Four Fantastic Mind Control Without Emotions

The previous two entries featured some of Chris Claremont's earliest writings from the 1970s.

It was a different time for all of us. Heck, most of us weren't even born when neophyte writer Chris Claremont was making a name for himself. He had a lot to learn back then. His storytelling was still a little clunky, his scripting might be a tad too wordy and sometimes the plots were a bit hard to follow. But the man showed promise.

So, let's do the time warp again to see how and if 30+ years of experience had paid off...

Opening with the death of an entire universe?

*sigh* so much for mastering the art of 'less is more'.

Welcome to the latter half of Claremont's all too brief Exiles run. During their first mission under new management, the Exiles failed in their mission to contain an alternate reality Madame Hydra (Sue Storm) and her cronies to the Earth they had ravaged. Instead, the trio escaped into the omniverse, but not before setting off an explosion that seemingly destroyed that entire reality.

Back at Exiles' headquarters Heather Hudson was forced to watch her comrades perish. Severly depressed, Heather went on a prolonged drinking binge, before finally deciding to leave the Panoptichron, aka the Crystal Palace, altogether.

Before departing to her home dimension, she did however program a digitalised, interactive version of herself should any possible future visitors to the Panoptichron need aid. The minute she left, the Palace's lights went out.

As enticing a dramatic turn this might be for Heather, it all felt a bit futile... Because the readers already knew the Exiles were alive and well. It took the better part of Exiles # 95 to clear all of this up, but the team finally visited Heather's reality where she had reunited with her husband and was an expecting mother. Overjoyed, the team allowed Heather her happy ending as they got ready for their next mission...

Without Heather, the Exiles needed someone to hold down the fort. Their most recent member Psylocke volunteered for the job, waving goodbye to the others who were off to visit a world that was ruled by the Fantastic Four, or a rather interesting take on them: Meet the Four Fantastics and yes, that is Doctor Doom leading them.

Over the next several issues a lot happened. For one thing, with an alternate reality Fantastic Four ruling the Earth... who else could oppose them but Reed Richards as... The Mole Man? And the fun doesn't end there. Or, actually it does... because Doom had unleashed something in the air that did a real number on the minds of every single person on the planet, as Longshot learned.

Yup, leave it to Victor von Doom to come up with a way to safeguard humanity... by taking away all that makes mankind unique. Von Doom's pathogen had effectively erased all inclination to having fun or laughing from mankind's genetic make up.

Meanwhile back in the Crystal Palace, Psylocke's monitoring duties get a whole lot more interesting when a young visitor pops in out of the proverbial blue...

If it looks like a Kitty Pryde, sounds like a Kitty Pryde and phases through solid matter like a Kitty Pryde... it must be a Kitty Pryde. Actually, Psylocke witnessed the arrival of Cat, who would go on to be the Exiles' most enigmatic member.

But first there was a new threat to deal with: Victor von Doom had managed to home in on the Exiles' Tallus energies. Copying them, the FF leader was able to send an armed contingent to the Panoptichron so they could claim its technologies for the greater glory of Doom.

Initially succesfull, Von Doom's forces capture both Psylocke and Cat and, to kill a little time, decide to have a little mind control fun while they're at it.

Now, it makes sense for a team of marines going into combat to have a physician in their ranks. But why would any doctor go into battle wearing his surgeon's scrubs and a face mask? So much for camouflage. 

Unfortunately, it's hard to stab someone with a needle if that person is intangible. Poor guy, all dressed up for the part and nowhere to go. Meanwhile, Von Doom was facing his nemesis Reed 'Mole Man' Richards in a final confrontation...

Forget the weird glasses and the Mole Man's hood, this Reed Richards truly is a poet.

A poet with a bit of a mean streak, as it turns out. When his words failed to sway Doom, Reed Richards took that ol' New Hampshire state motto 'live free or die' a little too literally by blowing up the planet.  

How's that for ending a four issue arc filled with characterization and moral dilemmas? 

Excuse that excellent Exiles mind control

And then there came a time... a time most fans of Exiles feared... the moment Chris Claremont took over.

As any writer is wont to do, he wasted no time making the book his own. His first act was returning recently introduced member Power Princess to the Squadron Supreme of her own dimension.

