Back in the '80s, when a few Marvel writers and editors actually tried to systematize and keep all of this stuff straight (RIP Mark Gruenwald), the official distinction was that a mutant was born with a benevolent mutation granting them powers. A mutate was exposed to something that mutated them, granting them powers. Cf. the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Savage Land Mutates. In the canon of the time, all humans had the capacity for benevolent mutation, due to the genetic tampering of the giant armored space gods/ancient astronauts known as the Celestials deep in our prehistory. The only difference between mutants and mutates was when they developed their benevolent mutation. Sentinels treated them all the same - during Chris Claremont’s run on the X-books, anyway, in all of the dark futures where Sentinels exterminated the mutants, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man were among their first targets.
IIRC, the X-gene came later, and IIUC, in the current Marvel canon (when writers and editors remember it), mutants carry the X-gene are genetically mutated. Mutates (aka Altered Humans in the old Marvel RPG) gain powers later, lack the X-gene, and generally are not genetically mutated. Except their kids all tend to be powered, which would seem to indicate that they have been genetically mutated, but…I guess not due to the X-gene. Or something.
Does anyone remember who gave Vision the chewing gum in the neighborhood watch/magic show episode? At the time, it seemed to me like a silly sitcom contrivance, but in retrospect it sure seems like Something Significant. I’m wondering if the “gum” wasn’t the altered reality manifestation of a device or something that was supposed to re-program or de-program Vision. The literal “gumming up of the works” and the resulting “drunkenness” seems like it may well have been the at least semi-intentional result of someone trying to intervene, and whoever gave Vision the gum may be Someone Significant.
IIRC, the X-Men were originally all children of people who had been exposed to nuclear radiation one way or another, which altered their genes and caused their kids to have super powers. Hence the old “Children of the Atom” tagline.
Getting this back to something remotely on topic, I just read that the last three episodes are going to be an hour long!
Thanks. So, yet another indicator that Herb is Someone Significant (if the gum turns out to be Something Significant).
But, unless there was a lot more to the “gum” than we saw, that actually makes it seem less likely that Herb is secretly the Big Bad - it only had a transient effect, and seemed like a failed attempt to do something to Vision. It didn’t seem like something that would be a part of a Big Bad’s plan.
I took the gum thing as Wanda (or someone) filling up Wanda and Vision’s lives with the usual sitcom events - trivial, mildly amusing and easily recoverable from (as part of the efforts of Wanda (or whoever) to create a superficially normal life, subject to sitcom tropes).
I think there is something more with the Gum Incident. Herb specifically mentioned Big Red Gum, which, by the way, is yet another anachronism that cropped up.
In the first episode, Vision is a puppet. He can’t even intervene to save a man from choking without getting permission. The “gum” changes that - after the second episode, he stops accepting the charade around him, and can do things like continue an argument after the credits roll, or invent his own subplot in the Halloween episode to give him an excuse to go investigating. Whatever being is giving Wanda the power to do all this slipped it to Vision as part of the standard, “Fulfilling the letter of the deal ruins the person seeking the deal” aspect of diabolic pacts: Wanda was promised a life with Vision, but the “real” Vision wouldn’t let all this strangeness pass unnoticed and just do what Wanda tells him, and thus the whole illusion unravels itself, without ever violating the actual wording of the contract.
Except that didn’t happen until later. He gets the gum pulled out and he goes back to normal. And remember he was questioning some things right from the beginning, like what they were computing at the office.
It does seem to fit nicely with other pieces. Dormammu already introduced, and not too happy, I’m sure, with the upstart that got the better of him. The upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The bandied-about theory that the next big thrust of the MCU will revolve around multiple dimensions (or was it more mystical?). Thanos came after introductions (Chitauri, GOTG and that Stone), so Blackheart could well be an introduction to the Mephisto angle. I’ve lost my train of thought. Why did I come into this room?
Ooo, nice! Daddy’s little boy. But, does that mean that Vision’s boss Mr Hart is Blackheart or someone else?
And it could be that Westview was established as a Hell mouth on earth and so all of the inhabitants are demons or dead already.
When Herb was “trimming the hedges” he said “because we’re all…” but was hushed by Agnes before he finished. Maybe the last part of that statement was “already dead” or “demons”…
