Black Magikal Mind Control part II: Fiery Faux Felines

"I have restored her, Piotr Nikolaevitch... to the life and future that are rightfully hers!"

When we last left the alternate X-men series X-men Forever, a creepy Russian demon worshipper known as Cossack kidnapped Colossus' young sister Illyana and freed the demonic elements that were locked deep within her soul. Now she was Black Magik, heir to Belasco's throne in Limbo. 

And while those dark influences might have controlled Illyana's mind, she still longed for a connection with her past life... And she'd found it in her former best friend Kitty Pryde. But before we get to that, Cossack called in his lupine henchmen to deal with the X-men. 

Kitty was ordered to keep little 'Ro safe, but as she took the tiny Storm away from the battle she also ran into Black Magik who was ready to make her move.

"As soon as Cossack and I are finished with Shadowcat... It'll be your turn."

So, just what was Illyana planning to do to Kitty, you ask? Well... Magik had revealed she wanted Kitty as her companion for a long time, and now she finally had the means to do so. 

So, just what cán she become? The opening page of X-men Forever # 14 holds the tantalizing answer...

"You chose the name Shadowcat as the true expression of your soul, Kitty. But now behold that soul made flesh: You are not a mere "shadow", my heart... You are my FIRE-CAT!"

While that is a pretty speech and Kitty's new fiery, feline form is a wonder to behold... the transformation isn't quite complete. Not until she sheds blood, that is... But with all those X-men ready to oppose her, that only seems a matter of time. Especially when Illyana offers a little more moral support, swaying the rather confused Kitty to their side even further.

"Embrace who you are, stop being afraid of what you can become."

Ignoring the rather obvious lesbian undertones of this scene, Illyana does make a valid point. In the past few issues, Kitty has lost pretty much everyone she shared a special or even an emotional connection with. Storm betrayed the team, killing Kitty's father figure and mentor Wolverine... Add to that  Colossus shacking up with the Black Widow... who's left for Kitty? The answer might surprise you...

"I fought Ogun, I fought the Shadow King, I'll fight Cossack... and I'll win!"

Gosh, such a pretty little rhyme. Wolverine's presence served as a reminder to who she really was and forced Kitty to fight back, eventually succeeding in breaking the spell Illyana and Cossack put her under. But that didn't keep the ol' purple haired russkie to try the same with 'Ro...

"It will take but a moment to catalyze the darkness in the child's soul..."

Yeah, fraid not Cossack... There's far more to little Ro than meets the eye, as we'll cover in a future entry. She's able to withstand his transformation attempt, leaving him powerless in the process.

With the werewolf sidekicks dealt with as well, Illyana's defeat seemed imminent, especially because the other members of Russia's sanctioned superhero team the Winter Guard had arrived to help out Colossus and the Black Widow... But Black Magik wasn't quite ready to give in.

"You taught me well, X-men. Next time, you'll find out how well."

Unfortunately, the X-men Forever series was cancelled well before Black Magik could make good on her threat... but hey, how can you even top trying to mind control two X-men and killing your own brother in a first appearance?

Black Magikal Mind Control part I: In Soviet Russia, Mind Controls You!

When Chris Claremont launched X-Men Forever in 2009, there were some initial doubts about how viable a nostalgia act would be... Let alone if Chris would be able to resist indulging in his love for all things mind control.

But fair's fair, Claremont managed to refrain from any obvious forms of sultry seduction, unleashing dark alter egos or even enthralling the innocent for nearly 12 issues. Considering the book's biweekly schedule, that's almost six mind control free months. Good for him... But then X-Men Forever # 11 came around and this happened...

"A glorious destiny awaits you, young lady. The time has come for the rebirth of MAGIK!"

Continuitywise, the history of the alternate reality of X-men Forever is the same as the 616's, including the moment in Inferno when the teenage Illyana Rasputin encountered her younger self, still trapped in Limbo as Belasco's unwilling apprentice. The Darkchilde teleported the young girl home, sacrificing her own existence in the process. Lil' Illyana moved back home with her parents in Russia... In our reality, she would eventually die of the Legacy Virus, but here... she fell prey to the villain called Cossack, a servant of Belasco. 

"I want you to be all you can be."

