Masque minus mind control: Tea & Tentacles

After 100 entries on mind control, lets give that particular quirk of Chris' a little rest and focus on another of his guilty pleasures: the physical alteration and mutilation of his leading ladies... Preferably by having them grow tentacles for hands.

Now, before anyone stands up and yells 'tentacle porn alert!'... Keep in mind it might not be as Freudian as it sounds. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, even if its being written by a man whose female characters enjoy dressing up in black leather whenever they're feeling either naughty or evil.

In fact, involuntary body modification goes as far back as the 1950s and the dozens of goofy Superman stories involving mishaps with multicolored Kryptonite. Even Stan Lee had Spider-Man grow some extra arms, not to mention the Thing's unfortunate transformation or Bruce Banner's uncontrollable shifts into the Hulk.

Chris's dabbling in the genre really started during the Brood saga. The parasitic aliens allowed him to combine his first love mind control with his new sweetheart: unwanted transformation.

Speaking of tentacle porn, look at the stingers on thát one...

Pretty quickly after that storyline, Claremont decided to explore body modification and notions of beauty some more by having Angel captured by Callisto and her Morlocks Uncanny X-men # 169 & 170. Callisto planned to marry the beautiful X-man, no matter what the other X-men had to say. These issues also introduced the Morlock known as Masque, who... oh, let him explain his own shtick.

Incidentally, Uncanny X-men # 170 was one of the first X-men issues yours truly ever read. These scenes had a lasting impact on an eight year old's mind. 

"STOP IT!! She's not a toy, she's a human being... who deserves to be treated with dignity and respect!"

...Words to live by, Chris...

Anyhoo, Masque molds flesh as easily as clay, reshaping a person's body any way he sees fit... Unfortunately, he can't affect his own deformed figure, making him rather resentful of people he considers 'pretty'...

Masque would be responsible for several forced physical transformations, specifically the aforementioned tentacled ladies trick. But he was usually just plain cruel. Case in point: Look at what he put poor Kitty Pryde through in Uncanny X-men # 179. 

This scene only happened because Kitty was forced to honor the promise she made Caliban after he helped the X-men save Angel. In return, she would marry him and join the Morlocks. However, as part of the Morlock initiation ritual, Masque gets to radically alter your old appearance so you can truly start your new sewer life... fresh faced.

Kitty didn't really take to Masque's meddling, in a scene that nicely mirrors Nightcrawler's reaction nine issues earlier.

Angering a disfigured mutant who can turn you into anything he wants? Sheesh, and I thought Kitty was supposed to be the smart one.

Not exactly a pretty picture. But, easily reverted. In the years that followed, Claremont found Masque's real niche: tentacles! 

Jean Grey's transformation was all part of a plot too complex to explain here. But it involved Masque recasting some of the Morlocks into twisted versions of the X-men who at that time were presumed missing and/or dead.

After being utterly horrified by her new appendages, Jean actually learned how to control and use them in battle effectively. Naturally, this look was reversed before long. That didn't stop Claremont from having Masque try it again during the events of 2003's X-treme X-men storyline Storm: The Arena.

Targetting his old boss Callisto, Masque gave her a set of python like tendrils... an addition Cal actually welcomed and gladly kept her altered appearance at the end of the story.

Speaking of altered appearances... Remember how Masque's main frustration was being trapped in a horrifyingly scarred body his powers couldn't affect. This drove him to commit most of his violent, antisocial acts. Such a cruel twist of fate, if only he could help himself...

Say what? Claremont had Masque experience a secondary mutation that removed this limitation?

Wow, that means he'll jump at the chance to finally fix himself up. Can inner peace be far behind when one's greatest hang up has been dealt with?

Lets see how zen Masque looked when he appeared next...

Yup, he changed himself alright. From a sadistic, crusty, old disfigured man in the sewers to a beach blonde Marilyn Monroe-esque bimbo who likes to wear geisha outfits, and runs an underground superhuman fighting arena with her entourage of SM inspired lackies.

...

What an arc! Chris, you magnificent bastard you. Never...ever change, y'hear?

Kulan Gath's total mind control part II: Ye Olde Mind Control

When we last left Manhattan, the recently revived ancient devil priest Kulan Gath had used a master spell to turn the entire island into a Hyborean citystate. Quickly conquering his many super powered enemies, Gath seemed utterly unbeatable. 

