Geek - Blog Posts

NASA Co-Op Week 12: Makers & 3D Printers

Well-being of a generation can be measured by the number of children who attend a Maker Faire. Houston's George R Brown Convention Center was filled with programmers, 3D printers,hand made creations, geeky gear and folks passionate about their ability to create. Houston Maker Faire featured 150 booths, soap makers, FIRST/ VEX robotics teams, LEGO builders and cosplay costume makers. Us NASA interns and Co-Ops set up a booth sharing about career opportunities, letting students share ideas with NASA and coloring pages with kids. Folks tried on an Apollo 11 helmet and space walk glove.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

Apply for a NASA internship open now, login to apply. Sooner the better. There are also fellowships and scholarships available: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/students/login/

Mentor a FIRST Robotics team. Teams with students age K-12:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/coachesmentors

Apply to be a NASA Community College Aerospace Scholar open now: https://nas.okstate.edu/ncas/

Activity sheets for students: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/about/resources/jscfacts/activity_coloring_sheets.html

Co-Op for NASA. What does this mean? Flip-flop between working at NASA and studying in college. This is how NASA hires a majority of their Civil Servants. Job openings are updated every week or so: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm

Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/4iaScOqvI64

Full-time positions at NASA. Use this website and simply search "NASA": https://www.usajobs.gov/

I’ve recently started going out with this guy that has very similar taste as me, but hasn’t seen like half the things I’m super geeky about. This means I get to show him Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of the Rings to name a few, and I am so excited to get to do the “Did you KNOW, that in this scene Viggo Mortenson-“ to him. It’s great.

New art!! :3

Got a new wheel, got geek! The heart purse is reference to undertale but its green because APPARENTLY (according to a photo I saw) it stands for empathy so...The other pins are rottmnt references, the colors being in order from oldest to youngest

Next I had gotten peaky blinders, which I had never heard of. But its apparently some sort of show so.. This one was kinda lazy ngl

Then I got halloween yesterday teheh (Also wanted to mention at first I got STRIPCORE?? So yes I spun again)

Shut up this is awsome

"Power. You have it, as do all dov. But power is inert without action and choice."

“Strangest heroes of all”: Psychology of Racial Identity Formation in Marvel’s X-Men

The inclusion of Art Spiegelman’s Maus in the 2007 edition of the Norton anthology marked another in a long line of trends signifying a change in how graphic novels are perceived in the literary field. Through Spiegelman’s depiction of the horror of the Holocaust, he was able to show the gravity of that dark period and also reveal truths about humanity through his artwork in such way that words alone could not express. Via the combination of words and imagery, the reader is able to share a mixture of two mediums to come to a better understanding of the subject at hand. People in general are visually led and through this use of imagery to express themes and concepts, the point that is to be conveyed becomes all the more poignant.

            Over several years the graphic novel medium has evolved from something that was seen as a distraction to children from their chores and into a serious method of art and intellectual pursuit. One of the major shifts came in changing the name from “comic books” to “graphic novels,” showing its propensity for portraying and revealing themes far more pressing than the usual Sunday funny pages. The graphic novels’ ability to make emotions, thoughts, and details a visual experience is its greatest strength. Being able to discuss heavy themes of racism, identity, and psychology in a fantastical world of futuristic warriors, robotic vigilantes, or just normal everyday people – allowing the reader to witness these events unfold in each panel brings a greater degree of intimacy to the character when one is able to see the fear in their eyes, the curl of their lips, the blood on their hands, and the words that help express their reactions to such.

            Graphic novels, like their literary counterparts, are a product of the cultural world they are made in and their content – consciously or not, are intrinsically affected by the social and cultural events in which they are made. In 1963, a period where race and civil rights were on the minds of many – Marvel’s first issue of X-Men was published. Written by Stan Lee, the themes of race and racism were first implemented with the introduction of mutants and their interaction with a human world that feared and despised them. Heavily influenced by the civil rights movement, the hardships the mutants faced and how they chose to overcome it was exemplified by two major characters in series: the main protagonist and mentor to the X-Men Professor Xavier and the main antagonist Magneto. Xavier has been likened to Martin Luther King jr. in his desire to achieve equality through peace and understanding, while Magneto is akin to Malcolm X in his militancy and striving to gain mutant equality through force if necessary. Ironically, the first team of X-Men introduced was comprised of an all-white cast, but what made their situation mirror themes of race was that they were still racialized due to their mutant powers.

