XVI

When an individual acquires great power, the use or misuse of that power is everything. Will it be used for the greater good, or will it be used for personal, or for destructive, ends?¹

Charles Xavier delivers this line to his students at the beginning of X-Men: The Last Stand (X-3), highlighting the theme of T. H. White’s The Once and Future King (the book Magneto reads in his plastic prison, and the book Xavier begins to discuss with students at the end of X-2: X-Men United). In this chapter we’ll take the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) as our guide in examining the use and abuse of power and the nature of war and peace as depicted in the X-Men trilogy.

Real Peace

Sometimes we find a rational resolution to our wars and conflicts, and we make agreements of nonaggression—a halt to active violence or a cease-fire. We deem this suspension of active, physical violence or domination to be a “time of peace.” The Brotherhood sometimes works with the X-Men, after all. For Levinas, however, such a social climate was not the truest, most fundamental kind of peace. In his famous essay “Peace and Proximity,” Levinas articulated the difference between a false peace and a true peace, saying, “It is necessary to ask oneself if peace, instead of being the result of an absorption or disappearance of alterity, would not . . . be the fraternal mode of a proximity to the other (autrui), which . . . would signify precisely the surplus of sociality over every solitude—the surplus of sociality and of love.”²

By “alterity,” Levinas means the uniqueness of the individual, the absolute difference that makes the other person unique and irreplaceable. False peace involves two parties who are still opposed to each other, but who temporarily coexist without negative interaction. Levinas’s goal, on the other hand, was a “project of peace different from the political peace spoken of above. . . . [I]n ethical peace, the relation is with the inassimilable other, the irreducible other, the other, unique.”³ Furthermore, this is “peace as love” for the other individual.⁴ Peace is not about finding similarities or common interests. It is about embracing difference. Genuine peace is not simply the temporary halting of physical aggression or domination. Rather, true peace lies in a genuine ethical love for the other, which we can describe as faith in the goodness and preciousness of the other.

We can recognize these distinctions quite clearly in the X-Men trilogy. For Levinas, it all boiled down to power. War is the exertion of one’s power over others, through oppression, manipulation, and violence. Peace is the restraint of one’s power for the sake of cultivating the abilities and freedom of the other. Such peace and restraint require an incredible and seemingly irrational leap of faith—a belief in the other’s goodness and her ability to choose and act responsibly.

Fear, Oppression, and Violence

As Magneto wisely recognizes in the beginning of the first X-Men movie, “Mankind has always feared what it doesn’t understand.” ⁵ This truism finds confirmation throughout human history. In recent history, we see the slaughter of American Indians, the enslavement of Africans and others, the systematic isolation and labeling of individuals on the basis of race or religion, and, of course, the genocide we’ve witnessed in nations and regions across the globe. Why do we fear difference? Why do we fear what we don’t understand?

X-Men begins with a flashback to a Nazi concentration camp, one of the clearest possible examples of oppression and violence based on the distinction between “us” and “them.” The film then jumps to a time in the not-so-distant future, and we see a room full of important individuals. Jean Grey is there, speaking as a scientist; Senator Kelly is there; and presumably the room is filled with politicians and other influential leaders of society. The discussion centers around the controversial registration or licensing of mutants for the purpose of protecting society. It is pointed out that the powers that mutants have are dangerous and could be used against the greater good of society for personal gain or the domination of humans. The senator goes so far as to refer to mutant children as “weapons in our schools.” Clearly, there is a presumption on the part of society that those who are “different” are dangerous, because they threaten the current way of life. They have power beyond our own. We can have control over that which we can understand, identify, categorize, and label. That which we cannot understand, we cannot control. In this example, fear of the unknown is transformed into oppression.

Sharing Magneto’s recognition that humankind fears what it cannot understand, Professor Charles Xavier opens X-2: X-Men United, saying, “Sharing the world has never been humanity’s defining attribute.”⁶ In this second film, humanity’s fear of the unknown takes a more radical form than oppression or registration. In Colonel William Stryker, we see fear transformed into outright violence against “the other.” Using his son Jason, he concocts a formula that allows him to forcefully take over the will of another person, literally paralyzing his victim and stealing his way into the victim’s mind. This same man who manipulated Wolverine’s healing power to create an indestructible “beast,” as he calls him, invades Magneto’s mind and then endeavors to manipulate Xavier’s telepathic power in order to murder all mutants. Fear of the unknown other compels him to eradicate all of those who are different, to completely do away with that which threatens humanity’s superiority. He feels free to recklessly use those who are different from him for his own selfish purposes.