Even the Hellfire Club's Selene, as ancient and malevolent as Gath himself, was the N'garai worshipping sorceror's help (and mouth)less prisoner. But Kulan Gath wasn't satisified with merely mentally controlling the Morlocks, a fair share of the New Mutants and most of the Avengers. No, he wanted more mindless pawns to control...

He got his wish when the Avengers Starfox and Wasp were presented to him after one of the various fights that make up this two parter. By showing them their greatest fears, Gath was able to sufficiently weaken their will so he could bend them to his control. For Starfox, its the understandable fear to turn out like his brother Thanos, the genocidal despot... Understandable, because they share the same genes and upbringing...

But Wasp's secret anxiety is losing her humanity and shifting into a more wasplike form. Sounds horrible, lets hope its just an illusion. I mean, what are the odds of something crazy like that actually happening, right?

Ah well, at least it was still a buck fifty.

But the Wasp in Gath's reality was actually a control leeching vampire that drained her victims of the will to live, while Starfox used his great beauty to control anyone invulnerable to her teammate's pretty boy charms. Like Colossus. 

Still, it wasn't just the bad guys who use mind control. In the approach to the final assault on Gath, Captain America had Rachel Summers resort to some mental nudging to enter Kulan's keep.

"These are not the black leather clad SM slavegirls you are looking for"

Barely covered Star Wars pastiches aside, this was hardly the final time Claremont relied on mind control to help the story get across. After Captain America managed to bring in Rachel and the New Mutant Magma as prisoners, the endgame against Gath quickly unfolded.

The wizard was rendered powerless by Storm who managed to snatch away the source of his power: the magic necklace he carried round his neck. But the battle wasn't quite over yet. Remember how easily Gath managed to overpowered Selene? Almost like she wasn't quite herself, right?

Either Amara suddenly developed telekinesis or something is very, very wrong... 

Proving once again that appearances CAN be deceiving, it turns out that Selene had secretly taken Magma's place, giving the girl her appearance so she would be taken as Gath's slave. Now in possession of Kulan's necklace, Selene was ready to take over the world...

That is, if only Storm hadn't reached out to the dying techno organic New Mutant Warlock who offered a solution...

"There are worse fates"

Say, you don't think Storm could have meant being written by Brian Michael Bendis, do you?

Anyhoo... After changing into a semi-techno organic creature, she attacked Selene... infecting her with the techmode virus that turned her into a techno organic creature herself.

Some beautiful Claremont commentary accompany this rather... interesting... piece of art by John Romita junior. But there are some nits to be picked.

First, there's Warlock/Storm draining Selene's lifeforce, basically killing her. Whatever happened to Storm's sacred vow to never take a life? Second... How can Warlock even exist within the limited reality of Kulan Gath's Hyborean revertion master spell? Its already odd the Avengers member Vision is still a robot, how does an alien techno organic mutant shapeshifter fit into ancient times?

Still, ignoring all logic and established continuity for a second... lets see what happens next...  

With Strange freed from his previous existence as a statue in Kulan Gath's throne room, the master of the mystic arts quickly came up with a way to deal with this whole mess. A bit of a shame Strange's way of dealing with it had about as much emotional maturity to it as a toddler closing its eyes and wishing real hard all the bad things never happened.

"What you just experienced was a temporalspacial claudication..."

An awfully fancy term for: we prevented Kulan's ascension from ever happening.

Sounds fancy and plausible enough, that is if you ignore the simple fact they were only able to achieve this by adapting Kulan's masterspell... A spell Gath  invoked áfter his initial ascension... So if Gath never arose, how could the spell have been there to stop him?

And... erm... My head hurts.

Skipping all that pesky temporal logic just like Claremont did, Strange caused the timeline to skip a beat so the original closing scene from Uncanny X-men # 189 had a rather different outcome...

Doctor Strange managed to prevent Gath's return by making his necklace disappear.

Not by invoking the flames of the Faltine and burning Kulan's presence from the amulet... Not even calling in the ruby ringed might of Raggador to pound it to dust. Alas, not even a single 'the power of Vishanti compells thee!' with complimentary pea soup spitting.

Nope, Strange does this.

Saving all mankind by yanking a mutant massacring Nimrod sentinel to the present, all the way from that far flung future of... 2014.

Yeah. Guess that's why they call the doctor... Strange.

