World The War between Mutants and Humans

[Weather Witch]

I decided to have a bit of a look at the weapons and tactics deployed by humans throughout all the X-Men movies, Legion and The Gifted. The results can be read below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

In X1, humans do not really have a clear line of defense against mutants and their existence has only just become public knowledge. However, experimentation on mutants was already happening for years, as later confirmed by X2, Origins: Wolverine and First Class. Mutant detection is already possible as well, as seen in Days of Future Past, which might have led to the name of mutants listed in X1 by Senator Kelly, the information on Stryker’s pc and the school being discovered in X2. Detection is only the first step, however, and it doesn’t appear to be possible on a big scale. Similarly, the sentinel program is already running on a small scale as well as seen in Days of Future Past.

Mutants controlled- and created by humans used to be the best form of defense against natural born mutants. For this purpose attempts are made to control mutants in both Origins: Wolverine and X2. Now that the secret is out, however, this isn’t good enough anymore. Something else is needed to control the mutant population. In X2, Stryker reverse engineers a piece of technology created by mutants in order to detect and kill Mutants on a bigger scale, solving the previous problem of detection. Humans are now fighting back without the direct involvement of other mutants as well.

The Last Stand takes this idea further. Now we have the mutant cure, which is quickly deployed as a weapon. The war that Magneto was talking about is finally here. It is the most control humans have had, but as seen in Days of Future Past, mutants managed to temporarily suppress their own powers as far back as 50 years ago.

The Last Stand also offers more hints toward the sentinel program in the danger room sequence. As seen in both X2 and X3, the government is still worried about the backlash if they were to deploy these type of weapons, substituting for things like the cure instead. However, it turns out the cure is not a long term solution. This leads directly to the final step, the Sentinels from Days of Future Past. This is also the first time we see the inhibitor collars being used on mutants, possibly building on the advancements made in X2 and X3.

Back in 1973, the timeline has been reset and mutants have become public knowledge much earlier than in the original timeline. As a results of this we are introduced to technology that is used to neutralise mutants and temporarily block their powers as early as the 80s in Apocalypse. It will be interesting to see how Dark Phoenix builds on this. If we look at the TV shows, Legion used knock-out gas in season 1 and just introduced a device to limit mutant abilities in season 2 as well.

Back in the present, Deadpool 2 is now already dealing with mutant prisons and a new version of the inhibitor collars, building on the tech seen in Apocalypse. Humans have had more time to develop these types of technology and are now much more equipped to deal with the mutant threat. The backlash is also likely to be much smaller because mutants have been public knowledge for years. Experimentation in order to control mutants is still ongoing as well as seen in Deadpool and the upcoming New Mutants.

If we look at The Gifted timeline, one Trask Industries employee already managed to suppress the X-gene in the 80s, doing what Beast never could in DOFP and Apocalypse. Humans also already have inhibitor collars in the 2010s as well, which is in line with Deadpool 2. Finally, experimentation is done to control mutants through drugs and combine their abilities as seen before in Deadpool.

Finally, in Logan, we go further ahead in the timeline than ever before and we learn that humans have already found an effective way to sterilize mutants in the early 2000s. The ability to create their own mutants, already seen in Deadpool and The Gifted, is revealed to be the end game. It is no longer about destroying the threat, but about containing it until there are no natural born mutants left.

Humans do see a use for mutants, and a place for them in the world, but they fear genetic mutations. With the sentinel program out of the way, and technology used to temporarily block mutant abilities being available much earlier, it only took about 30 years for humans to find a solution to the mutant problem. This makes sense as in the original timeline it took about 20 years since X1, the public exposure of mutants, to deploy the sentinels as the last line of defense.

Mutants may have prevented the sentinel program, but in revealing themselves earlier, they gave humans the key they needed to win this war. We don’t know what the future holds, but Deadpool 2 showed us there is Hope. Could the X-Force be the solution that mutants need or will this simply lead to more wars? Remember: war, war never changes.