Defending Your Right To Mind Control Ms. Marvel's Supporting Cast

It's the 1970s again as Chris Claremont guest writes an issue of Defenders and even then his signature style was already in place. So roll on the mind control mirth plus half the cast of whatever book he'd been working on as well, Ms. Marvel in this case, thereby making the Defenders feel like guest stars in their own title. 

Fair's fair, opening the story with the Hulk smashing an image of Ms. Marvel that had mysteriously appeared is a nice way to pique the readers' interest... You'd think the Defenders would take this emantion serious enough to drop everything and go seek out Ms. Marvel. She might be in mortal danger, right? Instead, the team decided to call it a night and 'maybe look into it tomorrow'. Unfortunately, that 'tomorrow' never came... Wait, let's have Claremont captions explain it all while the story really begins...

We find psychiatrist Michael Barnett, straight from the Ms. Marvel supporting cast, contemplating his fate. He's feeling down and drowning his sorrows because he's starting to fall in love with his patient Carol Danvers, who he also knows is secretly Ms. Marvel. 

Doctor Barnett really is a terrible doctor. Not only is he totally unconcerned with violating the doctor/patient relationship, he also tells a man who might be a desperate even potentially suicidal person to go take a flying hike. Luckily, the only man in need of help is Barnett himself as the eyes of one Arthur Shaman start to burn into his mind... and soul!

After assuring the mind controlled Barnett he's no longer in command of his will, Shaman takes the good doctor away to a local AIM base.  

Picking up on a plot thread from Ms. Marvel, AIM still can't figure out how Carol Danvers was able to discover their New York base. So, what does a band of scientific geniuses with mind control equipment do to answer that question? Why... rely on a two bit hypnotist like Shaman to kidnap Carol's psychiatrist and mind control him of course! You know it makes sense. 

After what Claremont makes sure we know is a long, drawn-out and thoroughly unpleasant process the beehive hooded brainiacs figure out the way to destroy Carol Danvers: get the Hulk to do it. And on a side note: Barnett KNOWS Carol is Ms. Marvel. What are the odds he didn't spit out that tantalizing tidbit of personal information long before coughing up her fear of the Hulk? 

Meanwhile, let's see what the star of the show has been up to...

Ms. Marvel's seventh sense had told her both the Defenders and one of her close friends were in mortal danger. So it only makes sense she all but abandons her friends to go help out the Defenders...
A team that has the world's mightiest mortal and the sorceror supreme on the roster. Still, her seventh sense was right on the money as Doctor Strange's house is soon besieged by AIM warcrafts and... this guy.

One can't help but wonder what artist George Tuska was thinking when he came up with the design for this combat droid. It looks like Tuska took the Beetle's body armor and slapped on this guy's headgear.  

The AIM robot was a little tougher than the X-men's old foe Lucifer. Must be because of the added antenna. It managed to incapacitate most of the Defenders, encasing the Valkyrie within unbreakable crystal, knocking out Clea and flash freezing the one they came for: Hulk. As AIM departed, only Nighthawk and Hellcat were left standing.

Arthur Shaman must truly be one of the last moustache twirling bad guys, as he raves about the 'delicious irony' of his plan. Still, mind controlling the Hulk to kill a civilian seems about as convoluted as you can get. Not that he even gets a chance to execute his plan because Ms. Marvel, Nighthawk and Hellcat are waiting for the bad guys inside their lab.

Using the element of surprise, the severly underpowered trio manages to beat Shaman, AIM and the robot... which left Chris with only a few panels to clear up one final mystery... Just how did Ms. Marvel's image pop up from the orb of Agamotto months ago?

"Hmm. I have no magical powers. This is a puzzle, unless... my seventh-sense somehow interacted with the psychic energies of the orb. That's only guess work, of course."

Of. Course. 

Days Of Future Mind Control's Ever Present

What better way to open a review about mind control in a semi alternate future than by showing an alternate cover to the tale?

