Genetic ramifications of Magneto changing gender
Indigo
In article <6ih85n$42r$3...@bertrand.ccs.carleton.ca>#1/1,
bfr...@chat.carleton.ca (Brian Fried) wrote:
>
*crosspost to acff*
> Even if Marvel were to do the "What if the genders switched..." story,
> things would be drastically different.
>[snip snip]
> Gee, that's the start of something interesting.....
I don't know about Marvel doing it, but maybe the X-Writers would.
Andrew?
This is me offering to be part of the gender-bender X-book if y'all decide you
want to take it on. I have the feeling my idea-bouncer would help too if we
offered him the right incentives...
--Indigo
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Aleph Press
Indigo (ind...@plastic.spork.com) wrote:
: I don't know about Marvel doing it, but maybe the X-Writers would.
: Andrew?
: This is me offering to be part of the gender-bender X-book if y'all decide you
: want to take it on. I have the feeling my idea-bouncer would help too if we
: offered him the right incentives...
Okay, I wasn't going to say anything yet, because I've *still* got Twin
Poles and the-story-that-has-no-name-that-Dandelion-and-I-are-hashing-out
and Body Snatcher all on my plate, but...
I don't know about X-Writers, but *I* wanna do this.
In the past two days I've worked out the details of the original seven
X-Men (I include Havok and Polaris), the Brotehrhood of Evil Mutants, Mr.
Sinister, Apocalypse and Xavier in the gender-switch world. I am planning
on writing up a dossier for readers covering the basics, and a more
detailed dossier who anyone who wants to write in it.
If you or anyone else is interested, write me, because I *really* don't
want to do it all myself. Basically I'd like to set up the universe, do a
handful of establishing fics, and then hand it over to someone else, with
me getting dibs on Magneto in future and having some participatory role
in where the storylines go, at least until and unless I drop out
entirely, but with new writers getting creative control over either the
characters they "create" (that is, adapt) or the characters that they
really want (for instance, while I may be the "creator" of Bobbi Drake,
that doesn't mean I want to write her entire life story.) :-) With all the
fanfic on my plate, I can't realistically hope to do more than maybe
three stories for starters, but I really like what I've done with the
characters so far and would love to burble at someone about them.
Indigo, I'll write up what I have so far and send it to you. Anyone else
who's interested, jump on this thread. I've crossposted this back to
racmx for one time only, with the Follow-Up to: set to acff, because I
want to catch the people who only post to racmx who expressed interest in
this, but then after that it should stay off racmx (and probably go to
email, for that matter...)
--
Be good, servile little citizen-employee, and pay your taxes so the rich
don't have to.
--Zepp Weasel
Alara Rogers, Aleph Press
al...@netcom.com
All Aleph Press stories are at http://www.mindspring.com/~alara/ajer.
Aleph Press
This is by no means a full description of the gender swap universe
(reference the thread "Genetic ramifications of Magneto changing gender"
for more detail on the concept.) I'm still writing the charcter bible.
However, I'd like to do a brief bit on the universe, since I've already
gotten a few people interested.
Firstly: I decided it was completely unworkable to have everyone gender
swap. The original idea as proposed was "what if everyone in the Marvel
Universe was a different gender?" This is absurd. Captain America cannot
be a woman. There's no way they'd have given a woman the Super-Soldier
serum in the 1940's. Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom both being women,
brilliant scientist rivals who are actually respected in the community,
makes no sense in real world terms. The proportion of superheroes, in a
universe where they exist, would always be weighted heavily toward men,
because in real life it's disproportionately men who become police and
firefighters and soldiers, even in places where either sex can be. And
most non-mutants in MU get their powers through exposures that would more
likely happen to men-- experiemental serums, cosmic rays, bomb tests--
things that just are much less likely to happen to women.
*but*. Mutants are born in a 50/50 ratio. So mutants *can* gender swap
without making it absurd. (At least, I haven't so far run into a
characetr I can't.) So the deal is: *only* mutants swap. Or, humans who
had a child with a mutant-- they also swap, obviously. Everyone else
stays the same.
A brief rundown on the characters:
GOOD GUYS:
X-FACTOR:
CAROLYN FRANCES XAVIER (DOCTOR X): World's most powerful telepath. In her
civilian identity, is a civil rights activist, feminist, renowned
psychiatrist most famous for her work with trauma cases and catatonics,
and educator, whose Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters went co-ed with
the introduction of John Grey (previously it had been the Xavier School
for Gifted Young Women.) She can walk, but only slowly and with the aid
of a cane, as her right leg was shattered by HYDRA five years before
X-Factor's first mission. Has a daughter, Danielle Haller, resident at the
school, five as of the first mission. In her superhero identity, she is
the founder and mentor of X-Factor, a team consisting (originally) of
five mutant teenagers, four girls and a boy.
