Mind The Concealed Controller Part III: Oh Goth, Not This Again!

Y'know, every so often one has to feel a bit sorry for Chris Claremont.

Just this week, as I was compiling the third and final part of the X-men's war with the Neo, Uncanny X-men.net published a fascinating piece on how Claremont got treated by Marvel. Editors casually changed year long, already okayed storylines on him which caused him to think on his feet and still make the books feel organic. That takes talent, professionalism and a lot of patience.

"The comic that inspired X-men the movie"

The same editorial meddling occured in the Neo storyline. Originally, Claremont had planned to keep Wolverine's team seperate from Storm's X-men in their own titles. But all of those plans got trashed when the first X-men movie did surprisingly well at the box office and Marvel decided to capitalise on its success.

One problem though: even though Uncanny X-men had inspired the movie, the comic and the characters looked nothing like their movie counterparts. It would take Grant Morrison's 2001 New X-men to adapt the look and feel of the team to the movie with the introduction of all purpose black leather outfits.

But for now, the editors deemed it necessary to at least reunite the two teams and have them live at Xavier's school. And that's just what Uncanny X-men # 385 set out to do, in a workmanship style tale that tried to wrap up as many plotlines as possible while still relying on an awful amount of mind control.

Let's set the scene: several factions of the Neo had been kidnapping humans and X-men alike for the interdimensional slavetrade. Storm, Gambit, Cable, Colossus, Psylocke and Thunderbird had been abducted by the Neo clan known as the Goth. Eventually freeing themselves, the X-men struck a deal with the Goth and their fellow Neo the Crimson Pirates to work together, all the while planning to betray them at the first opportunity.

Meanwhile, X-men like Rogue, Wolverine, Phoenix, Beast and others had been searching for their teammates, unaware of the deal they'd struck. That's why when the two teams finally met in Madripoor during another slave razzia, they inevitably came to blows.

Unfortunately, the Neo weren't beyond mind controlling their X-men allies...

"You're being far too gentle. Let me help."

Beldame uses her powers to override Storm's control of her own powers and forces the weather goddess to push her abilities to the limit, thereby weakening Phoenix' defenses long enough for her to fall prey to the Neo slavers who recognise an opportunity when they see one.

"And that window of vulnerability is all Bess requires to affix a slaver cowl and take her prisoner."

But the Goth-allied X-men were less free than they imagined themselves to be. For instance, when junior member Thunderbird had trouble pretending to fight his fellow X-men, it seemed the Neo had a little assurance for cooperation built in...

"Thunderbird's wearing a slaver collar! Activated by remote control!'

Mind control made easy... It does make you wonder why the X-men didn't ditch their slaver collars the minute they escaped from the Neo's prison. The previous issue made it seem as if Gambit had convinced the X-men to simply play along and when the fight started in # 385 Phoenix claimed she didn't sense any mental coercion whatsoever... but let's see what happened next...

"Whoops?!"

Before Beast has a proper chance to investigate the workings of the slave collars, Colossus seems determined to kill him. Not exactly what you'd expect from a teammate who is actually working with you undercover. The same thing occured when Rogue finally had a moment alone with her paramour Gambit. She wanted to know what kind of game the ragin' cajun was playing. And the second he managed to win her confidence, this happened.

So, how mind controlled are they? It's never made clear. But for my money, if Gambit's team was uncontrolled the whole time, there's no reason they wouldn't have switched sides the minute the other X-men showed up so that the reunited team could take out the Goth, the Crimson Pirates ánd the Neo slavers at once. 

"It has nothing to do with Gambit's caper. This is something wholly within me!"

Ah yes, the actual story... Consider Cable's musings after defeating Wolverine. It seems he is being influenced from within. This might be the Neo, but it's more likely that Stryfe is inside him causing mischief. After Cable is able to knock out even Wolverine, Gambit's team takes Rogue and the others to the Goth's secret Chinese hideout and slaver distribution center. They present their captured teammates to slaver Tullamore Voge, the Goth and Killian of the Crimson Pirates.

"Dis how you treats your friends, Goth?"

Looks like the massive Neo known as Goth had all but forgotten the deal he struck with Gambit. And look, there's Colossus clearly enthralled and ready to as Sanguine claims 'once more embrace glory'. What could he possibly mean by that?

"You will rejoin your compatriots... as slaves!"

Things sure looked bleak for the X-men, still... it's always darkest before the dawn, as this scene proved between Beldame and Tullamore Voge, the gluttonous but ever indulgence ready slavemaster. 

