Doomed If One Can Divine The Celestial Mind Control Motif

Today's entry, much to my own surprise, still deals with Claremont's Fantastic Four...

More specifically... # 25, a double sized anniversary issue cover dated January 2000, that properly reintroduced Doctor Doom to the Marvel Universe after the Heroes Reborn experiment of the mid 90s.

Before his triumphant comeback, Doom had spent most of his time as caretaker of the Heroes Reborn Earth, a world plagued by numerous catastrophies and natural disasters. That is, until Doom got involved in an attempt to save the world from itself ánd the dreaming Celestial who seemed to be at the core of all the shenanigans too convoluted or uninteresting to cover here.

What you need to know: Doom had just shifted 'his' Earth from the Heroes Reborn pocket universe into his home dimension and he now stood ready to deal with the Dreaming Celestial, along with his trusty aide Lancer (Samantha Dunbar) and his four generals: Lady Dorma of Atlantis, the battlemage Shakti, the mind controlling Divinity and the equally mind and body controlling Technarx.

Doom and his generals encountered the Fantastic Four in the opening pages of # 25 and, after the obligatory fight scene, decided to pool their resources to deal with their common enemy: the Dreaming Celestial who was now actively trying to destroy both groups in order to achieve, erm... something. Trust me, it really doesn't matter in the end.

So, how did he plan to achieve this? Well, have you heard of a little thing called mind control?

"Too much talking. Better by far to let Divinity assimilate them.
That gains Doom all of their powers... but none of their attitude."

As soon as the champions of two worlds entered the Dreaming Celestial's sanctuary, the mind controlling Divinity was attacked and absorbed by an equally shadowy creature that effortlessly took control of Divinity's form, as Doom's ebon general started claiming victims left and right. The Invisible Woman was the first to fall, when she got coated with the dark gunk. And well... you can guess what happened next, right?

"There's something else... as though the very darkness itself was a living entity!"

Ow boy, you're not kidding... and Sue and Divinity were just the warm up act. Moments later, the tendrils growing behind them struck out. While Johnny tried to burn through them, he was struck by something rather familiar...

"No joy, Reed. Something just hit me! It's Sue's forcefield!"

Yup, a mind controlled Invisible Woman was now working for the Dreaming Celestial, using her powers to knock everyone into the Celestial creature so they would share her fate. Overcome by emotions, Mr. Fantastic tried to free his brother and law, only to be saved by Doom, who stunned him into temporary helplessness with a shock blast. Doom ordered Lancer to aid the Thing in buying him, Mr. Fantastic and young Valeria Richards (another long story) time to solve this mess, by going deeper inside the Celestial's tomb.

So, in case anyone was wondering what chance one rockmonster and a woman with laserfire fingertips have against a Celestial born living darkness ánd at least 6 of their mind controlled allies?

None whatsoever. And they knew it.

Still, as they fell, they provided Reed, Doom and Valeria with a pretty important clue as they proceeded to venture deeper into the labyrinthian Celestial slumberpit (on a sidenote: don't you just love words like that?). The tentacle thing is taking over the FF and Doom's allies for a very good reason.

"You realize, of course, what will happen when all twelve are transformed."

Not specifically, no. Because Claremont's hopelessly convoluted, overly wordy script fails to clearly explain the significance of a Celestial guard dog taking over the form of twelve, apparently random, mortals. All Reed and Doom need to know from reading a few of the tomb's glyphs: they can actually stop the Celestial if they work together to simultaneously activate a number of switches that unlock a pair of levers that will allow them to deal with the Celestial.

In order to buy her two dads (I know...) the time needed to either stretch or manipulate the levers with a forcefield, Valeria quietly sacrifices herself as well.

"The brat is no more. And I am one step closer to my freedom!"

After consuming the daughter of two men (again, don't worry about it...), the Celestial sent his creature to deal with Reed and Doom. It proved remarkably capable of claiming both in record speed.

"Be so easy to give in! But they fought to the last for me. Can I do less?"

Doom's goading inadvertently fired up Mr. Fantastic and the two men manage to simultaneously hit all the switches ánd activate the levers in the exact way the glyphs instructed them. This set in motion a termination mechanism built into the Dreaming Celestial's tomb.

Apparently, the D.C. (surely a 'subtle' reference to a fellow New York based comics company) tried to to circumvent this lethal safeguard. Its idea was to replacing the essence of the twelve living Celestial guardian statues with those of others, any others. However, since Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Doom had managed to escape capture, the cycle wasnt complete so hitting the kill switch restored all twelve Celestial statues as they lethally wounded their wayward brother by proxy.

