DShomshak

During her time in the Avengers there were several instances where Wanda expressed her disgust with the anti-mutant protests and crowds. Eventually leading to Avengers: Disassembled and House of M.

You're welcome. Oh, and reviewing Wikipedia, I found that in the current Marvel Universe there are now "Mutants Only" clubs.
 
Carrying on from what I wrote before, I think mutants can "work" as an open-ended symbol for exploring Othering and Otherness. It's the specific allegory of HEY! WE'RE TALKING ABOUT BIGOTRY, AND IT'S BAD! that I find dubious, or least clumsily done.
 
Dean Shomshak

Times have changed even more since then. In the current Marvel Universe, most mutants live on the sentient island of Krakoa (yes, the same one from Giant Sized X-Men) where they have formed their own nation. This includes a council consisting of heroes and villains that make decisions for their new nation, as well as "The Five" who can bring people back from the dead. It's been an interesting read so far, particularly their event stories. In fact...
 
 
It's been particularly interesting to see how the rest of the world has been handling these events. 
 

I suppose another strike against it is age.   60 years ago, speaking out against segregation, even metaphorically, was fraught - you might not have been blacklisted for it like a commie in the prior decade, but it would have been reasonable to fear loss of readership, for instance.  Today, even the most cynical, soulless corporations fervently declare their commitment to inclusion.
Like how Star Trek, in the 60s, was groundbreaking and courageous, but by the 80s was feeling trite and preachy, and it might not be long before reruns of TOS gets a Gone-With-the-Wind style forward alerting the viewer to all the rampant Patriarchy they're about to witness.
 
 

Last week, the NYTimes program "The Daily" talked to a reporter who has studied and interviewed Joe Manchin, trying to figure out what guides the thinking of the man who essentially has become the US Senate. The reporter says Manchin appears quite genuine in his belief that legislation must be bipartisan, the Senate must be collegial, and if you can't get a single Republican to back a Democratic bill then the Dems must be too extreme and unreasonable.
 
These are the politics he learned from his mentor Seb. Robert Byrd, who was once considered the "institutional memory" of the Senate. Manchin doesn't seem to have accepted that the Republican Party of today is not the Republican Party of Byrd's day. That it's possible the reason the other fellow won't meet you halfway is because he's crazy -- or no longer interested in politics at all.
 
Dean Shomshak

Heard this on All Things Considered. This article has a bit more information.
 
Rare plutonium from space found in deep-sea crust | Live Science
www.livescience.com/rare-plutonium-heavy-metal... A rare type of plutonium has been found in the crust below the deep sea, offering new clues as to how heavy metals form in star explosions and mergers. ... (1,500 meters) below the Pacific Ocean ...
 
Also: Rare radioactive elements from outer space, created only in the most cataclysmic stellar events, extracted from the ocean floor? That's a superhero scenario that practically writes itself.
 
Dean Shomshak

If you're really rich, you can have "concierge medicine" with a private doctor. All part of a trend toward the "concierge society" where the super-rich don't have to care about maintianing roads because they go everywhere by private helicopter, or (for the less exorbitantly wealthy) pay to drive in the carpool lane while the wage slaves creep along in the other lanes. Or. rock used to be the music of the people, but now only the rich can go to concerts: Computers buy most of the tickets the instant they go on sale, for resale at 10 times the price. Skyboxes at sports stadiums: games are for corporate officers to entertain foreign guests while they cut deals, while the plebes watch on TV. And so on.
 
Granted, naked plutocracy has a certain refreshing honesty compared to concealed plutocracy.
 
Dean Shomshak

Well... The question for me is: Does the allegory or satire make sense on its own terms?
 
Bigots believe the hated group is fundamentally different from them. With Marvel mutants, this is true. They have different genes.
 
Bigots believe the hated group is intrinsically dangerous, even if individuals aren't harming anyone right now. With Marvel mutants, this is true. Any super-powered person is potentially dangerous to the non-powered. They are destined to supplant baseline humanity, and some high-profile mutants speak of doing this by force, right now.
 
