The Cuckoos part of the name is derived from the novel "The Midwich Cuckoos" by John Wyndham, the book was later made in a movie called "Village of the Damned" which was also remade staring Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley. To sum it up, I borrow from Wikipedia:
The novel is set largely within the eponymous Midwich, Winshire, a typical small English village. A series of incidents near to the village one day establishes that anybody who passes a certain boundary line falls instantly unconscious; the effect extends completely around Midwich, with the unconsciousness vanishing as soon as a person re-crosses the boundary. Experimentation rules out any chemical or biological effect, whilst aerial photography reveals a peculiar silver object on the ground in the village itself.
After a period of one day the effect vanishes, along with the object. The villagers wake, apparently with no ill-effects. Some months later a follow up study reveals that every woman of child-bearing age is pregnant, with all indications that the pregnancies were initiated on the "Dayout".
When the children are born they appear normal, except that they all have blonde hair and unusual golden eyes, and their hair-strands have one flat edge, rather like a D. They have none of the genetic characteristics of their parents. As they grow up, it becomes apparent that they are at least in some respects inhuman. They experience accelerated growth and are able to use their minds to force their will on others, controlling their actions. Also, they share two distinct group minds, one for the boys, and one for the girls. The children gradually begin to exert a bigger and bigger effect on the villagers, killing several of them in retaliation for perceived attacks.
The villagers learn that the same thing has taken place in other parts of the world: an Inuit settlement in the Canadian Arctic, a cattle station in Australia's Northern Territory, and a rural Siberian village. The Inuit instinctively killed their newborn children, sensing they were not their own, while the Australian babies had all died within a few weeks, suggesting that something went wrong with the insemination process. In Siberia, the village was destroyed by the Soviet government, using long-range artillery.
The children are aware of the threat against them, and use their power to prevent any aeroplanes from flying over the village. Realising that the only way to destroy the children is to trick them, an elderly Midwich citizen uses their trust in him to gather them together. Some projecting equipment he has brought with him to show slides turns out to be a bomb, which he uses to kill himself and all the children.
The title is a reference to the cuckoo, which lays its eggs in the nest of other birds in the hopes that they will raise the cuckoo's offspring as their own. <----Sound familiar?????
It makes me wonder, if there were a hive mind of female telepaths and Marvel just practically copy/pasted from the novel, will there soon be a hive mind of male telepaths?
Log in to comment