X-Factor #11

[iamrman]

Previously in Thor, the God of Thunder saved Angel from the clutches of the Marauders and smote said villains good.

Meanwhile, survivors of the Morlock massacre have escaped to the surface...

I don’t get what makes these people Morlocks. Scaleface is quite pretty in her human form. Blow-Hard looks like a perfectly harmless older man. The only thing that might set Berserker apart is his stupid hair. Nothing to unusual if you go in to certain clubs though. The only one that looks like a typical Morlock is Masque.

Comments

[beyondthefringe]

What makes these mutants Morlocks? Good question. While we've seen a lot of obviously inhuman mutants (Sunder, Leech, Caliban, etc) we've seen a bunch of others who could pass for human. And Masque was noted for further altering Morlock appearances so who knows how many others could have passed prior to that?

We know that in many cases, Morlocks were mutants who couldn't or wouldn't fit into society. I expect some were cast out, shunned, or ran away when their powers manifested. Perhaps Scaleface turned into a dragon in school, couldn't control it, and wound up running away from home... so in a sense, there's a heavy LGBTQ allegory at play (not that I expect that to be intentional in the '80s) where queer folks are thrown out by their family...

There might also just be the usual social, mental, physical, and other conditions which create/maintain so many unhoused folks even today. The ones who can't afford a home, can't maintain a job, the ones who suffer from mental illness, drug addiction, PTSD--I expect all of those factor into the backgrounds of the Morlocks. We never do learn the backstories for this lot, but we've seen other Morlocks who clearly would have trouble fitting into mainstream society. (Ape, for instance.)

Without knowing for sure what their respective backgrounds and issues are, it's anyone's guess what led Berzerker, Blowhard, and Scaleface to the Morlocks, but I assume they just didn't have the ability or desire to pass for human or fit in with mainstream society.

Now I'd love to see someone do a serious examination of the Morlocks as pretty much the first mutant community to live apart from humans, and exist on their own terms. The Mutant Massacre really did them a grave injustice.

[bravest_spinja]

I've seen some speculation the Morlocks weren't even intended as an underground mutant separatist society, and then the "they're deformed, but that's because of Masque" came along and ultimately the TAS sort of just simplified and codified the concept as "Mutants whose appearance keeps them from making an attempt at intergrating with humans."

[icon_uk]

As someone who read these as they came out, I believe the Morlock subculture as "outcasts choosing to reject established social norms and structures in place of found family and gang culture", was absolutely deliberate in the 80's. It has definite echoes of other rebellious subcultures like the punk movement and LBTQ