Chamber

(Marvel, 2002-2003)
™ and ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

One of the most interesting and tragic characters to come out of the late, sometimes great, Generation X series was Jonothan Starsmore, a young mutant whose super-power manifested itself in the form of an explosion of energy that ripped a hole in the boy’s face and chest. Even though he was a member of a team of society’s outcasts, Jono—who took the codename Chamber—felt separated from his teammates because of his physical deformity and the danger it presented.

And he still feels this way as the youngest member of the ever-uncanny X-Men.

This limited series by writer Brian K. Vaughn (100 Bullets) puts Chamber smack in the middle of the Marvel Universe’s anti-mutant hysteria, which an allegory for society’s treatment of anyone or any group that is perceived as different from the norm. Jono reluctantly agrees to go undercover as a student at Empire State University to investigate the deaths of six members of a pro-mutant group, and he is quickly caught in the struggle between devotees to the anti-mutant cause—including his human roommate, who is resentful of an affirmative action program that would benefit mutants—and a violent, pro-mutant group. Heavy-handed, to be sure, but it works thanks to the characters, who—under Vaughn’s aegis—bring the various sides of the mutant debate to intriguing life.

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