               These themes of race and racism were continued in the 1980s via the new X-Men writer Chris Claremont. In an interview, Claremont explicitly states the relation of this theme when he observes that “[t]he X-Men are hated, feared and despised collectively by humanity for no other reason than that they are mutants. So what we have here, intended or not, is a book that is about racism, bigotry and prejudice.” From then on, the cast became more multi-ethnic, including Jewish, German, African, Japanese, Russian, and in the latest series gay and lesbian mutants as well. From then on, the struggle of mutants as they attempted to come to grips with racism and hate became an integral part to many of the story arcs in the series even to this day. Another theme tackled is that of identity and what makes one human – is it simply genes or something else entirely? This quest for identity and acceptance, and how far one will go for either is what this synthesis will discuss. In the X-Men series, I have found there to be three possible options or paths the mutant can take in response to the marginalization that they face. The role of the marginalized Other is the blanket form that allows the mutant to be made into an object to be despised and feared – denying them their humanity, and my synthesis will explore how mutants counter this Other-ing.

            I have broken up these three paths into three sections in which I shall explore them in detail, weigh the pros and cons to each, and decide whether they are a viable choice in order to achieve a unified individual self. The first path, “Mask of the Hero,” will explore how using the heroic persona as a mask to present an acceptable face to humans affects the mutant’s perception of themselves and that whom the humans accept is actually the heroic persona the mutants construct, not the mutants themselves.

            The second path, “Protean Identity,” explores the power of being able to shift one’s perception of the Other by manipulating the sets of binaries that construct the identity structure of the hegemony and the emergent societies. This path gains a limited degree of self-definition as the mutant who walks this path is free to pick and choose which binary they wish to assume within the parameters of the Other-ed system. In a sense, the general theme of this path is subverting the power of definition and using it against the dominant society in order to put them in a lesser state.

            The third path, “No More Masks,” presents the most difficult path to take. While the first two paths work within the social structure of the hegemony, the third path requires the mutant to exist outside these series of constructs and formulate their own identity free of other groups defining them through their own perceptions. This path proves to be the most freeing and effective of the three but it is also the most difficult of the three to achieve. What makes this path so complicated is that the only way for it to be fully achieved is to exist within a social vacuum, in isolation. However once the mutant is placed within a social construct, they lose the identity they formed and are subjected to the first and second paths, which act as only a reaction to the Other-ing process.      

Part One: Mask of the Hero

            Mutants fill the world of X-Men, people born with genetic mutations that grant them various powers, altered bodies, or both. Because of this, they are generally hated, feared, exploited as weapons, or hunted down like animals by the human society. This adversarial relationship places mutants into a peculiar dynamic within the dominant society. The center of the fear and antagonism mutants face stems from their role as the Other, or the foreign entity that acts as a foil to the hegemonic ideal. In the world of the graphic novel, humans represent the dominant culture through which all things are defined and disseminated to the masses. Within this structure, the societal dominion sets up a series of definitions and roles to define its own identity and sense of self. Anything that deviates from this base-line definition of the dominant society (which in this case is human), it is perceived as a separate, alien, and threatening force – the Other.

