Flashback in WOSM2 9

[Jason Doty]

Okay, Jeph!

I just pulled out the issue and combed through it thoroughly. Here's what I'm thinking:

I don't believe that the awareness of the school had to be public knowledge about the mutants or even an open secret for that matter. For example, I don't know all of the private schools in my local area but if I wanted to find a particular school or expert, I'm sure I could look it up.

Therefore, in the comic, prior to coming to the school with her son, the woman repeatedly wrote letters to Xavier as Cyclops had stated later in the issue. I'm assuming he was initially contacted because he's an expert in his field (which I believe would be public knowledge in the Marvel Universe). He had tested her assumption and then told her that her son does not qualify for his "school's program." Rebuffed, she left.

I think it's public knowledge that there's a private school in Westchester and Xavier is an expert in mutation. Why wouldn't someone contact him if they thought their kid could be a mutant and why not enroll him in a school named after the person who is the leading expert in mutation? It doesn't mean that they know about the X-Men, who are the secret of the school.

My assertion is that Cyclops appears to be very young and the child appears to be young as well. I personally believe that this flashback should be set earlier in the X-Men's history, but I also concede that Cyclops did say later in the issue "a few years back." I'm not simply arguing about a "bowtie."

Hopefully that's very clear and gramatically correct.

[Col_Fury]

But Xavier's school wasn't publicly known as a school for mutants in the Silver Age, it was known as a school for Gifted Youngsters. There's a difference.

As Jeph said earlier, whenever Xavier brought in a student that was known to be a mutant, Beast for example, Xavier erased the knowledge of *everyone the Beast ever knew* that Henry McCoy ever existed to keep the fact that he taught mutants a secret. He's not going to advertise that he teaches mutants in the Yellow Pages. Again, like Jeph said earlier, not even the Avengers know the relationship between Xavier's school and mutants. If the Avengers don't know, then this woman surely doesn't.

Yes, Xavier is known to be an expert on mutation, but that he teaches mutants is not known at the time you want to place the flashback. If a woman wanted her son to go to his Gifted Youngsters school because she thought he was a mutant, he wouldn't say "Sorry, your kid's not a mutant so I won't teach him." he would say "Sorry, I don't teach mutants. You have the wrong place you crazy woman." And then he would erase her memory of ever being there.

I don't believe that the awareness of the school had to be public knowledge about the mutants or even an open secret for that matter.

It would have to be for the scene to make any sense at all.

Hopefully that's very clear and gramatically correct.

Yes, this post was much easier to read and understand. Thanks!

[JephYork]

Jason, I'm sorry if I was a little rude before. It's just that a lot of your posts are hard to get through because you're tossing out complex ideas in a stream-of-consciousness fashion without much in the way of spots for readers to stop or assimilate or think. You just tend to barrel on with another idea right after you've suggested the first one and quite frankly without a lot of commas or stops of any kind it tends to all just pile up in my head. Right now you've suggested a possible placement that could maybe potentially work, if we make a lot of assumptions and squint, but I feel that I've suggested a placement that works with *no* assumptions necessary. Col_Fury makes a lot of sense when he points out that back in the Silver Age, Prof. X would not outright admit that he taught mutants, or has anything personally to do with mutants, as he's doing in this flashback. He'd point out that yes, he's a mutant expert, and yes, he teaches a private school, but he'd strongly deny that those two facts have anything to do with each other. He'd deny that his school is for mutants -- and then, like Fury said, he'd probably mindwipe the lady. As for the kid being a young teenager then and an adult now, well, the New Mutants were young teenagers than and adults now, and I'm suggesting placing this at the start of the New Mutants era. That, combined with Cyclops' assertion that it was "a few years ago" (and not "many years ago") tends to back up my assumptions about placement. Yes, Cyclops is drawn in a Silver Age style here, but that's only *one* placement clue, and it doesn't seem to be supported by the bulk of the others. I have to maintain that the placement you've suggested is awkward and unworkable for more than a few reasons, and I'd rather not jump through hoops and use a crowbar to cram open a placement that requires a lot of assumptions about "open secrets" and "programs" and teaching the Deadly Genesis kids, just because Cyclops is drawn in a Silver Age style.

-Jeph!

[Col_Fury]

I just came across something else to support Jeph's placement.

In CA 289, the Brand Corporation is aware that Xavier's school teaches mutants, AND that the X-Men are based there. CA 289 takes place during UX 175, so it's a pretty open secret Xavier teaches mutants by then. If not outright known.

Yay!