Juggernaut
Article
Juggernaut is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between June 03, 2022 and August 16, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “e.g. Juggernaut, Spider-man, the Incredible Hulk, Deadpool”; “the unstoppable Juggernaut”; “Cane (who later becomes the Juggernaut)“. It most often appears alongside Mozart, Spider-man, X-men.
Metadata
- Category: People
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: June 03, 2022
- Last seen: August 16, 2024
Appears In
Related Pages
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- Mozart (2 shared issues)
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- Spider-man (2 shared issues)
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- X-men (2 shared issues)
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- 18th century (1 shared issues)
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- 20th Century Fox (1 shared issues)
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- A Eunuch’s Dream (1 shared issues)
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- Abomination (1 shared issues)
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- Abomination (1 shared issues)
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- Abraham Lincoln (1 shared issues)
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- Action Comics (1 shared issues)
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- Adam and Eve (1 shared issues)
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- Aeschylus (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
In the Weird Studies podcast episode which serves as the namesake of this review, University of Indiana Musicologist Phil Ford traces the origin of the modern day mutant archetype back to the castrati, those eunuch singers produced in Italy from the mid-1500s to the mid-1800s. In support of his analysis, Ford cites the numerous similarities between the castrati and what is perhaps the most well-known fictional example of the mutant archetype: the X-men. While X-men are born as mutants, a number of X-men-adjacent superheros are so-called “mutates”, individuals who received their powers through some externally-mediated transformation (e.g. Juggernaut, Spider-man, the Incredible Hulk, Deadpool); similarly, the castrati were not born as mutants but became “mutates” by undergoing castration before puberty. Like the X-men, the castrati spent their childhood sequestered in special academies where they honed their superhuman (singing) powers with rigorous training. The mutant status of both groups made them objects of both fascination and scorn, awe and fear. In a plot twist reminiscent of X-men lore, some castrati managed to rise above their outcast status and obtain great influence as diplomats or more clandestine political operatives (i.e. spies). The X-men comparison (whatever its validity) speaks to the stranger-than-fiction quality of the castrati’s story, a story told by University of Chicago musicologist Martha Feldman in her 2015 book titled simply The Castrato. Feldman jumps around between the different aspects of the history (the biology, the music, the fame, the fortune, etc.) and I will do the same here, but we will begin, as tales of mutants and “mutates” often do, with an origin story.
The Juggernaut
The two-part story featured in X-men #12 and #13 is one of the best X-men of the era. In the two-parter we find the team locked up in the X-mansion trying to prepare for the arrival of the unstoppable Juggernaut. There is a sense of dread that there is nothing the team can do to stop him, only slow him down. While they are waiting for the inevitable, Professor X tells the team his backstory and how the Juggernaut is actually his step brother with an old grudge. The Professor tells his students about how, when he was younger, he used to be an amazing athlete. Kirby draws images of the teenage Professor running track, playing football and winning trophies. But then his stepbrother, Cane (who later becomes the Juggernaut) takes him on a drive through the mountains, drives the car off the cliff and jumps to safety. Charles is still in the car as it plummets off the mountains. His students ask “Was... that how you lost use of your legs, Professor?”. It was clearly intended to be. It would have been a powerful moment.
Lee’s mistake in X-men #9 came back to haunt him. Rather than ignore the panel he had written a few months earlier, he doubled down and explained how, while it would have been dramatically appropriate if he had lost use of his legs from Juggernaut, unfortunately that could not be the case due to continuity concerns. The Professor replies to his students: