The power of stab

So I saw 'X-Men: The Last Stand'. It didn't suck entirely, but it wasn't so great either. There was a bit too much of the standing around looking very earnest "and now we must go and fight for what is right" type of speechifying (see also 'Spiderman 2'), and Beast was OK, but he was no Nightcrawler vs. the secret service. One of the best blatant "we'll make a sequel if we want" endings I've seen though I think, and let's face it, they're hard to do well. ('League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', anyone? Argggghh.)

The question I have as a very casual fan of the franchise is (have read a couple of comics, watched a bit of the cartoon, read some stuff on Wikipedia and seen all the movies) - and maybe someone that knows more can help me - outside the movies, are mutants are a bit tougher to dispose of? Wolverine's claws are all very well and good, but if the movies are anything to go by, they're pretty much just decoration. Once his healing power (and let's face it, that one is definitely handy) allows him to get close enough to whoever the baddies are, then he may as just well be carrying a kitchen knife. "Oh, you have telekinesis?" (stab) "You're a big scary beast man of some sort?" (stab) "You can reduce things to their component molecules? (stab). He may as well just carry a sword into battle and be done with it, or perhaps a stout piece of wood with a nail sticking out of it. When I think comic super-villains, I tend to think of nigh-invulnerable tough-sons-of-bitches scrappers who are almost as hard to kill off as the heroes - not a pack of wussies who keel over at the first bit of pointy metal shoved into their innards. Surely the Brotherhood of Mutants is made of sterner stuff in the comics?

Oh well. Sucks to be them, although not as much as the mutant kid who had the power of "can write magically on paper with her fingertips". An important genetic leap for our species to take there, to be sure. As Tim pointed out, you know the other mutant kids are going to be picking on her big time. Oh yes.

48 Hour Film Fest this weekend. Yipe. Report to follow, assuming I survive.