Kulan Gath's total mind control part I: Looking For Collared Wenches (No Fatties)

The events of Uncanny X-men 190 & 191 have been referenced numerous times on this blog. But apart from peripheral mentions, the utter mind control craziness and borderline fetish goings on haven't been covered yet. So lets dig in.

First things first: the ancient wizard Kulan Gath has been able to revive himself thanks to events covered HERE and HERE. He used the blood of innocents to power a potent master spell that converted all of Manhattan into his personal playpen. Buildings, items and people were all transformed into a suitable ancient Hyborean counterpart, with no knowledge of their previous lives.

Storm was living the life of a pirate, who was chased by Callisto and her band of Morlocks who acted as Gath's mind controlled toadies. This scene on page 4 of # 190 shows the tendency of this twoparter to indulge in all the mind control, bondage and SM fetishes this side of Cimmeria.

The masterspell only reached as far as Manhattan. Once you crossed the barrier, you'd revert to your old self again. This happened during Storm and Callisto's fight. The two managed to get to dry land where Storm was contacted telepathically by one of Gath's ancient enemies: Selene, the Hellfire Club's Black Queen.  

Quickly filling them in about the situation, Selene asked Storm and Callisto's help in defeating Kulan Gath. The two didn't really trust Selene, but it wasn't as if there was any other real choice. They moved back to the island where Gath had been busy mind controlling people left and right.

"By the maker!"

The techno organic alien Warlock looked on in horror as Gath twisted and reshaped his fellow New Mutants into new shapes that reflected all the evil they feel within. Luckily, not everyone was as easily swayed by Gath's magic.

After taking over Manhattan, the demon sorceror sought a means of tracking all super powered beings so he could bring them under his control. Wary of technology, he didn't use Xavier's Cerebro mutant detection system but combined Charles Xavier and the mutant detecting Morlock Caliban into one being. The docile Caliban went along with it, but Xavier wasn't so easily dominated.

Oh, never mind...

On a sidenote: the grotesque Xavier/Caliban creature is possibly how the real Caliban might have turned out back in the Chris Claremont / John Byrne days. The duo had the idea that this barely human looking mutant called Caliban was able to sense other mutants but was shunned due to his horrifying mutation. He'd join the X-men as an organic Cerebro, living in a seperate wing of the mansion.

Anyways, back to the story at hand. Kulan's guards finally managed to bring in Selene, which meant it was high time for some old fashioned 'torture the chained up scantily clad prisoner wearing the hot black leather bikini.'

"There, much better. Wenches are better seen, but not heard." 

No mouth and 6 penis like tentacles?

Chris, Chris... How this ever got past the Comics Code Authority back in the day is a wonder indeed.

Next time: Kulan Gath's total mind control part II: Ye Olde Mind Control

New Mutants, forever mind controlled

What to do with a living legend who mostly seems loved by nostalgia buffs?

Marvel Comics saw itself faced with this question back in 2009 and came up with a simple enough answer: You create an X-men book outside of continuity in which Claremont could tell the stories he would have told if he hadn't been forced out back in 1991.

This title, X-men Forever, turned out to be reasonably succesful, so Marvel approached Claremont to do the same for New Mutants. A book he left back in 1987.  Today's entry comes from that five part mini series, imaginatively called New Mutants Forever.

Lets skip over the story of the mini series. It involves the New Mutants going to Nova Roma, the ancient Roman town in the Brazilian Amazon that time forgot... Only to find that its been taken over by the Red Skull. Everyone's favorite nazi supervillain captured Doug Ramsey and gave him... a little injection.

Doug was remade into the Red Skull's own image...So, you know what that means... Ow boy, is his face red, or what?

The Skullified Doug caused all sorts of trouble, naturally...

So... in one miniseries... All it takes for three people to get mind controlled, dress themselves in nazi regalia and black leather... is a single injection? Who said this wasn't the marvel age of economy sized tirany?

Rachel's Grey For Mind Control part 2

When we last saw Rachel, she had just danced her way off the Spiral Path, straight into the Mojoverse.

After being used as Mojo's mindless, mind controlled puppet for heaven knows how long, Rachel finally returned to the 616 proper in the Claremont penned oneshot Excalibur: The sword is drawn. 

Rachel went on to join Excalibur, the UK based offshoot of the X-men, alongside Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde and non-mutant members like Captain Britain and his girlfriend, the empathic omnimorph Megan.

