X-men Forever Mind Controlled: Lodged In Logan

Back in 2009, the creative eggheads at Marvel had a novel idea...

What if... the past 17 years or so had never happened? What if Chris Claremont had never left after writing the first three issues of X-men in 1991? What would he have come up with? The answer to that was given in a biweekly series called X-men Forever. And despite the fact it was a bit of a nostalgia act, the mind control wasn't all that obvious. At first.

The first issue saw the X-men dealing with the aftermath of X-men # 3. Magneto had seemingly perished when his asteroid home was destroyed, only Fabian Cortez, the criminal leader of Magnus' Acolytes escaped... but the team was on his case. Unfortunately, Fabian's mutant power regulating gifts proved more than a match for the X-men...

"Lady says you're hurting, little man! Be my pleasure to make things a whole lot worse!"

Kitty tried to use her phasing powers to free Jean and Logan... but her rescue attempt had some... unexpected... consequences.

"I can't pull us free... Never felt anything so awful...Loganpleaseohplease make it STOP!"

Just why Kitty felt so much discomfort wouldn't be revealed until X-Men Forever # 4. By then, a lot had happened... Wolverine had been killed by Storm, of all people. And when their fellow X-men confronted the wind rider, Ororo quite easily beat them back, until Kitty struck and popped a boner... of sorts.

"I'm going to find out who made you turn against the X-men, Storm..."

Yeah... Not to be a spoilsport, but it doesn't involve mind control. However, the situation with Kitty would involve a fair amount of controlled minds. Mainly her own... Because during that unfortunate merger with the dearly departed Wolverine, Kitty got more than that single adamantium claw lodged in her skeletal structure...

"Inside my head... I see Logan's face, I can hear his voice."

We'll cover the story behind that particular picture in the next entry... For now, let's suffice it to say Kitty wasn't exactly alone in her head anymore. Forget that adamantium claw she was able to pop out, she also had inherited a semblance of Wolverine's healing factor, enhanced senses and rough, dominating personality... Which made her question if she was even in command of herself at all... Scenes like these certainly don't make it seem an actual 16 year old girl was 'home'...

"It was a long time ago. I was just a kid."

In the issues that followed, Kitty was fighting a losing battle against Logan's presence in her mind. Despite her best attempts, she suddenly started to adopt his gruff demeanor and speech patterns, which might have been worrisome, if not for the fact it also felt like Claremont was grooming her to be the next Wolverine. That is, until Kitty received an unexpected surprise during a fevered battle with the Marauders.

"You're supposed to be DEAD!"

Yeah... 'a' Wolverine showed up during the fight with the Marauders, widely known as Mr. Sinister's cloned henchmen. Everyone assumed Sinister had simply obtained a DNA sample in order to clone his own Wolverine so he could shock and disturb his former teammates. That's why Kitty, after getting gutted, showed no mercy and left him for dead... 

Well, she tried at least.

After her initial confrontation with this 'faux Wolverine', Kitty experienced very vivid dreams of being stalked by him... And in those dreams, she felt like she was slowly being turned into him as well... 

Luckily, this was all still a dream... but her behaviour did become a lot more erratic. For one thing, this not close to legal girl suddenly started flirting with Gambit. A lot.

"The way he's looking at me... I haven't felt like this in so long."

Not exactly lines you'd expect from a super intelligent 15 year old girl... So who's been fuelling her attraction to Gambit, then? Surely, it can't be Logan's influences... Alternate reality or not, the man's as straight as they come...

... Or maybe not.

Luckily, even a thief like Gambit wasn't ready to steal a kiss from a minor.

"You talk 'bout instincts... You ready t' trust 'em, body an' soul?"

Yeah, it's safe to say Kitty Pryde is more than a little confused. Add to all this the fact she's also been thinking in Japanese for some reason... It's high time she went to Japan in order to get some answers. However, the teenage Storm and Lockheed snuck on board her ship and joined Kitty in getting some anwers. Y'see, she figured it might not be Wolverine who was mind controlling her...

"I'd been possessed... By Logan's old teacher Ogun. He tried to make me a master assassin."

