Serenity

X-Men go West, to San Francisco

If you pay attention to the national news, it’s been the world against San Francisco lately. If we aren’t getting hammered for the city’s activism in the gay marriage debate, our role as a “sanctuary city” routinely causes controversy.

But San Francisco just got some pretty big (albeit fictional) allies in its progressive fight for equality: The X-Men have moved to the Bay Area.

This isn’t a small deal in the world of comic books. The X-Men, who settled in the Bay Area in the just-released 500th issue of the Uncanny X-Men, are arguably the most popular and recognizable superhero team in comic book history. And they’ve spent most of their 40-year existence based out of a mansion in Westchester County, N.Y.

But it should be no surprise. The trials of the X-Men, who discover at puberty that they are mutants, and are often forced to hide their true identities out of shame, have a lot in common with left-leaning causes, most notably the gay rights movement. In the comics, the X-Men have had gay and bisexual team members and associates, and their numbers were once decimated by a virus that had strong similarities to the AIDS epidemic.

Marvel Comics Executive Editor Axel Alonso says the city will be more than just a backdrop for the comic.

“The X-Men moving to San Francisco isn’t just a physical move, it’s a spiritual move. I love San Francisco and we want to see it really represented,” says the city native during an interview last week at Isotope Comics in Hayes Valley. “Anyone who looks at the X-Men, the analogy is right there: If you’re different in any way due to race or sexual orientation or just being nerdy, there’s an X-Men character for you. They’re about being different and finding strength in that weakened position.”

Action movie fans will note that the X-Men and their nemeses have already been to San Francisco, destroying the Golden Gate Bridge and much of Alcatraz in the 2006 film “X-Men: The Last Stand.” But for that sequel, the filmmakers didn’t do any meaningful filming in the Bay Area. The movie was shot in Vancouver, and visual effects were used to add a few landmarks to the background.

The comic has much more of an insider’s vibe. Marvel Comics artists will be visiting San Francisco frequently to get a feel for the fashion, architecture and even the way residents walk and talk. There are no cable cars in the first issue, but the artists did include a KRON TV news truck and a panel where the iconic mutant Wolverine walks through Noe Valley. The heroes make their base in the concrete bunkers beneath the Marin Headlands and join the protest of a controversial art installation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

More at link.

*still looking for X-Jet*

*or Psylocke*

*or the White Queen*