-Men Have Always Been Woke
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This was originally posted on 21/2/24
The X-Men have always been woke.
That is the rallying cry of long term fans of the series after the release of the trailer of X-Men ‘97 and the announcement that Morphe is a non-binary character. To long term fans of the comics, this is no surprise, but to other fans there has been a big cry out that Disney is ruining another classic by going woke.
But the X-Men have always been woke, and although there have been plenty of articles, Facebook comments and X/Twitter threads on the matter, I’ve decided to also throw my hat in the ring by focusing on what I believe is one of the most significant and powerful “woke” moments in the history of Marvel comics.
The AIDS epidemic started silently back in the early 20th century, with the earliest confirmed death being a man from the Congo in 1959. AIDS entered the US in the early 60s and was a silent killer of primarily gay men, with the first US case being posthumously linked to Ken Horne, a gay man living in San Francisco. Queer publications started publishing articles about the mysterious disease but because it was seen as the “gay man’s crisis”, very little was done to combat the spread of the disease. It wouldn’t be until 1984 that awareness began to spread, but the misconceptions around the disease continued to target the gay community, even attributing the breakout to a “Patient O” who may have even maliciously spread the disease within the community. This has been debunked. It wouldn’t be until 1986 that the CDC called the AIDS epidemic a public health crisis, with diagnoses raising 89% from 1984 to 1985, with that number predicted to double in 1986.
Jumping ahead to 1992. A year after the death of Freddie Mercury, AIDS is the leading cause of death for men aged 25 to 44. It is now understood that woman can also contract HIV/AIDS and Marvel’s Alpha Flight comic, focusing on a group of Canadian superheroes, releases issue #106 in March.
The Alpha Flight team consists of Guardian, Puck, Sasquatch, Weapon Omega, Windshear and Northstar, the fastest mutant alive, and his twin sister Aurora.
During a fight with a villain-of-the-week, Northstar is punched and sent flying and while trying to regain his bearings, he finds a little baby girl abandoned in a trash can. He rushes her to a hospital, abandoning the fight, but when the villain calls him a coward Sasquatch is quick to bring things to an end. Immediately, Northstar cares deeply for the baby, making his team hold their meetings in the hospital while they wait to find out the cause for the baby’s fever. Unfortunately it doesn’t take long, and the doctor explains that the child’s mother might have been infected with HIV and has, as a result, transferred the disease to the child who has now tested positive for AIDS.
Try to put yourself in the mind of a reader back in the ‘90s. A popular X-Men character who was ready to adopt this baby is now faced with the fact that the baby is infected with AIDS (Northstar in fact does adopt the baby in the following weeks, naming her Joanne). A year ago, Freddie Mercury succumbed to the same disease. Less than a decade ago it was thought that only gay men could contract it. This was a radical writing decision for writer Scott Lobdell, but this issue didn’t end there.
The other “villain” of this story is the long-retired Major Mapleleaf, Canada’s answer to Captain America, who comes bursting out of retirement to kill Joanne, the baby who has become the darling of both Alpha Flight and the Canadian media. What could drive a man to want to kill a child?
Well, Major Mapleleaf had a son named Michael who died of AIDS. However, because he was a gay man, he was not given any of the attention that Joanne was receiving. Bitter and grieving, he can’t stand the injustice that his son had become just a statistic, one of thousands to have died the year before. During the fight, Northstar says, for the first time in a Marvel comic– “I am gay!”
That historical moment is followed by perhaps an even more important statement that speaks to the politics and “wokeness” that has always been alive and well in X-Men comics.
“I Am Gay! Be that as it may, AIDS is not a disease restricted to homosexuals as much as it seems, at times, the rest of the world wishes it so!”
Major Mapleleaf calls Northstar selfish for not being more visible to the public and blames him as much as the homophobic politicians who did nothing to help his son. Northstar rebuffs that, but does agree that it’s time for people to start talking about AIDS.
Joanne dies. It’s a heartbreaking scene; Northstar embraces her tiny, fragile body and in turn, Major Mapleleaf comforts Northstar, assuring him that Michael is watching over her.
32 years ago, Marvel bravely decided to address the AIDS crisis and, as an aside to the bigger story, also introduced their first ever gay mutant, gay hero, to the world. In 2012, we saw Northstar marry a man. In 2009, Shatterstar and Rictor would have the first on-panel gay kiss in Marvel history. From there, we would see Bobby Drake AKA Iceman come out, Wiccan And Hulkling would appear in the Young Avengers as an established couple (that would go on to marry and rule space together). America Chaves has same-sex parents and is queer herself, Prodigy is bisexual and was elected as an X-Men at the last Hellfire Gala and has a long standing flirtationship with Speed, Wiccan’s twin brother. Mystique has her long-term lover Destiny. There is so much diversity in the Marvel universe I would have to write an entirely separate article talking about them all. But I’ll get to the point, the truth that we all already know anyway:
The X-Men have always been Woke.
Source:
https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/hiv-aids-crisis-timeline