Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

This is from Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1. It's by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk.

Comments

[darkknightjrk.insanejournal.com]

Is the "Namor as mutant" something that's been established before, or is it another effort to fit in as many anti-heroes onto as many books as possible?

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

It's been established before.

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

It's been long established.

In fact, they've been weakening it, lately - he used to be called the first (modern*) mutant...now Dr Nemesis seems to be being given that distinction.


* As opposed to, you know, Apocalypse.

[13thcell.insanejournal.com]

Wouldn't Selene be older than Apocalypse?

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

Is Seline a mutant?

It's so hard to keep track of all the 'First Mutant' contenders...

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Yes, she's a mutant (a life force leech who can use stolen life energy to animate matter telekinetically), but a sorceress as well, so it gets confusing.

[surlytmpl.insanejournal.com]

Probably, but I have a feeling she'd incinerate anyone who pointed it out.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

If the Hyborean age took place before Ancient Egypt, which I'm sure it did, then yes

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

By more than a few millenia since, the Hyborian Era is between 10,000 and 14,000 BC

[bruinsfan.insanejournal.com]

And we don't technically know that Selene originated in the Hyborian Era, only that she was around in 12,000 B.C. or so to make an enemy of Kulan Gath. She could be considerably older, perhaps going back to ancient Atlantis or even further.

[lieut_kettch.insanejournal.com]

But that, O Prince, is another story...

Btw, who exactly does own Kulan Gath? He was created by Marvel for their own Hyborian Age/Howard-verse comics, but he's also been appearing Dynamite's Red Sonja. Not sure if he's made an appearance in Dark Horse's Conan books though.

[okkult3000.insanejournal.com]

Kurt Busiek used him during his Avengers run, but Marvel might still have had the Conan license back then.

[bruinsfan.insanejournal.com]

I dunno the particulars - he might be owned by Roy Thomas, or by Marvel Comics. I know he's appeared in Marvel books that weren't written by Thomas, too, but they could have been with his permission.

I wonder if the Dynamite folks cleared it, or just assumed that he was a public domain Robert E. Howard character like Thoth Amon?

[kitty_tc_69.insanejournal.com]

Well, it was kinda something they pulled out of their ass when the X-Men and related titles were dominating at Marvel so strongly that making someone a mutant would theoretically be a guaranteed sales boost. it was a stretch then, and it's a stretch now.

[mcspakypants.insanejournal.com]

When I talked to Matt Fraction at HeroesCon about the "First Mutant Namor" thing he said it would be addressed in Utopia, and probably debunked.

[bariman1987.insanejournal.com]

Namor can't be the first mutant. He's not even a century old, and there's been many mutants older than that. Wolverine, for instance, was born in the early 1800s.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

I think they meant "first mutant" as he was created first.

[jackissuperfly.insanejournal.com]

In-universe, he's the first mutant of the modern age, the first mutant in the mutant baby-boom. (Technically he's not, but let's pretend.) And you could make a pretty good argument that he's the first Big Name Mutant, which is definitely the case: the Marvelverse 1930's had quite a few superheroes, but by this point, all anyone remembers is Namor and Torch, and Torch is a robot.

[kenn_el.insanejournal.com]

I didn't probably pay enough attention in Biology (hated the professor), but isn't Namor a hybrid rather than a mutant? The fact that the same mating situation produced Namora would argue against the mutant claim.

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

So his Winged-Ankles that allow him to fly are normal in a mix-breeding of a water-race and a human race?

[kenn_el.insanejournal.com]

Apparently, yes. Namora didn't have them at first, but when Nyrne did the Namorita-is-a-clone story, he showed that Namora/Namorita came by the ankle-wings genetically, just as Namor did.

[bariman1987.insanejournal.com]

The explaination I heard for his flying was that he was controlling the moisture in the air to allow flight. The ankle wings are vestigal.

[timemonkey.insanejournal.com]

No reason he can't be both. Teh human side could have carried an x-gene.