Bigots often believe they can detect members of the hated group no matter how superficially they might "pass" For Marvel mutants, this is true: There really are mutant-detecting machines.
 
If one wants to condemn bigotry, it seems like an odd approach to create a fictional group for which the delusions of bigots are actually true.
 
The argument, unpacked, seems to be: Minorities really are different, are "Other." Maybe even dangerous. But you must not hate them for that.
 
Still, if this feels "right" to people, I guess I can't argue with feelings.
 
Dean Shomshak

If you're really rich, you can have "concierge medicine" with a private doctor. All part of a trend toward the "concierge society" where the super-rich don't have to care about maintianing roads because they go everywhere by private helicopter, or (for the less exorbitantly wealthy) pay to drive in the carpool lane while the wage slaves creep along in the other lanes. Or. rock used to be the music of the people, but now only the rich can go to concerts: Computers buy most of the tickets the instant they go on sale, for resale at 10 times the price. Skyboxes at sports stadiums: games are for corporate officers to entertain foreign guests while they cut deals, while the plebes watch on TV. And so on.
 
Granted, naked plutocracy has a certain refreshing honesty compared to concealed plutocracy.
 
Dean Shomshak

Ah! Of course this is what Folly looks like, when he just had a brilliant idea. --Dean Shomshak
 

 

<curious> Such as? I've been out of comics for a while, but as of the time I stopped reading Marvel (1990s) I don't recall there being any mutants who simply looked different. OTOH there were lots of mutants with dangerous powers who looked like ordinary humans. Most of them, in fact.
 
Okay, I can see the parallel quasi-reasoning:
 
"Some gangbangers are Black. Theefor, I believe that all Black people are gangbangers. I shall ignore all the Black people who aren't gangbangers, and all the gangbangers who aren't Black."
 
goes to:
 
"Some mutants are dangerous supervillains. Therefor, I believe all mutants are dangerous supervillains. I shall ignore all the mutants who aren't dangerous supervillains, and all the dangerous supervillains who aren't mutants."
 
I still think it falls down because, based on the characters presented, most mutants have powers that would make them extremely dangerous if they chose to be: more so than even the most suicidally determined, non-super human being.
 
It might have emotionally rang true to me if Marvel had shown more instances of super-powered people being falsely accused of being mutants. (I remember one instance, but that's it.) So perhaps it isn't the bigotry that rings false to me, as the apparent magical power that people have to tell that a mutant character is a mutant and not some other sort of superhuman.
 
(In my own campaign settings, there are a few "mutant suremacists" because there's no idea so crazy that someone won't believe it, but most people regard mutants with envious admiration for their luck in being born with super-powers. People hope they are mutants too, who just haven't discovered their powers yet. OTOH, in my worlds there are no handy-dandy "mutant detectors" -- the only way to tell is a detailed genetic analysis -- so "muytant" often means merely, "I don't know why I have powers.")
 
Dean Shomshak

<curious> Such as? I've been out of comics for a while, but as of the time I stopped reading Marvel (1990s) I don't recall there being any mutants who simply looked different. OTOH there were lots of mutants with dangerous powers who looked like ordinary humans. Most of them, in fact.
 
Okay, I can see the parallel quasi-reasoning:
 
"Some gangbangers are Black. Theefor, I believe that all Black people are gangbangers. I shall ignore all the Black people who aren't gangbangers, and all the gangbangers who aren't Black."
 
goes to:
 
"Some mutants are dangerous supervillains. Therefor, I believe all mutants are dangerous supervillains. I shall ignore all the mutants who aren't dangerous supervillains, and all the dangerous supervillains who aren't mutants."
 
I still think it falls down because, based on the characters presented, most mutants have powers that would make them extremely dangerous if they chose to be: more so than even the most suicidally determined, non-super human being.
 
It might have emotionally rang true to me if Marvel had shown more instances of super-powered people being falsely accused of being mutants. (I remember one instance, but that's it.) So perhaps it isn't the bigotry that rings false to me, as the apparent magical power that people have to tell that a mutant character is a mutant and not some other sort of superhuman.
 