When an old man with purple hair and a skull cane wants you to achieve your full potential, you just know it's not going to end well. But as luck would have it, a team of X-men happened to be in Russia, checking in on Illyana's big brother Peter...

"And I can assure you, Ms. Pryde, that Peter is just fine."

Yeah, in this reality Colossus and Natasha Romanova are lovers, despite her codename 'The Black Widow'. They joined Colossus in the investigation of Illyana's disappearance and when they located her and Cossack in an abandoned factory near Moscow, they were greeted by a rather hauting sight...

"But now you face... Black Magik!"

Lazy codenames aside, Cossack had managed to release Illyana's demon soul which changed her back into a teenage succubus style bad guy. It goes without saying that seeing her former best friend twisted back into an evil creature has a profound impact on Kitty Pryde... 

Who was already more than a little shaken by the loss of Wolverine, gaining one of his claws in the process, the discovery her surrogate mother Storm was responsible for Logan's death... and now her first love Peter was shacking up with the Black Widow... Talk about being put through the emotional wringer. 

"Whatever Cossack's done, you can fight it. You're so much stronger..."

Them's fighting words, but what Kitty and Little 'Ro (aka: Tiny Storm) don't realise... Illyana's not exactly suffering from mind control. 

"Don't you get it, Kitty? When you pulled me out of Limbo you didn't 'save' me...
I was supposed to pull you in."

... Well, that certainly puts a new spin on this classic scene from X-men 160...

So... This Black Magik was actually the real Illyana finally being allowed free reign? A fascinating twist, which would lead to far more mind control as we'll see in part II of Black Magikal Mind Control: Fiery Faux Felines

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!

And The World Burns To White Hot Mind Control Part II: All New, All Different, Ah Heck, Not This Again

The backstory Chris Claremont came up with for Uncanny X-men's participation in 2005's Summer crossover House Of M is a little... convoluted.

Right before the Scarlet Witch's reality altering wave hit, Psylocke and Marvel Girl were somehow able to escape its effects by teleporting into the outerdimensional home of the Phoenix, the White Hot Room. Meanwhile, the creation of the 'House of M' as the new reality got to be called caused severe ripples in the Omniverse, resulting in a transdimensional tsunami that threated to tear all of reality asunder.

Omniversal guardians Roma and Opal Luna Saturnyne sent Captain Britain and Meggan to Earth to deal with whatever was causing these problems. If they failed in their mission, Roma would wipe the reality from existence after two days.

Unfortunately, the second Cap and Meggan entered the House of M, they were immediately incorporated into the fabric of the newly structured world and forgot all about their mission... Heck, they were too busy being the king and queen of England. And that's when Phoenix and Psylocke arrive, only to fall prey to this reality wide form of mind control as well.

So, are we up to speed? Good. Let's deal with the question how Betsy and Rachel were even able to enter the White Hot Room... neither of them are pandimensional teleporters, after all.

"That's enough downtime, sweeties. No more revelations. Back to the salt mines."

The man in the loin cloth is Jamie Braddock, the reality warping older brother of Betsy and Brian. He had saved Rachel and his sister from the initial effects of the House of M, for reasons entirely his own. Being a reality mucker, he undoubtedly would have been able to return them with their memories of the real world intact, but they fell prey to the mind control as well.

Reuniting with king Brian and queen Meggan, the two X-(wo)men enjoy a proper breakfast when Captain Britain reveals he's been having certain... odd feelings. Like the life he's been leading is fake, or something. But being a king, I'm pretty sure he'll handle this with proper decorum.

"You're not Courtney Ross! She's Opal-Lun Sat-Yr... Opposed tyrant of Earth 839!"

Well, no, not exactly... this is actually the real Courtney Ross, well, from this Earth at least. Several of her alternate reality counterparts have become variations of Opal Luna Saturnyne, the omniversal guardian who's threatened to destroy our reality in order to save the omniverse. That's why Brian calls her a murderer... but the Scarlet Witch's mind control spell doesn't allow him to put two and two together just yet.

After calming down a little, courtesy of a little telepathy and psychic katana action, king Brian commences his daily duties, starting with the morning briefing...

"Flash analysis suggests that one of the may be genetically related to lord Magneto."

Intrigued by the notion that Magneto or one of his children might be up to something in his backyard, Brian quickly forgets his confusion and suits up... ready to check this report out. Rachel and Betsy join him in his investigation and it doesn't take long for them to run into this reality's version of the Marauders.

