Are Marvel Mutants to human looking as a whole?

[mathew101281]

I like what the movies did to Mystic. They went with the whole human chameleon with scales thing, which I kind of like. I always felt Marvel mutants looked too human, and it kind of undercut their underlying premise. Don't get me wrong there should be a scale between somewhat human-looking and completely alien, but when the vast percentage of mutants just look like really fit humans it kind of goes against the whole idea that mutation makes you an outcast. I also liked that older drawings of Storm gave her more feline eyes.

[pkingdom]

Basically main character mutants almost always look like humans, with notable exceptions like Beast and Anole, who spend a large chunk of their time angsting about their appearances. Background mutants are almost universally non-human looking so the audience knows they're supposed to be mutants. In fact, in crowd shots you can often tell who's a main character by who looks the most human. Its like in old cartoons where the thing on-screen that the characters are going to interact with are a totally different shade than the rest of the background.

[Grunty]

I like what the movies did to Mystic. They went with the whole human chameleon with scales thing, which I kind of like. I always felt Marvel mutants looked too human, and it kind of undercut their underlying premise. Don't get me wrong there should be a scale between somewhat human-looking and completely alien, but when the vast percentage of mutants just look like really fit humans it kind of goes against the whole idea that mutation makes you an outcast. I also liked that older drawings of Storm gave her more feline eyes.

That's more or less the legacy of the X-men originating from the super hero comics of the 1970's, which not only involved a certain expected visual standard to appeal the readers, but also put a lot of restriction on how much time the artists had to draw everything within their deadlines (making many artist of the day even more impressive in how much they could do with such limits). Same reason costumes primarily tended to be body suits in different colors.

There is a popular gif that goes "Hi my name is ..." showing one male character redrawn to be basicly every marvel or DC hero, which highlights this.

Perfectly human looking characters were both seen as more appealing and easier to draw. Hence why it was also usualy the villains who got the more unique appearances, as they weren't present all the time and even then they were fewer than the normal human looking ones too.

It's one reason The Thing was so unique for his time.

Funny enough after the success of the first movie they briefly had the comic version of Mystique get scale appearance too, but it didn't stick over her classic design, like so often.

Overall this topic is one reason i found Nightcrawler and Marrow interesting when i started reading X-men comics. Because they actualy looked "mutated".

[Phoenixx9]

Well, human mutants are still human beings after all. And there layin the danger of being a mutant, with human hatred and prejudice rampant, and so while appearing just as a baseline human, this mutant human must conceal their ability or be outcast in society.

[useridgoeshere]

I think Mutants should be 90% gorgeous athletes/supermodels with 10% being adorable muppets/creatures that would look great as a stuffed animal (e.g., Beast, Nightcrawler). None of my ideal Mutants would be unattractive, repulsive, or someone I don't want to look at.

[mugiwara]

Well, human mutants are still human beings after all. And there layin the danger of being a mutant, with human hatred and prejudice rampant, and so while appearing just as a baseline human, this mutant human must conceal their ability or be outcast in society.

Yeah. A part of the anti-mutant hate was based on the huge paranoia: "they look like us, they walk among us", "they could be your neighboor or even your child".

Non-human looking mutants used to be an exception. Even a large part of the Morlocks would look human if Masque didn't use his power on them.

It changed a bit in the 90s but it's during Morrison's "mutant boom" that more and more non-human looking mutants appeared. It was a welcome change, since it gives readers a huge varity of design and some easily recognizable characters.
But since readers, writers and editors are obsessed with characters from the 60s-70s-80s, the main X-Men will always look like regular humans.

[TheMutantTheorist]

It makes sense for human mutants to look like humans, after all they are still human just more evolved. On a genetic level they are a different species but with one single gene that sets them apart. Other post-human species like Inhumans, Atlanteans, and Eternals still look like humans for the most part but with evolved abilities because they came from humans. Broo and Ariel or other mutant aliens/non humans still look like their de evolved counterparts and are also referred to (mutant Brood etc.) unlike mutant humans who only refer to themselves as mutants. Technically mutants are still human but they aren't, its confusing but makes sense.

[Grunty]

Yeah. A part of the anti-mutant hate was based on the huge paranoia: "they look like us, they walk among us", "they could be your neighboor or even your child".

Non-human looking mutants used to be an exception. Even a large part of the Morlocks would look human if Masque didn't use his power on them.