            The role of the Other is to embody all that is deemed unacceptable or not part of the prevailing society’s definition of itself. By projecting their vices onto the Other, the humans can both distance themselves from these facets and create an entity to rally against. In the X-Men, mutants are rendered the Other due to their powers and, often, their physical appearance, both of which place them as “other-than” the “normative” society. This blanket identity of the Other denies the mutant a fully realized and fleshed-out self. The Othering process has long been a topic of interest in African American literature, explored powerfully in Ralph Ellison’s “Twentieth-Century Fiction and the Black Mask of Humanity.” In it, Ellison expresses frustrations that the “…sensitively focused process of opposites, of good and evil, of instinct and intellect, of passion and spirituality….” is instead crudely drawn as an “…oversimplified clown, beast or an angel.” In this respect, the Other is thus rendered a slave to the perspective imposed upon it by the dominant culture. In his piece, he explore how literature has painted the African American as a being of absolutes – “[s]eldom is he drawn as that sensitively focused process of opposites, of good and evil, of instinct and intellect, or passion and spirituality [facets that have been] projected as the image of man” (135). Mutants in the same manner are reduced to absolute terms of threats, villains, and monsters – all of which that deny them “human” aspects.

            Throughout the X-Men series, mutants are constantly defined under the pretenses and assumptions of various groups whether out of fear, hatred, or personal gain. The series most popular character, Logan a.k.a “Wolverine” is a mutant with heightened senses and reflexes, an accelerated healing factor, and, his most iconic feature, a pair of razor-sharp claws that come out from between his knuckles, these claws and the rest of skeletal structure are fused with adamantium, the strongest metal known to man created in a military project to make the perfect soldier known as “Weapon X”. In this capacity, Wolverine is denied his humanity and is instead perceived as a mindless weapon of the government. As the Other, mutants are seen as tools of destruction and unbridled power – while the human race are perceived as civilized, reason-ruled strength, the perfect controller of such power. In the eyes of the dominant culture, Wolverine is not seen as a flesh and blood being, but a walking pair of claws to sic onto the hegemony’s enemies. It is in this stifling capacity that Wolverine is granted the only identity allowed him, not as Logan – but as Weapon X. In The Souls of Black Folk, published a century earlier, W.E.B Dubois can help us understand this process, as a system that “…yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world” (5). Within this method of identification, Logan can only define himself as a weapon for that is all he is seen as.

            Resisting this defining of the self through the eyes of others is the main struggle of mutants and the X-Men in particular. One manner to counter this Other-ing process requires steps down the first of three paths: changing how one is perceived. Within this option, the mutant attempts to change the mask they wear into something that is deemed acceptable to the hegemony – in effect, integrating with said society by being the exemplar service of their virtues. The X-Men do this by assuming a persona of the super hero. In effect, the persona acts as a psychological mask that presents one’s best possible qualities. When the X-Men wear their masks, the mutants are portraying a face to the human society that the humans can accept as their own.

            The X-Men use their personae in much the same fashion, but on a larger scale. While the persona originally acts as a mask for a single person, the X-Men use it to take the form of the best of humanity. This use of a cultural persona is exemplified by their use of code names and costumes. Through the use of codenames and costumes, they can become an entirely different person, or more fittingly, a symbol of propriety in the eyes of the hegemony. This heroic persona is scrutinized in Neil Shyminsky’s “Mutant Readers, Reading Mutants: Appropriation, Assimilation, and the X-Men.”  According to Shyminsky, the hero costumes were used as a tool to make the X-Men look like something they (i.e. humans) would understand – the iconic image of the super hero and accept them in the symbolic sense (399). By changing their role to that of the heroic guardian, the X-Men attempt to become something that will prove to the human culture that they are not to be feared but to be accepted as a member of society.  In a way, the X-Men affect a limited “passing” in the embodiment of the perceived virtues of the dominant culture a gesture, which in turn will grant them limited and carefully scrutinized acceptance within that culture as their defenders of humanity. The passing is constantly performed by their battles with “bad” mutants who use their powers to terrorize humans. In these confrontations, the X-Men are defining themselves as the “not I,” a separate entity, rendering the villains the Other – the horrifying enemy, which leads to the X-Men defining themselves as the heroic saviors. The hero persona then acts as a method to combat the Othering process by portraying themselves as, “…all that was great in [humanity]” (X-Men135.11). Its main strategy is to embody the virtues of humanity instead of their vices, and as a result, be accepted as such.   