It also released some rather familiar faces...

"It was... Awful! I was aware of everything I was doing... But I couldn't stop myself!"

However, Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Doom weren't quite so lucky. In its dying moments, the Dreaming Celestial planned to take both of them with him to the grave. In the end, only one would survive...

Well, that's not exactly true, as these posts point out... 

• Doctor Doom threatens the Wizard into surrendering
• Reed Is Doom & Doom Is Reed (we all mind control together)

Spoiler alert: It's actually Reed inside Doom's armor. Fun ánd games!

The Frightfully Fantastic Wizardry Of Mind Control

Today's entry hails from the latter days of Chris Claremont's run on Fantastic Four. By this time, in the aftermath of an interdimensional conflict that involved Doctor Doom, his Counter Earth armies and all the Celestials you could want, Mr. Fantastic was locked inside Doom's armor.

This fact wasn't made public, for fear of Doom's generals who might rebel and take over both Earths. To help sell his unexpected alliance with his most hated of foes, 'Doom' married the Invisible Woman who was believed to be widowed. This also meant Doom joined the Fantastic Four.

Having a feared and hated supervillain head a beloved team of heroes? Fun and games... 

For their first mission, this 'new' Fantastic Four went up against an equally new Frightful Four. The Wizard and his team had invaded the reservation of the Keewazi indians, looking for buried treasure. Fortunately for the Keewazi, their leader Wyatt Wingfoot used to be part of the FF. He managed to send out an SOS which brought the FF to Silver Rock Springs. 

So, just who is part of this new Frightful Four? Well, apart from mainstays Wizard and Trapster there's also Sharon Ventura, the former FF-member known as Ms. Marvel whose mental state was questionable after getting mutated by Dr. Doom during the DeFalco era... and the Punisher.

Now what would move Frank Castle to join up with bad guys, I mean, he...

"Ain't this that pipsqueak Punisher robot... what use ta work fer Galactus?!"

Ah, no worries Ben, if your hide's half as thick as that New York accent, you won't feel a thing. But as both the Torch and the Thing started in on their old foe, the Wizard played his ace.

"Behold fools, the final defeat of the Fantastic Four!"

Hmm, what could a villain do whose sole claim to fame is being the wingless Wizard (aren't we all?)

Ol' purple top will show ánd tell...

"That's what happens, dear boy, when the biological mechanisms that protect you from your own powers are... eliminated."

Is that clever or what? Turn the Torch vulnerable to flame, remove the Thing's mobility and making sure Sue would either get blinded when she turned invisible or suffocate when she tried to use her force fields. So, three down, one to go...

"Speaking of Reed Richards, where is he?"

So glad you asked...

"Susan Storm Richards has been proclaimed the Baroness von Doom!"

While the Wizard was momentarily startled by the arrival of 'Doctor Doom', his presence worked like a red rag on a bull... A bull called Sharon Ventura. She immediately jumped on the man who had ruined her life. The Wizard wasn't pleased with that...

"Are you demented, woman? You've ruined any chance of a peaceful resolution to this imbroglio. Now the Frightful Four have to battle Doctor Doom!"

And battle they did. Trapster tried to hit Doom with his pasteguns, but the Doctor redirected the sticky streams to the charging Sharon Ventura who found herself stuck. Doom was then jumped by the Punisher robot who actually seemed capable of doing some damage. Wizard, ever the valiant assailant, decided to attack Doom from the back with some of his electrified anti-grav discs.

Unfortunately for the Frightful Four, Doom was just stalling for time...

"Trust me, Johnny, our lives... and the Keewazi... depend on it!"

Doom managed to convince the Human Torch to conquer his fear of burning himself alive and flamed on. But, didn't the Wizard turn off his natural immunity to flame? Well, not exactly...

"As I suspected, the effect the Wizard created was illusory, not factual. He did not materially alter your abilities, but merely made you believe such was the case."

Ah, mind control through hypnosis and trickery. Claremont's decision to give the Wizard this ability makes a decent amount of sense. After all, before the advent of superheroes, Bentley Whitman used his near-superhuman genius levels to become a celebrity. It isn't unthinkable he relied on a bit of stage magic to help sell his performances.

But, speaking of mind control... Let's see how the threat of the Frightful Four was dealt with in the end... That is, after the Invisible Woman stuffed the Punisher's insides with Trapster's glue and Sharon Ventura had a change of heart...

