How The X-Men Universe Was Changed After 9/11 | Screen Rant
How did Marvel's X-Men comics respond to 9/11? Superhero comics have always toed a careful line. On the one hand, they're set in a fantastical universe where anything is possible; on the other hand, the world needs to be recognizable enough to viewers to feel real. Marvel in particular has always stressed their comics are based in "the world outside your window" - a world just like ours, albeit with occasional alien invasions.
That naturally raises the question of just how comics should deal with dramatic events that reshape popular culture, for better or for worse. When the Twin Towers fell in 2001, Marvel knew they had no choice but to confront the problem head-on. Marvel's initial response was cautious and careful, with a handful of dedicated miniseries and one-shots, as well as an unforgettable issue of Amazing Spider-Man. But, of course, as the months passed individual writers began to deal with the issues in a less coordinated manner.
At the time, Grant Morrison had just launched his New X-Men run - and he'd confronted the X-Men with their greatest tragedy. New X-Men #115 saw an army of rogue Sentinels swoop down upon the island nation of Genosha, slaughtering its entire mutant population; in one memorable scene, a damaged jet plane flew into a skyscraper. That story had been published just a month before 9/11, and it left the X-Men comics in a strange place. Somewhat inevitably, this unfortunate synergy meant Morrison's New X-Men run became a place for the writer to process his own conflicted emotions over 9/11, and by late 2002 the X-Men books were actually describing Genosha as the X-Men's own 9/11 in their marketing. New X-Men #133 opened with Wolverine taking on the Taliban in Afghanistan, and it introduced a new Afghan mutant designed by Grant Morrison and Ethan Van Sciver - Dust.
The X-Men comics have always been famed for their celebration of diversity, but unfortunately Morrison and Van Sciver weren't really up to the task; they were understandably still processing their own emotional responses to 9/11, and as a result they struggled to avoid stereotypes. It's telling, after all, that the Afghan mutant is a human dust-storm. In Dust's origin story she is rescued by Wolverine - symbolically representing the female Muslim women who are victims of Taliban oppression, rescued by the intervention of a westerner who has their best interests at heart. According to Wolverine, the only word Sooraya would say for some time was "Turaab," or "dust," although Morrison hadn't really shown much attention to detail; she was speaking the wrong language.
It's easy to be overly critical, of course. Morrison and Van Sciver hadn't really handled the story - or their new character - particularly well, but they'd nonetheless established a precedent for the X-Men books to connect spiritually and thematically with 9/11. Dust went on to become a major character in Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost's own New X-Men run, and they handled her far better; she was still clearly being portrayed by outsiders looking in at Islamic culture, but they at least avoided many of the stereotypes. Meanwhile, the Genoshan genocide has become the fulcrum of mutant history. According to Jonathan Hickman, this was the reason Charles Xavier abandoned his dream of peaceful coexistence in order to establish the new mutant nation of Krakoa.