            This first path, despite its attempts, proves to be a fallacy at its core. While the adoption of a new role in the hero persona, a symbol of humanity’s virtue that in turn, is something acceptable, it is still a mask nonetheless. The X-Men wear both a literal and figurative mask as ways to form a new role to play. The strength of this path is that they may gain acceptance as humanity’s guardians and protectors, but the truth is that their mantle is their old Other-ed mask, never lost, only transformed into something acceptable and/or passed on to another group. This heroic mask further denies the mutant a sense of unified self as it separates their “true” identities from those of their X-Man persona. Shyminsky argues, by reducing themselves to a symbol of heroics in their X-Man persona, the human race only sees them in simplified terms – limiting them to the “angel” aspect to which Ellison alluded, and completely disregards any room for the “demon,” or anything else in between that scale.

            This conflict elicits the struggle encountered in the Duboisian double-consciousness, or the concept in which African Americans’ psyches are divided between what they perceive themselves to be and what the dominant culture sees them as. Both the African American and mutants of the X-Men are constantly locked in a struggle of perception: between their X-Men persona and their true identities. The struggle between this interplay of the mutant’s individualized self and as an X-Man does not go unnoticed by the characters themselves. One of the main characters of X-Men and sometime leader of the X-Men, Ororo Monroe a.k.a “Storm” also suffers under this sense of double consciousness. Ororo is a mutant with the power to summon and control the forces of nature: flying on wind currents, firing lightning bolts, summoning rain in varying degrees of a drizzle to a monsoon, and able to call up gale force winds as well. Before becoming a member of the X-Men, she was treated as a goddess in her Kenyan village, bringing down rain on their crops and acting as their guardian. Upon joining the X-Men, her original sense of self is compromised and her personal philosophies at times come into direct conflict with her role as a member and later leader of the X-Men. Throughout the series, she brings to light this conflict of selves as she expresses her fears of losing herself to her other identity as an X-Man, or in other words, losing her identity as Ororo Monroe to the persona of Storm. Later in the series, she becomes the leader of the X-Men and is forced to kill someone in a duel during a retrieval mission – such an act goes directly against her philosophy of non-violence, something that she herself vowed she would never do. Her nonviolence is depicted as an integral facet to her personality, and when she is forced to kill in order to uphold her duty as leader of the X-Men, as “Storm,” it unsettles her identity as Ororo.

She muses on these events; that place her persona in direct opposition to her values and beliefs, Ororo in conflict with Storm. If she is to remain leader of the X-Men, and maintain the hero’s persona, she must “…sacrifice the beliefs that give [her] life meaning” (X-Men 171.16). This illustrates the continuing restrictive nature of the social roles they play. Regardless of how well the mask fits, or how convincingly they perform, they are still locked within the confines of that role and must act according to the essentialistic definition of the hero if they wish to gain the acceptance of the hegemony. This sacrifice is criticized in P. Andrew Miller’s “Mutants, Metaphor, and Marginalism: What X-actly Do the X-Men Stand For?” : “In the X-Men, if one is willing to sacrifice parts of a past that makes one different, a person can find a place, a home, a family” but comes to the conclusion that such a view is “...overly idealistic and certainly mythic” (290) because such an identity is not a formed self, but a featureless mask of the hero persona.  The tragic flaw of the hero persona is that even if they do become accepted as a member of the hegemony, it is not themselves that are accepted but their personas – it is the hero persona of Storm that will inevitably gain acceptance of the dominant society, not Ororo Monroe herself.

Part Two: Protean Identity

            The role the Other plays is an integral part in the definition of the hegemony. Through the blanket definition of the Other, the dominant society is able to cast onto them the role of their own vices and fears. In this capacity, mutants are branded with various roles and aspects but still bear the central form of the big, dark, and scary thing to be destroyed. While in the X-Men series, humans constantly reveal their own potential for cruelty and chaos, it is always masked as justifiable defense against the “mutant menace” or for the nation’s safety. In this respect, the hegemony’s inability to accept their own nature is then projected onto the role of the Other, which frees them to rally against it as something foreign or separate from themselves. The group that is placed as the Other is denied an identity of their own, in affect given a blank slate. The Other then becomes less a single entity or identity, and more an amalgam of projected or repressed aspects of the dominant culture, constructing a series of binaries that create an identity for themselves as well automatically placing the Other as the opposite.

