Warning: Spoilers for X-Men #1 ahead!
The X-Men's latest move to New York City is monumental for many reasons, but possibly the most meaningful of all is the tribute they've paid to Black history in the process. With Marvel finally unleashing a new team of X-Men on the world, it's quickly becoming apparent that they truly may be the heroes Earth needed in terms of their abilities, drive to protect, and their seemingly considerate and meaningful gestures.
At the Hellfire Gala, the new team of X-Men were chosen, and in X-Men #1 they're starting their journey as a team. They could have chosen to put their new headquarters anywhere in the US, or anywhere in the world for that matter, but they chose to put their new treehouse headquarters in NYC. The focal point of many comic blow outs and storylines, New York has made quite the name for itself in the world of comics, but it also has a rich history that reaches from the real world into Marvel's. This includes Seneca Village's history.
Seneca Village was a prosperous Black community in New York in the 1800s. It was a sort of safe haven that provided opportunities for African-Americans to own land and vote, it acted as a sort of woodsy escape from the growing metropolis that surrounded it, and offered an alternate to the high rent and less fortunate living situations in the city. Unfortunately, due to the desires of the rich and dominantly white community who held power, the village was marked as eminent domain and was paved over to make way for Central Park. The village itself was almost lost to history, but the X-Men, Cyclops, and the creative team behind their current iteration (Gerry Duggan, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia), remember and want fans to remember as well. That's why, along with the treehouse they've erected as their headquarters, they've also created a beautiful new park for New York residents to enjoy amidst the mayhem of city living, and they named it Seneca Gardens.
The new park may not exist in the real world, but it's a thoughtful sentiment nonetheless. A whole village of largely Black Americans were forced out of their homes to make way for a world famous park that thousands of people enjoy daily, but their history is largely unknown and untold. So it's beautiful that, even if it's only in the world of comics, that same history is being memorialized with a new park all its own: a park that, instead of taking from a community, is giving back to it. Seneca Gardens is also a monument to all fallen mutants who didn't live to see Krakoa, giving it dual symbolism that brings another level of earnest meaning to the gesture.
And it's not impressive just from a reader's perspective, it's impressive to in-story characters as well. Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich makes sure to point out, in his report on the new giant Manhattan treehouse and park, how it seems like whatever the X-Men's motives may be, they're achieving them with kindness. It's great that instead of destroying a city with no looking back, like what happens to NYC most of the time in comics, the X-Men are bringing life to it with consideration and respect...even if they are going to have to fight the New York zoning board on their overnight addition.
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