The Land That Mind Control Never Forgot Part III: Savage Send Offs

The X-treme X-men are still in the Savage Land, which would explain why this particular four part mini series is called X-treme X-men: Savage Land.
Issue # 4 opens with the Black Bird landing in the village square, piloted by Bishop and Sage, and filled with the Saurid children believed lost when the plane crashed. Fortunately, Sage had been able to restore the plane's flight capabilities and now the X-men and Saurids were reunited once again. All seemed right in the world until the Savage Land Mutates attacked the village... led by Storm.

Luckily, there was still some additional mind control to be had...

Losing the spikes around her slave collar for some reason, Leash mind controlled Thunderbird, forcing him to kill Bishop... and while the future X-man did indeed seem to perish, trying to wound an energy absorbing mutant with plasma isn't exactly lethal.

In the end, Rogue took the fight to Brain Child himself who was more than ready for her...

Unfortunately, Brain Child was aware of Rogue's inner turmoil and used his powers to cause a shooting war inside her head between herself and everyone she ever took over. By the by, Rogue never imprinted comedienne Roseanne Barr but sheesh... the visual similarities between Roseanne and Rogue in this mini are striking...

Instead, Rogue literally had to fight everyone she ever touched, which made for an interesting splash panel to say the least...

While Rogue is busy struggling against her inner demons, Beast finally managed to break free from Lupa's mind control... right in time to save the helpless Rogue from the still feral and blood thirsty Storm who now acted as Brain Child's bodyguard. Rogue only managed to free herself when Storm throws Beast on top of her and she took over his form and abilities...

Speaking of people taking over other people... Let's see what the supervillain Leash is up to...

Leash had the misfortune of running into the X-men's mentat Sage... A cold and calculating woman who knew exactly what the mind controlling mutate was planning: win the day by forcing the captives in Brain Child's slave pens to help out. Still, Leash merely considered Sage a temporary inconvenience.

"Before Leash is even aware of what's happening her attack is reflected back on her. Instead of being the mistress... she finds herself the slave."

Leash was now under someone else's control and the sly Sage cleverly used her new slave to take over Brain Child, thus ending all the hostilities... However, the aftermath proved rather intense for Storm who remained in her feral form for quite some time afterwards. Luckily the Beast had some choice advice.

"And I have no answers. I wish to hell I did. I'm sorry."

That is some status quo shake up. Not only did Brain Child revert her to a murderous, savage state... he also  made it stick. Even when she regained control of her faculties, Storm still longed for the urges provided by the inner demon she had willingly embraced under Brain Child's thrall.

Yet, the final panels provided a hopeful message.

"But you're not alone in this, Ororo. We are FAMILY.
And with that on your side... EVERYTHING... becomes possible!"

Everything becomes possible indeed... such as Storm abruptly forgetting this mind and life altering event altogether when the X-treme X-men series continued. Hey, Henry *DID* say that éverything was possible.

Speaking of impossible dreams, this concludes the 150th Chris Claremont: Mind Control Central post. It's been a bumpy ride, but let's continue on to # 200 and see where it ends up... Should be fun!

The Land That Mind Control Never Forgot Part II: Savage Is The Controlled Mind

When we last left the X-treme X-men, they had travelled to the Savage Land along with a band of  American born reptile people who wanted to start a new life there. Unfortunately, the team ran into some old enemies as Brain Child and his Savage Land Mutates caused a cave in that crashed the X-men's Black Bird jet.

Brain Child decided to stir up conflict between the human settlers of the Savage Land and their Saurid neighbors, hoping to benefit from the ensuing war and grab control. But he wasn't above personal vendettas considering he kidnapped Storm to settle some old bets and use a little mind control to boot.

Storm was valiant and defiant as always, but Brain Child's promise to have her betray everything she ever cherished in favor of loving the passion and cruelty of murder wasn't exactly an empty one... Just look what being subjected to the primeval genius' experiments can do to you...

"There will be MURDER. There will be WAR! Thanks to my emissary... Storm!"

Yup, in a move reminiscent of his first run in with the X-men back in 1982's Marvel Fanfare, Brain Child had used his machinery to devolve the X-men's leader to a more primal, bloodthirsty warrior version of herself. Dressed in war paint, with claws and featers for hair... the pierced Storm was now evil and that means dressing up in black leather and wearing a slave collar... 

