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While flicking through 'Comcis Creators On X-Men', I noticed that Scott Lobdell had a serious problem with the growing numbers of mutants that Morrison introduced. To paraphrase, he seemed worried that having the guy in McDonalds having tentacles growing from his head as he gave you your order might destroy the innate uniqueness of mutants, and make them mundane and pedestrian.

I'd argue that mutants are only really frightening as a concept when they're on the verge of taking over completely and reshaping society, which was the case in Morrison's run. Suddenly we weren't reading about cute little house-mutants, we were reading about an actual threat to the human species who were starting to flex their cultural muscles. This makes good science-fiction and good comics. (Unfortunately it's since been jettisoned in favour of the same old.)

Discuss.

― Vic F (Vic Fluro), Sunday, 25 June 2006 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

Sounds like Morrison was quite influenced by Strontium Dog on this - I've got a totally unsubstantiated theory that SD was partly concieved as a punky riposte to Marvel's magic-powers having, supermodel-looking cast of mutants, and I've said as much on Wikipedia.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Sunday, 25 June 2006 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

Scott Lobdell may have said that but let's not forget that he is an idiot.

― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Sunday, 25 June 2006 16:52 (nineteen years ago)

Mr. Perry has a point.

Morrison's run was about transformation (amongst other things). "198" is about maintaining the humans on top status quo.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Sunday, 25 June 2006 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

It is a point, but it's interesting how many creators seem to be veering towards that - is it just that a Marvel Universe with a high population of mutants would be harder to write/draw/imagine/sell action figures for?

(Answer probably yes)

― Vic F (Vic Fluro), Sunday, 25 June 2006 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

Bullshit! A lot of the explosion in the mutant population in the 90s was driven by a need to create characters who would be good for action figures in the toy lines.

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Sunday, 25 June 2006 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, but there's a difference between Powerful New Costumed Mutant BadZap and the rest of the X-olytes who follow GenePow blah blah blah and the badly overweight Mr Patel who works in the deli and doesn't have a nose. Or a skintight costume. But he can create small glowing cubes with his brain!

― Vic F (Vic Fluro), Sunday, 25 June 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

I think that one of the bigger problems, and Morrison and his collaborators were very guilty of this, was making all the background mutants just random monsters, which I think is sort of ridiculous. It makes more sense for a lot of the mutants who aren't superheroes to be people trying to pass as human.

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Sunday, 25 June 2006 23:08 (nineteen years ago)

Also, and I know it's ridiculous to expect realism here, but it's just nonsensical scientifically for mutation to present itself in these deformities and contrived novelty powers. It really ought to be a whole mess of characters who aren't that weird looking, and have powers that are more logical in evolutionary terms - rapid healers, enhanced senses, psychics, super strong/super fast people, elementals, etc.

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Sunday, 25 June 2006 23:10 (nineteen years ago)

That makes sense. So you'd agree that Marvel should have a high percentage of its population be mutants as that would make for more interesting stories and a forward-looking line, rather than something that essentially apes DC's continuity-driven mode of storytelling?

― Vic F (Vic Fluro), Monday, 26 June 2006 09:37 (nineteen years ago)

If it were up to me, continuity would be dismantled without explanation or justification in the service of writing good stories! You know, a note in the back saying "um, House of M was nice and all, but we're just going to ignore that from now on, all of the stuff in New X-Men and Astonishing X-Men is canon, nevermind this that and the other thing." I think there has to be some level of continuity just so people aren't rewriting the same thing over and over for a new audience and that there is some feeling of direction and consequence in the stories, but I think that bad ideas should be called out as bad ideas and excised from continuity without having to write shitty stories explaining it away.

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Monday, 26 June 2006 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

I think my position is more that mutants should be a growing part of the population, but it shouldn't be too normal. Like, maybe 5-8% of the population. Mutants living normal lives should be deeply closeted. There should be stories about closeted mutants being outed, definitely. There should be some explanation for what conditions are like for mutants around the world. How is it that China can have so many people, and yet we've only heard about a few Chinese mutants ever? Are they snuffing out mutants before they are born? Likely!

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Monday, 26 June 2006 13:03 (nineteen years ago)

Also, I'd like, JUST ONCE, to read a story where the treatment of mutants by very religious people is treated even remotely realistically. They are always written by people with this really kneejerk anti-Christian agenda, and it really doesn't take into account that a lot of religious people would likely see the mutants as being sent by God or miracle workers or prophets, what have you.

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Monday, 26 June 2006 13:05 (nineteen years ago)

I heartily endorse your position. It's absolutely impossible to have a fictional universe that has been handled by hundreds of writers over many decades and have everything be entirely consistant - I'm sure if you applied rigorous continuity checks to your average long-running TV soap opera it would come up severly lacking. Continuity can be nice, even rewarding for someone who has been visiting a particular world for a good portion of their life, but under no accounts should it be a millstone - the writer's principle obligation is to the story THEY'RE telling, not the vast ammount of stories that have come before.

xpost x2

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Monday, 26 June 2006 13:06 (nineteen years ago)

If mutants are supposed to be representative of a minority group, how come there are so few relative to the general population? If anything, it'd hammer the point home more -- it's easy to fear and hate mutants when there are a few dozen, but what if it was a tenth of the population or more? Some sheltered young reader is going to wonder how anyone could be prejudiced against such a large group and one day the little lightbulb is going to come on and they'll realize their own prejudices aren't founded.

Morrison's world of many mutants made sense because the philosophy of having limited numbers until a character is introduced for a plot point is ridiculous. Admitting that there are thousands of mutants out there, some who know that they're different and some who live normal lives, is a more plausible situation.

― business up front, party entrance at side door (mike h.), Monday, 26 June 2006 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

I just realized how ridiculous it is to assume that mutant stories are harder to tell if there are mutants everywhere. Imagine if this was what was said:

While flicking through 'Comics Creators On X-Men', I noticed that Scott Lobdell had a serious problem with the growing numbers of homosexuals that Morrison introduced. To paraphrase, he seemed worried that having the guy in McDonalds having a same-sex relationship as he gave you your order might destroy the innate uniqueness of gay men, and make them mundane and pedestrian.

First of all, almost every mutant has a different mutation! Second, the above statement still is ridiculous, because it's basically admitting they can't do anything on characterisation alone and they're relying on the zany mutant crap to build a plot.

― business up front, party entrance at side door (mike h.), Monday, 26 June 2006 18:03 (nineteen years ago)

They are always written by people with this really kneejerk anti-Christian agenda, and it really doesn't take into account that a lot of religious people would likely see the mutants as being sent by God or miracle workers or prophets, what have you.

Milligan played with this in the first X-Force arc, right? I think one of the new cast was held as something of a saviour in her village (or maybe her PR people decided this would be a good way to go).

― Richard Baez (Johnny Logic), Monday, 26 June 2006 18:05 (nineteen years ago)

Well, that's Milligan. He and Morrison are the only guys who've really come to the X-Men with any kind of new things to say about mutants, and using mutants to tell stories about the world. I wish he had done that when he was on the X-Men proper, but you know. X-Force/X-Statix is classic.

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Monday, 26 June 2006 19:48 (nineteen years ago)

I liked the road trip era of X-Force. It wasn't "new" but it wasn't really anything that I'd seen in the X-books before. Ditto the current X-Factor run.

― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Monday, 26 June 2006 20:05 (nineteen years ago)

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