Disney has announced that Morph is going to be a regular on X-Men ’97, and they’re going to be non-binary. My first reaction was to erupt with delight. The 90s X-Men Animated Series is still my favorite adaptation of Marvel’s magnificent mutants, and as a non-binary fanby, seeing this sort of inclusion fills my soul with joy.
There’s a reason that the word “discourse” is becoming a dirty word in fandom. Bigots spewed their now-typical bigotry, some for clickbait, others because they’re just bigots. Those who actually learned something from X-Men, or already knew it and became X-Fans because of it, responded with varying degrees of appropriate scorn, welcoming the inclusion. Yet comments referencing the apparent lack of surprise at a shapeshifter being non-binary made me question whether it was becoming an unwise stereotype. I was forced to ask: is “non-binary shapeshifter” the new “Black guy with electric powers”? Are we being pigeonholed into a particular set of powers and abilities?
I quickly came to the conclusion that the answer is “no” – these are not in any meaningful way the same. The stereotype of Black superheroes with electrokinesis comes from the historically and tragically small pool of Black superheroes. Too many creators had Black Lightning (or his Superfriends rip-off Black Vulcan) as their only point of reference for a Black superhero. While that is changing, it remains a problem for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that electrokinesis has nothing to do with being Black.
Before I continue, I feel that it is important to stress that every non-binary person is different. Some of us feel no need to medically transition. Others would be happy to transition once and be done with it. There are those who consider themselves a third gender outside male and female entirely, and might or might not desire medical transition. Nevertheless, for many of us – myself included – being non-binary is a state of flux for which medical transition cannot yet provide an answer. For us, shapeshifting is a form of wish fulfillment that I suspect binary people do not experience themselves.
The title of this blog post references the trope in question. This matter has become common enough in speculative fiction that it is a storytelling device of its own. Most importantly, some form of bodily gender fluidity will probably become available to non-binary people one day if we as a species survive our current multitude of self-inflicted crises.
This is not to say that the current state of non-binary storytelling is ideal. The two characters that came to mind as elements of this trend, Marvel’s Loki and She-Ra 2018’s Double Trouble, are both examples of this. Marvel declared Loki non-binary for his/their eponymous series, which delighted me – and also being neo-pagan, made me happy for other reasons – but their handling of it on that show was, well, at times unfortunate. They put their status on TVA paperwork then promptly ignored it for the rest of the series. I am well aware that non-binary people do not owe anyone androgyny, but Loki’s shapeshifting remains irrelevant for most of the series. On the other hand, that shapeshifting is learned rather than innate, so that part is particularly welcome. Loki is not non-binary because they’re a shapeshifter, they’re a shapeshifter because they’re non-binary. That matters.
Double Trouble is fun. So much fun. Arguably more like classic Marvel Comics Loki than Tom Hiddeston’s portrayal, they are a cunning and gleeful agent of chaos only involved in the Etherian War for the money. They play one character against another with brilliant and smug abandon until they’re caught, then switch sides the moment it becomes profitable. Unfortunately, for an example of inclusion, for all their skill at copying others’ personalities, they lack one of their own. In the end, they’re little more than Catra’s negative personality traits wrapped up in a metamorphic skin. (I’d argue that Catra herself would be a far better example of non-binary inclusion if she identified as such, but that’s an entirely different article.)
Now we have Morph. I am really hopeful that this version of the character will nail the non-binary experience, especially since it’s clear that being non-binary won’t be their entire personality. (Mr. Sinister is a trigger warning all on his own, as he should be.) Not only that, X-Men TAS has an ongoing example of a shapeshifting character with a clear gender identity, and I hope Mystique shows up to make that clear, plus maybe develop a more nuanced portrayal of her. I also hope that we get more non-binary superheroes and villains who are not shapeshifters, but the ability is a natural state of progress for a non-binary with transhuman capability. Nevertheless, I think that not only is Morph’s journey into non-binary discovery a welcome one, I consider their story to be a potential learning experience for all of us, binary and non-binary alike.
Robin Flanagan (they/them), aka Peter Flanagan, lives in California with their wonderful wife and muse, a stepson, and a crazed feline. An occasionally too-avid player of and writer for tabletop roleplaying games, their other passion is metaphysics, which informs most of their fiction.
Should Shapeshifters Do It For A Change?
