Mind control a la Asgard part III: Coo Coo Cachoo Who Controls Who?

When we last saw the New Mutants, they had just defeated the Enchantress and taken over her keep. They would have returned home, if not for the fact Storm was still being held by Loki. In an attempt to find her, Warlock was scouting Asgard's capital city as a bird... totally oblivious to the fact the falcon he'd been playing tag with up there was actually a transformed and mind controlled Storm!

Shooting a techno-organic creature like Warlock with a magic arrow apparently causes full systems failure. Warlock crashed to the ground, shocking his fellow New Mutants. Well, except for one.

Illyana's not too pleasant to be around, even on a good day. But once she started studying the Enchantress' library of grimoires and spellbooks, she more and more seemed to turn into a copy of the her... even to the point of dressing like Amora.

But Magik wasn't the only one who felt the changing touch of the golden realm. Dani Moonstar started to settle into her new role as a valkyrie, one of all father Odin's shield maidens. The valkyries are tasked with bringing those who are about to die to Valhalla, the Norse equivalent of heaven. Seeing Doug approach with Dani, the mortally wounded Warlock panicked when he sensed the valkyrie in her and attacked Dani before running away.

Catching up with 'Lock, Doug willingly offers himself to his techno organic friend... sharing his life force to make sure Warlock will have sufficient life energy to repair the damage. Talk about a noble act of self sacrifice... Incidentally, you gotta love the fact that possibly days after being freed from his job as a serve in an Asgardian cantina, Dough still wears that slave collar with the little bell. Lets call it a fashion statement...

And then... The X-men show up.

Well, that was quick...

Loki, blatanty defying his promise not to mess with the X-men, takes out the entire team, the remaining New Mutants and Rahne's boyfriend the wolfprince. He also decides to give them a new... outlook on life.

"It should not be long before such pure and fundamental evil begins to have an effect. Corrupting you, recasting you irrevocably in her... and, of course, MY... image."

As far as mind control goes, this might be one of the most insidious ways Claremont's ever employed. Just let them soak up all the evil radiating from Illyana's soul as if they're at a tanning salon. But it makes sense Loki chose to do it this way...

He couldn't possibly find time to do it himself, even if he was allowed to by Those Who Sit Above In Shadow. He was after all a little too busy getting ready for his own coronation. With Storm by his side as the new thundergod, Loki'd be ruler of Asgard before the day was out.

Leaving them to slowly marinate in maliciousness, Loki forgot about Karma. 

"I must either break Loki's hold on Illyana and possess her now... or never!"

Ow, we all know how this ends, right? Karma succeeds and both X-men and New Mutants team up to stop the coronation and free Storm. Isn't that right, Colossus? Erm, Peter? What are you doing?

"... Because he's Illyana's brother, Peter proved more susceptible to the spell Loki made her cast..." 

Sheesh, talk about gratuitous mind tampering for the sake of filling a panel or two. Still, the fight against Loki continues, but it doesn't help matters much that Storm is still firmly under his control and only sees what he wants her to see...

And if you think that was trouble, wait till she gets her hand on that new hammer Loki had made especially for her so she could control the elements again as the new thunder goddess...

What's worse than Storm powered by Asgardian magic? Why, obviously, an Asgardian powered Storm mind controlled by the same Norse magic.

Only after she almost killed an already mortally wounded Wolverine, Storm was finally able to snap out of it. Kitty Pryde then put an end to Loki's game by threatening to reveal his scheme to all of Asgard, causing the god of mischief to do what all deities do when caught with their pants down: get rid of the evidence.

And that, as they doth sayeth in fair Asgard, art that...

Mind control a la Asgard part 2: Double Trouble

As detailed in the first part, Loki had the Enchantress bring Storm and the New Mutants to Asgard. Storm was to be Loki's queen and Asgard's new thundergod. And the New Mutants? Well, they were expendable and would have died, if not for Illyana Rasputin's failed escape plan that separated and stranded the team across all the nine worlds.

Illyana was the only one left behind and remained in the Enchantress' clutches. Yet, despite the fact  Amora ordered her troops to go out and find the other New Mutants... they came up empty handed. That's when the Enchantress decided to get... creative.

Did I say 'creative'? Well, that and a good dollop of sadomasochistic lesbian dominatrix superhero cosplay thrown in for good measure. C'mon Amora, playtime's over... Hop to it.

Now we're getting somewhere...

Enchantress magically yanked out Magik's evil counterpart... The Darkchilde, a manifestation of all the corruption Illyana's soul suffered during her time in Belasco's Limbo. Dressing her up in Asgardian garb, Enchantress set 'Dark Illyana' out to find her friends... with the little sadistic twist of having the real Illyana feel all the pain her friends might inflict on her evil counterpart.

'Dark Illyana' had little trouble finding most of the New Mutants and she was equally swift in getting them to see her side of things...

"Encased in this suit of eldritch armor, thou art now as much the Enchantress' eager, dutiful slave... as I. Isn't that nice?"

Sunspot not only gets defeated, he's also mind controlled and pressed into service. The same thing happens to Wolfsbane by the way, who was already more than mesmerised by the passion she felt for her wolf prince. Doesn't matter, Illyana can add a double mind control whammy...

"That precious love... is now forever gone from thy life. Thy heart is forever found... to evil!"

"Rahne!" indeed.

She tried to get Cypher next, but Doug was able to escape because Warlock happened to show up at the exact same time. Together, they fled the scene and started looking for the others. The trail led them to the desert, where Karma had lost about all her excess pounds. As luck would have it, both Mirage, Cannonball and Magma showed up in the desert as well... Right on time for Dark Magik to pop in and try and complete her set...

On a non-mindcontrol related topic: just look at how clever Art Adams got while drawing Warlock. His finger actually yells 'scream', while an exclamation mark pops up in his mouth. Nice visual... But, lets get back to the fighting bits...It didn't exactly go well for the New Mutants...

Needless to say, 'Dark Illyana' seemingly manages to snatch them all away and returns them to the Enchantress' lair, much to Amora's delight. But her joy is shortlived...

"Surprise, fiend!"

Karma actually remembered she had the ability to control more than the desert lizards she had for lunch and possessed the fake Illyana and her henchmen. Reading 'Illyana's' memories, Karma learned all she had to know and took the team back to the Enchantress. While the others kept Amora busy, Karma tried to free the real Illyana.

After reuniting Illyana with her 'evil' part, the full New Mutants roster stood united against the Enchantress... and Karma made her move once more.

Illyana took care of Amora by teleporting her to Limbo and placing the Enchantress in the care of her pet demon S'ym. A major victory to be sure, but they were still stuck in Asgard with Storm firmly in Loki's clutches...

Enter... The X-men. The Norn queen Karnilla, an old rival of Loki's, had gotten wind of his plans to use Storm to ascend the Asgardian throne. So, she subtly informed the X-men of the New Mutants' plight in Asgard and also helped them reach the golden realm.

The wolf they saved turns out to the wolf prince that had been courting Rahne. He is desperate to find her, and his enhanced senses along with Wolverine's allow the X-men to look for their lost pupils.

Next time... Mind control a la Asgard part III: Coo-coo-cachoo, who controls who?