Will Near Extinction Always Be The X-Men's Status Quo?

[Grunty]

Most notable to me was a Legacy Virus variant that cause the Mutant to explode... sort of. It made the powers go into mega-over-drive and kill the mutant, but also cause massive destruction.... sometimes in weird ways. One Mutant whose power was to make people forget about her.... caused a bunch of people to "forget how to breathe" and thus die of asphyxiation when it overloaded her powers.

Which sounds oddly similar to the negative side effect of the Murituri process from the Marvel comic Strikeforce Morituri.

The story of the series was that in another universe Earth was attacked by a fleet of brutal aliens called the Horde. Eventualy a scientist perfects a method which can grant normal humans enhanced physical performance and random super powers.

However not only was the process only compatible with a small percentage of the human population (around 5%), but anyone who received it would eventualy die, most often via their super powers overcharging and going out of control.

Hence the title of the series, being based on the latin phrase: "moritūrī tē salūtant" = "those who are about to die salute you".

The world of Strikeforce Morituri or at least one like it actualy exist in the Marvel Multiverse. During Si Spurrier's X-force, an illegal arms dealer called Volga forced a mutant with the ability to jump between dimensions to steal various valuable technologies from alternative Earths including a "flesh printer" and the morituri process itself.

When Volga's scientists tested it in the 616 universe it turns out that while depowered mutants are seemingly perfect fits for the process (it basicly takes up the "empty spot" where their x-gene used to be), albeit still subjective to the "after one year go boom" problem, still powered mutants will explode after barely a day because of their powers overcharging.

Later in the series it's revealed that the scientist also found a way to stablize it (or insert a manual trigger mechanism if henchmen need to be disposed), which Doctor Nemesis then used to reverse engineer a similar cure for affected mutants like Cable.

Considering that the legacy virus was an artifical creation from Stryfe's future, it's weirdly possible that it might have it's origins in a similar flawed human empowering process.

Infact one can also draw similarities to the effect terrigen mist has on mutants.

Like how during the X-Cell story in PAD's X-factor, Quicksilver repowered a group of depowered mutants using the terrigen mist crystal he embeded in his body. However after a short while one of them exploded and the others were seemingly close to suffering the same fate aswell when they got teleported away into another dimension.

[marhawkman]

Which sounds oddly similar to the negative side effect of the Murituri process from the Marvel comic Strikeforce Morituri.

The story of the series was that in another universe Earth was attacked by a fleet of brutal aliens called the Horde. Eventualy a scientist perfects a method which can grant normal humans enhanced physical performance and random super powers.

However not only was the process only compatible with a small percentage of the human population (around 5%), but anyone who received it would eventualy die, most often via their super powers overcharging and going out of control.

Hence the title of the series, being based on the latin phrase: "moritūrī tē salūtant" = "those who are about to die salute you".

The world of Strikeforce Morituri or at least one like it actualy exist in the Marvel Multiverse. During Si Spurrier's X-force, an illegal arms dealer called Volga forced a mutant with the ability to jump between dimensions to steal various valuable technologies from alternative Earths including a "flesh printer" and the morituri process itself.

When Volga's scientists tested it in the 616 universe it turns out that while depowered mutants are seemingly perfect fits for the process (it basicly takes up the "empty spot" where their x-gene used to be), albeit still subjective to the "after one year go boom" problem, still powered mutants will explode after barely a day because of their powers overcharging.

Later in the series it's revealed that the scientist also found a way to stablize it (or insert a manual trigger mechanism if henchmen need to be disposed), which Doctor Nemesis then used to reverse engineer a similar cure for affected mutants like Cable.

Considering that the legacy virus was an artifical creation from Stryfe's future, it's weirdly possible that it might have it's origins in a similar flawed human empowering process.

Infact one can also draw similarities to the effect terrigen mist has on mutants.

Like how during the X-Cell story in PAD's X-factor, Quicksilver repowered a group of depowered mutants using the terrigen mist crystal he embeded in his body. However after a short while one of them exploded and the others were seemingly close to suffering the same fate aswell when they got teleported away into another dimension.

Yeah, there's a LOT of questions about the origin of the Legacy virus.... most notably... why give it to Sinister?

[Force de Phenix]

No they didnt AVX did not restore any of the mutants that had lost their powers. It did allow for latent mutant genes to get activated and the point of AVX outcome was that mutantkind would no longer face extinction when the 198 died out. The numbers were probably closer to the thousands by the time IvX happened. The fact is the terrigen cloud was toxic to most mutants. It either made them sick, die or flat out sterilized them as no new mutants were manifesting. It was so bad that they could no longer live safely on Earth which is why Storm had the mansion moved to Limbo and that era had them rescuing mutants and sending them there as a refuge. By the time IVX actually came around they realized it would eventually saturate the atmosphere and they'd all die if it wasnt destroyed or they permanently move elsewhere. Thats an Extinction status quo and far more dire than the legacy virus.

Think about how many X-men were exposed to Kwannon and those people to other mutants and no one got it. It wasnt as deadly as the Terrigen cloud bc it wasnt as contagious/transmittable nor was it spreading rapdily. It was introduced in 1993 and by the time it was resolved in 2001, it never became an overwhelming problem to them. It never put mutants on the brink of completely dying out. The only significant mutation that the virus even had was when it evolved to infect humans. Despite that, it never became a pandemic

In any case, they are all events that meant the extinction of or a mass death of mutants, and the concept has been around for decades in X-Men lore.

