X-men Forever Mind Controlled: Lodged In Logan

Back in 2009, the creative eggheads at Marvel had a novel idea...

What if... the past 17 years or so had never happened? What if Chris Claremont had never left after writing the first three issues of X-men in 1991? What would he have come up with? The answer to that was given in a biweekly series called X-men Forever. And despite the fact it was a bit of a nostalgia act, the mind control wasn't all that obvious. At first.

The first issue saw the X-men dealing with the aftermath of X-men # 3. Magneto had seemingly perished when his asteroid home was destroyed, only Fabian Cortez, the criminal leader of Magnus' Acolytes escaped... but the team was on his case. Unfortunately, Fabian's mutant power regulating gifts proved more than a match for the X-men...

"Lady says you're hurting, little man! Be my pleasure to make things a whole lot worse!"

Kitty tried to use her phasing powers to free Jean and Logan... but her rescue attempt had some... unexpected... consequences.

"I can't pull us free... Never felt anything so awful...Loganpleaseohplease make it STOP!"

Just why Kitty felt so much discomfort wouldn't be revealed until X-Men Forever # 4. By then, a lot had happened... Wolverine had been killed by Storm, of all people. And when their fellow X-men confronted the wind rider, Ororo quite easily beat them back, until Kitty struck and popped a boner... of sorts.

"I'm going to find out who made you turn against the X-men, Storm..."

Yeah... Not to be a spoilsport, but it doesn't involve mind control. However, the situation with Kitty would involve a fair amount of controlled minds. Mainly her own... Because during that unfortunate merger with the dearly departed Wolverine, Kitty got more than that single adamantium claw lodged in her skeletal structure...

"Inside my head... I see Logan's face, I can hear his voice."

We'll cover the story behind that particular picture in the next entry... For now, let's suffice it to say Kitty wasn't exactly alone in her head anymore. Forget that adamantium claw she was able to pop out, she also had inherited a semblance of Wolverine's healing factor, enhanced senses and rough, dominating personality... Which made her question if she was even in command of herself at all... Scenes like these certainly don't make it seem an actual 16 year old girl was 'home'...

"It was a long time ago. I was just a kid."

In the issues that followed, Kitty was fighting a losing battle against Logan's presence in her mind. Despite her best attempts, she suddenly started to adopt his gruff demeanor and speech patterns, which might have been worrisome, if not for the fact it also felt like Claremont was grooming her to be the next Wolverine. That is, until Kitty received an unexpected surprise during a fevered battle with the Marauders.

"You're supposed to be DEAD!"

Yeah... 'a' Wolverine showed up during the fight with the Marauders, widely known as Mr. Sinister's cloned henchmen. Everyone assumed Sinister had simply obtained a DNA sample in order to clone his own Wolverine so he could shock and disturb his former teammates. That's why Kitty, after getting gutted, showed no mercy and left him for dead... 

Well, she tried at least.

After her initial confrontation with this 'faux Wolverine', Kitty experienced very vivid dreams of being stalked by him... And in those dreams, she felt like she was slowly being turned into him as well... 

Luckily, this was all still a dream... but her behaviour did become a lot more erratic. For one thing, this not close to legal girl suddenly started flirting with Gambit. A lot.

"The way he's looking at me... I haven't felt like this in so long."

Not exactly lines you'd expect from a super intelligent 15 year old girl... So who's been fuelling her attraction to Gambit, then? Surely, it can't be Logan's influences... Alternate reality or not, the man's as straight as they come...

... Or maybe not.

Luckily, even a thief like Gambit wasn't ready to steal a kiss from a minor.

"You talk 'bout instincts... You ready t' trust 'em, body an' soul?"

Yeah, it's safe to say Kitty Pryde is more than a little confused. Add to all this the fact she's also been thinking in Japanese for some reason... It's high time she went to Japan in order to get some answers. However, the teenage Storm and Lockheed snuck on board her ship and joined Kitty in getting some anwers. Y'see, she figured it might not be Wolverine who was mind controlling her...

"I'd been possessed... By Logan's old teacher Ogun. He tried to make me a master assassin."

Logan or Ogun... Just who was trying to control Kitty is never made clear, because the threesome gets caught up in the proverbial perfect storm of converging storylines. Not in the least because this guy showed up. Again.

" <...Logan will always be the hunter!>"

After getting chased by what is clearly not just a Wolverine clone, Kitty, Storm and Lockheed dash across Japan in order to seek refuge with Logan's highly influential former lover Mariko Yashida. While she does indeed manage to keep away the maddened crazy man with the bone claws, Mariko is also in league with the X-men's big bad: the Consortium.  

The last few issues of X-men Forever dealt with them and their global influence, leaving the Kitty Pryde/Wolverine plotline large unresolved. Was this feral, bone clawed creature 'but' a clone or actually the real Logan? All we know for sure, he wanted back whatever Kitty got from him... And this is the last substantial thing Kitty ever said on the matter before X-Men Forever was cancelled...

*SNIKT*

Th-th-that's all folks!