STEPHANIE SUMMERS (LOOKER): I'm open to suggesitons for a better code
name. Stephanie is a serious orphan girl who is completely shy and
insecure with the opposite sex, so hides this by pretending they don't
exist. Dr. Xavier is the first parent figure she's had, and they're
working together on recovering her memories and tracking down her missing
sister Sandy. Stephanie's mutant eye beams are uncontrollable without her
ruby quartz glasses or visor, requiring her to be rigidly disciplined to
avoid hurting anyone with her powers. Has a serious crush on John, but is
sure she doesn't have a chance.
JOHN GREY, JR. (DYNAMO): Already the most powerful member of the team,
John is a telepath/telekinetic who was traumatized by the death of his
(platonic) female friend Annie, when he was 12. Dr. Xavier brought him
out of catatonia then, and has been working with him to control his
powers; as of X-Factor's first mission, he's voluntarily inhibited
against using his telepathy with anyone but Dr. Xavier, and is constantly
being drilled on control and focus of his TK. Assertive, strong-willed,
and a little unnerved by being the only guy in a school full of girls,
since Annie's death has left him largely uninterestd in girls his own
age. He's set his sights on the unattainable, and has a massive crush on
Dr. Xavier.
BOBBI DRAKE (ICE): To all appearances, Bobbi is a flirtatious, silly,
dumb blonde with a wacky sense of humor. There's more to her than that,
and she desperately does not want anyone wto know this. Bobbi has no idea
what she wants with her life; she originally thought she'd get married
and have kids, just because that's what girls do, but for now she thinks
it's cool to be a superhero. Dr. Xavier's vision of a world where girls--
and mutants-- can truly be themselves is appealing to her, although she
isn't sure what she would be if she could be herself, and isn't even
entirely aware that the blonde bimbo she plays at *isn't* herself. Bobbi
pretends to be extremely interested in guys, and yet, despite being
pretty and flirtatious, somehow never manages to date any. There's a
reason for that, but Bobbi herself is in serious denial about the
reasons. As of the first mission, her control over her power has extended
to covering her body with snow, and making things of ice that, well, look
rather snowy.
HENRIETTA (ETTIE) MCCOY: (AMAZON): I'm open to suggestions for her name
too. Ettie is a remarkably gifted young woman-- brilliant, strong, agile
and quick. Unfortunately, in a world that primarily values girls for
their beauty, an average face and huge, apelike hands and feet are a
virtual guarantee of pain, no matter what other gifts you have. Ettie has
heard the taunts of "Ape-girl!" all her life. She was raised by good
folks, and she *wants* very much to believe in Dr. Xavier's vision of a
world where humans and mutants are accepted for what they are, where a
girl who's brilliant and athletic can be accepted as well as a boy who
was, even if she's ugly. Unfortunately, her lief experiences have left
her unsure if that is possible. In some ways, she's the most ferocious in
battle against Polaris and the Mutant Menace, because she finds Polaris'
brand of radical feminism and pro-mutant extremism seductive... Her wit
and erudition cover up a deep bitterness at the world.
WENDY WORTHINGTON (ANGEL): The beautiful debutante thought her life had
been ruined when wings sprouted out of her back. Now, there's nothing she
values more highly, except perhaps the friendship of her classmates and
the good opinion of Dr. Xavier, the person who created a haven where she
can fly, and be herself. Wendy would never have trouble getting dates,
but her need to hide the wings has rather curtailed her social life, so
she chases John diligently (and later Lorne) as the only boys she knows
that she can let see her wings. Wendy believes in philanthropy and
heroism because It's The Right Thing To Do, not any deep-seated personal
conviction.. at least, as of the first mission.
ALEXANDRA (SANDY) SUMMERS (HAVOK): Stephanie's lost sister, recovered
after sessions with Dr. Xavier enable Stephanie to remember her sister.
She joins some time after the first mission.
LORNE DANE (MAGNETO): I haven't quite figured out how, precisely, he gets
involved, except that he's a latent mutant who gets catalyzed by someone
else, he has the same powers (only at considerble less strength) as
Polaris, and he's conencted to her and to Mr. Sinister in a plotline I
won't go into here.