But, bless her for trying, she still tried to resist her reprogramming...

"That's my girl!"

Some of the other X-men had been captured by Brain Child as well. But they had to deal with his female operatives, both capable of controlling minds and binding people to their wills. Here's why Leash is called Leash...  

Unfortunately, Rogue's powers made it impossible for Leash to control her. A shame... But for those of you rereading the arc, it's never explained how Rogue became a prisoner of Brain Child by issue 3 of the mini, let alone how she esacped captivity. A couple of pages after Leash's failed attempt at mind controlling her, she just shows up at the village the other X-men have been staying at without mentioning what just happened to her. Weird.

Still, doesn't it look like she borrowed some of her clothes to Brain Child when he he needed a new outfit for the devolved Storm? Speaking of primal girls in skimpy clothes, the second sexy slaver is the lupine woman called Lupa, who revealed herself to be working for the evil mastermind as well....

 "If these X-men are so great a threat why not kill them? There are four of them within our walls."

Say what? There's Storm and for some reason Rogue, but who are the other two? Bishop and Sage remain with the Saurid kids inside the crashed Blackbird, trying to get the plane operational... While Thunderbird and Beast are in the village, so that's everyone accounted for, right?

And just how Lupa manages to leave and return to the village undetected... not to mention in time to join the X-men and the human warriors in a final battle against the Saurids isn't revealed. She's just there... Shoddy writing at its worst.

Speaking of shoddy, the eventual confrontation between human and saurid warriors is tepid at best. There's a few nice panels with velociraptors tearing into whatever moves, but in the end Rogue forces both parties to settle their differences and make peace. She even has them shake on it. 

That concludes issue # 3, so with one more 22 page fun filled fest to go, let's see how all of this is wrapped up in the third and final part of The Land That Mind Control Never Forgot: Savage Send Offs
 

The Land That Mind Control Never Forgot Part I: Welcome Back To The Jungle

Back in 2002, Chris Claremont wrote a four part X-treme X-men miniseries in which the team travelled to the Savage Land to check out just why Rogue was having horrible nightmares about the team turning into ferocious dinosaurs. Believing it to be a vision and a psychic request from some unknown source, Rogue managed to persuade team leader Storm to get to the bottom of this.

However, Rogue's teammate Bishop didn't buy into this theory of psychic requests...

A valid point, Rogue *had* been a bit of a mess in those days. With her absorption powers gone haywire, she manifested the powersets of everyone she had ever touched. What if the personality of the bad guys she had taken over would suddenly reemerge and take control of her mind? Luckily, Rogue's visions were genuine as the X-men find the source of the psychic messages...

Actually, this band of intelligent dinosaurs doesn't come out of left field (well, not entirely). Delving into late 70s (!) continuity, Claremont reintroduces the Saurids... A tribe of sentient, super powered reptiles who used to live a sheltered, underground life in the American south west before Ms. Marvel ran across them in her Claremont penned solo series.

Ms. Marvel was only allowed to leave their nest alive after promising to keep the Saurids' existence a secret. It makes sense that Rogue, who still had all of Ms. Marvel's memories and powers at the time, was susceptible to the Saurid's psychic summons.

Turns out they need help: their old nest is no longer safe and the tribe wants to relocate to the Savage Land where they expect to be free from both prosecution and prying eyes. The X-men agree to take them there...However, their entrance into the Savage Land is hindered when Brain Child of the Savage Land Mutates triggers a rock slide that crashes the X-men's Blackbird jet. He gleefully picks up the prize for his handiwork...

While Storm is taken prisoner, the other X-men eventually wake up to find themselves in one of the human settlements that dot the Savage Land. Neophyte member Thunderbird (Neil Shaara) tries to reach out to founding member Henry McCoy for guidance, but the Beast appears to be... occupied...

The lupine woman calling herself Lupa shares an instant attraction with Hank... but as it turns out, that's just the way she'd planned it...

"Drink deeply as the intoxicating scent of the blood lotus combines with my own pheromones... to bind...you to my will FOREVER!"

Now surely, that might just as well be more of that typical hyperbole villains tend to spout. This leather cladvixen is undoubtedly little more than all talk, right?

Or maybe not...

So, how is Storm holding up through all this?

Kudos to Claremont for picking up on the storyline he set up two decades earlier when Brainchild captured Storm for the first time and made similar... promises....

