Why Radiation Gives SuperPowers

[Yowza]

Marvel May Have Revealed Why Radiation Gives People Superpowers

The Marvel Universe was created in the 1960s, and perhaps nowhere is that dating more evident than in the number of superheroes of the era whose origin story involves radiation. The Hulk was created in a blast of gamma radiation, Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider, Daredevil was blinded by radioactive waste, etc.

It has become something a joke both within and outside of the Marvel Universe. Radiation would give the average person radiation poisoning or cancer, but for some reason, Peter Parker gets superpowers. Today’s Avengers #5 may have finally offered an explanation for why some radioactivity works differently for some people in the Marvel Universe...

The link goes onto give a minor spoiler for Avengers #5. Pretty much a retcon story of:
A) the final host of celestials now being brought over by loki and

B) they're "dark celestials" which must be a newer marvel idea and

C) these dark celestials are correcting a mistake in which a Celestial infected with living disease called "the horde" (another newer concept introduced not long ago) crashlands on earth. From there, the celestial dies and deterioration of body (including radioactive tears) seep into the earth infecting pre-historic soil altering biological life.

D) This gives rise to "Prehistoric Avengers" led by Odin and of course speculation by article that "radioactivity" is common trigger for those whose genetics have a distant link with the celestial that crash landed on earth.

What do you guys make of this most recent re-invention?

 

[Set]

The original Days of Future Past storyline ran with the notion that mutation had been a result of Celestial meddling, and had the Sentinels divide humanity up into three castes, mutants, 'latents' and 'pures', IIRC.

The 'latents' would be the people like Banner and Parker and the Fantastic Four, whom, if exposed to some sort of catalytic event, like gamma radiation, radioactive spider venom or cosmic rays, would become what Moira McTaggart called 'mutates.'

The 'pures' we've seen or heard pretty much nothing of, since that storyline, that I've seen, anyway, but they were the people that the Sentinels allowed to breed, and afforded the most rights to, so presumably if a 'pure' were exposed to gamma radiation, cosmic rays, ionic energy, Pym particles, etc., etc. they'd just wither up and die like people in the real world who just drank a whole bunch of polonium. (Various stories, such as Diablo turning an entire town into Hulks, or the 'Spider Island' storyline, suggest that this concept has been forgotten or abandoned, since those events would have resulted in a percentage of the affected populations failing to gain powers, or just straight-up dying horribly, instead of becoming Hulks or Spider-peeps.)

That story was back in the '80s, and referenced an even older storyline in which it was first established that the Celestials were responsible for humanity's capacity for mutation (which was a later plot point with the introduction of Apocalypse, and even a catalyst for some Kree shenanigans, since they did not have Celestial engineering and, originally, could not 'mutate' and become empowered like humans, until the Supreme Intelligence killed a whole bunch of Kree unlocking that potential).

It's hardly a new idea, and one that this newer storyline possibly self-contradicts by having some empowered humans present at the first appearance of the Celestials (and while some of them, like the Iron Fist and Ghost Rider, are empowered by mystical forces, the Black Panther is empowered by eating a plant, and that sounds a heck of a lot more like a mutate-creation origin story like Spider-Man's or the Hulk's, which should not have been possible pre-Celestial-tampering...).

Similarly, whoever this 'first Phoenix' is couldn't be a human *mutant,* if mutants didn't exist yet...

Eh. At this point, we've probably put more thought into it than the writers. This is the same crack team that can't remember how Captain America's shield or Wolverine's claws or Thor's hammer works from book to book.

 

[znop]

http://comicbook.com/marvel/2018/07...e-superpowers-secret-history-marvel-universe/



The link goes onto give a minor spoiler for Avengers #5. Pretty much a retcon story of:
A) the final host of celestials now being brought over by loki and

B) they're "dark celestials" which must be a newer marvel idea and

C) these dark celestials are correcting a mistake in which [BLACKOUT]a Celestial infected with living disease called "the horde" (another newer concept introduced not long ago) crashlands on earth. From there, the celestial dies and deterioration of body (including radioactive tears) seep into the earth infecting pre-historic soil altering biological life. [/BLACKOUT]

D) This gives rise to "Prehistoric Avengers" led by Odin and of course speculation by article that "radioactivity" is common trigger for those whose genetics have a distant link with [BLACKOUT]the celestial that crash landed on earth.
[/BLACKOUT]
What do you guys make of this most recent re-invention?

Apparently, retcons are all the "House of Ideas" can deliver nowadays (See: The First Host)... That said, Avengers #5 (2018) seems to contradict The Eternals #1 (1976).

 

[HBarnill]

That raises more questions...

 

[Yowza]

I agree that it certainly does raise more questions and really just seems like another mashup stype event story that seems to be trying to get people's attention while having less layers of substance beneath it as compared to past Marvel stories.

It's hardly a new idea, and one that this newer storyline possibly self-contradicts by having some empowered humans present at the first appearance of the Celestials (and while some of them, like the Iron Fist and Ghost Rider, are empowered by mystical forces, the Black Panther is empowered by eating a plant, and that sounds a heck of a lot more like a mutate-creation origin story like Spider-Man's or the Hulk's, which should not have been possible pre-Celestial-tampering...).

Similarly, whoever this 'first Phoenix' is couldn't be a human *mutant,* if mutants didn't exist yet...

Eh. At this point, we've probably put more thought into it than the writers. This is the same crack team that can't remember how Captain America's shield or Wolverine's claws or Thor's hammer works from book to book

This whole Prehistoric Avengers thing just seems like a way to stretch the name out more and more.

I appreciate the information regarding Celestial involvement in Days of Future Past as well as Apocalypse's appearance and will look into this whole Kree thing you mentioned as I've been (for whatever reason) trying to read up on some of the ways Marvel has implemented some of the concepts from Kirby's Eternals into the Marvel Universe over the years.

It seems even if storytelling could be very paperthin throughout 70's and 80's (and 90's even to some extent), basic storytelling details seemed more thought out in a base level way. I think it's telling how much Marvel Publishing could keep adding onto past stuff while avoiding a whole lot of retcons or becoming too elaborate compared to post-2000 (1989's "Atlantis Attacks" annual crossover for instance adds a different layering to things regarding Celestial's 1st visit but doesn't deviate strikingly from how portrayed in past just with few newer details).