Mutant (fictional)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The idea of a mutant is a common trope in comic books and science fiction. The new phenotypes that appear in fictional mutations generally go far beyond what is typically seen in biological mutants, and often result in the mutated life form exhibiting superhuman abilities or qualities.

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[edit] Marvel Comics

Main article: Mutant (Marvel comics)

In Marvel Comics, genetic mutation has been used as an explanation for super-powers since the 1950s([1],[2],[3]). Mutants have played a major role in Marvel comics, particularly the X-Men and related series. In the Marvel Comics universe, they are a heavily-persecuted minority.

[edit] DC Comics: metahuman

Main article: metahuman

Mutants play a smaller, but still substantial role, in the DC Comics universe, where they form part of the population known as metahumans. DC Comics does not make a semantic or an abstract distinction between humans (or superheroes/villains) born with mutations making them different and humans mutated by outside sources. All humans with powers are simply referred to, and treated as, one group collectively known as metahumans. The term mutant does still exists for humans born with actual powers instead of attaining them. For instance, a select group of minor characters in groups such as the Team Titans, Justice Society and Infinity Inc. are seldom referred to as mutants, not metahumans.

Those who gain powers after their birth may be called as metahumans, but in the Justice League cartoon, the Royal Flush Gang were called mutants by the Joker because they were born with superpowers. Likewise, the mid-50's DC superhero Captain Comet was born with his powers and was described as a mutant. Batman's enemy Killer Croc has also been called a mutant.

Also characters who were transformed through radiation or a mutagenic gas are sometimes identified as mutants instead of Marvel's term, 'mutates'. In the Static Shock animated series Virgil Hawkins was first described as one before introducing the term metahuman.

[edit] Judge Dredd

In the Judge Dredd comic stories Mutants are caused by the effects of radiation after the Atomic Wars. All Mutants are banned from Mega-City One and are deported into the Cursed Earth Wasteland. This policy has left the mutants resentful and they often attack the city. Dredd himself has voiced doubts about the policy and when on duty in the Cursed Earth treats mutants the same as any other beings. He will however carry out the law when they enter the city.

In at least one version of this world's future, (see Strontium Dog and Durham Red) this will lead to the normals attempting genocide against mutants in the mid 2160's, and a long war called the Bloodshed in the 24th century.

[edit] Mutants in other media

Mutants also are a frequent topic in other comic books, and in many science fiction stories.

[edit] Films

  • The movie version of This Island Earth (1955) features a mutant, not present in the original novel, as a menace to the film's heroine. Its large-brained appearance is now somewhat of a cliché of how mutants look.
  • World Without End (1955) portrayed one-eyed mutants who dominated the primitive remnants of humanity.
  • The original Planet of the Apes (1968) film series is about a world where mutated apes replaced humanity as the dominant species.
  • Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) features radiation-scarred mutants with telepathic powers who worship an unexploded nuclear bomb.
  • The Toxic Avenger (1985) is another mutated character.
  • Hell Comes To Frogtown (1987) features a post-nuclear world in which humanity is endangered by a race of mutated frogs.
  • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) franchise involves mutants as both heroes and villains.
  • In Total Recall (1990), mutants are the descendants of Martian colonists inadequately shielded against cosmic rays. Some, such as Kuato, have psychic powers.
  • The Spanish film Acción mutante (1993) is a dark comedy about future mutants who take up arms (those who have them) against "beautiful people".
  • Freaked (1993) revolves around a bunch of mutated people in the form of freaks.
  • Bill Plympton made an animated film called Mutant Aliens (2001).
  • Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) features a race of mutant humans that share an extra DNA base with the aliens and most monsters. Many of them acted as soldiers for the Earth Defense Force's M Organization, but when the Xilians arrived, the leader managed to take control of them, having telepathic power over those with the extra DNA base. Godzilla himself is also a mutant.
  • The remake of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and its sequel portrays the films villains as mutants who are the result of nuclear testing and radiation.
  • The Mariner of Waterworld is a mutant born with functioning gills.
  • Aberration, a low-budget film about mutant lizards.
  • I Am Legend (2007) film is about humans infected by a 'retrovirus' engineered from measles which has the effect of turning them into bloodthirsty mutants.