"That sounds naughty. Like someone's breaking the rules."

Well, surprise, surprise... Beldame is actually Phoenix who used her telepathic powers to disguise herself as the Neo. The real Beldame was wearing a slave collar (even though it's never explained how  Jean was able to overcome the effects of the collar, but hey... comics). Naturally, this ruse meant Beast wasn't enslaved as well... and mama McCoy's favorite blue haired bouncing Beast used his scientific genius to do the thing everyone was expecting...

It's an interesting claim: thanks to Jean's telepathy Hank is now able to access the inventive genius of the mutant inventor Forge, which added to his own brain power, makes every task easily achievable. So unlocking a few slave collars really isn't that hard. Guess what effect that had in the Goth throne room.

"The X-men are now free!"

Talk about creating a diversion. With all of the X-men now uninhibited by mind control or slave collars alike, the Neo scrambled to defend themselves. While meanwhile in Tullamore Voge's control room, Psylocke made sure the Slaver's business would be critically crippled by destroying the operation's transmat teleportation system. Without it, they wouldn't be able to pop in all over the world and claim new victims...

But the Goth wasn't too impressed by this achievement and attempted one final, mind control heavy attempt at winning the day...

"I am darkness absolute, the avatar of iniquity! As I drain the brilliance of your lives, I shall lay waste to the landscape of your souls! Until you are but hollow vessels... aching to be filled with mine own corruption."

Gods of earth and air, that *is* an impressively verbose way of saying your evil is so intense and dominating it will eventually cause everyone to turn into a bunch of mindless vegetables willing and able to receive whatever programming you see fit.

It even makes you wonder why the Goth faction even needed other Neo or human agents for that matter. Wouldn't it have been far easier for them to simply use their transmat technology to transport the Goth into the middle of any mall in America? Just have the guy sit down at the food court, sit back and watch as his evil turns every shopper into a mindless zombie ready to be processed?

As the X-men are pelleted by the Goth's evil, Rogue kisses Gambit, takes over his mind and powers, learns of his secret plan to deal with the Goth and then proceeds to use both their mutant abilities to actually kill the big, bad Neo...

And that's the last we saw of the Neo in Uncanny X-men, the comic that inspired the movie...

Sort of.

Mind The Concealed Controller part II: Neo-thing New, Really...

When we last left the (Uncanny) X-men, the team was in Russia investigating outerdimensional slaver Tullamore Voge's motives for setting up shop in Moscow. During a routine mindscan, Phoenix was contacted by Wolverine back in New York that the Neo had assaulted his X-men team as well.

Before they could compare notes, another faction of Neo called the Crimson Pirates attacked the facility where Voge was being held. At the same time Stryfe attacked from the astral plane and mind controlled Cable, using his abilities to take out and imprison Storm and Gambit. Only Beast and Phoenix managed to escape to fight another day and they did so, showing up in Hong Kong with Wolverine's team in X-men # 104.

Y'see, the slavers in Russia were part of a larger trade system with ties to the Neo. Wolverine's team encountered the Neo in Salem Center, where they kidnapped a huge part of the local population, including Psylocke, Colossus, Archangel and Thunderbird.

There's a similar operation in Hong Kong and by making their presence known, the X-men hoped to provoke a response from either the Neo or the slavers.

They got one.

"We are the Crimson Pirates. Surrender... or die!"

The Pirates attacked the X-men in their own home, which is exactly what they'd hoped for. Rogue took over Phoenix' mental powers and fooled the Neo with mental illusions of the team. They actually were breaking into the Neo's headquarters to find out where their teammates were being held. Rogue escaped after the Neo found out, but not learning the sad fate of one of Nightcrawler's ex-girlfriends...

"And Kymri herself, bound to Killian's pirates as his own personal Hound."

Speaking of costumed heroes in chains... Let's check in on the X-men who got kidnapped by the Neo. Wonder what they're doing...

Chains? Check. Collars? Check. Gimp-esque face masks? Check. Needlessly sexual undertones? Check! For new villains, the Neo sure got the Claremont classics down... Now all we need is some mind control and...

"The cowl will steal away your very thoughts... and replace them with whatever I choose."

... Ahhh, there it is. Right on time. Good ol' mind control, you never disappoint.

Luckily, Gambit's able to use his powers just enough to break free and soon, the X-men are roaming around in the Neo's homebase, wondering where the heck they are and what to do.

"Wouldn't it be more prudent to find out where we are and establish a line of communication with the other half of the team?"

