Collective Mutants

Fanfiction
Title:	Collective Mutants
Author(s):	Rossi
Date(s):	1999-2004
Length:	55,954 words over 11 stories
Genre(s):	gen
Fandom(s):	The Common People
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Collective Mutants at AO3
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Collective Mutants is a Common People series written by Rossi between 1999 and 2004 and posted to OTL. Despite being completely lacking in canon X-Men characters and having no superpowered battles with the forces of evil, the series about "life in an "ordinary" mutant student household" proved popular with readers. The series was entered into the CBFFA Fanfic Hall of Fame in 2001.

Allison, Karen, Fish, Fatimah and James are (mostly) university students living in a sharehouse in Melbourne. What makes them different is that they are all mutants.

This is a kind of experiment. A series of Common People stories, focussing on a household of young mutants. I have no idea if this is going to work, but I'll try anyway...

The stories are set in Melbourne, Australia, since that’s what I know best. Besides, Kielle mentioned something about seeing stories set in places other than the US...

Disclaimer: The characters are all mine, although the mutant concept belongs to Marvel. The Common People concept is Kielle's [and Phil's ]. The places are also real, but some names have been changed.

Foreword - Collective Mutants 1: Electric Sheep - Fanfiction.net

They are students. They are Australian. Yesterday the TV blew up. Really, the fact that they have an extra gene is just a cherry on the cake.

 

Series

There are eleven stories in the series, although there were seven "core" stories, posted first, and the others were written to "fill the gaps" after the end of the series. Titles marked in bold are the core stories.

• Fire and Shadow - A peek into the beginning of the "ordinary mutant household".
• Rock The Boat - Karen and Allison meet a fellow mutant on a booze cruise.
• Electric Sheep - James is looking for a place to live that won't mind the fact he is covered in bio-circuitry.
• When Toasters Go Bad - Allison just wants toast. The toaster might have other thoughts.
• Madame Butterfly - Fatimah may look like a fairy, but she has very human problems.
• Fish Out of Water - He may seem happy-go-lucky, but medical student Rafael "Fish" Giannmario has his own worries and concerns.
• Shadow Dancer - Karen is a triple minority - female, Australian Aboriginal and a mutant - and she fights for what is right. But when it's her own family she has to face, things aren't so easy.
• Home Fires - Allison finds herself having to make some difficult decisions after her father’s illness.
• Party Like There's No Tomorrow - New Year's Eve at Hope Street is particularly poignant at the end of the millennium.
• Summer Heat - Finally, Fish gets what he wants, when he visits Allison at her parents’ farm.
• Happily Ever After - The housemates get together one last time to celebrate Fatimah's wedding.

Reviews and Reactions

"Collective Mutants... Pretend for a second that you are a fic reader who has never heard of this. In fact, for the sake of clarity of my discussion, you have never heard of Rossi. Are you pretending? Pretending really hard?

"Good.

"WHAT ON EARTH HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WITH YOUR LIFE YOU LAZY BUM??!!!?? GET OUT THERE AND READ COLLECTIVE MUTANTS! NOW! AND WORSHIP AT ROSSI'S FEET LIKE ALL WELL-ROUNDED WRITERS DO!!"

 

That was real cool! I'm not a big X-men fan but my room mate is and he wont stop pestering me so I finally just tore the room in half and told him to talk to someone who cares, but I can relate to James, I'm good with electronics. And my twirp sister loves sheep because I'm a farm boy from Ireland, Thats about it,

Ja ne

Cyber

 

Cool. I don't usually read this sort of thing but i liked this one a lot. Very well written

 

I've been meaning to review this since I read it on OTL, but it's been a busy week. Absolutely, positively loved this - I'm so glad you relented and wrote another *chapter*, since I was incredibly depressed over the end of the last one with Fish and Allison.

While I hate to see the series end, I much prefer this ending, despite Fatimah's condition. Now, if you could just be persuaded to continue it?

Thanks for a bright spot in a hectic week!

 

Why this must be read: Because it's a fabulous use of the world of the X-Men, without ever using the X-Men.

This requires some explanation, I think. See, two talented X-Men authors (Kielle and Phil Foster) came up with an idea they called The Common People. The idea was to write stories that took place in the world of the X-Men, but the main characters had to be normal people dealing with mutations or mutants or something like that. The TCP genre created some astoundingly good writing, of which my personal favorite is Rossi's Collective Mutants series.

You will believe in these characters, root for these characters, and wish desperately you could meet them. They are real and interesting and these stories follow their trials and tribulations in a wonderful way.