            While such a system can appear stifling at first, it can lead to a greater freedom of identity formation, leading into the second path: the protean role. In reference to the shape shifting Greek god Proteus, the protean role assumes many forms under the blanketing cloak of the Other. In the X-Men series are a group called the “Morlocks.” This faction is comprised of mutants whose mutations have disfigured them in graphic ways. As a result of their appearance, they are doubly Othered as objects of disgust and hate and have fled to an underground bomb shelter which they call the “Alley,” forming a new society of “…runaways, outcast – people with no home, no one to care for them, hated and hunted because of powers [they] didn’t want or understand. Deformed, despised, deserted” (X-Men 170.9). The figure head is Callisto, a mutant with heightened senses and reflexes, as well as a heavily scarred face complete with an eye-patch. In second command is Masque, a mutant who has the power to reconfigure anyone’s face or body into anything or anybody he wants simply by touch – the tragic twist is that he cannot do the same to his own horribly disfigured face that is a result of his mutation.

            The interesting point of divergence between the Morlocks and the X-Men lies in their attitude toward being the Other. Whereas the X-Men strive to replace this role with the hero persona, the Morlocks instead embrace this position and fully adopt it and the power it bears. While the Other is, in effect, a blanket identity that denies the individual a core self, it is within this “coreless” or more fittingly, protean aspect, that the Other is free to shift or switch between the various masks and aspects within the range of the Other. Therein lies the advantage of the role, the freedom to become the Other which is defined as the amalgam of all cast-off aspects of the hegemonic self, meaning that those within this role are able to pick and choose whatever aspects they wish to assume. Their embrace of the Other-ed role is evidenced in an exchange between Callisto and Masque on their role as outcasts:

            Callisto: If the world were fairer…we wouldn’t be Morlocks.

            Masque: Hah! This could be utopia Callisto –the perfect society –we’d still        be rebels, we like it! 

            Callisto: Too true, Masque, We’re outcasts as much because we want to be as because we’re mutants. 

            (X-Men 178.6)

This scene illustrates how they are able to acknowledge their Othering, and to accept it, even adopt this role as they form their own identity as an “outcast,” which is only one of many aspects the Other can assume. This construction of the protean identity is linked to the binary that the Other is bound by. This concept is further explored in Stuart Hall’s “New Ethnicities” which states that “[t]he play of identity and difference which constructs [the Other] is powered not only by the positioning of [mutants] as the inferior species but also, and at the same time, by an inexpressible envy and desire” (586). This exemplifies that not only is the Other feared for the vices they are thought to embody, but also for the power they hold and the human’s envy of that power.This power is both in the literal sense of the mutant’s abilities but also due to the Other’s ability to change its “social mask.” 

             The Morlocks’ manner of identification contrasts heavily with the X-Men. As explained earlier in the previous section, the X-Men create a type of double-consciousness via their true names and the alter ego of their code names as X-Men, and a struggle sometimes arises between the two. In contrast, the Morlocks only carry the name of their persona or code-name in a sense to show their supposed singularity in identity. Later in the series, a young member of the X-Men is kidnapped by the Morlocks and taken to be the bride of a mutant named Caliban. As she is being prepared for the ceremony, she is taken to Masque to be given a new face, a symbol of her place as a Morlock. He declares that to be a Morlock is the “…rejection…of life you led, world you knew” (X-Men 179.13). The Morlocks symbolize the protean aspect of the Other as they themselves reside and thrive within the darkness of civilization and the hegemonic identity in their outright rejection of the dominant society.