BAD GUYS:
THE MUTANT MENACE:
"So you call us, and so shall we be." The Mutant Menace is a terrorist
group dedicated to the violent overthrow of human, patriarchal dominion
of the Earth, and the creation of a society where everyone is equal,
except that some people will be more equal than others. Its core is two
families, with some non-family members who've joined as well.
ERIKA (MAGNUS/LEHNSHERR/at least one other) (POLARIS): A Holocaust
survivor with awesome control over all forms of electromagnetism, Polaris
was once Dr. Xavier's closest friend... but that was many years ago. She
is intelligent, powerful, ruthless and utterly dedicated to her goals, to
the ppoint where she'd sacrifice her life... or her children's. She
believes that the human paradigm of male dominance is an indicator of
human lack of evolutionary advancement, and thefact that among mutants,
females can be as powerful as males, means that among mutants the sexes
are equal, and makes mutants more evolutionarily advanced-- Homo
superior, who shall achieve dominion over the Earth and all that walk
upon it. Naturally, the only person Polaris trusts to run this brave new
world of mutant-controlled utopia is Polaris herself. Probably clinically
insane, but who would dare tell her so?
At one point, Erika studied under the High Evolutionary. In addition to
the expertise in phsyics you'd expect with an intelligent person having
magnetic powers, Erika is also knowledgeable about medicine and mutant
genetics, and has a "borrowed" cache of High Evolutionary tech.
RAVEN DARKHOLME (MYSTIQUE): That's probably not his real name, but it's
the one he uses. Raven is a shapeshifter, intelligent and cunning, and
where Polaris would not know subtlety if it danced up to her singing
"Subtle Days Are Here Again", Mystique is an expert on subtlety.
Infiltration, espionage, assassination... those are Mystique's bailiwick.
He used to have his own mutant terrorist team, consisting of himself, his
lover Rene, and the Southerner Jesse Akers (Psychophage). When a mission
went seriously rancid, Psychophage was killed and Rene was captured,
Raven was forced to indebt himself to his one-time lover Erika to get
Rene back, and Polaris called in the debt when she founded the Mutant
Menace. Still, it's not a bad deal-- he has to let Polaris think she's
running the show, but she's rather easy to manipulate if you know how.
And who knows but that he, or his lover, or their foster son Rogue, might
not someday need Polaris' knowhow and access to the High Evolutionary's tech?
RENE ADLER (DESTINY): Raven's long-term lover of many decades (even
during the time when Raven was off giving birth in female form, or having
sex with Erika... long story.) Destiny is a powerful precog.
Unfortunately, his calm and wise words of forewarning frequently fall on
deaf ears, as rule no. 1 is that Polaris is always right, and whenever she's
wrong, see rule no. 1. He's an old man, but still participates in battle.
He's also very close to Rogue, Psychophage's son that Raven adopted after
their teammate's death, although Rogue thinks of Mystique as his father.
JASMINE WYNGARDE (DREAMWEAVER): That is *definitely* not her real name.
Jasmine appears different in every battle-- sometimes a buxom blonde,
sometimes a slim redhead, or a delicate Asian, or an athletic African
beauty-- always gorgeous, unless you manage to knock her out, at which
point she appears as a fat middle-aged woman with lank, greasy brown hair
that she doesn't wash much, and a bad smell. Dreamweaver is an
illusionist, and a very good one, who can engage all your senses in an
incredibly believable illusion. She was a con artist and occasional
prostitute when Raven found her and recruited her for Polaris. Now she's
loyal, although pretty cowardly.
BERTHA TOYNBEE (LEAPER): Could someone please give me a better name for
her? Polaris is not cruel enough to name such an ugly and damaged young
woman the Toad, but that's *exactly* what she looks like. She's fat, has
enormously strong but spindly-looking legs, a rather deformed face, a
severe need of braces, and acne that makes her face look like 12 miles of
bad road. She's also highly intelligent, but you'd never know it to
listen to her, as her talents lie squarely in the Geekish Realm of Techie
Stuff. As no one else in the Menace has the slightest interest in techie
stuff, Polaris values her as a backup repairer-of-things-when-Polaris-is-
busy and someone to talk shop to. Polaris is usually quite gentle with
the damaged young woman, who worships the water she thinks Polaris walks
on, but occasionally her insecurity and frequent incompetence cause
Polaris to blow up at her, which usually leads her to hide and whimper
about how much she's sorry and how if Polaris would only give her another
chance she would never fail her again, rather loudly. Is generally
sadistic toward men, especially young attractive men. As long as she doesn't
touch Pietro or Rogue, Polaris turns a blind eye toward Leaper's activities.