Alas, even in this new book, Chris Claremont couldn't resist having Rachel subjected to mind control... The earliest case occured in the Inferno tie ins, in which Excalibur travelled to a demon infested New York city and Rachel, well... she went a little nuts:

This particular image is worth an entry of its very own. The inherent power of the demonic Inferno, causes Rachel to freeze up, literally turning into a mindless mannequin... Making her easy prey for the demon Crotus who falls head over heels for the stiff stunner and decides they should get married.

As a member of Excalibur, Rachel experiences several remarkable adventures. In one of those, chronicled in the limited series X-men: True Friends, Rachel and Kitty are transported through time to face off against the Shadow King in 1930s Scotland.

The Shadow King you say? Guess who got herself mind controlled!

As if that wasn't enough, not long after that Excalibur embarks on the Cross-Time Caper, an extended adventure that takes the team to several alternate Earths across the Omniverse. On one of those, Rachel not only discovers that her mother Jean Grey is alive and well, she's also a part of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club ánd mind controlled by the Shadow King...

An interesting page, showing just how eager everyone seems to be to catch and control young Rachel. The Excalibur Special Editions mentioned in the captions never saw print by the way. The tale however did get published 9 years after the fact as the aforementioned True Friends limited series.

After Chris Claremont left Excalibur, Rachel went through a decade and a half of other writers who did whatever they could think of to her... Some of it made sense, most of it sadly didn´t. For an overview of the highs and lows, click HERE.

It wasn´t until 2003 that Claremont brought in Rachel, when he was writing X-treme X-men. Back then, the team was under assault by Elias Bogan, an obscenely powerful, long lived telepath with connections to the Hellfire Club but in *NO* way resembling the Shadow King *cough*copout*cough.

Bogan had somehow managed to mind control Rachel and used her as an attack dog against the X-men.

Mainly due to the efforts of Kitty Pryde, the X-men managed to free Rachel from Bogan's influence, though he had left his ebon mark on her, as shown in X-treme X-men 46...

Rachel joined the rest of the X-treme team when they decided to return to New York and the other
X-men. That whole Bogan-caused blackness seemingly cleared up over night, because the next time she shows up in Uncanny X-men she gets herself a new uniform, a new haircut and a new codename: Marvel Girl, in honor of Jean Grey, her recently deceased mother from an alternate reality... You know, as one does.

Is that little nugget of backstory enough to make your head spin? Try this on for mind controlled size...

Uncanny X-men #454 saw the return of a new Hellfire Club and Selene attempting to sink her claws into Rachel once again. Still, that didn't quite work out for the raven haired vampire...

"I have been a slave before, Selene. Never again."

Yup, for those of you who love mind controlled women, but prefer them just a bit more primeval... its prehistoric dinosaur Rachel, better known as R'chel. She wasn't just transformed into a sentient dinosaur, she also found herself mind controlled as well...

Now, I'm not saying the resemblance between dinosaur Rachel and 1950s Phyllis Diller is remarkable... but you have eyes, you tell me.

Soon after the conclusion of the Selene story, Chris Claremont's health took a turn for the worse and he was forced to abandon Uncanny X-men. But not before he was able to kick Rachel in the proverbial nuts one final time.

Rachel had been showing signs of tapping into the cosmic Phoenix Force again. This made the interstellar Shi'ar race rather uncomfortable, considering the last time one of the Grey family got a little Phoenix craving, all existence was about to die.

Therefore, once it became obvious that Rachel had access to the Force, the decision was made to exterminate her and, just to be sure, the entire Grey family.

Claremont left the title shortly after the Shi'ar Death Commandos were done mass murdering Rachel's entire family... Chris left his character with a giant phoenix tattoo imprinted on her back, almost like a creator's watermark. Hard to ignore, yet even harder to work into your stories.

Chris Claremont made his mark on Rachel Grey-Summers... if only we were able to forget about as much as Rachel was allowed to...

Rachel's Grey For Mind Control

Before Chris Claremont focussed his mind control heavy attention to Sage (as chronicled here), there was Rachel Grey, aka Rachel Summers, aka Hound, aka Baby Phoenix aka "oh, never mind who you really are, your mind, heart and soul will belong to someone else by next issue".

