....cards have no mutant trait??? all of them??? is this a mistake...this sucks!!! the mutant trait is a new game play and the cards in the starter don't have it??? vs messed up!!!

The starters are just that.

Starter cards.

Cards for people just starting the game.

And thus, not very complicated at all.

this actually gave my boys burn deck a boost

If you read the article on the starter on Metagame, they give the full explanation on why the cards had no mutant traits, which can be summarized that the starter is intended to get players into the game slowly without overwhelming them.

The way I figure it, if you even care about mutant traits, the Starter probably isn't for you. Newbies have to have a jumping on point, and I think the Fantastic Four/Batman/X-men Starter are a really good at that - using the Bats starter, I taught my brother the fundamentals of the game. Than I moved him up a bit with Spiderman starter. Now, he is a pretty fine player, still learning a lot of stuff, but on his way to be better than me ( and loving the Wild Pack deck I made him :p ).