X-Men toughness

[JeenLeen]

In the Marvel universe canon, or at least some versions of canon, do mutants in general have extra durability or toughness of some sort? If yes, was it a recent change?

I know plenty of mutants are extra resistant to damage, have healing, etc., but I'm meaning a general durability simply from having an active X-gene. It makes sense from how easily mutants get tossed around but survive/still in fighting shape, but I generally account that to just "comic book realism".

The only evidence I've seen of it is in a book version of Days of Future Past, where one of the mutants made a passing remark to it. I forget who -- I think Storm or Kitty Pryde -- but whoever it was was definitely not one who had a power related to that. They might've been wearing power-suppression collars at the time, anyhow, though maybe it was after those were removed.

[Kitten Champion]

I don't believe so. Sure, action hero rules apply so heroes/villains will survive things they reasonably wouldn't, but there are plenty of examples of Mutants being killed in fairly mundane fashion. Like falling from sufficient height or being shot.

There's no reason to suggest that, for instance, a random Mutant like Wallflower with canonically normal endurance for someone of her age and physical fitness is any better off than, say, Mary Jane Watson.

[comicshorse]

Last time I was reading X-Men (which admittedly was a bit ago) it was mentioned that their costumes are made from very advanced body armour (Shi'ar tech. I believe) which gives them a certain degree of durability

[Tyrant]

Not mutant specific (and likely not effecting them), but in Marvel people who gain super powers tend to get better bodies out of the deal. In Avengers Academy Hank Pym explains it to one of the women on the team. She realizes that she no longer needs glasses as her eyes have become better and her body becomes more suited to heroics (thinner, more muscle, etc). Pym mentions that that usually happens even if their powers have nothing to do with those physical features. It's probably just a throw away scene to explain why all of the superheroes look good.

[Devonix]

There's no real rule or extra power. Other than people quibblig over details and trying to explain stuff that doesn't really have an explination or hard rule. Characters in comics are just tougher, just like characters in action movies are tougher.

You stab a person in the real world, and they're gonna need stitches, worry about infections. and possibly go into shock from a simple stabbing.

You stab even most normal non powered people in comics and they're gonna bleed but walk it off unless it's important to the story. Same with a gun, oh it's just one bullet the person's gonna be fine.

[Willie the Duck]

If such has been mentioned in-canon, it certainly has not been consistently followed or mentioned.

I think in general it is a case of comic book/Hollywood realism. Also that even the physically normal X-Men with non-physical powers like Cyclops or Iceman are perpetually young adults with swimmer's physiques (Cyclops occasionally drifts into mid-late 30s-dom with a runner's physique but literally almost no one by Banshee and Professor X ever get to be middle aged).

Beyond that, people only get the injuries that they are meant to suffer. If they are thrown through a plate glass window or have a house collapse on them, it is because the writer chose to have that happen rather than have them get shot. Thus the window or house usually only stuns or inconveniences them, because if the writer had wanted to do a 'fight through injury' or 'long slow recover' story, they would probably have had them get shot (or at least specifically break ribs).

[comicshorse]

You stab even most normal non powered people in comics and they're gonna bleed but walk it off unless it's important to the story. Same with a gun, oh it's just one bullet the person's gonna be fine.

" Take him back to where this is a flesh wound " :smallsmile:

[Tyrant]

" Take him back to where this is a flesh wound " :smallsmile:
I can safely say I wasn't expecting to see/hear a Last Action Hero reference today.

[LibraryOgre]

" Take him back to where this is a flesh wound " :smallsmile:

Excellent reference. Enjoy your gold star.

However, yeah, there's long been the position that they're wearing armor (I recall it starting about the time Moira McTaggert reconvened the X-men on Muir Island, and Forge did everyone uniforms... but damn me if I can remember a year for it. I mean, they had Strong Guy on the team).

I also recall, in the late 80s, the Marvel Universe series (which purported to cover every character, what they were doing, and details about their powers and backgrounds; here's a sample cover (http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/Issue.aspx?id=36cddf89-d56e-4fe2-aa76-f51e39bccef8)), a lot of characters, when talking about their strength, have something along the lines of "So-and-So* has normal physical strength and durability for a man of his age who engages in intense physical exercise." You'd see something like that on Cyclops**, whose powers don't make him tough, but he does spend a lot of time getting beaten up.


*Under-rated Romita character. Shame he hasn't been in the movies. Link to bio. (https://bit.ly/IqT6zt)
**His actually included "He has the proportionate doucheyness of the entire cast of Jersey Shore." They have the ability to see the future, but only use it to make fun of characters who are objectively terrible human beings.

[Ramza00]

If such has been mentioned in-canon, it certainly has not been consistently followed or mentioned.

I think in general it is a case of comic book/Hollywood realism. Also that even the physically normal X-Men with non-physical powers like Cyclops or Iceman are perpetually young adults with swimmer's physiques (Cyclops occasionally drifts into mid-late 30s-dom with a runner's physique but literally almost no one by Banshee and Professor X ever get to be middle aged.

Marvel Canon with the sliding timeline is that only 13 years has happened since the 1960s silver age comics. This is because they want to keep Spider-Man not 30 let alone in his 30s.

Thus Scott Summers is only 28 with him starting with the X-Men at 15. It also means Jean Grey was rougly 18 at the time of Dark Phoenix in 1980. Per House of X only 3 years has passed since the Genosha Genocide an event that took place in our 2001. The Illusion of Change is Marvels norm.

[TeChameleon]

It certainly hasn't been consistently followed, but there has been at least one storyline where it was specifically stated that mutants were generally tougher than baseline humans- it was one of the times that the X-Men had been de-powered (again...), this time by the High Evolutionary, if memory serves, and were having to launch into space to go after his orbital whatsit that had depowered them (because of course it was in orbit). A number of the team were complaining that they were actually feeling motion sickness and whatnot, and that was the point where they bemoaned that they were missing their... evolved bodies or whatever. Don't know if it was ever brought up again, but there was definitely at least one point where mutants were tougher/stronger than normal humans.