Manga Friday: Young and Special — ‘X-Men: Misfits’, ‘Cat Paradise’, ‘Ninja Girls’
All young comics protagonists are
special, even if they don’t know it yet. In manga in particular, they’re likely to protest loudly that
they’re just “a normal kid” and to squirm at the thought of being separable
from the vast thundering herd of undifferentiated humanity in the slightest
way. But it doesn’t matter what they say;
we see that they’re all uniquely wonderful — maybe special snowflakes, maybe
purple children. Maybe wizards! Maybe mutants! Maybe the feudal lord! Maybe the
rightful ruler of the entire world, and the dashing fated love of that gorgeous
other character, and, and, and EVERYTHING!
This week, I have three books like
that, with young people who are deeply, utterly special.
X-Men: Misfits, Vol. 1
Story by Raina Telgemeier and
Dave Roman; art by Anzu
Del Rey Manga, August 2009,
$12.99
Telgemeier and Roman take the
standard X-Men set-up – which is
already, in its full Claremontian flowering, completely full of adolescent
longing, fear, and obsession – and twist it about 90 degrees into the world of shojo. The characters come from all over the X-men universe,
with a plot germ from mid-Claremont Era: Kitty Pryde, young and conflicted
about her powers, is given a scholarship to Professor Xavier’s Academy for
Gifted Youngsters in Westchester.
And she finds herself the only
female student there. (Even the female professors are absent for most of this
volume, to intensify the reverse-harem feeling.) The other X-Men characters are
all familiar names, though they’re arbitrarily divided into teachers (Colossus,
Magneto, Storm, Marvel Girl, Beast) and oh-so-pretty boys (Iceman, Angel,
Forge, Havok, Cyclops, and so on). There’s the usual clique of privileged kids,
who are allowed to do what they want and essentially run the school, and of
course they are the prettiest boys and of course they are called The Hellfire
Club. (And of course Magneto is their mentor; Telgemeier and Roman are hitting
all of the X-Men/shojo parallels they can as hard as they can.)
Kitty is torn between the fast
heartless boys and the outcasts – in particular between Pyro (who becomes her
boyfriend) and Iceman (who is unfailingly cold to her, natch). Does she make a
big choice at the end of this book? Does she learn what really matters in life?
Is the Pope Catholic?
X-Men: Misfits is a solid reverse-harem shojo story, but I can’t help but believe that
it’s true audience is men and women of around my age – comics readers of
long-standing who know enough of the X-Men mythology (and I barely do) to
appreciate the changes that are being made to it. Anzu’s art is exactly what
you’d expect for this kind of story, though she does differentiate a large cast
(of mainly pretty, pretty boys – all the same kind of prettiness, too) clearly
and easily, which is not simple.
If you are looking for a place to hang out where you can ask your most inner-geek questions and pick up some cool comic trivia as well, then here’s your invite to hit THE FORTRESS OF AWESOME!
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