Social Commentary: The Importance of Setting in Stan Lee's "The X Men"

During class, it was noted that from the very first panel of "The X Men" (Stan Lee, 1963) that the story is set in the world of reality. There is no Gotham or Metropolis. Instead, Professor X's mutant academy is located in "New York's Westchester County" (which, for those who are wondering, is not a fictional county at all). There seems to be some sort of significance - in my opinion at the very least - in setting a fantastical, fictitious story in a realistic, everyday setting. This is especially the case if we keep in mind comicbookgirl19's analysis of the socio-political climate of the U.S. surrounding the creation of X Men.The YouTuber asserts that strong thematic correlations exist between the story of the X Men and important social and political movements of the time. From the very first issues documenting human reception of the X Men (mirroring Martin Luther King JR and Malcom X's response to racism) to the second wave of the X Men surrounding the "island plot" (mirroring many people's emotional response to the Vietnam War), there exists a much more direct correlation between reality and the world of the comic than we have seen before. I believe X Men uses setting as a catalyst for social commentary through magical realism.