How DOOM gets past Krakoan gates

[cyberghostface]

Two pages from Excalibur #23...

Comments

“BABIES” ~ Jubilee’s sole character trait these days

[deh_tommy]

“If you have a mutant child with no parents, remand him to my care so we can dump him in the impromptu nursery with all the other unwanted prom night dumpster babies on Krakoa.”

EDIT: I’ve just read the rest of the issue. Oh my gosh, this book just gets worse and worse. Bloody heck...

Re: “BABIES” ~ Jubilee’s sole character trait these days

[alliterator]

Excalibur is awesome and this issue was great, so I don't know what you are talking about.

[iamrman]

I can't say that I am upset to see Marvel pushing Doom. Better him than the Big Purple Simp again.

[cyberghostface]

Thanos isn’t a simp, he’s a victim of child grooming.

[silverhammerman]

It's a deeply weird vibe to see the mutants of Krakoa (which as I've said before, is an extremely white, liberal, American vision of utopia) demand that a Romani guy from Eastern Europe hand over a child whom they assume that he kidnapped. I mean, I know, I know, it's Doctor Doom of all people, but I feel like there are some rakes being stepped on here with regard to extremely bad stereotypes, and it's not the first time.

It is kind of neat to see that Doom casually points out the inherent problems in the whole Krakoan ethnostate concept, though that hardly seems to be something this book (or any of them) care to dwell on.

[shakalooloo]

They should just be grateful that Doom hadn't devised a way to render the child down into some 'technically alive' goop that he could just keep in an armour panel to gain the convenience of having both hands free.

[lissa_quon]

Man now you just got me picturing him with a baby bjorn with teh kid strapped up there so he has both hands. But nah he just had to do the dramatic cape reveal cause he's Doom.

[zachbeacon]

This seems shitty even by Doom standards.

[tinygaylaura]

Doom's morality as a character seems to change with every passing month

Sometimes he's an affably evil villain with a code of honor and a genuine love for his people. Other times he's a monstrous despot who views the people of Latveria as his slaves and will do any evil act you can name to achieve his goals

Writers can't seem to agree on what his personality is

It doesn't help that what was and wasn't the actions of a Doom bot are hard to pin down at best

[remial]

the way _I_ see it is Doom gets people.
If he shows up on the island with a mutant baby, and says "I'm gonna use this kid to get through your gates to magic land," he knows they are gonna raise a stink, demand he leave the kid, and escort him themselves.

if he showed up empty handed and said, "look, I need your help going to magic land. Yes I could do it myself, but time is of the essence, and if you help me you get something good in return, whaddayasay?" they would tell him to pound sand.

[icon_uk]

I like that idea, it's very in character!

[phantomfo]

"How dare you presume, Jubilee, that Dr. Doom could not sire a mutant child!

... But for real, yeah, you got me. This kid ain't mine."

[mastermahan]

"Doom would do your race the honor of siring a mutant child. It would be a most generous act! Unfortunately, the Windrider won't return Doom's calls."

[mastermahan]

Why does Krakoa even want to rule Avalon anymore? Pooky was only there to get to Arakko. It doesn't have any resources Krakoa wants. It's more dangerous to mutants than anywhere in the solar system. The only use it seems to have is that it's someplace to put Jamie Braddock, and surely they have ways to occupy an insane Omega than don't involve inflicting him on innocent peasants and risking him being irretrievable.

[tinygaylaura]

I think the "Risk" of him being irretrievable is why its the perfect place for him. Jamie has to behave because he knows that if he dies in Otherworld he's All The Way Dead. And for someone who only cares about himself that's the ultimate way to ensure they behave

They're keeping the throne because someone has to be in charge. Avalon is an absolute monarchy, there needs to be a king or queen. And with Jamie its someone they have a leash on. If he abdicated there's every chance Morgan Le Fay or someone worse would re-take the kingdom. We already know Merlin has evil designs on it

[gnarll]

I suspect Apocalypse thought of himself as the only one on the Quiet Council with any experience at playing the game of nations and empires. Realpolitik.

I think he took control of Avalon precisely because Otherworld was dangerous, and he wanted a buffer state.

[deh_tommy]

A foreign nation comes in, knocks down the current government and leaves without any real plan for what happens next? Nah, I can’t see how that would turn out poorly.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

A baby, huh?

I get those born to mutants being one thing, but in a situation such as what Doom proposes as a possibility here, wouldn't they need to wait until adolescence to know if they're a mutant or not?

Or do they simply have the mutant gene the whole time, and the nature of their powers simply don't manifest until adolescence?

[scorntx]

... well, now I've just got this image of Doom grabbing random babies, walking up to the portal with them and seeing what happens until he finds one that's a Mutant.

"My lord Doom, surely there is an easier way to resolve this problem..."
"SILENCE, BORIS! The brute force method has never failed Doom before, and it shall not today!"
"It's just... you have abduc- err, claimed a lot of babies to test this. You are going to return them, yes?"
"I grow tired of your impertinence, Boris... now hand me another baby!"


But to answer your question, yes, usually the Mutant gene is there but not active until teenagerhood, though there are exceptions like Charles, Beast, and Madrox.
There are means of detecting the Mutant gene, and the technological possibility exists to detect it when it's present but not active yet (Exodus once built a Cerebro that could detect Mutants as not yet active, using knowledge stolen from Cable).
Or Doom used magic.

[lordy_co]

This doesn't come up a lot but there's a subgroup of mutants called "Changelings", i.e. those who manifest their powers from birth or from a very early age, the most well-known example of which is Jamie Madrox.

[icon_uk]

The X-gene is present from birth, but the powers don't normally develop until puberty.

Quite a few mutants either have powers or mutated physical appearance from birth, like Nightcrawler, Proteus and Multiple Man

There was a subplot in Peter David's X-Factor about the development of an inutero test for the X-gene for couples who didn't want to have a mutant child and the ethical issues involved.

[deh_tommy]

Mutants are born with an X-Gene, but for most folks their powers don’t kick in or manifest properly until they grow a bit older. You can probably run tests to determine if someone is a mutant or not before that becomes evident.

[agharta75]

Doom should just walk through the portal, and when challenged by "but you aren't a mutant!" should answer "I am DOOM. That is enough."

Should he explain how he does it? Of course not. DOOM does not explain (unless he needs to show how That Fool Richards missed the obvious).

[icon_uk]

Okay, now THAT would have been cool. Even to the point of the mutants wondering if that means Doom is, and always has been, a mutant and just never mentioned it.

[crinos]

So, are they even going to find that kids parents? Or are they just on Krakoa now?

[icon_uk]

IIRC, Latveria doesn't recognise Krakoa's nationhood so I suspect they couldn't return the child, if they wanted to.