- Name: Robert Kelly
- Code Names: N/A
- First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #133 (May ‘80)
- Powers: Political ones
- Team Affiliation: The US Senate
About
The mutant metaphor isn’t perfect. Unlike every other persecuted minority in the real world, there is a clear and present danger from mutant powers, especially from those who don’t know how to control them. Bryan Singer addressed this rather deftly in 2000’s X-Men where the second scene shows a debate centered around one question “are mutants dangerous?” Jean deflects the question by saying that cars are dangerous. A Senator agrees saying that’s why the license them. Jean describes the core challenge with that logic, we don’t license people to live. What makes a good antagonist is one that can challenge the X-Men with this very real issue. It is why Senator Robert Kelly works as an antagonist and why Lydia Nance in X-Men Gold doesn’t.
Robert Kelly was a Massachusetts conservative with an agenda. He saw the rising threat of mutants. He saw how Cape Citadel and San Marcos fell so quickly at the hands of Magneto. He saw those youngsters with amazing abilities battling on the national news and Senator Kelly was afraid. The people needed protection, they needed safety, they needed to know that their neighbor couldn’t level city blocks. Kelly worried about the good of the many, not the needs of the few. With that in mind, he introduced the Mutant Registration Act and drew the ire of the mutant world.
Kelly was a candidate for president and made the act his defining mission. He wasn’t ignorant or bigoted enough to thank that all mutants were evil, he was just terrified of homo sapiens becoming the next Neanderthal. He presented his plan on the Senate floor, even bringing in Charles Xavier and Moira MacTaggert as expert witnesses on mutation, but he was interrupted by a violent, radical group called The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They battled the X-Men on the steps of the Capitol Building, showing the world just how dangerous mutants could be.
Kelly himself was cornered by the terrorist Destiny, but his resolve was steady. He knew he was at his end and his death would only galvanize supporters to his cause. Robert Kelly was willing to be a martyr for his belief. Shadowcat didn’t give Destiny that chance and phased through her causing the bolt to miss. In some universe, Destiny did kill Kelly. In that world, mutants would be hunted, imprisoned, even killed just for being different. In that desolate future, the X-Men were decimated, brutally killed in some folly-filled attempt to save their past. They sent Kate Pryde into the past to try and stop their future from happening. Maybe it would work? They really would never know.
Kelly, seeing the danger posed by mutants firsthand, was hardened in his belief that the United States needed to deal with the threat of mutants. He met with a colleague of his from the prestigious Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw. Shaw owned a defense contracting firm and saw the need to control mutants. They were summoned by the president to be involved in a top-secret mission call Project Wideawake. Shaw would build Sentinels for the US government, Henry Peter Gyrich would control them, and Robert Kelly would force his anti-mutant legislation through.
Kelly’s disdain for mutants increased and the attack on the Capital building garnered support for the Mutant Registration Act. The bill was passed with bipartisan support, though few in the mutant community complied with the law. He may have lost his bid for the presidency, but Kelly became a popular figure in his party. Kelly began spending more and more time with Shaw at the Hellfire Club. Kelly ended up marrying one of the women who worked at the club, even if he tried to hide her scandalous past from his peers. Sharon Kelly was no meek housewife, she was a fierce tigress and Robert loved her for it. A peaceful night of theirs was ruined by a battle between Mastermold and Rogue. The X-Men crashed through the roof of their limo and knocked the Senator out cold. Sharon pulled her husband out from the wreckage and went back for Rogue. Tragically, the Sentinel found its target and Sharon Kelly was killed in the crossfire. Shaw came to comfort his friend and saw that Robert’s fear of mutant kind had turned into hatred. He no longer wanted protection from mutants, he wanted them hunted down.
Kelly rode that hatred to the brink but found that even he had limits. Presidential candidate and outspoken anti-mutant bigot Graydon Creed was assassinated and mutants were blamed. This gave Kelly and Gyrich the political atmosphere to push Operation: Zero Tolerance, a militaristic program aimed at capturing renegade mutants. It was led by a mysterious man named Bastion and Kelly was destroyed to discover what his hate had caused. Bastion was capturing humans and transforming them into Prime Sentinels, robots in disguise as humans. Kelly knew he was to blame for this, and he knew he could fix it. He petitioned the president to stop Operation: Zero Tolerance as soon as possible.
The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. Kelly decided to again run for president and again with an anti-mutant platform. His base ate it up, even as Kelly tempered his rhetoric with talk of understanding the mutant threat. For his last speech in the campaign, Kelly returned to his hometown of Boston, but his speech was interrupted by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The X-Men came to his defense but all seemed lost until one mutant decided to make a stand. His name was St. John Allerdyce, years ago he called himself Pyro. He was dying from the Legacy Virus. He had once tried the assassinate the Senator but in his last days he wanted to find a better way. He gave his life to save Kelly’s and the Senator finally understood that there was only one way his policies of hatred would end.
It seemed that Kelly finally had a change of heart. He called a press conference to discuss the failed attempt on his life. He told them that yes, there was much to fear, but fear was no way to live a life. As president, Kelly would not stand by and watch the cycle of violence continue. He admitted that he was wrong in the past and he wanted to change. He supporters felt betrayed, they saw Kelly as a traitor to humanity. Senator Robert Kelly was shot and killed by a human for speaking out against hatred towards mutants. To many fans, his is a legacy of hate, but Kelly transcended that. He was a scared man who made the wrong choices and learned to make the right ones. That is worth striving for.
Must Read
Do I really need to tell anyone that Days of Future Past is good? Kelly takes a central role in one of the most influential X-Stories of all time and Claremont deftly writes him as more than some bigot. He is someone who is rightly concerned about the threat of mutants but is making the wrong choices based on that fear. Come on, just go read it, I shouldn’t have to sell you on the current number 1 story on the Battle of the Atom list. Buy it on Comixology and read it right now.
Ranking
Can I tell you the hardest part about ranking Kelly? At the end of the day he, is just a dude. He is a dude competing with people with stars for brains and knives in their hands. He is probably as good as his character could ever be, but he is still just a dude. I think it is perfectly fair to put him above mutants I dislike, but I am going to struggle to put him above people with a lot of character depth. That line right now is between Spiral and Toad as the new number 70 in the Xavier Files.
Senator Kelly was requested by Edwin Tablada among others. Thank you for the request. If you have a request for how about you send it below? If you want to cut to the front of the two-year long line, we have a Patreon you can support Xavier Files for just $1 to get a line cutting reward.
Make sure you check out my podcast BATTLE OF THE ATOM. It’s where Bish & Jubez creator Adam Reck and I talk about every single X-Men story that ever existed and rank them from best to worst. Episode 11 is up and talk and we talk about just how great Generation X is. Make sure you subscribe on any of the following platforms (or others, I’m not picky) Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS.
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Next week steal a damn planet with Lila Cheney! See you then!
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Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
