She-Daredeviling Some Mind Control

It's 1974 again and Chris Claremont is asked to script an issue of Daredevil...

Picking up where regular writer Steve Gerber left off, Chris is faced with the second chapter of a two parter that ended with regular Daredevil baddie The Owl capturing both Daredevil and his lady love Natasha Romanova... better known as the Black Widow. Let's see how Chris chose to continue this particular classic...

But of course!

The only logical way for this particular story to continue is to have the Owl draining Daredevil's mind, leaving him a pliable husk to do with as he pleases.

Do you FEEL it working, MAN-WITHOUT-FEAR? Do you feel my MIND-MACHINE sucking away at your THOUGHTS? Your IDENTITY? YOUR VERY SOUL?

The Owl had planned to make the Black Widow watch in utter agony as Daredevil's mind got controlled... But heck, no way Natasha Romanoff's gonna lie idly by. She's the Black Widow after all...

With a decisive *ZRAPT!*, courtesy of her Widow's blasters, Natasha destroyed the Owl's mind transferal machinery, right befofre freeing herself. Yet, the evil mastermind still managed to press her into service, by pointing a gun at the helpless Daredevil. 

The Owl ordered her to take out a certain zoologist lady that had been a thorn in his side. Reluctantly agreeing to this hit-and-run deal, the Widow took off to find and deal with her reluctant target...But much to everyone's surprise and the rejoice of teen boys everywhere the promised final confrontation ended with sexy time.

Just who is that woman in the skimpy nightey that she can actually toss around KGB-trained special operative Black Widow? Well, take three guesses and the first two don't count...

Oddly enough, the Owl was unaware of zoologist Shanna O'Hara's dual identity. He merely wanted to capture the scientist so she could teach him all about the upcoming animal world order. However, he got the mad as heck Shanna the She-Devil, who paired up with the Black Widow to take him down.

During the final confrontation, the Owl tried to escape the combined Shanna, the Black Widow and Daredevil by using a blinding gas attack. However, it's rather hard to take the sight of a man who is blind to begin with. So, the Owl's escape was easily thwarted by Daredevil who could still 'see'...

"Funny, isn't it? The Owl tripped himself up this time"

And with that corker of an exit line, straight from a 1960s Batman episode, we end the slice of silver age goofiness that is Daredevil # 117... A real hoot!

Championing Some Mind Control...

Does anyone remember the Champions?

Yours truly certainly does. While he might not have been around (or alive) when this Los Angeles based team of heroes first banded together in 1975, the brief run of the Champions always intrigued me.

The Champions were presented as 'the superhero team for the common man'. An interesting, if not slightly ironic hook for a group that consists of a Greek demi-god, a demonic motorcyclist, two former X-men, and led by a former, seemingly ageless Russian superspy... 'common' wouldn't be the first word that comes to mind.

Still, most of their adventures were pretty pedestrian. After an initial three issue arc by Tony Isabella that set the heroes up as a team, Chris Claremont was brought in to guest write issue 4. By that time, Claremont had 'only' been writing comics for about six years and it showed in his writing. Thankfully, he had already adopted his pet peeve: mind control. 

The issue opens with Black Widow and Hercules enjoying a stroll on the beach, when they run into a crazed man who happens to be super strong, despite his advanced age. Seconds after they subdue him, a generic squad of shock troopers shows up and manages to knock them both out. Once they come to, they find themselves the prisoners of... well, just read...

Just how the Widow knows about doctor Lansing is never explained, but he's more than willing to explain what he's up to. Lansing is a psychiatrist who runs a mental asylum, even though he is insane. He's been experimenting on his patients to create a variant of Captain America's soldier serum. Many of his test subjects turned insane and infantile, his first success was the old man the heroes encountered on the beach. 

"When I've finished with you two, you'll tell me your innermost secrets... And serve me as blindly, as loyally, as any of my mutates!"

... Ahh, the sight of those future tried and true Claremontisms in their earliest appearances... Almost enough to bring a tear to one's eye. Now, in the years that followed Claremont would take plenty of time and pages to show the gruelling mind control techniques... but in these fledgling years, he cut right to the chase.

Gotta love that George Tuska art, with tiny details like Iceman reading an issue of the X-men comic. But here we have Hercules and the Black Widow busting into their own headquarters, ready to kill their fellow Champions.

Even in 1975, the threat of doctor Edward Starling and his mind addled zombies really do feel like a throwback to an early 1960s Tales To Astonish back up strip. Starling, both in design and behaviour, would have been a perfect fit for Ant Man's rogue gallery. From his plain clothes appearance to his remarkable likeness to main Ant Man baddie Egghead... Not to mention that bulky box he uses to control his mutates. All of it just screams vintage Stan Lee.

So, why did Starling decide to have Hercules and the Black Widow attack the Champions? Surely, there must have been better targets? Well, it seems Starling wanted the Widow's associate Ivan dead, who happened to be staying with the team at the time. Starling's big blunder was to send a mind controlled Natasha to kill her best friend...

