District X - District X: The Area

District X: The Area

The rise in Manhattan's mutant population, coupled with racism among normal humans, led to mutants forming their own community in Manhattan's Lower East Side (described as the fictional 'Middle East Side' in Peter David's X-Factor). Although humans lived in this neighborhood, they formed a minority. NYX established that District X is an official title for the region.

The neighborhood was poor, overcrowded and violent, with a high crime rate and warring mutant gangs. Most of the residents regarded it as a ghetto. It was 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 had seen a decrease in violent crime. (These figures would suggest a large population.) It also had the highest crime rates in the country for narcotics, prostitution, and burglary. Many of its inhabitants had mutations more akin to curses than gifts, further exacerbating the neighborhood's poverty and disadvantage. It also had a large 'underground' population, inhabiting tunnels beneath the neighborhood and living in homeless squalor. Many residents were immigrants, such as Bosnian immigrant Dzemal. In X-Men Unlimited #2, Bishop noted 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.'

There were also a range of mutant-owned businesses, clubs and restaurants, as well as a burgeoning mutant subculture. Bands such as 'Sentinel Bait' and 'Juggernauts' were mentioned as parts of this subculture, while mutant fashion designers like Jumbo Carnation and nightclubs such as Daniel's Inferno created a vibrant, mutant-oriented nightlife. In this respect, District X may be considered a Marvel Universe analogue to Harlem 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?' 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.

During the House of M storyline, the district was transformed into a rich, exclusively mutant neighborhood named Mutopia X (during the same storyline, Hell's Kitchen was transformed into a human ghetto called Sapien Town). After this story, the residents suffered the 'Decimation', with most of them stripped of their mutant abilities. Many remaining mutants were moved to a relocation camp on the grounds of the Xavier Institute.

Some former mutants remained in District X, with many —- like Quicksilver and Rictor -- suffering from depression and alienation. After the Decimation, the district became known as the (fictional) 'Middle East Side', losing many of its distinctive characteristics. The area became increasingly depopulated as former mutants sought to live normal lives. In X-Factor, anti-mutant riots gripped 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 was the base of operations for X-Factor Investigations, who frequently dealt with the aftermath of the Decimation and its effects on the local community. In the Civil War storyline, Jamie Madrox and his team declared 'Mutant Town' as a sanctuary for superheroes being pursued by the government. This brought them into conflict with the regular X-Men team, who eventually allowed them to have their way.

The former 'Mutant Town' was 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 was briefly taken over by Arcade, working for an ex-Purifier, Taylor.

Mutant Town was 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 incinerated much of the neighborhood, with Arcade's force fields preventing fire fighters from entering the area until the entire district had been utterly annihilated. In X-Factor #32, Valerie Cooper announced that the ruins would 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.'