This entry covers the Days Of Future Present story, an arc that ran through the 1990 annuals as the inevitable sequel to the ever so popular Days Of Future Past storyline. Back in Uncanny X-men # 141 and 142, Chris Claremont and John Byrne told a dystopian tale... set all the way in the far flung future of... erm, 2013... In which the Sentinels had taken over North America in their unending pursuit to destroy the mutant threat.

Most of the mutant population had either been killed or forced to live in concentration camps, outfitted with power dampening collars and  guarded by Sentinels who had pretty much taken control of North America. But even within the camps, the flames of resistance still burned. Kitty, or rather Kate, Pryde is seen smuggling in the final component of a jamming device designed to negate the collars so mutants can use their abilities freely. 

So, who had been residing at this particular camp? Apart from Kitty, Storm, her husband Colossus and a disabled Magneto, some of the younger prisoners were Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers, daughter of Scott and Jean Summers.

Franklin and Rachel were passionate lovers, determined to use the jamming device to break free via the Morlock tunnels. But unfortunately, their dreams of freedom were cut short by the Sentinels.

So, Franklin died in this alternate future and eventually Rachel would use her powers to travel through time and reality to join the X-men of reality 616. There, she slowly accepted her new situation and tried to make the best of it... Largely unaware that her fiance was already alive as little more than a toddler, the 1990 annuals addressed this rather odd situation when the adult Days of Future Past Franklin showed up alive and well in the past... Or rather, the then current present.

Using his formidable reality warping powers, Franklin goes about setting right what he thinks is wrong with the past he remembers. In the Days of Future Past timeline, the Fantastic Four only lived in the Baxter Building before the Sentinel uprising, so Franklin reverts Four Freedoms Plaza back to the old FF headquarters along with a similarly old fashioned FF-team. These shenanigans continue on for a while and include the FF, the New Mutants, X-Factor and the X-men before Chris Claremont got to tie all of this into a nice knot with Uncanny X-men Annual 14 and the character of Ahab.

A-who?

...

Ahab is the enemy of the four annuals... a mysterious Houndmaster from the future who was responsible for breaking Rachel and overseeing her training into a mutant seeking Hound unit.

Travelling back to the past (sigh... then current present), Ahab tried to gain control of both the fugitive Rachel and Franklin. Instead, he found himself confronted with their respective parents.

But, like any good villain knows... When life hands you lemons, you capture them and you squeeze long enough til you get mind controlled lemonade. Or minions, whatever happens first.

Ahh... It might be a form of futuristic mind and body control, this still feels like a classic with both their body and mind being twisted into a new, ever so evil shape...

Sticks and stones might break no bones, but chains and spiky collars sure make enslaved meta humans hollah!

Ah, the whole kneeling shtick, along with the slave tattoos on the Invisible Woman... Ahab spares no expense.

But don't think Ahab is the only one using mind control to get what he wants. Future Franklin isn't exactly above it either. Once he's finally met Rachel, he uses his powers to push some buttons. 

Rachel and Franklin manage to get away, only to be captured by Ahab. In the end, it takes the combined effort of the Fantastic Four, the X-men, Cable and the New Mutants and X-Factor to take the Houndmaster down. Ahab flees back into the future, leaving the heroes with quite a few problems on their hands. First and foremost, just who is future Franklin supposed to be?

Sheesh, I've heard of relationships with moochers and leaches, but that's pushing it.

Poor Rachel is denied her shot at happiness, either way.And with only a few pages left in the final chapter of the story Chris Claremont pulls out the ol' Phoenix ex machina trick and uses Rachel's control of the cosmic force to hit the reset button.

The Phoenix reverts Cyclops and the Invisible Woman back to their non-Hound selves and future Franklin releases his hold on his younger self, so all's well that ends well. Even though there are still some people worried the Days of Future Past are still ahead of them, the annual ends on a positive note. 

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?

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.

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.