History Headscratchers / HouseOfM

* Non-mutant superhumans are perfectly able to pass on their powers to their children. Mutants are perfectly able to reproduce with humans, powered or not. Their is no intelligent reason whatsoever to consider them a separate species.
** Right, just as there is no scientific or logicly sound RealLife reason for racism/Homophobia/etc. That's sort of the point of X-Men comics.
*** Imagine if RealLife neo-nazis declared that people who had blue eyes due to a mutation in the [=EYCL2=] gene were members of the master race, but those whose blue eyes were the result of a change at [=EYCL3=] were mud-people just like the rest of the brown-eyed masses. That is exactly how much sense the House of M (and Marvel comics in general) makes in regard to mutants vs. non-mutant supers.
*** Mutants tend to have much more varied set of powers, plus a greater chance of developing powers that are considered especially dangerous or invasive, like telepathy or reality warping. They are a much more random factor too, being simply born with said powers, whereas even if ComicBook/SpiderGirl is she can at least trace her lineage back to her fathers lab accident, something rarer and thus smewhat more manageable. The prejudice arises partly from the sense that mutants are somehow supposed to "replace" humanity in a cliched` Darwinist sense, something that many mutants believe. The place of normal superhumans in the Marvel world is actually mostly ambiguous; in ''House of M'' Spider-Man would probably be thought of as having "cheated" to get his gifts (not to mention he posed as a mutant), on the other hand Doctor Doom explicitly did and yet manages to still be one of the most powerful mutants in the world. Not to mention most of the extremist anti-Mutant groups aren't exactly on friendly terms with normal superhumans either, plus the majority of normal superhumans are super''villains'' and so aren't really trusted anyway (for that matter, neither is Spider-Man or a few other ''heroes''.
** Mutants keep getting used as a metaphor for real-life minorities (even though nowadays they could just skip the middleman) no matter how little sense it makes. X-Men comics are more about symbolism then realism this way. Realistically, mutants with dangerous powers would be feared the same way people with weapons are feared and mutants with visible mutations would be treated the same way people with physical deformities are treated. Since two ''ordinary'' humans can give birth to a mutant, there are no reason whatsover to consider them a different species.

* Going from 5,000 mutants circa [=WW2=] to 3,000,000,000 in 2005 requires that almost all of the younger generations be mutants, and that even more of them have human parents or grandparents than in the standard 616 timeline. So why didn't they explore the implications of that generational difference?

*** It means that people who are only passively mutants don't count in the 616 numbers. In House of M continuity, they became active mutants through technology germane to that universe, hence the rapid increase in numbers. There's also a chance people considered 'supers' or 'mutates' in 616 managed to 'pass' as mutants to receive the social perks; or people considered mutants in 616 are passing as non-mutants to avoid the social stigma.

.because they are heroes (okay and several antiheroes) and they do the right thing even at personal cost? also thought of this way, if they give you everything you ever wanted but at the cost of rewriting your entire life without your consent at the hands of a mind alterer the reality that obviously is not in its right mind you would worry a little since the next mental shock could shape the universe into something much worse depending on its state of mind (certainly unstable)

** As much death as Magneto's seen in his life, he's probably the type of person who believes in letting the dead stay dead. Sure, DeathIsCheap in the marvel universe and mutant heaven has revolving doors, but this is a guy who witnessed and survived the Holocaust. The number of people who die and come back (Thanos stories not withstanding) is likely a drop in the bucket compared to the number of people he's seen stay dead. So, he focuses his desires on other things; a mutant dominated world is a goal he can work towards and conceivably achieve one day. Bringing the dead back to life is the unproductive obsession of a man stuck in the past, so Magneto doesn't waste his wishes on it, however much he would like to have his wife and daughter back.
** It's not his fantasy- its Wanda's version of his fantasy. She gave him the world she thought he wanted, and aside from the fact she wasn't thinking very clearly or deeply about it, it also reflects her not-very-high opinion of her dad- she thinks he cares more about mutant supremacy and ruling the world than he does his own family, and he wouldn't have started on that path had her mother and sister not met the fate they did. Magneto himself might have brought both of them back and might even have went further and prevented the Holocaust and caused a bunch of other changes, but Wanda doesn't know or believe that. She thinks her dad loves her, but she also thinks that he would always put his family second and his cause first. So she gave him the first, to bring about the second.

* Is the series set in the 70's or in the 2000's?

* How does ''House of M: Spider-Man'' fit into the rest of the plot? After the 1st issue it seems to go straight into 'What if the world never was reverted back' type of story.
** Indeed! In the "House of M" the other heroes came up to him with his family on a New York street and rebooted his memory. He was so traumatized by the transition that he ran away from all of them and had to be talked down by Wolverine, for cripes sake. And it doesn't look like he ever went back to his family, he seemed to be so horrified that it's hard to imagine him doing so, much less the 'happy ever after' conclusion of "House of M:Spider-Man" narrative. There must have been a major disconnect by the editor, since they also have him shaving his head BALD in "HOM:S-M" on the first day they got there, but his hair was normal length when the heroes encountered him. No, I can't imagine that a world renowned actor/billionaire/businessman/celebrity and his equally publicized family could slip back into New York and wander the streets given the level of notoriety he had at the end of the story.

* Did we ever see a map of which nation-states do and don't exist in the "present-day" world of House of M? We know that civil wars broke out between mutants and humans around the world and that nation-states still exist to some degree subordinate to Magneto, but are they mostly the same ones with the same borders or were entirely new ones created in the aftermath of the war? Did the USSR still fall?

* Keep in mind that she didn't use Charles to read Magneto's mind – she thought she had him figured out. Lorna was very clearly there, as his mutant daughter, Wanda being the human daughter. Pretty sure Anya is just in the film.

* Going from 5,000 mutants circa WW2 to 3,000,000,000 in 2005 requires that almost all of the younger generations be mutants, and that even more of them have human parents or grandparents than in the standard 616 timeline. So why didn't they explore the implications of that generational difference?

** It is established in New X-men, around the time we first meet Xorn (let's not get into that) that at least China screens babies and offs those with mutant potential. In a timeline ruled by Magneto and similarly mutant-positive leaders, such would not be the case ([[FridgHorror but maybe the converse would be]]). That would tend to up the mutant count, especially if you add in the fact that without the lingering responsibility of being part of a military unit that "protects a world that fears and hates them", mutants would be free to start families and raise as many children as they liked.