Deconstructing Marvel Style Mutants

Okay here's the premise. Basically for the last thirty or forty years, babies have been born who during childhood manifest superhuman powers. These are called alphas; also life kind of sucks for them. Especially in Australia, where all alpha children are institutionalized. Jen manifested the power to teleport, but got herself shunted into limbo for three years. After matiralizing in the middle of a public pool, she is institutionalized, and helps break five other kids out. Now they're on the run, desperately trying to survive and not reenact the Boxcar Kids.

Now you've all seen it a thousand times. List your pet peeves with this sort of story. Also the other kids are:

Alex: Water manipulation, self transmutation into such and telepathy.

Annie: Manipulation of perception and superhuman senses.

Maureen: Eletrical powers and telekinesis.

Rob: Healing and biological manipulation.

Will: Force field generation and enhanced speed and reflexes.

Sound like a good power mix?

I was never a fan of water manipulation. The only explanation you could possibly give even with all the Technobabble in the world is "Magic!" That and I don't see any rhyme or reason in pairing up electricity manipulation with telekinesis. What's the point?

Also, might want to think of a different name for these guys. It's been taken.

edited 29th Sep '11 10:01:41 PM by KSPAM

Anyone have any suggestions? And about manipulation of electricity and telekinesis being paired up, why not?

Why? There's no reason for the combination. Giving a telekinetic lightning powers is like duct taping two pistols together. It sounds like a good idea in theory (twice the power) but in reality it's unwieldly, impractical and much more confusing than simply using one gun.

That and as far as power themes go, those two are horribly mismatched.

edited 29th Sep '11 10:17:51 PM by KSPAM

Personally I've always found themed powers weird.

It gives the character an overall sense of coherence, like they've been cut down and refined instead of left a jumbled mess on some producer's desktop.

Also does this sound like something that could explain why extra rights haven't progressed much? Whennthere were very few of them one blew up Los Angeles.

Electricity and telekinesis is kinda weird. Start with one basic thing for each character, and then explore the natural implications. It makes more sense that way because the secondary powers are a natural outgrowth of what they started with. A circus strongman might turn out to be a good wrestler/boxer as a result of his strength, but you wouldn't expect him to just also happen to be a mathematical genius, right?

I thought Avatar The Last Airbender was pretty good about this. Waterbenders can use their own sweat as a weapon, and on certain times they can manipulate the water in another living being's body.

For electricity I could maybe see telepathy being related, since people's thoughts are basically electrical impulses. But that could be a little too farfetched since you'd need really fine control to pull that off.

Seconding the statement that "mutants" having elemental and psychic powers is really weird, but I'm just going to assume that magic's involved.

I don't think "extra rights" is the right question. People generally want equal rights. I guess I could see that happening. You've basically got a bunch of walking nukes who may not be able to control their powers or use them sensibly. I think it's common sense to have them locked away somewhere, for public safety.

edited 29th Sep '11 10:32:39 PM by Merlo

Oh I decided to make Alex a simple telekinetic who 99% of the time just uses water.

Why would he do that? Seems to me it'd be easier to use solid objects since you don't need to expend energy and concentration to keep the thing in one piece. I'd imagine it'd take a lot of work to manipulate liquids. Or does the telekinesis not work that way?

edited 29th Sep '11 10:34:16 PM by Merlo

He's and odd child. And he just likes water. So anything about X-men type stories that irk anyone?

edited 29th Sep '11 10:41:41 PM by Zolnier

Zolnier, I have to ask: do you ever write any of these "deconstructions" you keep getting people to brainstorm for you?

I sincerely don't mean to be rude, but you make an awful lot of these threads. Unless you're an incredibly fast writer, that suggests you never follow up on any of these ideas. You should pick something and stick with it.

To be honest, I've never been one for the X-men style mutants. Their LEGO Genetics and magic elemental powers always bothered me to no end; but then again, this is all coming from a hard sci-fi fan, so I'm probably not the best one to ask.

Also, I second Merlo's sentiment about the impracticality of water use. There are thousands of things more dangerous than water to be used as telekinetic weapons, and 'he's an odd child' just isn't a satisfying explanation.

He will use something else when push comes to shove, he's just really good at water.

One way to attempt to make sense of a character's "water" based powers is to make them gravity based, in which case you can claim that the effects on more solid objects just aren't as obvious.

Good idea. Also alphas are now called "extras". Oh and likely reactions from North Korea, part of a subplot.

Communist countries tend to be more controlling and domineering of their populace, and North Korea is certainly no exception. Mandatory registration and perhaps institutionalization of 'extras' would be a pretty obvious plan of action.

Also, hate to burst your bubble, but "extras" is also taken.

Abnormals? Uniques?

Not sure about Uniques, but Abnormals has already been taken too.

Omegas? Cheesy I know.

Not sure... You see, the reason there are so many terms for people with superpowers is because it's a topic that's been done. A lot.

edited 30th Sep '11 7:07:39 AM by Takwin

Wait, Zeroth, I like that. Does this sound like a good limitation for Will's force fields? Air can't get in.

Yeah, I can see that as a setback. Also, they shouldn't be able to last indefinitely.

Especially since omegas tire more quickly.

I've always thought that the whole premise behind 'mutants' is inadequately explored. If these powers are available via mutations, then surely the capability for psychic powers/invisibility/summoning cheesecakes at will/whatever already existed in the human genome beforehand in some capacity, right? Humans share the majority of their genes with animals and plants. Hell, 2/3 of our DNA matches with Yeast.

So why is it never the case that these mutations have naturally occurred in animals and plants already? If a chance mutation 10,000 years back gave one member of a species of, say, wild dog a regeneration ability 'a la' Wolverine, then that's a MASSIVE advantage over absolutely everything else. Assuming that the mutations are hereditary (AFAIR, in Marvel comics they are), the members with a regenerative ability would become the dominant form of the species.

In short, the main problem I have with it is that these abilities are restricted only to humans. Just think of how animals or even plants could have changed or evolved if some of them had developed superpowers after a freak cosmic ray hit them during conception. After all, animals like the Electric Eel, the Starfish, and the Homing Pigeon have done pretty much exactly that. Take that to its absolute logical conclusion. It'll be interesting to see what happens.