No. Using the basic premise that mutants were caused by the experimentation on the human genome by the god-like and mysterious beings known as the Celestials, first upon the Deviants, then the Eternals, and finally Humanity and the Inhumans, there has always been an implied arms races to create the most powerful reality-altering life-form possible for an unknown purpose.**
Mutant Genesis
Currently, this title belongs to the mutant offspring of famed mutates, Reed and Susan Richards, of Fantastic Four fame. Franklin Richards, whose powers defy description (rumored to be Celestial level) and is, until otherwise de-throned, the most powerful mutant to have ever lived. Franklin Richards is an Omega-Level mutant with vast reality-manipulating and psionic powers.
What are mutants being made for?
What are the Celestials looking for? They never say. They never admit to why they performed the experimentation that links the human genome and the possibility for mutant capability. The only things we know for certain:
- The Deviants, an evolutionary offshoot of humanity, were their first experiments and are genetically unstable
- Their forms varied wildly and it was said that no two Deviants looked alike (which always made me curious how they reproduced...perhaps technology was involved.)
- They boasted a wide array of superhuman levels of ability
Their next experiments, the Eternals, were far more successful in certain respects:
- While the Eternals look superficially like humans, each is capable of vast superhuman capabilities.
- All are capable of superhuman strength, resistance to injury and energy manipulation
- With training, all of them were capable of amazing psionic ability as well.
- They were also deemed a failure because their abilities did not diverge nearly enough and while quite powerful were never capable of being the equal of the Celestial themselves.
- There were two groups of Eternals, one on Earth, the other living on the moon, Titan.
- Thanos, a Titanian Eternal has shown a potential for far greater capacity than any other Eternal.
Homo Sapiens Superior
Mutants, a sub-group of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, has shown both a diverse range of powers and a scale of power previously unseen in either Deviants or Eternals. In addition:
- Mutants have a wide array of physical abilities without distorting the physical shape of humanity (unlike the Deviants, where form often equaled function),
- there are also diverse ranges of energy manipulation, temporal manipulation, and vast psionic potential
- the ability to alter the fabric of space-time, for feats like teleportation and space-flight and even alter the fabric of reality, changing both the past and the future in multiple universes.
These powers are inconsistently scattered among the human populace and has on more than one occasion been potentially capable of destroying the entire species.
The Celestials have made at least three trips to study the results of their experiments, and only with the aid of the beings posing as gods, were they repelled when they decided to end their experimentation on Earth. (Thor, Vol 1. #300, 1980)
For the record, Odin and the other Sky-Fathers were unable to repel the Celestials, despite their preparations. It was the Earth Mothers who offered up twelve genetically perfect humans (see Young Gods) which caused the Celestials to leave the Earth. (Yaaaah, Mom!)
Since that visit, M-day has destroyed 90+% of all mutant abilities, Franklin Richards and Hope Summers have also been born, potentially two of the most powerful mutants to have ever existed. What this means for humanity and their future relationship to the Celestials is anyone's guess.
Out of Universe
The Marvel Universe has been since the Bronze Age of comics (1970-1985) in an arms race of "cooler" mutant creation. The Celestial story line culminating in Thor #300 allowed them to flesh out the "gods of Earth" explaining them as beings living in symbiosis with Humanity, explaining why the Destroyer was created, and how mutants, Deviants and Eternals came to be.
It is unlikely that all of these things were planned, since all of these stories had come into being separately by the great writers of earlier eras. The awesomeness of Thor #300 was the weaving of all of these separate elements into a cohesive story that would carry Marvel forward and retroactively bind these disparate elements together.
I think Marvel had, for the longest time, never considered what the numbers of mutants would do to their world, especially if you considered mutation along a population curve. Unless humans started killing them, the world would literally be swarming with mutants.
If they all contained powers equal to groups like the X-men, then Magneto would ultimately be proven right. Humanity would end up on the scrap pile replaced by our physically, psychically, mentally, and eventually technologically superior offspring.
M-day wasn't an accident. For Marvel to continue, it was an inevitability.
