What's supposed to be the worldwide mutant population anyway?

[Coidzor]

I was briefly considering what kind of timeline it had for the spontaneous occurence + breeding to result in the entirety of the human population being mutants.

So yeah, what's the deal there?

[Piedmon_Sama]

Currently? A few hundred. 198+The X-Men was the official estimate, but more than 198 mutants have already appeared on-panel so that idea was quickly borked. XD

Basically, one of the most powerful mutants on earth, Wanda Maximof aka Scarlet Witch, went nuts and used her reality-warping powers to wipe out half of her superhero team, the Avengers. The Avengers eventually reformed, while Wanda was taken to the ruins of Genosha for care by Charles Xavier. Unfortunately, she ended up going berserk and used her powers to create an entirely new reality where Mutants were the dominant, ruling species of earth and all her friends had the "ideal life" she thought they wanted--Magneto ruled a sovereign Mutant state, Cap a pleasantly retired octagenerian, Cyclops and Emma Frost a normal married couple, etc.

Unfortunately there happened to be a mutant named Layla Miller who's power was.... well, originally to be a big fat plot device, but she was rehabilitated in X-Factor as a character who's power is virtual Omniscience. She realized they were living in a false reality and reawoke the memories of most of Marvel's heroes, who attacked Genosha in an effort to get at Wanda Maximoff.

Well, Wanda felt pretty mad because she thought she'd made a perfect world for everyone, even bringing Hawkeye back to life after she killed him the first time. So she said NO MORE MUTANTS and in a flash, the world was back to normal---but only with a few hundred Mutants (as directed by financial preeminence) left around the globe, out of a former population of 8 million (which had formerly been a global population of 16 million before Genosha was destroyed!) The other mutants were depowered, reduced to "ordinary" (or in The Blob's case, just freakish) humans. This event was called "M-Day" (because the ruling dynasty in Wanda's alternate world was called "The House of M" for Mutant/Magneto/Maximoff, presumably). Not only that, Beast confirmed with his Science Knowledge that the X-Gene (source of mutant powers) had become magically un-inheritable--the mutant species was doomed in a generation.

Not too long afterwards, however, a baby was born in Alaska who possessed the X-Gene. That set off the "Messiah CompleX" storyline in which the X-Men were in a race against Mr. Sinister and his Reavers (who included a heel-turned Gambit) to capture the baby, and ultimately Cyclops sent it with his time-traveling son Cable into the far future to protect the girl.

And Jubilee is leading the New Warriors, thought I'd throw that out there. >_>

EDIT: Also, canonically even though the formation of the X-Men has been moved up to the mid/late 80's (I think), it's still accepted that the first Mutants began appearing around the 50's (the original explanation was, of course, atomic testing but that can be ignored I think). Guys like En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse, the first mutant born around 5000 B.C.) Wolverine (born 1850-ish) and Namor (Atlantean/Human hybrid who is ALSO a Mutant, thus the wings on his feet, b. in the 1900s) are anomalies.

[kpenguin]

I think its more that the public became aware of mutants as a separate type of superhuman than, say, Captain America, during the 50's. Prof. X and Magneto were both born before the 50's, as were Destiny, Mystique, Mr. Sinister, and Shadow King.

[Piedmon_Sama]

True, but Sinister and Shadow King aren't Mutants---Sinister was given immortality by Apocalypse, and Shadow King is a psychic entity that possesses people and moves from body to body.

[lisiecki]

I think its more that the public became aware of mutants as a separate type of superhuman than, say, Captain America, during the 50's. Prof. X and Magneto were both born before the 50's, as were Destiny, Mystique, Mr. Sinister, and Shadow King.

Magneto was born some time in the 1920's

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I think its more that the public became aware of mutants as a separate type of superhuman than, say, Captain America, during the 50's. Prof. X and Magneto were both born before the 50's, as were Destiny, Mystique, Mr. Sinister, and Shadow King.

Destiny and Mystique had to be born earlier than that, remember Destiny dies of old age.

[Closet_Skeleton]

True, but Sinister and Shadow King aren't Mutants---Sinister was given immortality by Apocalypse, and Shadow King is a psychic entity that possesses people and moves from body to body.

In the 90s X-Men cartoon, I'm pretty sure Shadow King was originally a mutant who became a purely psychic entity by shedding his body.

[lisiecki]

In the 90s X-Men cartoon, I'm pretty sure Shadow King was originally a mutant who became a purely psychic entity by shedding his body.

And in the comics as well