With at least two of their own not in their right minds, the X-treme team seemed to be in way in over their heads, mind controlled or otherwise. The resolution to this four part miniseries will reveal all, so check back for The Land That Mind Control Never Forgot Part II: Savage Is The Controlled Mind

Mind Control Is Anything But The X-Factor Part II: Moon River, Mind Control For Over A Mile...

It's 1991 and Peter David is getting ready to take over X-Factor...

So in the second part of Mind Control Is Anything But The X-Factor... Chris Claremont continues to tie up all the loose plot threads from the 60+ issues of Cyclops and co before his brother Havok can head up David's new government licensed X-Factor.

When we last left the original team, their archenemy Apocalypse had struck a serious blow by having his Dark Riders attack them in their own base, the sentient Celestial machine Ship. The Dark Rider called Harddrive knew how to deal with that...

But, if at first you don't succeed... try, try again... Once Harddrive was inside Ship, she tried again to assume control over its programming. With decidely more success...

Ah, heck yeah... Ship, an entity the size of a skyscraper, suddenly started wrecking half of Manhattan in the truly confusing opening spread to issue # 66. While the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were outside trying to protect innocent bystanders, another war raged on inside. The main struggle is between Ship and his 'mind' controlling...

Apocalypse had managed to enslave the Celestial vessel for centuries before X-Factor came along to liberate it... so it tried valiantly to resist his former master's demands, eventually making the ultimate sacrifice.

\\

Yup... that's Ship blasting off into space to self destruct with X-Factor... Apocalypse and the Dark Riders had already abandoned, erm, ship... but what's worse: they'd also kidnapped Scott's son Nathan Summers. Apocalypse had plans for the small baby, but X-Factor seemed utterly unable to stop him... especially because their headquarters literally blew up around them in the closing pages of issue # 66.

Thankfully, issue # 67 had the Inhumans of all people show up to rescue X-Factor.

Yes, it seemed Apocalypse had taken over the Inhuman capital of Attilan on the Moon, casting out its rulers, the royal family. Joining forces, the two teams realised they couldn't just barge into Attilan. The Inhumans didn't want to hurt their subjects, not to mention their kidnapped queen Medusa... and X-Factor is understandably concerned for baby Nathan's safety as well.

Cleverly employing holograms to evade Apocalypse's main forces,  X-Factor and the royal family manage to penetrate En Sabah Nur's inner chambers in issue # 68... Yet, before they can stare down the one who cannot die, they learn the fate of Medusa....

Ahhh, yeah... True to Claremontian fashion, the mind controlled Medusa chose to dress in black leather attire, a sure sign of her switched allegiance. But she isn't the only one susceptible to the immortal one's influence.

Yup, Apocalypse is also mind controlling Crystal at this point, with no apparent set up or explanation... A simple 'just cos' is all we have to go on as Chris Claremont's X-Factor arc draws to a close and Apocalypse's true motivations are revealed: the villain has infected Scott's son Nathan with a techno organic virus that threatened to consume him. This invasive process was so painful, Nathan's latent telepathic powers kicked in and drew Jean on to the astral plane once again where she had to fight for the little one's soul...

The techno organic virus was so potent, it took the shape of its creator Apocalypse, young Nathan symbolically trapped within his monstrous form. In the end, Jean managed to restore her old psi-link to Cyclops and together they continued to fight for the child. Eventually, Cyclops' eye blasts manage to cast Apocalypse out... but the baby remained infected by the rapidly progressing techno organic plague.

Luckily, Claremont introduced a cop out to all this drama a few issues earlier: Askani, a weird woman from the future claiming to be of the Summers' clan who happens to worship the little babe, calling him the chosen one. Scott found himself faced with a terrible decision: either watch his child die in the present or allow Nathan a future by letting Askani take him to, well, the actual future.

And with that, Cyclops releases his only child to the care of the Askani brotherhood hailing from the year 3000. A move that would result in the creation of Cable down the line, but for now Chris Claremont had succeeded in his task: without a headquarters or any ties and responsibilities left to speak of, the members of X-Factor were more or less pushed to rejoin the X-men at professor Xavier's school in Westchester county.

For more on their first real adventure as part of the team, click HERE.

Mind Control Is Anything But The X-Factor Part I: I Dream Of Jeannie On The Astral Plane

So, does anyone remember Chris Claremont writing X-Factor?