(In my own campaign settings, there are a few "mutant suremacists" because there's no idea so crazy that someone won't believe it, but most people regard mutants with envious admiration for their luck in being born with super-powers. People hope they are mutants too, who just haven't discovered their powers yet. OTOH, in my worlds there are no handy-dandy "mutant detectors" -- the only way to tell is a detailed genetic analysis -- so "muytant" often means merely, "I don't know why I have powers.")
 
Dean Shomshak

Yeah, like I stated earlier, there's a huge jump between "i dislike you because you look different/talk different etc" and "I dislike you because you are powerful enough to melt my brain"
 
Mutants aren't just odd looking or unusual.  They are actually, materially dangerous.  And they are going to supplant and replace non mutants according to Marvel Evolutionary Theory.  That's a huge difference from "I don't like you because you're from Nebraska".  That's an actual threat to my peoples' existence.
 
There's good reason and logical basis for fear of mutants in the Marvel universe, its not just mindless, content less, irrational hate.  Especially when you factor in all the thousands of times mutants actually have threatened huge bodies of people, if not the entire planet.
 
And at the same time, because almost no mutants look any different than anyone else, there's no reason why people should hate them and embrace other superheroes as happens constantly in the Marvel Universe.  In this context, there's no difference between Captain America and Dazzler: both have done great things and protected people, both are attractive and noble, both are consistently heroic (with a few mind control bad moments).  Cap is beloved and honored, Dazzler is hated.  For no other reason than "we want to push the anti mutant thing for plot reasons."
 
See, what I'm saying here is that no matter how much propaganda you put out, or what cool slogans you whipped up, people would not differentiate between mutant and non-mutant.  They'd fear and hate every superhero.

<curious> Such as? I've been out of comics for a while, but as of the time I stopped reading Marvel (1990s) I don't recall there being any mutants who simply looked different. OTOH there were lots of mutants with dangerous powers who looked like ordinary humans. Most of them, in fact.
 
Okay, I can see the parallel quasi-reasoning:
 
"Some gangbangers are Black. Theefor, I believe that all Black people are gangbangers. I shall ignore all the Black people who aren't gangbangers, and all the gangbangers who aren't Black."
 
goes to:
 
"Some mutants are dangerous supervillains. Therefor, I believe all mutants are dangerous supervillains. I shall ignore all the mutants who aren't dangerous supervillains, and all the dangerous supervillains who aren't mutants."
 
I still think it falls down because, based on the characters presented, most mutants have powers that would make them extremely dangerous if they chose to be: more so than even the most suicidally determined, non-super human being.
 
It might have emotionally rang true to me if Marvel had shown more instances of super-powered people being falsely accused of being mutants. (I remember one instance, but that's it.) So perhaps it isn't the bigotry that rings false to me, as the apparent magical power that people have to tell that a mutant character is a mutant and not some other sort of superhuman.
 
(In my own campaign settings, there are a few "mutant suremacists" because there's no idea so crazy that someone won't believe it, but most people regard mutants with envious admiration for their luck in being born with super-powers. People hope they are mutants too, who just haven't discovered their powers yet. OTOH, in my worlds there are no handy-dandy "mutant detectors" -- the only way to tell is a detailed genetic analysis -- so "muytant" often means merely, "I don't know why I have powers.")
 
Dean Shomshak

One of my last "Avant Guard" campaign adventures included a bit of super-pest control. The PCs had offended the mad super-biologist Helix by trying to plant a nuke in his base. He found it, disarmed it, and decided to return it to sender with an announcement that it would go off in New York City in a few hours. And he suggested people would let him destroy the city, in order to limit the damage from the genetic abominations invading the city... some of them contagious.
 
One PC had recently acquired an apprentice of sorts, a young mystic who'd crafted a Blasting Rod that, as per the description in the grimoires, could do weather control. The apprentice (tentatively using the pseduonym Stave) insisted on coming along to fight the monsters, and a good thing too: As the PCs gather, they see a cloud erupt from the summit of the Chrysler building. They know it's a swarm of hornets engineered to carry Helix Fever, one of Helix's engineered plagues. They have no way to fight a giant insect swarm.
 
