UNCANNY X-MEN #200: Pro-mutant humans?

[starwolf_oakley]

We rarely see pro-mutant humans in the X-books, but while many people hate and fear mutants, some are willing to go the protest-and-sign route to *support* mutants.
Here's an older example of the X-men getting some support in France during Magneto's trial.





How often do humans say "Hey, all mutants aren't bad! Give them a break!" in the X-books? And for better reasons than "Mutants are cool because they are a persecuted minority." When that happens, it just makes it look like only poseurs like the X-Men. (Kind of like real-life comic fans. ZING!)

Kitty Pryde's rotten eyesight was mentioned sometimes in Claremont books, but not often. There was even something about her phasing power making contact lenses difficult.

The whole "protecting a world that hates and fears you" has probably "gotten" to the X-Men at various times. This might be the only time it "gets" to Kitty.

Comments

[randyripoff]

This is one of the things that has always bothered me about the 616 universe. There are all these people out there who hate and fear mutants, who hate and fear anyone with powers beyond baseline human, and that's understandable. However, we rarely ever see anyone (normal human) with the attitude "let the mutants be". They may be in the minority, but one would think there would be either one large, organized group of pro-mutant humans or a lot of smaller groups with the same attitude.

If everyone hates the mutants, why shouldn't they stand on their own, or declare war if need be? If you really are hated and reviled by all around you, why should you care about them, want to help them, want to save them? There should be more balance, or at the very least some balance.

[md84]

The almost universal hatred towards mutants was so unusual that Grant Morrison wrote in a sci-fi reason for it. Apparently the sentient bacteria Sublime wanted mutants dead because they could resist his influence and were thus a threat to his existence. So Sublime infected most of humanity with a hatred for mutantkind and created various programs and groups to slaughter them such as the Weapon Plus program and the U-men.

As for why mutants shouldn't declare war in the face of hatred, Xavier at least believed that giving in to that hate wouldn't end well for anyone. Magneto's efforts certainly didn't help that much.

[blunderbuss]

Or even human moderates, who may be concerned about Omega-level mutants or mutants with dangerous powers, but have no problems with people who do harmless things like fly or speak with animals or whatever.

Hell, I remember waaaay back that a complaint about mutants is that they were taking multiple humans jobs because businesses WANTED people with powers, and a guy with super-strength working at a construction yard could take the jobs of five guys. That's a problem CAUSED by acceptence.

[q99]

-Or even human moderates, who may be concerned about Omega-level mutants or mutants with dangerous powers, but have no problems with people who do harmless things like fly or speak with animals or whatever.
-

One thing I've wanted to do if I ever got on an X-book is an organization that tries to recruit low and mid level mutants, skilled humans, and so on, specifically as a means to combat and take down the powerful.

[ozaline]

the 90s cartoon had an example of that where Colossus basically did the job of a whole demolition crew, and didn't understand why they were mad at him.

[janegray]

IIRC, they weren't just mad at him, though. They immediately tried to lynch him.

[icon_uk]

Whereas in Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme series, Foxfire, a member of the team, helps out a demolition team by using her powers of molecular disassocation to dissolve all the cement between the bricks of an entire building, causing it to collapse instantly rather than having to smash it all to pieces, and they're grateful to her for dealing with the messy, hard work part of it for them (The fact she's an attractive woman probably helps her there)

[auggie18]

There was a collection of X-Men short stories and one of them was about Reverend Stryker being released from prison. There's a lot of humans protesting his release and Wolverine wonders why they don't see this sort of thing more often. Storm says that pro-mutant stuff happens all the time, but the X-Men aren't needed there, so they don't go.

Which doesn't exactly work because stuff would totally go down at pro-mutant rally, but hey.

[flint_marko]

what book was that?

[bariman]

Was Stryker being released before or after he organized the murder of dozens of mutant teenagers? Just curious.

[icon_uk]

Sad that they had to go all the way to Europe to get a pro-mutant rally.

I must see if I can dig out the post-Onslaught issue of Excalibur, where Brian and Meggan discuss the difference between the American and British attitudes to their human/mutant/superbeing relations.

[md84]

It wouldn't surprise me if the British loved their superheroes more than Americans. Their premier hero is essentially the embodiment of Britain.

[icon_uk]

Actually, that's a recent addition to it, mostly resulting from Paul Cornell's MI13 series, especially things like the whole "Everyone thinks he talks in their own regional accent" bit.

Meggan and Brian discuss that Excalibur actually aren't hugely loved like the Avengers were, but neither are they massively hated. The British are more accepting of their heroes, but they don't idolise them. So whilst they've never had parades thrown for them, they've never had hate mobs trying to burn their HQ down or throw rocks at them for being mutants.

[angelophile]

That's the kind of attitude I love, really.

