Did xmen invent the mutant genre?

August 11, 2009 2:30 AM

Did the original xmen authors invent the mutant genre? Today, "Heroes," and "Push," are stories about mutants with special abilities who are misunderstood by society who fears them. No different really then between Xmen except the lack of costume. Was this genre completely created by the writers of xmen? Or did it exist in other places that I'm unaware of. Thanks
posted by jeffreyclong to society & culture (16 comments total)

The Greenwood encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy says there were similar stories in the 1930's.
posted by lucia__is__dada at 2:50 AM on August 11

It's been a trope in science fiction for a long time; a classic example is A.E. Van Vogt's Slan (originally appeared 1940).
posted by zompist at 2:54 AM on August 11 [1 favorite]

"Hated for being different" was also a pretty common theme in the Horror and SciFi comics that preceded the Silver Age. Stan Lee wrote a bunch of them (Amazing Fantasy, etc) and recognized it as a theme that resonated with his readers.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:01 AM on August 11

Children of the Atom (never read, can't vouch)
posted by The Tensor at 3:14 AM on August 11

Your question asserts a few things that are slightly more discrete. The mutant genre existed long before x-men - special powers imbued to a select one who is ostracized for his uniqueness is roughly what the Christ mythos is (I refer to this as a mythos from a strictly story perspective - not with the intention of offending anyone religiously.) This is replicated again in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. We see traces of Shakespeare in the tragic nature of many of the characters. We see the rise of Magneto as somewhat understandable based on him Goodwining the thread. We see allusions to the relationship between Charles Xavier and Max Eisenhardt (Magneto) to run parallel to the relationship between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

The X-men were children of the 60s. They grew up in a world where right and wrong existed, but in varying shades, and from differing perspectives. They reflected the turmoil and separation of social and political issues. They reflect that soviets might be among us, fearmongering - Macarthyism. Heck they even represented a bit of a don't ask don't tell mentality that existed before it became somewhat socially acceptable to be gay anywhere besides the military (once again - not trying to derail, it is socially acceptable to be gay.).

Were they the first to do individual bits and pieces of this? No. Were they the first to really wrap all of the social issues into a single cohesive set of characters? Yes (but ... um sort of a trick question because clearly with the number of spinoffs, character changes and reduxes calling them a cohesive set of characters is a bit of a misnomer. You still see my point though...)

Now, is it surprising that Heroes was made (I can't comment on Push - it looked dumb to me in previews so I've never seen it)? No. Its just surprising that no one made them sooner. I'm thinking though that had more to do with special effects and the art of concatenating disjointed stories being the dominant trope of early 00's storytelling.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:25 AM on August 11 [1 favorite]

These ideas were fairly current back when eugenics were all the rage. There was even a guy, Claude Degler, who tried to start a science fiction fandom eugenics program to produce "Cosmen." As zompist mentions, Slan was the first really popular example of such fiction (that I know of). Though I'd argue that Lovecraft's fiction is full of similar mutants but that they're presented as hideous abnormalities who should be exterminated and not as the heroes they are in Slan or X-Men.
posted by Kattullus at 5:12 AM on August 11

FWIW the Greeks and Romans have been doing it for ages. I think the only difference is they called the people with special powers gods.
posted by Gungho at 5:41 AM on August 11

I've always suspected that The Chrysalids was a big influence on the creation of X-Men and other Marvel characters. It's all about mutations and the "other." There's even a character named Spider-man.
posted by hector horace at 6:15 AM on August 11

Phillip Wylie's novel Gladiator is an early example of the mutant as superman, and in fact is thought to have inspired the creation of the Man of Steel. And Odd John was out around that time, too (1935), from Olaf Stapledon.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 6:30 AM on August 11

While there certainly were fictional people born with super-powers before X-Men, the X-Men greatly popularized a social narrative in which the mutants could be read as analogous to ethnic, cultural, and sexual minorities. Magneto certainly didn't Godwin the series given concentration camps in a canonical possible future (no more than Moore did in V for Vendetta).

Marvel previously had moderate, albeit cult-cable success with Mutant X. Heroes isn't the first TV instantiation.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 6:58 AM on August 11

Also cf. the sci-fi short story Wild Cards anthologies of the 80s-90s.
posted by reptile at 7:05 AM on August 11

More Than Human (1953) by Theodore Sturgeon is another example, though "Slan" and "Odd John" predated it.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 7:05 AM on August 11

It's a common trope, there's been some controversy over the years as to whether the X-men themselves are just a ripoff of the Doom Patrol.
posted by Oktober at 8:19 AM on August 11

Looks like KirkjobSluder is pretty spot on. To be specific there was supposed to be a difference to mutants as opposed to other heroes. Yes, people with power had been around long before comics invented them, but (Marvel) mutants were a specific subset. The basic idea is that you are born with it, and you can't change that.

Doom Patrol? Not really. Fantastic Four came out in 61.
posted by P.o.B. at 2:08 PM on August 11

Don't rule out the influence of 1950s atomic-powered monsters, like Godzilla, Them!, and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:25 PM on September 20

From the 40s onwards John W. Campbell was writing and requesting tales of "Homo Superior" for Astounding, a next generation of human beings who would often be telepathic and the like. If he didn't originate the theme he certainly did a lot to popularise it.
posted by Artw at 9:41 PM on September 20