Then he made a point of subtly redefining the Exiles' mission statement. The team no longer observed and protected the multiverse... no, they were responsible for Claremont coined 'crosstime' and 'omniverse'.

Arguably a change in name only, but it did allow Claremont to link the Exiles to his other Omniverse related creations like Merlin, Mad Jim Jaspers, the Fury and last but not least omniversal guardian Roma and her Captain Britain corps. Speaking of Captain Britain, lets see who will be replacing the Princess...

Well, at least the amount of purple in the team's uniforms remained roughly the same.

Meet Psylocke, fresh from 'our' 616 reality. Not only is Betsy Braddock one of the all time Claremont faves, she also happens to be the sister of Captain Britain and even a one time replacement Captain Britain herself so it's another tie to previously established continuity right there. This set things up nicely for a team up with the Excalibur series Claremont was also writing at the time. But that's a story for another time.

So why was Psylocke summoned anyways? Yes, Sabretooth claimed the team would miss Power Princess' super strength, but surely her brawn couldn't be all that stands between victory and defeat? Well... let's just see how the team did on their first mission without Zarda.

In a move reminiscent of 1975's classic Giant Sized X-men # 1, only one member of the team made it back to get help. In this case, it was Sabretooth and not Cyclops who returned to base and together with Heather 'Sasquatch' Hudson they scanned the multiv... Sorry, Omniverse... to find just the right person to help them out. As it turns out, it was Psylocke.

Credit Claremont for hitting the ground running and using established continuity to drive the story forward, even if it didn't directly involve any of his own stories. Case in point: Psylocke's reaction when seconds after landing in the Exiles' desert room, she encounters Sabretooth.

Keep in mind that in the 616 universe, Sabretooth almost killed her twice. Once during the Claremont penned Mutant Massacre storyline and a second time when Scott Lobdell had Psylocke step in to save X-Force's Boomer. So, how would you react when you find yourself in strange surroundings with a hated enemy approaching?

Yeah, that seems about right.

After all the usual misunderstandings had been cleared up, Psylocke agreed to help the Exiles out and joined Sabretooth in the rescue mission. So, what had caused all the troubles?

Seems like the Exiles had encountered heavy opposition from the ninjas of the Hand. A nuisance to be sure, but nothing they usually can't handle. What could possibly be...

Ah, yeah... this is a Claremont comic now. So 'adventures' are known as 'capers', the multiverse is decidedly omni and mind control is for everyone. Yes... for some unexplained reason, the Exiles ran right into this trap. Even the ones usually too lucky for that.

A mind controlled Longshot... right down to the nice little touch of altering his belt buckle to the 'H' for 'Hand' or even 'Hydra', considering who's the villain of the piece...

In this reality, Susan Storm isn't known as the Invisible Woman but actually the ruthless Madame Hydra. Forget Viper, Susie is as good a sadistic baddie as one could hope for. And then you haven't even met her lover...

"You like cutting their bodies to pieces, my love. Whereas I prefer reordering their minds, James... And putting them to use."

Yeah. That's how the former Susan Storm-Richards rolls.

After turning to evil and separating from her husband Reed Richards, Sue has used mind control technology to further her goals of total world domination. But, what was the mission the Exiles had to accomplish in this reality anyway? Surely, it has to be something as straightforward as 'beat the baddies and move on", right?

Not quite.

Well, lemme save you a dry summary of all the issues through # 94...

The Exiles fail.

Reed doesn't die and Madame Hydra escapes into the Omniverse, along with her lover Wolverine and their partner the Slaymaster. The mind control she subjected Longshot, Spider-Man 2099 and Blink to eventually fades, while the desolate Earth mentioned earlier suddenly becomes a whole lot less desolate when a necklace worn by Reed's daughter Valeria Richards turns out to contain 2.5 billion people Reed wanted to save from the tyranny of his ex-wife.

So, all is right in the world.

Well, in thát world at least.

Profusely Protesting Proteus' Premedidated Morphin'

Sometimes, one can't blame Chris Claremont for using mind control.

