Warning: contains spoilers for X-Men #11!
While Disney may own Marvel and the X-Men cast of characters, that hasn’t stopped Marvel editorial from comparing their new owners to one of the most disgusting and ratings-hungry supervillain in the Marvel Universe. The 2010s were quite the rollercoaster ride for Marvel’s mutant team, including a hit film franchise combined with the team almost being eliminated from comics entirely. It is perhaps because of the reasons for the peaks and valleys that X-Men #11 pokes fun at Marvel’s now-parent company.
The X-Men were created in 1963 and quickly became Marvel’s most popular super-team of all time, perhaps even eclipsing the Avengers in the 90s. They became so popular that in 1996’s Marvel vs. DC crossover event, no less than three X-Men were selected to do battle with other DC heroes (Wolverine, Storm, and Jubilee). But when Fox’s X-Men film series became a hit, Marvel was reluctant to promote the mutants in any way – even if that meant excluding most of them from nearly every major comic event until Fox’s acquisition by Disney in 2019.
In X-Men #11, written by Gerry Duggan with art by Pepe Larraz, the X-Men are in the lair of Mojo, a grotesque alien from Mojoworld who wants nothing less than to become the greatest producer of television shows in existence. Mojo records a broadcast to his investors, dubbed “Mojoworld+” but is interrupted by a visit from someone whom he truly despises: a lawyer. He brings news that Mojo’s shareholders have developed a fungal infection, and Mojo is far from pleased (ratings and profit are his goals, after all). To drive the comparison home, his assistant is a ‘little mouse’ who can interrupt him during the taping.
Mojo isn’t the most well-known of X-Men villains, but he’s dangerous nevertheless despite his odd appearance. For their part, Disney has cultivated a reputation for buying out studios in an effort to corner the film market (Lucasfilm, Marvel, ABC, etc). While Disney’s acquisition of Fox allowed Marvel Studios to use mutants in the MCU, it also effectively ended the Inhumans push in the comics. Marvel even published Death of the Inhumans in 2018 to signify the end of the Inhumans’ proliferation; fans of the franchise knew that the team’s days were numbered when the X-Men rose to prominence again in 2019 with Jonathan Hickman’s House of X.
Thus, Disney’s ownership of Marvel is a double-edged sword. While the MCU can include the X-Men, the comics are no longer forced to use the Inhumans and other lesser-known characters in their stories. Mojo is not an existential threat like Thanos or Kang, but he nevertheless has little empathy for others and only cares about profit and ratings – hence the comparison to Disney within the pages of X-Men.
