@Runescryer said:
I think that the issue you're having is in trying to discover the logic and reason behind things that are the antithesis: bigotry and prejudice. one of the reasons that the old Star Trek episode 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' is so powerful is that is shows just how stupid, blind, and unreasoning bigotry is.
Before I start getting into things, let me say that while I talk here about serious and tragic real-world examples, I'm not comparing them to the fictional Marvel Universe and the mutant situation to cheapen or lessen the severity of what has happened and what is going on. I'm simply showing how mass media hysteria fuels similar behavior in the real world.
Now, with that said, there are some things to consider as to why such anti-mutant bias exists in the Marvel Universe.
It's not always the mutants that are the 'enemy'. You mentioned Hulk as an example of a metahuman that causes destruction, but Hulk doesn't get a free pass because he's not a mutant. On the contrary, for most of his existence, Hulk is feared as much or more than the 'mutant threat' by the general populace. Even Spider-Man has to deal with mistrust and a bit of hatred from the general public sometimes thanks to JJJ. So there's not a 'mutants always bad, other heroes always good' mentality. The perception of the general public towards an individual or group is the main factor.Which leads to...
Presence in the media. For most of their existence, the X-Men had no media presence. There was never any mentions of them existing, much less there being a group of heroic mutants. Professor Xavier, for good or bad, decided to keep the existence of the X-Men a complete secret in order to keep the school safe. So, the first time the general public ever heard the term 'mutant' was when Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants first took over a US military base and began making public demands, back in X-Men #1. Even though the X-Men saved the day, Xavier kept all mention of the team out of the press. All anyone knew was that there were these people called mutants who almost started a nuclear war; there was no knowledge that it was mutants who stopped the threat also, just some costumed folks, could have been the Avengers or Fantastic Four. That's something very powerful when the only mention of an ethnic group comes in conjunction with terrorism and near-global annihilation. And it wasn't just in the US. Magneto publicly captures a Russian nuclear sub and steals its missiles, placing them in orbit. No word in the press as to who stopped him. A mutant goes on a rampage in Edinburgh, killing a prominent politician (the first Proteus storyline). Again, no mention as to who stopped the killer mutant. And on, and on. The first time that mutants got any good press or publicity in the minds of the average citizens of the Marvel Universe was in the mid-80's when the X-Men publicly sacrificed their lives to save the city of Dallas from annihilation (leading to their rebirth and hidden years in Australia in the late 80's/90's). Up until then, it was nothing but politicians and talking heads holding up Magneto as the sterotypical mutant with no public counter from the good guys other than Xavier, who everyone thought was human, talking about morality and how genetics don't define someone as good or bad. A very hard sell when you have Magneto, Mystique, and the Brotherhood acting in public as terrorists for the 'mutant cause'. Think about the first time you heard the term 'Muslim' or 'Palestinian'. If you're a child of the 70's and 80's like me, chances are good it was in connection with some form of terrorist act. And that's how you start thinking of them because that's how the media only ever shows them. Later on, of course, you learn that things are not exactly that clear cut or simple; that much of the news we get is condensed for easy 'understanding'. One only needs to look at the wave of Islamophobia washing over us to see the mirror of how the media portrays mutants in the Marvel Universe. There are horrific, barbaric acts being carried out in the name of Islam, and the general public wonders why the moderate Muslims don't speak out. The reality is that they do speak out, as loudly as they can each time, but such things aren't shown by the news media because there's no ratings in it. So, in a great twit of irony, Xavier enforcing a silence surrounding the existence of the X-Men actually fuels the anti-mutant hysteria.
It's about the children. Mutant powers emerge in adolescence, when parents are still protective, sometimes overprotective, of their children. When Trayvon Martin was killed, millions of African-American parents saw their own children facing that fate. Parents in the Marvel Universe face something similar in having fear and paranoia of their children suddenly gaining powers or turning into something 'other'. There's a certain 'there but for the grace of God go I' sort of mentality when the news talks about some kid suddenly manifesting powers and nuking a school. Or a mob throwing stones at a child who now has lizard-like features. It's another way the media fuels the paranoia and fear, when every instance you see of mutant powers manifesting on the nightly news is either a monster being unleashed or a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. Even if the truth is that the majority of mutant activations happen quietly with no visible side effects, all the media reports about, much less knows about, is 'Lizard Boy terrorizes classmates, film at 11'. With the constant barrage, Marvel Universe parents start worrying about their children becoming 'freaks'. Parents already freak out about normal teenage surliness and rebellion, wondering if drugs are the cause of the change in their sweet child's attitude. Now it's "Johnny just told me to shut up and that i don't understand him....Is he becoming a mutant?" Parents do stupid things and jump to stupid conclusions when they can't understand what's going on with their kids, or forget what they were like when they were that age. Wild, outlandish theories become plausible. I lived through the 'Satanic Panic' of the 80's, when heavy metal music was a path straight to the Devil, never minding the fact that my grandparents' generation had already labeled Elvis and the Beatles as Devil's music during my parent's generation. And let's not even go into Role Playing Games. While it seems counter-intuitive, the sad fact is that desperate and confused parents often do things that harm their children when faced with situations and behaviors beyond their understanding. Children sent to rehabilitation centers that employ torture and brainwashing techniques to cure all sorts of 'behaviors' are all too frighteningly common in the real world, and I have no doubt that the parents that send their child to one of those facilities truly loves them and is trying to do what's best for them in their own minds.
It's about the fear of extinction. Most people understand the concept of evolution. And they understand the idea that at one point, Neanderthals were out evolved by Cro-Magnons and became extinct. Now, here come mutants which are the next step in evolution and humanity sees the fate of the Neanderthal as it's own fate. It also down't help that in terms of origin, mutants outnumber other metahumans by a significant margin; at a high point, I think there were an estimated 15,000 mutants worldwide compared to a few thousand of all other metahumans. And then there's predictions on the news like 'the last human will be born in 2025, all children born from then on will be mutants', or whatever the storyline in Marvel was. Marvel citizens aren't afraid of being replaced by metahumans because most everyone knows that it's kind of a pain in the ass to become a metahuman in general. Exposure to radiation, take part in a secret government program, build yourself a suit of high-tech armor, be born an extra-dimensional god...these are no everyday occurrences. But there are millions of babies being born every day. And any one of them can be a mutant, just by chance. It can't be controlled, it can't be predicted, it can't be stopped. It's a different set of defying the odds: 99,999 times out of 100,000, being exposed to massive doses of cosmic radiation is going to be lethal. It's that one freak occurrence that grants powers. But any of those million babies born today could have won the genetic lottery, and there's no way of knowing which until it's too late. To make matters worse, they are told by scientific experts and mutant terrorists that mutants will replace humanity; it's only a matter of time.
Well, this has probably gone on too long already, so we'll leave it at: Marvel mutants are the subject off irrational hatred and fear because humans as a whole are susceptible to hating and fearing things that are different, and the hatred and bigotry are fueled by the mass media.
Of course, it's your game idea @Entropy, and if you want to skip it, go right ahead.
That was a really good explanation of how mutants are an adequate (if often misused) analogy for minorities.
