Iron Man may be known for its cutting-edge armor, but the X-Men leave Tony Stark in the dust thanks to Charles Xavier’s secret workshops.
While Tony Stark may have innumerable versions of his powerful Ironman Armor – constantly updating the suit to take on new threats – it turns out that the X-Men actually have the ultimate futuristic beat when it comes to variety. Tony has admitted in the past that he addresses any problem related to how a new suit can fix it, but while his solutions tend to include better armor or a new type of weapon, Marvel’s mutants face a far more diverse set of problems .
The truth was revealed in Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-Statix # 6. Way ahead of its time, X-Statix uses superheroes as a metaphor for celebrity and touches on topics such as sexuality, race and mental health. The team itself was as concerned about fame as it was about helping others, and often had to hide the truth of its identity and power from the media. For some team members, this meant wearing special costumes that enabled them to better control or use their abilities.
The theme starts with Charles Xavier helping X-Statix member Venus Dee Milo find her family who she recently learned was sent to another dimension when her powers first emerged. When the search fails, Xavier and Venus turn to other things – Xavier has created a special suit so that Venus and teammate Mister Sensitive can be intimate despite their powers. On the way to inspect the suit, they pass a costume hall that Xavier confirms is just one of many workshops devoted to making bespoke armor for the mutants of the earth.
Later that night, the costume hall is raided by a mysterious villain who, due to trauma, turns out to be an interdimensional parasite in the form of Venus’ cousin Jamal. Combining several of Xavier’s suits, the villain reveals flying skills, Doctor Octopus-like grasping limbs, and many different types of energy projections. X-Statix are able to defeat “Jamal” (and save Venus’ family from their extradimensional exile), but only after Xavier reveals a new suit adapted to Mister Sensitive’s recently increased power level – something The leader of the X-Men reveals he already had it on hand, just in case.
The challenge and scale of Xavier’s bespoke suit operation is difficult to imagine, as he apparently develops armor for every known mutant who needs it, including theoretical suits to offset the increased skill levels and use quality of life costumes for personal, non-superheroes. X-Statix reveals a few secrets about how the X-Men really work, but Xavier’s many hidden workshops are one of the most intriguing. History shows that Professor X constantly uses his wealth and genius to not only equip superheroes, but also to help individual mutants cope with infinitely different powers, from hypersensitive skin to a literal cloud of unstable energy. Fans knew Xavier had helped his own students – for example, by equipping Cyclops with a ruby quartz visor to control his optical explosions – but X-Statix shows that the X-Men’s operation works to an extent that Tony Stark would blush.
Iron Man may have created some formidable armor (although some suits, like the Godkiller and Godbuster armor, weren’t technically made by Tony himself) and even helped replicate the Avengers’ skills in the non-canon Avengers : Tech-On, but Xavier’s attempt to craft bespoke costumes for myriad mutants, each with unique powers and needs, is more ambitious. Even so, it makes sense that with access to genius mutants like Beast, Forge, Trinary, and Jumbo Carnation, the tech variety of the X-Men would dwarf that of Iron Man, who is known to be sensitive when it comes to anyone else who has access to his designs at all. When it comes to brute force, few inventors in the Marvel Universe can hold a candle Ironman, but when it comes to wondrous engineering feats, the evidence provided by X-Statix suggests that X-Men actually deserve Tony’s crown.
About the author
Robert Wood
(295 published articles)
Robert Wood is the comics editor at Screen Rant and the author of The False Elephant (and 99 Other Unreasonably Short Stories). He received his Masters in English Literature from Lancaster University and happily spends his days practicing it on Daredevil and the Hulk.
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source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/10/03/x-mens-secret-workshop-makes-iron-man-look-like-an-amateur/
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