Quote"If all it took to create a significant nuclear explosion was to throw sand in the microwave, civilization would have been destroyed shortly after the distribution of microwaves and those ingredients."

- Nick Bostrom

Mutants are an existential threat

It was revealed in Grant Morrison run of the X-men that the Mutant population sat at a staggering 0.4% of the population, so roughly Three million two hundred thousand mutants, out of that number we known there is anywhere from 14 to 25 known Omega Level Mutants (people who can end the world/effect the planet) and out of that selection three of which I know can end the universe, Franklin Richards, Scarlet Witch, Jean Grey. so being conservative there is a 0.00052 chance a Mutant is born with the ability to end the world...

That sounds tiny but those are still some mighty dicey odds, more so compounded with how mutants are kind of fucking psycho and have absurd in-group-preference compared to any other demographic on the planet. They are basically rearing to pick a fight with humanity while playing the victim every time despite having the overwhelming power advantage.


In-universe, viewing the threat of mutants is played off as a bigoted mindset or view, but think back to the Nick Bostrom quote, realistically they pose an extremely real threat to humanity, hell the universe even given some of them are backing that kind of firepower.

Grant it these population numbers are pre M-day and pre all the new crazy cult island shit the X-men are up to lately, but those events only support my arguments, not detract, by showing again certain Mutants at a whim can just alter or erase reality, and that their in-group-preference is comically absurd.



Other in-universe narrative issues.

We live in a world where Grandma's still call everything video game related a Nintendo, and voters can barely discern who is on what side of the political aisle, thus it becomes very unconvincing than the population of the Marvel universe has a proper distinction between the camps of super-human and mutant, but yet here we are. frankly it's always been a contrived element of the Marvel universe, it's always confused me.

Nobody excuses Spider-man or Hulk of being a Mutant despite those being totally legit explanations for their powers even if they are not factually true.

To put it bluntly this either means the Marvel universe has a super-informed population or Mutants are the ones casting that distinction, and considering the comical in-group bias I mentioned before, it's probably Mutants making this distinction, especially prior to 2003 before we even had the human genome sequenced fully and DNA testing wasn't rapid or terribly quick.

There would have been no reason as to why Mutants would view themselves as a distinct clade or even assume they were different to typical Super-humans unless there was some more sinister force pushing for that....


My Retcon

Basically if I had the almighty power of Marvel Editorial, my first step would be to make it clear Mutants are some lovecraftian aberration or infernal intrusion into reality, a long-con ploy by some Elder-Evil who wants to basically fuck over reality in it's totality. There is no other explanation that fits the facts better.

Promptly I'd write the reveal, and then do a whole order 66, type thing, the Mutants being the sleeper cells of this Elder-Evil starting running rampant and then are swiftly butchered and put down by the rest of the Super-human community and this 60s era sloppy civil-rights era allegory.

As a kicker we can retcon wolverine wasn't a mutant so marvel can still print money after burying the rest of the 90s soap-opera characters we call X-men.

 

There's a scene in X-Men '97 where Wolverine is driving Jean Gray to the hospital because her contraction started. It is really telling that Wolverine make absolutely no effort to avoid running over humans on his way (despite not really being in an emergency). Then they allow Rogue to use her powers to learn how to deliver a baby despite the risk to the doctor's life.

It is clear from their actions that the X-Men view normal, non-mutant humans as lesser beings and merely servants that they can boss around as they see fit. Any human that resists their control is branded a "bigot" to further justify the X-Men's horrible behavior.

Overall, the story of the X-Men is about two people Professor X and Magneto fighting over who gets to rule over the human population.

Quote from: Socratic-DM on June 06, 2024, 10:34:44 PMthus it becomes very unconvincing than the population of the Marvel universe has a proper distinction between the camps of super-human and mutant, but yet here we are. frankly it's always been a contrived element of the Marvel universe, it's always confused me.

This ones easy. The general populace neither knows nor really cares.

The problems stem from the loony bin fringe who predate on those gullible to hatemongering. Its also deeply rooted in certain secret government cabals.

But the average joe couldnt tell a mutant from a street fighter. They are all just costumed vigilantes.

Problem is any given writer may have some agenda and so all of a sudden everyone and their grandmother not only knows what a mutant is. But are either deathly afraid of them. Or armchair bigots if not the KKK with better PR.

I mean theres been stories where the US government rounds up mutants and just kills em all for no real reason. Just because the writer wanted to do it for shock value. Except its more a WTF moment.

Eh. In a genre where there are scadillions of uber powerful critters roaming around (Celestials, Galactus, The Beyonder, The Enigma Force, etc, etc...) I'm surprised the universe doesn't implode/explode/de-rez and get re-created more often. You'd think the world would get blasted every 2nd tuesday and the cleanup crew sighs and puts everything back together.

I got jaded at the silly power levels of the Marvel Universe long ago.

Quote from: Omega on June 07, 2024, 02:57:01 PM

Quote from: Socratic-DM on June 06, 2024, 10:34:44 PMthus it becomes very unconvincing than the population of the Marvel universe has a proper distinction between the camps of super-human and mutant, but yet here we are. frankly it's always been a contrived element of the Marvel universe, it's always confused me.

This ones easy. The general populace neither knows nor really cares.

The problems stem from the loony bin fringe who predate on those gullible to hatemongering. Its also deeply rooted in certain secret government cabals.

But the average joe couldnt tell a mutant from a street fighter. They are all just costumed vigilantes.

Problem is any given writer may have some agenda and so all of a sudden everyone and their grandmother not only knows what a mutant is. But are either deathly afraid of them. Or armchair bigots if not the KKK with better PR.

I mean theres been stories where the US government rounds up mutants and just kills em all for no real reason. Just because the writer wanted to do it for shock value. Except its more a WTF moment.

Okay but take this into consideration, the people who write legislation for technology can barely use email let alone social media by themselves.

What makes you think some Senator from Washington views Spider-Man and Night Crawler as belonging to distinct groups? yeah nobody is fucking buying that.

People in Politics want to paint in broad strokes, and Mutants just aren't different enough from superhumans to make that worth fighting about, unless of course Mutants are the ones trying to clade off from humanity.