The X-Men Faulty Premise

By Liberty September 2, 2010 46 Comments

I will admit I am not an expert on the X-Men and the reason for it is I don't like them that much.  I have around 250 X-men related comic and have read a few more.  I have seen most of all the cartoons and movies (some of these I have seen several times).  So, it is with that amount of experience that I am writing this blog.  
 
What I don't like about the X-Men is not the characters but, the very premise they are based on.  It is the problem of genetics.  Stan Lee said himself that the hard part to making superheroes was creating an origin story that gave them power.  With the X-Men you don't have to do that.   Here are my problems.

1. Why does each X-Man have a different power?
2. Why don't multiple X-Men have the same power?
3. Why don't children always inherit their parents powers they way you would think they would?
4. The evolutionary aspect is too dramatic and too diverse?

 

This is a lot so let me try to explain.  Take Archangel for example.  In evolution an animal does not just one day grow wings.  It is a very slow process that takes generations to develop.  The animal will develop feathers and smaller wings and one day generation later the animal will fly.  
 
Look at it genetically.  If two non mutants have a baby they are most likely to have a non-mutant baby.  If a mutant and a non mutant have a baby, the child should either inherit the ability of the mutant parent or the non-mutant parent.  It could also be some combination of the two.  If two mutants have a child then the child should have some sort of power that the parent has.  This is not absolute but most likely depending on the progressiveness of the gene.  If there is some mutant in the direct family tree somewhere than it is still possible to have a mutant child but it would be more rare the father back in the family tree the mutant is. 
 

There are thousands of mutants in the Marvel universe and they all seem to have different powers.  It would seem that many of them should have the same or similar powers.  Perhaps there is something I am missing.  If I have made a terrible error let me know?

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