Should comics be political?

X-Men: Making comics relatable through politics

Question: Should comics be political?
Position1 of 3›: Yes, comic books should be political.
Argument1 of 3›: X-Men: Making comics relatable through politics

The X-Men comics were created during the civil rights movement in the United States. A lot of political ideas and figures from this time have made their way into the comic through the guise of fictional characters.

The argument

Politics should be a part of comic books because they make them more relatable. However, politics don't need to be referenced directly in order for them to be relatable in comic books. There are artistic ways that politics can be used to make comics more relatable and thus more successful, as evident with the X-Men series. Character motivations, relationships, values, and beliefs in the X-Men series were all influenced by real political figures. The comic book title has been immensely popular not in spite of it's relationship to politics, but because of it. Prejudice and discrimination are innately human phenomena shared by countless persecuted groups throughout history. The most successful art tends to be the most relatable, and the politics in the X-Men series have contributed to the comic's relatability and success.

Context

The X-Men comics are an allegory for the civil rights movement, with Professor Xavier and Magneto being the fictional equivalents of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, respectively.

Premises

[P1]Politics can make comics more relatable, even without being referenced directly. [P2] The X-Men drew on real political figures and themes of prejudice and discrimination shared by persecuted groups. [P3] This political relatability is precisely what made the series so popular and successful. [C] Therefore, because politics make comics relatable and successful, as with X-Men, comics should be political.

Counter-arguments

While prejudice and discrimination were heavily tied to the civil rights movement, they are not innately political ideas. Rather, they are easily politicized ideas. It is relatively simple to have a comic book series explore similar themes of prejudice and discrimination without introducing the politics of the real world. Removing the politics would simply require an introduction of new and different ideas, characters, and groups that were not a part of the civil rights movement.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] Removing politics from X-Men does not necessarily mean removing prejudice and discrimination.