Classic X-men mind control

Hard to imagine as it is... the X-men weren't what anyone might consider popular...

Once that changed, Marvel started reprinting the earlier, hard to find issues of Uncanny X-men in a series called Classic X-men. Printed on better paper, the best feature of the book were the Claremont penned back up stories... In these little 8 to 12 page vignettes, Claremont could indulge himself. This resulted in brief, yet surprisingly intense character studies that fleshed out the decisions and thinking behind whatever characters featured in that reprinted issue.

Those back up tales made for interesting reads, but even they weren't free from their fair share of mind control. Nothing proved that point better than Classic X-men # 17, a reprint of Uncanny X-men # 111, better known as... the one where Mesmero mind controls the whole team and forces them to work as circusfolk. For more on how that caper unfolded, look HERE.

Most of the back up stories offered valuable character moments that told you something new about the X-men, their foibles and weaknesses... Yet, reading Mesmero's dialogue in the panel above is all anyone would have needed to understand how the X-men had been captured.

Because, yes, all this tale tells you is how Mesmero captured each and every X-man. It all started simple enough...

"Jean Grey... Your will is mine!"

Interesting to note that Mesmero only fought the X-men once before (in issue # 49) and he never saw Jean unmasked or out of uniform... So having him recognise her is a bit of cheat, especially since his power is hypnosis, not telepathy. Still, what dire fate did Mesmero have in mind for his one time adversary?

Mesmero was using his powers the way any other red blooded, green skinned, man would in his place... make beautiful women fall in love with you, ever ready to service you in the most skimpy of lingerie. He was still looking for a fiery red head to complete his set of service ready sluts.
So, by all means Mesmero, hop to it... 

Turns out all the mind control in the world isn't powerful enough to beat the Phoenix Force... Or the Comics Code Authority for that matter. See, this wasn't actually the real Jean, only a manifestation of the universal power known as the Phoenix Force, that had taken Jean's place and... Ow, never mind all that, Mesmero can't touch her, that's all you need to know for now.   

"I can't touch my new toy... But I sure can use her!"
What happened wasn't half as dirty as that last remark implied. But that just gave the man an idea as he forced Jean to take him home with her. And this is still a Chris Claremont comic, so Mesmero had Jean dress in black leather. All set, he simply walked into the kitchen and started mind controlling X-men left and right.

With Kurt being the first to fall, there wasn't anyone left who could make a quick escape. Next up... the one mutant who could yell and alert everybody.

Two down, another three to go....

Effortlessly nailing all of her teammates, only Wolverine is able to take action... And he does. 

Actually, Wolverine was just playing along to get close to Mesmero in order to finish him off. Mesmero caught on early enough and had the team pound Logan into submission. 

After an afternoon or so of having the X-men fight each other, Mesmero got bored with the bickering and decided to look for new ways to torture them. At a loss for ideas, a picture of Nightcrawler during his circus days provided inspiration for this...

So that's how the X-men ended up as circus performers. Twelve pages to tell a backstory that was more than adequately established in a single panel of the decade old comic it preceded?

Forget Bendis. The hell of decompressed storytelling really started here.

Even dead X-men get mindcontrolled

By his own admission, Chris Claremont has very little interest in writing comics these days.

Whether or not this is a positive development is open for debate, but judging from today's entry, the two part mini series Chaos War: X-men, taking a break might actually be for the best.

As it turns out, Claremont's participation in the early 2011 company wide crossover Chaos War was actually his last Marvel work to date. He co-wrote it with another 80s comics icon: Louise Simonson,  long time editor of Uncanny X-men and writer of New Mutants and X-Force.

Their Chaos War tie-in actually didn't really tie in to the main storyline. In fact, the main villain, Japanese god of evil Amatsu-Mikaboshi, made a grand total of zero appearances. Instead, Claremont and Simonson focussed on several deceased X-men that had come back to life for reasons they themselves barely understood.

This resulted in an uneven, choppy story full of hazy events that were hard to follow despite the overwrought captioning... A tale that tried so hard to be atmospheric and dreamlike, it made itself absolutely irrelevant because of it. But oh my, did it feature mind control!

Barely four pages into the first issue, as lead characters like John 'Thunderbird' Proudstar, Banshee, Multiple Man and Moira McTaggert are trying to figure out what the heck is going on, the malevolent Stepford Cuckoo Esme forces their minds together so its 'easier to compare notes'.

Esme really is a bit of a handful, her fellow Stepford sister Sophie constantly complains about Esme's behavior and alledged superior power. Still, all the telepathic power in the world doesn't save her from the villain of the book:

Forget Amatsu-Mikaboshi, who needs a god of evil when you can fight Carrion Crow, a mind controlling, flesh warping bad guy who is chasing the group of recently resurrected dead X-men and it all involves one of Destiny's lost diaries.

*SIGH*

Okay, enough is enough... This two parter is a convoluted mess, check out Wikipedia's brave attempt to make sense of it all:

During the Chaos War, Moira MacTaggart, Thunderbird, Banshee, Esme and Sophie of the Stepford Cuckoos, and Multiple Man's fallen clones are resurrected and appear on the former grounds of the X-Men school. There, Moira MacTaggart finds one of Destiny's diaries which contains a passage depicting the events of the war and apparently the key to defeating Amatsu-Mikaboshi.

After Thunderbird prayed to the Thunderbird God to teleport the group away from the attacking Carrion Crow, Thunderbird and the group learned that Moira has been possessed by Destiny's ghost.

Yeahhh... And that was just the first issue.

Issue two had Carrion Crow and the transformed Cuckoo pick off the dead X-men one by one... Starting with her own sister Sophie.

This went on for a good half of the issue until Thunderbird suddenly developed near mystical powers connected to the actual mythological thunderbird... Who is somewhat related to the Phoenix Force, but not quite, and... Ah well, there's more mind control:

Yup... Thunderbird, a man who died after only three appearances in an X-men comic in the late 70s... A man whose main characteristics were anger issues and the fact that his mutant abilities of enhanced strength, speed and senses made him little more than a bargain basement Wolverine... minus the claws... That man returns from the dead as a conduit for a previously unheard of primal force of the Earth? 

Chris Claremont may be done with writing comics, but... As far as swansongs go, Chaos War: X-men  isn't something to look back on with pride. 

And one more mind control for the road

Seeing as this is the final X-men related mindcontrol posting I have to offer, I figured a scene from the 2000 limited series X-men: Black Sun was appropriate. This was written during Chris Claremont's return to the X-books and he was supposed to be on fire... Unfortunately, editorial quickly killed his tenure on the book after a little over a year and a half... During that time, he produced this limited series in which the N'Garai resurfaced to threaten mankind once again. I picked this panel because it shows pretty much all the new X-men that got recruited to fight Krakoa back in 1975... You have your Banshee, you have your Sunfire and of course the usual longtime members like Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler... But an added bonus: it features the N'Garai, a breed of demons Claremont introduced in his second issue as X-men writer... Back then, the N'Garai called Kierok just attacked the team, no mention of mind control whatsoever... but in this book, the N'Garai took over the X-men's minds and used them to... I guess you can piece together what happens, right? This was issue 2, by issue 6, it was all taken care of... Not unlike the Uncanny X-men clips!