[edit] Television

  • The Tomorrow People featured a homo superior race born to humans, that manifested psionic powers in adolescence and were discriminated against.
  • In the television series Futurama, there is a race of mutant creatures living in the sewers of New New York City. In this setting, the mutations are the result of exposure to "radioactive waste, chemical runoff and good old American feces." The mutants are normally confined below ground, in a caste system. One of the main characters in the series, Leela, is eventually revealed to be a mutant.
  • James Cameron's television series Dark Angel featured a large cast of "mutant" supersoldiers created by Manticore, a military genetic engineering project (while often referred to as mutants, most were in fact genetically engineered human/animal hybrids).
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series and recent animated series
  • In the Japanese anime and manga series Naruto, some special abilities referred to as "Kekkei Genkai" (血継限界? "Bloodline Limit") are caused by genetic mutations/traits.
  • NBC's series Heroes is based on the theory of evolutionary mutation in individuals, who can be traced through an equation which shows their DNA to be one with abnormalties.
  • Godzilla: The Series had the original characters as well as the offspring of the creature from the 1998 film Godzilla battle various mutant monsters around the globe. See Monsters in Godzilla: The Series.
  • The animated series Thundarr the Barbarian portrayed many mutant races and monsters in a post-apocalyptic world.
  • On the series Stargate SG-1, the Goa'uld Nirrti used an alien device called a DNA Resequencer to mutate human beings, as part of an experiment to produce a superior host body for her symbiote. Though most of these subjects were severely deformed, some developed abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis and precognition.
  • On the television series Mutant X, a group of genetically engineered superhumans are referred to as "New Mutants", presumably to distinguish them from naturally occurring mutations.
  • Genesis II was a television film by Gene Roddenberry which portrayed genetically advanced humans enslaving normal humans 150 years in the future.
  • The short-lived series Prey was about a new offshoot of humanity called the Dominants.
  • The enemies of the ThunderCats were animal-like mutants from the planet Plun-Darr.
  • An episode of the original Outer Limits series called, appropriately enough, The Mutant, showed a bug-eyed, telepathic psychopath born after a radiation storm.
  • A Doctor Who serial called The Mutants was about humans on a distant planet who found themselves transforming into strange creatures. Recurring villains the Daleks are mutants created through genetic tampering by Kaled scientist Davros.
  • The animated series Mutant League, based on the videogames Mutant League Football and Mutant League Hockey.
  • The show Power Rangers: Time Force used mutant characters as their monsters-of-the-week. (See List of Mutants in Power Rangers: Time Force.)
  • The television series The X-Files features several mutants over the course of the series, such as Eugene Victor Tooms and Flukeman. There are also numerous characters in the series with various unusual characteristics or paranormal powers whose origins are unexplained, some of whom may in fact be mutants.
  • On the Adult Swim live-action series Saul of the Mole Men, there is a mutant Mole Person named Fallopia (played by Irina Voronina) who is lacking in fur, fangs, claws, and whose unusual body proportions and coloration make her a hideous freak by Mole Men standards, and a blonde, voluptuous knockout by human standards.
  • In the 1994 Spider-Man: The Animated Series, an anti-mutant scientist named Dr. Herbert Landon, after falling into his liquid batch of "mutant disposal" serum, turned into a four-armed mutant that needed to feed off of electricity to survive. When he was defeated by Spider-Man and the X-Men with the help of Landon's mutant assistant, he remained a "half-mutant" (i.e. his body was normal on the right and mutant humanoid form on the left).
  • In the Japanese manga and anime series Elfen Lied, diclonius is a very dangerous, heavily discriminated against mutant race. Due to the abuse that most humans subject the diclonii to, they tended to develop sociopathic, homicidal tendencies.

