Marvel Mutants in the DC Universe

[The Toyroom]

Or the Elongated Man, who gets his power from a commercially available pop. (It would also explain why there aren't a zillion Elongated Dudes in the DC Universe; you can't just drink the drink, you need that extra something for it to work.)

Ralph Dibny started drinking Gingold because he saw various Indian Rubber Men in circuses and freak shows
drinking the same thing. So it had to be something within the drink itself. Ralph boiled it all down to the basics,
made an extract and drank it, thus gaining his powers permanently. It wasn't the store-bought version that gave him
his powers, it was his derivative formula.

[The Toyroom]

You have to Be Born a Mutant ... I believe .
Thats Why ..., Like Spider-man , F4 ... and like the Hulk are not.

Born is the Key Word here .

Exactly. The Marvel classification is "born-with" powers. Not acquired through
radiation, like Spidey, The FF or the Hulk.

So in the DC Universe, there are very few that were "born-with" the powers.

[ctc]

>It wasn't the store-bought version that gave him his powers, it was his derivative formula.

Bit it still doesn't explain why there aren't zillions of rubbermen running around. There's a weird supposition that it must not work for EVERYONE.... otherwise stuff like rubbermen wouldn't be much of an attraction. There must be some sort of catalyst that affects certain people.

....in hindsight. A lot of characters were sort of slapped together with strange origins. There seems to have been a maniacal glee with which Golden and Silver age creators twisted the laws of the universe with their characters. 'Course, that's part of the fun. I can live with that, and it doesn't diminish the fun of supposing through questions like this.

>The Marvel classification is "born-with" powers.

Like that. It ended up being a way to semi-plausibly explain the long time trend of weird powers and origins. There's some extrapolation that comes of it though....

>Not acquired through radiation, like Spidey, The FF or the Hulk.

....'cos you still need that intermediary step between "exposed to a nuclear blast" and "not dead." (If you want to think through it.) So "mutant" or "mutation" (considered a power gained post-natally through exposure to weird stuff) becomes a catch-all. For better or worse, depending on who's doing the writing.

DC added the idea of the "metagene" during the 80's, to add some plausibility to their heroes. It was a good idea, since they kept the concept somewhat nebulous; insulating it from real close scrutiny. The problem with the ol' Marvel mutant thing is that we know about mutation these days. Back in the 60's it sounded cool AND plausible, since the idea of radiation and mutational effects was just entering the public consciousness. At the time it was closer to what some would call "hard" sci-fi nowadays.

Don C.

[The Toyroom]

>It wasn't the store-bought version that gave him his powers, it was his derivative formula.

Bit it still doesn't explain why there aren't zillions of rubbermen running around. There's a weird supposition that it must not work for EVERYONE.... otherwise stuff like rubbermen wouldn't be much of an attraction. There must be some sort of catalyst that affects certain people.

Dude, it's a SECRET formula. Nobody else has access to it.

[Aricosaur]

... The problem with the ol' Marvel mutant thing is that we know about mutation these days. Back in the 60's it sounded cool AND plausible, since the idea of radiation and mutational effects was just entering the public consciousness. At the time it was closer to what some would call "hard" sci-fi nowadays...

We know that most of the super power origins would not give one super powers in the real world.

Gamma Radiation: Radiation Sickness, Cancer, or Death.

Cosmic Radiation: Same or similar to Gamma.

Radioactive Spider Bite: I'm pretty sure you would just get a spider bite.

I'm not that familiar with DC comic canon, getting most of it from cartoons, but isn't Martian Manhunter a genetic anomaly among Martians, making him a Mutant?

[PNGwynne]

With Dibny, I thought it was later explained that the Gingold extract had interacted with his metagene?

Poor Ralph, no respect.

[PNGwynne]

I'm not that familiar with DC comic canon, getting most of it from cartoons, but isn't Martian Manhunter a genetic anomaly among Martians, making him a Mutant?

I don't think his powers are unique, although he's supposedly a sole survivor of Mars. There were two distinct Martain races--white & green--but I'm not sure they had disparate abilities.

[ctc]

>I thought it was later explained that the Gingold extract had interacted with his metagene?

THat's what I mean.... the missing step between cause and effect. Back in the day it didn't matter where a power came from, or how implausible. (I'm looking at YOU, Black Condor!) As fans got more savvy they had to add the extra bits to fill in the blank. (Especially after the Silver Age, when DC hitched their wagon to the sci-fi star. Changes audience expectations.)

Don C.