Tuesday, April 9, 2013

And The World Burns To White Hot Mind Control Part I: Does Everything Revolve Around That Bloody Bird?

Sometimes, Chris Claremont doesn't come up with mind control... he just goes along with it.

Flashback to the Spring of 2005 and a little Marvel event called House of M.

The Scarlet Witch has gone quite mad, using her massive reality warping powers to, well, warp reality... reshaping anyone and anything as she saw fit. Every single affected Marvel title referred to the reality warp as 'the world burning to white', just before it got replaced with whatever new reality Wanda had dreamed up.

The X-men weren't safe either...


"Betsy, I've lost their thoughts! I can't sense anyone!"

The X-men were in Africa when Wanda's warp hit... Quickly forgetting their battle with the weaponeers of Al-Khalad, Psylocke and Phoenix combined their powers to escape the reality altering wave, instead arriving in a whole 'nother dimension...


"Oh, for goodness sakes!"

Betsy's exasparated shout isn't without merit... The Phoenix, or as she refered to it 'that bloody bird' had served as the deus ex machina to whatever the problem was. Rachel and Betsy were in the 'white hot room', a concept introduced by Grant Morrison near the end of his New X-men run... This space serves as both the afterlife and a base of operation for the Phoenix.

But Betsy has it easy, compared to her brother... Brian Braddock, better known as Captain Britain, one of the guardians of the Omniverse. Wanda's reality altering shenanigans has had a profound impact on most of the alternate realities Brian and his colleagues in the Captain Britain Corps have sworn to protect... Resulting in a trans temporal tsunami, of sorts.

What's worse, Brian's wife Meggan is severly effected by the impact of the altered realities crashing  in on her, shifting forms and identities by the second, losing her sense of self like never before.


"It is the end, my love. Of all that is! Of all that will ever be!" 

And what's worse... the Omniversal palace Brian has called home is being invaded by alternate reality villain, such as an all new, all different... all male team of female X-men. 'Butch' gets a new definition when you check out this group...



"THIS is what my sister looks like as a man?"
Got it in one, erm... Psy-bloke?

Now, quickly, use your mind control powers to enslave your foe...



It's nice to see the universe still has a few constants... Doesn't matter whether they're  transdimensional or transsexual, siblings are immune to one another's powers. Which means Brian is free to defeat these X-(wo)men in time to hear his boss Roma describe what's been going wrong.


Roma knows how bad the Scarlet Witch's meddling with the 616 (Marvel) reality is... Wanda has messed with the fabric of space/time and all those other rather fundamental building blocks of reality, causing a domino type of effect that will eventually cause the destruction of any reality everywhere. It's kind of a big thing.


Normally, Roma and her associate the Omniversal Majestrix Opal Luna Saturnyne would have simply used their advanced reality control devices to erase the aberrant reality from existence.

But during the chaos Brian and Betsy's reality altering older brother Jamie Braddock appeared to conveniently drop a rock on the delicate mechanism, smashing it thoroughly and buying Earth some extra time in the process.

Left without any other sensible plan of action, Roma and Saturnyne order Brian and Meggan to go to Earth and right whatever has gone wrong. Unfortunately, Meggan has trouble enough righting whatever's gone wrong with her...


"Look at your wife... Brian. That's but a taste of our collective future if we don't prevail"

And speaking of female heroines being confronted with images of all they could have been... 


"For every alternate Earth, an alternate Betsy Braddock."


But just as Captain Britain and Meggan were starting their mission in the Scarlet Witch altered 616, Jamie Braddock dropped by the White Hot Room to pick up his sister and Rachel, sending them back to Earth as well.

Where they fell prey to the same Wanda approved, mind control-like reality warp everyone else had...



More on the adventures of the mind controlled duo in part deux of And The World Burns To White Hot Mind Control Part II: All New, All Different, Ah Heck, Not This Again

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