WANDA MAGNUS (QUICKSILVER): Her hair color wasn';t the only thing young
Wanda inherited rfom her mother. She's violent, impetuous and arrogant,
and totally subscribes to her mother's beliefs. She also lovingly
dominates her twin brother entirely, protecting him, sheltering him,
speaking for him, and basically acting like she thinks he couldn't find
his butt with two hands and a road map were she not there to point the
way. But Wanda's not a killer. She's been indoctrinated to believe that
humans are lesser beings, but has had enough exposure to them to think
that means that they should protect them-- though, following her mother's
paradigm, "protect" means rule over to save from themselves. Despite-- or
perhaps because-- of her many points of similarity to her mother, Wanda
is in constant conflict with her. An outsider might wonder if they love
each other at all, especially when Erika throws large, heavy metal
implements at Wanda and Wanda responds by dodging and smacking Erika's legs
out from under her with a bamboo stick moved at super-speed. The Menace
have seen this particular violent scene play out often enough to know
that neither of them are *really* going to hurt the other. Much.
PIETRO MAGNUS (WIZARD): The ugly duckling of the family. He looks just
like his father, which is the problem. Wanda loves him extravagantly, but
Erika has been cold to him for much of his life, and he's been taught to
believe that his entire sex is composed of horrible people, which makes
him very insecure. This does him no good when trying to control his
probaility powers, and when he screws up, which is all the time, Erika
just looks at him as if she *knew* he was going to screw up because he's
a boy and he's worthless. He lets Wanda run his life for him because
she's the only person he's sure loves him, even if he *is* worthless. He
suffers suicidal ideations, a lot, and he's painfully thin. Quite
possibly anorexic, but Erika hasn't noticed. And probably won't, until it
causes him to screw up in battle. Pietro hasn't a clue that the real
problem is not who he is, but who he looks like, and Erika is unable to
tell him or even to articulate what the problem is, and probably lacks
enough onjectivity to realize there *is* a problem. Rene has taken the
young man under his wing, sheltering him and giving him advice, but
there's only so much damage Rene can undo while Pietro is living under
Erika's roof.
ROGUE: Goes only by that name. Psychophage never trusted Mystique quite
enough to let him have his son's real name. Besides, Psychophage
kidnapped Rogue from his mother in a custody-dispute-gone-wrong many
years ago, and Rogue very likely has been using one pseudonym or anotehr
since; as far as he's cocnerend Rogue is his real name. He knows he's
going to be a powerful mutant, but he doesn't know what kind yet. He's
curious about everything, and hotheaded, and stubborn, and he'll stand up
to anyone, including Polaris, who won't actually hit a child who isn't
her own-- and Rogue knows it. So he gets away with anything, as long as
Raven doesn't sit on him. Is still at the age where girls are largely
icky. He looks up to Pietro as the only remotely older brotherish figure
he has, which may help develop Pietro's confidence.
OTHER BAD GUYS:
TIAMAT: An ancient, immortal mutant who has named herself for the
Babylonian goddess of creation and destruction, Tiamat, Mother of
Dragons. Tiamat wishes to see life on Earth grow stronger through conflict.
NATHANIEL ESSEX (MR. SINISTER): A Victorian scientist who was offered
power and knowledge by Tiamat, at the price, perhaps, of his soul. Has
many dark deeds to his name in the pursuit of his goals. Was involved
with the childhoods, births, or conceptions of both Summers girls, John
Grey, and Lorne Dane. Has also had dealings with Polaris, which she very
likely doesn't remember, largely because he wiped them from her mind. If
she ever does remember, however, Sinister will be no. 1 on her list of
people to destroy... so it's in his interest not to jog her memory, as
she would make a formidable foe, even for him.
That's it so far. (Whew!) I'm writing up more detailed info on Xavier and
Polaris, buit those will only be available to participants, at first.
Aleph Press
Oh gee, I forgot this part!
The gender-swap universe (need a name) was originally the result of a
brainstorming sesion on racmx between me, Lazy Line Painter Al, J Spektr,
and a few others. (Based on a thread with the very silly title of
"Genetic ramifications of Magneto changing gender"; you can check it out
in DejaNews if you're interested.)
