The Karma Conundrum part IV: Pay No Attention To The Fez In The Corner

In the fourth part of the Karma Conundrum, we finally reveal what's wrong with Xi'an Coy Manh. The cheerful, innocent former New Mutant turned into the bloated big brain of an evil operation, controlling countless minds as she pleased... Including those of her old teammates ánd Storm, who Karma seemed to have a particular interest in.

Which is odd, considering this is 1985 and Xi'an wouldn't come out as a lesbian until the early 2000s. Anyhoo, let's get on with it...

Only Warlock and Magik were able to escape her grasp... But there was a rather specific reason for that. Warlock's techno organic nature made him immune to Karma's possession, but Magik still teleported him to Limbo 'for safety reasons'. With him out of the way, she struck a deal of sorts with Karma, agreeing to be partners. To prove she was trustworthy, Magik delivered both Storm ánd Dani Moonstar into Karma's mind controlling hands.

Let's see how Warlock responded to this once Magik returned to Limbo in # 34...

"So... if you want my life, take it. I do what you like. I won't even try to stop you."

No dear readers, Illyana didn't just get mind controlled by Warlock's rather piercing eyes. But her sincerity worked... Warlock refrained from killing her outright, instead he joined Magik in observing what Karma was up to with Storm and the New Mutants in club Pharaoh...

Courtesy of Illyana's scrying pool, we get these scenes...

"Shall we find someone to play with, Ororo? A body to humiliate, a soul to savage?"

Storm desperately fought Karma's all too present mind control, threatening to break free on several occasions... But Karma always proved to be the stronger presence. A fact she liked to remind Ororo of by forcing to humiliate herself outright.

"My hooks are sunk too deep in you, windrider. Try as you might, you will not win.
See? I told you so.
Now, show these dear people how much you love me.

Nothing like a little foot fetish to compliment the already intense domination/groveling theme going on here. But Karma wasn't simply out to humiliate her and the New Mutants. If all the world's a stage, she wants everyone to be her puppets. As she reveals how her presence at the Paraoh nightclub will actually increase the number of people she will get to toy with...

"I infect them with a taint they'll never be rid of. A corruption that will grow and grow until it rots their souls! Tee-hee-hee!"

Sheesh, and you thought the cover charge and a 4 drink minimum were a crime. Still, Karma had considerable trouble infecting all the customers to Pharaoh, which was known as the most wicked olace in all of Cairo. Y'see, Storm's exceptionally strongwilled and Karma has to fight to keep her in check. And that's simply no fun, so she decides to do this...

"Tonight, I shall psychically operate on your minds, permanently altering your personalities so that you will henceforth follow me willingly, without any more need of my possessing you. Does that please you, Ororo? Is it not, in fact, your heart's desire!"

So, Karma will use mind control to eliminate the need for mind control? Talk about making sense. But wait, did I say Karma? She jut said she's actually Charles Xavier's oldest, bitterest and deadliest foe. Man, quite the disguise... Guess Magneto's mastered more than just magnetism.

Actually, it's not Magneto... It's Amahl Farouk, from way back in Uncanny X-men # 117. A fact Illyana and Warlock discover when Illyana teleports them about twenty years into the past and they retroactively become part of that Uncanny X-men issue. They watch as Charles Xavier meets future X-man Storm as a child and celebrates at a local cafe by thinking a man to death. Hey, in Charles' defence, Farouk wás wearing a fez.

Here's the original scene by John Byrne...

And this is Steve Leialoha's reinterpretation in New Mutants # 34.

You'll note significant differences between the two. The cafe is totally different and Fahrouk's lady friends actually react relieved instead of shocked at his demise. Which might mean Illyana inadvertently teleported into an alternate reality... Or maybe Leialoha didn't have Uncanny X-men # 117 available for reference.

Either way, I'll lay-a-lowa on that one... Until the fifth and final part of the Karma Conundrum: The Big Blubbery Brain Breacher's Bee-zare Bye Bye

The Karma Conundrum Part III: Wouldn't It Be Easier To Simply List Who Doesn't Get Mind Controlled?

When we last left the New Mutants, they'd been trying to track down and capture their former teammate Karma... For the longest time, Xi'an Coy Manh was presumed dead after she disappeared during a fight with Viper and the Silver Samurai.

