10 Perplexing Comic Book Questions Solved By The Internet

2. How Come People Hate Mutants But No Other Superheroes?

It's one of those crazy facts you just have to accept in order to in any way enjoy Marvel comics, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense regardless. So, right, there's this world that's full of superheroes who got their powers from any number of sources: accidents involving radiation, cosmic rays, inventing ludicrously high-tech outfits, being Norse gods (as we've just mentioned). For the most part, these superheroes are treated like heroes. In fact they're higher than that, becoming the sort of infallible celebrities and pop icons the characters are in real life, paragons of humanity that never get criticised.

If that's the case, then how come mutants get so much stick? People are said to be afraid of their powers or appearances, but they've got no problem with the Fantastic Four, who are also technically genetic mutations - they just got theirs differently. And it's that difference that holds the key, apparently. Most Marvel heroes got their powers through accidents. Mutants are different. Mutants signal the extinction of the human race. They're the next stage in our evolution, apparently, which means that they're gonna supersede us at some point. In the meantime, we'll marginalise, oppress and keep them in check, to keep them from making us feel obsolete. Plus a lot of them look really scary, whilst Tony Stark? Thor? Spider-Man? Pretty hot!