Remember When The Old Mutants Mindcontrolled The New Ones?

Today's entry is straight from Claremont's latter days on New Mutants...

Back in # 47, Illyana tried to teleport the team back home... Unfortunately, her control over time and space was sometimes questionable at best. That's why the New Mutants got seperated and lost in space/time, ending up in very different alternate future realities. Issue # 48 saw Karma, Wolfsbane, Sunspot and Magma trying to survive in a Days Of Future Past style future, while # 49 featured the remaining members of the team stranded in a future where mutants were the ruling class.

However, that also meant humans were being repressed and that didn't sit well with Moonstar especially. That's why she and Cannonball try to steal some medicine from the mutant part of twon to give it to the needy in the human slums. Kinda like a post modern alternate future Robin Hood.

"That's right... everyone who isn't wearing a slavetag!"

Oh, that's right... the humans weren't just being treated as second class citizens, they were actively being targeted and enslaved. In fact, they were little more than breeding stock for future mutants. And as soon as a child showed any significant mutant potential, it was 'culled'. A clean way of describing this...

"I don't want your blood money! Give me back my children!"

Cannonball and the others engage the soldiers and manage to chase them away. Apparently, they had been stranded in this future for quite a while by the time the issue starts. They know all about the social injustice and the other crimes committed against humanity. They even meet Katie Power, formerly of Power Pack but now an old woman still trying to fight the good fight. But what they don't know, is who is running this utopia for mutants...

 Long story short... the couple behind the table are elder versions of Magma and Sunspot. In this future, Magneto had allied the X-men and the New Mutants with the innercircle of the Hellfire Club. As the years passed, the influence of the lords cardinal grew and Sunspot and Magma took their rightful place as ruler of the club ánd the new mutant utopia.

Upon seeing the younger versions of their long dead former teammates, the elder Roberto and Amara realise the threat they could potentially form against their new world order. That's why they personally accompany the combat units assigned to take the New Mutants in.

"'Lock... quick... while we're masked by the flames... Merge your body with mine!"

And while Warlock and Cypher... merge... the elder Magma and Sunspot prove that all those years enslaving mankind hasn't dulled their combat skills one bit. Boy, that Xavier sure knows how to teach...

The New Mutants are forced to surrender and taken prisoner. But even in captivity, they manage to cause so much trouble that future Sunspot decides they are in sore need of a... different point of view.

"This may seem a horrible fate... but you'll feel much better when it's done.
In fact, I guarantee you'll thank me for it."

Ahhh, yeah... blatant mind control of people from the past, with no regard for the possible repercussions to the timeline should they ever return to their own time. Roberto the elder is clearly evil, and artist Bret Blevins sure draws him that way. 

'Evil future Roberto' looks a whole lot less menacing when Jackson Guice draws him in # 50. Not that the New Mutants have the energy or the free will to notice the change. While waiting for their mind control sessions, they realise they're already being subjected to an entirely different type of mental meddling.

"Some sort of hypnotic field, chief. The room itself is soothing us, calming us down, 

putting us in the mood to accept our fate."

Yeah... So they were more than ready to hear Magma and Sunspot's sales pitch on the whole 'let us destroy every single thing that makes you you in favor of our idea of utopia'... 

"This re-education process will show you the whole picture. Teach you what every child here learns from birth... so you'll accept us for what we are.
You'll fit in. You'll be happy."

Fortunately for the New Mutants, the Old Mutants were startled by the arrival of their really old mentor Charles Xavier... They got there with a little help from Illyana Rasputin who'd managed to locate Charles, Lilandra and the Starjammers earlier that same issue. 

They really were only supposed to find and rescue the New Mutants, but Charles couldn't help himself and verbally slapped Evil Future Roberto around a little...

"An honest belief. That is clear in your thoughts.
Therein lies the tragedy of your life... and this future... Farewell."

Oooooh snap! So remember kids, stay in school, don't do drugs and don't become mind controlling future despots... Excelsior!

The Massachusetts Mind Control Movement Part II: Free Will? Free Will Who?

When we last left our heroes, the New Mutants tried and failed to rescue Kitty Pryde from the clutches of Emma Frost and her Hellions. Only Magik and Mirage managed to escape thanks to Illyana's teleportation power. After resting up in Limbo, the two returned to Earth, ready to free their fellow New Mutants.

