Origin of Fenris

Discuss chronologies for characters in the main "Marvel Universe"

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BobMM
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Origin of Fenris

Post by BobMM »

I have found several web sites that say this, or something like it: "While in-utero, Andreas and his sister were bio-engineered to have superpowers." It doesn't appear to me that any of the books currently listed by the Project under Andreas Strucker show or seriously discuss this. Has the Struckers' origin ever been presented in a comic story -- either as a flashback or spoken by an authority -- or does it just come from handbooks?
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Re: Origin of Fenris

Post by Chris McCarver »

According to ComicBookDB.com, these were the Strucker twins' appearances prior to their entry in the Deluxe Edition Handbook:

UX 194
UX 196
UX 200

Of those three, they only appeared as Fenris (much less even made mention of their superhuman powers) in UX 200. I just flipped through the issue, and (unless I missed something) I didn't see any mention of their origin, either in dialogue or captions. So their origin was at least first mentioned in the Handbook rather than in a comic story.
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Re: Origin of Fenris

Post by BobMM »

I've only ever found it mentioned in a comic book story twice -- by Banshee in an X-Men story and by Norman Osborn in a recent Thunderbolts. How would these guys even KNOW about Andrea & Andreas' peculiar upbringing? Maybe THEY have access to the Handbooks...?
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Re: Origin of Fenris

Post by Michael »

Banshee's a former Interpol agent and Norman's Norman. They do their research.
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Re: Origin of Fenris

Post by loki »

The first mention of the Struckers being genetically manipulated to get their powers was in their Deluxe handbook entry. Other subsequent stories have referred to them as mutants. More solid confirmation of this (e.g. not just someone describing them that way) came from Generation X '96 (annual), where Synch copied their powers. Since he could only copy mutants, that seemed to confirm their status. In the same story Banshee refers to the Struckers as "artificially-created mutants." If they'd been genetically engineered as children, then they'd be mutates, not mutants. So, with editorial approval, and allowing all the evidence to fit, the latest relevant handbook entry (Swordsman's) confirmed that the manipulation was done in-utero. The Strucker twins were born mutants, but not naturally; they wouldn't have been mutants if their father hadn't had them experimented on when they were in the womb.
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Re: Origin of Fenris

Post by Somebody »

Isn't "Mutant" (in the Marvel use of the term, rather than the realworld use) a direct reference to powers or deformities which involve the X-gene, rather than when/how they acquired the gene?

[i.e., a child could be born with powers, but not be a mutant as long as they tested X-gene negative, which is how Aurora was manipulated at one point to read as a superhuman/mutate instead, and Daisy Johnson is not considered a mutant. And vice-versa - if an adult was genetically engineered to have the X-gene and powers, then they would indeed be an "artificially created mutant"]
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Re: Origin of Fenris

Post by loki »

Yes and no. A kid born with powers but no X-gene is not a mutant, as you note - we've now got the term Caterpillar for at least one such type, and there might be others. However, an adult who gets the X-gene added to their system, while they could scientifically speaking be considered a mutant, would still tend to get referred to as a mutate. Regardless, the options were put to editorial when Swordsman's entry was being written; the in-utero option was chosen and has seen print.
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Re: Origin of Fenris

Post by Michael »

loki wrote: More solid confirmation of this (e.g. not just someone describing them that way) came from Generation X '96 (annual), where Synch copied their powers. Since he could only copy mutants, that seemed to confirm their status.
Synch was able to copy Spider-Man's powers in Amazing Spider-Man 437. Peter's not a mutant.
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Re: Origin of Fenris

Post by loki »

Michael wrote:
loki wrote: More solid confirmation of this (e.g. not just someone describing them that way) came from Generation X '96 (annual), where Synch copied their powers. Since he could only copy mutants, that seemed to confirm their status.
Synch was able to copy Spider-Man's powers in Amazing Spider-Man 437. Peter's not a mutant.
Yes, I know. He was only meant to be able to copy mutants. ASM #437 was (in real world terms) a mistake, and in terms of Marvel's reality, explained as evidence that Synch's power potentially could have grown to synch with non-mutants too, if practice improved his control sufficiently.
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