Yeah, I've always found analogy to the academically gifted to be a good one for Marvel mutants.

They have these gifts, which should be awesome, and useful out in wider society. But that's hard, because neither you, nor anyone around you, really knows how to deal with the gifts properly, and some people will look ill upon you because of them. But, you can study alongside people like you, so you can actually learn to use your gifts.

Mutants have a more extreme (and potentially lethal) version of the whole thing, of course, but the analogy works, keeping that element in mind.