            In the construction of the Other, one must also inspect the construction of the binary – for it is through this that Other-ing is possible. The binary is a construction of two opposing aspects that always has one side being the superior. In the instance of the Other, every aspect that is attributed is unconsciously coupled with its opposite (e.g. if the Other is defined as evil, then the dominant culture is automatically set as good). Through the system of the protean identity however, the individual is able to choose which aspect of the Other and by extension, which binary system to participate in. An example comes from humans’ fear that mutants will use their abilities to dominate the human race. This fear implies an interesting binary in that if mutants are defined as beings powerful enough to conquer the world, then it automatically assigns humans as powerless to stop them. By this “counter-Othering,” the marginalized mutants are able to define themselves in a better light while at the same time passing the mask of the marginalized onto someone else – gaining a degree of power in the process.

            This power however, is limited in scope. While the protean identity grants a certain degree of freedom, the roles that are available for mutants to use are always congruent to the aspects of the binary constructs, and cannot extend beyond these parameters. Thusly, the mutant is once again defined by the views and constructs of others’ perceptions and definitions, not the mutants’. Wolverine further exemplifies this. In the series, he at times is overcome by periods of dramatically increased ferocity and power iconically known as his “berserker rages.” While he in this state he “[b]ecomes fury personified – a grim, unstoppable engine of destruction” (X-Men 140.13). During his berserker rage, he fully embraces the Other-ed identity of himself – the image of the wild, mindless beast. What makes this an example of the second path lies in the fact that he chooses when to “…let [his] berserker mood sweep [him] along” (X-Men 162.14), an aspect of himself that he allows when and where to express. However, this berserker rage serves to provide him with “…days of non-stop combat compressed into a matter of minutes” (X-Men 140.13), but afterwards he is rendered exhausted. This symbolizes the limits of the protean identity as no single constructed identity – regardless of it being freely chosen can fully sustain itself and eventually burns out. With this limitation, the protean identity has no core identity since the Other-ed roles that it chooses from are not afforded one. Therefore, regardless of the binary chosen, none can fully bring about a central identity. 

Part Three: No More Masks

            Each path has, thus far, a central theme of identity formation: being able to choose what or whom to become, a freedom achieved in varying degrees. The first path is the most restrictive but offers the greatest chance of acceptance within the dominant culture. The second path grants a greater range of freedom is ultimately limited by the given roles of the Other. So despite their increasing level of freedom, they both fall short, neither allows true freedom of choice or the opportunity to become an individual self. What proves to be the greatest impediment to the mutants’ quest for identity lies in their being continually forced to use or construct identities or personas via material already provided for them by the very society that denies their full existence. Regardless of the degree of immersion, from the X-Men to the outcast Morlocks, all are limited in their expression of self by the constraints imposed by the human race.

            The only way, then, to even begin to formulate an individual identity is by forming it free of all social masks, to define oneself by one’s own thought processes and beliefs, free from the fetters of the ruling society. This process of identity formation is the third and perhaps most difficult path the mutant can take. For the third path to take shape, it must be done outside of society and apart of all social constructs, in effect within a social vacuum. Within isolation, the mutant is then able to form their identity and sense of self over time via a gestation period apart from everything and everyone. This type of self-induced exile for the sake of identity is explored in Lesley Paparone’s reading of another graphic novel in her essay “Art and Identity in Mark Kalesniko’s Mail Order Bride,” which focused on the conflicts between ethnic and feminine identity. Paparone states that in regards to feminine ethnic identity “[t]o be a free woman…a woman must be at some level a ‘no name woman,’ that is, outcast from her ethnic community’” (211). In relation to the X-Men graphic novel, the mutant must become a “no-name mutant,” someone removed from their own social and genetic identity of “mutant” and the constructed system that it entails and form their own system of identity formation. One particular group that has achieved this resides on a small isle in Scotland called Muir Island. The group consists of Alex Summers a.k.a “Havoc” (brother to Scott Summers a.k.a “Cyclops”) who has the power to fire bursts of plasma energy from his body, Jamie Madrox a.k.a “Multiple Man” who has the power to create super-powered clones of himself, and Moira MacTaggert, a human scientist and geneticist expert on mutant mutation. Together they live mostly alone on the small island, where they are free to live out their lives and work.

