In the MarvelVerse, Mutants are often treated unfairly and subjected to violence by the human population. They should be treated more fairly because more and more of them are learning to use their powers responsibly, there are special schools like Xavier’s that help them learn how to use their powers without hurting anyone, and many of them work to protect the human race. Because of these factors, they should be treated like any other superhero, which is the same as normal people or better than normal people. 

To begin, let’s talk about how Mutants are treated in the MarvelVerse and the fairness of it. To start, everyone who has read the comics knows that Mutants are treated differently than other people in the universe. They are actually a reflection of the politics and what was happening at the time they were published, which brought reference to real-world situations into the stories to make them seem more real. Many of them are subjected to hate and violence by normal humans, and some are even disowned by their families. For example, the anti-Mutant organization, Faith of Humanity, regularly organizes anti-Mutant protests, and often resorts to violence during protests. An example of an anti-Mutant protest organized by Faith of Humanity was seen in Spider-Man #82, 'No Friends of Mine.' Other than “Friends of Humanity'', there are a lot of other anti-Mutant organizations, and some take a much more violent course to protest. One example of violence being used to protest was when the anti-Mutant organization, ‘Church of Humanity’, protested on the lawn of Xavier’s Mansion. They crucified several young Mutants, including Jubilee, Husk, and Skin, and left them to die. Some were able to use healing abilities to survive, but many others died. Many humans fear and hate Mutants, and it doesn’t often change when those humans are a Mutant’s family or friends. When people find out their son, daughter, sister, brother, or friend is a Mutant, they will usually act differently about them, or even sell them out to the cops. For example, in the movie X2, a group of Mutants including Wolverine, Rogue, and Pyro had gone to Iceman’s house looking for safety after an attack on Xavier’s mansion. Because of the situation, Iceman had to tell his family that he was a Mutant, something they didn’t know before. After telling them, his brother ran upstairs and called the police, and told them that people were holding them hostage and wouldn’t let them leave. As you can see, Mutants are treated very differently than normal people would be treated, and not in a very good way. Many are subjected to violence because people are afraid of them or feel unsafe.

Secondly, let’s look at why the Mutants are treated the way they are. Humans in the MarvelVerse often treat Mutants badly because they’re afraid of Mutants taking over humanity. They fear they could do this either by killing all humans or in future generations where the Mutant population grows. These fears are elaborated on in the article, ‘Why Do the People in MarvelVerse Dislike X-Men More Than Other Superheros?’. The text states, “Mutants are different. They are the future of humanity; sooner or later, all humans will be Mutants. As such, they are a clear and present danger to humanity. The only way to prevent Mutants from someday replacing humanity is to kill them." In the MarvelVerse, the X-gene is affecting more and more people, so it’s only a matter of time before there’s a gene carried in every person on Earth. Additionally, MarvelVerse humans are afraid of Mutants because they possess powers that other humans don’t have. While there are many other superheroes in the MarvelVerse, most of them get their superpowers by accident (Hulk and the gamma radiation, Spider-Man and the radioactive spider, etc.), however, Mutants are born with their power because of the X-gene. They often don’t figure out how to use their powers, and while trying how to use it, they can injure or kill humans around them. Clearly, Mutants hold an edge over regular humans, and while many use their power responsibly, there are a few who don’t, and who use it to harm humanity. It just goes to show that for every Xavier, there will be a Magneto. 

Above all, Mutants are feared because of the events that happen in a typical MarvelVerse year on Earth. There have been many big events that have shaped the MarvelVerse into what it is today, but those events also caused mass destruction and terror when happening to the comic citizens. It is called, ‘Mass Hysteria’ in the article, ‘‘Why Do the People in MarvelVerse Dislike X-Men More Than Other Superheros?” The text states, “Now imagine you had events like this happening every year, some of them, not all of them are due to the mysterious Mutants living among us, with fantastic powers capable of wiping out all of humanity with the blink of an eye, (so the news media sells it, no matter that it in the case of certain Mutants is actually TRUE).” In summary, Mutants are treated unfairly because people in the MarvelVerse know that eventually the Mutant population will surpass the human population, they possess extraordinary power which can sometimes be unsafe, and because some of the terrifying events in the MarvelVerse happen because of Mutants.

Now, let’s dive into whether or not we would treat Mutants the same way in real life. To start, many people have different ideas about how we would treat Mutants in real life, and many think we would treat them the same way, if not better, than we treat normal humans. For example, in the article, ‘How Would We Really Treat Mutants?’, the text argues that, “...as long as Mutants spoke like loyal citizens of their nations of origin, we’d treat them better, not worse, than normal.  We’d fawn on Mutants even if they were arrogant jerks." Additionally, the author of this article wrote that countries would think of ‘their’ Mutants kind of like Olympic Athletes, and would praise them for their super-powered abilities. The text also states that, “As long as the Mutants accepted conventional norms of their societies, we’d treat them like celebrities or sports stars.  Each country would take nationalistic pride in “their” Mutants, just as each country now takes pride in their freakishly talented countrymen in the Olympics.” The only way we would start to fear Mutants would be if a percentage, even if it was small, tried to assassinate world leaders or take over the world. Even so, if that were to happen, we would probably just fear them a bit, but wouldn’t admire them any less. If we were to get to the point where we would start being violent towards them, they would have to keep being dangerous, and only then would it be a battle between two sides. 