Callisto and her team are ordered to apprehend the two superhumans Brian and company came here to find. One of them is the Juggernaut, who is by no means related to Magneto and his brood... So who is this mystery mutant? Not who you'd expect... 

"Betsy, she looks... Nothing like Magneto."

How very observant, ladies. Meet Talia Josephine Wagner, aka Nocturne and yes, she really is a Magneto's granddaughter... Albeit from Earth-2182. On this world, the Scarlet Witch (her again) fell in love with Nightcrawler and started a family together. Nocture had been a key player and founding member of Exiles, before getting herself exiled in the 616 right when the House of M hit.

Ow, you wonder what her powers are? Well, there's a reason Chris Claremont took a liking to her, see if you can guess why...

"She's trying to possess you!"

She failed to possess Psylocke, but just as the Marauders were closing in on the three of them, Rachel decided getting herself (mind)controlled might just be their ticket out of there.

"You want to possess someone, Nocturne... Try me."

Welcome to Uncanny X-men # 464, by the way... the reason for the sudden artistic shift is rather simple: Chris Bachalo had replaced Alan Davis as regular penciller which really altered the feel of the story, but, thankfully, not the amount of mind control... heavens to murgatroyd. 

Nocturne took over Rachel and used her telekinetic powers to fly to safety at incredible speed. Psylocke followed the duo using her own telekinesis and once she caught up with them, Betsy realised there was something wrong...

"I'll fight if I have to. And I'll WIN!"

So fight they did, after all this is a superhero comic which means the good guys will duke it out amongst themselves to kill some time and pages... In the end, you can guess what happened.

"For the moment, she's better off where she is"

Rachel really is very kind... Not only allowing herself to get taken over by a complete stranger, but generously sharing her body with Nocturne. The three of them plan to rejoin Captain Britain and Meggan, but they are suddenly caught in one of Jamie Braddock's reality warps...

As best he can, the maddened reality twister tells them what they need to know about the House of M and Roma's deadline, before spitting them back...

"I'm fine, it's the universe that's sick"

Describing a quantum tear in the fabric of creation as 'the universe is sick' is a bit of a stretch. But what the hey... that "EeEeEeE" is the sound of the Banshee's wail, knocking out Rachel and Psylocke. And while Nocturne escapes from Rachel's body, Psylocke has another vision of sorts of the Omega Sentinel attacking Brian and Meggan because they opposed lord Magneto... Which leads to the end game in Uncanny X-men # 465 in which quite a bit happens...

Psylocke and company are fighting the Marauders some more... With Nocturne possessing Banshee to take out several of their number before forcing Sean Cassidy to knock himself unconscious. Ahh, mind control.

While back at Braddock Manor, Karima Shapandar and her Sentinels get overrun by members of the Captain Britain corps who had been working as members of the royal court who suddenly, for no discernable reason, remember who they are...

While Psylocke and company are fighting the Marauders some more... With Nocturne possessing Banshee to take out several of their number before forcing Sean Cassidy to knock himself unconscious. Ahh, mind control.

And then, that pesky little tear in the fabric of reality reared its ugly head again...

"I'm guessin', it's a hole. Gotta be plugged?"

'A' for effort there, Juggernaut... But in spite of his massive girth, stuffing the Blob into the rip didn't exactly fill 'er up... And Roma is getting ready to annihilate everyone and everything. Which doesn't mean there can't still be a bit of mind control before the end... Not including the many, many times Meggan has been brutally taken over in order for either Roma or Jamie Braddock to deliver some kind of dire message.

Speaking of Meggan, she's the key to solving this. That and a little mind control.

"My possessing you didn't work before..."

 "We use our strengths to close the seams of the tear... so Rachel can seal them."

In case anyone was wondering... No, there is no explanation for the fact that a) Nocture takes over Psylocke or b) Meggan is sacrificing herself, not to mention c) why that whole song and dance was even necessary, considering anyone can grab this supposedly metaphysical rip and yank the edges together so it can be stuffed like an old sock. 

During the closing moments of the issue, Captain Britain is allowed to honor his wife's sacrifice... A heartfelt moment to be sure, but continuitywise this took place during House of M... And that crossover not only ended with the Scarlet Witch wishing for no more mutants, it also restored reality to the way it was... Which meant that the entire world hit the reset button, save for those few heroes who were near Wanda when she cast her spell.