Yeah, what Cable said! ... Hey, waittaminute! Wasn't he supposed to be possessed by Stryfe and working with the Neo to take down the X-men? What was he doing chained up in the basement with them? And erm... why are they still wearing their cowls? Didn't they hear the Neo lady explain it steals away independent thought? 

Still, they were free and the other X-men were on their way as well. Will the two teams reunite and fight together? The answer might surprise you in part III of Mind The Concealed Controller: Goth, Not  This Again!

Mind The Concealed Controller part I: Tullamore's Mind's A Mess

Today's entry revisits Chris Claremont's 2000 run on Uncanny X-men and the early misadventures the mutants had, fighting their mysterious new foe: The Neo.

The Neo actually consisted of quite a few subgroups. Apart from the main clan led by Domina, the team also encountered the Shockwave Riders, the Lost Souls, the Goth and in Uncanny X-men # 383... meet the Crimson Pirates.

But first, say hello to Tullamore Voge.

This rather obese blue refuge from an alternate dimension is actually a slaver, who tried to profit from trading Russian mutants all across the omniverse. The X-men had already put a stop to that business an issue earlier, but now they wanted to know just who he was working for.

Conventional interrogation methods were getting them nowhere, and and this was well before 9/11 okayed the use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' (though if you waterboarded a blue guy, who can tell the difference)... So they figured the best way to learn what's on his mind is to, well, go inside his mind.

Despite Cable's misgivings, Phoenix volunteered for the job.

"My telepathy will allow me to do virtually anything..."

Famous last words, Jean... Because inside Voge's mind, there just might be (Tulla)more than you can handle. And the first surprise is that inside Voge's head, she encountered Wolverine, of all people.

"I hate this flamin' fishbowl! My skull feels like it just got dropped in hot oil f'r fryin'!"

Yeah, let's call it an (unfortunate) coincidence... But the second Jean used her telepathic powers to conduct her investigation into the villain's mind, she's also contacted by Wolverine via Cerebro. 

"I'm fine, darlin'... But the X-men got serious trouble."

He just 'called' to give her an update on the Neo his team of X-men had been facing back in New York. But their little reunion is cut short when Voge realises someone's been using his mind for a conference call.

"Silly little piece o'fluff, wot. Figurin' t'match wits with a master?
Been breakin' mentats like you to the harness for donkey's years now."

For those of you not fluent in what appears to be an interdimensional take on cockney English, Voge is rather unimpressed with Jean's telepathic prowess and he plans to bend her and Wolverine to his will. He figures the combination of their genetic potential (i.e: kids) could be very profitable...

All the more reason to turn them into his slaves. Heck, he'd already constructed their new identities as his mindless Hounds. If those creatures beat Wolverine and Jean, they'd be taken over permanently.

Jean wasn't having any of this and took swift action. Just as Wolverine was getting transformed into a Hound (apparently he was already pretty close to one anyway), Jean pushed Logan out of Voge's mind and back into his own body, keeping him safe.

"Which begs of course the final question, o blessed matriarch... Who's left to rescue you?"

The mysterious fanged bad guy with awful dental hygiene makes a good point. But before we go into the question who he is, let's see if Wolverine survived the trip back from the astral plane.

"I was comin' apart inside, bein' twisted inside out like taffy. Happened so fast, didn't think such a thing was possible. I saw the collar of a Hound...
and suddenly, more than anything, I wanted to wear it."

So, Wolverine narrowly escaped getting mind controlled... But back in Russia, Jean was still trapped inside Tullamore Voge's mind. Her body had collapsed, which made the X-men more than a little suspicious and convinced Cable he'd better follow her in to see what was wrong. Upon arrival, he got a pretty good clue who the mystery mind mucker is...

"When you behold the face of the Gorgon, do you ever wonder if you're looking into a mirror?"

In a clever bit of misdirection, Cable thought he was facing both Onslaught and Jean herself. But he was actually facing, of all people, Stryfe. This was never revealed in the issue itself, Claremont planned to use Cable's clone turned master villain in future storylines... Unfortunately, he was taken off the book before anything could come of this. 

But while all this was going down on the astral plane, the X-men were under attack from this new band of Neo calling themselves the Crimson Pirates. They had come to free Tullamore Voge, which was something the team simply couldn't allow. They stood ready to take them on, even Cable had returned to his own body... Or had he?

"I can't sense a trace of the virus... it's been purged from my system. And my eyes... they're both normal! My scars are gone. I've never seen my face like this."