Unfortunately, Magik doesn't simply teleport through space, she inadvertently warps through time as well. So, instead of arriving a few hours after their initial confrontation with the Hellions, Dani and Illyana popped back in a full year after those events. By that time, the New Mutants had been effortlessly integrated into the Massachusetts Academy, no doubt with some mental nudging.

The two girls quickly turned back to Limbo to tryagain. But, lets focus a little on how freely Emma Frost and the student body employ mind control.

That's classy, trying to mind control your own teammate to have him BEG your forgiveness. The Hellion Empath was bound to be trouble, as future posts will show. Still, I suppose he only learned from the best.

Here's Emma playing a little psychological warfare with Kitty and the captured New Mutants. Emma's trying to break them up as a team by claiming she's already controlling Kitty's mind. Not only does this make the New Mutants doubt everything Kitty says or does, she's also starting to doubt her own actions. Its a subtle way of torturing your enemies until they eventually give in.

Claremont makes it abundantly clear how Emma's methods differ from Xavier's. While Charles is usually extremely hesitant when it comes to using his telepathy, Emma seems most eager to consider controlling, wiping or otherwise rearranging minds as she sees fit. But she's not doing it impulsively...

Its scenes like these that started Emma's slow evolution from a cardboard cut out bad guy to an actual person who cared about the people under her tutelage.

Still, that didn't mean Emma couldn't revert to type whenever the situation called for it... For instance, when she discovered Mirage and Magik were trying to free their former teammates.

Right before the White Queen could snatch them, Dani and Illyana teleported away. Locating their friends, they managed to reunite just as the Hellions arrived to bring them in. In a bizarre twist that would have made perfect sense in the Silver Age... The Hellions agreed to let the New Mutants go free. If, that is, they were able to defeat them.

Needless to say, before long a fierce fight erupts in the Academy's equivalent of the Danger Room. Realising how foolish and pointless this is, Kitty intervenes by phasing herself through the room's circuitry, causing the ersatz Danger Room to go haywire. Capitalising on the confusion, Illyana 'ports the team back home.

And thus endeth the New Mutants' first encounter with the White Queen. But two dozen issues or so later, Emma was actually essential in getting them back on their feet. After being utterly destroyed and brought back to life by the Beyonder during Secret Wars II, the New Mutants were demoralised and depressed. But because Beyonder had wiped their memories of the events, no one knew what was wrong. 

Usually, Charles Xavier would have examined the problem, but by then he was in space with Lilandra and the Starjammers. That's why acting headmaster Magneto was forced to seek out Emma's aid.

Judging from her inner monologue, the White Queen had grown as a person by then and truly had the New Mutants' best interest at heart. From this moment on, Emma was put on the path of redemption that led her from losing her Hellions to shepherding Generation X and finally as Cyclops' right hand aid in the difficult years after the decimation.

And ow yeah, she gave up smoking too. Cos she's good and all.

The Massachusetts Mind Control Movement Part I: Emma Versus Everyone

Emma Frost has been on the side of the angels for close to two decades now. But lets not forget she started out as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Heck, in her first appearance she tried to snag Kitty Pryde and exterminate all the X-men.

Still, even in her first appearance Chris Claremont clearly established what Emma's deal was. Sure, she might enjoy dressing up in white leather and act like a deranged dominatrix... heck, everyone needs a hobby. But, her true concern was the children.

Y'see, Emma and Charles Xavier had similar interests. Like the professor, Emma had also created a school for young mutants. Sadly, Emma's goals weren't quite so noble. She mostly saw the mutants she helped to control their powers as potential assets for the Hellfire Club.

Long story short: Emma Frost finally managed to kidnap Kitty Pryde when her friend Doug Ramsey, a latent mutant himself, got a scholarship to Emma Frost's Massachussets Academy. Kitty accompanied him to check the place out. Needless to say, she was kidnapped quite easily.

Now, the reason professor Xavier and the X-men didn't come rushing to Kitty's aid was simple: they were off planet, fighting in the Beyonder's first Secret Wars. Still, Kitty hoped eventually Doug might discover she was missing, but Emma took care of that as well with a little mind control. 

Speaking of mind control... Why didn't Emma just use her telepathy to bring Kitty to her side? A fair question, especially since its a feat she could very easily achieve. But Emma refrained, for a specific if not creepy reason.

Yup... Kitty would fall under the White Queen's control no matter what she did. But forcing her to sit there, paralysed yet with a mind full of simmering fear, hope, loathing and panic must have been a delicious treat to so depraved a telepath as Emma. Kitty was especially despondent when she learned the X-men weren't coming and that the New Mutants had undertaken a failed rescue attempt.

