Mutant issue....

-Devouring Earth: Are not mutants. They are plants grown by Hami
-Paragon Protectors: Are mutates, former mutants
-Slag golems: Again created by an entity
-Syndicate: Mix of possible mutants, but naturals and tech(gadgets)
-Coralax: Again created by an entity

These groups especially the D.Es I really don't see how mutation comes into play. Nothing random and each planned and grown by for specific reasons according to those who control them.

I guess I'll trot out my usual proposal of just set up the Outcasts as another group akin to any other group that goes from 5-50.

Just straight up crime. No need to strike out against a world that hates them, other than for a smash and grab.

Okay, now that's not a big deal. We've seen that plenty of times before. Only now, why not make them spandex clad and cape wearing villains?

Yeah, it's just crime, but it's Spandex-clad supercrime.

Y'know why? Because spandex is cool!

There's a pile of powersets that the Outcasts don't cover yet. So, roll in the psychics, earth assault, spines, debuff and control sets and whatever else I'm missing here. Maybe hold off the psychic enemies for post 30 content. But, the scheme is simple.

Toss them into a few tips, to give them a sorta bigger arc. Put them on street corners. Make them go to war with the Malta on Peregrine. Put them into the radios and newspaper madlibs. It's an all out Mutant resurgence.

From 20-30, drop the t-shirts for spandex tops, with bosses going full-on themed(electric, flame and arctic patterns are already available) spandex from the neck down. Make all the bosses dual themed a la Frostfire.

Post 30 all the way up, everybody wears spandex and masks,Lts get shoulderpads. bosses get capes, as well as crowns or whatever else. Just go all out spandex. Maybe post 35 toss auras on bosses to tip us off as to who's the big cheese in a mob. But mostly? Auras are cool.

Toss in a handful of Supatrolls to round out the ranks of Lts. Call it a mutant-troll truce post 20, whatever. I just want more giant green dudes with horns smashing about the city in singlets with no shoes or sleeveless tops and tights. Call it a Supatroll menace, just toss them in. Then, for good measure, make a few of the huge guys Stone armor guys like the odd Ogre or Caliban(I can never remember which) as well as a couple of big green granite guys.

C'mon, let's put some comic book back in the game.

If you want to tell a story about mutants in CoH, I think you need to look at what's different about them compared to mutants in other comic/game universes.

What's different? They're connected. They were rare before mankind split its first atom, but became more common after that. Later, you have a group of 90 kids all around the world born with linked mutations in one year.

It's obvious that CoH mutants are/can be born in response to something, but what? Why?

One of my characters suggested (way back, before the Origin of Power arc) that the various animal type mutants showing up all over the place were a response to the stress mankind was undergoing. They were made to deal with the stress upon the human race (cull population or eliminate a threat), but the changing world had outstripped them so there were more and more being born as the human race tried to adjust. The unleashing of stronger and more dangerous powers upon the Earth leads to the birth of stronger and more dangerous mutants to deal with the situation.

Having characters look into that, and deal with someone/something trying to manipulate that defensive response, would make for a fairly good story arc, I think. Maybe you could even find out what the Nuke 90 were born to deal with.

What about a group of mutants who, ever since the first Rikti war, have started to think that humanity can only survive in the future by mutating into superhumans? Like they'd think that human evolution needed to be sped up, and were using science and technology to try and trigger useful mutations in willing subjects, with the end goal of making everyone in the world a mutant through a mix of triggered mutaions and interbreeding between the increased mutant population and normal people.
The destruction of Galaxy City and the approach of the Battalion would have meant that they'd abandoned their ultra secret work and were now much more open about their agenda, including trying to publicly recruit volunteers for attempted mutation, and kidnapping people to carry out more dangerous mutation experiments on, as well as plans to contaminate food and water supplies with mutating serum and so on.
They'd have started out as crazed fanatics who'd become more and more evil, but they'd still think that they were doing the world a favor.

The problem with a mutant-themed story is that you can't make it about discrimination, since that no longer exists.

Aside from that I'm not sure what you could do.

I think mutant is so popular cause you can cheat with at the SO stores.

As an aside, to be fair to Vanguard and those "They're among us!" posters... they're not wrong. There are Rikti infiltrators that can pass for human. Kelly Uqua, for instance. Not to mention all the other infiltrators about, such as Nemesis automatons, Arachnos spies, etc.

