Generativity and Its Vicissitudes in Logan and the X-Men Series

The film Logan, in conjunction with other films in the X-Men series, can be read as both a portrait of midlife and as the keystone in an expansive critique of group relations. A family of concepts related to generativity, identified by Erik Erikson, is used to interpret this unusually mature instance of the superhero movie. Individuals and societies that stumble over the task of becoming generative may be expected to fall into despair or extremes of pseudo-speciation: the treatment of particular groups as so radically different from one's own that they are beyond the scope of care. This essay traces the evolution of Logan toward greater generativity and care, and contrasts his character with others from the series who exemplify successes and failures in this task. Real-life vicissitudes of generativity are also discussed in relation to survivors of the Holocaust and other contemporary groups that may be treated as pseudo-species.