# Mutant Registration: Yes or No? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2000, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233 "2000-07-20T13:24:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/21 "2000-07-20T20:20:50Z")
Balance, Thanks for clearing up my point. **I** wasn’t arguing for draft registration being similar to mutant registration, just that the laws on the books shouldn’t necessarily be changed. I still think it’s too easy for someone with a more severe agenda than Trion’s (apparent) to take advantage of this registration for something more sinister. :: Hefting leeks & eyeballing Cal :: ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/22 "2000-07-20T20:30:19Z")
Blanace, I shall attempt to reply to your post later. I’m about to head home now and I just want to take care a few minor things. > [@](#): > > After all, Trion, even if we can trust you, who’s to say we can trust the next senator who decides to “modify” your Act? What, now I’m the bad guy?? Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”. There’s lots of potential for misuse in any law or even any invention. You’ll just have to trust those of us in power. (heh heh) > [@](#): > > Why do we need a Mutant Registration Act? We already have the SD People Pages. Cal, I notice you aren’t on the People Pages. What are you hiding? ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/23 "2000-07-20T20:41:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Trion \* > > **What, now I’m the bad guy?? Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”. There’s lots of potential for misuse in any law or even any invention. You’ll just have to trust those of us in power. (heh heh)** [Disney Reference] I said _if_ [/Disney Reference] You’ll note, Tri, that I’m not painting you the bad guy. I’m just not presuming I can trust you. There _is_ a difference, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/24 "2000-07-20T21:59:42Z")
OK, I’ve been thinking this through and I’ll try to lay out my thinking in a comprehensible manner. We’ve compared this act to both gun registration and registration for the draft. They both apply to different ideas involved in the creation of the Mutant Powers Registration Act (MPRA). # 1 - Is it a good idea. This is where the gun registration comparison comes in. We register dangerous weapons for information purposes. I’d say we’ve filled the criteria here. # 2 - Is this legally allowed. Draft registration here. We force males over 18 to register, we can force mutants to register. But there’s another problem here that I’ll get back to in a moment. If the Act is both a good idea and legally allowed then we have to ask “Why Not”. So far most of the objections fall under the heading of “potential government misuse”. To this I say “Too Bad”. Guns can potentially be misused and we continute to allow people to have them. (I know it’s a constitutional right, but we can change the constitution if we need to). Speed limit laws give cops the opportunity to hassle minority motorists. We don’t repeal the law, we get rid of the bad cop. You need a better argument than “potential misuse” to convince me. …And there is a better argument. Under the heading of #2 above I think we may have a problem with Invasion of Privacy here. Damn. I think I just argued myself out of a Senate Seat. On another note - Strangely, I only took the pro-registration side because I figured that if someone didn’t this thread would die pretty quickly. It’s scary how easy it became to argue the side I chose. ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/25 "2000-07-20T23:04:35Z")
How powerful do you have to be to have a “power”? Say my webbed toes make me the world’s fastest 100 meter swimmer, cutting my time to almost 2:30 faster than the next fastest swimmer, clearly beyond the range of a “normal” person. Do I have to register? Also, why aren’t there any super animal mutants? Bessie the cow flying through Akron, fighting crime by shooting nitrous oxide flatulence, that sort of thing. Should we have the mutant _pet_ registration act? They’d be dangerous, too. I ask because I have a frog who came from a tadpole treated with Ethidium Bromide. He’s definitely a mutant - would I have to register his powers: the extra deformed leg and the abdominal abcess? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/26 "2000-07-21T00:08:34Z")
Kind of along **ABP** ’s lines, how do you decide who’s a mutant? I hate to break it to you, but every single one of us has some mutations in our DNA. We’re all mutants. Deal with it. Kind of makes it hard to single people out, doesn’t it? It changes it from “Mutant Registration” to “People who can do weird stuff Registration,” which I think is harder to justify. ---
