So, the controversy surrounding today's issue of "AXIS" is that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver apparently *SPOILERS*




... are not Magneto's children. The rumor/conspiracy theory is this is due to the Fox vs. Marvel Studios movie rights debacle, and is a step toward distancing the soon-to-be Avengers from the X-franchise. Some are saying the next step will be for Marvel to reveal they're not mutants at all, but Inhumans. This would cut the X-tie almost completely.

My initial thought was "nahhh, surely not." But I've been thinking about that "No More Mutants" teaser for 2015. Some say it's just a "Secret Wars" tie-in, a throwback to the "House of M" reality, but now I'm not so sure.

Bear with me here ... this is a stretch, and I do hope I'm wrong, but what if Marvel is about to reveal that what we've thought were mutants were in fact Inhumans all along, artificially mutated by widespread, happenstance exposure to Terrigen Mists?

In "Earth X" (which, as an alt-reality tale, must be taken with a grain of salt), the Terrigen Mists are connected to the Celestials. And the Celestials have played a pretty big role in the X-books over the years.

Think about it: Apocalypse, widely considered to be the "first" mutant, has a pretty strong connection to the Celestials. Who is to say his mother or father hadn't been exposed to the mists, which is what MADE him a mutant? When Quicksilver lost his powers, he used the Terrigen Mists to restore his powers and the powers of other former mutants. If the mutants had been turned into normal mutants by M-Day, how come the Terrigen Mists restored their original powers (often with an annoying twist) instead of giving them entirely different, Inhuman powers ... unless they were just restoring what they had already given at birth? And when the depowered Magneto restored his own powers, what did he and High Evolutionary use? A piece of a Celestial. Hmmmmmm ...

On the one hand, the staunch creationist in me wants to clap my hands and say, "Ha! Silly Darwin ... homo superior, indeed!"

... but the staunch continuity stickler in me wants to wad up my copy of "AXIS" #7 and use it to start my toasty Christmas fire.

This isn't the first time Marvel has played with the concept of mutants, of course. In the Ultimate universe, they revealed mutants were actually the result of military experiments. And that was fine ... because it was the Ultimate universe, and they could do pretty much whatever the heck they wanted.

What say you? Should mutants go ahead and become Inhumans? Is that really such a bad thing? Or should they remain a separate offshoot of humanity, arguably "the next stage of human evolution?" What will that mean for guys like Cyclops and Magneto, who have devoted their lives to promoting mutantkind?