Just how failed, you ask? Well... When the team learned of Kitty's ordeal through Illyana's snooping, they decided to take action. But, how does a group of underage superheroes get from New York to Snow Valley, Massachusetts? Simple... they take a bus. After a very long trip, the team arrived and very quickly encountered resistance.

Its a good thing Manuel took the codename Empath, his full name really fills up those panels. Still, meet Empath, one of Emma's mutant students and a member of the Hellions. Empath's powers are obvious, he can play his victims emotional state like a fiddle, making them extremely suggestible to his wishes.

Doug's distraction didn't have that much effect. Cannonball broke free, but Magma was firmly entranced by Empath's power. So, it was time for some good old hero versus hero fight scenes.

Its interesting to note that the White Queen's Hellions were very similar to the New Mutants. Their power sets seemed oddly compatible. The New Mutant Wolfsbane ran across the Hellion Catseye who was also able to transform into a feral creature. Empath's mind control powers aren't that far removed from Karma's mutation and the gentleman hurtling towards Cannonball in the previous panel is the Hellion Jetstream who can also fly real fast.

But after a few panels of senseless fighting, the White Queen decides to step in and take control of the situation. Who needs words when you can just mind control your entire student body?

I suppose the least dangerous man is the man who doesn't know he's been tampered with. 

This has very little to do with teaching... its mind control, pure and simple. But, lets get back to the New Mutants still in the fight. Another example of matching powersets is the confrontation between Mirage and the Hellion Tarot. While Mirage is able to manifest a person's deepest longing or fear, Tarot can bring forth the images on her set of tarot cards. It goes without saying there's a little mind control involved there too.

Dani managed to escape her new life as a tarot demon's pet when Illyana teleported them both to Limbo, where the actual demons roam. Using the dimension of neither here nor there as a staging ground, the girls planned out a rescue attempt which we'll cover in part two of The Massachusetts Mind Control Movement.

New Mutants, forever mind controlled

What to do with a living legend who mostly seems loved by nostalgia buffs?

Marvel Comics saw itself faced with this question back in 2009 and came up with a simple enough answer: You create an X-men book outside of continuity in which Claremont could tell the stories he would have told if he hadn't been forced out back in 1991.

This title, X-men Forever, turned out to be reasonably succesful, so Marvel approached Claremont to do the same for New Mutants. A book he left back in 1987.  Today's entry comes from that five part mini series, imaginatively called New Mutants Forever.

Lets skip over the story of the mini series. It involves the New Mutants going to Nova Roma, the ancient Roman town in the Brazilian Amazon that time forgot... Only to find that its been taken over by the Red Skull. Everyone's favorite nazi supervillain captured Doug Ramsey and gave him... a little injection.

Doug was remade into the Red Skull's own image...So, you know what that means... Ow boy, is his face red, or what?

The Skullified Doug caused all sorts of trouble, naturally...

So... in one miniseries... All it takes for three people to get mind controlled, dress themselves in nazi regalia and black leather... is a single injection? Who said this wasn't the marvel age of economy sized tirany?

The Sage Saga part II: Compelling The Living Computer

Your name is Sage and you are a living computer. This means your formidable brain has a natural immunity to outside influences.

Furthermore, you're also blessed with telepathy, a gift honed by Charles Xavier, the world's premier telepathic intellect, making it virtually impossible for you to ever get influenced, hijacked or controlled. You'll always be you.

Unless, of course, your name is Sage and you appear in a comic written by Chris "don't mindcontrol if I do!" Claremont. Lets take a look at the mind control influenced shenanigans Claremont had his pet character hop through in recent years.

First things first, lets find out how Sage ended up with the X-men to begin with... She was doing fine, serving as advisor to the Hellfire Club until 2000. Then, Chris Claremont took over the X-books and there was a line-wide 'six months later' gap, which allowed all the established status quos to be shaken up. Teams had new members, some old familiar faces were missing, what happened?

Sage was one of those new faces among the X-men, serving along with Forge in an advisory capacity.  It wasn't until about 5 years later when we found out what caused her to join the team.

The answer to that riddle no one really cared about came in the pages of X-treme X-men # 44. Which provided the origin of Elias Bogan, one of the founding fathers of the Hellfire Club and also a long lived telepath near the level of the Shadow King.

Sebastian Shaw had wrested control of the Inner circle from Bogan years ago, thanks to Sage (then called Tessa) and Bogan was out for revenge. He took over her mind and tried to offer her to Shaw for ransom. He wasn't too interested, but luckily Storm was around to save Sage.