**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/27 "2000-07-21T00:33:28Z")
Hmm, I’ve heard this arguement before, oh yes, now I remember where…it goes something like this: “Jews are dangerous; they plot to take over the world and opress us. They do weird stuff we don’t understand. We should know who they are. Let’s make them register”. Sound familiar? And don’t tell me it isn’t the same–it’s how you were born (I am, of course referring to heredity and not actual practice of the religion, but so were the Nazis). Besides, many comic books were written with large subtle undertones of acceptance of Judaism and many of the paralells are directly made. If you doubt me, get a good history of comics book, and especially look at Superman. So put me down as firmly anti-registration. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/28 "2000-07-21T00:42:15Z")
Trion says: “I’ll bite the bullet and take the pro-registration stance. Like the good Senator Kelly says, we require prople to register their guns, why not the deadly powers of a mutant.” What country do you live in? There is no National gun registration in the United States. Provided the NRA keeps the panzies out of office, there never will be. We should not register mutants for the same reason we should not register guns. If one day the government decides to get rid of them, they will know where to go to get them. Also, only the “good” mutants would register. The evil ones will go on living unregistered and they will be commiting all the crimes. I think it is a bad idea to register mutants. They should have the same rights to privacy as we do. Maybe we could register them AFTER they commit a crime, like the way we do sexual predators. But just because someone is a mutant doesnt make them a bad person. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/29 "2000-07-21T02:17:15Z")
The only one who’s addressed this point so far is Balance, so I guess I’ll bring it up again: The characterization of Mutant powers as ‘potentially deadly’ is silly. Most Mutant ‘Powers’ are, at best, worthless - like Balance’s Purple Piss - or at worst, crippling. For every X-Man, there’s a half-dozen Morlocks, and a score of people who can do a neat party-trick. And, of course, the useful ones aren’t all dangerous - Wolvie’s healing power (if it wasn’t coupled with those claws of his) is quite benign to everyone but Wolverine himself, and pretty damn good to him. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/30 "2000-07-21T02:27:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Trion \* > On another note - Strangely, I only took the pro-registration side because I figured that if someone didn’t this thread would die pretty quickly. It’s scary how easy it became to argue the side I chose. Don’t worry, it wears off. I sometimes horrify myself when I play Devil’s Advocate–but I’ve never adopted any of the causes I’ve argued for. I’m glad you agree that the invasion of privacy issue is a critical problem with the proposed Act. As for potential misuse as an argument…well, I think it can stand. Myrr21 pointed out the example I implied earlier; I really don’t believe any such minority registration program has ever been implemented without being badly–even horribly–abused. There is no sufficiently compelling reason to implement mandatory registration in the face of the potential harm it could cause. Do we all agree now that the M§RA should not be implemented? Maybe this isn’t much like Great Debates, after all… ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/31 "2000-07-21T02:38:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tengu \* > Most Mutant ‘Powers’ are, at best, worthless - like Balance’s Purple Piss - or at worst, crippling. For every X-Man, there’s a half-dozen Morlocks, and a score of people who can do a neat party-trick. And, of course, the useful ones aren’t all dangerous - Wolvie’s healing power (if it wasn’t coupled with those claws of his) is quite benign to everyone but Wolverine himself, and pretty damn good to him. Note that Logan’s claws (according to X-canon) are not the result of mutation–they, along with his reinforced skeleton, are the result of (of all things) a secret Canadian military program. His healing factor and enhanced strength and senses are the result of mutations. The healing factor was also good for Rogue, who had occasion to tap it to heal herself at least once. Now–I have exceptional senses of hearing, smell, and taste (the less said about my eyes, the better), and I’m a bit stronger than average. I heal quickly–though I can only dream of healing like Wolvie \. All of these are genetic traits common in my father’s family. All of them presumably are the result of mutations somewhere along the line–that doesn’t make them “mutant powers”. At what point, what generation, do we stop calling it a mutation? When does a “power” (however trivial) become just a family quirk, part of the normal spectrum of humanity? ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/32 "2000-07-21T03:17:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Do we all agree now that the M§RA should not be implemented? Maybe this isn’t much like Great Debates, after all… Sigh. Yea. We need someone with a genuinely EVIL viewpoint to play with. I’m just a big softie liberal at heart. One other point. Those of you asking what makes a mutant. C’mon people. If you set off Cerebro, you qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/33 "2000-07-21T03:26:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Trion \* > One other point. Those of you asking what makes a mutant. C’mon people. If you set off Cerebro, you qualify. Even if you inherited the power from your parents? Or a long series of ancestors? I’m glad you’re not evil enough to really support this. I can’t abide villainy in a man. Won’t tolerate it. BTW, if you’ve got Cerebro on hand to check on these things, I’m on my way over…with a schematic capture program on my laptop. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/34 "2000-07-21T04:47:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Balance \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Tengu \* > > Most Mutant ‘Powers’ are, at best, worthless - like Balance’s Purple Piss - or at worst, crippling. For every X-Man, there’s a half-dozen Morlocks, and a score of people who can do a neat party-trick. And, of course, the useful ones aren’t all dangerous - Wolvie’s healing power (if it wasn’t coupled with those claws of his) is quite benign to everyone but Wolverine himself, and pretty damn good to him. > > Note that Logan’s claws (according to X-canon) are not the result of mutation–they, along with his reinforced skeleton, are the result of (of all things) a secret Canadian military program.\*\* Well, then, either I’m misremembering the last few issues I read, or his healing factor must have really done a number on him after the Weapon X project got finished with him, since, IIRC, after Magneto ripped out the Adamantium (this was just before I stopped reading the X-Books), Wolvie still had the claws - just they were bone (And didn’t look near as sharp) now, rather than metal. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/35 "2000-07-21T04:59:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tengu \* > Well, then, either I’m misremembering the last few issues I read, or his healing factor must have really done a number on him after the Weapon X project got finished with him, since, IIRC, after Magneto ripped out the Adamantium (this was just before I stopped reading the X-Books), Wolvie still had the claws - just they were bone (And didn’t look near as sharp) now, rather than metal. I don’t _think_ he had claws before Weapon X. I could be wrong–it’s been a while since I read that bit, and I had stopped reading them before Magneto did his number on Wolvie. I suppose you could retcon it by saying that Wolverine’s healing factor gave him bone spurs inside the adamantine claws–that would make the bone claws shorter and duller, I suppose. Now I’m actually going to have to go reread some stuff. BTW, do you look anything like Nightcrawler? I mean, with the teleportitis and all…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/36 "2000-07-21T13:02:48Z")
**Balance asks** > [@](#): > > Even if you inherited the power from your parents? Or a long series of ancestors? Sort of. Hey, I didn’t make this up. From the [Rec.Arts.Comics.X-Books Faq](http://216.156.123.224/texts/racmxFAQ/faq1.html): > [@](#): > > For Marvel purposes, a mutant is a being who possesses a genetic structure not present in their parents. Obviously useless as a scientific definition (otherwise, all non-mutant children in Marvel would exactly resemble their parents, like clones), it’s mainly used as a tag for a particular unit of superhumans. > > Actually, the definition is a bit looser than that, since following any form of realistic biology is usually not the top priority for the writers. For instance, Siryn, the daughter of Banshee, is called a mutant, despite the fact that her powers are the same as her father’s. Attempts have been made to say that Siryn has a “different” mutation, in that she can talk and scream at the same time (don’t worry, it makes sense if you know the characters), but the main fault, obviously, is bad writing, not bad genes. The easier way to define a mutant is that they have an active X-Factor, and that’s really the main point of the whole definition. You will see references to “a mutant has to have a different power than their parents” in mutant comics, though, so it’s mentioned here just to get you acquainted with it. > > So, what are mutants, then? They are superhuman because they were born that way. They didn’t need any gamma bomb blowing up, or spider biting them, or magical formula recited. They’re superhuman because that’s the way they were born to be. They are mutants because of their X-Factor. And what is an X-Factor? Read below, true believer! > > The reason there are mutants on Earth comes from Marvel cosmology. Large, alien gods, called Celestials (who some say are but the incarnations of the dreams of Eternity) visit all planets that will bear life, early in the planet’s existance. There they perform