Well, Class or Ultimate Hulk, we’re in agreement that he shouldn’t be able to repdro-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skaar

-What!? Bloody hell!

1, the X-gene lies on the X-chromosone; and
2, the X-gene is dominant;

then whilst it would not necessarily mean that female mutants are more powerful, it should mean that they are more likely to have multiple powers. It would probably also mean that female mutants are more likely to die when they manifest their mutancy as the powers may not necessarily be compatible. They could also have a synergistic effect which would explain Shibia’s observations on the gender of most alpha mutants. And surely if the X-gene is sexlinked then female mutants should outnumber male mutants?

Thanks, I appreciate your time. And I love this blog – very intelligent approach to comics and that’s hard to find.

@Scott – Yeah, if nothing else, I thought it was a nice touch pointing out that Mr. Fantastic effectively can’t have any organs, doing what he does. Heh, still mildly amused at the whole bit with the Mad Thinker grafting most of her brother’s brain onto her own so as to have more raw matter to work with. Always made me think of the series of Dilbert strips where Ratbert was a consultant for Dogbert and walked around with a piece of liver strapped to his stomach, claiming that their consultants were so intelligent “they needed an external brain”.

That’s 616/mainstream Hulk. The Hulk referred to here is the Ultimate Universe version of Hulk (who does not owe his origin to Gamma radiation, but rather to an experimental version of Cap’s super-soldier serum).

Great stuff as always, Scott :)

Short time lurker , , but a few questions:

1) Warren Ellis is a scary good writer.

2) Being a neophyte science geek, I have no way to know the following: how often does a “beneficial” mutation occur, on average (if any)? If triploids are in reality harmful, is that always the case or is it just a matter of time before we find out about the existence of a viable triploid, due to the increase in people getting their DNA sequenced, for various reasons? I mean, if it is one in a billion, there should be at least six people out there with this beneficial mutation, right? (credit to Spider Robinson for that idea…)

3) RE: the Hulk and gamma radiation:
I thought the whole “bit” about the Hulk was he was able to process gamma radiation on a cellular level, so it didn’t harm him, therefore it wouldn’t make him sterile, right?

In us primates, I can make an argument that male mutants would be even more powerful, because the same X would be active in all cells. In females the X-gene would only be expressed in half their somatic cells.