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...