Were Professor X and Magneto Based On Martin Luther King Jr. And Malcolm X?
X-Men was inspired by the Civil Rights Movement but were its main characters truly representative of the movement’s key figures?
Created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-Men franchise has remained part of today’s popular culture. Dealing with themes of bigotry, prejudice and discrimination, X-Men was heavily based on the Civil Rights Movement.
The struggle of the mutants in X-Men was essentially that of the African Americans during the movement. A minority group that faced discrimination from the dominant majority simply because they were born different.
The mutants were divided into two main factions: The X-Men led by Professor X and the Brotherhood of Mutants led by Magneto. While both men sought to end the discrimination against mutants, their methods were different. This instantly drew parallels between the two characters and key figures in the Civil Rights Movement namely Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Let’s take a closer look at how these characters were presented and analyze the similarities and differences to their real world counterparts. Upon closer inspection we can see how well-founded these comparisons are.
