[Criticism Corner] Is Elsa an Omega Level Mutant? (Patreon)

 So I've been working on a BUNCH of other videos, but this came to mind while I was playing Kingdom Hearts 3 and I just had to make it.  Besides, it gave me an opportunity to praise Iceman so I'm not complaining.  What do you think?  Is this script enough to be entertaining?

As a big fan of the entire Kingdom Hearts series, I’ve been seriously loving Kingdom Hearts 3.  When I played through the Frozen level though, one thing came to my mind.  Marvel’s Iceman is a powerful omega level mutant so by that logic, if Elsa was in the Marvel universe would she be one too?  Let’s dive in.

- Intro -

Let’s get a couple of things out of the way before we get into it.  Some of y’all are bound to make comments about how Elsa can’t be a mutant because that would require her to have the X-gene.  That’s a fair point, but to play devil’s advocate, Elsa was specifically born with her powers and a less scientifically advanced civilization would probably classify any abnormal powers as magic so I feel like it’s a sound comparison.  Besides, where’s the fun in writing off an entire discussion over such a small technicality?

The second bit of housekeeping is to define what an omega level mutant even is in the first place.  That’s a bit hard to do since well… there isn’t a specific definition.  In his writings, Professor Charles Xavier said that he thinks of omega level mutants being those of unlimited potential.  I mean just look at some of the other mutants that are confirmed to be omega level like Jean Grey and her seemingly endless telekinetic powers, Elixir who can manipulate the body’s functions at a genetic level, and Vulcan who can absorb, channel, and harness virtual any kind of energy.  These are some strong guys, but in order to try and gauge Elsa’s omega...ness, let’s compare her with Bobby Drake A.K.A. Iceman.  But first, let’s take a look at what she’s been shown to be able to do with her powers.

So even at a young age, Elsa was doing quite a bit with her powers.  We’ve seen her freeze the ground, fill an entire ballroom with snowflakes, create large piles of snow, and fire ice blasts strong enough to scoot her, Ana, and a snowman together across ice.  Probably her greatest feat at this age was after she accidentally shot Ana with an ice blast and she unintentionally froze the entire ballroom.  If her parents didn’t burst in and intervene, it’s very well possible that this could have gotten a lot worse.

Compare that to Bobby when he first joined the X-Men.  At first, he was just a walking showman that could make some icy constructs.  They were pretty much on par at the time.  Since then, Bobby went on to better hone his abilities whereas the only work Elsa did was to conceal, not feel.  So remember, all of the feats that Elsa performs as an adult is with minimal training or even intention.

Fast forward to Elsa’s coronation when she and Ana got into their public fight.  The icicles she produced were much larger and menacing than anything she had made prior.  Also notice how these are solid ice as opposed to snow.  This is an evolution to her powers similarly to how when Iceman learned how to change into his more solid ice form and at the same time, his constructs went from snow to solid ice.  This can also be seen during “Let It Go” where we see that Elsa starts building her staircase out of snow before it solidifies into ice.  She instantly surpasses this limitation as she grows more confident, growing growing her ice castle primarily in this secondary form.  Bobby’s ice constructs are able to be just as large and can even be a bit more complex.  My personal favorite is when he made his very own Voltron.

If we circle back around to the coronation, this is when we get arguably Elsa’s greatest feat, she unintentionally send all of Arendelle into winter in the middle of summer.  This was such an intense cold that Elsa was able to freeze an entire fjord, trapping plenty of large ships in the process.  At the end of the movie, this was all undone just as quick.  As impressive as this is though, I want to actually focus on another, possibly equally impressive one, the golems.

So during the events of Frozen, Elsa creates two golems, Olaf and Marshmallow.  These have their own personalities and are completely autonomous as evidenced by how Elsa didn’t even know that Olaf was around.  If she didn’t know that Olaf existed, there’s no way that she was controlling his actions.  While Iceman has been able to create his own golems and doppelgangers, most times in great quantities, it’s a bit hard to tell just how autonomous they really are.  In most cases, Bobby just uses them as distractions or as an attack, but an alternate future version of him did manage to create an Ice Hulk that completely betrayed him so I guess the potential is there.

Another thing to mention is that once summer returned at the end of Frozen, Olaf started to melt pretty quickly.  Although Bobby’s golems usually don’t exist for long, they tend to keep their cool and don’t tend to melt during combat regardless of season.  Now Elsa was able to create a miniature flurry for Olaf so her golems do have the ability to resist natural heat so I’d say that’s pretty even.

As for the strength of the ice itself, we’ve seen that Elsa’s abilities were strong enough to break though the iron locks of her shackles, but also one of the blasts that Elsa hit Anna with during the course of the film caused her to turn into an ice sculpture strong enough to shatter Prince Hans’ sword.  Because Elsa’s powers were directly responsible for the creation of the ice that Ana became encased in, let’s just say that’s the strongest ice that she could make.  Well Bobby’s ice is pretty durable, being able to withstand gunfire and even slashes from Daken’s claws.  It’s not a one to one comparison, but they’re both pretty strong.

That’s pretty much all the abilities Elsa really showed.  I mean besides being able to make a dress and that bit of animation where her hair phases through her arm ala Kitty Pryde.

See here’s the thing…  All of that isn’t why Iceman is an omega level mutant.  Oh sure, ice manipulation is is main power and what he started off being able to do, but Bobby has since gone on to become insanely powerful.

Although he mostly uses ice, Bobby has control over most water, being able to turn into liquid travel through it and even reconstruct his body using moisture.  That’s a while realm of powers that Elsa isn’t shown to have.  Even with JUST the ability to create ice, Elsa’s greatest feat is making it winter in her kingdom.  Iceman is so strong that he literally froze a part of Hell.  It didn’t last long and he was exhausted afterwards, bit still.  IT’S HELL!  I think that’s a bit more impressive.(Amazing X-Men Vol 2 #2 - 2014)

When he was powered up with a Death Seed, Bobby was able to turn into steam, make the entire PLANET experience winter and through all that snow, Iceman could see everything, giving him the omnipresent clarity of a god. (Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 #64 - 2013)

If Iceman only had his ice powers and was still classified as omega level then I’d say that Elsa would be evenly matched, but the abilities we’ve seen Bobby use far surpass anything she’d be capable of.  Now I would like to remind you about something I said at the top of the video, Professor X defined omega level mutants as those of unlimited POTENTIAL.  After all, we’ve had decades worth of stories to learn about Iceman and watch his powers develop compared to Elsa’s one movie and a couple of short films.  It’s within the realm of possibility for Elsa to practice and get stronger, but to the extent that Iceman has shown?  Yeah… it’s not likely.

Of course, I’m making this video before Frozen 2 comes out so who knows, maybe we get a new bunch of feats that make Elsa’s appearance in the first movie look like child’s play, but I’m not holding my breath.  So for those of you hoping that Elsa is omega level?  Just let it go.