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Underground > Comic Books >

Theories of Evolution... in X-Men

Our Lady of The Two Towers

19:58 / 19.01.03

Thought it might be more useful to bring this here rather than rot the original thread in the Lab...

Sapient In that connection, the idea of homo superior as any kind of unified species has always seemed a little off to me, given the diversity of its alleged membership. I mean, could Beast and Jean even produce offspring together at this point?

Now admittedly I hadn't been reading X-Men for about 5 or 6 years before Grant took over but his x-gene as being the thing which gives every mutant their powers, whatever it is, is the first time I've seen such an idea in the comic. In the past, though vague, it was that everyone had a completely different biology based on their powers, and it was more that they were all different from humans rather than having the same thing in their DNA. Unless I've misread what Grant is suggesting and the 'x-gene' is a marker of powers, not the source of the powers themselves.

Beast and Jean probably could mate in the 'x-gene is the source of powers' theory as Beast is a mutant as well as a mutate. But then Dazzler had an alien's baby and human's can breed with mutants (Madelyne Pryor and Scott Summers) so presumerably the one thing they all have in common is mutant sperm and eggs that can cross species barriers.

20:56 / 19.01.03

Chris Claremont pointed on some issue of Xtreme X Men that mutants were different tests from evolution, to see which worked better (which means that eventually all mutants would be from the most effective strand, i.e. psionics, Phoenix; energoempathic, Cyclops; or feral,) Wolverine, between other types/strands)
Chuck Austen, over in Uncanny X Men, is already using the idea that mutants of the same strand band together and breed between them (ferals, a band of werewolves) to gain domination.
Though these ideas do not coincide with the original explanation for mutants that Kirby, (and later Nicieza in X Men Forever) derivated from Von Daniken. They say that the Celestials came and created Olimpians, Deviants and Humans (with the X factor dormant), as different tests; the humans/mutants resulted the most effective. The ultimate objective of the celestials' experiment is suposed to be to create a cosmic race, or other celestials. If this is so, then mutants should grow more powerful each generation, with a wider range of powers. And mating between strands should be possible to enable this diversification. (Inhumans do not enter this explanation because they were created from humans by the kree).

00:55 / 20.01.03

The x-gene's been on the go for as long as I've (intermittently) read X-books. The Legacy Virus attacked it.

I'm sure they can all sex each other.

Except Doop perhaps.

The Earth X series revealed that the implantation of evolutionary 'seeds' into humans by the Celestials was rather more insidious. It was to create protectors of Earth, which was a Celestial egg. (This was a lot better than it sounds, and has gorgeous John Paul Leon art.)

These same 'seeds' were artificially activated by the Kree in the case of the Inhumans, or by a multitude of (often radioactive) incidents in the case of Spider-Man or the Hulk.