X-Men No. 32: Museum Object and Cultural History
X-Men No. 32: date made: 1994-05. maker: Marvel Comics. Object Name: comic book.
The object in the museum catalogue
Artist Andy Kubert's cover for this X-Men comic book features the character of Psylocke fighting the villain Spiral. Psylocke, a superhero with telepathic abilities and psionic weapons, was introduced by Marvel Comics in 1979 as Betsy Braddock, sister of Captain Britain. She was integrated into the X-Men series 1986.
In 1989, Marvel made the controversial decision to introduce a storyline where the British Braddock exchanges bodies with that of an East Asian. Marvel Comics' X-Men were introduced by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby in 1963. The story follows a group of mutants born with superpowers led by wheelchair using telepath Professor Charles Xavier. Facing fear and prejudice for their differences, the comic has been used an allegory for topics related to race, gender and sexual identity. The X-Men first ran from 1963-1970, being reintroduced in 1975.
The X-Men have become one of Marvel's most notable franchises, introducing many of the company's most popular characters and many spin-off titles as well as movies, television programs, video games and other merchandise.
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: 1994-05
- maker: Marvel Comics
- Object Name: comic book
- Physical Description: paper (overall material)
- Physical Description: ink (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 10 1/4 in x 6 5/8 in; 26.035 cm x 16.8275 cm
- Subject: Comics
- Subject: X-Men
- ID Number: 2018.0171.09
- accession number: 2018.0171
- catalog number: 2018.0171.09
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.