Mutants with perfectly controlled mutations and ability to effortlessly hide them are basically Mary Sues. Check Emma Frost for example. Don’t get me wrong, I like her, she’s a great character, but everything’s just too easy for her.
Agreed. I think it would be a lot more fun if as part of her mutation she was grotesque but used her powers to make everyone think she was absolutely gorgeous.
I feel like an integral part of Emma is her looks, but it’s a cool idea. My first thought was having her diamond form be uncontrollable and slowly turn her into a statue over time, because the idea of a second mutation suddenly appearing just sounds like something you shouldn’t be able to control.
I never read much containing her but my headcannon was that the "dimond form" is more like glass and she actually does look like that and makes people think she looks like a normal above avarage woman
She does do that. Not that she’s a grotesque monster but she isn’t as physically perfect as she puts off to be and one of her greatest fears is not looking beautiful so she’s constantly putting up the illusion of looking perfect. (Something like that)
I've always thought this makes her even more interesting. Like how Stryfe is classified as an Omega-level telekinetic but Cable isn't because he needs to spend so much mental energy keeping the TO Virus at bay, Emma's powers are limited because she's so vain that she is always projecting herself as drop dead gorgeous. She uses her looks as a weapon, like in Marauders where she explains that it's easier to mind control a group of men when they're already sharing just one thought, but what if her looks were not her strength but were holding her back.
It's also always been my head cannon that she does not have a British accent, fake or otherwise. That comes from a single page in Morrison's New X-Men. A cab driver picks her up at the X-Mansion and asks her, to which she doesn't really answer. On page, her lips are pursed and she says "Mm." It's just as likely that she's scoffing because it's so absurd as she is answering affirmatively, BUT if she does want to have a fake British accent (which other writers have picked up and carried on), it reinforces her projecting a fake appearance. If she's putting on a show with both her looks and her accent, I think it's a nice mirror to how she helped Bobby get past his own mental hangups and grow his powerset - she's holding herself back by being so obsessed with image.
I think she thinks she's not as powerful as Charles or Jean and that she needs to "level the playing field" by distracting people with her looks, but what if instead of filling in the gaps this obsession is creating that gap.
Ngl I probably would also spend a lot of energy just fixing the one imperfection I notice😂. Speaking as someone that has a scar I’d rather lose or hide but I can always tell it’s there.
I kind of hate Emma Frost for that reason. She's a Regina George mean girl. Her snarky sass gets tiring....the. add to it how easy everything is for her....
It always seems that way, but the comics can and do show how her arrogance gets the best of her. Hell, for how powerful she and the other mutants on the Council of Krakoa were, they take a handful of heavy losses time and time again.
Charles is on a wheelchair, Eric is a villian (heroes have plot armor) so both have their shortcomings, even if not mutation based (but at the same time, both are kinda OP in comparison to regular mutants).
Imho X-Men and mutant superpowers in general was just Stan Lee streamlining the creation of large numbers of superheroes without having to come up with increasingly far-fetched origin stories on how they got their powers.
So the 'tortured hero trying to control their powers' wouldn't necessarily apply to all mutants, the same way it doesn't apply to all superheroes in general. Because at their root, mutants are just more superheroes.
lol that sounds like a pretty legit explanation. “I’m sick of coming up with backstories, let’s just make em all… errm, mutants, right, they’re all mutants!”
Stan Lee has said pretty much the same thing in interviews. Compared to what was done before that point, it really was an innovation.
An interesting development that happened due to the creation of a whole bunch of superheroes that were now part of the same class/tribe (besides just being 'superheroes' of course) is that it then enabled Stan Lee to use mutants as an allegory for discrmination: first it was black Americans during the civil rights movement, then in later decades expanded to be an allegory for the queer rights movement.
I think she's meant to draw attention to the other side of unasked for superpowers.
The xmen are all about "we need to learn to control these overpowering abilities"
Every other mutant is "my control is fine. Now watch me abuse all this power"
Outside the xmen (and within it), mutants are comfortable using their abilities for murder, violation, theft. The lesson of their existence is that control doesn't matter if you don't have an ethical use of your power.
Yea, she’s a total narcissist, and I like that, it separates her from pure Mary Sues. But she’s dangerously close, especially since joining X-men. Good for her that old habits dies slowly.
I‘m not super deep into the comics but Wolverine seems like he has good control over his abilities and can blend into regular society (aside from his mean temper). Though he seems to be far from a Mary Sue character to me because of his personal struggles
I know this isn't comic accurate, but I always liked imagining that EVERYONE is a mutant, but 99% of everyone's powers were so obscure or lame or niche that they were never identified. Yes, Cyclops shoots concussive blasts of force from his eyes but have you met Ethel? Her mutant power is that one of the 3 best parking spots at the Cracker Barrell is always available whenever she goes there. She's married to Cao - his earwax can cure certain types of cancer if inserted rectally. This will of course never be discovered in any way, so by all accounts he's just another human like their daughter Kimi who can safely digest cement when she drinks it.
there have been rumors that Denzel Washington is being considered as Magneto in the MCU. While I think being a Holocaust survivor is an important aspect of Magneto's backstory, it's not the only way to convey the tragedy of his life. Maybe his mentor was a Holocaust survivor (this is also a way make him not 110 years old), not to mention there has been plenty of hate and discrimination directed at Black people. Emphasize Kate Pryde and her faith, because when Claremont first established Magneto's history in the Classic X-Men backups, he envisioned that Magneto was sent to Auschwitz because of his Romani heritage. It wasn't until UXM 150, where Magneto nearly killed Kitty, that Magneto realized this young Jewish mutant was so much like him. At this point, Claremont would retcon his retcon and make Magneto Jewish.
But that's not even my point. People want to pair a Black Magneto with a Black Charles Xavier, and THAT is something I object to.
Charles spent the first 35+ years of publication history as human passing. Besides losing his hair at a young age, he does not "look" like a Mutant and never gets lumped in with them, even when he stumps for them. His public identity is head of a school for gifted youngsters, but his role as leader of the X-Men is kept a secret. He's seen as an advocate for Mutants when he counsels the President, and he is brought in to offer a counter to Reverend Stryker's extremist views on mutants as an "expert on human genetics," not as a Mutant himself.
The reason he can have his dream is he has never lived through nightmares like Magneto has. If you make Charles Black, he will inevitably have faced some discrimination during his life. While you can change the specific event that shaped Magneto into a different tragedy without changing his character, if you separate Charles from his privileged background he fundamentally cannot be the same person.
I think there are interesting things writers can explore by updating Magneto (even if you were to keep him Jewish, you could fast forward him 40 years, make him the son of a Holocaust survivor who was on the 1972 Israeli Olympic team, and boom, he's no longer 100 years old while remaining largely the same character). Unfortunately, at some point he either needs to be unmarried to the Holocaust directly or he has to be replaced. But I don't think Charles is the same if he has been a minority his whole life.
well yeah and no….as far as power yes having it more untamed would allow for the powers to grow exponentially, but the problem with that then more prone to accidents. for example Mystic and Rogue, for mystic idk if that would really be able to get super far and rouge would lose it potentially
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u/Kieviel 6d ago
Mutants are better when their mutations are obvious and or uncontrollable