asgardian wars. in an old x-men graphic novel, the x-men team up with alpha flight and venture to the canadian artics to investigate the disappearance of cyclops and madeleine pryor. upon arrival they find that all the humans who crash landed with cyclops have gained supernatural powers. in addition, the frozen tundra has been transformed into a sunny utopia. the humans were given powers that related to their natural gifts and passions. the architect could now build anything, raising fully constructed buildings out of the ground. the cook could conjure up a smorgasbord of food (and clothing) out of thin air. the medic could heal all diseases and eliminate curses such as cyclops' uncontrollable optic blasts, puck's dwarfism, rogue's inability to touch other people and aurora's split personality. with such miraculous gifts at their disposal, the humans were convinced that they could eliminate all the world's problems -- poverty, hunger, etc. some of the x-men saw this as a chance to eliminate the bigotry that existed against mutants because if everyone became endowed with powers and gifts, there would be no need to hate and fear super powered homo superiors.



of course this kind of gift came with a twist. it turns out that loki, the norse god of trickery and lies, had been responsible for this magical source of power. by granting super powers to normal humans, he in turn took away their imagination and creativity. the architect could create or copy anything he had previously sketched but he could no longer design or innovate or improve upon his drawings. the provider of food and clothing could perfectly replicate any recipes or clothing items but could no longer come up with anything of her own. once the x-men were confronted with this twist, they decided that mutants would be persecuted anyway, because they would be the only ones left with any imagination. as cyclops says, "we'll be the dreamers in a world that can't. how long before we're resented for that -- and then hated, and then killed?!"



in short, this x-men graphic novel, "the gift", brings up a great question: at what price, creativity? are we willing to give up our imaginations in exchange for great power and the ability to build, construct, heal? the architect didn't think so. he said, "what was important to me -- what gave my life meaning -- wasn't the ability to build, but to create! what good is my power if it costs my imagination?" do we want to look up in the sky and see a cloud as just a cloud? and not a rabbit or a puffy dragon? are we willing to put aside what essentially makes us human to become super humans?



the answer differs, i think, depending on what type of person you are. some people are willing to sacrifice their creativity because what is important to them is the craft, the building, the doing. some people on the other hand, survive on their creativity and value it above all else. which kind of person are you?



me, i would really trade in anything to have optic blasts, to be able to teleport, to have super regeneration and adamantium claws. but then again, some people call me childish. i prefer to think of it as keeping a certain perspective about the important things in life. c'mon, claws man! claws!