Wendy Faris gives 5 major characteristic for magic realism. Five characteristics that make up a world both magical and real, is Wendy saying that simple applying these methods can conduct whether the genre is magical realism or other wise. Marvel and DC comics have been around since the 30s and have vast stories that apply to these characteristics. Comic books have matured and have taken the film industry by storm.  Marvel is known for Avengers, Spiderman, The Fantastic Four and so many more. The marvel team with the most realistic problems with civil rights. The X-Men would be the best example because they fight for their rights and keep peace between Humans and Mutants.  The X-Men have saved their world numerous times, helping the world that fears them so much, they still fight.

           The first characteristic of magic realism is that it combines fantasy in a way that magical elements grow organically out of there own reality. Stan Lee created the X-Men September 1963, Jack Kirby there first artist. He created a team of mutants that are the subspecies of human who are just born with superhuman abilities. They all vary from different genes but some get more physical changes than others and some look identical to you and me. The team wears blue and yellow costumes the all have the same logo on their belts an X. They fight for their race, justice and to show the world that not all mutants are bad. The world has a very real tone to it. They're based out of a school in their worlds upstate New York, Westchester. Professor X is the leader in the fight for Mutant rights and founder of the team. Professor X and his agonist old Friend Magneto have been said to be based after two civil rights leaders. Martin Luther King, Professor X and Malcolm X, Magneto. The way this world's people that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and the numerous writers to follow see mutants can be seen as what we would see as racism.  Other topics like Anti-Semitism, religious, freedom with this battle with society. In every variation the X-men always have issues with man.  All the X-men have some many variation of the mutant powers anyone can have any power. In their world people are just born that way, just like here you can be born and be very different from your neighbor. The element of fantasy is that maybe your neighbor has three metal claws in his knuckles or shoots Laser beams from his eyes.

           Faris’s next characteristic the description in detail of this magical real factor that has  a strong presence of the phenomenal world.  The artist is in charge of making world like ours on the pages. The actual drawings of the very real world just with signs in the background hating on mutants and usually in the background of these landscapes you can see that it resembles very popular areas whether it's time square or Niagara falls. The world created for the X-men and other heroes is similar to our own and even now today in comics they show this discuss for mutants in the stories. Now in our generation with twitter and other new forms of communication we see tweets and texts conversations, of how strongly it’s shown in this world. Giving thought bubbles to people on the streets who are saying just hateful things just because the guy has a tail or look different. Sound familiar?  In fact this fear of mutants is shown in the marvel universes that on several occasion in the series the Ultimate Spiderman, Peter Parker frequently asked and accused of being a mutant. When seen with X-men and then dating Kitty Pride a member of the team, Spider-man was abducted with the rest of team and is taken by Deadpool to and island game show By Brian Michael Bendis.  Getting a strong presence here in other comics also like the Fantastic Four when Johnny storm is attacked for being accused as a Mutant.

           The storyline know as House of M was the turning point in marvel when the Scarlet Witch who is also a mutant use her reality bending powers to stop the mutant gene from existing . When she says "no more mutants". She uses her reality bending powers to create ideal real worlds for all of Marvels Avengers and X-men. Therefore even one mutant was able transform the marvel universe.

           Another characteristic that the X-men comics have is that power to make the reader just pause and flip back and really question if that just happened. The two contradictory understandings of events is the 3rd characteristic.  Even within already magical real world do we find two realms near merging like the 4th characteristic? Nightcrawler or Kurt Wagner, the German X-man whose mutant abilities to allow him teleport in a BAMF of smoke. Kurt was born with a tail and resembled a blue demon monkey with yellow eyes and blue fuzzy skin.  Kurt was chased away for his demon-like appearance and is heisted to be approached by people in the comics. He is a teleported for the X team and faces the most hatred side of society and often hides his appearance with a device that would make him normal. He was once put in a cage and dehumanized to work in a circus as prisoner.  Sadly Nightcrawler died in 2010 during the X-men story X-men: Second Coming. Nightcrawler was fighting a villain called Bastion who stuck his arm through his chest when predicting where Nightcrawler’s body would manifest. Then even in death Nightcrawler helps the X-men when Wolverine loses his mind and becomes possessed.  Nightcrawler reaches from his realm of heaven and into Wolverine's mind. Another example with the same character is Nightcrawler’s Resurrection the bond his shares with his evil father allowed him cross realms into heaven and attack his Son’s paradise. Using his connection with these creatures called BAMFs, which are basically little Nightcralwers, Kurt was able to summon his X-men friends to join him in heaven and help him defeat his father.

