Morrison's New X-Men and AvX

[Mundungus]

Prior to House of M and M-Day, there were millions and millions of mutants on the planet. I think. I don't really remember the "official" number. But there were a ton.

Now there is under 200. The editorial reason for shrinking the population was to make it something unique and special again and to stop writers from just cooking up a random mutant character to insert in a story.

Morrison's New X-Men was all about mutants as a burgeoning sub-culture trying to gain traction and legitimacy. You couldn't ignore mutants anymore. You couldn't hide from them. They were everywhere. According to Marvel, mutants are the next stage of evolution and what occurred in Morrison's New X-Men was the next stage of that. Eventually, naturally, they would take over as the dominant population on Earth.

Cyclops has been fighting to preserve the remaining mutant population at any cost. He's made some tough, questionable decisions. When Second Coming was all said and done, Hope had a Phoenix Flash and moments later five new mutant signatures appeared on Cerebro. Cyclops' position in AvX is the Phoenix is going to help reignite the mutant race.

What does that mean? In my mind, I picture Morrison's New X-Men all over again. I assume that's what Cyclops wants. But from an editorial standpoint, I don't think Marvel would want millions of mutants all over the world again.

I feel that Cyclops can't win, given his desire is in conflict with Marvel's editorial decree.

What do you guys think?

--

Also, controversial off-topic question. Mutants are supposed to be the next stage of evolution. Per Magneto, they're all Homo Superior and such. But in reality, they're just humans with laser eyes, claws, and funky skin conditions. They're no more or less susceptible to human foibles than a regular human, so what exactly is going extinct? If the mutants simply "die" out, then the world is just without a population of people born with super-powers. But they're still human, as much as either the MU humans or mutants try to distinguish themselves. If John Doe (random guy used for this scenario) was originally destined to become a mutant pre-House of M. But because of M-Day, his x-gene never activated, then what does it matter? He still gets to live his life. I know there might be some holes in my argument for this, but I'm curious what other people think.

[Lady_Alternate]

Best result that Cyke will get past editorial is some past mutants repowered and the potential for new mutants to appear, but much, much less than in the Morrison era - unchecked masses of mutants destabilises the fairly delicate story balance in the MU, and Morrison started to write them into a corner - the MU would basically become the world from "Top 10". "No More Mutants" was an over-reactive solution, but something needed to happen to reduce the numbers, and doing it this way allows them to grow upwards to a suitable population, rather than having to risk paring it back again too soon.

If you step far enough back and look at it, it's just the Apocalypse War situation from Judge Dredd all over again.

[Viteh]

Also, controversial off-topic question. Mutants are supposed to be the next stage of evolution. Per Magneto, they're all Homo Superior and such. But in reality, they're just humans with laser eyes, claws, and funky skin conditions. They're no more or less susceptible to human foibles than a regular human, so what exactly is going extinct? If the mutants simply "die" out, then the world is just without a population of people born with super-powers. But they're still human, as much as either the MU humans or mutants try to distinguish themselves. If John Doe (random guy used for this scenario) was originally destined to become a mutant pre-House of M. But because of M-Day, his x-gene never activated, then what does it matter? He still gets to live his life. I know there might be some holes in my argument for this, but I'm curious what other people think.

Well, yes, they would still be human and get to live their lives, however I think being a mutant makes earth's population better. They can achieve more through their powers. There's more than just laser beams and claws, some mutant powers help you be smarter, more creative. Like Dr Nemesis, or Forge. Prodigy was able to learn so much. Even with just regular telepathy you can make people learn a lot. There's a lot of possibilities.

There's also the fact that it increases Earth's safety regarding ooutside threats. Take the Skrull Invasion, one of the reasons it didn't happen earlier was because there were mutants everywhere.

[xhx23x]

There's also the fact that it increases Earth's safety regarding ooutside threats. Take the Skrull Invasion, one of the reasons it didn't happen earlier was because there were mutants everywhere.

I still don't get why Marvel wimp out on making the Skrulls responsible for House of M. It would've been the perfect excuse to clear Wanda off, better than Children's Crusade at least, and it would've been much better than the Skrulls simply getting lucky that Wanda went crazy and did the job for them.

But yeah, basically, I agree with what you said, Mutants and The Super Hero crowd are meant to keep the world safe from the general craziness in the MU.

And I do believe if Cykes gets what he wants out of this, it will be a slow gradual thing. I half expect the arcs following AvX will involve the X-Men protecting babies for half a year or so.

[Meehl]

Hmmm, you are implying that current X-editorial is using Cyclops to describe what working with Morrison was like?

[Mundungus]

I think Cyclops is looking for a population explosion. There were already signs that mutants were resurfacing, without full-on Phoenix presence.

Without AvX, mutants could have resurfaced at a more gradual rate. Unless Cyclops gets his way, I don't see the end of AvX weighing favorably in the mutant corner.