            While the third path gives the mutant the opportunity to formulate their own identity, this identity can never be fully maintained. In spite of the full freedom of identity, it can only be achieved and then kept going outside of society, for once the mutant enters into the culture once more, they again subjugate themselves to the very same they have worked so hard to escape. Society in and of itself is a constructed system formed by the dominating culture to formulate their own sense of self. The identity of humans is directly related to the identity of the Other-ed mutants. To exist within the construct, and for the construct to remain intact, it demands there to be an “not-I” to base one’s identity upon. Because of this, the Other is never truly discarded but shifted to another group or adopted. Be it humans Other-ing mutants or vice-versa as in the case of the Morlocks, the role of Other is always in effect. The moment someone enters this system, they are automatically thrust into a particular role and are expected to play it. Within the construct the only options are the first and second path, for the only way to gain any sense of individuality is via manipulation of the constructed binaries to obtain some semblance of an individualized self.

            Due to the pervasive nature of this construction however, the identity formed through the third path can only be upheld outside of society and in seclusion. Through this seclusion, the mutant is given insight into their own identity as they are free to define themselves without sociological interruptions. Only when they are able to perceive themselves as not only their personas or as the Other, but as someone entirely separate from both, and come to understand their core selves, can they fully realize their own individuality. And this gestation can only occur when they are not constantly subjected to the binary process. For it is through the binary that the first and second paths supersede the third. Because the mutant is constantly bombarded with conflicting perceptions of themselves via their own thoughts and those of others, the mutants are forced to combat these forces by donning a mask to shield themselves from society and give themselves a chance to survive within the culture they wish to either enter into or supplant with their own. 

            Logan, who has chosen both the first and second option in the past, has also embarked on the third path. During the series, he falls in love with a Japanese heiress and noblewoman named Mariko. As their courtship and their ensuing relationship develop, he leaves the X-Men and heads to Japan to marry her. In this, Logan attempts to break his persona of Wolverine by making a life with Mariko in Japan. When the rest of the X-Men come for the wedding, Logan is shown dressed in traditional Japanese garb, fully embracing the culture and customs, which he has long been familiar with (he is also fluent in Japanese and well versed in Bushido and martial-arts of many kinds). Logan’s engagement to Mariko signifies his desire to have a life outside of the X-Men and by extension, form a life of his own as Logan the man, not Wolverine the X-Man, or Weapon X. This need for a “normal” life is analyzed in Shyminsky’s work. When Logan is with Mariko, he tries with considerable effort to control his aggressive manner and violent tendencies. Shyminksy observes this as Logan’s desire to downplay that part of him for the sake of a peaceful future because “…the personal goal of characters like the…animalistic Wolverine is the denial of [his] mutant power’s resulting freakishness and affirmation of [his] humanity” (396). By trying to move past his identity as Wolverine, he tries to attain a sense of humanity and identity which can only be achieved as Logan.    

            This peaceful life does not last however. Logan kills Mariko’s father for the sake of Mariko’s familial honor, and Mariko herself, he once again dons the “Wolverine” persona and does what is defined as honorable and right in the culture he is now a part of – at the expense of what he cherished as Logan, just as Storm did in section one for the sake of the mission and to uphold her role of leader.  Mariko herself mentions “[w]hen you killed my father, you chose the path of honor – though you believed doing so would cost that which you held as dear: me” (X-Men 176.5). This shows how even though he has distanced himself from the construct of the X-Men and strived to form a new life defined on his own terms with Mariko, it is by the very act of entering into her culture that Logan subjects himself to the very same constructed system of identity he tried to leave behind.

            In the same manner of seclusion the Morlocks strive to form their own identity as a counter-culture via the very roles of the Other. Unintentionally, they too attempt their own third path due to their rejection of the dominant human society and living in seclusion. Within the Other-ed space of the marginalized in their underground civilization, they have found a place to develop their own sense of self and individuality. In some respects, the Morlocks are further developed than the X-Men in terms of identity formation. To some degree, they have achieved autonomy that the X-Men lack in their desire to undermine the dominant culture instead of trying to integrate with it. Their feelings are mirrored in Paparone’s work where in the face of “[t]hese essentializing and restrictive constructs, all of which prevent [the mutant] from achieving a more satisfying sense of self, result in a desire to annihilate those restrictions” (216). Through their disdain for the human construct and all that entails, they decide to willingly subvert it by refusing to participate in it.

