MUTANTS: A Helpful Explanation

Since Ms. Marvel ended, something I've found surprising in the MCU fandom and community is a massive misunderstanding of how Mutants work and how Kamala differs from, say, Captain America or Spider-Man with some people getting confused as to what classifies someone as a Mutant. I've kind'a taken for granted that I grew up on comics and superheroes and that, at the very least, not everyone has seen an X-Men movie. So, I hope I can help anyone here who may be confused better understand what Kamala being a Mutant means and how being a Mutant sets certain characters apart from the rest of the heroes we've met.

So, basically: Mutants are humans with what is called an "X-gene" that causes them to develop powers naturally. Meaning, they don't need any further enhancements - They're born with them; The power they develop typically shows itself around puberty, or can be activated through immense stress and trauma. Some Mutants are latent and may never develop powers but have the potential to at any time, or might only develop them when under duress, as mentioned before. The X-gene may even be recessive in a family's lineage and might never see a Mutant be produced, but random factors may lead to the birth of a dominant-gene Mutant, even if the parents show no signs of Mutation. That said, Mutants will most likely produce a Mutant regardless of their partners' genetic status, as is the same if an unnaturally powered individual reproduces, with their enhanced genetics creating an X-gene within their children.

In the comics, Mutants were created by a series of events that occurred during Earth's pre and early history; First is the death of the Celestial known as the Progenitor, who's bodily fluids irradiated the Earth, creating the potential for super powered people. Then, there was an event called "The First Host", in which Celestials revisited the Earth and did tests on a tribe of homo erectus, creating The Eternals and the Deviants, but others were modified with latent mutations that would later indirectly help in the Kree's creation of Inhumans during the time of homo neanderthalenis. Two of some of the first Inhumans had a son who never developed his Inhuman abilities and lived amongst humans, passing his unique genetic code on, ultimately increasing the potential for mutation in normal, unexperimented on people.

Some of this may have changed in recent as Marvel Comics have begun a comics event pitting The Eternals against the X-Men as they believe them to be Deviants. As of now, IDK how this has developed or changed the Mutant backstory in the comics. All of this said, we don't know what exactly the explanation of Mutants will be in the MCU, and they honestly may not go into heavy detail, but I doubt they'll deviate too hard from the basic foundations described in my first paragraph.

So, what makes Kamala a Mutant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Well, for one, her powers don't come from the bangle. Rather, her powers are described as her being able to tap into the energies of the Noor and, more or less, extract it and manipulate it to create hard light constructs. So, think of Kamala's body as a gateway to the Noor. All the bangle seems to have done is kickstart her latent X-gene, which she obtained through her hybrid human-"Djin" genetics. Her brother and mother seem to not show signs of Mutation and this may be due to the gene being recessive, which is also probably why the bangle unlocked Kamala's abilities instead of her developing them on her own.

Does that mean Kamran was a Mutant?

Possibly.

We don't know who his father was, but it's clear that, unlike his mother and the other Clandestine, he ages like a normal human though he has some superhuman strength. Considering the Clandestine have been on Earth for a century, and Kamran's only 17, we can assume his father was human, and the strength is something he inherited from his mother, thus that would make him a Mutant.

What about the hard light powers Kamran got in the final two episodes? They're similar to Kamala's, so that has to also be a Mutant power too, right?

No. It's not totally clear how she did it, but his mother more or less put the tear in the dimensional fabric of reality to the Noor in Kamran, and that's what seems to have given him those hard light powers. But, whereas Kamala was born a conduit of Noor energy, Kamran was turned into one... That's wherein the differences lie.

Are the "Djin" Mutants?

No. Their enhanced abilities and strengths are a result of them being from another dimension of space-time wherein their people are all that naturally powerful.

What makes Kamala any different from other heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Whersas Kamala was born with the predisposition to have powers, the heroes of the MCU, for the most part, weren't. Steve Rogers had to be given the Super Soldier Serum and enhanced with vita rays to turn him into Captain America; Peter Parker was bitten by a genetically enhanced spider that transferred its abilities to him; Characters like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage were parts of other performance enhancing science experiments while others like Doctor Strange and Iron Fist recieved training to tap into and manipulate natural energies. The only person confirmed to have been born with her abilities is Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. The jury might still be out on her status as a Mutant, especially when there are other explanations for why she was already able to naturally use chaos magic without training, but she is one of the few of note, as well as Peter Quill, who needs Ego to use his Celestial abilities. He may technically be a Mutant.

So, then, what makes Mutants different from Inhumans?

Inhumans kind'a work on a lot of the same principles, like being born with the natural potential to develop powers, but how they get their powers is what defines an Inhuman- - Inhumans have to go through a transformative process called Terrigenesis, wherein someone of Inhuman heritage is exposed to the mists of a Terrigen Crystal and is cosumed by a cocoon for some time as their body may develop powers and/or physically change. There's a 50/50 chance of the Inhuman coming out the other side changed in any way. If they come out of the other end of the process unchanged, then they're pretty much like any other human. That said, Terrigen is toxic to Mutants and can make them fatally sick, though it is curable.

I hope this was helpful to those in the community who may not have been savy to the Mutant topic, and hopefully this helps you understand how Marvel will expand on this new narrative going forward.

submitted by /u/UnfavorableSpiderFan
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