... great, now I'm imagining a company or agency who's entire staff is made up of various evil infiltrators working at cross purposes. Like the Rikti infiltrators in human resources clashing with the automatons in accounting.

Two quotes have usually come to mind when thinking about X-people in the MU. First, from Twisted Toyfare Theatre

Cyclops: "Sorry we're late, everyone, but we were busy saving a world that fears and hates us. Then I had to send my son into the future --"
Beyonder: "Oh, shut up! Teenagers with cool superpowers, surrounded by hot chicks? I wish I had your problems!"


And more recently, from Mass Effect 3:

Joker: "Hey, I'm just tired of them"(meaning biotics) "stealing the spotlight from people with actual disabilities. I break ribs if I sneeze too hard. Being able to move crap with your mind is not a handicap."

Unlike the other low-level gangs like the Hellions, Skulls and Trolls, the Outcasts are a group of people who didn't outright seek power but were born with it instead, and some of the more powerful members have deviated so much from the normal human norm that even their appearance is altered. They never had any chance to live a normal life - who would hire a blue-skinned guy that could cook a person alive with a twitch of his fingers? The whole Outcasts - Frostfire saga is about a gang of displaced mutants who were segregated from society and forced to a life of petty crime, eventually exiled to the Hollows due to the persecution that ensued.

That said, the OP is right, every other origin is given alot more storylines and settings than Mutant. Somehow, even the whole psychic/widow/sibyl/seer thing got swallowed by Natural, and that is just sad. Marvel doesn't owe the mutant concept, and this game could use more mutant flavor in the late teens, early twenties, I say. End-game mutant threat I'd oppose, though, unless it's only one really strong omega-level mutant and not a whole army of nameless supergrunts pulled out of a hat - while there could be many low-level mutants in the world, really powerful mutants should (by logic) be as rare as the other origins (with individually detailed pasts), and most of those roles should be filled by the players.

Well Psyche did have a Theories to how Mutants came to be in the Origin of Power Story Arc, goes like this for Mutants.

You and I are both mutants. Well, we've been classified that way, anyway. I actually disagree with the classification of mutants in general because I feel the class is too broad of one. Posi told me once that a mutant was a new organism that is produced by some sort of change in the gene. It doesn't talk at all about how the change was produced though. Guys like Synapse would be considered mutant by that description, but we both know they were made through science. Whereas, you and I were born different. Something else decided to make us different.
Here's an interesting fact. Did you know that there were no mutants as we call them before 1938?

Now can you tell me why?

Because we began mass production of the diesel engine.

Nosferatu released his Vampyr agent into the global water table.

Sorry, that was the wrong answer.

The correct answer was that it was the same year that the atom was split. Many believe that this had a profound effect on every living thing. That somehow this basic division rippled throughout every atom, causing the split from what we once considered normal to something else.

Now, I said the first mutant didn't show up until sometime after 1938, but that doesn't mean there weren't people like me around. Confused? Well you shouldn't be. I believe that I am not, in fact, a mutant, but something else. I'm a psionic, not a mutant. The distinction is a semantic one, but I feel is fairly important to make. There are histories all the way back to ancient Rome that talk about the Sibyls and their ability to see the future. I believe these women were the first psionics our earth has seen. I'm not an expert, but it seems to make sense to me.

For Non- Mutant she tells you this

Many people think mutants are anything that is not normal or does not fit into our society. However, I think that description is too broad. Because both you and I would fall into that category, and you're not a mutant are you?
Mutants first began appearing after 1938. This date is important because it's the same year that the first atom was split. Many believe that this division in a single atom somehow rippled through all the atoms and created a divide on what was once normal to create something else - something mutant.

If this is the case, then it shows something interesting: all atoms are connected. If the atoms are connected, then the things that bind them are as well. Who knows, maybe we all get our powers from the same place. I know Positron has some theories on that one.

I hope some degree this helps you guys figure more about it.

If you guys like my Import for them is Since there is a well Of Power, Maybe the god like Power of the well is leaking out among our world and started causing People to be Born as Mutants.

Since Markus Cole- Statesman Discovered the well power, Maybe he cause a big Change in how Human Lives are developed over time.

Maybe the Greek Gods and Norse gods of old Where Mutants.

Maybe it just best this is kept as a Mystery for now any way, let people guess and Imagine how Mutants came to be.