Nitpick: Dazzler can kick some ass - and according to some is Omega level. You’re right about Beak, though.
No, no, no-- you (and others) are right; it is meant to be an MLK/Malcolm allegory. It’s just an inept and watered down version of those two. Y’know: MLK (Xavier) is “peaceful” and Malcolm X (Magneto) will pursue his agenda by “any means necessary.” But seeing as most Marvel writers have borrowed next to nothing from the actual nonviolent tactics, religious backgrounds, political beliefs and socioeconomic actions of either King or Malcolm in the 1960s, it’s kind of a hollow emulation.
But Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois… remember these two rivalry goes back to the 1920s and 1930s – again, very broadly speaking… do have some interesting parallels: Professor W.E.B. DuBois (and his fictional counterpart, Professor Xavier) share an academic teaching background, some intellectual pursuits and demands for equality while speaking mutual tolerance and being openly critical of the philosphies of other leadership – something King rarely did in public. Similarly, Garvey did what no black leader with a mass following before or since him did – preached Pan-Africanism and Africanist pride – (i.e., all blacks are brothers) and to migrate to a separate nation (Liberia), far away from the oppressive governments that denied him his rights as an equal citizen. This is what I’ve seen done with Magneto and Genosha.
Now, maybe some savvy Marvel writer and student of history used this a template, but I tend to doubt it.
Don’t forget there’s a leaving of ‘youth rights’ in there, too. The younger, more vibrant supplanting the older, and weaker. It was a bigger issue in the 60s, but it showed up again in New Mutants era. Even the coffee shop they hung out in had relevance there, to the bohemians. As for Wolfsbane… try Uncanny… was it 1 or 2, for the earliest story of a mutant rejected by his family. Yep. Iceman. Bobby. Chased by a howling mob, too.
We shouldn’t overlook that. I had a really detailed book about the history of Marvel and DC, and I can’t find it now, but I remember the section about the X-Men explaining some of the obvious parallels to puberty and the struggles of being a teenager. There was a quote from Stan Lee on the topic, too. Damn, that’d be a great thing to find right for this thread.
Um, that was my point.
And now for a nitpick, although it doesn’t change your point.
In the Western world, I think that’s true. Overall, there are more men than women in the world. On this page, Snopes cites a UN report that there were 3,051,099,000 men and 3,005,616,000 women on Earth in the year 2000.
Well, I at least thought this was hilarious, lissener. 
It’s not like it ever made sense anyway. Oh, I tried to come up with the requiite mental gyrations as well, but all the bad press in the world won’t get people to distinguish mutants from any other superhero - or villain - in comics.
Tengu, you got me. It’s been more than a decade since I read the comics. I was thinking of the X-men more as they were depicted in the movies, where there was no indication of non-mutant superheroes. You’re right of course that the non-mutant heroes would presumably join up to defend humanity if every single mutant joined the dark side. I don’t know how powerful Xavier is in the comics now. In X-2 he was depicted as being able to wipe out humanity using cerebro.
However even with a scaled down interpretation of the mutants ability to defend themselves, they still have a lot more power than a Jew in Nazi Germany or a slave in America. Back when I was reading the comics the main instrument of oppression was the sentinals, who were pretty scary but were always beaten by the mutants in the end. And in the comics IIRC Dark Phoenix did come close to at least damaging humanity.
Lissner, sorry for mis-reading your post.
Yes, they do.
But a few things:
First: As mentioned so do the actively anti-mutant factions. The Sentinels, or the Reavers, or the Watchdogs might lose in fights with the X-Men, or the Brotherhood, but it always comes down to numbers on the Mutants side in those cases - a Sentinel or two taking on 7 or 8 of the most powerful Mutants on Earth. Or the Mutants getting the ability to ‘cut off the head’, by going after Gyrich or the Master Mold.
Second: Even though the analogy isn’t exact, one-for-one, it still works. The Mutants are still an oppressed minority, most of whom hope they won’t be found out, because if they are, they run a serious risk of losing their jobs, family, and friends, or even their lives. That certainly sounds like a sound analogy to me.
If the average ‘flat-scan’ attempted to Mutie-Bash Collossus, he’d end up eating a metal fist the size of a ham, sure. But, he’d have no problem putting a beat down on Beak, and a Reaver’d have little problem putting a hurt on Collossus.
Third: Your ‘the only reason mutants don’t rule is because not all of them want it’ is also mirrored by ‘the only reason mutants haven’t been wiped out is because most of the non-mutant supers don’t want it’.
Another nitpick…
While most Jews in Europe were poor, and certainly Jews in Nazi Germany had no power, part of the reason anti semitism was so strong was because there were very wealthy and very powerful Jews. The “Jewish Conspiracy” has been fueling the fires of antisemites for a few hundred years.
Waiter, I’ll take the homophobia please.
With one of the central issues being the ability to “pass”, I think it is more akin to homophobia… even granted that whole school of “Black Like Me” writing from the early 60s.
The whole mutant panic (they could be right here, in this room) in my mind converys the fear underlying a lot of homophobia as opposed to the fear that underlies racism.