           These characters often deal with the questions of time space and identity. These are the 5th characteristic according to Wendy Faris. Everyone in his or her life has had the question of identity of who they are in the world come into effect. In the X-Men both Wolverine and Iceman face these same questions. Wolverine the most common name for him is Logan and he was a Canadian based character with sharp claws and healing abilities. His claws are retractable and his appearance is a hairy angry man. But his entire life he’s faced the question of identities from the X-Men comic books to his own solo series. He lost his memory a bunch  of times in the comics and due to his healing abilities, he’s been around for a while. Example. Iceman is the most recent and most sociable x-men I can use as an example of identity today. As of two weeks ago into 2013 run of Uncanny X –Men  Iceman Bobby Drake comes out of the closest to his adult self thus bringing him out of the closet as well.

During a time loop for the All- New X-men series, which are younger versions of the first original team of x-men were casted into the mainstream comics. When an Older Beast brings them in hopes to stop Cyclops from a mutant genocide. At this point in their timeline Cyclops has lost his old noble ways and became a much dark man.  Iceman Powers hide his full appearance but he still had his question of identity. Till now Iceman is fully out of the closet super hero fighting in a magical realistic world.

           Secondary Characteristics are common to the stories but are not as defining than the five previous.  Comic books are often grouped together into one giant novel called graphic novel, which is a novel, in comic strip form. The graphic novel Nightcrawler: The Winding Way shows how the secondary characteristic meta-fictional dimensions are common. The reader follows a voice in fragments of potential stories. In Nightcrawler: The Winding Way see fragments of Nightcrawler’s past where one is free to peruse these stories and follow the character. Nightcrawler and some his x-men retrace his past to stop a demon from another world. X-men are subjected to racism, dehumanization and also with a connection to another spiritual world.

The only way I could agree with the third secondary characteristic that the narrative appears as fresh and childlike is the fact that you can see how the characters look and see the glimpse of their facial expressions. In comics now you see a lot more blood, violence, and sex. So that’s why when you read comic book you want to know the right age group.

The fourth of the characteristic, is repetition as a narrative principle. Then with all books leading back to the common principle of progress. The sixth is that book uses their magic against the established social order.  In the Astonishing X-men volume one Gifted. Has Scott Summers aka Cyclops creating another team of X-men after the fall of the old team. They fight against the government in the second issue where the social order the government in a very magical realistic world fighting against mutants.

The Marvel Team known as the X-men are one of the best ways of showing how these superheroes comic books which could be seem like a short stories deal with realistic hardships and overcoming challenges that society brings them.  The X-men would be the best examples of characters that are magical realism factor. Nightcrawler, Wolverine even Charles Xavier too has all felt these real hardships and are written as fine as any other novel.

Work cited

Faris, Wendy.  “Scheherazade’s Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction.”         Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. L. Parkinson and W. Faris.          Durham: Duke UP,1995. 163-190. Print.

"On Malcolm, Martin and That X-Men Analogy Thing." Phenderson Djl Clark. N.p., 21 Feb. 2015. Web. 09 Dec. 2015

Bendis, Brian Michael. "Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 16: Deadpool (Trade Paperback)." Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 16: Deadpool (Trade Paperback). Marvelcomics, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.

Sacasa, Roberto Aguirre. "Nightcrawler: The Winding Way (Trade Paperback)." Nightcrawler: The Winding Way (Trade Paperback). Dan Buckley, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015