[terrykun]

There was either a New Excalibur or MI13 storyline with a family of depowered mutants who had formerly been something of British celebrities. Most of the family were fliers, and were trotted out for RAF events like the Red Arrows (Blue Angels, to Americans). Then M-day can and most of the family fell out of the sky to their deaths. Seeing how the populace reacted to mutants once they were reduced to an anomaly instead of a burgeoning population, one of the family's survivors turned to terrorism in revenge.

...should find those scans.

[icon_uk]

That would be interesting to see, thanks.

[theflames]

Wow, that's so depressing... wish Wanda met that family.

[blunderbuss]

Honestly, I'd like to see an Australian take. We have a healthy cynicism towards typical 'heroic' characters; most of our icons are more down-to-earth like bushrangers, miners, lifesavers and soldiers. But we also suffer a heavy Tall Poppy Syndrome where we love sniping at people who are seen as 'better' than the 'ordinary' public.

There is no way in hell that anyone could try to be something like Captain Australia. He'd be laughed out of the country.

The heroes I could see us accepting are more like Spiderman, local joes with powers who help out their specific home because that's where they were born and bred. And even then they'd have to brace for non-stop ribbing and humor skits on the ABC.

[icon_uk]

Does Australia have any homegrown comic books? It'd be interesting to see them if they do.

[blunderbuss]

There are, but since Australian comic book markets were utterly swamped with British and Australian comics they never really grew into their own. They more-or-less stuck to newspaper strips, like Ginger Meggs or Fatty Finn or those small cheap comic books for kids.

I was gonna say that there were no Australian comics with superheroes, but as I was doing a bit of research it turns out that we made a Captain Atom comic! Not the DC one, and with a much worse costume.

Honestly, I've had an idea for Australian superheroes bubbling in the back of my head for a while now. Hmmm ...

[espanolbot]

There are a couple of different Australian superheroes in the DCU (at least before the reboot reset most of 'em). Diablo Blacksmith, for example, who was an Aboriginal stage magician and detective who could actually do proper magic too.

Though he'd mostly retired by the time he appeared in the Shade's miniseries, as he felt that superheroism wasn't doing him much good spiritually.

There's also the Tasmanian Devil (who dated Starman, I think before the reboot erased him) and Argonaut, a Greek Australian superhero that apppeared post-reboot, but only the once (Shade's mini series again).

[blunderbuss]

I know, but I was looking for Australian-made superheroes, and sadly most Aussies heroes in the mainstream comics are usually D-list characters who are rarely seen.

Although I did find the Southern Squadron but goddamn if these comics aren't obscure.

[icon_uk]

And don't forget Dr Dreamtime (whose somewhat militant approach to protecting Abroiginal rights led Martian Manhunter to have some conflict with him), and Betty Clawman of the New Guardians.

But yeah, I was more interested in finding heroes who had been created and published by Austalian creators for the local market, rather than American views of Australians.

[spacebetween]

Most Australian superheroes in Marvel comics are either obscure or fairly new. After having a look on the Marvel wikia there is Talisman, Grizzly, Slipstream, Lifeguard, Gateway, Tempus, Manifold, Jack-in-the-Box, Wall and Nova (Lindy Nolan).

Villain wise and support character wise is pretty much a short list as well.

[icon_uk]

You mean Marvel's Boomerang ISN'T Australian?

Is that allowed? ;)

[spacebetween]

From what I can see he has duel citizenship, born in Australia and moved to the US as a child. I always thought he was American to be honest, learn something new every day.

I never realised that there was a villain called Kangaroo till today when I was looking in the Australian listing of the Marvel wikia.

I also did notice that there was a rather uncharacteristic Australian written in 1942 called the Fighting Fool. He was discharged from the Australian Army after injury and wanted to keep fighting the war and went to the US to do it. Which is a bit of oddity for me.

[janegray]

This was pretty heartwarming, thanks for posting :)

[cyberghostface]

One question I've seen before is why would the general public have a problem with people that are born with powers if they're alright with (most) of the superheroes who have received their powers accidentally?

[icon_uk]

Various reasons (mostly to skirt over the fact that paranoia in the X-titles is about a hundred times worse that elsewhere for angsty drama purposes).

Perhaps the most common is that if someone has a power inflicted on them, that that's not their fault, they're still normal "underneath", but if they're BORN with one then ANYONE could have a power and be hiding it whilst pretending to be normal.

It's a double standard of course, but humans are depressingly good at those.

[sadoeuphemist]

Typically the accidents that grant powers are under extraordinary circumstances. The Fantastic Four went up in a space ship and got bombarded with cosmic rays, the Hulk was at ground zero of a gamma bomb, etc. The root causes of the powers are very obvious and regulated and you don't need to worry about your next door neighbor exposing themselves to gamma rays. Mutants on the other hand could manifest anywhere without warning thanks simply to their genes.

[donnblake]

On top of which, all of the people who talk about mutants being the next step in evolution, or replacing humanity, (and for what it's worth, you see both humans and mutants talking like this, albeit from very different perspectives) don't exactly help matters.

