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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
That sounds less like discrimination and more like common sense.
I would imagine something like that would go:
Announcement: "All mutants are banned from sports, because some of them have super-strength or some other ability that could help them cheat!"
Mutants without any abilities that would be good for sports, or optional abilities that everyone would be able to tell if they used: "This is bullshit! Why should we be excluded, too?"
Average Racist Joe: "Well, I heard that all mutants have a little bit of super-strength, so it's not fair to let any of them compete. Also, I heard that they're more predisposed towards cheating than us normal people. They didn't work hard for their advantages, they were just born freaks!"
The X-Men probably were originally founded for that sort of activist work, but they've understandably had to prioritize dealing with multiple genocide attempts.
The average Mutant who lacks combat training would be even less inclined to expose themselves via activist work since that comes with the very well possibility of being squashed by a giant robot. Or shot to pieces by the FOH or the Purifiers. Or captured by Canadians for brutal inhumane experiments. Or being targeted by literal lynch mobs. Or...I think you get the point.
Edited by M84 on Dec 1st 2019 at 5:30:06 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedAnd even if you're depowered somehow, meaning you're effectively a baseline human, that wouldn't necessarily spare you. The Purifiers once blew up a bus full of kids leaving the Xavier Institute who were depowered by M-Day.
There were so many things wrong with what happened to Wolfsbane, I am honestly at a loss for words as to where to begin.
Edited by M84 on Dec 1st 2019 at 6:20:10 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedThe mutant expies in Strong Female Protagonist (called "dynamorphs") explore this pretty well
, since a public distinction is drawn between those with flashier powers who can get pretty good work as superheroes, and those with inconvenient mutations who are viewed as more of a "social strain" than a "help". Some of their struggles are analogous to those of disabled people or queer people, but it's also noted that their difficulties as a group are unique considering the Mass Empowering Event was only a few years ago so they don't have any prior history or elders to learn from. Sometimes there's violence against them, but the story also takes care to portray the little ways they're discriminated by too.
Edited by Tuckerscreator on Dec 1st 2019 at 1:39:51 AM
I feel like "Mutants as a minority group facing discrimination" can be done well, as long as it's not just lazily copy-pasting "Mutants represent racism", "Mutants represent ableism", "Mutants represent queerphobia", or any other kind of Real Life bigotry.
Obviously, the writers should draw on those for inspiration, but a bunch of people randomly having superpowers is different on a fundamental from any individual form of Real Life bigotry, and it should be treated as such. The writers also NEED to explore how intersectionality affects mutants who face other kinds of discrimination, that's something that the Fox-Men failed HARD at, just ignoring that other kinds of bigotry would still exist (this is directed at you, Gifted, the show about bigotry with the main characters being a stereotypical middle-upper-class white nuclear family).
The reason why I don't like mutants as allegory for minorities in the case of the X-Men specifically is because a lot of mutants genuinely have powers that, if not properly controlled or harnessed, are dangerous to themselves and other people. Conversely, black people, gay people, etc are not inherently any more dangerous or fundamentally different from majority groups in terms of what they can do. I get that no metaphor is going to be perfect but IMO that just stretches things too far.
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The Ultimate comics featured a particularly unlucky mutant kid with the power to burn up all organic matter in a huge radius around him. He ended up wiping out his entire hometown before Wolverine was sent to "deal" with him.
The mainline comics once had a kid who manifested the mutant power to automatically generate powerful explosions. Even worse, they became stronger and stronger, with the last one actually killing him.
Joss Whedon's run on X-Men had a rather memorable scene of a bunch of Mutants storming the facility where a "cure" for mutation was being developed because all of them had truly awful mutations.
Heck, one can just look at Cyclops. Guy has to be very careful not to lose his ruby quartz glasses or he could accidentally wipe out a city block with a look.
Edited by M84 on Dec 1st 2019 at 9:29:27 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
Didn't he have to be "dealth with" because it would be a "bad look" if the public were to discover that a mutant accidentally wiped out a whole town?
Seriously, shouldn't there be some governmental laws in place if mutants like that can just abruptly spawn out of the ether?
Edited by GNinja on Dec 1st 2019 at 1:30:57 PM
Kaze ni Nare!I'm not sure if Sentinals will be considered used out the gate. Sure Ultron was a few years ago, but I doubt this MCU government will want to jump into building robots who will more than likely turn on humanity off the bat. Also, the fabled Claremont era's need to have the X-Men be in their own bubble can't work in the MCU as crossover appeal is a huge benefit. I see the X-Men being on their own for a while but Avengers stuff should and will happen sooner rather than later.
Just Makima.Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 1st 2019 at 10:40:30 AM
....the sad part is, I can see that happening.
Maybe they can be behind the Spider Slayers too. I've recently had an odd idea about Spencer Smythe creating the Spider Slayers not only as a way to hunt Spiderman, but also as a sort of test bed for another company who wants to create Sentinels.
Basically, Peter is used to prove they can hunt anything they are programmed to hunt, and then the tech is bought out to make everyone's favourite mutant hunting robots.
One Strip! One Strip!Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. mentioned that after the Ultron incident, the government decided to put a full-scale ban on developing advanced artificial intelligence. I guess the Sentinels don't fall into that, since they'd really be more like drones then anything else. I'm not the most knowledgeable about X-Men lore, so I'm not sure how much autonomy Sentinels are supposed to have.
IB4 "AOS doesn't affect the movies". I know. Believe me, I know.
Edited by chasemaddigan on Dec 1st 2019 at 1:48:03 PM
I can see some government officials supporting it, but I think Sentinals could work better if they were made outside the law. Like they get manufactured by terrorists who are secretly funded by some higher-ups. That way the government doesn't seem like they support them when clearly some want Sentinals to become the new Iron Men that "protect humanity" from mutants.
Edited by Mizerous on Dec 1st 2019 at 1:51:13 PM
Just Makima.The Sentinels shouldn't be made by terrorists. The Sentinels should be made by capitalists, corporations who see profit in government contracts to hunt down "dangerously powered individuals." In fact, the corporations would lobby Congress for more contracts and thus create a self-perpetuating machine for hunting down and imprisoning mutants.
And if you don't think that's possible, just remember that ICE made a fake university, got people to sign up for it in order to get student visas, and then arrested all of them.
They made people think they were actually getting student visas in order to arrest them.
That's the kind of shit that happens in real life, so I have no issue about it happening in movies and comics.
Edited by alliterator on Dec 1st 2019 at 11:03:45 AM

Miscegenation laws?
Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.