“Avengers Assimilate”

Andrew Wheeler is not happy about Havok’s speech (see above) in Uncanny Avengers #5:

The speech leaves us to believe that Havok doesn’t want there to be any word that describes his minority identity. He’s not saying that he’s not just a mutant, but that “mutant” is not among the things he wants to admit to being.

That’s not a message of inclusion. That’s a message of assimilation. That’s a message of erasure.

While Andrew Wheeler is correct in his analysis and why Havok’s attitude would be problematic in a real world scenario, to see a fictional character, even one that’s portrayed as sympathetic in context, should not necessarily be a problem, should it? Even in actually existing history there have been plenty of people from particular ethnic or cultural groups arguing for assimilation rather than inclusion, as any casual glance at Jewish history in 19th century Europe would show you. To see one particular character in one particular comic arguing the same for mutants, especially when said character is, as Wheeler points out, one who could pass for regular human fairly easily, is therefore no more than realistic, another political position between the extremes of Xavier (cohabitation) and Magneto (subjugation) to throw in the mix of mutant politics, more fodder for the usual angst ridden X-Men storylines.

That is, if you can trust the writer, Rick Remender, who did throw a snit on Twitter when people first started criticising this speech, but who has since apologised.

Unfortunately, experiences over the past few years with how mainstream (sic) superhero comics handle identity politics has taught a lot of people, not necessarily excluding myself, not to trust the writer in cases like this. Too much sexism, women in fridges, fucking around with characters of colour and general bad faith has meant that even mildly subtle plotlines like this are looked at with suspicion rather than interest. For those who are interested in seeing a more diverse approach to superhero comics, there is little trust that writers can handle identity politics like this sensibly and sensitively.