"I am many things...
But I am not fool enough to want Doom as my enemy. 

I yield."

And with that, 'Doom' beat one of his oldest enemies without even lifting a finger. Talk about the power of intimidation...  

Of Malleable Moles & Terminable Body & Soul Control...

Today's entry focuses on Chris Claremont's late 90s Fantastic Four run.

Claremont's tenure on the book is quite interesting, least of all because he was never supposed to be writing the title after Marvel relaunched it in the wake of the Heroes Reborn fiasco. Nope, it ws up to Scott Lobdell and Alan Davis to tell the tales of Marvel's first family... and they did.

For three whole issues.

Just why Lobdell and Davis were removed from the book has never been revealed. Most likely, a falling out or editorial spat can be blamed. Fact remained: Scott & Alan were gone and the double sized fourth issue of Fantastic Four needed to be written. Chris Claremont, working on staff at the time, stepped in and picked up the slack while also using several of the ongoing storylines. After all, issue # 3 ended with an imminent threat to Mole Man and all of Subterranea...

"Attend to me, my mindless minions!"

Seeing that Danny DeVito lookalike halfnaked and without his trademark glasses is worth the 1.99 cover price alone. So, something was hiding in the dark, secretly claiming Mole Man's faithful servants. Wonder who it could be?

"While I couldn't care less about your domination of the surface world, know this... I will fight you with my dying breath in order to protect my people!"

An impressive speech and an even more impressive choice to keep the identity of this mystery villain under wraps. Makes you want to rush out and buy the next issue to find out who it is we're dealing with... That is, unless you read the 'next issue' promo blurb and find out who the baddie is. And no, it isn't the Silver Surfer... Or Alicia Masters.

Working from Lobdell's established storylines, Claremont dutifully penned #4, which saw the Silver Surfer and his companion Alicia seek out the Fantastic Four's help in tracking down the same threat the Mole Man had been facing underground. The Surfer guided the Fantastic Four to the source of the disturbing energy readings he had picked up... and it turned out to be in the middle of a small town in Canada, where the people behaved... oddly.

"Could it be some form of mind control?"

Ha! Kudos for the self deprecation there, Chris. As it turns out, no, the citizens of Yorkton were in their right minds... But, being Canadian, they were ignoring their famous guests to be polite. Still, the local arm of the law did show up to get some answers... and to get some handy dandy additional exposition out of the way as well.

You can't help but admire Salvador Larroca's dutiful sense of filling the entire page. If the talking heads don't quite cover, just thrown in the logo. Whatever works, right? Also: kudos to Claremont for remembering that Ben Grimm worked as a (test)pilot before turning into the Thing. His explanation of radio beacon blindness is factual, informative and makes him seem like a well rounded character for a change.

In spite of the Surfer's temporary 'blindness', the story progresses when Mole Man comes stumbling out of the local church to greet his oldest adversaries. The usually grandiose ruler of Subterranea is remarkably subdued and as the FF follows him inside, they learn why...

The Moloids are suffering from a mysterious, seemingly lethal infection. The FF promise to help look for a cure, but before they can get to work the church is attacked by Terminus, an old foe of both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.

Originally created by John Byrne to be a new type of Galactus-level threat, Terminus is a giant, planetary scavenger that raids an entire world's natural resources so it can sell it to the highest bidder. And this time around, Terminus is after more than gold, oil or uranium...

"Fascinating. This incarnation of Terminus is some form of composite being... made up of the collective substance of thousands of individual Moloids!"

Sounds pretty awful, makes you wonder what... Oh, what's that, Reed? You have more to add? Well, go ahead then...

"Monster! You're as bad as Terminus! You're worse! He may have enslaved my people...
but you treat them like lab specimens"

Standing around hearing his sworn enemy compare a creature comprised of your followers as 'something reminiscent of Clive Barker story' makes Mole Man mad. His people are more than lab specimens, or so he claims. That's actually a little rich, considering he's ruled the Moloids with an iron fist for years, caring very little about their survival...

Anyone remember when Mole Man and Kala planned to destroy the surface world using giant magma funnels in 1972's Fantastic Four # 127?

"It is not we who labor on these shafts, but my beloved's selfless, nigh-mindless Subterraneans... Already, countless thousands of them have been consumed by accidentally escaping flames over the past few months."

But hey, I get how Mole Man might be affected by watching helplessly as his faithful servants were getting absorbed into the collective creature calling itself Terminus... Their hapless, numb features an ever present reminder he had failed them. Luckily, the Silver Surfer decided to use the power cosmic he's known for...