Yeah... In retrospect, it's pretty obvious Claremont was already writing Stryfe here. From his earlier comment to Jean, refering to her as 'matriarch' (after all, Stryfe's birth mother was Jean's clone Madelyne Pryor) to his comment to Cable about looking into a mirror. But clone and original were about to get even more intimately involved...

During the fight against the Crimson Pirates, 'Cable' suddenly switched teams...

"The Psimitar is a fabulous weapon and Nathan Dayspring Summers is the unchallenged master in its use. Such a shame the same cannot be said for his soul and for his body!"

Which is a rather wordy way of saying... Cable's mind has been taken over, which is something Storm and Gambit realised a bit too late. The Crimson Pirates then proceeded to free Voge and planned on capturing all the other X-men to use as their mindless pawns. However, Beast and Phoenix managed to run away to fight another day.

This conflict would be resolved a month later in Uncanny X-men 385, as we'll cover in part II of Mind The Concealed Controller: Neo-thing New, Really...

Equal Opportunity Mind Control part II: Encore Ensemble Enslavement

When we last left the X-men... Oy, what a story.

Uncanny X-men # 257 saw Wolverine and Jubilee getting kidnapped by Lady Mandarin, who was actually their former teammate Psylocke, mind controlled by the Mandarin and the Hand to serve as their latest master assassin. The Mandarin took Jubilee under his wing, while the Hand tried to brainwash Wolverine.

Alas, the villains didn't have much luck with either of them...

But not for lack of trying, though. Psylocke actively kept trying to breach Wolverine's impressive mental resistance. She even tried to seduce him by taking on the form of his former lovers. Mariko Yashida, Yukio, even his old teammate Jean. Let's see how Logan responded to that...

"Seduction was but one... pathway to your soul!"

So, if the sweet and subtle way fails, you can always fall back on a bit of primal violence. After all, this is the Wolverine you're facing. You'd better fight fire with fire, right? Or as Psylocke herself puts it...

"My psychic knife... the ultimate focus of my psi-powers... is as deadly a weapon as your claws! With it... I make you forever MINE!"

Yeah, just like in the previous issue, Psylocke jams her psychic knife in his head... But this time, it doesn't subdue Wolverine. No, it actually forms a mental bond between the two combatants, which causes Psylocke considerable pain...

"Too late, bub!"

The reason for Psylocke's screaming is rather simple. Thanks to their mental rapport, she instantly experienced everything Logan had ever been through. From the Hand's recent, tortuous mental reconditioning to the abuse suffered at the hands of the Reavers... And let's not forget almost a century of anger, pain and frustration... It's a miracle she didn't turn completely insane.

Well, she did a little... Psylocke also got a taste of Logan's psychosis. Wolverine's healing factor had been failing, which resulted in unattended physical ánd mental ailments. And when it came to the brain department, it was a doozy: Logan had developed a major psychosis in which he envisioned being in the company of Nick Fury and Carol Danvers... Guess who came to visit Betsy.

"Summon lord Matsuo! ... He's returned to his island!"

Turns out lord Matsuo made the right call by leaving, because things were about to go from bad to worse fo the Hand. Their master assassin was fighting ghosts and now their main quarry was starting to wake up. And we all know what adamantium claws do best: go *snikt* and break stuff. Like glass sensory deprivation tanks...

"Any objections, shorty... to my shortening the odds?"

Wait, how come figment Fury is cutting those Hand ninjas to ribbons? Madness, you say? Well, yes... Psylocke's, as a matter of fact. After getting a taste of Wolverine's psychotic worldview, she considers  Fury and Carol real people whose actions have an actual impact on the world. So... if their bullets hit somebody, Psylocke uses her mental powers to convince the victims they have been shot.

Mind control to make a psychotic persona feel validated... that's a new one.

However, Psylocke eventually overcame the effects of the psychosis and tore Wolverine a new one. In fact... his last one.

"Dispose of the remains, if you please"

Seeing Wolverine's corpse was such a shock that Jubilee was able to shake off the dominating effect of the Mandarin's 'mento-intensifier' ring. Overcome with emotion, she lashed out with her mutant powers... Usually, that resulted in some blinding but hardly harmful fireworks, this time her pyrokinetics caused an explosion that tore apart the Mandarin's massive villa.

Psylocke took advantage of the Mandarin's initial shock to attack the master villain. Turns out she was no longer under his control either. But defeating Iron Man's arch nemesis is far easier said than done, as both X-women were about to find out.

"Eh?!? My arm... it will not move!"

Oh, sweet, sweet mind control... you never disappoint, do you?