Finally, in X-Men: The Last Stand, fear of the other results in what is often considered the rational, “peaceful” solution to conflict based on difference: eradicate difference through assimilation. Those who are different can now be “cured,” so that they are just like everyone else. Government scientists at Worthington Labs have developed a “mutant antibody” that can suppress the mutant gene, permanently. Of course, the first intention in dispersing the “cure” is that participation is voluntary. It is not long, however, before the “cure” is weaponized and used against mutants who refuse to be cured voluntarily.

Here we have a situation similar to many historical attempts to “unify” communities or nations through assimilation. Colonial powers, for example, typically conceive of themselves as bringing “civilization” to “barbarian” tribes—American Indians, Africans, Aborigines, and so forth—by forcing them, sometimes violently, to abandon their ancestral languages, cultural practices, and religious beliefs. X-3 gives us an illustration of the consequences of such violent, forced assimilation by way of a “cure” for dangerous, “barbaric” difference.

The Mutant Other

A simplistic view sees Xavier as the leader of the “good guys” and Magneto as the leader of the “bad guys,” or at least one group of “bad guys.” Magneto is, after all, a villain, right? On closer investigation, however, we find that Magneto and Xavier share a couple of very important commonalities. These two old friends both recognize the evil in the world: the self-seeking, fearful oppression of, and violence against, mutants. Their actions and attitudes are responses to that recognition. They also both recognize the goodness within each unique individual that must be protected, especially the goodness within each other.

In X-Men, we discover that Magneto helped Xavier create Cerebro, the machine that was designed to allow Xavier to locate mutants and humans around the world. Clearly, they both seek to ensure that mutants are cared for and protected. For example, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, as well, is a place where mutants can find acceptance, care, and guidance in cultivating and understanding their powers—powers that are acknowledged as remarkable and incredibly valuable. Xavier wants the mutants to know that their differences from other humans are not faults but gifts.

It is clear from the very beginning that Magneto is convinced of the preciousness and uniqueness of mutants, as shown in his complete dedication to their survival and flourishing. But X-2 more clearly shows Magneto’s appreciation of the unique powers mutants possess. When Wolverine says about Mystique, “She’s good,” Magneto replies, “You have no idea.” He has a definite respect for her abilities, and he recognizes the great gifts of Xavier’s team of mutants as well. When Pyro laments that he can only control fire, not create it, Magneto replies, “You are a god among insects. Never let anyone tell you different.” Though we can recognize the blatant attitude of superiority in this comment, there is no doubt that Magneto believes each mutant to be unique, precious, and irreplaceable.

Finally, in X-3, we once again see Magneto’s utter respect for Xavier and his gifts, both his mutant gifts and his uniqueness and preciousness as a human being. When Pyro flippantly suggests that he would have killed Xavier himself, Magneto stops him in his tracks, reprimanding him, saying, “Charles Xavier did more for mutants than you’ll ever know. My single greatest regret is that he had to die for our dream to live.” Despite their radically different solutions to the conflict between humans and mutants, Magneto never forgets Xavier’s profound goodness.

X-3 also reveals that Jean is a “class 5” mutant, the only one yet to be discovered. Her power is so great that it was able to wrap her in a “cocoon of telekinetic energy,” protecting her from death at the end of X-2. When Magneto and Xavier first encountered her, twenty years ago at her parents’ home, Xavier told Magneto, “This one’s special.” Jean is unique even among mutants. She is capable of almost anything, and we learn that her power is so great that it eclipses her human side if unleashed. (Later, we’ll consider whether this excuses Xavier’s limitation of her power.)

Perhaps one of the most relevant lines in the trilogy is spoken by Mystique, who has the power to hide her true self and take on the identity of any other individual, human or mutant. Kurt Wagner—a character who clearly cannot hide within society—asks her, in X-2, why she doesn’t stay in disguise all the time. She bluntly replies, “Because we shouldn’t have to.” A person should not have to hide her differences to assimilate into society. Her differences are what make her unique. As Levinas insisted, the uniqueness of the other is to be embraced.

War

At the end of X-Men, Magneto says to Xavier, “The war is still coming, Charles, and I intend to fight it by any means necessary .” He responds to the war being waged against him by exerting his own power; he becomes the evil against which he is fighting, adopting an attitude of superiority and domination. In fact, Magneto agrees to “play by their rules,” as he says in X-2. He, Stryker, and others engage in the violent use of their power to take what they want. This, as Levinas would say, is the arbitrary violence of the I, “for itself.”