[edit] Video games

  • Baraka's race from the Mortal Kombat series was referred to as mutants before the creators of the game gave them the designation of Tarkata, human/demon hybrids.
  • The first Fallout game features an army of super mutants as well as mutated animals and humans. The sequel, Fallout 2, also features mutant beings.
  • The Resident Evil/Biohazard series features Hunters and other mutants created by viruses along with zombies.
  • Timesplitters: Future Perfect features mutants with the ability to attack by projecting an arc of electricity and turn invisible for a short time. They are a prototype of the Timesplitters race. Timesplitters 2 features mutants in the Siberia level who were created by exposure to the Timesplitter remains.
  • Cold Fear features zombie-like creatures that are originally humans, but are mutated by a parasitic creature that goes into their heads via the mouth. This game also features failed mutated dog experiments, invisibility experiments, and giant behemoths that resemble Tyrants (creatures from Resident Evil).
  • Wolfenstein 3D & Spear of Destiny features mutants created by the manical Doctor Schabbs. These mutants had white skin, green clothes, black hair, red eyes, held cleavers in both hands, had a gun lodged into their chests, had black boots on and had purple blood.
  • The MMORPG City of Heroes and its stand-alone expansion City of Villains allow the player to choose "Mutant" as an origin for their hero or villain.
  • The game Command & Conquer: Renegade features a Nod plot to use Tiberium and biochemistry to make mutant supersoldiers. Another game in the Tiberium universe, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, features mutants as part of the storyline.
  • The Game Destroy All Humans! features a group of mutated humans who have had the Furon (alien) DNA in their brain stems unlocked, giving them powers similar to that of the Furons.
  • Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Anniversary both have mutants in the form of Atlanteans, with many variations, including crawling Atlanteans, flying Atlanteans, Centaurs and a giant legless Atlantean - known as Torso or The Abombination .
  • Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Three; The Adventures of Lara Croft features an evil scientist, bent on turning the human race into mutants with the power of the Meteorite artefacts. He believes that it is a natural excelleration of growth advancement and had Darwin discovered this angle on evolution - he too would have done the same.
  • In The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants, Bart Simpson defends Springfield against the titular squishy beings.
  • In the turn based strategy game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Homo Superior is a technological breakthrough that implies human evolution (mutation) in the form of complete symbiosis between the biological and mechanical, via centuries of nanocellular human-cybernetic integration. This mutation results in keener senses and heightened abilities, such as improved night vision and more rapid muscle response.
  • The Half-Life series features zombies, mutated by alien parasitoids called headcrabs which attach to the heads of humans.
  • In Ape Escape Million Monkeys, there are a number of mutants lead by the cyborg Burobukoa And Mother Tenntakuru, and lesser mutants: Burobu, Tentakuru, infant Tentakuru and the Giant Burobu
  • In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl there are featured many creatures that are result of radioactive poisoning and are referred as mutants.
  • In Resistance: Fall Of Man the Chimera are speculated by some characters to be mutated humans, originally created by the Russian Empire.

[edit] Comic books

In addition to the above Marvel, DC and 2001 mutants:

[edit] Music

  • The David Bowie song "Oh! You Pretty Things" contains the repeated line "You gotta make way for the Homo superior."
  • The Pete Shelley song "Homosapien" has the line "Homo superior / In my interior / But from the skin out / I'm Homo sapien too"
  • The Mutants (Os Mutantes) were a Brazilian rock band of the 1960s. There are also several punk and rock bands called The Mutants.
  • Mutant Pop was a short-lived pop/punk record label in the '90s.

[edit] Books

[edit] Role playing games

[edit] Wargames

[edit] Other

  • A December, 1953 article in Mechanix Illustrated Magazine called "How Nuclear Radiation Can Change Our Race", warned that in the event of an "Atom War", a mutant species of supermen might arise to assist --or to dominate-- humanity. The article was writted by "O. O. Binder", and opened with a two-page illustration drawn by comic book artist Kurt Schaffenberger, which shows bald, large-craniumed mutants either helping humanity with their superior intellects (in a small section of the picture) or dominating mankind as slavemasters (in the much bigger splash image).[4]