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?

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...