"You forget, Mandarin... I have worn your rings... and touched your mind!"

But just as the Mandarin was about to overcome her mental domination... Wolverine turned out to be too dead after all. And with a third adamantium claw about to pop his head off, the Mandarin was suddenly rather open to discuss a truce.

Americans achieving peace with honor after a stalemated conflict in Asia...and they didn't even need doctor Henry Kissinger. Truly, these are more modern times...

"Gimme a break! She's a telepath, she could be playing with your head!"

Leave it to Jubilee to point out what the readers might be thinking... And it's not even that big a stretch. Who would trust this 'new' Psylocke, after all she's done? Well, Wolverine does...

But hey, hé's nuts...

Equal Opportunity Mind Control part I: My Fair Mandarin *the musical*

Uncanny X-men # 258 marked a unique moment in Chris Claremont's long and storied career.

He managed to write an issue in which every single one of his main characters get themselves mind controlled in one way or another. Even some of the unnamed bitplayers standing in the background get in on the action. Not bad for an Acts Of Vengeance tie in.

The fun actually started a month earlier. In # 257 Psylocke arrived in Madripoor on her first mission as the Mandarin's personal assassin. She was sent to take out Patch, who might become a problem once the Mandarin turned his attention to the island. Patch, of course, is an alternate identity used by Betsy's former teammate Wolverine.

He wasn't in the best of shape after getting kidnapped and crucified by the Reavers. Jubilee eventually freed him, but the damage was so severe his healing factor was no longer able to take care of even the slightest injury. Even worse: Logan's mind had started to break down too: he saw hallucinations of Carol Danvers and Nick Fury who he treated as real people, actually engaging them in conversation.

All Wolverine wanted to do in Madripoor is catch his breath and heal up. He didn't get his wish.

"Blast... somehow she nailed the kid."

Yup... That's Psylocke dressed as, well, she said it, you read it... Lady Mandarin. After mind controlling Jubilee, she found out where Patch was hiding and attacked. It wasn't really a fair fight, though... Psylocke clearly had the upper hand and that was even before she lost her head gear and Logan somehow recognised his teammate in her new Asian body, leaving him vulnerable to a knockout blow...

Well, guess his mental issues gave him some sort of unique insight. It wasn't enough to save him though. After stabbing him with her psychic knife, Psylocke learned that 'Patch' was actually Wolverine... and that he'd be far more valuable alive... That's why she brought Logan and Jubilee before the Mandarin and his partners in the Hand. They decided to give Logan the same mind wipe treatment used to make Psylocke one of their assassins... Yay, more mind control!

In Uncanny X-men # 258, the sensory deprivation sessions were already well under way... As shown in some rather visual and gruesome panels...

Psylocke had to monitor Wolverine's progress telepathically, because he was still "invisible" to electronic systems (courtesy of Roma, long story). That's why she was in his head, trying to sway him over, as the Hand's chief Matsuo Tsurayaba explained to a shocked Jubilee...

"Primal clay... that I, through Psylocke's telepathy, will shape and mold... 

into the image of the Hand."

But having one of the world's most potent psi talents use all her mental swaying power in a relatively small space caused some unexpected side effects... As the Hand scientist tried to explain to Matsuo while he was busy intimidating Jubilee...

"The resonances she's receiving from Wolverine and broadcasting to us... are beyond the capacity of even our strongest psychic dampers!"

In other words... Psylocke's attempts to mind control Wolverine splashed over to those around her, but mixed in with Wolverine's feral, bestial rage. You can guess what happens next, right?

"Some of our more susceptible personnel are bound to be affected!"

And then some... While Matsuo was busy stopping the Hand goons from killing each other, Jubilee took advantage of the confusion to make a bold and daring escape. Alas, she didn't get too far before she literally bumped into, well, as always, he'll tell you himself...

Have you no manners, girl?"

Ow, the Mandarin knows how to fix that!

"My mento-intensifier ring will give me dominance over your psyche...
And ensure your proper behavior."

It's interesting to note that the Mandarin didn't simply mind control Jubilee to stop her, no... He was actually apalled that 'a daughter of the middle kingdom' as he put it, had been 'sullied by the mongrel ways of the west'.

He meant to turn her into a proper Chinese lady... An Asian professor Higgins to Jubilee Doolittle... "My Fair Mandarin: The Musical".

"What about Psylocke and Wolverine? How do they fare?!"

A more than fair question, which we'll answer in part II of Equal Opportunity Mind Control: Encore Ensemble Enslavement