37 What are the names and ages of the Guthrie siblings? How many of them are mutants?
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This article is from the X-Men Comic Books FAQ, by Kate the Short (racmx@yahoo.com) with numerous contributions by others.
37 What are the names and ages of the Guthrie siblings? How many of them are mutants?
We turn to age sage Aardy R. DeVarque for help on this question. Thomas
Zebulun Guthrie (deceased) and Lucinda Guthrie are the parents of the
following children:
1. Samuel [+0] (oldest) 2. Joelle [+2/3] (oldest girl) [possibly Jo... Elisabeth] 3. Joshua [+3/4] (2nd boy) 4. Paige [+5/6] (2nd girl) [may be younger than Jedediah] 5. Jedediah [+6/7] (3rd boy) [also called Jeb] 6. (girl) [+9/10] (3rd girl) [often not depicted] 7. Lewis [+12/13] (4th boy) [twin] 8. (girl) [+12/13] (4th girl) [twin]
Some explanations are in order:
* [+number] is the approximate number of years between each child and
Sam. For example, the twins are approximately 12-13 years younger
than Sam; when he was 20 years old they were around 7 years old.
* The oldest girl has been identified as Elisabeth in some stories,
(i.e. Factor X #1, X-Men #36) and Joelle in others (i.e. UXM '95,
What If #92). The most likely explanation (without suddenly adding
a ninth sibling) is that her full name is something like "Josephine
Elisabeth Guthrie", and "Joelle" is simply a shortened form of her
first names, something not unheard of in the area the Guthries are
from. (For example, someone whose name is James Robert Smith might
be referred to as "Jim-Bob" or even "Jimbo".)
* Sam's brother "Zak" is mentioned as writing a letter regarding
their mother in X-Force #83, but in X-Men #79 the letter is signed
"Josh". This is obviously an error, but a possible in-continuity
answer is that Zak (more likely Zachary or Zachariah) could be
Josh's middle name--though it would seem that name is already
taken, as Zachariah is Sam's middle name.
* As of Generation X #1, Paige suddenly aged from only recently
having reached puberty in her previous appearance to being in her
mid-teens, without more than a week or two of "Marvel Time"
passing. This burp in continuity almost certainly places her ahead
of Jedediah in the birth order (where before it was uncertain which
of those two was older), but still definitely behind Josh.
* Uncanny X-Men '95 states that Paige is older than Josh, which
flatly contradicts Paige's first unnamed appearance in New Mutants
#42 and first named appearance in X-Force #32, as well as the
general impression given in all other issues in which Josh and/or
Paige have appeared. UXM '95 seems rife with examples of the writer
making up details rather than checking what previous writers had
done with the characters, so it is not a very reliable source of
Guthrie history.
* Bibliography of the relevant issues: Marvel Graphic Novel #4 ("New
Mutants"), Rom Annual #3, New Mutants #42, X-Force #32, X-Men #36,
Factor X #1, UXM '95 Annual, What If #92 (non-canon, but features
the Guthrie clan), X-Force #83, X-Men #79.
At any rate, it's obvious that the writers haven't been making up family
members as they went along, which is reassuring; but it's also clear
that no one ever bothered to write down names and ages officially, and
that occasionally writers and editors make up details rather than
research the answers, especially for something as "trivial" as a
character's birth order. Such is life in the Marvel Bullpen.
As for the question of mutancy in the family: Sam and Paige are the only
confirmed mutants, but Joelle is also depicted with size-changing powers
in Factor X #1, in the Age of Apocalypse timeline. She may simply have
latent powers in our timeline, or--since she was less than twenty years
old at the time, the number of years in the past that AOA diverged--she
may have been born with a different set of genes. As Paige was the same
age and had the same powers in AOA as in the normal Marvel Universe,
this second explanation seems unlikely. It is also possible that the AOA
version of her may have been a mutate of sorts, like Spider-man or the
Fantastic Four, rather than a mutant. In any case, in the normal Marvel
Universe, she was not detected as a mutant when a Phalanx broke into the
Guthrie house, and at one point she successfully joined an anti-mutant
cult that was well-equipped with mutant detection devices.
An ongoing question is whether or not Josh, the second-oldest, has a
"mutant singing voice", as could be inferred from New Mutants #42. Since
he's never called a mutant anywhere else, though--including X-Men #36
when a Phalanx broke into the Guthrie house and detected only Paige as a
mutant--he's probably just a very talented singer and Claremont used
his trademarked purple prose in New Mutants #42.
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