Professor Xavier told a whopper of a white lie when he claimed he wasn't able to tell she had survived and went about business as usual... Turns out Karma was very much alive ánd possessed, which is ironic considering her mutant powers allowed her to take over anyone's mind.

As a victim of this unnamed entity, she gained a tremendous amount of weight ánd augmented powers. The new Karma effortlessly controlled dozens of people, using them as playthings.

Unaware of this power upgrade, the New Mutants barged into Karma's headquarters and attacked. Only Magik and Moonstar managed to escape Karma's mind control. After some adventures we covered last time, they met up with Storm and Warlock, their fellow New Mutant, in Cairo. Here, the beyond pleasantly plump Karma had taken over nightclub Pharaoh where she entertained.

"Shall we then play with them, my pets?"

And play they did... Karma's power had been intensified to such a degree that everyone she possessed became a part of her... up to the point she was able to manifest her mind control through them. So, when Cannonball approached the couple, he (or rather Karma) was able to do this.

"Ha! The poor man doesn't know I possess his lovely bride. As I do Sam Guthrie and his fellow New Mutants. The tramp is little more than a puppet."

Karma apparently feeds off more than fast food...She also snacks on the emotional misery she causes, enjoying the anxiety of the husband who has to watch his wife jumping in the arms of another man. Not to mention the eventual horror of the woman when the possession ends and all she can remember is how easily she cheated on the man she'd only just promised to be eternally faithful to... 

"Wonderful! I've inflicted the kind of wound that rarely ever heals. Their love will turn irrevocably into something foul... which will... in time, with luck... utterly destroy them." 

Big ol' Karma isn't allowed too much time to revel in her latest psychic scarring... Because a very familiar face enters the Paraoh Nightclub, ready to confront the malicious mental mistress & her mutant minions... And all she has is a walking stick. 

"I crave the wind-rider's heart, pets... bring it to me."

Storm, ladies and gentlemen, is bad ass... Even without her weather control powers, she stands up to against Karma's New Mutants and manages to hold her own until Magik teleports in the others... like Dani Moonstar who uses her psychic link with Wolfsbane to talk some sense into the mind controlled Rahne Sinclair... A clever plan, but it backfired somewhat....

"NO! Can't break contact, Karma won't let me! Head aching...
feel Karma's influence growing... trying to resist..."

Due to the struggle between Moonstar and Karma, Wolfsbane gained enough freedom to revert to her human form... which severed the psi-link between herself and both Dani and Karma. Free to act, Dani Moonstar used her mutant abilities to manifest one's worst fear to create a diversion. Wanna guess who Karma's worst fear or biggest enemy is?

No silly, it's not the threat of starvation as a Vietnamese boat refugee, or the cruelty of her uncle, general Ngoc Nguyen... let alone having to absorb her evil twin brother during her first appearance... Nope, her biggest fear tuns out to be the man who showed her nothing but kindness since day one: Charles Xavier.

Still, taking anything she could get, Moonstar uses the distraction to get Rahne and herself to safety... which isn't exactly an easy thing to do...

"She's possessed everyone in the club! But how...?! There are so many... Karma never had such power, when I knew her she could barely manage two."

Moonstar and Wolfsbane managd to get out of Club Paroah (interesting typo) thanks to Warlock, who posed as a giant rug but instantly transformed himself into a getaway plane that brought them to Storm's place in downtown Cairo. There, free from Karma's influence, Rahne finally realised just what she's been through...

"I feel... dirty inside! The others... 'berto, Amara, Sam... They've become evil! Was I like that?!"

Bless Warlock's techno-organic heart for changing into a Disney character and yelling 'unimportant'. But it truly is an emotional scene for the god fearing Rahne who at this point still feels guilty for being a mutant... What if she finds out she was possessed and forced to kill? After all, Karma had the enthralled New Mutants slaughter the gladiators guarding her villa. 

But Rahne and the others didn't get too much time to ponder the deeper consequences of Karma's mind control... Because the equally mind controlled Sunspot, Magma and Cannonball attacked Storm's hideout out of the blue and were ready to take care of business. In the midst of battle, Magik had a bit of an epiphany and teleported Dani Moonstar away...