In his essay “Uniqueness,” Levinas explained the self and its freedom and power, saying, “The human individual lives in the will to live, that is to say in freedom, in his freedom which affirms itself as an egotism of the I. . . . But the human individual is also negativity in his freedom, in excluding the freedom of others which limits his own . . . an eventual war of each against all.”⁷ The individual—the I, for Levinas—enacts his or her freedom for the purposes of survival, pleasure, happiness, and so on. Using one’s power and freedom to secure such benefits for the self, however, entails limiting the freedom and benefits of the other, especially when one’s interests conflict with the other’s interests.

Many characters in the X-Verse have powers that enable them to take what they need or desire from others or to force others to conform to their will. Mystique, for example, imitates others in order to manipulate, gain trust, or deceive her way into positions of access to what she desires. Storm holds the extraordinary power to control the weather, literally harnessing the forces of nature to create tornadolike wind and lightning. And Charles Xavier has the incomparable power of communicating directly with other minds. Indeed, he acknowledges that if he were to concentrate too hard, he would kill the person whose mind he enters. Mere concentration of his power can kill!

Perhaps the strongest power imagery we find in the trilogy, however, is used to announce the extraordinary might and supremacy of Magneto. He is able to manipulate metals of all kinds: creating pathways before him that allow him to walk across gaping voids; paralyzing and stretching Wolverine’s adamantium frame; holding guns to the heads of dozens of police officers at once; halting the X-Men jet in midair; extracting the iron out of a security guard’s blood to create a tool to demolish his plastic prison; and even moving the entire Golden Gate Bridge! Magneto’s incredible power makes him capable of truly astounding feats. He could potentially harness his power for the benefit of others, without ethical compromise. But instead, he uses his power to enact retribution on those who threaten him. He chooses to engage in acts of war in response to the war being waged against mutants.

In X-Men, Magneto uses his power violently to transform the senator into a mutant, calling on the theory of evolution but deciding that “God works too slowly.” Having succeeded, Magneto sets his sights on a similar transformation of all humankind. And to enact his plan, he steals Rogue and sacrifices her. Knowing that his mutant-making machine would drain him to the point of death, he chooses to transfer his power to Rogue, which actually means stealing her power in order to save himself from death. Magneto conceives of his act as one of strength, rather than of cowardice, as we might surmise from his earlier comment to Xavier: “Still unwilling to make sacrifices—that’s what makes you weak.” Magneto believes that strength comes not through self-sacrifice for others, but rather through the willingness to sacrifice others—to make ethical compromises—to reach his own selfish goals.

In X-2, we actually see the softer side of Magneto, as he teams up with the X-Men to fight the evil Stryker’s plan to annihilate all mutants. We can recognize his vulnerability as one of Stryker’s victims, and we even see remorse when he reveals to Xavier and the others that it was he who told Stryker about the true purpose of Xavier’s school. As soon as he gets the chance, however, Magneto strikes back violently. He is not content with stopping Stryker; rather, he turns the war on the war-maker, thus becoming the war-maker. As soon as he makes his way into the inner chamber of Stryker’s homemade Cerebro, he simply reverses the target of violence from mutant to human.

He chooses to engage in war, rather than to stop the warring. He uses his power not to protect those who are other than him, but rather to destroy those who are other, just as he sought to do in X-Men. Stryker and he become brothers in war.

In X-3, we once again see Magneto’s mentality of war between “us” and “them.” During his speech in the woods, he insists, “Make no mistake, my brothers. They will draw first blood. They will force their cure upon us. The only question is: will you join my brotherhood and fight? Or wait for the inevitable genocide? Who will you stand with—humans or us?” Sadly, Magneto fails to recognize that his own fight is a kind of genocide, an intentional destruction of human beings simply because they are not mutants. In fact, he once again adopts the tactics of his enemy, saying, “We are the cure,” and encouraging his followers to strike back against both humans and traitor-mutants “with vengeance and fury.” Magneto becomes a terrorist leader, as we might recognize from his televised message to humans following Pyro’s flaming attack on the medical lab. He even abandons his most beloved follower, Mystique, when she is “cured,” saying, “I’m sorry, dear. You’re not one of us anymore.”

