Welcome back, nerd squad. For some, every single mutant is tracked, recorded and accounted for in their brains. Some of us are the biggest mutant nerds ever, and we pride ourselves on knowing it all. But some might be newer to mutant kind, with less knowledge of who exactly has been labelled mutant and just exactly when or why that happened. After all, not all superhero mutants belong to the X-Men. Some of them are more closely linked with other teams and other causes as opposed to mainly being about mutant-rights.
List of top 10 Superheroes should know about:
10 Dead pool
Dead pool was actually first introduced in a mutant title. He made his comic book debut in New Mutants in 1998. And in the Dead pool films, you may have noticed that Colossus keeps trying to recruit Dead pool into the X-Men. So what does this mean? He’s attached to the mutants but is he one. Not fully, no. But Dead pool is what is considered a mutate. And although mutates are not mutants, in Dawn of X, we’ve seen some of them treated as such. Heck Mister Sinister is even on the Quiet Council of Krakoa but he is not a mutant either, but a mutate. And if it’s good enough for the mutant nation of Krakoa, then it’s good enough for me. Lately mutates have seemed to be considered as brethren when it comes to the mutant population. Beyond his casual association with mutants, he has also been romantically affiliated with some mutants, such as his relationship with mutant, Copycat. The comic book mutant-version of the film’s Vanessa Carlisle. So he doesn’t just find himself working alongside mutants but he also often finds himself in bed with them as well.
9 Whizzer
Whizzer originally was revealed to have received his powers as the result of a Mongoose blood transfusion, which his father attempted in order to save him from bleeding out as the result of an injury. I know I know. Sometimes comics are really weird. Especially when it comes to emergency blood transfusions. Later one writer Roy Thomas would slightly retcon these origins to explain that Robert Frank had actually been a mutant the entire time and that it was the trauma of this near-death experience and odd blood transfusion that caused Whizzer’s powers to manifest. For those who are unfamiliar with this hero, he is known for his affiliation with Bucky Barnes team out of World War 2, known as the Liberty Legion. This team was founded after the members successfully came together and rescued Cap’s World War 2 team known as the Invaders.
8 Spider-Man
I know what you’re thinking, but wait a minute, Amanda, didn’t you say in part one that Spider-Man wasn’t a mutant? Well yes, he isn’t. But that was before we’d fully explored this whole new world of Krakoa. In Krakoa, although he’s not a full mutant, I’m sure Spider-Man would be treated as such considering that he has mutate status. In fact, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d have become involved with mutant kind or that mutant kind would be involved with him. People often forget that Spider-Man actually first got involved with the X-Men as early as issue 35 of volume one of Uncanny X-Men. Granted Spidey and the X-Men didn’t at first see eye to eye but over the years he became sympathetic with their fight for mutant rights, as somewhat of an outcast himself, sometimes labelled a menace or more recently in the MCU, a murderer.
7 Quicksilver
Marvel Cinematic Universe fans who enjoyed the short-lived character of Quicksilver may not know that he was in fact a mutant. Or maybe you did, if you were paying attention. In the film they were referred to the Maxim off twins as enhanced beings. The pair became the few who were able to survive testing due to their unique biology and as such were granted super powers or had their super powers manifest as a result of experimentation. They couldn’t be referred to as mutants in the MCU due to copyright issues with mutants belonging to Fox. And while Pietro is still alive in the comics, he is no longer considered a mutant due to the High Revolutionary’s mutant disguise shenanigans. In fact he might even be an Inhuman now instead in the comic world. However I’m hoping if we see them declared as mutant in the MCU, we will see this retcon fixed in the comics and also we’ll hopefully get to have MCU Pietro come back to life. Apparently dodging bullets is hard when you’re super-fast.