Logan or Ogun... Just who was trying to control Kitty is never made clear, because the threesome gets caught up in the proverbial perfect storm of converging storylines. Not in the least because this guy showed up. Again.

" <...Logan will always be the hunter!>"

After getting chased by what is clearly not just a Wolverine clone, Kitty, Storm and Lockheed dash across Japan in order to seek refuge with Logan's highly influential former lover Mariko Yashida. While she does indeed manage to keep away the maddened crazy man with the bone claws, Mariko is also in league with the X-men's big bad: the Consortium.  

The last few issues of X-men Forever dealt with them and their global influence, leaving the Kitty Pryde/Wolverine plotline large unresolved. Was this feral, bone clawed creature 'but' a clone or actually the real Logan? All we know for sure, he wanted back whatever Kitty got from him... And this is the last substantial thing Kitty ever said on the matter before X-Men Forever was cancelled...

*SNIKT*

Th-th-that's all folks!

Mojo's Mind Control Mayhem Part II: Sign Your Name And Cross Your Heart... FOREVER!

When we last left the X-babies and Kitty Pryde, they were busy doing a remake of the 1987 classic cult movie Adventures In Babysitting... On the Scottish moors, but still.

Kitty found herself taking care of baby versions of her former X-men teammates, who she still believed to be dead. In order to help her cuddly compadres find their previous nanny Ricochet Rita, Kitty decided to contact her current team: Excalibur.

But this is still 1989, well before the age of the internet, let alone mobile phones. This meant she had to head for the nearest town to call for help. But once she got there, Mojo's operative The Agent made his first move...

Beg yuir pardon, lassie... But I'll need your signature..."

"Now that you've signed a contract, little Psylocke... Your soul belongs to Mojo"

Yup, the Agent is also a shape shifter... ready to use his abilities to trick the X-Babies into 'renewing' their lifetime contract with Mojo, leaving them his powerless and mindless playthings. And it made sense he started with Psylocke, because while Mojo gained her soul, he gained Betsy's telepathy. Which made it all the more easy to claim the others...

Phasing her out before the Agent could do any real damage, Kitty gathered the remaining X-babies in a nearby police car and drove off... However, after driving through the night the car ran out of fuel somewhere near the border between Scotland and England. Fortunately, a very familiar comics writer and his posse happened to be on the road as well...

After leaving Claremont and company to fend for themselves, the journey continued on the British highway M1... But tragedy soon struck again when the band stopped for a quick road side snack. However, it was still quick enough for Havok to sign his life away...

That star struck waitress once again turned out to be the Agent in disguise... I suppose the dark glasses should have been a tip off. Still, the remaining X-Infants and Kitty made it to Manchester unscathed. Even though she was still unable to reach Excalibur, Kitty was actually starting to feel a little cocky. 

"Tempt us with our heart's desire. Hah! Faked him there! I got mine!"

Let's suppose that particular line shares no relation with Kitty's longing looks at the infant version of her first love Colossus... That would be wrong. But speaking of young love, just as the actual Rogue and Dazzler had been fighting over who Longshot liked the best, so did their young counterparts

...Talk about being tempted by your heart's desire...

After claiming both Rogue and Dazzler, the Agent had to keep his end of the promise and tried to take loverboy Longshot as well...

Colossus sacrificed himself so Kitty, Longshot and the others could get away. Shortly after reaching London, the Agent claimed Wolverine as well and Excalibur still wasn't responding to Kitty's calls. That's where the clever cat came up with a scheme bound to attract nation wide attention... It just so happened there was a televised royal wedding going down at St. Paul's Cathedral. What better way to get the attention of Meggan, Excalibur's resident tv junkie?

Unfortunately, the danger of the Agent was closer by than anyone had imagined... he was in fact the priest blessing the marriage of the royal couple. Naturally, a fearful fight ensued between him and the hopelessly outgunned remaining X-Babies. Everything seemed to be going the Agent's way until Excalibur barged in to save the day.

Still, it took lil' Longshot's luck to truly bring this caper to an end. One of his lucky moves delivered all his fallen teammates' signed contracts in Kitty's hands... And she knew just what to do with those.

