X is for X-Men and Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters

Well, this might not be the most original topic for “X”, but I simply couldn’t let this blogfest pass me by without talking about the X-Men at least once. And since I’m running out of steam a bit in this challenge, I decided to abandon my original idea for this post (in which I planned to give a long, drawn out – and probably pompous – speech on metaphorical mutant racism and its real life counterparts). Instead I thought I’d talk about something a little more personal.

To begin, the X-Men comics are my favorite comic book series, and have been since I first found my way to the superhero genre. I was immediately drawn to the concept of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, where Professor X taught teenage mutants to harness their powers and work together as a team. I always found the idea of young kids fighting evil exceptionally interesting, and more importantly, I love the idea of those same kids going through training, studying superherodom the way normal kids study to become an engineer or lawyer.

This concept stayed with me over the years, until the fall of 2011 when it – along with a few other books and movies – sparked the idea for my current novel. Unsurprisingly, the storyline involves three young high school students who are recruited into an elite, superhero team and taken through several months of intense training. While it doesn’t resemble X-Men too closely, my story certainly draws on Stan Lee’s for inspiration.

And for those of you who, like me, are X-Men enthusiasts, I wanted to mention a TV show called Alphas that friend Steven introduced it to me last year. Alphas is a SyFy channel series created by Zak Penn – better known as the writer X-Men 2, X-Men: The Last Stand, Elketra, The Incredible Hulk, and The Avengers (which he co-wrote with Joss Whedon). Here’s a quick synopsis:

The series follows five people with super abilities, known as "Alphas", led by noted neurologist and psychologist Dr. Lee Rosen as they investigate criminal cases involving other suspected Alphas. Rosen and his team of Alphas operate under the auspices of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. While investigating these crimes, the team quickly discovers that a group known as "Red Flag", which was thought defeated and eliminated long ago, is using other Alphas to commit crimes.

If you haven’t seen it already, I’d highly recommend watching it. Season 2 begins this summer!

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This post is part of the Blogging A through Z Challenge 2012. My theme is (in case you didn’t already guess) science fiction. Stay tuned for the rest of the alphabet, and if you’d like to check in on the rest of the participants, simply click here.