District X (fictional location)
The rise in Manhattan's mutant population, coupled with racism among normal humans, leads to mutants forming their own community on Manhattan's Lower East Side (described as the fictional 'Middle East Side' in Peter David's X-Factor). Although humans live in this neighborhood, they form a minority. NYX establishes that District X is an official title for the region.
The neighborhood is depicted as poor, overcrowded and violent, with a high crime rate and warring mutant gangs. Most of the residents regard it as a ghetto. It is described in District X as having the "highest unemployment rate in the USA, the highest rate of illiteracy and the highest severe overcrowding outside of Los Angeles," even though New York City as a whole has seen a decrease in violent crime. It also has the highest crime rates in the country for narcotics, prostitution, and burglary. Many of the characters featured have mutations more akin to curses than gifts, further exacerbating the neighborhood's poverty and disadvantage. It also has a large underground population, inhabiting tunnels beneath the neighborhood and living in homeless squalor. Many residents are immigrants, such as Bosnian immigrant Dzemal. In X-Men Unlimited #2, Bishop notes that "there are mutants in District X from every nation on Earth. Every race, religion and culture." Margaret O'Connell, writing for Sequential Tart, describes District X as "the mutant ghetto of the Marvel Universe version of New York City", and as "a slum where minor-league mutants from all over the globe – often more visibly handicapped or disfigured by their genetic abnormalities than the relatively glamorous and outwardly normal X-Men – have congregated in a disaffected and varyingly dysfunctional clump."[5]
Stories set in District X feature a range of mutant-owned businesses, clubs and restaurants, as well as a burgeoning mutant subculture. Bands such as 'Sentinel Bait' and 'Juggernauts' are mentioned as parts of this subculture, while mutant fashion designers like Jumbo Carnation and nightclubs such as Daniel's Inferno create a vibrant, mutant-oriented nightlife. In this respect, District X may be considered a Marvel Universe analogue to Harlem, the Meatpacking District, or Little Italy, as a cultural center, 'ethnic' enclave and population hub for a disenfranchised minority.
Grant Morrison's creation of an analogy to an ethnic ghetto has been praised, with J. Caleb Mozzocco noting that "if the mutants were always being likened to oppressed ethnic groups and minorities, then why not treat them like a real ethnic group, complete with mutant language, styles, culture and a "Mutant Town" in New York City?"[6] David Brothers, writing for 4thletter!, notes that:
Morrison turned mutants into a subculture, a logical extension of what happens when new elements are introduced into society. They were still oppressed, but they actually had some kind of culture to go along with their oppression. He gave them their own Chinatown, their own Little Italy, and made it a point to show that mutants, while not entirely accepted just yet, were more than just mutant paramilitary teams.[7]
During the House of M storyline, the district is transformed into a rich, exclusively mutant neighborhood named Mutopia X (during the same storyline, Hell's Kitchen is transformed into a human ghetto called Sapien Town). After this story, the residents suffer the 'Decimation', with most of them stripped of their mutant abilities. Many remaining mutants are moved to a relocation camp on the grounds of the Xavier Institute.
Some former mutants remain in District X, with many — like Quicksilver and Rictor – suffering from depression and alienation. After the Decimation, the district becomes known as the (fictional) 'Middle East Side', losing many of its distinctive characteristics. The area becomes increasingly depopulated as former mutants seek to live normal lives. In X-Factor, anti-mutant riots grip the district after the Decimation, with agents of the human supremacist group Purity roaming the area in X-Men: The 198.
In Peter David's X-Factor (vol. 3), the former ghetto is the base of operations for X-Factor Investigations, who frequently deal with the aftermath of the Decimation and its effects on the local community. In the Civil War storyline, Jamie Madrox and his team declare 'Mutant Town' a sanctuary for superheroes being pursued by the government. This brings them into conflict with the regular X-Men team, who eventually allow them to have their way.
The former 'Mutant Town' is later besieged by X-Cell, a terrorist group composed of former mutants who blamed the United States government for the loss of their powers. After the events of X-Men: Messiah Complex, the neighborhood is briefly taken over by Arcade, working for an ex-Purifier, Taylor.
Mutant Town is completely destroyed in X-Factor #31, 'The Middle East Side is Burning', as a 'back-up' plan by Arcade following his defeat. A series of explosions incinerate much of the neighborhood, with Arcade's force fields preventing fire fighters from entering the area until the entire district is utterly annihilated. In X-Factor #32, Valerie Cooper announces that the ruins will be demolished and replaced with suburban housing, and that "in a few decades, no one will even know that this used to be called Mutant Town".
