5 Marvel Comics With Great Social Commentary (Including an X

Marvel Comicswas able to pull ahead of their distinguished competition in the 1960s by embracing a different direction for the superhero. DC heroes were the most powerful beings imaginable, perfect examples of what a hero should be. The heroes of the House of Ideas were different; Stan Lee wanted to give readers a universe like the one outside their window (Lee wanted to write the great American novel and his Marvel work in the ’60s, in a lot of ways, is about Cold War America) and this meant that social commentary would become an important part of his stories. The creators who came after him followed his example and suddenly comics were more than simple morality plays; they were about society itself.

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Using fiction to comment on society has been going on since fiction first started, and Marvel has proven that superheroes are better than you’d expect for this sort of thing. Over the years, Marvel creators have talked a lot about the world around them through superheroes, with some stories rising to the top. These five Marvel comics have some spectacular social commentary and one of those stories needs to hit the big screen in the MCU.

5) Steve Rogers: Captain America

Marvel Comics in the ’10s was all about change, with various Marvel icons replaced in their mantles, including Steve Rogers. Sam Wilson became Captain America starting in 2014, with Steve’s super soldier serum running out and making him an old man. Avengers: Standoff would see his youth restored in 2016, leading to Steve Rogers: Captain America (Vol. 1), from Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz. The mid ’10s were an interesting time in American history, when the rise of a certain presidential candidate started talk of the rise of the fascism. The view of America was changing and Marvel was going to use Steve Rogers to talk about that.

The first issue of the book would reveal that Steve was a Hydra sleeper agent, a literal Nazi in the midst of the United States armed forces. Steve Rogers: Captain America became a book that was about the perversion of the greatest symbol of the United States ever, as Rogers used the rules of the system to pervert it from within. It became a story about a man using the freedoms of the US to destroy it, something that has become even more real as the years went on (also, if you want to read another Marvel book in this vein, pick up Avengers: Twilight).

4) Sabretooth (2022)

The Krakoa Era was a new dawn for the X-Men. It took the mutants out of the mansion and sent them to their own nation. The X-Men have always been the home of Marvel social commentary and the Krakoa Era would be no different than previous eras in the team’s history. Looking at the five years of comics, there is some fantastic social commentary in numerous stories, but the most hard-hitting ended up coming from the unlikeliest spot – 2022’s Sabretooth #1-5, by Victor LaValle and Leonard Kirk. This book picked up from House of X #6, when Victor Creed was made the first prisoner in the Pit, and was about his time in the prison.

The whole thing led to him escaping, obviously, but the story was more than just the savage mutant killing a bunch of people to get out. It was a story that was about the prison-industrial complex in the United States and how it creates inmates that can’t survive outside of it. It takes criminals and makes them into super-predators, all so that some people can make money and pat themselves on the back for helping others, creating a neverending cycle of pain and profit. It’s surprisingly biting commentary that pierces so deep because you never expect it.

3) The Ultimates (Vol. 1) and The Ultimates 2 (Vol. 1)

Marvel started its first Ultimate Universe in the year 2000, with Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men burning up the sales charts. However, these two were just the beginning as 2002 would see The Ultimates, and its impending sequel The Ultimates 2, from Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch become the hottest book in comics. The Ultimates took the idea of the Marvel Universe starting in the early ’00s and took it to the extreme, creating a team that fit the edgy aesthetic pop culture had popped up in the early days of the new millennium. There are a lot of reasons to hate on The Ultimates and its sequels, but one can’t deny that it’s not pitch perfect social commentary of the day.

The story tapped into the jingoism of the post-9/11 United States to show the absurdity of the whole thing. It skewered the Patriot Act, the War on Terror, and the Iraq War, as well as the mindless patriotism of the day. It is quite literally a time capsule from those days; you can tut at the language and crudeness of the ideas, but this was the cultural paradigm of the time. Seriously, if you want to understand why the country is where it is, reading The Ultimates and The Ultimates2 will show you the start of the path.

2) Civil War

Okay, so I know what you’re thinking, “Two Mark Millar comics in a list about social commentary? This dude doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” and that’s valid. Millar isn’t some terribly deep writer. However, a lot of his mid ’00s Marvel work sees the writer doing his best to shine a light on the pop cultural paradigms of the day. Civil Warcame out in the days of the Iraq War, when George W. Bush had used 9/11 to convince Americans to give up their freedoms in the name of safety. The story of the Superhero Registration Act was the story of the Patriot Act, with the people of the United States watching as “the old way of doing things”, both in the real world and in the Marvel Universe, was changed forever.

Civil War is as much about the political climate of the United States as anything else; Millar wasn’t even all that shy about talking about this in his Civil War exit interview with Wizard Magazine. In fact, him having Iron Man win the battle was an example of his support for the Patriot Act itself, showing that sometimes safety needs to be given up for freedom in his opinion. Civil War is a story that is as deep as you want it to be and is a perfect example of a comic book talking about the time it was created.

1) X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills is X-perfection. This 1982 classic from Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson took the central metaphor of the team – the battle against racism and bigotry – and put it in the spotlight. The story saw Reverend Stryker and his Purifiers begin a campaign of terror against mutants, hunting them down as demonic spawn of the devil to protect the purity of humanity. They believed their racism was God’s work and the deaths of mutant children end up bringing the X-Men together with their greatest foe Magneto in order to fight the new face of human bigotry – the American Christian church. It’s not so much about the X-Men as superheroes, but about the X-Men as a social force and it is outstanding.

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills is all about the role of religion in racism and bigotry. Beyond being a near flawless example of the comic art, it’s probably the most important X-Men story of them all. It uses the central metaphor of the team perfectly and talks about a problem that we see a lot of in the 21st century – the use of faith, one of the soothing forces in human history, as one of the cudgels of bigotry. It’s one of those stories that current events keep proving prescient, which is both a sterling example of what makes the story so great as well as a depressing picture of what our society has become.

What Marvel books do you think have the best social commentary? Any of these you don’t agree with? Sound off in the comment section below.

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