6 US Agent
John Walker once belonged to a spin-off mutant-related team known as Omega Flight. Omega Flight is actually a standing team for the mutant-affiliated Alpha Flight, which has actually had quite a few mutant members on it throughout the years. Omega Flight was created as a result of Alpha Flight’s dissolution. They were formed and sent to Canada by Tony Stark during the Superhuman Registration Act events of Civil War 1. All of Omega Flight being registered super-humans that Stark had sent to Canada to replace their superhero team. Other than this mutant-adjacent connection, US Agent himself was declared as genetically altered mutate following his exposure to the Power Broker experimentation process which actually killed many who did not have the biology needed to be able to successfully mutate and develop superhuman abilities.
5 Madame Web
There have been a few people to adopt the mantle of Madame Web but for the purpose of our list, we will be taking a closer look at Cassandra Webb. A lot of Cassandra Webb’s backstory and origins remain a mystery in the comics. We first met her in Amazing Spider-Man issue 210 in 1980. In that issue, she helps Peter Parker solve a mystery involving an attack on the Daily Globe. Now you can watch your favorite movie on MovieHustle and you also can download it. How does she do this? She claims to have supernatural psychic abilities that allow her to see what others cannot. Including telepathy, which helps to uncover and reveal that she knows that Peter Parker is in fact Spider-Man. Telepaths, am I right? Marvel has since confirmed that Cassandra’s telepathic abilities are mutant in origin, though some still believe that her being born blind heightens her abilities and helped her to gain her psychic sensitives.
4 Puck
Puck’s unique rubber physiology might seem like it would make him a full mutant but sadly it has only guaranteed him mutate status of the genetically altered variety. Still here are quite a few parallels between him and another famous Canadian mutant, Logan. Both are powerful, nigh indestructible short superheroes with their own somewhat controversial approaches to heroism. Puck’s shortness actually comes from being born with dwarfism. If you’re a fan of Alpha Flight, you’ll likely recognize him. His name, Puck is likely a reference to the very stereotypical Canadian past-time of hockey: hockey puck, and the mythical being of Puck, the sprite.
3 Cloak and Dagger
These two have flip flopped so many times and had their mutant origins retconned back and forth so often it’s hard to keep track. Originally the pair of heroes discovered they were mutants following adventures alongside the X-Men’s New Mutants teams. Later it would be retconned that their powers were actually engineered by D’Spayre and would have been different had they manifested normally. But then it’s also been stated that they don’t have an X-Gene and aren’t mutants at all, while also being stated that they definitely are. Cloak and Dagger’s confusing mutant or non-mutant heritage just goes to show how blurry the line really can be between the terms mutant and mutate.
2 Dead pool (Again Sort Of)
We met this alternate future version of Ellie Camacho, Dead pool’s daughter in Dead pool volume 4 out of 2016. For those who don’t know, Dead pool has a daughter. In fact in the alternate reality that this version of Ellie is from, he has two daughters. One which Eleanor has to fight against, named Warda. For those who are familiar with Ellie Camacho, you might already know that she is a mutant, which we discovered when she was just a little baby in the comics. But we have yet to see her powers manifest in main continuity of earth 616, but this alternate version revealed that her powers would likely be similar to her father’s. She is capable of regenerating but in a different way than Wade. Instead upon her death she is resurrected and being reborn all her prior memories but as a teenager, the age she was when her powers first manifested. Even better than her Dad’s mutated powers, in my opinion.
1 Scarlet Witch
Where to start? If you’ve watched a lot of our content here on Top 10 Nerd than you might know how I feel about this retcon in the comics. I have always felt betrayed by the fact that the Maximoff’s twins’ power origins were changed and that it was later revealed that they were never mutants but were simply disguised as such by the High Evolutionary. However! With mutants and non-mutant superhuman beings all cinematically being housed under the same roof, I’m confident that at least in the MCU, this retcon will cease to exist and that Wanda will keep her mutant status. It’s already been implied that her and her brother had that unique biology which I think was the MCU’s way, at the time, of skirting around the word, “mutant.” This means that it’s likely that Scarlet Witch will return to mutant kind at least on the silver screen, becoming the MCU’s first appearing mutant.