When Claremont took over Exiles, he was handed a bit of a conundrum regarding long time, shapeshifting member Morph. Y'see, he wasn't exactly the same, fun loving miscreant everyone had grown to love. 

Shortly before Claremont was announed the new Exiles writer, long time scribe Tony Bedard had put the team through the wringer during their World Tour. This extended storyline saw the Exiles chasing Kevin MacTaggert, better known as the reality warping mutant Proteus. Due to the nature of his powers, Kevin was a discorpeal energy form in a never ending need for host bodies. However, each and everyone he inhabited soon was consumed by his powers...Everyone, that is... until he inhabited Morph.

The Exiles finally came up with a way of defeating Proteus, by using B-Mod technology from the Squadron Supreme reality they visited during their hunt. 'B-Mod' is short for 'behaviour modification' and that's exactly what happened to Proteus Morph when he donned a crown that was secretly lined with B-Mod circuitry. It essentially reset Morph's mind, returning him to his old self, while Proteus aspect was rendered dormant... Bottled up, ever ready to resurface.

During Chris' run on both Exiles and New Exiles, the threat of Proteus reemerging was repeatedly hinted at. The notion of your teammate effectively being a single moment of clarity away from turning into a genocidal omniversal overlord gave everyone the shivers...

Yet, everything seemed pretty much okay, until the events of New Exiles Annual # 1. Morph was put in charge of the team as they responded to a distress call from an alternate Earth specifically asking for their assistance...

As it turns out, it was Valeria Richards, the daughter of Reed and Sue Richards they had encountered during one of their earliest missions. This Valeria was pretty similar to the Valeria that Chris introduced during his late 1990s Fantastic Four run. This meant she possessed many of the traits a typical, young Claremontian leading lady has: acting both chipper and delightfully snarky, with a genius level intellect and amazing powers to boot.

How amazing, you wonder? Well... after their initial encounter, Valeria constructed a means of following the Exiles on their adventures across the omniverse, even travelling to the alternate Earths they would eventually visit.

However, for some unknown reason, Valeria arrived early on a world that also happened to be in the grips of  The Maker, an alternate reality Shaper of Worlds who had gone mad. Instead of longing to improve worlds, this one actually got his kicks from causing as much destruction as possible. In this case, by challenging five supervillains to outdo themselves.

Valeria called in the Exiles to set things right. And so they did, defeating crossdimensional counterparts of Doctor Doom, Magneto, Red Skull, Green Goblin and a Baron Mordo/Dormammu mix who wasn't beyond using mind control, by the way.

Making short work of the five baddies meant the Maker was forced to deal with the team himself. Teleporting everyone to his base on a second, smaller Moon orbiting Earth, the final confrontation got underway just as something went wrong with Morph....

For some reason, Proteus was starting to break free from his mental prison, but the Exiles were a tad too distracted to notice. Psylocke and Valeria combined their telekinesis and force field powers to protect everyone from the Maker's fury... But simply throwing up a shield doesn't save you from a being capable of reshuffling existence at a whim.

Ow yeah... the bad guy has managed to sink his claws into one of the good guys... We all know what happens next, right?

Yeah... that's the Shaper of Worlds for ya... mad or otherwise, he is always at the ready to reshape and remold everything you once held as true about yourself or those you trust. Speaking of reshaping those you could trust, Proteus finally makes his move...

"There's someone else inside my head!"

Well of course there is, Morph/Proteus! After all, this is New Exiles, the comic in which Chris Claremont had  no less than 4 main characters go through the exact same thing in the space of 18 issues. It happened to Cat, Sage fell prey to it as well and even Psylocke had to fight her way through it... So why not you?

One might simply dismiss this as a case of lazy writing or even call it a blatant copycat approach to character development... But consider this: maybe Claremont was going for a motif...? Perhaps he was trying to do a subtle study on how everyone deals differently with their less than desirable traits and urges? Do we vehemently deny and cast them out, like Pylocke did? Do we let them overwhelm and change us, like Cat? Or do we accept our darker sides, becoming more powerful in the process... like Sage and Morph...

Ow wait, did I just give away the ending?

"You're not alone inside this head, this body, this soul".