With everyone restored to their normal selves, the jig was up. The Agent was powerless and surrendered. But just as the X-Babies reminded Kitty they still had to find Ricochet Rita, everyone's favorite heir to a universal energy force spoke up. Y'see, Rachel 'Phoenix' Grey noticed something was up with the Agent...

"Trust that twisted slug Mojo... to use her as his pet hunter.

Yup, that damn Mojo had actually kidnapped Rita... mindcontrolling and transforming her into the big bad everyone had been trying to beat in order to find her. Such sweet mind control ridden irony. And she wasnt quite rid of his influence yet, as Mojo literally took over her head to directly conduct business negotiations with the X-Babies for a new contract...

Still, freed or not, Ricochet Rita still chose to return to the Mojoverse with the X-babies who had come back to Mojo as promised.

But the second the lil' mutants returned, Mojo realised he'd bought a lemon. Yes, the X-babies had indeed agreed to return to the Mojoverse... But Mojo's request mentioned nothing about actually working or turning a profit, so a dumbstruck Mojo was greeted by this....

..

"And So It Goes..."

Mojo's Mind Control Mayhem Part I: Be My, Be Mine X-Babies

Our previous entry dealt with the events of 1988's X-men Annual # 12.

As a back up to the main Evolutionary War story, Chris Claremont penned a brief adventure with Mojo that introduced the world to... the X-babies.

Why would the supreme ruler of the Mojoverse even bother to create Muppet Babies-like versions of his enemies? Well, y'see... the X-men had died in their battle against the Adversary and after Roma resurrected them, they decided to keep their continued existence a secret. As an added bonus, they also didn't appear appear on any cameras, including the ones Mojo had installed in the X-man Psylocke's eyes.

And that proved to be a bit of a problem for the lord of lard. He had been producing a hugely succesful reality show based on the X-men's adventures, thanks to Psylocke's, ahum, eye witness footage. Without new material, ratings were dropping and man, was he freaking out about that...

Before deciding on the X-babies concept, Mojo considered many different options during the casting call he held on his floating airship (as one does). An airship with a rather interesting masthead. Here he is, lamenting the loss of both the X-men and his former star Longshot.

"So tell me then... who's the master here and who's the slave?"

The woman dangling from Mojo's mast is Ricochet Rita, a human stuntwoman who got herself on Mojo's bad side in Ann Nocenti's 1985 limited series Longshot. Ever ready to hold a grudge, Mojo had kidnapped her and started using her for a hood ornament.

Why is this relevant? Well, the X-babies immediately rebelled after Mojo recruited them. But before they fled, they also freed Rita who happily joined... Just as the annual's back up strip ended. 

Luckily, the story was continued in the 1989 Excalibur special titled Mojo Mayhem, that picked up where the previous panel left off. Wolverine found a way out and Rita and the X-babies made a run for it, finding refuge in the most unlikeliest of places...

A conveniently marked hideout constructed out of Marvel and DC's best known crossover events?

By now, it ought to be obvious Claremont was just having fun with this. Chris would even appear in the story himself a little bit further down the road.

As the X-babies tried to escape Mojo's forces by entering the house of all things crossover, Rita mysteriously vanished off panel... Just as Mojo decided his usual troops weren't enough to subdue his newest stars. He wanted the X-babies back, by any means possible. Wait, he'll tell you himself...

"We must bind them to you... with unbreakable livestime contracts"

And that meant hiring...

Now, any and all similarities between the Agent and other ruthless, heavy breathing bad guys in capes and black armor are purely coincidental... Though since both Marvel and Star Wars are properties of Disney nowadays, this might actually be their first retroactive crossover. Well done Darth Vader!

With Rita missing, the X-babies were in need of a chaperonne... Luckily, their trip through the portal of crossovers that time forgot dropped them off in the lap of the best babysitter imaginable...

Color Kitty completely surprised.

Continuitywise, Mojo Mayhem fit in between Excalibur # 9 and 10, and Kitty was feeling depressed and bummed out. Still mourning the loss of the X-men and not getting anywhere with her research into the mysterious interdimensional Widget, she took a much needed break from superheroing and left Excalibur's lighthouse to attend a jazz concert in Edinburgh.

