"Cute Mutants" by S.J. Whitby (series; 2020-2021)

**X-Men but make it queer.  Erm.  More queer.  Explicitly queer, I guess?  X-Men but make it explicitly queer.  So damn queer**

I already wrote about this for my year-end list, but I feel like this series is deserving of a post of its own, because there is a whole lot going on here

In a large and still-expanding universe (so far by my count, there are 5 novels in the main arc, 3 spinoff novels, and an anthology of stories written by other authors), Whitby has written a story about an X-Men fan who gets mutant powers, and says to herself, "ok.  I know what to do with these."

[note, I'm tagging this both "Series (concluded)" and "Series (ongoing)", because the main storyline Whitby set out to tell goes through the first 5 books and the first spinoff, which takes places between Books 4 and 5.  But there's been more since then!]

Let's get one thing out of the way right off the bat:  This series is woke as fuck.  There are characters who are homosexual and bisexual and asexual, characters who are transgender and gender nonbinary and genderfluid.  Two of the main characters are second-generation immigrants.  There are disabled characters, characters with neuroses and other neurodivergences.  There is everything, the author basically decided they were tired of superhero stories without any minority characters and decided to write a series with only minority characters.  It's a rainbow fuckin' jamboree, it's a chaotic mess and it's gorgeous.  If you have a problem with that, uhh, maybe pick another series

“The flux?” The word tastes different on my lips. 

“That is what you are in your heart, is it not? Unfettered and unbound, seeing a truth deeper than that carved by the confines of your body. Nature is whimsical and playful. It denies boundaries, and surges between them. It wants to find the sparks, to explore difference and seek change, to claw at the walls of what appears real and find truth buried beneath. Whether you are myriad or singular, however the arc of your change, I am the mother of life in all its complexity.” 

There’s a smile on my face, even though I don’t have one. “That’s a pretty nice speech. Usually I just say, like, genderfluid or whatever.”

To be frank, there are a lot of things here that might normally turn me off of a novel.  The main character is a bit of a Mary Sue author-insert (I mean, an X-Men fan who gets mutant powers . . . yeah), but to be honest that's straight up called out in one of the spinoff novels from another character's perspective ("oh my god, you are cool and have a great mutant power and everything always works out for you, how can you still be so insecure and complain-y?" <- paraphrasing, but basically that).  It is aggressively YA, taking place at a highschool and absurdly full of meme references and teenspeak.  Not even kidding, it starts with, "My name is Dylan Taylor, human incarnation of the burning dumpster gif, and this is my life."  I mean, we get to see the main heroes' groupchat:

Moodring: well just to let u know

Moodring: i am 💯ur ride or die bitch

Moodring: so ur stuck w me now

Chatterbox: good and same which u might regret

Chatterbox: because im super annoying

Moodring: shuut uuuuuup

Moodring: the important thing is MALL TRIP

Yes, that is an actual passage from the novel

And yet, it all works, it really does

I loved this book because, despite the silly wrapping of queer highschooler shenanigans, it has a lot to say.  Our main characters are prepared when they get their powers because they read the comics.  Meaning they're prepared to be heroes.  But they're also prepared to know the world isn't going to accept them.  Is going to fear them, is going to hate them.  Then again, some of them were already prepared for that anyways (one of them puts it quite succinctly "I was brown before I was mutant.")

This book takes what the greats like Chris Claremont did with the X-Men, using them as a lens to talk about fear and prejudice and humanity's seemingly inescapable tendency towards xenophobia, and dials it up to 11.  While it's a serious subject, and the pain that these characters go through as they face seemingly an entire world arrayed against them, the series does take time to smile at it too:

“What does ‘Magneto was right’ mean? Is it some gay code I don’t know about?”

“Alyse! It’s not gay code. It’s an X-Men thing.”

She snorts. “I get the feeling X-Men is gay code all on its own.”

Alyse is not wrong

And yes, I loved these characters, especially our main character.  Because while Dylan can be frustration, it's a frustration born of love.  I'd argue that the series works because of Dylan's narrative voice, all of her self-doubt and insecurity, "Ugh, how can one person be so dumb? I should be used to it by now, but I keep surprising myself with my own stupidity."

Because we all know what it's like to feel alone in highschool, to feel like everyone secretly hates you, to dream of getting superpowers because dammit then at least people would like you, maybe?  This quote made me want to jump inside the book and give her a hug:

There’s an X-Men book called New Mutants about a team of teenage superheroes who are all misfits but end up brought together by their powers. I’ve read it so many times the book fell apart. Being part of a group of people somewhere between friends and family is something I used to dream of, but it always seemed even less realistic than the mutant powers. In this half-awake time it seems that I’m perched on the edge of it, except it’s a void that I can’t bring any tangible shape to. A failure of imagination. I can’t imagine having a group of friends like that.

It gets better, Dylan, it really does.  And to be fair, she gets her own, oh does she get her own.  There's a scene in Book 3 that was so badass as soon as it's over I flipped back to the start of the chapter so I could read it again (for those that have read the book, when Dani gets back from talking to the preacher, and Dylan and Roxy drive off to go . . .)

I honestly want this adapted to a tv series for many reasons, but high up among them is I want to see that sequence on the screen.  Dylan gets in the car and puts in her earbuds--something badass, I'm thinking "Cherry Bomb" by The Runaways.  We see the chaos onscreen, but the audio is just her music.  She takes out her headphones and the music fades, final scene.  Fade to black, roll credits.  Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb

(I'd also accept "Tonight" by Le Butcherettes, "Drain the Blood" by the Distillers . . . we have options)

I loved this book

Oh, and Book 5 is dedicated "For Dylan, who woke up in my head one day and wouldn’t shut up" and that is one of my favorite dedications of all time

I loved this book

(Also I probably have a crush on Dani, and I'm not ashamed of this)

“I’ll fucking kill her. And you can’t stop me, because I’ve got a stone knife. On the internet it says that your powers don’t work against—”

His rant tails off into a scream, because Dani’s taken his arm off at the shoulder, leaving a jagged knot of bone. “My powers work just fine.”