Free from Bogan's mind control, Sage aided the X-men in several missions and developed a close working relationship with fellow X-man Bishop. The detective from the future and the woman with the impenetrable computer mind made a pretty good team. And then stuff like this happens...

Remember when Xavier's was turned into a public school for mutants and all sorts of super powered preteens covered the grounds? Sure you do, it was before Wanda Maximoff decimated the entire mutant population with three simple words.

"No more mutants" is something Sage and Bishop undoubtedly would have agreed with in X-treme X-men # 22.  Considering the little trick these kids pulled on them. And wait til you see what they made Bishop do...

Turning an angry black man with guns into a tree snogging weirdo and his deadly lady friend into a rat? No wonder all those young mutants tended to end up dead before their sweet 16... 

After some more adventures with the X-treme X-men team, Sage became a part of the X-men proper, serving as their mentat. Unfortunately, not long after that, this happened in Uncanny X-men # 446...

The background to this story can be found HERE, but suffice it to say, the computer crack'd again.

"Something's happened to Sage" sort of became the official tagline for whatever team she happened to be on in the latter years of Claremont's dealings with the character. That'll be the focus of the  Sage Saga part III: Semi Sapphic Symbolism.

Mind control: the Sage Saga part I

Every writer has his or her own favorite characters, Chris Claremont is no exception to that rule. In the early days of Uncanny X-men, he worked on the evolution of Jean Grey (who ended up as Phoenix, who ended up mind controlled before she ended up dead)...

After Jean, his focus shifted towards Rogue, an identity stealing young girl who ended up sharing a mind with Ms. Marvel, another one of Chris's former favourites. Rogue also ended up dead, incidentally... before getting resurrected as an independent personality near the end of Claremont's original run.

But, surprisingly enough, Chris' most enduring character crush turned out to be someone nobody even paid notice to when she was first introduced wayyy back in Uncanny X-men 132 (1980).

I am, of course talking about Sage, better known to fans of 80s comics as Sebastian Shaw's assistant Tessa.

Say, who's Sage then?

Well, in true Claremontian tradition... a strong woman character with an even stronger adversion to any form of formal clothing. Black leather really is a way of life for most people in a Claremont comic.

Sage started out as the unnamed aid of Sebastian Shaw, the lord imperial of the Hellfire Club, one of the X-men's most dangerous enemies. She made her first appearance alongside the other members of the inner circle, in a non speaking role.

Who knew this almost invisible bit player would grow to become such a major character?

We only learn her name is Tessa, in her second appearance (Marvel Graphic Novel # 4). In that issue, we also find out she is far more than a mere servant. 

Tessa is actually Shaw's most trusted aid, a mutant blessed with a computer-like mind, able to analyse and correlate tons of data and provide detailed analysis at the drop of a hat. Still, computers can be hacked. Call it a trojan, call it digital mind control, but it tends to happen a lot to Tessa.

Chronologically speaking, one of the first cases of Tessa getting herself mind controlled was back in New Mutants # 53, when Karma invades the Hellfire Club looking for information on her missing family. Mind controlling a living computer to hack into an actual computer? That's a first.

Tessa remained a member of the inner circle for many years, until it was revealed by Claremont (when he returned to the X-books in 2000) that she had actually been an undercover agent working for Charles Xavier. The professor Charles had encountered Tessa  years ago while travelling in Afghanistan, during the same trip that made him cross paths with Storm, the Shadow King and Magneto.

She became his pupil, but rather than allowing Tessa to join the first X-men team, he forced her to work for one of the X-men's greatest enemies instead. Still, Charles did spend some time training Tessa, helping her focus her (limited) telepathic powers and ensuring her mind would be virtually impenetrable.

Essentially, this means she's immune to mind control or any other outside influence trying to gain dominance over her thoughts and actions. Yeah. Let's see how that went while she was under Chris' careful guidance...

Here we have Tessa, who at that point prefered the codename Sage, trapped in one of Lady Mastermind's realistic illusions (X-treme X-men # 7-9). Mastermind had subtly tricked Sage into believing her version of reality over, well, actual reality. 

'. Before long, Mastermind was hard at work at winning Sage over to her side, trying to make her destroy her mental bonds with the X-men and Xavier by actually killing them inside her own mind. 

Next time: Sage Saga part 2: compelling the living computer. 

