A Plea for More Mystery

by Karen Haberon the X-Men

Q: What do these things have in common?

The Pyramids
Greta Garbo
The Big Bang

A: Mystery. They remain fascinating enigmas, untouched by years of analysis and speculation.

Q: What do these things have in common?

Paris Hilton
New Orleans Sewage System
The X-Men

A: Media overexposure. The more you look at them, the less interesting they become.

Icons are, by their very nature, mysterious. And they should stay that way. Spend too much time analyzing and demystifying them, and poof, the magic goes away.

So it is with the X-Men. They should be cherished as romantic exponents of wish fulfillment rather than placed under scientific scrutiny. They can’t hold up to the bright light of science.

I should know. I’m the coauthor of The Science of the X-Men. And if there’s anything I learned from that book, it’s that certain characters deserve to be given space and have their secrets preserved. Like Garbo, they want to be … read more»

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