It's true! Working from a plot dreamed up by Jim Lee, Claremont wrote a storyline in X-Factor # 65-68  that tried to wrap up the team's adventures before the group was absorbed back into the X-men in time for the massive rehaul of the X-titles in the Summer of 1991.

Claremont's deck clearing exercise involved Apocalypse, his new team of lackeys the Dark Riders and quite a bit of mind control. In the opening pages the Dark Riders are asked by En Sabah Nur to evaluate their enemies and point out best possible strategies to eliminate them. The telepathic member Psynapse knew how to deal with Jean Grey...

Psynapse certainly seemed very confident. And he got the chance to back up his bravado when Apocalypse sent the Dark Riders to deal with X-Factor head on... by literally crashing into their New York city headquarters Ship, a sentient piece of Celestial hardware Apocalypse himself once used as a base.

While his fellow Dark Riders kept the male members of X-Factor occupied, Psynapse sought out Jean and used a clever strategy: he yanked her straight out of her body on to the astral plane, the one place a powerful telekinetic like Jean was truly vulnerable...Without her telepathy, she was unable to defend herself. So the real fun began...

Yes, Psynapse was having his fun with poor old Jean... In true Claremontian fashion he reverted her to a child and proceeded to have his way with her...

Making Jean relive the intense trauma of her childhood friend Annie dying in her arms, history repeats itself. At the site of Annie's accident, Jean's telepathy first broke through... Confronted with the same tragedy again, her dormant telepathic powers seemingly returned when she links her mind with her teammates...

But just as Psynapse is getting ready to take his control of Jean's mind to the next level... completely covering her in the darkness he's forming around her, X-Factor arrives to disrupt the process in the real world. Having stopped what they think is the last Dark Rider, they approach the vessel used to ram into Ship... right in time to meet Apocalypse and the last member of the Dark Riders... Mainframe.

"Ship... status report! Ship, respond at once! What's your situation?!"

The answer to that will become apparent in the second part of Mind Control Is Anything But The X-Factor: Moon River, Mind Control For Over A Mile...

She-Daredeviling Some Mind Control

It's 1974 again and Chris Claremont is asked to script an issue of Daredevil...

Picking up where regular writer Steve Gerber left off, Chris is faced with the second chapter of a two parter that ended with regular Daredevil baddie The Owl capturing both Daredevil and his lady love Natasha Romanova... better known as the Black Widow. Let's see how Chris chose to continue this particular classic...

But of course!

The only logical way for this particular story to continue is to have the Owl draining Daredevil's mind, leaving him a pliable husk to do with as he pleases.

Do you FEEL it working, MAN-WITHOUT-FEAR? Do you feel my MIND-MACHINE sucking away at your THOUGHTS? Your IDENTITY? YOUR VERY SOUL?

The Owl had planned to make the Black Widow watch in utter agony as Daredevil's mind got controlled... But heck, no way Natasha Romanoff's gonna lie idly by. She's the Black Widow after all...

With a decisive *ZRAPT!*, courtesy of her Widow's blasters, Natasha destroyed the Owl's mind transferal machinery, right befofre freeing herself. Yet, the evil mastermind still managed to press her into service, by pointing a gun at the helpless Daredevil. 

The Owl ordered her to take out a certain zoologist lady that had been a thorn in his side. Reluctantly agreeing to this hit-and-run deal, the Widow took off to find and deal with her reluctant target...But much to everyone's surprise and the rejoice of teen boys everywhere the promised final confrontation ended with sexy time.

Just who is that woman in the skimpy nightey that she can actually toss around KGB-trained special operative Black Widow? Well, take three guesses and the first two don't count...

Oddly enough, the Owl was unaware of zoologist Shanna O'Hara's dual identity. He merely wanted to capture the scientist so she could teach him all about the upcoming animal world order. However, he got the mad as heck Shanna the She-Devil, who paired up with the Black Widow to take him down.

During the final confrontation, the Owl tried to escape the combined Shanna, the Black Widow and Daredevil by using a blinding gas attack. However, it's rather hard to take the sight of a man who is blind to begin with. So, the Owl's escape was easily thwarted by Daredevil who could still 'see'...

"Funny, isn't it? The Owl tripped himself up this time"

And with that corker of an exit line, straight from a 1960s Batman episode, we end the slice of silver age goofiness that is Daredevil # 117... A real hoot!

