Marx, Sparkplug, the Lucranians, and the Topsiders are the only ones truly immune because they haven’t been exposed to the mutating agent. The other humans apparently mutated into themselves.
If the agent isn’t a virus, and it acts on exposure to the air, then a good vector would be a gas. Someone could have developed a Terrigen Mist that turns people into cartoon characters instead of Inhumans with powers. But then Marx and the Lucranians should be affected…
Or maybe it’s a binary effect of Amesworth radiation exposure interacting with exposure to the agent, but it needs both. Most people who survived the End were exposed to the radiation, which is no longer ambient, but its effects remain in their bodies. Topsiders haven’t been exposed to the agent, but when they are, they mutate. Sparkplug counteracted the radiation, so when exposed to the agent, it had no effect. Extradimensionals like Marx and the Lucranians haven’t been exposed to the radiation, so the agent would have no effect. The agent could be a virus after all, but Edmund wouldn’t know it because it’s harmless without the radiation and its captain wasn’t irradiated. Fox Marx was apparently exposed to both, but if the Marxes know about the interaction, they’re not saying.
About the mutations…
Marx, Sparkplug, the Lucranians, and the Topsiders are the only ones truly immune because they haven’t been exposed to the mutating agent. The other humans apparently mutated into themselves.
If the agent isn’t a virus, and it acts on exposure to the air, then a good vector would be a gas. Someone could have developed a Terrigen Mist that turns people into cartoon characters instead of Inhumans with powers. But then Marx and the Lucranians should be affected…
Or maybe it’s a binary effect of Amesworth radiation exposure interacting with exposure to the agent, but it needs both. Most people who survived the End were exposed to the radiation, which is no longer ambient, but its effects remain in their bodies. Topsiders haven’t been exposed to the agent, but when they are, they mutate. Sparkplug counteracted the radiation, so when exposed to the agent, it had no effect. Extradimensionals like Marx and the Lucranians haven’t been exposed to the radiation, so the agent would have no effect. The agent could be a virus after all, but Edmund wouldn’t know it because it’s harmless without the radiation and its captain wasn’t irradiated. Fox Marx was apparently exposed to both, but if the Marxes know about the interaction, they’re not saying.