(W) Joseph J. Darowski. With storylines that often contain overt social messages within its 'mutant metaphor,' X-Men is often credited with having more depth than the average superhero property. In this collection, each essay examines a specific era of the X-Men franchise in relationship to contemporary social concerns. The essays range from an analysis of popular science at the time of the first X-Men comic book in 1963 to an interpretation of a storyline in light of rhetoric of President Obama's first presidential campaign..