It really depends upon where you get your information, whether a mutant is technically a human or not. Most known mutants have the same basic biological needs and operations as humans. There have been several instances of mutants and humans interbreeding and producing non-sterile offspring. In instances where two diverse species interbreed, the offspring cannot reproduce. This seems to indicate that mutants are close enough genetically to count as human, biologically. Obviously, when it comes to Apocalypse in his golden years and any other ultra-powerful, god-like, sometimes immaterial mutants, there is cause to call the genetic closeness moot.
The point is that some mutants choose to become career criminals (like the Vanisher, Pyro, Blob, Black Tom, etc.), some choose to become heroes (like the X-Men), and some just choose to live normal lives, not involving themselves in the bigger fight between good and evil (like Iceman and Havoc when it suited them). Those who became heroes were superheroes, because regardless of how or why they could perform superhuman feats, they could, and they used those abilities to heroic ends.
Clearly, with aliens such as Kal-El and J'onn J'onzz, the term "super" is relative. Because they are on a world where their power is greater than that of most people's, that makes them super, and obviously they are heroes.
In Alan Moore's "Top Ten," everyone in a particular town is a superhero, so it is difficult to say what is "super" in such a place. This is where the point of contest in this issue comes from-- what is "super" in any particular context.
I say if the Batman can have an arsenal of non-lethal, specialized gadgets moved to his Bat-cave without the law finding out and secretly carries this arsenal into the city each night in conjunction with his massively developed physical prowess, tactical skill, and analytical knowledge for the purposes of saving lives and protecting the innocent-- something that most citizens, including the police, cannot accomplish-- then that makes him a superhero. The fact that he has help from his intelligence network (Robin, Oracle, Nightwing, etc.) makes him no less a superhero, insures he will stay a superhero and not go over the edge and become a violent, vengeful vigilante.
Originally posted by The Batman
[B]It really depends upon where you get your information, whether a mutant is technically a human or not. Most known mutants have the same basic biological needs and operations as humans. There have been several instances of mutants and humans interbreeding and producing non-sterile offspring. In instances where two diverse species interbreed, the offspring cannot reproduce. This seems to indicate that mutants are close enough genetically to count as human, biologically. Obviously, when it comes to Apocalypse in his golden years and any other ultra-powerful, god-like, sometimes immaterial mutants, there is cause to call the genetic closeness moot.
Superman has the same basic needs as humans, and he is capable of mating with non-Kryptonians to produce fertile offspring (how do I know? Read DC 1,000,000). I don't think that definion is going to fly in comic book realities.
Originally posted by Cyclops
Superman cannot reproduce! (Watch Mallrats by the great Kevin Smith)
Yes, he can. Read DC 1,000,000 (sort of hard to find, I admit, since there are a great many issues and it's never been collected into TPB format) if you don't believe me. 1,000,000 months in the future, there's an entire Superman dynasty, started by Kent and Lane.
Originally posted by Gregory
Superman has the same basic needs as humans, and he is capable of mating with non-Kryptonians to produce fertile offspring (how do I know? Read DC 1,000,000). I don't think that definion is going to fly in comic book realities.
I'm not just talking about getting horny and feeling lonely for human companionship. Superman has different biological needs as a Kryptonian than humans. For one, I don't think he needs to eat much at all. I don't know how much oxygen he requires either, and I don't remember if Post-Crisis Superman even needs it at all. The point is, Kryptonians in an Earth environment, were there enough of them to constitute a species, would be a different kind of animal biologically than humans in their own environment. They would all be more or less the same in their distinction from humans. The Marvel comics mutants, however, are not all the same. They are all different variations on regular human organisms.
In the novel "The Death and Life of Superman," it was Jonathan Kent's estimate that a Kryptonian male could not breed with a human female. Whether or not this is true, I can't say. My point about breeding was mainly to close the genetic distinction between normal humans and mutants.
Fair enough, Batman, but then...
Is Plastic Man human? He certainly was human before he was turned into Plastic Man, and he's had a son by a human woman (granted, we don't know whether the son is non-sterile), but he doesn't need any of the things humans need to survive--in the Obsideon Age story-line, he survived for thousands of years as a few particles floating around near the bottom of the ocean.
I think you'll have a very, very difficult time defining "human" in such a way that it applies to all the right DC heroes, and nobody else. We already have an alien who can have a non-sterile child (whatever Kent might think) and a human(?) who can live thousands of years without any of the basic human needs. And you can't say that all it takes to be human is to be born to human parents, because by that definition Dream of the Endless (the current one) would be human, as would his raven, Mattew. Not to mention characters like the Man-Bat.
That's one of the reasons that I don't like the idea that nonhumans can't be superheroes--DC and Marvel blur the lines between human and nonhuman to such an extent that the distinction becomes almost meaningless.
[/B][/QUOTE]
I say if the Batman can have an arsenal of non-lethal, specialized gadgets moved to his Bat-cave without the law finding out and secretly carries this arsenal into the city each night in conjunction with his massively developed physical prowess, tactical skill, and analytical knowledge for the purposes of saving lives and protecting the innocent-- something that most citizens, including the police, cannot accomplish-- then that makes him a superhero. The fact that he has help from his intelligence network (Robin, Oracle, Nightwing, etc.) makes him no less a superhero, insures he will stay a superhero and not go over the edge and become a violent, vengeful vigilante. [/B][/QUOTE]
wow!
you r one of the few who actually appreciates batman!couldn't have put it better myself! 💃
yeah, realy it's obvious who is a "superhero" and who isnt, just the "super" part realy dosent make one better than the other.
Punisher is the best example he has no enhancement's or extra "abilitie's" but the guy handed the Marvel Universe it's ass...albeit a "what if" it was still a possibility. Hell he dropped Spidey and Venom at the same time((they were fighting, but both set's of spider-sense should have picked up on o' Punisher's intention's)) all he used was his brain and good old fashioned lead