And The World Burns To White Hot Mind Control Part II: All New, All Different, Ah Heck, Not This Again

The backstory Chris Claremont came up with for Uncanny X-men's participation in 2005's Summer crossover House Of M is a little... convoluted.

Right before the Scarlet Witch's reality altering wave hit, Psylocke and Marvel Girl were somehow able to escape its effects by teleporting into the outerdimensional home of the Phoenix, the White Hot Room. Meanwhile, the creation of the 'House of M' as the new reality got to be called caused severe ripples in the Omniverse, resulting in a transdimensional tsunami that threated to tear all of reality asunder.

Omniversal guardians Roma and Opal Luna Saturnyne sent Captain Britain and Meggan to Earth to deal with whatever was causing these problems. If they failed in their mission, Roma would wipe the reality from existence after two days.

Unfortunately, the second Cap and Meggan entered the House of M, they were immediately incorporated into the fabric of the newly structured world and forgot all about their mission... Heck, they were too busy being the king and queen of England. And that's when Phoenix and Psylocke arrive, only to fall prey to this reality wide form of mind control as well.

So, are we up to speed? Good. Let's deal with the question how Betsy and Rachel were even able to enter the White Hot Room... neither of them are pandimensional teleporters, after all.

"That's enough downtime, sweeties. No more revelations. Back to the salt mines."

The man in the loin cloth is Jamie Braddock, the reality warping older brother of Betsy and Brian. He had saved Rachel and his sister from the initial effects of the House of M, for reasons entirely his own. Being a reality mucker, he undoubtedly would have been able to return them with their memories of the real world intact, but they fell prey to the mind control as well.

Reuniting with king Brian and queen Meggan, the two X-(wo)men enjoy a proper breakfast when Captain Britain reveals he's been having certain... odd feelings. Like the life he's been leading is fake, or something. But being a king, I'm pretty sure he'll handle this with proper decorum.

"You're not Courtney Ross! She's Opal-Lun Sat-Yr... Opposed tyrant of Earth 839!"

Well, no, not exactly... this is actually the real Courtney Ross, well, from this Earth at least. Several of her alternate reality counterparts have become variations of Opal Luna Saturnyne, the omniversal guardian who's threatened to destroy our reality in order to save the omniverse. That's why Brian calls her a murderer... but the Scarlet Witch's mind control spell doesn't allow him to put two and two together just yet.

After calming down a little, courtesy of a little telepathy and psychic katana action, king Brian commences his daily duties, starting with the morning briefing...

"Flash analysis suggests that one of the may be genetically related to lord Magneto."

Intrigued by the notion that Magneto or one of his children might be up to something in his backyard, Brian quickly forgets his confusion and suits up... ready to check this report out. Rachel and Betsy join him in his investigation and it doesn't take long for them to run into this reality's version of the Marauders.

Callisto and her team are ordered to apprehend the two superhumans Brian and company came here to find. One of them is the Juggernaut, who is by no means related to Magneto and his brood... So who is this mystery mutant? Not who you'd expect... 

"Betsy, she looks... Nothing like Magneto."

How very observant, ladies. Meet Talia Josephine Wagner, aka Nocturne and yes, she really is a Magneto's granddaughter... Albeit from Earth-2182. On this world, the Scarlet Witch (her again) fell in love with Nightcrawler and started a family together. Nocture had been a key player and founding member of Exiles, before getting herself exiled in the 616 right when the House of M hit.

Ow, you wonder what her powers are? Well, there's a reason Chris Claremont took a liking to her, see if you can guess why...

"She's trying to possess you!"

She failed to possess Psylocke, but just as the Marauders were closing in on the three of them, Rachel decided getting herself (mind)controlled might just be their ticket out of there.

"You want to possess someone, Nocturne... Try me."

Welcome to Uncanny X-men # 464, by the way... the reason for the sudden artistic shift is rather simple: Chris Bachalo had replaced Alan Davis as regular penciller which really altered the feel of the story, but, thankfully, not the amount of mind control... heavens to murgatroyd. 

Nocturne took over Rachel and used her telekinetic powers to fly to safety at incredible speed. Psylocke followed the duo using her own telekinesis and once she caught up with them, Betsy realised there was something wrong...

"I'll fight if I have to. And I'll WIN!"

So fight they did, after all this is a superhero comic which means the good guys will duke it out amongst themselves to kill some time and pages... In the end, you can guess what happened.

"For the moment, she's better off where she is"

Rachel really is very kind... Not only allowing herself to get taken over by a complete stranger, but generously sharing her body with Nocturne. The three of them plan to rejoin Captain Britain and Meggan, but they are suddenly caught in one of Jamie Braddock's reality warps...

As best he can, the maddened reality twister tells them what they need to know about the House of M and Roma's deadline, before spitting them back...

"I'm fine, it's the universe that's sick"

Describing a quantum tear in the fabric of creation as 'the universe is sick' is a bit of a stretch. But what the hey... that "EeEeEeE" is the sound of the Banshee's wail, knocking out Rachel and Psylocke. And while Nocturne escapes from Rachel's body, Psylocke has another vision of sorts of the Omega Sentinel attacking Brian and Meggan because they opposed lord Magneto... Which leads to the end game in Uncanny X-men # 465 in which quite a bit happens...

Psylocke and company are fighting the Marauders some more... With Nocturne possessing Banshee to take out several of their number before forcing Sean Cassidy to knock himself unconscious. Ahh, mind control.

While back at Braddock Manor, Karima Shapandar and her Sentinels get overrun by members of the Captain Britain corps who had been working as members of the royal court who suddenly, for no discernable reason, remember who they are...

While Psylocke and company are fighting the Marauders some more... With Nocturne possessing Banshee to take out several of their number before forcing Sean Cassidy to knock himself unconscious. Ahh, mind control.

And then, that pesky little tear in the fabric of reality reared its ugly head again...

"I'm guessin', it's a hole. Gotta be plugged?"

'A' for effort there, Juggernaut... But in spite of his massive girth, stuffing the Blob into the rip didn't exactly fill 'er up... And Roma is getting ready to annihilate everyone and everything. Which doesn't mean there can't still be a bit of mind control before the end... Not including the many, many times Meggan has been brutally taken over in order for either Roma or Jamie Braddock to deliver some kind of dire message.

Speaking of Meggan, she's the key to solving this. That and a little mind control.

"My possessing you didn't work before..."

 "We use our strengths to close the seams of the tear... so Rachel can seal them."

In case anyone was wondering... No, there is no explanation for the fact that a) Nocture takes over Psylocke or b) Meggan is sacrificing herself, not to mention c) why that whole song and dance was even necessary, considering anyone can grab this supposedly metaphysical rip and yank the edges together so it can be stuffed like an old sock. 

During the closing moments of the issue, Captain Britain is allowed to honor his wife's sacrifice... A heartfelt moment to be sure, but continuitywise this took place during House of M... And that crossover not only ended with the Scarlet Witch wishing for no more mutants, it also restored reality to the way it was... Which meant that the entire world hit the reset button, save for those few heroes who were near Wanda when she cast her spell.

Captain Britian wasn't one of them, so he should have reverted to his pre-House of M-state of mind... Which would also mean he'd have no clue as to what just happened to Meggan.

But hey, whoever said comics about multiple time and reality warps had to make sense?