I think Golden Man was inspired (and I think this is explained in the notes at the end of the eponymous story collection) because editors of SF magazines at the time had a rule that mutants had to be portrayed as wise and all knowing and that all mutation was for the betterment of mankind because they were a mutant that had survived mother nature’s test and PKD could envision a situation or a mutation that was survivable and even able to spread it’s DNA but not be intellectually superior like the SF editors demanded.
The Golden Man is a beautiful idiot. Women find him sexually irresistible because of his mutation and he is difficult to catch because his pregog ability but he only really lives to breed indiscriminately and other then procreation, produces does little else.
Sorry I miss you main point.
I guess I never thought about Golden Man and X-men since Golden Man was not a beneficial mutation to humankind as a whole.
I think the big thing that inspires X-men was the success of Peter Parker, a teen age super hero and so why not follow that up with a team of teenage super heroes.
Probably at the time there were lots of mutant stories in the SF magazines to draw inspiration from that were much more positive then Golden Man.
I think Baby is Three might be more of an inspiration, I think that’s the name of the story about a group of mutant children who form sort of a super-organism when they work together.