Terminus actually deemed himself the liberator of the Moloids... even though his idea of liberation was consuming their very mind and bodies. But that didn't prevent the Silver Surfer from using his powers to free the Moloids...

"This incarnation of the behemoth has been laid to rest.
No trace of him remains along the Moloids."

So all's well that ends well... Back to underground enslavement, you Moloids you. Ya know ya love it! 

Days Of Future Mind Control's Ever Present

What better way to open a review about mind control in a semi alternate future than by showing an alternate cover to the tale?

This entry covers the Days Of Future Present story, an arc that ran through the 1990 annuals as the inevitable sequel to the ever so popular Days Of Future Past storyline. Back in Uncanny X-men # 141 and 142, Chris Claremont and John Byrne told a dystopian tale... set all the way in the far flung future of... erm, 2013... In which the Sentinels had taken over North America in their unending pursuit to destroy the mutant threat.

Most of the mutant population had either been killed or forced to live in concentration camps, outfitted with power dampening collars and  guarded by Sentinels who had pretty much taken control of North America. But even within the camps, the flames of resistance still burned. Kitty, or rather Kate, Pryde is seen smuggling in the final component of a jamming device designed to negate the collars so mutants can use their abilities freely. 

So, who had been residing at this particular camp? Apart from Kitty, Storm, her husband Colossus and a disabled Magneto, some of the younger prisoners were Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers, daughter of Scott and Jean Summers.

Franklin and Rachel were passionate lovers, determined to use the jamming device to break free via the Morlock tunnels. But unfortunately, their dreams of freedom were cut short by the Sentinels.

So, Franklin died in this alternate future and eventually Rachel would use her powers to travel through time and reality to join the X-men of reality 616. There, she slowly accepted her new situation and tried to make the best of it... Largely unaware that her fiance was already alive as little more than a toddler, the 1990 annuals addressed this rather odd situation when the adult Days of Future Past Franklin showed up alive and well in the past... Or rather, the then current present.

Using his formidable reality warping powers, Franklin goes about setting right what he thinks is wrong with the past he remembers. In the Days of Future Past timeline, the Fantastic Four only lived in the Baxter Building before the Sentinel uprising, so Franklin reverts Four Freedoms Plaza back to the old FF headquarters along with a similarly old fashioned FF-team. These shenanigans continue on for a while and include the FF, the New Mutants, X-Factor and the X-men before Chris Claremont got to tie all of this into a nice knot with Uncanny X-men Annual 14 and the character of Ahab.

A-who?

...

Ahab is the enemy of the four annuals... a mysterious Houndmaster from the future who was responsible for breaking Rachel and overseeing her training into a mutant seeking Hound unit.

Travelling back to the past (sigh... then current present), Ahab tried to gain control of both the fugitive Rachel and Franklin. Instead, he found himself confronted with their respective parents.

But, like any good villain knows... When life hands you lemons, you capture them and you squeeze long enough til you get mind controlled lemonade. Or minions, whatever happens first.

Ahh... It might be a form of futuristic mind and body control, this still feels like a classic with both their body and mind being twisted into a new, ever so evil shape...

Sticks and stones might break no bones, but chains and spiky collars sure make enslaved meta humans hollah!

Ah, the whole kneeling shtick, along with the slave tattoos on the Invisible Woman... Ahab spares no expense.

But don't think Ahab is the only one using mind control to get what he wants. Future Franklin isn't exactly above it either. Once he's finally met Rachel, he uses his powers to push some buttons. 

Rachel and Franklin manage to get away, only to be captured by Ahab. In the end, it takes the combined effort of the Fantastic Four, the X-men, Cable and the New Mutants and X-Factor to take the Houndmaster down. Ahab flees back into the future, leaving the heroes with quite a few problems on their hands. First and foremost, just who is future Franklin supposed to be?

Sheesh, I've heard of relationships with moochers and leaches, but that's pushing it.

Poor Rachel is denied her shot at happiness, either way.And with only a few pages left in the final chapter of the story Chris Claremont pulls out the ol' Phoenix ex machina trick and uses Rachel's control of the cosmic force to hit the reset button.

The Phoenix reverts Cyclops and the Invisible Woman back to their non-Hound selves and future Franklin releases his hold on his younger self, so all's well that ends well. Even though there are still some people worried the Days of Future Past are still ahead of them, the annual ends on a positive note. 