Don't believe me? Well, buckle up for the first of a two parter covering all the occasions Chris Claremont felt it was necessary to mindjack that sweet, innocent red headed girl. Some of these examples have been covered in earlier blogs, but are included here again to tell the complete story.

Rachel made her first appearance in the classic Days of future past storyline back in Uncanny X-men # 141. She was the red headed telepath that used her powers to send Kate Pryde's mind into the past so she could warn the X-men of the imminent assassination of senator Kelly.

Back then, no mention was made of Rachel's origins. Yet, she really is the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, born in an alternate future in which Jean (or, rather, the Phoenix force posing as Jean) survived the judgement of the Shi'ar in Uncanny X-men # 137. 

Young Rachel grew up at Xavier's school for gifted youngsters and enjoyed a relatively joyful early childhood... that is, until the political climate took a turn for the worse and the school was attacked by anti-mutant troops. Rachel was taken prisoner and, when her telepathic powers manifested themselves, she was placed in a special project that made the following disturbing scene possible.

Rachel was subjected to intense mind altering drugs and hypnosis that did a real number on her mind and might possibly have made her more susceptible to other forms of mind control. It would certainly explain what was to follow...

She was forced to use her telepathy as one of the first Hounds, mutants enslaved by the government to hunt or kill their own. And, in true Claremontian style, it only made sense that a Hound would wear a costumed made of studded, black leather and a leash. Sigh.

Somehow overcoming her conditioning, Rachel reconnected with Kate Pryde and they went on one, final desperate mission together to infiltrate a military base in which a new, deadlier generation of Sentinel was being developed. And yet, even here she wasn't safe from mind control...

Kate Pryde had hypnotised Rachel, planting a hypnotic suggestion in her mind that would force her to push her powers to the limit and actually transport herself into the past... As seen in this rather realistic flashback from Uncanny X-men # 192.


Rachel actually arrived half a dozen issues earlier in issue #184, yet her first contact with the X-men of this era occured in New Mutants # 18, which showed a newly arrived and clearly malnourished Rachel returning home to Xavier's school, only to discover things aren't quite the way she remembers them...

Mulling over this some more, Rachel returned to New York city in Uncanny X-men # 184, in which her  potent mutant energies caught the attention and appetite of the vampire Selene. She went after Rachel several times, trying to turn her into her heir or, failing that, lunch...

Selene had associated herself with the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club by that time. She also had some interest in the New Mutants, particularly Magma and Moonstar, due to a shared history covered HERE. 

So when Rachel and Magma happened to be on a field trip to New York in Uncanny X-men # 189, they talked it over and decided to enter the Hellfire Club and have a little revenge on Selene for all she put them through. Now, you just know the following was bound to happen:

Still, take a little time to appreciate the subtle symbolism of this panel. Rachel and Amara had attempted to infiltrate the Hellfire Club by wearing servants' uniforms, complete with black fishnet stocking and a collar. Selene added insult to injury by having them leashed and presented as gifts to Sebastian Shaw, the leader of the Inner Circle. 

Wow. Just. Wow.

All these encounters left Rachel pretty mad with Selene. So mad in fact, that she decided to have another go at killing her... This time taking a page out of the old mind control manual... 

Uncanny X-men # 207 saw Rachel mind controlling Hellfire Club member Friedrich von Roehm.

Mind controlling three people on one page? And managing to fit into another one of those skintight, raunchy-as-can-be French maid's uniforms? Ow Rachel, you truly got it all worked out. She managed to surprise Selene in her sleep and almost succeeded in killing her, if not for the timely intervention of fellow X-man Wolverine. Lets see how he persuaded her to stop...

If at first you don't succeed... SNIKT!... SNIKT! again.

Rachel actually survived Wolvie's attempt to calm her down. She was hurt though, fleeing the Hellfire Club, using her telekinesis in a desperate attempt to keep her fatal wounds from opening up. Pursued by both the X-men and the Hellfire Club, she came across a weird manifestation in Central Park. 

Rachel unknowingly entered the Body Shoppe, an interdimensional conduit into the Mojoverse, ran by none other than Mojo's flunky Spiral. She ever so gently managed to lure Rachel away from her worries...

"The girl you were is gone, the life you led is no more! Both girl and life are mine to play with. What comes next, I decide!"

Well... not really, Spiral... Its actually Mojo who decides what happens next to Rachel. As we'll see in part two...