[Mundungus]

I think Cyclops is looking for a population explosion. There were already signs that mutants were resurfacing, without full-on Phoenix presence.

Without AvX, mutants could have resurfaced at a more gradual rate. Unless Cyclops gets his way, I don't see the end of AvX weighing favorably in the mutant corner.

[sweetdumbass]

You clearly didn't understand the end of Second Coming and/or Generation Hope. The Phoenix is the one responsible for the mutant repopulation. It's just coming to Earth to finish the job. Cyclops didn't summon him or anything.

[mikekerrIII]

Without AvX, mutants could have resurfaced at a more gradual rate. Unless Cyclops gets his way, I don't see the end of AvX weighing favorably in the mutant corner.

Without the PF the mutants simply would slowly become extinct.

[Kerukun878]

Yeah, the ending of Second Coming - and the things that were released following(the Gen Hope teaser, the one scene in Gen Hope where the Phoenix calls the Lights hers and Hope's children)afterward - show that the Phoenix is key in jump starting the mutant race, which is something direly needed otherwise they're apt to go extinct within fifty years or less.

[Ian Pressman]

Also, controversial off-topic question. Mutants are supposed to be the next stage of evolution. Per Magneto, they're all Homo Superior and such. But in reality, they're just humans with laser eyes, claws, and funky skin conditions. They're no more or less susceptible to human foibles than a regular human, so what exactly is going extinct? If the mutants simply "die" out, then the world is just without a population of people born with super-powers. But they're still human, as much as either the MU humans or mutants try to distinguish themselves. If John Doe (random guy used for this scenario) was originally destined to become a mutant pre-House of M. But because of M-Day, his x-gene never activated, then what does it matter? He still gets to live his life. I know there might be some holes in my argument for this, but I'm curious what other people think.

Morrison's big assertion was that according to super-science calculations, baseline humanity was a genetic dead end that was going to go extinct in a few decades. I really liked his run, but years after the fact that remained the dumbest thing I've ever read in an American comic. Suddenly every dumb mutant wasn't just a possible portent of the future, but the guaranteed continuation of our race. The very idea was just too 2000 A.D. for my tastes. As an agnostic, I really resent it when people try to sell me on absolutes.

[Probably_not_a_Nurgling]

Morrison's big assertion was that according to super-science calculations, baseline humanity was a genetic dead end that was going to go extinct in a few decades. I really liked his run, but years after the fact that remained the dumbest thing I've ever read in an American comic. Suddenly every dumb mutant wasn't just a possible portent of the future, but the guaranteed continuation of our race. The very idea was just too 2000 A.D. for my tastes. As an agnostic, I really resent it when people try to sell me on absolutes.

You know, given the sliding timescale, we would never have seen those four generations (the time Morrison had said it would take for mutants to become the dominant species) actually go by...

[Dr. Sonic]

Morrison's big assertion was that according to super-science calculations, baseline humanity was a genetic dead end that was going to go extinct in a few decades. I really liked his run, but years after the fact that remained the dumbest thing I've ever read in an American comic. Suddenly every dumb mutant wasn't just a possible portent of the future, but the guaranteed continuation of our race. The very idea was just too 2000 A.D. for my tastes. As an agnostic, I really resent it when people try to sell me on absolutes.

Unfortunately, the idea that human evolution has hit a deadend may not be too far off the money. Check out the crazy movie, 'Idiocracy' based on the novella, "The Marching Morons" by Cyril M. Kornbluth." It's a very silly movie, but fun as well as strangely prescient. The basic premise is that modern convinces have essentially enabled the human race to constantly reproduce beside the fact that the majority are functionally retarded and could never cope or survive on their own were these convinces stripped away.
With the mutant dynamic (totally fictional), a mutant, even were he or she of low power, would hold in his or her genome the potential or genetic loading to produce offspring of greater and greater ability - so that, over time, more higher order mutants begin to populate the planet, replacing humans. The whole matter is rather steeped in a touch of eugenics - always a dicey subject, but makes for an interesting concept for the comics; and it's too bad that 'M-Day' essentially snuffed out any plans to further elaborate on the matter.

[OmniAural]

Whilst editorial has in the past wanted to put the brakes on the madness of so many mutants running around, I think the Marvel of today may well be more open to a new generation of mutants appearing, whether it's de-activated mutants regaining their abilities or teenagers finding their abilities, but perhaps with a limit on the conditions of how they appear and how many.

Personally, I think it's still too soon to have a general explosion in the mutant population. In Marvel time there still hasn't been a great distance between the decimation and now which would mean the sense of a lost generation wouldn't be so keen and there's still probably a great deal more mileage to be had from just a few hundred still in existence. At some point though there are only going to be so many stories you can tell with these characters together before you have to introduce new elements.