Something occured to me.  Anti-Mutant hysteria in the Marvel universe is essentially based on the premise that the man on the street is afraid that they'll be supplanted by the next stage in human evolution:  people born with strange powers.  But how does the man on the street know if a superpowered being is a mutant or just a regular guy who somehow gained superpowers?  Why do they fear, say, Colossus but not, say, Thor?

Spider-Man is occasionally thought to be a mutant by some New York City residents, probably because they're trained to hate and fear him by the DAILY BUGLE.

The Fantastic Four, on the other hand, are usually hailed and loved (even The Thing!) because the general populace knows that they are "altered humans" and not mutants.

I agree with what I think the point of your post is, Gregg -- the gap between the acceptance of "altered humans" (especially the FF and Captain America) and the outright hatred of mutants makes very little sense.  It's just as stupid as your hating a fellow human being because his/her skin color or primary language or sexual identity is different from yours.  If those bases for hatred and exclusion are "okay", then why not hate and kill everyone whose eye color is different, or whose method of religious worship is unlike yours?

Stan and Jack were neither kidding around nor off the mark when they created the X-Men.  Bigotry, in any form, is inherently short-sighted and moronic.  People are people, no matter what they look like or sound like or pray like or what have you.  Race and religion are sociological constructs with no basis whatsoever in science.  The biological difference between a caucasian born-again christian from Mississippi and a dyed-in-the-wool "all infidels must die" muslim terrorist is negligible.  We're all the same critter, like it or not, as far as biology is concerned.

Colossus and Thor should be hugging in public and telling people to chill out, even though Thor isn't human.

I agree with what I think the point of your post is, Gregg -- the gap between the acceptance of "altered humans" (especially the FF and Captain America) and the outright hatred of mutants makes very little sense. 

It's always nice to be thought of as asking a Big Question or trying to make An Important Statement, but really, my question was born of idle curiousity more than anything.  I do most certainly agree, though, that there's not a whole heck of a lot difference between "us" (whoever "we" might be) and "them" (whoever "they" might be).

Colossus and Thor should be hugging in public and telling people to chill out, even though Thor isn't human.

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Or better still Ultimate Colossus and UltimateThor should be hugging in public and telling people to chill out, striking a blow for tolerance everywhere. Now that would be worth reading.

It is interesting-especially if the guy is not a teen-assuming they know mutant genes kick in at puberty, usually-why would they ever assume the person is a mutant, unless they make a big point of it by joining a mutant team.

But mutants are homo superior. They represent themselves as a higher level of human evolution, as being better than us. Naturally, this fosters resentment.

If the X-Men really seek integration with humans, they should disband and each member join a different group of super-heroes!  No, really... 

Pretty much happened in the '70s, between Hank in the Avengers and Warren and Bobby in the Champions...