Disney has announced that Morph is going to be a regular on X-Men ’97, and they’re going to be non-binary. My first reaction was to erupt with delight. The 90s X-Men Animated Series is still my favorite adaptation of Marvel’s magnificent mutants, and as a non-binary fanby, seeing this sort of inclusion fills my soul with joy.
There’s a reason that the word “discourse” is becoming a dirty word in fandom. Bigots spewed their now-typical bigotry, some for clickbait, others because they’re just bigots. Those who actually learned something from X-Men, or already knew it and became X-Fans because of it, responded with varying degrees of appropriate scorn, welcoming the inclusion. Yet comments referencing the apparent lack of surprise at a shapeshifter being non-binary made me question whether it was becoming an unwise stereotype. I was forced to ask: is “non-binary shapeshifter” the new “Black guy with electric powers”? Are we being pigeonholed into a particular set of powers and abilities?
I quickly came to the conclusion that the answer is “no” – these are not in any meaningful way the same. The stereotype of Black superheroes with electrokinesis comes from the historically and tragically small pool of Black superheroes. Too many creators had Black Lightning (or his Superfriends rip-off Black Vulcan) as their only point of reference for a Black superhero. While that is changing, it remains a problem for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that electrokinesis has nothing to do with being Black.
Before I continue, I feel that it is important to stress that every non-binary person is different. Some of us feel no need to medically transition. Others would be happy to transition once and be done with it. There are those who consider themselves a third gender outside male and female entirely, and might or might not desire medical transition. Nevertheless, for many of us – myself included – being non-binary is a state of flux for which medical transition cannot yet provide an answer. For us, shapeshifting is a form of wish fulfillment that I suspect binary people do not experience themselves.
The title of this blog post references the trope in question. This matter has become common enough in speculative fiction that it is a storytelling device of its own. Most importantly, some form of bodily gender fluidity will probably become available to non-binary people one day if we as a species survive our current multitude of self-inflicted crises.
This is not to say that the current state of non-binary storytelling is ideal. The two characters that came to mind as elements of this trend, Marvel’s Loki and She-Ra 2018’s Double Trouble, are both examples of this. Marvel declared Loki non-binary for his/their eponymous series, which delighted me – and also being neo-pagan, made me happy for other reasons – but their handling of it on that show was, well, at times unfortunate. They put their status on TVA paperwork then promptly ignored it for the rest of the series. I am well aware that non-binary people do not owe anyone androgyny, but Loki’s shapeshifting remains irrelevant for most of the series. On the other hand, that shapeshifting is learned rather than innate, so that part is particularly welcome. Loki is not non-binary because they’re a shapeshifter, they’re a shapeshifter because they’re non-binary. That matters.
Double Trouble is fun. So much fun. Arguably more like classic Marvel Comics Loki than Tom Hiddeston’s portrayal, they are a cunning and gleeful agent of chaos only involved in the Etherian War for the money. They play one character against another with brilliant and smug abandon until they’re caught, then switch sides the moment it becomes profitable. Unfortunately, for an example of inclusion, for all their skill at copying others’ personalities, they lack one of their own. In the end, they’re little more than Catra’s negative personality traits wrapped up in a metamorphic skin. (I’d argue that Catra herself would be a far better example of non-binary inclusion if she identified as such, but that’s an entirely different article.)
Now we have Morph. I am really hopeful that this version of the character will nail the non-binary experience, especially since it’s clear that being non-binary won’t be their entire personality. (Mr. Sinister is a trigger warning all on his own, as he should be.) Not only that, X-Men TAS has an ongoing example of a shapeshifting character with a clear gender identity, and I hope Mystique shows up to make that clear, plus maybe develop a more nuanced portrayal of her. I also hope that we get more non-binary superheroes and villains who are not shapeshifters, but the ability is a natural state of progress for a non-binary with transhuman capability. Nevertheless, I think that not only is Morph’s journey into non-binary discovery a welcome one, I consider their story to be a potential learning experience for all of us, binary and non-binary alike.
Robin Flanagan
Robin Flanagan (they/them), aka Peter Flanagan, lives in California with their wonderful wife and muse, a stepson, and a crazed feline. An occasionally too-avid player of and writer for tabletop roleplaying games, their other passion is metaphysics, which informs most of their fiction.