Surely, a discussion of power and war would be incomplete without acknowledging Jean’s turn to the dark side: her transformation into the dark, almost sinister Phoenix. Her power overtakes her, and she seems to revel in it. When Wolverine suggests that Xavier can “fix it” by re-creating the psychic barriers that once contained her power, Jean hisses, “I don’t want to fix it,” with a terrifying intensity that hints at the true darkness possible in her power. And, of course, we see this prophetic moment fulfilled when she lifts Xavier out of his wheelchair and viciously murders her former teacher and mentor. Even Magneto looks petrified on witnessing her display of unrestrained power, a feeling to which he returns at the end of the film. When he has been “cured,” he watches Jean as she obliterates everyone and everything in sight, asking, “What have I done?”

Peace

In Xavier, we see a kind of peace that is not simply a temporary halt of physical aggression. Rather, peace occurs when the two warring parties disengage from any exertion of their individual power. Such peace requires trust in the Other to make responsible choices in using his or her power, as Xavier teaches. Levinas told us that peace exists only when we recognize the Other’s uniqueness, and, as I would put it, we believe in the goodness of the Other. In one of his books, Totality and Infinity, Levinas explained that the encounter with the unique and precious Other calls into question the arbitrary use of my own powers and freedom. He said, “Conscience welcomes the Other. It is the revelation of a resistance to my powers that does not counter them as a greater force, but calls in question the naive right of my powers, my glorious spontaneity as a living being. Morality begins when freedom, instead of being justified by itself, feels itself to be arbitrary and violent.”⁸ Morality begins, according to Levinas, when I realize that the uncritical use of my power can cause harm to others. I become moral, or ethical, when I choose to be very careful with my power so as not to harm or limit the freedom of others. In fact, being ethical means suspending my own powers, desires, and endeavors for the good of the other person. And it also means engaging in “discourse” with the other person so that she can reveal her goodness to me.

Xavier is able to hear people and discourse with them, and he is very aware of his power’s potential to harm. He chooses to listen to others and to use his powers to protect mutants, and he tries to teach his students to understand their powers and learn to control them, responsibly. The professor believes in his students’ ability to use their powers responsibly, and he believes in their capacity for goodness, as he does even with Magneto and the humans who might threaten what he has created.

In the very beginning of X-Men, when Magneto asks him what he’s looking to find inside his mind, Xavier replies, “I’m looking for hope.” He wants, more than anything, to enable those around him to have faith and trust that people can choose what is right: that peace is possible. In the scene where Magneto is about to murder dozens of police officers, Xavier takes over the mind of one of Magneto’s minions and tells him to let them go. In that moment, we see that Xavier could kill Magneto if he wanted to, as he has him by the throat. Rather than killing him, he gives him the choice to stand down. By the end of the film, when Magneto insists that he will fight the war, “by any means necessary,” Xavier calmly and almost lovingly replies, “And I will always be there, old friend.” Xavier clearly has faith even in Magneto and even in the very moments during which Magneto is enacting war. Whereas Magneto believes only in the goodness of his own kind—Mystique and other mutants—Xavier believes in the goodness of all individuals.

A particularly clear example of Xavier’s wise guidance can be found in his relationship with Wolverine, a fairly complex character. When we first meet Wolverine in X-Men, he is quite the loner. He doesn’t want anything to do with Rogue or the school . . . at least, not until he encounters Xavier. Wolverine accepts Xavier’s offer to help him piece together his past, and he does not resist Xavier’s request to give him a chance to help him. In X-2, when Xavier shows Wolverine how Cerebro works, he says, “Through Cerebro, I’m connected to [all mutants], and they to me. You see, Logan, we’re not as alone as you think.” He wants Wolverine to believe that there are people he can trust and depend on.

In all three films, of course, Wolverine kills a lot of people. But we also see him adopt Xavier’s attitude of faith in others and commitment to protecting them, although he certainly takes on this attitude only selectively. When Rogue runs away from the school in X-Men, Wolverine tracks her down and convinces her to follow her own instincts. He admits that Xavier seems to be someone who genuinely wants to help them, and he tells her to “give these geeks one more shot.” In other words, he encourages her to have faith in them, even though reason has previously taught her to be suspicious. Wolverine’s own growing faith in the goodness of others—the very lesson that Xavier teaches—is further evidenced by his sacrifice for Rogue at the end of X-Men. He volunteers to be the one to approach Magneto’s machine, so that if he fails, Cyclops will still have the chance to save the day. Wolverine then gives his very life force to Rogue to save her, literally shedding his blood for her. He sacrifices his own good because he has such strong faith in Rogue’s goodness and preciousness.