The idea is that me and whoever else is interested write stories set in a
universe where all the mutants are of the opposite sex. How would this
change the dynamics of everything? In the interest of creating a coherent
timeline, I have set X-Factor's first mission in 1975 (X-Factor being the
name of the superhero team founded by Dr. Carolyn Xavier; can't very well
call them X-Men when four of the founding members are women!) The goal
isn't to do a polemic about feminism, but to tell entertaining stories;
however, as both Xavier and her nemesis Polaris (no, not Magneta; I
basically traded names for Polaris and Magneto, so Erika the Holocaust
survivor is Polaris and Lorne Dane the teenager with green hair is
Magneto) are feminists (naturally; you really can't tell a story about
powerful, domineering women coming into conflict with each other in the
60's and 70's without feminism coming into it), some discussion of the
ideology is inevitable. Basically, imagine if Xavier had as big an
interest in the equality of men and women as in the equality of humans
and mutants, and you've got it.
I've started off the universe, creating the genderswap versions of the
X-Men, the Brotherhood (which in this universe, I threw Mystique, Destiny
and Rogue into from the getgo, as I felt we needed more male characters),
Apocalypse, and Mr. Sinister (who, not being a mutant, doesn't change
much.) The rules for creating a genderswap characte are simple: Mutants
change sex. Humans who had children with mutants change sex. No one else
does. How does this change stuff? Occasionally if historical
considerations warrant it, a minor character can be completely altered.
(Erika's dead husband is damned little like Magda.) Also, a child whose
status as a mutant is unknown can be genderswapped or not, as the creator
likes.
My goal is to actually write a story using my initial characters, real
soon (and deal with Twin Poles, and that story I owe Dandelion...) But to
the largest extent, I don't have time to write a lot of fanfic, because
I'm a verra slow writer. So what I want to do is open the universe up to
others who may want to join in and help out. You get dibs on any
characters you adapt; I also think other people may want to take over
some of the characters I adapted, like Ettie McCoy and Bobbi Drake, sinec
they may be bigger fans of the male originals than I am.
So, that's what this is all about. Anyone interested?
The Lone Warrior
Heheh... sounds like a discussion we had on #fictalk the other night...
Somehow, we managed to Gender-Bend *all* the X-Men, New Mutants, GenX, and
parts of X-Factor, X-Force, and Excalibur. Boy, do those old OHOTMUDEs
come in handy. :)
I claim the Gender-Bended New Mutants, led by Prof. Charlene Xavier.
BTW, we never did get around to GBing Juggernaught... any idea what a
feminine Cain Marko would be named?
--
Arsenal
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Jon Crowhurst
Hey!, on Tue, 05 May 1998 01:03:18 GMT, tab...@ptd.net.no.spam (The
Lone Warrior) wrote:
>
>Heheh... sounds like a discussion we had on #fictalk the other night...
>Somehow, we managed to Gender-Bend *all* the X-Men, New Mutants, GenX, and
>parts of X-Factor, X-Force, and Excalibur. Boy, do those old OHOTMUDEs
>come in handy. :)
>
>I claim the Gender-Bended New Mutants, led by Prof. Charlene Xavier.
>
>BTW, we never did get around to GBing Juggernaught... any idea what a
>feminine Cain Marko would be named?
Well, why not something Charmaine Marko with her code name being
Juggernaught - that way her nickname would be... Juggs!
(I'm sorry - I have this image of a 9 foot woman who makes She-Hulk's
curves look like Kate Moss while Kate was wearing a minimizing bra
<eg>)
Andrew Wheeler
Aleph Press wrote:
>
> I don't know about X-Writers, but *I* wanna do this.
Good plan. For the record, X-Writers *couldn't* handle this. We have an
established continuity. We'd never be able to work with a new one.
> If you or anyone else is interested, write me, because I *really* don't
> want to do it all myself. Basically I'd like to set up the universe, do a
> handful of establishing fics, and then hand it over to someone else, with
> me getting dibs on Magneto in future and having some participatory role
> in where the storylines go,
Well, colour me interested. I can't, in all honesty, dedicate myself to
anything full-time in this regard, since X-Writers must be my first
obligation, and right now I have little enough time for that, but I would
absolutely love to write the gender-bent Mystique and his cadre, at least
for one arc. I guess this universe would be told in stories rather than
titles, like X-W, yes?
Send me all your info, Alara, and feel free to plumb my many
year-and-a-bit experience as a fanfic editor/co-ordinator/whipmaster. I
live to serve. And hey, I need to prove I ain't some fly-by-night big
shmuck-head who just writes for his own universe and snubs the fanfic
community at large. It ain't true, guv! You'll never catch me alive! Etc.
Andrew Wheeler - Wicked, wicked ways.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . The only way forward is wayward. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
*
Andrew Wheeler
Oh yeah. If you need a good name for the project, I would suggest either
"GenderBent", because it appeals to my way of thinking, or the obvious
yet apt "XXY".
Andrew Wheeler - Usually appears in sex threads, not gender threads.