Then Stave says, "I've got this." He raises the Blasting Rod, recites a Bible verse (Matthew 8:24 if anyone's interested), and concentrates as clouds swiftly gather overhead for a Turn, and KABOOM! With a roar of continuous thunder and lightning, the clouds drop a deluge of rain driven by a gale-force wind aimed straight down. The Helix Fever hornets are swept from the sky to be crushed against buildings and pavement, and drowned in the driving rain. (All done through Change Environment.)
 
A minute later, the Blasting Rod splinters and the storm stops, but Stave is exultant. Nearby people had caught all this on their phones, and Stave -- true child of the social media age -- leans into one to say, "See that? Thant's magic! You think you're all that, Helix, but  I just owned you!"
 
The PCs then saved the city, but they are sure Helix will not take Stave's declaration in good humor. We shall see how this develops.
 
Dean Shomshak

<curious> Such as? I've been out of comics for a while, but as of the time I stopped reading Marvel (1990s) I don't recall there being any mutants who simply looked different. OTOH there were lots of mutants with dangerous powers who looked like ordinary humans. Most of them, in fact.
 
Okay, I can see the parallel quasi-reasoning:
 
"Some gangbangers are Black. Theefor, I believe that all Black people are gangbangers. I shall ignore all the Black people who aren't gangbangers, and all the gangbangers who aren't Black."
 
goes to:
 
"Some mutants are dangerous supervillains. Therefor, I believe all mutants are dangerous supervillains. I shall ignore all the mutants who aren't dangerous supervillains, and all the dangerous supervillains who aren't mutants."
 
I still think it falls down because, based on the characters presented, most mutants have powers that would make them extremely dangerous if they chose to be: more so than even the most suicidally determined, non-super human being.
 
It might have emotionally rang true to me if Marvel had shown more instances of super-powered people being falsely accused of being mutants. (I remember one instance, but that's it.) So perhaps it isn't the bigotry that rings false to me, as the apparent magical power that people have to tell that a mutant character is a mutant and not some other sort of superhuman.
 
(In my own campaign settings, there are a few "mutant suremacists" because there's no idea so crazy that someone won't believe it, but most people regard mutants with envious admiration for their luck in being born with super-powers. People hope they are mutants too, who just haven't discovered their powers yet. OTOH, in my worlds there are no handy-dandy "mutant detectors" -- the only way to tell is a detailed genetic analysis -- so "muytant" often means merely, "I don't know why I have powers.")
 
Dean Shomshak

One of my last "Avant Guard" campaign adventures included a bit of super-pest control. The PCs had offended the mad super-biologist Helix by trying to plant a nuke in his base. He found it, disarmed it, and decided to return it to sender with an announcement that it would go off in New York City in a few hours. And he suggested people would let him destroy the city, in order to limit the damage from the genetic abominations invading the city... some of them contagious.
 
One PC had recently acquired an apprentice of sorts, a young mystic who'd crafted a Blasting Rod that, as per the description in the grimoires, could do weather control. The apprentice (tentatively using the pseduonym Stave) insisted on coming along to fight the monsters, and a good thing too: As the PCs gather, they see a cloud erupt from the summit of the Chrysler building. They know it's a swarm of hornets engineered to carry Helix Fever, one of Helix's engineered plagues. They have no way to fight a giant insect swarm.
 
Then Stave says, "I've got this." He raises the Blasting Rod, recites a Bible verse (Matthew 8:24 if anyone's interested), and concentrates as clouds swiftly gather overhead for a Turn, and KABOOM! With a roar of continuous thunder and lightning, the clouds drop a deluge of rain driven by a gale-force wind aimed straight down. The Helix Fever hornets are swept from the sky to be crushed against buildings and pavement, and drowned in the driving rain. (All done through Change Environment.)
 
A minute later, the Blasting Rod splinters and the storm stops, but Stave is exultant. Nearby people had caught all this on their phones, and Stave -- true child of the social media age -- leans into one to say, "See that? Thant's magic! You think you're all that, Helix, but  I just owned you!"
 
