Has Emma taken a backseat since Utopia?
Monday, April 25th, 2011According to Kieron Gillen, no. She is still second-in-command next to Cyclops, even though he agrees her position of power is dependent on him.
The leadership of the X-men has become very patriarchal since the move to Utopia; the top dogs are Cyclops, Namor & Magneto, with Wolverine lying in wait. A lot of fans liked the team beast when Storm was in charge. Any thoughts on the gender balance?
GILLEN: I take the point, but I think if you look back over most of Matt’s run, the two top-dogs are Emma and Scott. Scott as leader and Emma as his second.
Namor and Magneto, in terms of leading the X-men, are both beneath them. Namor is a powerful ally and outsider and Magneto is a useful advisor, but still distrusted by the majority of the X-men. That Nemesis feels free to tell Magneto to go to hell, he’s got other things to do than follow his requests shows where Magneto’s position is.
And on Utopia, Wolverine isn’t in a position of power. Wolverine is a squad-leader or solo operative. In theory, he’s on the same level as – say – Hope and Dani Moonstar. In practice, he’s a highly trusted advisor who people defer to, but he’s not the guy who sits down and looks at maps.
In other words, no, while I understand the point, I don’t think describing the current set up as a patriarchy is accurate.
Gender Balance generally? The active roster will change as we go along. I’ve already said that I have medium-term plans for moving Storm onto the central stage.
Emma & Scott may be the top dogs, but Emma’s position is dependent on her relationship with Scott. She effectively took Jean’s place as co-leader. Anyway, hurray for Storm!
GILLEN: Yes, absolutely – but she’s still higher than the other two, which makes it feel less of a patriarchy. Frankly, I’d accept “Tyranny” before “Patriarchy”.
Kieron Gillen is pretty active on his Formspring, so shoot him some questions his way if you have any: Formspring: KieronGillen
