Mutants in all the Books
Daily Ramble 33: Mutants in all the Books
Yup – I went all the way back to 1940 for my science fiction reading yesterday and I find it interesting how a 78 year old book that clearly reflects the environment in which it was written (World War II) can be relevant to today’s society. Sure, I haven’t read the whole thing but Slan by A. E. van Vogt has already touched on concepts such as misogyny, eugenics, treatment of minorities, and genetic engineering – all relevant topics for today so no one should think that we’re in such an advanced and in a unique situation in 2018 that previous generations would have no clue what we’re dealing with.
Regardless the main sci-fi concept that seems to be driving the book is mutants which we don’t really have today but we certainly have plenty of in our literature…i.e. comics. So when I realized I was reading a book from 3/4 of a century ago about mutants I had to get in some X-Men reading as well. Astonishing X-Men and New Mutants certainly have their share of current day zeitgeist embedded in their story lines such as dealing with hurricane survivors and irresponsible government agents but once again the creators are using mutants as a tool for getting their point across. Anyway, I also, on a non-mutant note, continued pushing my hunter up in level ever so slowly in World of Warcraft.
Reading Slan
I just started reading Slan by A. E. van Vogt. Published over 78 years ago in 1940 that is considered a classic of the Golden Age of science fiction and I can see why. So many of the tropes we see in modern sci-fi are present in this story that was originally serialized in 4 parts in Astounding Science Fiction magazine. From what I’ve read so far the story is about a Slan named Jimmy Cross who starts out as a 9-year old escaping the human capital after government agents kill his mother. Apparently the humans are afraid of the Slans who are essentially superpower mutants. They can read minds, have greater than human strength and reflexes and are pretty much X-Men. And since this was written during the time of Nazi Germany, the evil human government is run by a dictator that hates the mutant minority so it hunts them down and exterminates them.
So far the book is fast paced and exciting. It’s fun and quick to read and I’m enjoying it quite a bit.
Advancing in WoW
I’m still traveling the Barrens in Warcraft but I’m leveling up slowly. After taking on the lion Echeyakee I headed over to deal with some of the Kolkar leaders. Kodobane was the head honcho but he wasn’t much of a problem and he helped me move up to level 18. Sure, there’s a long way to go to get to the current expansion content but I’d rather know what I’m doing once I get up there rather than have to try to figure things out. In any case, I’m enjoying the leveling even though it’s taking me a while since I haven’t been able to spend much time in game.
More Mutants
So after getting started with Slan and the oppressed mutant population in that tory I moved on to the X-Men and New Mutants to see what the current tales of persecuted mutants are like. Yup, there’s a lot of similarity but in the comics the mutants do a pretty good job fending for themselves.
In Astonishing X-Men, I learned that Charles Xavier was recently dead and now he’s back alive and actually younger than he was. The problem they have though is that when he came back to life some bad guys resurrected as well. Some guy named Proteus came back and he’s causing trouble for the X-Men and creating reality storms that look really psychedelic. Apparently he’s trying to bring the Astral plane into our world and it’s causing all kinds of havoc, including granting wishes to normal people which doesn’t turn out too well. Old Man Logan, Psylocke, Gambit, Archangel, and a bunch of X-Men are headed to confront the threat and while I enjoyed the issue I was a bit confused by some of the interactions since this was part 3 of the story arc. I’ll go back sometime to catch up on the earlier issues but as a stand-alone issue, this wasn’t a good place to start.
I also read The New Mutants: Dead Souls #1 and it was pretty cool. This seems to be another young adult/teenager teamup similar to Champions but I’m not as familiar with these heroes. Rictor, Boom-Boom, Magik, Strong Guy, and Wolfsbane are the foundation of this team and as you can guess from the title, they’re fighting zombies in this issue. The team shows up in Alabama in the wake of a recent hurricane in an attempt to help out the locals. Unfortunately the find that most of the locals are in hiding because monsters have been running loose. Being mutants and having a werewolf on the team places the kids smack in the middle of a conflict between zombies and the local townsfolk but eventually they’re able to convince the civilians they’re on the same side. the art is pretty cool with zombies and the new team facing off against each other and the resolution of the tale is pretty good so I enjoyed the issue. I just need to get used to the new team and the Hatchi corporation that funds them.
Daily Ramble 33: Mutants in all the Books