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Post by rberman on Feb 16, 2018 14:34:19 GMT -5
So my question, how are super-powers necessary traits to allow humanity to survive? What purpose would it serve if I could fire laser beams from my eyes? This may be influenced somewhat by the Atomic Age and how Lee gave all sorts of radiation miracle capabilities but I still find it odd. First, most mutations are mal-adaptive, meaning that they make you sicker. Cancer is often caused by mutations, for instance. Genetic diseases like Sickle Cell are caused by mutations. Second, mutations don't have to be "necessary for survival." They simply have to give some competitive advantage, no matter how strong. If some mutation makes it even 5% more likely for you to survive to adulthood and have children, then over the generations, that mutation will propagate throughout the population. Some of the most obvious mutations for that purpose aren't very interesting for comic book purposes. For instance, if due to an inheritable mutation a man or woman was super-fertile, able to get pregnant (or cause pregnancy) more frequently than the societal norm, then he/she will have more offspring who will could spread that trait more broadly in each generation. Or being a super-good parent whose children succeed in life and in turn give birth to a greater than average number of successful children. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 14, 2018 23:12:22 GMT -5
Coda: The alternative to "hated and feared" was of course "school for mutants." Re-reading the first 30 issues, it's now apparent that one of Stan's "flying by the seat of his pants" moments occurs in issue #7. It is bizarre for the whole team to graduate simultaneously in issue #7 since (1) they are all different ages, (2) they have been at the school different lengths of time, and (3) Dumping the "school for mutants" concept after less than a year, with no clear notion of what these kids were going to do next, is completely bizarre. This led me to compare issue #7's graduation sequence (p.1-2) to everything said about the "school" concept in the next two dozen issues. The #7 splash page is great and crystal clear. It's a close-up of the camera lens, in whose reflection you can see the smiling team wearing their mortarboard hats for graduation, and clutching their mock diplomas. The second page also shows them with their mortarboards and diplomas, out in the yard. Come page three: no mortarboards. No diplomas. No mention of graduation anywhere else in this #7 or in subsequent issues as well, as far as I can tell.  In fact, when Warren's parents come to visit in #18, there's talk about the team having been away on a "field trip." Mr Worthington approves, saying, "They can't get in shape for the world outside by burying themselves only in books, you know!" They're constantly training, just as they did before graduation. The splash page of #19 says of their Danger Room workout, "You are witnessing a typical day's activity at a typical private school! Typical, that is, if the students happen to be super-powered X-Men!!!" Clearly the kids are still students, and the two page sequence at the beginning of issue #7 is just a bizarre inconsistency, perhaps inserted in a hurry to replace some other opening sequence that wasn't working. Roy Thomas' attempted fix is to say that Jean's parents want to send her (#24, p.1) "to a more conventional college." So he's re-canonizing the ill-considered notion that the whole team, from 16 year old Bobby to early 20s genius Hank, really did graduate high school together in #7. Even Stan Lee admits puzzlement in a telling footnote on page 2 saying that the team graduated "in ish #7 -- We think! -- Insecure Stan" |
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