The Maliciously Mind Controlled Mam'Selle Goes A'Maraudin'

Continuing our mind control heavy adventures in the alternate realm of X-men Forever, today's entry focuses on that time when Chris Claremont had the Marauders fight the Starjammers in Alaska.

Yeah. That actually happened. And guess what? It was a truly fun, original romp.

As part of an ongoing storyline we'll touch on at a later time, Mr. Sinister was after Cyclop's son Nate who in this reality never got infected by the techno virus, let alone got sent into the future to become Cable...

Nope, young Nathan was just a happy go lucky kid, living with his great grandparents in Alaska. As luck would have it, Nate's grandfather Corsair was also visiting his parents, along with his fellow Starjammers... So before long, it was cloned villain versus interstellar space pirate galore.

And whenever you face the Marauders, you're bound to run into their discorporeal, body jumpin' and mind controllin' leader Malice... But who's gonna tell Mam'Selle Hepzibah? Sure as heck not the cloned copy of Sabretooth who placed Malice's choker around Hepzibah's throat.

 "This is such a delicious body (...) Now let's both of us go play."

Malice proved her worth as the perfect mole, no one noticed the odd skull adorned collar around her neck, not even the X-men when they arrived to help out. Cyclops himself actually handed her a job that put Malice within arm's reach of the Marauders' goal...

"To Lockheed, something about this moment doesn't seem quite... right."

How very perceptive... Which explains this next scene.

"Lockheed was protecting me... from Hepzibah."

Unfortunately, the word of an 11 year old little girl and her mute pet dragon doesn't carry mucht weight, this isn't Game Of Thrones after all. No, it's sad to say Havok doesn't hold much stock at all in what 'Ro is yelling.

"Not anymore, pet. Time for you to die."

Fortunately, Havok's girlfriend Polaris has a far better view of the situation, not in the least because she herself was once mind controlled by Malice for an extended period of time. 

Remembering the atrocities she was forced to commit while under Malice's control, Lorna showed no mercy.

"Don't touch it, or she could grab control of you."

And that seemed to spell the end for Malice, if not for this rather unexpected move by Mystique, who had actually joined the X-men in those days so she could be closer to her children Nightcrawler and Rogue. But that didn't mean she'd become an actual good guy...

"This should be delightful fun to play with."

I bet it would, Mystie... But we'll probably never know what happened, because this thread shared the same fate as most of Claremont's X-men Forever storylines: the book was cancelled well before any of them could reach a satisfying conclusion. So, as far as the Malice medallion stuck in Mystique's boot is concerned... she's still down there.

Let's just hope Malice has no sense of smell. 

Seducing Storm part II: Oh oh Ororo

It must be hard being Ororo Munroe... Being a natural beauty is bound to guarantee you plenty of unwanted attention... Even when Storm went hardcore punk in the early 80s, she was still besieged by enamored baddies.

Still, the first one to fall for Storm in her new guise wasn't a real bad guy at all, even though he accidentally hurt her more than most villains ever could.

Forge was first introduced as a mutant working for the US government, using his genetic gift for inventing to combat the Dire Wraith threat... Yet, he was also asked to develop a weapon that would cancel out mutant powers. Originally, it was intended to neutralise Rogue, but Storm was the one who accidentally got shot.

Feeling guilty, Forge took the now depowered Storm in, but guilt soon turned to lust...

Unaware of the fact Forge was the one responsible for her power loss, Storm slowly allowed herself to develop feelings for that kind, sweet man.

Yet, when I first read these issues as a kid, I couldn't shake the feeling there was something a bit off about the Storm/Forge. Especially when Barry Windsor-Smith drew Forge, it just felt wrong to have him in scenes like these...

Forge looked oddly familiar, yet at the time I couldn't quite put my finger on it... Ow, wait. Yeah... 

"Momma... Gyrich just shot Storm... Pulled my gun against her friend, pushed the trigger now her powers are dead... Momma.... Oeeeh-hooo-hooo..."

The affair between Storm and Forge didn't end well, but not because Forge discovered he was gayer than the actual Freddy Mercury. Which is quite the feat, considering 80s coloring made Forge look positively pink. 

And then there was this scene from Uncanny X-men annual # 11, which saw baddie Horde promise this to Storm, after beating her up for a bit.

Raping and groping is okay, just as long as you promise you're gonna be making an honest woman out of your victim...

Moving on to yet another annual and a deity with the hots for the former windrider...Enter Loki, Asgardian god of mischief who had studied her from afar and was so taken with her, he had her kidnapped to Asgard so he could properly... court her.

Now, I know what you're saying: "Jeez, how could Chris ever criticise the treatment of Ms. Marvel back in Avengers # 200, when he has Loki do the exact same thing to Storm?!"

Ow, no one was saying that? Well... Moving on then. Loki sensed just how much Storm missed her mutant abilities, so he did what all scheming, seducing god types tend to do... He offered Ororo her heart's desire... at a price. She accepted his proposal and he had an enchanted, weather controlling mallet made for her, not unlike the one his foster brother Thor carries.

