The Forbidden Planet International Blog

The machine that merchandises every corner of Marvel’s past and present output will now give us 2 statues based on the concept of X-Babies. If you’ve read the comic you will know this is the whimsical creation of Chris Claremont and Art Adams in X-Men annual 12. I can’t speak for whether the statues are any good or not – but somewhere in the back of my head I can see some group worrying about the accelerated maturation and sexulisation of little children loading their publicity bullets into their gun.

In the UK we had an admittedly much more overt dalliance with this issue with the broadcasting of ‘Minipops’ back in the 80′. Where young children dressed up as pop stars and wiggled around singing to hits of the day. After the frenzy over the Mary Jane statue who knows what perceptions can be read into what is essentially ‘innocent’ merchandising.