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View Full Version : X-men and genetics


Sunlitspire
03-19-2007, 08:23 AM
Ok first of all I have to admit I have a biase, I hate the decimation. I think that it was the worst kind of lazy, knee jerk reaction from marvel to keep the same old, stale, repetive universe that fans won't complain at or have to think about.

This is not me saying that I hate brian bendis (and am a big fan) or what people writing about its after effect have done. I love what carey, kyle and yost and brubaker have done to take this in new direction. I blame the company and big busniess attitude rather then the writers.

But this post isn't about that, its about genetics. I was trained as a biologist and as much as people talk about this being comic book science and hence not ment to make sense it still throughly grates me. You see if the average person on the street (which Wanda is!!) or even the best scientists and get them to change an entire race's genetic code you would kill every single member of that race and anyone whose genetics were touch by that. You see our gene code does not produce single physical effects, the gene for blue eyes may also code for height, weight, number of limbs, even if you have a head or not!!! This doesn't even come close to the complexity that a mutation would cause, if the evens behind M day had happened in anything approaching reality. Every single person with an x-gene wiped from in their body, mutant or not would now be dying rather horribly from various genetic disorders as would their children.

zeroEDGE
03-19-2007, 08:41 AM
Oh well, that's why writers aren't biologists.

TinMan
03-19-2007, 08:44 AM
Unless that gene was replaced by a different one or just altered to become a baseline human gene.

They've stated in cannon that the gene is gone, but that can always be retconned with a bit of good writing and correct this sort of discrepency. Like dude above me said, writers=/= biologists, so often these things need to be called out or researched.

Sunlitspire
03-19-2007, 08:48 AM
Thats cool idea for an explaination but it would still be a horrendously difficult thing to do without superhuman levels of intellegence. Sorry not meaning to pick holes in your idea. You can prob see why it annoyed me.

Sunlitspire
03-19-2007, 08:50 AM
the whole M day thing not your post

Beast
03-19-2007, 08:54 AM
Me thinks you're being a touch to picky here. We're dealing with comic books with super powers and magic.

TinMan
03-19-2007, 08:55 AM
Thats cool idea for an explaination but it would still be a horrendously difficult thing to do without superhuman levels of intellegence. Sorry not meaning to pick holes in your idea. You can prob see why it annoyed me.

the whole M day thing not your post

Indeed, but we also have to consider it was Wanda that did it with her "chaos magic" and probability control. She wouldn't necessarily have to know how the genetics worked, just the vision of the outcome in her mind to influence it. As long as she envisioned those mutants as being alive afterward, she could have feasibly caused it to happen without any advanced knowledge. When in doubt, play the "magic" card, it trumps everything. :p