Travelling back to London by train, she was surprised by the sudden appearance of the X-babies. But after a little convincing, she agreed to help them find the missing Ricochet Rita...

Just how that search and anything but rescue mission went down, we'll cover in part II of Mojo's Mind Control Mayhem: Sign Your Name And Cross Your Heart... FOREVER!

God Loves, But Mind Control Still Kills part III: Mind Control Is The Opiate Of The People

In the third and final part of God Loves, But Mind Control Still Kills, the mysteries surrounding Mount Haven are finally answered. Just why is the mutant hating reverend William Stryker after the inhabitants of this mountain town? How come Bishop and Shadowcat are the only two X-men who seem impervious to whatever is mind controlling everyone else and just what is the deal with minister Paul? Let's dive in...

                              

Issue # 29 opens with Lady Deathstrike standing triumphant over the unconscious body of her archenemy Wolverine. However, because her body is being controlled, lady Yuriko Oyama is unable to fully appreciate this victory...

Not that she would have had too much time to enjoy his death, because Logan's fellow X-man Cannonball races to the rescue... the sounds of which can be heard in Mount Haven, serving as a bit of a wake up call for the mind controlled Storm... However, the equally addled Sage tries to win her back...

Ah yes, when all else fails and the violent weather mirrors Storm's subconscious fighting back... Dial 'S' for either Sage or Sappho....the mind controlled mentat needed the X-treme X-men's team leader back in the game. After all, Bishop was still on the loose... So Sage resorted to this here.

Storm's near lesbian encounter had no effect on that cheerful, mindless grin on her face. In fact, it seemed prevalent in Mount Haven... all courtesy of minister Paul, as Kitty Pryde finds out in the labyrinth like catacombs of the city. 

Kitty finally realises Mount Haven's dirty secret. The place didn't exactly start out as a haven for mutants... quite the opposite in fact. The town was home to one of the largest mutant detention and research facilities in the country...Aaron Pankow, the convicted mass murderer William Ryker went to see in the opening issue of this arc, worked there and told the reverend about the atrocities in Mount Haven, causing Stryker to start up his crusade once again.

Long story short... Stryker has figured out just who minister Paul really is. Mount Haven did indeed house a government sponsored mutant R&D facility, outfitted with a top notch sentient computer system capable of sentient reasoning. During the many hours of supervising and facilitating horrific experiments on captured mutants, the 'innocent' A.I. started to see right from wrong and decided to take action. 

Taking over the form of one of the tortured mutants, Haven's A.I. used his body to reinvented itself as minister Paul. Soon, it figured out a way to protect everyone who wasn't a mutant, by unleashing swarms of nigh undetectable nannites into the air that infected everyone in town. Paul slowly killed every human within the city limits. This meant death came as an unexpected surprise to the general population and it also explained just why there were no adults, only mutant offspring running around carefree (and mind controlled). 

An apalled Stryker finally carried out his mission when he pushed Shadowcat into minister Paul. Her innate phasing abilities immediately short circuit whatever electronics they encounter... Not only did this ability make her impervious to the nannites, it also explained why the healer Cybil died after Kitty accidentally phased through here...

In this case, Kitty's phasing caused the computer controlling Paul to suffer the equivalent of a grand mal seizure, shutting down all the nannites in Mount Haven at once... Often with lethal results as Bishop discovered...

Yes, the entire town had been infected with the nannites that slowly turned their bodies into cybernetic organisms designed to be controlled by the not quite human cybernetic intelligence housing in minister Paul. When he short circuited, his followers paid the price... Only the most recent of arrivals lived to tell the tale.

In the end, Bishop was instrumental in ensuring all the X-men, including Cannonball, recovered from their bout with cybernetic mind control. In case you were wondering why Bishop wasn't infected himself... the answer is painfully obvious: coming from a future where cybernetic infestation is as common as chicken pox, Bishop was inocculated against nannites as a kid. A rather simple and effective deus ex machina... Speaking of machines of god...

'Paul' was left in a state of existential crisis. The only reason the evolved computer system did what it did was a rather silly misunderstanding. It believed the only real human beings were the ones showing 'the spark', actually meaning the energy flare indicative of mutagenic potential. Baseline human being were considered to be little more than vermin to be eradicated... after all, anything to protect the 'real human beings'.