The PCs then saved the city, but they are sure Helix will not take Stave's declaration in good humor. We shall see how this develops.
 
Dean Shomshak

Well... The early issues of X-Men that I've read didn't have anything I recognized as "Metaphor for other bigotry." It looked to me more like a nod to Atomnic Horror -- mutants swere appearing because of radiation from fallout. Charles Xavier's father was a pioneering physicist in atomic research, Krakoa the Living Island, etc.
 
"The children are scary different" trope circulating in the 1960s as well. Midwich Cuckoos. Childhood's End. "Little Anthony." A natural time for such a tropoe, since many parents did find their children turning alien, rejecting the traditions and loyalties the parents revered. As Opal says, every generation faces replacement by their offspring -- but to many people, this became a whole lot scarier.
 
Not that this helped the comic. X-Men was cancelled, first time around. The trope didn't mean anything to the young readers.
 
No, I think the hevy-handed equation of "anti-mutant hysteria" with racism, homophobia, antisemitism, etc. came a bit later. 1980s or so.
 
And as mentioned, it falls down. It isn't irrational to fear people who are living weapons of mass destruction.
 
Gotta agree with Duke Bushido here: The real appeal of Marvel-style mutants is the fantasy that anyone, even you, might suddenly discover you had super-powers. You can't be a castaway alien like Superman, or a billionaire like Batman, go on a rocketship ride like the Fantastic Four or learn the mystic arts in Tibet like Dr. Strange. Just >ping< you find you are special. As special as every adolescent thinks theyt are, and as unfairly treated.
 
Now, this approach to mutants could be developed in a way that's not so flattering to teenage narcissism. As you transition from child to adult, you do gain power. You affect the world and the people around you. You can make choices tht matter a whole lot more -- and that you might not be able to take back. Some people use that new power well, even heroically, like Malala Yousefzai. Others use it very badly, like school shooters.
 
I don't know if that would sell as well. But then, comics are no longer so much a youth medium. (Or anything but a "farm team" for movie scripts I suppose, but that's another rant.) But it's a kind of story that's been told for millennia. I doubt it will every really go out of style.
 
Dean Shomshak

Well... The early issues of X-Men that I've read didn't have anything I recognized as "Metaphor for other bigotry." It looked to me more like a nod to Atomnic Horror -- mutants swere appearing because of radiation from fallout. Charles Xavier's father was a pioneering physicist in atomic research, Krakoa the Living Island, etc.
 
"The children are scary different" trope circulating in the 1960s as well. Midwich Cuckoos. Childhood's End. "Little Anthony." A natural time for such a tropoe, since many parents did find their children turning alien, rejecting the traditions and loyalties the parents revered. As Opal says, every generation faces replacement by their offspring -- but to many people, this became a whole lot scarier.
 
Not that this helped the comic. X-Men was cancelled, first time around. The trope didn't mean anything to the young readers.
 
No, I think the hevy-handed equation of "anti-mutant hysteria" with racism, homophobia, antisemitism, etc. came a bit later. 1980s or so.
 
And as mentioned, it falls down. It isn't irrational to fear people who are living weapons of mass destruction.
 
Gotta agree with Duke Bushido here: The real appeal of Marvel-style mutants is the fantasy that anyone, even you, might suddenly discover you had super-powers. You can't be a castaway alien like Superman, or a billionaire like Batman, go on a rocketship ride like the Fantastic Four or learn the mystic arts in Tibet like Dr. Strange. Just >ping< you find you are special. As special as every adolescent thinks theyt are, and as unfairly treated.
 
Now, this approach to mutants could be developed in a way that's not so flattering to teenage narcissism. As you transition from child to adult, you do gain power. You affect the world and the people around you. You can make choices tht matter a whole lot more -- and that you might not be able to take back. Some people use that new power well, even heroically, like Malala Yousefzai. Others use it very badly, like school shooters.
 