In X-2, Kurt Wagner attests to the power of faith more explicitly than any other character, wisely telling us, “Most people will never know anything beyond what they see with their own two eyes.” Surely, the faith that Xavier teaches is precisely a belief in the goodness in others, which we often cannot see by their actions alone. At the end of the film, Xavier’s X-Men appear in the president’s office, and Xavier extends to him an offer of peace, saying, “Mr. President, this is not a threat. It is an opportunity. There are forces in this world, both mutant and human alike, who believe a war is coming . . . and there have been casualties, losses on both sides. Mr. President, what you are about to tell the world is true. This is a moment . . . to repeat the mistakes of the past, or to work together for a better future. We’re here to stay, Mr. President. The next move is yours.” Herein lies the Levinasian point: peace is found through discourse, commitment to cooperation, and faith in the other’s ability to enact goodness.

In X-3, the peace Xavier teaches becomes far more difficult. His message remains the same, as poignantly articulated by Storm at Xavier’s funeral. We might think of nonviolent leaders in our own world, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, when we hear her words: “We live in an age of darkness—a world full of fear, hate, and intolerance. But in every age, there are those who fight against it. Charles Xavier was born into a world divided—a world he tried to heal. . . . It seems the destiny of great men to see their goals unfulfilled. Charles was more than a leader—more than a teacher. He was a friend. When we were afraid, he gave us strength. And when we were alone, he gave us a family.” Xavier’s commitment to peace and his faith in the goodness of others never wavered, even up to the end of his life. He once said to Jean, “You have more power than you can imagine, Jean. The question is: will you control that power? Or let it control you?”

Though it seems that Xavier’s intention was always to teach Jean to control her own powers, his creation of the aforementioned “psychic barriers,” which were designed to “cage the beast” within her, is certainly problematic. He created within her a dual consciousness, keeping the full power of the Phoenix hidden from her conscious mind. Is this a violation of her uniqueness, similar to the oppressive or violent use of power that we have identified in Magneto and others? On the one hand, perhaps Xavier was merely protecting her from powers that no individual—and especially a young child—could control alone. Perhaps he was helping her by containing such overwhelming power until she was wise enough and strong enough to control the Phoenix on her own. On the other hand, his act of control over her seems to indicate a lack of faith in her ability to restrain herself. Xavier himself acknowledges this, saying that he “chose the lesser of two evils.” Such a choice is still a choice in favor of evil, after all! It is an ethical compromise that violates his genuinely peaceful intention to trust others’ abilities to do the right thing.

During the initial flashback to Jean’s childhood home, Magneto asks, “Couldn’t you just make [her parents] say yes?” Xavier answers, “Yes, I could, but it’s not my way.” And Magneto replies, “Ah, power corrupts and all that.” Xavier’s desire for peace requires relinquishing control and having faith in the other to make free, yet responsible, choices. On return to Jean’s home, when the Phoenix has taken over and she is torturing Xavier, he asks her to trust him—to “let him in” to her mind—and he tells her that he wants to help her, not control her. He begs her to restrain her power, saying, “Don’t let it control you.” Here, we see him pleading with her, encouraging her to refrain from enacting her power over him for her own purposes. He is asking her to choose responsibly: to choose peace, rather than war. Even to the very end of his own life, Xavier holds onto the difficult, radical faith that is the belief in the goodness of the other, even the other who chooses war. Peace can never be attained through war, as the two endeavors arise out of diametrically opposed dispositions or orientations. War is enacted out of suspicion, distrust of the other, and devotion to the survival and benefit of the self. Peace is enacted out of love, faith in the goodness of the other, and commitment of the self to the survival and flourishing of others.

NOTES

1 See Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand (Twentieth Century Fox, 2006), DVD.

2 Emmanuel Levinas, “Peace and Proximity,” in Basic Philosophical Writings, edited by Adriaan T, Peperzak, Simon Critchley, and Robert Bernasconi (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), p. 165.

3 Ibid., p. 166.

4 Ibid., p. 166.

5 See Bryan Singer’s X-Men (Twentieth Century Fox, 2000), DVD.

6 See Bryan Singer’s X-2: X-Men United (Twentieth Century Fox, 2003), DVD.

7 Emmanuel Levinas, “Uniqueness,” in Entre Nous: Thinking-of-the-Other, translated by Michael B. Smith and Barbara Harshav (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), pp. 189-190.

8 Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority, translated by Alphonso Lingis (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1969), p. 84.