Defeated by the Shaper, sorry Maker, Proteus retreats into his own mind and finds the spirit of Morph there. Kevin Sydney happened to be alive and well... or something... and grabbed the chance to stage an intervention of sorts. "I can sense all this supervillainy stuff isn't making you happy... let me help you learn to help yourself".

Before those lines cause all of us to burst into a rousing rendition of Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson, let's see if Mister Proteus took the long dead former inhabitant of his body up on his offer...

Oh, right, right... more talking... Guess convincing someone to essentially give up being themselves isn't done in a panel or two. But finally, this happens...

And in a flurry of bright, pink lights, Morph and Proteus become one... Morph's cheery nature washes away the hurt and pain that made Proteus into a supervillain. Just like one appeases an angry dog by removing the thorn from its paw. The new patchwork persona was immediately accepted by the others and all was right in the world again.

Forget the fact he's essentially a lobotomized supervillain responsible for burning through at least a dozen host bodies during his reign of terror across the multiverse... I guess being given a new lease on life in an immortal, shape shifting body is punishment enough, right?

Well, if anything it also made Proteus into Doctor Phil clone, with a similarly annoying accent.

... #whitepeopleproblems.

The Sage Saga Part V: Upgrading The Living Computer

Calling Chris Claremont's New Exiles a bit of a convoluted mess might not be too charitable...

But it is the truth.

Fans never were too eager to have Claremont take over Exiles, a book that had been doing just fine under longtime writer Tony Bedard. When Chris took over in issue # 90, he quickly made it his own by bringing in Psylocke, another one of his pet characters. After ten issues, Exiles ended with issue # 100, making way for Claremont to introduce a whole new cast in New Exiles.

One of those New Exiles was Sage, who just recently had all the knowledge of Roma, eternal ruler of the Omniverse, dumped into her mind.

Needless to say, what happened next was Sage getting a little crazy. In almost every issue, she'd have to fight with some incarnation of the evils Roma had been aware of, and even her former fake personality Diana Fox popped back up from time to time.

Its got to be a little confusing when you're fighting in your own mind while also trying to survive the fight on the outside of your skull... Here, Sage takes on bad guys ánd Diana Fox in scenes from New Exiles # 5 and 6.

The Diana Fox persona was subtly trying to take over Sage by influencing her actions in the field.

So, the essence of Roma and a fake personality are fighting to take over her mind... Two mind controlling influences in one single brain. That's pushing it, even for Claremont.

Thankfully, there's also some old fashioned outside mind control to deal with... Meet the mind controller Purge in New Exiles # 10.

Ahhh, vintage Claremont mindcontrol... you have your victims all chained up, nowhere to go, a little sweat, some passionate pleas and a smirking bad guy who assures you that resistance is very futile indeed. Almost makes one nostalgic for the old days....

Despite his best efforts, Claremont never managed to make New Exiles the powerhouse of a title he had hoped it would be. Sales floundered and Marvel decided he'd better wrap things up. Claremont had a lot of ground to cover, especially if he wanted to solve the big drama he had set in motion: the multiverse was destabilising, causing entire realities to literally dissolve into nothingness...

In order to stop the unravelling of all that is, someone had to become one with the living computers of the Panoptichron. Yes, apparently the omniversal observatory the Exiles had been using as their base, was actually the source of the disturbance... That makes about as much sense as believing looking at shooting stars through a telescope won't cause them to burn up in the atmosphere.

Ignoring all that pesky common sense, lets see who volunteered to become the heart and soul of the Panoptichron...

                                                       

Sage herself seems pretty content with her new status quo, Psylocke appears less happy about it in the eighteenth and final issue of New Exiles.

 If anyone is trying to run, its you Sage... Running away from any semblance of common sense, that is. Check out what else she had to say about her new role as the voice of the omniversal GPS tracking system...

"I always wanted to play on a bigger stage. I certainly can't improve on this".

Thus ends the Sage Saga... The tragic tale of a proud, strong woman who valued her personal autonomy above everything else, a woman who had been locked in a struggle for her very sanity with two competing personalities in her own mind... freely gives up everything she is, to serve as the user interface of a computer system.

And to add insult to injury: she wasn't even the system's first choice.