What If... You Used Some Mind Control?

It's no big secret Chris Claremont had originally planned to spare Jean Grey's life at the end of the classic Dark Phoenix Saga. After losing their fight with the Shi'ar Imperial Guard on the Moon, Jean was to undergo a psychic lobotomy, a "procedure that destroyed the parts of her brain related to her powers" after which she would be sent on her merry way.

At the 11th hour, Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter balked at this notion, claiming that Jean would have to pay for the crimes of Dark Phoenix (destroying a star, blowing up a planet, y'know, little misdemeanors like that). So Jean had to die, by her own hand, forcing Claremont and Byrne to rethink the long term planning for the book on the fly.

Luckily, the What If?-series allowed Claremont to answer that one question fans had: what if Phoenix had lived? The story shown in What If? # 32 largely followed Claremont's original plans. Chris had always wanted Scott and Jean to leave the team after the affair with the Phoenix. Settling down and enjoying a normal life for a few months, their relative peace and quiet ended with the late night arrival of their oldest foe.

In Claremont's original plans, Magneto would also show up around Uncanny X-men # 150 to make Jean a very similar proposal...

Magneto offered to restore Jean's powers and she was tempted to say the least. The loss of her telepathy had severely handicapped her. She even likened it to missing a sense or a limb. She felt locked inside her head, like her own mind was a prison cell. So, why wouldn't she accept it? Let's see what she did. 

Jean's refusal was a part of Claremont's outline as well. Her choice influenced Magneto to rethink his evil ways somewhat, a move not too dissimilar from what happened in the 'real' Uncanny X-men # 150. In that issue, the X-men also faced Magneto who threatened the entire world in his classic silver age mad villain sort of way... But revealing a sudden humanity when he was shocked to learn his 'evil' actions caused the X-men's youngest member Kitty Pryde considerable harm.

Getting back to the alternate reality at hand... After their adventure against Magneto, Jean felt more at peace and ready to move on with her life. Returning to college and graduating with a degree in education, she joined Professor Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters as a teacher to the New Mutants...

And speaking of new mutants, not too long after that she gave birth to a baby girl named Rachel. Everything seemed to be going Jean's way... that is, until several months later tragedy struck again.

Much to her surprise Scott actually shows up. Sort of. Turns out, she's being mind controlled by a very familiar old foe... Mastermind.

Mastermind's illusions are intense and powerful... even slightly disturbing... Watch for the melting infant with the spike sticking out of her eye...

But in the meantime... you are mine, body and soul!"

Apparently, Jean didn't think that was too nice and she heroically fought back against Mastermind's illusion, even knocking him out. However, all that did was reveal the true villain...

Ahhh, yeah... It's the granddaddy of all things mind control... The Shadow King. He had been watching Jean from the shadows, slowly taking over Mastermind's mind, biding his time until the right moment presented itself... And with the X-men and New Mutants off to fight in the first Secret Wars, he finally made his move.

Jean thought the Shadow King was after her.

She was wrong.

The Shadow King controlled Mastermind took off with baby Rachel, leaving Jean dead on the floor of the nursery. However, this is where we find out 'Jean' isn't really Jean after all. As established in 616-continuity, the real Jean Grey never became Phoenix.

Marvel Girl turned into Phoenix in X-men # 100, however years later it was revealed that rather than empowering Jean, the force actually assumed Jean's physical form and took over her life, leaving the young girl in a cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay.

The same thing happened here, but the Phoenix had used her own powers to make herself forget she wasn't the real thing (... mind controlling your own mind? That's gotta be a first!). However, dying restored both the Phoenix's memories and powers, leaving her with a horrifying realisation.

The right thing would be to restore the real Jean to life, allowing her to take over... But that would giving up the life Phoenix had with Scott, not to mention baby Rachel... Could she truly be that noble and heroic? 

Phoenix essentially murdered Jean... taking over her life forever. And who would ever know, right? The issue ends with a cliffhanger, after all the threat of the Shadow King still had to be dealt with.

However, that next issue wasn't written by Claremont so let's not go into it that much. Suffice it to say, the Shadow King's powers were no match for the Phoenix' fires... nor were the Sentinels and lord knows what other X-men baddie showed up. Yet, in the end Phoenix realised she was just too powerful and dangerous to remain on Earth... So she choose to leave her life behind in order to save the entire planet.

Talk about repentance...

Shi'aring the mind control

Ah, love... it truly is a many splendored thing.

Remember how professor Xavier used to have a thing for Lilandra Neramani, the now deceased ruler of the starspanning Shi'ar empire? Theirs was a love both long distance and improbable. And ow yes, fraught with mind control.