Selene brings out the be(a)st in people

One of the nice things about Selene: her mindcontrol comes in all shapes and sizes. There's the direct approach (as seen in the previous post) and there's this... Subtle mental manipulation. Selene turns the rather chunky Black Rook Friedrich von Roehm into a mindless killing machine... Again with the slave collar and chains and black leather. Oy oy... Talk about living your fantasy, Chris... (not to play devil's advocate, but doesn't Von Roehm look a lot like 1980s Chris Claremont? Just sayin'....)

The possessed Von Roehm is taken over by Rogue, who in turn gets mindcontrolled by Selene, who immediately goes after Rachel again... And hilarity ensues...

Selene sings a single tune

Selene is pretty much the quintessential Claremont villain. She hits on all the cliches people have been joking about for years now. She's an ancient, powerful goddess type figure who's used to being worshipped by slaves... Her dresscode is mainly black, leather outfits... and ow yes: she likes to control minds. She established her usual modus operandi during her first appearance in New Mutants # 11. The New Mutants had come to the hidden land of Nova Roma where Selene was posing as the seductive wife of one of Nova Roma's ruling senators. The immortal mutant Selene was actually the head priestess of a dark cult that worshipped death and celebrated human sacrifice.

Selene quickly developed an unhealthy obsession for Danielle Moonstar, better known as the illusion caster Mirage. She wanted to groom Danielle, looking to turn her into a being as dark as herself. Mirage and the New Mutants managed to escape, but Selene followed their trail back to New York.

There, she quickly adjusted to life in the new world by working her way into the Hellfire Club. The position of Black Queen was still vacant after the Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix debacle and it didn't take the superpowered Selene much effort to convince Sebastian Shaw to allow her a seat in the innercircle as the new Black Queen. And be fair, doesn't she just look ravishing in black leather?

Selene thrived in the Big Apple, randomly feasting on the lifeforce of bums and other lowlifes to restore her own life and beauty. But, always keeping an eye out for new subvertable talent, Selene soon noticed Rachel Grey-Summers. In Uncanny X-men 184, Selene first tried to claim Rachel...

Rachel was able to drive the age-old vampire of thanks to the timely intervention of Professor Xavier. Of course, if at first you don't succeed... A few issues later (UX-189, for those of you keeping track) Selene gets a new chance to take over not only Rachel, but the New Mutant Amara "Magma" Acqueilla as well. They both wanted revenge and snuck into the Hellfire Club to get it. Things... didn't exactly work out (chains and a slavecollar, Claremont? seriously? why not just whip them a bit to make the fantasy complete?!)

And a few years later... Uncanny X-men 454... Claremont's back and so are Rachel and Selene! Same old motivations, same old fight... same old outcome. -Yawn-

Meanwhile...

Ah, that Emma Frost! She sure kept herself busy during her days as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Right before the Beyonder kidnapped the X-men to fight in the first Secret Wars, the White Queen had managed to entice Kitty Pryde's best Douglas Ramsey to join the Massachusetts Academy. Ramsey, as it turned out, was a mutant translator, able to speak and understand any and all languages. Kitty was worried that Emma Frost wanted to harm Doug so she accompanied him on his visit to the Academy.

Of course Kitty was right, the White Queen WAS up to no good. Her big plan was to use Doug as bait for both Kitty and the New Mutants. Emma wanted them to join her own team of young mutants, the Hellions. With the X-men missing, it was up to the New Mutants to help free Kitty. That didn't go exactly as planned and the entire team got defeated by the Hellions.

In a remarkable display of restraint on her behalf, the White Queen actually DIDN'T use mind control to force Kitty and the New Mutants to her side. No, she actually tortured Kitty in hopes of breaking her spirit. That Emma, all class...

How I Long For A Gun...

Now this, this is Mind Control Madness at its finest.

In Uncanny X-men 152, the Hellfire Club decided to move against the X-men and devise a mindboggling scheme.

First, Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost convinced Kitty's parents to transfer her from Xavier's to the new Massachusetts Academy run by Emma Frost. Of course, the X-men were reluctant to see Kitty go, but the transfer was perfectly legal, so what choice did they have?

Storm offered to drive her there, but on the way home the weather goddess got attacked by Emma Frost, who used a mind control gun to change minds with Ororo.

I'll repeat that.

I'll repeat that... because its the kind of plot point that makes your head go boom.

Emma Frost. The White Queen. One of the most powerful telepaths on the planet. Able to wipe minds, delete personas and control crowds of people at once... Needs a gun... To switch minds.

I need to lie down for a bit now.

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.