All of this was part of Loki's grand plan to use Storm as his mind controlled goddess of thunder...

Fair's fair, she does look good wielding all that godlike power. But, despite his mind control, she willingly gave up her claim to (false) godhood when Loki almost had her kill Wolverine.

Not long after she returned from Asgard, Storm became the plaything of the next mind controlling villain. The X-men received word on their associate Allison Blaire, better known as Dazzler. Apparently, she'd been taken over by the mind controlling Marauder Malice, who was capable of jumping from person to person, until she finally hit home...

Unfortunately for poor old Malice, Storm wasn't caught quite so easily...

Unfortunately for poor old Malice, Storm wasn't quite so easily ensnarled... She escaped from Malice's clutches, realising she needed her weather control powers back in order to do some actual good. This prompted her to go search out Forge, which caused her to catch the Adversary's attention. The who now? In a nutshell; another supervillain who turned out to be super into her, as chronicled here...

The Adversary, disguised as Forge's mentor Nazé, quite openly lusted after her. He didn't even try to hide or downplay his interest...

... Still, everyone has his or her breaking point... even outer dimensional chaos demons. So, it isn't any wonder the Adversary soon opted for a more direct approach...

It goes without saying that the Adversary's love for Storm wasn't reciprocated. Bad choice, Ororo... You could have been a universal evil's main squeeze. Maybe you should have accepted, after all... its not like you're getting any younger. Case in point, the next time a major baddie decided to have Ororo for his queen, she wasn't even his first, let alone only choice...

As part of the 1989 annual crossover Atlantis Attacks, Chris Claremont offered up Storm as one of the seven brides of Set, mind controlled heroines who would serve as hosts for the elder god Set's children upon his return to Earth.

Set was dealth with pretty smoothly and with the 1990s fast approaching, Chris Claremont's initial run on the X-men was winding down. Sure, he had Storm attacked and mind controlled by Nanny and Orphan Maker before he had her changed into a kid and hounded by not only the Genoshan Magistrate, a Cyborg Cameron Hodge and the Shadow King himself... But none of them wanted to marry her outright...

Claremont left the X-universe alone from 1991 to early 2000. In that time, Storm didn't really change all that much. Sure, she got a few new costumes, a couple of interesting hair dos, but no baddie would even try and court her...

That all changed in 2001, when Claremont returned to the realm of X... After a relatively unsuccesful relaunch of the two top tier X-titles... Chris was offered X-treme X-men, a new X-book that allowed him to hand pick his favorite characters as they went on a global search for Irene Adler's destiny diaries.

Their adventures led the X-treme Team to Madripoor, where their adventures were rudely interrupted by the interdimensional alien ruler Khan... He had picked Madripoor as a beach head for his invasion force that was ready to conquer Earth by dropping his forces from giant space tethers.

During their initial confrontation, Storm caught Khan's eye. He took Storm captive and attempted to court her... She seemed perfect for his harem, nay, even better: she was to be his next queen.

But Storm wasn't really into his intergalactic sweet talk... Not even when her life depended on it...

Its been said that love hurts, but this is ridiculous... Storm's defiance resulted in a big plunge that caused a spinal cord injury, confining her to a wheelchair for a while.

After Khan and his invasion forces were chased from Earth, Storm and her team caught up with the other X-men. X-treme X-men # 19 featured a joyful reunion that dovetailed Claremont's soft spot for Storm's baddie betrothal...

"Doesn't EVERY bad guy worth the name?"

Good point there, Wolverine... especially considering the scene that followed this...

Wait, say wha?

 "Does this happen often? Actually, YES."

Truer words were never spoken, because not long after that, Storm once again fell prey to a fawning bad guy...

During the events of the X-treme X-men arc Storm: The Arena, Storm and Callisto found themselves captives of the former Morlock Masque, fighting for their very lives in a Fight Club inspired Arena in which mutants and meta humans fought each other for the amusement of the filthy rich. Masque ran one of these arenas, using his powers to transform himself from a disfigured bald man into a beautiful blonde babe.

Despite having everything he/she ever wanted, Masque was still obsessed with getting his revenge on Storm and Callisto...

Ow, yes... the theme of this blogpost was supervillains who wanted Storm. Well, Masque enjoyed getting Storm to beg for mercy thanks to the mind controlling villains Purge and Paradise. But at heart he/she remained a businessman. So, when a former foe of Storm's offered to buy her, Masque was all ready to talk turkey...

But before Voge got his hands on her, Masque had Storm and Callisto embark on a farewell tour. This allowed Storm to break free of course. But not before we come full circle and see this again...

Shortly after X-treme X-men ended, Chris Claremont returned to Uncanny X-men and his attention shifted from Storm to Sage and Rachel Grey.

Storm hasn't really complained, tho... She eventually married her childhood sweetheart T'Challa the Black Panther, courtesey of an origin story Chris Claremont wrote back in Classic X-men and its been smooth sailing for her ever since. Nowadays, Ororo's a queen, an X-man, an Avenger and even a former member of the Fantastic Four.