It changed a bit in the 90s but it's during Morrison's "mutant boom" that more and more non-human looking mutants appeared. It was a welcome change, since it gives readers a huge varity of design and some easily recognizable characters.
But since readers, writers and editors are obsessed with characters from the 60s-70s-80s, the main X-Men will always look like regular humans.

It's somewhat interesting that part of the paranoia about mutants, is indeed because anyone could be a mutant with dangerous powers (another is that any kid could turn into a mutant with harmfull powers and no warning), since traditional most mutants look normal human.
But in pop culture fictional "mutants" are often people with physical deformities or non-human appearances, which certainly seemed to have slipped into the perception of the mutants in the marvel universe too.

There is also the aspect that it's easier to draw mass scenes of nameless mutants, while making it obvious for the reader that they are mutants, by just adding a bunch of freaky looking people to them. It's likely the reason so many of the post-2000 Xavier institute students had physical alterations.

It makes sense for human mutants to look like humans, after all they are still human just more evolved. On a genetic level they are a different species but with one single gene that sets them apart. Other post-human species like Inhumans, Atlanteans, and Eternals still look like humans for the most part but with evolved abilities because they came from humans. Broo and Ariel or other mutant aliens/non humans still look like their de evolved counterparts and are also referred to (mutant Brood etc.) unlike mutant humans who only refer to themselves as mutants. Technically mutants are still human but they aren't, its confusing but makes sense.

Considering that all humans are allready different from each other by several genes on average, it's really somewhat weird to seriously declare mutants and normal humans to be different species, since it's only a SINGLE gene difference, even if said single gene grants super powers.

Since by that notion any human with neanderthal genes should be considered a different species from humans without it too. For example, if i recall right most modern eurasians have between 1-4% genomes from neanderthal ancestors and the human genome project revealed we have around 20,000 genes total (again if i recall right). That's a lot more than the genetic difference between a normal human and a mutant.

And that's before we take into account that when depowered or having their powers supressed mutants almost always turn back into baseline human form (even during Decimination the vast majority of physical changed mutants reverted to human form, the opposite cases were seemingly exceptional).
Not to forget the fragility of the X-gene overall (the many ways to harm or supress it).
Which makes the distinction between baseline and mutant human seems ever more thin.

Eternals, Atlanteans, Inhumans and many mutates all seem much more difficult to have their powers supressed, compared to mutants, indicating a much stronger seperation from normal humans.

Even the notion of evolution from humans is somewhat questionable, since it involves the debate on what ever super powers are really part of evolution or macking a mockery of it.

So yeah mutants are basicly just "humans+1" to make a DnD comparison. All the talk about seperation of species only makes sense as the arguments of those on both sides who want to divide humanity between the line of X-gene.

And considering this and that most super powers are meta-physical rather than physical, it makes sense that a large number of mutants remain human looking.

[AppleJ]

It's somewhat interesting that part of the paranoia about mutants, is indeed because anyone could be a mutant with dangerous powers (another is that any kid could turn into a mutant with harmfull powers and no warning), since traditional most mutants look normal human.
But in pop culture fictional "mutants" are often people with physical deformities or non-human appearances, which certainly seemed to have slipped into the perception of the mutants in the marvel universe too.

There is also the aspect that it's easier to draw mass scenes of nameless mutants, while making it obvious for the reader that they are mutants, by just adding a bunch of freaky looking people to them. It's likely the reason so many of the post-2000 Xavier institute students had physical alterations.



Considering that all humans are allready different from each other by several genes on average, it's really somewhat weird to seriously declare mutants and normal humans to be different species, since it's only a SINGLE gene difference, even if said single gene grants super powers.

Since by that notion any human with neanderthal genes should be considered a different species from humans without it too. For example, if i recall right most modern eurasians have between 1-4% genomes from neanderthal ancestors and the human genome project revealed we have around 20,000 genes total (again if i recall right). That's a lot more than the genetic difference between a normal human and a mutant.

And that's before we take into account that when depowered or having their powers supressed mutants almost always turn back into baseline human form (even during Decimination the vast majority of physical changed mutants reverted to human form, the opposite cases were seemingly exceptional).
Not to forget the fragility of the X-gene overall (the many ways to harm or supress it).
Which makes the distinction between baseline and mutant human seems ever more thin.

Eternals, Atlanteans, Inhumans and many mutates all seem much more difficult to have their powers supressed, compared to mutants, indicating a much stronger seperation from normal humans.

