Children of the Atom #2 Review/Spoilers. Yeah, i cried a little.

[Sutekh]

I mean between the X-Men and the Avengers nobody among them has had the idea "maybe they aren't actual mutants?"

Has anyone in the history of ever willingly pretended to be a mutant? (Wanda and Pietro don't count, they were lied to and told they were mutants! Ditto Franklin Richards. He was *just born* when his dad declared him a mutant.)

I mean, given the kind of death camps and giant killer robots and tailored mutant-killing plagues and registration acts and genocidal massacres that go on, it would be like deciding to move to Nazi Germany and walk around Berlin pretending to be a Jew. "Yes, please kill me a lot!"

I can see it simply being an obvious blind spot, given what they've gone through, with every human they've encountered over the last decade or so trying to kill them (and their few human allies either dropping off the face of the earth, like Peter Corbett or Stevie Hunter or Tom Corso, or turning out to secretly be mutants, like Moira), for the X-Men to not consider the idea that *they have human fans*.

[Hulkout42]

Has anyone in the history of ever willingly pretended to be a mutant? (Wanda and Pietro don't count, they were lied to and told they were mutants! Ditto Franklin Richards. He was *just born* when his dad declared him a mutant.)

I mean, given the kind of death camps and giant killer robots and tailored mutant-killing plagues and registration acts and genocidal massacres that go on, it would be like deciding to move to Nazi Germany and walk around Berlin pretending to be a Jew. "Yes, please kill me a lot!"

I can see it simply being an obvious blind spot, given what they've gone through, with every human they've encountered over the last decade or so trying to kill them (and their few human allies either dropping off the face of the earth, like Peter Corbett or Stevie Hunter or Tom Corso, or turning out to secretly be mutants, like Moira), for the X-Men to not consider the idea that *they have human fans*.

Maybe that's the whole point of this, to show their reaction to people who would go so far as to emulate them and desire to live among them with no alterior motive.

[pkingdom]

They've had fans before, and they've already established that Xavier accidentally created a mutant worshiping cult with his worldwide psychic temper tantrum.

[Icefanatic]

It seemed pretty obvious from the first issue, to me at least, that the CotA are a trans-allegory. Biological humans self-identifying with and as mutants...

[GeneTitan]

It seemed pretty obvious from the first issue, to me at least, that the CotA are a trans-allegory. Biological humans self-identifying with and as mutants...

Hmmmmm...That's a great theory.

[gonnagiveittoya]

Doesn't quite seem like a particular strong allegory if that is the case. It'd be stronger if one of them actually were trans tho. There's plenty of LGBT allegories to be drawn from the mutant metaphor but the majority of them are racial, so threading the needle of a trans metaphor via "humans who feel/believe like theyre mutants" has a huge risk of backfiring and coming across as Rachel Dolezal type stuff, or worse accidentally playing into the "trans people are just pretending" bullshit

[BroHomo]

Doesn't quite seem like a particular strong allegory if that is the case. It'd be stronger if one of them actually were trans tho. There's plenty of LGBT allegories to be drawn from the mutant metaphor but the majority of them are racial, so threading the needle of a trans metaphor via "humans who feel/believe like theyre mutants" has a huge risk of backfiring and coming across as Rachel Dolezal type stuff, or worse accidentally playing into the "trans people are just pretending" bullshit

Maybe one is actually trans

[gonnagiveittoya]

Possibly, but I'd doubt it if only because, well, if there were then they probably wouldn't feel the need to write an allegorical trans narrative for a character who is non-allegorically trans. Kind of a hat on a hat.

I'm still not totally convinced it's not a sleeper agent thing

[Grunty]

The more i think about how this book might play out, i get the feeling the only way it would work for a while would be if it all spirals down into a big tragedy, as mean spirited as it might sound.

Because as standard super hero team, with only the twist of being normal humans who immitate mutants, they don't seem to have lasting staying power (and create a controversial message).

If they are chimeras as some speculate the outcome of the story is basicly a side track towards a story with Mister Sinister in the main book, making the nature of this one redundant.

But if they are humans wanting to become mutants and it all eventualy goes out of controll, like they are exposed, some of them become mutants while the others don't and/or their antics get one of them killed, with the series turning into how they deal with their dreams and hope smacking right into reality, while still trying to do good, i could imagine it having at least some lasting appeal.

Though this depends on how it will be written and recieved over the comming months.

It seemed pretty obvious from the first issue, to me at least, that the CotA are a trans-allegory. Biological humans self-identifying with and as mutants...

If that's the intention it runs the high risk of breaking appart when the other aspect of the mutant metaphor come into play.

Because while the mutant metaphor has over time expanded to include the situation of people of LGBTQ+ nature it's still fundamentaly also connected to the issue of racism.

So if these kids are used as trans-metaphor it right away runs directly into the wall of the ethnicity-metaphor. Especialy if these kids might try to use technology to artificaly turn themself into mutants, since they are presented as fanboy/girls of them.

This isn't just the typical "we want to have super powers to be heros/villains" motivation of young people in super hero comics for seeking out such treatments.

Beacuse while idolization of certain super heros is certainly a part of it (they are cosplayers after all), their primary motivation is centered around wanting to be part of a different ethnicity or culture because they find it more desirable or fitting than their own "mundane" one.

While using tech or treatments to become mutants could be presented as people transitioning, it could also easily be seen as people undergoing cosmetic surgery or treatments to be more like a desired ethnicity. Like the real live issue of black or asian woman undergoing surgery to become more "white" looking.
Or if we take it from the other side, because the "downtrodden minority" is now very powerfull, expressive and attention creating, white middle class youths undergoing treatment to become "black" because they are big fans of rap music, R&B or african-american culture in general and feel it's "cooler" than their own, as silly as it might sound.

The trans aspect of the mutant metaphor functions well enough (relatively), if it's simply about being born different and feeling obligated by society to hide what someone truely is, represented via having natural super powers. Since that doesn't necessarily runs against the ethnicity metaphor.

But if these kids aren't mutants, they don't fit into that form of the metaphor and their desire to be mutants collide with the ethnicity metaphor.

And that's before we get into the whole subject of cultural appropriation.

Which makes me wonder if the moral at the end should be that sometimes you have to accept what you are, that sometimes you can't be part of something "special" and do right in your own way?

[Noek]

Ok I know it is considered heresy to most to bring up Inhumans except for hating on them in the X fourms. But would they be a better representation for trans? Going through Terrigenesis has been viewed as becoming your true self. One of the complaints against Inhumans being used as a representation for groups is that they are not born with their powers, so not being born with something.

[gonnagiveittoya]

Ehhhhhh not really. Or at least it's never been played that way. Other than a physical change it's not very similar, especially since, like in the case of the most famous Inhuman currently, the change isn't always voluntary.

[Noek]

Ehhhhhh not really. Or at least it's never been played that way. Other than a physical change it's not very similar, especially since, like in the case of the most famous Inhuman currently, the change isn't always voluntary.

True the Nuhumans didn't voluntary accept the change, but from a few pannels when they begain to use and really accept their powers it felt right to them. "This feels right", being the exact words Inferno used when his regeneration powers kicked in.

[gonnagiveittoya]

From another thread, a theory I found interesting: they're from the Ultimate Universe.

Actually Hickman DID order that according to Leah.

Mind you this was before Children of the Atom. So if that order was still in place-those kids are not mutants or they are mutants-who use to be someone else. We don't know everyone from Miles's Universe that came over.

[Kingdom X]

Maybe one is actually trans

Yeah I’m thinking that Buddy is going to be genderqueer.

[gonnagiveittoya]

Anything specific that gave you that idea?