As you can see, we would clearly not treat Mutants with the same violence and fear as the citizens in the MarvelVerse treat them. If anything, we would treat them better than regular humans and praise them for their unique abilities.

In contrast, a lot of people in the MarvelVerse think that treating Mutants this way is better and safer than treating them normally. However, Mutants shouldn’t be treated this way, even if they have enhanced abilities, they are still human, and should be treated as such. It is true that, over time, the Mutant population would overtake the human population until there were no humans left, but that would take decades, possibly centuries to happen. And, after a while, humanity would be more used to Mutants walking among us, and would have better ways to help them control their power. In the article, ‘Mutant History’, the text states that, “One year before the passing of the Superhuman Registration Act, a census revealed that the Mutant population would overtake humans within 10 to 20 years.” Since they have already been around for centuries, Mutants would become more normal as their population overtook the human population, especially if there were groups or organizations working towards Mutant safety. Powers from the X-gene usually manifest themselves in the teen years when the body starts developing, most of the time showing themselves in chaotic ways that injure or kill civilians. However, if there were more schools that showed Mutants how to use their powers, for example, Charles Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, then more people would be able to stay safe everyday. In the article, ‘X-Men: 10 Reasons Why Being A Student At Xavier's Would Be Awesome (And 10 Why It Wouldn't)’ it talks about the pros and cons of being a student at Xavier’s. The text says, “For young Mutants just gaining their powers, there is no better place to go then Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. At all hours of the day, you’ll be surrounded by other Mutants who are also trying to learn how to use their newfound gifts responsibly.” As you can see, many people, not just Mutants, would benefit from having more schools like Xavier’s around the world. To add onto that, sometimes it’s harder for citizens to distinguish between good Mutants and bad Mutants. Since they don’t know a lot about Mutants in general they don’t take the time to really understand them, so to civilians, it’s not divided into good Mutants and evil Mutants, it’s just the Mutant population. An article on the subject elaborated on this point a little more, the author wrote that when superheroes such as the Avengers and villains are battling, citizens might describe the battle as, ‘Supervillians destroyed part of Manhattan today, but the Avengers stopped them before they could cause more damage.’ However, with Mutants, that comment would go something like this, ‘Mutants destroyed part of Manhattan today in a battle.’ If people weren’t so hostile towards Mutans, the X-men could become more defined as superheroes rather than villains, and the comment about a battle between Mutants would be more like the first example. In summary, if people in the MarvelVerse took appropriate precautions, then the world would be safer for people and Mutants. After all, most Mutant hostility is caused by the violence humans show towards them.

In conclusion, Mutants should be treated fairly because they are getting better at using their power responsibly, there are special schools to help them learn how to use their powers, and many of them are heroes who protect people. First, there are many anti-Mutant organizations that plan anti-Mutant protests, but despite all that, lots of Mutants still try to protect the human race from threats that might face them. Also, some Mutants turn out bad, but most of them turn out bad because they are subjected to hate and violence from the human race just for being a Mutant. Most of all, if there were Mutants in the real world, as long as they behaved like normal citizens and didn’t try to take over the world or harm humanity, we would treat them the same, if not better, than normal humans. In the future, Mutants should be treated more fairly, and shouldn’t be discriminated against just because they are Mutants. This also carries over into the real world where people of different races and sexualities are treated differently, and I hope people start to treat them normally and don’t discriminate against them.

Works Cited

Allan, Scoot. "X-Men: 10 Worst Anti-Mutant Groups, Ranked." CBR.com, 6 Nov. 2019, www.cbr.com/x-men-worst-anti-Mutant-groups-ranked-marvel/. Accessed 29 Apr. 2021.

Bacon, Thomas. "Why Are X-MEN Hated and Feared When the Avengers Aren't?" ScreenRant, 2 Feb. 2020, screenrant.com/why-xmen-hated-feared-marvel-mcu/. Accessed 22 Apr. 2021.

Caplan, Bryan. "How Would We Really Treat Mutants?" EconLog, www.econlib.org/archives/2012/12/how_would_we_re.html. Accessed 23 Apr. 2021.

Gardner, Heidi. "Real-Life X-Men: How CRISPR Could Give You Superpowers in the Future." SYNTHEGO, 14 Sept. 2018, www.synthego.com/blog/could-crispr-make-x-men-a-realistic-possibility. Accessed 23 Apr. 2021.

Hinckle, Peyton. "X-Men: 10 Reasons Why Being a Student at Xavier's Would Be Awesome (And 10 Why It Wouldn't)." CBR.com, 17 Aug. 2018, www.cbr.com/good-bad-x-men-student/. Accessed 2 May 2021.

"Mutant History." Fandom, marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Mutant_History#:~:text=After%20the%20Sentinel%20Massacre,-The%20attack%20on&text=One%20year%20before%20the%20passing,within%2010%20to%2020%20years. Accessed 2 May 2021.

"Why Do the People in MarvelVerse Dislike X-Men More than Other Superheroes?" StackExchange, scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/67274/why-do-the-people-in-marvelverse-dislike-x-men-more-than-other-superheroes. Accessed 22 Apr. 2021.