I don't know if that would sell as well. But then, comics are no longer so much a youth medium. (Or anything but a "farm team" for movie scripts I suppose, but that's another rant.) But it's a kind of story that's been told for millennia. I doubt it will every really go out of style.
 
Dean Shomshak

Well... The early issues of X-Men that I've read didn't have anything I recognized as "Metaphor for other bigotry." It looked to me more like a nod to Atomnic Horror -- mutants swere appearing because of radiation from fallout. Charles Xavier's father was a pioneering physicist in atomic research, Krakoa the Living Island, etc.
 
"The children are scary different" trope circulating in the 1960s as well. Midwich Cuckoos. Childhood's End. "Little Anthony." A natural time for such a tropoe, since many parents did find their children turning alien, rejecting the traditions and loyalties the parents revered. As Opal says, every generation faces replacement by their offspring -- but to many people, this became a whole lot scarier.
 
Not that this helped the comic. X-Men was cancelled, first time around. The trope didn't mean anything to the young readers.
 
No, I think the hevy-handed equation of "anti-mutant hysteria" with racism, homophobia, antisemitism, etc. came a bit later. 1980s or so.
 
And as mentioned, it falls down. It isn't irrational to fear people who are living weapons of mass destruction.
 
Gotta agree with Duke Bushido here: The real appeal of Marvel-style mutants is the fantasy that anyone, even you, might suddenly discover you had super-powers. You can't be a castaway alien like Superman, or a billionaire like Batman, go on a rocketship ride like the Fantastic Four or learn the mystic arts in Tibet like Dr. Strange. Just >ping< you find you are special. As special as every adolescent thinks theyt are, and as unfairly treated.
 
Now, this approach to mutants could be developed in a way that's not so flattering to teenage narcissism. As you transition from child to adult, you do gain power. You affect the world and the people around you. You can make choices tht matter a whole lot more -- and that you might not be able to take back. Some people use that new power well, even heroically, like Malala Yousefzai. Others use it very badly, like school shooters.
 
I don't know if that would sell as well. But then, comics are no longer so much a youth medium. (Or anything but a "farm team" for movie scripts I suppose, but that's another rant.) But it's a kind of story that's been told for millennia. I doubt it will every really go out of style.
 
Dean Shomshak

Well... The early issues of X-Men that I've read didn't have anything I recognized as "Metaphor for other bigotry." It looked to me more like a nod to Atomnic Horror -- mutants swere appearing because of radiation from fallout. Charles Xavier's father was a pioneering physicist in atomic research, Krakoa the Living Island, etc.
 
"The children are scary different" trope circulating in the 1960s as well. Midwich Cuckoos. Childhood's End. "Little Anthony." A natural time for such a tropoe, since many parents did find their children turning alien, rejecting the traditions and loyalties the parents revered. As Opal says, every generation faces replacement by their offspring -- but to many people, this became a whole lot scarier.
 
Not that this helped the comic. X-Men was cancelled, first time around. The trope didn't mean anything to the young readers.
 
No, I think the hevy-handed equation of "anti-mutant hysteria" with racism, homophobia, antisemitism, etc. came a bit later. 1980s or so.
 
And as mentioned, it falls down. It isn't irrational to fear people who are living weapons of mass destruction.
 
Gotta agree with Duke Bushido here: The real appeal of Marvel-style mutants is the fantasy that anyone, even you, might suddenly discover you had super-powers. You can't be a castaway alien like Superman, or a billionaire like Batman, go on a rocketship ride like the Fantastic Four or learn the mystic arts in Tibet like Dr. Strange. Just >ping< you find you are special. As special as every adolescent thinks theyt are, and as unfairly treated.
 
Now, this approach to mutants could be developed in a way that's not so flattering to teenage narcissism. As you transition from child to adult, you do gain power. You affect the world and the people around you. You can make choices tht matter a whole lot more -- and that you might not be able to take back. Some people use that new power well, even heroically, like Malala Yousefzai. Others use it very badly, like school shooters.
 