Furious she broke free from his conditioning, Lansing tried to shoot the Widow in an obviously futile attempt to keep the situation under control. Obviously, he failed and then Natasha did this...

With his control box destroyed, the mutates turned on Lansing and the Champions just... let them kill him? Not too heroic, if you ask me. Still, kudos to Tuska for the creative way of showing Lansing's finale fate in a convincingly creepy way without resorting to gore. Never underestimate the power of suggestion.

Claremont ends his tale on the beach, with Angel having a heart to heart with a remarkably contemplative Hercules...

And so ends Chris Claremont's one issue Champions run. A surprisingly fine story, despite the cookie cutter plot, the generic bad guy and the slightly overwrought emotional ending that is a little out of character for Hercules, who must have seen far worse during the countless battles he's been in.

In retrospect, the conversation would have made far more sense if their roles had been reversed so a relatively inexperienced young hero like Warren would be overcome by the sad, unfair fate of the mutates only to have battle wisened Hercules set him straight.

Ah well, live and learn... at least Claremont realised having his bad guys carry around a mind control mcguffin that screams 'break me to conveniently end all this' was a bad move storywise... So its not all bad, after all. Just like the Champions themselves.

Spiders, viper and self inflicted mind control

Besides his obvious soft spot for mind control, Chris Claremont also has a well established penchant for writing strong women... Scratch that, strong women who preferably dress in black leather. This makes Chris a natural fit for writing......

"I crave excitement... suspense!" 

No worries Black Widow... you won't soon forget any of the thrill ride that is Marvel Team Up issues 82 through 85... Ow, wait, you don't know who you are to begin with? Ah, guess that explains issue 82 then.

The arc starts out routinely enough with Spider-Man stopping the mugging of a red haired woman. However, he's shocked to learn that she's a dead ringer for the Black Widow... Yet, that's not who this redhead claims to be. 

"Mmmmm-- this is good"

Know what isn't as good? Late 1970s Marvel coloring. Honestly, 'Nancy Rushman' either looks like an Asian lady wearing a red fright wig, or a low budget Tigra. Anyways, Spider-Man can't get over the fact that this supposed elementary school teacher looks so much like a certain ex Soviet super spy he knows.

He spends some time trying to figure out whether or not Nancy is the Widow, even getting her to dress in a spare Black Widow uniform. This brings up some rather painful memory flashes. 

Despite that ordeal, nothing substantial comes in to focus. Spider-Man decides to take 'Nancy' to SHIELD, the spy organisation Black Widow works for. But, it seems like the agency has already found them.

Why would SHIELD be attacking one of their own? That's so... out of character for them. Almost as if they were... Mind controlled? Ah yes, that would be this lady's doing:

The Viper had been secretly plotting to conquer the world using a hypnobeam (mind control by any other name) to take over the Helicarrier, SHIELD's massive flying fortress.

Her big plan: by crashing the SHIELD base on Washington DC just as then US president Jimmy Carter was giving a major policy speech, not only would she take out the president and most of America's leaders,  it would leave the entire planet shocked and vulnerable for her terrorist group Hydra to move in and make their move. 

Now, I'm no expert on world domination, let alone the logic of a terrorist supervillain who insists on wearing emerald lipstick...

But if you're crafty enough to come up with a mind controlling hypno ray so potent it turns an entire  Helicarrier full of superspies into your slaves... Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just walk into the White House and activate aforementioned device? Less of a mess, more mindless drones in high places to boss around. Just a thought...

Still, getting back to the mystery of Nancy Rushman and Natasha Romanova... The Widow had actually discovered Viper's scheme early on, but was captured and subjected to intense torture. So intense, in fact, that this happened:

So... If you were Viper and you have a mind control device lying around that turns anyone into a helpful slave with the flick of a switch... Would extreme torture to the point of self induced schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder really be the way to go?

Needless to say, by the time the trilogy ended in Marvel Team Up # 85, Viper was defeated and the Widow returned to normal, thereby condemning the Nancy Rushman aspect of her personality to 'die off' as well.

You might think ridding yourself of an unwanted alter ego would be a good thing, especially when it only came into existence because your mind couldn't handle the intense trauma it was being subjected to. But guess what...

Yes, Spider-Man is actually a little disappointed Black Widow was herself again... 

You see, in the last three issues, Spidey had developed more than a little crush on 'Nancy Rushman', the scared, wimpering school marm who hang on to him for dear life whenever anything remotely threatening happened.

So that's our hero: a guy who forces a scared, fragile woman to change into the woman *HE* knows she could be, even dressing her up in skintight black leather. And once he succeeds in his goal, he leaves heart broken once it becomes clear she isn't as subservient and pliable after all...

Bet you wish you had a miniature version of Viper's hypno ray in your beltbuckle now, eh, Spidey?