The reverend Stryker offered a stunningly selfless solution for this dilemma...

Yup, here we have the mutant hating man of God, wearing a slave collar, freely sacrificing his life to keep a newly formed cybernetic intelligence in check. It's really one for the history books, if only future writers would have left the reverend alone...

Despite heavily relying on mind control, God Loves Man Kills II is a remarkable story that mirrors the original graphic novel in having William Stryker starting out as a protector of humanity, but eventually merging with a mechanized man hunter to safeguard both man ánd mutantkind in the process... It's a rare case of perfect symmetry and a worthy send off for the character of the reverend William Stryker. His story arc had reached a natural climax... what else could be done?

... *sigh*... Yeah, instead of leaving a powerful and unique character alone, granting him the story arc his creator had intended, you could of course turn the reverend Stryker into a platitudes spouting hate filled bigot stereotype, literally armed with a piece of the futuristic Sentinel Nimrod. Y'know, for shits and giggles...

"Oh heavenly father, forgive us our sins as we forgive those indebted to us" ... indeed. Thankfully, the X-men weren't too bothered with all of that after their experiences in Mount Haven.

Abdicating All Control Of Your Mind Part II: "Heavy Is The Mind Controlled Head That Wears The Crown...

In the second and final part of this mind control heavy tribute to Dutch queen Beatrix abdicating the throne, we'll get to the actual mind control as Kitty 'Kate' Pryde receives a marriage proposal from the British crown prince William... No, this isn't an example of bad 2011 fan fiction, its Chris Claremont writing Excalibur, apparently with a crystal ball, in 1989...

In order to marry Kitty, William had to sorely disappoint the lady Kate, who had previously been promised to him. The fact Kate and Kitty are actually alternate counterparts is an interesting one. William fell for Kitty's adventurous spirit, which left Kate severly annoyed. But first, she had to deal with her soon to be inlaws... the queen (who doesn't look like the late Diana at allll...)

And more notably, queen mother of England...

Upon meeting Kitty, the Queen Mom soon realises that the young American girl is in no way suited for her future role as ruler of all Britons. Also... Megan and Rachel are causing quite the stir as well.

"Rest assured, Katherine Pryde... We shall endeavor to teach you better!"

Using her magics to teleport them away, the Queen Mom takes Kitty to a band of technomages who analyse her rather unique genetic structure. She's similar to princess Kate in virtually every conceivable way... And yet she's not.

Yup... here we have the Queen Mom and several top notch mages using magicks to warp Shadowcat's very essence, molding her soul, into their prefered shape. Magic words or not, it's still mind control. But Kitty proves she's defiant to the very last...

During those final moments as her own self, a desperate Kitty succeeded in contacting her teammate Rachel, who is able to track her location following the trail of the psychic transmission. However, by the time Excalibur arrives to rescue her, the damage to Kitty already seems to be done...

In an interesting turn of events, Rachel can't detect any signs of mind control or even the slightest mental tampering. Baffled, Excalibur is soon forced to make peace with the situation and is ready to bid Kitty adieu when she is attacked by the same kind of Shaitan-esque demons that kidnapped her back in part I. 

Yes, turns out Lady Katherine Pryde was content having prince William chase after her, especially since it was pretty much a given he'd propose to her eventually. But all bets were off  with the arrival of Excalibur and her alternate reality counterpart. And to add insult to injury: William proposed to the wrong Pryde to boot.

Katherine relied on her magic powers to control a small army of monsters to kill Kitty but she hadn't counted on the fact Kitty was pretty much invulnerable after her phased state had become her normal way of being. Phasing also interfered with the Queen Mom's transformation spell, so Shadowcat was back in the game and soon came up with an ideal way to resolve this particular predicament...

And with that, the prince of the realm still willi(am)ngly ends up with his Katherine, despite the Harry-ing conditions...So much for clever puns, time to follow Excalibur's lead and get out while we're ahead.

Until next time!

... This blog entry is respectfully dedicated to princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, always a queen in my book...