Captain Britian wasn't one of them, so he should have reverted to his pre-House of M-state of mind... Which would also mean he'd have no clue as to what just happened to Meggan.

But hey, whoever said comics about multiple time and reality warps had to make sense? 

And The World Burns To White Hot Mind Control Part I: Does Everything Revolve Around That Bloody Bird?

Sometimes, Chris Claremont doesn't come up with mind control... he just goes along with it.

Flashback to the Spring of 2005 and a little Marvel event called House of M.

The Scarlet Witch has gone quite mad, using her massive reality warping powers to, well, warp reality... reshaping anyone and anything as she saw fit. Every single affected Marvel title referred to the reality warp as 'the world burning to white', just before it got replaced with whatever new reality Wanda had dreamed up.

The X-men weren't safe either...

"Betsy, I've lost their thoughts! I can't sense anyone!"

The X-men were in Africa when Wanda's warp hit... Quickly forgetting their battle with the weaponeers of Al-Khalad, Psylocke and Phoenix combined their powers to escape the reality altering wave, instead arriving in a whole 'nother dimension...

"Oh, for goodness sakes!"

Betsy's exasparated shout isn't without merit... The Phoenix, or as she refered to it 'that bloody bird' had served as the deus ex machina to whatever the problem was. Rachel and Betsy were in the 'white hot room', a concept introduced by Grant Morrison near the end of his New X-men run... This space serves as both the afterlife and a base of operation for the Phoenix.

But Betsy has it easy, compared to her brother... Brian Braddock, better known as Captain Britain, one of the guardians of the Omniverse. Wanda's reality altering shenanigans has had a profound impact on most of the alternate realities Brian and his colleagues in the Captain Britain Corps have sworn to protect... Resulting in a trans temporal tsunami, of sorts.

What's worse, Brian's wife Meggan is severly effected by the impact of the altered realities crashing  in on her, shifting forms and identities by the second, losing her sense of self like never before.

"It is the end, my love. Of all that is! Of all that will ever be!" 

And what's worse... the Omniversal palace Brian has called home is being invaded by alternate reality villain, such as an all new, all different... all male team of female X-men. 'Butch' gets a new definition when you check out this group...

"THIS is what my sister looks like as a man?"

Got it in one, erm... Psy-bloke?

Now, quickly, use your mind control powers to enslave your foe...

It's nice to see the universe still has a few constants... Doesn't matter whether they're  transdimensional or transsexual, siblings are immune to one another's powers. Which means Brian is free to defeat these X-(wo)men in time to hear his boss Roma describe what's been going wrong.

Roma knows how bad the Scarlet Witch's meddling with the 616 (Marvel) reality is... Wanda has messed with the fabric of space/time and all those other rather fundamental building blocks of reality, causing a domino type of effect that will eventually cause the destruction of any reality everywhere. It's kind of a big thing.

Normally, Roma and her associate the Omniversal Majestrix Opal Luna Saturnyne would have simply used their advanced reality control devices to erase the aberrant reality from existence.

But during the chaos Brian and Betsy's reality altering older brother Jamie Braddock appeared to conveniently drop a rock on the delicate mechanism, smashing it thoroughly and buying Earth some extra time in the process.

Left without any other sensible plan of action, Roma and Saturnyne order Brian and Meggan to go to Earth and right whatever has gone wrong. Unfortunately, Meggan has trouble enough righting whatever's gone wrong with her...

"Look at your wife... Brian. That's but a taste of our collective future if we don't prevail"

And speaking of female heroines being confronted with images of all they could have been... 

"For every alternate Earth, an alternate Betsy Braddock."

Before you know it, for every alternate Betsy Braddock, there'd be one Slaymaster to kill them all. 

But just as Captain Britain and Meggan were starting their mission in the Scarlet Witch altered 616, Jamie Braddock dropped by the White Hot Room to pick up his sister and Rachel, sending them back to Earth as well.

Where they fell prey to the same Wanda approved, mind control-like reality warp everyone else had...

More on the adventures of the mind controlled duo in part deux of And The World Burns To White Hot Mind Control Part II: All New, All Different, Ah Heck, Not This Again