I don't know if that would sell as well. But then, comics are no longer so much a youth medium. (Or anything but a "farm team" for movie scripts I suppose, but that's another rant.) But it's a kind of story that's been told for millennia. I doubt it will every really go out of style.
 
Dean Shomshak

Last week, the NYTimes program "The Daily" talked to a reporter who has studied and interviewed Joe Manchin, trying to figure out what guides the thinking of the man who essentially has become the US Senate. The reporter says Manchin appears quite genuine in his belief that legislation must be bipartisan, the Senate must be collegial, and if you can't get a single Republican to back a Democratic bill then the Dems must be too extreme and unreasonable.
 
These are the politics he learned from his mentor Seb. Robert Byrd, who was once considered the "institutional memory" of the Senate. Manchin doesn't seem to have accepted that the Republican Party of today is not the Republican Party of Byrd's day. That it's possible the reason the other fellow won't meet you halfway is because he's crazy -- or no longer interested in politics at all.
 
Dean Shomshak

Well... The early issues of X-Men that I've read didn't have anything I recognized as "Metaphor for other bigotry." It looked to me more like a nod to Atomnic Horror -- mutants swere appearing because of radiation from fallout. Charles Xavier's father was a pioneering physicist in atomic research, Krakoa the Living Island, etc.
 
"The children are scary different" trope circulating in the 1960s as well. Midwich Cuckoos. Childhood's End. "Little Anthony." A natural time for such a tropoe, since many parents did find their children turning alien, rejecting the traditions and loyalties the parents revered. As Opal says, every generation faces replacement by their offspring -- but to many people, this became a whole lot scarier.
 
Not that this helped the comic. X-Men was cancelled, first time around. The trope didn't mean anything to the young readers.
 
No, I think the hevy-handed equation of "anti-mutant hysteria" with racism, homophobia, antisemitism, etc. came a bit later. 1980s or so.
 
And as mentioned, it falls down. It isn't irrational to fear people who are living weapons of mass destruction.
 
Gotta agree with Duke Bushido here: The real appeal of Marvel-style mutants is the fantasy that anyone, even you, might suddenly discover you had super-powers. You can't be a castaway alien like Superman, or a billionaire like Batman, go on a rocketship ride like the Fantastic Four or learn the mystic arts in Tibet like Dr. Strange. Just >ping< you find you are special. As special as every adolescent thinks theyt are, and as unfairly treated.
 
Now, this approach to mutants could be developed in a way that's not so flattering to teenage narcissism. As you transition from child to adult, you do gain power. You affect the world and the people around you. You can make choices tht matter a whole lot more -- and that you might not be able to take back. Some people use that new power well, even heroically, like Malala Yousefzai. Others use it very badly, like school shooters.
 
I don't know if that would sell as well. But then, comics are no longer so much a youth medium. (Or anything but a "farm team" for movie scripts I suppose, but that's another rant.) But it's a kind of story that's been told for millennia. I doubt it will every really go out of style.
 
Dean Shomshak

G. K. Chesterton, The Adventures of Father Brown and The Amazing Adventures of Father Brown. The original sleuth priest. Social attitudes have changed a bit, as have literary styles (Chesterton's auctorial commentary about various classes of people are, hm, intrusive), but still some very clever mysteries, with writing that is often witty. Occasionally gets deeper into questions of moral responsibility: Sometimes the point of the story is not merely solving the crime, but figuring out what the crime *is* and what to do about it.
 
Gamers might mine the stories for situations to adapt. Of particular use, many stories are "Scoobie-Doo" mysteries in which something supernatural seems to be happening, but Father Brown exposes the deception. (Because of this aspect, I already mentioned the Father Brown mysteries in the SF/Fantasy thread, because theat was the thread I could find. Now that this thread has resurfaced, I can post more accurately.)
 
Since the Father Brown mysteries are old enough to be public domain, you can find them online, and there are more than in these two collections.
 
Dean Shomshak

It's prescribed for ADHD, which is (to me) the leading 'thing' I'd think he has.
 
Then again adderall abuse is not great, and long term consequences of overuse for that class of stimulants can apparently include mania and paranoia?  I might be wrong on this.