"Is this a peace offering, Illyana? Has self-preservation prevailed over your sense of loyalty to your fellow New Mutants? How charming..."

And Illyana was only getting started. By dropping Dani off to get mind controlled by Karma, she caused Wolfsbane to immediately fall under the same spell, because of their psychic bond. 

But Magik was a bit too busy to realise that, as she stopped in Limbo to pick up her loyal pet demon S'ym and together they got back to the battlefield in Cairo where she snatched Warlock away to Limbo, ordering S'ym to take good care of the young Technarx during his stay in her realm...

Returning to Cairo, Illyana has a personal moment of doubt, fear and confusion in an abandoned alley, wondering if her plan would work or if she even did the right thing to begin with... When all of a sudden, Dani Moonstar and Wolfsbane turn up to make it even harder for Magik to answer that question...

'I'm so pleased, I would much prefer having you as partner... rather than slave."

Karma, via Dani Moonstar, told Illyana they were very much alike... Kindred souls even, a thought that made Illyana shiver, thinking of how her own soul was tainted by evil and darkness. But that didn't stop her from pressing on, as she heard how Karma's New Mutants had finally found Storm and were moving in for the proverbial kill.

Much to Ororo's credit, she managed to beat back all of them with only her smarts, the aforementioned wooden walking stick and a bit of luck... Also, when Illyana showed up to rescue her, Storm willingly agreed, not knowing Magik had already made her decision...

My collection is very neary complete."

Yup, Magik had picked Karma's side by delivering Storm into Xi'an's undoubtedly grease stained hands. Ororo was one of the biggest jewels in Karma's crown, for reasons only know to the entity that controlled her. But it wouldn't be a Claremont comic if the slave wasn't forced to humiliate him or herself for the master...

"I humble myself before your majesty... and worship you with all my heart and soul."

And while Karma made Storm, the New Mutants and whoever happened to be around participate in her debasing games that would outgross the sickest of the sick, Karma's 'ally' Illyana observed via a scrying pool... 

"It's a big gamble... the risk is so great... and I'll only have the one chance."

Just how Illyana's plan will unfold, we'll see in the fourth part of The Karma Conundrum, but considering this was the clifhanger... you do the math.

 

Mind Controlling Magik part II: Into A Limbo Far & Wide

When we last left the X-men, they were in the middle of Uncanny X-men # 160, an issue that pretty much exploded with sexual innuendo involving innocent young girls like Illyana Rasputin and Kitty Pryde.

Here's a little recap...

Yes, that is a twisted and perverted version of Nightcrawler getting a little too familiar with little 8 year old Illyana. But who is responsible for bringing her here? Why, he'll tell you himself...

"Oh, yes, child... that is Nightcrawler... reshaped body and soul in the image of his true lord... Belasco!"

A powerful sorceror banished to the interdimensional realm known as Limbo, Belasco had quickly emerged as ruler of the demon hordes that resided there. But in order to regain favor with his masters the Dark Ones, he had a plan to allow them access to Earth via a special sacrificial ritual involving the innocent. And wouldn'tchaknow it... Illyana fit that bill nicely.

Yes, that *IS* Kitty Pryde's actual skeleton waving at her trapped form. Never let it be said Belasco is without a sense of humor, wickedt though it may be. Kitty looks on in horror as Belasco offers Illyana an empty medallion that will soon house five bloodstones... mystic gems created from parts of her soul that hold enough power to open a bridge from the Dark One's realm to Earth itself.

But salvation seems close at hand, as from a distance 'our' Nightcrawler watches the events and swears to avenge both the missing X-men and Belasco's captives. Little did he know the others were still alive. The light circles that brought them to Limbo separated them, but they were all relatively okay... Even though Storm was about to face no less than two of Claremont's other pet peeves: tentacle pornography and forced transmogrification of the female form...

Judging from the copy, the suddenly transformed Storm easily escaped the writhing, dominating tentacles by using the mutant powers and abilities of her teammates. However, this is how Ororo appears next...

"But what power can mold and shape me in the blink of an eye, as if I was little better than a lump of sculptor's clay? It was terrifying... yet I cannot deny that transformation saved my life."