Before her first appearance in Uncanny X-men # 105, Lilandra's presence was felt through the many intense nightmares Charles Xavier had been experiencing. The one constant in all his vision like dreams was a human creature dressed in an advanced, alien spacesuit. At first, Charles dismissed all of it, chalking them up to mere fatigue... But alien astronauts become kind of hard to ignore once they actually beam in for coffee...

Notice how Xavier instantaneously knew the alien's name was Lilandra? A lucky guess, you say? Well, not quite. Claremont actually tied this arc to a storyline from the original X-men run in the late sixties that featured the alien menace known as the Z'nox.

Back in the late 60s, Charles became aware of this warlike, psychopathic race that was totally devoid of love, empathy or mercy. Worse of all: The Z'nox were gathering their forces to invade Earth. In an early example of Professor Xavier is a jerk! syndrome, Charles decided to keep sitting on this information (no wheelchair pun intended). He became convinced he alone was capable of warding off the Z'nox so he faked his own death and went underground for months to prepare and a plan.

Eventually, he devised a way to defeat the psychopatic, unfeeling alien race. Using his massive telepathic talents, Charles contacted every sentient being on the planet at once, explaining the situation and asking them to focussing on all that is good and noble about mankind.

He then focussed all these thoughts and emotions in what can only be described as a 'decency beam' that he fired straight into space towards the approaching armada. All these 'good vibrations' caused the Z'nox great pain and forced them to abandon their invasion plans... The 60s, everybody!

Right before Charles Xavier fired off his mental love rocket, Shi'ar princess Lilandra Neramani had just escaped her pursuers. As the disapproving younger sister of the mad Shi'ar emperor D'ken, Lilandra was rather unpopular with both D'ken and the military. They all planned for Lilandra to have a little 'accident'.

But she survived, as this Claremont written issue of Classic X-men shows... Only to be caught in the backlash of Xavier's Z'nox attack.

Falling victim to an unwanted wave of alien emotions, Lilandra scrambled to her feet. But... Were they hers, really?

In a flash, she not only saw Charles Xavier's life pass before her eyes... Somehow, she connected to his very being and got mind controlled by it...

" I am human. But humanity is a state of mind..."
Speaking of state of minds... it wasn't long before Lilandra got Charles' entire mind forced upon herself...

"Yet (...) even in that first, terrible moment... her mind... trained to repel the slightest psychic invasion... and her spirit, which since birth has reveled in its defiant, unviolable solitude, untouched and untouchable... do no resist this alien intruder but (...) welcome him."

For what were supposed to be basic Classic X-men back up strips, Claremont sure gave his readers their money's worth.

Two minds, fighting over just who is in control. Wonder how that'll play itself out...

"She doesn't like it..."

To be fair, who would enjoy waking up one day to find yourself violated by what can only be generously described as a chimpansee's mind?

As unfair as this may sound, that is how humans must appear to the Shi'ar, a race of avian (!) aliens that rule large chunks of the known galaxy. And to have one of the ruling cast fall hopelessly in love with a mammal? An invalid mammal hailing from a backwards, backwater little world that hasn't even mastered basic interstellar travel?

That'd be like the daughter of the president shacking up with a peg legged duck. Both unheard of AND uncalled for. Still, its what happened once Charles and Lilandra met up.

And not long afterwards, we learn just what Lilandra was running from before she got herself accidentally mind controlled by her one, true love.

Meet the big meany, the one thing Lilandra fears above else... Even D'Ken himself doesn't disturb her half as much as this...

Its a Soul Drinker, an outer dimensional creature that enjoys sucking down on the soul of D'ken's enemies... still, how hard would it be to avoid the creature? Why not run away from it?

Having an alien, mind controlling creature coming for her soul... Threating to suck it out and forever make her a part of itself made Lilandra feel very scared indeed. Yet... isn't Charles Xavier every bit as much an alien creature trying to control and consume her mind? And you share your bed with him!

Yeah... the irony slaps you in the face about as hard as the soul sucking Shi'ar creature.

Mastermind masterminds... mind control?

Whoops, almost messed up the chronology. In Uncanny X-men 125, the seeds are laid for the corruption of Phoenix. Former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants founding member Mastermind had been propped up in a new identity as the mysterious Jason Wyngarde. Jean was being subtly manipulated to fit her upcoming role as Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. As this picture shows, she had no idea she was being molded and prepped...

Ah yes, its come to this... In a year's worth of issues, Claremont had managed to change Jean from the strong, independent woman to Mastermind's puppet. "Jean Grey belongs to the Hellfire Club, body and soul, now and FOREVER!", or so Wyngarde boasted. A couple of pages later, the Phoenix force that was posing as Jean burst free and went on to destroy the D'Bari, aka the Asparagus People.