X3 and Robert Smith's Seminal Rock Band

Over at Chud.com, Devin Faraci's reporting that Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) is joining the cast of X3 as "Dr. Rao."

Those of you geeky enough to read Joss Whedon's (Firefly, Angel, Buffy) current Astonishing X-Men run know that Dr. Rao is the scientist responsible for creating the Mutant Cure, a drug that eliminates mutation.

The X films continue to interest me because they're the only "comic-book" movies that delve deeply and consistently into real-world issues while veiling them in costumes and super-powers. In an age where people like James Dobson are trying to teach parents how to "un-gay" their children, where society steamrolls children into carbon-copied midget consumers, the idea of a drug that can eliminate what makes you different is timely and thought-provoking, the way all good science fiction usually is.

People like Asimov, Bradbury, Orwell, Mieville, and Whitehead have all used Sci-fi to explore real human concerns, ideas, and morals. It's a credit to Lauren Schueler-Donner, Avi Arad, and especially Bryan Singer, that they've consistently tried to inject topical, important issues into a movie about men who shoot laser-beams from their eyes and women who walk around naked and scaley.