Let's assume that whatever power shifted her form, also controlled her conscious mind so she was able to use the other X-men's powers effectively enough to escape. Waking up in a peaceful, green glade Storm looks around to see who's responsible for rescuing her.

Finding no one, she takes a refreshing dive in the lake as she prepares to get underway. Unfortunately, her costume is ripped to shreds so she is forced to wear the clothes she found in her room. As she flies off, she muses her savior must be a woman. And she's not too wrong, as a mysterious female figure watches on.

Meanwhile Nightcrawler is finally ready to confront his counterpart. It could have gone smoother.

Poor Kurt. But kudos to Claremont for using Limbo's unique relationship with time and space. Linear time has little meaning there, which allowed for delicous little twists like the alternate Nightcrawler and Wolverine and Colossus discovering their own corpses, while none of them had been there before.

Wolverine and Colossus square off against S'ym, Belasco's head demon and enforcer. He proved to be more than a match for the two X-men, until the same mysterious woman that had aided Storm used Limbo's ever present light discs to teleport him away.

Grateful, the two heroes wanted to know who saved them, but she sent them straight to Belasco's throne room the minute Storm also appeared. Their sudden appearance gave Kurt the chance to drop the act and reveal he had been 'our' Nightcrawler all along. A shocked Belasco actually fled the scene, allowing the X-men a few vital moments of exposition.

The woman saving their bacon was actually an elderly Storm, trapped for decades within Limbo her weather control powers had waned, but her inherent magical abilities had more than made up for the loss of her mutant gifts. She had been fighting Belasco ever since and tried to get the X-men to leave Limbo before history would repeat itself. She had forced the team to chase after Belasco once, thereby condemning them to a lifetime of misery and pain inside the nether realm.

Determined to have things end differently this time, Storm the elder invoked seniority and forced the X-men to return home with Illyana just as Belasco and his reinforcements attacked again. Her magics proved more than a match for his followers, but as it turns out Storm couldn't keep Belasco himself at bay which caused this awkward situation...

"Piotr Nikolievtich... help me! He's... hurting me!"

Belasco tried with all his might to keep Illyana for himself... After all, he had big plans for her. But this is still a comic from 1982, which means a happy ending is pretty much a guaranteed safe bet, right?

"We DID it!!"

And so you did, but erm... isn't Illyana a little big for her eight years?

In the blink of an eye, the innocent little child had aged into a blossoming teenage girl who had trouble recognising her own brother. It seemed Limbo time had played a rather cruel trick on Illyana. Yet, in spite of the many questions surrounding her astounding growth spurt, Colossus was just happy to have his sister back in one piece... 

When sleep finally claims her, Belasco's medallion opens up as proof all is anything but right with not quite so little Illyana. The presence of no less than three bloodstones prove her soul had already suffered incredible and possibly irreparable damage... the image of a gloating Belasco ripping Illyana's toy bear to shreds remains a potent allegory for innocence lost.

But, what really happened to Illyana during her extended stay in Limbo? Claremont answered that question in the four part 1983 limited series Magik: Storm and Illyana, which we'll cover in part three of Mind Controlling Magik: Meanwhile In Between Time. 

Maddie Pryor's prior mind control

The nostalgia factor is strong when yours truly revisited Uncanny X-men vol. 1 # 234, one of the first X-men comics he ever read.

It turned out to be a great issue, set in the middle of the team's period in the Australian outback. Madelyne Prior, Scott Summers' estranged wife, was functioning as the X-men's tech support gal, operating the massive computer complex underneath their new headquarters.

So far so good... but once Maddie discovered her husband was part of X-Factor along with his first love Jean Grey, she quite understandably got pretty miffed. Her intense anger made her susceptible to the machinations of Limbo's prime demon S'ym, who sought a powerful minion who could quite literally unleash hell on Earth... Madelyne proved to be a perfect and welcome pawn, as she  began her slow transformation into the Goblyn Queen...


As the Queen-to-be, Madelyne suddenly developed several powers. Immunity to mind control for one... Quite a shocker for Claremont... AND the Genoshan genengineer who wanted to turn Madelyne in a mindless mutate in service of Genosha.

An attempt at mind control that failed? Ouch... that's gotta smart!