In other words, it takes a lot of wrong turns before you're on the path to Mr. Right... So, thanks for matchmaking, Mister Claremont!

Maliciously mindcontrolling the mindcontroller

Y'know... you NEVER think it'll happen to you until it does.

That's certainly what the mind controlling mutant Malice believed, before she realised she too can be mind controlled in today's entry focussing on Mr. Sinister and his equally sinister schemes.

Now, we all know who Malice is, right? No? For shame, go check out THIS post for more info. But, in a nutshell: Malice is a discorpeal being, able to jump from person to person, instantly taking over their bodies and manifesting a lovely S&M style necklace.

As an unseen member of Mr. Sinister's Marauders, she briefly fought the X-men when she unsuccesfully attempted to possess Dazzler. But it didn't take long before she'd set her eye on another prime candidate from the X-men's ranks: Lorna Dane, better known as Polaris.

"Malice... You possessed her!"

That she did, and the union was a happy one... Just imagine the shock when the X-men first fought the new leader of the Marauders was actually Polaris. Malice's involvement wasn't even expected until Psylocke did a little poking around...

It didn't take long for Malice to regain control and continue her killing spree, almost wiping out the X-men and Lorna's lover Alex 'Havok' Summers as a result. But as Malice discovered just before the big Inferno crossover, even mind controllers can be sucker punched.

Look at who just got trapped... and didn't even realise it.

Ow, isn't that just delightful? Malice gets tricked into invading the one person's body that by its very nature disturbs Malice's own sense of self. Turnabout really is fair play after all, or so it seems.

"You're still free to roam, my pet... And possess whom you please..."

Wait, what? She still can jump from person to person after all? What's there to be upset about then? Also, how interesting that Claremont has Sinister casually point out that Lorna Dane will still be 'subservient' without Malice controlling her.

Consoled, Malice leaves and Sinister gets back to what all insidious and shadowy masterminds do best... talk out loud about how great they are...

"Vanity, ah, vanity... The key to a person's soul... and thereby... to dominance over them."

And with that ever so disturbing nugget of wisdom from Chris Claremont, we end today's entry.

Malice Masters Mindcontrol

John Byrne and Chris Claremont have very different creative processes. Byrne loves to plan ahead, while Clarmont prefers to have plenty of room for last minute improvisations. Yet, when they were co-plotting Uncanny X-men together, these disparate styles led to some truly creative, great storytelling.

And as this post will show, great minds *do* think alike. Sort of. Confused? Don't be. We'll get to the point eventually.

First, lets revisit Uncanny X-men # 214, in which Storm, Rogue and Wolverine meet up with Allison Blaire, the mutant songstress Dazzler. After she'd been publicly outed as a mutant in the Dazzler graphic novel, she'd changed... carelessly showing off her mutant light powers on stage, which isn't the smartest thing to do in a world that hates and fears you.

What's gotten into Dazzler, you might ask? Well, its more of a question WHO, as we meet Malice, a psychic entity capable of controlling both mind and body. As as a sign of her presence, Malice's hosts manifest a slave-collar like choker around their necks. Very tasteful. Malice bodyhops around quite a bit during her first appearance... Which causes fun scenes like this...

"There's more malice in her sweet soul than she gives herself credit for.
But I go where I can have the most fun... and do the most harm!"

Ah, exciting... Wolverine in a berseker rage about to attack his teammates. When has that ever happened before, eh?

In the end, Malice is driven out... yet, a few issues later, we discover Malice was actually part of Mr. Sinister's Marauders. In order to be a more effective part of the team, Malice decides she wants to bond permanently to a host. Awww... it's truly heart warming to see even violent psychic entities feel the need to settle down and be exclusive.

Oh, look who she picked to go steady with, by the way...

"Malice... you possessed her!"

Her being Lorna Dane, better known as the X-men's Polaris! Quite a nice reveal back in the day and one of the few instances Claremont's dabbling with mind controlled heroes wasn't quickly reversed. Malice stuck with Polaris for a good few years before she was cast out. She briefly reappeared alongside Sinister in X-Factor during the mid 90s but remained mostly forgotten after that. It wasn't until Mike Carey's run on X-men  (Legacy) that Malice showed up again to take control of Karima Shapandar, the Prime Sentinel... A possession that gave us the immortal soundbite "I've gone digital, bitches"*

Soo, what does all this have to do with John Byrne ? Well... At about the same time Malice appeared in X-men... Just look who the Fantastic Four had to deal with...



Meet Malice, mistress of hate. And no She-Hulk, she's not kidding. Malice was mean and nasty, dressed in black leather with a spikey slave collar to boot. If that doesn't sound like a typical Chris Claremont female, I don't know what does... Ow, and here's the final straw...


Surprise, surprise... Malice was actually a mind controlled Sue Richards... Ow Invisible Woman, when will your suffering end?**




* No, the actual panel didn't say 'bitches', but it sure felt like she meant to say it.
** Not quite as sarcastically hypothetical as you'd expect, considering Millar's current run on FF is called 'The Death of the Invisible Woman"