genetic tinkering with the early life that will, if everything works out right, leave the species on the planets with three distinct superhuman bloodlines: Eternals (who never suffer random mutations), Deviants (who always suffer mutations in each generation), and the normal folks. It’s the normal folks that concern us, now, for in them the Celestials left a special genetic trigger that would allow some normals to gain superhuman powers after exposure to odd events (like the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, or Spider-Man), and in others would self-trigger when exposed natally to sufficient background radiation which would make the child a mutant. When it’s self-triggered, that genetic trigger is called the X-Factor. > > Now the X-Factor only makes a mutant when it’s self-triggered. Something happens to it when it does so that it becomes different than the same gene that allowed Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four to gain their powers; mutants show up on mutant detectors (which look for the unique signature of the X-Factor), while Spider-Man doesn’t. Mutants also give off unique brain patterns due to the X-Factor that enable telepaths who know what to look for (like Professor X) to detect mutants far more easily than normal humans or non-mutant superheroes. Devices that nullify mutant powers by negating the X-Factor are useless against non-mutants as well. On the other hand, Ship (an old base of Apocalypse) had a force field around it that would only open if it detected the X-Factor inside a visitor. In short, yes, mutants are different than the “normal” superhumans in a Marvel comic. Aside from that, there’s no real appreciable difference or superiority for mutant superpowers over non-mutant ones – very few mutants are as strong as the Thing, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/37 "2000-07-21T22:26:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Balance \* > **I don’t _think_ he had claws before Weapon X. I could be wrong–it’s been a while since I read that bit, and I had stopped reading them before Magneto did his number on Wolvie.** Either one of us is misremembering, or SOMEONE didn’t read his character bible closely enough. I’d be willing to lay my money on the latter… > [@](#): > > **BTW, do you look anything like Nightcrawler? I mean, with the teleportitis and all…😃** ::Thinks::…were you in chat last night? 'Cuz if not, I’ve just been seriously wooshed… (And if so, sorry I didn’t see you.) ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/38 "2000-07-21T22:48:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tengu \* > Either one of us is misremembering, or SOMEONE didn’t read his character bible closely enough. I’d be willing to lay my money on the latter… I found a couple of internet reference stating that he had bone claws to start with; that’s good enough for me–I must have misremembered. > [@](#): > > ::Thinks::…were you in chat last night? 'Cuz if not, I’ve just been seriously wooshed… > > (And if so, sorry I didn’t see you.) Nope, wasn’t in chat–so I have no idea why that would be relevant. I was referring to the tengu creatures from the game “Nethack”–they teleport at will and you can get teleportitis (chronic involuntary teleportation) from them. It was just an obscure joke. ---
**Author:** ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falcon)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/39 "2000-07-21T23:44:48Z")
[hijack] NO, Balance wasn’t in chat. Despite my best efforts, dammit. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233/40 "2000-07-21T23:56:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Balance \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Tengu \* > > Either one of us is misremembering, or SOMEONE didn’t read his character bible closely enough. I’d be willing to lay my money on the latter… > > I found a couple of internet reference stating that he had bone claws to start with; that’s good enough for me–I must have misremembered.\*\* Either that or the references are talking about continuity after someone at Marvel noticed their mistake. ^ **^ I’m glad to know _I’m_ not the one who misremembered, though. ^** ^ > [@](#): > > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > ::Thinks::…were you in chat last night? 'Cuz if not, I’ve just been seriously wooshed… > > > > (And if so, sorry I didn’t see you.) > > Nope, wasn’t in chat–so I have no idea why that would be relevant.\*\* My exit from chat last night was a tad Nightcrawleresque. (A puff of smoke.) > [@](#): > > \*\*I was referring to the tengu creatures from the game “Nethack”–they teleport at will and you can get teleportitis (chronic involuntary teleportation) from them. It was just an obscure joke. \*\* Ah, check. 'Splains the WOOSH then. Never really played Nethack. Gave it a try, got a headache from trying to get the controls down, gave up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mutant-registration-yes-or-no/26233.md?page=1)