SPOILER Is Wanda SPOILER
Is Wanda a mutant? Discuss.
sharethis is how sexual reproduction works. we'd all look the same if not.
shareI think you need to go back and take Sex Ed again, but beyond that, feel free to discuss the subject in terms of the comic book definition of a mutant.
shareI don't know the comic book definition of a mutant. What's this and why do they need a different definition?
shareIt's no different than the real-life definition, expect instead of a variation from the norm of the species, it tends to convey superpowers. In the comics, the Wanda was born with a genetic mutation that allows her to cast spells. Her brother Pietro was born with a genetic mutation that allowed him to run really fast. Spider-Man, on the other hand, is not a mutant. He was born a normal human, and gained his powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. He can now spin a web any size, and do whatever a spider can.
And just to avoid any awk moments when you go on a date, sexual reproduction does not work the way you think. We don't all look the same because we're mutants, it's a result of genetic recombination. The term mutant is typically used to describe an offspring that has some new trait unique to the species. If you have a child with three eyes, or webbed feet, he's a mutant.
Don't wanna lecture you in biology, but in evolutionary terms, sexual reproduction is the guarantee for genetic diversity. Of course you're mutating any time when a cell gets renewed (a few years on average, but still). The main evolutionary motor for a population still lies in the mutations happening at initial recombination. This is where the ground work for faster, slower, more or fewer deviations is laid. In usual biology, we're all mutants and we already have the tools to provoke significant permanent mutations during lifetime.
For the comic book part:
As far as I know about Wanda and Pietro, they're children of Magneto. If Magneto would have spliced or cloned himself instead of having sex, they would form metals and look like him.
The X-Men definitions, like "children of the atom", would only apply if Pietro really was the other Quicksilver.
But why isn't Spider-Man a mutant? Poisoning doesn't let you climb walls or shoot webs, he partially became a (radiated) spider after the bite. In a 60ies horror movie, they'd have called him a mutant.