Even the notion of evolution from humans is somewhat questionable, since it involves the debate on what ever super powers are really part of evolution or macking a mockery of it.

So yeah mutants are basicly just "humans+1" to make a DnD comparison. All the talk about seperation of species only makes sense as the arguments of those on both sides who want to divide humanity between the line of X-gene.

And considering this and that most super powers are meta-physical rather than physical, it makes sense that a large number of mutants remain human looking.

Yes to all this. The whole point of the metaphor should be that mutants are NOT a separate species. The biological definition of a species is generally: a group of organisms that can reproduce naturally with one another and create fertile offspring.

Humans and mutants can typically produce offspring together and mutants are born sporadically from human parents.

They have a genetic mutation that may give them an evolutionary advantage and over time lead to a separate branch off of the species eventually. Technically they are not there yet. It usually requires isolation of the population and continued changes to accumulate over a long period of time to create a new separate species.

[Habis]

Considering that all humans are allready different from each other by several genes on average, it's really somewhat weird to seriously declare mutants and normal humans to be different species, since it's only a SINGLE gene difference, even if said single gene grants super powers.

Yep. Humans and mutants shouldn't be considered different species. Mutants shouldn't even be considered a race. Just people with powers.

Considering that all humans are allready different from each other by several genes on average, it's really somewhat weird to seriously declare mutants and normal humans to be different species, since it's only a SINGLE gene difference, even if said single gene grants super powers.

Quite more than "several genes", actually.

Since by that notion any human with neanderthal genes should be considered a different species from humans without it too. For example, if i recall right most modern eurasians have between 1-4% genomes from neanderthal ancestors and the human genome project revealed we have around 20,000 genes total (again if i recall right). That's a lot more than the genetic difference between a normal human and a mutant.

2-4% Neanderthal genome for Eurasians, and up to 8% of Neanderthal/Denisovan genome for Melanesians.

And we have at around 30,000 genes, but we have more than one copy of each; any one of our chromosomes contains hundreds to thousands of genes.

Eternals, Atlanteans, Inhumans and many mutates all seem much more difficult to have their powers supressed, compared to mutants, indicating a much stronger seperation from normal humans.

My pet theory is that Celestials gave mutants an emergency switch off to stop them if they ever rebelled against them...

Even the notion of evolution from humans is somewhat questionable, since it involves the debate on what ever super powers are really part of evolution or macking a mockery of it.

I think superpowers are quite obviously artificial, rather than a product of evolution. They were implanted by the Celestials, and emerge under some circumstances.

Yes to all this. The whole point of the metaphor should be that mutants are NOT a separate species.

Yep. A metaphor that presents minorities as not really human is iffy, to say the least...

[Devaishwarya]

It was never about their looks but instead the sometimes deadly and destructive powers they wield.
In fact...the idea that the majority look human and "normal" was the basis for the anti mutant campaign back in the day.
Mutants Do You Know....jpg

[Shambles]

Personally I want more visually distinct mutants as I just find them more interesting.

Visual mutations can add to character and story.

More weird please

[marhawkman]

Yeah. A part of the anti-mutant hate was based on the huge paranoia: "they look like us, they walk among us", "they could be your neighboor or even your child".

Non-human looking mutants used to be an exception. Even a large part of the Morlocks would look human if Masque didn't use his power on them.

It changed a bit in the 90s but it's during Morrison's "mutant boom" that more and more non-human looking mutants appeared. It was a welcome change, since it gives readers a huge varity of design and some easily recognizable characters.
But since readers, writers and editors are obsessed with characters from the 60s-70s-80s, the main X-Men will always look like regular humans.

In some comics it was suggested that mutants who looked weird at birth were in many cases killed off. Which would reduce the number of the really weird ones.

[yogaflame]

The Celestials created Eternals, perfected in form and able to harness cosmic energy, the Deviants, ever mutating, each distinct from the next, who needed technology to be competitive, and humans, with potential for both. Their x-gene gives mutants the potential to be immortal gods equal to or even exceeding the Celestials themselves, and it also allows for infinite, sometimes catastrophic physical mutations. The mutation can be subtle, psychic, or gross, physical. Or anything in between.
mutantscelestials.jpg

[Triniking1234]

Who's "Mystic"? Good grief.

It helps with the paranoia part of the mutant-flatscan story since the flatscans can't tell who's a mutant and who's not.

And honestly not every mutant needs to look non-human if it's not related to their powers. Does Iceman need to look like Cookie Monster to throw snow balls? Of course not.