Fantastic forces of faux pas timing

Chris Claremont sometimes just can't catch a break.

Sure, the man loves his mind control, not to mention an almost criminal amount of hyperbole ridden dialogue per panel. But even he didn't deserve the sheer awkwardness that resonated from his Fantastic Four oneshot Fantastic 4th Voyage Of Sinbad. 

So, what's so awkward about this, you wonder? Well, for one thing there's the September 2001 coverdate. Of course this meant it came out back in July, but having 'September 2001' stamped on an anything really connects it with you know what... Anything that could even remotely be considered inappropriate was censored. Remember how the first Spider-Man movie had to cut that infamous scene that saw Spidey catching a helicopter by spinning a web between the twin towers?

Anyhoo, what did this September 2001 Fantastic Four oneshot deal with?

"I am JIHAD! And you will bow before me."
Ah yes, Jihad, the Arabic word for 'struggle' but more commonly known as the term used for 'holy war'. Talk about painful... Still, lets get to the actual story. The Fantastic Four had just returned from a recent mission and were enjoying some downtime with their children Franklin and Valeria, not to mention nanny Caledonia and Puppy, the teleporting dog. Everyone was sound asleep when they were suddenly attacked in their Pier 4 headquarters by Jihad who teleported them to an ancient Arabic sailing ship.

It didn't take long for Valeria to figure it all out. For those of you wondering why Valeria doesn't look like the toddler we've seen in recent years... Well, this is actually her alternate future teen counterpart, raised by Doctor Doom and his wife, Susan Richards. Yes... I know. Still, the smarts were there. She deduced the FF were supposed to go on a Sinbad style adventure. Lets have her explain it...

Hey ho, hey ho... its off to challenges we go. Actually, the Invisible Woman used her powers to grab the Crystal Casque with very little effort. So, a slightly overconfident foursome sails towards their second challenge and there we have some good ol' mind control and body morphing waiting for them...

Meet Iblis the eternal, mother of djinns and demons. Her gaze is able to turn any creature into either a demon or stone. Three of the Fantastic Four have already fallen victim to her, but she intends to complete the set by turning a man already made of stone.

Ah, the classic claiming of body and soul... forever. Unfortunately for poor old Iblis, Ben had other plans and turned the djinn queen's powers against her.

Talk about borrowing a page from the mythological Medusa's book. With Iblis gone, there were still two more artifacts to win. One was gained after Mister Fantastic used his actual teammates in a game of chess and the other? Well, it involved a giant bird roosting in a giant statue and... Check the dialogue and remember... coverdate September 2001.

Out of all the skyscrapers in New York, the Thing had to mention the World Trade Center?

Wotta revoltin' development indeed!

Getting back to the mind control part of the post... The Fantastic Four were able to find the four artifacts just in time for Jihad to show up and do this.

Keeping the mind controlled wooden forms of Franklin, Valeria, Caledonia hostage, Jihad forces the team to give him the artifacts. But, what's the ship's figurehead doing there? And better yet, who will the team rescue first?

"Benjamin J. Grimm (...) What could have possessed you...?!"

Turns out he really was possessed... by the ship's masthead who turned out to be. Ow, you guessed it...

Teaming up with the mythical sailor Sinbad, the Fantastic Four sail off to confront Jihad who is busy using the artifacts and the mind controlled offspring of both the FF and Sinbad to merge his reality with our own, and making him the absolute ruler of both.

"Double, double... toil and trouble..."

"Fire burn and cauldron bubble!"

Thank heavens for that teleporting puppy you decided to adopt, eh?

Anyways... Jihad is stopped, the artifacts are used to restore Franklin, Valeria and Caledonia to life and Sinbad is reunited with his daughter Dioné. Time to take the team home...

"Mommy! Daddy! It's home!"

Coverdate September 2011 and the Fantastic Four are sailing towards the barely visible image of the twin towers covered in mist.

Just plain awkward... though nothing quite tops the ending...

"Insallah"

Which, really, is a typo... The actual spelling is 'Insha'Allah', or: 'God willing'. What seemed a clever, topical ending in July really ends up leaving a bitter taste in one's mouth a mere two months later.

That concludes this look at Fantastic 4th Voyage of Sinbad, a oneshot plagued by so much bad timing it almost could have been an actual Sinbad fable without the happy ending.

Oh, and for all you conspiracy theorists out there... Did you know you can't spell 'Sinbad' without 'sin' and 'bad'? And the man's an Arab as well... I know. Crazy, right?