Whether it is the Holocaust, the genocides in Darfur, Sudan and Armenia, or American slavery, humans have always been fighting among themselves. In all of these instances, there is some concept of the "outgroup," or the group being discriminated against, being inferior to the "ingroup," or the group in power. The X-Men series manages to put a spotlight on these issues.
X-Men, Racism and Civil Rights
One comparison that is common when speaking about X-Men is that of Professor Charles Xavier to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Magneto to Malcolm X. Professor Xavier wants to live among the human population peacefully, while Magneto believes that in order for mutants to stop being discriminated against, they will have to rise up against the humans. Magneto's view of achieving mutant acceptance/superiority is "by any means necessary," a quote also used by Malcolm X.
Another frequent sight in the series is that of anti-mutant groups. One in particular, the Friends of Humanity, is often compared to the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups. In the animated TV series, for example, the Friends of Humanity performed many hate crimes against mutants, and often framed them for crimes they did not commit.
X-Men and Homosexuality
A general misconception, especially among the parents of younger mutants, is that being a mutant is a lifestyle choice, and not something that is genetic. An example of this is in X2, when Bobby Drake (Iceman) tells his parents he is a mutant, to which his mother says "have you tried not being a mutant?" Many parents of gay children do not believe that they were born gay, but that they chose to be gay.
There are also gay and bisexual characters in the series. In the comics, Raven Darkholme (Mystique), who is a shapeshifter and Magneto's right-hand woman, was lovers with Destiny, a blind (female) mutant with precognitive powers, Victor Creed, who would later become Sabretooth, and other. Other gay and bisexual characters include Karma, Anole, and Northstar.
X-Men and the Holocaust
Born in Germany in either 1925 or 1926, Max Eisenhardt, who would later become the mutant known as Magneto, was persecuted along with his family for being Jewish. His family is shot and dumped into a mass grave; Max manages to survive, only to be captured and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he becomes a Sonderkommando, a death camp prisoner who aided the killing process. It is during this time that his powers begin to emerge.
In X-Men: the Last Stand, Callisto, the leader of a gang of mutants called the Omegas, asks Magneto where his mark is, if he's so proud of being a mutant. He shows her the numbers the Nazis burned on his arm during World War II and tells her that he had a mark once, but that no needle will ever touch his skin again.
Aside from Magneto's past, the animated series that aired during the 1990s contained several other references to the Holocaust. There are mutant slave labor camps on the island of Genosha, where numbers are burned onto the slaves' foreheads, much like how numbers were burned onto the Jews' arms in the concentration camps.
While the comic books, animated series and movies make for good entertainment, part of the allure of X-Men is that it reflects several social issues that have impacted, or are still impacting, the real world. In every viewing or reading, there is something that can be learned about human nature, if you look close enough.