[xakko]

which was even sadder when the ultimate explanation used to be that almost all powers derived from Celestials mucking about with the DNA of humanity and all the Fantastic Four, the Hulk or Spider-Man had done was activate that with their respective "accidents".

I still love that Claremont kept throwing Neal Conan into his books. I remember when I first heard him on NPR, I was surprised to find he was a real person.

[icon_uk]

I don't think that all powers (whether inborn or acquired) derive from the Celestial DNA messing and implanting of the X-gene, otherwise Spider-Man and the FF would set of mutant detectors (Since the implication would be that the accidents reiggered their X-factor), and we know for sure that they don't.

[xakko]

this may have been before they came up with the "X-gene" as a concept. or maybe I'm misremembering the whole point of Earth X?

the wikipedia article for "mutate" still does mention that "Unknown to nearly the entire population of the Marvel Universe, the powers and abilities of Earth's Mutates and Mutants alike are the direct result of the genetic manipulations of the Celestials in humanity's distant past, who placed dormant genes within one cross-section of humanity"

[icon_uk]

The Celestials being repsonsible for the X-Gene was introduced in the mid 1970's, Earth-X came along in 1999.

[donnblake]

My personal theory is that what the X-gene actually does is activate various sections of 'junk' DNA (DNA that for whatever reason, doesn't seem to serve any purpose. Granted, the estimate of how much DNA this is in any given species has been dramatically revised downward recently, but there is some that just seems to be accumulations of DNA that reproduces itself but doesn't have any effect on an individual's actual development). In this scenario, junk DNA is the result of Celestial experiments, and can have a great number of effects. All the X-gene actually does is activate that latent potential, which can also be triggered by other means (traditionally, exposure to dangerous amounts of exotic radiation).

This is why Spider-Man and the FF don't set off mutant detectors, and also how the presence or absence of one gene can have such a wide range of effects. But that's just my pet theory.

[xakko]

I like your theory - I'd thought something much more basic (that the X-gene worked something like the radioactive exposure) but the junk DNA really ties it all together. It makes a lot of sense, keeping the Celestial involvement and being consistent with what we've seen with regards to mutant detection.

[bardbrain]

I suspect it parallels what you tend to see in public opinion polls.

Virtually any dumb idea backed by money or useful to politicians is supported strongly by 25% or so of the population. You'd probably see this even if it's something like executing the poor or the U.S. invading Canada, IF you had a few billionaires running campaigns to back it.

Around 25% of the population oppose any such stupid idea.

And around 50% adopt the less helpful stance of, "Yeah. The idea is kind of dumb but I'm not going to get involved and I'll support any position that's a balance of the extremes. Tattoos and registration? Okay. If that keeps the 25% of crazies happy. Fine. That's a compromise. I don't hate them. But I don't want the craziest of the 25% of lunatics bombing schools so let's give them something."

It seems to me like that's true of just about anything.

You can find 25% of Louisiana residents who think Obama caused Katrina, 25% of the population who support billion dollar RIAA lawsuits against individuals, 25% of people who favor outlawing divorce, 25% who would legalize murder, etc.

It's not always the same 25% of the population necessarily. But 1 in 4 people will support ANYTHING that monied interests support. And, for me, that accounts for the mutant hatred at Marvel.

The question then becomes why a disproportionate number of the very wealthiest people oppose mutants. It's probably a class issue. The X-gene is probably very democratically distributed and threatens social class structures. (Whereas gamma irradiation or super-soldier serums or cosmic ray research all provide avenues that, once researched, can be packaged and supplied to the mega-rich, maintaining an advantage for their children.)

Or maybe it's actually rarer among the super-rich. I've got ideas on why that would be.

Anything over half of the 1% support and launch PR campaigns around, though, 25% of the lower classes can be brought on board with.

If I wrote X-Men, my focus would be on class as I think that's the next frontier for the book to really cover, perhaps along with gender.

[silverzeo]

One of the biggest problems I have with environmental message is not the preachy morals, the teachings that come off as unique and inspiring as a "Believe in yourself to win" speech in action shows/movies, but how in each scanerio they tend to make it seem like nobody outside of the story has done ANYTHING about it. Thousands, if not millions of people working hard to keep animals, both wild and strays, alive and keeping forests thriving and planting new tree to help the enviroment... and they're efforts are pretty much grossly ignored, especially in movies like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" remake where the aliens show up, rip-off Noah's ark with the animals but not the plant life, have man kind be slowly devoured by flies that have no real "off button" for them other than a earth wide EMP which sends everyone back hundreds of years as well as killing anyone in planes or life support machines, at which point they just leave... all because we're not doing enough for the environment for other aliens...

Or in Avatar, where no-body but the school teacher and the guy who did snu-snu seem interested in finding alien life, just let alone reenacting of how Native Americans were treated from what we learned in Grade School, to which no one in the movie calls attention, let alone the main baddie's definition of "terrorism" and how there is "no green" on Earth anymore... good to know historians and enviormentalists' message fell short after a hundred years of so...