Let me X you a question...

Rating: Null/10 (11 May 2003)

When I think of the word "mutant" or "mutation," I think of a 2-headed calf, or of all those frogs that were being hatched a few years ago with too many legs, or too few. A kid who can freeze a cup of steaming coffee solid with a touch; a girl who can walk through walls; a woman who can control the weather... these aren't mutants. They're miracle workers.
Some of their powers are alarming: the chameleonic Mystique is a shapeshifter, the same category of being as a werewolf. Some of their appearances are disturbing: for all his mainstream religious faith and recitation of prayers, Nightcrawler looks like nothing so much as a high-Medieval European concept of a demon. And some of the "mutants" are hostile and dangerous; but in my long life, all of the hostile, dangerous people I've ever known--all of the people who used their gifts and talents for selfish or harmful purposes--were NON-mutants.
So what are we to make of, say, Iceman's chilling effects? If mutations are nature's way of adjusting to stimuli, what stimulus brought about this reaction? Or if mutations are simply random genetic misfires, what recessive genetic trait gave rise to this capability?

I look at the question from the point of view of one who rejects the "pure" scientific view of evolution: that life began by accident; that it (and we) developed completely at random; that it (and we) are simply biological phenomena devoid of any higher purpose or spiritual meaning. I favor the view variously referred to as "theistic evolution" or "intelligent design." Based on that viewpoint, I'd take a wildly unlikely talent such as Iceman's to be proof positive that God is up to something, and is doling out the equipment that'll be needed to cope with whatever it is that's coming.
But Iceman's capability is like the laser at the time of its invention in the early 1960s: it was an answer without a question. It took awhile to figure out the laser's usefulness in communications, surgery, etc. Similarly, the question presents itself: what is Iceman's gift FOR? and Storm's? and Mystique's? and Magneto's? and Pyro's? and so forth? What are nature and nature's God up to with these people? Why these gifts, and why these people?
At this time we have insufficient evidence to answer these questions. But it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Meantime, it's a good and appropriate thing that Nightcrawler introduces faith into the drama, and it's wise of the filmmakers not to caricature it.