[Zelena]

I somewhat believe “near extinction” serves a purpose going back to the franchise’s beginnings when mutants were scarce and that novelty differentiated them from other superhero books. Stories were centered on discovering new mutants and helping them cope in the world. The metaphor was less prominent. Maybe not because it served a political agenda. More like it burnished their brand as a secret hidden society. What’s more secret society than a group hiding out in an Ivy League school setting? Kinky industrialists in fetish gear who are literally a secret society. Too many mutants and the novelty wears off and the brand is diluted.

But that was then, and things are different now. Extremely online fans demand the books tow some sort of political line in every issue and in every way. Which, I guess that’s entertainment for some. Me? I’d rather the books strike a balance and make the “very special episodes” … well, special.

I think this way of thinking would give more freedom to the authors to tell the stories they want and not being stuck to reshash the same miserable story and that they would appreciate that.

But have the authors the power nowadays? I find hard to think the readers wouldn’t want to read more diverses stories that would take them through many emotions and that would surprise them.

[bat39]

On some level, I think it appeals to a certain strain in contemporary 'liberal' thought, which many creators either follow or wish to appeal to, and which significant sections of the audience certainly follow.

Everyone loves the idea of supporting the oppressed, standing up for the oppressed, advocating for the oppressed etc. But when the oppressed rises up and takes power for themselves and suddenly aren't oppressed anymore (and in fact turn the tables against their former oppressers)...that makes people uncomfortable.

People like the idea of the X-men fighting to protect a world that "fears and hates" them. These guys are heroes because they are oppressed people fighting for survival, yet they're willing to give peace a chance. So we can feel good about supporting these (fictitious) oppressed people. And I'm sure this applies to some of the X-men's allies in-universe as well.

But when mutants decide they've had enough and build their own super-state and culture separate from humanity and truly embrace their potential as an advanced species...that makes some fans uncomfortable. On this very forum, and elsewhere, I've seen people rant about how Krakoa is a 'mutant supremacist' state, how mutants are 'selfish' for locking themselves away from the world and not sharing the wonders of Krakoa with humanity, how they're now all racists etc.

Contemporary liberal culture is about supporting, even celebrating, the idea of victimhood, because it allows you to take oppressed people under your wing and feel good about it. But once the victims are no longer victims who need your protection, once they're powerful enough to fight and even win their own battles...then that upends your entire worldview.

Consciously or unconsciously, the writers feel this tension and sections of the fanbase feel it too. Which is why every once in a while the mutants need to be "taken down a peg" i.e. brought to the verge of extinction again, so that they once more need to scrape and survive and fight for a world that "hates and fears" them rather than leaving that world behind.

[Zelena]

People like the idea of the X-men fighting to protect a world that "fears and hates" them. These guys are heroes because they are oppressed people fighting for survival, yet they're willing to give peace a chance. So we can feel good about supporting these (fictitious) oppressed people. And I'm sure this applies to some of the X-men's allies in-universe as well.

But when mutants decide they've had enough and build their own super-state and culture separate from humanity and truly embrace their potential as an advanced species...that makes some fans uncomfortable. On this very forum, and elsewhere, I've seen people rant about how Krakoa is a 'mutant supremacist' state, how mutants are 'selfish' for locking themselves away from the world and not sharing the wonders of Krakoa with humanity, how they're now all racists etc.

Contemporary liberal culture is about supporting, even celebrating, the idea of victimhood, because it allows you to take oppressed people under your wing and feel good about it. But once the victims are no longer victims who need your protection, once they're powerful enough to fight and even win their own battles...then that upends your entire worldview.

I never consider the “oppressed part” was important in the X-men stories. Granted, I mostly read the comics when this aspect wasn’t at the forefront.

For me it was the fact the X-men helped despite having personal problems to live, to love… that was important. It was what made them heroes. In that aspect they weren’t that different from a Spiderman, a Ghost Rider, a Swamp Thing. Each hero was peculiar, different from the humanity and had problems with people but they were united in their sense of justice and desire to make a better world. It showed their courage too and moral greatness.

Fighting for themselves doesn’t show anything: it doesn’t make them different from an average person. And above all, it doesn’t open them to the other groups, individuals that are also different from humanity. The mutants are sufficient by themselves. I prefer them when they represented values which could be displayed by anyone and bring people together.

[Force de Phenix]

.Contemporary liberal culture is about supporting, even celebrating, the idea of victimhood, because it allows you to take oppressed people under your wing and feel good about it.

It's not about "celebrating" the idea of victimhood. It's about cutting the crap and recognizing inequalities and trying to improve a situation. It's just people who oppress that don't like being called out on how much power they actually have and how it negatively impacts people's livelihoods, so they try to be dismissive about it by demonizing the word victim.

But by no means is anyone celebrating anything. Maybe some people feel heroic for understanding other people, but let's not conflate capitalist ventures on commercializing and selling inequality products as opposed to pushing the government to fix a broken system.

People buying a product that donates to a fund to change the world because they think it's easy and doing something isn't going to do as much as voting for politicians, which is a lot harder.

[gonnagiveittoya]

I think certainly as long as they're immortal the temptation to just kill everyone off and then being everyone back will always be around