What If... You Used Some Mind Control?

It's no big secret Chris Claremont had originally planned to spare Jean Grey's life at the end of the classic Dark Phoenix Saga. After losing their fight with the Shi'ar Imperial Guard on the Moon, Jean was to undergo a psychic lobotomy, a "procedure that destroyed the parts of her brain related to her powers" after which she would be sent on her merry way.

At the 11th hour, Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter balked at this notion, claiming that Jean would have to pay for the crimes of Dark Phoenix (destroying a star, blowing up a planet, y'know, little misdemeanors like that). So Jean had to die, by her own hand, forcing Claremont and Byrne to rethink the long term planning for the book on the fly.

Luckily, the What If?-series allowed Claremont to answer that one question fans had: what if Phoenix had lived? The story shown in What If? # 32 largely followed Claremont's original plans. Chris had always wanted Scott and Jean to leave the team after the affair with the Phoenix. Settling down and enjoying a normal life for a few months, their relative peace and quiet ended with the late night arrival of their oldest foe.

In Claremont's original plans, Magneto would also show up around Uncanny X-men # 150 to make Jean a very similar proposal...

Magneto offered to restore Jean's powers and she was tempted to say the least. The loss of her telepathy had severely handicapped her. She even likened it to missing a sense or a limb. She felt locked inside her head, like her own mind was a prison cell. So, why wouldn't she accept it? Let's see what she did. 

Jean's refusal was a part of Claremont's outline as well. Her choice influenced Magneto to rethink his evil ways somewhat, a move not too dissimilar from what happened in the 'real' Uncanny X-men # 150. In that issue, the X-men also faced Magneto who threatened the entire world in his classic silver age mad villain sort of way... But revealing a sudden humanity when he was shocked to learn his 'evil' actions caused the X-men's youngest member Kitty Pryde considerable harm.

Getting back to the alternate reality at hand... After their adventure against Magneto, Jean felt more at peace and ready to move on with her life. Returning to college and graduating with a degree in education, she joined Professor Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters as a teacher to the New Mutants...

And speaking of new mutants, not too long after that she gave birth to a baby girl named Rachel. Everything seemed to be going Jean's way... that is, until several months later tragedy struck again.

Much to her surprise Scott actually shows up. Sort of. Turns out, she's being mind controlled by a very familiar old foe... Mastermind.

Mastermind's illusions are intense and powerful... even slightly disturbing... Watch for the melting infant with the spike sticking out of her eye...

But in the meantime... you are mine, body and soul!"

Apparently, Jean didn't think that was too nice and she heroically fought back against Mastermind's illusion, even knocking him out. However, all that did was reveal the true villain...

Ahhh, yeah... It's the granddaddy of all things mind control... The Shadow King. He had been watching Jean from the shadows, slowly taking over Mastermind's mind, biding his time until the right moment presented itself... And with the X-men and New Mutants off to fight in the first Secret Wars, he finally made his move.

Jean thought the Shadow King was after her.

She was wrong.

The Shadow King controlled Mastermind took off with baby Rachel, leaving Jean dead on the floor of the nursery. However, this is where we find out 'Jean' isn't really Jean after all. As established in 616-continuity, the real Jean Grey never became Phoenix.

Marvel Girl turned into Phoenix in X-men # 100, however years later it was revealed that rather than empowering Jean, the force actually assumed Jean's physical form and took over her life, leaving the young girl in a cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay.

The same thing happened here, but the Phoenix had used her own powers to make herself forget she wasn't the real thing (... mind controlling your own mind? That's gotta be a first!). However, dying restored both the Phoenix's memories and powers, leaving her with a horrifying realisation.

The right thing would be to restore the real Jean to life, allowing her to take over... But that would giving up the life Phoenix had with Scott, not to mention baby Rachel... Could she truly be that noble and heroic? 

Phoenix essentially murdered Jean... taking over her life forever. And who would ever know, right? The issue ends with a cliffhanger, after all the threat of the Shadow King still had to be dealt with.

However, that next issue wasn't written by Claremont so let's not go into it that much. Suffice it to say, the Shadow King's powers were no match for the Phoenix' fires... nor were the Sentinels and lord knows what other X-men baddie showed up. Yet, in the end Phoenix realised she was just too powerful and dangerous to remain on Earth... So she choose to leave her life behind in order to save the entire planet.

Talk about repentance...