 This desire is what differentiates the Morlocks from the X-Men. Callisto responds to the X-Men’s claim of commonality that while they are both mutants, “…we are nothing like you” (X-Men 170.9). However, the Morlocks fail to achieve a complete identity for they are never allowed time to gestate fully. Through their run-ins with the X-Men, they are constantly Other-ed by them as “villains” and “thugs.” And since the X-Men are in effect the face of human virtues, the Morlocks are placed in the role of other by the very society they wish to subvert. The Morlocks gain a rocky sense of self when they choose which role of the Other to assume within the confines of the Other. When this freedom to choose is taken via their contact with society, they lose not only their power of self-definition, but also any progress toward the third path.

            The identity formed via this self-exile becomes overwhelmed in the social constructs of the prevailing culture. Thusly, the only way to keep this actualized, individual self is outside of these constructs. But since every social connection is to some extent built upon the interplay of these constructs, it is impossible to keep it intact while still existing within it. One of the only characters in the series to have achieved an individual identity is Jean Grey a.k.a “Marvel Girl” Jean Grey, an X-Man and with mutant powers of telepathy and telekinesis, taps into the fullest potential of her powers and manages to subdue a black hole that threatens to consume the universe. Through the cataclysmic event she becomes “Phoenix,” an embodiment of humanities’ virtues and goodness. As time goes on, her mind began to warp and so did her powers changing her to “Dark Phoenix,” a complete malevolent force that went on a rampage across the universe which culminated in the destruction of an entire planet. With the combined efforts of the X-Men and herself, she finally reverts to Jean Grey and, in a final act decides to kill herself – as Jean Grey – to make sure she does not destroy again. This shows how she “…could not become Dark Phoenix and remain true to [her]self” (X-Men 137.33) or in other words, maintain the individualized identity she has tried so hard to maintain. In the end, in order for Jean Grey to maintain her identity and not risk losing it, she had to get outside of any and all constructs, and the only way out for her, was death.

Conclusion

            In the X-Men, all mutants are led to walk one of these paths but are never limited to only one exclusively. Wolverine himself has passed through all three paths more than once within the series. Identity and what makes up the individual self are constantly in flux within the minds of the mutants as they strive to understand themselves and others within a construct that denies such understanding. Such themes of self and identity as explored by in the world of mutants and humans, villains, and other worldly aliens all serve as symbolic allusions to the real world that the graphic novel was built out of.

            These themes are not exclusively assigned to X-Men, but are also shared by many other graphic novels. Dwayne McDuffie’s reimagining of the graphic novel Dethlok focused on the journey of an African-American man who is killed and turned into a grotesque cybernetic super-soldier named “Dethlok”. Throughout the series, Dethlok’s struggle to understand his place in society as not only an African-American in a white society, but also doubly marginalized as a new member of the emergent class of cyborgs. McDuffie employs the theme of W.E.B Dubois’ double consciousness as a way to extrapolate the thought process of a man who lies between human and machine.

            These themes of race and identity have been explored in literature as well. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man focused on the pursuit of what it means to be an African-American and a human being by extension. The narrator faces many of the same trials that the mutants face in their quest for identity. He at first strives to become the persona of the educated intellectual – the embodiment of the “enlightened negro” that he tried to assume for himself while at the university. Later he is mistaken for the man named Rinehart who is the symbol of the protean path as he has become many things to many people all to his own advantage. And lastly the narrator tries to find his own individualized self via his exile in the underground, beginning to form his own unique self free from the influences of others.

            What these and countless other novels and graphic novels illustrate is the fluidity and necessity for identity, and how it is never as stable as one would like to think. The mutant’s mask of hero, the Morlocks’ protean transformations,  Wolverine’s storied past and future and Jean Grey’s tragic final act all serve as means to the same desired end: to find oneself in the face of a system that is specifically created to deny that very aspiration for an identity to call their own.

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